Damage dealt to this card by a Long attack made from the Space Band is reduced to 0. Ground Cover is immunity to orbital strikes, whatever their Power.
If a Character, Ground Unit, or Non-Capital Spacecraft occupies this card — whether placed here by deployment or by movement — the listed benefit or penalty applies. All three types are eligible occupants. Because deployment to permanents you do not control is restricted (§10.5), Occupy on an opposing card is reached almost entirely by movement (§14).
Who collects depends on the face.
On a Prime face, the benefit goes to the Location's controller. Occupying your own Location rewards you for holding it.
On a Contested face, the benefit goes to the occupier's controller. A Location that has fallen pays whoever now stands on it.
This mirrors how Surface Locations already behave, and it is the reason a Location's Occupy text differs between its two faces rather than being the same sentence twice.
Occupy is written per card rather than from a template, because the effect is determined by the Location's subtype and by which face is showing. The benefit itself (Vox, Vote, Income, or Move) is named on the card.
Occupy does not stack. The benefit applies once, no matter how many eligible cards occupy the permanent. One occupier and one hundred occupiers pay exactly the same. Occupy rewards presence, not mass.
Contested occupancy pays no one. If cards controlled by two or more different players occupy the same permanent, no player receives the Occupy benefit. A contested foothold is not a foothold. This holds whichever face is showing and whoever controls the permanent, and it sits alongside the suppression rules for intruders on a Location controlled by another player (§14.10).
The occupant is the key, not the recipient. Occupying is a trigger, not a payment. An eligible occupant satisfies the card's condition and turns the effect on; who then benefits is whatever the effect names, which is normally the occupier's controller, a class of cards that controller holds, or the Location itself. The occupying card is not required to be among them, and usually is not.
All three eligible types therefore work identically: each one turns the Location on. A Non-Capital Spacecraft occupying an Ethos Center triggers the effect in full — its controller's Characters and Ground Units gain Vox — even though the Spacecraft gains no Vox itself, because Spacecraft print none (§19.6). That is the rule working, not a gap in it. The Spacecraft was never the recipient; it was the reason the Location paid out at all.
Adding the occupant's own type to such an effect would not widen the benefit — it would only add dead text, for the same reason.
Scope. This section governs Occupy as printed on Locations. Occupying a Spacecraft or other card is governed by that card's own text — Transport, One-Seater, and similar keywords name their own permitted occupants and limits, and are unaffected by the eligibility rule here.
An attack marked Volley deals its damage in the Volley step, before regular damage, and casualties from the Volley step are removed before regular damage resolves (§11.6).
Volley is purely timing. All Volley damage is dealt simultaneously, so two cards firing Volley attacks at each other deal their damage to each other at the same time. It applies to return fire as much as to attacks: a defender answering with a Volley attack deals its damage before a non-Volley attacker's damage lands.
Volley is a timing tag, not an attack: it may be carried by an attack of any Power and Range. It is printed as Volley <attack name>, naming the attack whose damage moves to the Volley step, because a card may print several attacks and Volley applies to the one named.
Volley is a keyword in its own right, and is not a rename of Long Range. The former Long Range keyword is retired, and its name is now the Long range tag (§11.1). A card's old Long Range value converts to an ordinary attack with a Power and a Range and does not become a Volley attack by default. Volley is printed deliberately, on the attacks the design wants to strike first.
Orbital Bombardment is no longer a keyword. What it did is now a High Power Long attack made from the Space Band against the Surface Band below (§11.1), and its common name is still Orbital Bombardment (§11.8). Orbital and Orbital Bombardment were the same tag pair fired in opposite directions, so both collapse into the attack model.
Twist marks a card with a flip mechanic. The card's text specifies the trigger condition (state-based, storyline-keyed, or other) and any payment cost. Some Twists are mandatory (flip automatically when the trigger fires); others give the controller the option to flip by paying a cost.
Examples:
Storyline-completion with cost (optional): "Twist: When a storyline completes, you may pay 2 CP total from any number of permanents you control or 1 SP. If you do, flip this card."
State-triggered (mandatory): "Twist: When Emberate Captain Durnen is deployed to this card, flip it."
Card-type-change Twist. Some Twist effects flip a card to a different card type (e.g., a Spacecraft flipping to a Character, or a Ground Unit flipping to a Character). In such cases:
The flipped card uses all printed values on its current face (Attack, Defense, Rank, Vote, Drives, Morality, Penalties, abilities, starting CP).
The card's Location occupancy is preserved — it remains at the same Location, Spacecraft, or position on the map as before the flip.
Activation state is preserved — if the card was activated before the flip, it remains activated after.
A card flip does not mean the card enters the Map (as if it were played from a player's hand). Activation state and any existing counters (besides CP and Liberation counters) are preserved. Any time a card flips all Liberation counters are removed.
CP starts at the printed starting CP value of the new face. It does not carry over accumulated CP from the prior face.
Triggers that fire "when this card flips to this face" fire after the flip resolves. Triggers that fire "when this card enters the map" do NOT fire on a flip (the card did not enter the map; it was already there).
Twist on Characters. A Twist may appear on a Character, not only on Spacecraft and Ground Units. A Character with a printed Twist flips Prime<->Fallen when its printed condition is met, independently of and in addition to any other route to the Fallen face (§7.7). A Twist that Falls a Character you control awards the next opponent in turn order 1 Story Point unless the card prints that it does not (§8.12). A Twist worded "you may flip this card" is optional; a mandatory trigger is not. Example: Sister Mira of the Quiet Hand (optional Prime->Fallen Twist when an opposing Character is destroyed at her Location).
A Maneuver with a Policy Restriction lists a Galactic Factor and a target zone (or zones). If the listed Galactic Factor is currently within the target zone, the Maneuver plays at base cost. If not, the listed penalty cost is paid in addition to the base cost.
The controlling player begins the game with N Currency in their Treasury. N is also the value the winning player's Treasury is reduced to at the end of an Act (§9.4). A Treasury is capped at 20C at all times (§3.1).
If this card is occupying a Spacecraft and that Spacecraft is destroyed, you may move this card to a legal target. If there are no legal targets, place this card in the Depleted Pile.
The legal targets are a Planetary Location or a Capital Ship the card's controller controls. The card's printed text asks whether a target is legal; this section answers it. A destination set named only here cannot fall out of step with the cards.
It is a move, not a deployment. The card is already on the Map when its host is destroyed, and deploying is the act of placing a card onto the Map from hand (§10.5). An Escape Pod move does not spend a move action from the controller's pool (§14.4) and is not restricted by Band adjacency (§14.5) — the card may reach any legal target regardless of distance.
A failed escape is not a destruction. A card with no legal target is placed in the Depleted Pile; it is not destroyed. Nothing keyed to destruction fires — not War Crime, not Salvage, and not the Story Point award in §15. A Character that cannot escape hands its opponent nothing.
Characters automatically have the Escape Pod ability. Ground Units must have the Escape Pod keyword printed on the card to use it. Non-Capital Spacecraft never have it (§18.56).
A type category encompassing Characters, Planetary Locations, Homeworlds, Storylines, Statutes and Drones. Non-Narrative permanents include Surface Locations, Spacecraft, Ground Units, and Devices — other than Drones of those types.
Drones are Narrative whatever their type (ruled 2026-10-17). A Drone is created by a Storyline or another card to play a part in its story — Ky'el Silv, The Whispering Rift, the MKVI SG — so effects that remove non-Narrative permanents cannot strike it down. A Drone still follows the rules of its own type (a Ground Unit Drone can be attacked, a Device Drone can be carried) and is still Burned when destroyed (§18.26).
Statutes (type line `CONVOCATE STATUTE`) are Narrative so that effects which remove non-Narrative permanents cannot strike down a law; a Statute leaves the Map only by repeal or by its controller's choice (§6.7, §6.9). Cards may reference Narrative or non-Narrative permanents in their effects.
A type designation that may appear on Character, Ground Unit, or Spacecraft cards (e.g., 'Zealot Rebel' on the secondary type line). Cards that reference rebel status (e.g., 'If the acting Character is a Rebel') check for this designation on the card's current face.
Partner is an asymmetric keyword printed on the initiator card only.
