Beginner’s Guide to Primateria: Tips and Strategies

The inherent god complex that comes with controlling huge monsters trapped inside cards and using them to do my bidding has always fascinated me. Although contemporary deckbuilding games share some aspects of traditional collectible card games, the inherent rogulike/roguelite element sets them apart.

The first few titles (Slay the Spire, Monster Train, etc.) felt amazing, but it all devolved into a cesspool of mediocrity as more games with the same gimmicks kept populating the genre.

Primateria is a game I had zero expectations going into. Of all the things I expected, I never imagined it to be this good. The unique mechanics are easy to pick up, which sets this game apart from every other deckbuilder out there.

In this beginner’s guide, I’ll break down every game aspect. You’ll discover the important keywords, some basic rules, and a bunch of gameplay tips that I would have preferred during early playthroughs. Let’s begin!

Terminology

1. Bind – After a card attacks, it enters the bind state. All cards unbind at the beginning of the player’s turn.

2. Damage – You start with 10 points and lose one point every time a creature is defeated or if you receive a direct hit from the opponent. Damaged cards do not return to your deck at the end of the battle. They remain in the damage zone, and you can return them to your main deck by healing or card abilities.

3. Disable – Disabled cards turn white and stop existing for one turn. You cannot interact with the disabled creature for the duration of that turn.

4. Discard – Cards from the discarded pile are reshuffled into your deck at the end of the battle. This is different from destroyed cards and both areas are also considered separate regions.

5. Fusion – Fusion combines two or more low-level cards as a cost to play a higher-level card. So if you want to play a level 3 card, you must combine three level 1s, or two 1s, and a level 2 card.

6. Mana – Fused cards become mana, and every creature on the battlefield contributes to a common mana pool. So when you pay costs with mana, you’re paying from the mana cost pool and not from an individual creature’s mana.

Basic Rules

1. Units in the back row can’t be attacked if there are any units in the front row.

2. You can only attack units that are below your level. So if you want to attack a level 3 unit, you must use a level 4 unit or multiple units whose total level adds up to level 4 or higher.

3. Cards in the damage pile cannot be sold in the shop.

4. Playable cards have a yellow aura around them.

5. Cards with a blue aura have abilities that have to be manually activated by right-clicking on them.

6. Some abilities can only be activated if a card is in a specific location, like the arena, hand, damage, discard, mana, or deck.

7. If you fuse a card that’s linked to a token/creature, the token/creature will be destroyed. Placing a creature or a token on a creature with a linked token will destroy the token.

Tips & Tricks

Check Opponent’s Mana Before Attacking

Check the opponent’s mana and plan your attacks. When a card is defeated, it will be replaced by a card of a lower level in its mana. It’s often better to just leave a level 2 creature alive instead of attacking it and revealing a Skin Wearer or a Monster Grasshopper that can destroy your board.

Use Abilities in the Right Order

I’ve lost countless games where I forgot to maximize my attack opportunities. Remember to use your effects (right-click) before attacking with a card. There are a lot of cards that you can use from the arena and then make a fusion right after.

For example, you can attack with 3x Viscous Red Fish first to take down a level 2 creature, fuse them and attack again.

Choosing a sequence of plays that maximizes the number of effects and attacks increases your odds of winning the matchup.

Maintaining a Good Card Ratio

Having too many same-level cards in your deck can easily brick your hand. There were games where I only had level 1s and times where I had level 2s and 3s and not enough 1s.

I talked with Purei Shatsu (Primateria game dev) and he gave me the golden ratio:

60% level 1

20% level 2

10% level 3

10% level 4

Try to maintain the above-mentioned percentages, and you won’t brick your hand anytime soon. Look for shop nodes during the climb, as you can sell any number of cards there and maintain a perfect ratio.

Synergy isn’t King

Playing the strongest fusion is not always the most optimal choice. Think about your deck strategy and plan accordingly.

For example, when I play a Patient Zero deck, I have to plan before dropping the Anti Infection Bomb. Since it disables all cards with Patient Zero in their mana, I have to make sure all the opponent cards have Patient Zeroes in them or are already bound.

Experiment with New Decks

As of writing this guide, there are 11 deck archetypes in the game, all with unique playstyles. You can even combine them to create game-breaking combos not mentioned in the original archetypes so feel free to experiment.

Win Conditions

There are three ways to win a matchup:

1. Damage – Dealing 10 damage to the opponent.

2. No Attacks – Disabling/binding every creature on the board so that the opponent can’t attack for an entire turn (you win at the start of your turn).

3. No Cards – The opponent has no cards left in the deck, hand, or arena.

Achieving any one of these three conditions will win you the match.

Tokens are not Creatures

Token cards are special. They don’t get added to the damage pile when destroyed. Also, they cannot be put into the mana or used for fusion. If you place another creature on a token card, the token gets destroyed.