.hack//ENEMY Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Card Types
  • Monsters
  • PCs
  • Items
  • Actions
  • Events
  • Fields
  • Elements
• How to Win the Game
• Preparing for Play
• Sequence of Play
  • Draw Step (draw a card)
  • Play Step (play a card)
    • Requirements
    • Play Limits
    • Play a Card
  • Discard Your Hand
  • Attack Step
    • Defender May Avoid
    • Assign Fights
    • Assign Extra Attackers
    • Resolving Fights
    • Draw Destiny
• Other Important Rules
  • Deck Construction
  • Reward
  • Scoring Monsters
  • Storable Monsters
  • Tolerance
  • Spotting
  • Match Play
  • Tournament Rules
  • Level Up!
  • Special Promo Event Cards
• Glossary

Card Types

There are six different card types in the game. Monsters attack your opponent for victory points. PCs defend against monsters and use items to enhance their strength. Actions are revealed to surprise your opponent. Events represent things that happen between battles. Fields are places where you battle.

Monsters

Monster cards represent the creatures that you use to attack your opponent’s PCs. Monsters provide victory points when they successfully attack. When you have 7 victory points in your score pile, you win the game.

Each monster has a species, which may be referred to by some other cards.

Some monsters are storable, which means you can play them to your portal to save up for a big attack.

Most monsters have a reward, which you can use when that monster wins a fight.

PCs

PC cards represent player characters (or “PCs”) in the online game “The World.” They are your defense against your opponent’s monsters. Each PC has a level (in the first expansion set, all PCs are level 1) and each PC also has a class.

There are six different PC classes: Twin Blades, Long Arms, Wavemasters, Heavy Blades, Heavy Axemen, and Blademasters (like me).

Orca: You can mix and match PC classes in your deck, but often it’s best to have lots of PCs of the same class so they can share weapons, armor, and action cards.

Items

Item cards represent the weapons and armor your PCs find while adventuring in “The World.” Most items play on only one class of PC. Place the items a PC is bearing (carrying) beneath the PC card, with the numbers at the left showing.

Item cards have a level (1, 2, or 3).

Items also have a subtype (either weapon or armor). A PC may bear only one weapon and only one armor at a time.

Orca: The card type icons in the upper left hand corner of items say either “IA” for “Item – Armor” or “IW” for “Item – Weapon.” Make sure you have no more than one weapon and one armor on each PC.

Actions

Action cards represent special skill-based attacks or other things that happen in the game.

Actions are played face down. Each action card tells you when to flip it face up and what it does.

Actions are “one-shot” cards. You flip over an action card, its game text has an effect, and then you place it in your discard pile.

Actions provide surprise, which can often win a battle against an enemy monster. You can also play other cards face down to bluff, making your opponent think that you have an action card to flip.

Events

Event cards represent things that happen when your PCs are not in a battle. Some represent unusual items your PCs use while adventuring in “The World.”

Events are “one-shot” cards. You play an event card, its game text has an effect, and then you place it in your discard pile.

Event cards introduce story elements like legendary hackers, special places, or emails from your friends. There are even some special promotional events that you can only get by participating in tournaments!

Fields

Field cards represent the places in “The World” that PCs adventure in. Only one field may be in play at a time. If a field is already in play when you play yours, place the old one in its owner’s discard pile.

Many fields have special effects that help your monsters fight better. (You don’t have to have a field in play to attack with your monsters.)

Field names are made up of a server ID, like Δ (delta) or Θ (theta), and then three keywords combined to make a unique location.

Elements

Many cards have an element (some do not). The element of a card indicates the natural phenomenon from which the card draws its power. There are six different elements.

• Wood — Earth
• Fire — Water
• Darkness — Thunder

Sometimes elements are represented in game text like this: Wood, Earth, Fire, Water, Darkness, and Thunder. (The printed rulebook shows these as element icons; they are written out here as words.)

How to Win the Game

When you have seven or more victory points in your score pile, the game is over and you win.

Also, when either player draws the last card from his or her deck, the game ends at the end of that turn and the player with the most victory points wins. (Even though this is the last turn, you get to shuffle your deck and draw destiny as needed.) If you both have the same number of victory points at the end of the last turn, the game is a draw.

