- Onirim is a solitaire card game. You must work against the game to gather the eight oneiric doors before the deck runs out. You can obtain door cards either.
- Onirim is a solo/cooperative card game. You (and a partner) must work (together) against the game to gather the eight Door cards before the deck runs out; you can obtain those Door cards either by playing cards of the same color three turns in a row, or by discarding (under specific circumstances) one of your powerful Key cards.
Have you ever had a bad dream that you can't wake up from? For me, it is always me trying to run, but not being able to move. I have found that my arms still work in these dreams, so I am able to drag myself along to try to escape. This cooperative game is based on that kind of dream.
Onirism is an Action/Adventure game where you play as Carol, a little girl full of energy and imagination with an attitude. One night, she is waken up by a strange portal appearing in her bedroom. A mysterious creature emerges from it and steals her Bunbun plushie away! Without any hesitation, Carol goes through the portal to chase it.
In Onirim, you are trapped inside a dream and have to figure out how to escape by finding keys, doors, and matching locations to unlock enough doors to escape. The game is very fun to play, but it is also very hard to win. The deck is stacked against you. Additionally, you are going to have to shuffle those cards a lot, so if your shuffling technique is 52 card pickup, this is not the game for you. (Fortunately, they just released an app version of the game that shuffles for you.)
Here is my strategy, but you will still lose 50% of the time, roughly.
- Discard your keys to gain information and kill the nightmares
- Target all the same color so you can safely discard the remainder
- If a Nighmare card appears, do the following if possible.
- Use a key
- Lose 5 cards if you have a set or moon cards in your hand
- Discard your hand if you don't need the cards there.
- Calculate the remaining cards so that you don't discard something necessary
Discarding Keys
The game allows you to do a few things with keys.
- If you have a key in your hand and draw a door, you automatically unlock it
- If you draw a Nightmare, you can kill it with a key in your hand
- You can discard a key to rearrange the top five cards of the deck and discard one.
I like to use the key to rearrange the top cards because you usually will remove a Nightmare card, and you can arrange the cards to get exactly what you need in the order that you need them. Additionally, if you draw cards you don't want, but there is a door, you can put that first in line to give you a chance to reshuffle to get what you need.
Onirim Rules
There are a few caveats to this.
- Don't discard a key if it is the only way left to open that color of door
- Don't discard a key if you already know what the next draws are, wait until you actually need it
- Don't discard the key for the color you are focussing on.
Target a Color
In your initial draw, you will have more of one color. Start with this one and try to open all the doors of that color. If you do, it gives you significant leverage for the rest of the game in discarding those colors of cards. There are more Red and Blue cards than Green and Brown, so consider going for Red or Blue because you have better chances. (That being said, don't discard your Green and Brown, or you won't be able to complete the in the end.)
The caveat to this is that you don't want to completely ignore the other colors. Take advantage of whatever appears to maximize your chance of winning.
Nightmare Appearance
Almost always kill a nightmare with a key if you have one, unless it is your only chance to open a door. Sports betting capital of the world. If you don't have a key, you have to decide which is worse. If you have the cards you need to open a door, and especially if you have moon cards, you are better off discarding from the top of the deck. Baseball parlay. If you don't need the cards in your hand, discard them instead.
Calculate Winning Needs
There are 16 red, 15 blue, 14 green and 13 brown cards. Each set of cards only has 4 moons, so don't discard them if you can help it. If you know you have already used or discarded all the moons, you know you can't discard the keys for that color. Often, you will know that the game cannot be won before you get to the end of the deck.
Have fun, I hope your dreams come true.
What other strategies have worked for you?
This review is based on approximately 20 solo plays, I have not tried the cooperative 2 player version of this game.
How To Play Onirim Tutorial
The game:
'You are a Dreamwalker, lost in a mysterious labyrinth, and must discover the oneiric doors before your dreamtime runs out – or you will remain trapped forever!'
Onirim is a card game which comes with the 'base' cards and 3 'expansions'. I personally began playing with the base cards alone and would recommend the same for new players.
Onirim Card Game
The goal (for the base game) is to collect the 8 door cards before the deck runs out. It is at its base a set matching game, although it contains some interesting choices. The expansions add different levels of difficulty by:
a) changing the conditions of the win (by either specifying the order in which the door must be obtained or by throwing in the towers which must be matched)
b) adding 'negative' consequences as the game progresses and as door cards are obtained.
It takes approximately 15 minutes to play a game, it requires relatively minimal space to play and is overall very portable.
Onirim Tips
With the expansion and the 'luck' factor inherent to most card games, I think the replay factor is very high. The components are good to me, although I am not an expert on card quality. For a $10 game, this is an amazing investment, and I would recommend it to anyone.
