Border Pioneer is a city-builder game mixed with deck-building and tower defense elements. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Border Pioneer Review Overview
What is Border Pioneer?
Border Pioneer is a city-builder game with deck-building and tower defense elements, where you help establish a humble town from a bustling city. However, being a Viceroy, the King’s representative, is not easy. Enemies are drawn to settlements and launch attacks in monthly waves. With each battle, their numbers and strength steadily increase.
Cards are needed to build units and structures in this game. Every month, the King’s Herald or messenger, will bring supplies and card packs for players to use. A traveling caravan might also visit your town, where you can buy and sell cards or resources using gold. However, each card requires resources such as gold, food, tools, and idle population. Managing precious resources is key to a thriving and powerful city.
Border Pioneer features:
⚫︎ Collect Over 200 Unique Cards
⚫︎ Defend Town with Combat Units and Defensive Structures
⚫︎ Enemy Attacks in Monthly Raids
⚫︎ Rare Cards with Powerful Abilities
| Digital Storefronts | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Steam |
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| $14.99 | |||||||
Border Pioneer Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Engaging Gameplay Loop Challenging Progression Different Strategies to Try from a Large Card Pool Simple but Great Pixel Art Design High Replay Value |
Randomly Placed Starting Structures High Building Relocation Costs |
Border Pioneer Score - 80/100
Border Pioneer is a city-builder game that combines tower defense and deck-building elements. Though the narrative aspect of the game is quite weak, Border Pioneer makes up for it with a fun and engaging gameplay loop, offering various ways to strategize by acquiring a random set of cards. Moreover, the Aide-de-Camp and Talents features provide high replay value by adding tactical depth to the game.
Border Pioneer Story - 5/10
Border Pioneer’s narrative is one of the weakest points of the game. There is no mention of why you are building a town from scratch, aside from the missions and occasional quests given by the King’s Herald. Essentially, you are a Viceroy, a representative authority of the monarch, tasked with expanding the kingdom. Though almost lackluster, the narrative does encapsulate your goals in the game.
Border Pioneer Gameplay - 10/10
Border Pioneer’s gameplay is fun and addictive, striking the right balance between deck-building, city-building, and tower defense elements. The gameplay loop is quite simple: collect cards, place them on the map or activate their passives, and defend your town. Though Border Pioneer does not reinvent the wheel for city-building and deck-building games, it successfully implements what makes them enjoyable. Ultimately, the Talents and Aide-de-Camp features add high replay value, allowing players to try out different strategies in each run.
Border Pioneer Visuals - 8/10
The game presents its world in a simple yet appealing way through a pixel art style. Its minimalistic visuals help manage the chaotic battlefield and town, making it easy to recognize each structure and unit. Though some might not favor this art style, it complements the game's atmosphere well.
Border Pioneer Audio - 7/10
Border Pioneer’s audio and soundtrack are charming enough to keep me engaged. However, nothing about them is particularly unique or memorable. That said, I enjoyed the sound effects when enemies are struck by units and structures, which made the gameplay much more engaging.
Border Pioneer Value for Money - 10/10
Border Pioneer offers great value for its price, with fun gameplay and high replay value. Each mission takes roughly 30 to 40 minutes, with varying playstyles thanks to the number of Talents and Aide-de-Camps to unlock. The thrill of obtaining rare cards adds to the excitement as well. Overall, the game succeeds in creating fun, memorable experiences without demanding too much of your time.
Border Pioneer Review: Simple, Fun, and Addicting
I’m a sucker for city-builder games like Age of Empires, Timberborn, Anno 1800, Manor Lords, and others. I’ve always enjoyed creating bustling settlements and building powerful armies to decimate any enemies in my way. However, this is the first time I’ve played a game of this genre set in a pixelated world with tower defense and deck-building mechanics.
To be honest, I thought Border Pioneer would just scratch my city-building itch. However, the game does more than that—it has fully immersed me in collecting cards, managing resources, and building my settlement and army.
An Engaging and Strategic Gameplay Loop
What sets Border Pioneer apart from other city-builder games is its core gameplay loop, which incorporates deck-building elements. Your kingdom is surrounded by five regions, each important for making the kingdom bountiful plot-wise, and the King tasked you with expanding its borders to these places. Each region is divided into three missions, with the third one featuring a boss battle. In each mission, you must survive for a set number of months, strategically managing resources to strengthen your defenses. Each month is split into two turns, and ending the second turn signals the arrival of enemy waves. Surviving a month will reward you with a chest containing passives, new units, and other benefits.
At the start of the first month, the King’s Herald arrives, providing an initial card pack with random cards for generating resources and combat units to defeat enemies. If you survive the first month—which is quite doable—the King’s Herald will offer different card packs (Development, Battle, Spell) tailored to your needs in the following months. Additionally, side quests will become available for you to complete or ignore. These quests range from sending soldiers to hunt monsters to donating specific resources as requested by the king.
A Caravan will also visit your town, offering cards and resources in exchange for gold. You can also sell items to raise gold for rare cards, maintaining units, or building structures. While the King’s Herald visits frequently, the Caravan only arrives every 2-4 turns, so it’s best not to rely on it too much. Moreover, you can only hold up to 10 cards at a time, and excess cards will be discarded, making it essential to choose your card set carefully or discard unwanted ones.
However, acquiring cards is just the first step in maintaining your town. Using them requires resources, and managing those resources can be challenging if you don’t balance their generation. For example, building up your population enables the use of combat units and resource production cards. It’s important not to exhaust your resources too early, as this can limit the cards you can play. Additionally, upgrading structures instead of building multiples can be more effective in some situations.
