Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links (Part 1)

Yu-Gi-Oh! Month 2025

Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution: Part 1 – Part 2

Master Duel: Part 1

Duel Links: Part 1 – Part 2

Joey, Red-Eyes (yep, I'm playing that card again!), and Jinzo.
I think I'mma win that one.

I’ve been hoping to review this game forever; this themed month was an excuse to do it. Today’s game is easily the most approachable of them all, with a format that makes it playable on the go on mobile, but it’s also as far removed from “classic” Yu-Gi-Oh! as can be without transforming the game too much. It’s possibly the best game for beginners, because everything regarding mechanics is simplified. Today, we’re talking about Duel Links, which was released worldwide to mobile platforms in January 2017, with the PC version on Steam coming out on November 16th of the same year.

The popularity of the new format was such that it eventually became adapted to the physical card game with dedicated in-person events, cards printed with the format’s peculiarities in mind, and even Skill cards to look for.

And his time around, we’ve got the clearest connection to the franchise’s many anime series – some would call that nostalgia bait, I call that an incentive to discover them all. Yep, all the way to VRAINS. …And beyond!

Well, let’s go!

From Classic to Speed Duel

Speed Duel was created with the goal in mind to be played in a shorter time than it normally takes for regular duels. For that purpose, several details and mechanics of the game were modified; so the format feels like its own thing, despite being roughly the same. A quick rundown:

Pick your cards wisely!

• Players use decks that contain 20 or up to a maximum of 30 cards, half of the regular “40 or up to 60” rule. The Extra Deck, where Fusion/Synchro/Xyz/Link monsters reside, was cut down to a maximum of 6 cards (instead of the regular 15) in real world tournaments, though you can complete missions to unlock new Extra Deck spaces in Duel Links specifically.
• Both start with 4000 Life Points instead of 8000 and draw 4 cards at the start of the duel instead of 5. What doesn’t change is that players are allowed to have 6 cards in their hand during the End Phase; if they have 7 or more, they must discard until they only have 6.

• 

  The Extra Monster Zones being at the edges can trip up
  some specific strategies. So can having only 3 Main
  Monster Zones. Or, for that matter, only 3 Spell/Trap Zones.

  The board still has a Deck Zone, Graveyard, Field Zone, Extra Deck Zone and Banish Zone (as well as Extra Monster Zones since the addition of a VRAINS world and Link monsters), but Main Monster Zones and Spell/Trap Zones are cut down to 3 from classic 5. The Extra Monster Zones are by the leftmost and rightmost Main Monster Zones. In case of the use of Pendulum monsters as Spell Cards, the left and right Spell and Trap Zones are used for them, leaving you with just one additional space for Spells and Traps.
• The order of Phases in a turn is the same: Draw Phase, Standby Phase, Main Phase, Battle Phase… However, there is no Main Phase 2 after the Battle Phase, meaning that you must play all the cards you want to play before going into battle. You don’t get a do-over to set up a new, if weakened, board if things don’t go your way during the Battle Phase. Due to the removal of Main Phase 2, specific cards that required it were either not ported to the game, or had their effects modified. Also, it means that after the Battle Phase is over, players go directly to the End Phase of their turn.
• Since players start with half the LP of a normal game, monsters’ Attack and Defense stats are unchanged, but some effects that deal damage to the opponent are halved (ex. A card that deals 500 points of effect damage now does 250). The text on cards with such effects was revised with the new quantities.
• And, of course, the addition of Skills. I’ll come back to those.

This card on the left usually deals 500 damage, not 250.

Finally, the list of forbidden and limited cards works differently here. In the regular game, forbidden cards cannot be used in decks in duels against other players anywhere other than in an Unlimited room where they’re allowed. You can only have one copy of a Limited card in your deck, or two of a Semi-Limited card; but you can have as many Limited or Semi-Limited cards you want (ex. Seven cards that are Limited, but you’re fine because you only have one of each).

Knightmare Mermaid? More like, "Knightmare Forget
About It, I'm Forbidden".

This time around? There are still cards that are Forbidden, as well as cards known as Limited 1, 2 or 3. The number after Limited indicates how many cards from that Limited list you’re allowed to have in the deck. You can only use one Limited 1 card in your deck total, two Limited 2 cards, and three Limited 3 cards. For Limited 2 or 3, you can have more than one copy of a card (ex. Twice the same Limited 2 card, or 3X the same Limited 3 card), or different cards. If you build your Deck with that in mind, it means you can have up to six Limited cards in there!

However, while one strength of Master Duel was that its own banlists could be changed frequently based on knowledge of prior tournaments, Duel Links is such a different beast to regular Yu-Gi-Oh! that changes to Forbidden and Limited cards can only really be made based on how tournaments go in the app.

The World(s)

I had to open Duel Links to properly cover it, of course, and like any time I come back to this app after a hiatus, I got bombarded by announcements about new features and packs. The last time I played this, there was no Home Screen; now there’s one, and we can freely switch between a Home Screen and the World Screen.

The Home Screen lets you see a big portrait of the character you’re currently using and/or their deck floating around. There are buttons to take you to Ranked Duels, to the current Event (there’s always something new going on), to current major duelists roaming that world, as well as a menu leading to all the other features.

