Two Commanders. Two fleets. One survivor. Here's everything you need to take command.

1. The Objective

Each match is a duel between two Commanders, each starting with 25 Health. Deploy Units, trigger Protocols, and swing your Commander's own weapon at the enemy fleet — or straight at their Commander. The instant either Commander's health drops to 0 (once everything currently resolving has finished resolving), the game is over and the other side wins.

2. Setup

Before the match begins, you bring a Deck of 75–150 cards built from up to five Factions — Tech, Chaos, Growth, Void, and Order — plus Unaffiliated cards anyone can run. At least a third of your deck (minimum 25 cards) must be Power Cards, the resource cards that fund everything else you do. Every other card is capped at 4 copies; Power Cards have no copy limit.

The player going first opens with a hand of 6 cards; the player going second draws 7 (a small compensation for acting second). Both opening hands are guaranteed at least 2 Power Cards, so nobody gets stranded with nothing to play. The first player only gets one chance to Mulligan — shuffle their opening hand back in and redeal a fresh one of the same size — before the match locks in.

3. Resources: Energy & Influence

Every card costs Energy to play. You start each match with 0 maximum Energy — the only way to raise your ceiling is by playing Power Cards, and your pool refills to maximum at the start of each of your turns.

Many cards also carry an Influence requirement in one or two Factions — a separate gate from Energy that checks whether you've built up enough standing in that Faction to cast something so specialized. Power Cards are what raise both your Energy cap and your Influence at once.

• Energy Core [Faction] — a single-faction Power Card. Grants +1 Max Energy and +1 Influence in that one Faction.
• Energy Binary [Faction/Faction] — a dual-faction Power Card. Grants +1 Max Energy and +1 Influence split across two Factions at once.
• You may play only one Power Card from your hand per turn — but effects that fetch a Power Card from your deck or Scrapyard don't count against that limit.

4. The Turn

A turn runs through four beats, always in this order:

• Draw — draw one card.
• Main Phase — play Units, Protocols, and Weapons; install Modules; equip your Commander.
• Attack Phase — declare attackers and resolve combat.
• End Turn — pass priority to your opponent.

At the end of every turn (not just your own), a full reset sweeps the board: every Unit heals back to full health, exhausted Units and weapons ready up again, and the incoming player's Energy refills and they draw their card. Damage never lingers between turns — a Unit that survives the turn it was hurt in is back to full strength for the next one.

5. Playing Cards

Units

Your fleet. Each Unit has an Attack value, a Health value, and (usually) an Energy cost, and may carry one or more of the Abilities listed in the Glossary below. A newly played Unit enters exhausted (unable to attack or block) unless it has Charge or is played with Ambush during the right window.

Protocols & Fast Protocols

One-shot effects. A regular Protocol can only be played during your own Main Phase. A Fast Protocol can be played almost any time — during your opponent's Attack Phase, in response to a card on the Protocol Stack, or during blocking — making it your main tool for ambushes, tricks, and counterplay.

Weapons & Versatile Weapons

Equip your Commander directly, adding an Attack value and often Armor that soaks up damage before it reaches your Commander's health. A Versatile Weapon can instead be attached to a Unit if you'd rather boost your fleet than your Commander.

Modules

Standing installations that grant a persistent passive effect for as long as they remain on the board (until destroyed) — faction-wide unit buffs, damage reduction for your Commander, and similar long-term investments.

Power Core

An Unaffiliated Module, playable by any deck: each copy installed grants +1 Max Energy and +1 Influence in every Faction for as long as it stays on the board. Multiple copies stack, and each can be destroyed independently without affecting the others.

6. Combat

Declaring Attackers

During your Attack Phase, choose any number of ready (non-exhausted) Units to attack with. Each declared attacker exhausts.

Blocking

Your opponent assigns any number of their ready Units to block your attackers — one attacker can be blocked by multiple defenders, and its damage is split across them in order until it runs out (or overflows to the enemy Commander, if the attacker has Overwhelm). An attacker left unblocked hits the enemy Commander directly. While blocks are being assigned, either side may play a Fast Protocol — this is the moment Ambush units and combat tricks come out.

Damage Resolution

Combat damage is normally simultaneous — attacker and blocker hit each other at the same time — unless the attacker has First Strike, in which case it hits first and can wipe out the blocker before it ever swings back.

Commander Weapons

If your Commander is armed, you may also declare a direct Commander attack against the enemy Commander or one of their Units, using your weapon's Attack (and any of its Abilities) the same way a Unit attack would resolve. Your weapon exhausts afterward.

7. The Protocol Stack

Whenever a Fast Protocol is played in response to something already happening, it goes on top of the Protocol Stack and resolves last-in, first-out — the most recent response resolves first, then the game works back down the stack. Both sides get a chance to respond or pass each time something new is added; once both players pass in a row, the top of the stack resolves. This is what lets a well-timed counter-Protocol undo (or Negate) something your opponent just played.

8. Zones

• Hand — your available cards, capped at 9. Going over forces a discard.
• Board — your deployed Units, capped at 12. Going over forces you to scrap a Unit.
• Scrapyard — destroyed Units, used-up Protocols, and discards land here. Some effects can recover or replay cards straight from it.
• Deck — your remaining draws, face-down and shuffled at the start of the match.

9. The Factions

Unaffiliated cards carry no Faction and can be played by any deck, with no Influence requirement.

10. Winning

Reduce the enemy Commander's health to 0. That's the whole game — everything above is just how you get there.

Glossary of Terms