Radiant: Offline Battle Arena Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• This Rulebook
• Components
• Card Types
  • Reminder Text
  • Heroes
    • Name
    • Subtitle
    • Stats
    • Keywords
    • Text Box
    • Class
    • Levelled Up Icon
  • Deities
    • Name
    • Stats
    • Keywords
    • Conduit Icon
  • Skill Cards
    • Name
    • Hero
    • Combat Values
    • Text Box
  • Conduits
    • Name
    • Stats
    • Text
    • Deity Icon
  • Items
    • Name
    • Cost
    • Stat Bonuses
    • Keywords
    • Text Box
• Getting Started
  • Starter Decks
• The Play Area
  • Lanes
  • Skill Deck
  • Discard Pile
  • Shop
  • Home
  • Void
• Setting Up Your First Game
  • Deployment
• Key Concepts
  • The Golden Rules
  • Winning & Losing
  • Committed, Ready, and Recovering
  • Manifestation
  • Damage and KOs
  • Special Damage Types
  • Power
• The Turn
  • The Preparation Phase
    • The First Turn of the Game
    • The Evoker Keyword
  • The Action Phase
    • The Five Basic Actions
    • Talent Actions
    • Using the Basic Actions
  • The End Phase
    • Revive Step
    • Shop Step
    • Draw Step
• Combat
  • Solo and Team Attacks
  • Clash Cards & Clash Effects
  • Step One: Determine Participants
  • Step Two: Clash
  • Step Three: Resolution
  • Blocking
  • Blocking vs Defending
• Keywords
  • Heroic Keywords
  • Action Keywords
• Now Let's Play!
  • Drafting
    • Setup
    • Players
    • Pick Heroes
    • Pick Deities & Items
    • Deck Construction
    • Anatomy of a Deck
• FAQ
  • I can only partially resolve a card's effects. What should I do?
  • I'm confused by the concept of "Opposing Heroes."
  • Do I need to destroy one of my conduits to use the manifest ability?
  • Are clash effects mandatory?
  • Does a hero flip over or recover first when levelling up?
  • Can I use both versions of a hero's ability on the turn I level them up?
  • How do Mato's skill cards work?
  • Do I gain any power when I KO the Wrathlord?
  • When Maka attacks me from another lane, who gets to block?
  • How does Lifelink work?
• Glossary

This Rulebook

This rulebook is divided into two sections:

1. The Learn to Play Guide, which explains the rules and how to play the game. We recommend you read this section before you begin.
2. The Glossary, which contains an alphabetized list of key game concepts for reference purposes. It is not necessary to read the glossary to begin playing.

If you're ever struggling with a rules question, why not pop onto our Discord server? Members of our community are always excited to help out new players.

Components

This copy of Radiant: Champion Edition contains:

• 18 Hero Cards
• 180 Skill Cards (including 18 Ultimate Skill Cards)
• 10 Deity Cards
• 14 Conduit Cards
• 24 Item Cards
• 18 Drafting Cards
• 2 Reference Cards
• 2 Buyback Cards
• 30 Power Tokens
• 30 Damage Tokens
• 22 Acrylic Dividers
• 1 Rulebook

Card Types

There are five different card types in Radiant: Heroes, Deities, Skills, Items and Conduits.

Reminder Text

Sometimes, cards will have reminder text on them to help explain how they work. Reminder text appears in an italic typeface bracketed by a pair of parentheses (e.g. this is an example of reminder text). Reminder text is used when a card's rule text might appear ambiguous or confusing, or to pre-emptively answer frequently asked questions about that card's effect.

Heroes

Heroes are the most important card type in the game. They are the primary means by which players pursue victory and interact with one another.

Hero card anatomy (figure): 1. Name, 2. Subtitle, 3. Attack, 4. Armor, 5. Health, 6. EXP Cost, 7. Keyword Box, 8. Text Box, 9. Class.

Name

Every hero has a unique name.

Subtitle

Every hero has two subtitles: one on their basic side, and one on their levelled-up side.

Stats

Heroes have four stats:

• Attack – used to deal damage in combat
• Armor – reduces damage taken by the hero
• Health – how much damage the hero can take before being KO'd
• EXP Cost – the power cost that must be paid to level the hero up (heroes who have already levelled-up no longer have an EXP cost)

Keywords

Heroes can have keywords that contain gameplay information, such as Evoker and Divine. Keywords can grant specific abilities or be referenced by other cards.

Text Box

The text box details a hero's unique powers and abilities. Special rules text goes here.

Class

Heroes belong to one of three classes: Tank, Warrior or Support. A hero's class has no mechanical effect and is only a guide to help you understand the role that a hero can play on your team.

• Tanks are defensively focused heroes who excel at protecting themselves and their team-mates.
• Warriors are offensively focused heroes who specialize in attacking enemy heroes, conduits, and deities.
• Supports bring subtle and unique benefits to their team. They generate resources through the Evoker keyword and bring powerful utility effects to their team.

Levelled Up Icon

This icon appears only on levelled up heroes and indicates that the hero has been levelled up.

Deities

Deities are a special type of hero card and share many elements with normal heroes. They begin the game out of play, and only enter play under specific circumstances. You win the game by KOing your opponent's deity. Deities are considered to be heroes in all regards, except where explicitly stated otherwise.

Deity card anatomy (figure): 1. Name, 2. Attack, 3. Armor, 4. Health, 5. Keyword Bar, 6. Text Box, 7. Conduit Icon.

Name

Every Deity has a unique name.

