Card Interaction Rulings
Official rulings for edge cases. These are locked decisions — they don't change without a community governance vote.
Battle Card interactions
A piece with an active card is captured. The card's remaining charges are lost for that match, but the card itself survives — it returns to your collection afterward with one durability used. You never lose a card NFT just because a piece was captured.
A Pawn with a card promotes. The Pawn card's remaining charges transfer to the promoted piece, and the promoted piece keeps using the Pawn card's abilities. It does not become a Queen card. A promoted piece carrying Pawn-card abilities can still use them if charges remain.
Both players have the same ability active. Abilities don't cancel each other out. Both can trigger independently on their own turns — there is no counter-ability system.
Knight Outpost vs a Common attacker. A Common-rarity attacker (or a piece with no card) cannot capture a Knight protected by an active Outpost ability — the move is rejected as illegal. A Rare, Epic, or Omega attacker bypasses Outpost and captures normally.
Multiple cards charging at once. Many cards can build charges at the same time, but you may only activate one ability per turn (except Etheryst). You declare which one at the start of your turn.
Gambit Card interactions
A shielded piece is attacked. If a piece is protected by a one-turn immunity effect and gets attacked, the capture fails — the attacker returns to its square and the turn is spent. The effect costs a charge and is visible when activated, so opponents can plan around it.
Fog of War — what can my opponent see? They see the piece and its position, and can move against it — but the stat display shows "???" for ATK and SHP. Stats reveal as soon as the piece enters combat, or after three of your turns, whichever comes first. You always see your own piece's stats.
Cosmosis's match-opening bonus. Cosmosis's small Tension Gauge head start (versus a non-Cosmosis opponent) is calculated once at match start and stays fixed for the whole game. Both players know it's there.
Flowtora's charge restoration and checkmate. Flowtora's capture-triggered charge regeneration does not apply to a checkmating move — the game ends first. No card interaction lets a player escape checkmate on a technicality.
Omega Chameleon cards and en passant. Omega Chameleon cards work in either colour slot and are fully compatible with en passant. All standard chess rules apply — cards enhance chess, they never override it.
Tension Gauge interactions
Etheryst's two-ability turn. Etheryst may activate two card abilities on the same turn — the only such exception in the game. One ability must still apply to the piece being moved, and both abilities consume their own charges.
The FL3 ELO gate. FL3 cards unlock only when both conditions are met: the in-match Tension Gauge is at least 15 and your account ELO is at least 1,400. A high account tier with a low ELO still cannot access FL3. The ELO gate is permanent and unaffected by seasonal resets.
The golden rule
When any interaction is unclear, the principle is always the same: chess wins. Cards add depth and drama, but they never break the fundamental rules of chess, and they never let a player escape a genuinely lost position.