How to play the One Piece Card Game: a simple, complete guide

Updated October 6, 2026. Sources: Bandai's ONE PIECE CARD GAME Comprehensive Rules, version 1.2.1 (updated August 28, 2026), plus Bandai's Block Number System, Extra Regulation and Banned/Restricted Card pages.

The goal

You win when either:

Your opponent's Leader takes damage while they have 0 Life cards left.
Your opponent has 0 cards in their deck. Running out of deck makes you lose.

What you need

Part	Size	What it is
Leader card	exactly 1	Your main character. It sits on the field all game, can attack, and sets your colors and your Life
Deck	exactly 50 cards	Characters, Events and Stages
DON!! deck	10 DON!! cards	Your energy. You spend it to play cards and to power up attacks

Deck rules:

Colors: every card in your deck must match your Leader's color. A two-color card counts as both colors, so both have to be on your Leader.
Copies: up to 4 cards with the same card number. Alternate arts share the card number, so they count together.
Card text can change these rules. Some cards say you can play any number of them. Some Leaders add limits: Nami (P-117), for example, only allows {East Blue} type cards.
Bans: Bandai keeps a list of Banned cards and Banned Pairs (two cards that can't be in the same deck). See it on our One Piece deck builder, which checks your deck automatically.

Formats

Standard: the main tournament format. Only cards with a block icon of 2 or higher (or "X") are allowed from April 2026 to March 2027. The block icon is the small number in the lower-right corner of the card. Bandai also keeps an official list of card numbers whose block was updated, for example after a reprint. When that happens, every printing of that card number counts, old art included. Our deck builder applies that list automatically.
Extra: every card ever released is allowed, except banned cards. Both formats use the same ban list.

Card types

Characters fight for you. They have a cost, power and often a Counter value printed on the card (like +1000 or +2000). Up to 5 can be on your field.
Events are one-time effects. [Main] Events are played on your turn; [Counter] Events are played when you're attacked.
Stages are places that stay on the field. You can have 1 at a time.

Setting up

Shuffle your deck. Put your Leader face-up and your 10 DON!! cards face-down in the DON!! deck area.
Decide who chooses to go first or second.
Draw 5 cards. Each player may shuffle their hand back and redraw 5, once.
Take cards from the top of your deck equal to your Leader's Life value and put them face-down as your Life cards.

Your turn, step by step

Phase	What happens
Refresh	DON!! you gave to your Leader or Characters go back to your cost area. Then all your rested cards and DON!! stand back up (become active).
Draw	Draw 1 card. The player going first doesn't draw on their first turn.
DON!!	Add 2 DON!! from your DON!! deck to your cost area. The player going first adds only 1 on their first turn.
Main	Play cards, use effects, give DON!!, and attack, in any order, as often as you can.
End	"End of turn" effects happen, then your turn ends.

Neither player can attack during their own first turn.

Spending DON!!

To play a card, rest (turn sideways) DON!! equal to its cost.
To power up, give an active DON!! to your Leader or a Character. Each one adds +1000 power during your turn.
"DON!! −1" (or −2 and so on) on a card means you return that many DON!! from your field to your DON!! deck to use the effect.

Attacking

Rest your Leader or an active Character to attack. You can target your opponent's Leader or one of their rested Characters. Active Characters can't be attacked.

Block: the defender can rest one Character with [Blocker] to take the hit instead. Only one Blocker per attack.
Counter: the defender can trash Characters with a Counter value from their hand to add that much power for this battle, and play [Counter] Events.
Damage: if the attacker's power is equal to or higher than the defender's, the attacker wins. Ties go to the attacker.
A Character that loses is K.O.'d and goes to the trash.
A Leader that's hit takes 1 damage. Its owner moves the top Life card to their hand. If that card has a [Trigger], they may use the Trigger instead.

Keywords you'll see

[Rush]: can attack the turn it's played.
[Blocker]: can rest to take an attack aimed at another of your cards.
[Double Attack]: deals 2 damage to a Leader instead of 1.
[Banish]: the Life card it hits is trashed instead of going to hand, and its Trigger can't be used.
[Unblockable]: can't be blocked.
[On Play]: happens when the card is played.
[When Attacking]: happens when this card attacks.
[On K.O.]: happens when it's K.O.'d by a battle or an effect.
[DON!! x2]: the effect works only while at least 2 DON!! are given to this card.
[Once Per Turn]: the effect can be used one time each turn.
[Trigger]: can be used when this card is revealed from your Life after taking damage.

Next steps

Build and check a deck on the One Piece deck builder. Genny can build one with you and explain how it plays.
Browse every One Piece set and card list.

This guide simplifies Bandai's Comprehensive Rules for new players. When a card's text says something different, the card's text wins.