Counter

The Counter is a stat that most Leaders, Companions, and enemies have, as well as some Clunkers. It indicates how many turns must pass before the card can trigger.

Information and Strategy

Every turn, each card's Counter counts down by 1, with enemies counting down first. When a card's Counter reaches 0, it triggers. This causes it to attack (if it has an attack stat) and use its abilities (if any), then its Counter is reset to its max value. If a card has Snow, its Counter cannot count down by any means, making Snow hugely valuable for stalling dangerous enemies.

Counter Interactions

If a card or effect such as the Sun Rod causes a card's Counter to reach 0 before the natural countdown for the turn, that card will trigger immediately and reset its Counter before the turn countdown. Because the card triggers before the turn countdown, its Counter still will count down for the turn. For instance, using the Sun Rod on Foxee when their Counter is at 2 will cause them to attack immediately and reset their Counter to 3, and then during the turn countdown their Counter will count down to 2. However, counting down a card's Counter below 0 (for instance, using the Sun Rod on a card whose Counter is at 1) is no different from counting it down to exactly 0, and the excess countdown will have no effect.

If multiple cards' Counters reach 0 simultaneously (most common with the Sunlight Drum), those cards trigger in the normal turn order.

A Snowed card will only count down its Snow at the end of the turn if the card experienced the turn countdown while it was Snowed. This means that if a Companion inflicts Snow on an enemy, that enemy's Snow will not count down until the end of the next turn, since the enemy experienced the turn countdown before it became Snowed by the Companion. The same is true for Ink.

A card's maximum Counter can be modified in a few ways, such as with Suncream, the Sun Charm, and the Balance Charm. However, it cannot be lower than 1. Whenever a card's maximum Counter is modified, its current Counter will count up or down by the same amount. For instance, using Suncream on a card whose Counter is currently at 4 will reduce its max Counter by 1 and also count down its current Counter to 3.

Reactions

See Reaction.

Some cards have Reactions that allow them to bypass their Counter and trigger when certain conditions are met. In many cases, cards with Reactions don't even have Counters, so they cannot trigger at all outside the Reaction or an external source.

If a card has both a Counter and a Reaction (such as a card with a Counter that has the Punchfist Charm attached), triggering by the Reaction will not reset its Counter. This is also true if the card is triggered by another source, such as the Tootordion or Sunglass Chime.

Cards and effects that interact with Counter

Player effects that count down Counter	Player effects that modify max Counter	Enemy cards that count down or modify max Counter
Nom & Stompy Sun Rod Sunburst Tootoo Sunlight Drum Sunsong Box	Spoof Blaze Tea Suncream Balance Charm Jimbo Charm Moose Charm Sun Charm Sunglass Charm Frozen Sun Charm	Grog