THE OFFICIAL CYBERPUNK TRADING CARD GAME GAMEPLAY GUIDE

Welcome to the official Cyberpunk Trading Card Game (TCG). You’re about to play as the leader of your very own crew, competing against your rival to become a Night City Legend. Take on Gigs, crush your enemies, boost your Street Cred, and go down in history. To play, you need a set of six dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20) and a deck of Cyberpunk TCG cards.

The goal is to have your crew amass at least six Gig Dice and secure them for a whole turn, getting there by playing cards to send your Legends and Units into the field, equipping them with Gear to augment their abilities, and deploying Programs at strategic moments to help ensure their success.

To become the most Legendary crew in Night City, you gotta be known for getting shit done. As you climb the ranks, you’ll earn Street Cred that comes with securing Gig Dice. But beware: your opponent is looking to do the same. Lock down your crew to protect a valuable roll, or set your sights on an opponent’s if their reward looks a little more enticing.

The higher you climb in Night City, the tougher the fight gets. Your growing reputation grants access to more powerful tools and abilities, but true notoriety requires more than winning a few street fights. Secure those Gigs, stockpile some Eddies, and claim glory as a Night City Legend!

WIN CONDITION

The goal of this game is to collect more Gigs than your rival, represented by the Gig Dice that enter play each turn. You’ll need to protect your own Gig Dice and attack your rival to steal theirs, but once you have enough at least six Gigs under your belt, you win the game.

START YOUR TURN WITH 6 GIGS TO WIN

If a player has at least six Gig Dice in their Gig Area when they start their turn, they win the game.

OVERTIME: WIN AS SOON AS YOU HAVE 7 GIGS

If both players complete a turn without taking a new Gig from their fixer area, the game goes into OVERTIME. In overtime, the moment you have the majority of Gig Dice, you win.

Each discrete die is a single Gig. So, while high values on your Gig Dice can enable cool effects, having two low value dice is closer to winning than having one high value die.

PLAYMAT AREAS

Playmat Areas
FIXER AREA All your Gig Dice start here at the beginning of the game; they represent job offers that a fixer has lined up for you. At the start of your turn, after drawing a card, choose one Gig die from this area. Roll it to set its value, then move it to your Gig area. You can choose any Gig Dice you want, except for the twenty-sided die (d20), which is always last.
GIG AREA This area is for the Gigs that your crew claims as their own, including any stolen from your rival. If you start your turn with six Gig Dice already in this area — before taking one from the fixer area — you win the game. Some card effects require a certain amount of ☆ (Street Cred) to activate. Street Cred is the sum total of your Gig Dice values. In other words, add up all the numbers on the top faces of your dice to get your Street Cred.
FIELD The Field is where you place Units, and where all the action happens. Units represent members of your crew; they can attack one of your rival’s spent Units to remove it from the field, or attack your rival directly to steal one of their Gigs. Once a Unit attacks, spend it (turn it sideways). We explain more about attacking and fights in the ATTACK PHASE section.
EDDIES AREA Every card requires you to spend some amount of Eddies to play it. A card’s cost is the number in the top left corner. Pay a cost by spending (turning sideways) that number of Eddies. This area starts out empty, and you need to sell cards from your hand to create Eddies. We explain more about selling cards for Eddies in the PLAY PHASE section.
LEGENDS AREA The three cards here are your Legends, distinguished members of your crew with reputations unto themselves. Legends provide unique effects that synergize with your deck, like an attack boost for certain Unit tags or a special ability that lets them enter the Field as a powerful Unit. All Legends begin face-down. You can spend 2 Eddies to Call a Legend — flipping a Legend face-up. You can Call a Legend this way just once per turn in your play phase, or once per turn in the defensive step during your rival’s attack. Whether face-up or face-down, you can also spend a Legend to pay one Eddie.
DECK This is where your deck goes. At the start of your turn, draw the top card from your deck and add it to your hand.
TRASH When a card is discarded or defeated, put it here.

READING YOUR CARDS

Anatomy of a Card

CARD TYPES

A card’s type label is in the top right corner. It designates the card as a Legend, Unit, Program, or Gear.
LEGEND Legends are the leaders of your crew and centerpiece of your deck. All Legends begin face-down in a random order. Whether face-up or face-down, Legends can be spent to pay costs like Eddies. Call a Legend by spending 2 Eddies to flip it (without looking first).
UNIT Units are the members of your crew that attack your rival and their Units. Units can't attack on the turn they're played.
PROGRAM Programs are instantaneous effects that happen once — then they’re immediately discarded. You can play Programs any time during your Play Phase.
GEAR Gear cards equip your Units with special effects and advantages. To play a Gear card, pay its cost and attach it to a friendly Unit. When a Unit moves off the field (like to the trash or back to your hand), its attached Gear goes to the same area.

