Exceed: BlazBlue – Ragna Box Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Card Overview
  • Character Cards
  • Season Mechanics
  • Cards
  • The Golden Rule
  • A Note on Nine's Cards
• Setup
• The Play Area
• Actions
  • Hand Size
• Force
• Gauge
• Boosts
  • Instant Boosts
  • Continuous Boosts
• Movement
  • Move
  • Advance
  • Close
  • Retreat
  • Push/Pull
• Resolving Strikes
  • Reveal Step
  • Priority Order
  • Active Player Attack
  • Trigger Effects
  • Conditionals
  • Doing Damage and Stunning
  • Reactive Player Attack
  • Cleanup
• Gameplay Example
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Glossary

Card Overview

Character Cards

Basic Mode and Exceed Mode sides:

1. Character Name
2. Character Effect / Exceed Effect: This effect is always active.
3. Gauge Cost: How much Gauge it costs to take the Exceed Action and gain your Exceed ability.
4. Kicker Effect: An effect that happens when you gain your Exceed ability.
5. Overdrive Effect: An effect that happens when you lose gauge from Overdrive.

Season Mechanics

Each season has its own unique mechanics that only those characters can use! Check the reference card for more information.

Cards

Characters in Exceed fight using the cards in their deck. Each card has an Attack and a Boost. Smart use of these is key to victory! Attacks are Normal Attacks, Special Attacks or Ultra Attacks. The 8 different corner symbols indicate the different normal attacks.

1. Attack Name
2. Attack Cost: Cost to play the card (can be Gauge, Force or nothing)
3. Range: Which spaces the attack hits
4. Power: An attack's outgoing damage
5. Speed: Determines who will resolve their attack first.
6. Armor: The attack's defense against incoming damage (when not shown, treat this number as zero).
7. Guard: The attack's stun resistance (when not shown, treat this number as zero).
8. Attack Effects
9. Continuous / Instant Boost Mark: This 'plus icon' indicates that a Boost remains in play after being played. The 'lightning icon' indicates a Boost is discarded after being played.
10. Boost Cost
11. Boost Name
12. Boost Effect

The Golden Rule

If any text effect contradicts the text of this rulebook, the card text takes precedence.

A Note on Nine's Cards

Some of Nine's Special cards show a normal icon as a reminder for her character effect. These cards are not Normals.

Setup

1. Setup: Place the 9 Board Cards horizontally to form the arena. Place your characters on the 3rd and 7th spaces with their Basic Modes face-up.
2. Life: Both players start with 30 life (this is also the maximum). Once a player's life is reduced to 0, they lose the game!
3. First Player: Choose who goes first randomly.
4. Cards: Set your reference and extra cards aside. Shuffle your remaining cards to form your deck.
5. Opening Hands: The first player draws 5 cards, while the second player draws 6.
6. Mulligan: Once players have their opening hands, they may set aside any number of cards face-down. Players then draw cards equal to the number they set aside. Then, they shuffle the set aside cards into their decks.
7. Game Start: Setup is finished. Fight!

The Play Area

Only one player's play area is shown. Both play areas are identical. Except for a player's hand and deck, all other areas are face-up and open information.

1. Gauge Area: Attacks that hit, among other things, enter this area to be spent on powerful Ultra attacks or Exceed Actions later on!
2. Discard: When asked to discard cards, players place them in this area. A discard is ordered but is still open information. When cards are discarded simultaneously, the player performing the discard chooses the order.
3. Sealed: This area is only used when a specific effect says to do so. Hence, it is not shown in the diagram. When sealing a card, the player performing the sealing effect places the card face-up in their sealed area (regardless of who owns the card). Cards remain in the sealed area unless an effect says otherwise.

Some characters have abilities that create extra areas on the board. Place these new areas in a convenient place away from the others.

Actions

On your turn, choose and perform one action. If you did not strike (for any reason), end your turn by drawing a card and checking hand limit (7 cards maximum).