Establishing Partnership. A card with the Partner keyword activates and targets another Character to establish a partnership. The initiator and target both become 'partnered.' The initiator's activation persists — during the initiator's controller's Ready Phase, the controller may choose not to ready the initiator in order to maintain the partnership.
Ending Partnership. A partnership ends when any of the following occurs:
The target Character flips or leaves play.
The initiator flips.
The initiator leaves play.
The initiator is readied by its controller (voluntarily during the Ready Phase) or by any other card or mechanic.
The initiator loses the Partner keyword (e.g., flips to a face without it).
No un-partnered penalty. Ending a partnership has no effect beyond ending it. Earlier revisions flipped the initiator to its Fallen face; that is retired, because a Character Falls only by the routes in §7.7.
Triggers and States. Cards may print "If this card is partnered..." triggers as recipients of partnership. Such triggers fire at the moment the partnership begins (a one-time event), unless the printed text specifies an ongoing condition.
Targeting. Unless the card text restricts otherwise, Partner can target a Character controlled by any player, including an opponent.
If this card is destroyed in combat, the controller of the card that dealt lethal damage must pay 1 CP or 3C. If this card attacks, it loses the War Crime ability until the end of turn.
Civilians and War Crime. Civilian-subtype Ground Units and Characters automatically carry War Crime. Civilians may have Attack values greater than zero and may be used defensively in combat. If a card with War Crime attacks, it loses the War Crime ability until end of turn. A Civilian that attacks therefore forfeits its protected status for the remainder of the turn; killing it during that turn imposes no War Crime cost on the attacker.
This rule applies to every card with the War Crime keyword regardless of whether the full ability text is printed inline. On most Civilian printings, the keyword alone appears in card body text and the full text resolves through this section.
A conditional bonus keyed to a Galactic Factor zone. The card text specifies the GF, the zone, and the bonus (e.g., "Influence: If the RLGN is -3 or -4, this card gains +1 Rank"). The bonus is active for as long as the GF remains in the specified zone.
During the controlling player's Action Phase, the controller may target a card in their Depleted Pile with the Rebuild ability. If they do they pay the rebuild cost to return that card from their Depleted Pile to their hand.
One of the three exit clauses a Fallen Character face may print (§7.8). The person is still in there, and the arc ends by bringing them back.
Standard text:"Redeem."
It is resolved through the Redeem path of the Reversal face of the Storyline the Character is Bound to (§8.11). When that path completes, the Act ends, the Storyline is banked and Burned, and the Bound flips to its Prime face.
Redeem is the most valuable of the three outcomes, because a Prime Character can be Bound again (§8.10) and so can anchor another arc. Characters whose Prime face was already Expedient, or whose Fallen face retains a Justice or Connection Drive, typically receive it. Its path should be the most demanding of the three accordingly.
On non-Character permanents. A Fallen face of a non-Character permanent may print a Redeem clause with its own cost or condition rather than a Storyline path — see Restore (§18.49), which is the usual form. Those are unaffected by §8.11.
Carried-over V2 text. Most Fallen Character faces in the current card pool still print the V2 wording, "Redeem: When you complete any Redemption, Connection, or Justice Storyline, flip this card. +1 SP." Under this revision the trigger is the Reversal path and there is no SP award; those lines are being swept to the standard text above.
One of the three exit clauses a Fallen Character face may print (§7.8). The person is gone, but their values are not: they cannot be recovered, and the arc ends by spending them well.
Standard text:"Selfless Sacrifice."
It is resolved through the Selfless Sacrifice path of the Reversal face of the Storyline the Character is Bound to (§8.11). When that path completes, the Act ends, the Storyline is banked and Burned, and the Bound is destroyed — which is the completion itself and does not destroy the Storyline (§8.11).
Selfless Sacrifice is the typical exit clause for Fallen Iniquitous Characters and other irrecoverable falls (e.g. Vey, Pattern Discontinued; Dain Tarrek, Frontier Sovereign; Orion Vex, Corporate Owned).
A Character on this clause is spent when the arc ends. In exchange its path is usually the least demanding of the three, because it asks the largest price (§18.20b).
One of the three exit clauses a Fallen Character face may print (§7.8). They cannot go back and would not: the change is one-way and they mean it now. The arc ends by them finishing what the new self started.
Standard text:"Conviction."
It is resolved through the Conviction path of the Reversal face of the Storyline the Character is Bound to (§8.11). When that path completes, the Act ends, the Storyline is banked and Burned, and the Bound remains on its Fallen face.
Conviction covers the whole range of irreversible change, not only the vengeful kind. It is the clause for the Character consumed by a single grievance, and equally for one whose transformation is virtuous and permanent — a reform from an Expedient Prime that is not meant to be undone (e.g. Thea Vorn, The Reformer; Sera Lin, Truthsayer, whose released truth cannot be untold). Earlier revisions left these Characters with no exit clause at all; Conviction is the mechanic that population needed.
A Conviction Character is kept but spent. They remain on the Map, on a face that may be stronger than their Prime — and they can never be Bound again (§8.10), so they will never anchor another arc. Conviction therefore sits between Redeem, which hands a Prime Character back, and Selfless Sacrifice, which hands back nothing, and its path should be priced accordingly.
A Character that was always what it is needs no exit clause. That is a Sleeper (§18.35), whose Prime face is a disguise and whose Fallen face is the reveal rather than a fall.
Text: "Bind: When this card enters the Map, bind a Character you control to this card."
The keyword every Storyline prints (§8.10). The chosen Character becomes the Bound.
The limits in §8.10 govern the target:
only a Character on its Prime face may be Bound;
a Character may be Bound to only one Storyline at a time;
a Storyline with no legal Bind target can't be played.
Binding doesn't activate the Character, and an existing bind survives the Bound Falling (§8.10).
Bind doesn't target. Its controller simply chooses one of their own Characters, so nothing that stops a card being targeted stops a bind. A Character with Stealth (§18.88) or Cloak (§18.58) can be Bound like any other.
Bind is unrelated to the Binding Maneuver keyword (§18.42).
Ruled 2026-10-22. The first wording said "bind target Character", which let Stealth block a bind; "target" was dropped the same day so that it doesn't. Earlier revisions made Bind an activated, Slow-timed ability on Characters; that is retired (§8.10).
Keywords: Stealth, Partner, Redeem, Selfless Sacrifice, Conviction, Twist, Bind, Volley, Escape Pod, Blockade, Ground Cover, Occupation, Influence, Political Neutrality, War Crime, Sell, Attach, Drone, and all other named keyword abilities
Storyline terms: the Bound, Partner, Fall, Position (§8.1)
Resources and stats: Currency, CP, Vote, RK, ATK, DEF. SP is retired (§15).
ATK now means the damage value of an attack, not a single stat: a card may print several attacks, each with its own value, Power and Range (§11.1). A bonus to ATK applies to the attack being made. OB is retired with Orbital Bombardment (§18.4).
Zones: Map (when referring to the play zone), Depleted Pile, Burned Pile
Common functional words (you, the, target, gain, pay, may, etc.) remain lowercase. GDD body text (this document) and card titles may use different conventions; the rule above applies only to body rules text on cards.
The type line is ordered: [Prime/Fallen] [Faction] [Race] [Type] [Subtype] [Name]. The Race field is shown only when non-human (Syntient); human is the default and is omitted. On secession the Faction word and crest swap on the Fallen face only (Concord / Emberate / Pale Veil); the card remains its printed Faction for deckbuilding (§17.5, §18.39). Examples: "Union Syntient Civilian Nexus-7" (Prime) / "Fallen Concord Syntient Civilian Nexus-7" (Fallen); "Zealot Soldier Callen Gohs"; "Fallen Emberate Soldier Rebel Kaela Durnen".
18.23 Implicit Defaults for CP, SP, and Cost Notation#
Unless otherwise stated in card text:
"Add X CP" or "+X CP" means "Add X CP to this card."
"Gain X CP" means "Add X CP to this card."
"Add X SP" or "+X SP" or "Gain X SP" means "Add X SP to the controlling player's SP pool."
Effects that redirect to other targets must explicitly say so: "Add 1 SP to target player's SP pool," "Add 1 CP to target Character."
