Quick Start Rules

Ready for your first game of Disney Lorcana? These Quick Start Rules will get you going.

You can find the official Quick Start Rules on the official website in pdf format here, with some great quick start videos! We've replicated the content here, and where we thought it appropriate, we added our own notes, based on our own insights and experience. (No, we don't have insider knowledge - we're just players like you).

As an Illumineer in the wondrous realm of Lorcana, you'll wield magical ink to summon new versions of Disney characters, items and locations which are called glimmers. These glimmers - some familiar, some fantastic - will help you as you race accross Lorcana to find and collect missing pieces of lore. Endless quests await!

What Kind of Game is This?

The Disney Lorcana Trading Card Game is a strategy card game where each player makes their own deck before the game starts, and the decks aren't mixed together. You can play with one of the available ready-to-play decks, make changes to one of those decks, or build a deck that's entirely your own!

In a game like this, cards can allow you to do things that aren't normally a part of every turn. If a card's text ever contradicts the game rules, follow what the card says.

About the Game

In this game, you race to locate pieces of lore scattered across Lorcana and collect them for safekeeping. Summon glimmers of Disney characters, items and locations along the way to help with quests, hinder your opponents, and challenge opposing characters. With the right strategy and a bit of luck, you can preserve your collected lore against future threats!

Learn to Play

There are several ways to learn to play! The best — and most fun — way to learn is to have a friend teach you. You can also ask about events at a game store near you and download the Disney Lorcana Trading Card Game Companion app for an interactive tutorial.­

Winning

Your goal is to be the first player to gain 20 or more lore. Some card abilities give you lore, but the most common way to gain it is by playing characters and sending them on quests.

Your Disney Lorcana TCG Deck can have a mix of four types of cards: characters, items, actions, and locations.

Each player needs their own deck. You'll also need damage counters and a way to track how much lore you have. Both come with your starter deck.

1. Determine the first player by flipping a coin, rolling a die, or so on.
2. Shuffle your deck.
3. Set your lore tracker to 0.
4. Draw 7 cards for your starting hand. You can look at the cards in your hand, but not anyone else's hand!
5. Alter your starting hand if you choose (see below). Skip this step in your very first game.

Altering your starting hand

Before the game begins, each player can alter their starting hand one time, beginning with the first player. (Usually, a player does this if they don't have very many cards with inkwell icons on them or if too many of their cards have a high cost). To do this, put any number of cards from your hand on the bottom of your deck without revealing them, then draw cards until your hand has 7 cards again. Finally, reshuffle your deck.

A turn is divided into two parts. Each player takes their whole turn before passing the turn to the next player.

On your turn, take these steps in order.

What are Ready and Exerted Cards?

Some game rules and card effects require you to exert a card in play. To exert a card, turn it sideways.

Once a card is exerted, you can't exert it again until it's been readied by a game rule or card effect. To ready a card, simply turn it back upright. Remember to ready all your exerted cards at the beginning of your turn.

Your Inkwell

Your inkwell is where you'll put your ink cards, facedown. You'll use the cards in your inkwell to pay costs, such as for cards you play from your hand.

You may put a card from your hand into your inkwell once each turn. The card you choose must have the inkwell icon around its cost in the upper left corner. The more ink cards you have, the more you'll be able to do.

To put a card in your inkwell, show the card to your opponents and then put it facedown into your inkwell as ink. Every card in your inkwell represents 1 ink, no matter what is on the front. Choose wisely! Cards put into your inkwell stay there for the rest of the game. Once you put a card in your inkwell, nothing on the fronts matters - including its cost and ink type. It's simply ink.

Playing a card

Playing a card just means taking it from your hand and putting it faceup on the table. Each card has an ink cost in a hexagon in the upper left corner. To play the card, you must exert that many cards in your inkwell.

When you play a character card, put it on the table above your inkwell. Characters enter play in the ready position, but you can't do anything with them until your next turn. You need to wait for their ink to dry!

When you play an item card or location card, put it on the table above your inkwell. Unlike characters, you can use items and locations right away.

When you play an action card, do what the card tells you to do, then put the card into your discard pile. Always put cards into your discard pile face up so everyone can see them.

Songs are a kind of action card, but there is a special rule that gives you another way to pay for them. Each song has "(A character with cost X or more can exert to sign this song for free.)" If you have a character with the listed cost or higher, you can exert that character to play the song card instead of exerting cards in your inkwell to do it! Using this approach still counts as playing the card. Rules for when you can exert a character still apply, of course, so characters can't sing songs the same turn they come into play.

Shift

You can play a Floodborn character using their Shift ability if you have a character with the same name in play. Pay the Shift cost instead of their ink cost and cover the original card with the new one. (you could play Pluto - Determined Defender on top of a Pluto card, for example.)

The shifted character has their own rules but keeps any damages or effects that were on the original. If the original was exerted, so is the shifted one. If the original was able to challenge, quest, or use abilities, though, the shifted character can do those things as soon as they come into play!

When a shifted character leaves play, all the cards in their stack go with them.

Questing

To quest with one of your characters, exert them and gain lore equal to their Lore value. Remember, you can't quest with a character the same turn you play them.

