How to Play

Each player controls one half of the mat. From the official video, the named zones are:

• Deck: your shuffled 50-card main deck. You draw from here and reveal from here during a damage check.
• Soul Deck: your separate pile of 10 Soul cards, your resource economy.
• Soul Area: where Souls you've drawn sit. You Rest (turn sideways) Souls here to pay costs.
• Base: your field. Pals, Structures, and Gear are played here.
• Graveyard: the discard pile for destroyed Pals, spent Events, and revealed damage-check cards.
• Flow of the Game: the printed phase track on the mat: Stand → Draw → Soul → Main → End.

Every legal deck is two separate piles:

• Main Deck: exactly 50 cards. Pals, Structures, Gear, and Events.
• Soul Deck: exactly 10 cards. Soul cards only, spent to deploy Pals and play other cards.

Construction limits:

• Up to two colors from Red, Blue, Green, and Purple. Colorless cards may always be included.
• 4 copies maximum of any one card name.
• 8 Lucky Pals maximum in the 50-card main deck.
• Both players start at 10 life; reduce your opponent to 0 to win.

“You may choose up to two colors from among Red, Blue, Green, and Purple to construct your deck. In addition to the colors you have chosen, construct a deck of 50 cards together with Colorless cards that can be used in any decks. You may only include up to 4 cards with the same card name.”

· Bushiroad press release, BP01/TD0102 preorder announcement

Every turn follows the “Flow of the Game” printed on the mat:

1. Stand Phase. Return all your Rested (sideways) cards, Pals and Souls alike, to Standing (upright).
2. Draw Phase. Draw 1 card from your main deck.
3. Soul Phase. Place 2 Souls from your Soul Deck face-up into your Soul Area. You add 2 per turn, up to a maximum of 10 total.
4. Main Phase. Take actions in any order: deploy Pals / Structures / Gear, play Events, attack, activate abilities, and Assign Pals to Structures.
5. End Phase. All damage marked on Pals and Structures is removed, and the turn passes.

To play a Pal, Structure, Gear, or Event you pay its Cost, the number in the card's top-left corner. You pay by Resting that many Souls: rotate upright (Standing) Souls in your Soul Area to sideways (Rested).

In the video the player pays Cost 2 by Resting two Souls to deploy a Pal to their Base.

• Your Base holds a maximum of 5 Pals at any time.
• A newly deployed Pal can act immediately, so it can attack the same turn it's played (no summoning sickness).

A Standing Pal can attack. When it does, it Rests. If it attacks the opposing player, it deals damage equal to its Strike value (the number on the lower-right of the card).

The attacked player then performs a Damage Check:

1. Reveal cards from the top of your main deck, one card per point of damage (so Strike 1 reveals 1, Strike 2 reveals 2, and so on).
2. If any revealed card is a Lucky Pal (marked with the Lucky sparkle icon in its upper-right), the damage is canceled and you lose no life from this attack.
3. Otherwise you lose 1 life per point of damage. Revealed cards then go to the Graveyard.

Instead of the player, an attacker may target an opposing Pal, but only a Pal that is in the Rested (sideways) state. Standing Pals cannot be targeted by an attack (though they can block, see below).

When a Pal attacks a Pal, a battle happens, using each Pal's Power (the number in the bottom-left corner of the card):

• Both Pals deal damage equal to their Power to each other simultaneously.
• Any Pal that takes damage equal to or greater than its Power is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard.
• In the video, Power 300 vs Power 200: the 200 Pal is destroyed; the 300 Pal survives with 200 damage marked on it.
• Damage resets at the End Phase, so surviving Pals are fully healed for the next turn.

Blocking. A Standing Pal can block an incoming attack. To block, Rest the blocking Pal. This redirects the attack into a battle between the attacker and the blocker (resolved with Power, exactly as above).

Some cards and abilities have the Quick keyword. When you are being attacked, you may play a Quick card at that moment, before the attack resolves.

The video demonstrates a Quick card with Interruptibility, played by either spending 1 Soul or discarding 1 card from your hand. A successful interrupt makes the opponent's attack fail: a failed attack ends immediately with no damage and no battle.

Structure cards (bases and machines) are played in a sideways landscape orientation. They cost Souls like any other card (Cost in the top-left). You may have any number of Structures in play. A Structure has a Durability value and is destroyed if it takes damage equal to or above it.

A Structure's ability is powered by Assigning a Pal to it: Rest one of your Pals and place it to work on the Structure. This triggers the Structure's on-Assign ability. In the video, assigning a Pal to a Structure lets the player draw a card.

Gear cards (tools and weapons) are played by paying their Cost, just like Pals. Many have an on-deploy ability that fires as they enter play. The video's Single-Shot Rifle deals 1000 damage to an opposing Pal, destroying a Pal with 700 Power.

Costs can also be reduced: a Structure's continuous ability in the video lowers Gear costs by 2, letting a Cost-4 Gear be played for 2.

• Reduce your opponent's life from 10 to 0. Each unblocked, un-canceled point of attack damage costs 1 life.
• An alternative win condition involving destroying an opponent's base structures has been referenced in pre-launch press; full specifics aren't published yet.

Card types

Pal Card

A creature with Power, Strike, Color and (optionally) work suitabilities. Attacks players, Pals or Structures, and can block.

Gear Card

Tools and weapons. Pay the Cost to play; often has on-deploy effects.

Structure Card

Bases and machines, played in landscape orientation. Powered by Assigning a Pal. Uses Durability in place of Power.

Soul Card

Resource cards in the 10-card Soul Deck. Rested to pay Cost.

Event Card

One-shot effects. Pay the Cost; the effect resolves; the card goes to the Graveyard. Some Events are Quick.

Card stats

Cost

Top-left number. The number of Souls you Rest to play the card.

Color

Red, Blue, Green, Purple, or Colorless. Must match your chosen deck colors (Colorless is universal).

Strike

Lower-right number. The damage a Pal deals when it attacks a player, and the number of cards the defender reveals on the damage check. Disclosed values: 1–4.

Power

Bottom-center number. Used in Pal-vs-Pal battles: both Pals deal their Power to each other, and a Pal is destroyed if it takes damage ≥ its Power. Damage clears at the End Phase. Values come in 100-point increments (e.g. 200 / 300 / 700).

Lucky (subtype)

A sparkle icon in the upper-right marks a “Lucky Pal.” If revealed during an opponent's damage check on you, it cancels the damage. Capped at 8 per main deck.

Durability (Structures)

Replaces Power on Structure cards; the Structure is destroyed when its Durability is exceeded.

Rarity

Base rarities RR, R, U, C. Trial Decks add a guaranteed parallel slot (TSR / TSP).

Ability & status keywords

AUTO

Triggered ability. Fires automatically on its trigger (commonly “On Deploy” or “On Assign”).

ACT

Activated ability. You choose to use it, often for an added cost.

CONT

Continuous/static ability. Always active while in play (e.g. a Structure reducing Gear cost).

Quick

Timing keyword. Can be played/activated while you are being attacked, not just on your own turn.

Stand / Rest

Standing = upright and ready; Rest = turned sideways and spent. Pals Rest to attack, Assign or block; Souls Rest to pay Cost. Rested cards Stand again in your next Stand Phase.

Assign

Resting one of your Pals to “work” a Structure, triggering its on-Assign ability.

The same 12 work-suitability tags from the videogame are referenced by Structure cards as activation requirements. Assign a Pal with the matching tag to power the Structure's effect.

• Watering
• Kindling
• Mining
• Lumbering
• Planting
• Generating
• Handiwork
• Gathering
• Cooling
• Transporting
• Farming
• Medicine