QUICKSTART RULES

2
 OVERVIEW
Star Wars™: Unlimited is a trading card game in which each player
takes on the role of a leader—an iconic Star Wars character—who
rallies their forces into battle to defeat their opponent’s base. These
forces are represented by a 50-card deck containing units, events,
and upgrades.
The game is played over a series of rounds. During the action phase
of each round, you’ll play cards from your hand and use these cards to
attack your opponent’s base and units. Then, in the regroup phase,
you’ll draw cards, build up your resources, and ready your units for
the next round of battle. Early in the game your leader will affect the
battle passively, but eventually they’ll join the fray as a powerful unit.

WINNING THE GAME

Each base starts the game with 30 HP (hit points). If you deal enough
damage to the enemy base to reduce it to 0 HP, you win the game!

3
 SETUP
Using the two-player starter: The starter contains 2 decks: Ahsoka
Tano and General Grievous. Each player chooses 1 of those decks to
play. Separate the double-sided leader, base, and token cards from
the other 50 cards (with the Star Wars: Unlimited card back). Take the
2 playmats and set them up facing each other—they contain helpful
rules reminders and indicate how to lay out your cards.
Follow these steps to set up the game:
1. Put your base into play, facing your opponent’s.
2. Put your leader into play below your base, horizontal (non-unit)
side faceup.
3. Randomly determine which player starts the game with the
initiative, and give the initiative counter to that player. Set aside
all other counters and token cards, out of play.
4. Shuffle your deck. Draw 6 cards from your deck to form your hand.
5. You may take a mulligan by shuffling your entire hand into your
deck, then drawing a new hand of 6 cards. You must keep the
new hand. Strategy Tip: We recommend taking a mulligan if your
hand contains no units that cost 1 or 2 to play on the first round.
6. Choose 2 cards from your hand and put them into play facedown
and ready near your base. They are now resources—you will use
resources to pay for cards you play during the game.

When both players are ready, start the game with the first action
phase.

4
 Base
BASE

30 Tipoca City

Initiative Counter
KAMINO
SEBASTIÁN GUIDOBONO © LFL © FFG TWI EN C 024/257

LEADER

Ahsoka Tano
SNIPS

Coordinate — Action []:

Attack with a unit. It gets
+0 for this attack. (Gain this
+1/+0
+1
ability while you control 3 or
more units.)

Epic Action: If you control

5 or more resources, deploy
this leader. (Flip her, ready her,
and move her to the ground
FORCE • JEDI • REPUBLIC arena.) 3/ 6

DAVID BUISAN © LFL © FFG TWI EN S 011/257

Leader

Deck

Resources

Damage Counters

Epic Action Counter

Hand

5
 GAMEPLAY
ACTION PHASE
Most of the gameplay happens during the action phase. During this
phase, players go back and forth taking 1 action at a time. The player
with the initiative counter takes the first action, then their opponent
takes an action, and so on until both players have passed.
The actions available to a player are:
• Play a card
• Attack with a unit
• Use an action ability
• Take the initiative
• Pass

PLAY A CARD
Cards have a cost in the upper left corner. To play
UNIT
a card, reveal it from your hand and pay its cost
by exhausting that many resources (see “Ready & 2 Ana
Exhausted” on the next page). For example, to play
a card that costs 2, you must exhaust 2 of your
Cost
resources.

6
There are 3 types of cards that you can play: Units, Events, and
Upgrades. Each card type has different rules when played, as
described in the following pages.

READY & EXHAUSTED

Units and resources enter play exhausted (turned
sideways), then become ready (turned upright) at the end of
the regroup phase each round.
Many cards must exhaust in order to be used. Resources
exhaust to pay for the cards you play from your hand. Units
exhaust to attack or use certain abilities (indicated by an
 icon). Some leaders exhaust to use their action ability. An
exhausted card can’t exhaust again until it’s ready.
When you deploy your leader as a unit (using its Epic Action
ability), ready it, even if it was exhausted before. This means it
can attack the same round it’s deployed. (See “Your Leader” on
page 15 for details.)
UNIT SPACE

2 Anakin’s Interceptor
WHERE THE FUN BEGINS
2

2
this unit gets +2
While your base has 15 or more damage on it,
IGNACIO BAZAN LAZCANO

UNIT
REPUBLIC • VEHICLE • FIGHTER

Anakin’s Interceptor
+2/+0
+0.

