Winning the Spirit War
The last one standing, beating all other players, is the winner of the Spirit War and shall be crowned Spirit King.

Introduction to the Spirit War decks

• Preparation Deck consists of Spirit cards and Spell cards.
  
  • Spirit cards are what players summon into play during an attack. They are essentially a player's lifeline as well.
  • Spell cards are used during a battle in the Support card phase to aid a player's Spirit and potentially turn the tide. Only 1 Spell card can be used per battle.
  • Discarded, lost, or used cards from the Preparation Deck are sent to the Abyss discard pile.
  • The Preparation Deck will not be replenished; when exhausted, the action of drawing Preparation cards will cease entirely.
• Encounter Deck consists of Attack cards, Fortune cards, and Disaster cards
  
  • Attack cards dictate who a player must attack.
  • Fortune cards reward the player.
  • Disaster cards deal an unfortunate setback to the player.
  • Cards drawn and resolved from the Encounter Deck are sent to the History discard pile. Shuffle History and replenish when the Encounter deck has been exhausted.

Setting up

• Deal 5 cards faced down from the Preparation Deck to each player.
• All players must check their cards. Those without at least 1 Spirit card in hand shall reveal all their cards for proof before discarding and drawing another 5 cards from the Preparation Deck. Repeat this step until everyone has at least 1 Spirit card in hand.
• Shuffle the discarded cards in step 2, back into the Preparation Deck and lay it face down.
• Owner of the game shall take the very first turn, thereafter the prevailing Spirit King shall have the honours in the next game.

Your turn

• Draw 1 Preparation card without revealing it and put it into your hand.
• Draw 1 Encounter card, reveal it and follow its instructions immediately.
• Resolve the Encounter card (i.e. Attack, Disaster, or Fortune) and your current turn ends.
• The next player in a clockwise direction will take their turn.
• You win the game if you Attack the last opposing player with no Spirit cards to summon.

Attack Encounter

• Skip the Attack Encounter if you do not have a Spirit card to summon, otherwise start with step 2.
  
  • If you Attack a player with no Spirit cards, you win the battle immediately but you will still need to summon a Spirit as proof before proceeding with Step 8.
• Target the player indicated by the Attack card and engage in battle.
  
  • In the case where more than 1 player can be targeted, you may choose whom you want to Attack.
• To battle, you and your opponent shall summon 1 Spirit card face down.
• When ready, reveal both Spirits involved in the battle and proceed to the Support card phase.
• Support card phase
  
  • You and your opponent may choose to use 1 Spell or Spirit card faced down as a Support card. Typically, the losing side should decide whether to use a Support card first as it serves as a defensive response in battle.
  • In the case of an initial draw, the decision to use a Support card or not shall be decided mutually between you and your opponent.
  • It is possible to use a Support card while your opponent chooses not to, or vice versa.
  • Once you and your opponent are in agreement, reveal the Support cards.
• Resolve the Support cards according to the Support card priority order and decide the outcome of the battle.
• All Support cards used are sent to the Abyss regardless of the battle outcome.
• Winner gets to keep their initial summoned Spirit card and draw 1 Preparation card.
• Losers send their Spirit to the Abyss.
• If the battle is a draw, send all Spirits to the Abyss.

Getting attacked
An Attack cannot be avoided and you must engage in battle if targeted.
You are out of the game entirely if a player Attacks you and you do not have a Spirit to summon into battle.

Spirit Elements chart
The following dictates the power cycle of the Spirit elements.
Fire wins> Earth wins> Water wins> Fire

Support card priority order
The following dictates the priority order of when each Support card comes into effect.
Disintegrate > Imbue fire/earth/water > Swap > Element buff > Safeguard

Element buff

• You may choose to use a Spirit card as the Support card during battle and if it is of the same element as your main Spirit, you gain an Element buff which lets you win against an element that you would normally lose. Example as follows:
  
  • A Water element main Spirit with a Water element Spirit Support card shall win against an Earth element Spirit.
• In the case where both you and your opponent gain the Element buff, the outcome of the battle will follow the Spirit Elements chart.
• In the case where you gain an Element buff but your Spirit's element is the same as your opponent's spirit without Element buff, the outcome of this battle will be a draw.
• You can use a different element Spirit as your support card but it will have no effect, however, you do get to 'bluff' your opponent in some sense.

The rare outcome
There comes a time when there are two or more survivors at the end with no Spirits left to summon for battle. In such circumstances, the survivors may choose to end the war and declare everyone a winner/loser or conduct a multiplayer Mini Spirit War to settle the score. Otherwise, players can immediately start the next Spirit War to decide on an undisputed King.

Mini Spirit War

• Shuffle a deck containing only Spirit cards and place it face down.
• Let each participating player draw 1 card from the deck.
• Everyone will reveal their Spirit card together and the winning Spirit - according to the Spirit Elements chart - is the final winner.
  
  • If there is no absolute winner, repeat from step 2.
  • If there are 2 or more winning Spirits, repeat from step 2 with only the winners until there is only one winner.