Exceed Fighting System
Exceed Fighting System Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
4 Character Cards 64 Normal Base Attack Cards (4 sets of 16) 40 Character Special Attack Cards (10 per character) 16 Character Ultra Attack Cards (4 per character) 2 Action Reference Cards 9 Board Cards
Card Overview
Normal, Special, and Ultra Attacks
All Attack Cards have two parts, the upper part is an attack, while the lower part is a Boost. Attacks are used during Strikes, while Boosts are used by playing them with the Boost Action.
Attack:
- Gauge Cost (Ultra Attacks only)
- Attack Name
- Range (what spaces the attack hits)
- Power (how much damage the attack will do)
- Speed (how fast the attack will activate)
- Armor and Guard (how well will you resist enemy attacks when using this attack. If the attack has no armor or guard, these stats will not be shown)
- Owner's Mark (Normals will have a colored shape instead)
- Special Effects
Boost:
- Continuous Boost Mark (only Continuous Boosts have this)
- Boost Force Cost
- Boost Name
- Boost Effect
Character Cards
Starting Side:
- Character Name
- Character Ability (always active)
- Gauge Cost for going into Exceed Mode
Exceed Side mirrors the same layout, showing the character's more powerful Exceed Mode ability.
The Play Area
Only one player's play area is shown here. Both play areas are identical.
Game Board. The Game Board is 9 spaces long and is shared between both players.
Deck. The player's shuffled deck goes here. Players may not look through their decks under normal game conditions. Anytime a player does look through his deck due to a game effect, that player must shuffle the deck again.
Discard. Any cards discarded are placed here. Players may look through any discard pile at any time, but may not rearrange the order of cards in the discard pile. When you discard multiple cards, discard them in any order you wish.
In-Play Area. Any in-play Continuous Boost cards go here.
Gauge Area. Cards which have been converted into Gauge are kept here.
Hand. When cards are drawn, they are added to the player's hand. Players may not see one anothers' hands normally.
Sealed (not shown) - Cards that have been Sealed are removed from the game, and are set aside out of play.
Setup
- Shuffle. To begin playing, shuffle your complete 30-card deck together. A deck is formed from Normals and Character-specific cards.
- The Normal Set contains 2 copies each of the 8 Normal Attacks: Grasp, Cross, Assault, Dive, Spike, Sweep, Focus, and Block. All characters have these same cards.
- The Character Set contains 2 copies of each of your character's 5 Special Attacks and 2 Ultra Attacks.
- Area Setup. Set up a board with 9 spaces horizontally, and put your characters on the 3rd and 7th spaces respectively, with their Normal sides facing up. Give each player 30 life (they can never have more than 30) and decide who will go first.
- Starting Draw. Shuffle your decks and draw 5 cards each. The player going second draws an extra card. Your maximum hand size is 7. If you ever have more than this, discard down to your maximum after you draw at the end of your turn.
- Mulligan. Discard any number of cards from your hands, then draw that many cards. After this, shuffle the discarded cards back into your deck.
- Game Start. Play begins with the first player's turn.
Gameplay
Players will take turns, back and forth. On each player's turn, that player will choose whether they wish to Take an Action or Strike.
Take an Action. If the player chooses this, he takes one of the six different actions.
- Prepare. Draw an extra card.
- Move. Spend Force to move around the board.
- Boost. Use a card for its Boost effect.
- Change Cards. Spend Force to draw cards.
- Exceed. Spend Gauge to power up into Exceed Mode.
- Reshuffle. Reshuffled your deck and discard pile to form a new deck. This can be done only once per game.
Strike. If a player chooses to Strike, then both players will play a card secretly from their hands, and resolve the cards based on the rules in the Striking section.
At the end of a turn, draw a card if you did not Strike.
When a player's life reaches zero, he is eliminated from the game, and his opponent wins!
Out of Cards
In the course of the game, you may run out of cards in your deck. The first time you need to draw a card and cannot, reshuffle your discard pile to form a new deck.
If you have already reshuffled and then run out of cards again and need to draw, you lose the game immediately.
Gauge
You can get cards into your Gauge Area by hitting opponents (see Striking). Gauge is very powerful, and useful for many different things.
Gauge can be used to upgrade your character's Ability through the Exceed action, or to play your Ultra Attacks. Gauge can also be spent as Force, which helps preserve cards in your hand when using actions and boosts.
When you spend Gauge, just move cards from your Gauge Area to your discard pile. You can choose to discard cards from your Gauge regardless of the order they were placed there.
Force
When you need to spend Force, you create Force to spend immediately through any combination of these methods:
- Discard any number of Normal or Special Attacks from your hand to your discard pile to generate 1 Force per card discarded.
- Discard any number of Ultra Attacks from your hand to your discard pile to generate 2 Force per card discarded.
- Discard any number of cards from your Gauge Area to your discard pile to generate 1 Force per card discarded.
