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How the One Piece Card Game is played

Two players. Each has one Leader card, a fifty-card deck behind it, and ten DON!! cards — the game’s only resource — beside it. You win by attacking your opponent’s Leader more times than they have Life cards to absorb.

Play a guided game Look up a card The full rule book

Ten minutes, top to bottom. Every rule below carries its number in the official Comprehensive Rules, like this: CR 6-1-1.

Why every rule here has a number beside it More

The One Piece Card Game has an official rulebook, the Comprehensive Rules, and every numbered paragraph in it has an address — CR 7-1-4-1 is the paragraph that says who wins a battle. This page quotes no rule without giving you that address.

That is not decoration. It means you never have to take this page’s word for anything: search the number on the Rules page and read the official wording yourself. It also means a rule that goes out of date here can be found and fixed, instead of quietly staying wrong.

You can ignore the numbers completely and the page still reads as English. They are there for the moment you want to check something.

The two ways the game ends

There are only two. Hold them both and every decision in the game has a reason behind it — you are never really playing for the board, you are playing for one of these two numbers on the other side of the table.

Way one

Life runs out

Your Leader is hit when you have no Life left.

Each Leader has a number printed on it — usually four or five — and that many cards are dealt face-down beside it at the start as its Life CR 5-2-1-7. When your Leader loses a battle you take one damage, and the top Life card goes into your hand CR 7-1-4-1-1-2. Take a hit with no Life left and you lose CR 1-2-1-1-1.

So Life is not a health bar. It is a stack of cards you get to draw, one hit at a time — which is why taking damage early is often correct, and taking it late is fatal.

Way two

The deck runs out

You have no cards left to draw.

Fifty cards, one drawn every turn CR 6-3-1, plus whatever your cards draw you. Empty your deck and you have met a defeat condition CR 9-2-1-2.

Rarely how a game ends, but it is a real clock, and a few decks are built to make it yours.

What is in front of you

One Leader card, face up CR 2-2-3 — it is not one of the fifty CR 5-1-2. A fifty-card deck of Characters, Events and Stages CR 5-1-2-1. Every card is one of six colors CR 2-3-3, and your deck may only use the colors your Leader has CR 5-1-2-2, with no more than four copies of any one card number CR 5-1-2-3. And a separate ten-card DON!! deck, which is not part of the fifty and is never shuffled into it CR 5-1-2.

You draw five cards, may put them back and redraw all five once CR 5-2-1-6, and then deal your Life face-down off the top of your deck CR 5-2-1-7. You do not get to look at your own Life cards CR 3-10-2.

The words printed on a card

Leader
The single card that starts face up in front of you and stays there all game. It has a power, and it holds your Life CR 2-2-3.
Character
A card you play into the row in front of you. Characters do the attacking and the blocking, and they are what gets knocked out CR 2-2-4.
Event
A card played from your hand for a one-off effect. It does its thing and goes straight to the trash CR 2-2-5.
Stage
A card that sits beside your Leader and stays in play CR 2-2-6.
Power
The big number on a Leader or Character. It is the only number compared when they fight CR 2-6-1.
Cost
What you pay in DON!! to play a card CR 2-7-1. Only Characters, Events and Stages have one CR 2-7-5.
Trash
The discard pile. It is face up, and either player may look through it at any time CR 3-5-2.
K.O.
What happens to a Character that loses a battle, or that an effect destroys: it goes to the trash CR 10-2-1-1.

Cards stand up and lie down

A card is either active (upright) or rested (turned sideways) CR 4-4-1. Resting is how you pay for things: you rest DON!! to pay a cost, you rest a Character to attack with it, and you rest a blocking Character to make it take a hit for you. Everything you rested stands back up at the start of your next turn CR 6-2-4, which is what makes a turn a budget rather than a permanent loss.

DON!! is the whole economy

Two DON!! cards leave your DON!! deck each turn and arrive face up and active in your cost area — the space beside your Leader where DON!! is kept CR 3-9-1 CR 6-4-1. There are only ten, so the game has a hard ceiling: by about turn six you have every resource you are ever getting, and the shape of a game is what each player did with turns one to five.

DON!! does exactly two things, and the second is the one beginners miss.

  1. 1

    It pays costs

    To play a card you pick active DON!! equal to its cost and rest them CR 2-7-2. A 3-cost Character rests three DON!!; those three are gone for the rest of your turn and stand up again next turn CR 6-2-4.

  2. 2

    It pushes power

    Slide an active DON!! card underneath your Leader or one of your Characters and that card gains 1000 power until the end of your turn CR 6-5-5-1 CR 6-5-5-2. You may do it as many times as you can afford CR 6-5-5-3, and every DON!! you gave away comes back to your cost area at the start of your next turn CR 6-2-3.

    This is why a 5000-power Leader beats a 6000-power Character: give it two DON!! and it swings for 7000. Unspent DON!! is not saved for later — a turn you did not spend is simply a turn you did not use.

A turn, in five phases

Always this order CR 6-1-1. Four of the five have no decision in them at all — they simply happen — so you are not sitting waiting to be asked something. Everything you actually choose happens in the Main Phase.

  1. 1

    Refresh Phase nothing to decide

    Every DON!! you gave to a card returns to your cost area CR 6-2-3, and everything you rested — Characters, Leader, Stage, DON!! — stands back up CR 6-2-4.

  2. 2

    Draw Phase nothing to decide

    Draw one card. The player going first does not draw on their first turn CR 6-3-1 — that missing card is what pays for the advantage of moving first.

