Keywords

Spoilers Ahead

The content ahead may contain spoilers for the following:

• Enemies and mechanics

Keywords are special ability words that condense long effects into a concise form. This simplifies card descriptions and makes it easier to tell when multiple cards share the same ability. All keywords are highlighted in orange text in a card's description, and their condensed abilities are fully expanded when examining the card.

Some keywords additionally have a numerical component, such as the Bombskull Charm granting Explode 8. This page will indicate numerical keywords using an arbitrary X. These keywords can be enhanced with cards and effects that boost numerical effects, such as the Lumin Lantern and Lumin Ring. However, some keywords have hidden numerical values, such as Greed and Summoned; these values are inherent to the keywords and cannot be modified.

Due to how Items are played from the hand while Companions, Clunkers, and enemies stay on the field, keywords may behave slightly differently for them.

Targeting-Related Keywords

Normally, Companions, Clunkers, and enemies will hit the front enemy in the opposing row when attacking, and Items are played on a specific target. These keywords modify a card's targeting.

Name	Field	Items	Cards with Keyword	Sources of Keyword
Aimless	When the card attacks, it hits a random enemy in the opposing row, instead of the front one.	The Item targets a random target in the selected row on the selected side of the field.	Leaders, Loki, Wort, Junjun, Slapcrackers, Shrootles, Snowbo, Frost Lancer	Smog, Magma Booster, Gnome Charm, Fish Charm
Barrage	When the card attacks, it hits all enemies in the opposing row simultaneously, instead of just the front one.	The Item hits/affects an entire selected row on the selected side of the field, not just one card.	Leaders, Bombom, Jumbo, Vesta, Fallow, Berry Bell, Bom Barrel, Frost Bell, Molten Dip, Shellbo, Spore Pack, Sunlight Drum, Supersnower, Bigfoot, Blaze Beetles, Bulbhead, Octako, Porkypine, Pygmy, Bigloo, Bumbo, Nimbus, Frost Bomber	Pom, Gachapomper, Pomegranate Charm
Longshot	When the card attacks, it hits the furthest enemy in the opposing row, instead of the front one.	No Items can have or gain Longshot.	Leaders, Snowbirb	None

General Interactions

• Aimless, Barrage, and Longshot are all mutually exclusive. If a card or effect would try to add one of these keywords to a card that already has one of the others, the most recently gained keyword takes priority. For instance, the Gachapomper overwrites Aimless with Barrage for all allies in the row.

• A Charm cannot be attached to a card with one of these keywords if it would try to add one of the others. For instance, the Gnome Charm cannot be attached to any card with Barrage.

• Reactions that would trigger a card with Aimless or Barrage against a specific target will instead trigger against the entire row the intended target occupies. For instance, a card with Smackback and Aimless will not trigger against its attacker, but instead a random enemy in its attacker's row.
  • This interaction also allows cards with these Reactions to use excess Frenzy against new targets. Normally, a card reacting against a specific other card will stop its Frenzy attacks if its target is killed partway through. Aimless and Barrage cause the card to trigger against a whole row instead, so the reacting card will only stop attacking once everything in that row is killed.
  • Uniquely, Longshot interacts properly with targeted Reactions. For instance, a card with Longshot and Smackback still triggers appropriately against its attacker. However, a card with Longshot will also still use its excess Frenzy against the rest of its target's row.

• Certain Items have targeting or effects that prevent them from gaining Aimless or Barrage. These include most Items that summon Shades, target a random card(s) on one or both fields, or can only be played on cards in hand.
  • A card that hits all enemies, such as B.I.N.K, cannot gain Barrage but can gain Aimless. In this case, the card will behave as any other Aimless card does; a field card will hit a random card in the opposing row, and an Item will hit a random target in the selected row.
  • Since the Shade Wisp and Blank Mask target a card on the field to copy, they can gain an attack stat of 0 with debuff-inflicting Charms and the Hook Charm, which makes them eligible for Charms that give them Barrage or Aimless.

• An Item with Barrage or Aimless cannot be played on cards in hand. For instance, an unmodified Pinkberry Juice can be played on a Companion on the field or in hand, but if that Pinkberry Juice is equipped with the Fish Charm, it can only be played on Companions on the field.

Aimless Interactions

• An Item with Aimless will only randomly choose between valid targets. For instance, if trying to use a Pinkberry Juice with the Fish Charm attached (thus giving it Aimless), it will not attempt to give health to any Clunkers in the selected row.