Cost notation. Two payment conventions distinguish source of payment:
"Pay X CP" means the controller may pay X CP from any CP source the controller controls — the activating card itself, any other card the controller controls, or any combination summing to X. CP is fungible across the controller's permanents for this cost.
"−X CP" means pay X CP from the specific card that bears the ability. This is a self-cost; the activating card itself must pay the full amount or the ability cannot be activated.
The same convention applies to Currency: "Pay X Currency" draws from the controller's Treasury (the only Currency source); "−X Currency" notation is not currently in use because Currency does not live on individual cards.
This distinction matters in practice: a card with "Activate, −1 CP" becomes unable to activate when its own CP reaches zero, while a card with "Activate, Pay 1 CP" may continue activating as long as the controller has any CP source elsewhere.
Prime is the type-line label for the front (default) face of any flippable card. It is the opposite of Fallen (for Characters and other permanents), Contested (for Locations, Homeworlds and Capital Spacecraft), Reversal (for Storylines, §8.11), and Completed (for a Storyline back face that is not a Reversal).
Type-line examples:
Character - Prime Zealot ↔ Character - Fallen Zealot
Surface Location - Prime Zealot ↔ Surface Location - Contested
Storyline - Prime ↔ Storyline - Completed
Spacecraft - Prime Zealot Capital Ship ↔ Spacecraft - Contested Capital Ship
A card becomes Prime whenever its visible face changes to its Prime face, regardless of cause (Redeem clause flip-back, owner re-purchase of a Contested Location per §13.2, owner combat-destruction of a Contested Location per §11.7, or any other effect that flips the card back to its Prime face). Triggers keyed to "becomes Prime" fire on any such transition, mirroring "becomes Contested" and "becomes Fallen" triggers in §19.2.
The Contested and Fallen states are read from the explicit type-line labels. A card in its Prime state, or flipped to a Completed or other non-Contested / non-Fallen face, is neither. (These labels once counted toward a five-permanent Lose condition, now retired, §16.)
The Map is the primary play zone — the canonical game term for the board. Permanents currently in play are "on the Map." Cards in hand, deck, Depleted pile, or Burned pile are not on the map.
Triggers keyed to "enters the Map" fire when a permanent transitions from another zone into play. Triggers keyed to "leaves the Map" fire when a permanent transitions from play to another zone (Depleted pile, Burned pile, hand, etc.). A card flip does not constitute "entering the Map" — the card was already on the Map and remains there in its new face.
Storylines, Devices, and other permanent types count as being on the map; "enters the Map" triggers can fire when these are played.
A Drone is a token permanent created by a card or ability. Drones are not deck cards; they exist only when created by an effect.
Rules:
A card or ability creating a Drone states the Drone's stats and abilities. There is no minimum: a Drone has exactly the values its creation text gives it, and a value it does not print excludes it from the mechanics that need that value (§19.7). Earlier revisions required every Drone to print ATK, DEF and RK; that requirement is withdrawn.
The creating text defines everything. Assume the physical Drone cards are not available. A Drone's stats, abilities and any hidden information must all be stated by the card or ability that creates it. (Design rule, ruled 2026-10-22.)
Drones do not inherit any abilities from cards they share a name with, unless the creating effect specifically grants them. A Drone is a fresh permanent with only the stats and abilities printed in the creation text.
Drones are sent to the Burned Pile when destroyed (§18.27). They do not flip, cannot be Redeemed, and cannot be returned to the map.
Hidden information on a Drone goes on a face-down marker. Because the creating text must define everything (above), a Drone carries hidden information on a face-down marker that the creating card places on it and defines (§18.37), not on a printed back face. Drones never flip, and revealing a marker is not a flip (§13): nothing that triggers on a flip applies, and Liberation counters, activation state and every other counter stay on the Drone. Example: A Mind That Can Be Made to Believe creates three Vessels and puts a face-down Mind marker on one and an Echo marker on each of the others. (Ruled 2026-10-20 for two-faced Drones; reworked 2026-10-23 when the Vessels moved to markers.)
Drones count as permanents for all other purposes (combat, Liberation, targeting, etc.) unless specifically excluded. A Device Drone follows the Device rules (§18.28).
Every Drone is a Narrative permanent (§18.12), whatever its type.
The Burned Pile is a zone for cards and tokens removed from the game entirely. Cards in the Burned Pile cannot be returned to hand, deck, or play by any effect.
Cards or tokens go to the Burned Pile when:
A Drone is destroyed (§18.26).
A card effect specifies "burn it" or "send to the Burned Pile."
Cards going to the Burned Pile still trigger destruction-keyed effects (e.g., War Crime, "when a Character is destroyed") at the moment of destruction. The Burned Pile is a destination, not a substitute for destruction — the destruction event happens, and then the card is routed to Burned instead of Depleted.
Attach is the ability of a Device to be mounted on a host.
The mount. A Device's type line ends in a mount word naming what it may be attached to:
Type line ends in
Legal host
Example
KIT
a Character or Ground Unit — the Device is carried
DEVICE - EXPLOSIVE KIT
SHIP TECH
a Spacecraft
DEVICE - HEGEMONY SHIP TECH
SURFACE TECH
a Surface Location
DEVICE - REPUBLIC SURFACE TECH
PLANETARY TECH
a Planetary Location or Homeworld
DEVICE - ROYAL PLANETARY TECH
A Device whose type line names no mount cannot be attached; it simply occupies its Position.
Text: "Attach: If a card this card's mount allows, controlled by you, is this card's Position or occupies it, attach this card to that card. This card makes all moves that card makes. If that card is removed from the Map, unattach this card."
For a KIT, the host is a Character or Ground Unit sharing the Device's Position — the original carried-Device wording, "If a Character or Ground Unit you control occupies the same Position as this card…", reads exactly so. For a TECH mount, the host is the Location or Spacecraft the Device is on.
A card may print a cost before it ("Pay 1: Attach"). With no cost printed, attaching is free. A card's own text may also attach it at another moment — on a flip, at random, when it becomes unattached — but only ever to a host its mount allows.
Control.
1. An attached Device is controlled by its host's controller. If control of the host changes, control of the Device changes with it. 2. An unattached Device has no controller. This is its own state, not like a Contested Location, which still has a controller (§14.11). While it has no controller:
its activated abilities cannot be used;
abilities that refer to "you" do nothing, because there is no "you";
its other static abilities still apply. Its owner does not change. A destroyed Device Drone is Burned (§18.26); any other destroyed Device goes to its owner's Depleted Pile.
Attaching.
3. Who attaches. The controller of a legal host — a Character or Ground Unit sharing the Device's Position for a KIT, the Location or Spacecraft it is on for a TECH mount — activates Attach, pays any printed cost, attaches the Device to that card, and takes control of the Device. "You" in the Attach text is that player. A player may attach an unattached Device whoever owns it, and may move a KIT already carried by another of their own cards on the same Position to a new host — that is how a Device is handed over. 4. Entering attached. A Device deployed from hand may enter attached to a legal host its deployer controls at that Position — for a TECH mount, the card it is deployed to — paying its Attach cost (§10.5). Otherwise it enters unattached, with no controller. 5. Moving with the host. The Device makes every move its host makes; a SHIP TECH travels with its Spacecraft, a KIT with its carrier. An attached Device takes no seat and does not count toward capacity limits (§14.6). 6. Flips do not unattach. A host that Falls keeps the Device, and so does its controller. 7. There is no voluntary drop. A Device leaves its host only by being attached to another host, by the host leaving the Map, or by an effect.
Unattached Devices.
8. When the host leaves the Map, the Device becomes unattached and uncontrolled, and stays on the host's last Position. If that Position is gone too — a destroyed Spacecraft, for example — the Device is displaced (§14.12), with its owner making the choices a controller would. If there is no legal Position, it is destroyed. 9. An unattached Device cannot move. It goes where a host takes it. 10. Devices are not units. A Device cannot be attacked or Liberated, does not score as a unit in an opponent's Band (§15.1), and needs no ATK, DEF or RK — which, printed blank, would exclude it from those mechanics anyway (§19.7). It leaves the Map through effects that destroy Devices, or through its own text — often once a player has taken it and can use its abilities.
