Star Wars: Unlimited FAQ
126 questions players ask · Updated Nov 12, 2026 · Full rulebook
Game concepts
- Can a unit have two copies of the same unique upgrade, such as Luke's Lightsaber?
- Can an exhausted unit still defend or deal combat damage?
- Does damage on a unit wear off between rounds, and does it lower the unit's power?
- What do the numbers in a modifier such as +2/+0 or +1/+1 change?
- If a temporary bonus ends and leaves a damaged unit with no remaining HP, is the unit defeated?
- When Admiral Thrawn reveals the top card of a deck, does the opponent see it?
- Does an ability that refers to a card's cost use the printed cost or the cost after modifiers?
Card anatomy
- Can both players have the same unique card, such as the same leader or Vader's Lightsaber, in play at the same time?
- Can I play a second copy of a unique card to replace the one I already control?
- Do a card's title and subtitle decide whether two cards count as the same unique card?
- What does the Innate keyword do?
- Can a deck include two unique cards with the same character name if their titles differ?
Card types
- How many upgrades, including Shield tokens, can be attached to one unit?
- When a unit with several Shield tokens takes damage, how many Shield tokens are removed?
- Does a leader enter play ready when deployed, even if it was exhausted by a leader action earlier?
- What happens to a deployed leader when it is defeated?
- Is a leader counted as a unit only when it is deployed?
- Can Darth Maul's leader ability damage space units even before he is deployed?
- Is the second damage from Darth Maul's leader ability optional?
- Can Qui-Gon Jinn's leader ability return an opponent's unit to its owner's hand?
- Can Confiscate defeat a Shield token?
- Does the reminder text on the reprinted Firespray-31 change how units with Piloting count as upgrades?
- What triggers The Mandalorian leader's 'when you play an upgrade' ability?
- Does Luke Skywalker, Hero of Yavin's can't-be-defeated text protect him from enemy card abilities?
- Can an effect that targets a unit also target a Leader Unit, and can a unit have more than one Shield token?
- Why does a leader card have a cost number?
- Do Battle Droid and Clone Trooper tokens created by a card's effect have a cost or an aspect penalty?
- Does Bamboozle remove Experience and Shield tokens from a unit?
- When a unit is returned to its owner's hand, what happens to the upgrades attached to it?
- Can you play a Bounty upgrade on your own unit and then remove it with Commander Finn's ability for a Shield?
- Can an upgrade such as Resilient be attached to a base?
Zones
- Do the ground and space arenas have fixed sides, or does the first unit played set them?
- Can Waylay return a unit from the discard pile?
- Can I return my own damaged unit to hand and replay it to clear its damage?
- Can a token unit be returned to hand?
- If Triple Dark Raid gives me a vehicle that Jump to Lightspeed returns to hand, does the vehicle come back at end of phase?
- Does Resupply stay in play as a permanent effect, or do you exhaust it after playing it?
- Can Leia Organa ready a resource that was exhausted to pay for her?
- Does a deployed leader count as played, and does a leader that enters play count as played?
- Can a captured card be rescued as ready or exhausted, and does it trigger When Played?
- Can a card ability choose a unit in the other arena, such as a ground unit's ability hitting a space unit?
Game structure
Action timing
- Can you respond to an opponent's action with a card from your hand, like an instant?
- Does Rukh take combat damage back when he attacks with Shoot First?
- Does Energy Conversion Lab still require paying the played unit's resource cost?
- If a villainous card is played and then returned to hand, is it still counted as played this phase for Darth Vader's action?
- Does Overwhelming Barrage exhaust the friendly unit or count as an attack?
- Can an exhausted unit take damage or receive a Shield token?
- When does an On Attack ability resolve relative to combat damage, and what happens if it defeats the defender?
- When a unit attacks, is its target chosen before On Attack abilities resolve?
- If Cad Bane has chosen a target and the captured Sentinel is freed before combat, does the attack target change?
- How do the When Played abilities of several cards found by a search or a 'play these' effect resolve?
- What does 'when played' mean in card text?
- Does deploying a leader use up my action for the turn?
- Does a unit that attacks because of Surprise Strike exhaust after the attack?
- Can you attack your own units?
- Can a ground unit attack a unit in the space arena?
- What does playing a card mean for Darth Vader's action, which needs a card played this phase?
- Does defeating a unit with a 'when defeated' ability let you use the Force it gained from On Attack in the same attack?
- Does Maximum Firepower exhaust or stop the two units that supply its power?
- When Force Lightning is the first event and the opponent controls Relentless, which effect resolves?
- If Gideon Hask is defeated at the same time as enemy units, does his 'when an enemy unit is defeated' ability still trigger?
