How to Play Star Wars: Unlimited

What is Star Wars: Unlimited?

Star Wars: Unlimited is a trading card game from Fantasy Flight Games. The first set, Spark of Rebellion, came out in March 2024, and about three main sets a year have followed. Two players each bring a deck built around a Leader (a character such as Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader) and a Base (a location), and fight with units in two arenas, ground and space.

Its main difference from most card games is pacing. Instead of taking a whole turn, players alternate one action at a time, so you answer your opponent's plays as they happen. A two-player starter deck has everything two people need to learn.

The goal

You win by destroying your opponent's base. Every base prints an HP number, most often 30, and it is destroyed when the damage on it equals or passes that number. Most of that damage comes from your units attacking it.

This page follows the publisher's Comprehensive Rules version 9.0, dated October 9, 2026. Before an event, check the current rules, since the publisher updates them. The how to win guide covers base HP and every way a game can end.

What you play with

In Premier, the main constructed format, you bring three things: one Leader, one Base and a main deck of at least 50 cards, with up to 3 copies of a card by full name. You can also bring a sideboard of up to 10 cards. You draw only from the main deck; the Leader and Base start in play.

Aspects are the six colored icons on cards: Vigilance, Command, Aggression, Cunning, Villainy and Heroism. Your Leader and Base supply aspects, and a card whose aspects they cover costs its printed amount. Each aspect icon on a card that they don't supply adds 2 resources to its cost, so an off-aspect card is legal but expensive. The aspects guide covers what each aspect does. If you're new, a starter deck comes ready to play. The card reading guide shows where each of these numbers and icons sits on a card.

Setting up

Each player puts their Base and Leader in play and shuffles their main deck. Pick a player at random, such as with a coin flip; that player decides who starts with the initiative. Each player then draws 6 cards and may mulligan once: shuffle the hand back and draw a new 6, which you must keep. The player with the initiative decides first.

Last, each player chooses exactly 2 cards from their hand and puts them face down as resources. Both players get the same 2; the player without the initiative gets no extra.

Resources pay for cards. Each resource is one face-down card, and you exhaust (turn sideways) one resource for each point of cost. Any card in your hand can become a resource, so every resource you add is a card you won't play. That choice comes up at setup and again every round.

The card types

Luke Skywalker, Faithful Friend

Spark of Rebellion #005

Leader

Dagobah Swamp, Dagobah

Spark of Rebellion #021

Base

Death Star Stormtrooper

Spark of Rebellion #128

Unit, ground arena

Luke's Lightsaber

Spark of Rebellion #053

Upgrade

Tactical Advantage

Spark of Rebellion #124

Event

Each unit is in the ground arena or the space arena, and the arena decides what it can attack. The attacking section below covers how.

How a round works

Each round has two phases: an action phase, where players play cards and attack, and a regroup phase, where they draw and ready.

In the action phase, players alternate taking one action at a time, starting with the player who has the initiative. On your turn to act, you choose one of these:

Claiming the initiative costs you the rest of the round. Your opponent keeps taking actions until they pass, and you can't respond with actions of your own, so take it when you have nothing left you need to do this round or when acting first next round is worth more than what you'd give up.

In the regroup phase, each player draws 2 cards, may put 1 card from their hand into their resources, and readies all of their exhausted cards. Then a new round starts. Resourcing every round gets your expensive cards out sooner, and skipping a round keeps one more card in hand. The turns guide walks through a full round.

Attacking

To attack, exhaust a ready unit and choose a target in the same arena. A ground unit can attack an enemy ground unit or the opposing base, and a space unit can attack an enemy space unit or the opposing base. Units don't attack across arenas.

When a unit attacks another unit, each deals damage equal to its power to the other at the same time. A unit is defeated when the damage on it equals or passes its HP. When a unit attacks a base, the base takes the damage and the base doesn't hit back.

Some keywords change combat. Enemy units in the same arena as a unit with Sentinel can't attack your other units or your base, so they have to attack the Sentinel first. A Shield token on a unit prevents the next damage that would be dealt to it, and then the token is defeated. The combat guide covers attacking in depth, and the keywords guide explains every keyword.

How you win

When the damage on a base equals or passes its HP, the base is destroyed and that player loses. Running out of cards doesn't end the game by itself: if you would draw from an empty deck, you deal 3 damage to your own base for each card you couldn't draw, and that damage can destroy it.

Some cards heal a base, so the damage on it can go down as well as up. The damage tracker keeps each base's HP on one phone, along with who has the initiative, each Leader and the round, lets the rest of the table watch live, and saves the result when the game ends.

Formats

Premier is the main constructed format and the one used above: your own deck of at least 50 cards, one Leader and one Base, from the sets in rotation, at most six at a time. Three sets rotate out together each March. Eternal uses the same deck rules with every set legal. Twin Suns is the multiplayer format for more than two players, with two Leaders and one copy of each card. Sealed and draft are limited formats: you build a smaller deck from cards you open at the event. The publisher adds and adjusts formats, so check its current list before you build for a specific event. The formats guide covers each one, including Trilogy, a three-deck format.

Frequently Asked Questions