Combo Fighter
Combo Fighter Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Overview
Combo Fighter is a fast-paced, card-driven rendition of a classic arcade fighting game. Players take on the role of powerful martial artists fighting each other for glory and fame.
The game evolves over a number of Rounds in which players make their moves by simultaneously playing their Move Cards. Moves deal damage and can be strung together to form Combos. When fighters take damage, they lose cards from their hand or deck. When they run out of cards, they are Knocked Out. The last fighter standing is the Winner.
All characters in Combo Fighter have unique powers and fighting styles, and every matchup reveals a different dynamic and metagame. Perfecting the combos of your favorite fighter and knowing your opponent's moves is the key to success.
Components
For exact component quantities please refer to the back of the box.
Each fighter is represented by:
1 Double-sided Character Sheet
Each fighter has a double-sided Character Sheet. One side provides flavor and backstory while the other details the character's stats and Combos.
1 Double-sided Power Token
Each fighter has a Power Token which represents the fighter's unique abilities and rules. All fighters begin with their Power Token with side A faceup.
51 Card Moves deck (50 Move Cards and 1 Staggering Card).
Move Cards
These 50 cards make up your fighter's arsenal. Move Cards fall into three categories:
- Red cards represent Attack Moves such as punches and kicks.
- Blue cards represent Defense Moves such as dodges and blocks.
- Yellow cards represent Footwork Moves such as closing distance or creating angles.
Additionally Move Cards may have priority (indicated by a star on the Button Icon) and all red cards contain an initiative value.
Staggering Card
Each fighter has a Staggering Card, which is placed facedown at the bottom of the Moves Deck. When the Staggering Card becomes visible, your fighter is just a single hit away from losing the game and being knocked out.
Setup
To set up the game, each player picks a fighter and grabs the corresponding Character Sheet, Power Token, Moves Deck, and Staggering Card.
Place your Character Sheet stat side faceup in front of you next to your Power Token with side A faceup.
Place your faceup Staggering Card next to your fighter's power token and take your 5 Starting Move Cards (identified by the S in the bottom left corner) into your hand. Shuffle your remaining Move Cards to form your Moves Deck and place it facedown on top of the Staggering Card.
The game is set up and ready to roll. Boris vs Grace!
Starting Hand: Each fighter has 5 cards with the Starting Move Card icon.
Anatomy of a Card
Each Move Card shows the following information:
- Type — indicated by the card's color.
- Name — the move's name.
- Initiative — shown in the top-left corner.
- Button Icon — the icon used to link combos.
- Opening Damage — the damage dealt when the card is the first one played in the round.
- Combo Damage — the damage dealt when the card is played as part of a combo.
- Combo Box — lists the Button Icons that may follow this card to continue a combo.
- Priority — some cards (mostly Defense and Footwork cards) show a star, indicating Priority.
Gameplay
Combo Fighter is played over a series of Rounds until only one fighter is left standing. Fighters are Knocked Out when they run out of cards in their Hand and Moves Deck. The last fighter standing claims victory.
The Round
At the beginning of each Round, players play one Move Card from their Hand facedown in front of them to determine who Wins the Round. The Winner of a Round deals damage (see page 9) and may continue playing cards to Combo. If players Tie, both deal damage but may not play additional cards to Combo. Once both players have chosen a Move Card, they reveal and compare them.
The Winner for the Round is determined by the color of each card played. As indicated by the Win Circle on each player's Character Sheet, blue cards (Defense Moves) beat red cards (Attack Moves), red cards beat yellow cards (Footwork Moves), and yellow cards beat blue cards.
If both players play blue cards or both players play yellow cards, the player who played a Priority Move Card Wins the Round. If both or neither of the move cards have priority, the Round is a Tie.
In the example above Boris has played Rush and Grace has played Elbow, because Rush has the Priority icon Boris will win the round.
If both players play red cards, the player who played the card with the higher initiative Wins the Round. If both red cards have the same initiative, the Round is a Tie.
In the example above Grace has played Snake Snap with an initiative of 6 vs Boris' Headbutt with and initiative of 4. Grace with the higher initiative will Win the Round.
The Winner of the Round deals damage (see page 9) and may continue playing cards. This is called playing a Combo.
If the Round is a Tie, both players deal damage, but neither may play a Combo.
Playing a Combo
If you Win a Round, you may continue playing cards from your hand as long as the Button Icon on the next card you play is also in the Combo Box on the card that came directly before it.
In the example below Boris has landed a hit with his Thunder Clap Attack card, he then continues his Combo following the Button icons.
Damage and Knock Outs
If the Round is a Tie, each player deals the Opening Damage listed on the Move Card they played. If the Round had a Winner, only the Winner deals damage. The damage they deal is calculated by adding the damage from all of the Move Cards they played in the following manner: the first Move deals its Opening Damage but any card following the first deals its Combo Damage instead.
For each point of damage you deal, your opponent must discard a card from Hand and/or deck and place it faceup in their discard pile.
When you deal enough damage to force your opponent to discard their last card, their fighter is Knocked Out, and you Win the game.
End of a Round
After damage has been resolved, cards played this Round are discarded.
Players may now discard any number of cards from their Hand before drawing from their Moves Deck until they have five cards in Hand.
Staggering
Staggering is a condition that indicates your fighter is only a single hit away from being Knocked Out. Staggering can be triggered in two ways:
Staggering is triggered any time your Moves Deck is empty but you still have at least one card left in your Hand.