Barrage Interactions

• An attacking card with Barrage may take damage from multiple cards' Teeth at once. This counts as a single instance of damage for the purposes of breaking Block and Scrap, counting down Demonize, and increasing damage with Bom. It is not treated as multiple simultaneous instances of damage.

• If a Barrage attack triggers multiple Reactions in the row (such as Smackback), the Reactions will trigger in reverse turn order (back to front).

• Any Item that normally has a single target can gain Barrage with a specific set of Charms. If it does not have an attack stat, it must gain one with a debuff-inflicting Charm or the Hook Charm. It must then have at least 2 attack (usually accomplished with the Battle Charm), thus becoming eligible for the Pomegranate Charm. Most of the time, the card behaves generally as expected, but the Blank Mask and Shade Wisp may behave irregularly if they attempt to summon more Shades than the number of empty zones.
  • If The Lumin Vase gains Barrage, it can apply Lumin to up to 3 cards simultaneously, and they all will keep Lumin since it was applied in a single play. This is one of only two situations in which more than 1 card can have Lumin at once (the other being if Truffle Splits while it has Lumin).

Damaging and Attack-Related Keywords

These keywords deal damage or modify a card's attack in some way.

Name	Field	Items	Cards with Keyword	Sources of Keyword
Bootleg	As the card is deployed, its base health, attack, and Counter are all randomized between 2 and 5, inclusive.	No Items can have or gain Bootleg.	None	Spoof
Explode X	When the card is destroyed, it simultaneously deals X damage to all cards in the opposing row.	No Items can have or gain Explode.	None	Bombskull Charm
Faith X	When the card's effect summons a Shade, that Shade immediately gains X attack and health, if possible.		None	Lamb Charm
Fury X	While the card has no other allied cards in its row, its attack is increased by X.	No Items can have or gain Fury.	Snowdweller Leaders	Frog Charm
Greed	The card deals 1 additional damage per 50 Blings the player has.		None	Greed Charm
Soulbound	When a card with Soulbound is sacrificed, all other cards with Soulbound simultaneously take 100 damage.	No Items can have or gain Soulbound.	None	Soulbound Skulls

Interactions

• Explode deals damage at the same time as the source of damage that destroys the card, similar to Teeth. This means that if an attacking card has an on-trigger effect (e.g. Berry Witch), and that attacking card is killed by Explode damage, it will be destroyed before it can activate its effect.

• Faith will not give an attack stat to Shades that have no attack, such as Snuffer and Tigris.

• The attack and health boost from Faith is applied after Bootleg randomizes its stats. Bootleg first modifies the card's base stats, and Faith increases its attack and health immediately once it has entered the battlefield.

• Greed does not increase the card's attack continuously, only when the card is attacking or hitting something. This is important for effects that care about a card's current attack, such as Tinkerson Jr. and Forging Stove.

• Humorously, Greed works for both allied and enemy cards. If an enemy has the Greed Charm (only possible in the Eye of the Storm), that enemy will use the player's own Blings against them.

• The source of damage from Soulbound is actually the Soulbound cards themselves; when Soulbound's effect activates, all Soulbound cards deal 100 damage to themselves (visible in the log as "(card) hits (card), dealing 100 damage"). However, this is misleading, as this is not a direct attack and thus does not trigger on-hit effects, even though the log uses the word "hit".
  • A card also cannot sacrifice itself; it must be killed by another allied card. As a result, Soulbound damage does not activate any further on-sacrifice effects (such as Chikichi and Groff).

Restriction Keywords

Some keywords create restrictions on a card that prevent certain actions from being taken.

Name	Field	Items	Cards with Keyword	Sources of Keyword
Consume	No field cards can have or gain Consume.	After the Item is played and resolved, it is destroyed and can't be used again in that battle.	Blank Mask, Blaze Tea, Dragon Pepper, Foggy Brew, Frostbite Shard, Gigi's Cookie Box, Gunk Fruit, Leech Mask, Molten Dip, Noomlin Biscuit, Nutshell Cake, Pom Mask, Shade Clay, Sheepopper Mask, Skullmist Tea, Skull Muffin, Snowcake, Snuffer Mask, Suncream, Tigris Mask, Zoomlin Wafers	Toaster, Cake Charm, Frenzy Charm, Molten Egg Charm, Zoomlin Charm, Bread Charm
Fragile	The card's maximum health can't be increased during battle.	No Items can have or gain Fragile.	None	Sunglass Charm
Hogheaded	The card cannot be recalled from the field to the discard pile.	No Items can have or gain Hogheaded.	Spike	Numskull, Hog Charm
Recycle X	No field cards can have or gain Recycle.	The Item can't be played unless the player's hand contains at least X Junk. When the card is played, it destroys that many Junk cards in hand from right to left.	Frenzy Wrench, Gigi's Gizmo, Haze Keg, Suncream, Sunsong Box, Supersnower	Fidget Charm, Recycle Charm
Summoned	The card cannot be recalled from the field to the discard pile. At the end of each turn, if the card triggered that turn, it loses 1 health.	No Items can have or gain Summoned.	All Shades	Spoof, Blank Mask, Shade Wisp