Stats

Deities have three stats:

• Attack – used to deal damage in combat
• Armor – reduces damage taken by the hero
• Health – how much damage the hero can take before being KO'd

Keywords

Deities can have keywords that contain gameplay information, such as Divine and Evoker. Keywords can grant specific abilities or be referenced by other cards.

Conduit Icon

This icon indicates which conduits are associated with the deity for deck construction purposes. Simply match the icon on the deity with the icon on the conduits. Each deity is associated with exactly three conduits, and your deck must include all three (you may not play with multiple copies of the same conduit).

Skill Cards

Skill cards represent the skills and abilities of the heroes on your team. Your skill deck is formed by taking the 10 skill cards associated with each of the heroes on your team and shuffling them together into a single 30 card deck.

Skill card anatomy (figure): 1. Name, 2. Hero, 3. Combat Values, 4. Text Box.

Name

Most skill cards are not unique, so multiple cards with the same name can appear in the same deck.

Hero

Every skill card is associated with a specific hero. This text identifies which hero this skill card belongs to. This association is for deck construction purposes only. During play, heroes may use any skill card, not just those from their own set.

Combat Values

Skill cards can have two combat values: Attack and Armor. Combat Values are used when skill cards are played during combat.

Text Box

The text box contains the skill card's unique abilities. Abilities on skill cards will commonly belong to one of two categories:

• Talent Abilities: These abilities are played during a player's turn and cost action points to use.
• Clash Abilities: These abilities resolve when the card is played during combat.

Conduits

Conduits are important objectives. Destroy your enemy's and protect your own! Each player begins the game with three conduits, determined by their deity. Conduits are double sided cards. They have a consecrated and a ruined face. The consecrated face is the same for all conduit cards.

Conduit card anatomy (figure): 1. Name, 2. Attack, 3. Health, 4. Text Box, 5. Deity Icon. Shown: Conduit Card, Consecrated, and Conduit Card, Ruined.

Name

All conduits share the same name on their consecrated side: "Divine Conduit". Ruined conduits have different names.

Stats

Consecrated conduits have two stats:

• Attack – used to deal damage in combat
• Health – how much damage the conduit can take before becoming ruined

Ruined conduits have no stats.

Text

All consecrated conduits have the same text. Ruined conduits have different text – effects that are triggered when the conduit is flipped from its Consecrated to its Ruined side. These effects are called Ruin Effects and they are resolved by the player who owns the conduit (for example, when a player's "Ancient Wisdom" conduit is ruined, that player draws a card).

Deity Icon

This icon indicates which Deity the conduit is associated with for deck construction purposes. Simply find the three conduits with the icon that match the deity you are playing with. Most conduits are associated with multiple deities in unique configurations. Conduits are unique, so no two conduits in your deck should share the same ruined face.

Items

Items are used to enhance the stats and abilities of your heroes and deities. Items begin the game out of play and face down in your Shop. Heroes can equip items during the Shop Step. When equipping a hero with an item, place the item card underneath the hero card as shown in Fig. 1.1.

Item card anatomy (figure): 1. Name, 2. Cost, 3. Stat Bonuses, 4. Keywords Bar, 5. Text Box.

Name

All Items have a unique name.

Cost

This is the cost (paid using Power) that must be paid to bring this item into play.

Fig. 1.1: Place cards so Attack, Armor and Health can be quickly and easily calculated by aligning each icon. Items are tucked beneath the hero with the name peeking over the top. In this example, Itotia has equipped the Sun God's Gauntlet. Her Attack stat is now 4, because the item adds +1 to her Attack.

Stat Bonuses

Many items directly and permanently modify the stats of the heroes and deities to whom they are attached.

Keywords

Items can have keywords that contain gameplay information, such as Weapon or Armor. Keywords can grant specific abilities or be referenced by other cards.

Text Box

The item's unique abilities (if any) are listed here. When an item's text refers to "this hero", that text is referring to the hero or deity who has the item equipped.

Getting Started

Before you can begin, you will need:

• The recommended starter decks
• 2 Buyback Cards
• 2 Reference Cards
• Power and Damage Tokens

Your Deity and Item cards should be kept secret from your opponent.

Starter Decks

A deck in Radiant consists of:

• 3 Hero Cards
• 30 Skill Cards
• 3 Item Cards
• 3 Conduit Cards
• 1 Deity Card

For your first game, you should use the following decklists:

Player A

Heroes

• 1 x Alyn, Knight of the Blood
• 1 x Mato, The Exile
• 1 x Iskandar, Royal Scholar

Skill Cards

• 3 x Implacable
• 3 x Red Harvest
• 3 x Test of Arms
• 1 x Massacre
• 3 x Feel No Pain
• 3 x Battle Frenzy
• 3 x Brute Strength
• 1 x Unbreakable
• 3 x Mystic Trance
• 3 x Time Lock
• 3 x Arcane Evocation
• 1 x Chronostorm

Items

• 1 x Fury
• 1 x Masterwork Boots
• 1 x Vile Infusion

Deity

• 1 x The Final Judge

Conduits

• 1 x Gift of the Elements
• 1 x Nature's Bounty
• 1 x Ancient Wisdom

Player B

Heroes

• 1 x Viggo, Disciple of Wrath
• 1 x Eleanor, Light Bearer
• 1 x Bran, Voice of the Wilds

Skill Cards

• 3 x Sunder
• 3 x Domination
• 3 x Blood Drunk
• 1 x Overkill
• 3 x Blinding Light
• 3 x Zeal
• 3 x Defiance
• 1 x Retribution
• 3 x Invigorate
• 3 x Savage Might
• 3 x Nature's Wrath
• 1 x Serenity

Items

• 1 x Wurmbane
• 1 x Crusader's Guard
• 1 x Sun God's Gauntlet

Deity

• 1 x The Oracle

Conduits

• 1 x Gift of the Elements
• 1 x Nature's Bounty
• 1 x Smite

The Play Area

The play area consists of the following elements:

1. Lanes
2. Skill Deck
3. Discard Pile
4. Shop
5. Home
6. Void

Play area diagram (figure): Central Lane, Outer Lane, KO'd hero, face-down deity.

