All Rules

How to Start

• Every player starts with one Ace from their own deck already on the field, on any tile of their backline they choose. Every Ace spawns with one Jack from that player's deck inside it, wherever it is placed. Which Ace or Jack doesn't matter.
• First when starting, draw 2d4 cards for both sides.
• Second, both players roll dice; whoever goes first by highest roll will set up their cards on the field first, then the second player places their cards on the field.
• Third, the one with the highest roll takes the first game-starting turn, with the prep phase as the first part of this turn. The player will be able to move cards, place cards, or even sacrifice cards, and during this prep phase, the starting player's attack will not happen yet.
• The other player can now be attacked; this is the attack phase, and the attacker cannot move their cards, place their cards, or sacrifice during this phase. After, this is the end of the first player's turn.
• The second player at the start of their turn has an optional draw card phase: roll a d4 as many times as wanted, and the dice result tells how many cards to draw. When doing this optional phase, you cannot place cards, move cards, sacrifice cards, or attack.
• What follows is the prep phase; the player can move cards, place cards, or sacrifice cards, but cannot attack during this phase.
• Last is the final phase of the turn, and no actions from the prep phase can be taken during it: the attack phase. Each card can only attack once.

The players should use this pattern each turn:

Optional Draw Card Phase → Prep Phase → Attack Phase

• As many times as desired, roll four-sided dice to optionally draw cards.
• Move cards. Place cards. Sacrifice cards.
• Attack enemy cards on the field; each card can only attack once.

Major Rules

The goal is to either destroy all card placements in the field or have the other player run out of cards in their deck, hand, and soul pile. Running those cards out is called an economic domination or economic victory, and it is only valid when the other player completes their turn.

Certain rules can be changed as desired, such as the cards present in the Ethereal Realm, or the number of cards in the players' hands.

Game Setup

The Field

Beside the field lie the Graveyard and the Ethereal Realm.

• The Ethereal Realm is a realm of form that can be a source of summoning, conjuring, or materialization. Spend or offer mana to summon souls into the material realm.
• The grave is where dead souls sleep in their corpse, waiting to be set free. This is where sacrificed souls go after being spent of their mana, or where dead cards lie trapped and bound to their flesh. The grave is shared.

Dice and Points of Cards

Note: a stack of cards takes the highest-scoring card as its total.

Scores

Every card's die is its Dice Max (DM), the same number the stacking formula uses, so the scores and the stacking limits always agree.

Modifiers are used for offense; on defense a card counts its natural value, unless a Queen is in the stack. When writing scores by hand, mark 6s and 9s so they can be told apart.

Dice values of cards

Card Roles and Stacking

2–10: Soldiers

• 2–6 are Grunt soldiers; 7–10 are Infantry soldiers.
• Grunts stack to four (24 ÷ 6) and Infantry to three (24 ÷ 8), or any mix whose dice add up to 24 or less.

Jacks

• A Jack can only stack with two Grunts, one Infantry, or one other Jack (12 + 12 = 24).
• Jacks can move two spaces, or use both for a diagonal.
• Jacks cannot defend.

Queens

• A Queen has no Dice Max, so she adds nothing to the stacking sum: she can join four Grunts, three Infantry, or a King with the one soldier he can hold.
• Anyone stacked with the Queen gets modifiers for both offense and defense.
• The Queen can use her modifier for both offense and defense.
• The special abilities of Queens do not stack with other Queens, and they do not work in base or spawn mode.

Kings

• Cards of the King's suit can be placed inside a King when defending.
• A King has a DM of 20 and an MSV of 28, so he holds one Grunt or one Infantry at most (20 + 8 = 28).
• A Joker can stack with the King, with his one soldier or without.
• Cannot attack when defending while alone.
• Cannot be sacrificed on the field when stacked in offensive stance.
• A Queen can stack with a King, granting the Queen's bonuses. A Joker can also be stacked here, but only with a King present.
• When successfully defeated in defensive placement mode, all units die.
• Jokers can only spawn on a King of the same color.

Joker (Necromancer)

• Any enemy killed next to the Joker goes to its sacrifice pile (Soul Capture): an upside-down stack inside the Joker, its personal sacrifice pile.
• Has no Dice Max, so it can stack with four Grunts, three Infantry, one King, a King and Queen, or a King with his one soldier.
• When the Joker sacrifices himself, the player gains access to its sacrifice pile.
• The Joker's personal sacrifice pile holds up to six, though players can change this for balance.
• A captured soul stays inside the Joker until the Joker dies, when the Joker and its souls go to the grave, or until it uses Sacrificial Suicide.
• If the Joker is defeated by enemies, its cards go to the grave pile.
• If a Joker kills itself during a Blood Moon, it sends itself and every card it held to the Outer Darkness.
• Can only spawn on a card of the same color (red or black).

Ace

• Each player opens the game with one Ace on their backline, holding one Jack.
• Cannot move or attack, and is always in defense.
• Can only be placed in open tiles in the backlines.
• Anything inside an Ace cannot use modifiers for defense.
• Aces can hold up to six cards inside.
• If an Ace is destroyed, all cards inside are destroyed.
• Cannot be sacrificed while on the field.
• Each Ace on the field grants +1d6 for pulling cards from the grave.

Optional Ace rule

Card placement inside Aces can be locked to only the Ace's color (red, black) or suit (diamonds, spades, hearts, clubs).

Maximum Stack Value and Dice Max

Each card type has an MSV that limits its stacking based on its DM. Calculate how many cards can stack by dividing MSV by DM. For Grunts:

MSV ÷ DM = 24 ÷ 6 = 4 (allowing four Grunts)

Mixed stacks: different cards can stack together if their combined value doesn't exceed the highest MSV. The card in a stack with the highest MSV sets the MSV for the formula.

Stack Limit (SL): the most cards of a type that can be stacked, found by dividing the MSV by the DM for that type, or for the combined value of a mixed stack.

Σ DM ≤ MSV

where Σ DM is the sum of the dice max values of every card in the stack, and MSV is the Maximum Stack Value of the highest card in the mixed stack.

Hand Rules

• Only six cards are allowed in a player's hand.
• Cards drawn over the hand limit go to the grave pile. Once a draw roll overdraws, no more draw rolls that turn.
• Overdrawing: every card that is drawn and goes to the grave because the hand is full takes one die off that round's Grave Blessing maximum, so a maximum of six dice drops to five. The Grave Blessing shows the count as −{n}d6 max; past six it turns bold and red (7, 8, and so on) and the rest carries over: overdraw 7 cards and you have no Grave Blessing this round and −1d6 next round; past 12 it carries into the round after that, and so on. It only happens when there were cards in your deck to lose.
• Cards can only be placed in their respective card spawn, such as Aces or Kings.
• Cards in hand, or certain cards on the field, can be sacrificed during the sacrificial part of the prep phase.

Sacrificial Rules

Soul currency: each player has a pile of face-down sacrificed cards used as currency for mana, or soul points. This pile of publicly revealed cards owned by the player can be spent during the sacrificial part of the prep phase. The pile holds six mana at most.

