Rules of the game

Objective: Reduce your opponent's HP to 0.

The basics:

• Gear and Moves: Your four Gear cards lie on the table beside your Exile. Every card in your hand is a Move or a Token, which is not a Move (§Rule4.5). A Move is played only while its Gear is armed. A Gear that is disarmed is set aside until you rearm it.
• Pure math: Attacks have Cost, Damage and Speed. Blocks have Cost and Block Rating. Combat resolves by arithmetic.
• The Hidden Attack: An attack is played face-up or face-down, as its attacker chooses. A face-down attack is played at a declared Stamina cost, which may be higher than the real cost, and a block that stops it disarms its Gear. A face-down card with Feint is always a fake.
• Hits keep the turn, Quick and Stun: A successful attack gives its player the next turn, unless it is Slow. A Quick attack gives it even when it is unsuccessful, unless a successful Block card's Effect gives the next turn to the defender, and so does a face-down Feint or a Quick Tactics card. A successful Stunning Attack also stuns the defender: an attack played in its player's next turn cannot be blocked or reacted to.
• Memories, Upgrades and Finishers: Your three Memories give your Stamina. At the start of every round after the first, each player may unlock one of their cards: a Memory, or the Upgrade of one Gear. An upgraded Gear lets you prepare its Finisher: an attack that cannot be blocked, or a Tactics card that reaches what no other card reaches. Once all three of your Memories are unlocked, you may unlock your Exile: it is unleashed and turns to its Unleashed side.
• Chance only in setup and the deck: Setup decides the first player and the order of each deck, which decides the cards each Refill brings; a deck that is rebuilt from a Recall Pile, or that an Effect shuffles Tokens into, is shuffled again. Every Gear is face-up and known to both players from setup. Everything else is determined: from the second round on, the player with more cards in their Momentum Zone holds the Initiative and takes the round's first turn.

Play Packs

Every game uses the same cards:

• Each player: 1 Exile, 4 Gear (one of each category), the 20 Moves those Gear list (5 each), and 3 Memories.

The four Gear categories are Primary Weapon, Secondary Weapon, Protective Gear and Kit. An Exile's Primary Weapon is its own and always comes with it. Any Secondary Weapon, any Protective Gear and any Kit can be paired with any Exile.

From one Exile vs Exile pack. The box holds all of these cards: a Play Pack for each player. A Play Pack is one player's half of the box: an Exile, four Gear, their 20 Moves and 3 Memories, 28 cards. Each player takes one Exile and its Primary Weapon. In a first game, each takes the three Memories and the three other Gear recommended for their Exile. In any other game, one player chooses an Exile, the other takes the other Exile and makes the first pick, and the players then pick in turns, openly, one Memory or one Gear a pick, until each holds three Memories, one Secondary Weapon, one Protective Gear and one Kit. Any Memory can be paired with any Exile. Each player then takes the 5 Moves each of their Gear lists.

From several packs or a full set. Each player brings an Exile, its Primary Weapon, one Gear of each of the three other categories, the 5 Moves each of the four lists, and any 3 Memories. From one shared collection, pick the Memories and the Gear as above. Each card can be with one player only. All Gear are open from setup.

Setup

1. Decide the first player at random. That player holds the Initiative in the first round and takes its first turn (§Rule5, The Initiative).
2. Each player lays their Exile face-up and their four Gear face-up beside it, each on its front side, and lays out their 3 Memories untapped and locked, each on its front.
3. Each player shuffles their 20 Moves and lays them face-down beside their Exile: this is their deck.
4. The opening hand: Each player takes the top 6 cards of their deck into hand.

Zones

• Exile Card: Your identity: Base HP and Passives. Upright it is Disengaged, sideways Engaged (§Rule7.7). It shows its front until you unlock it, which you may do once all three of your Memories are unlocked: it is then unleashed and shows its Unleashed side (§Rule3.3).
• Gear: Your four Gear lie face-up beside your Exile from setup, open to both players. A Gear is armed or disarmed. All four start the game armed. An armed Gear works: its Passives work, and its Moves can be played. An armed Gear is in play (§Rule7.4, "In play"). A Gear is never in a hand, never in a deck and never in a pile.
• Disarmed Gear: A disarmed Gear is set aside, apart from your armed Gear, still showing the side it had. It is not armed and not in play: its Passives stop, and its Moves cannot be played; they can be channeled. It is rearmed only at the Rearm step, which comes before the Unlock step of the same Phase 1 (§Rule7.5).
• Deck: Personal and face-down, beside your Exile: your 20 Moves, shuffled at setup, and any Tokens an Effect has shuffled into it (§Rule4.5). The number of cards in each deck is open to both players; the cards and their order are not, and nobody looks through a deck, except at the top cards of their own deck that an Effect names, which only they see. A card an Effect puts on top of a deck lies face-up there until it leaves the deck. A deck card is not in play and not in your hand: an Effect that says "target card" or "target Move" never reaches it. Only an Effect that names the top card of a deck does (§Rule7.9). At the Refill of every Phase 1 you take cards from the top of your deck until your hand holds 6 (§Rule5, Phase 1).
• Recall Pile: Your personal pile beside your deck. Its cards lie face-up and either player may look through it. It holds the Moves you channeled, the Moves you gave for a Step Back (§Rule5, Action C) (§Rule3.1, Channel), your unsuccessful attacks and blocks, your Tactics cards once they have resolved or fizzled, a Reaction sent there from the stack, the Moves an Effect made you discard from your hand, a Finisher you lost (§Rule5, Action D), a Finisher you played, whatever the outcome (§Rule5, Combat Zone Clear), and an attached Move that was detached (§Rule7.12). To discard a card is to put it from your hand into your Recall Pile; a card is discarded only from a hand. A card that lies anywhere else is sent to its owner's Recall Pile, and card text says "send target card … to the Recall Pile". A discard gives no Stamina unless it is a channel. A card in the Recall Pile comes back with the next rebuilt deck; a destroyed card never does. A Token is never discarded or sent to a Recall Pile: where it would be, it returns to the supply (§Rule4.5). The Recall Pile is not in play, and its cards are never played from it. Only an Effect that says "from your Recall Pile" takes or returns a Move from it, and only from its owner's own Recall Pile. No Effect takes, returns, destroys or targets a card that lies in an opponent's Recall Pile, and none destroys or targets a card in its owner's own. An Effect may still send a card to a Recall Pile (§Rule7.5, What an Effect targets). A Move with Thrown lies there like any other Move: only an Effect that says "take a Move with Thrown from your Recall Pile" takes it back. You shuffle it into a new deck only when you take a card and your deck holds none (§Rule5, Fatigue), and at no other time.
• Supply: The Tokens, face-up beside the play area. They belong to neither player. A Token comes into play from the supply only when an Effect brings it, and it returns to the supply when it is channeled or removed, or when its own text says (§Rule4.5). A Token never goes to a Recall Pile, a Momentum Zone or the Destroyed Pile.
• Momentum Zone: Your personal area to the right of your Exile. It holds your successful attacks and blocks until the next Phase 1 (§Rule5, Combat Zone Clear), where they are counted at the Initiative step and return to your hand at the Reload. A Finisher never enters it: once played as an attack it goes to your Recall Pile. Its cards are not channeled and pay no Exert (§Rule3.1, Momentum cards). It has no size limit.
• Combat Zone: The shared central area. Attack cards face the attacker and Block cards face the defender.
• Attached cards: A card attached to an Exile, a Gear or a Memory lies face-up on that card. It is in play, and it stays its owner's card (§Rule7.12).
• Destroyed Pile: Your personal pile, face-up; either player may look through it and count it. A destroyed card goes to its owner's Destroyed Pile. It holds Single-Use and Fragile Moves that were destroyed, a Block card with Shielding Block whose block was unsuccessful, a Move lost to its attacker's error and every Move an Effect destroyed. A card in it is out of the game. No Gear ever enters it.

Cards are never played or channeled from the Momentum Zone. It only holds cards until the next Phase 1, when they are counted for the Initiative and then return to their owner's hand (§Rule3.3).

3.1. Stamina (The Action Economy)

Every Move costs Stamina. You make it in two ways: you tap your Memories, which last the whole game, and you channel cards. Stamina you have made floats until your next action or card play takes it.

• Memories: Each player has 3 Memories and never more or fewer: no card or Effect gives, destroys or takes one. A Memory starts locked, on its front, which gives 1 Stamina. Its other side, its Mantra, is shown once the Memory is unlocked (§Rule3.3): it gives 2 Stamina if it prints 1 more, and 1 if it does not. An unlocked Memory stays unlocked for the rest of the game, and it is still a Memory. An upright (untapped) Memory is Stamina you can still make; one turned sideways (tapped) has given its Stamina. Tapping a Memory gives you the floating Stamina its side shows, 1 or 2, all at once (Floating Stamina, below). Your Exile card is never Stamina. A card may be attached to a Memory, on either side (§Rule7.12).
• Your Stamina is what your three Memories give together, tapped or not: 3 at setup, and up to 6 once all three are unlocked and each prints 1 more Stamina. Both players start every round with their 3 Memories untapped.
• Channel: A Move prints a Channel value: 0, 1 or 2, and 3 on a Finisher (§Rule4.1). To channel a card is to discard it from your hand into your Recall Pile (a Token returns to the supply instead, §Rule4.5): it gives you its Channel value in floating Stamina. A card with a Channel value of 0 can be channeled too: it gives no Stamina. You may channel a card whether or not you could play it: a Move whose Gear is disarmed can be channeled, and so can a Finisher. A Token prints no Channel value: channeling it gives no Stamina, does what its text says, and returns it to the supply instead of your Recall Pile (§Rule4.5). A channeled card is not destroyed and is not in play. It comes back only when your deck is empty and your Recall Pile becomes your deck (§Rule5, Fatigue), or when an Effect that says "from your Recall Pile" takes it.
• Floating Stamina: Whenever you may take an action or play a card (your turn's action, a Block card, a Reaction, an activated ability), you may first tap any of your untapped Memories and channel any of your cards, as many as you want: nothing limits you to what a cost needs. The Stamina they give is floating. Your next action or card play takes what it costs from your floating Stamina, and whatever is left is lost as soon as that cost is paid. You cannot take an action or play a card whose cost your floating Stamina does not cover. An action or card that costs nothing takes nothing, and all your floating Stamina is lost. An attack takes its declared cost, which may be more than its cost, up to all that is floating (§Rule5, Action A step 2). Each Block card, each Reaction and each use of an activated ability is a play of its own: Stamina left floating after one never pays for the next. Floating Stamina that nothing has taken is lost at the end of the turn. The card being played gives no Stamina toward itself, and one card never gives Stamina twice. Floating Stamina pays Stamina costs only: it pays no Exert and no other price (§Rule7.4, Channel). A spent player neither taps nor channels. Example: you tap a locked Memory and channel a card with a Channel value of 2, so 3 Stamina float. You play a Move that costs 2. The third Stamina is lost.
• Momentum cards: A card in your Momentum Zone is not Stamina and is never tapped. It is not channeled and pays no Exert from the zone. It counts for everything that counts the cards in a Momentum Zone until the Reload returns it to your hand (§Rule2, Zones). A Momentum card can be targeted, moved and destroyed by Effects (§Rule7.4).
• Engaged: Every attack turns your Exile sideways as it is paid, unless a Passive says it does not engage you, and so does a Prepare: you are Engaged. While Engaged, each of your Block cards counts 1 less, stopping at 0. A Step Back or a Disengage turns your Exile upright: you are Disengaged. Otherwise you stay Engaged past the round's end, to the next Refresh, which turns both Exiles upright unless a Passive keeps one sideways (§Rule5, Phase 1). Being Engaged is not being spent: you go on taking turns (§Rule7.7).
• Refresh: At the start of every round (Phase 1), both players untap all their Memories and turn their Exile upright, unless a Passive keeps one sideways (§Rule5, Phase 1).
• No carry-over: Floating Stamina never lasts past the turn it was made in. A Memory left untapped at the end of a round gives nothing more: the next Refresh untaps all three. Cards carry over. A card in your hand stays there, and a card in your Momentum Zone returns to your hand at the Reload. During a round your Stamina pays for the Moves you play in your own turns, for every Prepare (§Rule5, Action D), and for your blocks and Reactions in your opponent's turns. A Step Back costs a card, not Stamina (§Rule5, Action C).
• Recovering Stamina: "Recover X Stamina" untaps X of your tapped Memories, of your choice, whatever side they show; with fewer than X tapped, the rest is lost at once. It does not float, and it never returns a channeled card. A Memory untapped this way can be tapped again for the Stamina its side shows. You never have more than 3 untapped Memories. Example: you have tapped an unlocked Memory that gives 2 and a locked Memory, and you play a Move that recovers 1 Stamina. You untap the unlocked Memory, and may tap it again for 2 floating Stamina. Had you tapped no Memory and channeled a card instead, the recovered Stamina would be lost.