Capturing a Location takes what is mounted on it. A SURFACE or PLANETARY TECH is controlled by its host's controller, so capturing the Location (§14.11) takes the Device fixed to it. When a TECH host leaves the Map, its Position has gone with it, so the Device is displaced under rule 8.
Earlier revisions let any Device attach to any legal permanent its controller controlled, unattached it when the host flipped, and kept unattached Devices in no Band. A later draft of this revision used a separate "Attach <type>" form for fixtures; the mount word replaces it (ruled 2026-10-17).
Diplomatic Immunity is one of the three infiltration keywords, with Work Visa (§18.51) and Infiltrate (§18.70). It is printed on Characters and select Civilian Ground Units.
Text: "This card may occupy a Position you don't control. If this card attacks or Liberates, it loses Diplomatic Immunity until end of turn."
Rules for all three infiltration keywords:
1. The permission. The card may move onto, and remain on, a Position its controller does not control, subject to every other occupancy rule (§14.6, §14.10): only a Prime Location or a Prime Capital Spacecraft (§14.10), one player's units per card, an intruder may enter a Prime card only while it is empty, and capacity limits such as One-Seater still apply.
2. Occupy, not deploy. The keyword does not permit deploying from hand onto a permanent its controller does not control. Unlisted (§18.30) is the deploy-side keyword.
3. Acting violently suspends it. If the card attacks or Liberates, it loses the keyword until end of turn, after that attack or Liberation resolves. Without the keyword it can no longer occupy a Position its controller does not control, so if it is standing on one, it is displaced (§14.12) at once. An envoy who opens fire is expelled. The keyword returns at end of turn, and the card may use it again on a later turn.
4. Not protection. On an opponent's card, the infiltrator is a normal target for combat, Maneuvers and abilities (§14.10).
5. Entry is not capture. Control of a Location or Capital Spacecraft follows its becoming Contested with the infiltrator as its only occupant (§14.11).
6. Three keywords, kept separate. The three carry identical text apart from their names, and differ in faction flavour. They are deliberately maintained as separate keywords because they are expected to diverge. Do not treat them as interchangeable in card text.
Unlisted is a printed deployment keyword on Ground Units and select Civilian cards. Text: "This card may be deployed to a Location or Spacecraft you do not control."
Rules:
Unlisted permits deployment to permanents the controller does not control. It is the deploy-side counterpart to Diplomatic Immunity (§18.29), which permits movement only.
Unlisted is the principal exception to §10.5. Without it, deployment is restricted to a Planetary Location or Capital Ship you control.
Unlisted is deployment-only. It is not protection. Once on an opponent's permanent, the card is a normal target for combat, Maneuvers, and abilities — see §14.10.
A card deployed by Unlisted to an opposing Location triggers that Location's Occupation effects (§18.2) and the intruder rules in §14.10.
Unlisted carriers obey all other deployment constraints. A card deployed by Unlisted Mobilizes as normal (§10.4).
Procedural Delay is a tax on Maneuver play that simulates parliamentary obstruction. Two forms exist:
Passive Procedural Delay N (Keyword form): While the bearer is in play, opposing players pay N additional Currency to play any Maneuver. The keyword activates after the first surcharge has been paid (i.e., opponents may "pay through" the delay; the delay does not stack multiple surcharges in a single turn).
Active Procedural Delay (Variant card text): "Until the beginning of your next turn, all Maneuvers cost an additional N Currency." The active form is symmetric — it taxes all players' Maneuvers including the controller's. This is intentional: slowing government procedure is expensive for everyone in the chamber.
Concordance is a conditional bonus keyed to the GOVT Galactic Factor being at +4 (Galactic Tribunal, §5.3). Text format: "Concordance: If GOVT is (+4), [bonus]."
The condition is the rule; the bonus is supplied by the card, and it differs from card to card. Concordance carries no standard effect.
Concordance is not the win condition (Galaxy Alignment, §15, requires all four GFs in the controller's preferred zones simultaneously and held for a full turn). Concordance fires whenever GOVT alone is +4, regardless of the other three Factors. It is primarily a Galatic Union keyword, the in-fiction equivalent of "we have a working majority."
Fortified is a defensive keyword on heavy Ground Units. Text: "If this card is deployed to a Location, prevent all combat damage dealt to that Location, and that Location may not be targeted for Liberation."
While a Fortified unit is deployed to a Location:
1. Combat damage to the Location itself (e.g., from orbital bombardment) is prevented entirely. The Fortified unit may still take damage; the Location does not.
2. The Location may not be targeted for Liberation (§12). Liberation attempts targeting that Location are illegal while a Fortified unit is deployed there.
3. The Fortified unit itself remains a normal target for combat, Liberation, Maneuvers, and abilities.
4. Removing the Fortified unit (destruction, displacement, sale) removes the protections.
A single Location may host only one Fortified unit. Subsequent Fortified units deployed to the same Location are inert with respect to the keyword.
Fortified blocks the declaration, not the counters. It makes a Location an illegal target for a Liberation (§12.3). It does not stop Liberation counters reaching the Location by some other route — a card effect that places them directly, or a Crisis Storyline (§22). Because Liberation counters are now checked continuously against Rank (§12.8), counters arriving that way can destroy a Fortified Location.
Indoctrinated (§18.84) is the keyword that blocks placement itself. Its text is written against the counters rather than the declaration, so it holds against every source. The two keywords protect against different things, and a card wanting both needs both.
Civilian is a faction-agnostic subtype that may appear on Characters and Ground Units. Civilian-subtype cards carry the following implicit rules unless their card text overrides:
1. Automatic War Crime. All Civilian-subtype cards carry the War Crime keyword (§18.17) regardless of whether the full text is printed inline.
2. Combat permitted but conditional. Civilians may have Attack values greater than zero and may attack. If a Civilian attacks, it loses War Crime until end of turn (§18.17). Civilians are therefore defensive ATK threats by default and aggressive losers of protection when used offensively.
3. Subtype loss on flip. If a Civilian card flips to a face that is not labeled Civilian (e.g., Hidden Ordnance flips a Civilian Trade Envoy into a Weapon-Tech device; Hardened Survivors flips a Civilian Refugee Convoy into a Soldier unit), the new face is not Civilian and does not carry War Crime. The protections are lost at the moment of flip.
Civilian is faction-agnostic: a card may be Civilian regardless of its faction label. Common Civilian-subtype lines include "Union Civilian," "Union Civilian Diplomat," and "Union Diplomat Civilian."
A sleeper card is a double-faced Ground Unit (or, rarely, other permanent type) whose Prime face is a disguised civilian asset and whose Fallen face is the revealed true form (a weapon, a hidden combatant, a political payoff). Sleeper cards flip via Rite of Credence (§18.36), not by reaching zero CP.
Variant printings: A sleeper card may have multiple variant printings that share an identical Prime face but carry different Fallen back faces. The variant chosen at deckbuild time determines the Fallen face's effect. Per §17.1, variant printings count as the same card for singleton purposes — a deck may include only one variant.
Current sleeper variant pairs:
Unlisted Trade Envoy — front: Civilian Diplomat with War Crime and Diplomatic Immunity. Variants: Hidden Ordnance (becomes a Tritium Device, attaches and detonates with FRNP/RLGN decrement) vs. Embedded Agent / Nelena Trade Delegation (becomes a Civilian Diplomat that, while occupying a Prime Location, gains that Location's Income and Vote abilities).
Le'Evalen Refugee Convoy — front: Civilian with War Crime and SP-on-civilian-death trigger. Variants: Sanctuary Petitioners (advances a Connection / Justice / Redemption Storyline by one chapter on reveal; gains +1 SP) vs. Evalen Raider Team (becomes a Fallen Soldier with ATK/CP gain on kill).
Rite of Credence is a bluffing-and-reveal mechanic for sleeper cards. It is the canonical flip trigger for double-faced Ground Units that are not Characters and therefore do not flip via zero-CP.
Card text: "Rite of Credence: During their Action Phase any player may target this card and declare 'Rite of Credence.' If the controller declared the Rite, they may flip this card. Otherwise, the controller must name a card. Any other player may then choose to flip this card; if they do and the named card matches the Fallen face, that player must pay 4 Currency. If the named card does not match the Fallen face, the controller must pay 4 Currency."
