Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel sets itself apart from other digital TCGs through its huge amount of single-player content. They help you learn the basics of the game, the more advanced concepts that can be scary to newcomers, and even look into the lore of the cards depicted on them.

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They're also a fantastic way to get a lot of goodies and rewards. Even if you know Yu-Gi-Oh! in and out, completing all the single-player missions can net you a ton of gems, cards, and cosmetics.

Updated May 5, 2023 by Joe Parlock: Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel's newest Solo Gate focuses on the underground nightmares of the Subterrors archetype. This flip-heavy deck has you turning massive monsters face-down and face-up to give you an advantage. The Solo Gate gives you a good foundation for a Subterror deck, so it's worth seeing if you dig this new strategy.

Tutorial

The tutorial introduces you to the absolute basics of Yu-Gi-Oh! dueling before you get into the game itself. Summoning monsters, attacking, life points, and setting cards are all explained here. Keep in mind any cosmetic rewards are in bold.

Duel Restart

The Duel Restart gate is designed to get you more acquainted with the basics of duelling, before you take on the harder story-focused gates.

The gate goes over things like summoning and setting monsters, spells and trap cards, and the phases of a turn, before challenging you to a freeform duel to master what you've learned.

Duel Training

Duel Strategy is a campaign that explains more advanced concepts of Yu-Gi-Oh!, split between two different Dual Strategy gates.

The rewards for each mission vary. Many are cards, but there are also a few cosmetics, like Field Parts that decorate your game screen, and a Mate mascot that cheers you in while duelling. The Practice missions also give you a lot of gems.

Duel Strategy 1

The one track of practice missions explains four types of Special Summoning: Synchro, Link, Pendulum, and Xyz. If you played Yu-Gi-Oh! a long time ago and want to catch up with what's been added since then, this campaign is a great way to be introduced to newer mechanics.

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Duel Strategy 2

A track introduced in the May 2022 update, Duel Strategy 2 goes more in-depth on specific aspects of duels. Things like the battle phase, types of damage, and special summoning.

Unlike the first Duel Strategy track, Duel Strategy 2 doesn't have any freeform duels to practice in. Instead, it is entirely comprised of the more structured practice duel missions to ensure you really understand the concepts being introduced.

The Absolute Monarch

The first of two story campaigns available as soon as you complete the tutorial, The Absolute Monarch dives into the backstory of the popular Monarch archetype. This campaign sets out the format of all those after, and will walk you through how to play the archetype. In particular, Monarchs are very heavy in Tribute Summoning (sacrificing your own monsters to summon bigger ones).

In all the archetype campaigns, Duel Missions give you different rewards depending on if you use the loaner deck supplied to you or your own. Some missions will also reward you with orbs. Orbs are used to unlock additional tracks in each campaign, which can give you better reward and exclusive cosmetics. However, orbs aren't rewarded in order, so you'll have to come back later once you've earned orbs in one campaign to unlock the extra missions in another.

The Warriors Of The Six Elemental Lords

The second story deck focuses on the Elemental Lords archetype, which is focused on controlling and using your graveyard with the Elementsaber ability.

Like The Absolute Monarch, The Warriors of the Six Elemental Lords will guide you in how to use the deck, before throwing you into some open-ended duels to prove what you've learned.

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Ruin And Demise

Ruin and Demise is the first of many campaigns that show up on your Solo menu after completing the Goal mission in The Absolute Monarch. However, it will only be accessible after completing the Goal mission for The Warriors of the Six Elemental Lords.

The campaign focuses on the Ruin, Queen of Oblivion and Demise, King of Armageddon archetype. Using lots of ritual summoning, you're meant to flip between these two to cause massive damage to your opponent.

The Mystery Of The Megalith

Both the Mystery of the Megalith and the Pyroxene Warriors campaigns unlock once you have cleared the Goal mission of Ruin and Demise.

Mystery of the Megalith goes into the Megalith archetype, which chains together ritual summons to bring out increasingly powerful statue-like monsters.

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The Pyroxene Warriors

Both the Mystery of the Megalith and the Pyroxene Warriors campaigns unlock once you have cleared the Goal mission of Ruin and Demise.

Gem-Knights are a popular archetype that uses a lot of Fusion monsters to make powerful Gem-themed warriors. Surprisingly, Gem-Knights debuted in Yu-Gi-Oh! three years before Steven Universe.

The Glory Of The Gladiator Beasts

The Glory of the Gladiator Beasts, Studying the Origins of the Karakuri, and Gears of Justice dispatch! all unlock once you've completed both the Mystery of the Megalith and Pyroxene Warriors' Goal missions.

Gladiator Beast decks are all about returning your monsters back into your deck after battle in order to special summon much bigger ones.

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Studying The Origins Of The Karakuri

The Glory of the Gladiator Beasts, Studying the Origins of the Karakuri, and Gears of Justice dispatch! all unlock once you've completed both the Mystery of the Megalith and Pyroxene Warriors' Goal missions.

The Karakuri are an archetype focused on Syncrho summoning. The catch is more Karakuri monsters have to attack when they're able to, and also switch to Defense position whenever they're attack. In exchange, there are lots of effects that activate when they switch between positions.

