RESOURCE MAXXING

Oko brazenly absconds with the legendary Excavator’s Pick in the card art for Make Off With by Nate Artuz. Click the image to snag a look at the ACTIONX CARD GALLERY.

So, you have learned the basic rules of X: Seekers of Fortune, and now you want to start winning games?

You came to the right place.

At its core, X: Seekers of Fortune™ is a game of resources. A player can win the game by either completing five ADVENTURES or by completing four ADVENTURES and then successfully performing a BREAKTHROUGH, both of which require a significant amount of resources.

But, what is resource advantage?

Resource Advantage is the concept of having more relevant game pieces than your opponent, which you can leverage to win the game. The
Heroic Feats allow a player to exchange some of their own resources for a different type of resource, and they also allow a player to sacrifice some resources in order to reduce those controlled by their opponent. Let’s dive into an example.

Imagine that your rival has a Thirsting Stone in play. You have two LEADS in hand and two ACTIVE ADVENTURES. The Heroic Feat SABOTAGE allows you to scrap an ADVENTURE and discard a LEAD to bury the Thirsting Stone. This play costs you some amount of resources, but it could generate you a huge advantage if the Thirsting Stone is a key piece of your rival’s game plan. Now, imagine you have three ACTIVE ADVENTURES and seven LEADS in hand. Sabotaging your rival’s RELIC generates the same exact advantage, but this time the cost is less painful because you are flush with resources. This is the manifestation of resource advantage- you are able to make advantageous game plays because you are accumulating resources faster than your rival.

Now that we know what Resource Advantage is, let’s take a look at how we might go about achieving it. X: Seekers of Fortune has three key resources: LEADS, ADVENTURES, and ACTIONX cards.

LEADS are the smallest and most fluid resource in the game. Because the Heroic Feat BREAKTHROUGH allows you to exchange three matching LEADS for an ACTIONX card, we can think of ACTIONX cards as having approximately three times as much value as a LEAD. By the same token, since you can use NEGOTIATE to exchange one ADVENTURE for a net of one LEAD (plus two LEADS to you - one LEAD to your rival), we can think of ADVENTURES as having approximately the same value as a LEAD. So, in summary, we have a 3 : 3 : 1 value proposition for LEADS : ADVENTURES : ACTIONX.
Of course, these exchange rates are fluid and will fluctuate based on which stage of the game you are in.

We can use this basic exchange rate as framework for generating resource advantage. For example, if your rival plays an ACTIONX FEAT, it is generally a good idea to THWART it if you can because you are exchanging two LEADS for their one ACTIONX card, and it usually costs three LEADS to get one ACTIONX card worth of value. Similarly, if your rival goes for a BREAKTHROUGH and you have the ability to THWART, it is even more obvious that thwarting is a good idea because you are clearly exchanging two of your LEADS for three of their LEADS. You have the rival to generate one LEAD worth of resource advantage. We can also generate resource advantage in a non-interactive way. Any RELIC or SITE that passively generates resources (e.g. Merchant’s Scale on NOBLE, which allows you to draw an additional LEAD whenever you complete an ADVENTURE) is another great way to get an edge over your rival.

X: Seekers of Fortune™ is a game of resources, and careful management of these resources is a key step towards winning. The game provides many methods for exchanging resources, so it is important to consider the baseline value of LEADS, ADVENTURES, and ACTIONX cards before making a trade. With a little bit of practice, you can become an expert at generating resource advantage. You are now well on your way to becoming a veteran competitor. Keep it up, Seeker!