In the first act of Inscryption, you start the game with 3 cards in your deck, a stoat, a wolf and a bullfrog. Each card will have a unique amount of Health, Power, Cost and Sigils (although not all cards will have sigils). The Health of your card is the amount of Power it can handle before perishing, the Power of your card is the amount of damage you deal to your opponent, the Cost is a requirement that must be met to play your card on the board and the Sigil is a special ability your card can possess. Your cards can be divided into tribes, the tribes are canine, reptile, insect, avian and hooved. Some cards can have more than 1 tribe and some cards can have no tribe at all, cards with a tribe are affected by totems which can add additional sigils onto cards.
During combat your starting hand will always have a squirrel and a card that is playable on the first turn, to finish your turn you must ring the bell and your cards will do damage to your opponents card/s or directly to the opponent depending on your card/s sigils and if the opposing space is empty on the board. You cannot draw a card on your first turn but during every other turn you have to choose to either draw a card from the squirrel deck or your personal deck, a squirrel card is a Costless card with 0 Power and 1 Health which makes for a perfect sacrifice to play greater cards. The Cost of a card is usually either in Blood or Bones
To win the battle, the scale next to your opponent must tip to the bottom, if your side tips instead you will lose. In Act 1 you have 2 lives, signified by lit candles, when you lose a regular battle a single candle will go out however during Bossfights if you begin with both candles lit one will go out right before your first turn and you will recieve The Smoke, a card with 0 Power and 1 Health that drops 4 bones upon perishing, if you began with only one candle lit then you wont recieve The Smoke. Upon completing any Bossfight both of your candles will be relit and you will get to choose a Rare card to add to your deck. During battles you may have usable items which you can get from encounters or sigils, all items can be used within a turn however you can only carry 3 items at a time. Items are used instantly during your turn, items can help tip the scale, give you additional cards, apply sigils for a single turn and more.