• Prepare: Draw a card.
• Move: Select an unoccupied space to move to, then pay Force to move there.
  • Pay 1 Force per unoccupied space to move.
  • Pay 2 Force to move over the opponent.
• Change Cards: Spend any amount of Force to draw that many cards. Spend all the Force before drawing any cards.
• Exceed: Pay a character's Exceed Cost to flip them to their Exceed Mode, gaining their Exceed ability.
• Manual Reshuffle: If you were to draw or use the top card of your empty deck for any reason, first reshuffle your deck and discard to form a new deck. You may choose to take this action on your turn before running out of deck, but be warned! If you are forced to take this action a second time, you lose the game!
• Boost: Pay a card's Boost Cost to use its Boost effect.
• Strike: Set a card face-down. The player who declares the Strike is the attacker. After the attacker sets their attack, the opponent (the defender) sets their own attack face-down. Then, reveal and resolve both attacks.

Note that some effects will give you new actions. These begin with the phrase: "As an action...".

Hand Size

After drawing a card at the end of your turn, if you have more than 7 cards in your hand, discard cards until you have 7.

Force

Force allows you to play Boosts, move, and other effects. When you need to spend Force, generate Force to spend immediately by discarding cards from your hand or Gauge Area.

• Normals and Specials can be discarded for 1 Force each.
• Ultras can be discarded for 1 or 2 Force each (your choice).

You may only generate as much Force as you need to pay for any effect. It is not possible to "overpay" for an effect.

Gauge

Build Gauge and use it to Exceed or play your powerful attacks! When you hit with an attack, the card enters your Gauge area during Strike cleanup. When you need to spend Gauge, generate Gauge by discarding cards from your Gauge Area. You may choose the specific cards to discard when doing this.

Boosts

Boosts are unique effects allowed by the cards in your hand. To play a Boost, pay its Boost Cost, put the Boost into play, and then perform its effects.

Instant Boosts

To play an Instant Boost, perform that Boost's effects immediately. Then, discard the card. These boosts have a lightning bolt symbol above their costs. (Example: a Boost that lets you rush forward right away, and is discarded afterwards.)

Continuous Boosts

To play a Continuous Boost, perform any "Now:" effect on the Boost. Then, add the Boost to your Boost Area. Its effects are active until they are discarded after Cleanup or by a card effect. These boosts have a cross symbol above their cost. (Example: a Boost that stays in play and gives your next Strike +2 Speed.)

Movement

Move

Move the indicated number of spaces in either direction (or as many as possible), switching sides with the opponent, and continuing in the same direction beyond. 'Move' lets you choose which direction to go. Unlike Close, switching sides with the opponent is allowed.

Advance

Move towards the opponent the indicated number of spaces (or as many as possible), switching sides and continuing in the same direction. Advancing 1 space puts us adjacent. Advancing 2 would switch sides.

Close

Advance towards the opponent the indicated number of spaces (or as many as possible), but without switching sides with the opponent. Since 'close' always moves you as far as possible without passing the opponent, closing 3, 4, or 5 spaces would look identical to closing 2 spaces in the example.

Retreat

Move the indicated number of spaces away from the opponent (or as many as possible).

Push/Pull

Push moves the opponent away as if they were retreating. Pull moves the opponent toward you as if they were advancing. (Example: Pulling the opponent 2 spaces moves them to the other side of you, or Pushing 1 space.)

Resolving Strikes

When you initiate a Strike for any reason, you are the Attacker and the opponent is the Defender. Players follow these steps:

1. The Attacker sets their Attack Card or Cards face-down.

   Note: Some characters have additional actions they can take "when striking." They do these actions before they set cards.

   • A Regular Attack is formed by playing one card from your hand face-down.
   • An EX Attack is formed by playing two cards with the same name from your hand face-down. EX attacks have +1 Power, +1 Speed, +1 Armor, and +1 Guard.
   • A Wild Swing is formed by putting the top card of your deck into play face-down without looking at it.

2. The Defender sets their Attack Card(s) in the same way the attacker does.

3. Reveal the attacks!

Reveal Step

Flip both player's attacks face-up.

• If you reveal an EX attack, discard the extra copy of the EX attack to your discard pile.
• If you reveal an attack with a cost (like Ultras), you must pay its cost immediately. If you cannot, the attack is invalid. If the attack with a cost was revealed as a result of a Wild Swing, you may choose to make it invalid.
• If your attack is invalid, discard it and perform a Wild Swing. Keep discarding and performing Wild Swings until you reveal a valid attack. These replacement Wild Swings are not considered to be setting a new attack.

Priority Order

Whoever has the higher speed attack goes first and is now the active player. In a speed tie, the Attacker becomes the active player.

