After you defeat Anihal in Chapter One of Bravely Default II, you’ll be able to access a new building in Savalon: the Gambling Hall. There’s only one game you can play here, but that game is incredibly addictive. Learning how to play Bravely Default II‘s card game, Bind and Divide (B ‘n’ D for short), is easy, but mastering the game is a lot harder.
How to Unlock the Bravely Default II Card Game
Once the Gambling Hall is available, you can visit it at any time to unlock Bind and Divide. All you have to do to get started is talk to a woman named Shirley. You’ll be able to recognize her because she has an icon that looks like playing cards above her head.
Shirley will guide you through a tutorial that explains the basics of this card minigame. After the game is finished, she’ll gift you a six-card deck that you can use to challenge other players. From now on, you can walk up to anyone that has the playing-card icon and press the Y button to challenge them to a game.
How to Play Bind and Divide
The goal of Bind and Divide is to use your cards to capture tiles on the board. The player with the most tiles at the end of a game will win the match. If you’ve ever played Go, the world’s oldest board game, you might find Bind and Divide a bit familiar.
If you take a closer look at the cards in your deck, you’ll notice that they all have tiles in the upper right corner. The light green tiles reflect the square your card is being placed on. It can only be placed on an empty tile.
The dark green tiles, however, function differently. If a dark green tile is placed on an empty square, you’ll claim that square. If the tile is placed on a square that’s been claimed by your opponent, you can use the green tile to neutralize that square, leaving it empty.
If you’re able to flank an opponent’s tiles with your own, you’ll be able to capture those tiles for yourself. Of course, the opposite is also true. You’ll need to place your cards carefully so that your opponent isn’t able to flank you.
Just like Bravely Default II‘s monsters, cards are divided up into different categories. For example, a card could be a part of the Demon family or the Spirit family. These classifications aren’t always important, but there are cards that can strengthen or weaken other cards based on the family they’re a part of. You’ll want to keep this in mind as you pick the cards for your deck!
There are a number of Bind and Divide cards that feature characters or jobs that appear in the game. These cards are appropriately named “Character Cards.” While it’s usually best to have a mix of character cards and monster cards in your deck, Character Cards are some of the most powerful cards in the game.
You see, Character Cards have special effects that can change the tide of battle. For example, the Monk card has a token that only you can see. This token can essentially act as a trap. If your opponent places a Character Card near your Monk, the card’s effects will be canceled, and you’ll capture its non-base squares.
In order to win at Bind and Divide, you’ll need to have the right cards in your deck, and you’ll need to use those cards appropriately. You can swap your cards in your deck before any match starts by selecting “Edit Deck.” You can also save up to three different decks in your Deck Editor.
How to Get More Bind and Divide Cards
When you start playing Bind and Divide, you’ll have just six cards, which puts you at a disadvantage. Thankfully, it shouldn’t take too long for you to get a few more cards in your collection.
Whenever you defeat an opponent in Bind and Divide, you’ll receive points. These points are calculated based on the number of tiles you claimed at the end of a game. You can use these points to purchase cards from your opponent.
Every opponent has six different cards that you can claim. Powerful Character Cards are more expensive, while Monster Cards are cheaper. After you’ve claimed all of a character’s cards, you won’t be able to collect any more cards for them, but you’ll still be able to earn points in every match.
When you’re first starting out, I’d recommend playing against the old woman in the Gambling Hall in Savalon. She’s a very easy opponent, and you should be able to grab her cards without too much of a problem. From there, you can use your new cards to take on more challenging opponents and expand your collection.
Additional Rules
While the core rules of Bind and Divide are always the same, some opponents may request that you use additional rules during your game. These rules are:
No Keepsies: You won’t randomly lose any cards when defeated. Most early opponents play with this rule on.
Wraparound: Occupying a square that would be beyond the edge of the board results in a square on the opposite side of the board being occupied instead.
Wipeout: From the fifth turn onward, it will be possible to defeat your opponent by reducing the number of squares they occupy to zero.
First Past the Post: You can win the game by being the first player to occupy 15 squares.
You can adjust the rules before a match starts by pressing the + button. Playing with Wraparound, Wipeout, or First Past the Post on results in a small points bonus. Playing with No Keepsies on results in a small points decrease.
If you lose a match when the No Keepsies rule is turned off, a spinning wheel will appear on your screen. If the wheel lands on one of your cards, that card will be returned to the opponent you collected it from. You’ll have to re-challenge that opponent and spend more card points to get the card back in your collection.
When you turn off the No Keepsies rule, you won’t necessarily lose a card even if you’re defeated. If the wheel doesn’t land on a card, you’re in the clear. As long as the wheel spins in your favor, your card collection is safe.
You’ll need to learn how to play Bravely Default II‘s card game if you want to unlock the Gambler job, but it’s likely that you’ll want to keep playing Bind and Divide even after you have this card in your collection. This minigame is incredibly addictive, and so far, I’d say it’s one of the best parts of Bravely Default II.
