Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG
Every Yu-Gi-Oh! duel is a race to take the other player from 8000 Life Points to 0. Here's how the count works under the rules, the ways duelists keep it at the table, and how to track a game's Life Points in TurnZero HQ, with every game saved afterward.
Each player starts the duel with 8000 Life Points (LP), and a player whose LP reaches 0 loses. That's the whole scoring system: there are no points to collect, only a number that counts down as the duel goes on. Speed Duel, a separate smaller format, starts at 4000; this page is about the standard game.
8000 is a starting point, not a limit. Nothing in the rules caps Life Points, so a player who gains LP can go above 8000 and stay there until damage or a cost brings them down.
Life Points move in a few different ways, and they don't all behave like damage:
Because so much of this lands on uneven numbers, the fastest way to track Yu-Gi-Oh! is usually to work out the new total and write it down or type it in, rather than counting down in fixed steps.
Reaching 0 LP is the most common way to lose, but not the only one:
Life Points to 0: a player whose LP reaches 0 loses. If both players reach 0 at the same time, the duel is a draw.
Deck out: a player who has to draw a card with no cards left in their Deck loses.
A card's own win condition: a few cards win the duel outright, such as holding all five pieces of Exodia the Forbidden One in your hand.
Concession: a player can surrender at any time.
These are the same endings TurnZero HQ's result sheet offers for a Yu-Gi-Oh! game: Life Points to 0, Deck out, Alternate Win Con and Concession.
Duelists have kept Life Points a few ways over the years, and each one suits a different table:
Organized play generally expects a written record of Life Points, so if you're at a tournament, check the event's policy before you rely on a calculator or an app alone.
TurnZero HQ doesn't play Yu-Gi-Oh! for you. You duel at a real table, and the app keeps each player's Life Points, lets others follow along, and saves the result. It works on iPhone, Android and the web.
One device keeps score at a time, run by the gathering's host or a player seated in the game. Anyone else watches the Life Points update live, and a seated player or the host can tap Keep score here to take over from their own device.
For Yu-Gi-Oh!, the tracker is one Life Point total per seat, a live view for the people watching, undo, and a saved result with how the game ended. Several things TurnZero HQ does for Magic: The Gathering are not part of it:
No ratings or MMR for players or decks, and no win odds
No per-game player stats, damage breakdowns, awards or AI recaps
No best-of-three match scoring; each game is saved on its own
No Personal Mode
No playing online: it keeps score for a duel happening at a real table
8000. Each player starts the duel with 8000 Life Points under the current rules, and a player whose Life Points reach 0 loses. TurnZero HQ starts every seat of a Yu-Gi-Oh! game on 8000.
Yes. 8000 is only where a duel starts, not a ceiling, so a card that gains you Life Points can take you past it. The TurnZero HQ tracker lets a seat go above 8000 too.
Tap the Life Points number and type the new total. Battle damage is the difference between two ATK or DEF values, so amounts like 1300 or 850 are common, and typing the exact result is faster than pressing a step button several times. The buttons move by 100, 500 and 1000 for the round amounts.
Yes. A Yu-Gi-Oh! gathering can have 2 or more seats, each with its own Life Points, and each game is saved in that gathering's history. Anyone at the gathering who isn't keeping score can watch the numbers live.
No. Each game is tracked and saved on its own. You can play the next game of a match as a new game in the same gathering, but TurnZero HQ doesn't add up games into a match result for Yu-Gi-Oh!.
That depends on the event. Organized play generally expects each player to keep a written record of Life Points, so check your event's policy before relying on a phone. For casual duels and locals where it's allowed, the tracker keeps the count and the history for you.
Start a Yu-Gi-Oh! game, type the damage, and every game is saved to your gathering. Free on iPhone, Android and the web.
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