Beginner's guide

How to Play Cyberpunk TCG

There's no life total in Cyberpunk TCG: you win by holding 7 of the 12 Gig dice. Here's how setting up, turns, stealing and deck building work under the current Beta rules.

Rules checked 24 September 202615 minute read

Players: 2
Deck: 3 Legends + 40 to 50 cards
Game length: No official time; Overtime after 7 turns each
Ages: No official rating
To learn: Moderate
You win by: Start your turn with 7 of the 12 Gig dice

The short version

Cyberpunk TCG is a two-player card and dice game set in Night City. Each player brings six Gig dice. Every turn you roll one of your own dice into play, then send your Units to attack your Rival's dice and steal them. Start your turn holding 7 of the 12 dice and you win. A deck is 3 Legends plus 40 to 50 cards. Each turn you ready your cards, draw one, roll in a die, then sell a card for money, play cards and attack in whatever order suits you.

What you need to play Cyberpunk TCG

Each player needs a deck, six dice and a bit of table. That's it.

A deck: 3 Legend cards (they have their own card back) plus a main deck of 40 to 50 cards. A Starter Deck is 40 plus 3, legal out of the box.
Six dice: a d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and d20. Any balanced set both players can read will do, and Starter Decks include one.
No tokens. Money in this game is cards, not coins.
A playmat is optional. You can lay your areas out however fits the table, as long as you tell your Rival where everything is. Sleeves are a good idea.

There are two Starter Decks for the first set, Welcome to Night City, and each is one player's deck. Honestly, the best start is one of each: pick up Embracing Power and The Heist and you've got a matched pair to learn with, plus two sets of dice.

Starter Deck	Its three Legends	Colours
Embracing Power	Goro Takemura: Hands Unclean, Saburo Arasaka: Stubborn Patriarch, Yorinobu Arasaka: Embracing Destruction	Green and Red
The Heist	V: Corporate Exile, Viktor Vektor: Sit Down and Relax, Jackie Welles: Pour One Out For Me	Blue and Yellow

Five cards in each deck, including all three Legends, aren't in the main Welcome to Night City set. Retail release is 6 November 2026, with pre-release events on the weekend of 30 October.

How you win: seven Gigs at the start of your turn

Every die in play is a Gig. There are 12 of them, six from each player. If you start your turn controlling 7 or more Gigs, you win. It's checked before you ready, draw or roll anything.

Seven is a majority, so you can't win on your own six dice. You have to steal at least one of your Rival's. That's the whole point: somebody has to go on the attack.

Each die is one Gig, whatever number it shows. For winning, a d4 showing 1 counts exactly as much as a d20 showing 20.
The numbers still matter. Add up your Gig dice and that's your Street Cred (☆), which lots of cards check. With no Gigs, it's Null, lower than 0.
Before Overtime, stealing your seventh Gig isn't enough. You have to hold on to it through your Rival's whole turn.

Overtime

You roll one die in per turn, so after six turns every die is in play. Once both players have finished their 7th turn, the game goes into Overtime: anyone holding 7 or more Gigs at any moment wins on the spot. It stops games stalling. Six each still isn't a win for anyone.

How you lose

You lose if you have to draw from an empty deck. Zero cards left is fine; it's the failed draw that loses, and searching your deck doesn't count as drawing. If both players win (or both lose) at once, it's a tie.

There's no official play time. Your first few games will run long while you read every card. That's normal.

The four card types

Three card types live in your main deck. Legends sit apart, face-down beside it.

LegendThree per deck. They start face-down and give money, effects and sometimes a fighter.
UnitYour crew. Units attack rival Units and steal Gigs.
GearEquipment. Attach it to a Unit or face-up Legend for extra power and text.
ProgramOne-shot effects. Play it, do what it says, then it goes to the trash.

Legends

Legends are the big names: V, Johnny Silverhand, Judy, Panam, the Arasaka family. Yours start face-down in a random order and you flip them with Call a Legend. Once face-up, their ongoing effects stay switched on; Saburo Arasaka: Stubborn Patriarch gives your ARASAKA Units +1 power while they attack. They also double as money.

A Legend with a number in the cost corner can be paid for and put on the field as a Unit. One with a dash there is pure support. If a Legend goes anywhere except the Legends area or the field, it's removed from the game.