Active Player Attack

The player with higher speed goes first and performs their entire attack. An attack has 5 Steps:

1. Perform all Before effects.
2. Check Range to the opponent from the attack's origin (usually your character).
3. If you are in range, your attack hits. Perform all Hit effects, then do damage to that opponent.
4. Perform all After effects.
5. Check if the opponent is Stunned. If they aren't, they execute their attack.

(Example: Ragna's ranged attack hits all spaces from 2-4, meaning that this attack will hit.)

Trigger Effects

There are four kinds of Trigger Effects in Exceed: Before, Hit, After, and Cleanup. Each of these describes a different timing for when the effect will take place.

• Before effects happen at the start of your attack, before you check your range to the opponent.
• Hit effects happen if you hit the opponent with your attack.
• After effects will happen at the end of your attack, after you have already hit or missed the opponent.
• Cleanup effects happen at the end of a Strike, and normally prevent Continuous Boosts from being discarded if certain conditions are met.

When a Trigger Effect comes up, you must activate it following all its instructions. If you have multiple effects with the same trigger, you choose the order to activate each trigger, but you must activate and perform each one individually.

Conditionals

Some Trigger Effects will look like Taokaka's Double Paw Strike! card:

"Before, Range 1: +2 Power"

Effects simply use this wording to save on space.

Doing Damage and Stunning

After hitting the opponent with your attack, you will do damage to the opponent equal to your Power, reducing their life by that much.

Damage is first applied to the opponent's Armor before the opponent themselves. Reduce the Opponent's Armor for each point of damage it prevents (dealing 3 damage to an opponent with 4 Armor means they take no damage and have 1 Armor left over).

If the total damage the opponent actually takes ever exceeds their Guard, they are Stunned and don't get to attack if they are the Defender (dealing 2 damage twice to an opponent with 3 Guard stuns them).

Example: Focus has 2 points of Armor and 5 points of Guard. If you were to be hit by a 7-power attack, you would reduce the damage by your Armor, and only take 5 damage. Since 5 damage is not greater than your 5 Guard, you would not be stunned. If you were hit by an 8-power attack, you would take 6 damage, and would become stunned.

Reactive Player Attack

If the Reactive Player is not Stunned, they resolve their attack in the same way that the Active Player did. If they are Stunned, skip their attack entirely.

Cleanup

After resolving both player's attacks, both players clean up. The Attacker performs this first, then the Defender after. Both players do Cleanup even if they are stunned.

1. Resolve any Cleanup triggers on your Attack or Continuous Boosts.
2. Discard all Continuous Boosts in your Boost area. If a Continuous Boost was sustained during this Strike, leave it in play instead.
3. If you hit your opponent, even if you didn't stun them, put your attack card into your Gauge Area. If you didn't hit your opponent, put your attack card into your discard pile instead.

Perform any "End of the Strike" type effects you may have. These effects happen even if a player is Stunned.

It's now the Defender's turn. If either player gained Advantage during the strike, they take the next turn, potentially altering the turn order. If both players gained Advantage, the one who most recently gained it takes the next turn. Neither player draws a card at the end of a turn where a strike occurred.

Gameplay Example

1. Ragna goes first. He decides to put the pressure on and attack! He initiates a Strike by playing a card from his hand face-down. Jin also puts a card from his hand face-down.
2. The attacks are revealed. Jin's Dive attack has a higher Speed, so it executes first (active)! Its effect moves Jin 3 spaces, and he is now in Range to connect with his attack. Ragna's Focus has 2 Armor so Jin's damage dealt is reduced from 5 to 3 (3 damage).
3. Jin's 3 damage is not enough to break Ragna's Guard and stun him, so Ragna's Focus attack (reactive) executes! Ragna hits Jin for 4 damage putting him at 26 life! Ragna's Focus attack also draws Ragna a card with its After effect.
4. Now that both attacks have executed, both players enter Cleanup. Since both player's attacks hit, both attacks go to their Gauge. They can use this Gauge on later turns for things like using powerful Ultra attacks! Now gameplay proceeds with Jin's turn. Turns continue rotating between players in this way, with players playing Boosts, attacking, and using other types of actions until the game ends.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What exactly happens if I Wild Swing into an attack with a cost? A: If you cannot pay for the attack's cost, you must invalidate it and Wild Swing. Otherwise, you may choose to invalidate it and Wild Swing or pay for its cost and use it as your attack.

