Eternal Game Modes

Another great aspect of Eternal is the variety of available game modes, some of which are single player (which I'll call "AI" modes), some of which are against other players (PvP).

AI game modes:

Campaign - These are purchased with in-game currency (mostly 25,000 gold), and they grant full sets of specific cards when you complete the campaign (extremely similar to Hearthstone Adventures). Complete the campaign encounters, get the cards. Pretty simple.

Forge - This is a lot like Arena in Hearthstone, but you play against a random selection of pre-made decks that are piloted by the AI. You begin with being offered 3 cards. You choose one of the three cards, which becomes the first color of a 2-color deck. You are then offered 3 new cards; if you choose a different color than the first card, that will determine your two colors for the rest of the Forge. So, you select one card from a set of three options until you have a deck of 25 cards. You then play your games. There is a cost of in-game currency (2500 gold) to play this mode, BUT you keep every card you pick permanently in your collection. And if you win 7 games before you lose twice, you will also earn 3x-4x packs of cards, on top of the cards you already earned by making your deck.

Gauntlet - This is the free AI mode. You create a 75-card deck and play against a random selection of pre-made AI decks. The last encounter will be a special boss fight with special rules, but you never know which boss you will face in a given run (so you can't really build your deck for it). Free to start this mode, but you do earn gold for doing well in it. And the first few times you get 7 wins, you get a free pack.

PvP Game Modes:

Casual/Practice - You earn about 50 gold for winning a game in this mode. No other rewards. You can use this mode to complete daily quests, or to test out deck ideas. No other real rewards though.

Ranked - This is the ladder for Eternal. It includes every card ever printed in the game (which is a lot). Kind of like Wild mode in Hearthstone. Bring your best deck, try to beat everyone else. You start out as Copper-III, and can rank up to Copper-II, then Copper-I, then you become Silver (which also has 3 tiers), then Gold, then Diamond, then Masters (Masters is equivalent to Legend). Ranking up through each tier requires earning 100 points. Exactly how many points you earn in each tier is slightly randomized, but for Copper through Gold, you basically will rank up to the next tier if you win 5 games in a row. Also, in Copper through Gold, you lose fewer points for losing than you gain for winning. So the climb is possible even with a slightly less than 50% winrate. This last part is not true for Diamond, where you (usually) get 15 points for winning and lose 15 points for losing.

Expedition - This is a new game mode, and will be more like Standard mode in Hearthstone. There is a limited pool of cards that are allowed to played in this mode. The current set will always be fully allowed (all the cards), but the remaining cards allowed will rotate in and out. Exactly how rotations will happen in this mode is not yet clear. But currently it is designed to have a lower power level than Ranked mode.

Draft - This is a mode where you gradually choose 48 cards, one card at a time, from "packs" that are presented to you. Exact details of this mode would take too long to explain here. It is a complex mode, also similar to Arena in Hearthstone, but significantly different. Like Forge mode, every card you pick while building your draft deck is yours to keep permanently. This game mode costs 5000 gold per entry. If you want to "go infinite" in draft, you actually have to win all 7 games before you lose 3, which is not easy to do. Most people who specialize in draft have to pay money to keep up.

Special Events - There are special events every few weeks which give nice rewards, as well as a monthly league.

So, lots of game modes, all of which are fun and interesting.