League of Legends has introduced a new Balatro-like card game called The Demon’s Hand. Here you will need to fight through multiple enemy encounters with limited resources and a deck that you craft through Sigils.
It’s a limited-time mini-game that you can boot up at any time in the MOBA‘s client and is a fun little side activity that you can spend some time playing if you are just a bit too stressed with your ranked grind. The game mode also awards some exclusive rewards giving you some incentive to try it out at least once.
So if you are looking to make the most of The Demon’s Hand card game in League of Legends, then the guide below will help you out.
How to play The Demon’s Hand mini-game in League of Legends
Here are some of the in-game mechanics that you will need to be aware of when booting up The Demon’s Hand in League of Legends:
1) Playing the deck
You will play the mini-game with a standard deck of 52 cards. It will have the four following Suits which will have 13 cards each:
- Moon
- Fire
- Sun
- Rock
There will be 9 numbered cards and 4 unnumbered cards in each Suit. The Unnumbered cards are called Command cards and will essentially play the role of the Joker, Queen, King, and Ace.
2) Facing enemies
The combat part of The Demon’s Hand mini-game will put you up against an enemy unit that will have the following properties:
- A fixed health
- An attack timer
- An attack value
- A unique effect
The damage you deal to the enemy will be equal to the number on the card you play. Using card combinations will allow you to deal bonus damage, so the goal here will be to take the enemy’s health down to zero.
However, you will be on a timer every turn. Which will indicate the total number of turns that you have remaining before the enemy attacks.
3) Reshuffling your hand
There is a Discard feature in the game which you can use to reshuffle your hand. Discard will let you select five cards and then replace them with random cards from your deck.
You will need to use this feature wisely as you can only use Discards three times in an encounter. This number can go up if you have a Sigil to modify it, or it can also go down if there is an enemy’s unique ability that decreases it.
4) Health management
Once you have made your deck, you will want to start a game of Demon’s Hand. You will then begin your journey with 100 health. Now, your health will likely go down with each encounter and you will not be able to restore it automatically after every encounter.
THere are two things that will let you heal up:
- Defensive Sigils
- using a rest spot
Certain Defensive Sigils will let you heal up. Rest spots, on the other hand, are points of interest that are marked on the map with a tent icon. Every time you reach the rest spot, you will regain 40% of your missing HP.
5) Using Sigils
There are a total of 73 Sigils in League of Legends’ The Demon’s Hand. However, you will only have six Sigil slots. The Sigils can be divided into the following types:
| Sigil Type | Number of Cards |
|---|---|
| Damage | 43 |
| Defense | 5 |
| Utility | 13 |
| Economy | 5 |
| Others | 7 |
Sigils are obtained by using Gold at the shop nodes on the map. They will be represented with coin icons. You will earn Gold by completing encounters, and you can also resell the Sigils that you have for two Gold.
6) Making the most of the Critical system
The Demon’s Hand mini-game also has a critical chance system which determines how likely your card is going to deal a critical hit when played. Critical cards glow purple and add a 25% boost to your total damage numbers at the end of every calculation.
So your gameplay will revolve around maximizing the damage of your combos by adding in these critical modifiers. Your goal is to deal a ton of damage to the enemy before it’s their turn to attack. This will let you minimize the amount of hits your health takes, helping you survive longer and complete the campaign.
All card Combinations in League of Legends The Demon’s Hand
As mentioned, you will be able to win more encounters by racking up as much damage as possible. You rack up the damage by going for unique card combinations.
So instead of just playing one card, you might want to select multiple cards to create a combo. There are a variety of combos that you will be able to make and the list below goes over all of them along with their damage modifiers:
| Card Combination | How to make | Damage Dealt |
|---|---|---|
| Solo | Playing a single card | 10 base damage plus card value. |
| Dryad | Playing two cards that have matching numbers | 20 base damage plus card values. |
| Dryad Set | Playing two pairs of Dryads | 40 base damage plus card values. |
| Triad | You will need to play three cards that have matching numbers. | 80 base damage plus card values. |
| Tetrad | You will need to play four cards that have matching numbers. | 400 base damage plus card values. |
| March | March will consist of a sequence of five cards in numerological order. | 100 base damage plus card values. |
| Horde | Play five cards having the same suit. | 125 base damage plus card values. |
| Grand Warhost | You get this card combination when you have a Triad and a Dryad | 175 base damage plus card values. |
| Marching Horde | Having five cards in numerological sequence and of the same suit. | 600 base damage plus card values. |
| The Demon’s Hand | You will need to have the five highest-value cards of the same suit: • 10 • Joker • Queen • King • Ace | 2000 base damage plus card values |
If you are not selecting a combination during your attack then only the card of the highest value will be used. The other four will be discarded, so keep this in mind during your tunes.
How to unlock Sigils in League of Legends The Demon’s Hand
When you start your journey in The Demon’s Hand you will notice that not all Sigils are available at the shop. You will only have a few to work with at the start buying some more with Gold from the shops as you play along.
However, there are many Sigils that are locked and to get them you will need to play the normal game modes in League of Legends. So this includes ARAM, all the modes in Summoner’s Right, and Arena.
Riot Games has mentioned that Arena will be the best place to unlock new Sigils as it has a 30% chance of it dropping after completing a game. ARAM is a bit more inconsistent and the drop chances for Sigils are very low, where you might have to play 4-5 games to get one unlocked.
Out of the 73 Sigil, 24 are locked away and the only way to gain access to them will be via playing other modes in LoL.