Preparing for Play

Shuffle your deck. Allow your opponent to cut it. Both players cut to a random card in their decks. Look at the destiny numbers of the cards revealed. Highest goes first (if tied, cut again).

Each player draws four cards for his or her hand.

The first player completes all the actions in his or her turn, and then the other player takes a turn. Turns alternate in this way until one player wins.

Sequence of Play

A player follows this sequence when he or she takes a turn:

• Draw Step
• Play Step
• Attack Step (if needed)

Draw Step (draw a card)

At the start of each of your turns, draw a card from your deck and add it to your hand.

Then, you must reconcile your hand as follows:

• If you have more than five cards: You must choose and discard cards from your hand until you have only five.
• If you have fewer than five cards: Draw cards from your deck until you have five in your hand.

If at any time you cannot draw a card because your deck is empty, reshuffle your discard pile to make a new deck.

Play Step (play a card)

Generally, you may play only one card on your turn. Sometimes a card lets you play more than one.

Requirements

You must meet any “to play” requirements on the card you play. Some cards require you to spot other cards (see spotting below).

Play Limits

Some types of cards have a limit on how many of those cards can be in play at one time:

• Each player may have only three PCs.
• Each player may have only five hidden cards.
• Each PC may bear only one of each subtype of item (one armor, one weapon, and so on).
• Each player may have only one of each PC (your opponent may also have the same PC).
• Only one field may be in play at a time.

When a play limit is reached, that doesn’t prevent you from playing a card of that type. However, a card of the appropriate type must be sacrificed in order to “make room” for the new card. (This means that if your opponent has a field in play, he or she must sacrifice that card when you play a field.)

Play a Card

You must do one (and only one) of the following:

• Play a PC
• Play a field
• Play an item
• Play an event
• Play a monster
• Play a hidden card
• Discard your hand (if it is your first turn)

Play a PC — A PC is played to the table, face up in front of you.

Play limits specify that each player can have a maximum of three PCs in play. A player can only have one PC of a given card name in play, though an opponent can also have that PC.

When you play a PC, you can either use an available slot against your three PC maximum, or you can replace one of your PCs already in play. To replace a PC, sacrifice it and replace it with the new PC to be played. Items transfer to the new PC if that PC is a legal bearer (as indicated in the “To Play” boxes on the items). Otherwise, items on the replaced PC are also sacrificed.

Orca: You have Kite (with Noble Cloak), Mia, and Ginkan (with a Rondo) in your party. You may play BT by removing any of your other PCs. If you replace Kite, BT may bear his Noble Cloak. If you replace Ginkan, the Rondo is sacrificed since BT cannot bear this weapon.

When a PC is played, that PC is healthy. A PC in play may become wounded. When a PC is wounded, turn that card (and any cards it bears) sideways 90 degrees. If you heal that PC, turn those cards back upright again. Only a wounded PC can be healed.

A wounded PC can fight just as well as a healthy PC. If a wounded PC is wounded again, that PC is destroyed (along with all items that PC bears).

You can replace a wounded PC with another copy of that PC and effectively heal that PC, since the new copy is played healthy.

Orca: You have Kite, Mia, and Ginkan (wounded, with a Rondo) in your party. You may play Ginkan by replacing the wounded copy. The new copy of Ginkan comes into play healthy and bears the Rondo.

Play a field — A field is played to the table, face up in front of you. Play limits specify that there can be only one field in play. This means that a field already in play, whether yours or your opponent’s, must be sacrificed when you play a field.

Play an item — An item is played to the table, face up under a PC. That PC is the bearer of that item. Play limits specify that a PC may bear only one of each subtype of item.

Most items have game text that you use when you play that item. Then, put the item card underneath your PC card with just the left edge showing.

You must meet any “to play” requirements on an item before you can use any “when you play this item” game text on it.

Play an event — An event is played to the table. When you play an event, do what the card says, and then place it in your discard pile.

Play a hidden card/action — A hidden card is played to the table, face down in front of you. You can look at your hidden cards at any time, but not your opponent’s hidden cards.