Lanes

Also referred to as Locations. Lanes are where the action of the game takes place. There are three lanes: two outer lanes and one central lane. Each lane contains two conduits – one belonging to either player, placed at opposite ends. The central lane is adjacent to the two outer lanes, but the outer lanes are not adjacent to one-another.

Skill Deck

A player's skill deck is made up of the 30 skill cards that are associated with the heroes they have chosen. The deck should be placed in front of the player, behind their conduits and within easy reach.

Discard Pile

Each player has a discard pile. The discard pile is located next to the skill deck. Skill cards that have been used or discarded and items that have been destroyed are placed here. All cards in a player's discard pile are face up.

Shop

A player's shop is where their items are kept until a hero equips them. Items in the shop are face down (though their owner may look at them secretly at any time).

Home

A player's home is located next to the skill deck (on the opposite side to the discard pile). Heroes who have been KO'd and Deities that have not manifested are kept here.

Void

The Void is where cards that have been banished are kept. Cards in the void are completely removed from the game and cannot be interacted with in any way (you can put these cards back in the box to help you remember).

Setting Up Your First Game

1. Both players place their Deities face down in their homes (remember that players may look at their own face down cards at any time). Your Deities begin the game out of play but will enter play later.
2. Players place their conduits into the lanes. Each player should place one conduit into each lane on their own side of the table. All conduits should be placed with their consecrated side facing up, and their ruined side should be kept a secret from your opponent.
3. Separate your power and damage tokens into two piles within reach of both players.
4. Each player shuffles their skill deck and draws a hand of five skill cards.
5. Each player should place their Buyback token in their home, face-up.

Fig. 8: Setup example.

Deployment

Players must now deploy their heroes to the table. Player A deploys first. To deploy a hero simply place it into a lane with its basic side face-up (heroes don't begin the game levelled-up!).

Players alternate deployment, each placing a single hero at a time until all six heroes have been deployed. You may deploy any number of heroes to a single lane or split them up as you see fit. You can even leave entire lanes empty!

For your first game, we recommend the example deployment in Fig. 8 "Setup". Once all six heroes are deployed, the game is ready to begin!

Key Concepts

The Golden Rules

1. If a card's text contradicts the rulebook or learn-to-play guide, the card's text takes priority.
2. If two effects would happen at the same time, the active player's effect resolves first. If both effects are from the active player's cards, the active player chooses the order of their resolution.

Winning & Losing

A game of Radiant can end in one of two ways:

• A player's Deity is KO'd. That player immediately loses the game, and their opponent is the winner. If both Deities are KO'd at the same time, the active player wins the game.
• A player goes to draw a card from their skill deck but cannot because the deck is empty. That player immediately loses the game, and their opponent is the winner.

Committed, Ready, and Recovering

Heroes (and Deities) who are in play are always either Ready or Committed. Cards are always ready when they enter play. When a card becomes committed, rotate it 90° clockwise. The most common ways for a hero to become committed are when they make an attack or block an enemy attack.

Committed heroes cannot do anything that would require them to become committed (such as attack an enemy hero or block an attack) but can otherwise act normally.

Committed heroes can become ready by recovering. Many card effects can recover a committed hero but the most common way a hero will recover is by taking the Recover action during your action phase. A hero who is already ready cannot recover.

Figure: Ready State and Committed State.

Manifestation

Your deity begins the game out of play. The process by which it enters play is called Manifestation.

A deity can manifest under one of two conditions:

• When your third and final conduit is ruined, your Deity must manifest immediately
• You may deliberately manifest your deity by using the Manifest action (see "The Five Basic Actions", p.19)

When a Deity manifests, you must banish one of your three heroes from the game (send them to the void). They will never return. The hero you banish does not need to be in play (they may be KO'd). Your Deity enters play at any location, ready, and undamaged. When manifesting your deity, you may never banish a hero who you did not control at the beginning of the game.

Immediately after your Deity enters play, resolve any Manifestation ability printed on them.

Damage and KOs

Heroes, Deities and Conduits have a health value that shows how much damage a card can take before becoming incapacitated. All cards with a health value begin the game with zero damage – a state referred to as Undamaged.

Whenever a card takes damage, place a number of damage tokens on it equal to the damage dealt.

Damage is reduced by armor. Whenever a card would take damage, reduce the total damage dealt by that card's armor value.

When a hero has accumulated a number of damage tokens greater than or equal to their health stat, they are instantly KO'd. Place the hero into your home and remove all damage tokens from that hero. Any items equipped to the KO'd hero remain equipped to that hero and will return to play when the hero does. If the hero has been levelled up, they remain levelled up.

When a conduit has accumulated damage tokens equal to or greater than its health, it is ruined. Flip it from its consecrated face to its ruined face and then resolve any ruin effects printed on it.

Special Damage Types

There are two special types of damage:

• Piercing damage is not reduced by armor
• Stun damage cannot cause a KO. If stun damage would cause sufficient damage to KO a hero, that hero remains in play with 1 health remaining instead

These damage types are additive, so it is possible for an effect to deal both piercing and stun damage at the same time. When this happens, the effect will identify the damage type as piercing stun damage.

Card text represents damage using the damage icon.

