Catan Universe is a strategy card game released by Endava and Exozet Berlin GmbH. This game is based on a real-life board game named ‘Catan’ designed by Klaus Teuber. Here’s the complete beginners guide to Catan Universe for amateurs to help them they can understand the game with ease and enjoy it without facing any difficulties or confusion.
In this card game, the players need to develop settlements and cities and connect them with roads to build a town or community of their own. There are many other aspects to this game too, but this is the main agenda of the game. As soon as the players enter the game, a character named Candamir welcomes the players and offers them a tutorial for the ‘Arrival on Catan‘.
Gameplay Overview
As soon as the player enters the game, he/she will play ‘Arrival on Catan‘, which is a series of small quests which introduces them to the basics of the game. To play a game, the player needs sun which recharges over time. The player can see the island on the board game on which they have to settle. The player has to build settlements and cities in the game.
To build settlements and cities, we will need resources. The types of resources depend on the type of map on the board. For example, on the island board shown in the tutorial ‘Arrival on Catan’, there are five resources lumber, brick, wool, grain, and ore. Initially, the order of playing the game is in a left-to-right direction. But after the first turn, it is reversed again, which gives the first player two consecutive turns.
Introduction to the Basics of Catan Universe
Resources and Victory Points
During the first turn, every player has two settlements and two roads. In the first turn, when the player builds their first settlement, they gain one victory point. In the second turn, when the player builds a settlement or a city, they receive resources from the adjacent blocks.
For example, if the player builds a settlement next to forest and hill blocks, they receive resources of lumber and brick. Along with the resources, the players also get a victory from the second turn. The player with the longest road gets two victory points. The player can either tap and place the settlements, cities, and roads or can drag and drop them too.
Dice Roll gameplay
On the game board, the player can see a few number tokens on the terrains. When the players roll a die during their turn, they gain resources from blocks with the number they got. Every settlement adjacent to the block gives you one resource and every city next to the block gives you two of the resources of the respective block.
Robber
On rolling the number ‘7’, the player or opponent who rolled it will be assigned as the robber. If the players opposite to the robber own seven or more resources, they have to discard half of them. The robber also steals a resource from a random player. Whatever the field the robber stands on, he stops and blocks resources from it. A robber can be removed by using a knight card on him. If any player owns the knight card, they can use it against him.
Trading and Buying
When the player does not have enough resources to build settlements, they can trade resources with another player. And if they accept or offer another trade, you will receive the required resources. If none of the players wants to trade with you, you can use the maritime trade to supply banks. The players can buy not just the resources but also development cards with the resources. After buying the development cards, the players have to wait one turn to be able to use them.
Gamemodes
On the home page, the player is given the option to choose between single-player, multi-player or tournament mode. The player has the option to play either single-player, multi-player, or tournament on the home page. The main categories of games in single, multi, and tournament matches are:
- The game
- Seafarers
- Cities and knights
- Special scenarios
- Rise of the Inka
- Rivals for Catan
The basic rules of the game are the same for all the categories. But the in-game features will differ from one category to another. All the game categories are card games. For example in the ‘Rival for Catan’, players have to draw cards to gain resources and build instead of rolling a die.
The players play with AI in the single-player mode. In multiplayer mode, players can play with random players or friends. In tournaments, the players play a series of matches with one final winner, either with random players or friends.
Player Statistics
Right above the game options, we can see a character with the player’s name and level. We can tap on this to see the player’s profile which includes level progress, appearance, friends, guild (friend group or team), messages, leaderboards, and the option to delete the gaming account.
The top part of the screen shows the players playing the game and their game statistics. Upon tapping the player info, we can see information about each player like the number of victory points, their longest uninterrupted road, the number of development cards, and the number of resources and knight cards played.
In-game features and characteristics
- Game settings: On the bottom left of the screen, there are three lines that open the settings and information about the game. In this section, the player has access to settings like camera, sound, and visuals, information about the game map, and player statistics. Along with these settings, the player can also chat with the other players and has access to emojis.
- Scenario configuration: Right next to the setting icon, the player can see two icons, which give us all the information needed about the game. One icon has categories about the game, while the other icon, upon tapping, allows the players to tap on items in the game about which they would like to know.
- Bell: This icon in the bottom right can be used to mark the end of a player’s turn
- Shop: On the top right corner of the screen, we can see an icon next to the leaderboard showing the number of scrolls, gold, and sun the player owns. This is the shop icon. In the shop, we can buy Catan gold, expansions, avatars, and bundles.
- Almanac: On the bottom right of the screen. Almanac can be defined as a guidebook and/or information hub of the game. We can open this to see every backstory and gaming information of everything in the game. Here we can see special rules for all the scenarios.
- Chat: At the bottom right of the screen, we have a chat icon. In this, the players have the option to chat in three different ways. The three modes of chatting are:
- Private message to another player
- Guild chat mode
- Game chat mode
- Camera Navigation: When the player enters the game, he/she can see a board of the board game ‘Catan universe’. The player can move the camera around with one finger. To zoom in or zoom out the player has to pinch in/out with two fingers. To change the angle of the camera, the player has to swipe up or down while holding two fingers on the screen. This is almost the same as how any screen navigation works. The player can change the camera settings in the menu- settings.
Catan Universe Beginners Guide: Tips and Tricks
Here are some of our tips in our Catan Universe Beginners Guide to help you, newbies, to kickstart your journey.
- After playing a game, make sure to set your camera settings at your convenience.
- Make sure to place settlements near the blocks which have the resources you are lacking.
- Try to place settlements as near to each other as possible so that you can connect by roads and gain the longest road in the game.
- Try to place the roads in such a way that you can block other players’ roads.
- Trade the items you do not need anymore.
In a beat, it is a fun way to play alone or interact with friends and get the experience of the board game virtually. Therefore, don’t hesitate to give it a try, and never forget to refer to this Catan Universe beginners guide for advice if you run into problems.
That’s all from us for Catan Universe Beginners Guide! Did you find our Catan Universe beginners guide helpful? Do let us know in the comments!
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