Spirit Duels Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Important Notes
• Components
• Card Anatomy
• Setup
• Objective
• Gameplay
• Actions
  • Play a Card
  • Evolve a Spirit
  • Activate a Spirit
  • Resolve Dice
  • Meditate
  • Perform Action or Limited Action
  • Pass
  • Gain the Advantage
• End Phase
• Class Abilities
  • Arcane
  • Earth
  • Electric
  • Fire
  • Ice
  • Nature
  • Toxic
  • Water
  • Wind
• Damage, Defeated Spirits and Presence
• Dice Types
• Other Rules
  • Before and After Effects
• Keywords and Terms
• What's Next?
  • Drafting
  • Forming Your Team
  • Building Your Deck
• Pre-built Teams
  • Fire Team
  • Electric Team

Important Notes

Spirit Duels is a work in progress. Art, components, rules and card text are all in development.

Components

The components page of the rulebook shows the following tokens and dice:

• Advantage token: a token marked with a question mark.
• Armor token.
• Burn token.
• Damage token (1).
• Damage token (3).
• Essence token (1).
• Poison token.
• Advantage die.
• Level 1 Attack die and Level 2 Attack die.
• Level 1 Magic die and Level 2 Magic die.
• Level 1 Essence die and Level 2 Essence die.

The full die faces are listed under Dice Types below.

Card Anatomy

Spirit cards have the following parts: Name; Primary Class; Secondary Class; Health; Dice; Attack Power; Class Power; Essence Power; Class - Type; Spirit Ability; Card Set; and Stage.

Move cards have the following parts: Name; Essence Cost; Class - Type; Card Effect; Card Set; and Basic or Special.

Item / Trait cards have the following parts: Essence Cost; Name; Class - Type; Card Effect; Card Set; and Basic or Special.

Setup

Each game of Spirit Duels begins with a Draft Phase. During this phase, players take turns drafting Classes that they will use to form their teams of Spirits and build their decks of cards.

For your first match, we will skip this phase and use pre-built teams so that we can get right to the action!

Follow these steps to set up your first match:

1. One player takes the Fire team, and the other player takes the Electric team. (The deck and team list for these pre-built teams can be found on the last page; see Pre-built Teams below.)
2. Each player sets up their play area with their deck of cards to the side of their play area, and each of their Stage 1 Spirit cards in a horizontal line in the center of their play area.
3. Each player sets their Stage 2 and Stage 3 Spirit Cards to the side.
4. Each player shuffles their deck and draws five cards. Then, players may choose any cards they do not want to keep and sets them aside. For your first match, we recommend keeping any 0 cost cards or Item cards in your opening hand.
5. Each player draws back up to five cards.
6. Each player shuffles the cards they set aside back into their deck.
7. Each player gains two essence tokens.

If this is your first time playing, you may now randomly determine a player to begin the game with the Advantage token.

Players are now ready to play!

Objective

There are two ways to win a game of Spirit Duels:

• Defeat all of an opponent's Spirits.
• If your opponent must draw a card from the top of their deck and cannot, they lose and you win.

Gameplay

Spirit Duels is played in a series of rounds. Each round consists of two phases, starting with the Action Phase.

Action Phase: In the Action Phase, players alternate taking turns, starting with the player who has the Advantage Token. When it is your turn, you may take a single action.

There are various actions a player may take during their turn. The rules for these actions are described in the following section.

End Phase: During the End Phase, players ready all cards in play, draw back up to five cards in hand, and gain two essence.

After each End Phase, players resume play by beginning a new round starting with the Action Phase.

Actions

Play a Card

There are three types of cards in the game: Moves, Traits and Items. To play a card, spend essence equal to the card's essence cost.

The rules for playing a card are determined by the type of card being played and are described below.

• Move Cards: Resolve the effects on the card. Then, discard it.
• Trait Cards: Attach the Trait card to an ally Spirit by placing it below the Spirit. It then stays in play, giving the Spirit extra benefits and effects.
• Item Cards: Place the card into play on your side of the board. It then remains in play, giving you extra benefits and effects.

Some item cards have the Charged(X) keyword. After these cards are played, place X charge tokens on the card. These tokens are spent to resolve the card's effect. After the last charge token on a card is spent, discard the card after resolving its effect.

Ready and exhausted: cards in play can either be ready or exhausted. Cards enter play ready. When you are instructed to exhaust a card, turn it sideways. Only ready cards may become exhausted.