Power

Power is the resource that's used to level up heroes, purchase items, and pay the cost of especially powerful abilities. Each player has their own supply of power that will rise and fall over the course of the game. The most common ways of gaining power are:

• If you control an Evoker hero at the start of your turn, you gain 1 power
• After an enemy hero becomes KO'd (for any reason), you gain 2 power
• After an enemy conduit is ruined during the action phase (either player's action phase), you gain 1 power

Card text represents Power using the Power icon.

The Turn

In Radiant, players take alternating turns. A player's turn is split into three phases which occur sequentially. While a player is taking their turn, they are referred to as the active player.

In brief, the three phases are:

The Preparation Phase

The preparation phase is the first phase in each turn. Players don't have much to do during the preparation phase, but a few important things happen:

• The active player generates 3 action points
• The Evoker keyword triggers (see sidebar)
• Any other effects that trigger or expire after a player's turn begins do so now.

The First Turn of the Game

On the very first turn of the game, Player A generates only 2 action points, instead of the usual 3 during their preparation phase. This helps to offset the advantage of going first.

Starting from Player B's first preparation phase, both players generate their full complement of 3 action points as normal.

The Evoker Keyword

The Evoker Keyword most commonly appears on Support heroes and is important to learn about right away. Evoker is the easiest and most reliable way to generate power, the resource you need to level up your heroes, shop for items and play your most powerful skill cards.

During your preparation phase, if you control at least one hero with the Evoker keyword, you gain 1 Power. Multiple evokers do not stack (so if you control two evokers, you still only gain 1 power) and if your evoker gets themself KO'd and isn't in play when your turn begins, you gain nothing.

The starter decks include a hero with the Evoker keyword for each player. You should be sure to identify your own and your opponent's Evoker before continuing.

The Action Phase

The action phase is where the main action of the game takes place. During the action phase the active player's heroes take actions.

All actions in the game have an action point cost. When you want one of your heroes to take an action, the first thing you must do is spend action points equal to the action's cost. If you do not have sufficient action points remaining to pay an action's cost, your hero cannot take that action. Players may only take actions during their own action phase.

Once a player has no more actions that they can take, they must pass. The active player may always choose to pass instead of announcing an action. Once the active player passes, the action phase ends.

There are five basic actions in Radiant: Attack, Recover, Move, Level Up, Manifest. These actions cost 1 action point, can be taken any number of times per turn and are always available to the active player as long as their costs can be paid.

The Five Basic Actions

The basic actions can be used any number of times per turn (as long as you can pay all costs).

• Attack – Commit this hero and any number of additional heroes you control at this location. They attack an enemy conduit or hero at this location (see "Combat" p.23).
• Recover – Recover this hero (see "Committed, Ready and Recovering" p.15).
• Move – Move this hero to an adjacent location.
• Level Up – Pay this hero's Experience Cost. Level Up this hero (after a hero Levels Up, if they were committed, recover them).
• Manifest – Manifest this hero. Only deities may take this action, and only if they are not currently in play (see "Manifestation" p. 16).

Icons (key): Attack, Armor, Damage, Power, Action Point.

Talent Actions

In addition to the five basic actions, there is also an extra category of actions called Talents. Talents are special abilities that can appear on cards. Talents have unique effects and costs and can cost a variable number of action points. To play a talent, simply announce that you are using it instead of one of the five basic actions.

The action point of a talent ability will be listed in its text box. For example, a card that reads "Talent 1 [action point]: Deal 2 damage to an enemy hero at this location." costs 1 action point to use.

Talent actions are always taken by a single hero. When you announce the talent, you must also announce which hero is using the ability. When a talent refers to "this hero", it is always referring to the hero who is using the talent.

If the talent is printed on a skill card, reveal it and place it on the table in front of you. After its effect has finished resolving, put it in the discard pile.

Talents printed on heroes or deities can be re-used as often as their costs can be paid and can only be used by the hero or deity they are printed on. Sometimes, these talents will have the Cooldown keyword, meaning they can only be used once per turn.

Talents printed on Items can only be used while the item is attached to a hero in play and can only be used by that hero.

Damage dealt by a talent ability is considered to have been dealt by the hero who used the talent.

Using the Basic Actions

At first, you're mostly going to want to focus yourself with just the Attack, Move and Recover actions. These form the core of a turn in Radiant and maximising their effectiveness is the first skill you'll want to learn. Remember that your heroes can act multiple times per turn (you can spend all your action points for a turn using a single hero if you want).

The manifest action is functionally a once-per-game ability (you've only got one Deity after all, and they can only enter play once). Using it effectively is a more advanced tactic and we recommend ignoring it completely in your first game.

The End Phase

The end phase marks the end of a player's turn and is divided into three steps, which must be resolved in the following order:

1. Revive Step – During the revive step, players can return their KO'd heroes to play.
2. Shop Step – During the shop step, the active player may equip their heroes with items from their shop.
3. Draw Step – During the draw step, the active player draws a single card from the top of their skill deck. If they now have more than 7 cards in their hand, they must discard cards (of their choice) until they only have 7 cards left.

Revive Step

During the revive step, the active player has an opportunity to bring heroes who have been KO'd back into play using one of two methods: Mass Resurrect or Buyback. You can only use one of these options in any given turn.

When a hero is revived, they enter play on full health, ready, and in a location of your choice. Any items they had equipped remain equipped. If multiple heroes are revived by the same effect, those heroes may be placed in the same location or in different locations.

To use Mass Resurrect, a player must ruin one of their consecrated conduits (this means you cannot use Mass Resurrect if all your conduits are already ruined). After any ruin effect has resolved, Mass Resurrect revives all your heroes who were not in play when the turn began. Heroes who were KO'd during the current turn cannot be revived using Mass Resurrect.

