Battle Cards
Battle Cards are the heart of ChessVS strategy. Each one attaches to a piece type and gives that piece a special ability you can use during a match.
What every Battle Card has
- A piece type — Pawn, Knight, Bishop, Rook, Queen, or King.
- A Focus Level (FL1, FL2, FL3) — sets when in a match the card can be used. (Tension Gauge →)
- A category — OFF, TAC, or DEF — tells you at a glance what kind of effect it has.
- A rarity — Common, Rare, Epic, or Omega.
- A charge count — how many times you can use it per match.
- A durability — how many ranked games it lasts before wearing out.
Focus Levels
| Level | When it unlocks | Power |
|---|---|---|
| FL1 | Always available | Solid, reliable effects |
| FL2 | Tension Gauge reaches 8 | Significant mid-game swings |
| FL3 | Gauge reaches 15, plus ELO ≥ 1,400 | Game-changing, single-use |
A locked card can sit in your deck — it just can't fire until its level unlocks.
The three categories
Every ability is tagged so you can build a balanced deck:
- OFF Offensive — attacks, pressures, removes enemy pieces.
- TAC Tactical — repositions, traps, manipulates charges or information.
- DEF Defensive — fortifies, protects, buys time.
Charges per match
| Level | Charges | Deck slots |
|---|---|---|
| FL1 | 2–3 per match | Up to 5 FL1 cards |
| FL2 | 2 per match | Up to 3 FL2 cards |
| FL3 | 1 per match | Up to 2 FL3 cards |
FL3 cards have exactly one charge on purpose — knowing when to spend it is the whole skill.
Rarity and durability
| Rarity | Durability | At season end |
|---|---|---|
| Common | 8 ranked games | Fully consumed |
| Rare | 14 games | Fully consumed |
| Epic | 20 games | 50% of remaining uses carry over (max 5) |
| Omega | 30 games | 100% carries over — no cap |
Durability ticks down once per ranked game, win or lose. A card at zero durability is retired automatically.
The card's remaining charges for that match are lost — but the card is not destroyed. It returns to your collection afterward, with one durability used.
ATK and SHP
Each Battle Card carries two combat stats — ATK (attack) and SHP (shield points) — that come into play when pieces clash on the same square. Stronger rarities have stronger stats.
- The Queen is the heaviest hitter; the Knight and Rook sit in the middle.
- Pawns and Kings have a fixed attack of 1 that never depletes — they win games through position and protection, not raw power.
- Omega cards get a 1.5× boost over Epic stats.
Card activation rules
- One ability per turn — except Etheryst players, who may use two.
- Pre-move and move-integrated abilities must be declared before your chess move.
- For move-integrated abilities, the ability and the move must use the same piece.
- Charges are consumed on activation — whether or not the ability achieves its goal.
- Reaction abilities fire automatically when their trigger condition is met.
- Your loadout locks when the match starts — no swapping mid-game.
The card collection
A Battle Card variant is a unique mix of club × piece × rarity × Focus Level × colour. For the six launch-era clubs, that produces 864 unique variants. As the remaining clubs roll out across the seasons, the full twelve-club collection grows to 1,728 variants in total.