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How to play Marvel Snap

Now that the game's out, it's super easy to work out how to play Marvel Snap at the moment, and we've got all the links you need to find the new card-battler

Marvel Snap: a screenshot shows several marvel characters

The latest game in the Marvel universe is out now. That’s right, Marvel Snap – a new card game from Marvel, Nuverse, and Second Dinner – brings all your favourite heroes into the perfect mobile game genre. But how can you get started duking it out with your favourite superheroes?

Well, you need to work out how to play Marvel Snap, which sounds like it’s super simple. Of course, our Marvel Snap download guide can help you with step one, but what about everything else? Well, below you can find an outline of the rules.

Elsewhere, we have some Marvel Snap beginner tips and a Marvel Snap decks guide to help get you started, or head to our Marvel Snap friends guide to find out about multiplayer battling. For something different in the Marvel universe, we’ve got a MCoC tier list, Marvel Future Revolution tier list, and a Marvel Future Revolution Spider-Man guide, so you never have to leave your heroes again.

How to play Marvel Snap

Here you can find all the basic rules to work out how to play Marvel Snap.

Marvel Snap artwork showing various heroes around the Marvel Snap logo pulling poses.

Marvel Snap basic rules

Marvel Snap is a card-battler where two players fight one another with various superhero cards. Each game has six rounds, or a seventh if it’s a draw up to that point, in which each player can attempt to takeover locations by having the most powerful superheroes.

Marvel Snap locations

Locations are at the centre of the board and are key to understanding how to play Marvel Snap. Each one has four spaces on either side in which players can place their cards, up to a total of 12 cards per person on either side.

Each location can also have different effects, such as reducing cards’ power, increasing the number of cards in your hands, or all manner of other game-changing systems. You can see what effect each location has by the description in their centre.

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Marvel Snap cards, power, and energy

Every card has an energy cost and a power rating:

  • Power is the amount it will add to your fight in a specific location
  • Energy is the amount it costs you to play the card

On turn one, you have one energy, on turn two, two energy, and so on all the way up to turn six, where you have six energy.

To win on a location, you need to play different cards to make your power ranking higher than the opponent in a specific location. Win the majority of locations (two or more) and you win the round.

Now you know how to play Marvel Snap. Hooray! These are just the basics, so be sure to check out our other guides for more in-depth analysis of Marvel’s latest mobile game. For more on the superhero card collector, check out our Marvel Snap review to see why we like it so much.