To use Buyback, a player must turn their buyback token face down and pay 5 power. Buyback revives a single hero only but, unlike Mass Resurrect, can be used to revive a hero who was KO'd during this turn. A player cannot use Buyback if their buyback token is already face down. This means that Buyback is normally a once-per-game ability.

Shop Step

During the shop step the active player may equip their heroes with items from their shop. Any number of items may be purchased during a single shop step as long as you can meet their costs. To have one of your heroes equip an item, use the following procedure:

1. Reveal the item from your shop
2. Pay the item's power cost
3. A hero you control at any location equips the item
4. If that hero already had an item equipped, destroy that item (heroes may not have more than one item equipped at any given time)
5. Resolve any Equip effects in the item's text box

Draw Step

The draw step is the last thing to happen in a player's turn. The draw step resolves using the following procedure:

1. The active player draws a single card from the top of their skill deck
2. If the active player now has eight or more cards in their hand, they must discard cards of their choice until they have only seven cards remaining
3. Any remaining action points are lost without effect
4. Any effects that trigger or expire at the end of a player's turn do so now
5. The active player's turn ends, and their opponent's turn begins

Combat

During combat, the normal sequence of play is paused while heroes do battle. Use the combat mechanics to resolve attacks against heroes, deities and conduits.

Solo and Team Attacks

A combat that has only one hero on the attacking side is referred to as a solo attack.

A combat that has two or more heroes on the attacking side is referred to as a team attack.

Both solo and team attacks are launched using the Attack action.

Clash Cards & Clash Effects

Clashing is how heroes bring their skills and abilities to bear during combat. When a hero clashes, their controller plays a single card from their hand face down on top of that hero. Cards played in this manner are referred to as Clash Cards.

Many skill cards have clash effects printed on them. Clash effects are special abilities that trigger only when the card is clashed during combat.

Some clash effects can grant a hero additional clashes, allowing that hero to clash again. Clash cards played outside the usual sequence described in the combat rules are played face up and any additional clash effects from those cards (including any that grant further additional clashes) resolve immediately.

During combat, it is important to pay attention to the order in which clash effects resolve. The attacker's effects always resolve before the defender's.

Step One: Determine Participants

All heroes who participated in the Attack action (see "The Five Basic Actions" p.19) become the attackers.

1. The attacking player chooses the target of the attack; an enemy hero or conduit at the same location as the attackers.
2. The defending player declares any blocks (see "Blocking" p.25).
3. The defending hero or conduit becomes the defender.
4. All participants enter combat, and are now considered to be opposing one-another.

Example (figure caption): In this example, Bran's total attack is 7 (2, +3 for the Spark of Divinity, and then +2 for clashing with Nature's Wrath). His total armor is 1 (0 normally, +1 for Clashing with Nature's Wrath).

Example (figure caption): In this example, Bran is being attacked. Because he is committed and defending, his attack value is 0. He clashes with 10,000 Drills, which adds +1 to his attack and armor. The clash effect gives him +2 to either stat; he chooses defense. His total stats are: 1 attack, 3 armor.

Step Two: Clash

The clash step only occurs if all participants in the combat are heroes (including Deities). There is no clash step in combats where the defender is a conduit.

1. The attacking hero may clash once. In a team attack, only one attacking hero may clash.
2. The defending hero may clash once.
3. Reveal all clash cards simultaneously.
4. Resolve all clash effects on clash cards played by attacking heroes.
5. Resolve all clash effects on clash cards played by the defending hero.

Step Three: Resolution

1. If the defender is a hero and they are committed, set their attack stat to 0.
2. Heroes gain a bonus to their attack and armor stats equal to the corresponding combat value on any clash cards that hero played during step two (or as additional clashes created by card effects). This bonus can raise a committed defender's attack stat above 0 again.
3. Add the modified total attack of all attacking heroes together.
4. Attacking heroes, or conduits, deal damage equal to their combined attack value to the defending hero. The defending hero deals damage equal to their modified attack value to a single attacking hero of their choice. All damage is dealt simultaneously.
5. Combat ends, all stat bonuses are lost and clash effects end (unless they specify a different duration). All clash cards go to the players' respective discard piles.

Damage dealt during combat resolution is referred to as Combat Damage. During a team attack, as long as at least one point of damage is dealt to the defender, all attacking heroes are considered to have dealt damage.

Blocking

After the target of an attack is chosen during step one of the combat procedure, the defending player may announce that one of their heroes will block the attack.

In order to block an attack, a hero must be ready and at the same location as the target of the attack. Heroes may block attacks against conduits or other heroes (including deities). Regardless of how many heroes meet these criteria, only one hero may block the attack. Once a block has been announced, commit the hero who is blocking the attack. This hero is now considered to be blocking.

The blocking hero becomes the defender instead of the original target of the attack. The original target takes no further part in the combat – they are replaced by the blocking hero.

A hero may not block attacks against themselves.

Blocking vs Defending

Certain card effects will sometimes draw a distinction between heroes who are blocking an attack, and heroes who are merely defending. A hero who did not actively block an attack against another target is a defending hero, but not a blocking hero. A hero who blocked an attack is considered to be both blocking and defending.

Yes, we know this sounds a little hinky. It will make sense when it comes up, we promise.

Keywords

Keywords grant special abilities, impose certain restrictions, and hold game information that can be referenced by other card effects. Keywords appear on heroes and in the text of some skill cards.

Heroic Keywords

Divine

The Divine keyword is normally reserved for Deities. Divine heroes can trigger Ultimate clash and talent effects (see "Action Keywords" p.27), and the keyword is also referenced by certain card effects.