Interactions

• A card is not Consumed until all its effects are resolved. This means that the effects of the Strawberry Charm and Boonfire Charm will be the last effects to activate when playing a card with Consume.

• If the player has the Breakfast Sun Bell, the first card they play each battle with Consume will not be Consumed. This prevents the card from being destroyed and puts it in the discard pile, as though it did not have Consume.
  • This also prevents the Strawberry Charm and Boonfire Charm from activating, since the card is not Consumed.

• Junk is destroyed by Recycle before the card hits or applies to its target(s).

• Recycle is a numerical effect, so effects like the Lumin Ring will increase the card's effects and its Recycle cost. With large effect boosts like the Cake Charm, a Recycle card may become almost completely unplayable.

• If a Recycle card has Frenzy, the Recycle cost is only paid once when playing the card. The extra plays from Frenzy will resolve without requiring or destroying any more Junk.

• A Summoned card loses 1 current health at the end of each turn it triggers, not maximum health.

• Even if a Summoned card triggers multiple times within a single turn (such as with Frenzy), it still only loses 1 health at the end of that turn.

• A Summoned card will still lose health at the end of the turn if it triggers without a target to attack or apply effects to.

• If a Summoned card becomes Inked, it can be recalled like any other card. Even though Shades are temporary cards that are not truly part of the deck, Shades recalled in this way behave normally and can be redeployed like any other Companion or Clunker.

Miscellaneous Keywords

These keywords have various effects.

Name	Field	Items	Cards with Keyword	Sources of Keyword
Cleanse	Removes all debuffs from the target(s).		Bonnie, Berry Basket	None
Critical	No field cards can have or gain Critical.	If the Item is the rightmost card in hand, its numerical effects are doubled.	Clockwork Bom, Snowzooka	Critical Charm
Draw X	The player draws X cards.		Needle, Sneezle, Gigi's Gizmo	Gear Charm, Pinch Charm
Flourish	When the card's health is restored, its maximum health is increased by the same amount.	No Items can have or gain Flourish.	None	Jewelberry Charm
Noomlin	The card does not end the player's turn when played.		Grabber, Mini Muncher	Noomlin Biscuit, Noomlin Charm, Noomlin Sun Bell
Smackback	A Reaction that causes the card to trigger against cards on the field that hit it.	No Items can have or gain Smackback.	Snowdweller and Shademancer Leaders, Gojiber, Gogong, Warthog, Spike Wall	Punchfist Charm
Spark	The card triggers immediately when deployed.	No Items can have or gain Spark.	The Baker	Spark Charm
Trash X	Creates X Junk in hand.		Clunkmaster Leaders, Folby, Scaven, Bom Barrel, Proto-Stomper, Junkhead	Fidget Charm, Gear Charm, Trash Charm
Yank	Pulls the targeted card to the front of its row.		Grabber	Hook Charm
Zoomlin	The card does not end the player's turn when played. When the card is played, it loses Zoomlin.		Skull Muffin	Zoomlin Wafers, Zoomlin Nest, Zoomlin Charm

Interactions

• Critical can modify most numerical effects, but not all of them. Effects that can be modified are written in orange, while numbers not written in orange can't be modified. For instance, the Storm Globe has "Apply 4 Snow" and "Reduce by 1 when played," but Critical will only increase the inflicted Snow, not the base amount lost.
  • However, Critical also applies last after other value-modifying effects, so an effect that gains or loses value will effectively gain or lose twice as much value. For instance, a Critical Storm Globe will inflict 8 Snow when played (4 base Snow, then increased to 8), and then loses 2 Snow (reduced to 3 base Snow, then increased to 6).

