The badge is displayed on your Steam Profile, where others can see it (and you can feature it, if you want to show off).
Once you have a complete set for a game or event, you can go to your badges screen and craft them into a badge.Ĭrafting a badge does several things for you: (More on buying, selling, and trading later!) Thus, you will need to buy or trade for cards to get a complete set. It will also tell you if you have card drops for a game remaining.Īs I noted in the previous section, you can only get around half the number of cards you need for a badge from a given game.
This handy screen also serves as a way to keep track of all the games you own which drop cards, as well as any active events (eg, the Steam Summer Sale 2013) which drop cards. You can track your progress towards badges on your profile:
In order to craft a badge, you need a full set of unique Steam Trading Cards from the same game. The primary purpose of collecting cards is to make badges. What’s this “badge” I speak of, you say? How very forward-thinking of you! We’re just about to cover that… Badges and Other Cosmetic Benefits Active Steam users can sometimes qualify for a “ Booster Pack” which is randomly awarded to you and will allow you to get some additional cards for the Booster Pack’s game. Usually this is around half the amount of cards you need to craft a badge. There is a maximum amount of card drops per game, however. Functionally, they’re exactly the same as normal cards, though. In addition to regular cards, there are rarer versions called “ foil cards” – these are identical to the normal cards except that they are rare, and therefore might be somewhat more valuable if offered for sale. The rules for these cards are special, and they are typically documented as part of the event.
There are also certain events (Steam Sales, etc) that drop cards. You can leave it at the main menu and go do something else. You don’t have to play, win, get achievements, or anything else. You can see whether or not a game has Steam Trading Card support via the store page for the game:Īll you have to do to get cards to drop is launch the game. In order to get a card “drop” you have to play a game that features Steam Trading Cards. Steam Trading Cards “drop” from certain Steam games and events. If you answered “ Yes!” to some or all of these questions, you should probably keep reading, so that you can understand how Steam Trading Cards can help you achieve these goals. Who knows, maybe someday they’ll be worth a lot of money! You will probably end up with some as a result of playing games and participating in certain Steam events (like the 2013 Steam Summer Sale), but you can just safely leave them in your inventory and miss out on practically nothing. If you answered “ No!” to all three of these questions, congratulations! You can safely ignore Steam Trading Cards. Do you think a few dollars is worth a minimal effort? If I told you that you could potentially make ~$5 today in Steam Store credit through Steam Trading Cards, would you be excited?.Do you find yourself comparing your Steam account to other people’s? For instance, do you look at their achievements or their profile and say “I am SO much better than them!”.Are you excited about cosmetic customization elements in games? For instance, do you spend a long time getting your character’s face just right in Skyrim, or do you like picking out and wearing hats in Team Fortress 2?.Here’s a quick quiz to determine if you care about Steam Trading Cards: Thus, I’m going to attempt to demystify them and help you answer the question: Should I Care About Steam Trading Cards? So, Should You Care? However, it’s not totally clear to most people what good these Steam Trading Cards are, even after reading Valve’s FAQ. A whole slew of games now drop Steam Trading Cards, and the sale itself really brought attention to them. Posted July 15, 2013, Updated July 15, 2013, Should I Care About Steam Trading Cards?Īlthough they emerged from beta early in the summer of 2013, Steam Trading Cards really rose to prominence with the start of the 2013 Steam Summer Sale.