3.2. Cards Held & The Hand Limit

• Moves: Every card in your hand is a Move (an Attack, a Block, a Combat card, a Tactics card or a Finisher, §Rule4.1) or a Token (§Rule4.5). Your Moves come only from your deck: the 5 Moves each of your four Gear lists. A Token in your hand counts as a card in it, at the Refill too.
• A Move needs its Gear: You can play a Move only while its Gear, the Gear it names, is armed. A Move whose Gear is disarmed cannot be played, as an attack, as a block or as a Tactics card; it stays in your hand, and you may channel it (§Rule3.1, Channel). Example: your Secondary Weapon is disarmed while you hold two of its Moves. Neither can be played for the rest of the round; you may channel them for the Stamina to play Moves of your other Gear. At the Rearm step of the next Phase 1 you rearm the Gear, and its Moves can be played again.
• Gear are never held: they lie on the table (§Rule2, Zones).
• The opening hand is the top 6 cards of your deck (§Rule2, Setup).

There is no hand limit. No rule caps the number of cards in your hand, and you never discard a card because your hand is large. The Refill of Phase 1 takes cards from your deck until your hand holds 6, or 6 and your Exile's Refill bonus once it is unleashed (§Rule4.2); a hand that already holds that many or more takes nothing (§Rule5, Phase 1). A hand may hold more than 6 through an Effect that takes or returns cards to your hand, or through the Reload, which returns your Momentum cards to your hand before the Refill (§Rule5, Phase 1).

3.3. Momentum & Memories

Successful attacks and blocks go to your Momentum Zone, unsuccessful ones to your Recall Pile. A Finisher is the exception: once played it goes to your Recall Pile, whatever the outcome (§Rule5, Combat Zone Clear). A card in your Momentum Zone is not Stamina and is not channeled; at the Reload it returns to your hand (§Rule5, Phase 1).

• Momentous: Moves with Momentous (§Rule6) grow with the cards in your Momentum Zone.
• Memories and Upgrades: Each of your Memories and each of your Gear has two sides. A Memory's unlocked side is its Mantra. A Gear's other side is its Upgrade. Every card starts the game on its front side. Your Exile has two sides too: once all three of your Memories are unlocked you may unlock it, and it is unleashed, turning to its Unleashed side (below).
• The Unlock: At the Unlock step, the last step of Phase 1 (§Rule5, Phase 1), each player may unlock one of their cards, with their refilled hand in view: unlock a Memory, unlock an Upgrade or, once all three of their Memories are unlocked, unlock their Exile. The player with the Initiative goes first: they choose, their card turns and its one-time Effects resolve. Then the other player does the same. In full:
  1. One card: Choose one of your Memories that is not unlocked yet, or one of your armed Gear that is not upgraded yet. A disarmed Gear cannot be chosen; a Gear rearmed at this round's Rearm step can. Once all three of your Memories are unlocked, you may choose your Exile instead. You unlock one card a round at most, and one Upgrade more if the Memory you unlock says so; you may choose none.
  2. Unlock a Memory: the Memory turns to its other side, untapped, and is unlocked. From now on it has what that side prints: 1 more Stamina (2 in all), a one-time Effect, or both. A Mantra prints no Passive. An unlocked Memory that prints no added Stamina still gives 1. Its "When this Memory is unlocked" Effects resolve, once, as it turns.
  3. Unlock an Upgrade: the Gear turns to its Upgrade side. A card has only what the side it shows prints: from now on, for the rest of the game, it has the Passives and Effects of its Upgrade side, and a Passive of its other side goes on only if the Upgrade side prints it too. An upgraded Gear is the same Gear in the same category: its Moves are played as before. Its "When this Upgrade is unlocked" Effects resolve, once, as it turns.
  4. Unlock your Exile: you may choose your Exile only at an Unlock step at which all three of your Memories are already unlocked, so never at the step at which your third Memory is unlocked. Your Exile is unleashed: it turns to its Unleashed side and stays on it for the rest of the game. It is then the Unleashed Exile. The Unleashed side is not an Upgrade and not a Mantra. The Exile keeps its HP and stays upright or sideways as it was. From now on it has what its Unleashed side prints. As it turns, you heal its Unleash heal, then its "When this Exile is unleashed" Effects resolve, once. Its Refill bonus counts from the Refill of the next round: the Unlock comes after this round's Refill (§Rule4.2).
  5. No price: The Unlock costs no Stamina and destroys no card. It is not an action and not a card being played: it gets no React step and cannot be countered. A part of a one-time Effect that has no target does nothing; the rest of the Effect still happens.
• Every round: Both players unlock at every Unlock step, one card each. The first round has no Phase 1, so the first Unlock step is in round 2. A player has eight cards to unlock: 3 Memories, 4 Upgrades and their Exile.
• Permanent: A turned card stays turned for the rest of the game, through a disarm too, unless a Finisher's Effect turns it back (§Rule7.11).
• Enlightened: Moves with Enlightened (§Rule6) grow with your unlocked Memories: +1 for each, 0 to 3. Upgrades and your Exile's Unleashed side are not counted.
• The Finisher: Each Gear lists one Finisher. You can prepare it only while that Gear is armed and shows its Upgrade side (§Rule5, Action D and Action E). A Finisher you have played goes to your Recall Pile and never to your Momentum Zone.

3.4. Health Points (The Win Condition)

• Default: Set by your Exile card.
• No maximum: Healing can take you above your Base HP.
• Losing: The first Exile whose HP falls below 1 loses immediately.
• Draw: The game is a draw in two cases. One event takes both Exiles below 1 HP at once: only a Lacerating Block (§Rule7.2), an exchange of attacks (§6.4) and the end of a round can do this; at the end of a round, the Bleed Tokens on both Exiles (§Rule4.5) and every "At the end of the round" HP loss of an attached card (§Rule7.12) cost their HP as one event. Or both players are below 1 HP once both have refilled at the Refill of Phase 1, where Fatigue, which costs each player 1 HP, is checked after both players have taken their cards (§Rule5, Fatigue). No player gets a tiebreak.
• Tracking: Use a dial, a D20, a peg board or an app for HP. The Health tracker app also shows who holds the Initiative (§Rule5, The Initiative).

Every card has a name, a subname and a story text. The subname has no game effect; a Move's subname names its Gear.

4.1. Action Cards

The action cards are the Moves: the Moves of your deck and your hand. A Move names its Gear in its subname. A Move can be played when its Gear is armed, you can pay its cost (Exert included) and every target it asks for exists. You choose the targets as you play the card, and they are part of its cost. An Effect that says "target" asks for at least one, also with "up to [X] target", where you choose from 1 to [X]: with none to choose, the card cannot be played. An "If" or a Passive asks for none, and its target is chosen when the Effect is read or the Passive fires. An Effect is read after the card is played, so an "If" in an Effect never decides whether the card can be played: if it does not hold, or it holds with no target to choose, that Effect does nothing, and the card has still been played.

• Type line: A Move's type line names its type, one of six: Attack, Block, Combat, Tactics, Finisher Attack or Finisher Tactics. It also carries an icon for the category of the Move's Gear: Primary Weapon, Secondary Weapon, Protective Gear or Kit (§Rule4.3). A Finisher is a Finisher Attack or a Finisher Tactics. A Move that is not a Finisher is an ordinary Move.
• Attack: Prints a Damage Rating and no Block Rating. It is played as an attack.
• Block: Prints a Block Rating and no Damage Rating. It is played as a block.
• Combat: A Combat card prints both a Damage Rating and a Block Rating. It is played as an attack or as a block.
• Fighting Moves: An Attack, a Block, a Combat card and a Finisher Attack are the fighting Moves: the Moves that print a Damage Rating, a Block Rating or both. Some carry effects that trigger on the combat outcome. A fighting Move played as a block is a Block card, whatever its type.
• Two costs: A Combat card prints two costs: its attack cost (top left) and its block cost (top right of the text box), and its keywords and Effects are printed under the side they belong to (attack left, block right; text that works both ways spans the card). The card pays its attack cost when played as an attack and its block cost when played as a block. An Attack, a Block, a Tactics card and a Finisher each print one cost.
• Channel value: A Move prints a Channel value at the top right of the card frame, beside the Stamina icon: 0, 1 or 2; a Finisher prints 3, and no other Move does. It is the floating Stamina the card gives when it is channeled (§Rule3.1, Channel). A Memory shows the icon and a 1 or a 2 in the same place. On a Combat card the block cost sits at the top right of the text box and the Channel value at the top right of the frame.
• Speed is an attack property on a fighting Move: Quick and Slow on a fighting Move work only when it is played as an attack. Played as a block it has no speed: a Quick card gives no turn and a Slow card makes nobody spent.
• Tactics: A Tactics card is neither attack nor block. It is played for its Effects (§Rule6) as the action of one of your own turns. A Tactics card with Reaction can also be played in response to another card.
• Finisher: One Move of each Gear is its Finisher, of one of two types. A Finisher Attack prints a Damage Rating and no Block Rating, and is played as an attack that cannot be blocked. A Finisher Tactics prints Effects and is played as a Tactics card. A Finisher is never played from your hand: you prepare it, then play it in your next turn (§Rule5, Action D and Action E). It cannot block and is never played as a Reaction. Its speed is the one it prints: Quick, Slow or none. The Prepare has no speed. Once played, it goes to your Recall Pile, whatever the outcome. It can be channeled like any Move.