Evoker

After your turn begins, if you control one or more in-play heroes with the Evoker keyword, gain 1 power. Multiple instances of this keyword do not stack. A player who controls two or more Evokers still gains only 1 Power.

Regen X

After your turn begins, a hero with Regen heals damage equal to their regen value (e.g. a hero with Regen 3 would heal 3 damage at the start of each of your turns). Multiple sources of Regen do not stack or combine. Only the highest value will trigger each turn.

Taunt

While you control at least one ready hero with Taunt at a location, enemy heroes may not attack your heroes without Taunt at that location.

Vanguard

While a hero with Vanguard is attacking, other heroes controlled by the same player cannot take damage.

Action Keywords

Cooldown

Cooldown talents cannot be used more than once per turn. If a cooldown talent appears on a skill card, no more than one copy of that card can be played for its talent ability in a given turn (it may still be clashed as normal).

Ultimate

Each hero's deck contains a single, unique and powerful Ultimate skill. Ultimate abilities can come in the form of Ultimate Talent and Ultimate Clash. Ultimate effects will only resolve if the hero attempting to use them is levelled-up or has the Divine keyword. When a mortal hero who is not levelled-up clashes a card with an Ultimate Clash effect, they still receive any bonuses from that card's combat values, but the clash effect does not resolve. Mortal heroes who are not levelled-up cannot use Ultimate Talent actions.

Now Let's Play!

You now know everything you need to play the game. During your first game, see if you can apply these basic concepts successfully:

• Ruin an undamaged conduit with a single team attack
• Use a talent ability during your action phase
• Block an enemy attack
• Level-Up a hero
• Revive two or more heroes using mass resurrect
• KO your opponent's evoker to choke their power supply
• Resolve an Ultimate Clash effect
• KO your opponent's deity and win the game!

Drafting

During the draft, players take turns choosing heroes from a shared pool to create unique decks. There are hundreds of possible combinations. To draft decks, use the following procedure:

Figures: Player A Draft and Player B Draft.

Setup

Lay out your drafting cards in a grid as shown in Fig. 11 "Drafting".

Players

Randomly determine who will be player A and who will be player B.

Pick Heroes

Players take turns picking heroes from the same pool, following the order below. Heroes are unique within the draft pool – after you pick a hero, remove that hero's drafting card from the grid and place it in front of you. Once a hero has been picked, they cannot be picked again by either player.

Each player gets an opportunity to ban one hero from the pool entirely, as shown in the order below. When you ban a hero, flip their drafting card over to the side marked with the red X. Once a hero has been banned, they cannot be picked by either player.

The pick order goes as follows:

1. Player A Pick
2. Player B Pick
3. Player A Ban
4. Player B Ban
5. Player B Pick
6. Player A Pick
7. Player A Pick
8. Player B Pick

Pick Deities & Items

Each player secretly selects a deity and three items from their own pool of cards. A player may not include more than one copy of a single item in their deck, but players have access to all items in the pool, regardless of what their opponent chooses (player's shop contents and deity selection can even be entirely identical).

Deck Construction

Players build their skill decks by using the skill cards associated with the heroes they selected and the conduits that correspond to their deity choice. All unused cards are now returned to the box.

Once both players have finished assembling their decks, the game is ready to begin!

Anatomy of a Deck

A legal deck in Radiant consists of exactly:

• 3 Hero cards
• 30 skill cards
• 3 item cards
• 3 conduit cards
• 1 deity card

Skill and conduit cards come in pre-determined sets:

• Skill cards come in sets of ten that are associated with a specific hero. Players may not change these sets. Three of these sets – one for each hero on your team – combine to form your starting skill deck of 30 cards.
• Conduit cards come in sets of three that are associated with a specific deity. Players may not change these sets.

FAQ

I can only partially resolve a card's effects. What should I do?

Cards in Radiant are written so that their effects occur in order. You must attempt to resolve each step in the order they are printed. If any step of the card's effect fails to resolve, terminate the effect at that step.

For example: if you wanted to use the Corvus skill card Drain Life to heal 2 damage, you could not do so unless there was an enemy hero at that location to target with the damage effect.

I'm confused by the concept of "Opposing Heroes."

When the game refers to an "opposing hero" it means "an enemy hero who is participating in this combat". Heroes who are not participating in the current combat are not opposing anyone.

Do I need to destroy one of my conduits to use the manifest ability?

No! We're not sure why this one keeps coming up as we have never suggested it anywhere and the manifest ability never worked like this at any point during playtest but, for whatever reason, it's an assumption that people always seem to make.

Are clash effects mandatory?

Yes. Once you have made the decision to clash a card, you must resolve any clash effects that card has if you are able to do so. This means that the only way to avoid discarding cards to Viggo's Domination card is by having an empty hand, and if your Overkill flips Octavian's Aegis from the top of your deck, you're straight outta luck my friend.

Does a hero flip over or recover first when levelling up?

Flip first, then recover. This question is most commonly asked when the support hero Bran is on the table. If a damaged Bran is committed when he levels up, which version of his healing effect does he get? The answer is: he gets the more powerful version, and heals 2 damage. Wow!

Can I use both versions of a hero's ability on the turn I level them up?

Yes! My favourite example of this in action is to heal a hero using Bran's ability, level him up and heal another hero using the more powerful version of his ability in the same turn. Nice!

How do Mato's skill cards work?

Mato's Battle Frenzy and Feel No Pain cards scale according to how much damage is on the hero who is using them. So if a hero who has taken 6 damage clashes a battle frenzy, that card will get +2 Attack when its clash effect resolves for a total of 5 Attack!