You can generate as much Force as you wish to pay for any effect, but any Force that is not spent immediately is lost (so it is possible to 'overpay' for an effect, if you wish).
Prepare Action
When you take a Prepare action, simply draw an extra card. Since you also draw a card after taking an action, you will get a total of two cards this turn.
Change Cards Action
Change Cards allows you to spend Force to draw one card per Force spent (see Force). Typically you will spend cards from your hand as Force, but don't forget that you can spend Gauge too, and that Ultra Attacks give you 2 Force (and thus 2 cards) instead of just one.
You must spend all the Force you wish to spend up front, before drawing any of the cards.
Exceed Action
The Exceed Action costs some amount of Gauge (shown on the front of your character card). Pay this much Gauge, then flip your character card over to reveal your more powerful Exceed Mode. Exceed Mode completely replaces your character's original ability.
Once you change to Exceed Mode, there is usually no way to change back to your standard ability.
Reshuffle Action
Reshuffle allows you to reshuffled your discard pile into your deck to create a new deck. This speeds up the Reshuffle you would normally get when running out of cards.
Whether you reshuffle with this action, or automatically the first time your deck runs out, you only get one Reshuffle per game.
Move Action
Pay 1 Force per space to move forwards or backwards. Moving past an opponent costs 2 Force, and you can continue moving in the same direction after switching sides.
Movement effects may also show up on some attacks or boosts, and those do not cost Force.
Here is an explanation of the 4 different types of movement in EXCEED.
Close
Move towards the opponent as many spaces as possible up to the number of spaces indicated, but without switching sides with the opponent.
Example: Closing 2 spaces. Since 'close' always moves you as far as possible without passing the opponent, closing 3, 4, or 5 spaces would look identical to this.
Move
Move either direction up to the number of spaces indicated, switching sides with the opponent, and continuing in the same direction beyond.
Example: 'Move' lets you choose which direction to go. Unlike Close, switching sides with the opponent is allowed.
Advance
Move towards from the opponent as many spaces as possible up to the number of spaces indicated, switching sides and continuing in the same direction beyond.
Example: Advancing 1 space puts us adjacent. Advancing 2 would switch sides.
Retreat
Move away from the opponent, as many spaces as possible up to the number of spaces indicated.
Example: Retreating one space from the center of the board.
In all cases when moving, if you are unable to move as far as indicated, move as far as possible, then stop (for example, if the example above said to "Retreat 8 spaces", we would just move back 4 from the center, the maximum allowed by the board).
It's also important to note that you can never be in the same space as the opponent. If you would move into their space, you move past them instead, as shown in the examples.
Boost Action
Boosts are unique actions allowed by the cards in your hand. These versatile bonus actions serve two main purposes.
Instant Boosts give you new kinds of actions, or a better economy on existing actions. Perform the actions on these boosts instantly.
Continuous Boosts enhance your next attack with some benefit, and may also have an instant portion. All Continuous Boosts have a brown cross-shaped mark above their Force costs.
To play a Boost, pay its Force Cost, put the boost into your in-play area, and then resolve its effects. Any effects in the boost that do not have a Trigger Keyword or a Stat Bonus occur right now.
If a Boost is not Continuous, discard it after resolving all its effects. If it is Continuous, keep it in play. There is no limit to the number of Continuous Boosts in your in-play area.
Example boost effects illustrated in the rulebook:
- A Continuous Boost granting "+1 Armor and +1 Guard at the start of each of the opponent's turns" would stay in play and will get stronger and stronger until your next Strike.
- A boost granting "Advance up to 3 spaces" would allow you to rush forward right away, but will be discarded afterwards.
- A boost that makes you "Retreat 2 spaces" now, with a Before trigger to "Close 2 spaces" on your next attack, makes you retreat 2 spaces right now. In addition, your next attack will gain the Before trigger described.
- A boost that lets you "Draw 3 cards, then Strike" lets you draw 3 cards, then Strike. Since you are Striking, you will not draw a card at the end of this turn.
Resolving Strikes
When a player chooses to initiate a Strike as his action or as part of a Boost, he is called the Attacker and his opponent is the Defender. The players follow these steps...
- The Attacker sets his Attack Card or Cards face-down. Note: Some characters have additional actions they can take "when striking." They do these actions before they set their cards.
- A Regular Attack is formed by playing a single 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 first.
- The Defender sets his Attack Card or Cards, in the same way the attacker does, then reveal the attacks!
Reveal Step
Flip over both players' attacks. You normally won't need to do much here, but there are a few special cases...
- EX Attacks. Discard the extra copy of the EX attack to your discard pile.
- Ultra Attacks. You must pay the Gauge Cost of a revealed Ultra Attack right now. If you are unable to, the attack is Invalid.
- Invalid Attacks. If your attack is Invalid, discard it and perform a Wild Swing. Keep discarding and performing Wild Swings until you reveal a valid attack.