4.2. Exile Cards

• Base HP: Your starting HP.
• Primary Weapon: The Gear that is the Exile's own. It always comes with the Exile (§Rule2).
• Two sides: An Exile card has two sides: its front, shown from setup, and its Unleashed side.
• Passives: Standing rules, active from setup (§Rule6).
• Unleashed side: The back of the card. Once all three of your Memories are unlocked, you may unlock your Exile at an Unlock step: it is unleashed and is the Unleashed Exile for the rest of the game (§Rule3.3). The Unleashed side holds Passives of its own and an Effect it makes only once, which says "When this Exile is unleashed, ...". From then on the Exile has the Passives its Unleashed side prints; a Passive of its front goes on only if the Unleashed side prints it too (§6.1). It prints no HP of its own: your HP stays as it is when the Exile is unleashed. Every Unleashed side also prints two numbers:
  • Unleash heal: as the Exile is unleashed, you heal that many HP, before its "When this Exile is unleashed" Effects. It is healing like any other: it can take you above your Base HP (§Rule3.4).
  • Refill bonus: from the Refill of the next round on, your Refill takes cards until your hand holds 6 plus that number (§Rule5, Phase 1). It is no hand limit: a hand that already holds that many or more takes nothing.

An Exile card prints no Stamina and no cost. It is never in a hand, never channeled, never disarmed and never destroyed.

4.3. Gear Cards & Their Upgrade

A Gear prints no cost, Damage, Block or Channel value.

• Category: Primary Weapon, Secondary Weapon, Protective Gear or Kit. You have exactly one Gear of each.
• Type line: Its category on the front, and "Upgraded" with its category on the Upgrade side: "Primary Weapon", then "Upgraded Primary Weapon".
• Moves: The 5 Moves it lists, one of them its Finisher: these five are its loadout. They are shuffled into your deck at setup (§Rule2).
• Passives and Effects: A Gear may print Passives or Effects on either side. Those of the side it shows work while the Gear is armed, from setup, without Stamina.
• Upgrade side: The back of the card, with a Passive, or with an Effect it makes only once, which says "When this Upgrade is unlocked, ..." (step 3 of the Unlock, §Rule3.3). Its Finisher can be prepared only while the Gear shows this side.
• Never held, never lost: A Gear is never in a hand, never channeled and never destroyed, and no opponent ever takes or moves it. It stops being armed only by being disarmed, and only its owner rearms it (§Rule7.5).

4.4. Memories

A Memory has two sides: its front and its unlocked side, its Mantra. It prints the Stamina icon and the Stamina it gives. You have exactly 3, and they are never in a hand, a deck or a pile (§Rule3.1). Any Memory can be paired with any Exile (§Rule2).

• Front: The side a Memory shows while it is locked. It gives 1 Stamina. All three Memories start the game locked, on this side.
• Mantra: The unlocked side, the back of the card, shown once the Memory is unlocked at the Unlock step, for the rest of the game (§Rule3.3). It prints 1 more Stamina (2 in all), an Effect it makes only once, which says "When this Memory is unlocked, ...", or both. It never prints a Passive. An unlocked Memory that prints no added Stamina still gives 1.
• Tapped and untapped: a Memory is tapped for its Stamina and untaps at the Refresh, whichever side it shows.

4.5. Tokens

A Token is a card that is not a Move. No Token is in a deck at setup: Tokens lie face-up in the supply beside the play area (§Rule2, Zones) and come into play only when an Effect brings them. A Token belongs to neither player. Tokens have a card back of their own.

• Never played: A Token cannot be played, face-up or face-down, as an attack, a block or a Tactics card. It prints "Can't be played. You can only channel this card." From your hand you can only channel it (§Rule3.1, Channel): it gives no Stamina, a text it prints for channeling happens, and it returns to the supply. It is never given for a Step Back, never destroyed for an Exert and never given up to an Effect.
• Attach: An Effect that says "Attach [X] [kind] Tokens to [an Exile or a Gear]" takes them from the supply and lays them face-up on that card. An attached Token is in play, and its text for while it is attached works as long as it lies there. No Effect targets it. A Token attached to a Gear returns to the supply when that Gear is disarmed.
• Shuffled into a deck: An Effect that says "Shuffle [X] [kind] Tokens into your opponent's deck" takes them from the supply and shuffles them into that deck. A Token in a deck is taken like any card, by the Refill and by an Effect that takes cards, and counts toward the hand the Refill fills.
• Short supply: If the supply holds fewer Tokens of a kind than an Effect asks for, the Effect brings what the supply holds.
• Counters on an attached card: An Effect that attaches its own card may lay Tokens on that card as counters ("Attach this card to your Exile with [N] Tokens on it"). Their kind does not matter: they count only for that card's text, no other text reads them, and they return to the supply when the card leaves play.
• Leaving: A Token returns to the supply when it is channeled, when it is detached, when the card it lies on as a counter leaves play, when its own text returns it, or when the Gear it lies on is disarmed. It never goes to a Recall Pile, a Momentum Zone or the Destroyed Pile.

The Tokens of this edition:

• Bleed Token: While attached to your Exile: at the end of each round, you lose 1 HP. At the Refresh, return 1 Bleed Token on your Exile to the supply. When you channel it from your hand, you lose 1 HP. This HP loss is not Damage. At the end of a round the Bleed Tokens on both Exiles cost their HP as one event (§Rule3.4, Draw).
• Aim Token: While attached to your Exile: each attack against you has +1 Damage for each Aim Token on your Exile. When you Step Back, return 1 Aim Token on your Exile to the supply. No other rule or Effect returns it.
• Plating Token: While attached to your Exile: in the React step of an attack against you, whenever you could play a Reaction, you may return 1 Plating Token on your Exile to the supply; that attack has -1 Damage. When your Protective Gear is disarmed, return every Plating Token on your Exile to the supply.

The game is played in rounds shared by both players. Each round has two phases. In Phase 2 the players alternate turns: a turn is one player's single action.

Phase 1: Start of Round

1. Initiative: Count the cards in each Momentum Zone. The player with more takes the Initiative or keeps it; with equal numbers it passes to the other player (The Initiative, below).
2. Refresh: Both players untap all their Memories (§Rule3.1) and turn their Exile upright, unless a Passive keeps one sideways. A Passive that reads Engaged at the Refresh reads both Exiles as Phase 1 begins, before either turns; an Exile it keeps sideways stays Engaged into the new round. A Finisher that is still prepared goes to its owner's Recall Pile. Each player returns 1 Bleed Token on their Exile to the supply (§Rule4.5).
3. Rearm: Both players at the same time. You may rearm one of your disarmed Gear: it is armed again, on the side it shows. A Gear that a card attached to it keeps from the Rearm cannot be chosen (§Rule7.12). It costs nothing. Nothing else happens at this step.
4. Reload: Both players at the same time. Every card in your Momentum Zone returns to your hand (§Rule2, Zones). None stays, and there is no choice: the Momentum Zone is empty when Phase 2 begins. No other card moves: a card on your Recall Pile stays there.
5. Refill: Both players at the same time. Take cards from the top of your deck into your hand until your hand holds 6, or 6 and its Refill bonus once your Exile is unleashed (§Rule4.2). A hand that already holds that many or more takes nothing. If you must take a card and your deck holds none, Fatigue applies (below). When both players have refilled, a player below 1 HP loses; if both are below 1 HP, the game is a draw (§Rule3.4).
6. Unlock: The player with the Initiative first, then the other player. Each may unlock one of their cards (and one Upgrade more, if a Memory they unlock says so): one of their Memories, the Upgrade of one of their armed Gear or, once all three of their Memories are unlocked, their Exile (§Rule3.3, The Unlock). The Unlock is the last step: each player chooses with their refilled hand in view, and a Gear rearmed at this round's Rearm step can be turned.

The Rearm, the Reload and the Refill have no order between the players: each player does their own, and nothing one player does there changes what the other may do.

No step of Phase 1 costs Stamina. None is an action, an attack or a card being played, so none gets a React step and none can be countered.

The first round has no Phase 1: it starts with Phase 2.

Fatigue

When you take a card from your deck and your deck holds none:

1. You lose 1 HP.
2. You shuffle your Recall Pile and lay it face-down: it is your deck.
3. You go on taking.

• Fatigue is not Damage and not Direct Damage: nothing blocks it, prevents it or changes it, and it does not make you lose a Finisher.
• Only the Refill must take. In an Effect that takes cards you may stop before an empty deck, and Fatigue does not apply. If you go on taking from an empty deck, Fatigue applies.
• Fatigue happens once each time your deck is rebuilt.
• With no card in your deck and none on your Recall Pile, nothing happens: you lose no HP and take no more. So if the rebuilt deck runs out again in the same Refill and your Recall Pile is empty, nothing more happens.
• You shuffle your Recall Pile only then. No player shuffles a deck or a pile at any other time after setup, except an Effect that shuffles Tokens into a deck (§Rule4.5).
• At the Refill, Fatigue is checked once, after both players have refilled: each player whose deck ran out loses the HP and rebuilds their deck; then a player below 1 HP loses, and if both are below 1 HP the game is a draw (§Rule3.4). Fatigue from an Effect that takes cards in Phase 2 is checked at once.

Example: you hold 2 cards and your deck holds 1. The Reload has just returned your one successful card of last round to your hand, which now holds 3. At the Refill you take the last card of your deck and must take two more: you lose 1 HP, shuffle your Recall Pile into a new deck and take 2 cards from it.

Taking a Card

Every card you take comes from the top of your own deck (or from among its top cards an Effect names), or from your own Recall Pile, by an Effect that says "from your Recall Pile". Nothing is ever taken from your opponent's deck, hand or piles, or from a Momentum Zone.

• The opening hand and the Refill take cards from the top of your deck, at no cost.
• Tokens: A Token taken from a deck is a card taken, at the Refill and by an Effect (§Rule4.5).
• Effects that take: An Effect that takes several cards is one event (§Rule7.6): they all come to your hand. You may stop at any number: stopping ends the taking only, and the rest of the Effect still happens. You may stop before an empty deck, and Fatigue does not apply; if you go on taking from an empty deck, Fatigue applies (§Rule5, Fatigue).

Phase 2: Combat Phase

The players alternate turns. A turn is one action: Action A (attack), Action B (Tactics card), Action C (Step Back or End), Action D (Prepare) or Action E (the Finisher). An activated ability (§Rule7.10) is used during your own turn, before or after its action, and is not the action.

• The Initiative: In the first round the first player holds the Initiative. At the Initiative step, the first step of every Phase 1, count the cards in each Momentum Zone as they lie, before the Reload moves them: the player with more takes the Initiative or keeps it; with equal numbers it passes to the other player. The player with the Initiative unlocks first at the Unlock step (§Rule3.3) and takes the round's first turn.
• After your action the next turn is your opponent's, with these exceptions:
  • A successful attack: after a successful attack the next turn is yours again, unless the attack is Slow (see Slow below). An unsuccessful attack passes the turn, so a successful block takes the turn from the attacker.
  • Quick: after a Quick attack the next turn is yours again, successful or not, unless a successful Block card's Effect gives the next turn to the defender. An attack that does not reach the Math (a fizzle, an attack that leaves combat) gives no turn, Quick or not. A face-down Feint whose Audit passes gives you the next turn, whatever its speed. A Quick Tactics card played as your action always gives you the next turn. Quick does nothing on a card played as a block. A successful Stunning Attack also stuns the defender (see Stun below).
  • Slow: once a Slow card (a Slow attack or a Slow Tactics card, a Finisher that prints Slow included; a fighting Move played as a block is never Slow) has fully resolved you are spent: no more turns, no blocks and no Reactions this round (§Rule7.8).
  • End: after an End you are spent (Action C).
• Out: a player who is spent is out of the round. Their opponent goes on taking turns until they are out too.
• Blocks and Reactions are played in your opponent's turns, unless you are spent.
• The round ends when both players are out. A Step Back never ends it. As the round ends, "At the end of the round" Effects resolve, the player with the Initiative first. An HP loss "At the end of the round" of an attached card (§Rule7.12) is lost with the Bleed Tokens, as one event, before any other "At the end of the round" Effect: then each player below 1 HP loses, and if both are, the game is a draw; then each such card is detached (§Rule3.4). The cards in each Momentum Zone stay there: they are counted at the Initiative step of the next Phase 1. Memories, Exiles and a prepared Finisher stay as they are until the next Refresh (§Rule3.1).