Order of the sacrificial part of prep: sacrifices first, spending mana second. Before spending, there is the free spell Grave Blessing.

Spells

Necromancy

• Grave Blessing (free): roll 1d6; each natural 6 raises one card from the grave. Add +1d6 per Ace on the field, or more with Ritual Dice; 6 dice at most per turn.
• Ritual Dice (1 mana): roll an additional 2d6 for your Grave Blessing.
• Sacrificial Suicide: the Joker sacrifices its soul, and all the souls it captured move into the player's soul pile for spending. A Joker can hold six cards and six mana of souls in all; any surplus goes to the grave.
• Soul Capture: the Joker captures the souls of enemies that die or are killed next to it, up to six mana of souls. They are not available to its player until Sacrificial Suicide. If the enemy kills the Joker, its souls are released into the graveyard, unless an enemy Joker is there to capture them.
• Resurrection (1d2 + 1 mana): the grave is shuffled, then choose one card from it and bring it back into your hand.
• Flesh Severance: because body and soul are two in this game, the Joker can spend mana from the soul pile to disembody the soul of a unit killed next to it, exiling its form to the Ethereal Realm. This is the player's choice, and it costs half the price to summon the units severed that turn, rounded up: severing a 2-mana and a 1-mana unit costs 2.

Enchantments

• Hypostasis (3 mana for one card, +1 for every more card in the stack): grants a stack temporary invulnerability for two turns. During it the stack can't move forward toward the enemy's side, only to the side or backward if the stack's movement allows, and it can't attack. Afterward the effect disappears and the stack returns to its normal rules. It can't be cast if you have only one stack or card on the board.
• Divine Odds (1d2 + 1 mana): advantage on all modifiers of one of your stacks for one combat. Mark the cards with a coin or chess piece. Advantage means rolling the dice twice and taking the higher total.

Curses

• Forced Hand (1d2 mana): the other player draws 1d2 cards; any over their hand limit go straight to the grave.
• Hexed Odds (1d2 + 1 mana): disadvantage on all modifiers of one enemy stack for one combat. Disadvantage means rolling twice and taking the lower total.
• Three of Swords (1d3 mana): roll 1d2. A 1 destroys one random card from the enemy's hand and one from your own; a 2 destroys two from each. If you have nothing in your hand, you lose that many cards from your deck instead; the enemy loses nothing from the deck if their hand is empty.
• Double Edged Sword: roll 3d6. A 1 means the caster loses a card from their deck; a 6 means the target loses a card from their deck. Only works against the deck.

Sorcery

• Clairvoyance (2 + 1d2 mana): pull 2d6 cards from your deck and look at them; choose one to put in your hand or place on the board, then reshuffle. The number pulled is limited by the size of your deck.
• Naked Hand (1d2 mana): reveals the other player's hand, and tells both players the cards have been seen. It costs 6 at the New Moon, nothing at the Full Moon, and 1 under a Blood Moon.
• Teleport (1d2 − 1 mana, rolled each round, so half the time free): a card leaves the field now and comes back into your hand at the start of your next turn. You must have room in your hand, no enemy next to it, and it must be in your own lines.

Rolled prices: a price written with dice is rolled behind the scenes at the start of each round, once for everyone, and that price holds for the whole round; the spell list shows it and the log lists the new prices. The moon's prices replace the roll only while their phase lasts: Clairvoyance costs 6 at the New Moon and 2 at the Full Moon; Naked Hand costs 6 at the New Moon, nothing at the Full Moon and 1 under a Blood Moon.

Conjuring and Summoning

Each conjure purchases a soul to materialize into your deck from the Ethereal Realm. In Play Game, conjuring happens in the Ether: open it from the top of the Conjuring spells to see every card you can conjure by type, cheapest first, and every soul waiting there.

The Moon

Every round sits under one phase of the moon, shown at the top of the table. A round is one turn for each player, every turn with all its phases (draw, prep, attack); when every player has finished their turn, the moon moves to its next phase, in this order, and then it repeats:

New Moon → Waxing Crescent → First Quarter → Waxing Gibbous → Full Moon → Waning Gibbous → Last (Third) Quarter → Waning Crescent

New Moon

• Players get to choose 1d2 cards from the grave for free.
• Clairvoyance and Naked Hand cost six mana, and their spell options turn dark grey.

Full Moon

• Each player is asked for a random stack of two cards; with none, a random card from the field; with nothing on the field to take, three cards from their shuffled deck. Given, they go to the soul pile. Refused, it costs 2d2 + 2 mana, which can take you below zero.
• All decks are shuffled.
• No one can draw cards or cast necromancy spells.
• Naked Hand is free and Clairvoyance costs only two mana; both turn a bright grey, the color of the Full Moon.

Blood Moon

• Every Full Moon may turn into a Blood Moon. The moon turns red, and so does every necromancy spell, and the table turns the crimson of the Disturbed Satan chapter and starts to glitch.
• New Moon effects take place: players pick cards from the grave. The Full Moon's drawbacks (the toll, the shuffle, no drawing, no necromancy) are void, but its cheaper prices stay.
• Every card killed during the Blood Moon is sent to the Outer Darkness and can never be returned. A Joker that kills itself during it sends all the cards it held to the Outer Darkness.

The Outer Darkness

Cards in the Outer Darkness can be viewed at any time, in a box the red of the Disturbed Satan chapter. Each card carries the symbol of the player it belonged to at the time of its death.

How the digital table reads the rules

Some rules leave room for the players to decide. Play Game uses these readings:

