Beginner guide · Steam Demo
Card keywords: what stays, what disappears and what triggers
Understand Persistent, Linger, Temporary, Uses, Exhaust and Replenish before building a repeatable combo.
Demo build 23718635The short answer
Read the energy cost, action, trigger and every property separately. Persistent keeps a card after playing it; Linger keeps it at the end of the turn. Neither removes an energy cost, restores Uses or makes a Temporary card permanent.
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Cards explained in this guide
Read the card in four passes
- Check which deck the card belongs to and how much energy it costs right now.
- Read the immediate actions in order, including repeated damage actions.
- Read each conditional trigger: “If Fatal” needs this card’s damage to kill; “If you eat” needs an eating event.
- Read the properties that restrict keeping or replaying it. A good effect is useful only when its conditions are available.
The properties that most often break a plan
| Keyword | Meaning | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|
| Persistent | The card is not discarded when played. | Assuming the next play is free. |
| Linger | The card stays in hand at the end of the turn. | Confusing end-of-turn retention with staying after it is played. |
| Temporary | The card is destroyed when it leaves your hand. | Expecting to draw the same generated copy later. |
| Uses | A limited number of plays before the card is consumed. | Calling a Persistent card with three Uses infinite. |
| Exhaust | One play per combat or exploration segment. | Counting it as a repeatable part of the same segment. |
| Replenish | Draw another card when this card is drawn. | Treating it as an energy refund or a guarantee of a useful next card. |
| Unplayable | The card cannot be cast. | Trying to click a passive instead of using its trigger. |
| Battery | The card needs battery to function. | Treating a zero-energy card as an unlimited resource. |
| Camp | The card needs a room with available space. | Planning a facility in a room that has no suitable space. |
Persistent plus Uses is still a finite resource
Availability, affordability and useful targets are separate checks. A card can remain in hand while you have no energy to play it, or while no enemy is low enough to trigger the refund.
Three plays, not an endless meal
Toasty Kebab0 energy · Combat
- Heal 5
Food · Uses 3 · Persistent
The base card is Persistent and has 3 Uses. Its 5 healing per play gives up to 15 printed healing across those uses, before modifiers and missing-health limits. Track the remaining uses after every bite.
Full effects, properties & growth →
A repeatable attack with a condition
Thirsty Mace2 energy · Combat
- Deal 8 damage
- On a fatal hit: Gain 2 energy
Persistent
Persistent keeps it available after a play. It still costs 2 energy; the 2-energy return only happens when its hit is fatal. A surviving enemy breaks that refund sequence.
Full effects, properties & growth →Draw and energy solve different problems
Well Rested provides two draws and 1 energy at base, but it is Temporary. Minor Growth increases damage and draws a card, but costs 1 energy and Exhausts. Those cards cannot be counted as interchangeable free draws.
Fever is Unplayable and has Replenish. Its value comes from the damage-growth trigger; do not budget an action to cast it. If a chain stops, check whether the trigger is active, whether a card actually grew, and whether you can afford the next action.
Re-read the physical copy after an upgrade
Training can give one copy a different cost, hit sequence or fatal trigger from another card with the same name. Plan from the current card, then use the library to understand its base mechanics.
In the deck builder, keep differently upgraded copies as separate entries. That makes the sequence understandable when you share a build or submit a run.