Resolution sequence:
1. During any player's Action Phase, that player may target a sleeper card in play that has Rite of Credence.
2. The targeting player declares "Rite of Credence."
3. If the controller of the targeted card is the declaring player, the controller may immediately flip the card to its Fallen face. (This is the consensual reveal — the controller chooses to play their sleeper.)
4. If the declaring player is not the controller, the controller must name a card by title. This may or may not be the actual Fallen face of the sleeper — the controller may truthfully name the back, may bluff, or may name a card they know the opponent does not expect.
5. After the controller names a card, any other player (not necessarily the declaring player) may choose to flip the sleeper to verify the claim:
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If the named card does not match the actual Fallen face, the controller pays 4 Currency to the supply (penalty for bluffing and being caught). The card is revealed regardless of outcome.
6. If no other player chooses to verify, the card remains face-down. The named card claim is not binding on future Rites, but other players may take the claim into account.
Information rules and Rite of Credence (cross-reference §17.8): The mechanic is playable because all card text is public information. A player who names a card their opponent has never heard of must, on request, describe the named card's printed text. This allows the opponent to evaluate the plausibility of the bluff and decide whether to call.
Observer counters and Rite: Effects that grant a player the ability to "look at the face-down side of any permanent in play" (e.g., the Sern Observer Field Team) can preempt Rite of Credence entirely by revealing the actual Fallen face to the looking player. This represents intelligence work — the Union learns what its neighbors are hiding through legitimate observation.
Special counters are counters that are not generic CP, SP, or Currency tokens. Each counter type is defined by the card that creates it: what places it, where it sits, and what it does are per-card, and a counter type may behave differently depending on which card placed it.
There is no general restriction on where a counter may be placed. A card may place counters on itself or on another card, as its own text specifies.
The currently defined counter types are:
Mark Counter. Created by IHN Longor Thime (Hegemony Verdict-class Destroyer). Increases the damage of the source's Long attacks by an amount equal to the number of Mark counters on it.
Time Counter. The opponent's clock in the Crisis format (§22.4). One is placed on each Crisis Storyline in play during the Admin Phase of every opponent turn. A Crisis Chapter's End condition is a number of Time counters. Several Crisis cards let a player pay to remove one. Time counters are not Story Points and are not interchangeable with them.
Sabotage Counter. Placed by the Sabotage keyword (§18.87) on a target non-Narrative card, where each counter costs that card 1 DEF and 1 RK. Also placed by Vey, Free Mind Alliance Operative on Vey itself, where each counter instead costs the permanent Vey occupies 1 ATK, 1 Vote, 1 RK and 1 Income. See §20.13.
Observer Counter. Created by Observer Corps Director Talia Vesh and the Sern Observer Field Team. Each Observer counter enables a single peek (top card of opponent's deck, top cards equal to counter count, etc.) per Draw Phase.
Bomb Counter. Created by the Tritium Device (revealed back face of Unlisted Trade Envoy / Hidden Ordnance variant). When a Tritium Device accumulates two or more Bomb counters during its controller's Admin Phase, the Device and the permanent it is attached to are destroyed; FRNP and RLGN each decrement by 1.
A counter that boosts an attack boosts a printed attack. Where a counter type raises the damage of a card's attacks of some kind — Mark on the source's Long attacks, above — it means the attacks carrying that range tag which the card actually prints (§11.1). If the card prints no attack of that kind the counters do nothing, because a numerical bonus cannot create an attack the card does not print (§19.6).
Such a bonus never changes what the attack may target. The Power check still governs (§11.2). Marks on a card whose only Long attack is High Power make that attack hit Shielded targets harder; they do not let it reach a Character, a Ground Unit or a Non-Capital Spacecraft. A card meant to strike Unshielded targets at range must print a Low Power Long attack of its own.
Story Counter. The one counter a Storyline uses to track its own progress. Each Storyline's text says what places and removes its Story counters and what they count toward: a turning point, a Chapter's End, or a Reversal path's End. Story counters sit on the Storyline that places them, and a Storyline counts only the Story counters on itself. They are not Story Points and never become them. Like other special counters they stay on the card when it flips to its Reversal (§18.38), so a Reversal can read what its front built. Two counters a Storyline deals with are not Story counters. The Time counter above is the Crisis format's clock, placed by the rules rather than by card text (§22.4). The Secession counter below sits on Locations rather than on the Storyline. Ruled 2026-10-22. Story counters replace the card-specific Refuge, Crackdown, Fracture, Emergency and Confession counters. What each of those did is now printed on its card.
Secession Counter. Placed on a Prime non-Homeworld Location by The Emergency That Never Ends: each opponent places them at the beginning of their turn. A Location that reaches the threshold the card states (3, or 2 in some Chapters and paths) secedes: its Secession counters are removed and it flips to its Contested face. On the front, a Character its controller controls occupying a Location removes the Secession counters from it.
Counter sources, types, and effects are defined per-card. This section is a catalogue, not a constraint.
Face-down markers are not counters. A marker is a token a card places face down on a permanent to record hidden information. The placing card defines everything about it:
what its faces are;
who may look at it;
whether it can be moved or exchanged;
when it is revealed.
Nothing in this section counts a marker, and revealing one is not a flip (§13). A marker leaves the Map with the permanent it sits on. Example: A Mind That Can Be Made to Believe places a face-down Mind marker on one Vessel and an Echo marker on each of the others. Only its controller may look at them, they may be secretly exchanged between two Vessels, and a Vessel's marker is revealed when the Vessel leaves the Map. (Defined 2026-10-23.)
When a card flips between its Prime and Fallen faces (for any reason — a Fall, Redeem, Twist, Rite of Credence, or a card effect that flips), or a Storyline flips to its Reversal (§8.11), all special counters persist on the card, except Liberation counters, which every flip removes (§13). CP, however, resets to the new face's printed Starting CP value; the Prime and Fallen faces are distinct CP wells.
SP is a player resource and is unaffected by card flips.
A Character whose Fallen face represents narrative defection from the controller's sovereignty to a different sovereignty displays the target sovereignty's allegiance crest on the Fallen face and uses the target sovereignty's subtype on the Fallen type line. The Prime face's crest and subtype are unchanged.
The current example is the Galatic Union → Free Mind Concord defection: Senior Minister Liora Thess (Prime: Union crest, blue Union frame; Fallen, Architect of Secession: Concord crest in blue with the open-palm-and-light motif, "Concord Official" subtype). The same convention applies to Vey, Pattern Discontinued and Nexus-7, The Broken.
This is a visual-grammar rule, not a mechanical one. The Character remains a Galatic Union card for deckbuilding and Faction restriction purposes (§17.5); only the in-fiction allegiance shifts.
Pale Veil (Hegemony secession allegiance)
Pale Veil is a Hegemony (Zealot) secession allegiance, distinct from the Emberate, with its own leadership and motives. Per the rule above, a Character whose Fallen face defects to the Pale Veil displays the Pale Veil crest on the Fallen face and uses Pale Veil subtypes on the Fallen type line (e.g., "Pale Veil Rebel"). This is visual grammar only: the card remains a Zealot/Hegemony card for deckbuilding and Faction restriction (§17.5). Pale Veil Fallen faces are Fallen permanents and count toward §16 like any other defection face. Current example: Sister Mira of the Quiet Hand -> Veil Walker Mira Telven ("Fallen Pale Veil Civilian Rebel Mira Telven"). The Pale Veil venerate the Veil itself rather than Astris.
The three secession allegiances to date: Concord (Galatic Union splinter), Emberate and Pale Veil (distinct Hegemony splinters).
When a card or effect permits a player to play a card of a faction they do not control (e.g., Vael, Asset of Record's reveal-and-play ability, which may name a Zealot card), the borrowed card retains all of its original characteristics: faction tags, subtypes, drives, morality, type line, keywords, and any printed text. The granting effect supplies only legal permission — the act of playing the off-faction card — not transmutation.
In practice this means a Union Character playing a Zealot Maneuver through Vael's ability resolves the Maneuver exactly as it would resolve if a Hegemony player had played it. Faction-keyed effects (e.g., "this affects only Zealot Characters") see the card as Zealot.