• In Local, two to four players share one device; the screen goes black between turns until the next player confirms, and the board turns so the player at the device always sits at the bottom. With one person at the device, that person always sits at the bottom. Hands show face down to the other side unless Naked Hand reveals them.
• The field is five tiles wide by default, or six or seven. It is five lines tall with the midline (the default) and four without it. Survival always keeps the midline. Three and four players use a 7 by 7 field (corners cut by default) where each player's back line is their whole edge; two against two on the same side uses 6 by 6, two lines and three columns for each player.
• When play is together, the computers take their phase first and you play yours after; the shared phase ends when you press Ready. Spells that pick one player (Forced Hand, Double Edged Sword, Three of Swords, Naked Hand) ask which opponent when there is more than one, and Naked Hand shows that one hand only, to the caster and the caster's team.
• Cut corners remove the four corner tiles from play. Nothing can stand on a removed tile or the river, and a Jack cannot leap over them; the only way across the River map is its two-tile bridge.
• The opening roll is a d6 each, rerolled on a tie. Each player's Ace and Jack are taken out of the deck before the opening 2d4 hand is drawn, and the Ace is placed during setup, before any other opening cards. The first turn of the game has no draw phase.
• Scores use the Dice Max of each card: 2–6 roll d6, 7–10 roll d8, Jacks d12, Kings and Aces d20. Natural values are the card's number, Jack 10, King 11, Ace 11, Queen 0.
• Stacking follows the MSV and DM formula, with one Queen and one Joker per stack at most. An Ace holds up to six cards inside it. Where an older line of the rules gave a different number (soldiers stacking to three, three soldiers with a King, a d12 for the King), the MSV, DM and SL formula decides.
• A stack's score is its best card. Dice add on attack. On defense, cards use their natural value only, unless a Queen is in the stack; an Ace stack defends with the Ace's 11 + d20. Jacks don't count on defense.
• If the attacker's total is higher, the defender takes one damage; otherwise the attacker takes one. Each damage removes the stack's lowest card, or a heart from a card that has hearts. Every Ace has two hearts: the first hit takes a heart and the cards inside are safe; when the last heart goes, the Ace falls with everything inside it. A Repairman can give an Ace a third heart, once. King and Ace rolls of 20 and 1 change the damage as written above. The dice box shows the attack total on the left and the defense total on the right, like 12>1.
• The landing roll: in every fight both sides also roll 1d20. The attacker's 1 is a Crit Miss: the attack misses. The attacker's 20, with two or more cards in the stack that can each attack, is a Crit Hit: the defender takes the blow whatever the scores, unless it rolls a 20 too. A defender's 1 costs it nothing. Three or more Puppets in a stack crit on 19 or 20; Puppets never miss and shrug off Crit Hits. Assassins shrug off Crit Hits and dodge on 17 to 20 of their own roll (a Miss). Every player sees the Crit Hit, Crit Miss or Miss on screen.
• Dice Plus (Enchantment, 1d3 mana): on one of your stacks, a sword (its next attack) or a shield (its next defense) adds a d12 on this table: 1: +1 · 2: +1d2 · 3: +1d3 · 4: +1d4 · 5–6: +1d6 · 7–9: +1d8 · 10: +1d10 · 11: +1d12 · 12: two more d12 on the table, and every 12 rolls again. Once on a stack; as many stacks as you like. The stack glows orange (sword) or purple (shield).
• Spells on a stack: their names show in faint blackletter at the bottom of the stack, and how long they last (and their odds) at its top right.
• Cards are placed from the hand into your own spawn lines: on an empty tile, or onto your own stack if the stack stays legal. Your spawn lines are your backline and frontline; on a field 5 wide and 5 tall or smaller they are your backline alone. Teammates on the same side may spawn on each other's lines. Aces go only on empty backline tiles; Jokers spawn onto your stack holding a card of the same color.
• Each stack moves once per turn, one tile straight. A group made only of Jacks moves two tiles straight or one diagonal. You can split a stack by choosing which cards move.
• Stacks attack an enemy stack next to them (not diagonal, except Jack-only stacks). Aces and a King standing alone don't attack.
• Paying mana spends your smallest souls first; any mana overpaid is lost, and spent souls go to the grave. Sacrifices happen before any mana is spent, and the Grave Blessing must come before spending too (Ritual Dice excepted).
• A Joker's captured souls hold six mana at most. Double Edged Sword has no listed cost, so it costs 1 mana here.
• The Ether is shared. It holds every special the players do not start with, the unused half of the deck in a one-deck Survival game, and the whole third deck in a three-deck game. A conjure takes a random soul of that kind from it, and Flesh Severance sends exiled souls back into it. A conjure whose kind is not in the Ether cannot be cast. Starting mana takes soldier souls from it; when it has none, new soldier souls are made.
• Overdrawing counts every card burned by a full hand, including draws forced by Forced Hand, but not the opening hand. At the end of each of your turns six of the count are used up and the rest carries on.
• Resurrection brings the card into your hand. Three of Swords destroys cards into the grave (or the Outer Darkness under a Blood Moon). Naked Hand lasts until the caster's turn ends.
• Hypostasis lasts through the enemy's next two turns and ends at the start of your second turn after casting. A stack under it can't be targeted by attacks or by the Full Moon's toll.
• The moon moves one phase each round, at the start of the first player's turn. Its New Moon gift and Full Moon toll reach both players at the start of the round, the first player first; the moon's prices, draw ban and Blood Moon last the whole round, and the spell prices apply to whoever casts that turn.
• The Full Moon never takes a card inside an Ace or under Hypostasis. What is given goes to the soul pile up to your maximum; the rest goes to the grave.
• Not yet in the digital table: the Queen's protection from being surrounded, and placing same-suit cards inside a defending King. A King can't be sacrificed from a stack that holds other cards.

Game types and rule options

On this part of the page: Game types · Substances · Setup options · The sky · The Bank and the economy · Siege, support and mining · Fog and stealth · On the screen

Game types

Local

Two to four players on one device (up to eight in King of the Hill); any seat can be a computer. Each picks a Substance (see Substances below), a color, and a platonic solid as a symbol. The symbol marks the player's cards everywhere in the player's color, and the player's deck bar is drawn in that color, one block for every card in the deck, with a brighter overlay at its left end when the deck grows past its starting size. The mana bar is a deep indigo, one block for each mana.

Versus Computer

One to three coded opponents, not a language model, at three difficulties each, 1v1, free-for-all, or two against two with a computer as your teammate. Each turn it chooses between offense and defense from the field and the decks: defense bunkers (Kings with Queens, Aces held back, Hypostasis over a threatened stack); offense surrounds enemy stacks and casts curses. Easy plays an easier version of this, Medium is balanced, and Hard goes all out on your field and your deck, plays the Joker for souls, stacks Aces for the Grave Blessing and keeps its own deck high.

King of the Hill

A layout for Local and Versus Computer, for 2 to 8 players, on its own 25 by 25 night field: forests, mountains (tiles that aren't there) winding around the middle in a ring with 2 by 2 gaps, scattered peaks, and in the middle a 5 by 5 Hill, white and glowing, never in the fog. Spawns are 2 deep and 3 wide on the edges and in the corners, with potions along them; by default players spawn far enough from their enemies but not as far as possible, or, with Next to enemies, closer to enemies than to teammates. Team mode (on by default) makes two sides, Side A and Side B, that need not be even; a Hill tile shows its side's color, outlined in the holder's own color. At the end of every round (after the attack phase) each side holding at least one Hill tile scores 1; first to 30 or 50 points wins, or 100 in a Marathon. Double points doubles every point; Contest means nobody scores while more than one side holds the Hill. Tug of war (team mode): one shared bar from −25 to +25 that the holding side pulls its way, and that stops while both hold the Hill; pull it to the end to win. In a Marathon, holding the Hill can raise mercenaries: on each of your turns, one chance in four, a band of soldiers under a crown in your side's color, which stays yours; everyone is told. The Carriage (this mode only; standard, 13 in its corner, Carriage Conjure for 1 mana, as many as you like, not counted against the Ether): two hearts, no attack or defense; it carries any stack but one with an Archer up to 3 tiles in any direction; blows hit it first, and of the ranged cards only Archers can shoot at it; when it breaks, every card it carried rolls 1d4 and dies on a 1. The Ether starts with three decks' worth of every kind, gains one more every 10 turns, and never holds more than four decks' worth of a kind. The Bank stands beside the Hill: nothing can enter its building, the Banker beside it can't be attacked, and Debt Collectors on Carriages guard it; here the Bank's Collectors ride Carriages and cover 3 tiles a turn. Every other way to win still counts. Sight is a circle of 2 tiles (a Scout's a circle of 4, and a Scout moves up to 3 tiles in any direction), and a meteor can fall on any turn (one in twenty). The field uses the large-map camera.

