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About Chrono Ark
Chrono Ark is a single-player, party-based deck-building roguelike RPG about rescuing a world swallowed by the Black Fog. You recruit and train a team of up to four investigators and fight through card-based battles in which every skill and perk shows up as a card, letting you shape each character yourself.
As a roguelike, everything your party gains is lost when the team is wiped out, yet continued play reveals more options over time. The story follows Lucy, who wakes up in the Twisted Land beneath the Ark with only a vague instruction to run the Clock Tower, and your Investigation Team sets out to collect the Time Shades needed to bring the world back to peace.
01 / THE GUIDE
Deck-building Mechanics
Combat is entirely card-based: skills and perks surface as cards during battle, so customizing your characters means deciding which cards they carry and how those cards interact. You can recruit up to four party members and blend their cards into synergistic strategies for each fight.
Across your playthroughs you encounter numerous skill cards, items, and relics, giving you a growing toolbox to refine your battle plans in the Twisted Land.
- Try unusual card pairings to uncover strong synergies between party members.
- Aim for decks that balance attacking options with ways to keep the team alive.
02 / THE GUIDE
Roguelike Permadeath
Unlike traditional RPGs, everything you accumulate is reset whenever your party is eliminated. The trade-off is that the more you play, the more options you discover for later attempts.
Replay value comes from 20 recruitable colleagues, a wide variety of skill cards and items, relics, Lucy's own skills, events, and bosses that each behave in their own patterned ways.
- Treat every failed run as practice that sharpens your deck choices for the next one.
- Lean toward defensive picks early in a run to make each attempt last longer.
03 / THE GUIDE
Story and Objectives
Long ago the Black Fog covered the world and humanity fled to the Ark. Lucy awakens in the Twisted Land below it, remembering only a cryptic instruction to get the Clock Tower running again.
The path to restoration is collecting the Time Shades scattered across the Twisted Land; once the Clock Tower ticks again, the world can return to its peaceful days. Gathering these shades is the driving goal of your Investigation Team's journey.
- Make Time Shade collection a priority so the story keeps moving forward.
- Read event text carefully, as events are part of what each run can offer.
04 / THE GUIDE
Platform and Steam Features
This Steam release is for Windows and lists Single-player, Steam Achievements, Steam Trading Cards, Steam Workshop, Partial Controller Support, Steam Cloud, and Family Sharing among its features.
The Workshop allows community-made content, Achievements and Trading Cards reward and mark your play, Cloud handles save syncing, and Family Sharing lets others in your household access the game.
- Keep Steam Cloud enabled so your saves stay synced across devices.
- Browse the Workshop to see what community content is available.
05 / THE GUIDE
Combat and Boss Patterns
Every battle is fought with cards, and the bosses you face each follow patterns of their own. Learning what a boss tends to do helps you decide which card combinations to commit at the right moments.
Because your available cards change from run to run, the strategy you bring to a given boss will differ each time, which keeps encounters fresh across replays.
- Watch how a boss behaves before committing your most expensive cards.
- Rework your deck between runs to better handle the bosses that keep beating you.
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