TIMING TRIGGERS & KEYWORDS

Some card text may include highlighted words. TIMING TRIGGERS specify conditions that allow or create an effect. They tell you “when” the effect happens, and have a concave highlight. The text after the timing trigger indicates “what” effect transpires when the conditions are met.

PLAY As soon as you pay this card’s cost, the effect happens.
ATTACK When this Unit attacks, before the fight resolves, the effect happens.
FLIP As soon as this card is flipped face-up, the effect happens.

KEYWORDS are a shorthand indicator for an effect that several cards have; some effects are standard across all cards that use them. They have a convex highlight. Sometimes a keyword’s effect is explained on the card, in an italicized parenthetical.
BLOCKER When a rival Unit attacks, you may spend this Unit to redirect the attack to it.
GO SOLO Pay this card's cost to play it as a ready Unit. It can attack this turn.

HOW TO PLAY

SETUP

Before you begin, each player follows these steps to set up the game.

  1. SHUFFLE & PLACE: Randomize your Legend cards face-down in your Legends area; their order should be a mystery to you. Shuffle all other cards into your deck. Place all of your Gig Dice in the fixer area.
  2. CHOOSE PLAY ORDER: Randomly choose who goes first. Whoever goes first spends two of their Legends (turns them sideways), before starting their first turn.
  3. DRAW: Draw 6 cards from your deck for your starting hand.
  4. MULLIGAN CHANCE: If you want, you can shuffle your hand back into your deck and draw 6 new cards, but only once.

READY PHASE

At the start of your turn, complete each of these steps in order.

  1. DRAW A CARD: Draw the top card from your deck and add it to your hand. There’s no maximum hand size.
  2. GAIN A GIG: Take a die from your fixer area, roll to set its value, then place it in your Gig area. You can choose any die except the d20, which must always be taken last.
  3. READY SPENT CARDS: Turn all your spent (sideways) cards to ready (upright).

PLAY PHASE

During your play phase, you can do any of these steps in any order.

  • SELL FOR EDDIES: Once per turn, you can sell any card in your hand with a Sell Tag (€$) in the top left corner. To sell a card, reveal it to your opponent, then place it face-down in the Eddies area. Keep in mind: no matter how much a card costs in your hand, it’s only worth one Eddie per turn when you spend it. Each turn, starting immediately, you can spend a card (turn it sideways) to pay one Eddie.
  • CALL A LEGEND: Once per turn, you can spend 2 Eddies to flip one of your Legends face-up. Don't peek! The randomness of your choice is a part of the game. If your Legend has a FLIP timing trigger, that effect happens immediately.
  • PLAY CARDS: Spend Eddies equal to the cost in the top left corner of a card to play it from your hand. You can also spend a Legend — whether face-up or face down — to pay one Eddies. If a card has a PLAY timing trigger, that effect happens as soon as you pay its cost. And remember, Units can't attack on the turn they're played.

ATTACK PHASE

In this phase, there’s only one thing to do: attack! Each Unit attacks individually, and completes all the attacking steps before another Unit can attack. You can choose to attack a spent rival Unit, or your rival directly. Depending on your target, the attack plays out a little differently.

ATTACK A SPENT UNIT
↓FIGHT!

If your Unit attacks a spent Unit, they have a fight. Fights play out like this:

  1. 1.
    OFFENSIVE STEP

    Spend your attacking Unit. If it has an ATTACK trigger, resolve that effect now.

  2. 2.
    DEFENSIVE STEP

    If your rival wants to Call a Legend, or redirect the attack to a ready BLOCKER Unit, they can do it now.

  3. 3.
    FIGHT

    Compare the total power of your Unit to the total power of your rival’s defending card. The one with more power defeats the other. If the Units have equal power, both Units defeat each other.

  4. 4.
    DEFEAT

    Discard all defeated Units and any Gear attached to them.

OR
ATTACK YOUR RIVAL
↓STEAL!

When a Unit lands an attack on your rival, steal one of their Gigs!

  1. 1.
    OFFENSIVE STEP

    Spend your attacking Unit. If it has an ATTACK trigger, resolve that effect now.

  2. 2.
    DEFENSIVE STEP

    If your rival wants to Call a Legend, or redirect the attack to a ready BLOCKER Unit, they can do it now.

