Card effects: damage, healing, shields, DoTs and control
What cards do: single-target and area damage, healing, shields, DoTs, dispels, stuns. How card numbers grow with Power, what rarity means and what bosses do.
Every card is a set of effects: damage, healing, a shield, a buff and so on. A card's strength is its base number plus a bonus from Power — and the more a card costs, the larger the share of Power it gets.
What cards can do
- Damage — to a chosen target or to every enemy at once.
- Healing — for yourself or an ally. Healing beyond full Health isn't wasted: the excess becomes a shield.
- Shield — absorbs damage before it reaches Health.
- Buffs and debuffs — for example, more damage for 2 turns or less damage dealt by the target.
- Damage and healing over time (DoT and HoT) — tick at the end of the turn of whoever carries them.
- Draw cards and gain Crystals — speed up your turn.
- Dispel — removes harmful effects from you or helpful ones from an enemy.
- Stun — the target skips its next turn.
- Taunt — forces an enemy to attack you; works in group fights against creatures.
In the Spellbook (P key) cards are tagged by purpose: Attack, Heal, Shield, Buff, Debuff, Utility.
How numbers grow with Power
A card's damage, healing and shield all follow the same rule: base + Power × (cost / 5)^1.2. A 5-Crystal card gets all of your Power; cheaper cards get less, pricier ones more:
| Card cost | Share of Power | Bonus at 100 Power |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0.15 | +15 |
| 3 | 0.54 | +54 |
| 5 | 1 | +100 |
| 8 | 1.76 | +176 |
DoTs and HoTs grow with Power too. What Power is and where it comes from — see Hero stats.
Hitting several targets
An "all enemies" card hits each target with its full base, but the Power bonus per target is halved. With more than three targets, the bonus per target shrinks further. Group heals and shields work the same way.
Card rarity
Cards are common, rare, epic or legendary. Rarity doesn't change the rules of combat: a card's strength comes from its cost and your Power. Class cards are common, rare and epic and cost 1 to 8 Crystals; legendaries are special cards outside any class (see Your deck).
Control
- A stunned fighter skips their next turn.
- After a stun, a fighter gets at least 2 turns of their own during which they can't be stunned again — no stun-locks. The rule applies to heroes and enemies alike.
- Morven ignore boss stuns and the Kogran Pocket Bomb; stuns from class and enemy cards work on them like on anyone.
Boss abilities
Bosses and tough enemies use the same effects plus a few of their own: they discard a card from your hand, freeze a card (you can't play it for a few turns), burn your Crystals and summon helpers. If a fight drags on, the boss becomes enraged: each stack gives it +18% damage. How to prepare — see Boss fights.
Read next
How combat works: turns, Crystals and your hand
Combat in Zarhold is a card duel: 6 cards in hand, 1 to 10 Crystals, a coin for whoever goes second, a minute per turn — and what if the deck runs out.
Hero stats: Health, Power, Resilience, Hardiness
Four hero stats: Health, Power, Resilience and Hardiness. How Power strengthens cards, how defence works (capped at 54%) and why there are no crits.
Your deck: what it is made of
You don't build the deck by hand: every class card goes into battle (at least 30, up to 4 copies), plus cards from learned talents and special cards.
Boss fights: threat, taunt, enrage
Whom the boss attacks, how a tank holds it with Taunt, when a boss enrages, the protection against chain stuns and what happens to fallen heroes.