This is a design-discipline rule rather than an in-game rule, but it has affected several cards and is included for future card design reference.
Any ability whose intent is to power up the bearer's own attack must not require Activate (tap-cost) as part of its cost. Activating a card prevents that card from attacking on the same turn under standard combat rules; an "Activate, gain +2 ATK" ability on an attacker therefore prevents the very attack the bonus is meant to enable. Self-attack-buff abilities should use Currency costs, CP costs, or triggered conditions instead.
Activate-cost abilities on attackers are appropriate when the ability's effect is not an attack-buff for the bearer — for example, repositioning the bearer (where not attacking is the expected trade-off), supporting allies, generating Drones, or producing political effects.
A Maneuver whose executor line includes Binding becomes a permanent when it resolves rather than being placed in the Depleted pile. It remains in play (usually attached to a target named in its text) and applies its effect continuously until removed. The card prints how it can be destroyed (typically a Currency or Vote payment any player may make during their Admin Phase). Binding is unrelated to Bind (§8.10); the two terms are kept distinct.
Concord is used two ways. (1) As a Storyline arc tag on the front type line ("Concord Storyline - ,"). To make a completed Concord Storyline countable when its back face is not itself a Storyline, the back face prints the explicit line "This card counts as a completed Concord Storyline" (type lines are never mutated to add the tag). (2) As an allegiance: a Concord permanent is any permanent whose current face carries a Concord allegiance subtype (e.g., Concord Official, Concord Rebel, Concord Syntient, Concord Syntient Capital Ship), reached by a Syntient defecting via its Fallen flip or a Twist. The first arc is Concord (The Synthesis; The Cael Tessin Question).
A permanent's Twist back face may be a Maneuver type (not only another permanent type). When such a card flips, the Maneuver back is resolved as a one-shot effect and then leaves the map (burned or to the Depleted Pile as the card states).
A Last Strike Maneuver may be resolved only as the flip result of a specified permanent being destroyed (it is not playable from hand). It resolves immediately on that flip, then is sent to the Depleted Pile.
A card may flip to a back face of a different card type (already true for Storylines, §8.9; extended in R7 to Spacecraft). When a Spacecraft flips to a non-Spacecraft face, resolve embarked Characters and Ground Units as follows:
→ Surface Location: embarked units become deployed to the new Location; the permanent moves from space to the surface.
→ Device: embarked units are displaced (§14.12), since a Device cannot be occupied.
→ Character: the Character deploys to a Drone version of the ship (per the captain pattern, §18.26); other embarked units remain on the Drone. This is how a captain ship reaches its officer face — but only on the card's own printed trigger. Captain ships carry Final (§18.91), so breaking the hull destroys them outright and never turns them to the Character (§11.7).
A Location flipping to a Spacecraft is the mirror case, and it arises on a Homeworld whose Contested face is a Capital Ship (§4.1). Every card occupying the Location stays on the card and goes up with it. The permanent moves from its terrestrial Band to the Space Band, and every card aboard is in the Space Band from that moment (§14.8). Three things follow, and all three are intended.
Both sides ride along. A garrison that was holding the Location is aboard the ship and still holding it, and so is any intruder. If the attackers cleared the garrison before they broke the card, they are the sole occupants of a Contested card and capture it on the spot (§14.11): breaking the capital and taking it become one action. If the garrison survived, occupancy is mixed and the owner keeps control.
The fight changes weapon. Cards aboard a Spacecraft are in the Space Band, so units that were fighting each other with Close attacks on the ground can no longer reach each other. Settling the boarding action from inside takes a attack (§11.4).
Surface Capacity carries over, if the face is built for it. §10.6 counts a Surface value on any face whose type line carries Homeworld, whatever card type that face is. A Contested Capital Ship face that keeps the Homeworld type line and prints its own Surface value therefore supplies Capacity exactly as the Planetary face did, and nothing happens on the flip. A face that drops either one loses the Capacity instead, and the §10.6 state-based check fires immediately: the owner destroys Surface Locations until they are within Capacity. No Lose condition keys on the Homeworld any longer (§16): losing a Homeworld does not end the game. The type line on a Contested Homeworld face matters only to rules that name Homeworlds, such as scoring (§15.1).
A counter created by The Surva-Eagan Device (Appendix B). It accumulates as that card's first ability is used and sets the size of the card's escalating End-Phase tax. Horror Counters are placed only on the card that creates them, as that card's own text specifies (§18.37).
During the controlling player's Action Phase, they pay the Restore cost of the card. If they do, they may flip the card from its Contested or Fallen face to its Prime face.
Restore requires a printed cost. A card whose Contested or Fallen face prints no Restore cost cannot be restored — there is nothing to pay. Restore is a printed ability, not a general right, so a card may be broken permanently by design. Where §11.7 and §18.55 say a broken Capital Spacecraft is recoverable, that holds only for a ship whose Contested face prints a Restore cost.
Restore is not Rebuild (§18.19). Restore flips a card that is on the Map back to its Prime face. Rebuild returns a card from the Depleted Pile. A card may print either, both, or neither, and the two costs are independent.
You may not Restore a card while a unit another player controls is occupying it. Repair requires the ground clear. An enemy standing on a broken Location or aboard a broken ship stops it being made whole, for as long as they are there.
Only a player who is both owner and controller may Restore a card. Restore is paid by "the controlling player", so a player who has lost control of a card cannot Restore it (§14.11); and no player may Restore a card they do not own. A captured card therefore cannot be repaired by anybody — not by the captor, who does not own it, and not by the owner, who no longer controls it.
Together these make Restore the last step of a recapture rather than a way around one. You clear the enemy off, and then you repair what they broke. An infiltrator on a Contested Location of yours is not merely taking its income (§14.10) — it is holding the wreck open, and it must be killed before the card can be mended. The controller's exception (§14.6) is what lets you move your own units in to do it.
A face that may never return to Prime should print no Restore cost. A Homeworld cannot be returned to its Prime face by any effect (§4.1), so a Homeworld's Contested face printing a Restore cost would be printing a cost no player may ever pay. Leave it blank.
If this card is deployed to a Location you do not control, during your Action Phase you may pay XC where X is the Rank of that Location. If you do, Liberate that Location.
Unit is shorthand for Characters and Ground Units collectively. Rules and card text referring to Units apply to both card types and to no other type. Non-Capital Spacecraft are not Units.
A Band is a region of the Map used to determine range. There are three: the Planetary Band, the Surface Band, and the Space Band. Each player has their own Planetary and Surface Band; the Space Band is shared. See §14.1 and §14.2.
Band determines range only. It does not determine which permanent a card occupies. See §14.3.
A Spacecraft subtype. Capital Ships deploy only to the Space Band, occupy no card, and never move. They remain in the Space Band for as long as they are on the Map, and they are always Shielded (§11.2).
A Capital Ship fights with the attacks it prints. Its own Band is the Space Band, so a Close attack would have no legal target and Capital Ships do not print one. Typically they carry a High Power Space attack for fleet battles and a High Power Long attack for bombarding the Surface Band below; some carry Low Power attacks for point defence or for shelling units on the ground.
Because they are Shielded, Capital Ships cannot target an Unshielded fighter with High Power guns. Flak (§18.83) is how they answer fighters.
A Capital Ship works like a Location. It prints a Contested back face, flips to it when damage reaches its DEFENSE rather than being destroyed, and is destroyed only from that face (§11.7). A Contested Capital Ship may be boarded and captured by whoever puts units aboard and is the only player with units there (§14.6, §14.11); a Prime Capital Ship is closed to an opponent's units except by infiltration. Restore (§18.49) flips it back, where the Contested face prints a Restore cost.
Any Spacecraft that does not have the Capital Ship subtype. Fighter is the first such subtype; others may follow. Every Spacecraft prints either Capital Ship or a non-capital subtype on its type line.
Non-Capital Spacecraft are always Unshielded. Like every card, their combat is determined by the Band they are in:
In the Space Band, they are reachable only by cards in the Space Band (§11.3). Orbit is a sanctuary from the whole ground war.
