Guilty Gear: Strive – The Board Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Card Overview
  • Character Cards
  • Attack Cards
• Setup
  • The Golden Rule
• The Play Area
• Actions
• Boosts
• Movement
• Resolving Strikes
  • Active Player Attack
  • Reactive Player Attack
• Cleanup
• Gameplay Example
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Glossary

Card Overview

Character Cards

1. Character Name
2. Character Ability/Exceed Ability: This effect is always active.
3. Gauge Cost: How much Gauge it costs to take the Exceed Action and gain your Exceed ability.

Character cards have a Basic Mode and an Exceed Mode.

Attack Cards

Characters fight using the cards in their deck. Each card has an Attack and a Boost. Smart use of these is key to victory!

Attack cards show an Ultra Attack, a Normal Attack, or a Special Attack. The 8 different corner symbols indicate the different normal attacks.

1. Attack Name
2. Attack Cost: Cost to play the card when revealed (if any).
3. Range: Which spaces the attack hits (a Range of "-" cannot hit).
4. Power: An attack's outgoing damage (a Power of "-" cannot deal damage).
5. Speed: Determines who will resolve their attack first.
6. Armor: The attack's defense against incoming damage (when not shown, treat this number as zero).
7. Guard: The attack's stun resistance (when not shown, treat this number as zero).
8. Attack Effects
9. Boost Type: An Instant icon means the Boost is discarded after being played. A Continuous icon means the Boost remains in play until the end of the next Strike.
10. Cancel: If this icon is present, you may Cancel after playing this Boost (and performing its effects).
11. Boost Name
12. Boost Effect

Setup

1. Setup. Place the playmat horizontally to form the arena. Place your characters on the 3rd and 7th spaces with their Basic Modes face-up.
2. Life. Both players start with 30 life (this is also the maximum). Once a player's life is reduced to 0, they lose the game!
3. First Player. Choose who goes first randomly.
4. Cards. Set your reference and extra cards aside. Shuffle your remaining cards to form your deck.
5. Opening Hands. The first player draws 5 cards, while the second player draws 6.
6. Mulligan. Once players have their opening hands, they may set aside any number of cards face-down. Players then draw cards equal to the number they set aside. Then, they shuffle the set aside cards into their decks.
7. Game Start. Setup is finished. Fight!

The Golden Rule

If any text effect contradicts the text of this rulebook, the card text takes precedence.

The Play Area

Only one player's play area is shown here. Both play areas are identical. Except for a player's hand and deck, all other areas are face-up and open information.

1. Life Track. Used to track life changes.
2. Gauge Area. Attacks that hit enter this area to be spent on powerful Ultra attacks or Exceed Actions later on!
3. Continuous Boosts. When playing Continuous Boosts, place them here. Continuous Boosts give you passive effects and stats.
4. Discard Pile. When discarding cards, place them here in the order they were discarded. Discard piles are open information.
5. Sealed. This area is only used when a specific effect says to do so. When sealing a card, the player performing the sealing effect places the card face-up in their sealed area (regardless of who owns the card). Cards remain in the sealed area unless an effect says otherwise.

Actions

On your turn, choose and perform one action. If you did not Strike (for any reason), end your turn by drawing a card and checking max hand size (7 by default).

• Prepare. Draw a card.
• Walk. Select an unoccupied space, then pay the cost to move there.
  • Pay 1 Force per space you Advance or Retreat.
  • Pay 1 extra Force if you move past the opponent.
• Change Cards. Pay 1 or more Force. Then, draw that many cards.
• Exceed. Pay a character's Exceed Cost to flip them to their Exceed Mode, gaining their Exceed ability.
• Manual Reshuffle. Shuffle your discard pile into your deck. (If your deck is empty and you need to draw or Wild Swing, you Reshuffle automatically and proceed with the draw or Wild Swing; this action just lets you Reshuffle early.) If you would Reshuffle a second time, regardless of whether your first was manual or automatic, you lose the game instead. (Effects that shuffle cards into your deck do not consume your Reshuffle.)
• Boost. Play a card to use its Boost effect.
• Strike. Set a card face-down. The player who declares the Strike is the attacker. After the attacker sets their attack, the opponent (the defender) sets their own attack face-down. Then, reveal and resolve both attacks.

Note that some effects will give you new actions. These begin with the phrase "ACTION:". Some of these have an additional cost. The cost will be indicated by an icon to its left.

Hand Size. After drawing a card at the end of your turn, if you have more than 7 cards in your hand, discard cards until you have 7.

Gauge. Build Gauge and use it to Exceed or play your powerful attacks! When you hit with an attack, the card enters your Gauge area during Strike Cleanup. When you need to spend Gauge, generate Gauge by discarding cards from your Gauge Area. You may choose the specific cards to discard when doing this.

