How to play

The frame

• LinksThe dots at the top and bottom of the right edge. Each dot that runs off the edge is a connection the card can make. Some cards have several. Only one has to line up to connect a card.
• Force and body partThe Force icon wraps around the body-part icon: head, torso, or legs, and whether the card is good for your board or bad, for an opponent's.
• HoldThe card's cost. When you build, the highest Hold among the cards you played is the minimum number of cards you must still be holding when your build phase ends.
• StackerWhen the Hold badge sits on a second, offset frame, the card can be stacked on top of another card. Only the top card's powers are live. Stackers don't have to stack; they can go in an open slot like any card. If the top card of a stack is defeated, the whole stack is discarded with it. If a Stacker is discarded and the card underneath no longer connects, keep discarding down until something connects or the space is empty. Use them to power up your own build, or to bury an opponent's best card.
• BangA bolt in the top right, just left of the Force icon. A build action: play a Bang from your hand at any time to interrupt an action, even mid-fight. Bangs resolve first.
• Card name
• TribeBottom right, beside the hit points. Not every card has one. One tribe card makes the whole build that tribe.
• Hit pointsThe number in the bottom right corner. Damage equal to the hit points sends the card to the junk pile.
• Card numberBottom left edge: this card's number in the set, and the set year.
• ArtistBottom right edge: who drew it.

Forces

• ChaosDestruction. Abilities that damage your own board hit harder; burn your own cards for big effects; trade card advantage for immediate impact. War pigs, psychos, anarchists, monsters.
• GritEndurance and raw power. Fight hard, defend hard, keep value through long combat. Straightforward abilities backed by strength in numbers. Cowboys, contractors, bikers, athletes.
• SpiritEnergy and the junk pile. Revive cards and build power over time. Slow to set up, very dangerous once it's running. Ghosts, ghouls, zombies, angels, saints, gods.
• OrderControl. Decide what other players can and can't do: restrictions, costs, exploiting the rules. Rewards planning, punishes anyone who acts without thinking. Bureaucrats, lawyers, politicians, teachers, cops.
• FlairDisruption. Shove things around the board, steal or sabotage opponent cards, cause calamity by misdirection. Weak alone; rewards creative combos, timing, and patience. Clowns, performers, musicians, artists, hippies, weirdos.
• TechModularity and precision. Recalibration abilities let Tech builds swap parts mid-game to reroute power. Targeted damage and overpowered kills. Robots, cyborgs, hackers, mechs, aliens.

Body parts

• Smile headA good head: build it on your own board.
• Frown headA bad head: build it on an opponent's.
• Thumbs up torsoA good torso.
• Thumbs down torsoA bad torso.
• Bare foot legsGood legs.
• Foot in a cast legsBad legs.
• Plus cardsUncommon. Build between two cards to make a taller character. If a Plus leaves a build, close the gap.
• Compass cardsRare. Can be built right side up or upside down, and connects to any card type on either side.
• Puzzle piecesVery rare. Marks a card that attaches to one specific card, often through the art itself, not links. It allows an extra-tall build with powers unique to that pairing.

Attack actions

• Where actions liveBottom left: an icon and any accompanying text. Each card in a complete build gets one action a turn.
• Fight scoreThe POW cloud. Every fight score in a build adds up. A negative score drags the total down, which is why you'd build one on an opponent.
• TargetRanged. The number in the target is the damage. Playing the card's targets is one action, however many it has: aim each shot at a card on an opponent's board or at the player directly, all into one card or split up however you choose. Damage doesn't spill over to other cards.
• SkullA critical hit, shown inside a fight cloud or a target. Maximum damage to any single card: an auto-kill, but only that one card.
• BombArea of effect. The number in the bomb is its total damage; the grid beside it shows how that damage lands. Bombs can't target players, and they're single-use.

Actions

• HeartResurrection. Junk this card, search your junk pile, and build a card back onto your board, if you have the Hold for it. Otherwise it goes to your hand.
• MoveA single arrow. The card can move to a new spot on the board. Arrows can only move once per turn.
• SwitchA double arrow. The card can switch places with another card, or move into an empty space.
• JunkSacrifice. A junk symbol with an x inside: discard this card to use its ability. With an icon inside instead: junk any card carrying that icon, from your board or hand, to perform the action.

Text on the card

• CommandA speech bubble with a one-of-a-kind ability: black text in a white box.
• InformationWhite text in a black box: a passive ability that's always on.
• Trophy boxConnect all three cards of the original character to unlock a bonus trophy ability.

Reactions

• The junk cornerTop left. An icon here means the card can be discarded to use that ability as a reaction, on your turn or an opponent's, even from an incomplete build. The ability is a gift to another card on your board: junk a switch and two of your other cards trade places; junk a +3 mid-fight and another character's fight score goes up by 3. Shields can also be discarded straight from your hand.
• Number shieldAbsorbs that much damage, any time any player or any of their builds is about to take it. Every symbol shield below can also always block 1.
• Fight shieldBlocks a whole fight: every card that added to the attacking build's fight score, not just one of them.
• Target shieldBlocks all damage from any one target attack.
• Bang shieldDiscard to junk a Bang the moment it's built. Stack and Bang shields are the only shields that can also stop a Stacker landing on top of them.
• Stack shieldSomeone stacks a card, on your board or theirs? Junk a Stack shield to send the newly stacked card to the junk pile.
• Heart shieldStops a player drawing from their junk pile when they play a heart.
• Arrow shieldDiscards the acting arrow card, move or switch, when it's played.
• Junk shieldStops any junk effect, though the player still loses the card they junked.

Rarity

• CommonNothing on the left edge of the frame means the card is a common.
• UncommonOne diamond. A card with diamonds is scarce in its own right, not a recolor of something common, so there is no plain version of it to find.
• RareTwo diamonds. Printed in smaller numbers.
• ExceptionalThree diamonds. The rarest cards in the set, and the ones a deck gets built around.
• One triangleTriangles are the other system, and they never mean scarcity. They mark an alternate color of a card you already know: same art, same name, same abilities, a different frame. Each color counts as its own printing, so you can run them all in one deck.
• Two trianglesAnother color of the same card.
• Three trianglesAnd another. The count is only there to tell the colors apart, so there is no ceiling on it.