Though the Home Screen is fun, I guess I’m more partial to the way things were before. The World Screen is split into four areas, which are the same across all the anime worlds. Each screen has an interactable décor element that can occasionally give you free Gems. You always have access to buttons in the top right: The Gift Box (where things you’ve been given as rewards for duels, mission, and daily logins can be collected), the Notifications, your Player Profile and Friends list, and the Help and Settings menu. Also at the top, on the left, is the number of duels you can play against CPUs, with one needing 30 minutes to recharge (though there are items to replenish all of them instantly if you can't wait).

At the bottom, around the Home/World button, you have the four locations:

Also visible: The Vagabond, a special
Duelist who uses strong PvP decks.

• Gate: From that screen, you can access the Duel Trials and Quizzes, which allow you to learn the game and discover new archetypes. You can also find the Trader EX there, which lets you trade the items obtained in previous events for rewards. The important thing here, however, is the Gate in which you can challenge Legendary Duelists you’ve unlocked across all the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime that use Speed Duel rules, or any Duelists that use Rush Duel rules instead, provided in both cases you’re using a character fitting the duel type. You can even duel characters across anime generations (ex. Using someone from ZEXAL against someone from Duel Monsters or GX, or vice versa).

Jaden's lucky, he's even got his face on
trhe PvP coliseum! Now THAT is fame.

• PvP Arena: The main draw of this game, and the one that most events tend to push, though there’s enough of a Single Player aspect here that you could well play Duel Links and only occasionally play against other people. You can play both Ranked Speed and Rush Duels, take part in a tournament, or play casual duels. This is also where you can keep up with the current events.

Even the Shop looks a little different in
every universe. Yet, they all have the exact
same products, at the same time.

• Shop: Self-explanatory. In there you can find boxes of packs and preconstructed decks, in both Speed and Rush formats; inventory items, customization, home backgrounds; and special deals such as anniversary boxes, deck build boxes, bundles, and duelist passes. Most packs can be purchased with Gems, but bundles of them can also be purchased with actual money. Still not sure why we can’t just buy Gems, but whatever. Some inventory items can only be bought with money. The Card Trader waits right outside the shop; you can exchange in-game coins and crafting materials for cards he has in stock. Crafting materials include Rarity Tokens and Attribute Tokens (for monsters; want that DARK monster? You need DARK tokens) or Spell/Trap Tokens. You can obtain more coins and Tokens by converting extraneous cards in your collection into their materials.

• Duel Studio: On this screen you can watch replays of other duels, or head into the building to edit your decks, view the list of all the cards that have been implemented into the game (most of them transfer to Speed Duels quite well, but several cards just couldn’t be transferred – and on the contrary, a lot of cards were created specifically for Duel Links), view your Chronicle Cards (special cards whose duel stats you want to keep track of, for some reason), the list of all the Skills in the game (and which duelist uses which), view which cards are the most popular at the moment, view decklists, see all of the card summon animations you’ve unlocked, and even view scenes from past events.

Phew! Yeah, this game is packed with content. There’s so much, it’s almost hard to believe.

Building your Deck… With Skills!

Since decks here can only contain 20 to 30 cards (and players will stay close to 20 for a better chance to draw their important combo pieces), you need to pick your cards and build even more wisely. No choice, you’ve got to make every card matter.

There's at least 20 times that number of characters to
look for an unlock. Have fun.

As you progress through the game, you unlock new worlds and characters to play as. Every duelist you unlock starts out with only one deck slot, but you unlock new deck slots as you gain levels with that character. Each deck slot is a chance to experiment with new decklists. The deck-building mode includes an Auto-Build mode, but it kinda sucks; most decks created that way are unplayable unless you can figure out which terrible cards can be taken out and replaced with good stuff that synergizes with the rest. I don’t recommend using the feature. Oh, and you will need to build a new deck for every character you unlock, as their starter deck will be weak garbage that could not even beat most of the regular duelists around each world.

The most interesting addition to gameplay here is the Skills. On any deck, you can equip a Skill, which will trigger when its conditions are met. Some skills have specific activation requirements or will only be usable in precise situations, and you might need to build your Deck with the Skill in mind. Other Skills are great, but force you to make your Deck in a certain way; as an example, a Skill related to a specific archetype may ask that your Deck is mostly made up of cards from that archetype. Other Skills, especially in the 5Ds era and beyond, will straight-up ADD cards to your Deck and Extra Deck at the start of a Duel, but you still need to have the base minimum 20 cards in your Deck anyway, so the addition of new cards can hurt the Deck’s consistency.

Suddenly, Arc-V field on my side. Thanks, Skill!

So what you're saying is... if I'm lucky while
I'm unlucky, I could use this twice per Duel.

Several of the earlier Skills in the game were generic; when in trouble, instead of a normal Draw Phase, draw a monster in a specific level range, attribute or type; start the duel with more LP, often at the cost of a smaller starting hand; or start the Duel with a Field Spell already in play. Very few Skills can change the field significantly, but one exception involves the characters of Arc-V using Skills that re-add Pendulum Zones outside of the base three Spell & Trap Zones, giving you more options. Skills can often only activate after you’ve lost a certain amount of LP, giving you a chance to come back. Finally, most Skills have a limit on how many times they can be used in a Duel.

Skills are a great idea, but as Duel Links evolved and the later generations of the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime were gradually added, some Skills had to be revised and nerfed over time so they wouldn’t be too powerful. Some were overcorrected and are now weak to the point of being borderline useless. It’s a very tough balance and I can’t imagine working on this game at KONAMI and implementing these changes any time a card or skill becomes a problem.

Alright, this part was all nitty-gritty, hopefully Part 2 will be about the fun part of Duel Links: Its connection to the anime.