Northgard Battlegrounds Fate Cards and Gods Guide
Lore buys Fate cards, and Fate cards are where two boards with the same structures pull apart. Each pick also builds favor with a god, so the cards you take early decide which god powers you have by Winter. Here is how cards are offered, what each type does and how to choose.
How Threads of Fate offers cards
Threads of Fate shows you three Fate cards at a time, and you pay for them in Lore. The price is set by the card's tier: 4 Lore for Base, 8 for Bronze, 16 for Silver and 32 for Gold. Rerolling the three costs Lore too, 1 the first time and doubling after that.
Every card you take also gives you favor with a god. Favor does two things: past certain marks the god grants a power to your whole settlement, and the god starts offering stronger cards. For most cards, a god's Bronze cards open at 3 favor, Silver at 5 and Gold at 8, so your early picks decide which strong cards you'll see later.
Runes, Blessings, Spells and Gifts
Cards come in four types, and the type decides where the card goes.
A Rune sits on one structure and powers up the units it sends. Each structure holds one Rune, and a second one replaces the first, so never put two on the same piece. Blessings work on the whole settlement and are the safest pick when you aren't sure yet what your board will be. Spells act once, and the most useful ones level a structure for free. Gifts are instant: favor, Krowns or villagers.
| Type | Where it goes | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Rune | one structure and the units it sends | Cut Them Down: +8 Damage and +1 Cleave on a Melee structure |
| Blessing | your whole settlement | Mythic Rage: every Mystical unit gets +8 Damage |
| Spell | a one-off effect | Prepare for War: levels up one Warband structure |
| Gift | an instant reward | Beseech Thor: +2 favor with Thor |
Favor and god powers
Three gods are playable in the demo: Thor, Baldr and Odin. Loki and Jord appear in the game's files but are not playable yet. Your clan gives you a head start: Raven begins with 1 favor with Odin, Stag with 1 with Baldr. Take that into account with your first picks: on Stag, every Baldr card is already a step towards his next tier.
Each god's power grows at 3, 5 and 8 favor. The 8 tier is the big one: Thor adds Crit Chance on top of the Damage, Baldr adds a Ward that blocks a hit, and Odin adds Crit Chance on top of the Regen.
| Favor | Thor | Baldr | Odin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Warbands +10% Damage | Melee +15 Armor | Mystical units +3 Regen |
| 5 | Warbands +20% Damage | Melee +30 Armor | Mystical units +6 Regen |
| 8 | Warbands +30% Damage, +15 Crit Chance | Melee +75 Armor, +1 Ward | Mystical units +10 Regen, +15 Crit Chance |
Which god to back
Thor and Baldr are the usual pair. Thor's power lands on every Warband, which covers the camps most boards are built on, and Baldr's lands on every Melee unit, including your warchief, Kobolds, Jötunn and Einherjar. Odin only touches Mystical units, so he is the weakest choice unless your board is heavy on Mystical or Knowledge pieces.
Keep Warbands in your board even when the core is something else. Many Fate cards and Bifrost only work on Warband structures, so a board of nothing but Mystical camps cuts itself off from a large part of the card pool.
Pick two gods and push them rather than spreading favor across three. Three gods at 3 favor give three small powers; two gods at 8 give the top tier of both and their Gold cards. Gifts are the direct way to add favor: Beseech gives +2 for 4 Lore, Pray +3 for 16 and Summon +4 for 32.
Spells: free levels on the right piece
Four Spells level up a structure on the spot, each for one tag: Prepare for War for a Warband (Thor, 3 favor), Prepare to Fight for a Melee structure (Thor, 5), Prepare for Peace for a Civilian (Baldr, 3) and Prepare to Learn for a Knowledge structure (Odin, 3).
A level normally costs you another copy of the structure, so a free level is worth whatever that copy would cost and however long it would take to find. Spend it on the expensive piece. An Epic costs 18 Krowns a copy and Epics are scarce before Winter; a Common costs 4 and turns up all the time. Prepare for War on a Hlidskjalf, or Prepare for Peace on a Rare Sheep Fold rather than a Common Farm, is the right use.
Check the tag before you save one. Naglfar is Melee but not a Warband, so Prepare to Fight levels it and Prepare for War does not.
Runes worth the slot
Put cleave on units that carry Burn or Poison. Cut Them Down (+8 Damage, +1 Cleave on a Melee structure) and Monstrous Swing (+5 Damage, +1 Cleave on a Mystical one) make each hit splash onto nearby enemies, and the status effects spread with it. Since patch 0.77.111d cleave reaches 2.5 and deals 50% of the hit, so the splash is worth more than it was.
Put defence on the unit the fight leans on. Roll with the Punches (+10 Armor every time it is hit) suits a big front-liner like a Jötunn. Second Wind (+3 Ward the first time it drops under half Health) suits a warchief. On Kobolds, Gleaming Aegis gives +15 Ward for the first 10 seconds, which keeps them alive while they stack Burn.
Some Runes are made for one warchief. Precise Strikes (+20 Crit Chance) on Liv sets off Duelist's Cunning more often. Pathfinders (+3 Damage per empty tile you have colonised) on Brand in round 1 can win the first creature fight while you spend on economy.
Blessings and Gifts
Cost Blessings pay off by volume. Call to War makes every Warband structure 1 Krown cheaper, Call to Peace does the same for Civilian and Call to Learn for Knowledge. Taken early, on a board that will buy a lot of that tag, one 4 Lore card saves several Krowns over the run. Offensive Strategy (Warband) and Seek Myths (Mystical) make that tag show up in the shop twice as often, which is how you find the copies for a level 3.
Neutral Gifts trade Lore for Krowns or villagers, and the cheap ones trade best. Lost Ruins gives 6 Krowns for 4 Lore, while Shipwreck gives 12 for 16 and Dwarven Mines 24 for 32, half the rate. Take the big Krown Gifts only when you need the lump sum right now.
Cards for each build
Einherjar + Bifrost wants Prepare to Fight and Cut Them Down on Hlidskjalf. Krown bank levels Naglfar with Prepare to Fight. Mystical monsters runs Mythic Rage for the whole board and Roll with the Punches on the Jötunn. Kobold economy puts Shield Bash on the Kobold Camp for Armor and Frost. Each build on the builds page lists its cards and where they go. When two of your build's cards show at once, the Spell is the priority: its free level saves a whole copy of the structure. Skip cards your build does not list, except a Blessing while the board is still unsettled.
Mistakes that waste Lore
The common mistakes are small ones that add up. Don't put a second Rune on a structure: it replaces the first. Don't spend a free level on a Common. Skip Odin on a board with only one or two Mystical units. And avoid counting on a Gold card from a god you aren't pushing: Mythic Vitality, for example, needs Baldr or Odin at 8, so plan for it from Summer rather than hope it shows up.