Re Night cards form the backbone of combat in Seahorse Games' tactical deckbuilding roguelike on Steam. Players command a three-hero party drawn from a pool of six characters, triggering elemental reactions, positioning party members on a grid, and clearing enemy encounters.
Understanding card tags, unique mechanics, and how each hero’s exclusive card pool interacts with elemental weaknesses is essential for clearing runs across the game's difficulty tiers.
Core Card Mechanics and Keywords
Cards in Re:Night cost energy to play, shown in the top-left corner, and feature a range indicator in the top-right. While some basic cards are neutral, most character cards introduce tactical board effects, status ailments, or elemental triggers.
Official tooltips and gameplay footage confirm several recurring card keywords:
- Fleeting: A fleeting card vanishes from combat when played or at the end of the turn if left unplayed in your hand.
- Exhaust: The card is removed from your deck for the remainder of the current battle after being played.
- Retain: Cards with Retain remain in your hand at the end of the turn rather than being discarded.
- Precision: Triggers an additional bonus effect if the card is played while occupying the center position of your hand.
- Finale: Triggers an extra effect if the card's energy cost equals your exact remaining energy at the moment it is played.
- Sandwich (Pincer): Triggers bonus damage or effects when the tile on the opposite side of the targeted enemy is occupied by an allied unit or a field object.
- Collision / Knockback: Cards that push units backwards cause extra collision damage if the target strikes a wall, an obstacle, or another character.
Because misplays can happen easily in a grid-based deckbuilder, the game includes a built-in rewind feature with no penalties, allowing you to undo individual actions, restart the current turn, or reset an entire battle.
Elemental Counter System and Card Crits
The primary damage multiplier in Re:Night revolves around a cyclical elemental system involving Fire, Water, and Grass:
- Fire counters Grass
- Grass counters Water
- Water counters Fire
When a card applies an elemental stack to an enemy, following up with an attack of the countering element triggers an elemental critical hit. The bonus damage scales directly with the number of stacks accumulated on the target.
For instance, hitting a target afflicted with two Water stacks using the Farmer's Grass Fork deals magnified damage, consuming the weakness. Setting up element-inflicting cards across your three party members allows starter cards that deal 1 to 4 base damage to ramp into high-damage turns exceeding 60 to 100 damage.
Playable Characters and Exclusive Card Archetypes
The full release features six distinct characters. Each character introduces an exclusive pool of cards and unique combat mechanics.
| Character | Primary Element / Focus | Core Card Types and Mechanics |
|---|---|---|
| Farmer | Grass / Bruiser | High HP, self-harm cards, Grass Fork, terrain seeds, terrain transformation |
| Hunter | Fire / Ranged | Shot cards, Fire Shot, Precision center-hand triggers, bomb placement |
| Rogue | Water / Mobility | Water Blade, high movement, sandwich/pincer positioning, Fleeting draw |
| Dancer | Pollen / Debuffs | Pollen cards, multi-type poison application, damage-over-time amplification |
| Scholar | Tactical / Deck Control | Hand iteration, deck cycling, card generation, talent-based early game support |
| Shaman | Board Clones / Disruption | Enemy Projections, board-wide knockbacks, ally damage redirection, Time Reversal |
The Farmer: Grass and Sustain
The Farmer specializes in frontline tanking and Grass-element generation. Cards like Grass Fork apply Grass stacks for the Hunter or other party members to ignite with Fire attacks. Advanced Farmer cards frequently feature self-damage trade-offs, such as dealing heavy grass damage in exchange for losing health. To counterbalance this, Farmer builds utilize cards like Seed of Life (recovering HP when discarded during a turn) or items like the Straw Hat and Vitality Pollen to maintain survivability.
The Hunter: Fire, Shots, and Bombs
The Hunter operates as a ranged damage dealer centered around Fire Shot and Shot-type cards. Many Hunter cards rely on the Precision keyword, granting bonus damage, reduced energy costs, or knockbacks when played from the center of the hand. The Hunter also excels at area control through bomb cards (such as Throw Bomb, Bomb Toss, and Bombs Away). These allow the player to deploy explosive objects onto empty tiles and detonate them for burst fire damage across rows or clusters.