You can play any card as a hidden card. An action can only be played as a hidden card.

If you can’t meet the requirements of any of the cards in your hand, then you must play one of those cards as a hidden card.

Orca: Generally, you play a non-action card as a hidden card because you have no other card to play, or to make your opponent think you have an action card hidden.

Though action cards play face down, they tell you when you can flip them. When you flip an action, do what that card says, and then place it in your discard pile.

Each player can have only five hidden cards. If you play a sixth hidden card, you must sacrifice one of your five hidden cards.

Play a monster — A monster is played to the table, face up in front of you. When you play a monster, you either attack with it or, if it is storable, you can place it in your portal instead. When you attack with a monster, an Attack Step takes place.

The portal is a space on the table designated to hold monsters. A monster in your portal is usually available to fight with another monster on a later turn. The storable monster usually states when it can join another monster in an attack. Other cards can allow monsters in your portal to attack.

You can only play a monster to attack on your turn, and you can only attack once per turn. If a card effect allows you to play a monster otherwise, you must play that monster to your portal or not at all.

Some monsters have a dot (•) before their card names, indicating that they are unique. Only one copy of a unique monster can be in play. Unlike other play limits, a unique monster in play prevents another copy of that monster from being played.

Monsters in portals and in score piles are in play, so while your opponent has a copy of a unique monster in his or her score pile, you can’t play a copy of that same monster.

Once you score your copy of •Skeith, your opponent can’t play her copy until she finds some way to get rid of your scored •Skeith.

Discard Your Hand

On your first turn, you can discard your hand instead of playing a card. This allows you to draw five cards during your next Draw Step since you reconcile your hand to five cards.

The “discard your hand” rule helps you to get better cards into your hand before you start playing cards. Often, players want to have a PC early in the game.

Attack Step

An Attack Step takes place when you play a monster to attack (as opposed to playing a storable monster to your portal). Place the monster in front of your opponent’s PCs to signify the attack.

You can only play a monster to attack on your turn, and you can only attack once per turn.

If you want to use any game text that allows monsters in your portal to join the attack, declare this now by moving those monsters from your portal in front of your opponent’s PCs.

For example, some storable warrior monsters say, “May fight when a warrior fights,” and some storable insects say, “May fight when another monster fights.”

Defender May Avoid

Your opponent must decide whether to fight your monsters or avoid the attack. This is an all-or-nothing decision, and your opponent cannot decide to avoid some monsters and fight others. If your opponent has no PCs in play, then he or she must avoid your attack.

If the monsters are avoided: You may use the reward on each of your monsters, and each monster with one or more victory points is scored (see below). Your turn ends.

If the monsters are fought: Proceed with the battle.

Assign Fights

Your opponent must now assign one attacking monster and one of her PCs to fight.

If there are both an unassigned monster and an unassigned PC remaining, your opponent must assign these to a second fight. If there is a third PC and another unassigned monster remaining, your opponent must assign a third fight.

Your opponent assigns a fight by moving a monster next to its assigned PC. Each PC may be assigned no more than one monster at this time, and each monster no more than one PC. There may be unassigned monsters remaining at this point.

Your opponent can move attacking monsters around the table to help in considering fight assignments. No assignment is final until your opponent declares that the positioning of assigned monsters and PCs is complete.

Assign Extra Attackers

If there are still unassigned attacking monsters, you must now assign each of these to an existing fight, thereby assigning more than one monster to that fight. No assignment of extra attackers is final until you declare their positioning complete.

You battle with five monsters. Your opponent assigns one of your monsters to each of her three PCs, so you have two extra. You may assign both of these extra monsters to the same fight (making a three-on-one), or you may assign each of those extra monsters to a different fight (making a pair of two-on-ones).

Resolving Fights

The defending player determines the order fights are resolved. One fight is completely resolved before the next fight is resolved.

To resolve a fight, compare the PCs strength to the combined strength of all monsters in that fight. However, before strengths are compared, players may flip actions and then both players draw destiny. Generally, only the defending player has actions to flip during a fight. Strength bonuses from actions last for the duration of the fight. Remember to place an action in your discard pile after you flip it.

