I have the same question. Overdrive sometimes work.

Originally posted by P3Rcarus:

Overdrive confuses me. It says it activates when I put the card down in the lane with the symbol on it, but when I do, sometimes it activates, sometimes it doesn't. I'm using the water starter deck btw- I've been trying to use Overdrive to inflict Status Effects on the enemy creatures

so, how does Overdrive actually work?

Also, that aside, really enjoying the game :)
Been wanting a casual card game with a focus on characters, since all singplayer deckbuilders nowadays are roguelikes (I enjoy those as well though)
So this game hits the spot!

Hey P3Rcarus,

The overdrive mechanic might seem tricky at first because it's an original mechanic but you should be able to get it after a couple of battles. The overdrive mechanic requires you to summon the Plano (normal or evolution). Meaning if you revive a Plano it won't work.

Most of the overdrive effects focus on lanes. For example, you will read something like "Decrease Lunar rival's HP". The rival is the Plano facing you (opposing) in a lane. Lunar refers to the lane, more specifically the (L) lane.

So you go to the (L) lane, then check the Plano facing you. If there is no Plano facing you in that lane nothing happens. Effects only trigger if the conditions are met.

So if the overdrive boosts the EP of the solar ally (Plano on your field) and you have no ally on the (S) lane/slot nothing will happen.

I am glad to see you enjoying the game!

Originally posted by Dathrell:

I have the same question. Overdrive sometimes work.

Hey Dathrell, read my answer just above.

So, Overdrive only activates when I summon a creature on an empty marked lane, right? That's what I noticed so far as I play through the game.

Originally posted by NourSaiFR:

Originally posted by P3Rcarus:

Overdrive confuses me. It says it activates when I put the card down in the lane with the symbol on it, but when I do, sometimes it activates, sometimes it doesn't. I'm using the water starter deck btw- I've been trying to use Overdrive to inflict Status Effects on the enemy creatures

so, how does Overdrive actually work?

Also, that aside, really enjoying the game :)
Been wanting a casual card game with a focus on characters, since all singplayer deckbuilders nowadays are roguelikes (I enjoy those as well though)
So this game hits the spot!

Hey P3Rcarus,

The overdrive mechanic might seem tricky at first because it's an original mechanic but you should be able to get it after a couple of battles. The overdrive mechanic requires you to summon the Plano (normal or evolution). Meaning if you revive a Plano it won't work.

Most of the overdrive effects focus on lanes. For example, you will read something like "Decrease Lunar rival's HP". The rival is the Plano facing you (opposing) in a lane. Lunar refers to the lane, more specifically the (L) lane.

So you go to the (L) lane, then check the Plano facing you. If there is no Plano facing you in that lane nothing happens. Effects only trigger if the conditions are met.

So if the overdrive boosts the EP of the solar ally (Plano on your field) and you have no ally on the (S) lane/slot nothing will happen.

I am glad to see you enjoying the game!

The two things I think that aren't obvious about the overdrive mechanic are:

What happens if you play a monster on the correct lane (the one with the symbol), but you already have a monster there? I.e. you play it to gain its effect only rather than summon it?

What happens when you play a monster on the overdrive zone (in this case, let's say it's the middle one), and the monster says it affects the LEFT rival. Does it still affect the enemy? "rival" to me implies "card that's facing this one", but I'm pretty sure it still does. I think you could clear this up by making an overdrive tutorial that forces you to play the cards in these scenarios. The current tutorial makes it clear that it works by playing the card on the lane with the symbol but doesn't explain those two common scenarios.

Originally posted by P3Rcarus:

So, Overdrive only activates when I summon a creature on an empty marked lane, right? That's what I noticed so far as I play through the game.

Yes, you need to summon in an empty lane or evolve an already existing Plano in that marked lane.

Originally posted by Koboldshark:

Originally posted by NourSaiFR:

Hey P3Rcarus,

The overdrive mechanic might seem tricky at first because it's an original mechanic but you should be able to get it after a couple of battles. The overdrive mechanic requires you to summon the Plano (normal or evolution). Meaning if you revive a Plano it won't work.

Most of the overdrive effects focus on lanes. For example, you will read something like "Decrease Lunar rival's HP". The rival is the Plano facing you (opposing) in a lane. Lunar refers to the lane, more specifically the (L) lane.

So you go to the (L) lane, then check the Plano facing you. If there is no Plano facing you in that lane nothing happens. Effects only trigger if the conditions are met.

So if the overdrive boosts the EP of the solar ally (Plano on your field) and you have no ally on the (S) lane/slot nothing will happen.

I am glad to see you enjoying the game!

The two things I think that aren't obvious about the overdrive mechanic are:

What happens if you play a monster on the correct lane (the one with the symbol), but you already have a monster there? I.e. you play it to gain its effect only rather than summon it?