Each resource is passively generated by specific structures or earned through side quests and mission rewards. Houses increase your population, farms provide food, and woodcutters or mines generate tools. Gold serves as currency for buying cards, resources, or maintaining mercenaries. All of these resources are essential for keeping a strong and capable town to fend off enemies.
Every two turns, your town will face waves of enemies. Initially, you’ll encounter weak enemies in small numbers, which may feel boring at first. However, they will grow in strength and numbers, forcing you to carefully manage your resources. Enemy types range from goblin minions and flying bats to animated golems, with bosses joining the fray at the end of each third mission, ramping up the challenge.
There are also various combat units to choose from, each with unique skills that can shift the balance in battle. For instance, the Ice Mage slows enemies with ice magic, while Berserkers deal splash melee damage. Striking the right balance between melee and ranged units is key to holding the line against waves of enemies. With well-placed defensive structures, you can create choke points to efficiently eliminate foes away from your town hall.
The Thrill of Collecting Cards and Building Decks
In this game, cards are used to create structures, produce combat units, and cast spells to impede or kill large numbers of enemies. They can be obtained from the King’s Herald or Caravan, giving you an advantage on the battlefield while managing precious resources.
The thrill of opening card packs is quite enjoyable, as there is a chance to obtain silver or gold cards. In my experience, I obtained two gold cards from the Caravan: the Heavy Gunner and Heavy Support units, which I rerolled by spending food. I can honestly say these cards made battles easier, as they can defeat multiple enemies in one shot. For example, the Heavy Gunner launches a cannonball, killing groups of weak enemies in one shot. However, I only encountered combat units as gold cards in my playthrough.
That being said, more common cards are still fun to collect because of their strategic importance in building up your settlement. For instance, house cards are vital for increasing your population, allowing you to produce combat units and other types of buildings. With over 200 unique cards to pull from card packs or buy from the Caravan, I find myself teeming with excitement after finishing each month, wondering what types of cards I can use next to obliterate my enemies.
High Replay Value
Border Pioneer has high replay value thanks to the Aide-de-Camps and Talents, which you can unlock by completing more missions in each region. These features allow you to customize your game before starting a mission, enabling you to adopt different strategies at will. With that in mind, let's first discuss the Aide-de-Camps.
Before starting a mission, you must choose an Aide-de-Camp for your run. These individuals provide bonuses through their abilities and influence the types of cards you can obtain. In my first run, I selected Steve, whose ability increases my starting resources and gives me additional food the first time I run out of it. With Steve, the majority of cards I could acquire were from the Kingdom, guaranteeing the Barracks card in the initial card pack.
There are 10 Aide-de-Camps to choose from, each unlocked after completing a specific region. However, there are special Aide-de-Camps, such as the goblin Patch, which I unlocked by spending 1,000 gold at the Caravan. Patch provides additional discounts on Caravan items, including rerolled ones, and greatly increases the chances of nature-themed cards appearing in both the card packs and Caravan. The only downside I found is the lack of explanation regarding the types of cards based on their themes. To give you an idea, nature cards feature treants (living defensive structures) and poison spells, while the Kingdom theme leans more towards medieval elements like knights, pikemen, and ballistas.
Next, the Talents can be unlocked and upgraded using Talent Points, which are earned by increasing your Viceroy level. The only way to increase your Viceroy level is by completing missions. There are 25 Talents to choose from, each granting permanent buffs to your runs. For example, the Extra Hand Talent guarantees an additional card from the initial card pack, while Strong Body increases your unit’s max HP. These Talents can also be upgraded, further enhancing their passive effects.
With 15 missions to accomplish and revisit, you have plenty of opportunities to experiment with different card decks and strategies by trying out various Aide-de-Camps and unlocking Talents.
Weak Narrative
If there is one thing I would suggest to Border Pioneer’s devs, it would be to create an engaging narrative. In its current state, the game’s story is almost non-existent. From what I can gather through side quests, the kingdom is expanding, and I am one of the individuals tasked with undertaking this mission as Viceroy. However, there is no explanation as to why the kingdom needs to expand or why hundreds of enemies are attacking us in waves.
I do not expect an epic narrative in a city-builder game, as I enjoy building cities or settlements in and of itself, but it would be better to have a clear understanding of why I am expanding the borders of the kingdom. Adding a brief prologue or adding lore entries can help players understand the game plot-wise.
Is Border Pioneer Worth It?
Perfect for Players Who Loved Deck-Building and City-Builders Games
Border Pioneer is a solid game for the price of $14.99, especially for fans of city-builder and card-based games. The gameplay is tight and engaging, offering a satisfying experience to both newcomers and veterans with every card pull. In addition, the game’s Aide-de-Camp and Talents mechanics provide high replay value, giving you more reason to revisit missions and try out new card decks.
Despite the weak narrative, the core gameplay mechanics can keep you hooked for hours as you experiment with different decks and unlock permanent buffs for your character. However, I hope the developers improve the story to make the overall gameplay experience more immersive.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steam |
|||||||
| $14.99 | |||||||
Border Pioneer FAQ
How Many Missions are There in Border Pioneer?
There are 15 missions to complete.
Can I Choose Different Missions?
In your first playthrough, you must complete each mission in particular order. However, once unlocked, you can revisit any mission you want from the menu.
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Border Pioneer Product Information
 |
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| Title | Border Pioneer |
|---|---|
| Release Date | February 6, 2025 |
| Developer | Yahzj Games |
| Publisher | Yogscast Games |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Steam) |
| Genre | Strategy, City Builder, Tower Defense, Deckbuilding |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | RP |
| Official Website | Border Pioneer Official Website |
