Tokyo Ghoul: The Card Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal
• The Cards
  • Card Anatomy
  • Allies
  • Strategies
  • Enemies
  • Other Cards
    • Ward Cards
    • Location Cards
• Setting up a Game
• Playing the Game
  • The Player Turn
  • Enemy Cards
  • The Ally Phase
  • The Influence Phase
    • Recruiting Allies
    • Playing Strategy Cards
    • Playing Enemies
    • The Banished Pile
  • The Action Phase
    • Attacking an Opponent's Ally
    • Wounded
    • Enemies
• Ending the Game
• Reference
  • The Player Turn
  • Abilities

Goal

Your goal is to become the most powerful ghoul in Tokyo. You do this by being the first player to score 10 victory points, or by starting your turn controlling 3 of the 5 key locations of Tokyo.

The Cards

There are three card types found in the decks: Ally, Strategy, and Enemy.

The game includes 140 Ally Cards, 34 Enemy Cards, 28 Strategy Cards, 16 Victory Point Tokens, 5 Location Cards, 5 Ward Cards, 4 Reference Cards, and 1 Rulebook.

Card Anatomy

• Cost: How much influence you must spend to recruit the card (Ally) or play the card (Strategy, Enemy).
• Influence: How much influence the card adds to your total (Ally).
• Strength: The ally's strength during battles (Ally); the enemy's strength during battles (Enemy).
• Ability: Any special effects the card may have.
• Ward: The ward deck the card belongs to.

Allies

The bulk of the decks contain ally cards. These cards represent the various characters you will use to further your aims of victory, or prevent those of your opponents.

Strategies

These cards represent specific actions you or your allies might take during the game.

Enemies

While you are battling your opponents for control of the streets of Tokyo, there are several other factions that seek to stop you — most notable the Commission for Counter Ghoul, or CCG. Luckily, these groups can often be manipulated into disrupting your opponents.

Other Cards

There are two other card types, though these are not shuffled into the decks.

Ward Cards

Ward cards describe their ward deck so you can decide which wards you'll draw your cards from when the time comes.

• Card Breakdown: The number and types of cards you'll find in that ward.
• Abilities: The abilities that are common to the cards in that ward.

Location Cards

Location cards represent the key locations of the various wards.

• Cost: How much influence is needed to take over the location.
• Ward: The ward the location can be found in.
• Ability: Any special effects the card may have.

Setting up a Game

At the beginning of each game, you'll need to shuffle the cards and set up the play area as follows:

1. Lay out the ward cards in a row, in an area that is easily reached by all players.
2. Set the Victory Point (VP) Tokens off to the side.
3. Shuffle each ward deck and place it on its ward card.
4. Put the location cards under the corresponding ward card so that the title of the location is still visible.
5. Give each player 4 of each starting ally. Each player shuffles these into an ally deck and places it in front of them.
6. The player with the next upcoming birthday goes first.
7. Deal 5 cards to each player from the 20th ward deck.

The printed setup diagram is not reproduced.

Playing the Game

Tokyo Ghoul: The Card Game is played in a series of turns. Once the first player completes their turn, the player to that player's left takes the next turn. Play continues until one player wins.

The Player Turn

During each turn, the active player takes the following phases in order:

1. Ally Phase
2. Influence Phase
3. Action Phase
4. Enemy Phase
5. Draw Phase

Whenever your ally deck runs out of cards, pause the game while you shuffle your ally discard pile to make a new ally deck.

Enemy Cards

Usually, your ally deck will only contain ally cards. Other players may send enemies your way, and if they do those enemies will end up in your ally deck. Whenever you're flipping cards during your ally phase, don't stop flipping until you have a total of 4 allies in play. This means that if you flip an enemy card, you'll flip extra cards until you have 4 allies in play.

Enemies are explained in greater detail later on in this rulebook.