Online

Play with friends on their own devices. One player chooses Online → Open a room and shares the five-letter room code; the others choose Online → Join and type it in. The game runs in the host's browser: the others see it from their own seat and play by clicking as usual. The host sets up the game as usual, and each seat can be the host, a player in the room, or a computer. Online, play is always turn by turn and there is no phase timer. Everyone sees the same animations and hears the same sounds, from their own seat. If a player leaves, a computer takes over their seat until they come back: the game reconnects on its own for a while, and joining the same room again from the same browser gives the seat back. The host's device can hold more than one player ("Here, on this device"), who pass it as in a local game. Anyone who joins without a seat, or after the start, watches. There is a chat for everyone in the room (bottom left). No account and nothing to install: the connection is made through the free PeerJS service and then runs directly between the browsers (a few strict school or work networks block that). To try it alone, type LOCAL as the room code before opening a room, and join it with LOCAL from a second tab of the same browser.

Survival

A tower defense for one to four players, always played with the midline. Two survivors play on a 6 by 5 field, three on 9 by 6 and four on 8 by 6 by default (the width and height can be changed), splitting the bottom two lines between them; the Horde spawns once for each survivor still standing, and the survivors take their turns one after another on the device. You open with an Ace and its Jack; the Horde takes the first turn. Each round the Horde spawns a group from a fresh deck on its two lines, stacking where it can, then moves on you and attacks the stacks that threaten it most. It has no spells, hand, deck or grave: its dead vanish, unless your Joker captures them. Spells that only touch a hand or a deck (Forced Hand, Double Edged Sword, Three of Swords, Naked Hand) are off. The moon still turns and Blood Moons still rise. When a Horde Joker shoots itself, the cards it captured from you go to the Outer Darkness and you lose 1 mana. You lose when your last card on the field falls, and the round count, in Roman numerals, is your score.

Aces never spawn. The Horde ignores two limits: a King or a Queen standing alone can still attack. When the Horde's own two lines are full, a new card takes the place of the weakest Horde stack still standing there, which fades back into the Ether. Each spawn keeps its highest cards first (Jokers, then Kings, Jacks, Queens, then soldiers from 10 down) until the limit is reached. From round 11 the Joker spawns first: roll 1d4, and on a 4 a Joker spawns and you roll again, two Jokers a round at most.

More players

• Free-for-all (3 or 4 players): 7 by 7 by default, or any square from 5 to 9, with the corners cut by default. Each player spawns and raises Aces only on their own edge. The last player standing wins.
• Two against two (4 players): side by side (teammates on neighboring edges of a square field), across (teammates on opposite edges), or same side (6 by 6 by default, 6 to 8 wide and 4 to 6 tall; each team holds one end and each player half its columns, like 1v1). Each player chooses Side A or Side B in their setup; each side needs two players. Teammates can't attack each other. A team wins when both enemies have fallen.
• Decks: free-for-all players take a whole deck each (default) or half a deck (one red and one black suit). A team splits one deck, two suits and one Joker to each teammate; with a shared team deck teammates draw from one deck and spend from one soul pile but keep separate hands.
• When a player falls: their deck and hand go to the grave and the grave is shuffled (default), or they go to the Outer Darkness. A shared team deck stays with the teammate still standing.
• Turn order: classic (default for Local), draw and prep together with attacks in turns (default against the computer and in single-player Survival), or every phase together. A phase played together ends when every player is Ready. More than one person on one device always plays classic.
• Phase timer (off by default): 30, 60 or 90 seconds a phase; under 60 and 90 the draw phase gets 30. When it runs out the game moves to the next phase, and during setup it places your cards the way a Medium computer would.
• Computer speed: slow, normal (default) or fast.

Substances

A Substance is what you play as. Each one changes your deck, your spells or your limits. Random picks one when the game starts, and only the Beginner can be played by more than one player.

Substance cards with hearts lose one heart each time they take damage and fall at none. They can't be sacrificed, and they never lie in the grave. One-time spells say so when they are cast. Big moments come up as a box; smaller ones as a short notice across the top of the screen, in the color of the player they belong to.

Setup options

• Field size: 1v1 is 5 (default), 6 or 7 tiles wide, with the midline on (default) or off and the corners cut or kept. Free-for-all and the edge 2v2 layouts are a square from 5 to 9 (7 by default); 2v2 on the same side and co-op Survival pick a width and a height. On a phone, 5 wide is the largest size that stays easy to read.
• Midline: on by default; can be removed outside Survival.
• Battle map: no map (plain tiles) by default, Random (one of the four regular maps), or chosen: Keep (a stone keep on your backline, a graveyard on the midline, the enemy's barracks), Sahel (red laterite and dry grass of the far north at night, with mud-brick walls and thatched huts), Forest, Dungeon (no castle or barracks), or the special maps: River and no map. Every map is at night. The art is drawn under the tiles and shows through the gaps between them. The maps are drawn in pixel art, like the dungeon background; the Menu's Map art switches back to the old drawings.
• Large maps (the Map tab's Size): 10 long and 6 wide (1v1, or 2v2 with each team on one short end), 10 by 10 (any layout), a 10 by 10 plus with arms 4 wide (everyone spawns at the end of an arm), and the plus with a round open middle (the hole option can open its center). Spawn lines are two deep, away from the corners. A large map scrolls inside a frame: the mouse wheel zooms around the pointer, dragging an empty spot or WASD and the arrow keys move it (Shift: faster), Q and E or C and V zoom; on a touch screen it scrolls. The Menu's Large Map Controls can turn the wheel off, reverse the wheel's or the keys' zoom, and set the speed.
• River: a wide brown river like the Ogun near Lagos runs along the midline. It can only be crossed on a bridge two tiles wide, on the left or the right. The River map is always 7 wide and 5 tall and can't cut its corners. It isn't offered in Survival.
• Hole in the middle (off by default, never on the River): an empty pit of one or two tiles each way in the center, doubled (a cross) or tripled (a square) where there's room outside everyone's lines.
• Headquarters (Local and Versus Computer): each side opens with two Aces as bases, the first holding its Jack, and troops can only be spawned inside your own Aces. New Aces may still be raised on the backline and become bases too. The only ways to win are destroying every enemy base or an economic victory; losing every other card on the field doesn't end the game.
• Decks: one deck between the two players (each takes one red and one black suit, dealt at random or chosen), two decks (default; a full deck each), or three decks (a full deck each and a whole third deck waiting in the Ether).
• Specials and Aces (Jacks, Queens, Kings, Jokers and Aces): none besides the opening Ace and its Jack (default), half (the specials of half your suits), or all. Every special a player does not start with waits in the Ether, ready to be conjured.
• At least one Joker (on by default): every player's deck holds at least one Joker, taken from the Ether when the specials setting would leave none.
• Starting mana: each player starts with souls in their soul pile, taken from the Ether as soldier souls (or newly made when the Ether has none). Default 3d2; it can be 1d6, a fixed number, or none. With one deck each player rolls their own by default; with two or three decks one roll sets the same starting mana for everyone by default. Either can be switched.
• Moon combat bonus (on by default): at the Full Moon every attack adds 1d2 to its score; at the New Moon every defense adds 1d2.
• Heavenly Body shop (on by default): any of the seven Heavenly Bodies can be bought for the sky. See The Heavenly Body shop under The sky.
• Striking Substances (not in Survival): the small check in a Substance tile strikes it from the game for every seat: nobody can pick it and Random never rolls it. At least one Substance stays, and Random needs two to choose from. Only the Beginner can be shared, so it can be struck only while there are as many other Substances as seats.
• Striking Heavenly Bodies: the check on a Heavenly Body under Starting Heavenly Body strikes it from Astrology: it can't be bought in the Heavenly Body shop and the Firmament can't raise it. The starting Heavenly Body can't be struck.
• Spells in the attack phase (off by default): enchantments, curses, sorcery and illusions can also be cast during the attack phase. Necromancy, conjuring and sacrifices stay in the prep phase.
• Optional Ace rule: the cards inside an Ace must match its color.
• Blood Moon mode: the game begins on a Blood Moon. Each player's deck is shuffled before two thirds of it go to the graveyard, and each player starts with one Joker in hand.
• Eclipse mode: the game opens under the eclipse of the chosen sky (the Blood Moon, for the moon).

