Activations

Activation are interactions that are cost-based.

⚡ Activation Mechanics

Document Type: Core Gameplay Reference Version: 1.0 Last Updated: October 23, 2025

Overview

Activations are cost-based interactions that create dynamic, escalating gameplay experiences similar to Planeswalkers in MTG. Cards with Activation abilities offer multiple strategic options at different resource investment levels, allowing players to scale their impact based on board state and available resources.

What Are Activations?

Activations are abilities that:

  • Require resource payment to activate (cannot activate without paying cost)

  • Offer multiple tiers of effects at different costs

  • Can be used once per turn (unless stated otherwise)

  • Can combine Keywords, Auras, and Triggers in their effects

  • Provide strategic choice between efficiency and power

  • Exist across all card types (Units, Structures, Commanders, Resources, Actions)

Key Distinction: Unlike triggered abilities (which activate automatically when conditions are met), Activations are player-controlled decisions that require spending resources from your pool.

Activations Across Card Classes

Activations are universal and appear across all card types and the 6-Box Framework:

Card Class
Activation Usage
Common Patterns

Combat

Damage scaling, attack buffs

Low: +1 DMG → High: Area damage

Defense

Shield generation, damage prevention

Low: Shield 2 → High: Army-wide protection

Support

Buffs, healing, stat boosts

Low: Single target → High: All allies

Control

Disruption, lockdown, disable

Low: Stun 1 → High: Zone disable

Resource

Generation boosts, network scaling

Low: +1 resource → High: Double output

Utility

Movement, draw, special abilities

Low: Draw 1 → High: Draw 3 + effect

Cross-Type Examples:

Unit (Combat Class):
⚡ [3 Energy]: Gain Strike and +2 DMG

Structure (Support Class):
⚡ [4 Signal]: All linked allies gain +1/+1

Commander (Multiple Classes):
⚡ [5 Matter]: Deploy a 4/4 token (Combat/Resource)

Resource (Resource Class):
⚡ [3 Energy]: Generate +2 Energy this turn

Action (Utility Class):
⚡ [2 Signal]: Target unit gains Flying until end of turn

Design Principle: Any card type can have Activations. The card's base type determines where it lives on the grid, but its Activation abilities can span multiple functional classes.

Activation Cost Structure

Standard Activation Tiers

Most Activation cards feature 3 cost tiers offering escalating power:

Tier
Typical Cost Range
Power Level
Strategic Use

Low

2-3 resources

Efficient, consistent

Early game, value plays

Mid

4-6 resources

Moderate impact

Mid-game tempo swings

High

7-10+ resources

Game-changing

Late game finishers

Design Philosophy:

  • Low tier = Always accessible, never a dead card

  • Mid tier = Competitive choice vs. deploying new cards

  • High tier = Reward for resource dominance

Activation Syntax

Card Template Format

[CARD NAME]
Cost: X [Resource Type]
Type: [Unit/Structure/Commander/Action]
HP: X | DMG: X (if applicable)

[Base stats and keywords]

ACTIVATIONS:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚡ [2 Energy]: [Effect 1]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚡ [5 Energy]: [Effect 2]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚡ [9 Energy]: [Effect 3]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Syntax Rules:

  • Use ⚡ symbol to denote Activation

  • List costs in ascending order (cheapest first)

  • Separate tiers with divider lines for readability

  • Include resource type in brackets: [X Energy], [X Signal], etc.

  • Each tier stands independently (choosing one doesn't lock out others next turn)

Example Activation Cards

Example 1: Unit with Combat Activations

Plasma Berserker
Cost: 4 Energy
Type: Unit - Infantry
HP: 6 | DMG: 3
Keywords: Rush

ACTIVATIONS:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚡ [2 Energy]: Gain Strike this turn
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚡ [4 Energy]: Gain +2 DMG and Pierce
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚡ [8 Energy]: Gain Frenzy. On Hit: Apply Burning 3 to all adjacent enemies
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Strategic Breakdown:

  • 2 Energy: Cheap combat trick for reliable trades

  • 4 Energy: Strong mid-game pressure option

  • 8 Energy: Board-wipe potential with area damage

Example 2: Structure with Support Activations

Quantum Nexus
Cost: 5 Signal
Type: Structure
HP: 8
Keywords: Immobile, Link 3

ACTIVATIONS:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚡ [3 Signal]: All linked allies gain +1/+1 until end of turn
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚡ [6 Signal]: All linked allies gain Shield 2 and "On Attack: Draw 1 card"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚡ [10 Signal]: All linked allies gain Adaptive 3. Draw 2 cards.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Strategic Breakdown:

