POISON X: at the start of its owner's next 3 turns, it loses X ATK. The loss lasts until it leaves the field.
How to play
The game's own guide, word for word, with real cards as examples. In the game it's the ? on the main menu, and the tutorial plays you through a first match.
THE GOAL
Bring your opponent's Morale from 6000 to 0. A player who has to draw from an empty deck loses too.
Each player has a deck of 40 to 60 cards (up to 3 copies of a card) from their leader's clan plus any Neutral cards, the leader itself, and a Hideout holding the higher levels of their Strivers. You start with 5 cards and may redraw your opening hand once.
A TURN
DEPLOYMENT: play cards by paying their Authority (the number in the corner). You get 1 Authority to start and 1 more every turn, up to 15. Going second, you get 1 extra on your first turn.
BRAWL: attack with your characters in ATK position. Nobody attacks on turn 1.
REGROUP: deploy again with what Authority is left, then end your turn. You can hold up to 9 cards: discard down to 9 at the end of your turn.
CHARACTERS
Characters go in your front row, in ATK (upright) or DEF (sideways). You choose when you deploy, and once per turn you can switch a character's position.
Strivers have levels and PROMOTE into the next one from your Hideout (it can't attack the turn it promotes: the ZZZ tag). The stars on a Striver show its level: one gold star of three is level 1.
Brawlers are standalone.
Heavies are played onto your own characters: they sacrifice as many as the card says (SACRIFICE 1-3) and take one of their lanes.
A full front row? Drop a character on one of yours (orange lanes) to deploy over it: the old one goes to the Gutter.
BRAWLS
Attacking a character in ATK: the higher ATK wins. The loser goes Down and its owner loses Morale equal to the difference. A tie Downs both.
Attacking a character in DEF (or Downed): beat its DEF to Down it. Its owner loses no Morale (unless the attacker has PIERCE). Fall short and the attack is blocked, and you lose the difference in Morale.
When the enemy has no standing character, you attack them directly: they lose Morale equal to the attacker's ATK.
DOWNED & KO
A character that loses a brawl is Downed: it drops to DEF and its effects stop working. It stands back up at the start of its owner's turn after a full round.
Attacked again while Downed, it is KO'd and goes to the Gutter.
Click your Gutter, your opponent's Gutter or your Hideout to look through them.
LEADERS
Your leader starts Dormant: its Dormant effects help you while it waits. The enemy can attack a Dormant leader to wear down its Influence: at 0 it is defeated.
When its AWAKEN condition is met (on the card), it may take the field like a character, with its full strength. Usually it can't attack the turn it Awakens.
HUSTLES & AMBUSHES
A Hustle does its effects when you play it, then goes to the Gutter. You can also set one face-down in your back row for free, and activate it whenever you choose on your turn (any phase, even the turn you set it), paying its Authority then.
An Ambush is set face-down in your back row. When an enemy attacks one of your characters, you may spring it: its effects happen first, then the attack goes on with whatever they changed (an attacker that lost ATK may now lose the brawl). The attack only stops if the Ambush negates it, or the attacker ends up Downed, removed or in STASIS.
A Continuous Ambush can also be flipped face-up without an attack, once it has been set since an earlier turn: on your turn (click it), or when you're offered the chance at the start of your opponent's turn and after they deploy.
Some are CONTINUOUS (they stay face-up and keep working) or EQUIP (they attach to a character).
ABILITIES
Card text tells you when an effect happens: when deployed, when it attacks, when an ally is KO'd...
A teal glow means a character has an ACTIVATE ability ready: click it to use it, once per turn, paying any cost shown (Authority, Morale, a discard, a sacrifice, or not attacking this turn).
When an effect lets you choose, the cards you can pick glow: click one, or SKIP.
If you do: that part only happens if the part before it worked.
Luck: some cards flip a coin or roll a die, shown on the board. "If tails" parts follow the same flip. DOUBLE OR NOTHING: you choose whether to bet. Bet, and a coin decides: heads, it happens twice; tails, not at all. Don't, and it happens once. LOADED DICE: once per turn, a flip or roll of yours that fails is tried again.
GAME MODES
Casual and Ranked: one on one, against another player. Ranked (from level 5) wins Rank Points and loses some. After a Casual or Ranked match you can both agree to a rematch, up to a best of 3 (in Ranked, Rank Points follow the series score); then you find a new opponent.
