Re:Night character cards serve as the foundational combat engine in Seahorse Games and HARRISONWORLD's tactical roguelike deckbuilder. Every three-character squad draws from an active deck composed of character-exclusive action cards and shared neutral cards. Because each character is strictly bound to a distinct archetype and elemental affinity, building an effective deck requires sequencing elemental reactions and matching card keywords to character positioning on the tactical grid.
Core Card Mechanics and Universal Keywords
Cards in Re:Night cost energy to play (typically 0 to 2 energy out of a starting pool of 3) and feature distinct targeting ranges displayed on the card face. While basic cards deal direct physical or elemental damage, specialized character cards rely on positional and situational keywords:
- Elemental Counter System: Attacks primarily deal Fire, Water, Grass, or Neutral damage. Water counters Fire, Fire counters Grass, and Grass counters Water. Applying an elemental card inflicts an elemental stack (up to 5 stacks). Triggering the counter element against an afflicted target scores an elemental critical hit, scaling up damage significantly (up to 6x damage at 5 stacks).
- Precision: Triggers an enhanced bonus effect if the card is played from the exact center of your hand (or when modified by specific Hunter buffs and scopes).
- Finale: Triggers an additional bonus effect if the card's energy cost equals your exact remaining energy at the moment it is played.
- Pincer (Sandwich): Triggers bonus damage or effects when the tile directly opposite the target is occupied by an allied character or a field object (such as a rock or wall).
- Fleeting: The 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 active deck rotation for the remainder of the battle once played.
- Retain: The card remains in your hand at the end of the turn rather than being discarded.
- Knockback: Shovel the target back a designated number of tiles, dealing collision damage if the target strikes a wall, rock, or another character.
Starter Character Card Pools and Archetypes
The initial roster in Re:Night consists of the Farmer, the Hunter, and the Rogue (also referred to in-game as the Thief). Each starter controls an exclusive element and combat role.
| Character | Elemental Affinity | Core Combat Archetype | Signature Card Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Farmer | Grass | Frontline Bruiser, Sustain & Self-Harm | Grass Fork, Pitchfork Thrust, Mighty Fork, Seed of Life |
| Hunter | Fire | Ranged Marksman, Bombs & Precision | Fire Shot, Close Shot, Shotgun Shot, Bombs Away |
| Rogue / Thief | Water | High Mobility, Flanking & Pincer Strikes | Water Blade, Fluid Strike, Wave Breaker, Steady Flow |
The Farmer (Grass Specialist)
The Farmer acts as the party's high-HP frontline combatant. His exclusive cards focus on establishing Grass stacks, pushing enemies, and turning self-inflicted damage into offensive or restorative advantages.
- Grass Fork: Deals 2 Grass damage and applies +1 Grass stack to the target.
- Pitchfork Thrust: A 2-cost line attack that hits all units in a straight line for 4 Grass damage and applies +2 Grass stacks.
- Mighty Fork: Deals 4 Grass damage, adds +1 Grass stack, and shuffles a fleeting Sore Muscles into the discard pile.
- Seed of Life: An unplayable card that heals the Farmer for 5 to 10 HP whenever it is discarded from your hand during your turn.
- Self-Harm Interactions: High-tier Farmer cards often inflict self-damage (e.g., dealing heavy Grass damage to both target and user) to trigger equipment passives or setup healing recoveries.
The Hunter (Fire Specialist)
The Hunter delivers ranged firepower and board-clearing explosives. Her kit rewards hand management via the Precision mechanic and utilizes tile-based deployables.
- Fire Shot: Baseline ranged attack dealing 2 Fire damage and applying +1 Fire stack at 3-tile range.
- Shotgun Shot: A ground-targeted AoE dealing Fire damage and applying Fire stacks to all units in a 1-tile radius; playing it with Precision reduces its energy cost.
- Achilles Shot: Deals Fire damage and applies Fire, gaining +2 bonus power when played from the center of your hand.
- Bomb Cards (Throw Bomb, Bombs Away, Detonate): Allows the Hunter to deploy bombs onto empty grid tiles. Cards like Bombs Away convert unwanted curses or low-impact hand cards into fleeting bombs, which can then be triggered to blast rows or cross-shaped areas.
The Rogue / Thief (Water Specialist)
The Rogue utilizes the highest base movement (3 tiles) to maneuver behind enemies, set up flanking angles, and trigger Pincer bonuses.
- Water Blade: Baseline melee strike dealing 2 Water damage and applying +1 Water stack.
- Fluid Strike: Deals Water damage and applies +1 Water stack; triggers substantial bonus power if executed as a Pincer attack.
- Wave Breaker / Wave Slash: Multi-hit or sandwich-dependent slashes that deal increased damage against isolated or flanked targets.
- Steady Flow: Deals Water damage without removing existing elemental stacks, gaining charge or bonus draws when activated on a Finale trigger.
- Decoy Doll & Doll Swap: Deploys a dummy object to block enemy line of sight or swap positions across the board for repositioning.
Unlockable Character Cards: Dancer, Scholar, and Shaman
Completing full adventure runs unlocks three additional playable classes, each shifting away from traditional starter mechanics toward alternative win conditions.
The Dancer (Pollen & Damage-Over-Time)
Unlocked by clearing an adventure run. The Dancer does not rely on direct elemental counter-striking; instead, her card pool introduces Pollen and layered damage-over-time debuffs.