Specter Slaying Flames

To unlock this mission, you must clear the Goal mission for Studying the Origins of the Karakuri.

As if befitting an archetype focused on exorcists, Shiranui is all about banishing Zombies to get an advantage. It's also a very Synchro Summon-heavy deck.

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Gears Of Justice Dispatch!

The Glory of the Gladiator Beasts, Studying the Origins of the Karakuri, and Gears of Justice dispatch! all unlock once you've completed both the Mystery of the Megalith and Pyroxene Warriors' Goal missions.

The Geargia Monsters archetype is focused on swarming the field, as each Geargia monster is excellent at pulling each other out of your deck. They can then combine into powerful Xyz Summons, like Gear Gigant X.

Digital Bugs In Cyberspace

Digital Bug In Cyberspace is unlocked when the Goal mission of Gears of Justice dispatch! is cleared.

Digital Bug has some similarities to both the Karakuri and Geargia archetypes. Like Geargia, it's an Xyz Summoning-focused archetype that likes to flood the board, but like the Karakuri it has a heavy Defense-position-matters theme.

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The Steam Dinosaurs Of Unchartered Lands

Both The Legend of the Star Heroes and The Steam Dinosaurs of Unchartered Lands are unlocked when the Studying the Origins of the Karakuri and Gears of Justice dispatch! Goal missions are cleared.

Dinomists are a cool archetype of robotic dinosaurs. It's a fast and aggressive deck that Pendulum Summons multiple, powerful Dinomist monsters out onto the field at the same time.

The Colossal Mechanical Conch

The Colossal Mechanical Conch is unlocked when The Steam Dinosaurs of Unchartered Lands' Goal mission is cleared.

Qli (also known as Qliphort) is another archetype that uses Pendulum Summoning. However, it goes one step further than the Dinomists and uses the Pendulum Summoned monsters to then Tribute Summon into even bigger things. There are also lots of effects that activate when the monsters are Tributed.

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The Legend Of The Star Heroes

The Legend of the Star Heroes and The Steam Dinosaurs of Unchartered Lands are unlocked when Studying the Origins of the Karakuri and Gears of Justice dispatch! Goal missions are cleared.

This is the only campaign to have more than one chapter, and is by far the longest campaign in the game. Each chapter has more missions than any other (though a lot of them are Scenario cutscenes), and it serves as something of a 'final boss' for the solo mode.

World Chalice was one of the game's earliest archetypes built around Link Summoning. By tributing the right number of Link Levels, you can bring out increasingly more powerful Link Monsters, which can then be protected with other cards in the deck.

Chosen By The World Legacy

The first chapter of The Legend of Star Heroes is available as soon as you complete Studying the Origins of the Karakuri and Gears of Justice dispatch!'s Goal missions.

Gift Of The Martyr

The final campaign in the solo mode so far, Gift of the Martyr continues the story set up by Chosen by the World Legacy. You must have completed Chosen by the World Legacy's Goal mission to unlock it.

The Secret Powers Of The Planet

The third instalment of The Legend Of Star Heroes begins a new story, following Auram and his friends as they take on the Orcust. To unlock this mission, you'll need to have cleared Gift of the Martyr.

This missions focus on two archetype related to World Legacy known as Crusadia. Crusadia focuses on special summoning monsters into zones pointed to by Link monsters, and then building them up enough to take out your opponent in a single turn.

Meanwhile, Orcust is a Graveyard recursion archetype that banishes Orcust monsters from your Graveyard in order to special summon even more powerful ones. However, the catch is many of the Orcust effects stop you from summoning anything but Dark-attribute monsters, forcing you to stick to one type only.

Enforcers Of Justice

This campaign focuses on the Lightsworn archetype. Lightsworn is all about self-milling, or putting your own cards from your deck into your graveyard.

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The Fairies Who Paint The Weather

The Weather is an archetype focused on continuous spells and traps, and places an interesting emphasis on where your creatures are placed on the field.

By placing The Weather monsters in zones adjacent to a Canvas spell or trap card, you can give that monster various effects, such as the ability to halve an opponent's attack with a The Weather Cloudy Canvas.

The Herald's Guidance

The Heralds are a ritual summoning-heavy archetype that seeks to control the game by negative spells and effects.

By tributing Fairy monsters in your hand or on the field, you can prevent your opponent from building up a good enough board state.

Indomitable Warriors Of Unwavering Loyalty

The Six Samurai is an archetype that tries to get as many Samurai monsters on the battlefield at once, and have them synergise to form an oppressive Aggro strategy.

However, instead of just spamming out monsters every turn, Six Samurai tends to use cards that can search your deck for the monsters you need, giving you an element of reliability while also allowing the rest of your deck to be full of useful support cards.

The Danger Files

Danger! is a bizarre archetype inspired by cryptids like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, and challenges your opponent to try and discard cards from your hand without it benefitting you.

Most Danger! monsters have effects that reveal it and then have your opponent pick a card for you to discard at random. If the card wasn't the Danger! monster you revealed, the monster is special summoned and you draw a card to keep the engine going.