Draw Destiny

After actions are flipped, both players draw destiny. When you draw destiny, reveal the top card of your deck, note its destiny, and discard it. Add that card’s destiny to the strength of your PC or to the combined strength of your monsters involved in that fight, as appropriate.

You must always draw destiny. If you cannot draw destiny because your deck is empty, reshuffle your discard pile to make a new deck.

Compare Strength

If the PC strength total is higher: The PC wins and the losing monster (or monsters) is destroyed. That fight is now over.

If the monster strength total is higher or there is a tie: The PC loses and takes a wound (turn the PC card sideways). (See tolerance below.) If a wounded PC loses a fight, that PC is destroyed (destroy all cards on that PC). The game is not over when you lose your last PC (unless a card says so, like the card Game Over). Each of your monsters in this fight wins and you may use its reward (see reward below).

After you have used any rewards, choose only one of the winning monsters in this fight that has a victory point to be scored. Place that monster in your score pile. Place your other monsters in this fight in your discard pile. If no winning monster has a victory point, place them all in your discard pile. That fight is now over.

When all fights are resolved, the turn ends.

Some cards wound PCs or destroy monsters, so sometimes a fight loses all of its monsters or PCs before it resolves.

Orca: When you select a fight that has no PCs, the monsters may use rewards and all of them may score (don’t draw destiny), just like if the monsters were avoided. The monsters don’t get credit for winning.

Orca: When you select a fight that has no monsters, nothing happens (don’t draw destiny, and the PC doesn’t get credit for winning).

Other Important Rules

Deck Construction

When you’re ready to make your own customized deck, here are the rules to follow.

Your deck must have exactly 60 cards, with no more than four of any one card in your deck.

Cards with the same card name count as the same, no matter what else is on the card.

Orca: About half your deck should be monster cards. Make sure you’ve got at least seven victory points on those monsters or you can’t win! I’d suggest about 12 to 16 PCs, with the rest of the deck made up of items, actions, events, and fields.

Orca: Be sure that you can meet all the “to play” requirements on your cards. Don’t load up your deck with lv. 3 items before you add a few lv. 1 and lv. 2 items. Stronger monsters have tougher “to play” requirements, so make sure you have the right cards in your deck to get them into play.

Reward

Each monster that is avoided may use its reward. Also, when any monster wins a fight, you may use that monster’s reward. (Some monsters do not have a reward.)

Each reward is optional. You may choose not to use it if you don’t want to.

When more than one monster wins a fight, each of those winning monsters may use its reward (you choose the order in which your monsters’ rewards are used).

Scoring Monsters

Each of your attacking monsters that has one or more victory points that your opponent avoided is scored. Place that monster in your score pile with its victory points showing. A monster without a victory point that is not defended is placed in your discard pile after you use its reward.

Also, when a group of monsters wins a fight, you may select one monster from that fight that has one or more victory points to be scored (other monsters in that fight are destroyed).

You can score one monster from each fight, so if there are three fights and you win them all, you can score three monsters in one turn.

Orca: Remember, when you have seven or more victory points in your score pile, the game is over and you win!

Storable Monsters

Some monsters have the keyword storable. When you play a storable monster, you may place that monster in your portal (an area to the side of the table) instead of attacking.

On a later turn, the game text of another card (or on that monster itself) may allow one or more of your monsters in your portal to attack. This is how to make an attack with many monsters on the same turn.

Here’s an example of how that works. On each of your past three turns, you have played a storable goblin to your portal. On your fourth turn, you play another storable goblin, but you want to battle so you don’t play the fourth one to the portal. The other three goblins have game text that lets them attack with another goblin, so you decide to send two of them to join the goblin you played this turn for a three-monster attack. (You decide to save the other goblin in the portal to spot for a monster you’re planning to play next turn.)

Tolerance

Some cards give a PC tolerance, shown as one or more silver icons. The total number of silver icons a PC has on his or her card and all items that PC bears is that PC’s tolerance.

You can add up tolerance icons from multiple sources. If a PC has two items that each provide 1 tolerance, that PC has tolerance of 2.

