400 Reading Ability Text

400.1Anatomy of an ability

1. 400.1aAn ability is printed as a list of lines. The first line is normally the base attack, written "Deal {power} damage".
2. 400.1bA line that is only a keyword name — for example "Large", "Rabid", "Cull", "Bloodlust" — states that the unit has that keyword. Its rules are in chapter 800.
3. 400.1cA line of the form "Keyword: N" or "Keyword N" applies that keyword with amount N to the ability's target — "Maim: 27", "Kindled: 3", "Burn 12".
4. 400.1dA line that names its recipients before the word "gain" grants that keyword to those units instead of to the target — "Adjacent allies gain Hallow: 4", "Allies with Relentless gain Kindled: 2". "Gain Keyword: N" with no named recipient grants it to the activating unit.
5. 400.1eA line beginning "Passive:" is a trigger-channel effect. It does not resolve during the activation; it resolves when its stated event happens, however often that is.
6. 400.1fA line beginning "Bloodlust:", "Lucid:", "Initiative:", "Ignited", "Highland", or "Overmatch" is a conditional rider. The condition is checked when the rider resolves, not when the activation starts.
7. 400.1gEvery {placeholder} in printed text is substituted with a real number before the card is shown, using the unit's live stats and the ability's own fields.
8. 400.1hA unit's ability has no separate name. The unit name is the card's only heading. Bosses are the exception: one boss can present several named abilities, one per phase.

400.2Where a number comes from

1. 400.2aAn amount is resolved from one of: a named field on the ability, a flat value on the clause, or a stat of the unit.
2. 400.2bA flat authored value is multiplied by the unit's tier. A per-tier list is read literally by tier and is not multiplied again. A formula is evaluated with the unit's tier available to it and is not multiplied again — a formula that should scale must say so, as in "8 * tier".
3. 400.2cStat sources are: the unit's live value of a named stat (Power by default), effective Power, Burn Power, raw Power, Armor, or base Speed.
4. 400.2dEffective Power is the unit's Power after Lucid doubling and after Blind's 50% reduction. "{power}" on a card is effective Power.
5. 400.2eOn a boss it is the printed Power less enemy drain, then Lucid doubling. A boss is never Blinded, so that step is skipped.
6. 400.2fBurn Power is 75% of effective Power, minimum 1. A card that reads "Burn {burn_power}" applies that, not full Power.
7. 400.2gA clause may divide or multiply its amount by a fixed value or by another field on the ability before anything else is applied.
8. 400.2hA card may also declare a named counter — printed as a bare capital letter, currently always X — and read it as an amount. The counter belongs to that one copy of the card, starts at its authored value, and is written by the card's own battle-start line. A clause that names the counter resolves to whatever it holds when that clause fires.
9. 400.2iA counter is never reset. It is declared once, keeps its value through the rest of the match, and every later battle-start line adds to the running total, so the clauses that read it grow round over round.
10. 400.2jUntil the counter has been written at least once, the card prints the letter rather than a number.
11. 400.2kStats are flushed immediately before the amount is computed, so a buff applied earlier in the same activation is included.

400.3"Per" clauses and counted valuespage

A clause that reads "per <something>" multiplies its resolved amount by a runtime count. Two rules decide almost every question about them.

1. 400.3aThe count is sampled at the moment the clause resolves, from the board as it stands then. It is not sampled at the start of the activation and not cached from a previous one.
2. 400.3bA count of enemies or allies only ever includes living, targetable units. A unit that died earlier in this same activation is not counted, and neither is an Entrapped, Dormant, or untargetable one — that means Tools and Hubs are never counted by a unit count.
3. 400.3cIf the count resolves to 0, the whole clause resolves to 0 and nothing happens. A "per" clause is never floored up to a minimum of 1, unlike an ordinary amount.
4. 400.3dBecause of the two rules above, a clause that counts a status on enemies and resolves after the hit will find nothing if the hit killed the only unit carrying that status.
5. 400.3eThe only exception to the flooring rule is a duration-scaled clause, which floors after multiplying and uses a minimum of 0. A positive fractional total below 1 resolves to 0 rather than being rounded up.
6. 400.3fA clause scaled by the unit's own rune-effect count resolves to 0 when the unit has no rune effects.