  3. 3

    DON!! Phase nothing to decide

    Two DON!! cards arrive, active CR 6-4-1. The player going first gets only one on their first turn — the same tax as the skipped draw.

  4. 4

    Main Phase your turn, all of it

    Play Characters, Stages and [Main] Events; use effects on cards already in play; give DON!! to cards; and attack. In any order, as many times as you can pay for CR 6-5-2.

    Two limits worth knowing on day one: you may have five Characters at a time, and playing a sixth makes you trash one of them CR 3-7-6; and a Character cannot attack on the turn you played it unless it has [Rush], one of the keywords listed below CR 3-7-4.

  5. 5

    End Phase nothing to decide

    End-of-turn effects resolve, anything lasting “during this turn” stops, and the turn passes to your opponent CR 6-6-1-4.

Nobody attacks on their own first turn

Neither player may battle on their first turn CR 6-5-6-1. The first turn is for playing a cheap Character and passing.

How a battle actually works

This is the part with real decisions in it, and the part where the order matters most. A battle runs in five steps, and each of your two chances to defend belongs to exactly one of them CR 7-1.

  1. 1

    Attack Step — the attacker rests

    The player whose turn it is rests an active Leader or Character to declare the attack CR 7-1-1-1, then names the target: the opponent’s Leader, or one of their rested Characters CR 7-1-1-2. An active Character cannot be attacked at all — which is exactly why resting a Character to attack has a cost, and why a Character that blocked last turn is a target this turn.

  2. 2

    Block Step — your first chance to defend

    The defending player may rest one card with [Blocker] printed on it to make it the target instead CR 10-1-4-1. Once per battle CR 7-1-2-1.

  3. 3

    Counter Step — your second chance

    Now, and only now, the defender may add power to whatever is being attacked: trash a card from hand for the [Counter] value printed on it CR 7-1-3-2-1, or pay for and trash an Event marked [Counter] CR 7-1-3-2-2. As many as you like, in any order CR 7-1-3-2.

  4. 4

    Damage Step — compare the two numbers

    If the attacker’s power is greater than or equal to the defender’s, the attack succeeds CR 7-1-4-1. Ties go to the attacker. A Character that loses is K.O.’d — sent to the trash CR 7-1-4-1-2; a Leader that loses takes one damage and its controller puts the top Life card into their hand CR 7-1-4-1-1-2. If the attacker’s power is lower, nothing at all happens CR 7-1-4-2 — the attacker is still rested, and that is the whole cost of a failed attack.

  5. 5

    End of the Battle

    “During this battle” effects stop, and play returns to the Main Phase CR 7-1-5-5 — where you may attack again with something else.

The one number that decides most games

Attacker ≥ defender — the attacker only has to match the defender, not beat it CR 7-1-4-1. A 5000 attacker beats a 5000 defender, so the defender needs exactly 1000 more power — and on defense that means a [Counter] card, not DON!!. Giving DON!! is a Main Phase action CR 6-5-5-1, so it is only ever the attacking player who can do it; the defender’s 1000 comes out of their hand.

The keywords you will meet first

These are printed in square brackets on the card itself. There are more than this, but these are the ones in almost every starter deck CR 10-1.

[Rush]
This Character can attack on the turn it was played CR 10-1-1-1. Without it, a Character played this turn cannot attack until next turn CR 3-7-4.
[Blocker]
Rest this card during the Block Step to become the target of the attack instead CR 10-1-4-1. It stays rested for the rest of that turn, so their later attacks can target it CR 7-1-1-2 — your own Refresh Phase stands it back up before they act again CR 6-2-4.
[Counter]
The +1000-style number printed on the card. During the Counter Step, trash the card from your hand to give that much power to your Leader or one of your Characters for the battle CR 7-1-3-2-1 — normally whatever is being attacked.
[Trigger]
Printed on some cards. When you take damage and the Life card you would pick up has [Trigger] on it, you may reveal it and use its effect for free instead of adding it to your hand CR 10-1-5-1. You may always decline and just take the card CR 10-1-5-2.
[Double Attack]
Damage dealt to a Leader by this card is 2 instead of 1 CR 10-1-2-1 — two Life cards, not one.
[Banish]
Life lost to this card’s attack goes to the trash instead of to its owner’s hand CR 10-1-3-1. It denies them the card, which is often worth more than the damage.
[Unblockable]
Your opponent cannot use [Blocker] against this card’s attack CR 10-1-7-1.
[Main] / [Counter]
on an Event
When the card may be played: [Main] is your own Main Phase CR 6-5-3-1; [Counter] is during your opponent’s attack, in the Counter Step CR 7-1-3-2-2.

Now play a game

A rulebook teaches you the vocabulary; a game teaches you the decisions. This project comes with a board that runs the real engine, checks every action against the Comprehensive Rules as it happens, and has a coach panel that names the phase you are in and explains each option it is offering you.

Start a guided game Look up a card The Comprehensive Rules in full

Already have the project on your machine? Run npm run cli -- play serve and the board opens in your browser.

Why the board is not just on this website More

The board is a program, not a page. It runs the same rules engine this project uses to simulate thousands of games, and that engine runs on your own machine rather than on a web server. So this site can tell you about it and show you the command that starts it, but it cannot deal you a hand.

The Play page explains what the board does, what it can and cannot execute, and how to start it.

What this page leaves out on purpose More

Effect timing and the order in which the game processes rules CR 8 CR 9; replacement effects; the exact windows in which [On Play], [When Attacking] and [On Block] activate; and everything about deck construction beyond the three limits above.

None of it is needed for your first game, and all of it is on the Rules page, together with the official Q&A that overrides it where the two disagree.