History VideoGame / YuGiOhDuelLinks

** As mentioned in the ArtificialBrilliance entry far above, NPCs will place monsters based on your Link monster's arrow. This however, can also happen with Link monster you control in Extra Monster Zone with an Up arrow, that does not give the NPC any benefit whatsoever, such as with Bujinki Ahashima. While Ahashima is on your Extra Monster Zone, NPCs will place monster on the zone pointed by its Up arrow, even though the effect only works on Xyz monster, and even if they place an Xyz monster there, when they trigger the effect, it's still ''your'' Ahashima whose effect is triggered, therefore, it's the NPC's Spell/Trap card that's getting destroyed.

** Dark Magician (9th OCG/TCG artwork) (Yami Yugi, Yugi Muto (DM), Yugi Muto DSOD))

** Similarly, Number 107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon has been nerfed when imported into ''Duel Links''. If it uses its effect, it also halves the battle damage that you inflict onto your opponent. Due to the game's format having only 4000 starting LP, this is quite necessary to make Tachyon more balanced.

The three iconic monsters Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Dark Magician and Red-Eyes Black Dragon have different summoning animations depending on the artwork and user, although most versions have the same animations[[note]]Blue-Eyes has two animations, Dark Magician has three animations, and Red-Eyes has two animations. The different animations are highlighted in '''bold'''.[[/note]]. So far, other Signature Monsters that have more than one artwork use the same animations for each artwork.

%%* Mizar (Mizael) (also with Barian Battlemorph)

%%* '''Number 107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon''' ('''Mizar''')

The following cards are sorted in alphabetical order, with the English TCG names being used in consideration. The corresponding duelists in order to trigger the summon animations are written in parenthesis. Most of the cards below are considered as "[[SignatureMon Signature Monsters]]". Cards written in '''bold''' are "main" Signature Monsters, and duelists written in '''bold''' are the card's main user. Cards of the same name can have different summoning animations depending on the artwork, which are highlighted in '''bold'''.

** Dark Magician (7th OCG/6th TCG artwork) ('''Yami Yugi''', Yugi Muto (DM), Yugi Muto DSOD))
** '''Dark Magician (9th OCG/TCG artwork)''' (Yami Yugi, Yugi Muto (DM), '''Yugi Muto DSOD)''')

** Blue-Eyes White Dragon (8th OCG/7th TCG artwork) ('''Seto Kaiba (DM)''', Solomon Muto, Mokuba Kaiba (DM), Seto Kaiba (DSOD), Mokuba Kaiba (DSOD))

The following cards are sorted in alphabetical order, with the English TCG names being used in consideration. The corresponding duelists in order to trigger the summon animations are written in parenthesis. Most of the cards below are considered as "[[SignatureMon Signature Monsters]]". Cards written in '''bold''' are "main" Signature Monsters, and duelists written in '''bold''' are the card's main user.

* Black Luster Soldier ('''Yami Yugi''')

%%* Mizar (Mizael)

%%* '''Number 107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon ('''Mizar''')

** ARC-V world and VRAINS world characters however, have better level-up reward cards, something that started ever since ARC-V characters received their lv35 update, likely as an answer to the complaints, which slightly help the need for good cards for character decks. The update that increased the level cap of SEVENS characters from 20 to 35 also makes comes with good cards for most of them plus a more free gems compared to other worlds.

** The ''SEVENS'' world introduced the concept of Archive Skills, which have a diamond icon instead of the normal circle icon. Archive Skills work like Legendary Skills, but unlike the Legendary Skills, once an Archive Skill is unlocked by a character it becomes usable for every character, removing the need to grind for duplicate generic skills on multiple characters. In addition, unlike Legendary Skills, which only support cards used by playable characters unless they are generic, Archive Skills include Skills for cards and archetyprs that would otherwise not see any support due to not being used by playable characters (or any major character), such as Saburamen's Noodle Ninja series, Shaddolls, or "Mekk-Knight Crusadia Avramax".

** Another particularly common form of stupidity is the use of Mystic Box, as seen with one of the Level 33 Standard Duelist decks. They'll use Stray Lambs to make a pair of 0/0 Tokens, then if the tokens survive a turn, they'll change one to Attack Position and use Mystic Box to give it to you while popping a monster, setting up a direct shot at your LP when they attack into the defenseless token that's now on your field. A perfectly sensible move... until they use a second Mystic Box to destroy the token they just gave you and give you their other token for no reason. And sometimes they're not even smart enough to give you the token they changed to Attack Position.