Evolve a Spirit

Players can spend essence to evolve a Spirit into a stronger stage. When a Spirit evolves it may get higher stats and health and even a new Class!

To evolve a Spirit, choose a ready Spirit and spend an amount of essence equal to its current stage plus 1. Then, remove that Spirit's card from play. Find the next stage of that Spirit Line and put it into play.

Any damage tokens, status tokens, or Trait cards that were on the previous stage remain in play and are carried over to the next stage.

A Spirit Line is a group of three Spirits that are all related by evolution. Each Spirit in a Spirit Line has a portrait of its Stage 1 Spirit in the bottom left corner of its card.

Tychomp, Tynagma, and Magmaros all have a portrait of Tychomp in the bottom left corner of their card, indicating they are in the same Spirit Line.

Activate a Spirit

To activate a Spirit, choose a ready ally Spirit and exhaust it. Then, gather each die printed on their card and roll them into that Spirit's active pool. A Spirit's active pool is the area above the Spirit in play.

When a Spirit that has been assigned the Advantage Die is activated, roll the Advantage Die plus each die printed on their card into that Spirit's active pool.

Resolve Dice

There are four symbols found on dice: Attack, Magic, Essence, and Blank.

To resolve dice, declare a symbol. You may not declare Blank.

Then, you may resolve any number of your dice showing that symbol, one at a time. After a die has been resolved, return it to the supply.

The rules for resolving dice are determined by the symbol showing on them and are described below.

• Attack: Deal damage to an enemy Spirit equal to the value of this die.
• Magic: Resolve one Class Ability of this die's Spirit.
• Essence: Gain essence tokens equal to the value of this die.

The value of a die is equal to its Spirit's stat that matches the symbol showing on the die.

For example, if Tychomp had a die showing the Attack symbol, the value of the die would be 2, since Tychomp's Attack Power is 2.

Some dice have sides with a Boost icon in addition to a symbol. When resolving a die showing the Boost icon, increase its value by 1.

Meditate

The meditate action gives you a chance to fix your dice. To meditate, discard a card from your hand. Then, choose any number of your dice and reroll them. You must declare which dice you intend to reroll before rerolling them.

After rerolling dice, return each die to its active pool.

Perform Action or Limited Action

Some cards that are in play will have effects that can only be resolved by taking an action. These effects will be preceded by the Action or Limited Action keywords. To resolve these effects, follow the instructions on the card. Limited Actions may only be used once per round.

A Spirit may have Action or Limited Action keywords that are followed by a symbol, like Action (Essence). To resolve these effects, a player must first remove a die showing that symbol from the Spirit whose text you are attempting to resolve.

Pass

When it is your turn to take an action, you may pass instead. If you do, you do nothing and play resumes with your opponent taking an action. If both players pass consecutively proceed to the End Phase.

Gain the Advantage

When you gain the advantage, take the Advantage Token and place it into your play area, if it is not already there. Only one player may gain the advantage per round.

You may no longer take actions this round. Your opponent continues taking actions until they pass. Once they pass, proceed to End Phase.

End Phase

Once both players have consecutively passed, proceed to the End Phase.

During the End Phase, follow these steps in order:

1. Return all dice to the supply.
2. Ready all exhausted cards in play.
3. Each player may discard any number of cards from their hand.
4. Each player draws cards until they have five cards in hand.
5. Each player gains two essence.
6. The player with the Advantage Token chooses a Spirit they control and places the Advantage Die on that Spirit.
7. Start a new round by proceeding to the Action Phase.

Class Abilities

Each Class in Spirit Duels has an ability that is unique to that Class. These abilities are used when resolving dice showing the Magic symbol.

The rules for each Class Ability are described below.

X = the value of this die.

Arcane

• Drain X: Reveal X cards from an opponent's hand. Choose one and discard it. Then, put the rest back into that opponent's hand.

Earth

• Armor X: Place X armor tokens on an ally Spirit.

A Spirit can not have more than 3 armor tokens. Spirits with any amount of armor tokens are considered Armored. Before an Armored Spirit is dealt damage, ignore 1 damage for each armor token it has. Then, for each damage that was ignored, remove 1 armor token from the Spirit.

Electric

• Zap X: Deal X damage to an opponent's Spirits distributed as they wish.

Fire

• Burn X: Place X burn tokens on an enemy Spirit.