Challenging

Questing is how you win the game, but sometimes you need to slow your opponents down. This is where challenging comes in. First, exert one of your characters to send them into the challenge. Then choose an opponent's exerted character to challenge. You can't challenge a ready character! Both characters in a challenge deal damage. Look at each character's Strength and put that many damage counters on the other character.

Damage

A character is banished when they have damage counters on them that reach or exceed their Willpower. Put the character card into its player's discard pile.

Moving Damage

Into the Inklands introduced the ability to move damage counters from one character or location to another. Moving damage doesn't count as "dealing damage" or "damaging" the character or location receiving the damage counters. Effects that modify the amount of damage dealt don't apply to damage being moved.

Example: Challenge

Patch - Intimidating Pup is challenging Magic Broom - Dancing Duster.

Patch has 3 (Strength) and Magic Broom has 3 (Strength). At the same time, Patch deals 3 damage to Magic Broom, which gets 3 damage counters. Magic Broom deals 3 damage to Patch, who gets 3 damage counters.

With only 3 (Willpower), Magic Broom is in trouble. Because its damage is equal or greater than its Willpower, it is banished and goes to its player's discard pile. Patch wins the challenge! He needs to watch out, though. His own Willpower is 4, so if he takes 1 more damage later, he'll be banished too.

Location abilities

Some locations have abilities that give you benefits, often based on characters being at the location. These abilities can be used the same turn as the location comes into play.

Moving Characters to Locations

During your turn, you can move one of your characters to one of your locations by paying the location's move cost. Your characters can only move to your locations.

A character can move to a location the same turn either one is played. It doesn't matter if the character is being moved is exerted or ready. There's no limit to the number of characters who can be at a location at a time.

A character can't move from a location except to move to another location. You can do this by paying the other location's move cost.

Location Challenges & Damage

On their turn, opposing characters may challenge a location the same way they'd challenge an exerted character. A character's Challenger ability applies when challenging locations. When a location is challenged, it takes damage equal to the challenging character's Strength. It doesn't deal damage of its own in the challenge, however.

Locations can also take damage from some actions and abilities. Locations can't be chosen for actions and abilities unless that text specifies a location can be chosen.

When a location has damage equal to or greater than its Willpower, it's banished and you put that card in your discard pile.

Characters who are at a location when it's banished simply find themselves abroad again. They're fine; they're just no longer at a location.

Gaining Lore with Locations

At the start of your turn, gain lore equal to the Lore value on each of the locations you have in play. Note that this is not questing, which only characters can do.

Parts of a Location Card

Using Abilities

Many items and characters have abilities you can use during your turn (and only during your turn). These normally affect other cards in play. Cards in a player's deck, discard, hand, or inkwell aren't "in play," so they aren't affected by other cards unless the card says otherwise.

A card ability that has a cost lists it before the effect. The cost might include an exert cost, an ink cost, text that explains the cost, or a combination of any of these. You must pay every part of an ability's cost in order to play the ability.

Remember, you can't use the abilities of a character you played this turn.

Example: Heart of Te Fiti has the ability Create Life, which reads, "Exert, 2 ink - Put the top card of your deck into your inkwell facedown and exerted." On your turn you may use this ability by exerting the card and paying 2 ink (by exerting 2 cards in your inkwell). Because the Heart is an item, you can even use its ability the same turn you played the card!

The first player to reach 20 lore or more wins. If your deck runs out of cards, you lose the next time you would have to draw a card.

This is a fun 2-player game, but there's nothing stopping you from playing games of 3 or more players!

The game rules remain the same except that at the end of a player's turn, the player to their left takes the next turn.

Whenever an ability requires more than one player to do something at the same time, start with the player whose turn it is, then proceed to the left until each affected player has done their action.

Making your own deck is part of the fun! You get to choose which characters you want, which abilities you include, and the strategies you want to employ.

There are two ways to approach building a deck. The easiest is to switch out cards in an existing deck, like one of the ready-to-play starter decks. You can also build a new deck from scratch using the cards in your collection. This method is more work, but it can be a lot of fun!

Each Disney Lorcana TCG deck must follow these rules:

• Your deck must have at least 60 cards in it.
• Your deck can't contain more than 4 copies of any single card.
  • Example: You can’t have more than 4 copies of Pegasus – Gift for Hercules in your deck. Different versions of a character count as different cards, so having 4 copies of Pegasus – Gift for Hercules in your deck doesn’t keep you from adding up to 4 copies of Pegasus – Flying Steed!
• Your deck can only contains cards from 1 or 2 inks.

Be sure to check out disneylorcana.com for videos with deckbuilding and strategy tips.

Beginning Phase

1. READY - Ready all your cards.
2. SET - Start of turn effects happen.
3. DRAW - Draw a card. (Skip this on the first turn.)

Main Phase

Choose as many as you like (except as noted), in any order:

• Once a turn, add a card to your inkwell.
• Play a card.
• Use an item ability.
• Use a character ability that doesn't require exert.
• Use a location ability.
• With a character that was in play during the Set step:
  • Quest - OR
  • Challenge a location or an exerted character -OR
  • Use an ability that requires exert.