Star Realms is a ship combat game where your fleet is built up throughout the game. Play powerful ships, destroy enemy bases, and annihilate your opponent! When you play Star Realms, you can acquire and use ships and bases from one of the four factions. Many cards have powerful allied abilities that reward you for using ships and bases from the same faction.

When you acquire trade cards, you place them in your discard pile and then shuffle them into your personal deck. When you attack with ships, you do what they say, and at the end of your turn, they go to your discard pile. If you draw a base, you play it face up in front of you and can use its abilities once per turn. Besides the ability to reduce your opponent's authority to zero and win the game, it is also useful to destroy your opponent's bases. Some bases are considered outposts, and your opponent's outposts must be destroyed before you can directly attack your opponent's authority in combat.

Star Realms is easy to learn, especially if you are familiar with deck-building games, but it is a game that takes time to master. Every time you play, the game is full of strategic decision points. Should I take the best card for myself or the best card for my opponent? Should I focus on taking cards from a specific faction or the best available card? Should I concentrate on acquiring more trade or more combat? Should I attack my opponent's base or their authority? These are just a few of the many decisions available to you. New players do not need to struggle with these decisions to play, but as they become more advanced players, they will find that this strategic depth leads to great replay value.