Defeat all 12 court cards -- 4 Jacks, then 4 Queens, then 4 Kings -- to conquer the Necropolis. Each court card is immune to its own suit's power (numeric damage still counts against it).

Play one of the following to attack and trigger its suit, or Yield: no card played, no suit power, straight to covering whatever hits back.

• One card, any card.
• 2-4 cards of the same rank, totalling 10 or less.
• An Animal Companion plus one other card -- any card, at any value. This pairing ignores the 10 limit, so a Companion can ride along with your 10.
• Two Animal Companions together.

Your hand is your health, and it does not refill at the end of a turn. Cards leave your hand two ways:

• Playing them -- any card you attack with goes to the discard pile, whatever its suit.
• Covering damage -- cards you discard to survive a hit are gone too, unless you cover the hit exactly (see Perfect Guard below).

You never play cards out of the discard pile -- every play comes from your hand. The only ways to gain cards back are ♦ Diamonds and a Joker flip.

Card flow: Deck → Hand → Discard. ♥ Hearts is the only route back, and it returns cards to the deck, not your hand.

A power only fires if its suit differs from the court card's own.

• ♥ Hearts -- moves that many random cards from your discard pile to the bottom of the deck. Not into your hand, and you won't draw them again for a while -- it keeps the deck from running dry rather than helping you right now.
• ♦ Diamonds -- draws that many cards from the deck into your hand. The only routine way to refill, so this is usually your lifeline, not a bonus. Draws stop at your 8-card hand limit and the rest are forfeited.
• ♣ Clubs -- doubles your damage. Resolves first, so the other suits in the same play scale off the doubled number too.
• ♠ Spades -- shields you against that court card. Shield stacks and never wears off -- it lasts the whole fight, so two Spades plays against a King (20 attack) can leave it hitting you for almost nothing.

Every power is worth the total of the whole play, not the value of the card carrying the suit. This is the most important thing on this page and the easiest to miss: pair an Animal Companion (worth 1) with your biggest card and that Companion's suit fires at the combined value. A Companion of Diamonds played with an 8 draws 9 cards, not 1 -- and you never had to spend a big Diamond to do it.

Deal exactly enough damage to defeat a court card and it doesn't go to the discard -- it goes face-down on top of your deck, so it's the very next card you draw. It then fights for you, worth its own attack stat: a Jack is 10, a Queen 15, a King 20 -- far bigger than any number card in the deck, and it still triggers its suit at that value. A recruited King paired with an Animal Companion is the strongest play in the game.

Overkill just discards it like normal -- only an exact hit recruits it.

Whatever the court card hits back with (after your shield, if any) has to be covered by discarding cards from hand totalling at least that much. Coming up short doesn't hurt you -- the selection is just rejected so you can try again.

You can flip a Joker mid-attack. Staring at a hit your hand can't cover? Flipping a Joker right then discards your hand and deals you a fresh 8 -- and the attack is still waiting to be covered, now with a full hand. It's the best escape in the game, and you get two per run.

If your hand truly can't cover a hit even after discarding all of it, Last Stand saves you once per run: the blow is forgiven and you rally 4 fresh cards from the deck so you can actually fight on. After that, the next uncovered hit ends it.

Cover a hit exactly -- not a point over -- and your two highest-value cards held: they come straight back to your hand. Everything else you spent still goes to the discard.

So a 2-card exact match costs you nothing at all, while hitting the number with four cards still costs you the smaller two. Overpaying by even one point returns nothing. It's the defensive twin of an exact kill -- precision is rewarded on both sides of the turn.

• Covering damage only needs to reach the total, not match it. Discard the fewest cards you can spare -- extra cards left in hand matter more than landing on a clean number.
• Attack for the power you need, not just the biggest number. A small Diamond when your hand is thin beats a big off-suit card that doesn't do anything you actually need right now.
• Don't spend a big Diamond to refill. You don't need one: a Diamond Companion paired with your biggest card draws just as many, and you keep the damage. Save real Diamonds for damage, and never play one into a full hand -- draws stop at 8 and the rest are forfeited.
• Don't hoard your Jokers to the end. A Joker is worth most as an escape from a hit you can't cover, not as a tidy hand refresh. Two go unused in a lot of lost runs.
• Cover the number exactly when you can. Overpaying by a single point loses everything you spent; hitting it on the nose hands your two best cards back.