Free-for-all: four players, everyone for themselves, in turn order round the table. When you attack or an effect hits "an opponent", you choose which one. The last one standing wins; the rest are placed in the order they went out.
Turf Defense: you and a partner against a clan boss. You each have your own deck, board and Morale, and your partner's cards can't be targeted by yours. The boss has far more Morale, draws and gets Authority extra each turn, and changes phase as its Morale drops (the marks on its bar). If one of you goes down, the other fights on: beat the boss and you both win. The first win on Street pays the boss's prize card.
Keywords
Words in colour on a card are keywords. Each one always means the same thing.
BURN X: at the start of its owner's next 3 turns, its owner loses X Morale.
STOKE X (Arsonists): BURN X. On a character that's already BURNING, its burn grows by X instead, and lasts another 3 turns.
BLEED X: after every brawl it is in, it loses X ATK and X DEF until it leaves the field.
SHOCK X: if X is at least its DEF, it goes Down. Otherwise it loses X DEF this turn.
FREEZE: it switches to DEF and can't attack or change position until the end of its owner's next turn.
STASIS (Nebula): frozen in time until the end of its owner's next turn. It can't attack, be attacked or be targeted, and its effects don't work. It doesn't block direct attacks.
STUN: it can't attack during its owner's next turn.
SHIELD: the next time it would be defeated (Downed or KO'd), it isn't.
SILENCE: its effects and abilities don't work for a while (it can still PROMOTE).
CONTINUOUS: once played (an Ambush once sprung) it stays face-up in the back row, and its effects keep working until it is destroyed.
EQUIP: attaches to a character and gives it its effects. It goes to the Gutter when that character leaves the field.
PIERCE: if it beats a DEF or Downed character, the opponent also loses Morale equal to the difference.
DRAIN X: your opponent loses X Morale and you gain X Morale.
HEAL X: you gain X Morale (up to the starting 6000).
SUPPRESS X (Militia): pinned down: it loses X ATK and can't attack until the end of its owner's next turn.
BOUNTY X: when it is KO'd, whoever put the bounty on it draws X cards.
LIFESTEAL: the Morale it takes from your opponent in a brawl, you gain.
CLEANSE: its statuses are gone: STASIS, FREEZE, STUN, SUPPRESS, SILENCE, POISON, BURN, BLEED and BOUNTY.
JAM: your opponent can't spring Ambushes until the end of their next turn.
REWIND: its ATK and DEF changes are undone, back to the printed numbers.
BARRICADE X: the next X Morale damage you would take before your next turn is prevented.
TAX X: your opponent gets X less Authority on their next turn.
BRITTLE: when it would go Down (losing a brawl, or an effect), it's KO'd instead.
REMAINS: when this token is KO'd or sacrificed, it goes to the Gutter instead of vanishing.
MARKED: you can see your opponent's hand and face-down cards. Only you can: they stay hidden from everyone else.
LOADED DICE: once per turn, when one of your coin flips or die rolls fails, you flip or roll again.
PLUNDER (Pirates): take a card from your opponent for yourself: from their hand (at random, unless it says you choose), the top of their deck or their Gutter into your hand, or one of their characters onto your side of the field for good. A plundered card is shown to both players.
INFILTRATE: it can attack your opponent directly, even while they have standing characters (and past a Guard).
CHARM: you take control of an enemy character until the end of the turn. It can attack for you, then goes back to its owner.
UNDEAD: the first time it's KO'd, it rises from the Gutter at the end of the turn, in DEF position with half its ATK and DEF.
EXILE: removed from the game for good. It doesn't go to the Gutter, no KO effects happen, and nothing can bring it back.
COLLATERAL: when it KOs (or Downs) a character in a brawl, the effect hits the characters in the lanes either side of that one.
DOUBLE OR NOTHING: you may bet on a coin flip. Heads, the effect happens twice; tails, not at all. Don't bet, and it happens once.
DOWNED: it lost a brawl (or was knocked down). It drops to DEF position and its effects stop working. Attacked again while Downed, it is KO'd. It stands back up, in DEF, at the start of its owner's turn after a full round.
ZZZ: it was deployed, promoted or Awakened this turn, so it can't attack until its owner's next turn.
Card terms
The other words card text keeps coming back to.
PROMOTE
A Striver PROMOTES into its next level: that card comes out of your Hideout and takes its place, in the same position. It can't attack the turn it promotes (the ZZZ tag).