WHERE THE FUN BEGINS

2 REPUBLIC • VEHICLE • FIGHTER 3

© LFL © FFG

SPACE

While your base has 15 or more damage on it,

TWI EN U

this unit gets +2

+2/+0
+0.


3
142/257

IGNACIO BAZAN LAZCANO © LFL © FFG TWI EN U

 142/257

Ready Exhausted

7
 UNITS
Units enter play exhausted and remain in play until defeated.
Units have a power and HP value. Power indicates how much damage
a unit deals in combat. If a unit ever has damage on it greater than or
equal to its HP, it’s defeated and put in its owner’s discard pile.
Many units also have abilities in their text box that are active while
that unit is in play (see “Card Abilities” on page 19).

Cost Ground/Space

UNIT GROUND

2 Separatist Commando Name

Aspect
Icons

Traits

Power 2 SEPARATIST • DROID • TROOPER 3 HP

While you control another SEPARATIST unit,

Abilities this unit gains Raid 2. (It gets +2/+0 while
attacking.)

AMAD MIR © LFL © FFG TWI EN S

 180/257

Unit Card

8
 GROUND & SPACE
Combat is divided into 2 separate arenas: ground and
space. Each unit is either a ground unit or a space unit, as
indicated at the top of the card. All ground units are played
into the ground arena on one side of the players’ bases, and all
space units are played into the space arena on the other side. In
combat, ground units can’t attack space units, and vice versa.

207/257 
TWI EN C © LFL © FFG STEFANO LANDINI 179/257 
TWI EN U © LFL © FFG FRENCH CARLOMAGNO

+0 for this attack.

+2/+0
do, this unit gets +2
your non-Sentinel units or your base.)
unit or General Grievous (leader or unit). If you
Sentinel (Units in this arena can’t attack
On Attack: You may exhaust a friendly DROID

C
1 SEPARATIST • DROID • TROOPER 3 023/257 TWI EN © LFL © FFG

VASSEK
ROCÍO ESPIN
2 SEPARATIST • VEHICLE • FIGHTER 1

CUSTOMIZED FOR GRIEVOUS

B1 Security Team 2 Lair of Grievous 30 Soulless One 1
GROUND UNIT BASE SPACE UNIT

UNIT GROUND UNIT SPACE

5 Anakin Skywalker
30
BASE
3 Republic ARC-170
MAVERICK MENTOR Tipoca City

6 FORCE • JEDI • REPUBLIC 6 KAMINO 3 REPUBLIC • VEHICLE • FIGHTER 4

SEBASTIÁN GUIDOBONO © LFL © FFG TWI EN C 024/257

Coordinate — On Attack: Draw a card. (Gain

this ability while you control 3 or more units.)

ERIC HIBBELER © LFL © FFG TWI EN S

 147/257 SEBASTIÁN GUIDOBONO © LFL © FFG TWI EN C
 111/257

Ground Space

9
 EVENTS
Events have an ability in their text box. When you play an event, use
its ability and put the event in your discard pile.

Cost Name

EVENT

3 Merciless Contest
Aspect TACTIC Traits
Icons

Each player chooses a non-leader

Ability unit they control. Defeat those units.

JAMES DALY © LFL © FFG TWI EN C

 238/257

Event Card

10
 UPGRADES
Upgrades enter play attached to a unit and remain in play until that
unit is defeated. Upgrades provide increased power, HP, and/or
abilities to the attached unit. To attach an upgrade to a unit, slide the
upgrade partially underneath that unit so that the upgrade’s power,
HP, and abilities are visible.
If the unit an upgrade is attached to leaves play, defeat that upgrade
(put it in its owner’s discard pile).

Cost Name

UPGRADE

1 Ahsoka’s Padawan Lightsaber

Aspect
Icons

Abilities
Attach to a non-VEHICLE unit.
When Played: If attached unit is Ahsoka
Tano, you may attack with a unit.
Traits