The sky

Before a game (Starting Heavenly Body): the moon (default), no starting Heavenly Body, or a Heavenly Body from the start: Saturn, Mars, the Second Sun, Venus, Mercury or Jupiter. A Heavenly Body from the start keeps the Firmament out (and Saturn keeps Yaldabaoth out), and its favors go to the Bank. A Leviathan can coil on Mars, Venus or Jupiter, with its toll every eighth round. Hover or tap the sky in a game for what it means for you.

• Oaths (Astrology, free, cast again to break). One Oath at a time. An Oath can be sworn whatever is in the sky, and it holds when the sky changes; it ends only if its Heavenly Body is eaten. Oaths are sworn and broken in the Oaths panel at the top of Astrology; spells an Oath opens show only while it is sworn.
  • Oath of the Earth: no necromancy (Grave Blessing raises nothing), and every Sorcery dice price rolls twice for you and keeps the lower. Gambling: a 1d2 for doubled odds (9 or 10 wins) and a 1d2 for no loss on a 1; both at once and the odds stay plain. Gamble II (1 mana): 1d20, and a natural 20 is a Crit Success: the Bank fills your soul pile as full as it can hold, surplus included; nothing is ever lost but the mana. Every enemy Joker you kill: +1d2 + 1d3 mana, and doubled odds on your next Gambling or Gamble II (once; it doesn't stack). Miners bring +1 for every mana they dig.
  • Oath of the Second Sun (not the Firmament): fire mana (3 at most, 6 for a round), earned by sacrificing cards to the Sun (the sun + buttons beside sac +, even with the Sun out of the sky) and given back for every judgement the Sun takes from you. It pays for Scorched Earth (1d2 + 2 fire: the ground burns two tiles around a tile you choose, the middle too, for 1d3 turns; each turn a stack in it takes one damage on a 4 of 1d4, your own included; never the last heart of an Ace or the Tree) and Blindness (2 + 1d2 fire: an enemy sees nothing on the field, not even their own cards, for the whole next round).
  • Oath of the Moon: 2d2 − 1 more grave cards every New Moon; +2 mana and +2 maximum every Full Moon; one more Grave Blessing die every turn; Jokers conjure for one less; a Moon Joker, made from nothing, twice between Full Moons; a Joker that shoots itself at the New Moon goes back into the deck; under a Blood Moon your dead keep to the grave. But a Joker of yours must shoot itself before each Full Moon, or you lose a maximum mana and the next New Moon gives you nothing. With no Moon in the sky, its Full Moon still comes every eighth round.
  • Oath of Saturn (not the Firmament or Binah): each Bank Report in good standing pays +10% of your mana (at least 1) and +1 maximum for good. While Saturn is up, its Puppets fight for you (moved by the computer) after the 1st toll paid (one stack of 1d4), the 3rd (two), the 6th (two) and the 9th (three). Miss one toll and you betray Saturn: no Puppets for the next three tolls, Saturn's own Puppets come after you three turns after every missed toll, and the Oath can't be broken any more. Breaking it costs all your mana, 5 random deck cards, 2 random hand cards and 2 maximum mana.
  • Oath of Venus: +2 mana and +2 maximum each turn you start without having attacked a player; each attack on a player costs 1d2 mana and two maximum for 1d3 turns. You can pay other players' debts and loans at the Bank (Between players): every 1d2 paid takes 1 mana off one of your next buys (never below 1); 6 or more at once gives +2 on defense for 2d3 turns. Healers cost one less.
  • Oath of Jupiter: every conjuring costs one less, except what already costs one. Your mana can fall to −12 before you lose, not −8.
  • Oath of Mercury: unlocks Betrayal, Declare War and Bribe the Banker. +1 mana for every Auction sale. Rob the Bank in any round, once a round, with all its other limits. Take the Bank's bounties at any time (see the Bank).
  A popup tells everyone when a Heavenly Body with an Oath rises.
• Mercury: brought by the Firmament (Astrology, 2d3). Under it anyone can call a vote: Peace Time (free, everyone must agree, 3 + 1d2 − 1 rounds: every stack goes home and what has no room goes back into the deck, weakest first; every card with hearts heals; curses and enchantments end; everyone gets three grave cards, one at a time; no player may attack another or step into another player's lines) or Total War (free, everyone must agree, 3 + 1d2 − 1 rounds: every card killed falls into the Outer Darkness and pays its killer a mana, curses cost 1d2 − 1 less, teammates may fight and every damage to a teammate pays its soul's worth + 1d2 − 1). Buy Peace (4d2): Peace for two rounds without a vote. The Oath of Mercury unlocks Betrayal (1d2 + 2d3, team games: you leave your team for good after a yes or no; for two rounds kills fall into the Outer Darkness and damage between you and your former teammates pays its dealer), Declare War (1d2 + 2d3: Total War for 1d2 rounds without a vote) and Bribe the Banker (1d2 + 2d3 now and every round: one player pays one more for every spell for 3d2 − 1 rounds).
• Eclipses: each Heavenly Body in the sky has a 5% chance of an eclipse at the start of each round (the moon's eclipse is the Blood Moon). The suns: every hand, Assassin and face-down card is shown for the round, everyone may take one of their own cards back from the Outer Darkness, the field darkens and the page shimmers; Yaldabaoth eating the Sun now is blind and loses control of his troops for this round and the next. Jupiter (two rounds): everyone gets +2d3 − 1 maximum and a soul pile filled to twice the maximum, the Bank forgives every debt and loan and doubles what it holds, the Ether is on sale, miners bring twice as much for 1d4 turns, and Yaldabaoth gets a mana for each soul of others in the Outer Darkness. Venus: its gifts double, and everyone may give five random deck cards to another player to take five from the grave. Mercury: everyone votes Peace (1d2 + 1 rounds) or Total War; a split vote means war. Mars: the strongest in the Outer Darkness rolls its way back into its owner's deck, everyone gets two free curses (never the same one twice), and Samson may walk out of Limbo on a 2 of 1d2. Eclipse mode (setup) opens the game under the eclipse of the chosen sky: the Blood Moon for the moon.
• Saturn's eclipse (5% a round while Saturn is up): one of these, rolled on d100: the Bank collapses (5); Debt Collectors rise after everyone more than 3 mana in debt (25); three stacks of 1d4 Grunts take the field and fight everyone (20); a meteor (25); everyone loses three maximum mana, three deck cards and three mana (10); the Banker dies (5); no surplus mana for the rest of the game, and Debt Collectors come more often (10). Those under the Oath of Saturn are spared every outcome but the meteor and the Banker; in any collapse they are spared unless they are 6 or more in mana debt. So is anyone in good standing with the Bank for the last four Reports. Saturn's toll passes over a player in good standing for the last two Reports one time in four (it counts as paid).
• Venus's ledger: when Venus's gift goes to the enemy (+1 mana a turn for you, +2 maximum for every enemy), each round an enemy holding the gift leaves your side alone you get 1 mana of gratitude (2 at most a round). An enemy who attacks your side anyway loses the gift for three rounds, and Venus pays you 2 mana for the ingratitude.
• Venus's eclipse also heals every card on the field, and offers to mend a betrayal: if the betrayer and their old teammates all agree, they are one team again.
• The Heavenly Body shop (Astrology, its own panel): the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Second Sun, Mars, Jupiter or Saturn can be bought for the sky by anyone, for 7 + 1d3 + 1d12 mana each, rolled every round. Everyone is told at once, and the Heavenly Body takes the sky at the start of the next round, with a second notice of what it replaced and who bought it. After any purchase, no Heavenly Body can be bought for six rounds. Nobody's Substance changes. A Heavenly Body that was eaten never comes back; the Moon comes back as a Waxing Crescent. A bought Second Sun or Saturn judges and taxes its buyer like everyone else. The Sun's mana always goes to the Bank; what Saturn takes goes to the Bank unless the buyer's own Substance raises it anyway (Yaldabaoth's Saturn). The Firmament keeps everything the Heavenly Bodies give it, whoever put them up. Other bought Heavenly Bodies count their buyer as the one who raised them (Venus's gift, Jupiter's luck).
• Cycles: every sixth round a Heavenly Body has hung in the sky, its cycle comes. Venus: those under her Oath pay 1 less (never below 1 mana) for support and base cards from the Ether (Scout, Miner, Repairman, Battering Ram, Healer, Ace, Wall) that round, and every wounded card of theirs heals a heart; everyone else gets the same only on a 4 of 1d4. Mercury: everyone votes to ban one school of spells (or nothing) for 1d3 rounds, for everyone, from the next round; the most votes win, and a tie is a d20 roll-off between the players behind the tied choices, unless one of them is under the Oath of Mercury, who wins it outright. In that round anyone can also try to Rob the Bank (free, once, the dark red button under the Bank): roll 1d20. A natural 20: +5 maximum mana, and as much of the Bank’s mana as your soul pile can hold. The Bank can’t be robbed while it is empty. 2 to 19: a stack of 1d4 Grunts comes out of the Bank after you, and you can never take a loan or spend on credit again. A 1: Jail for 2d2 rounds: an easy computer plays your side and you cast nothing; when you come out, nothing from the Ether and no Bank for ten turns, and never a loan again.
• Yaldabaoth and the Sun: The Sun Cries (free, once every 1d3 turns): three times and it becomes the Black Sun, and the Firmament that raised it pays Yaldabaoth 1d2 mana or 1d2 deck cards every 1d2 of its turns. Night's Judgement can eat any Heavenly Body at any time (Jupiter feeds 4 hunger, the rest 3); an eaten Heavenly Body never comes back. A player left with no ground to place cards on is out.

