Triple Triad is one of the bigger side games FFXIV has to offer in general. It is not solely locked to the Gold Saucer either. Besides a very enjoyable card game that can be played against NPCs and other players, it also has a card collecting factor as well as several achievements with more cards, orchestrion rolls, titles and mounts related to it.
There are two major parts to Triple Triad. The first part is collecting the cards themselves. You get cards by winning against NPCs all over Eorzea, by winning tournaments in the Gold Saucer, and even by clearing content such as Trials, Dungeons and Raids. There are more than 300 cards that can be collected – with new ones added every patch – and whoever dares to go on that endeavour will probably be busy for a very long time.
The other part to Triple Triad is of course playing the game itself. It is a 2-player-game with a simple “Capture the card” goal while mixing it up with different rules to make it more strategic.
You can start your Triple Triad Travail in the Gold Saucer, specifically by talking to the Triple Triad Master at the Card Square and starting the quest “Triple Triad Trial”. This quest will explain the very basics of the game to you as well as give you your first 5 cards to build your very first deck for playing.
Once you’ve gotten your first cards from the Triple Triad Master, you will be able to build your first (and every further deck). For this, open the Gold Saucer window (Main Menu > Character > Gold Saucer). The Gold Saucer window in general will tell you a lot of information about various parts of the Gold Saucer but what we need for Triple Triad is the overview of our cards and the overview of our decks. On our decks overview we can see what decks we currently have as well as create new decks. If you create a new deck, you will be able to choose 5 cards from all the cards you own and set them in any order you want. However you have to watch out for a few things while building your deck:
The game principle itself is very simple. You play on a 3×3 field which will be empty at the start. Unless certain rules make your opponents cards known to you, you won’t be able to see their cards. A random toss of three cards will decide who will start the first round. Whoever starts will place a card from their deck on one of the nine fields. Then the other players’ turn starts. The goal is to place one of your own cards on the field in a way that the number on the side of your card is higher than the number on the connecting side of your opponent’s card. If your opponent for example has a card lying in the upper right corner and the left number on that card is a 2, you would have to place a card of your own whose right number is 3 or higher to capture your opponent’s card. This counts for as many sides as your card will be adjacent to your opponents cards. However if you place a card whose number is lower than the adjacent opponent’s card, nothing will happen. You will keep your card and your opponent will keep theirs.
In total each player has 90 seconds for the whole game, with gaining 5 extra seconds whenever their turn starts, giving everyone plenty of time to think up their strategies and options. However, should you run out of your 90 seconds, the game will automatically choose a random card from your deck and place it on a random field. In every following turn you will get those 5 extra seconds but if you haven’t put a card down within those 5 seconds, the game will again automatically choose for you. So always try to be mindful of your timer.
While the game itself is rather straightforward, there are some rules that can mix up the whole gameplay, giving you more options to catch cards or making it more difficult to adapt to your opponent. Regarding this, there is a slight distinction between types of rules:
As the name implies those are rules that count in specific regions such as Northern Thanalan. If a region has regional rules currently active, matches against NPCs in that region will automatically adhere to those rules. Those regional rules change once each day at 7 am PST. Certain regions are more likely to have specific rules. It is also possible that a region has no active regional rules. There are also some NPCs that do not stick to regional rules even if the region has active rules going on.
Those rules will be active in a match. In a PvP match, those can be decided before the start of a match. In matches against NPCs you will stumble upon NPCs that always have set match rules for every match you play against them. Week long tournaments also have two set rules active for every match.
In total there are 15 rules that could be active. However, “Random” is purely a rule for single PvP matches (outside of tournaments) and “Draft” is a rule that is only used in Open & Invitational tournaments or can be used in PvP matches. As of now there are no npcs that use either of those two rules.
As the name says, this rule makes all cards visible for both players, therefore letting you see all of your opponents cards beforehand but also showing all of your cards to them.
The same as All Open but instead of all 5 cards only 3 random cards from each player are made visible.
This rule basically will make it harder to end a match in a draw. The players will play as normal and if the game ends in a draw, it will simply restart a new round. However, each player gets back the cards he “owned” at the end of the match.
