How to Play the Game: A Simple Guide

[Arin the Eloquent]

1. Introducing you to the Game

In Crisis Termina, the objective of the game is to defeat the opponent by reducing their Life Orbs to 0, or by making the opponent Deck out, by not drawing any more cards. There are a number of ways to do this, either through effects, battling, or using skills to your advantage.

To start with, let's take a look at the playing field.

Playing Field:



As displayed, you can have up to 3 Followers on the Field at any time, as well as 3 Rear-Followers, and 3 Spells. If you do not have room in any of these fields, you cannot play the respective cards.

1A. What are Followers and Rear-Followers?

In most card games, the idea behind the game is to win utilizing some form of monster, or some kind of creature. Followers are just that.

Follower Cards have a red outline that signifies that they are Followers. In this example, let's take a look at this card, named "Chaos Destroyer Clarice".

Example Card:


The card's name appears at the top of the card, along with the picture just below it. Italic flavor text is inserted to give more spice to the card in question. Each card has their own unique flavor text.

1B. What do these symbols mean?

Most card games have monsters of varying Strength or capabilities. Crisis Termina is no different. From left to right, the appropriate symbols are the card's Attack (ATK for short), Defense (DEF), and Intellect (INT). The final symbol indicates how many copies of that card you may have in your Deck at any time. You can only have a maximum of 3 of any 1 card in your Deck, unless stated otherwise on the card.

Now then, let's take a look at "Chaos Destroyer Clarice" once more. With the information now given to us, we can assume, reading from left to right, that "Chaos Destroyer Clarice" has 5 Attack points, 14 Defense Points, 7 Intellect Points, and you can have 3 cards named "Chaos Destroyer Clarice" in your Deck at any time.

1C. What are skills?

Skills are essential in overcoming your opponent, and skills can vary greatly from increasing Rear-Followers stats, to sending cards in your opponent's hand to the Graveyard. For now, let's take a look at "Chaos Destroyer Clarice" and what her skills are.

[F: 0/0/0][TRG]: Each time your opponent plays a Spell Card, this card gets +1/+2/+1.

[RF: 0/0/0][CONT]: During your Wait Phase, all Followers you control get +1/0/0.

And those are "Chaos Destroyer Clarice"'s skills. Additional skills can be added on or even be taken off from other Followers.

1D. What do these brackets mean? What does TRG and CONT stand for?

Different effects have different activation timings. In the case of "Chaos Destroyer Clarice", each time the controller's opponent plays a Spell Card, that card gets additional stats. This cannot happen at any other time, and is therefore categorized as a "TRG", or Trigger Effect.

There are currently 3 types of Trigger Conditions on cards:

ACT: Short for "Action". This condition states that the skill can be activated as many times as possible in the turn as long as costs are fulfilled.
TRG: Short for "Trigger". This condition states that the skill can only be activated when it has achieved the correct timing. Some common examples include "When this card is placed on the Follower field", where the condition timing states specifically when the card is placed on the Follower Field. It will not activate under any other conditions.
CONT: Short for "Continuous". These are skills that are always active as long as the conditions being met are fulfilled.

There's more to knowing the skill than just the correct timing of the skill, however. You must also know the proper cost and be able to fulfill that as well, before activating the skill.

For this next example, let's take a look at a card that has a cost, "Black Sword of the Abyss".

Example Card:


In the example provided above, you may notice the [F: -2/0/0] before the card. This indicates the cost needed to activate the skill. Therefore, before you can use "Black Sword of the Abyss"'s skill, you must take 2 points of Attack away from it. Any further costs that need to be fulfilled will be displayed in parentheses after the stat reduction, if any.

Lastly, let's take a look at what F: and RF: means. F: means that, along with the costs and conditions stated on the card, it can only be activated if it is in the appropriate field. For example, "Black Sword of the Abyss" cannot activate it's effect to take away 2 Attack Points to add 2 Attack Points if it is in the Rear-Follower Field; that skill is a Follower specific skill, and can only be activated on the Follower field. Almost all Follower cards will have at least one Rear-Follower skill, but there are some cards out there that don't have Follower skills at all.

There are currently five types of skills:

F: Short for Follower. A skill that can only be activated if the Follower card is on the field.
RF: Short for Rear-Follower. A skill that can only be activated if the Follower card is on the Rear-Follower field. The skill text for RF: skills will be bolded.
S: Short for Spells. This deals specifically with Spells.
G: Short for Graveyard. There is only one card that uses this skill right now, and, as stated, it is a skill that can only be activated while the Follower is in the Graveyard.
H: Short for Hand. These effects can only be activated while the card is in your hand.

1E. What are Spell Cards?

Spell Cards have a blue border around them and can help aid you in achieving victory. Nearly all Spell Cards have a cost that must be achieved before the Spell can be played. If you cannot fulfill this cost, you cannot activate the card.

There are two types of Spells:

Normal Spell:


Under normal circumstances, Spell Cards are immediately sent to the Graveyard after they are played and their effects are fulfilled.