The React Step & The Stack

Tactics cards use a stack: a Tactics card is placed face-up on the table once its cost is paid, and stays there, open to every Reaction, until it has fully resolved. Attack and Block cards stay off the stack: they wait in the Combat Zone and resolve together at the Math.

• The React step: Reactions are played in one React step: after The Reveal & Audit in an attack (Action A step 5), and after a Tactics card played as an action (Action B). The players alternate, starting with the defender (after a Tactics card, with its player's opponent). When it is their choice, a player plays one Tactics card with Reaction (face-up, paid from their floating Stamina, its Gear armed) on top of the stack, or passes.
• When both players pass in a row, the stack resolves from the top down: the last card played resolves first (its effect happens, then it moves to its destination). No card is played while the stack resolves. Then the React step ends.
• A Reaction may also target a card on the stack. A card destroyed on the stack, or sent from it to the Recall Pile, never resolves: none of its Effects happen, its cost stays paid and its Slow makes nobody spent. A card sent to the Recall Pile from the stack goes there whatever its keywords. If any target of a Tactics card has gone when it resolves, the whole card fizzles: none of its Effects happen, its cost stays paid and it goes to its owner's Recall Pile, whatever its keywords. A fizzled Slow card makes nobody spent. A target has gone when it no longer lies where that Effect can target it; a Move that has only moved to another such zone stays its target.
• Passives and "When this Upgrade is unlocked", "When this Memory is unlocked" and "When this Exile is unleashed" Effects resolve immediately when triggered, off the stack. A Passive fired by an Exile turning during an attack, after its React step, resolves after the Combat Zone Clear, the only exception to resolving at once.
• When one event fires Passives of both players, the player whose turn it is (in Phase 1, the player with the Initiative) resolves theirs first, then the other player. A player's Passives resolve in the order of their cards' names, A to Z, leaving out a leading "The" (the order of the collector numbers); a card with several Passives resolves them as printed.
• A stunned player plays no cards against the attack that follows the stun (see Stun below).

Action A: Attack

1. The Opener: Play a fighting Move that prints an attack (an Attack value, which may be 0) from your hand, face-up or face-down, as you choose. Its Gear must be armed. A card that prints only a Block cannot attack, and a Finisher is never played this way (Action E). An attack played face-down is a face-down attack until it leaves the Combat Zone, after the Reveal too (§Rule7.7, Face-up and face-down). An attack with Stealth Attack reads now whether you are Disengaged, before Pay turns your Exile.

2. Pay: Tap Memories and channel cards as you choose (§Rule3.1, Floating Stamina). Then declare a Stamina cost, at least the card's effective attack cost (§Rule7.1) and at most your floating Stamina. The attack takes the declared cost, and any floating Stamina left is lost. The declared cost is public, for a face-up attack too. Declaring less than the effective attack cost is not allowed. A face-up attack cannot do it; if a face-down attack does it by mistake, the attack fizzles at the Reveal. Then turn your Exile sideways (§Rule7.7), whatever the declared cost, unless a Passive says this attack does not engage you (read at Pay).

3. The Block: The defender may play fighting Moves that print a Block value, face-up, one at a time, from hand, each with its Gear armed and each paid at its effective block cost from the defender's floating Stamina: as many as they want and can pay for, or 1 at most against a face-up attack with Overbearing Attack (§6.2). Before each Block card the defender may tap Memories and channel cards; what that card does not take is lost (§Rule3.1, Floating Stamina). Or they take the hit. The cards' Block Ratings are added together at the Math. The first Block card played is the one that can be successful; every other Block card only adds its Block Rating. A card that prints only an attack cannot block, and neither can a Finisher; a card that prints a Block of 0 can, and the block keywords work; it is successful only if Net Damage is 0. Every Block card played against a face-down attack has Disarming Block (§6.2). No Block card can be played against an unblockable attack. An attack is blocked if at least one Block card is in the block at the Math, a Block of 0 included; otherwise it is unblocked (no Block card was played, every Block card left the block, or the attack is unblockable).

4. The Reveal & Audit: Flip a face-down attack. A face-up attack has no Reveal and no Audit. A face-down attack fizzles if the declared cost is below its effective attack cost, if its Exert could not be paid as the card was played, or if the revealed card could not be played as an attack at all: it is not a fighting Move that prints an attack, its Gear is not armed (this arises only when an Effect has disarmed that Gear after the attack was played), or it is a Finisher. Such a fizzle is the attacker's error:

   • the attack card is destroyed, whatever its keywords, a card with Ranged Attack included. It never resolved: none of its Effects happen. Its Gear is not disarmed;
   • the attacker is spent for the round (§Rule7.4, Spent);
   • the Stamina paid stays spent, and every card channeled stays where it went;
   • every Block card goes to its owner's Recall Pile, whatever its keywords, and the Stamina paid for it stays spent (§Rule7.8, An attack that does not reach the Math);
   • a Passive that fired as the Exile turned stays resolved;
   • the attack ends with no React step and no Math, and the next turn is the opponent's. A fizzled Slow card never resolved, and a fizzle turns no Exile. It is an attack, not a Step Back.

   Feint: If the Audit passes and the face-down attack has Feint [X], the attack ends here. It is not a fizzle and not an error. No Exert is paid. The card goes to its owner's Recall Pile, whatever its keywords, and it is not disarmed. Every Block card goes to its owner's Recall Pile, whatever its keywords, and the Stamina paid for it stays spent. Then the attacker recovers X Stamina (§Rule3.1, Recovering Stamina). The attack ends with no React step and no Math, and the next turn is the attacker's again, whatever the card's speed. Its Slow makes nobody spent, and the attacker's Exile stays sideways.

   Exert: If the Audit passes and the attack has no Feint, or the attack is face-up, pay its Exert now (§Rule7.4, Exert). A Finisher pays none here: its Exert was paid at its Prepare. An attack whose Exert could be paid as the card was played and cannot be paid now fizzles with no error: the attack card and every Block card go to their owners' Recall Piles, whatever their keywords, the Stamina paid stays spent, no Gear is disarmed and nobody is spent; the attack ends with no React step and no Math, and the next turn is the opponent's.

5. React: The React step (see The React Step & The Stack), the defender first, whether or not a block was played. It is the attack's only chance for Reactions, and it ends before the Math.

6. The Math: Net Damage = Damage − Block Rating, minimum 0; the Block Rating is the sum of the Block Ratings of every Block card played. Damage includes any Overcommit bonus (modifier order: §Rule7.2). The defender loses HP equal to Net Damage, or to the Piercing Attack floor when that is higher (§Rule7.2 step 4).

   • The attack is successful if Net Damage is above 0, unless a Shielding Block stopped it (below). The defender's prepared Finisher then goes to their Recall Pile, before any "if this attack was successful" Effect (Action D).
   • The block is successful if a Block card was played and Net Damage is 0. Only the first Block card is successful (it enters the Momentum Zone, and only its "if this block was successful" Effects and its Flow work); every other Block card of a successful block is unsuccessful and goes to the Recall Pile (the Destroyed Pile if it has Single-Use or Fragile).
   • An attack that deals 0 against no Block card is unsuccessful, and there is no block to succeed.
   • Shielding Block: If Net Damage is above 0 against a block that has a Block card with Shielding Block (any of its cards), the block is unsuccessful, the attack is unsuccessful too, and the defender loses no HP to Net Damage (a Piercing Attack floor still applies). At the Combat Zone Clear each Block card with Shielding Block in that block is destroyed; its Gear stays armed and is not disarmed. The attack is unsuccessful, so its own Gear is disarmed if any Block card in the block has Disarming Block; against a face-down attack every Block card has it.
   • Disarmed: If the attack is unsuccessful and any Block card in the block has Disarming Block, the attack is disarmed at the Combat Zone Clear: the Gear of the attacking Move is disarmed, and the Move goes to its owner's Recall Pile (§Rule7.8). The order in which the Block cards were played does not matter. A successful attack is never disarmed, and neither is an attack with Ranged Attack.
   • Crushing Attack: If an attack with Crushing Attack is successful and was blocked, every Gear whose Move blocked it is disarmed at the Combat Zone Clear (§Rule7.5). A Crushing Attack that a Shielding Block stops is unsuccessful: it disarms nothing.
   • Keywords of the other Block cards: Lacerating Block counts on every Block card (their X are added together). Disarming Block counts on every Block card: one is enough to disarm an unsuccessful attack. Shielding Block counts on every Block card. Momentous, Enlightened and Passives that change a Block Rating count on each card.

Stun

If an attack with Stunning Attack is successful, the defender is stunned.

• The attacker takes the next turn, as after any successful attack. If the action of that turn is an attack, it is unblockable, and the stun also stops every other card of the defender: they play no Block card, no Reaction and no other Tactics card against it. The attacker may still play Reactions in its React step. An attack that is unblockable without a stun, a Finisher Attack included, stops Block cards only (§Rule7.8, Unblockable).
• That attack is played face-up or face-down and paid like any attack. A face-down attack is still revealed and audited, and a face-down Feint still ends at the Reveal: it wastes the stun, and the next turn is the attacker's again, not stunned. An attack that reaches the Math with more than 0 Damage is successful; if it has Stunning Attack itself, it stuns again. A Finisher Attack played in that turn (Action E) is an attack: the stunned defender plays no Reaction against it. A Finisher Tactics played in that turn wastes the stun, and the defender may react to it.
• The stun lasts only for that one turn. Any other action in it (a Tactics card, a Step Back, an End or a Prepare) wastes the stun; so does the end of the round.
• Without a stun, the attack played in the next turn (after any successful attack, or after a Quick one) is an ordinary attack that can be blocked and reacted to.
• A Slow Stunning Attack still makes its player spent: the stun gives no turn and is wasted.

Combat Zone Clear

After the Math, each card in the Combat Zone moves, and each Gear to be disarmed is set aside:

Card	Destination
Successful attack or block (of a block, only its first Block card)	Momentum Zone (§Rule3.3). A Finisher is the exception (the Finisher row below).
Other Block cards of a successful block	Recall Pile (Destroyed Pile if Single-Use or Fragile).
Unsuccessful attack or block	Recall Pile.
Disarmed attack	The Move: Recall Pile. Its Gear: disarmed (§Rule7.5). A Fragile or Single-Use Move is destroyed as the rows below say, and its Gear is disarmed all the same. An attack with Ranged Attack is never disarmed (§Rule7.8).
Unsuccessful Thrown attack	Recall Pile, like any Move (Destroyed Pile if it is also Fragile).
Unsuccessful Fragile Move	Destroyed Pile, whatever else it has.
Unsuccessful block with a Shielding Block card	Each Block card with Shielding Block: Destroyed Pile; its Gear stays armed. Its other Block cards: Recall Pile (Destroyed Pile if Fragile or Single-Use). The attack it stopped is unsuccessful and moves as the rows above say; its Gear is disarmed if any Block card has Disarming Block.
Block cards against a successful Crushing Attack	Recall Pile (Destroyed Pile if Fragile or Single-Use). The Gear of each: disarmed.
Single-Use Move	Destroyed Pile, whatever the outcome.
Finisher Attack	Recall Pile, whatever the outcome (Destroyed Pile if Single-Use, or if Fragile and unsuccessful). It never enters the Momentum Zone.
Tactics card (after it resolves)	Recall Pile; Destroyed Pile if it has Single-Use.
A Move that attaches itself	On the Exile, Gear or Memory its Effect names, after every "if this attack was successful" or "if this block was successful" Effect, whatever the outcome unless its text is behind such a condition, instead of any destination above: Fragile and an unsuccessful Shielding Block included, and each Block card of a block by its own text (§Rule7.12). Destroyed Pile if Single-Use.