Units

Units win the game. Pay their cost and they arrive on the field ready (upright) but with Lag: no attacking and no Spend abilities on the turn they arrive.

Gear

Gear goes on one of your Units or a face-up Legend, and its power adds on; Mantis Blades costs 1 and gives +2. The bottom text box counts as if it were printed on the card it's attached to. There's no limit per Unit, and Gear leaves the field with the card it's on.

Programs

You play Programs in your own turn, except ones marked [QUICK], which you can also spring during your Rival's attack. Floor It costs 1 €$: give a rival Unit -1 power this turn and draw a card.

Reading a Cyberpunk TCG card

V: Streetkid Legend card with numbered markers on its cost, Sell Tag, type, name, RAM, tags, text box, power, set code and rarity — V: Streetkid, the same card WeirdCo labels in its own guide.

Cost: how many €$ you pay to play it. A dash on a Legend means it can't go onto the field.
Sell Tag: the €$ symbol. You can sell this card for money.
Type: Legend, Unit, Gear or Program.
Name and subtitle: "V" plus "Streetkid". Different subtitles make different cards.
RAM and colour: the deck-building number, in the card's colour.
Tags: labels like MERC or ARASAKA that other cards refer to.
Text box: what the card does. Italic text in brackets is a reminder with no effect of its own.
Power: how hard it hits. On Gear, it's a bonus.
Set code and number: which set and which card.
Rarity: the small symbol along the bottom edge.

There are four colours: Red, Green, Blue and Yellow.

Eddies, selling and paying for cards

This is the part that feels most different from other card games. Money is called Eddies (€$), and you don't get them automatically. Once per turn you may sell one card from your hand that has a Sell Tag: show it to your Rival, then put it face-down in your Eddies area. Each face-down card there is 1 Eddie, whatever its printed cost was.

Here's the bit that matters: to pay, you turn Eddies sideways ("spending" them), and at the start of your next turn they stand back up. So every card you sell is +1 €$ every turn for the rest of the game.

In Welcome to Night City every Gear and every Program has a Sell Tag, and Units don't, with one exception: MT0D12 Flathead in The Heist. So you're always weighing up a card in your hand against the money it would make. Early on, sell almost every turn.

Legends are money too

Any ready Legend in your Legends area can be spent to pay 1 €$, face-down or face-up (a face-up one needs a Sell Tag). You can pay with any mix of Eddies and Legends.

Call a Legend

Once per turn you can pay 1 €$ to flip a face-down Legend, in your own turn or while your Rival is attacking you. No peeking, so you won't know which one you're getting. Flipping triggers its [CALL] effect, and a spent Legend stays spent.

Goro Takemura: Hands Unclean, from Embracing Power, has a cost of 5, so you can bring him onto the field as a 7-power Unit. He has [GO SOLO], which lets him arrive ready to attack that same turn, and [BLOCKER], so once he's on the field he can step in front of an attack.

The catch: if he leaves the field, he's gone for good.

Goro Takemura: Hands Unclean Legend card from the Embracing Power Starter Deck

Rule check

RAM is not a resource. It only limits what you can put in your deck. You never pay RAM during a game.

The play area

Cyberpunk TCG play area for one player: fixer column on the left, Rival Gigs and Friendly Gigs along the top, a large field in the middle, Legends and Eddies below it, deck and trash on the right — One player's side, laid out like WeirdCo's official mat.

Fixer: Your six dice start here. They aren't your Gigs yet: they don't add to Street Cred and can't be targeted.
Friendly Gigs: Dice you've rolled in or stolen. Hold 7 here at the start of your turn and you've won.
Rival Gigs: Your Rival's dice. This is what your Units attack. It's only a legal target while it holds at least one die.
Field: Your Units, plus any Legends you've played as Units. No limit on how many.
Legends: Your three Legends, face-down to begin with. Each ready one can pay 1 €$.
Eddies: Sold cards, face-down, 1 €$ each. Your Rival can see how many you have, not what they are.
Deck: Your main deck, face-down. No looking, no reordering.
Trash: Your discard pile, face-up. Either player can look through it.

Your hand is a zone too, and there's no maximum hand size. Cards removed from the game go in a pile off to the side.