Force. Force allows you to Walk and use some other effects. When you need to spend Force, generate Force to spend immediately by discarding cards from your hand or Gauge Area.

• Normals and Specials can be discarded for 1 Force each.
• Ultras can be discarded for 1 or 2 Force each (your choice).

You may only generate as much Force as you need to pay for any effect. It is not possible to "overpay" for an effect.

To play an Instant Boost, perform that Boost's effects immediately. Then, discard the card. These Boosts have a lightning bolt symbol near their name.

To play a Continuous Boost, add the Boost to your Boost Area, then perform any "Now:" effect on the Boost. Its effects are active until it leaves play after Cleanup or due to a card effect.

Boosts

Boosts are unique effects on the bottom section of each attack card. To play a Boost, put the Boost into play, and then perform its effects.

After resolving a Boost action, if the Boost you played was Cancelable, you may spend 1 Gauge. If you do, take another action (instead of ending your turn). This action occurs after the Boost resolves, so it has no effect on the Cancelable Boost that was played. You can only Cancel once after each Boost, but can Cancel any number of times per turn.

Movement

Advance. Move towards the opponent the indicated number of spaces (or as many as possible), switching sides and continuing in the same direction.

Close. Advance the indicated number of spaces (or as many as possible), but without switching sides with the opponent.

Retreat. Move the indicated number of spaces away from the opponent (or as many as possible).

Push/Pull. Push moves the opponent away as if they were Retreating. Pull moves the opponent toward you as if they were Advancing.

Resolving Strikes

When you initiate a Strike for any reason, you are the Attacker and the opponent is the Defender. Players follow these steps:

1. The Attacker sets their Attack Card or Cards face-down.
   • Note: Some characters have abilities they can use when initiating a Strike, before they set cards.
   • A Regular Attack is formed by playing one card from your hand face-down.
   • An EX Attack is formed by playing two cards with the same name from your hand face-down. EX attacks have +1 Power, +1 Speed, +1 Armor, +1 Guard.
   • A Wild Swing is formed by putting the top card of your deck into play face-down without looking at it.
2. The Defender sets their Attack Card or Cards face-down.
3. Reveal the attacks!

Reveal Step. Flip both player's attacks face-up.

• If a player reveals an EX attack, they discard the extra copy of the EX attack to their discard pile.
• If they reveal an attack with a cost (like Ultras), they must pay its cost immediately. If they cannot, the attack is invalid. If the attack with a cost was revealed as a result of a Wild Swing, they may choose to make it invalid.
• If their attack is invalid, they discard it and perform a Wild Swing. They keep discarding and performing Wild Swings until they reveal a valid attack. Replacing an invalid attack is not considered setting a new attack.

Priority Order. Whoever has the higher Speed attack goes first and is now the Active Player. In a Speed tie, the Attacker becomes the Active Player.

Active Player Attack

The Active Player (the one with higher Speed) performs their entire attack before the Reactive Player does anything. An attack has 5 Steps:

1. Check if you are Stunned. If you are, skip the remaining steps.
2. Perform all your Before effects.
3. Check Range to the opponent from the attack's origin (usually your character).
4. If the opponent is in Range, your attack hits. Perform all your Hit effects, then do damage to the opponent.
5. Perform all your After effects.

Trigger Effects. There are four kinds of Trigger Effects in Exceed: Before, Hit, After, and Cleanup. Each of these describes a different timing for when the effect will take place.

• Before effects happen at the start of your attack, before you check your Range to the opponent.
• Hit effects happen if you hit the opponent with your attack.
• After effects will happen at the end of your attack, after you have already hit or missed the opponent.
• Cleanup effects happen at the end of a Strike, even if you were stunned.

When a Trigger Effect comes up, you must activate it following all its instructions. If you have multiple effects with the same trigger, you choose the order to activate each trigger, but you must activate and perform each one individually.

Conditionals. Some effects are conditional: "HIT, RANGE 2: +2 Power. Gain Advantage." This is short for "HIT: If the opponent is at Range 2 from you, +2 Power and gain Advantage."

Damage and Stunning. After hitting the opponent with your attack, you will do damage to the opponent's life equal to your Power, reducing their life by that much.

Damage is first applied to the opponent's Armor before the opponent's life. Reduce the opponent's Armor for each point of damage it prevents (dealing 3 damage to an opponent with 4 Armor means they take no damage and have 1 Armor left over).

If the total damage the opponent has taken during a Strike (after applying Armor) ever exceeds their Guard, they become Stunned for the rest of the Strike. This may prevent them from acting if they are the Reactive Player. (Armor, Guard, and Stun are not persistent between Strikes.)