A Tactics card never enters the Momentum Zone, and neither does a Finisher.

Action B: Play a Tactics card

Play a Tactics card face-up from your hand, its Gear armed, and pay its effective cost; it goes on the stack. Then comes the React step, your opponent first; the card resolves when the stack reaches it.

A Quick Tactics card played as your action gives you the next turn, as a Quick attack does; a Slow one makes you spent for the round once it has resolved. Reaction is not a speed: a Reaction played as your action passes the turn like any other card unless it also has Quick, and a Tactics card played in a React step is not a turn's action, so its Quick gives no turn there.

Action C: Step Back or End

Instead of a card, your turn may be a Step Back or an End.

• Step Back: Discard a Move from your hand and give the turn to your opponent. The card gives no Stamina: it is not channeled, and it is not discarded to an Effect. If your Exile is Engaged, turn it upright: you are Disengaged. You may Step Back while your Exile is already upright; then nothing turns. You keep your turns: the turn after theirs may be yours again, and you may Step Back as often as you have a Move to give, unless an Effect bars it. A Token is never given for a Step Back.
• Barred from Stepping Back: An Effect may bar a player from Stepping Back, such as an attached card's "You can't Step Back." (§Rule7.12). That player may still End, and a barred player who can pay for no other action must End.
• End: It costs no Stamina and no card (an Effect may still make an action cost HP, §6.4). You are spent for the rest of the round: no more turns, no blocks and no Reactions (§Rule7.4, Spent). Your Passives go on working, and so do those of your armed Gear.
• With nothing to pay: On your turn you may still take any action that costs nothing, such as a Move whose effective cost is 0. If you can take no other action, you must End. The turn after a Prepare plays the prepared Finisher, at no further Stamina (Action E).
• Passing in a React step is not Action C: it is free.

Action D: Prepare

Your turn may prepare a Finisher from your hand, if its Gear is armed and shows its Upgrade side, and you have no Finisher prepared.

1. Pay the Finisher's effective cost from your floating Stamina, and turn your Exile sideways: you are Engaged (§Rule7.7). If you cannot pay it, you cannot prepare.
2. Lay the Finisher face-up on its Gear. It is prepared.
3. The turn passes to your opponent; you are not spent.

• A Prepare is an action, not a card being played: it gets no React step.
• One at a time: You have one Finisher prepared at most. Once it has been played or lost, you may prepare again in a later turn of the round.
• A prepared Finisher is not in your hand and not in play: it cannot be channeled, and no Effect reaches it. It stays prepared until you play it in your next turn (Action E) or until you lose it.
• Lost: You lose your prepared Finisher in four ways. It goes to your Recall Pile, the Stamina paid for it is not returned, and a card channeled for it stays where it went.
  • A hit: when an attack against you is successful, at the Math, before any "if this attack was successful" Effect.
  • Its Gear is disarmed, in combat or by an Effect, a Finisher's included (§Rule7.5, §Rule7.11), or turned back to its front (§Rule7.11).
  • Unplayable at your next turn: it cannot be played in that turn, or you are spent when that turn would come (Action E).
  • The Refresh of the next Phase 1, if it is still prepared.
• HP lost any other way (Direct Damage, a Piercing Attack floor, a Lacerating Block) and an unsuccessful attack leave it prepared.

Example: you pay 3 Stamina to prepare your Finisher. In your opponent's next turn their attack of 3 Damage meets your Block of 2: Net Damage is 1, the attack is successful, and your Finisher goes to your Recall Pile at the Math. The 3 Stamina are not returned. You may prepare another Finisher in a later turn. Had your Block been 3, the Finisher would still lie on its Gear.

Action E: The Finisher

Your next turn after the Prepare must play your prepared Finisher as its action. It costs no further Stamina: its declared cost is the cost paid at the Prepare (§Rule7.7, Declared cost). It does what it prints, its speed included. If it cannot be played then, it goes to your Recall Pile, its Stamina is not returned, and you take that turn's action as usual. If you are spent when that turn would come, it goes to your Recall Pile all the same.

A Finisher Attack:

1. Take the Finisher from its Gear and play it into the Combat Zone as an attack, face-up. Nothing more can be declared for it. Turn your Exile sideways if it is upright.
2. It is unblockable: no Block card can be played against it (§Rule7.8, Unblockable). It has no Reveal and no Audit.
3. From the React step on it resolves like any attack (Action A steps 5 and 6): the defender may play Reactions unless stunned, it is successful if its Net Damage is above 0, and its "if this attack was successful" Effects happen.
4. It always reaches the Math: while it is in the Combat Zone, no Effect or Passive of either player returns it to a hand, destroys it, moves it, gives it Single-Use or disarms its Gear, and none can target it to do so. An Effect may still lower its Damage or change its other Effects.
5. At the Combat Zone Clear it goes to your Recall Pile, successful or not. It never enters your Momentum Zone: it never returns to your hand at the Reload, and it counts for nothing that counts the cards in a Momentum Zone. A Single-Use Finisher Attack is destroyed, and so is an unsuccessful Fragile one, as the keyword says.
6. Its speed is the one it prints. With no speed it gives you the next turn if it is successful, like any attack. Quick gives you the next turn, successful or not. Slow makes you spent once it has fully resolved, its Combat Zone Clear included: no more turns, no blocks and no Reactions this round (§Rule7.8).

A Finisher Tactics:

1. Take the Finisher from its Gear and play it face-up onto the stack, as a Tactics card played as your action (Action B). It turns no Exile.
2. Then comes the React step, your opponent first, and it resolves when the stack reaches it. Reactions may answer it as they answer any Tactics card.
3. Resolved, it goes to your Recall Pile (the Destroyed Pile if it has Single-Use). Fizzled, it goes to your Recall Pile, whatever its keywords, as any Tactics card that fizzles. Sent from the stack to the Recall Pile, it goes to your Recall Pile, whatever its keywords. Destroyed on the stack, it goes to the Destroyed Pile. Its Stamina is not returned.
4. Its speed is the one it prints, as for any Tactics card played as your action (Action B).

Both types: No Effect changes a Finisher's speed: an Effect that gives a card a speed cannot target a Finisher, and an Effect that stops your next Slow card or attack from making you spent does not apply to a Finisher.

These rulings apply throughout the rulebook.

7.1. Effective Cost

A card's effective cost is its printed cost, lowered only by an Effect that says it costs less ("costs X less if ...", checked when the card is played), never below 0; the declared cost and the Audit use the effective cost. A Combat card (§Rule4.1) has two: its effective attack cost (its attack cost, paid as an attack; the declared cost, the Audit and Overcommit compare this one) and its effective block cost (its block cost, paid as a block). An Effect that makes a card cost less lowers both, and Exert is paid in either role. Every cost is taken from its player's floating Stamina (§Rule3.1, Floating Stamina). Blocks and Tactics cards take exactly their effective cost, and a Prepare takes exactly the Finisher's effective cost, checked at the Prepare. An attack takes its declared cost. A face-up attack declares at least its effective attack cost and may declare more, up to all that is floating. A face-down attack's declared cost must be at least the effective attack cost as it stood when the card was played; it is checked at the Reveal. Overcommit bonus = declared cost − effective attack cost, up to the X of Overcommit [X], face-up or face-down (Stamina declared beyond X adds no Damage; an Effect that gives Overcommit to a card that has it adds to its X). A Finisher declares nothing beyond the cost paid at its Prepare, so it has no Overcommit bonus. Floating Stamina left once a cost is paid is lost at once and adds nothing. A card that costs 0 is played for no Stamina, face-up or face-down; as an attack its declared cost is 0 or more. "A card that costs N or more" compares the effective cost, never the Stamina that floated.

7.2. Modifier Order & Net Damage

1. Damage = printed Damage + Damage modifiers (including +1 for each HP lost to a "lose up to X HP" Effect as the attack was played) + any Overcommit bonus + any Ambush Attack bonus (if the attack was played face-down) + any Punishing Attack bonus (if the attack is unblocked) + any Defiant Attack bonus + any "for each other successful attack you made this round" bonus. A Damage modifier is +[X] or -[X] Damage, from a Passive, an Effect or a Reaction alike. Add every term first; if the total is below 0, the Damage is 0. An Effect that sets an attack's Damage to a number ("target attack has 0 Damage") applies last, after every term, and nothing that changes the Damage later raises it; the Piercing Attack floor of step 4 is read after it. Conditional Passives (e.g. "while you have another card in your Momentum Zone") are checked now.
2. Block Rating = the sum, over every Block card played, of its printed Block + its Block modifiers (+[X] or -[X] Block Rating), each card floored at 0 once its modifiers and the Engaged penalty below are added. Momentous bonuses count here and in step 1, counting the cards in your Momentum Zone at the Math; Enlightened bonuses count in both steps too, counting your unlocked Memories. If you are Engaged at the Math, each Block card then counts 1 less. A Block card that the attack's own text says adds no Block Rating adds none, whatever its modifiers; its block keywords still apply.
3. Net Damage = the greater of 0 and (Damage − Block Rating). Success is decided here. If Net Damage is above 0 against a block with a Shielding Block card, the defender loses no HP to it and the attack is unsuccessful. A Lacerating Block's HP loss (the X of every Block card added together) happens at the same time, after Net Damage is found.
4. Piercing Attack [X]: if the attack is blocked, the defender loses the greater of X and Net Damage (X is capped at the attack's Damage). This changes no card's success and is not Net Damage.

7.3. Success & Direct Damage

• Success is defined at the Math (§Rule5, Action A step 6).
• Direct Damage lowers HP regardless of Block Rating, at the moment its trigger resolves. It is not an attack: it cannot stun, changes no card's success and loses nobody a Finisher. Direct Damage that two Effects deal at the same time (an exchange of attacks) is lost by both players before either is checked. "Whenever an opponent blocks your Quick attack" triggers at the Math, so never for an attack that did not reach it.
• Fatigue is neither Damage nor Direct Damage (§Rule5, Fatigue).