  • 3 Signal: Flexible stat boost for aggressive plays

  • 6 Signal: Defensive stance with card advantage engine

  • 10 Signal: Full army enhancement for decisive push

Example 3: Commander with Mixed Activations

Admiral Voss - Commander (Vehicle)
Cost: 7 Energy
HP: 18 | DMG: 4
Links: 2 | Ports: 2 (3 Sockets each)
Keywords: Command Aura (+1/+1 to allied Vehicles)

ACTIVATIONS:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚡ [2 Energy]: Target allied Vehicle gains Rush this turn
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚡ [5 Energy]: Deploy a 3/3 Scout Drone token with Flying
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚡ [9 Energy]: All allied Vehicles gain +2/+2 and Strike. On Hit: Apply Jammed to target.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Strategic Breakdown:

  • 2 Energy: Enable immediate pressure from newly deployed units

  • 5 Energy: Generate board presence and aerial advantage

  • 9 Energy: Army-wide combat boost with control elements

Activation Rules & Timing

When Can You Activate?

Primary Window: Activation Phase (Phase 4)

  • This is the default phase for using Activations

  • After Movement and Range phases, before Combat

  • Optimal timing for buffing units before attacks

Secondary Windows (Card-Specific): Some cards may specify alternative timing:

  • "Activate only during Combat Phase"

  • "Activate only at turn start"

  • "Activate any time" (instant-speed)

Activation Frequency

Default Rule: Once per turn per card

Each Activation card can use one of its Activation tiers per turn.

Example:

Turn 1: Use [2 Energy] tier
Turn 2: Can use ANY tier again (2, 4, or 8)
Turn 3: Can use ANY tier again

Exception Keywords:

  • Multicast X: Can activate up to X times per turn

  • Cooldown X: Must wait X turns between activations

  • Sacrifice: One-time use, destroy card after activation

Resource Payment

Payment Rules:

  1. Resources must be available in your resource pool

  2. Resources are spent immediately when activated

  3. You cannot partially pay for an activation

  4. You can use resources from any source (cores, links, internal cores)

Example Resource Pool:

Your pool: 7 Energy, 3 Signal

Plasma Berserker Activations:
✅ Can use: [2 Energy] tier
✅ Can use: [4 Energy] tier
❌ Cannot use: [8 Energy] tier (insufficient resources)

Multiple Activations in One Turn

Scenario: You control 3 cards with Activations

Rule: Each card can activate once, but you can activate multiple different cards in the same turn if you have sufficient resources.

Example:

Your board:
- Plasma Berserker (Activations: 2/4/8 Energy)
- Quantum Nexus (Activations: 3/6/10 Signal)
- Shield Generator (Activations: 2/5/7 Energy)

Your pool: 10 Energy, 6 Signal

Valid same-turn sequence:
1. Plasma Berserker [4 Energy] → Pool: 6 Energy, 6 Signal
2. Quantum Nexus [6 Signal] → Pool: 6 Energy, 0 Signal
3. Shield Generator [5 Energy] → Pool: 1 Energy, 0 Signal

Total: 3 activations across 3 different cards ✅

Activation Design Principles

1. Flexibility Over Power

Activations prioritize player choice and board adaptability

Good Design:

⚡ [2 Energy]: Heal 3 HP
⚡ [5 Energy]: Heal 6 HP to target and 3 HP to all adjacent allies
⚡ [9 Energy]: Full heal all allies. Gain Shield 3.

Scales from single-target to army-wide

Bad Design:

⚡ [2 Energy]: Heal 3 HP
⚡ [5 Energy]: Heal 6 HP
⚡ [9 Energy]: Heal 9 HP

Just linear scaling, no strategic differentiation

2. Keywords + Auras + Triggers Combination

Activations should combine mechanics for rich gameplay

Example Breakdown:

⚡ [8 Energy]: Gain Frenzy. On Hit: Apply Burning 3 to all adjacent enemies
                  │         │        │
            KEYWORD    TRIGGER    AURA

Mechanics Synergy:

  • Frenzy (Keyword) = Attack all adjacent enemies

  • On Hit (Trigger) = Effect fires after damage dealt

  • Burning 3 (Aura) = Condition applied to hit targets

3. Low Tier Always Useful

The cheapest activation should never feel like a waste

Design Goal: Even when you're resource-starved, the low-tier activation provides value

Example (Unit with Rush):

⚡ [2 Energy]: Gain Strike this turn

Always helps in combat, even on curve

Avoid:

⚡ [2 Energy]: Gain +1 HP

Weak impact, feels bad to use

4. High Tier Game-Ending

The most expensive activation should justify the cost with dramatic impact

Example:

⚡ [10 Signal]: All linked allies gain Adaptive 3. Draw 2 cards.