If a PC loses a fight by his or her tolerance or less, that PC is not wounded (although the monsters still win that fight). To determine how much a PC loses a fight by, subtract the PC’s strength from the total monster strength in the fight.

A PC with a tolerance of 1 who loses a fight by 1 (or less) is not wounded; a PC with a tolerance of 2 who loses a fight by 2 (or less) is not wounded, and so on.

A PC has a total strength of 6 and is facing monsters with a total strength of 7. The PC loses 6 to 7, but is not wounded if the PC has tolerance 1 or more. If the PC has tolerance 2, the PC could lose a fight 6 to 8 and not become wounded, but losing 6 to 9 would result in a wound.

Spotting

When you are required to spot something, you must be able to see it in play. You may spot that thing on items borne by PCs, on a field, in score piles, or on monsters in portals.

You cannot spot the cards in any player’s hand, deck, or discard pile.

You can spot a hidden card, but only if a card requires you to spot a hidden card. For example, if a card requires you to spot a goblin, you cannot spot a hidden goblin.

You may spot your cards and your opponent’s cards (unless the game text says otherwise).

Orca: If your monster requires you to spot four Fire elements to play, you may spot one on your PC’s weapon, one in your score pile, one in your opponent’s portal, and one on your opponent’s field.

Orca: You can’t spot the little element icons in game text. They tell you which of the bigger icons to look for.

Match Play

You may want to play your opponent in a best-of-three-games match, not merely a single game. The winner of the match is the first player to win two games.

For the second or third game of the match, the loser of the previous game goes first. If the previous game was tied, use the same procedure you used for the first game of the match (cut decks and use destiny numbers) to see who goes first.

Tournament Rules

When you play in official sanctioned tournaments, you will receive points for participating in the tournament and for winning matches.

When your ranking reaches 1,000 points, you will receive an email with a special code from Decipher. Go to the Decipher website and enter this code to receive a special Level Up! package. Each package includes a Level Up! card and a special promo event card.

Each time your ranking increases by another 1,000 points, you will receive a code for a new prize package.

Level Up!

The Level Up! card you receive is randomly selected from a pool of five different versions, each featuring a different character: Black Rose, Kite, Helba, Balmung, or Orca. The only difference between versions is the character featured; there is no difference in gameplay.

The Level Up! card is a special card that doesn’t count toward your 60-card deck. You can bring as many Level Up! cards to the game as you want.

The player with the most Level Up! cards goes first in the first game of the match. This rule supercedes the regular destiny cut procedure. If both players have the same number of Level Up! cards (or both have none), use the regular destiny cut procedure.

Before the game begins, place your Level Up! cards in your score pile. Level Up! cards are used to determine who goes first in match play and to play the special promo events.

Special Promo Event Cards

The special promo event card you receive is randomly selected from a pool of five different events. The promo plays like a regular event card, and follows regular deck construction rules (no more than four of any one promo event in your deck).

To play your promo event card, you’ll have to spend (remove from play) one or more of your Level Up! cards. Place cards you have removed from play off to the side in a separate pile. You can’t use those cards in that game again (they can’t be spotted). They’ll be available again when you start your next game.

Glossary

• avoid – To declare that your PCs will not fight.
• bearer – The PC that an item is played on.
• destiny – The number in the upper right corner of every card, which you use when you draw destiny.
• destroy – To spot a card and place that card from play in its owner’s discard pile.
• discard – To place a card from its owner’s hand in its owner’s discard pile.
• draw – To take a card into your hand from the top of your deck.
• heal – To rotate a wounded PC to its healthy state.
• healthy – An unwounded PC (not turned sideways).
• in play – Cards in any discard pile, hand, or deck are not in play. Cards that are removed from play are also not in play. All other cards are in play.
• level – PCs and items have levels that determine how they are played. (Levels for PCs and items in the trading card game do not directly correspond to levels in the video games.)
• lore – Informative text about “The World” and the subject of the card. It has no effect on gameplay.
• match – A series of three games with the same decks and players, won when any player wins two of the three.

Note: the printed glossary has no entry for “spend,” although the index lists “spend” on the glossary page. It is transcribed as printed.