The Bank and the economy

• Spending: Every mana spent on a spell goes to the Bank. The Bank lends only what it holds.
• Loans: mana now, paid out of the Bank's own mana (the Bank can go 8 into the red, no further). Up to 12, 6 if you are below zero, 5 at minus your maximum. Due in half the amount in your turns, at least 2 (12 mana: 6 turns). A loan grows by 1d2 every 3 of your turns; what isn't repaid when it's due becomes mana debt, and your mana shows below zero. One loan at a time, one a round, and the next no sooner than 3 of your turns after the last.
• Credit: With Spend on credit ticked, spells you can't afford go on your debt, with no other limit. Mana debt grows by 1d2 every 3 of your turns, and every soul you gain pays it first.
• The floor: You can go down to −8 mana. Below −8 you lose at once.
• Selling: Sell cards from your hand or deck for their soul worth, or 1 less (rolled at the sale); a standard card worth only 1 can't be sold. They go to the Ether and your deck is reshuffled. Binah can sell thralls for 1 mana each.
• Upselling: A spell bought more than twice in each of two rounds in a row costs 1d2 − 1 more.
• A Bank in the red: The Ether goes on sale (1 less), and the Bank asks the richest player for a loan, which it pays back at 20% every two rounds.
• Debt Collectors (tax collectors): Stay below zero for 3 of your turns, or leave a Bank loan open for 3 + (owed ÷ 3) of your turns, and you are in default. From then on, at the start of each of your turns the Bank sends 1d2 Debt Collectors (half as many again after six turns in default; six at most on the field) after whoever in default owes the most, and they strike every turn until it is paid off. Only a player who owes the Bank can strike a Debt Collector, so teammates can't fight them off for you. They wear the Bank's top hat. Whatever they kill goes to the Ether, and its soul worth pays off the victim's debt. On a 4 of 1d4 a good card they kill (not a 2 to 10, never a Substance card) turns up at the Auction instead, sold by the Bank for less than the Ether asks, to anyone who pays.
• The Bank's land: the Bank window's Land tab sells eight plots, 1 mana each, one plot every two of your turns. A plot is a Miner slot no enemy can reach: put a Miner from your hand in it and it brings 1d2 − 1 mana a turn, like a Miner in an Ace (1d2 under Jupiter). Jupiter in the sky adds 1 mana a plot each turn, and 1d2 a plot during its eclipse. A plot with its Miner can be sold back to the Bank for 2 to 3 mana (1 + 1d2, rolled after the sale): it settles the Bank's half of that plot's takings, then pays your debt, and the rest goes to your soul pile; the Bank sells plot and Miner on for 3 mana. When a player is out of the game, the Bank takes their land. At every Full Moon (every eighth round when the Moon isn't in the sky) the Bank takes half of what your plots brought in since. What you can't pay becomes mana debt and Debt Collectors come for it; miss two pay days in a row and the Bank takes the land back and turns each Miner on it into two Slave cards, sold at the Auction for 1 mana each. Whenever the Bank sells something of a player who owes it, the money pays that player's debt.
• Loans between players: the Bank window's Between players tab. Ask another player for 1 to 8 mana; they refuse, or lend it and set when it is due, 2 to 12 of your turns (a request waiting for you lights the Bank with a small "!"). You then see the terms and take the loan or turn it down. It grows by 1d2 every 3 of the borrower's turns, to the lender, until it is paid. When it is due, whatever they hold then pays it, and for the rest the Bank sends Debt Collectors after them, and whatever those kill goes to the lender until it is paid. The Auction lights up the same way when something new is for sale.
• The Credit and Loan Report (the Bank window's own tab): every Full Moon (every eighth round when the Moon isn't in the sky) each player gets a paper for the turns since the last: mana taken on loans and on credit and the two together, the interest on each and together, the taxes taken, the mana earned, and the standing. Standing turns bad by going into default, leaving a tax unpaid or robbing the Bank; in bad standing the Debt Collectors inquire.
• Bounties (the Bank window's own tab): each Report puts a bounty on every player in bad standing (debt, unpaid loans or taxes, a robbery), worth what they owe. Under the Oath of Mercury, or for anyone while Mercury is in the sky, you can take one, more than one at a time. Taking one puts 5 Debt Collectors, made from nothing, into your deck and 2 into your hand, even past the hand limit (the only time it can be broken). Placed, they strike only that player, a teammate too, without it being betrayal. More can be bought for 2 mana each (3 at most on the field for a bounty); those come down near the target. What they kill goes to the Ether and its price comes off the target's debt; a captured support card of the target's can be turned in for its price too. Collect it all within two Reports: the Bank pays you half of what was owed and forgives your own debts and loans. Fail and your Debt Collectors in hand, deck and field go over to the Bank, your other bounties are cancelled, and you can't take another until the next Report. A bounty ends with no reward if the target pays everything first. Debt Collectors can't be bought any other way.
• Taxes (taken only on Report day): 1d2 for a base in the middle of the field (ground that is nobody's home rows); every other Ace or Tree has a 1 in 3 chance (1 in 2 in bad standing) of a 1d2 tax. Taxes can't be paid on credit: with no mana they go unpaid, and the standing turns bad.