Bonus Ahsoka’s Padawan Lightsaber

Power +2 ITEM • WEAPON • LIGHTSABER +0 Bonus HP
ARTHUR MOUGNE © LFL © FFG TWI EN S
 248/257

Upgrade Card

11
 ATTACK WITH A UNIT
Attacking is the primary way to deal damage to the opponent’s base
and win the game. You can also attack enemy units.
A unit must be ready in order to attack. Only 1 unit can attack in a
single action. To attack, follow these steps in order:
1. Exhaust the attacker and choose what to attack. You may attack
any enemy unit in the same arena (ground or space) as the
attacker, or you may attack the opponent’s base directly.
• If an enemy unit in the same arena as the attacker has
Sentinel, it must be chosen as the defender unless the
attacker has Saboteur. (For more details on red keyword
abilities, see page 24.)
• Any abilities that are active while the unit is attacking,
including Raid, become active at this time.
2. If the attacker has Restore, heal damage from your base equal
to its Restore value.
3. If the attacker has any On Attack abilities, use them now.
4. Deal damage. If your unit is attacking:
• A base, it deals damage equal to its power to that base.
• A unit, the attacker and defender simultaneously deal
damage equal to their power to each other. If either unit has
damage on it greater than or equal to its HP, it is immediately
defeated.

12
 ATTACK EXAMPLES

207/257 
TWI EN C © LFL © FFG STEFANO LANDINI
BASE

30 Lair of Grievous
your non-Sentinel units or your base.)
Sentinel (Units in this arena can’t attack

1 SEPARATIST • DROID • TROOPER 3

VASSEK
ROCÍO ESPIN © LFL © FFG TWI EN C 023/257

3 3
3 B1 Security Team
GROUND UNIT
2
4
3
On Attack: Create a Clone Trooper token.
Each friendly token unit gets +1
TATSIANA MAKSIMUK

4
3
On Attack: Create a Clone Trooper token.
Each friendly token unit gets +1
TATSIANA MAKSIMUK
UNIT

UNIT
FORCE • JEDI • REPUBLIC

FORCE • JEDI • REPUBLIC

Shaak Ti
UNITY WINS WARS

Shaak Ti
UNITY WINS WARS
© LFL © FFG

GROUND

© LFL © FFG

GROUND
+1/+0

+1/+0
+0.

+0.
TWI EN U

TWI EN U
 094/257

 094/257
4

If Shaak Ti attacks the

If Shaak Ti attacks B1
enemy base, she deals
Security Team, each unit
3 damage to the base
deals 3 damage to the other.
and takes no damage in
Because B1 Security Team
return.
has 3 damage on it and only
1 HP, it is defeated. Shaak Ti
remains in play with 3 damage
on her and is able to take
1 more damage before being
defeated.

13
 USE AN ACTION ABILITY
Some cards have Action abilities. These abilities often have a cost
that must be paid in order to use them, found in brackets after the
word “Action.” This cost may include resources that must be paid
(indicated by a  icon) and exhausting the card (indicated by an
 icon). If you don’t pay the cost, you can’t use the ability.
An Epic Action is an action ability that can only be used once per
game.

TAKE THE INITIATIVE

Only 1 player can take this action each round. That player takes
control of the initiative counter, even if they already have it, meaning
they will go first in the next round. After taking the initiative, you can’t
take any further actions for the rest of the action phase. (You are
considered to pass for all remaining actions this phase.)

PASS
If you can’t (or don’t want to) take any other actions, you may pass.
When you pass, you are considered to have done nothing during
your action, and your opponent is immediately able to take their next
action. You may still take more actions later in the action phase.
After a player passes, if their opponent passes or takes the
initiative as their next action, the action phase immediately ends
and play proceeds to the regroup phase.

14
 YOUR LEADER
Your leader is the centerpiece of your deck. It begins the
game on its horizontal (non-unit) side with an ability that’s
available from the start of the game.
Your leader also has an Epic Action ability that’s not available
at the start of the game, but is unlocked if you have a certain
number of resources in play. Once you have enough resources,
you may use this action to deploy your leader: flip it to its unit
side, move it to the ground arena, and ready it. This action
doesn’t cost any resources and can be used regardless of
whether your leader is ready or exhausted.
While your leader is in play as a unit, it can attack, be attacked,
and use abilities like any other unit. If your leader is defeated,
flip it back to its non-unit side, return it to your base, and
exhaust it. Your leader’s Epic Action can’t be used again this
game (cover it with the epic action counter as a reminder), but
you can still use its other ability.
LEADER UNIT GROUND

5 Ahsoka Tano
SNIPS

LEADER

Ahsoka Tano
SNIPS

Coordinate — Action []:

Attack with a unit. It gets
+0 for this attack. (Gain this
+1/+0
+1
ability while you control 3 or
more units.)

Epic Action: If you control

5 or more resources, deploy
this leader. (Flip her, ready her, 3 FORCE • JEDI • REPUBLIC 6
and move her to the ground
FORCE • JEDI • REPUBLIC arena.) 3/ 6

DAVID BUISAN © LFL © FFG TWI EN S 011/257 Coordinate — This unit gets +2
+2/+0
+0.