A Spirit can not have more than 3 burn tokens. Spirits with any amount of burn tokens are considered Burning. At the end of the round, Burning Spirits are dealt an amount of damage equal to the number of burn tokens they have. Then, remove one burn token from each Burning Spirit.

Ice

• Freeze X: Place X freeze tokens on an enemy Spirit.

A Spirit can not have more than 3 freeze tokens. Spirits with any amount of freeze tokens are considered Frozen. When resolving a Frozen Spirit's die, reduce the value of that die by the number of freeze tokens on that Spirit. Then, remove each freeze token from that Spirit.

Nature

• Heal X: Remove X damage tokens from an ally Spirit.

Toxic

• Poison X: Place X poison tokens on an enemy Spirit.

A Spirit can not have more than 3 poison tokens. Spirits with any amount of poison tokens are considered Poisoned. After you resolve a Poisoned Spirit's die, deal 1 damage to it. Then, remove one poison token from that Spirit.

Water

• Splash X: Turn X enemy dice to any side.

Wind

• Lift X: Turn X ally dice to any side.

Damage, Defeated Spirits and Presence

Whenever a Spirit is dealt damage, place an amount of damage tokens on that Spirit's card equal to the damage dealt.

Once a Spirit has an amount of damage tokens on their card that is greater than or equal to their Health, that Spirit is immediately defeated.

When a Spirit is defeated, follow these steps, in order:

1. Return all of its dice to the supply.
2. Discard any Traits that are attached to it.
3. Flip its card over.

When a Stage 1 Spirit is defeated, its card is flipped over to reveal a standard card back.

When a Stage 2 or Stage 3 Spirit is defeated, its card is flipped over to reveal a weaker form of the Spirit. Its stats have been lowered, it has lost some of its dice and ability text, and gained the Presence keyword.

Spirits with the Presence keyword are still treated as Spirits and can still be activated.

They can still be targeted and chosen as Spirits while resolving card text and abilities.

They can not receive damage or status tokens.

They are still considered defeated for the purpose of winning or losing the game.

The rulebook's figure shows the Electric Spirit Devolt before and after it is defeated, with its Presence side shown.

Dice Types

There are three types of dice in the game: Attack, Magic, and Essence, plus the Advantage die.

A die's type determines which symbol it has the highest chance to roll. For example, Attack dice have the highest chance to roll the Attack symbol.

Each type has two different levels: level 1 and level 2.

A die's level determines its overall effectiveness. For example, level 1 dice have two Blank symbols, while level 2 dice only have one Blank symbol.

Each die and its sides are listed below. A side shown with +1 carries the Boost icon.

Attack Die (Level 1): Attack, Attack, Magic, Essence, Blank, Blank.

Attack Die (Level 2): Attack +1, Attack, Attack, Magic, Essence, Blank.

Magic Die (Level 1): Magic, Magic, Attack, Essence, Blank, Blank.

Magic Die (Level 2): Magic +1, Magic, Magic, Attack, Essence, Blank.

Essence Die (Level 1): Essence, Essence, Attack, Magic, Blank, Blank.

Essence Die (Level 2): Essence +1, Essence, Essence, Attack, Magic, Blank.

Advantage Die: Attack, Magic, Essence, Blank, Blank, Blank.

Other Rules

Before and After Effects

Some effects will automatically resolve before or after certain conditions are met. These effects do not require an action to resolve. When multiple effects would resolve at the same time, the player who has the Advantage Token must decide the order those effects will resolve.

An effect must be fully resolved before another effect is resolved.

Keywords and Terms

Activate: After you activate a Spirit with the Activate keyword, resolve its ability text.

Afflicted: Spirits with any amount of negative status tokens are considered Afflicted.

Downgrade: Choose a level 2 die and return it to the supply. Then, roll a level 1 die of the same type into the same active pool. You may not downgrade the Advantage die.

Fast: Take another action after this one.

Remove: Whenever an effect instructs a player to remove a die, they must take the die from play and return it to the supply.

Replace: Choose a die and return it to the supply. Then, roll a die of your choice into the active pool of the die that was removed.

Reroll: Whenever an effect instructs a player to reroll a die, choose a die in an active pool. Then, roll the die back into the same active pool.

Upgrade: Choose a level 1 die and return it to the supply. Then, roll a level 2 die of the same type into the same active pool. You may not upgrade the Advantage die.

What's Next?

Drafting

Now that you have played a match or two with pre-built teams, you are ready to enjoy the full experience of Spirit Duels!