Q: What if I have no cards in my hand and a Strike occurs? A: You must perform a Wild Swing.

Q: I'm using an effect that cancels an opponent's Boost: when does that happen? A: Canceling a Boost happens after costs are paid but before decisions are made (like what card is named for the Parry Boost). The player still draws at end of turn.

Q: If an effect allows me to spend something to gain a bonus, like 1 Force for +1 Power, can I do that multiple times? A: No. Anything that lets you use it multiple times will be specifically stated ("You may spend up to 3 Force. For each Force spent, +1 Power.").

Q: If I am allowed to pay for an Ultra using something other than Gauge from an effect and I play the Ultra from hand, am I required to pay for it? A: Yes. An Ultra played from hand must be paid for, even if you must use an alternate method of generating Gauge. If you Wild Swing into it, however, you may invalidate it even if you could pay for it via other means.

Q: If I EX an Ultra Attack, do I pay the Gauge cost for each copy? A: No. The Gauge Cost is only paid once.

Q: If my attack is faster than my opponent's, can I still be Stunned? A: Yes, although you will still perform your Cleanup triggers at the end of the Strike.

Q: For Boosts that cause a Strike, when are they considered "resolved"? A: The Boost is resolved right before the Strike begins. As such, any effects that trigger "after resolving a boost", will happen before you set your card for the Strike.

Q: If an attack is coming from another source, do "Attacks at range 1 do not hit you" effects care about the character's position or the other source's position? A: The range is measured from the other source's position, being the attack's point of origin.

Q: If an effect causes me to search my deck, do I have to shuffle afterwards? A: Yes. Anytime you search your deck, you must shuffle afterwards.

Q: When do "playing" and "resolving" a card occur for effects that care about it? What about effects that cause a Strike? A: Played: After spending costs, but before effects. Resolved: After effects occur. For effects causing Strikes, "Played" is the same. Resolving happens after effects, but before the Strike. Discarding the card happens after resolution.

Q: My character has a card which has taken a card from my opponent. What can I do with it? A: An opponent's card may be in your Boost, Gauge, sealed, or character-specific areas. If an opponent's card would enter any other area, return it to the opponent's discard instead.

Q: What does +1~2 Range mean? How does it affect attacks that only have a single number in their Range such as Grasp? A: When adding Range, add together the left side values (Minimum Range), then add together the right side values (Maximum Range) to create the new Range. For example +1-2 Range on Sweep (which has Range 1-3) results in a Range 2-5 attack. Ranges that only have a single number mean that their Minimum and Maximum are equal. This means that for the purposes of adding, Grasp is considered to have Range 1-1.

Q: If I can play more than one attack in a single Strike due to a card effect, do my Continuous Boosts apply to each of my attacks? A: No, your Continuous Boosts apply only to the attack you set and revealed.

Glossary

• Advantage - Can be gained during a Strike. You take the next turn, regardless of who initiated the Strike. If Advantage is gained multiple times during a Strike (even by multiple players), the last player to gain Advantage goes next.
• After - A trigger on many attacks that resolves after the attack would deal its damage. It happens whether or not the attack hits. Does not happen if you are Stunned beforehand.
• Before - A trigger on many attacks that resolves before checking if the attack hits the opponent. It happens whether or not the attack hits, but not if you are stunned beforehand.
• Force - Generated by spending cards from hand or Gauge. An Ultra Attack can generate 2 Force if spent this way.
• Gauge - Generated by spending cards from Gauge. Each card generates 1 Gauge, regardless of type.
• Hit - A trigger on many attacks that resolves if the attack hits the opponent, but before the attack's damage is dealt.
• Ignore Armor - This attack treats your opponent's Armor as if it were 0.
• Ignore Guard - This attack treats your opponent's Guard as if it were 0.
• Manual Reshuffle - Shuffle a player's discard pile into their deck. Do this when that player's deck is empty and they either draw a card or Wild Swing. A player can also Manually Reshuffle early by taking the Manual Reshuffle action. Either way, a player can only Manually Reshuffle once per game - if a player's deck is empty, they have used their Manual Reshuffle, and they would draw a card or Wild Swing, they lose the game immediately instead.