7.4. Momentum & Destroy Details

• Unlock timing: A Memory is unlocked, a Gear is upgraded and an Exile is unleashed only at the Unlock step, the last step of Phase 1, after the Rearm, Reload and Refill steps, by its own player, one card a round for each player (§Rule3.3): never in Phase 2 and never at setup. The player with the Initiative unlocks first, and the Effects of their card resolve before the other player chooses; so do those of an Upgrade a Memory lets them unlock. It is optional. It is not an action and not a card being played, and it cannot be responded to. An Effect that happens when a Memory or an Upgrade is unlocked, or when an Exile is unleashed, resolves as the card turns, after that round's Refill. An Exile is unleashed only by its player's Unlock, at a step at which all three of that player's Memories were unlocked before it, so in the round after the third Memory at the earliest; no Effect unleashes an Exile or turns it back. A Gear rearmed at that round's Rearm step can be turned. A disarmed Gear cannot be turned; a Gear turned earlier keeps its Upgrade side while disarmed and when it returns, and when it is unlocked again, its "When this Upgrade is unlocked" Effects resolve again.
• Prepare check: You prepare only while you have no Finisher prepared, and only a Finisher whose Gear is armed and shows its Upgrade side (§Rule5, Action D). Once your prepared Finisher has been played or lost, you may prepare again in a later turn of the round. The Prepare costs the Finisher's effective cost, paid from floating Stamina, and its Exert if it has one, paid at the Prepare and never again; a player who cannot pay both cannot prepare. Memories tapped earlier in the round never pay. A prepared Finisher is played in its owner's next turn; if that turn cannot play it, or its owner is spent when that turn would come, it goes to its owner's Recall Pile (Action E). A Finisher, once played, goes to its owner's Recall Pile, whatever the outcome (Action E); it never enters the Momentum Zone, so it never reloads and nothing that counts Momentum cards counts it.
• Spent: A player who has ended (§Rule5, Action C), played a Slow card (§Rule7.8) or made an error in an attack (Action A step 4) is spent until the round ends: they take no turn, play no card (no block, no Reaction, no card that costs no Stamina either, and not their prepared Finisher), tap no Memory, channel no card and use no activated ability; Stamina they recover changes nothing. Their Passives and those of their Gear armed still work, and Effects still happen to them. Spent and Engaged are separate (§Rule7.7). An attack against a spent player is played face-up or face-down and paid as usual (Overcommit included); it is unblocked, so Punishing Attack counts.
• Momentous: The bonus counts the cards in your own Momentum Zone at the Math. The Momentous card itself is in the Combat Zone then, so it never counts itself.
• Cascading Attack: The bonus counts the cards in your own Momentum Zone at the Math, exactly as Momentous does, but adds Damage only. The Cascading card never counts itself. A successful Single-Use attack is destroyed, so it is not counted.
• Enlightened: The bonus counts, at the Math, your unlocked Memories, tapped or not, whatever they print: from 0 to 3. An Upgrade is never counted, and neither is your Exile's Unleashed side. A card that has Enlightened from a Passive works exactly like a card that prints it; a card that already prints Enlightened gains nothing more.
• Exert [X]: Choose X of your other Moves from your hand and destroy them. A card in your Momentum Zone never pays an Exert. An attack pays them at Action A step 4: a face-down attack after the Audit passes, a face-up attack at the same step (nothing is destroyed on an error or for a face-down Feint). A block or a Tactics card pays them when played, and a Finisher when it is prepared. With fewer than X other Moves in your hand, the card cannot be played. A Gear, a Memory and a prepared Finisher never pay an Exert: none of them is in a hand. A card channeled for the Stamina of a card never pays that card's Exert: it lies on the Recall Pile. A Move destroyed for an Exert goes to the Destroyed Pile and is not in its owner's deck when the Recall Pile is next shuffled.
• Channel: A player taps and channels only when they may take an action or play a card, just before it, and as much as they want: more than the cost needs is allowed. The Stamina floats until that action or card play has taken its cost; the rest is lost then. A player who taps or channels and then takes an action that costs nothing (an End, the Finisher, a card that costs 0) loses all of it. Floating Stamina pays Stamina costs only: a Move, a block, a Reaction, a Prepare and the Stamina an activated ability asks for. A Step Back costs a card, not Stamina. It pays no Exert, no HP and no other price. You channel only cards from your hand, never from your Momentum Zone, never the card being played and never a prepared Finisher. A card with a Channel value of 0 can be channeled: it gives no Stamina. A card may be channeled whether or not you could play it. A channeled card goes face-up onto your Recall Pile. It is not destroyed, so no Effect or Passive about a destroyed card applies; it is not in play, and no Effect targets it there (§Rule7.5, What an Effect targets). A channeled card returns only when its owner must take a card from an empty deck and the Recall Pile is shuffled into a new deck (§Rule5, Fatigue), or when an Effect that says "from your Recall Pile" takes it. Two things remove a card from a hand and they are not the same: channeling pays Stamina; giving up a card to an Effect pays none. Both put the card on the Recall Pile. A Memory an Effect taps (Suffocating) gives no floating Stamina, whatever side it shows. Stamina is never given back: a channeled card stays on the pile whatever happens to the card it paid for, and recovered Stamina does not float and returns no channeled card (§Rule3.1). A spent player neither taps nor channels.
• Defiant Attack: The bonus counts, at the Math, your opponent's unlocked Memories, exactly as Enlightened counts your own: from 0 to 3.
• Destroy: A destroyed card goes to the Destroyed Pile and is out of the game. Only Moves are destroyed: "target card" and "target Move" name a Move, yours or your opponent's, wherever a Move can be targeted (§Rule7.5, What an Effect targets). No Effect destroys, takes or moves a Gear. When a card would both be destroyed and go elsewhere (the Recall Pile, a hand, Momentum), destruction wins.
• Crushing Attack: If the attack was successful and a card blocked it, the Gear of every Block card is disarmed at the Combat Zone Clear. No card is destroyed by it: the Block cards are unsuccessful and go to the Recall Pile. An unblocked attack disarms nothing.
• "When this card is destroyed in the Combat Zone": only while the card is in a Combat Zone (its Combat Zone Clear included: Single-Use, Fragile, Shielding Block, an Effect that destroys it there); a card destroyed from a hand, a Momentum Zone or a deck does not trigger it (a channeled card is not destroyed at all), and neither does a card destroyed by its attacker's error, which never resolved.
• "Destroy X cards in your Momentum Zone: this attack becomes unblockable": chosen after the React step, before the Math. Every Block card already played goes to its owner's Recall Pile with its Stamina spent (§Rule7.8, Unblockable); no Reaction can follow, since the React step is over. Overcommit still counts.
• "Lose up to X HP: +1 Damage each": chosen and lost as the attack is played (face-up or face-down), before any block; never the last HP: it cannot bring its player below 1. The HP stays lost if the attack fizzles, is a face-down Feint or is blocked.
• Armed: a Gear is armed or disarmed, and never anything else. An armed Gear lies beside its Exile and works: its Passives work, its Moves can be played and its Finisher can be prepared. All four Gear start the game armed; a disarm makes a Gear disarmed, and the Rearm step makes it armed again (§Rule7.5). Only a Gear is armed.
• "In play": what an Effect may reach. Your Exile is in play. An armed Gear is in play; a disarmed Gear is not. A Move is in play while it is in a Combat Zone, a Momentum Zone or on the stack (The React Step), or while it is attached (§Rule7.12). Hands, decks, Recall Piles, the Destroyed Pile, disarmed Gear and a prepared Finisher are not in play.

7.5. Disarmed Gear

• What: To disarm a Gear is to set it aside, still showing the side it had: it is no longer armed, and it is not in play. Only Gear are disarmed, and any Gear can be, a Primary Weapon included. An Exile and a Memory are never disarmed.
• Two ways in combat: A Gear is disarmed when its Move was a disarmed attack (§Rule7.8), or when its Move blocked a successful Crushing Attack (§Rule5, Action A step 6). Each of these happens at the Combat Zone Clear. An unsuccessful block with Shielding Block disarms no Gear of its own: the Block card with Shielding Block is destroyed and its Gear stays armed.
• An Effect that disarms names the Gear of a target Move its opponent played in the Combat Zone, an attack or a Block card, one Gear at most. The Gear is disarmed as the Effect resolves, and that Move leaves combat for its owner's Recall Pile: an attack then does not reach the Math, and a Block card leaves the block (§Rule7.8). A Single-Use Move is destroyed instead. Fragile does not apply. A Finisher Attack in the Combat Zone is never such a target (Action E). Only a Finisher's Effect reaches a Gear in any other way (§Rule7.11).
• The other Moves stay: A disarm sets the Gear aside. The Moves of that Gear in your hand, in your deck and on your Recall Pile stay where they are, and so do its Moves in your Momentum Zone: they return to your hand at the Reload as usual and cannot be played until the Gear is back. Another Move of that Gear in the Combat Zone or on the stack was played while its Gear was armed: it stays and resolves as usual. A prepared Finisher lying on that Gear goes to its owner's Recall Pile. A Move attached to that Gear stays on it, disarmed and rearmed (§Rule7.12).
• While disarmed: The Gear is not armed. Its Passives stop at once. Its Moves cannot be played: not as an attack, not as a block, not as a Tactics card or a Reaction, and its Finisher cannot be prepared. They can be channeled, and those in your Momentum Zone return to your hand at the Reload as usual. Example: your opponent's block stops your face-down attack, a Move of your Primary Weapon. The Move goes to your Recall Pile and your Primary Weapon is set aside. You hold two more Moves of that Gear: you cannot attack or block with them this round, but you may channel each for its Channel value. Your three other Gear and their Moves work as before.
• Coming back: A disarmed Gear is rearmed only at the Rearm step of Phase 1, by its owner's choice, one Gear a round for each player (§Rule5, Phase 1). It is armed again on the side it showed, its Passives work again from that moment, and its Moves can be played again. It is armed at that round's Unlock step, which comes later, and can be turned there. Outside the Rearm step, only its owner's own Effect that says "rearm" rearms it, one Gear at most: it targets nothing, and a Finisher lost with the disarm stays lost. No opponent ever takes it; a card attached to it may keep it from the Rearm while it lies there (§Rule7.12). A player with two Gear disarmed rearms them at the Rearm step in two rounds.
• More than once: A Gear already disarmed is not disarmed again. Two Moves of one Gear in the same block disarm it once.
• What an Effect targets: An Effect that targets a card targets one both players can see. "Target card" and "target Move" name a Move in the Combat Zone, in a Momentum Zone, on the stack, or attached to an Exile, a Gear or a Memory (§Rule7.12). An armed Gear is reached only by an Effect that says "disarm", through the Move it targets, or by an Effect that disarms one of its own player's Gear: it names that Gear (one at most) and targets nothing, and a Move of that Gear already in the Combat Zone or on the stack stays. Such an Effect does nothing else to the Gear; an Effect that attaches a card to it targets nothing. "Target Reaction" names a Tactics card with Reaction on the stack, whether it was played in a React step or as an action. No Effect targets an Exile, a Memory, a disarmed Gear, a prepared Finisher, or a card in a hand, a Recall Pile or the Destroyed Pile. An Effect that attaches a card puts it on an Exile, a Gear (armed or disarmed) or a Memory and targets nothing (§Rule7.12); an attached Token is never a target; one that shuffles Tokens into a deck reaches no card in it (§Rule4.5). Only an Effect that says "from your Recall Pile" takes or returns a Move from its owner's own Recall Pile, and it targets nothing there. No Effect takes, returns, destroys or targets a card that lies in an opponent's Recall Pile, and none destroys a card in its owner's own. An Effect may still send a card to a Recall Pile: a card an opponent gives up from their hand or their Momentum Zone goes to their own. The top card of a deck is reached only by an Effect that names it (§Rule7.9). A Finisher's Effect reaches further (§Rule7.11), and no Effect targets a Finisher Attack in the Combat Zone to remove it (Action E).
• No hand is ever shown: An Effect that makes an opponent discard cards from their hand lets them choose any Move in it. A Token is never chosen (§Rule4.5). A card discarded this way is not channeled and gives no Stamina.
• Short: If an Effect asks for N cards and fewer are eligible, as many as possible are discarded or moved. The player whose cards they are chooses, unless the Effect says otherwise.