How to set up a game of Cyberpunk TCG

Decide who goes first The official suggestion is that both players roll a d20, re-rolling ties. The winner chooses whether to go first or second.
Shuffle your deck Shuffle your main deck, offer it to your Rival to cut, and put it in your deck area.
Place your Legends Shuffle your three Legends the same way, let your Rival cut them, and lay them face-down in your Legends area.
First player spends two Legends Whoever goes first turns their two left-most Legends sideways. Those two don't ready on the first turn.
Line up your dice Put your d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and d20 in your fixer. No dice are rolled yet.
Draw 6 That's your opening hand.
Mulligan if you want Once, you may shuffle your whole hand back and draw 6 new cards. The first player decides first, then the second.

Both players draw on turn one. The first player's handicap is those two spent Legends: at most 2 €$ on turn one (one Legend plus one sale) against the second player's 4. And the second player has no Gigs or Units yet, so the first player has nothing to attack on turn one.

Taking a turn: the Start and Main Phases

Two phases, then a quick tidy-up before your Rival goes.

Start PhaseCheck for the win, ready your spent cards, draw 1, then roll one die from your fixer into your Gig area. All of it is compulsory, in that order.
Main PhaseSell a card, call a Legend, play cards, use abilities and attack, in any order you like. Pass when you're done.
End of turn"At the end of your turn" effects happen, "this turn" effects wear off and all Units lose Lag.

Rolling in a Gig

Any "at the start of your turn" effects happen after the win check and before you ready. Then, after drawing, pick any die from your fixer, roll it, and put it in your Gig area showing what it landed on. The d20 can only be picked when it's the last die left, so it always arrives on your sixth turn. The order of the rest is a real choice: bigger dice mean more Street Cred, but they're juicier to steal.

The Main Phase

The order is up to you:

Sell a card once per turn.
Call a Legend once per turn, for 1 €$.
Play cards: Units, Gear, Programs, and Legends with a cost.
Use abilities on your Units and Legends. Anything with the Spend symbol can't be used by a Unit with Lag.
Attack with each ready Unit that doesn't have Lag, one at a time.

There's no separate attack phase. Attack, steal a big die, then play the card your new Street Cred just switched on.

How attacking and stealing Gigs works

To attack, pick one of your ready Units without Lag and turn it sideways. Then choose a target:

a spent rival Unit (ready Units can't be attacked unless a card says so), or
your Rival's Gig area, as long as there's at least one die in it.

Any [ATTACK] effect happens straight away. Then your Rival gets a React Step, where they can:

Call a Legend, if they haven't this turn.
Spend a ready Unit with [BLOCKER]. That Unit becomes the new target instead.
Use [QUICK] effects and play QUICK Programs.

Fighting a Unit

Compare power. The higher one wins and the loser is defeated, going to its owner's trash along with its Gear. On a tie, both are defeated. A Unit with 0 power can't defeat anything. (A defeated Legend is removed from the game rather than trashed.)

Stealing Gigs

If your attack reaches the Gig area, you steal dice based on your Unit's power:

Attacker's power	Gigs stolen
0	None
1 to 9	1
10 to 19	2
20 to 29	3, and so on

You pick which dice to take. They keep the number they're showing, so that value moves off your Rival's Street Cred and onto yours.

Common mistake

If a BLOCKER steps in, the attack becomes a fight with the blocker and nothing is stolen, even if your Unit wins that fight easily.

Here's the tension in every game: attacking spends your Unit, and it doesn't ready until your next turn. Spent Units are exactly what your Rival can attack, so every swing leaves your attacker exposed.

That's why Sandevistan is so good. It readies the Unit it's on at the end of your turn, so you can attack without becoming a sitting target.

Sandevistan Gear card, Welcome to Night City 095

Saburo Arasaka: Stubborn Patriarch Legend beside the Minotaur Unit, both from the Embracing Power Starter Deck — The attacker: Saburo's +1 turns a 9-power Minotaur into a 10.