** The ''Rush Duel'' enemy AI will often just summon three bodies in Attack Position and pass if they can't out your board, regardless of how much ATK they actually have, just to get cards out of their hand. This is opposed to, say, Setting them all so they won't die next turn. Getting cards out of the hand is the correct move since it allows them to cycle more cards on their next turn, but this usually just gets them slaughtered since low ATK vanillas are very liable to getting run over. Conversely, the player's Auto-Duel AI ''won't'' do this and will actually put cards in Defense Position if it needs to stall, as will the Vagabond.

** Duel Monsters: The Duel Monster world is based on the Battle City arc of the manga, though it's implied to take place before Yugi and Atem's final duel due to his presence. Kaiba had created Duel Links to be an hub for strong duelists which has ramifications with the future series that would inevitably inhabit the system. It's also a test for his AI systems as he has virtual copies of various villains throughout the series, mainly Yami Marik and Yami Bakura. However something odd happens, after the Paradox event, Yugi mentions that they never met Yusei and Jaden before as the Yugis here are based on the manga and they are receiving memories from their anime selves. Also impling that those copies of various characters that can't exist might be more real than previously assumed. Solomon Muto's arrival serves as a sort of prelude to the Ceremonial Duel arc, as well as one to ''Dark Side of Dimensions'' through his interactions with the rest of the cast.

** GX: The GX world is based in Duel Academy, but this world is a little wonky with their timeline as it appears to take place in real time with the story as Jaden would soon become Jaden/Yubel as the game went on. As it is right now, it appears GX world is now set in a time somewhere within Season 4 of the anime, either around the beginning when everyone are around and not whispered by Trueman yet, or after the final Duel against Darkness but before graduation day. The only thing that does not fit is Zane who is still active in his "Hell Kaiser" persona, but other than that, everything points to Season 4. There is also a subplot taking place in the D.D. Castle Wave Duel events. At first this just seems like a castle just forming throughout all of the worlds to challenge the duelists of Duel Links, but later we find out the true cause of the D.D. Castles--the return of Supreme King Jaden.

** ZEXAL: The ZEXAL world is implied to take place after the Barian war, considering what Trey and Quattro had said at the end of Rio’s event. Like the series, the plot is based around retrieving the Numbers Cards, which Yuma and Astral somehow lost. While they are hunting the Numbers Cards, something else is happening in the background as Trey mentions Kaibacorp, a name that has never been dropped in the series, as well as the existence of copies of Numbers Cards floating around, the possibility of multiple dimensions, and the returning threat of the Barians. Curiously, the characters apart from Trey and Quattro do not appear to remember the Barian War as Girag's appearance during his event has everybody treating him like a stranger.

** VRAINS: The VRAINS world takes place after the end of the series. It, surprisingly, starts out with Soulburner discovering Duel Links, making his way through the stages until he comes across The Gore. Both of them eventually run into Playmaker, who's such a strong duelist already that he's already gotten ahead of them. Playmaker explains that he encountered Duel Links after journeying further into Link VRAINS and upon entering it, was surprised to find out that he had a "New" incarnation of Ai in his Duel Disk again. This "new" Ai remembers everything that the original one did, including the events of Season 3 where he gained a human form and became the main antagonist, ultimately losing in a climactic duel with Playmaker and dying as a result. Playmaker now intends to investigate exactly what Duel Links is. He also surmises that Varis will soon discover this world and, seeing that the Ignis have potential to resurrect, will likely try to recreate the Tower of Hanoi to try an exterminate them. Following Blue Angel's arrival, it is revealed to the others what Playmaker had suspected, [=SOL=] Tech didn't make Duel Links and they are trying to find out who did in the real world. Varis' event then revealed that, similarly to the Pharaoh and many of the other villains, Ai is nothing more than a reconstruction made based on memories. Ghost Gal's event continues where Varis's event left off, with her being sent by Akira to investigate Duel Links. They end up going to the deepest portion of Duel Links itself, which is a seemingly-infinite blue space containing a core. They attempt to gaze into the core, only to discover ''something'' unexpected: the other worlds. They figure out the nature of Duel Links as a neuron network, leaving them with more questions than answers.