7.6. Hand Limit

There is no hand limit (§Rule3.2). A hand may hold any number of cards, and no player discards a card for the size of their hand: not after an Effect takes or returns cards to hand. The Refill takes cards until the hand holds 6 (6 and the Refill bonus once the Exile is unleashed, §Rule4.2), and takes nothing into a hand of that size or more. No card sets a hand limit. A card leaves a hand only when it is played, channeled, given for a Step Back, destroyed for an Exert, or given up to an Effect that says so. A Token leaves a hand only when it is channeled.

7.7. Timing Terms

• A round is Phases 1–2 (the first round has no Phase 1), shared by both players. A turn is one player's single action in Phase 2 and everything it causes: the block, the React step, the Math. "Once per round" allows one use in each round, in either player's turn when the effect can trigger or be used then (e.g. "After your first successful block each round").
• The active player is the player whose turn it is. A player is out of the round once spent; the round ends when both are out. After the "At the end of the round" Effects, each Bleed Token on an Exile costs that Exile's player 1 HP (§Rule4.5). A Step Back keeps its player in the round.
• Engaged and Disengaged: Your Exile is in one of these two states: upright is Disengaged, sideways is Engaged. Engaged does not stack and is not spent: it stops no turn, block or Reaction. An attack at Pay (unless a Passive says it does not engage you) and a Prepare turn your Exile sideways, and so does an Effect that engages you. Engaged lasts through every opponent's turn until a Step Back, a Disengage or the next Refresh turns your Exile upright (unless a Passive keeps it sideways at that Refresh). Recovering Stamina, an End, a fizzle, a face-down Feint, an Unlock and the end of the round turn no Exile, and no Effect that untaps Stamina touches an Exile. In an attack's Block and React steps the attacker's Exile is already sideways, turned at Pay, unless a Disengage turned it upright in the React step.
• "Engage your opponent": Their Exile turns sideways when the Effect resolves, whatever Stamina they have, in the windows cards already have. Engaged is read at the Math, so an Engage in the React step lowers Block cards already played, and no Block card is added after The Block. The text of an attack or a Block card reads its own player's state at the Math, except a clause read as the card is played: Stealth Attack reads it at The Opener (Stealth Attack, below).
• "Disengage": You disengage when the Effect resolves, whatever Stamina you have. Played in the React step of an attack against you, it lifts the 1 from your Block cards at the Math. Played in the React step of your own attack, you disengage and the attack does not turn your Exile again.
• "If your opponent is Engaged" and "If your opponent is Disengaged": The Effect or Passive applies only while that holds. It reads your opponent's Exile when the Effect resolves, or at the Math for an Effect of a fighting Move, before any Effect of that card. In a cost or an "as you play this" clause it reads when the card is played (§7.1).
• "When you become Engaged", "When your opponent becomes Engaged" and "When a player becomes Engaged": It fires when that Exile turns from upright to sideways: by an attack at Pay, before The Block, by a Prepare, by a Finisher played while upright, or by an Effect. A fizzle or a face-down Feint takes nothing back. An Exile already sideways fires nothing, and a Step Back, a Disengage and the Refresh fire nothing.
• Prepared: A prepared Finisher lies face-up on its Gear. It is not in a hand and not in play. Only its owner playing it in their next turn, a successful attack against its owner, a disarm of its Gear, its Gear turned back to its front, being unplayable at its owner's next turn and the Refresh move it (§Rule5, Action D).
• The Initiative is held from the Initiative step of a Phase 1 to the Initiative step of the next, where the cards in each Momentum Zone settle it (§Rule5, The Initiative). Nothing else moves it. A Prepare is neither Slow nor Quick: it passes the turn, leaves its player unspent and turns its player's Exile sideways.
• "This round" means the current round, in both players' turns. "Each round" counts once per round. A "first attack you make each round" is your first attack of the round, whichever turn it falls in; a Finisher Attack is an attack you make.
• "For each other successful attack you made this round": counts your attacks of this round whose Math made them successful, wherever their cards have gone since, a Finisher Attack included and the attack that counts excluded. A Feint, a fizzle and an attack that a Shielding Block stopped never count. A fighting Move reads the count at step 1 of the Math. A count printed with no "up to" has no cap.
• Playing a returned card again: A card returned to hand by an Effect may be played again in the same round; it pays its cost again, the cost of the role it is played in (attack or block). It may be channeled instead.
• A card's owner is the player who brought it to the game: their Exile, their Gear, the Moves of their deck. A card always goes to its owner's hand, zones and piles. A Token has no owner: it goes where the Effect that brings it says, and back to the supply (§Rule4.5).
• Momentum conditions: A condition on a Momentum Zone counts the cards in that zone as it lies, however they entered. A card the Reload has returned to its owner's hand has left it. Gear, a prepared Finisher, an attached card and the card in the Combat Zone are not counted. "More" is strictly more. A Tactics card's Effect reads it once, when it resolves, then runs in full. A fighting Move's +Damage reads it at step 1 of the Math, after the React step; its +Block Rating at step 2; its other Effects read it after the Passives its outcome fires. A Passive reads it each time it applies. A cost, or an "as you play this" clause, reads it when the card is played.
• Declared cost: The Stamina declared at Action A step 2, overpay included, for a face-up attack and a face-down attack alike. For a Finisher it is the cost paid at its Prepare. It is public. An Effect reads that number, never the card and never the Stamina that floated.
• Face-up and face-down: The attacker chooses as the attack is played, against any defender, a stunned or spent one included. A face-up attack is open to both players from The Opener and has no Reveal and no Audit. A face-down attack is flipped at the Reveal and stays a face-down attack until it leaves the Combat Zone. Text that says "face-down attack", "played face-down" or "played face-up" reads how the card was played, at any step of that attack. An Effect or Passive that says an attack must be played face-up takes the choice away for that attack: its face-down keywords (Feint, Ambush Attack) do nothing, and Block cards played against it gain no Disarming Block. A Finisher is always played face-up.
• Stealth Attack: Disengaged is read as the card is played, at The Opener, before Pay turns the Exile sideways. The attack keeps that reading to its end: an Engage or a Disengage in its React step changes nothing. Every Exile is upright after the Refresh, unless a Passive kept it sideways, so a player's first action of a round can be an unblockable Stealth Attack. An earlier attack, a Prepare or an Effect that engages that player switches the keyword off until they are Disengaged again (a Step Back, a Disengaging Attack, a Disengage Effect, the next Refresh that turns it upright). Played face-down it is an ordinary face-down attack: it can be blocked and disarmed.
• Cost before effect: Every cost of an action or a card is paid before any of its effects happens. The Stamina, and the turn of the Exile where the action makes its player Engaged, are costs. An attack is paid and the Exile turns at Pay, before The Block. A Prepare is paid and the Exile turns before the Finisher is laid on its Gear. A Passive that fires as the Exile turns resolves at once, so before the Finisher is laid. The one cost paid later is the Exert of an attack, paid at Action A step 4 (§Rule7.4).
• "A successful attack against you costs you [X] or more HP": The HP that attack took at the Math: its Net Damage, or the Piercing Attack floor, whichever is greater. The attack must be successful. Direct Damage, HP loss from an Effect, a Lacerating Block and Fatigue do not count. A player whose HP fell below 1 has already lost.
• Game end: §Rule3.4.

7.8. Disarming Block & Slow

• Disarming Block (printed on a fighting Move, and held by every Block card played against a face-down attack) works only when the card blocks. If the attack is unsuccessful at the Math and any Block card in the block has Disarming Block, that attack is disarmed at the Combat Zone Clear. It need not be the first Block card, and the order in which the Block cards were played does not matter; a Block card that left the block before the Math does not count. The attack is unsuccessful when the block is successful (0 Net Damage) and when a Shielding Block stops it. So any block that stops a face-down attack disarms it. A successful attack is never disarmed: the attack card enters Momentum as usual, so a Crushing Attack that disarms the Gear of the blocking cards is never disarmed by them. An attack that does not reach the Math is not disarmed. No effect when the card attacks.

• Disarmed: When an attack is disarmed, the Gear of the attacking Move is disarmed (§Rule7.5) and the Move goes to its owner's Recall Pile, as any unsuccessful attack does. An attack with Ranged Attack cannot be disarmed: its Gear stays armed, whatever blocked it and however it was played. An Effect that disarms can still disarm that Gear (§Rule7.5). A Fragile or Single-Use Move is destroyed as its keyword says, and its Gear is disarmed all the same. Only a Disarming Block disarms an attack. The attacker's error is not a disarm: it destroys the attack card and leaves its Gear armed (Action A step 4). A face-down Feint is not disarmed. A disarm changes no turn: a disarmed Quick attack still gives its player the next turn, and a disarmed Slow attack still makes its player spent.

• A Slow card makes its player spent once fully resolved (including its Combat Zone Clear), successful or unsuccessful (on a fighting Move only when it was played as an attack: a fighting Move played as a block has no speed, §Rule4.1): that player takes no more turns and plays no block and no Reaction this round (Spent, §Rule7.4). A Slow card that fizzled, and a Slow card played face-down with Feint, never resolved, so Slow makes nobody spent. A Slow Tactics card is always played as its player's action. A Finisher's speed is the one it prints (Action E); its Prepare (Action D) has no speed.

• The next turn after an attack: a successful attack that is not Slow gives its player the next turn; an attack stopped by a Shielding Block is unsuccessful and gives none, unless it is Quick. A Quick attack gives it even when unsuccessful, disarmed or not, unless a successful Block card's Effect gives the next turn to the defender. An attack that does not reach the Math (a fizzle, an attack returned to hand or destroyed, an attack whose Gear an Effect disarmed) gives no turn, Quick or not. A face-down Feint whose Audit passes also does not reach the Math, but gives its player the next turn, whatever its speed (Action A step 4). A Finisher Attack follows the same rule, by the speed it prints.

• Quick counts only for the action of a turn: a Quick attack or a Quick Tactics card played as that action gives its player the next turn. A Quick card played any other way (a block, a Tactics card in a React step) gives no turn. A Quick Tactics card that is returned, countered or left without a target still gave the turn: for a Tactics card the turn comes from playing it.

• A speed given by an Effect: An Effect that gives a speed never targets a Finisher (Action E). The last speed a card was given is its speed. An attack that becomes Slow ("target attack becomes Slow") is Slow and no longer Quick: it gives no next turn, even if successful, and once it has resolved its player is spent for the round (a Stunning Attack made Slow wastes its stun the same way). A Slow card an Effect makes Quick is Quick and no longer Slow. The new speed lasts until the card leaves the Combat Zone; in every other zone the card has its printed speed again. An attack that fizzles, or is returned to hand or destroyed before the Math, never resolved, so its Slow makes nobody spent. The Effect may target either player's attack; an Effect or Passive that counts a Slow card counts an attack made Slow.

• A keyword given by an Effect: A keyword an Effect gives to a card in the Combat Zone ("target attack gains Single-Use") lasts until that card leaves the Combat Zone. An attack that gained Single-Use is destroyed at its Combat Zone Clear, successful or not, whatever else would have happened to it: it does not enter Momentum or the Recall Pile. An attack that fizzles or is returned to hand never resolved: it keeps nothing it was given.

