Rift Tablealpha Tutorial Play
Reference

Riftbound, one part at a time

Short text, a picture for each idea. Every screenshot is from the tutorial; click one to see it full size.

1. The goal

First to 8 points. Points come only from the two Battlefields, two ways:

YOUR TURN OPPONENT'S TURN YOUR NEXT TURN Battlefield Conquer: +1 the moment you take it Still there? your unit must survive the whole turn Hold: +1 at the start of your turn, every turn
Conquer pays once when you take a Battlefield (r466). Hold pays every turn you still control it when your turn begins (r467) — so it's about surviving the opponent's turn.

The Final Point (r469–471): a Conquer can only score your last point if you Conquer every Battlefield that turn; otherwise you draw a card instead. Holds have no such limit. The win is checked after every change: reach the Victory Score with more points than the opponent (r481).

The board at the end of the tutorial with both point tracks visible

2. What's in a deck

LEGEND 1never playedsets your colours Champion 1starts set aside Main 40 cardsmax 3 of a name, champion included 12 runesonly your Legend's colours Battlefield 3 Battlefieldsone is picked for the game
Everything must fit the Legend's two Domains — its Domain Identity (r39, r103, r72).
The Legend card annotated in the tutorial, beside the six Domains

3. Setting up

1Battlefieldseach picks 1 at randomof their 3 → 2 in play 2ShuffleMain and Rune decksseparately 3Draw 4random first player 4Mulliganset aside up to 2, draw thatmany, they go to the bottom 5Second playerchannels 3 runeson their first turn
r116–117, r481. The two Battlefields belong to nobody at the start.

4. The board

OPPONENT Legend Champion Baserunes · units and gear Rune deck Main deck Trash Battlefield Ashared · units from both sides · facedown zone Battlefield Bthe only places points come from YOU Legend Champion Baserunes · units and gear Rune deck Main deck Trash
Hands are private; everything else, the Trash included, is public (r355.10). A card leaving the board is a new object: damage, buffs and "this turn" effects are gone (r183).
The tutorial board

5. A turn

HAPPENS BY ITSELF AWAKENready everything BEGINNING+1 per held Battlefield CHANNEL+2 runes DRAW+1 card MAIN PHASEyou play, move, act ENDINGheal, expire, empty Unspent Energy and Power are lost at end of turn. Exhausted runes come back at your next Awaken; recycled runes don't.
r313–318. "This turn" effects expire and all damage heals in the Ending Phase.
The phase strip lit on Awaken at the start of a turn

6. Runes, Energy and Power

exhaust 1 1 Energyreadies next Awaken recycle bottom R 1 Power (its colour)gone until channeled again A cost of 3 B = exhaust three runes for Energy and recycle one Body rune for the pip. One rune may do both, in that order.
r164, r357. A two-Domain card's pip takes either colour; [A] takes any. Discounts never go below zero (r356).
A card annotated: Energy cost, Power pip, Might, type line, name, abilities

7. Playing cards

Sneaky Deckhand
Units go to your Base or a Battlefield you control — or elsewhere if the card allows ("to an open battlefield", [Ambush]). They enter exhausted unless something says otherwise.
Ravenborn Tome
Gear goes to your Base, ready. Abilities with a cost before a colon ("[E]:") are used from there.
Incinerate
Spells go on the Chain and resolve once both players pass. Targets are chosen as you play; a target that's gone by then is skipped (r355).
NO TAG your Main Phasenothing on the Chain [ACTION] your Main Phase+ any Showdown [REACTION] any time you hold Priority or Focuseven on the opponent's turn
r349–359. [Hidden]: instead of playing the card, pay [A] to put it facedown at a Battlefield you control; from your next turn on it can be played from there for 0, with Reaction (r811).
A unit being played onto an open Battlefield, the legal destinations highlighted

8. Moving and Battlefields

A Standard Move (r144): ready units exhaust and move together — Base ⇄ Battlefield; Battlefield → Battlefield only with [Ganking]. What happens when they arrive:

Nobody there → Conquer +1or the enemy controls it but left it empty Enemy units → Combatthe Battlefield is Contested; you are the attacker Your own units → reinforcemore defenders for the Hold
r323, r728. Control is lost the moment you have no units there. A Recall ("send it to base") is not a move: no exhaust, no "when I move".
A unit selected in the Base with the Battlefield it can move to highlighted

9. Combat

1 · TRIGGERS"when I attack / defend" 2 · SHOWDOWNtricks; attacker has Focus first 3 · DAMAGEboth pools at once 4 · CLEANUPlethal dies · heal · recall / conquer THE TUTORIAL'S TRADE Attackers · total 7 2Wielder 5Phantom Defenders · total 4 2Poro 2Deckhand 7 ≥ 2 + 2: both defenders die 4: Wielder takes 2 (lethal, in full) → 2 spill onto the Phantom Each side sums its Might (attackers +[Assault], defenders +[Shield]; stunned units add 0). The other side's controller chooses who takes it: lethal in full before spilling · [Tank] units first · leftovers pile onto the last unit (r465)
r463–466. After damage: units at lethal die, everything heals, and if defenders remain the surviving attackers go home; if only attackers remain, they Conquer.
The Showdown banner with a Pass button The combat damage prompt asking which enemy unit takes the damage

10. The Chain

THE STACK 1 · your spellplayed first 2 · their Reactionin response 3 · your Reactionon top resolves first then this then this — last in, first out PRIORITY You Them pass pass two passes in a row → the top item resolves
r334–336. Adding an item hands Priority to its controller and restarts the passing. A countered spell is cleared without effect and doesn't count as played (r425). Some effects ask a question as they resolve ("keep or recycle?") — the game stops for the answer.
The Chain banner showing an ability waiting to resolve The keep-or-recycle prompt shown as Vision resolves

11. Keywords

Stalwart Poro
[Shield N]+N Might while defending
Maddened Marauder
[Tank]takes combat damage first
Yi, Honed
[Ganking]moves Battlefield to Battlefield
Mystic Poro
[Vision]on play, look at your top card; may recycle it
Pouty Poro
[Deflect N]opponents pay N×[A] to target it
Incinerate
[Action]also playable in a Showdown
Gust
[Reaction]playable any time you hold Priority or Focus
Highlander
"instead"a replacement: the original event never happens

Every keyword the table knows, by the set that introduced it. In a game, hover any card and the same lines appear under its text.

StunA status, not a keyword: a stunned unit deals no combat damage, still needs full lethal to die, and clears at end of turn.
"instead"A replacement effect: the original event never happens.

12. Statuses and effects

printed4 + buff (0 or 1)+1 + "this turn" & statics+2 + in combat onlyAssault / Shield = 7 The badge on the table shows this number: green when raised, red when lowered, damage marked beneath. A unit dies when damage ≥ Might (r142).
Buffs: a unit either has one or not (+1). Damage heals at end of turn and after combat. "This turn" effects expire in the Ending Phase; "this combat" when the combat ends. Bonus Damage raises every instance of spell/ability damage, never combat damage.
Units with their Might badges, green where raised, damage marked beneath

13. Odds and ends

Look atshown to you only; the cards stay put unless moved
Revealshown to everyone
Recycleto the bottom of its deck
Banishout of the game (unless something brings it back)
Recallto base, not a move
Extra turnthe same player goes again; the order then continues
Take controlthe unit is yours: your Base, your combats, your Holds
Tokensmade by effects; cease to exist off the board
Burn outdrawing from an empty deck shuffles the Trash back in first

Something wrong or missing? Tell me on the Feedback page — the tutorial is built from these same rules, so a mistake here is probably a mistake there too.