CD Projekt RED‘s (CDPR) standalone game Gwent is just days away from releasing the beta version of the game. For those of you that don’t know, Gwent is a trading card game (TCG) featured within The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The TCG in game was so well received by fans, that CD Projekt RED took it upon themselves to not only make an entire standalone game for Gwent, but has also improved and upgraded the mechanics of the game as a whole.

CDPR took to the stage at this year’s E3 Conference during the Xbox presentation. You can check out the reveal trailer below:

So, what is Gwent? Gwent is a game in which you collect cards that are separated into various factions based on The Witcher universe. The four main factions are The Northern Realms, Monsters, Scoia’tael, and Nilfgaard. The latest expansion to Witcher 3, titled Blood and Wine, introduced a new faction, Skellige. The game is set for two players. Each player must have a full deck for at least one faction consisting of a minimum of 22 unit cards and a maximum of  10 special cards that can cause field status changes. A winner is determined in three rounds, best two out of three. To win a round all you have to do is make sure your total card strength outmatches your opponent’s.

Each turn a player can play a card in one of three combat areas; Close Combat, Ranged Combat, and Seige Combat, which are set in rows on the game board. Some cards even have special abilities that can destroy opponent’s highest level cards or increase your cards’ strength. There are a ton of different abilities that cards can have.

Special cards can give you an advantage. There’s the Commander’s Horn, which doubles the strength of your unit cards in a single row. Weather cards such as Torrential Rain will set the value of each unit card to 1. There are also Clear Weather cards to nullify any and all weather effects on the board.

Arguably, the most useful cards are those known as Hero cards. These cards feature key characters within the Witcher universe, such as Geralt of Rivia (the main protagonist). A round has ended when both players have passed a turn. The player with the highest amount of total attack power at the end of a round wins that round.

Each faction has a bonus ability. For instance, the Scoia’tael’s ability gives the player using that faction the choice of who can play first at the beginning of the game. The Northern Realms’ ability lets the player draw a new card if they win the previous round.

While we are not sure which factions will be available during the beta, CDPR has announced that Northern Realms, Skellige, Monsters, and Scoia’tael will be featured first upon the full release. More factions, including Nilfgaard, will be released and become available in the future.

The Gwent standalone game will also contain a single player quest mode. As described from the Gwent website:

EPIC QUESTS AWAIT IN A SINGLE-PLAYER CAMPAIGN RICH IN UNTOLD STORIES FROM THE WITCHER!

Brought to you by the creators of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the single player campaign of GWENT® thrusts players into an event-rich world they can roam freely. To be released in episodes, the story unfolding in the campaign will feature the choice and consequence mechanic the Witcher games are known for.

The beta is set to release Monday, October, 24th. Before the beta goes live, CD Projekt RED will be live streaming an introduction into the game. They will be outlining some of the new mechanics as well as showing off some of the added features. The live stream starts at 7 PM CEST, which would be 10 AM PST. You can watch the live stream below Monday morning.

Watch live video from CD PROJEKT RED on www.twitch.tv