Landed on a Location, they are in a terrestrial Band and reachable by any Low Power Close or Long attack in range. They keep their Space attacks, which from there reach only Capital Spacecraft.
A craft that wants both space jobs prints two attacks: Low Power Space to fight other craft, High Power Space to kill ships.
Non-Capital Spacecraft may be moved using move actions. They deploy to a Planetary Location or Capital Ship you control (§10.5), and may move into the Space Band occupying no card. An opponent's Non-Capital Spacecraft cannot be occupied, and they cannot board (§14.6).
Non-Capital Spacecraft are not Units. They have printed Rank and may be the target of Liberation, but may not be declared as liberators. They do not have Escape Pod.
A card Mobilizes during the turn it enters the Map, and is described as Mobilizing while in that state. A Mobilizing card may move, perform actions, commit Votes, and use abilities. It may not attack or be declared as a liberator.
A card stops Mobilizing at the start of its controller's next turn. Flipping a card does not cause it to Mobilize; the card was already on the Map.
A Character with Cloak cannot be the target of Maneuvers or abilities controlled by opposing players, and cannot be targeted for Liberation. Cloak does not prevent attacks.
Cloak and Stealth are not the same, and neither contains the other (§18.88). Cloak blocks only opposing Maneuvers and abilities, but does block Liberation targeting. Stealth blocks Maneuvers and abilities from any controller including the bearer's own, but does not block Liberation. They differ on two axes: whose effects are blocked, and whether Liberation is among them.
Orbital is no longer a keyword. A card that shot at Spacecraft from the ground now prints a High Power Space attack (§11.1), whose common name is Orbital Artillery (§11.8).
A Location's printed claim on the state of the galaxy. Agenda names a Galactic Factor and a number of steps, e.g. Agenda ECO 1.
When this card enters the Map or flips to this face, you may move the named Galactic Factor up to N step(s) in any direction.
The move is optional and the direction is the controller's choice; a controller may move fewer than N steps, or none. The trigger has two halves: a card that is deployed from hand, and a card that arrives on the Map by flipping to a face that prints Agenda. A Location already on the Map that flips to a face printing Agenda triggers it on that flip.
Agenda is the only way a Location moves a Galactic Factor. There is no general rule granting a GF move for playing a Location (§4.2).
Assignment. The axis follows the Location's subtype:
Subtype
Axis
Industrial Center
ECO
Ethos Center
RLGN
Political Center
GOVT
Transit Gate
FRNP
Military Center
FRNP
Exploration Tech
Varies by card
Exploration Tech does not take its axis from its subtype. Each faction has exactly four Exploration Tech Locations, one for each of the four Galactic Factors, so every deck holds one of each axis and none can double up. The axis is printed on the individual card.
Homeworlds never carry Agenda.
Agenda is printed on Prime faces. A reverse face carries Agenda only as a deliberate choice on that card, never by default. Were it a default, a Location flipping back and forth would move its Factor on every return; keeping it off reverse faces means the flip half of the trigger pays out only for a card that arrives on the Map by flipping.
Printing. Where a card's body box cannot fit the reminder text, the card prints the bare marker form (Agenda ECO 1, no colon, no reminder). The bare form is the same keyword and functions identically; only the reminder is omitted.
All damage dealt to Civilian Characters and Civilian Ground Units you control that occupy the same Location or Spacecraft as this card is redirected to this card.
Bodyguard redirects damage; it is not an intercept and does not use the card's intercept for the combat. See §18.34 for the Civilian subtype.
At the beginning of your Admin Phase pay X or this card cannot attack or use activated abilities.
The payment is per turn and the penalty lasts until the next Admin Phase at which it is paid. A card silenced by an unpaid Consensus may still move, intercept, and be occupied.
During your Admin Phase name a Galactic Factor. If you have already named one, you may pay 4 to name a different Galactic Factor.
The named Galactic Factor is the current Directive. It persists until changed, and changing it after the first naming costs 4. The Directive is public information.
Directive is the enabling half of a pair: Exec (§18.67) reads the current Directive to determine what it does.
An ability whose effect is selected by the current Directive (§18.66). The card prints a ladder of rungs, each keyed to a Galactic Factor, and only the rung matching the current Directive applies.
Exec is written per card rather than from a standard reminder: the structure is the keyword, the rungs are the card. The common printed form is a bare 'Exec: This card:' followed by the Factor-keyed rungs. Others name the selector explicitly ('(Based on the current Directive)'), gate on a single Factor ('If the current Directive is GOVT this card gains the following'), or apply the effect to another card rather than to this one.
One card inverts the relationship: rather than reading the Directive to select a rung, it moves the Directive's Factor. Read each card's printed text; the keyword names the mechanism, not a fixed effect.
Where an Exec has no rung matching the current Directive, nothing resolves. Whether an Exec does anything when no Directive has been named is not stated on any card; it follows from Directive being the selector, but it is an inference rather than printed rules.
If this card is destroyed, you may move any cards occupying this card to a permanent within the same Band or any adjacent Band as this card.
Ejection System is broader than Escape Pod (§18.11): it moves every occupant rather than only those with the keyword, and it reaches any permanent in range rather than only a Planetary Location or Capital Ship the controller controls.
When this card is placed in the Depleted Pile from the Map, flip it to its Reverse face.
The card is in the Depleted Pile showing its Reverse face. Prototype does not return the card to the Map.
Prototype fires on arrival in the pile, not instead of it. It does not conflict with §11.6: a destroyed Ground Unit still goes to the Depleted Pile and still does not flip in play. Prototype governs only the face the card shows once it is there, so a Ground Unit with a Reverse face may carry Prototype and have it work.
Prototype does nothing on a card whose Reverse face is its Contested face. A Prime Capital Spacecraft or Location flips to Contested rather than reaching the Depleted Pile (§11.7), and the Contested face has no further Reverse to turn to. On such a card Prototype is only meaningful if it is printed on the Contested face, where it sets the face the card shows in the pile after the second break.
, Pay X: This card may move 1 until end of turn. Any cards occupying this card also become activated.
Redeploy grants movement without spending a move action from the controller's pool (§14.4). The cost falls on the occupants, who are activated whether or not they wished to travel.
A scaling ability whose value is the number of Contested or Fallen permanents a target opponent controls, selected during the controller's Admin Phase. Rising is written per card: the printed form states what the value scales and at what rate, for example 'Rising X' granting +X extra permanent movements, or 'Rising X/2' granting half that, rounded down.
If this card occupies a Prime Location you don't control, this card gains the Income and Vote abilities of that Location.
This is granting language, not a bonus, and confers the abilities on a card that prints none (§19.6). Note the Location must be Prime; a Contested Location confers nothing. This interacts with the suppression rules in §14.10, which strip Vote and Income from a Location while an intruder is present.
If this card is destroyed in combat by a card an opponent controls, that opponent must pay 2 or 3, and this card's controller may move GOVT up to 1 step towards (-4), unless GOVT is already (-4), then the controller gains 1. If this card attacks, it loses Treason until end of turn.
Treason punishes the killer and rewards the killed. It is defensive only: attacking with the card switches it off for that turn.
When the named Axis is at the named Value, the following is true. Moving that Axis away from that Value costs opponents an additional +1 for each Writ <Axis> <Value> ability on the Map, up to a maximum of +4.
Writ counts every matching ability on the Map, not only those its controller holds, and the surcharge is capped at +4 however many are in play.
When liberating, you may assign all Vox publicly. If you do, add X Vox to your Resource Pool.
Confluence trades the concealment of §12.5a for additional Vox. It is declared in Step 2 together with the liberating player's targets, before the defending player Activates; it may not be declared later, and once declared may not be withdrawn (§12.3a).
Volley damage dealt to this card by Capital Spacecraft is reduced to 0.
Evasive and Flak (§18.83) are a deliberately matched pair covering different attackers, not overlapping protection. Evasive answers a Capital Ship's opening Volley; Flak answers Non-Capital Spacecraft declaring an attack. A card with both is shielded from the large and dangerous to the small.
When a Non-Capital Spacecraft declares attack on this card, this card deals X damage to that Spacecraft.
Flak is Low Power because the craft it exists to stop are Unshielded. It is a special case of return fire (§11.6): automatic, and against Non-Capital Spacecraft only.