See also Bloodlust Feral Overclock Shatter Tool

400.4Conditions and gates

1. 400.4aA conditional clause is evaluated when it resolves. If the condition is false the clause is skipped entirely and produces nothing.
2. 400.4bSelf conditions test the acting unit: Bloodlust, Highland, a Kindled threshold, holding a Shield, holding Insurance, holding no Insurance, being Hallowed, being dead, a base-Speed threshold in either direction, or a threshold on the number of rune effects the unit currently carries.
3. 400.4cThere is no Feral condition and no self-Lucid condition. Lucid is not a gate a clause can name; it is the separate lane in 300.3 that resolves last and only at full Vitality, plus a per-clause Lucid flag that trigger-channel effects use for the same test.
4. 400.4dTarget conditions test the primary target: Burning, Envenomed, Frozen, Blinded, Maimed, not Maimed, Burning and Envenomed at once, carrying a named set of required statuses, Relentless, Everlasting, Lucid, holding Haywire, holding Interest, holding Dread, zero Armor, a Burn or Venom amount threshold, Venom exceeding Armor, having any negative status, or having at most N negative statuses.
5. 400.4eTwo further target conditions test which side the recipient is on: whether it is an ally of the acting unit, or an enemy. Cards that can hit either side use these to split their payload.
6. 400.4fBoard conditions test the field: any enemy Burning, any enemy Frozen, any ally Frozen, or a count of Burning enemies at or above a threshold.
7. 400.4gSequence conditions test history: Initiative, or the Nth activation.
8. 400.4hA stat gate compares a stat between two units. Overmatch is a stat gate: strictly greater than, so ties fail. A gate may either skip the clause or multiply its amount instead.
9. 400.4iA clause flagged "once" resolves at most once per unit per battle, and only spends its charge when it actually resolves — a clause skipped by its condition can still land on a later activation. A clause flagged "once per target" tracks its charge separately for each target.
10. 400.4j"Require hit" clauses in the post-damage lane are skipped when no damage actually landed.

See also Bloodlust Lucid Ignited Highland Initiative Overmatch

400.5Who a clause affects

1. 400.5aA clause names a scope: the primary target, enemies adjacent to the target, all enemies, a Focus-weighted set of enemies, self, all allies, adjacent allies, or a Focus-weighted set of allies.
2. 400.5b"To allies" includes the acting unit only when the clause says so. Otherwise the acting unit is excluded.
3. 400.5cA scope that names a count fills it with Focus-weighted picks and never picks the same unit twice.
4. 400.5dA scope filtered by a required status filters before selection, so a count of 2 is filled with two qualifying units if two exist.
5. 400.5eAllied scopes exclude Tools and Hubs. Effects that reach Tools use explicit adjacency instead.
6. 400.5fA clause never affects a dead, Entrapped, Dormant, or untargetable unit unless it explicitly opts into doing so.

See also Tool Hub Flank

400.6Passives and triggers

A "Passive:" line resolves on an event rather than on an activation. These are the events a card can listen to.

