Roster Building & Game Setup

PRE-GAME SETUP SEQUENCE

Complete these steps in order before Round 1 begins:

Build Terrain — Both players collaborate to place terrain on the board. Aim for 5–8 terrain pieces on a 30"×30" board. Terrain should not be placed within deployment zones (within 8" of either short edge) unless both players agree.
Reveal Rosters — Both players simultaneously reveal their rosters (models, Threat values, declared Affiliation, Card 2 unlock purchases).
Determine First Player — Both players roll D20. Higher roll chooses: take initiative (activate first in Round 1) OR choose deployment side. The other player receives the unchosen option. Re-roll ties.
Draw Location Card — Draw one Location card. This sets deployment zones and terrain modification rules for the game.
Draw Mission Cards — Draw one Opening Mission (Round 1), one Escalation Mission (Round 2), and one Finale Mission (Rounds 3–4). All cards are revealed simultaneously.
Draw Condition Card — Draw one Condition card. This applies for the entire game.
Place Objectives — Following the drawn Mission card instructions, place objective tokens on the board. The player who chose deployment side places the first objective (if placement is alternating).
Deploy Models — Players alternate placing one model at a time, starting with the player who has initiative. All models must be placed within their deployment zone (within 8" of their short edge). Models may not be placed in base contact with the enemy deployment zone.
Draw Starting Hands — Each player draws cards up to the Round 1 hand limit (3 cards).
Begin Round 1.

ROUND STRUCTURE & PHASE SEQUENCE

Phase Order (Per Round)

Power Phase (simultaneous)
Generate Order Pool (model count + bonus activations).
Generate BK (flat escalation + per-model + affiliation bonuses + character passives).
Draw up to hand limit (R1: 3 / R2: 4 / R3: 5 / R4: 6).
Resolve round-start passives.
Ascension Phase (simultaneous)
Resolve SK Tax payments (each ascending model pays their tier's SK Tax — T1: 1 SK, T2: 2 SK, T3: 3 SK). Cannot pay → descend one Tier.
Declare voluntary Ascensions (one tier per model per Ascension Phase). Cost: 1 SK upfront per Ascension. Saiyan Accelerant and Legendary Eruption bypass this cost.
Resolve HP Upshift (if ascending to a tier with higher HP max, recover the difference).
Activation Phase (alternating)

Players alternate activating models from the Order Pool.
Each model gets 2 actions per activation.
Dazed models remain in the Order Pool but their activation is skipped.
When both players pass consecutively, the Activation Phase ends.
Fallen Order: When a model is KO'd before its activation this round, its remaining order token is not lost. Any friendly model may use it as a bonus activation, but no model may activate more than 2 times total per round. The bonus activation triggers Focus Tax (2 BK) as normal for a second activation.

Cleanup Phase
Score objectives (tally Glory based on OC within ZOC of each objective).
Resolve end-of-round effects (discard Persistent cards, clear Exhausted, clear Overloaded, clear Staggered, clear "until end of round" effects).
Enforce hand limit — if hand exceeds the current round's limit (R1: 3 / R2: 4 / R3: 5 / R4: 6), discard cards of your choice until you reach the limit.
Resolve Regeneration (Namekian, Base Tier only — recover 1 HP).
Dazed models return at half starting HP (rounded up).
"Once per round" effects reset.

Card Deck Mechanics

Deck Construction: 20-card deck (10 Generic + 6 Character + 4 Affiliation).
Draw Pile Empty: If the draw pile is empty when you need to draw a card, shuffle the discard pile and create a new draw pile. Continue drawing.
No Reshuffle Mid-Draw: If you run out of cards mid-draw, you only draw what remains in the new pile that round.

DBZ: Prime Time — Card Pool Reference

Purpose: Complete canonical listing of all cards in the game. Organized by category.

Source of truth: DBZ_PrimeTime_CardCompendium.docx.

Do not add card effects to character profile documents — reference this file instead.

Last updated: 2026-03-22 (Cell Games affiliation cards added)

Deck Construction Summary

10 Generic (fixed pool, all players draw from the same list)
6 Character (choose any combination from character card pools of models in your roster — no per-character limit; all 6 may come from the same character if desired)
4 Affiliation (must have 51%+ Threat in that affiliation; choose from the affiliation pool matching your chosen affiliation)
Total: 20 cards per deck
Hand limit by round: R1=3 / R2=4 / R3=5 / R4=6

Character card eligibility: You may only include character cards for models actually in your roster. You cannot take cards for a character you are not fielding.

Joint Attack Reference Cards

Joint Attack cards are physical reference cards present at the table for the full game — they are not part of the 20-card deck and are never drawn from hand. A Joint Attack is always available as long as both named partners are non-Dazed and meet the stated positioning requirement. Each fires at most once per round. Having a Joint Attack card at the table requires both named partners to be included in your roster.

Joint Attack	Partners	Cost	Range
Back to Back	Goku + Krillin	1 BK	Both within 4"
Special Beam Cover	Piccolo (Z-Fighter) + Gohan (Kid or Adult)	1 BK	Piccolo within 6" of Gohan
Purple Spiral Flash	Burter + Jeice	2 BK	Both within 6"

Affiliation ruling: If a roster qualifies for multiple affiliation pools (e.g., a Frieza Force roster including Ginyu members qualifies for both Frieza Force and Ginyu Force), the player declares ONE affiliation at roster construction and uses only that pool. Affiliation cards are locked to the declared affiliation. Character cards follow the character — a character may use their own character cards regardless of which affiliation was declared, as long as no other condition on that card disqualifies them.

Card Types

Type	Behavior
Burst	Discard after use
Burst–Once Per Game (OPG)	Remove from game after use
Persistent	Stays in play until condition met, then discarded
Z-Reaction	Played in response to opponent action
Legacy	Permanent. Placed beside Human model's profile. Never returns to deck.

Card Timing — Priority Windows

Cards are played into specific timing windows. Playing outside a legal window is not permitted.

Window	When	Who Plays
Open	Any point during a round, either player's turn	Either player
Activation Start	Before any actions declared for that activation	Active player first, then reactive may respond
Z-Reaction Window	After attack declared, before dice rolled	Defending player only (unless card states otherwise)
On Hit / On Damage	After attack roll resolves and hit confirmed	Either player per card text
Phase Start	At the stated phase, before that phase's steps resolve	Either player per card text

Priority Order: Active Player's cards resolve first, then Reactive Player's. When both players play into the same window simultaneously: last-in-first-out (most recently played resolves first).

Limit: One card per timing window per player. Z-Reaction cards count as the player's Z-Reaction for that attack — they cannot also Clash or Z-Evade in the same window.

Remove From Game: Some cards specify removal from game after use. These cannot be retrieved by any means, including hand cycling.