Let’s say, you played all 5 of your cards while your opponent only played 4. During the match, you caught two of your opponents cards but in turn he also caught two of your cards. So when the match ended in a draw, 3 of your original 5 cards were your color, 2 were your opponents color and 2 of your opponents cards were in your color. Now the match restarts and your deck for the new round will consist of all cards that had your color in the end, meaning, your new deck for the second round consists of 3 of your cards and 2 of your opponents.
This process will repeat for every match that ends in a draw until either one player won or you played a total of 5 draws in which case the whole game will end in a draw.
This rule adds another possibility for you to capture cards. Basically, if your card and your opponent’s cards have the same numbers on at least two adjacent sides, you will capture each card that fits this condition. (For an example see the graphic). The rule can activate even if only one of the adjacent cards is from your opponent, as long as there is at least a second fitting adjacent card for the rule.
Furthermore, if this rule is activated, it can result in a combo. A combo means that after you capture your opponents cards, the game will check if your newly captured cards are higher numbered then their other adjacent cards on any side. If they are, they will then capture those adjacent cards as well. This will repeat until there are no more adjacent cards from your opponent with lower numbers.
That means, even if your opponent owns almost all cards on the field, one well placed card that activates the Same rule could potentially trigger a combo capturing every card on the field and changing the whole game to your advantage. On the other hand that same potential also can be there for your opponent.
Similar to the Same rule, this rule is there to give you more options to capture cards. In this case though it will add the numbers of adjacent cards together. If the result on two sides are the same number, it will activate the capture. (For example see the graphic) This rule can activate even if only one of the adjacent cards is from your opponent, as long as there is at least a second fitting adjacent card for the rule.
Furthermore, like the Same rule, activating this rule can trigger a combo, meaning it will check if any of your newly captured cards are higher numbered than their adjacent cards. If they are higher numbered than adjacent cards from your opponent, those cards will be captured as well. This will repeat until no more cards fit those criteria.
On the contrary to the Same rule, where you have to bet on the exact numbers, the Plus rule has more options to activate. For example, on one side, you could have an 1 and an 8 adjacent, while on another side it is a 7 and a 2. Both results are a 9, activating the rule, making this a very powerful tool to overturn a game completely.
If this rule is active, all cards must be played in order, meaning from left to right from your deck. It is advised that you keep your most powerful card in the 4th slot of your deck for this rule. That way, you can definitely play that card no matter if you have the first turn or the second while still keeping it far enough to the back to be used as your “joker”.
Contrary to the Order rule, this rule will decide randomly which card you play each turn. You may not be able to choose your cards for each turn, but you can still choose where to place your card on the field, making it more challenging to adapt to your opponents moves.
If this rule is active, the lower numbers will capture the higher numbers, meaning, if you place a card with a 2 on one side, it will capture any card with a 3 or higher on the adjacent side. It is recommended to keep a separate deck with low numbered cards solely for this rule. The very first deck you can build from your five starter cards is a very decent deck for this rule although some cards can later be replaced with cards that have more 1’s.
While the A usually is the highest number possible that can not be overturned by anything else, if the Fallen Ace rule is active, the A can actually be captured, if you place a 1 adjacent to it. The A will still capture any other number though, so you only have to look out if your card has more than one A or you do not use the A side on your card for capturing, so that it is not left open and vulnerable for long.
Some cards have a little logo in their upper right corner. This means they belong to a certain type of cards, for example Scions or Primals. If you play such a card while the Ascension rule is active, it will add +1 to all numbers of this card after the card is placed.
For example, you place a Minfilia card which has the type Scion. This card has a 5 as its left number. When you place the card, it will still count as a 5, meaning if the adjacent card to the left is a 4 or lower, you will capture it and if it is 5 or higher you won’t. However, immediately afterwards, the card will gain +1, meaning that now this 5 on the left side actually counts as a 6. So, if there was no adjacent card to the left of it, your opponent now needs a 7 or higher to capture Minfilia instead of a 6.
Furthermore, this +1 will count for every card of the type Scion, no matter if it was already placed or is still in your hand. So if you placed Minfilia and gained the +1, and you still have a Thancred card in your hand, Thancred will now also have a +1 on all sides, meaning, when you place Thancred, who has normally a 3 on his right side, that 3 will now count as a 4 when capturing cards. And since the Ascension rule is accumulative, it means that now that you placed Thancred, both Thancred and Minfilia will have a +2 instead of a +1, raising their numbers even higher.