The Rogue: Water, Positioning, and Pincers
The Rogue emphasizes high mobility and Water-element attacks such as Water Blade and Fluid Strike. Rogue cards reward dynamic tactical positioning, particularly the Sandwich mechanic, which boosts damage when coordinating with an ally or an obstacle directly opposite the enemy. Rogues also utilize cards that generate cheap Fleeting strikes, draw cards, or reposition across the board via tools like Body Flicker.
Dancer: Pollen and Multi-Poison Cards
Unlocked after completing a run, the Dancer does not rely on direct rock-paper-scissors elemental attack cycles. Instead, the Dancer utilizes Pollen cards. The Dancer's Blossom talent reduces the energy cost of the first Pollen card played each turn by 1.
Pollen applies damage-over-time effects that occupy individual status slots. Rather than simply refreshing duration, multiple applications create separate damage ticks. Documented status types include:
- Poison: Deals 1 non-elemental damage at the start of every turn.
- Fire Poison: Deals 2 fire damage at the start of each turn and adds +1 Fire element.
- Water Poison: Deals 2 water damage at the start of each turn and adds +1 Water element.
- Grass Poison: Deals 2 grass damage at the start of each turn and adds +1 Grass element.
- Black Poison: Deals non-elemental damage at the start of each turn equal to the target's current elemental amount multiplied by 6.
Cards like Dust Explosion convert these setups into burst damage, dealing non-elemental damage multiplied by the number of Pollen cards played that turn.
Shaman: Projections and Time Reversal
Unlocked by clearing a run with the Scholar, the Shaman introduces the Projection mechanic. Cards like Four-Way Projection summon temporary clones of enemy units on empty tiles. These clones vanish at the end of the turn. When players attack a projection, the damage, elements, and debuffs transfer directly to the primary enemy body.
The Shaman also brings critical party utility cards such as Time Reversal, which resets all allies' HP back to their values at the start of the turn. This pairs effectively with the Farmer's self-damaging cards and friendly-fire bomb detonations.
Deckbuilding Strategy: Hand Size vs. Consistency
Re:Night includes over 300 cards, but official developer advice and high-difficulty community strategies emphasize deck restraint. Bloating your deck with too many attack cards prevents you from drawing key elemental setups when needed.
Key principles for managing your deck across an adventure include:
- Prioritize Card Removal Nodes: Neutral Punch cards and unaligned basic attacks dilute your hand. Removing them at water wells or specialized map nodes ensures consistent elemental chaining.
- Upgrade Core Multipliers: Card upgrades drastically boost damage ceilings and frequently remove energy costs or add retaining properties. High-impact cards like Fluid Strike, Achilles Shot, and Dust Explosion scale sharply with upgrades.
- Exploit Chrono Shard Cards: Completing character-specific puzzle battles via the Chrono Disc (Chrono Shards) unlocks advanced character-exclusive cards and equipment, such as the Shaman's Seismic Wave and Wind God's Wave, which can then appear in subsequent runs.
- Coordinate Item Passives: Over 200 equipment pieces interact directly with card playstyles. Relics like the Ice Blade (applying vulnerability after Water attacks) or the Poison Pouch (applying 5 poison stacks on early hits) determine whether your deck should lean toward rapid multi-attacks or heavy burst crits.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many characters can I bring into a battle in Re:Night?
Battles require a party of exactly three characters. While there are six playable characters in total, runs are balanced around the interactions, positioning, and shared card pool of your chosen trio.
How do I unlock the Dancer, Scholar, and Shaman?
The Hunter, Farmer, and Rogue are available from the start. Clearing a full run unlocks the Dancer. Clearing a run with the Dancer in your party unlocks the Scholar, and clearing a run with the Scholar in your party unlocks the Shaman.
Can you undo card plays if you make a tactical positioning mistake?
Yes. Re:Night includes an unrestricted rewind mechanic. You can undo your most recent card play, restart the current turn, or reset the combat encounter entirely without spending resources or losing rewards.
What happens when you trigger an elemental critical hit?
Attacking an enemy with an element that counters their current status (Fire into Grass, Grass into Water, Water into Fire) triggers an elemental crit. The attack deals substantial bonus damage, scaling upward based on the total number of elemental stacks on the target.