• Critical does not multiply together with Lumin to quadruple the card's effects. Instead, each increases the card's base effects by 100%, so they will triple the card's effects.
  • Lumin also applies after other value-modifying effects. A Critical Storm Globe with Lumin will inflict 12 Snow when played (4 base Snow, increased to 12), and then loses 1 Snow (reduced to 3 base Snow, then increased to 9).

• If a Draw ability would make the player draw more cards than are remaining in the deck, they will draw as many cards as possible, shuffle their discard pile, and draw the remainder. If there are no cards in the deck or discard pile, the card displays a "No Cards to Draw!" message.

• Spark causes the deployed card to trigger before the natural turn countdown. For instance, when The Baker is deployed, they trigger immediately and then still count down during that turn's countdown. If the card with Spark has a maximum Counter of 1, it will trigger again during the turn countdown.

• Trash always creates Junk in the left of the player's hand, so it will never interfere with Critical cards.

• Junk is generated by Trash abilities regardless of whether an allied or enemy card has the Trash ability.

• Bosses that take up 2 zones cannot be Yanked if they would displace more than 1 other card at a time. Other enemies in the battle also cannot be Yanked if they would displace enemies such that the boss would take up 2 non-adjacent zones.

• A card with both Yank and Barrage will reverse the order of cards in the row (the furthest back will move to the front, and the most forward will be pushed to the back).
  • Notably, a card that has Barrage cannot gain Yank from the Hook Charm, but a card with Yank can still gain Barrage from Pom, the Gachapomper, or the Pomegranate Charm.
  • Reactions that are triggered in response to a hit, such as Smackback, are triggered from back to front when simultaneously triggered by Barrage. However, if that row is Yanked in this way, the Reaction order is set before the cards are moved from being Yanked, resulting in them appearing to trigger from front to back.
    • The order for the Reactions to simultaneously trigger also does not update between Frenzy attacks. If the card with Yank and Barrage has Frenzy, the order of Reactions will reverse with each attack (the first set of Reactions will trigger front to back, the next will trigger back to front, and so on).

Enemy-Specific Keywords

Certain keywords are only found on enemy cards. These are usually specific to certain fights.

Name	Description	Enemies
Absorb	Gain an ally's attack, health, abilities, and status effects.	Woolly Drek
Backline	The card always deploys to the back of the row.	Krunker (both phases)
Bombard	While the card is active, zones on the field are outlined in red. When the card attacks, it hits all the outlined zones, instead of the front one.	Krunker (both phases)
Frontline	The card always deploys to the front of the row, pushing back other cards in the row if needed.	Spike Wall
Split	The card divides into two copies of itself that have half as much health and status effects, rounded up.	Truffle
Unmovable	The card cannot be moved around on the field.	Frost Jailer
Wild	The card gains 1 Frenzy whenever another card with Wild is destroyed.	Bam, Boozle, Hog, Warthog, Razor

Interactions

• Although Monch uses the word "absorb," they do not have the Absorb keyword and will not gain eaten cards' abilities or statuses.

• A card with Backline will never move forward, even if zones are empty in front of it. It also cannot be Yanked. If the card becomes Inked and loses Backline, it will move normally, but it will return to the back of the row once the Ink wears off.
  • A card with Frontline will not prevent other cards in its row from being Yanked to the front of the row, however.

• The zones targeted by Bombard are only rerolled after the card successfully attacks those zones. If a card with Bombard is Inked, thus negating Bombard, the outlined zones will not disappear. The card will still attack those zones the next time it attacks without Ink.

• If a card with Bombard has Haze, it will attack a random ally when triggering, but it will also attack all the targeted zones immediately after hitting the ally.

• A card with Unmovable can still be recalled from the field. It will also move into a new zone if a card is deployed or summoned into the zone it occupies.

• Cards with Wild will gain Frenzy whenever another card on the field with Wild is destroyed, even if that card was on the opposite field.

• An Inked card with Wild will not grant Frenzy to other Wild cards when destroyed. Likewise, destroying other Wild cards will not cause the Inked Wild card to gain Frenzy.

Special Keywords

These keywords reflect a card's current status, rather than giving it abilities.

Name	Description	Causes
Injured	An injured Companion starts battles at half of their max health and attack, rounded up. They will heal completely after surviving a battle.	Bell of Death, Injured Companion Map event

Interactions

• If an injured Companion is defeated again in battle, they will simply remain injured.

• Injured Companions will recover even if they are not deployed in a battle, or if they are benched. The only thing that prevents them from recovering is being defeated again with the Bell of Death.

• The health and attack reductions to injured Compainons are to their current stats, not maximum.