Pay attention though if other rules such as Plus are also in play. When calculating the results for the Plus rule, you have to work with the ascended numbers.
If a card gains enough Ascension points to get a side higher than 9 that side will count as an A.
Descension is the complete opposite of Ascension, meaning instead of card types gaining +1 for each card placed, the cards will lose 1 point of their numbers after they have been placed. If the number of a card is decreased to 0 or below, it still counts as a one.
For further explanations on how exactly this rule applies, refer to the Ascension rule but keep in mind that Descension will bring numbers down instead of up.
When this rule is active, the game will randomly swap one card from your deck with a card from your opponent’s deck. The game will then start like a normal match.
This rule is basically a wild card. It will choose randomly one of the above rules for the match and that chosen rule will be active then. If you play against a NPC that has the roulette rule either as match rule or regional rule, it will randomly choose the active rule again for every rematch, meaning, you could play with the Plus rule in one match and with the Reverse rule in a rematch. If a character has two roulette rules active either via match or regional rules, you will get two random rules for each game but never the same rule twice. Double Roulette matches also still count as only one Roulette match for the achievement, by the way.
This rule is solely for single PvP matches. It will choose 5 random cards for your match from your entire list of cards to play the game with.
Draft is a rule for single PvP matches as well as for open & invitational tournaments. This rule forgoes your own cards and instead will give you an assortment of cards from which you have to choose your deck for the coming matches. The draft rule will let you choose lower ranked cards in pairs of two (one from each row, see image) and one higher ranked card out of three. If you play a tournament with this rule, the deck you choose at the start of it is the deck for all matches played in the tournament.
In total there are three different types of tournaments where you can test yourself against other players and see where you rank. Each tournament offers different incentives as well as different requirements for participation.
The biggest variant are the week-long tournaments that are held in a biweekly schedule in the Gold Saucer. Those tournaments start each Tuesday with the weekly reset and participating means battling against all participants in a score-based ranking.
In those tournaments, you have a total of 20 matches available. All of those must be held in the Triple Triad battlehall in the Duty Finder. You can play those matches either against other players by queuing for PvP tournament matches or against the available NPCs in the battlehall, although playing against other players usually nets you more points.
Each match played will give you a certain amount of points, based on the result of your match (loss, draw or win). Those points differ between a player match or depending on which NPCs you fought against. Once you have fught your 20 matches, the points accumulated will determine your ranking and therefore your reward.
To join a tournament, you have to speak to the Tournament Recordkeeper NPC next to the ranking boards in the card plaza of the Gold Saucer. This NPC will tell you which tournament is currently going on or will come up next, will let you join the current tournament and will dish out the rewards after a tournament has ended.
If you ranked in the top 3 of the tournament you will get a good amount of MGP based on your rank as well as the platinum 5 star card of that tournament. Those cards are some of the rarest in the game and can’t be obtained otherwise.
If you reached any other rank you will get an amount of MGP based on your rank as reward. Furthermore depending on your final score you may get Platinum Triad packs which will contain a random card each, all of which are 4 and 5 star cards and could also potentially drop tournament cards.
Open tournaments are basically a short mode to Triple Triad Tournaments. In this mode, you will participate in an 8-player tournament and play a total of 3 matches. The outcome of these matches will determine your ranking and therefore your reward at the end.
Open tournaments happen more often and to participate in them, you have to speak to the Open Tournament Official NPC which stands opposite of the Tournament Recordkeeper. If there are less than 8 participating players, the rest of the slots will be filled up by NPCs instead.
Characteristic for Open tournaments is, that those make use of the Draft rule, so even if you don’t own a lot of strong cards, you can still participate and win in those tournaments. The rewards are mostly MGP but card prizes such as Platinum Triad packs can also occasionally drop.
Invitational Tournaments work the same way, Open tournaments do. They are based on 8 players and each participant will play a total of 3 matches to determine ranking.
However in contrast to Open tournaments, Invitational tournaments do not give out any prizes and the Draft rule is only optional. This is a nice option, if you just want to play against random players without the pressure of rankings or if you want to battle against some friends in a friendly matter.