DAVID BUISAN

15
 REGROUP PHASE
After the action phase, play proceeds to the regroup phase. You and
your opponent complete each of the following steps, in order:

1. DRAW CARDS
Draw 2 cards from your deck.

2. RESOURCE A CARD
You may choose 1 card from your hand and put it into play facedown
as a resource, or you may choose not to put down a resource and
keep all of your cards in hand. (The player with the initiative chooses
whether to put down a resource first, followed by the other player.)
Strategy Tip: We recommend you resource a card each round until you
have enough resources in play to use your leader’s Epic Action. Beyond
that point, consider whether or not you need more resources to play
the cards in your hand or the cards that you may draw from your deck.

3. READY CARDS
Ready all of your exhausted cards in play, including units, resources,
and your leader. When both players have readied all their cards, play
proceeds to the action phase of the next round.

16
 OTHER RULES
ASPECT ICONS
Most cards have 1 or more icons showing the aspect to which that
card belongs. Each aspect represents a different philosophy or
motivation. These icons tell you what that card’s aspects are, and may
be referenced by card abilities. Aspects are important when building
your own custom deck (see “Custom Deckbuilding” on page 20).

VIGILANCE COMMAND HEROISM

AGGRESSION CUNNING VILLAINY

FRIENDLY AND ENEMY

Cards you control are considered “friendly.” Cards your opponent
controls are considered “enemy.”

UNIQUE CARDS
Unique cards represent specific characters or objects in the Star
Wars universe and are indicated by a  before the card’s name. You
can only have 1 copy of each unique card in play at a time. If you ever
have multiple copies of the same unique card in play under your
control, you must immediately defeat 1 of them.

17
 TOKEN CARDS
Token cards are set aside and not shuffled into your deck. Some
cards may instruct you to create a token unit. To do so, take a set-
aside token of that type and put it into play. This set has two types
of token units: Battle Droids and Clone Troopers. Like other units,
token units enter play exhausted in the appropriate arena. Creating
a token unit is not considered to be “playing” a unit, and does not
trigger abilities that occur when you play a unit. If a token would leave
play for any reason, set it aside. There is no limit on tokens available
to a player. A player may substitute any available object for a token.

RUNNING OUT OF CARDS IN YOUR DECK

If you run out of cards in your deck, you continue playing with the
cards you already have. Any time you would draw a card from an
empty deck, you instead deal 3 damage to your base for each card
you would draw. For instance, when you would draw 2 cards during
the regroup phase, instead deal 6 damage to your base.

TRAITS
All cards have traits, such as REPUBLIC or SEPARATIST, which appear in a
small banner near their text box. Traits don’t have their own rules, but
some card abilities will affect cards with certain traits.

18
 CARD ABILITIES
Several types of abilities can be found in the text box on cards:
• Action abilities have bold text with the word Action, sometimes
with a cost in brackets, followed by a colon and an effect. (See
“Use an Action Ability” on page 14 for details.)
• Triggered abilities have bold text indicating their triggering
condition with the word When or On, followed by a colon and
an effect. They resolve automatically after their triggering
condition occurs, and are mandatory unless they use the word
“may.” The 3 conditions that appear most often each have
specific rules and timing:
• On Attack: This happens after the unit is chosen as an
attacker, before damage is dealt (see page 12 for details).
• When Defeated: This happens after the card is defeated.
The card is in the discard pile when the ability resolves.
• When Played: This happens after the card is played. The
card is in play when the ability resolves.
• Keyword abilities appear in red text. Each keyword has specific
rules associated with it, described in detail on page 24.
• Constant abilities appear on cards that remain in play and have
no special styling. They are active as long as the card is in play
(regardless of whether the card is ready or exhausted).
• Event abilities appear on events. They are one-time abilities
that resolve when the event is played.

19
 CUSTOM DECKBUILDING
After learning the basics of the game, the next step is
to start building your own custom deck. Additional cards
to customize your deck can be found in Star Wars: Unlimited
booster packs.
Your deck must include:
• 1 leader
• 1 base
• At least 50 other cards, consisting of units, events, and
upgrades

Your deck can’t include more than 3 copies of any card.