1. 400.6aCombat events: taking damage, an ally taking damage, an ally being damaged by an ally, gaining a Shield, a Shield being damaged, a Shield being broken.
2. 400.6bDeath events: this unit dying, an enemy dying, any other unit dying (Macabre), an enemy being Culled, this unit reviving, an ally reviving.
3. 400.6cActivation events: an ally activating, this unit Cascading, an ally Cascading, a Penny activating.
4. 400.6dStatus events: this unit or an ally being Stunned, this unit being Frozen, this unit being Entrapped, a unit returning from Entrap, this unit becoming Ignited, an ally or any unit gaining Kindled, an ally gaining Feral, an ally gaining Consecrate, an ally or this unit gaining Hallow, an ally being healed by Feast, an ally emptying its Haywire.
5. 400.6eMovement events: this unit being Displaced (Acclimate), a pair of enemies being Displaced (Threat).
6. 400.6fGiant events: an allied Tool consuming Durability, an allied Tool losing its last Durability.
7. 400.6gScrip events: this unit gaining Insurance, an ally gaining Insurance, Insurance preventing damage, an enemy paying Interest, Interest being applied, a Penny losing Insurance, a Penny minting Stock natively, a Repossess resolving.
8. 400.6hThe two Insurance-gain events fire on every positive grant, not only the first, and both are dispatched from the same grant. Because a reaction may itself grant Insurance, the chain is cut off past four levels of nesting; each level up to that bound still resolves its own listeners in full.
9. 400.6iCost events: a Bloodletting cost being paid, optionally restricted to the unit that paid it.
10. 400.6jA trigger's effects resolve directly. They do not create a new activation, do not consume charge, and do not fire activation-start or activation-followup steps.
11. 400.6kA trigger may be scoped to a subject — for example only firing for adjacent allies — in which case the event must involve a unit inside that scope.
12. 400.6lA trigger on this unit reviving may additionally name the cause it answers, Phylactery or Everlasting, and is refused on the other. A trigger on an ally reviving never names a cause: it answers both. See 500.9.
13. 400.6mA listener hears the event unless it is dead. Being Stunned, charging, or Entrapped does not stop a trigger from resolving.
14. 400.6nAn Entrapped listener resolves its trigger, then loses whichever of its clauses point back at itself, because it fails the recipient gate in 400.5. Clauses pointed at other units are unaffected.

See also Macabre Cull Acclimate Threat Supercharge Poach Entrap

400.7When a printed line resolvespage

Use this to place any printed line into the activation sequence in 300.3.

1. 400.7aWithin a lane, clauses resolve in the order they are printed. Armor setup — Crush and Smash — is the only exception.
2. 400.7bA card that prints Maim and then Cull applies the Maim first, and the Cull tests against the increased pool. A card that prints them the other way round would test first — no printed card does.
3. 400.7cA clause in the post-damage lane still resolves when the hit dealt 0 damage or the target was already dead. Only clauses that explicitly require a hit are skipped.
4. 400.7dBonus damage accumulated by activation-lane clauses is added to the base hit, so it is mitigated once, by the same Armor and Shield, as a single instance.

See also Crush Maim Cull Lucid Initiative

400.8Answering a question about a cardpage

A repeatable method. Work the printed lines, not the card's reputation.

1. 400.8-1Split the printed ability into lines. Mark each line as a keyword, a rider, a conditional rider, or a Passive.
2. 400.8-2Place each line into a lane using 400.7. Note in particular that Maim and Cull always land after the hit, and Crush always lands before it.
3. 400.8-3For each line in question, resolve its amount using 400.2, then apply any "per" multiplier using 400.3 — sampling the count at the point in the sequence where that line resolves.
4. 400.8-4Check each condition at that same point using 400.4. A condition that was true at the start of the activation may be false by the time the clause resolves.
5. 400.8-5Apply the recipient gates in 400.5 and 700.3. A dead, Entrapped, Dormant, or untargetable recipient receives nothing.
6. 400.8-6Apply the keyword's own rules from chapter 800, and any immunity from 700.4.
7. 400.8-7Push the result through the damage or recovery pipeline in 500.1 or 500.3, in that order — Armor, Insurance, Shield, Vitality for damage; capacity then Maim for recovery.

1. 400.8aThe most common wrong answer comes from sampling a count too early. Counts are always read at the point the clause resolves.
2. 400.8bThe second most common comes from forgetting that a unit killed by this activation is gone before every post-damage clause resolves.
3. 400.8cThe third comes from assuming a zero count still produces the minimum amount. It does not.

See also Burn Maim Cull