The Ally Phase

At the beginning of this phase, gain 1 victory point for each of your allies that you still have in play. After that, put those allies into your ally discard pile.

Next, flip cards from your ally deck until you have 4 allies in play.

The Influence Phase

During this phase, you'll spend influence to recruit allies, play strategy cards, and send enemies to your opponents from your hand.

At the beginning of your influence phase, add up the influence of all the allies you flipped in the previous ally phase. This is the amount of influence you can spend this turn to play cards. Any unspent influence is lost at the end of the phase — influence does not carry over from turn to turn.

You can play as many cards as you want to in this phase, in any order you want — as long as you have the influence to pay for them.

Recruiting Allies

To recruit an ally card from your hand, pay its cost, then put that card into your ally deck discard pile. The next time your ally deck runs out of cards, you'll shuffle it and all the other cards in your ally discard pile to make a new ally deck. Over time, your ally deck will get stronger and stronger as you recruit more allies.

If the new ally has a Recruit ability, resolve that ability after you put the ally card into your ally discard pile.

Playing Strategy Cards

To play a strategy card from your hand, pay its cost, then resolve its effects. Finally, put the strategy card into the banished pile — NOT into your ally discard pile.

Playing Enemies

Whenever you play an enemy card, pay its cost, then put it into an opponent's ally discard pile. The next time that opponent's ally deck runs out of cards, they'll shuffle their discard pile to make a new ally deck, at which point the enemy you sent to them will eventually show up and attack!

The Banished Pile

While each player has their own ally discard pile, there is also the banished pile. The banished pile is basically the game's discard pile, so any card that doesn't go into a player's ally discard pile always goes to the banished pile.

Furthermore, if an effect banishes a card, that card is placed in the banished pile.

The Action Phase

During this phase, each of your allies gets 1 action. An ally doesn't have to take its action if you don't want to, and your allies can take their action in any order you choose.

When an ally takes its action, that ally gets drained. Turn it sideways to show this. This is just to help you remember which allies have already taken their action this turn.

When an ally takes an action, you turn it sideways. That ally is drained. Allies that are not drained are considered to be ready. This is what some cards refer to when they mention a drained or ready ally.

Attacking an Opponent's Ally

When an ally takes its action, you must choose one of the following options:

1. Attack an opponent's ally.
2. Play their Strategize ability (if they have one).
3. If you have any enemies in play, your only option is to attack them.

Remember that at the beginning of each player's turn, they'll gain a victory point for each ally they still have in play. The best way to keep them from gaining these victory points is to attack their allies.

1. Choose an opponent's ally to attack.
2. Teamwork. You may put any number of your ready allies into your ally discard pile. Your attacking ally gains strength equal to the total strength of those allies. You don't have to use teamwork if you don't want to.
3. Battle! Compare your attacking ally's strength to the strength of the opponent's ally. The ally with the lower strength loses the battle and is wounded as a result. Place it in its player's ally discard pile. In case of a tie, both allies are wounded and placed in their respective ally discard piles.

Example — Attacking an Opponent's Ally. Tom wants to attack an opponent's ally card. He chooses his Ken Kaneki ally card to attack with, so he drains it and chooses an opponent's Ayato Kirishima ally card to attack. Kaneki's strength is 5, while Ayato Kirishima's is 6, so Kaneki will need some help to defeat him.

Tom also has Enji Koma (strength 1) in play. Since Enji hasn't acted yet this turn, he is ready. Tom puts Enji into his ally discard pile, adding 1 strength to Kaneki. Kaneki's strength is now 6. Tom doesn't have any more ready allies to add to Kaneki's strength, so the battle is resolved. Since both allies tie for strength, each is wounded — Tom puts Kaneki into his ally discard pile, and his opponent puts Ayato Kirishima into her ally discard pile.

Wounded

Cards can get wounded in different ways — like losing a battle as outlined above. Whenever a card is wounded, it is placed in its player's ally discard pile.

