Giving DON!! in the One Piece TCG

What giving is

Giving is one of the four Main Phase actions (rule 6-5-2). You take 1 active DON!! card from your cost area and place it under your Leader or one of your Characters, so it stays visible (rule 6-5-5-1). You can do it as many times as you have active DON!! for (rule 6-5-5-3). Every rule here is from Bandai's Comprehensive Rules, version 1.2.1, last updated August 28, 2026, which is current as of October 2026.

Three limits follow from that wording. The DON!! must be active, so a DON!! you rested to play a card can't be given by this action. It goes to a Leader or a Character, never a Stage. And since giving is a Main Phase action, listed beside playing cards and battling, you give DON!! before you declare an attack; the battle steps in section 7 of the rules don't include it, and the game only returns to the Main Phase actions once the battle ends (rule 7-1-5-5). A card effect can do what the action can't, such as giving a rested DON!!, because card text takes precedence over the rules (rule 1-3-1).

Killer

OP14-005

[Activate: Main] [Once Per Turn] Give up to 1 rested DON!! to your Leader or a Character

Mr.3(Galdino)

ST30-014

Rest it to give up to 2 rested DON!! each to two 6000-base-power Characters

"Give rested DON!!" effects are worth more than they look. They take a DON!! you already used to pay for a card and turn it into power as well, which the rule on its own never allows.

What a given DON!! does

The second row is the one players miss. [DON!! x1] is a condition that checks the count of given DON!!, and nothing in the rule limits it to your turn. Given DON!! stays on the card until your next Refresh Phase, so a DON!! you gave on your turn still switches on a [DON!! x1] effect while your opponent attacks. Bandai's Q&A also confirms that more DON!! than the number shown still meets the condition.

Smoker

OP11-005

[Blocker]; with [DON!! x1] it can't be K.O.'d by effects of Characters without <Special>

Mont Blanc Noland

OP15-111

[DON!! x1] [When Attacking]: the DON!! has to be given before the attack

Smoker is the defensive case: a DON!! given on your turn adds no power on your opponent's turn, but it keeps Smoker's protection on while it blocks. Mont Blanc Noland is the timing case: a [When Attacking] effect checks its condition when the attack is declared (rule 8-3-2-3), so the DON!! has to be there first.

What a given DON!! can't do

A given DON!! is neither active nor rested (rule 4-4-2). That has three consequences:

• It can't pay a cost that rests DON!!, such as ① or "You may rest 1 of your DON!! cards", because those need an active DON!! in your cost area (rule 8-3-1-5).
• Effects can't set it active or rested, which Bandai's rules Q&A states directly. "Set up to 2 of your DON!! cards as active" only reaches DON!! in your cost area.
• The rules give you no way to move it to another card; the Q&A says a given DON!! can't be transferred during the Main Phase. Unless a card effect moves it, as the Monkey.D.Dragon Leader (OP07-001) can, it stays on that Leader or Character until one of the three things below happens.

That last point is why you decide where your DON!! goes before you start attacking. If your first attacker is stopped, the DON!! on it can't be moved to the next one without an effect that says so.

Where given DON!! goes

A given DON!! ends up in one of three places, depending on what happens first:

The second row has a timing catch. If your attacker is K.O.'d during your own turn, for example by a [Counter] Event your opponent plays in the Counter Step, the DON!! on it returns rested and you can't use it again that turn unless an effect gives or spends rested DON!!. If the Character is K.O.'d on your opponent's turn, the DON!! returns rested and is set active in your next Refresh Phase, so nothing is lost. Either way, any effect that had been applied to that DON!! card ends when it moves (rule 3-1-6-1).

DON!! −X is the only one of the three that shrinks what you have on the field. Returned DON!! goes back to the DON!! deck, which is open information either player can count (rule 3-3-2), and it can come back in a later DON!! Phase. Purple builds around that cost, as the colors lesson explains.

Queen

OP17-065

[On Play] DON!! −1: may return a DON!! given to a Character

Yamato

OP17-074

[On Play] Add up to 1 DON!! card as rested from your DON!! deck

The Refresh Phase return, in order

The Refresh Phase does four things in a fixed order (rules 6-2-1 to 6-2-4), and the order decides what a start-of-turn effect sees:

Step 2 happens while your DON!! is still given, and step 3 is not optional; Bandai's Q&A says you can't keep a DON!! on a card into the new turn. Your opponent's given DON!! is untouched by your Refresh Phase, since the rule only returns your own. The number of DON!! you add each turn after that is in the DON!! Phase.

An attack, step by step

Splitting DON!! across attackers limits the damage one removal effect can do, while stacking it forces more Counter cards out of your opponent's hand for a single attack. The math behind that choice is in how battles work, and what your opponent can do in the Counter Step is in the Counter Step.

Common mistakes

Frequently Asked Questions