Compile: Main 1 FAQ
158 questions players ask · Updated Nov 13, 2026 · Full rulebook
Setup
- How are protocols placed in the lines during setup when drafting?
- When protocols are drafted, does the first pick face the opponent's first pick or their last pick?
- Can one box of Compile run two games at the same time?
- Is zero an even number in Compile?
- Is the solo mode compatible with Main 1, Main 2 and the other Compile boxes?
Gameplay
- Can you flip a card face-up that you placed face-down?
- Where do cards drawn from the opponent's deck go?
- Can you compile and refresh in the same turn, and is compiling mandatory when it is possible?
- What happens on your turn if you cannot compile, draw, or play any card?
- Can you refresh if you already have five or more cards in hand?
- When several Start or End effects trigger at the same time, who decides their order?
- When does an End: effect trigger, and does one revealed or flipped during the End Phase activate?
- Can you keep playing cards into a protocol that has already been compiled, and do they still trigger?
- When you compile, which cards are discarded?
- When Compile deletes every card in a line, do the middle commands of the face-up cards trigger?
- Can I choose to refresh even when I still have cards in my hand?
- Does Speed 1's draw happen every turn, or only after you clear your cache?
- Does clearing your cache count as a discard for effects like Plague 1?
- Can you compile two lines in one turn?
- Is compiling mandatory once a line meets the threshold, even if a protocol is already compiled?
- Is there a separate Check Refresh step in the turn order?
- Does a top-card effect reshuffle your trash when an opponent draws from your empty deck?
- Can an exposed middle command stop or change a Compile?
- Does Hate 3 draw a card when your cards are deleted by an opponent's compile?
Victory
Card Anatomy
- If Metal 1 is revealed on the opponent's turn, when does 'your opponent cannot compile next turn' apply?
- When Light 0 flips a card, is the number of cards drawn based on the face-up value or the value before the flip?
- Do cards in hand, deck, or discard count as face-down for value purposes?
- Is a card's passive top text, such as Spirit 1's 'you may play face-up' ability, a Start effect?
- If Metal 6 is played face-down and later flipped face-up, does its text trigger or delete it?
- For Water 3's 'return all cards with a value of 2', do face-down cards count as value 2?
- Can I shift the Gravity 1 card I just played, using its own middle text?
- Does a covered card's middle or bottom text stay active?
- If a covered card is flipped face up, does its middle command trigger?
- Does a middle command activate when its card is flipped face up or uncovered?
- When you shift a card, does its own middle command activate, or only the card it uncovers?
- Does a middle command activate when a covered card is uncovered while another card still sits on top of it?
- Can a card's middle command flip the card it is sitting on?
- Can a card played on top of a stack target itself with its own middle command?
- Does a 'discard 1 card' middle text trigger again each time its card is flipped back up?
- Can you look at face-down cards, your own or your opponent's?
- If a delete uncovers a card with middle text, does that card's text resolve before the next sentence of the original card?
- If a card is revealed by an opponent's shift or flip, who decides its effect targets?
- When you flip a card mid-resolution, does the newly revealed card resolve immediately?
- Do you have to complete a card's text, such as a discard, to play the card?
- If Life 1 is played as the first card in its line, does its second flip still happen after the first flip covers it?
- Is the Spirit 3 top text missing 'even if this card is covered'?
- Does a bottom command stay in effect while the card is uncovered?
- Do top text effects stay active on every card in a stack, and can a top box ever be covered?
- When you play a card, is it in the line when its middle command resolves?
- Does Apathy 2's top-box effect apply to cards on both sides of the line?
- Can you delete or move a covered card?
Playing With Control
- Can you rearrange protocols before compiling when you hold the Control component?
- With the Control component, can you compile a protocol other than the one that reached 10 in its line?
- Can you gain Control and spend it in the same turn?
- Must you give up Control when you refresh or compile, even if you choose not to rearrange protocols?
- How does Control change hands, and when is it lost?
- How is the Control check made: by each stack, by each line, or by total value?
- During the Control check, if the two players tie on lines, who keeps the Control component?
- When can an opponent take Control from me?
- Can a player with Control rearrange protocols during my turn to block my compile?
- Can I rearrange my opponent's protocols, and is that a legitimate play?
- What does the Control component's bonus rearrangement move?
Rules
- What does 'committed' mean in Compile, and when does a card stop being committed?
- When several cards are committed to the same stack, in what order do they land?
- If a shifted card uncovers a middle command while landing on a card with a when-covered effect, which resolves first?
- If you play a card onto a card with a when-covered effect such as Fire 0, can that effect flip the incoming card, and when does the incoming card land?
- If Speed 3 is covered by a face-down card and Gravity 4 is played, do the cards loop forever when they shift each other?
- What does Plague 3's 'flip each other face-up card' affect?
- If Plague 3 flips a card that deletes itself and uncovers a middle command, is the card it had covered also flipped?
- Can flip, delete, shift, or return effects target covered cards?
- Can a card's effect target the card it is about to cover?
- Can you flip the card you just played?
- Can you play a card whose command you cannot fully carry out, such as a discard with an empty hand?
- If one part of a card's command cannot happen, do its other parts still happen?
- When a card's text is triggered by an opponent's action, or you shift an opponent's card, who makes the choices?
- How many cards does Hate 3 draw when several cards are deleted?
- Does the 'then' in Death 1's Start text make the self-delete depend on drawing a card?
- Can you flip a face-down card that is covered, and does its middle command trigger?
- If Gravity 2 flips a face-down Gravity 4 and then shifts that card, can it shift the covered Gravity 4?