Enemies

When you've got enemies in play, the only option your allies have is to attack them. If you manage to take out the enemy cards and still have allies that haven't taken their action yet this turn, those allies may act normally.

Taking Over Locations

Instead of attacking your opponent's allies, you may use your allies to take over locations. Each ward has its own key location — controlling them not only gives you more influence, but can also be a path to victory. Remember that if you have any enemies in play, you must deal with them first.

1. Choose a location to take over. You can choose an unclaimed location, or a location controlled by another player. You can't choose another player's location if they have any allies in play. Of course, if you were to take out those allies first…
2. Hostile Takeover. Wound any number of your ready allies whose total influence is at least as much as the location's cost.

Once you've taken over a location, put it next to your ally deck. It stays there until another player takes it over.

Example — Taking Over Locations. Kai wants to take over the Anteiku location (cost 3). It's controlled by another player — but that player only has one ally in play. Kai attacks that ally with one of his own, wounding it. Now the location is undefended. Kai has two ready allies, each with 2 influence. He wounds them both, putting them in his ally discard pile. He takes Anteiku and places it next to his ally deck.

At the beginning of your turn, if you control 3 or more locations, you win the game.

Attacking Enemies

While you have an enemy card in play, you must deal with it before any of your allies can attack opponent's allies or take over locations.

Attacking enemies works just like attacking your opponent's allies, with one key difference: if the enemy card loses the battle, banish it instead of putting it into your ally discard pile.

If an enemy card is wounded from some other card effect, it is placed in your ally discard pile. In order to get that enemy off your tail, you must defeat it in battle!

The Enemy Phase

Some enemies have an "enemy phase" ability. If you didn't take them out in the previous action phase, these abilities will happen during the enemy phase. If you have more than one enemy phase ability to deal with, you choose the order in which they will happen.

At the end of this phase, put all enemy cards you have in play into your ally discard pile. The only way to get rid of them for good is to attack them when they come back later!

The Draw Phase

The last phase of each turn is the draw phase. During this phase, you may discard 1 card, and then draw cards from a single ward deck until you have 5 cards in your hand.

You must choose a single ward deck to draw from — you cannot split your draw between multiple ward decks.

Once you have finished drawing cards, your turn ends, and the player to your left takes the next turn.

Ending the Game

Whenever a player has ten or more victory points, they game ends and they win. Also, if a player starts their turn with 3 or more location cards, they win.

Reference

The Player Turn

During each turn, the active player takes the following phases in order:

1. Ally Phase – At the beginning of this phase, players gain victory points.
2. Influence Phase – During this phase, players gain and spend influence to recruit allies and play cards.
3. Action Phase – During this phase, allies can use their action to attack or use abilities.
4. Enemy Phase – Any cards with an Enemy Phase ability that are still in play during this phase take effect.
5. Draw Phase – During this phase, you may discard 1 card, and then draw cards from a single ward deck until you have 5 cards in your hand.

Abilities

• Boast – Boast abilities take effect at the end of each opponent's turn.
• Devour – Whenever this attacks, banish an ally from your ally discard pile. This ally gains strength equal to the banished ally's strength this turn.
• Extreme Devour – Whenever this attacks, banish any number of allies from your ally discard pile. This ally gains strength equal to the total of all allies banished this way until the end of the turn.
• Guardian + 2 – During your opponent's turn, your allies get +2 strength.
• Melee +X – During your turn, your allies get +X strength.
• Rampage – Ready this ally. Only playable the first time it attacks each turn.
• Recruit – Recruit abilities take effect the first time you place the ally card into your ally discard pile.
• Stealth – Allies with Stealth may attack your opponent's allies while you have enemies. An ally with Stealth ignores the Guardian ability when it attacks.
• Strategize – Strategize abilities take effect when you drain the ally and wound the top 2 cards of your ally deck to gain additional effects.
• Torture – Torture abilities take effect when one of your allies wins a battle during your turn.