Flak triggers on the declaration of the attack (§11.1), not on damage being dealt. See §18.82 for its relationship to Evasive.
This card cannot have additional Liberation counters placed on it.
A permanent with Indoctrinated may not be declared as a Liberation target (§12.3). Liberation counters already on the card remain; the keyword stops further accumulation rather than clearing what is there.
You may play this card from your Depleted Pile by paying its Rebuild cost plus X. If you do, place an Iterate counter on this card. If this card goes to the Depleted Pile from play and has an Iterate counter on it, place it in the Burned Pile instead.
Iterate buys one additional life and forecloses any further ones: the Iterate counter is what converts the card's next death into a Burned Pile removal (§18.27). See §18.19 for Rebuild.
Only Characters may occupy this card, and only one at a time.
The limit is on occupancy, not on deployment: a Character may not move onto a One-Seater card that is already occupied, any more than it could be deployed there.
Place up to X Sabotage counter(s) on target non-Narrative card within this card's Band or an adjacent Band. A card with Sabotage counters loses 1 DEF and 1 RK for each Sabotage counter on it. This card loses War Crime until the beginning of your next turn.
Sabotage counters placed by this keyword sit on the target card and reduce that card's DEF and RK.
Note that Vey, Free Mind Alliance Operative uses the same counter name for a different effect — counters accumulated on Vey itself, reducing the ATK, Vote, RK and Income of the permanent Vey occupies. Whether the two should be reconciled or renamed is unresolved (§20.13); this entry describes the keyword only.
This card cannot be the target of Maneuvers or abilities.
Stealth is not simply broader than Cloak (§18.58); the two differ on two axes and neither contains the other. Stealth blocks Maneuvers and abilities from any controller, including the bearer's own, where Cloak blocks only those an opponent controls. But Cloak blocks Liberation targeting and Stealth does not. Neither prevents attacks.
Pay X: This card may move X until end of turn. Use this ability once per turn as a Slow Maneuver.
The two values are the same number by design — the Currency paid and the distance moved move together. A card with Transit 2 pays 2 to move 2.
Transit grants movement without drawing on the controller's pool of move actions (§14.4). It is unrelated to the Transit Gate Location subtype, which grants move actions to its controller.
Up to X Character(s) and/or non-Transport Ground Unit(s) may occupy this card. When this card moves, any occupying units move with it.
Transport governs who may be aboard this card, which is the card's own business and separate from §18.2, which governs who may occupy a Location. Transport admits Characters and non-Transport Ground Units only; it does not admit Spacecraft. Carried cards move with the Transport at no additional move action (§14.7).
Text: "If this card is destroyed, place it in its owner's Depleted Pile. This card does not flip."
Final is the printed exception to a flip-on-destruction rule. Where a card would otherwise survive being destroyed by turning to another face — most often a Capital Spacecraft flipping to its Contested face (§11.7) — Final overrides it. The card is destroyed in the full sense and goes to the Depleted Pile.
Final does not remove the card's reverse face. It removes destruction as the way to reach it. A Final card with a printed flip trigger of its own still flips on that trigger. The captain ships are the pattern: "When you complete a Storyline Chapter, you may flip this card" still works; being shot to pieces does not. A Final card with no flip trigger at all has no way to reach its reverse face, which is a card design error rather than a rules outcome.
Final does not change what happens to cards aboard. A Final Spacecraft that is destroyed is a Spacecraft destroyed, so §11.7 governs: Characters aboard use Escape Pod, Ground Units without a printed Escape Pod are destroyed with it, and Non-Capital Spacecraft aboard are destroyed.
A Final card carries no loss counter for being broken, because it never comes to rest on a Contested or Fallen face as a result (§16). It simply leaves the Map.
Compare Unique (§18.79), the corpus's other into-a-pile clause. Unique sends a destroyed card to the Burned Pile and awards a Story Point. Final is the milder one: the ordinary Depleted Pile, no award, and the only thing it takes away is the flip.
Text: "This card can occupy only Contested Locations, and Locations and Capital Spacecraft an opponent controls. It may move to a Location or Spacecraft you don't control."
A card that is Wanted cannot rest at home. It may stand only where it is not one of its own controller's ordinary holdings — a Contested Location, or a Location or Capital Spacecraft an opponent controls — and it may move onto cards its controller does not control in order to get there. First printed on The Smuggler Hunted, the Reversal of The Child Who Bears My Face, where every path grants it to the Bound.
"You" is the controller of the card that has Wanted. When a Storyline grants Wanted to its Bound, that is the Storyline's controller.
Rules:
1. Legal Positions. A Wanted card may occupy only:
a Contested Location, whoever controls it;
a Location an opponent controls;
a Capital Spacecraft an opponent controls. Every other Position is illegal to it, including its controller's Prime Locations and Homeworld and every Spacecraft its controller controls.
2. Gaining Wanted displaces. When a card gains Wanted, its current Position is usually illegal, and it is displaced at once (§14.12): it moves to a legal Position in the nearest Band, or is destroyed if there is none. A Bound destroyed this way destroys its Storyline (§8.11), which scores nothing.
3. Wanted is not an infiltration keyword. Its movement permission is its own and is read only from its own text. Nothing in §18.29 applies to it: a Wanted card does not lose Wanted for attacking or Liberating.
4. Wanted grants no movement. Moving still costs move actions (§14.4), and every other movement constraint applies.
5. Entry is not capture. A Wanted card on an opponent's Prime Location or Capital Spacecraft is an intruder (§14.10). The ordinary §14.6 limits apply: one player's units per card, and an intruder may enter a Prime card only while it is empty.
6. A Wanted card can capture. Alone on an empty Contested Location, it captures that Location (§14.11) and so stands on a Position its own controller now controls. That remains legal, because the Location is still Contested. This is intended — the safe house — and the opponent's answer is to destroy that Location, which displaces the Wanted card.
7. Wanted is not protection. On an opponent's card, a Wanted card is a normal target for combat, Maneuvers and abilities (§14.10).
Printed on the twelve Political Centers of the seated sovereignties. The Seat is active while GOVT is within its active range and inactive otherwise. An active Seat adds 1 to its controller's standing Vote while a readied Character they control occupies it, is the only place a Statute may be declared from, and lets its controller's Convocants move Motions from anywhere. An inactive Seat does nothing. Full rules in §6.6.
Text: "This card can't attack or intercept. Prevent all damage that would be dealt to this card."
A card with Noncombatant takes no part in combat. It can't be declared as an attacker or an interceptor (§11.5). Return fire uses one of the card's attacks (§11.6), so it can't return fire either. Damage from any source is prevented, so it is never destroyed by damage.
Noncombatant doesn't stop Liberation: a Noncombatant card with Rank can still be declared as a Liberation target. Nor does it stop a card from occupying a Location, but it is no use as a garrison, because it can't intercept.
First printed on the Vessel tokens of A Mind That Can Be Made to Believe.
Text: "Detained: This card has Noncombatant. It can move only when an effect moves it, it can't capture, and it doesn't stop a Location's Vote or Income."
A Detained card is a prisoner on a card another player controls.
1. It has Noncombatant (§18.94): it can't attack, intercept or return fire, and damage to it is prevented. 2. It moves only when an effect moves it. Its controller can't spend move actions on it (§14.4). A card or ability that moves it still works, and so does displacement (§14.12). 3. It can't capture. If the card it occupies becomes Contested with it as the only occupant, control does not change (overriding §14.11). 4. It doesn't stop Vote or Income. A Location occupied by a Detained intruder keeps its Vote and Income abilities (overriding §14.10 rule 1). Any other intruder on the same Location still suppresses them.
Detained does not change who controls the card. A Detained Character still counts toward its controller's standing Vote while readied (§6.3).
First printed on The Show Trial, a Union Storyline, whose Entry moves the Bound onto the next opponent's Homeworld by card text (§14.10).
: Attach"). With no cost printed, attaching is free. A card's own text may also attach it at another moment — on a flip, at random, when it becomes unattached — but only ever to a host its mount allows.
attack (§11.4).
or this card cannot attack or use activated abilities.
.
, Pay X
or 3