Army enhancement + card advantage = game-swinging

Avoid:

⚡ [10 Signal]: Gain +3/+3

Expensive but underwhelming

Activation vs. Other Mechanics

Activation vs. Triggered Abilities

Feature
Activation
Triggered Ability

Player Control

✅ Player chooses when

❌ Automatic on condition

Resource Cost

✅ Always required

❌ Free (no cost)

Flexibility

✅ Choose which tier

❌ Fixed effect

Frequency

Once per turn (default)

Every time condition met

Example Comparison:

ACTIVATION:
⚡ [4 Energy]: Deal 3 DMG to target
(You choose when and what to target)

TRIGGERED ABILITY:
On Attack: Deal 1 DMG to target
(Fires automatically every attack)

Activation vs. Keywords

Feature
Activation
Keyword

Always On

❌ Requires activation

✅ Passive or condition-based

Scalable

✅ Multiple tiers

❌ Fixed value

Resource Hungry

✅ Costs resources

❌ Typically free

Example:

Unit with BOTH:
Keywords: Rush, Strike
Activations: 
⚡ [3 Energy]: Gain Pierce

Rush/Strike = Always available
Pierce = Only when you pay 3 Energy

Strategic Depth: When to Activate

Early Game (Turns 1-3)

Resource Pool: 2-5 total Best Activations: Low-tier (2-3 cost) Strategy: Use cheap activations to establish board control

Mid Game (Turns 4-7)

Resource Pool: 6-10 total Best Activations: Mid-tier (4-6 cost) Strategy: Balance activations with deploying new threats

Late Game (Turns 8+)

Resource Pool: 10+ total Best Activations: High-tier (7-10+ cost) Strategy: Use high-tier activations for game-ending plays

Common Activation Patterns by Type

Combat Activations (Units)

Low:  Combat trick (Strike, +1 DMG)
Mid:  Damage boost (+2-3 DMG, Pierce)
High: Area damage (Frenzy, Splash, Burning)

Support Activations (Structures)

Low:  Single ally buff (+1/+1)
Mid:  Area buff (all linked allies)
High: Army-wide enhancement + card draw

Control Activations (Signal-based)

Low:  Disrupt single target (Stun, Slow)
Mid:  Area control (Jam multiple targets)
High: Full lockdown (disable zone, draw advantage)

Resource Activations (Cores)

Low:  Generate +1-2 extra resources
Mid:  Boost linked network output
High: Double generation, grant buffs to network

Design Constraints & Balance

Activation Count per Card: 3 Maximum

Why: Prevents choice paralysis and keeps cards readable

Cost Gaps: 2-3 resource minimum

Why: Ensures meaningful distinction between tiers

Good:

2 → 5 → 9 (gaps of 3 and 4)

Bad:

2 → 3 → 4 (too incremental)

Faction Resource Alignment

Activations should use the card's primary resource type

Energy Unit → Energy Activations
Signal Structure → Signal Activations

Exception: Multi-resource cards (Rare+ only)

Changelog

Version 1.0 - October 23, 2025

Initial Document Creation:

  • ✅ Defined Activation mechanics fundamentals

  • ✅ Established 3-tier cost structure

  • ✅ Created syntax and formatting standards

  • ✅ Provided design principles and constraints

  • ✅ Distinguished Activations from Triggers and Keywords

  • ✅ Added strategic timing guidance

  • ✅ Included comprehensive examples across card types

  • ✅ Clarified activation requirements across all card classes

Next Steps:

  • Playtest validation of cost curves

  • Faction-specific Activation patterns

  • Digital implementation specifications

  • Activation animation/visual design

Document Status: ✅ CANONICAL REFERENCE GUIDE Purpose: Define player-controlled resource-based abilities Relationship: Activations work alongside Keywords, Triggers, and Auras Web-searchable: Yes - players can reference Activation rules

Last updated: October 23, 2025

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