Phases
Gameplay of Weiß Schwarz is broken into several phases during a players turn:
Stand phase
All characters on the active player's Stage in [Rest] are returned to [Stand].
Draw phase
The active player draws a card from the top of his deck.
Clock phase
The active player may choose to discard one card from his hand into his/her Clock Area to draw 2 additional cards from his/her deck.
Main phase
The phase where you play and move characters or event cards and activate start up abilities/effects.
When you play a card, you have to fulfill the three conditions (level, cost, and color) in order to play the card.
Climax phase
Climax cards are played during this phase. You must have a card in either your Level Area or Clock Area that matches the color of the Climax card you wish to play in order to play it.
Battle phase
The player declares an attack of choice with his/her characters one at a time to damage the opponent's life points (called "Clock" in Weiß Schwarz) and also their characters (if present) at the same time.
During the first turn of the game, the player who goes first may only declare an attack with one character.
Only Characters that are in [Stand] Position and in the Center Stage, the three foremost positions, can declare attacks.
Characters declaring attack will be put to [Rest] position from [Stand] position.
The 3 different types of Attack:
Direct Attack
This attack is the default attack when a character is attacking an empty slot.
The attacking character will gain an additional Soul Damage to the Soul Damage total.
Front Attack
The player may choose this attack when a character is attacking and there is a character opposing it. Battle between the characters will occur and the character with the lower Power will be put to [Reverse]. Characters that are put to [Reverse] will be sent to the Waiting Room during the Encore Phase unless otherwise stated. The Soul Damage total the attacking character deals to the opposing player is equal to the character's Soul plus any additional Soul as a result of the trigger phase.
Side Attack
The player may choose this attack when a character is attacking and there is a character opposing it. Battle between the characters will NOT occur. The attacking character will suffer a Soul Damage penalty that is equivalent to the Level of the opposing character. The Soul Damage total the attacking character deals to the opposing player is equal to the character's Soul minus the Level of the opposing character, plus any additional Soul as a result of the trigger phase.
Trigger phase
Upon declaring an attack from front attack, side attack, or direct attack, a card is flipped over from your deck as trigger to check for trigger (effect varies upon trigger) and the card goes into stock. The trigger phase occurs with the attack of each character.
Counter phase
If you declared a front attack, your opponent may play a character/event counter card, if they have one.
Damage phase
Your opponent takes damage equivalent to your soul output + soul trigger upon trigger step (if any) by flipping over cards from the top of their deck onto their clock. 7 cards on the clock raises their level by 1, and any additional damage are retained onto the next level. However, should they flip over a climax card, all the damage sustained for that damage step is canceled, and the cards are moved into the Waiting Room (discard pile) instead.
Character battling phase
This phase occurs only when a Front Attack is declared.
A Power comparison between the characters is done and the character with the lower Power is put to [Reverse].
If the Power of both battling characters are the same, both of them are put to [Reverse].
Encore phase
This phase occurs when the current player has decided to stop attacking.
All Characters that are in the [Reverse] state are sent to the Waiting Room.
Starting with the current player, both players are allowed to "revive" their characters by paying the characters' respective Encore cost.
Even when not stated, all character cards comes with a built-in ability [Auto] Encore (3), which means that a player may pay 3 cost from his/her stock to "revive" a character which has been put to [Reverse].
The Encored characters will be put back from the Waiting Room in [Rest] position to their original position on the Center Stage.
End phase
You pass on your turn to the opponent.