For example: Sol's Focus has 2 points of Armor and 5 points of Guard. If you were to be hit by a 7-Power attack, you would reduce the damage by your Armor, and only take 5 damage. Since 5 damage is not greater than your 5 Guard you would not be Stunned. If you were hit by an 8-Power attack, you would take 6 damage, and would become Stunned.

Reactive Player Attack

After the Active Player completes all 5 steps, the Reactive Player performs the same steps with their attack. (If they are Stunned, skip their attack entirely).

Cleanup

After resolving both player's attacks, both players clean up. The Attacker performs this first, then the Defender after. Both players do Cleanup even if they are Stunned.

1. Resolve any Cleanup triggers on your Attack or Continuous Boosts.
2. Discard all Continuous Boosts in your Boost area. If a Continuous Boost was sustained during this Strike, leave it in play instead.
3. If you hit your opponent—even if you didn't Stun them—put your attack card into your Gauge Area. If you didn't hit your opponent, put your attack card into your discard pile instead.

Perform any "at the end of the Strike" effects you may have. Like Cleanup triggers, these take place even if you were Stunned.

It's now the Defender's turn. If either player gained Advantage during the Strike, they take the next turn, potentially altering the turn order. If both players gained Advantage, the one who most recently gained it takes the next turn. Neither player draws a card (or checks hand size) at the end of a turn where a Strike occurred.

Gameplay Example

This example walks through several turns of a match between Sol and Ky.

1. Sol's Turn. Sol goes first. He decides to put the pressure on and attack! He initiates a Strike by playing a card from his hand face-down. Ky responds by putting a card from his hand face-down. The attacks are revealed. Ky's Dive attack has a higher Speed, so it executes first! Its effect moves Ky 3 spaces. Ky is now in Range to connect with his attack and do damage. Sol's Focus has 2 Armor, so Ky's damage is reduced from 5 to 3 (5 Power − 2 Armor = 3 damage). Ky's 3 damage is not enough to break Sol's 5 Guard and stun him, so Sol's Focus attack executes! Sol hits Ky for 4 damage. Sol's Focus attack also draws Sol a card with its After effect. Now that both attacks have executed, both players enter Cleanup. Since both players' attacks hit, both attacks go to Gauge.

2. Ky's Turn. Since Sol initiated, it's Ky's turn next. He wants to make space, so he uses the Boost action to play the Instant Boost on Cross. He chooses to Pull 2 instead of Push 2; this Pulls Sol 2 spaces past himself. Then he adds Cross to his Gauge per the Boost's effect. Since this Boost is also Cancelable, he decides to spend 1 Gauge to perform a Cancel and gain an additional action. He uses the Walk action to Retreat 1 by discarding a card from his hand to generate 1 Force. Ky ends his turn by drawing a card, because he didn't Strike.

3. Sol's Turn. Sol decides to use the Walk action to move to Range 1 on the other side of Ky. This is only 3 spaces of movement, but he must pay 4 Force because he moves past Ky on the way. Sol pays the cost by discarding two Normals and an Ultra from his hand (Ultras can generate 1 or 2 Force), then he ends his turn by drawing a card.

4. Ky's Turn. Ky wants to ward off Sol's offense, so he uses the Boost action to play the Continuous Boost on his Dust card. This Boost will give him +4 Guard on the next turn. This time, he decides not to Cancel it, even though it is Cancelable. He ends his turn by drawing a card.

5. Sol's Turn. Sol isn't giving up that easily. He plays his own Cancelable Continuous Boost on Tyrant Wave. This could increase the Power on his next attack. Then Sol performs a Cancel by discarding 1 Gauge. He uses the additional action to initiate a Strike! Ky responds with a Wild Swing, setting the top card of his deck as his attack (without looking at it). The attacks are revealed: Sol's Wild Throw and Ky's Sacred Edge. Ky can't afford Sacred Edge, so he must discard it and replace it with another Wild Swing, which turns out to be Stun Edge. Both players have the same Speed, but Sol initiated, so his attack executes first!

   Sol's Boost has a Before effect, causing him to Close 1, but he moves 0 spaces as he is already next to Ky. Because he moved 0 spaces with the Boost effect, he gains +2 Power. Sol hits, and Pulls Ky into the corner with Wild Throw's Hit effect. He also gains another +1 Power from his character ability, dealing a total of 8 damage (5 Power from Wild Throw, +2 Power from the Boost Effect, +1 Power from Sol's Ability)!

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What exactly happens if I Wild Swing into an attack with a cost? A: If you cannot pay for the attack's cost, you must invalidate it and Wild Swing. Otherwise, you may choose to invalidate it and Wild Swing or pay for its cost and use it as your attack.

Q: If my attack is faster than my opponent's, can I still be Stunned? A: Yes, although being Stunned does not prevent your Cleanup triggers.