Worked example

Player A (Embracing Power) has Saburo Arasaka: Stubborn Patriarch face-up and Minotaur, a 9-power ARASAKA Unit, on the field without Lag.
Player B (The Heist) has three Gigs (d4 showing 3, d6 showing 6, d8 showing 2), a ready Secondhand Bombus (0 power, BLOCKER), and Floor It in hand with 1 €$ unspent.
A spends Minotaur and attacks B's Gig area. With Saburo it's attacking at 10 power, which is enough to steal two Gigs.
If B plays Floor It: in the React Step, Minotaur drops to 9, so it steals only one Gig, and B draws a card. A takes the d6 showing 6: A's Street Cred goes up by 6, and B's goes down by 6.
If B blocks with Secondhand Bombus: instead, the attack turns into a fight: 10 against 0. Bombus is defeated and goes to the trash, and A steals nothing at all.
Either way, Minotaur is now spent, so B can attack it next turn. Defending, it's back to 9 power.

B could only answer because something was held back: 1 €$ for Floor It, or a ready blocker. That's how you defend in this game.

Cyberpunk TCG keywords explained

The first set has four keywords and four "when" triggers, plus a few terms you'll hear constantly.

[PLAY]Happens when you play the card.
[CALL]Happens when this Legend is flipped face-up with Call a Legend.
[ATTACK]Happens when this Unit attacks, before your Rival can react.
[DEFEATED]Happens when this Unit is defeated. If the defeat is prevented, it doesn't happen.
[ADRENALINE]This Unit can attack the turn it's played. It still can't use Spend abilities that turn.
[BLOCKER]When a rival Unit attacks, you may spend this Unit to make it the target instead. Works the turn it's played, and protects other Units as well as your Gigs.
[GO SOLO]A Legend keyword. Pay the Legend's cost to play it as a ready Unit that can attack this turn. If it leaves the field, it's removed from the game.
[QUICK]You can use this effect, or play this Program, in response to a rival Unit's attack.
Spend symbolTurn this card sideways to use the ability after it.
LagUnits can't attack or use Spend abilities on the turn they arrive.
Trash 3Put the top card of your deck in your trash, three times.
Street Cred (☆)The total of the numbers showing on your Gig dice.

Riding Nomad Unit with ADRENALINE and Corpo Security Unit with BLOCKER, both from Welcome to Night City — Riding Nomad can attack straight away. Corpo Security can't attack at all, but it can block.

Worth knowing

When a card and the rules disagree, the card wins. When one effect says you can and another says you can't, "can't" wins. And negative power counts as 0.

Cyberpunk TCG deck building rules

Exactly 3 Legends, all with different names. You can't run V: Streetkid and V: Corporate Exile together.
A main deck of 40 to 50 cards, not counting Legends.
No more than 3 copies of any card with the same name and subtitle.
Every card has to fit your RAM limits.

How RAM works

Your three Legends' RAM adds up to a limit for each colour. Every main-deck card is then checked on its own: its RAM must be equal to or lower than your limit in its colour. You never add up RAM across the deck.

The three Embracing Power Legends: Goro Takemura: Hands Unclean, Saburo Arasaka: Stubborn Patriarch and Yorinobu Arasaka: Embracing Destruction — Two Green Legends and one Red: a limit of 4 Green and 2 Red.

Goro and Saburo are 2 Green RAM each and Yorinobu is 2 Red, so Green cards up to RAM 4 and Red cards up to RAM 2 are allowed. Blue and Yellow are out completely.

Every tournament-legal Legend in the first set has 2 RAM, so three Legends of one colour give you 6 in that colour. Adam Smasher: Metal Over Meat, a 15-power Yellow Unit with 6 RAM, only fits in a deck with three Yellow Legends. A second colour gets you options but lowers the ceiling in both.

Your first deck

Play the Starter Deck as it comes for a few games first, then swap out what feels weak. We'd stay at 40 cards so you draw your best ones more often. Keep enough Gear and Programs to sell early, and a couple of BLOCKERs so your Gigs aren't wide open. WeirdCo has an official deck builder on its website.

Mistakes everyone makes once

The rules changed from Alpha to the current Beta version in May 2026. If you learned from an older video or guide, some of these will look familiar.

