Note

This has been moved under the Quick section as A Quick Guide to Converge Skillsets.

The original post follows below.

Introduction

Originally in answer to a question on Discord. I am nobody official connected to Converge, just a fan.

So I love Converge (Peter C. Hayward), a 2-player card game in three stand-alone Button Shy wallets, with a solo mode expansion available in Aspects of Vision (Peter C. Hayward).

I play this game as solo only, as a personal preference. One of the things I love about solo Converge is that it captures many aspects of the two-player game – and the automata/AI opponent runs smoothly and viciously as well. As a result, playing the solo game means you also learn the intricacies of using the skillsets in the two-player game as well.

So when someone asked me for my thoughts on the skillsets in Converge, and since I’ve played with every skillset in solo, I decided to write this. I’ve cleaned up the original text and edited for structure and clarity.

Table of Contents

Catalysts of Change

Let’s talk first about Catalysts of Change, so that we may compare to Engines of Progress and Sparks of Hope.

Catalysts features Alchemists, Archivists, and Mechanists. I think of each as offering the most straightforward versions of the concepts of:

  • Removal, through the Alchemists.
  • Manipulation of the board – what’s on the table – through the Archivists.
  • Manipulation of the discard pile, through the Mechanists.

These powers are easily understood, though their implications are mostly understood in the middle of lively gameplay, and form the basis on which the other skillsets vary.

Alchemists

Alchemists burn a faction card, aka faction member – though I like to call them characters – into the discard. While this is a very strong power, the Alchemists will also teach you that raw removal is not enough to win.

Archivists

Archivists can turn goal cards into faction members. Note that in solo, this power also turns into conditional removal of AI cards because AI cards are both characters AND goals. Archivists teach the lesson of “if you do this make sure the other side is actually no longer fulfilling the goal.”

Mechanists

Mechanists revive the top card of the discard pile into a goal, putting it back on the board. They teach you the pros and cons of this kind of revival.

Engines of Progress

Now, let’s discuss Engines of Progress, which offers some interesting variants on these aspects that require thinking through their implications – the kinds of implications that Catalysts teaches you about.

Protectors

Protectors are a synthesis of Alchemists and Archivists: they remove faction cards and turn them into goals. You could also think of them as reverse Archivists. They are effectively also conditional removal, except by effectively removing a character they can destroy multiple progress paths towards goals for an opponent.

If you think about it more, in two-player they can add the not necessarily fun capacity to just give your opponent a new scoring goal if you aren’t careful that exists with Archivists in solo.

I mean it’s fun for your opponent. XD

Merchants

Merchants are a complicated version of Archivists, in that while they both act on the board positions, Merchants are a trade – not a one-way move – between 2 goals or 2 faction members. You can already see how Merchants can be dicey to deal with, if you aren’t as familiar with the implications of cards interacting with goals.

They can provide an advantage in that they will disrupt goals that a one-way swap can’t always address (such as “consecutive ranks”).

Searchers

Searchers are the weirdest skillset, because their power is the most indirect yet also the most powerful. If it wasn’t indirect they would be outright overpowered and broken.

When you play a Searcher for their skillset power, you put them at the bottom of the deck and play the top card of the deck – so either for that card’s skillset power, or to add to the goals, or to add to your faction. And yes, if the top card is a Searcher you can repeat this until you reach a non-Searcher.

This gives you the ability to play potentially any card in the deck that’s not in your hand. If this were a more direct power it would be so broken.

Also it is nice that the Searcher goes to the bottom of the deck. This keeps the deck the right size but also means the other player (which can include the AI) doesn’t just filch the discard for your just-played Searcher.

Sparks of Hope

So that’s Engines of Progress. See what I meant when I said these were tricky?

Sparks of Hope can also be tricky! Though I think the Sparks skillsets are a little more straightforward than Engines, but still.

Healers

Let’s start with the most straightforward skillset from Sparks of Hope: Healers. They are similar to Mechanists, except they revive a discarded card into a faction member.

Any faction.

They can severely disrupt certain goals, such as “ranks add to 13”, but they can also assist you in recovering goals outside of your reach by adding the right member to do so.

Still fairly straightforward.

Astropaths

Astropaths are in a way similar to Searchers, though they are more direct. They copy a skillset power that’s on the board (from either a goal or a faction member).

For instance, they’ll let you double the number of burns the Alchemists have, as well as allowing that burn to happen without discarding an Alchemist in hand that you might need for a goal.

This skillset power is both direct and indirect, and the utility – the added flexibility as a near wild card – isn’t at first obvious until you know the game better.

Delvers

Delvers are the hardest skillset for me to deal with, because they’re somewhat akin to more difficult but more flexible Merchants. They let you swap a card in your hand with a faction or goal on the board.

This means they can remove goals or faction members in either solo or two-player, but you better be able to plan around giving a card to your opponent. Not only is it a swap at all, you are sacrificing the potential of that card for yourself, in exchange for the mere potential – not even board presence – of the other card.

You better be able to think two moves ahead.

Where to Start?

If this is your first time playing Converge, I recommend starting with the set that was also wisely used as the Kickstarter preview: Catalysts of Change. They’re the most straightforward skillsets, so they’ll give you more of a chance to learn the ins and outs of game flow while gradually learning basic skills in Converge that you can build upon.

Both Engines of Progress and Sparks of Hope contain one more-or-less straightforward skillset (Protectors and Healers), and two much more advanced (in terms of game understanding needed to play well) skillsets (Merchants, Searchers, Astropaths, and Delvers).

Nota Bene

Nota bene: I have played extensively with every skillset in solo, but not yet every skillset combo because there are 80+ of those.

Skillset combos thus far are all seemingly balanced but some are way, way harder to play than others – so their potential is balanced, but the skill necessary to unlock the full potential is on a wide spectrum.

From my current experience, the most difficult combination for solo play, and I would think for 2-player as well, is Searchers, Delvers, and anything else – but especially Merchants.

Review?

I will be writing a review on Converge later, though no hard date on that. It provokes a lot of thought in me, and I want to condense all that down into a Briefly review.

But my Very Briefly review is: Converge is a banger of a card game in solo and 2-player, with gorgeous art, simple rules with strategic depth, and enormous variety amongst all three base sets.