Each Striver says what makes it promote. The stars on a Striver show its level: one gold star of three is level 1.
HIDEOUT
Where your Strivers' higher levels wait. They don't go in your deck: you put them in the Hideout in the Deck Builder.
A Striver can only PROMOTE when its next level is in your Hideout. Click it during a duel to look through it.
DORMANT & AWAKEN
Your leader starts beside the field, Dormant: its Dormant effects help you all game while it waits. The enemy can attack it to wear down its Influence: at 0 it is defeated.
When its AWAKEN condition is met, you may bring it onto the field as a character, at full strength. Usually it can't attack that turn.
ACTIVATE
An ability you use yourself. When a character glows teal, click it to use its ACTIVATE ability: once per turn, paying any cost shown first (Authority, Morale, a discard, a sacrifice, or not attacking this turn).
GUTTER ABILITY
An ability a card uses from your Gutter ("In your Gutter: ..."). When your Gutter glows teal, one is ready: click your Gutter and press USE under the card. Once per turn each, on your turn, paying any cost shown first; some cost the card itself, which is EXILED.
An opponent can take it away first: EXILE or PLUNDER from the Gutter.
SACRIFICE
A Heavy is played by sacrificing as many of your characters as it says (SACRIFICE 1-3): they go to the Gutter, and the Heavy takes one of their lanes.
Some ACTIVATE costs and effects sacrifice characters too. A sacrificed token vanishes.
TOKENS
Characters made by an effect, not from your deck.
When a token leaves the field it vanishes: it never goes to the Gutter, a hand or a deck, unless it has REMAINS.
THE GUTTER
Your discard pile. KO'd characters and used Hustles and Ambushes go there.
Some effects bring cards back from it: revive puts a character back on the field, recover puts a card back in your hand. Click either player's Gutter to look through it.
DRAW & DISCARD
Draw: take cards from the top of your deck into your hand. Discard: put cards from your hand into the Gutter.
A player who has to draw from an empty deck loses.
SEARCH & CALL
Search: look through your deck for a card that fits, add it to your hand, then the deck is shuffled. Your opponent isn't shown what you took, unless the card says so.
Call: put a character from your deck straight onto the field, in ATK.
DOWN, STAND UP & KO
Effects can Down a standing character without a brawl (it drops to DEF and its effects stop), stand a Downed one back up, or KO a character outright: straight to the Gutter.
BACK TO THE HAND
The character leaves the field and goes back to its owner's hand (or on top of their deck), as good as new: its changes and statuses are gone.
A token sent back vanishes.
DESTROYING HUSTLES & AMBUSHES
Destroys a card in your opponent's back row (set face-down, face-up, or either: the card says which). It goes to the Gutter without doing anything.
MUST BE ATTACKED FIRST
While this character is standing, your opponent's characters have to attack it before any of your other characters.
CAN'T BE ATTACKED
It can't be attacked while you have another character that can be.
CAN'T BE TARGETED
Your opponent's effects can't choose it. It can still be attacked.
IMMUNE
The statuses the card lists don't affect it.
ATK & DEF POSITION
ATK (upright) attacks. DEF (sideways) only defends. You choose when you deploy, and you can switch each character once per turn.
Some effects switch an enemy's position for you.
ATTACKING AGAIN
Each character attacks once a turn. Some effects let one attack again: at most once more each turn.
ATK & DEF CHANGES
Effects add to or take from ATK and DEF for a while: until the end of the turn, until the end of your next turn, or permanently (as long as it stays on the field).
Swap: its ATK and DEF trade places.
MORALE
Both players start with 6000 Morale. Lost brawls, direct attacks and effects take it away: at 0 you lose.
HEAL and DRAIN give some back, up to 6000.
AUTHORITY
Authority pays for your cards: 1 at the start, 1 more every turn, up to 15 (going second, 1 extra on your first turn).
Some effects make cards cost less or more, or give you extra Authority.
COIN FLIPS & DICE
Some effects flip a coin or roll a die, shown on the board: they only happen if it comes up right. "If tails" parts follow the same flip.
See DOUBLE OR NOTHING and LOADED DICE under KEYWORDS.
NEUTRAL CARDS
Cards of no clan. They go in any deck, next to your leader's clan's cards, and drop from every clan's booster packs.
ONCE PER TURN & IF YOU DO
Once per turn: the ability only works the first time each turn.
If you do: the part after it only happens if the part before it worked.