Do I gain any power when I KO the Wrathlord?

Yes and no. The Wrathlord's ability negates KOs when used, so you do not gain the 2 power for KOing a hero when you reduce the big guy to 0 health. However, because his conduit is ruined during the action phase, you do gain 1 power for the destruction of your opponent's conduit. If he has no conduits left when you KO him you don't gain any power because you just won the game. Congratulations!

When Maka attacks me from another lane, who gets to block?

Only heroes who are in the same lane as the defending hero can block Maka's attacks when she's sniping you from another lane. A hero who is in Maka's lane cannot block her attacks when she is shooting someone elsewhere.

How does Lifelink work?

Itotia is attacking Brighid. She has clashed two 3 Attack cards and will deal 9 damage. Brighid has clashed Lifelink and shunts half of the damage (rounded up – so 5 points of damage) off to Grandfather. Grandfather's armor reduces his share of the damage by 1 and he takes 4 points of damage. Brighid has no armor and takes 4 points of damage.

I want pre bans!

Different tournament organizers may enforce alternative pick / ban orders to that outlined in the rulebook. Be sure to follow our social media or join our mailing list or Discord community to stay up to date with the most recent tournament standard. We may change our recommended pick / ban order in response to tournament results or feedback. We encourage you to experiment with your own pick / ban formats, and we'd love to hear about them on our Discord!

Glossary

Ability Any special game effect granted by card text. Heroes (and deities), skill cards and items can all have abilities.

Action Point Players generate three action points at the beginning of their turn during the preparation phase. Action points are spent to perform actions using your heroes. They are signified in game text with the action point icon. When a player has no action points remaining, their action phase is over.

Action Phase The second phase of the turn in which you spend your action points to take actions with your heroes. The bulk of the game takes place during the action phase.

Active Player The player whose turn it currently is. If it is your turn, you are the active player.

Adjacent / Adjacency The two outer lanes adjacent to the central lane. The outer lanes are not adjacent to one-another.

Armor A measure of how sturdy a hero is. Armor reduces incoming damage one-for-one.

Attack (action) One of the five basic actions; used to attack enemy heroes and conduits (see p.19).

Attack (stat) A measure of how effective a hero or conduit is at dealing damage to enemies.

Attacker / Attacking Hero A hero who is participating in a combat on the attacking side. There may be more than one attacking hero.

Ban When drafting, each player has an opportunity (or opportunities, depending on the draft variant in use) to ban heroes from the draft pool. A banned hero cannot be picked by either player.

Banish To remove a card from the game. A banished card is gone forever and cannot take further part in the game for any reason. From the point of view of the game's rules, the card has ceased to exist.

Basic Action The five actions that are defined by the rulebook. Players always have access to these actions as long as they can pay the costs.

Block After an attack is announced against one of your heroes or conduits, you have a chance to block it. You may commit a ready hero you control at the same location as the intended target of the attack. If you do, they become the target of the attack instead, and combat proceeds as normal. The original target of the attack takes no further part in the combat.

Blocker / Blocking Hero A hero who blocked the attack that created the current combat. A blocking hero is also a defending hero.

Clash The act of playing a card during combat to increase a hero's stats or make use of a clash effect (or both). Players may normally only clash once per combat, as outlined in step 2 of the combat procedure (see p.24). Some card effects may grant additional clashes outside of the usual sequence. Cards that are clashed outside of the usual sequence are always placed on the table face up.

Clash Card A card becomes a clash card as soon as it leaves a player's hand as part of a clash (whether face down or face up). A card ceases to be a clash card as soon as it enters the discard pile, either at the end of the combat in which it was clashed or when discarded by a card effect before the combat ends naturally.

Clash Effect An effect that resolves when the card is played during combat. Clash effects resolve in order, with the attacking heroes' effects resolving first and the defending hero's effects resolving second. When a clash card is played outside of the usual sequence, any clash effects on it resolve immediately.

Combat The sequence by which attacks against heroes and conduits are resolved. Combat begins when all participants have been determined by resolving the Attack action, as well as any subsequent blocks. Combat ends after the resolution step has been fully resolved.

Combat Damage Damage dealt at combat resolution is referred to as combat damage. Damage dealt by hero abilities or other card effects is not normally considered combat damage, even if it is dealt during the combat sequence.

Combat Value The numbers printed in the blue and orange orbs on skill cards. Used to modify your heroes' stats during combat.

Combat Resolution The final step of the combat procedure in which stat modifiers from combat values are applied and combat damage is dealt.

Conduit Each player begins the game with three conduits, determined by their choice of deity. When all of a player's conduits have been ruined, their deity must manifest immediately.

Consecrated A conduit that is showing its consecrated face is considered to be consecrated. All consecrated conduits have identical artwork and game stats. All conduits begin the game consecrated.

Cooldown Cooldown abilities can only be used once per turn. If a Cooldown ability is printed on a skill card, the talent ability will not resolve more than once per turn, but the card can still be clashed normally.

Damage Damage is a measure of how injured a hero is. Whenever one of your heroes takes damage, you should place [The printed glossary entry is cut off here in the source: "...you should place" with no further text.]

Defender / Defending Hero A hero who is participating in a combat on the defending side. There can only ever be one defending hero. During combat resolution, if a defending hero is committed, reduce their attack to 0 before adding any bonuses from clash cards.

Deity A powerful hero who begins the game out of play. You lose the game immediately if your deity is ever KO'd or banished. Deities count as heroes for the purpose of card effects.

Divine A heroic keyword. Divine heroes can use Ultimate Talent and Ultimate Clash abilities and are protected from many card effects.

