Battle Cards
Battle Cards are the heart of ChessVS strategy. Each one attaches to a piece type and gives that piece a special ability you can use during a match.
What every Battle Card has
- A piece type — Pawn, Knight, Bishop, Rook, Queen, or King.
- A Focus Level (FL1, FL2, FL3) — sets when in a match the card can be used. (Tension Gauge →)
- A category — OFF, TAC, or DEF — tells you at a glance what kind of effect it has.
- A rarity — Common, Rare, Epic, or Omega.
- A charge count — how many times you can use it per match.
- A durability — how many ranked games it lasts before wearing out.
Every Battle Card shows its piece, role, Focus Level, and effect at a glance, so you know exactly what it does before you put it in your deck.
The Knight's immunity holds for its one turn, with a single exception: if your opponent is not in check and capturing that Knight is their only legal move, the protection gives way for that move. In check it never gives way. If the only way out of a check from that immune Knight would be to capture it, there is no way out: that is checkmate.
Focus Levels
| Level | When it unlocks | Power |
|---|---|---|
| FL1 | Always available | Solid, reliable effects |
| FL2 | Tension Gauge reaches 8 | Significant mid-game swings |
| FL3 | Gauge reaches 15, plus ELO ≥ 1,400 | Game-changing, single-use |
A locked card can sit in your deck — it just can't fire until its level unlocks.
The three categories
Every ability is tagged so you can build a balanced deck:
- OFF Offensive — attacks, pressures, removes enemy pieces.
- TAC Tactical — repositions, traps, manipulates charges or information.
- DEF Defensive — fortifies, protects, buys time.
Charges per match
| Level | Charges | Deck slots |
|---|---|---|
| FL1 | 2–3 per match | Up to 5 FL1 cards |
| FL2 | 2 per match | Up to 3 FL2 cards |
| FL3 | 1 per match | Up to 2 FL3 cards |
FL3 cards have exactly one charge on purpose — knowing when to spend it is the whole skill.
Rarity and durability
| Rarity | Durability |
|---|---|
| Common | 8 ranked games |
| Rare | 14 games |
| Epic | 20 games |
| Omega | 30 games |
Durability ticks down once per ranked game, win or lose. A card at zero durability is retired automatically. Some of a card's remaining uses carry into the next season; details are announced before each season ends.
The card's remaining charges for that match are lost — but the card is not destroyed. It returns to your collection afterward, with one durability used.
ATK and SHLD
Every piece carries two combat stats, ATK (attack) and SHLD (shield), that come into play when pieces clash on the same square. A card's rarity never changes them: rarity buys how many uses a card has and how it looks, never how strong your pieces are.
- The Queen is the heaviest hitter at 5 ATK and 5 SHLD; the Rook (3/4) and Knight (3/2) sit in the middle, and the Bishop is 2/3.
- Pawns and Kings always deal exactly 2 damage. No card raises it and no fight lowers it. The Pawn carries 1 shield and the King carries 5, so they win through position and protection, not raw power. See Combat.
Your cards and your opponent's
Your cards. In a match, each of your Battle Cards is outlined in its club's color, with the club's crest. Universal cards keep a plain outline. A card you arm fills in; its outline never changes.
Your opponent's cards. Tap the ⬇ tab beside Battle Cards to pull your opponent's cards down over yours, and tap it again to put them away. Until a card is played you see only its piece and its Focus Level. A card shows in full once it fires, or when an effect reveals it. Your opponent never sees which card you declared, and you never see theirs.
At the end of the match, the results screen shows both players' cards in full, with how many times each one fired or fizzled.
Two editions of one card. If you own a card both as a universal copy and as your club's edition, choose which one plays on the card selection screen. The match plays the one you pick.
Card activation rules
- One ability per turn.
- Pre-move and move-integrated abilities must be declared before your chess move.
- For move-integrated abilities, the ability and the move must use the same piece.
- Charges are consumed on activation — whether or not the ability achieves its goal.
- Reaction abilities fire automatically when their trigger condition is met.
- Your loadout locks when the match starts — no swapping mid-game.
Etheryst's club identity is a second ability in a turn, and it is not live yet — right now rule 1 applies to every player in both clubs. It arrives with the Etheryst club passive; until then, no club gets an extra activation.
The Phase 1 starter cards
Every player starts with three Focus Level 1 cards, one each for the Knight, the Rook, and the Pawn. Each is armed before your move and spent when it fires, whether or not it gets what it wanted.
| Card | Piece | Category | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leaping Strike | Knight | OFF | Your Knight survives the capture it starts, then holds one turn of immunity. |
| Battering Ram | Rook | OFF | Your Rook's move pushes the piece on its destination one square further along the same line instead of taking it. |
| Defiant Step | Pawn | TAC | Arm it, then capture with a pawn: the capture becomes a shove. The target is pushed one square back toward its own side, not removed. Unarmed, a pawn capture is an ordinary fight. |
A shove has its own rules. If the square behind the target is occupied, the move is an ordinary capture after all. If the target has nowhere left to go, off the edge of the board, it is removed. And Defiant Step never fires on en passant.
Three more FL1 cards, Pinpoint for the Bishop, Royal Decree for the Queen, and Fortify for the King, join the loadout screen with the tutorial layer.
Royal Decree holds an enemy piece for a turn. If Royal Decree, Absolute Pin or En Passant Lock would leave you no legal move, the freeze lifts for that turn and the game tells you: the lock mark comes off the piece and a line on your board says it is free this turn. A protection (Fortify, Leaping Strike) gives way first; a freeze lifts only if you're still stuck. In check nothing lifts, so checkmate stays checkmate.
The card collection
A Battle Card variant is a unique mix of club × piece × rarity × Focus Level. The collection grows as more clubs arrive in future seasons.
Your collection lays your cards out side by side so you can compare pieces, roles, and Focus Levels while building a deck.