What happens when you play a monster on the overdrive zone (in this case, let's say it's the middle one), and the monster says it affects the LEFT rival. Does it still affect the enemy? "rival" to me implies "card that's facing this one", but I'm pretty sure it still does. I think you could clear this up by making an overdrive tutorial that forces you to play the cards in these scenarios. The current tutorial makes it clear that it works by playing the card on the lane with the symbol but doesn't explain those two common scenarios.

Using a Plano on an existing Plano is the sacrifice mechanic. Sacrifice doesn't trigger the overdrive mechanic (for balancing reasons). However, if you evolve the Plano it's considered a new summon, hence the overdrive activating.

The rival is the Plano facing you. But that changes if there is a keyword in front of it. If it says "Solar rival" for example, it means the Plano facing you in the (S) "Solar" lane. The idea of the overdrive mechanic was to be able to affect other lanes without being present there.

I don't know if it needs a tutorial because you need to play different battles to get the effect, maybe I should add more info about it in the rulebook.

I'm not saying to make an entirely new tutorial, just when the tutorial shows you how to use an overdrive make it a scenario in which you play an overdrive that targets a "solar rival" like you said.

Originally posted by NourSaiFR:

Originally posted by Koboldshark:

The two things I think that aren't obvious about the overdrive mechanic are:

What happens if you play a monster on the correct lane (the one with the symbol), but you already have a monster there? I.e. you play it to gain its effect only rather than summon it?

What happens when you play a monster on the overdrive zone (in this case, let's say it's the middle one), and the monster says it affects the LEFT rival. Does it still affect the enemy? "rival" to me implies "card that's facing this one", but I'm pretty sure it still does. I think you could clear this up by making an overdrive tutorial that forces you to play the cards in these scenarios. The current tutorial makes it clear that it works by playing the card on the lane with the symbol but doesn't explain those two common scenarios.

Using a Plano on an existing Plano is the sacrifice mechanic. Sacrifice doesn't trigger the overdrive mechanic (for balancing reasons). However, if you evolve the Plano it's considered a new summon, hence the overdrive activating.

The rival is the Plano facing you. But that changes if there is a keyword in front of it. If it says "Solar rival" for example, it means the Plano facing you in the (S) "Solar" lane. The idea of the overdrive mechanic was to be able to affect other lanes without being present there.

I don't know if it needs a tutorial because you need to play different battles to get the effect, maybe I should add more info about it in the rulebook.

The problem I'm having is (also using the water deck) it simply doesn't trigger. From what I can read, the conditions are right; there's an enemy Plano in the lane the overdrive effect is targeting, I play my Plano on the overdrive panel... and nothing happens.

Originally posted by Frost:

Originally posted by NourSaiFR:

Using a Plano on an existing Plano is the sacrifice mechanic. Sacrifice doesn't trigger the overdrive mechanic (for balancing reasons). However, if you evolve the Plano it's considered a new summon, hence the overdrive activating.

The rival is the Plano facing you. But that changes if there is a keyword in front of it. If it says "Solar rival" for example, it means the Plano facing you in the (S) "Solar" lane. The idea of the overdrive mechanic was to be able to affect other lanes without being present there.

I don't know if it needs a tutorial because you need to play different battles to get the effect, maybe I should add more info about it in the rulebook.

The problem I'm having is (also using the water deck) it simply doesn't trigger. From what I can read, the conditions are right; there's an enemy Plano in the lane the overdrive effect is targeting, I play my Plano on the overdrive panel... and nothing happens.

The mercury deck should work just fine. Can you give me some example of cards that don't trigger? I can tell you why based on the description. For example, you can't replace an existing status effect, only stack on top of it. So if a Plano has a status effect already and you apply another one on top of it nothing happens.

I want to add that I am also using the Mercury deck and came here specifically because card effects aren't triggering and I don't know why. There's a rival Plano in the lane with 1200ep and I summon a Plano in that lane with the Effect (not Overdrive) "Reduce Rival EP by 1000" and nothing happens. I even sacrificed the same card on it to trigger it again and still nothing. The rival Plano is still there with full 1200ep.

It's been driving me crazy because I keep thinking there's some mechanic I'm missing that wasn't in the tutorial or the rulebook. But if it's just a bug, at least I know it's not on me and it can be fixed.

I'm enjoying the game otherwise!

Edit: Okay, the rival Plano in that case was a Fenroar, which is a Celestial Plano and I'm now seeing the rule in the rulebook stating that Celestials can't have their EP or HP debuffed. That being the case, I think there should really be some sort of visual feedback in battle that indicates this. Like have "IMMUNE" pop up where the "-X" normally would after the card is played.

Originally posted by Frostlight Inc.:

The problem I'm having is (also using the water deck) it simply doesn't trigger. From what I can read, the conditions are right; there's an enemy Plano in the lane the overdrive effect is targeting, I play my Plano on the overdrive panel... and nothing happens.

