Explaining the unwritten rules of Marvel Snap:

Since its launch just under a year ago, Marvel Snap has quickly gained a large following in the mobile gaming realm. In addition to winning the Best Mobile Game award at the 2022 Game Awards, Marvel Snap recently became the highest-grossing digital card game, surpassing Magic: The Gathering Arena. As the game's fan base continues to grow, there are some unwritten rules developed by the community that new players should be aware of to have the best possible gaming experience in Marvel Snap.

While Marvel Snap has its explicitly defined rules for playing the game, there is an agreed-upon set of rules that are just as important to the core player experience as the rules intended by the developers. Following these community-derived rules is not a requirement for Marvel Snap players, but it is generally in their best interest to do so as they serve as a kind of guide for best practices in optimizing the gaming experience. New players in the Marvel Snap community may not be familiar with these rules as they largely stem from the game's online fan base. Therefore, it is important to understand what they are and why they exist.

Never Spend Credits on Fast Upgrades

As a free-to-play game, Marvel Snap offers various currencies and a shop where players can spend these currencies on new cards and cosmetics. An important aspect of Marvel Snap's gameplay mechanics is to use these currencies to enhance the rarity of their cards, leading to additional bonuses, including more currency. Typically, players need boosters and credits to upgrade a card, but there is also the option to spend an increased amount of credits to bypass the need for boosters in the "Quick Upgrades" section of the shop.

However, it is almost never a good investment to spend credits in this way, as boosters are quite easy to obtain. They can be earned simply by playing matches with the card the player wants to upgrade, meaning they occur much more frequently than credits. Therefore, it is a much better idea to save credits and wait until the player has enough boosters to upgrade the card, completely avoiding Marvel Snap's Quick Upgrades shop.

Always Snap When Holding a Winning Hand

One aspect of Marvel Snap that sets it apart from other digital card games is its namesake "Snap" mechanic, which allows players to risk the dice they earn by winning a match by doubling the stakes for both players. For new Marvel Snap players, it can be challenging to learn when the best time to Snap during a match is, as there is no definitive way to guarantee victory at a specific moment. However, most players recommend snapping as soon as they have the cards in hand that fulfill their deck's specific win condition, such as MODOK, Hela, and Invisible Woman for decks that involve discarding cards. This increases the chances of keeping the opponent in the game and preventing them from surrendering.

Use Emotes Carefully

Although Marvel Snap does not include a voice or text chat feature, players can communicate with each other by using the various emotes offered by the game. One specific unwritten rule is to use the Spider-Man pointing emote when two players play the same card. However, other emotes can have meanings that may not be clear unless the player is familiar with the online Marvel Snap community. For example, Ms. Marvel's thumbs-up emote may seem harmless at first glance but is considered a rude way to taunt opponents by spamming it when the player wins or believes they will win. Therefore, players should use it sparingly to avoid being perceived as toxic.

Marvel Snap is available for PC and mobile devices.