Each match of Spirit Duels begins with a draft phase. During this phase, players take turns drafting classes. Players will use the classes they drafted to form their teams of Spirits and build their decks of cards.

During the draft phase, follow these steps in order:

1. Place the nine Class cards out where both players can see them.
2. Randomly determine a player to begin the game with the Advantage Token.
3. The player who does not have the Advantage token begins the draft by choosing a single Class card and places it in their play area.
4. The player who has the Advantage token now chooses two Class cards and places them in their play area.
5. The player who does not have the Advantage token now chooses two Class cards and places them in their play area.
6. Finally, the player who has the Advantage token now chooses a single Class card and places it in their play area.

Forming Your Team

Now that you have drafted your three classes, you are ready to form your team and build your deck!

Each class provides players with three different Spirit Lines that they can choose from when forming their team. You must choose exactly one Spirit Line from each class to add to your team. Then, set the Spirit Lines that were not chosen back in the box. They will not be used for this match.

When choosing a Spirit Line, consider its stats, dice, ability, and Special cards and how they will work with other Spirit Lines. You may also want to consider if a Spirit Line gains a secondary Class through evolving, and how that may benefit your team!

For a casual match, players may keep their chosen Spirit Lines hidden, with both players revealing their teams simultaneously.

For a more competitive match, players may alternate taking turns choosing a single Spirit Line from the classes they drafted, and then revealing which Spirit Line they chose, until both players have three Spirit Lines.

Building Your Deck

Now, you'll need to build your deck of cards! Gather together the Basic cards from the three Classes you drafted, plus the Special cards from each Spirit Line in your team. Then, shuffle these cards together to build your thirty (30) card deck!

Basic cards are indicated by the "Basic" label in the bottom left corner of their card. There are six (6) Basic cards in a Class.

Special cards are indicated by the "Special" label in the bottom left corner of their card. Each Special Card also has a portrait of a Stage 1 Spirit in its bottom left corner. When building your deck, you'll gather each Special card with portraits of the Stage 1 Spirits on your team. Each Spirit Line has four (4) Special Cards.

Now that both players have their thirty (30) card decks, they are ready to play!

Finally, follow these steps to finish setting up the game:

1. Each player shuffles their deck and draws five cards. Then, players may choose any cards they do not want to keep and sets them aside.
2. Each player draws back up to five cards.
3. Each player shuffles the cards they set aside back into their deck.
4. Each player gains two essence tokens.

Pre-built Teams

The two pre-built teams used for the first match. Each deck contains two of each card.

Fire Team

Team

• Fire: Tychomp, Tynagma, Magmaros
• Earth: Pawnite, Rookrok, Kinganore
• Arcane: Zuja, Coljin, Ifrix

Deck

• Searing Strike (Fire, Basic)
• Focus Fire (Fire, Basic)
• Inferno Brew (Fire, Basic)
• Incinerate (Tychomp Line, Special)
• Fire Breathing (Tychomp Line, Special)
• Taunting Roar (Earth, Basic)
• Fortify (Earth, Basic)
• Earthy Brew (Earth, Basic)
• Armor Up (Pawnite Line, Special)
• Bolder Toss (Pawnite Line, Special)
• Mystic Mirror (Arcane, Basic)
• Spell of Binding (Arcane, Basic)
• Mystic Tome (Arcane, Basic)
• Counter Spell (Zuja Line, Special)
• Flicker Flame (Zuja Line, Special)

(Two of each card)

Electric Team

Team

• Electric: Binx, Ocevolt, Leonyx
• Nature: Pruni, Prickle, Vetiveer
• Water: Shark 1, Arcjaw, Galvadon

Deck

• Stunning Strike (Electric, Basic)
• Chain Shock (Electric, Basic)
• Lightning Rune (Electric, Basic)
• Blitzrush (Binx Line, Special)
• Swiftness (Binx Line, Special)
• Fair Trade (Nature, Basic)
• Invigorate (Nature, Basic)
• Leafy Tome (Nature, Basic)
• Channel Magic (Pruni Line, Special)
• Yumi's Gift (Pruni Line, Special)
• Sink Deep (Water, Basic)
• Tidal Wave (Water, Basic)
• Sunken Rune (Water, Basic)
• Salty Bite (Shark 1 Line, Special)
• Harsh Tide (Shark 1 Line, Special)

(Two of each card)