Continuous Spell:


The most noticeable detail about a Continuous Spell is the icon in the upper-right hand corner. This indicates that it is a Continuous Spell. Continuous Spell Cards do not leave the field after they are played. Just like with Continuous Follower skills, as long as the conditions for a Continuous Spell are fulfilled, the effect will activate.

1F. Tying this all together

Now, using knowledge from what we've learned so far, Followers are the key to providing your victory, and Spell cards can aid you in achieving that goal faster. It's time to put this basic knowledge to the test in the next section, battling!

[Arin the Eloquent]

2. Taking the Fight to your Opponent!

Now that we have a basic understanding of how skills work, it's time to fight your opponent and claim yourself victorious.

As stated before, the objective to win is to reduce your opponent's Life Orb Count to 0, or to make them Deck out by being unable to draw any cards. Both players start with 6 Life Orbs, but this can be changed via skills and effects. Both players can only have a maximum of 30 cards in their Deck.

2A. Sending your Followers to Fight!

Aside from a few Spells that reduce Life Orbs, the general way to reduce your opponent's Life Orbs is through combat. This can be done by efficiently using your Followers skills, as well as Rear-Followers, effectively. You can also send your Follower cards to fight against your opponent's Rear-Followers, but ONLY if their Follower field is clear.

In the last section, we looked at the individual aspects of a Follower, and how it plays into the gamestate. We learned that ATK, DEF, and INT are all tied into the structure of a Follower, and pitting them against one another is the key to progress!

In battle, if both you and an opponent control a Follower, you can pit them against one another to see who comes out victorious.

In this example, we'll take "Chaos Destroyer Clarice" once again, and pit her against another Follower, "Fated Daughter of Seven".





From the previous tutorial, we have concluded that "Chaos Destroyer Clarice" has 5 Attack points, 14 Defense Points, 7 Intellect Points. "Fated Daughter of Seven" has 5 Attack points, 15 Defense Points, 7 Intellect Points. How does this all play into combat?

2B. Breakdown of Damage Calculation

When two Followers fight with one another, any skills that state "Before this card attacks" are activated. Following the resolution of those effects, any skills that state "Before this card is attacked" are activated. Then, the Damage Step moves to Damage Calculation. In this phase, the Attacker may inflict damage to the defender. The ATK stat of the Attacker comes out of the defender's DEF stat. So for example, if "Chaos Destroyer Clarice" with 5 ATK were to attack "Fated Daughter of Seven" that had 15 DEF, Damage Calculation would result in "Fated Daughter of Seven" losing 5 DEF points (15 - 5).

If a Follower's DEF becomes 0, by battle, it is sent to the Graveyard, and the owner of that card loses a Life Orb.

2C. Rested Position and Risen Position

When you place a Follower on the Field, you must place it in Risen Position (face-up). When a Risen Position Follower Attacks, the ATK stat of the card comes out of the defender's DEF stat. However, it works differently for Rested Position (facing sideways). Instead of the ATK stat, the INT stat of the Rested Position Follower comes out of the defender's DEF stat. Either way, damage is still dealt, and brings you one step closer to your opponent losing a Life Orb.

2D. Effects that cause a "Redo"

There are certain skills that activate in battle that allow the defender or the attacker to change Positions during the Damage Step. If this is the case, you can "redo" the Damage Step, using the new ATK or INT stat for Damage Calculation.

2E. Sacrificing

Some Followers have the text "This card requires X Sacrifice of a Follower(s) to place on the Follower Field". If the card has this text, it means it cannot be placed on the Follower board conventionally without first sending another Follower you control to the Graveyard. These cards are more powerful in both skills and stats, but the trade-off is having to send a resource to the Graveyard you could have otherwise kept. Use this cards wisely to turn the tide of the battle!

2F. Swapping

Once per turn, you are allowed to move a Follower to a Rear-Follower slot, and in exchange, the previous Rear-Follower is now put onto the same Follower slot as the first Follower. For cards that state that they must have a Sacrifice, you must also send the appropriate number of sacrifices necessary, and then still have 1 leftover Follower to make the Swap. This is a strategic move in combat to bring out your stronger Rear-Followers if your Followers are growing weak.

So now that you have basic knowledge about battling, it's time to put your skills to use!

[Arin the Eloquent]

3. Other Mechanics and Notes

--You are allowed 2 Mulligans per game, but can only use 1 once per turn. The Mulligan allows you to Shuffle your hand into your Deck and then draw the same amount of cards that you had before.
-- The Turn Order goes as this:
Wait Phase -> Draw Phase -> Main Phase -> Damage Step -> End Phase

Wait Phase: This is the Phase where various skills activate. It is also the phase to signify the beginning of your turn.
Draw Phase: This is the Phase where you draw cards. You MUST draw cards until you have 5 cards in your hand, each and every time. If you already have 5 or more cards in your hand, cards in your hand are discarded until there are four cards in your hand, and then you draw a card.
Main Phase: This is the Phase where you place your cards. You can only place 1 Follower (1 of each Follower and Rear-Follower) and 1 Spell each turn. However, there are certain skills that you can use that allow you to place more cards in a given turn.
Damage Step: This is the Phase where you initiate battle.
End Phase: This is the Phase where you conclude the end of your turn. Any skills that activate during this Phase are activated here.

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