Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links

"Duel Links" redirects here. For virtual reality in the manga, see Duel Links (manga).

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links is an Android, iOS and PC game. Its name is likely taken from the Duel Links system featured in "TRANSCEND GAME" and Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions.

The game was first announced at Jump Festa 2016. On January 6, 2016, it was officially announced that the game would be released globally, along with the news that Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Generation and Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist would both receive further updates in winter 2016.^[6]

On March 18, 2016, the Japanese site was updated with more information about its gameplay, characters, and online content, as well as the first YouTube trailer for the game. Pre-registration for the game is currently open in Japan, with rewards available for accounts pre-registered before the game launch. The rewards are accumulative based on the total number of existing pre-registered accounts when the game launches: 50 gems (10,000), "Dark Magician" card protectors (30,000), an additional 50 gems (50,000), a Yugi Muto-themed Duel Field (100,000), and an additional 50 gems (150,000). Additional rewards were added on March 29, 2016, after the number of pre-registered accounts exceeded 200,000: "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" card protectors (200,000), an additional 100 gems (250,000), and a Seto Kaiba-themed Duel Field (300,000).^[7]

On April 19, 2016, the official site announced that in order to further improve the game quality, the game would go into a closed beta testing phase in June. Beta testers are picked randomly among the players who pre-registered the game before April 30, 2016. As a result, the public release date of the game will be postponed to a later date rather than April 2016 as initially planned. Players also receive more rewards at the start of the game which details will be disclosed in further announcements.^[7]

Pre-registration emails and surveys were sent out on June 13, 2016 for people in the United States and United Kingdom. On June 23, 2016, the sign-up period was extended.^[1] In late July, e-mails were sent to accepted applicants notifying them of their accepted participation in the Closed Beta Test, as well as informing them that the game would be "polished" for another one to two months before the Closed Beta Test would start. On September 1, 2016, applications for the closed beta closed. The Closed Beta Test started on September 7, 2016, and subsequently closed on September 27, 2016, after maintenance was conducted that day from 1:00 AM - 3:00 AM (EST). It was released worldwide in January 2017.

Gameplay

Duel World

Duel World (デュエルワールド) is the hub area where a character that either is a Standard Duelist (スタンダードデュエリスト) or Legendary Duelist (レジェンドデュエリスト) can be selected and challenged to obtain cards and increase the character's Level. It is possible to increase the stage level by doing missions, and by doing so, a new Legendary Duelist or new features will appear.

Online Versus

It allows real time duels with other Duelists or friends around the world in Duel Links. Furthermore, there are practice plays, Decks from Duelists played against, and replays from other Duelists can be watched.

Rules

The Speed Duel format is used.
- Each player only has three Monster Zones and three Spell & Trap Zones, rather than five of each.
- Each player must have 20-30 cards in their Main Deck (instead of 40-60) and 0-5 cards in the Extra Deck (instead of 0-15).
- Each player starts with 4000 LP, rather than 8000 LP.
- Each player starts with four cards in their hand, rather than five.
- There is no Main Phase 2. The End Phase takes place right after the Battle Phase.
Each player can have one Skill. The available Skills vary between characters. Depending on the Skill, it may be always activated at the start of the Duel (e.g. starting with "Yami" on the field), optionally activated when a player meets certain conditions (e.g. ensuring the next drawn card is a Spell or Trap Card after the player's Life Points have dropped by 1800), or always activated when a condition is met (e.g. inflicting damage when the player activates a Trap Card).
Extra Monster Zones are not used, with Extra Deck monsters functioning as they did before the introduction of the Extra Monster Zone.

Timeline Placement

Duel Links does not fit perfectly into the timeline of any adaptation of Yu-Gi-Oh!, but appears to take place after Battle City as numerous characters reference the events of the tournament. Inconsistencies with the main timeline are explained in dialogue as a product of Kaiba's programming.

The GX portion of Duel Links does not reference the manga at all. Rather than stick to a certain time period, the game portrays characters at the point in the series where they were most prominent.

Characters

Playable

Yu-Gi-Oh!

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds

Non-playable

Legendary Duelists

Legendary Duelists are duelists based on characters from the anime or manga. All playable characters are also Legendary Duelists, but there are several Legendary Duelists who are not playable characters.

Standard Duelists

Standard Duelists are game-original human NPCs who have generic denominations in the Japanese version (such as "Student who likes Dueling" or "Energetic boy"), but are given actual names in Western versions.