Playing to six Gigs. It's seven, checked at the start of your turn. Six was the Alpha rule.
Paying 2 €$ to Call a Legend. It's 1 €$ now.
Waiting for an attack phase. There isn't one. Attacks happen in the Main Phase, mixed in with everything else.
Selling several cards a turn. The Sell action is one card per turn.
Treating Eddies like coins. They stay, and an unspent one might pay for a QUICK Program on your Rival's turn.
Using GO SOLO on a Unit. GO SOLO is for Legends. The Unit keyword for attacking straight away is ADRENALINE.
Attacking a ready Unit, or an empty Gig area. Neither is a legal target.
Forgetting the first-player penalty. Two left-most Legends start spent and stay spent through turn one.
Rolling the d20 early. It's always the last die out of the fixer.
Expecting to steal after a block. A blocked attack steals nothing.
Thinking a tie saves one Unit. A tie defeats both.
Losing at zero cards. You only lose when you have to draw and can't.

Tip

Before you attack, check what your Rival has that could beat your Unit once it's spent. Sometimes the Gig isn't worth it.

Formats and what's legal

Constructed is the standard format, using the rules above. WeirdCo's weekly organised play, Night City Brawl, starts on 6 November 2026, and bigger Night City Showdown events follow between 13 November and 6 December.

Sealed is used at pre-releases and Beta events: pick three Legends from what you open and build at least 30 cards, ignoring RAM but using no more than three colours. Matches are best of three. A Pre-Release Kit has six booster packs, three random Legends, a Gorilla Arms promo and a set of dice, which makes it a decent way in.

As of September 2026 every card in Welcome to Night City is legal, with one exception: the textless Rebecca: Having a Moment promo, which becomes playable once Set 2 is released. There's no ban list or rotation policy yet, and tournament rules haven't been published, so check the official site before an event. Beta and retail printings have identical text.

WeirdCo has already changed the core rules once, so if anything here ever disagrees with WeirdCo's official rules, go with theirs. And if you're stuck on a ruling, ask us.

Questions people ask

How many cards are in a Cyberpunk TCG deck?

A constructed deck has 3 Legends plus a main deck of 40 to 50 cards. You can run up to 3 copies of a card with the same name and subtitle, and your three Legends must all have different names. Each Starter Deck has 40 cards and 3 Legends, which is a legal deck on its own.

How many Gigs do you need to win Cyberpunk TCG?

Seven. If you control 7 or more Gig dice at the start of your turn, you win. There are only 12 dice in play and you bring six, so you must steal at least one from your Rival. The old Alpha rules used six, which is why some older videos say otherwise.

What dice do you need for Cyberpunk TCG?

Each player needs one d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and d20. Any balanced set that both players can read is fine. Both Starter Decks and the Pre-Release Kit include a full set.

When does Cyberpunk TCG come out in the UK?

The first set, Welcome to Night City, goes on general retail sale on 6 November 2026. Pre-release events run on the weekend of 30 October 2026. Kickstarter copies started shipping to backers in September 2026.

Is one Starter Deck enough for two players?

No. A Starter Deck is one player's deck: 40 cards, 3 Legends and one set of dice. Two players need two decks, and buying Embracing Power and The Heist gives you one each.

Can a Unit attack the turn it's played in Cyberpunk TCG?

Not normally. New Units have Lag, so they can't attack or use Spend abilities that turn. A Unit with ADRENALINE can attack straight away, and a Legend played with GO SOLO can too. Neither can use Spend abilities on the turn it arrives.

What is Overtime in Cyberpunk TCG?

Overtime is sudden death. It starts once both players have finished their 7th turn, by which point every die has left both fixers. After that, the moment anyone controls 7 or more Gigs they win, without waiting for the start of their turn. Having more dice than your Rival isn't enough; you still need seven.

Do you use RAM at a Cyberpunk TCG pre-release?

No. Sealed events such as pre-releases and Beta events ignore RAM. You build a main deck of at least 30 cards from what you open, pick three Legends, and can use up to three colours.

Do Beta and retail Cyberpunk TCG cards play the same?

Yes, as far as the rules text goes. The official card database lists Beta and retail printings under the same card with identical text. Beta cards carry a Beta symbol and some have different art. One Beta printing, the Iconic Johnny Silverhand: Never Stop Fighting, shows a Sell Tag by mistake and can't be sold.

Where to start

The easiest ways in. Prices and stock on this list are live.

See everything for Cyberpunk TCG

Where these rules come from

Checked on 24 September 2026 against WeirdCo's Comprehensive Rules (updated 1 September 2026), the Rules FAQ (updated 15 September 2026) and the official card database.

How to Play Cyberpunk TCG

What you need to play Cyberpunk TCG