* UniquenessDecay: Cards of which only one to very copies existed in the canon stories are now accessible to every player in Duel Links. This is discussed between Solomon Muto and Seto Kaiba during the "Grandpa Arrives! Solomon Muto" event, as there were originally only four copies of Blue-Eyes White Dragon, which later became only three after Kaiba tore Solomon's copy apart. In Duel Links, Solomon has now access to Blue-Eyes White Dragon again and so does every other player. Solomon thinks it's because of Kaiba's kindness, but Kaiba says that the reason why he made Blue-Eyes widely accessible is to prove that he's the supreme user of Blue-Eyes and the only one who mastered it. This is true, as Kaiba has the best skills for Blue-Eyes decks, whereas almost every other Legendary Duelist has no skills for Blue-Eyes specifically, and Solomon's skill "My Treasure, 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon'!" locks him out of an Extra Deck and it is only usable if he has only a single copy of Blue-Eyes in his deck. Logically, Legendary Duelists have access to skills that make it much easier to play certain decks that are heavily associated with them, and (most) other characters can't replicate said skills (though ironically, DM Kaiba was, at the time, about the last remaining Legendary Duelist with no unique Skills whatsoever).

** The ''SEVENS'' world introduced the concept of Archive Skills, which have a diamond icon instead of the normal circle icon. Archive Skills work like Legendary Skills, but unlike the Legendary Skills, once an Archive Skill is unlocked by a character it becomes usable for every character, removing the need to grind for duplicate generic skills on multiple characters. In addition, unlike Legendary Skills, which only support cards used by playable characters unless they are generic, Archive Skills include Skills for cards that would otherwise not see any support, such as Saburamen's Noodle Ninja series or "Mekk-Knight Crusadia Avramax", which would otherwise not get a Skill as neither are used by playable characters.

** Box Chips are able to allow players to acquire cards from the early years of Duel Links allowing them to gain important staple cards during that time without spending gems or Dream Tickets. While origianally used as an event reward, they have now released it as a primary resource to acquire.

*** When using a Dark Signer and tuning their Dark Synchro Monster, it will change to the Dark Tuning animation (though properly using the normal levels as Dark Tuning worked differently in the anime).
*** When Yusei and Antinomy uses Accel Synchro, the Accel Synchro animation from the anime plays, an additional touch for Yusei involves the mark of the Crimson Dragon. A similar thing happens when Jack uses Double Tuning for Red Nova Dragon, the rings are engulfed in flames like in the anime.

** Many Level 40/50/60 Legendary Duelists have powerful cards that [[UnusableEnemyEquipment the player has limited or no access to]], making farming them a pain without a specific tailored deck. In events they also have AI-exclusive skills.

** ARC-V world and VRAINS world characters however, have better level-up reward cards, something that started ever since ARC-V characters received their lv35 update, likely as an answer to the complaints, which slightly help the need for good cards for character decks. The update that increased the level cap of SEVENS characters from 20 to 35 also makes comes with good cards for most of them plus a lot of free gems to be earned.

** Arc-V world and VRAINS world are full of this, as they are confirmed as being direct sequels to their respective endings.
*** Now that they're no longer in a cross-dimensional war, several members of the Arc-V cast have calmed down considerably and are now able to start grasping the bigger picture of the plot revelations from the last portion of the series, especially regarding Z-ARC.

** ARC-V world and VRAINS world characters however, have better level-up reward cards, something that started ever since ARC-V characters received their lv35 update, likely as an answer to the complaints, which slightly help the need for good cards for character decks.

** Blue-Eyes White Dragon (2nd OCG/1st TCG artwork)[[note]]While the card is not in the summoning animation library, it can still be found in the card library.[[/note]] ('''Seto Kaiba (DM)''', Solomon Muto, Mokuba Kaiba (DM), Seto Kaiba (DSOD), Mokuba Kaiba (DSOD))

** Dark Magician (2nd OCG/1st TCG artwork)[[note]]While the card is not in the summoning animation library, it can still be found in the card library.[[/note]] ('''Yami Yugi''', Yugi Muto (DM), Yugi Muto DSOD))

** Red-Eyes Black Dragon (3rd OCG/2nd TCG artwork)[[note]]While the card is not in the summoning animation library, it can still be found in the card library.[[/note]] ('''Joey Wheeler (DM)''', Rex Raptor, Joey Wheeler (DSOD))

* Romin Kassidy (Romin Kirishima)

!Spoilers for all ''Franchise/YuGiOh'' anime series up to ''Anime/YuGiOhSevens'' may have been left unmarked. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned!