Back 4 Blood: What are Cards?

Back 4 Blood has a card system that, at first glance, can seem rather confusing and a bit worrisome to people. Worry not, this guide will hopefully clear some confusion regarding them, their importance, and how they can really shake things up in each playthrough.

What are cards in Back 4 Blood?

The card system acts as the game’s way of progression, builds, and difficulty.

In terms of the progression, you’ll start with only a handful of cards that you can equip in unique decks. As you play more of the game and unlock things, you’ll eventually have more cards in your inventory that you can create a multitude of decks with. They all have different properties that boost your character’s stats or give them some kind of buff. This system has a different approach than systems akin to leveling up or going through upgrade trees.

As for the builds aspect of this system, it’s exactly as it’s advertised. Cards in Back 4 Blood add perks and abilities to your characters. You can create decks that can hold up to 15 different cards, ranging from offensive, defensive, utility, and mobility capabilities. You may also want to craft decks that would synergize well with your character’s perks. As you would do in other games where you’d increase offensive capabilities to DPS characters, you’d want to capitalize accordingly. If you have a character like Holly in this game who excels in stamina regeneration and melee, you’d want to equip cards that boost melee damage and stamina.

Sometimes, some cards can have utility that can make the effects of Corruption Cards easier to deal with.

What are Corruption Cards?

Corruption Cards in Back 4 Blood are what makes every run a bit different every time. They’ll sometimes come in the form of modifiers like shrouding your mission in dense fog, adding in random bosses, increasing the number of bird flocks that can call in the horde, and so many more.

Corruption Cards can also come in the forms of giving you and your team additional bonus objectives that give you a sizable copper payout upon mission completion. Some cards include things like making it to the safe house with all players still alive or the “Speed runner” one that has you complete a mission within a certain time limit. There are many more out there, but this is just to give an idea for things to come.

Back 4 Blood is currently out for Ultimate Edition users. Its standard edition will come out on October 12, 2021. It is on the PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series S/X, and PC via Steam and Epic Games. To check out additional content like guides, news, and an upcoming review for Back 4 Blood, click here.