When Disney Lorcana launched in July 2023, it was strictly a aggressive buying and selling card sport. As with all sport, there’s a sleek strategy to play with newcomers or the youngsters on the native sport retailer. However the thirst for lore (the sport’s model of victory factors) is actual, and few can stand in the best way of a parched Illumineer. Now writer Ravensburger is increasing the format. Its new standalone sport, Illumineer’s Quest: Deep Trouble, is popping out quickly and Polygon has your first look contained in the field. Prepare for cooperative and single-player sport modes — each of which make use of the playing cards and decks you would possibly already personal.
In Illumineer’s Quest: Deep Bother, gamers will tackle Ursula, the tentacled villain from The Little Mermaid. The subtitle of her outsized card inside the sport field is Ruler of Lorcana, and she or he’s achieved that title by corrupting copies of acquainted characters from the Disney again catalog — creatures referred to as glimmers. It’s a conquest that has performed out over the course of Disney Lorcana’s first three units of playing cards, together with The First Chapter, Rise of the Floodborn, and Into the Inklands. Much more particulars are due out on Could 17, with the mass market launch of Disney Lorcana’s subsequent set of playing cards, Ursula’s Return.
![The contents of Illumineer’s Quest: Deep Trouble, including several oversized cards and a sealed gold foil pack of cards.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/rmYNpatnR8PF_GHn05KHT-qSQbg=/0x0:1536x1536/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1536x1536):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25441089/Illumineers_Quest_Deep_Trouble_Spill_Shot_1536x1536_copy.jpg)
Picture: Ravensburger and Disney
Streaming to Lorcana’s rescue are 4 Disney characters on the head of two new 60-card pre-constructed decks. Mickey Mouse and his mentor, the sorcerer Yen Sid, are on the scene. They’re backed by a batch of buffs that would beat again Ursula with only a bunch of brooms. Backing them up are Mulan, Elite Archer and Piglet, Pooh Pirate Captain, every with some notably good offensive expertise. Gamers can tackle Ursula all by themselves with one deck or the opposite, or go at her with as much as three different gamers. You possibly can even deliver your personal deck.
![Yen Sid, Powerful Sorcerer and Mickey Mouse, Playful Sorcerer cards from Illumineer’s Quest: Deep Trouble include unique powers, like Timely Intervention, which allows you to draw a card if you have a Magic Broom in play.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/VmywKYwYmdDDp7-pK1e0cV_wd3o=/0x0:1820x1213/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1820x1213):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25441093/DLC_S4_Polygon_Yen_Mickey_cards.jpg)
Picture: Ravensburger and Disney
![Mulan, Elite Archer and Piglet, Pooh Pirate Captain cards from Illumineer’s Quest: Deep Trouble include unique powers like Straight Shooter, which allows you to add three to Mulan’s attack value if you shifted here on top of another Mulan card.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/URsKKZ_9KZ1N3USPAQe9xmLvphc=/0x0:1820x1213/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1820x1213):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25441092/DLC_S4_Polygon_Mulan_Piglet_cards.jpg)
Picture: Ravensburger and Disney
Ursula, for her half, is surprisingly highly effective. Her distinctive deck of playing cards, which is automated by a brief record of easy-to-understand guidelines, offers a number of injury and scoops up lore by the boatload. However gamers have a severe benefit: All of them go concurrently, taking actions in any order they select. Higher nonetheless, all the results on their playing cards apply equally to all the gamers on the desk. Meaning your pal can use their glimmer’s assist ability so as to add efficiency to your assaults, whereas one participant’s highly effective buffs that final till the top of the flip will be utilized equally to everybody on the desk.
“When Steve Warner and I began engaged on the concept for Illumineer’s Quest: Deep Bother, we solely had just a few ideas we knew we needed to incorporate,” senior model supervisor and co-designer Ryan Miller informed Polygon in an electronic mail. “When figuring out how the participant turns could be, it shortly grew to become obvious that having every participant take a separate flip was inflicting the tempo of the sport to decelerate an excessive amount of. I believe it was Steve who prompt the simultaneous flip, and as soon as we tried it that manner we by no means regarded again. It simply flowed so effectively and had the additional benefit of naturally combining with talents like assist that bolstered the cooperative nature of the sport.”
![Gold-backed cards for Ursula from Illumineer’s Quest: Deep Trouble](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/BCysR9uLCUe6x57buSp0GGaU6nw=/0x0:1820x1213/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1820x1213):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25441097/DLC_S4_Polygon_Entangled_card_backs.jpg)
![A tentacle, a contract, and a Captain Hook card from Illumineer’s Quest: Deep Trouble show inky black tentacles at the edges of the frames.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/cmOUpik2DS3spceK9AfqJMdSc00=/0x0:1820x1213/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1820x1213):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25441098/DLC_S4_Polygon_Villian_card.jpg)
As an additional advantage, these simultaneous turns make Illumineer’s Quest: Deep Bother an effective way to show the sport’s core ideas to new gamers.
“Because it’s cooperative,” Miller stated, “there’s much more permission […] to ask questions on card talents and interactions with out feeling such as you’re gifting away your technique to an opponent.”
And what concerning the very youngest gamers who may not even be capable of learn? Effectively, turns on the market’s a seat for them on the desk as effectively.
“One in every of my favourite moments of playtesting happened when a household was taking part in, and one of many youngsters was too younger to truly play,” Miller stated. “So that they had her ‘play’ as Ursula, flipping the playing cards from her deck every flip. That little woman had a blast as every flip she would cackle with delight as she laid the playing cards out and her brothers and oldsters groaned on the set of recent challenges they’d have to beat.”
![A crystal cave, not unlike the one from Aladdin, but in the shape of a fish’s mouth. Flotsam and Jetsam float at the edges of the frame as the Illumineers step into view.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/R0BKmES3dBCeUGMKhqRhzBgXk9k=/0x0:2800x2000/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:2800x2000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25441096/DLC_S4_Polygon_Battleground_card_copy_cropped.jpg)
![A gold foil package that reads “Only the victors shall unseal this packet and claim the prize within or this treasure becomes property of the sea witch Ursula for all eternity.”](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/xuiWQ8hxWbJ0rbAoyOPuImn0fOc=/0x0:2000x2800/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:2000x2800):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25441100/DLC_S4_Polygon_Ursula_victory_pack_copy_cropped.jpg)
Picture: Ravensburger and Disney
The sport comes with 4 totally different issue settings, every represented by one face of one other pair of outsized playing cards. Miller stated that makes for an effective way to shortly take a look at out new decks, as Ursula is fairly overpowered on the highest setting.
The sport additionally comes with a particular golden envelope containing a singular, ultra-rare card. Sure, I’ve opened it and no, I can’t let you know what’s inside. However I can say that it’s not what I anticipated it to be. It’s a robust card to make sure, nevertheless it has simply as a lot narrative weight because it does mechanical punch.
“We’ve obtained a fully wonderful staff of narrative people who’ve been working laborious for years now to place collectively the story behind the realm of Lorcana, in addition to the continuing story behind every set and the way all of them tie collectively,” Miller stated. “It’s a various staff of writers, idea artists, and artwork administrators that deliver to story along with tales and visuals that set the stage for the sport designers and artists to return in and make some great playing cards.”
Illumineer’s Quest: Deep Bother will probably be obtainable in passion shops on Could 17 and at mass retail on Could 31.