Develop

Develop
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Hinterlands
Illustrator(s)	Marco Morte
Card text
Trash a card from your hand. Gain two cards onto your deck, with one costing exactly more than it, and one costing exactly less than it, in either order.

Develop is an Action card from Hinterlands. It is a terminal remodeler that can gain more cards than it trashes. Its utility is highly dependent on the Kingdom; it benefits from having useful cards in the Supply at a variety of costs.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• First trash a card from your hand, if able.
• If you trashed a card, gain two cards, one costing exactly more than the trashed card, and one costing exactly less than the trashed card.
• The gained cards come from the Supply; gain them in either order, resolving any abilities due to gaining them also in that order.
• If there is no card in the Supply at one of the costs, you still gain the other card if you can.
• Put the gained cards on top of your deck rather than into your discard pile.
• If you trash a Copper, which costs , you will fail to gain a card costing - (and try to gain a card costing ).

Other Rules clarifications

• Even cards that are normally gained directly into your hand, such as Guardian, Ghost Town, Night Watchman, or Den of Sin, are gained onto your deck instead by Develop. However, Villa does end up in your hand, since its ability moves it to your hand after gaining.
• You first choose a cost either more or less than the trashed card, and gain a card of that cost; then you gain a card costing the other amount. You don't choose both cards and then gain them; you select one and gain it, and then select the other, and gain it. This can matter if gaining the first card triggers on-gain effects that affect your decision about what to gain for the second card.
• What matters is the cost of each card at the time you're gaining cards, not at the time you play Develop.
  • For example, If you start your turn by Developing a card costing and gain a Silver (costing ) as your first gain, then you could gain a Destrier as your second gain: although Destrier cost when you played Develop, your first gain reduced Destrier's price to and it's now eligible for your second gain.
  • If you start your turn by Developing Wayfarer, and you gain a Duchy (costing ) as your first gain, then you could gain a Gold as your second gain. Although Wayfarer cost when you trashed it, gaining the Duchy reduced the Wayfarer's cost to , meaning your second gain must cost .

Strategy

Develop is a trash for benefit card whose strength varies greatly depending on the Kingdom. In the early game, it primarily functions as an Estate trasher which is particularly useful if there are good cards that you want to topdeck (and possibly less useful if Poor House is in the Kingdom). Silver and Develop are always available at the pricepoint, but Develop is much stronger if there are more valuable options such as Village or Gear.

Later, Develop can become a powerful gainer if there are cards available at the right price points. While a card like Remodel can always turn Gold into Province, there isn’t a similarly always-available use for Develop, so in some Kingdoms it can be difficult to use. However, Develop becomes highly valuable if it can, say, turn Silver into a Mining Village and a Lackeys which it puts on top of your deck, either helping you continue your current turn or ensuring your next turn will kick off. These situations are not all that common: for example, many villages cost and many terminal draw cards cost , so there is no way to Develop a card into one of each. But when there are useful cards that are apart, along with a card at the intermediate price that you can trash, Develop can be very strong. In Kingdoms with cards at sequentially increasing pricepoints (e.g, Kingdom cards at , , and alongside Gold and Province), Develop can be thought of as a card that gains you value equal to what you trashed: trashing a card nets you a and , for a net increase of , while trashing a gets you a Province and a to start the cycle again.

Develop is particularly useful with cards that are designed to be trashed with trash-for-benefit, such as Fortress or Rats. Fortress also helps solve another problem with Develop: the fact that it’s terminal; in general, if you want to gain-and-play cards using Develop, you will need a lot of village support.

External strategy articles

Note: Article(s) below are by individual authors and may not represent the community's current views on cards, but may provide more in-depth information or give historical perspective. Caveat emptor.

• dondon151's 2013 article

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		Trash a card from your hand. Gain a card costing exactly more than it and a card costing exactly less than it, in either order, putting them on top of your deck.	Hinterlands	October 2011
		Trash a card from your hand. Gain two cards onto your deck, with one costing exactly more than it, and one costing exactly less than it, in either order.	Hinterlands (2016 printing)	December 2016

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Czech	Výstavba
Dutch	Ontwikkelen
Finnish	Grynderi
French	Développement
German	Aufbau			Entsorge eine Karte aus deiner Hand. Nimm dir eine Karte, die genau mehr kostet als die entsorgte Karte und nimm dir eine Karte, die genau weniger kostet als die entsorgte Karte. Du entscheidest, in welcher Reihenfolge du diese beiden Karten nimmst. Lege beide Karten sofort auf deinen Nachziehstapel.	(2011)
	Aufbau			Entsorge eine deiner Handkarten. Nimm auf deinen Nachziehstapel in beliebiger Reihenfolge zwei Karten, von denen eine genau mehr als sie kostet und eine genau weniger als sie kostet.	(2019)
Italian	Sviluppo
Japanese	開発 (pron. kaihatsu)			手札1枚を廃棄する。それよりコストが高いカード1枚、低いカード1枚を好きな順番で山札の上に獲得する。
Polish	Rozwój				Although Polish version is not released, this card is referred to in the Polish version of Empires rulebook
Russian	Развитие (pron. razvitiye)
Spanish	Desarrollo

Trivia

Official card art.

Theme

I usually give Remodels a verb name, after the original. This name suggests improving land, to tie into the set theme.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of the Hinterlands Cards

Preview

Develop doesn't get you up to Province without a in the game, but you do get two cards for the one you trashed, and they go on your deck. Develop a card costing , bam, put a Develop and an Ill-Gotten Gains on your deck. Then next turn Develop the Ill-Gotten Gains. That is just the kind of silliness Develop has to offer.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Hinterlands Previews #4

Secret History

A card from late in the going. I had had other Remodels not work out, and didn't think Farmland was completely filling that slot. This seemed cute and worked immediately.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of the Hinterlands Cards

Donald X.'s opinion

Develop is good times. In Hinterlands playtesting I endlessly opened Develop / Spice Merchant. If you draw them together, you Develop the Spice Merchant. If you draw Develop ahead of Spice Merchant, you turn Estate into Develop so you can Develop Spice Merchant next turn. And if you draw Spice Merchant first, that's fine, it's good, you do it. I'm not trying to get rid of the Spice Merchant, I just need something good to Develop. Anyway. Turning a into a Border Village and a , that's another big one in Hinterlands games. It does a lot of tricks and is better than you think, but it's demanding too.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, $3 Cost Card Rankings Bottom Half