In both cases, the Staggering Card at the bottom of the deck becomes visible as a reminder that your fighter is Staggering. Shuffle your Discard Pile to form a new Moves Deck, and place it next to your Staggering Card to indicate you are now Staggering. Then, draw from your Moves Deck until you have five cards in Hand and continue playing.
When your fighter is staggering, you may continue playing, hoping for a spectacular comeback. But the next time you take even a single point of damage, your fighter is Knocked Out and you lose the game.
Power Tokens
Each Character has a Power Token detailing their unique powers. Begin the game with side A faceup and abide by the rules on the Power Token. Unless explicitly stated on the Power Token itself, only the rules printed on the visible side are active.
Double Knock Out
In rare cases it may happen that both fighters are Knocked Out simultaneously. In this case the fight results in a Draw.
Signature Combos
Each character has three Signature Combos that are described on their Character Sheet. If you Win the Round and play exactly the Moves indicated for a Signature Combo (no more and no less) you may call a Signature Combo. Call out the name of the Signature Combo to ignore the damage on the cards played and instead deal the damage indicated by the Signature Combo.
When calling a Signature Combo, you cannot play any other cards that Round (either before or after the Combo).
Note that some Signature Combos have a standard version as well as a Moxie Version. The Moxie Version is played in the same manner as the standard version, but does more damage and requires an extra Move Card. In both cases, the cards must be played in the exact order indicated.
Solo Mode
Pick a fighter to play and an AI fighter to go up against. Set up the game as you would normally. Shuffle the AI's Starting Hand and place it on top of the fighter's Moves Deck.
Play according to the normal rules, except that each Round, the AI plays the top card from their deck. If the AI Wins the card flip, draw 4 cards from their deck and — taking their perspective — play the Combo that deals the highest amount of damage possible. At the end of the Round, cards that the AI fighter drew but did not play are discarded and deal 1 damage each.
If you deal enough damage to empty the AI's deck, you Win the game. If the AI fighter draws the last card from their deck as a result of Winning the Round, they become Staggered as per the normal rules.
The individual AI fighters use a few additional rules as noted below:
Boris Wolfram
Boris will prioritize flipping his power token over dealing damage. I.e. if he Wins a Round and draws at least 3 blue cards out of the 4, he will use them to flip his Power Token.
Grace Lee
Grace Lee begins with the Phoenix Strike card face up in front of her. She may play this in a Combo, but will do so only if it allows her to Win the fight outright. Note that this allows her to potentially play a 6 card Combo.
Renée IJzer
When her Rotterdam Rush Hour power is not activated, IJzer prioritizes playing a Signature Combo over dealing damage. Once activated, she uses the Rotterdam Rush Hour when possible.
Francisco Ferro
Francisco uses his Retaliate power only on Signature Combos or cards that deal 3+ damage.
Kagami Yoshida
Kagami prioritizes Signature Combos over dealing damage.
Tele 'Stomp' Manava
If Earthquake Warning has not been activated, Stomp prioritizes activating it over dealing damage.
Gaekere Baako
When on the ground, red cards Baako discards because he could not play them, deal 3 damage each.
Snø Storm
If her power token has not been flipped to its B side, Snø prioritizes playing the Switch Stance Combo. However, if she faces a fighter with attack cards of Intiative 8+, Storm will never call the Switch Stance Combo.
Ruby Fox
Ruby prioritizes playing the Warm Up Signature Combo over dealing damage. Once Dance Fever is activated, she will stick to revealing and discarding a single card when she Wins a Round. However, if her opponent has 20 or less total health remaining, Ruby will try to flip enough cards to Win the match (be it 2 or 3 cards).
Lu Yan
Yan prioritizes playing Bottoms Up over dealing damage until X = 3. When Yan loses a Round, draw 4 cards and do the Drunken Wobble if possible. If it is not, put the drawn cards at the bottom of his deck.
Multiplayer Variants
Team Battle (2 vs. 2)
In this variant, two teams will fight each other to score the most points across three separate games. For each game, players from each team are paired into separate fights according to the following structure:
Game 1 and 2
Team A's Player 1 vs. Team B's Player 1 and Team A's Player 2 vs. Team B's Player 2
Game 3
Team A's Player 1 vs. Team B's Player 2 and Team A's Player 2 vs. Team B's Player 1
A single victory gives the team 1 point. A double victory (i.e. both players from the same team Win) gives 3 points. Whichever team has the most points after three Games is the Winner.
Tag Team
2 teams of multiple fighters face off! Each team chooses a fighter to begin "In the Ring". Fight with standard rules but after you Win a Round against an opponent you may "Tag Out" and have a Teammate switch places with you and take over the fight. Each time your Teammate Wins a Round, you may put 3 cards from your discard pile at the bottom of your deck. the first team to K.O a single opponent Wins!
Battle Royale
In this variant, three or more players can battle each other at the same time. Determine the starting player randomly. In clockwise order, players take turns fighting one Round against the person to their left.
As fighters are Knocked Out, they are eliminated from the game and fighting rotation. The last fighter standing is the Winner.
Royal Rumble
This is a particularly chaotic variant of the Battle Royale. Determine the starting player randomly. In clockwise order, players fight one Round against an opponent of their choice. As fighters are Knocked Out, they are eliminated from the game. The last fighter standing is the Winner.