• Land in the middle: 2 mana at the Bank buys a spawn point on a free tile of the middle ground until the next Report (one at a time), marked with a $ in your color. Any card but a Wall can come down there; a card that comes down without a base on the tile costs 1d2 − 1. A base there stays a spawn point after the land runs out, until it falls.
• Gifts and forgiveness: in the Bank window's Between players tab a lender can forgive a loan, and anyone can give mana or a card from the hand to another player. Anyone can trade a card from the hand at the Auction.
• Collapse: If the Bank and every player are 3 or more below zero, it collapses: everyone back to zero, every maximum falls to three, five cards from each deck and one Ace from the field go to the Ether, and prices wobble up for 4d2 turns.
• Opening and closing: The Bank can open with (2 × players)d2 mana (off by default). One round in a thousand the Banker dies of a heart attack, and the Bank and the Ether close for good.
• Surplus mana: you can hold up to three times your maximum for a round (6/6 can become 18/6); at the start of the next round anything over the maximum goes to the grave.
• Gambling (Sorcery, 1 mana): 1d10; a natural 10 wins 7d2 mana from the Bank; a 1 costs one maximum mana, 7d2 of mana debt and a card from your deck. Increase Max Mana (Conjuring, 4): +1 maximum mana, eighteen at most. Mystery Generation (in the Auction, 3 to 8 mana, rolled when you pay): three brand-new cards, face down until you turn them, made from thin air into your deck. Rarity: Common 47.5%, Uncommon 23.75%, Rare 14.25%, Epic 4.75%, Legendary 4.75%, Mythic 5% (the wildcards Antony, Goatbull, the Leviathan, Samson, BullGoat and Satan, rarer the stronger they are; never the Collector, Slave, Slavemaster or Trafficker). A wildcard comes without its Substance's spells, and only the Leviathan player's Leviathan can rise to the moon.
• Demons (on by default): every 4 + 1d12 turns, and with every Blood Moon, a crimson band takes the middle of the field: a stack of 1d3 + 1 Grunts, a second stack (more Grunts, or 1d3 Infantry or 1d2 Jacks), sometimes a third, and an Ace base on a 6 of 1d6; more with three or four players (at least two Aces with four). They don't move and strike at anything beside them. Whoever kills the most of a band gets an Ether sale for three turns (every conjuring costs 1d2 − 1 less, rolled each turn, but never less than 1 mana); if the band had an Ace that died and two or more stacks, or three stacks and no Ace, the Banker also forgives that player's debts. If Demons hold the middle for 7d2 turns, the Banker gets angry and every price goes up by 1 until they're gone.
• The meteor: one round in a hundred a meteor falls on a random tile: one damage there, one damage on a 4 of 1d4 on every tile around it (Walls take 1d2 + 1), and fire burns the area for two rounds (one damage on a natural 20 at the start of a stack's turn).

Siege, support and mining

• Archers (standard, 1d2 mana, 1 for the Beginner): 1d20 + 1d10 at a stack exactly two tiles away, straight or diagonal; a miss costs nothing; no defense. Or Suppress: the target attacks with disadvantage next time (or waits 1d2 of its turns), and the Archer rests 1d2 turns. Alone, with a Queen, or inside an Ace, the Tree or a Wall. Eight per deck in the Ether.
• Cannons (6 mana, one per deck): 2d20 at anything up to three tiles away, once every 1d2 + 2 turns; a miss costs nothing; two damage to a Wall; it can't take an Ace's last heart or harm the Tree. One step a turn, no defense; alone or inside a base.
• Walls (base, 4 mana): five hearts, defense 10, never move; go up on any empty tile of your spawn lines; hold six cards, but only Archers and Cannons fire from inside (one shot a turn). Charges hit them twice as hard; Rams, Cannons and Lightning Strike do two. When a Wall falls, everything inside dies.
• Support cards: never fight and die last in their stack. Standing alone, an enemy beside them can Capture one into its stack's capture slot (one per stack), or Destroy it. Set a captive to work beside the stack in your prep phase and it is yours. Healer (2 + 1d3): a shield that turns one blow (back in 1d4 rounds), or one heart healed in or beside its stack (1d2 + 2 turns between heals; the shield is down 3 turns after); never with a Queen. Repairman (2): one heart back to a Wall, Ace or Tree in or beside his stack, then 1d3 + 1 turns of rest during which nothing fires from that base; he can strengthen the Tree up to five hearts, or upgrade an Ace once with his life. Battering Ram (3): worked by one or two Grunts, Infantry or Puppets, two damage to a Wall beside it; blows never kill it. Miner (2): in one of an Ace's two miner slots, 1d2 − 1 mana a turn from the next round; on a crystal it digs; elsewhere 1 mana on a 6; the first to fall when its stack is hit, and an attacker beside it may take it instead.
• Crystals (on by default): a crystal cluster with 12 mana rises in the middle of the field every 1d6 + 4 turns (Headquarters opens with one); a Miner on it digs 1 + 1d3 mana whenever it rolls a 2 on 1d2.
• Field Libation (Necromancy, free, not under the Full Moon): your stacks show an X; check cards and pour them out; each is worth its mana on a 2 of 1d2 and goes to the grave on a 1.
• Stacked odds: advantage and disadvantage cancel one for one. Two of the same kind roll with that advantage (or disadvantage) and add +2 (or −2) on top; each more adds 1.

