Ruling · 900.7
Bonus damage and the base hit
This rule is part of the Comprehensive Rules, where every cross-reference resolves in one page.
- Question
- A card deals base damage and several riders add bonus damage. Is that one hit or several?
- Answer
- One. All activation-lane bonus damage is added to the base hit and lands as a single instance.
- 900.7aActivation-lane clauses that produce bonus damage return it to the activation, which accumulates it and adds it to the base damage before the hit is dealt.
- 900.7bBecause it is one instance, it is mitigated once: one Armor percentage step, one flat Armor step, one pass against Insurance, one Shield absorption.
- 900.7cThat makes bonus damage far more Armor-efficient than the same total split across several instances, which is exactly why Tremor and AoE underperform into flat Armor.
- 900.7dClauses that damage other units — all enemies, adjacent enemies, a Focus-weighted set — are separate instances and are mitigated separately.
- 900.7eEach bonus-damage clause sees the running total accumulated so far, so a clause that scales off current damage reads the boosted value.
See also Tremor AoE Insurance Shield
Rules 300.3 The activation sequence 500.1 One damage instance