- Does Restore trigger when a defender deals combat damage back?
- Can a card that tells an exhausted unit to attack make it attack?
- If Fennec Shand's On Attack defeats the defender, does she still take combat damage?
- If Darth Vader's On Attack damage defeats the unit, do the rest of its On Attack effects still resolve?
- When an Exploit-played unit's When Defeated ability fires, does it resolve before or after the played unit enters play?
Keywords
- Does Saboteur remove every Shield token from the defending unit?
- Does Sentinel stop abilities that deal damage to non-Sentinel units, and can a Shield stop that damage?
- Does a Sentinel still force attacks to target it after it is exhausted, and must Darth Vader attack it even when his damage could hit another unit?
- Can a unit with Overwhelm attack a unit and still deal excess damage to the base, including when the attacked unit has Sentinel or the attacker is Entrenched?
- How does Overwhelm interact with a Shield token?
- Does a Raid 2 keyword granted by another card stack with the unit's own Raid 2?
- Is Raid a keyword, and is a keyword ability the same thing as a keyword?
- Does Ambush let you ready a unit and then choose not to attack, and can it attack a base?
- If two When Played triggers happen together, such as Ambush and a Quinlan Vos ping, can I choose their order?
- Can Jyn Erso's action use a unit's Ambush, letting it ready and attack when played?
- Does Wedge Antilles's Ambush-granting ability give Ambush to vehicles already in play?
- Does capturing a unit trigger its bounty, and can the captured unit be played for free with Unrefusable Offer?
- Do you collect a bounty when the upgrade that grants it is defeated?
- How is a card's smuggle cost calculated?
- Does a unit's damage-triggered ability fire when a Shield token stops its damage, and does a Shielded unit trigger Jabba's ability when a friendly unit is damaged?
- Does a Shield token protect a unit from effects that defeat it or return it to hand?
- Can indirect damage be assigned to any unit or base, and does it bypass Shields?
- Can Darth Vader's On Attack damage target a shielded unit or a unit without Sentinel?
Damage and targeting
- Can Admiral Ackbar's when played ability damage a space unit, and how much does it deal?
- Can Strike True use an exhausted friendly unit as the source of its damage?
- Can Overwhelming Barrage or Palpatine's damage remove a Shield and then deal more damage to the same unit?
- Can Overwhelming Barrage damage both space and ground units, including your own units?
- Can Overwhelming Barrage deal more damage to a unit than it has health left, or divide its damage among zero units?
- Does Superlaser Blast destroy both friendly and enemy units?
- Must Vader's leader action damage my own unit if mine are the only units in play?
- Does a power bonus from Raid, or Grit and upgrades, count toward a 'while this unit has N or more power' check?
- Can 'destroy a non-leader unit' target a unit in either arena?
- Do cards that deal damage without saying attack require the unit to be ready or exhaust?
- Does AT-AT Suppressor's exhaust all ground units also exhaust your own ground units?
- Does Director Krennic's damaged-unit bonus stack with Grit?
Abilities and effects
- Where do the unchosen cards go after a search of the top of a deck?
- Are the units found by Commanding the First Legion played one at a time, or all at once?
- Does the combined cost in Commanding the First Legion include aspect penalties?
- When R2-D2 is played during U-Wing Reinforcement, where does the card it discards from the top go?
- Can Fleet Lieutenant attack with itself when it is played?
- Does Pirated Starfighter's return ability have to resolve if it is the only friendly unit in play?
- Does a unit stolen with Palpatine stay under the opponent's control after Palpatine is defeated?
- What can I do with a unit I take control of?
- Can Endless Legion play a unit as a pilot upgrade?
- How does Greedo's when-defeated discard ability work?
- Does Yoda's when-defeated draw ability let me choose only myself?
- Can Ketsu Onyo defeat Poe Dameron when he is played as a pilot upgrade?
- Does Fennec Shand's action that plays a unit let you play a pilot or give Ambush to its vehicle?
- If you play a second Cad Bane, can it recapture the enemy units the first one captured?
- Can First Light's Smuggle cost deal its 4 damage to First Light itself?
- Does 'another unit' in a card's text exclude the card itself, and can a card target itself with 'a friendly unit' text?
- Does Disruptive Burst's -1/-1 apply to enemy units that enter play later in the same phase?
- Do the constant bonuses from Captain Rex or General Dodonna last after the unit leaves play, or only for the turn it was played?
- Does 'at least 3 aspects' require three different aspects, or can three icons of one aspect count?
- Can I choose the same option twice when an event says to choose two options from a bulleted list, such as Aggression, or can 'Choose two' pick one mode twice?