So I was having this same exact issue and I did some experimenting. The rulebook defines a "Rival" as an "enemy facing your Plano". It turns out that is meant literally. If the opponent has a Plano in a given lane and you don't, that enemy Plano is not considered a "Rival". I guess it is just considered a "Foe".

If this is the case, I would definitely include a clearer explanation of the "Rival vs. Foe Distinction" in the rulebook!

Originally posted by Akrylic:

I want to add that I am also using the Mercury deck and came here specifically because card effects aren't triggering and I don't know why. There's a rival Plano in the lane with 1200ep and I summon a Plano in that lane with the Effect (not Overdrive) "Reduce Rival EP by 1000" and nothing happens. I even sacrificed the same card on it to trigger it again and still nothing. The rival Plano is still there with full 1200ep.

It's been driving me crazy because I keep thinking there's some mechanic I'm missing that wasn't in the tutorial or the rulebook. But if it's just a bug, at least I know it's not on me and it can be fixed.

I'm enjoying the game otherwise!

Edit: Okay, the rival Plano in that case was a Fenroar, which is a Celestial Plano and I'm now seeing the rule in the rulebook stating that Celestials can't have their EP or HP debuffed. That being the case, I think there should really be some sort of visual feedback in battle that indicates this. Like have "IMMUNE" pop up where the "-X" normally would after the card is played.

I was surprised that mercury effects didn't work when many people completed the game lol. Yes, I should either add a text specifying the debuff thing or simply remove it. I just wanted to give an advantage to Celestials but I think it's more confusing than anything else, they are already stronger. I will probably just remove it.

Originally posted by Akrylic:

Originally posted by Frostlight Inc.:

The problem I'm having is (also using the water deck) it simply doesn't trigger. From what I can read, the conditions are right; there's an enemy Plano in the lane the overdrive effect is targeting, I play my Plano on the overdrive panel... and nothing happens.

So I was having this same exact issue and I did some experimenting. The rulebook defines a "Rival" as an "enemy facing your Plano". It turns out that is meant literally. If the opponent has a Plano in a given lane and you don't, that enemy Plano is not considered a "Rival". I guess it is just considered a "Foe".

If this is the case, I would definitely include a clearer explanation of the "Rival vs. Foe Distinction" in the rulebook!

"Rival" is using for the plano facing you for most effects. For normal effects (not overdrive) you usually have "Do X to rival", this means that when you are in a lane you will affect the Plano in the same lane. However, in general, the Planos that the opponent has are called "Enemy", so you will see "Enemy Plano".

That being said, I admit it's not perfect and there are times where I mix enemy with rival since it can be the same thing, depending on the context. For example, if I say "Destroy all rivals" it's like saying "Destroy all enemies". It's mainly typo, I probably need to revisit some of the text and tweak it. If you have specific effects in mind let me know.

Originally posted by NourSaiFR:

"Rival" is using for the plano facing you for most effects. For normal effects (not overdrive) you usually have "Do X to rival", this means that when you are in a lane you will affect the Plano in the same lane. However, in general, the Planos that the opponent has are called "Enemy", so you will see "Enemy Plano".

The problem is that the rulebook defines Rival as "The enemy Plano facing your Plano." This is technically correct but the rulebook does NOT define "Enemy". This leads to players (like myself) assuming that "Rival" is just the term the designer uses to mean "opponent's Plano" instead of its more specific actual definition.

The distinction between "Enemy" and "Rival" matters in the case of Overdrive effects which target lanes other than the one the summoned Plano is in. Let's say the opponent has a Plano in the Solar lane and the player has no Planos. If the player summons a Plano in the Eclipse (Overdrive) lane, and it has Overdrive effect "Devour 1 Solar Rival", they would assume the enemy Plano would receive that status effect, but instead nothing happens. There is no Plano directly across from it, so it is not technically a "Rival" as defined.

Originally posted by NourSaiFR:

That being said, I admit it's not perfect and there are times where I mix enemy with rival since it can be the same thing, depending on the context. For example, if I say "Destroy all rivals" it's like saying "Destroy all enemies". It's mainly typo, I probably need to revisit some of the text and tweak it. If you have specific effects in mind let me know.

See, if my above example is intended behavior, then I would expect "Destroy all Rivals" to destroy only the enemy Planos in lanes that I also have Planos in. If the intent is to destroy all Enemy Planos regardless, it should read "Destroy all Enemies".

I would just make sure there is consistency with the terms used across the board. Card game effects are often written like legal documents, with super precise word choice, to avoid confusion and ensure the rules are interpreted correctly. If I see any effects that seem unclear, I will bring it up!

Just trying to offer constructive criticism. Again, I really dig this game despite these nitpicks!