- Blossom (Passive): Reduces the energy cost of the first Pollen card played each turn by 1.
- Unique Poison Mechanics: Debuffs in Re:Night occupy separate status slots rather than merely refreshing durations. Applying multiple poisons causes each instance to tick independently at the start of a turn.
- Poison: Ticks for 1 neutral damage per turn.
- Fire Poison: Deals 2 Fire damage per turn and adds +1 Fire element.
- Water Poison: Deals 2 Water damage per turn and adds +1 Water element.
- Grass Poison: Deals 2 Grass damage per turn and adds +1 Grass element.
- Black Poison: Unlocked via Chrono Shards; deals neutral damage equal to the target's current elemental amount multiplied by 6 each turn.
- Key Cards:
- Vitality Pollen: Applies Regeneration, restoring HP at the start of each turn.
- Poison Aggravation: Extends the turn duration of all active poison debuffs on a selected enemy.
- Poison Trigger: Forces all active poison stacks on the target to detonate immediately.
- Dust Explosion: A rare direct-damage pollen card dealing non-elemental damage scaled by the total number of Pollen cards played during that turn.
The Scholar
Unlocked by completing an adventure run with the Dancer in your three-character party. The Scholar provides deck iteration, hand manipulation, and support utility that bridges team synergies.
The Shaman (Projection & Field Manipulation)
Unlocked by completing an adventure run with the Scholar in your three-character party. The Shaman specializes in creating illusions and manipulating battlefield space.
- Projection: The Shaman's signature mechanic creates temporary clones of enemy units on empty tiles. Projections vanish at the end of the player's turn. Attacking an enemy Projection directly transfers all damage, elemental applications, and debuffs to the original target's main body.
- Key Cards:
- Spirit Trial+: Causes the target to lose 4 HP; if their remaining HP is 1 or greater, it heals them for 8 HP (acting as an execute on sub-4 HP enemies or a net 4 HP heal on allies).
- Four-Way Projection: Spawns enemy projections on the farthest empty tiles in all four cardinal directions.
- Seismic Wave: Deals massive non-elemental AoE damage within a 2-tile radius, with the energy cost scaling based on empty adjacent tiles.
- Time Reversal: Resets the HP of all allied characters to the exact values they had at the start of that turn, nullifying self-damage, bomb backlash, or trap damage incurred during your attack phase.
- Wind God's Wave & Repulsion: Pushes enemies, allies, or board structures across multiple tiles to break enemy surrounds or force collision damage.
Notable Neutral, Support, and Quest Cards
Beyond class-specific cards, all party members can utilize neutral and colorless cards added from draft rewards, shops, and random events:
- Punch / Punch+: Starting neutral attacks costing 0 energy. They deal 1 to 2 flat non-elemental damage and do not alter elemental stacks, making them safe for finishing low-health targets without erasing prepared elemental combos.
- Field Placement (Build a Wall, Lined Walls): Places impassable stone structures on designated grid tiles. Walls block enemy line-of-sight attacks, prevent enemy advance, and serve as valid flanking objects for triggering Rogue Pincer bonuses.
- Healing & Sustain (Bandage, Demonic Heal, Robbery): Neutral recovery options designed to offset combat attrition. Robbery deals neutral damage while healing adjacent allies based on the damage dealt.
- Team & Traitor Quests: Unique event and shop cards that set an in-combat objective for the entire squad. For example, Traitor Quest: Reconcile tasks you with dealing 10 cumulative damage to allies (including self-inflicted damage) to gain Reconcile, a zero-cost retainable card that restores 99 HP to all party members.
Unlocking Hidden Cards via the Chrono Disc
Leveling up characters through repeated runs awards Chrono Shards (memory fragments). Players can access these shards outside of standard runs in the Chrono Disc menu to attempt standalone puzzle battles.
Each challenge map presents a fixed battlefield layout, a predetermined hand, and a strict requirement to eliminate all target dummies or enemies in a single turn. Successfully executing the required sequence—such as maximizing Precision procs, setting up a multi-step Pincer chain, or timing a Finale charge—permanently adds new cards (such as the Dancer's Black Poison or the Shaman's Seismic Wave) and class-exclusive equipment into the general roguelike card draft pool.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can characters play cards belonging to other party members?
No. Character-exclusive cards (marked with character portraits and specific class borders) can only be activated by that specific character, expending that hero's attack action and movement position. However, all three heroes draw from a shared turn energy pool, and neutral cards (such as Punch or generic healing items) can be utilized by any party member.
Do elemental stacks expire at the end of the turn?
No. Elemental stacks applied to enemies or allies persist across turns until they are consumed by a counter-elemental hit (triggering an elemental critical reaction) or modified by specific conversion cards (such as Graft).
What is the fastest way to trigger high-damage elemental crits?
Coordinate actions across different characters within the same turn. For example, have the Rogue use Water Blade to apply Water, then attack with the Farmer's Grass Fork to consume the Water stack for double damage while leaving a Grass stack, and immediately follow up with the Hunter's Fire Shot to trigger a second consecutive critical hit.
How do you unlock the Dancer, Scholar, and Shaman?
Unlock them sequentially by clearing runs:
- Complete a full adventure run to unlock the Dancer.
- Complete a run with the Dancer in your 3-character team to unlock the Scholar.
- Complete a run with the Scholar in your team to unlock the Shaman.