Fog and stealth

• Fog of war (on by default): each of your cards sees only the eight tiles around it (straight and diagonal), a Scout two tiles out in a diamond (two straight, one diagonal); foggy tiles are shaded. Archers, Cannons, Rifles and the Slugshot Cannon may fire into a fogged tile in reach: with nothing there the shot is always lost, and a hit is heard but not seen. It can be switched off before a game.
• Claimers (special, marked F, a flag): never attack or defend; one heart. Two per deck wait in the Ether (Claimer Conjure: 2 mana). In your prep phase a stack holding one can Claim Land: a Flag goes up on that tile, and the Claimer dies, his card going straight back to the Ether. A Flag is not a card: it has three hearts (shown while nobody stands on it), turns see-through under a stack like a crystal, and is a spawn point for bases: you can put a base down on your own empty Flag anywhere on the field. Every base but a Wall is a spawn point too: you can place cards into your own Ace or Tree wherever it stands. An enemy stack beside a Flag (or on it) can strike it in its attack phase for one heart, no roll, as its attack; a Repairman beside your Flag can mend a heart, then rests 1d3 + 1 turns.
• Scouts (support): never attack or defend; see two tiles out in a diamond (two straight, one diagonal), and uncover everything there: Assassins, ambushers, face-down cards and enemy Scouts. Enemies see a Scout only from right beside it or with their own Scout close by. Every deck holds two (the Beginner's an Assassin too); your opening Ace brings one from the Ether, and a later Ace brings one while you have no Scout on the field (Lucifer & Ouroboros get none); the Beginner gets a free one each Full Moon while holding fewer than two. Scout Conjure: 1 mana.
• Assassins: two hearts (a pair stacked together has three), attack 10 + 1d12, defense 8; one straight, two diagonal, or two forward or back. Hidden like a Scout. Only another Assassin stacks with one. Assassin Conjure: 2d2 + 1 mana.
• Face-down cards: tick "Place face down" before putting a card down. You see it with a faint stripe; enemies see only its back. It attacks with double disadvantage and defends with advantage, and flips face up once it attacks or is attacked. A Scout within two tiles sees what it is.
• Ambush: an Assassin or a face-down stack can be set in ambush (the card turns sideways). It vanishes from enemy sight unless they stand right beside it, and it strikes with advantage, out of turn, at the first enemy that steps beside it. Moving it ends the ambush.
• Quiet Eyes (Illusion, 2 mana): on each enemy's next turn, and only that turn, they see only the tiles their own cards stand on; every other tile is fog. Scouts don't see through it. Bird's Eye (Sorcery, 1d2 mana): the fog lifts for you and your team for the rest of the round; it doesn't help against a Delusion.

On the screen

• Spells: the right column holds the Bank, then the spells in their own scroll box, then the selected stack. Within each school the spells run from cheapest to dearest. Rest the mouse on a spell (or long-press it on a touch screen) for its price, when it can be cast, what it needs, what it does and its limits.
• The Ether: the Ether entry at the top of Conjuring opens a panel on the right with every card you can conjure, by type (Standard, Special, Support, Base), cheapest first, with how many are left. Increase Max Mana sits right under it.
• Oaths and Heavenly Bodies: Astrology starts with the Oaths panel, and for the Firmament a Heavenly Bodies panel with its Heavenly Bodies. Spells that need a certain sky (Peace Time, Total War, Buy Peace, The Sun Cries) show only while that sky is up.
• Grave Blessing on its own: the auto switch on the left of Grave Blessing casts it for you at the start of every prep phase.
• Configure Automation (the ▦ button by the turn buttons, or the ⚙ on Ritual Dice and Lazy Hand): four tabs, each with its own on/off switch at the top. Field: the computer moves and attacks with the cards on your field, as set (it can be switched off for everyone before a game; the other three always stay). Ritual Dice: buys Ritual Dice before Grave Blessing, by a playstyle or your own Custom settings, which are remembered. Lazy Hand: places and sacrifices hand cards. Grave: picks the cards raised from the grave (Grave Blessing, the New Moon and the rest): which kinds, with a Yes-and list for single kinds, in what order, the strongest first; when nothing matches it can ask, or raise nothing. Every ranking of kinds starts grouped (Special, Base, Standard, Support, Wildcard) and can be split into single kinds, like the King.
• Display: the Display button at the bottom of the screen opens the theme, the card icon size, the interface size, the text size (small words grow the most), the hand position, the tile names (columns A, B, C from the left and rows 1, 2, 3 from the bottom, like a chessboard) and the page width (full width by default on a computer). The static switch sits beside it. The Menu holds the same settings, plus where the selected-stack box and the turn buttons sit.
• Card info: rest the mouse on the top-right corner of any card or stack for its stats, or tap the corner on a touch screen: type (Standard, Special, Support, Wildcard or Base), attack and defense averages with their min–max, hearts, soul worth, effects, the cards in it and anything it captured or imprisoned. Drag that corner from one stack on the field onto another to compare them: higher in green, lower in red, equal in yellow. The selected-stack box shows the same stats and can compare with another stack or any kind of card.
• Status: hover or tap a player's symbol for their limits, effects and recent spells; hover or tap the sky for what it means for you.
• Windows: every window has an X in its top-right corner, and Escape closes it.
• Log: every action is listed with the time to the second on your computer, colored in the color of the player who took it, with the tiles it happened on.
• Dice box history: each dice box notes the player's last spell, the tile it was cast on and the time. Click a dice box to open the history of every player's rolls and spells, with tiles and the time on your computer; click anywhere else or press Escape to close it.
• Menu: at the top of the page; it pauses the game and holds every display setting.
• Phase timer off: while a timer is running, the quote box has a button that switches it off for the rest of the game.

Events and their rarity