• Actions that are not cards: A Prepare, a Step Back and an End are actions, neither cards nor attacks: an Effect that targets or counts a Slow or Quick card or attack does not see them. A Prepare costs the Finisher's effective cost and passes the turn. An End is not a Slow action. The Finisher (Action E) is a card being played: a Finisher Attack is an attack, a Finisher Tactics a Tactics card.

• "Your next Slow card this round does not make you spent": You go on taking turns, blocking and reacting normally (a successful Slow attack then gives you the next turn like any other). The effect lasts until you play a Slow card or the round ends.

• Returning an attack to hand: An attack returned to its owner's hand leaves the Combat Zone without resolving; its Stamina stays spent. It is not a fizzle, but the turn is over in the same way (a returned Slow attack does not make its player spent). An attack that leaves combat before the Reveal, which only a Passive can do, is never audited, so it is no error. A Finisher Attack is never returned to hand (Action E); a Finisher Tactics returned to hand from the stack is a Move in hand again, and must be prepared again to be played.

• An attack that does not reach the Math: A Finisher Attack always reaches it (Action E). Whenever an attack does not reach the Math (it fizzles, it is a face-down Feint, or it leaves the Combat Zone: returned to hand, destroyed, or sent to the Recall Pile by an Effect that disarms its Gear), every Block card played against it goes to its owner's Recall Pile, whatever its keywords, and the Stamina paid for it stays spent. None of their Effects or block keywords work: no Block card with Shielding Block is destroyed, a Single-Use Block card is not destroyed, and nothing is disarmed by them. Such a Block card was neither successful nor unsuccessful, so no Passive about an unsuccessful card applies to it (§Rule7.10). Resolved Reactions stay resolved and their Stamina stays spent, and an Exert already paid stays paid. An attack that does not reach the Math turns no Exile upright and loses the defender no Finisher.

• A Block card that leaves the block: A Block card destroyed or returned in the React step is no longer a Block card played: the next Block card becomes the first, and with none left the attack is unblocked. The Stamina paid for it stays spent, also if the attack then leaves combat. A Block card whose Gear an Effect disarms in the React step leaves the block in the same way and goes to its owner's Recall Pile (§Rule7.5).

• Unblockable: An unblockable attack cannot be blocked, and it is unblocked, so Punishing Attack counts. The defender may still play Reactions against it; only a stun stops those (§Rule5, Stun). An attack that is unblockable as it is played (Stealth Attack, a Finisher Attack): no Block card can be played against it at The Block (Action A step 3). An attack that becomes unblockable later: every Block card already played against it goes at once to its owner's Recall Pile, whatever its keywords, and the Stamina paid for it stays spent. Those cards never reach the Math: none of their Effects or block keywords work, and they disarm nothing.

• Feint: A card with Feint played face-up is an ordinary attack in every way. Played face-down it is audited like any face-down attack: its declared cost must cover its effective attack cost, its Exert must have been payable as it was played, and its Gear must be armed. If the Audit does not pass, the attack is an error: it recovers nothing, the card is destroyed and its player is spent, as for any error (Action A step 4). If the Audit passes, the card goes to its owner's Recall Pile, whatever its keywords (Single-Use and Fragile included), its Gear is not disarmed, and its owner recovers X Stamina, whatever was paid. The Stamina paid stays spent, and cards channeled stay where they went. The next turn is its owner's again, whatever the card's speed. A face-down Feint against a stunned defender wastes the stun, and the next turn is not stunned.

• "Your next attack" and "your next block": An Effect on your next attack (or block, or Slow card) this round applies to your card already in the Combat Zone if it has not yet reached the Math: a Reaction played in the React step of your own attack changes that attack ("your next attack this round is unblockable" sends the Block cards already played against it to their owner's Recall Pile, as above). Otherwise it applies to the next one you play this round, a Finisher included, except for its speed (Action E).

• Single-Use and Fragile: A Single-Use Move is destroyed right after it resolves, whatever the outcome. A Fragile Move is destroyed when it is unsuccessful. Neither touches the Move's Gear.

• Thrown: An unsuccessful attack with Thrown goes to its owner's Recall Pile like any Move. The keyword alone returns nothing: a Move with Thrown comes back to hand only by an Effect that says "take a Move with Thrown from your Recall Pile", however it came to lie there. Nothing is taken at the Rearm step (§Rule5, Phase 1).

7.9. Gear and Their Moves

• One Gear, five Moves: Every Move belongs to one Gear and names it in its subname. A Gear lists 5 Moves, one of them its Finisher (§Rule4.3). A player's deck is set up with the 20 Moves their four Gear list (§Rule2); only an Effect adds Tokens to it (§Rule4.5).
• Armed when played: Whether a Move's Gear is armed is checked when the Move is played, as an attack, as a block, as a Tactics card or as a Reaction, and for a Finisher at its Prepare. A face-down attack is checked at the Reveal: if its Gear is not armed, the attack is an error (§Rule5, Action A step 4). Nothing checks it again. A Move leaves combat for its Gear only when an Effect that disarms targets that Move (§Rule7.5).
• Your own Gear: A Move needs the Gear of its own player. Your opponent's Gear never lets you play a Move.
• Either side: A Gear is the same Gear on its Upgrade side: the same category and the same 5 Moves. Only the Prepare asks which side it shows.
• Passives of Gear: The Passives of an Exile and of each armed Gear work from setup, without Stamina, for as long as the card shows that side and, for a Gear, stays armed. Each Gear works separately and counts its own "first each round". The Passives and Effects of an Upgrade side begin when the card is turned, and those of an Exile's Unleashed side when the Exile is unleashed (§Rule3.3).
• The top card of a deck: An Effect that names the top card, or the top [X] cards, of a deck reaches those cards and no other. A deck that holds fewer is looked at in full; looking never rebuilds a deck and brings no Fatigue. A card taken from the cards looked at is not revealed, and the cards put on the bottom stay face-down. A deck card that an Effect destroys or moves is revealed to both players as it leaves the deck, then lies where it goes like any card there. A deck an Effect leaves with no card stays empty until its owner takes a card from it, at the Refill or by going on in an Effect that takes cards: Fatigue then applies (§Rule5, Fatigue).

7.10. Activated Abilities & Replacements

• A Passive worded "You may [pay a cost] to [do something]", "Once per round, you may [do something]" or "[Cost]: [Effect]" (for example "Discard 2 cards: Detach this card.") is an activated ability. Use it during one of your own turns, before or after its action, or when it is your choice in a React step. Using it is not the turn's action. It costs only what its text says and resolves immediately, off the stack. A Stamina cost in its text is taken from your floating Stamina like any other, and each use is a play of its own; no other price in its text is paid with Stamina. Without a "once per round" limit, it can be used as often as you can pay. An activated ability of a Gear can be used only while that Gear is armed. An activated ability of an attached card works while it lies on a disarmed Gear, and is used only by its controller, the player whose Exile, Gear or Memory it lies on (§Rule7.12).
• A Passive that begins "At the Refresh" resolves at the Refresh step of Phase 1, as Phase 1 begins, and is no activated ability, though it may say "you may". When both players' Refresh Passives fire, the player with the Initiative resolves theirs first (The React Step).
• A Passive that changes where a card goes as it leaves the Combat Zone (for example "you may return it to your hand instead of your Recall Pile") replaces its normal destination. It is optional. It applies once per round only when its text says so; worded "whenever", it applies each time. It never applies to the Move of a disarmed attack, nor to a Block card sent to the Recall Pile because the attack did not reach the Math (§Rule7.8).

7.11. Finisher Reach

A Finisher's Effect may do what no other Effect does, as its text says:

• Disarm a Gear directly: disarm armed Gear of your opponent that it names, up to as many as it says, with no Move to target. They are its targets: a Finisher Tactics names them as it is played, and an Effect of a Finisher Attack as it happens. A Finisher prepared on such a Gear is lost (§Rule5, Action D).

• Reach a Recall Pile: take, return or destroy cards in either player's Recall Pile.

• Turn an Upgrade back: turn an armed Gear of your opponent from its Upgrade side back to its front. The Passives of its Upgrade stop, and a Finisher prepared on it is lost. It can be upgraded again at a later Unlock step, and its "When this Upgrade is unlocked" Effects resolve again.

• Turn a Memory back: your opponent turns one of their unlocked Memories, of their choice, back to its front; it targets nothing. It gives 1 Stamina again, and a card attached to it is detached. It can be unlocked again at a later Unlock step, and its "When this Memory is unlocked" Effects resolve again. An Exile already unleashed stays unleashed.

Every other rule of §Rule7.5 still holds.

7.12. Attached Cards

• Attach: An Effect that says "Attach this card to [an Exile, a Gear or a Memory]" lays the card face-up on that card, yours or your opponent's, instead of where it would go. A Gear may be armed or disarmed, and a Memory locked or unlocked (§Rule4.4). Attaching names where the card lies; it targets nothing. Where the text leaves a choice (one of several Memories), the player of the card chooses. Where the place is named through a card that is gone ("that attack's Gear" with no attack), the card does not attach and goes where it would. A fighting Move attaches itself at the Combat Zone Clear, after its "if successful" Effects: an attach behind "if this attack was successful" or "if this block was successful" needs that success, and one printed alone attaches whatever the outcome. Every Block card of a block attaches by its own text. A Tactics card attaches itself as it resolves. A Single-Use card is never attached: it is destroyed as usual. Tokens are attached from the supply, only to an Exile or an armed Gear (§Rule4.5).
• While attached: An attached card is in play. The Passives, triggered abilities and activated abilities it prints under WHILE ATTACHED work as long as it lies there, and at no other time. Its other text is its text for when it is played.
• Who controls it: The player whose Exile, Gear or Memory an attached card lies on controls it. In its text, "you" and "your" name that player, and "your opponent" the other; its owner still owns it. Only its controller uses its activated abilities, during their own turns or when it is their choice in a React step (§Rule7.10).
• Limits on actions: An attached card may limit the actions of the player who controls it, on whose Exile it lies; a Step Back and an End always stay open.
• Detach: To detach a card is to take it from where it lies to its owner's Recall Pile; a Token returns to the supply instead. An attached card's own text may detach it: "Discard 2 cards: Detach this card."
• Its owner's card: An attached card stays its owner's card wherever it lies. When it leaves play it goes to its owner's piles: when it is destroyed, to its owner's Destroyed Pile; when it is detached or sent to the Recall Pile, to its owner's Recall Pile; when it is returned to a hand, to its owner's hand.
• Reached by Effects: "Target card" and "target Move" reach a Move attached to an Exile, a Gear or a Memory (§Rule7.5, What an Effect targets). An attached Token is never a target.
• A disarmed Gear: A Move attached to a Gear stays on it when that Gear is disarmed and when it is rearmed. The Move is still in play while the Gear is not: its text works and it can be targeted.
• Kept from the Rearm: An attached Move whose text keeps the Gear it lies on from the Rearm stops that Gear's owner choosing it at the Rearm step for as long as the Move lies there (§Rule5, Phase 1). A Token on a Gear still returns to the supply when that Gear is disarmed (§Rule4.5).
• Not counted: An attached card is in no Momentum Zone, hand, deck or pile. It is never channeled, it counts for nothing that counts the cards of a Momentum Zone, and it is not shuffled into a rebuilt deck.