Your leader and base each provide aspect icons that dictate the
colors of your deck. Your leader provides 2 icons and your base
provides 1, giving you 3 aspect icons total.
Most cards in your deck have 1 or more aspect icons near their
cost. You can include cards of any aspect in your deck, but when
playing a card with icons that are not provided by your leader
or base, you must pay 2 extra resources for each missing icon.
This additional cost is called the aspect penalty. In general, you
should try to only put cards in your deck that match the aspect
icons provided by your leader and base.

20
 For example, if your leader provides a  and a 
icon and your base provides a  icon:
• A card with a single , , or  icon would cost no
extra.
• A card with  or  icons would cost no extra.
• A card with a single , 
 , or  icon would cost 2 extra.
• A card with  icons would cost 2 extra (because you
have the  icon but are missing the  icon).
• A card with  icons would cost 2 extra (because you
have a single  icon but are missing the second--in order
to play such a card at no extra cost, you would need your
leader and base to provide 2  icons).
• A card with  icons would cost 4 extra (because you
are missing both the  and the  icon and have to pay 2
extra for each).

A good rule of thumb is for your deck to include about 30-40

units (with a mix of ground and space units), and about 10-20
events and upgrades. You should make sure to include cards
with a variety of costs, including plenty of 1-3 cost cards to play
early in the game.

21
 CREDITS
Lead Game Designer: Daniel Schaefer
Expansion Design and Development: Tyler Parrott and Jeremy Zwirn
Additional Development: MJ Cutts, Aaron Haltom, John Leo,
Joseph O’Neil, and Ryan Serrano
Producers: Eric Stanton and Jason Walden
Editing: Chad Dahlman
Proofreading: Jeremy Gustafson
Game Rules Specialist: Alex Werner
Product Line Manager: Chris Winebrenner-Palo
Game Design Manager: Colin Phelps
Graphic Design: Ryann Collins, Caitlin Ginther, and Michael Silsby
with Christopher Hosch
Graphic Design Manager: Mercedes Opheim
Cover Art: David Buisan
Art Direction: Steve Hamilton, Jeff Lee Johnson, Stephen Somers,
and Kate Swazee
Managing Art Director: Tony Bradt
Quality Assurance Specialist: Zach Tewalthomas
Licensing Coordinators: Kira Hartke and Kaitlin Souza
Licensing Approvals Manager: Dana Cartwright
Production Coordinators: Jarrett Ford and Thomas Grundmeier
Production Management: Justin Anger and Austin Litzler
Visual Creative Director: Brian Schomburg

22
Director of Studio Operations: John Franz-Wichlacz
Vice President of Strategy: Jim Cartwright
Executive Game Designer: Nate French
Head of Studio: Chris Gerber

LUCASFILM LIMITED
Lucasfilm Licensing: Brian Merten

VISIT US ONLINE
For complete rules, playtester credits, organized play information,
and other resources, visit us online at:
StarWarsUnlimited.com

© & ™ Lucasfilm Ltd. Fantasy Flight Games and the FFG logo are ® of Fantasy Flight
Games. Fantasy Flight Games is located at 1995 West County Road B2, Roseville, MN
55113, USA, 651-639-1905. Actual components may vary from those shown.

23
 KEYWORD GLOSSARY
Ambush - When you play this unit, it may ready and attack an enemy
unit. This unit doesn’t ready if there are no enemy units to attack.
Coordinate (new) - The ability listed after Coordinate is active only
while you control 3 or more units (including the unit with Coordinate).
Exploit (new) - While playing this card, you may defeat a number of
units you control up to the Exploit value. Reduce the cost to play the
card by 2 for each unit you defeat this way.
Overwhelm - When this unit deals damage to an enemy unit while
attacking, deal excess damage to that opponent’s base. Example: If
a 5-power unit with Overwhelm attacks a unit with 3 HP remaining, it
deals 2 damage to the enemy base.
Raid - While this unit is attacking, it gets extra power equal to the
Raid value. Example: A unit with Raid 2 gets +2/+0 while attacking.
Restore - When this unit attacks, heal damage from your base equal
to the Restore value (before dealing damage). Example: A unit with
Restore 2 heals 2 damage from your base when it attacks.
Saboteur - When this unit attacks, ignore the Sentinel keyword on
enemy units and defeat all Shield tokens on the defender (before
dealing damage).
Sentinel - Enemy units in the same arena (ground or space) as this
unit can’t attack your non-Sentinel units in this arena or your base.
If you have multiple units with Sentinel in the same arena, your
opponent may choose which of those units to attack.

24