The One Piece Card Game is a fast-paced and strategic TCG where you build a crew, manage a unique resource called Don , and battle to drain your opponent's health until you can deliver a final decisive blow. This guide explains the core rules, turn order, and battle mechanics so you can build and play decks with confidence.

Quick Overview: Purpose and Core Concepts

Your goal is simple: reduce your opponent's leader's health to zero and then deliver one final attack to win. You do this by attacking with your leader and characters, managing Don to play cards and boost attacks, and cleverly using triggers, counters, and stage effects to turn battles in your favor.

Game components

Main deck

• 50 cards
• Each card must share at least one suit with your leader
• Maximum four copies of a card with the same card number

Don deck

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

Leader card

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

Life area

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

Character area, stage area, trash

• Standard zones for characters in the game, permanent stage cards, and discard cards

Card types

Character cards

• Your units to attack and block
• Have a play cost (top left) and power (top right)
• Maximum 5 characters in the game at the same time
• Characters may not attack on the turn they are played

Event cards

• One-time effects, playable during your main phase
• Go to trash after resolution

Stage cards

• Lasting effects that remain in play
• Only one stage can be in play at a time per player

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 turn over Don cards from your Don deck and place them in your cost area
• Normally you get 2 Don per turn; the player who starts only gets 1 Don in his first turn

Playing cards

• To play a card, equip Don in your cost area for the value of its play cost
• Rested Don will remain unavailable until the refresh phase

Assign Don

• You can place active Don under characters or your leader for bonuses
• Currently: +1000 power per allocated 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 below 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 back 2 Don to get an effect (like 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 starts (for example, rock-paper-scissors)
4. Draw a starting hand of 5 cards
5. Mulligan : Once per game you may shuffle your hand and draw 5 cards again
6. Place X cards from the top of your deck face down into your life area, where X is equal to your leader's starting life

Turn structure

Each turn consists of five phases:

1. Refresh phase

-Put all the rest cards straight
-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 is empty, you lose

3. Don phase

-Turn Don over and put them in your cost area

4. Main phase

-Play characters, events, and stages
-Assign Don
-Declare attacks
-Order is free, as long as rules are respected

5. End phase

-Turn ends, opponent's turn

Playing Cards and Assigning Don

• To play a character, equip Don at the cost and place the character in the character area
• Characters may not attack on the turn they are played
• Maximum 5 characters at a time; for a sixth you must first send one character to the trash

Don under a card gives permanent buffs (for example +1000 power per Don).
A common finishing move: putting all Don under your leader for one massive attack when your opponent is out of life.

Combat mechanics: Block, Counter, Damage

Attacks are declared one by one during the main phase.

1. Block step

• The defensive player may rest one blocker to take over the offense
• Blockers must be active
• Only one blocker per attack

2. Counter step

• Only the defender is allowed to use counters
• Counter cards are played from the hand and go to the trash
• You can use multiple counters

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

Important: The attacker can't use counters here. If you want a stronger attack, assign Don beforehand.

3. Damage step

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

Implications:

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

Triggers and Life Damage

When you take life damage, reveal the top card of your life area.
If this has a trigger, you can activate it.
If not, the card simply goes into your hand.

Strategic point: sometimes taking life is better than burning your entire hand on counters.

Winning the Game

To win you must:

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

Good Don management, correct timing of Don assignment and clever counter-use will determine whether you land that final blow.

Practical Tips and Strategy

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

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 features the full English rulebook and an extensive Q&A for edge cases.

This base will allow you to build crews, test Don strategies, and master timing in battles.
Enjoy the game, and strive to become King of the Pirates .