Priority Order
Whoever has the higher speed goes first. In a tie, the Attacker goes first.
Example: Ballista (Speed 5) vs. Spike (Speed 3) — Ballista is Active, Spike is Reactive.
Active Player Attack
The player with higher speed goes first and performs their entire attack. An attack has 4 Steps:
- Perform all Before effects.
- Check your range to the opponent.
- If you were in range, perform all Hit effects, then do damage to the opponent (see "Doing Damage" below).
- Perform all After effects.
Example: Reese's Ballista Attack hits all spaces between 3 and 5, meaning that this attack will hit.
Trigger Effects
There are three kinds of Trigger Effects in EXCEED, Before, Hit, and After. Each of these describes a different timing for when the effect will take place.
- Before effects will happen at the start of your attack, before you check your range to the opponent.
- Hit effects will only happen if you manage to 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.
When a Trigger Effect comes up, you must activate it and follow all of its instructions. If you have multiple effects with the same trigger, you can choose what order to activate them in, but you must still activate and resolve each one individually.
Triggers are easy to read once you get the hang of them. Different triggers can make similar looking attacks behave very differently.
- Assault lets you close in first, then attack.
- Cross lets you attack first, then back up.
- Grasp lets you attack and move the opponent, but you only get the move effect if you hit with the attack.
Doing Damage
When your attack hits, you will do damage to the opponent equal to your Power, reducing their life by this much.
If your opponent has any Armor, they deduct this from the total amount of damage they take over the course of the attack.
If your damage dealt over the course of the entire attack is greater than the opponent's Guard, they become Stunned. A stunned opponent doesn't get to perform their attack.
Not all attacks have Guard and Armor printed on them. In this case, they count as having zero in these stats.
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 that 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, however, you would take 6 damage, and would thus become stunned.
Reactive Player Attack
If the Reactive Player is not Stunned, he may perform his attack the same way that the Active Player did. If he is stunned, skip his attack entirely.
Cleanup
After all this, each player cleans up by doing these steps:
- Discard all Continuous Boosts in your in-play area.
- 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.
- The Attacker performs any 'End of the Strike' type effects they may have. Then the Defender does the same.
- It is now the turn of the next player (the Defender). If either player gained Advantage during the strike, they take the next turn, potentially altering the turn order.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Can I ask how many cards are in my opponent's hand? A: Yes. This information is open knowledge to all players.
Q: If I discard an Ultra Attack to use its boost, do I still have to pay the Gauge Cost? A: No. When you use a boost from any type of Attack, you only pay the indicated Force Cost.
Q: If I Wild Swing into an Ultra Attack, do I have to play it if I have the Gauge to pay for it? A: You may pay the Gauge and use an Ultra that you Wild Swing into, but you do not have to. If you do not have the gauge or do not want to pay for a Wild Swing Ultra, it is considered an invalid attack and replaced with a new Wild Swing as normal.
Q: What happens if both players gain Advantage? A: The player who most recently gained it takes the next turn.
Q: What if I have no cards in hand and a Strike happens? A: You must preform a Wild Swing.
Variant: Tag Team
Tag Teams let you play with two fighters at once! Unite to form the ultimate team!
Choose two different characters and shuffle all of their unique cards and 3 copies of each Normal Attack together to form a 52-card deck. Start with either character of your choice in play. Each character has 20 life.
Only one of your characters will be in play at any time, and the other will be tagged-out. Each character can use only their own attacks and boosts, but both may use the same Normals. The Special Attacks and Ultras of your tagged-out character are considered Invalid Attacks for your tagged-in character.
When a character takes damage, they apply it to their own life total. However, your Gauge and your hand of cards are shared between your two fighters.
Whenever either member of the opponent's team reaches zero life, you are declared victorious!
Tag Team Actions
Switch Characters: Swap your active character for your other character in the same position. All Boosts remain in play when you switch characters, and apply to your new active character.
Cross Exceed: You can activate your tagged-out character's Exceed Mode without tagging them in, paying all costs as normal.
Cross Boost: Spend 1 Gauge and activate a Boost on a Special or Ultra Card from your tagged-out character. You still pay all regular Force costs for that boost.
New Strike Types
Cross Strike: As you set your attack cards, you can spend 2 Gauge to tag your character instantly. This will allow you to use cards in hand that would otherwise be invalid.
Double EX: You can set 3 copies of a Normal Attack to use a Double EX. This gives another +1 Power, Speed, Armor, and Guard, and all extras go to your discard after being revealed.
Ejection Strike: All EX and Double EX attacks have the Ejection Strike Property. This gives your attack "After: If the opponent is stunned, you may swap the opponent's active character for his tagged out character, and he cannot swap back until the end of the next Strike."
Learn more about Exceed at www.level99games.com/games/exceed
Exceed is © 2015 by Level 99 Games, LLC. Redhorizon™ is © 2015 by Jasco Games LLC