Q: What if I have no cards in my hand and a Strike occurs? A: You must perform a Wild Swing.

Q: If an effect allows me to spend something to gain a bonus, like 1 Force for +1 Power, can I do that multiple times? A: No. Anything that lets you use it multiple times will be specifically stated. ("You may spend up to 3 Force. For each Force spent, +1 Power.")

Q: If I EX an Ultra Attack, do I pay the Gauge Cost for each copy? A: No. The Gauge Cost is only paid once.

Q: Does using Cancel prevent the Boost from working? A: No, using Cancel does not prevent the Boost. The new action gained from Cancel happens after the Boost effect resolves.

Q: Can I play an Ultra from hand if I can't afford it? A: Yes. When you reveal it, you'll be forced to invalidate it and replace it with a Wild Swing.

Q: What happens if there are no cards in a player's deck when an effect tells me to interact with the top card of their deck (e.g., by looking at it, Boosting with it, discarding it, or adding it to Gauge)? A: Nothing; that part of the effect fails. A player's deck is only automatically Reshuffled when that player attempts to draw a card or set a Wild Swing.

Q: If an attack is coming from another source, do "Attacks at Range 1 do not hit you." effects care about the character's position or the other source's position? A: The Range is measured from the other source's position, being the attack's point of origin.

Q: What does +1~2 Range mean? How does it affect attacks that only have a single number in their Range such as Grasp? A: When adding Range, add together the left side values (Minimum Range), then add together the right side values (Maximum Range) to create the new Range. For example +1-2 Range on Sweep (which has Range 1-3) results in a Range 2-5 attack. Ranges that only have a single number mean that their Minimum and Maximum are equal. This means that for the purposes of adding, Grasp is considered to have Range 1-1.

Q: Can Leo Whitefang or Nagoriyuki take the Exceed Action? A: No, they cannot. Leo Exceeds only via his ability and card effects; Nagoriyuki Exceeds only at the end of the turn in which he Reshuffles.

Q: How does Anji's "Matsuri -Rock Parade-" interact with "Scramble", the Boost on Focus? A: If the opponent doesn't set the named Normal, they must respond with a Wild Swing; otherwise, "Scramble" has no effect.

Q: How does Happy Chaos' Exceed Mode work? A: When Happy Chaos Exceeds, he flips his character card and Strikes using the attack printed on his Exceed Mode. The opponent responds as usual, but with full knowledge of his attack. During Cleanup, he flips back to his Basic Mode. (He has no attack card, so he doesn't add anything to his Gauge or discard pile.)

Q: How do Faust's "Bomb", "Meteors", "Donut", and "Banana Peel" work? A: Only the Active Player performs the effects on these Boosts. Their effects cause them to leave play during the Active Player's attack, so they aren't in play during the Reactive Player's attack.

Glossary

Advantage - Can be gained during a Strike. You take the next turn, regardless of who initiated the Strike. If Advantage is gained multiple times during a Strike (even by multiple players), the last player to gain Advantage goes next.

After - A trigger on many attacks that resolves after the attack would deal its damage. It happens whether or not the attack hits, but not if you are stunned beforehand.

Before - A trigger on many attacks that resolves before checking if the attack hits the opponent. It happens whether or not the attack hits, but not if you are stunned beforehand.

Cancelable - After using the Boost action to play a Cancelable Boost, you may spend 1 Gauge to perform a Cancel. This allows you to take another action instead of ending your turn.

Force - Generated by spending cards from hand or Gauge. An Ultra Attack can generate 2 Force if spent this way.

Gauge - Generated by spending cards from Gauge. Each card generates 1 Gauge, regardless of type.

Hit - A trigger on many attacks that resolves if the attack hits the opponent, but before the attack's damage is dealt.

Ignore Armor - This attack treats your opponent's Armor as if it were 0.

Ignore Guard - This attack treats your opponent's Guard as if it were 0.

Non-Lethal Damage - Damage that can't bring the opponent below 1 life. They still take full damage for the purposes of Stunning, Armor, and other effects.

Now - Trigger on some Continuous Boosts that resolves immediately upon playing the Boost.

Revert - Deactivate your Exceed Mode by flipping your character to its Basic Mode.

Seal - Remove a card from the game, placing it into your Sealed area.

Stun Immunity - You cannot become Stunned.

Stunned - If a player takes more damage than their Guard, they are Stunned. If they have not yet activated their attack, it will not activate. Some cards check during Cleanup if the player was Stunned, so note that a faster player can still be Stunned during a Strike if the slower player hits back.

Sustain - Prevents a Continuous Boost from being discarded when the current Strike ends. Sustaining a Boost only lasts until the next Strike. You may continue to sustain Boosts over multiple Strikes.