Worshippers Of The Sacred Phoenix

Nephthys decks are somewhat similar to Magic: The Gathering's Aristocrats decks, in that both happily destroy their own cards for an advantage. It tends to use a lot of FIRE and WIND attribute creatures, combined with deck and hand destruction, to ensure you can maintain an impressive board state.

The Invincible Beetroopers

Introduced to the TCG in 2021's Dawn of Majesty, Beetroopers are an archetype all about dumping as many different Beetrooper monsters onto the field as possible.

Whether it's through normal summoning, or special summoning multiple Beetroopers at once, they can quickly ramp up into powerful Link and Fusion monsters to close out the game.

We The Merry Plunder Patrol

This band of Troll Pirates are all about putting your crew together by using the conditions of your opponent's monsters against them.

Plunder Patroll loves to disrupt your opponent, and by combining the various -Beard monsters, Link Summoning Blackbeard, and using the crew's three ships, you'll be sure to sail your way to victory.

The Tribe Of The Abyssal Waters

As you'd expect from a hidden society of mermaids, the Mermail archetype is all about cascading down the levels of monsters to swarm the field.

By curating a deck full of level 3, level 4, and greater Mermails, you can quickly fill the field with angry mermaids, and play off the massive amounts of death triggers to either replenish your forces or bring the pain to your opponent.

Dark, Dead Vengeance

One of the darkest archetypes in all of Yu-Gi-Oh! is Vendread. Focusing on the Revendread Slayer, an undead zombie-slayer who regained sentience after seeing his loved ones die, it's a far cry from some of the goofier archetypes the game offers.

Vendread is all about Ritual Summoning, and then using death triggers and your graveyard to add further value. It's also one of the few archetypes that can Ritual Summon straight from your graveyard, making it much harder for your opponent to stop the big monster summons from happening.

Dream Domination

In one of the bizarrest archetypes in all of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Dream Mirror has you swapping your field between Light and Dark-attribute monsters using two field spells: Dream Mirror Of Joy and Dream Mirror Of Terror.

The deck also features lots of Fairy-type monsters, which makes it gel well with other archetypes, such as one of the Duel challenges' Dream Mirror/Melidious hybrid.

Delightful Dwellers Of Darkness

Ghostrick is an adorably macabre archetype that allows you to throw your favourite Halloween ghoulies at your opponent.

It's also a frightfully versatile archetype, letting you win in a huge number of ways and adapt your gameplan on the fly. Most strategies revolve around using the Ghostrick Mansion field spell to nerf your opponent's damage, dragging out the game long enough to win through anything from straight aggro to milling them out.

Legend Of The Starry Dragon

Starry Knight is one of the most Christmassy archetypes in all of Yu-Gi-Oh!, letting you command an army of angels, snowy dragons, and other festive LIGHT-attributed Monsters.

The deck's main strategy is finding ways to play and then re-play Starry Night, Starry Dragon; which can destroy an opponent's card every time it's played. Once you've cleared the field, your hordes of monsters can send your opponent to a Silent Night.

Myutant Mutation

Myutant is an archetype all about ramping up from low-level psychic Water Monsters, into much larger, more powerful ones through Fusion Summoning.

Myutants have a lot of ways to prevent interaction from your opponent, especially when you've successfully played those bigger extra deck Myutants. By using cards like Myutant Mutator, you can soon throw out Myutant Ultimus, which can easily negate effects by banishing Myutant cards.

The Rikka Fairies Descend

Rikka is an archetype all about Tributing Monsters for your own benefit. As Teardrop the Rikka Queen's bouquet of flowers suggests, there is a surprising Plant Monster theme to playing Rikkas, meaning you'll want to stock up on them to ensure you always have something to tribute.

The boss monster for this archetype, Teardrop, is an excellent control piece, as it lets you Tribute any Monster each turn – and it's even better if you've already put a Plant Monster under Teardrop as an Xyz Material.

Wicked Dragon Of The Hidden City

Wicked Dragon of the Hidden City introduces you to the Subterror archetype, which focuses on flipping cards between face-up and face-down positions. It's full of cards that have abilities set off by flipping, such as Subterror Behemoth Umasteryx, which can outright banish your opponent's monsters whenever it flips.

It also makes heavy use of The Hidden City, a spell card that search out Subterror monsters, while also giving you an easy way to flip monsters for their abilities, while also negating your opponent's attacks.

Master Duel hadn't played much with flip-heavy archetypes before Subterrors, making this a particularly interesting Solo Gate to play through.

SP Deck Challenge

The SP Deck Challenge differs from the other solo campaigns in that it isn't telling the story of a popular archetype. Instead, it's a series of AI duels that get progressively more difficult and serve as a crash course to some of the game's quirkier decks.

SP Deck Challenge 2

This is more of what was introduced in the first SP Duel Challenge – a series of ten difficult challenges that recreate some of the more iconic duels from the anime. These can be gruelling to complete, especially if you use the underpowered loaner decks Master Duel supplies to you.

To unlock this, you'll need to have cleared SP Duel Challenge first.

NEXT: Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel: Duel Pass Levelling And Rewards