The One Piece Card Game is a fast, strategic TCG in which you build a crew, manage a unique resource called Don and fight to remove your opponent's life until you can land one final decisive blow. This guide explains the core rules, the turn order and the battle mechanics, so you can build and play decks with confidence.

Quick overview: goal and core concepts

Your goal is simple: take your opponent's leader down to zero life and then land one final attack to win. You do that by attacking with your leader and characters, managing Don to play cards and boost attacks, and using triggers, counters and stage effects cleverly to tip battles in your favour.

Game components

Main deck

• 50 cards
• Every card must share at least one colour with your leader
• A maximum of four copies of a card with the same card number

Don deck

• 10 cards
• These are flipped over each turn and added to your cost area

Leader card

• The core of your strategy
• The bottom right shows your starting life (the number of cards you place face down in your life area)

Life area

• Cards placed face down from the top of your deck at the start of the game
• When your leader takes damage, you reveal the top card and add it to your hand

Character area, stage area, trash

• The standard zones for characters in play, lasting stage cards and discarded cards

Card types

Character cards

• Your units for attacking and blocking
• They have a play cost (top left) and power (top right)
• A maximum of 5 characters in play at once
• Characters may not attack on the turn they are played

Event cards

• One-off effects, playable during your main phase
• They go to the trash after resolving

Stage cards

• Lasting effects that stay in play
• Each player may have only one stage in play at a time

Trigger effects

• Every card in your main deck can have a trigger
• Triggers only activate when a card is revealed as life damage, not from your hand

The Don resource

Don works like mana, but with its own rules.

• During the Don phase you flip Don cards from your Don deck and place them in your cost area
• Normally you get 2 Don per turn; the player going first gets only 1 Don on their first turn

Playing cards

• To play a card, you rest Don in your cost area equal to the play cost
• Rested Don stay unavailable until the refresh phase

Assigning Don

• You can place active Don under characters or your leader for bonuses
• Currently: +1000 power per assigned Don
• This happens during your main phase

Don X and Don −X effects

• Don X: place X active Don under the card to activate an effect
  Example: Chopper with Don X1 requires 1 active Don underneath him

• Don −X: send X Don from your field back to the bottom of your Don deck
  Example: a Kaido promo with “activate main Don −2” sends 2 Don back to gain an effect (such as banish for that turn)

Setup and mulligan

1. Shuffle your 50-card deck and your 10-card Don deck
2. Place your leader and Don deck in their zones
3. Decide who goes first (rock-paper-scissors, for example)
4. Draw a starting hand of 5 cards
5. Mulligan: once per game you may shuffle your hand back and draw 5 new cards
6. Place X cards face down from the top of your deck into your life area, where X equals your leader's starting life

Turn structure

Every turn consists of five phases:

1. Refresh phase

• Set all rested cards upright again
• Don in the cost area becomes active again

2. Draw phase

• From turn 2 onwards you draw 1 card
• No hand limit
• If your deck runs out, you lose

3. Don phase

• Flip Don over and place them in your cost area

4. Main phase

• Play characters, events and stages
• Assign Don
• Declare attacks
• The order is free, as long as the rules are respected

5. End phase

• Your turn ends and it is your opponent's turn

Playing cards and assigning Don

• To play a character, you rest Don equal to the cost and place the character in the character area
• Characters may not attack on the turn they are played
• A maximum of 5 characters at once; for a sixth you first have to send one character to the trash

Don under a card gives lasting buffs (for example +1000 power per Don).
A common finisher: putting every Don under your leader for one huge attack once your opponent has no life left.

Battle mechanics: block, counter, damage

Attacks are declared one by one during the main phase.

1. Block step

• The defending player may rest one blocker to take the attack instead
• Blockers have to be active
• Only one blocker per attack

2. Counter step

• Only the defender may use counters
• Counter cards are played from the hand and go to the trash
• You may use several counters

Example
Luffy has 5000 power.
The defender uses 3000 counter power.
Result: 8000 power.

Important: the attacker cannot use counters here. If you want to attack harder, assign Don beforehand.

3. Damage step

• Compare the power of the attacker and the defender
• Attacker lower → the attack fails
• Attacker equal or higher → the attack succeeds

Consequences:

• Character loses → KO to the trash
• Leader loses → the top life card is revealed and added to the hand
• Only now can trigger effects activate

Triggers and life damage

On life damage you reveal the top card of your life area.
If it has a trigger, you may activate it.
If not, the card simply goes to your hand.

A strategic point: sometimes taking life is better than burning your whole hand on counters.

Winning the game

To win you have to:

1. Remove all of your opponent's life
2. Then land one more successful attack on the leader

Good Don management, the right timing when assigning Don and clever use of counters decide whether you land that final blow.

Practical tips and strategy

• Manage your Don strictly; Don −X effects are expensive
• Over-countering wrecks your hand
• Sometimes taking life is the better option
• Characters cannot attack on the turn they are played — plan ahead
• Always keep the 5-character limit in mind

Where to learn more

There is an official tutorial app for iOS and Android with starter decks and step-by-step explanations.
The official One Piece Card Game website also has the full English rulebook and an extensive Q&A for edge cases.

With this foundation you can build crews, test Don strategies and master your timing in battle.
Enjoy the game, and aim to become King of the Pirates.