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.
Every Battle Card shows its piece, role, Focus Level, and effect at a glance, so you know exactly what it does before you put it in your deck.
The Knight's immunity is absolute for its one turn. If the only way out of a check from that immune Knight would be to capture it, there is no way out: that is checkmate.
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 |
|---|---|
| Common | 8 ranked games |
| Rare | 14 games |
| Epic | 20 games |
| Omega | 30 games |
Durability ticks down once per ranked game, win or lose. A card at zero durability is retired automatically. Some of a card's remaining uses carry into the next season; details are announced before each season ends.
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 SHLD
Each Battle Card carries two combat stats — ATK (attack) and SHLD (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.
- 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.
Etheryst's club identity is a second ability in a turn, and it is not live yet — right now rule 1 applies to every player in both clubs. It arrives with the Etheryst club passive; until then, no club gets an extra activation.
The Phase 1 starter cards
Every player starts with three Focus Level 1 cards, one each for the Knight, the Rook, and the Pawn. Each is armed before your move and spent when it fires, whether or not it gets what it wanted.
| Card | Piece | Category | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leaping Strike | Knight | OFF | Your Knight survives the capture it starts, then holds one turn of immunity. |
| Battering Ram | Rook | OFF | Your Rook's move pushes the piece on its destination one square further along the same line instead of taking it. |
| Defiant Step | Pawn | TAC | Arm it, then capture with a pawn: the capture becomes a shove. The target is pushed one square back toward its own side, not removed. Unarmed, a pawn capture is an ordinary fight. |
A shove has its own rules. If the square behind the target is occupied, the move is an ordinary capture after all. If the target has nowhere left to go, off the edge of the board, it is removed. And Defiant Step never fires on en passant.
Three more FL1 cards, Pinpoint for the Bishop, Royal Decree for the Queen, and Fortify for the King, join the loadout screen with the tutorial layer.
The card collection
A Battle Card variant is a unique mix of club × piece × rarity × Focus Level. The collection grows as more clubs arrive in future seasons.
Your collection lays your cards out side by side so you can compare pieces, roles, and Focus Levels while building a deck.