- When is a card's middle or bottom command active, and when does it stop?
- Does a card's middle command trigger again when it is shifted into a new line or shifts itself?
- If a card's end text says to shift it and then flip it, does the flip still happen when the card shifts itself?
- If a card is shifted onto Speed 3, does Speed 3 still flip itself?
- When does an End command trigger, and can a card uncovered during the End phase use its End text that same phase?
- When a card's text removes itself, or the card whose command is resolving, does the rest of that command still happen?
- For Gravity 0's 'for every 2 cards', do you round down?
- If Light 0's chosen card leaves play before it flips, does Light 0's second sentence still use that card?
- When several cards tie for highest or lowest value for an effect like Hate 2 or Hate 4, which one is affected?
- Must a card carry out its command when that command can change the game state?
- When several revealed or triggered effects resolve at once, who decides the order?
- Can a stack's value be negative, for example after Metal 0 is played?
- Can one played card cover two cards with when-covered effects at the same time?
- When you flip a card on top of another card, does the card underneath become uncovered and active?
- Can you compile a protocol if the cards in its line do not match that protocol?
- Does a Refresh count as a draw for effects like Spirit 3's shift, War 0, and War 1?
- Can Spirit 3's shift combined with draw effects loop forever?
- If a revealed card commits a second card to a different line, does that second card resolve right away?
- Can Gravity 1 and Gravity 2 loop forever by shifting a face-down card back and forth between them?
- When you play Water 4 into an empty line, does it return itself?
- When a one-sentence command such as Death 0 deletes cards in several lines, are the deletions resolved one at a time?
- If a card in the middle of a stack is moved and the card above it leaves, does the card beneath trigger its middle text?
- When a card has back-to-back effects like Hate 1's 'Delete 1. Delete 1.', does a card uncovered by the first delete trigger before the second delete?
- When a card is deleted or returned and that uncovers another card, which happens first?
- If a card is covered in the middle of its effect, does the rest of its text still resolve?
- When do you reshuffle your trash back into a new deck?
- Where does a card you draw from the opponent's deck go, and does their trash reshuffle if their deck is empty?
- Which information about covered and face-down cards is public or private, and may you look at your own face-down cards?
- Can you look at a card you play face-down from the top of your deck before choosing its line?
- Does 'other person must play cards face down' apply to one row or all of the opponent's rows?
- Which cards can an effect target when its text does not say 'your' or 'your opponent'?
- If a card shifted onto a card with a when-covered effect is blocked by that effect, does the shift still happen?
Key Terms
- What does 'reveal' mean on Light 2, and can you reveal an opponent's face-down card?
- Does a 'discard 1 card' effect always take the card from your own hand?
- Where does a discarded or deleted card go, and does it change owner?
- What is the difference between shifting, rearranging and swapping?
- Where does a shifted card go in its new line, and do several shifted cards keep their order?
- What is the difference between a line and a stack, and what do 'this line' and 'each other line' include?
- What does 'manipulate' mean in the rules, and does shifting count?
- Can Speed 4 or Darkness 4 shift a covered face-down card?
- How many protocols must change when an effect says to rearrange protocols?
- What is the value of a face-down card?
- Does a face-down card have a protocol?
- Does a discard-triggered effect such as Corruption 2 apply when a whole deck is discarded, not just cards from hand?
- Who owns a card that changes sides, such as one played from the opponent's deck, and where does it go when it leaves play?
- Can you play a card onto your opponent's side of a line?
- Does 'other' in a card's text stop it from targeting itself?
The Protocols
- Can Death 1 delete itself while it is covered?
- If a line with Speed 2 is compiled, what happens to the Speed 2 card?
- Does Metal 2 stop face-down cards from being played into its line by card effects, not just by normal play?
- Does Metal 1 make your opponent skip their whole turn, or only their Compile action?
- Does Metal 3's eight-card limit count cards on both sides of the line?
- When Gravity 1 is played onto a line, can it shift the card it was played on top of?
- Does Plague 0 block cards played into its line by any effect?
- Do values and top-box effects stay active when a protocol is rearranged or swapped away?
- Do cards with a changed value count at the modified value for effects like Water 3's 'value of 2'?
- Does Death 2 delete every 1 and 2 in a line, or only one value?
- If Death 2 deletes all 1s and 2s in a line, and Darkness 2 has made a face-down card worth 4, is that card deleted?
- Does Gravity 0 count itself as a card in its line?
- Where does Water 1 play cards from your deck, and can it play if your deck is empty?
- With Gravity 2, must the card you flip be one that can then be shifted into the Gravity line?
- Can Gravity 4's shift target a face-down card already in its own line?
- Where can you play a card you took from the opponent's side, such as one from their deck, or one stolen with Love?
- If Hate 2 is your highest-value uncovered card, does it delete itself first and stop the opponent-side deletion?
- If an opponent's effect makes you delete a face-down card while you have Hate 3 in play, do you draw from Hate 3?
- Does a 'when this card is deleted by compiling' effect trigger when the opponent compiles that line?
- What do the keywords on protocol cards mean, and do words like Return or Prevent make you act when compiling?
- Does Apathy 2 stop middle commands for both players in its line?
- What does Fear 0's 'your opponent's cards do not have middle commands' do?
- If a face-down card is played into the wrong line and later flipped, does it move to its protocol's line?
- How does Life 0 play its face-down cards, and when is it deleted?
- When Life 0 is deleted or covers a card, does the card beneath it trigger?
- Does Life 0 play a face-down card onto every line where I have cards, and is it optional?
- Can you play a card into a line that you have already compiled?
- What are the protocol cards called, and how many command cards does each player have?