Draft The procedure for selecting heroes and building decks before the game begins. Drafting is the officially supported competitive format for Radiant, and our recommended way to play the game!

Draw Step The final step of the end phase. During your draw step, draw one card from your skill deck into your hand. If you now have more than seven cards in your hand, you must discard cards until only seven remain.

End Phase The final phase of a player's turn, broken down into a revive step, shop step and draw step.

Evoker A heroic keyword, commonly found on support class heroes. During a player's preparation phase, if they control an in-play (non-KO'd) hero with the evoker keyword, they gain 1 power. Players only ever gain a maximum of 1 power from this keyword per turn, regardless of how many evokers they control.

EXP Cost The cost in power of levelling up a hero. One of the four stats to appear on basic heroes.

Health A measure of how much damage a hero or conduit can take before it is KO'd or ruined.

Hero A character controlled by one of the players, the most important card type in Radiant.

Keyword Keywords contain game information such as specific abilities held in common by a number of cards (e.g. Evoker) or game information that is referenced by other cards (e.g. Mortal). Keywords appear in the keyword box on hero, deity and item cards and can also appear in card text boxes, where they will be highlighted in bold text.

KO A hero who has taken damage equal to or greater than their health becomes KO'd, and is placed out-of-play in your home. A KO'd hero cannot take actions and is not [The printed glossary entry is cut off here in the source: "...and is not" with no further text.]

Level Up (action) One of the five basic actions. Used to level up heroes by paying their exp cost.

Level Up (state change) When a hero levels up, their card is flipped from its basic face to its experienced face. If a hero is committed when they level up, they recover immediately (even if it is your opponent's turn or in the middle of combat). Levelled up heroes' abilities are considered separate from those of their basic version, even if the text is similar or identical (so once-per-turn effects can be used once by the basic version and once by the levelled-up version in the same turn).

Location / Lane There are three locations: the central lane and two outer lanes. Each location contains one conduit belonging to either player and can contain any number of heroes.

Manifest / Manifestation The process by which deities enter play, and the abilities that trigger when they do.

Opposing / Opposed All heroes participating in a combat are opposing one another. When one of your card effects refers to "opposing heroes", it is referring to all enemy heroes participating in the current combat.

Power The resource you use to purchase items and level up your heroes. It is represented in card text with the Power icon. You gain 2 power when an enemy hero becomes KO'd, 1 power when an enemy shrine [sic: the printed text says "shrine"; the rules body refers to conduits] becomes ruined during either player's action phase, and 1 power at the beginning of your turn if you control a hero with the evoker keyword.

Pick Choosing a hero to add to your deck during a draft. Players alternate taking picks according to a fixed order until both have chosen three.

Piercing Damage Piercing damage is damage [sic: printed as "damage is damage"] that is not reduced by armor. It is represented in card text using the Piercing keyword (e.g. "Talent 1 [action point]: Deal 2 Piercing to an enemy hero at this location.")

Preparation Phase The first of the three phases of a player's turn. During this phase, the active player gains 3 action points, gains 1 power if they control an in-play hero with the evoker keyword [the printed glossary entry ends here without a full stop].

Recover (action) One of the five basic actions, used to return committed heroes to the ready state (see p.19).

Recover (state change) To change from the committed to the ready state. A hero who is ready cannot recover.

Revive To bring a KO'd hero back into play. Heroes who are revived enter play with no damage and at any location of their controller's choosing.

Revive Step The first step in the end phase. During the revive step players can use Buyback or Mass Resurrect to bring their KO'd heroes back into play.

Ruined / Ruin A conduit that has taken damage greater than or equal to its health becomes ruined. A ruined conduit should be flipped from its consecrated face to its ruined face.

Shop The game area where out of play items are kept. Your shop should contain three items when the game begins. Cards in your shop are a secret from your opponent but you may look at them at any time.

Shop Step The second step in the end phase. During this step players can purchase items from their shop and equip their in-play heroes with them. You may buy as many items from your shop as you want in a single turn, as long as you can afford to pay the costs.

Solo Attack An attack in which there is only one participating character on the attacking side.

Stun Damage Stun damage is damage that cannot cause a hero to become KO'd. If an effect would cause enough stun damage to a hero to KO them, instead that hero is not KO'd and remains in play with 1 health remaining. Stun damage is represented in game text using the Stun keyword (e.g., "Talent 1 [action point]: Deal 2 Stun to an enemy hero at this location.").

Support One of the three classes of hero. Support heroes commonly have the evoker keyword and their skill decks often contain useful talent abilities. Classes are a guide only and have no mechanical effect.

Talent A type of action that is printed on a hero or skill or item card. Talents are used during the action phase and usually cost 1-3 action points. Talents printed on cards in play can be used multiple times (though be aware that some may have the Cooldown keyword, making them once-per-turn abilities). Talents printed on skill cards must be played from hand, and go to the discard pile when the effect has finished resolving.

Tank One of the three classes of hero. Tank heroes are sturdy and good at defending. Classes are a guide only and have no mechanical effect.

Team Attack An attack in which there are multiple heroes participating on the combat on the attacking side. Team attacks are created using the basic attack action. During a team attack, only one attacking hero may clash, regardless of how many attacking heroes there are.

Ultimate Each hero's skill deck contains a single Ultimate skill card. Ultimate skills are powerful, unique effects. Ultimate skills can be identified by the yellow glow on the card border, and by the appearance of the Ultimate keyword.

Warrior One of the three classes of hero. Warrior heroes are good at attacking and dealing damage. Classes are a guide only and have no mechanical effect.