Hidden Keywords

These keywords are used as conditions to activate or apply certain effects.

Name	Description
Active	A card is active while it is on the field.
Additional damage	A card that deals additional damage temporarily gains attack during damage calculation.
Ally	A card's allies are other cards on its side of the field.
Apply	A card applies buffs or debuffs as it triggers, is played, or activates an ability.
Deploy	A card is deployed when it is put onto the field from the hand, is summoned, or enters the battle as an enemy.
Destroy	A card is destroyed when its health or Scrap becomes 0 or less, or if a card or effect says to destroy it.
Healed	A card is healed when its health is restored, or when its maximum health is increased.
Hit	A card is hit when it is attacked by another card on the field with an attack stat or when hit by an Item with an attack stat.
On kill	A card activates its on-kill effect when it kills another card (directly or indirectly).
Sacrifice	A card is sacrificed if a card on its side of the field kills it (or the player's Item kills an allied card). Sacrificed cards display a skull icon when destroyed.

Interactions

• Any effect while a card is active will stop immediately when that card leaves the field.

• Debuffs that are applied on hit, such as Snoof's Snow, are applied immediately after damage calculation. An attack that inflicts Demonize or Bom will not boost that attack, only subsequent attacks.
  • Wallop is a special case, as their effect also checks if their attack will inflict Snow (possible with the Snowball Charm). In this case, Wallop always deals extra damage, even though damage calculation happens before the Snow is inflicted.

• If a card's effect causes it to deal additional damage, such as Earth Berry or Chompom, its attack increases only during damage calculation, and the attack boost is removed immediately when the attack finishes. This boost is also removed between Frenzy attacks, so the card will not continue to accumulate attack.
  • However, Items that deal additional damage, such as Tar Blade, will only have the attack boost removed at the end of the turn. This means that it is possible to play such a card using Noomlin or Zoomlin, redraw it that turn, and play it again to get an even bigger attack boost. Even if played multiple times, the attack boost is still fully removed at the end of the turn.
  • Any card that uses the phrasing "deal additional damage to (target)," such as Wallop or a Leader with the ability, does not work this way. Instead, the card checks whether the condition is met during damage calculation and simply boosts the amount of damage inflicted, rather than the card's attack stat.

• A card that interacts with its allies will not apply to itself. However, because Items are played from the hand, Items that interact with allies (such as Peppering) will apply to all possible cards on the player's field.

• Any card with an effect to destroy itself (such as one with Consume or a card like the Moko Totem) will not destroy itself until all its effects resolve. If the card has Frenzy, it will use all its Frenzy up before destroying itself as well.
  • A card that destroys itself by its own effect will also not activate its own on-kill effects, such as if the Moko Totem has the Pinch Charm.

• If a card has an ability activating when some other card is destroyed, such as Gunk Gobbler, it will activate whether a card on the field is destroyed or in hand, for any reason (such as by Consume or Recycle).

• Any card with an attack stat is considered to hit its target(s), even if no damage is dealt. Any card without an attack stat does not hit its target(s).
  • Companions and Clunkers with a Counter but no attack stat can gain an attack of 0 if equipped with a Charm that applies a debuff on it, or if equipped with the Hook Charm. This does not cause any changes to their abilities' targeting. For instance, if Pyra gains an attack stat, they will still apply Spice to the ally ahead of them after attacking. They will not apply Spice to whatever is hit by their attack, nor will they attack the ally ahead.

• On-kill effects are most commonly activated when a card attacks and destroys another card, but indirect sources like Shroom, Teeth, and Overburn will also count. For Shroom, the kill is credited to the card that most recently inflicted Shroom. For Overburn, it is credited to whatever card was responsible for the enemy's health becoming lower than its Overburn (whether by inflicting more Overburn or reducing its health).

• A card is considered sacrificed if an allied card is credited for killing it. Indirect sources of damage like Shroom and Overburn will also give credit, as long as the debuff was most recently inflicted by an allied card.
  • This also means that a card cannot sacrifice itself; an allied card must be what kills it. If a card kills or destroys itself (e.g. I.C.G.M., Moko Totem) or causes its own health or Scrap to become 0 or less (e.g. Bombom, Mega Mimik, Plinker), it is not sacrificed.

Trivia

• Consume is a very literal keyword, as most cards with Consume and Charms that grant it are themed around food or drink.
  • This may also be why the Breakfast Sun Bell prevents cards from being Consumed, as having breakfast would remove the need to eat something else.