  3. 3.
    STEAL

    Choose any die from your rival’s Gig area and move it to your own. Stronger Units are more disruptive; for every 10 power a Unit has, they steal an additional Gig. So, a Unit with 10 power steals two Gigs, a Unit with 20 power steals three, and so on.

If you don’t want to put a Unit in a vulnerable position, it doesn’t have to attack at all. Ready Units can’t be attacked. But keep in mind that most Units, even ready ones, won’t be able to protect your Gigs. Only Units with effects like BLOCKER can interrupt attacks, so they’re typically the only Units worth keeping ready. You can’t become a Legend without taking some risks, after all.

When a BLOCKER Unit redirects your attempt to attack your rival directly, a fight plays out as though your Unit attacked the blocking Unit instead. Even if you defeat it, you don’t steal any Gigs for that attack. In general, if an effect redirects or stops a direct attack on your rival, you don’t get to steal a Gig.

DECK BUILDING & RAM

The Cyberpunk TCG Alpha Kit is intended as a closed experience — players will pick one of two decks and stick to those without customization. To build your own deck once the full game is available, stick to these requirements:

  • Use exactly 3 Legend cards with unique names.
  • Include no less than 40 and no more than 50 cards (not including your Legends).
  • Use no more than 3 copies of the same card.
  • Cards must stay within the RAM limit set by your Legends (see below).

Cards can only be included in decks with sufficient RAM. Your Legends set the RAM limits for your deck. The RAM color values on each card in your deck must be less than or equal to your Legends’ total RAM color values. You also can’t include more than 3 copies of the same card in a deck.

All Legends have a colored border and a RAM limit in the top right corner of their card. For example, this Goro Takemura: Hands Unclean Legend card has 2 Green RAM. So, you can add any Green cards with a RAM value of 2 or less to your deck.

Goro Takemura: Hands Unclean

The cumulative RAM of your three Legends cards sets the maximum RAM value for color cards permitted in your deck. If you want to use more powerful cards of a specific color, you need to use more Legends of the same color to increase your limit.

Each Legend’s RAM limit only counts towards their own color. If you want to build a deck with multiple card colors, then you need to choose your Legends with RAM for each included color. For example, if you want to run a Green and Red deck with Goro Takemura: Hands Unclean (2 Green RAM), Saburo Arasaka: Stubborn Patriarch (2 Green RAM), and Yorinobu Arasaka: Embracing Destruction (2 Red RAM), then your deck may include Green cards with up to 4 RAM and Red cards with up to 2 RAM.

Saburo Arasaka: Stubborn Patriarch
Yorinobu Arasaka: Embracing Destruction

GLOSSARY

Turn a card sideways to spend it. Sideways cards are referred to as “spent,” while upright cards are “ready.” Once a card is spent, you can’t spend it again until it returns to ready at the start of your next turn. Eddies and Legends spend to pay card costs, and Units spend when they attack.

Turn a card upright to ready it. Upright cards are referred to as “ready,” while sideways cards are “spent.” Only ready Units can attack, and ready Units can’t be attacked.

Eddies, short for eurodollars, are the currency in Night City, and you need them to run your crew. Every card has a cost in the top left corner; you have to spend that many Eddies to play it.

Once per turn, you can sell any card in your hand with an Sell Tag (€$) in the top left corner. To sell a card, reveal it to your opponent, then place it face-down in the Eddies area. Keep in mind, no matter how much a card may have cost in your hand, it’s only worth one Eddies per turn after it’s sold.

Gigs are the jobs that will make your crew legendary, and represented by Gig Dice. The first player to start their turn with 6 or more Gigs wins the game. Gigs are the main focus of combat; attack your rival to steal their Gigs, and protect your own from them.

Some card effects require a certain amount of ☆ (Street Cred) to activate. Street Cred is the sum total of the dice in your Gig area. In other words, add up all the numbers on the top face of your Gig Dice to calculate Street Cred.

In Night City, a fixer is a middleman between clients and mercenaries: they hook your crew up with new Gigs. All dice start in the fixer area at the beginning of the game. At the start of each turn, choose one die from this area, roll it to set its value, then move it to your Gig area. You can pick any die you want, except for the d20, which must always be taken last.

Distinguished members of your crew, with reputations unto themselves. Legends provide unique effects that synergize with your deck, like an attack boost for Units with a certain tag, or a special ability to enter the field as a powerful Unit. All Legends begin face-down. While face-down, Legends can only be spent for Eddies, and provide no other effects. Call a Legend to flip it face-up.

Each round, you can spend 2 Eddies to flip a Legend face-up. You can do this once per turn in your play phase, or once per turn in the defensive step during your rival’s attack.

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