Each player starts with a deck of 4 Adventurer cards and draws all 4 into their hand. The shop deck is shuffled and 8 cards are dealt face-up into a shared shop — both players buy from the same 8 slots.

Whoever goes first starts at 8 HP (a handicap for the first-turn advantage); the second player starts at 10 HP. Reduce your opponent to 0 HP to win.

1. Buy (optional, 1 card max) — Spend cards from your hand with total value (💰, bottom-left) equal to or greater than a shop card's cost (💰, top-right). Spent cards go to your discard pile, then the purchased card goes on top. The empty shop slot refills from the shop deck.

2. Attack — Play a card to attack for its attack value (⚔, top-left). Your opponent may block using cards from their hand — block value (🛡) reduces the damage. Any damage that gets through is dealt to their HP.

3. Draw — Draw back up to 4 cards. Unused cards can stay in hand or be discarded, your choice. If you ever need to draw and your deck is empty, your discard pile is shuffled back into a new deck.

Magic attacks (Fire Blast, Air Blast, Venom Mist, and others) work differently from a weapon attack: they ignore armor completely, and normal hand cards can't block them either — only a specific handful of cards (Dragon Shield, Chimalli War Shield) can reduce or stop magic damage. Against anything else, a magic attack always lands in full — your only choice is whether you happen to be holding one of those cards.

Individual cards (weapons, armor, magic, and the jungle expansion's card set) each explain their own effect right on the card — this covers the core loop everything else builds on.