How to Play One Piece Card Game

How to play One Piece Card Game: each player brings one Leader card, a 50-card deck and a 10-card DON!! deck, takes turns to play Characters and attack, and wins by landing a hit on the other Leader when it has no Life cards left. The rules below follow Bandai's Official Rule Manual and its Comprehensive Rules (version 1.2.1, last updated 28 August 2026). Where a card's text disagrees with the rules, the card text wins.

What you need to play

You need two players. Each player needs the three parts below, and the manual also recommends a playsheet each, though you can play without one.

Every card in your deck must share a colour with your Leader. There are six colours (red, green, blue, purple, black and yellow), and a multicoloured card counts as every colour it has. You may include no more than 4 cards with the same card number.

How many cards are in a One Piece deck

The deck is exactly 50 cards, plus the Leader and the 10 DON!! cards. Bandai's starter decks list "Constructed Deck x 1 (51 cards)", which is the 50-card deck and its Leader together.

The five kinds of card

DON!! cards explained

DON!! cards are the game's cost resource. To play a Character or Stage, or to use an Event, you rest the number of active DON!! cards in your cost area that the card's cost asks for. In the One Piece TCG, a card's cost is paid by resting DON!! cards, so what you can do in a turn depends on how many DON!! you have.

You can also give an active DON!! card to your Leader or a Character by placing it under that card. Each DON!! card attached gives +1000 power during your turn, and you can give as many as you have. When your next Refresh Phase starts, the attached DON!! cards go back to your cost area. If a Character with DON!! under it leaves the field, those cards return to your cost area rested.

You add DON!! cards from your DON!! deck in the DON!! Phase, two a turn, with a smaller start for the first player (see below). Some DON!! cards are collectable: the PRB-01 page lists 30 new DON!! cards and says gold-foiled ones also appear, and PRB-02 lists 30 different DON!! cards, some in Alt-Art and Super Alt-Art versions. The rule manual describes DON!! cards as paying costs and powering up cards, whatever the artwork.

Names that start with Don are not DON!! cards. The OP15-EB04 booster added a Red/Green Krieg Leader, which Bandai's deck page describes as a deck about seizing control of the DON cards on the field. The OP14-EB04 booster added a purple Donquixote Doflamingo Leader.

Set up a game

• Shuffle your deck and place it in the deck area, then place your Leader face up in the Leader area.
• Decide by Rock-Paper-Scissors who chooses to go first or second. The winner chooses.
• Both players draw 5 cards. Each player may then return their hand to the deck, reshuffle and redraw 5 cards, once only. The player going first decides first.
• Place cards from the top of your deck face down in your Life area, equal to your Leader's Life, without looking at them.
• The first player starts their turn.

Your side has a Leader area, a Character area (up to 5 Characters), a Stage area (1 Stage), a cost area for DON!! cards, a DON!! deck, a Life area, a deck and a trash. If you want to play a sixth Character, you trash one of the five already there.

A turn, phase by phase

In the Main Phase you can play Characters and Stages, use Events, activate card effects, give DON!! cards and battle. A Character you have just played cannot attack that turn unless it has [Rush]. Neither player can battle on their first turn.

Attacking and battles

To attack, rest your active Leader or an active Character, then pick a target: the other player's Leader or one of their rested Characters. Each attack then runs through four steps.

A winning attack on a Character K.O.'s it into the trash. A winning attack on a Leader deals 1 damage: the defender takes the top card of their Life area into their hand. If that card has a [Trigger] effect, the defender may reveal it and use the effect instead of taking it. If the attacker's power is lower, nothing happens.

Keywords you will see first

How you win

You win in either of two ways. Your attack wins against the opposing Leader when the opponent has 0 Life cards, or the opponent's deck reaches 0 cards. A player can also concede at any point.

The newest set and where to start

Bandai's English product list shows the Extra Booster EB-05 One Piece Heroines Edition vol.2 released on 30 October 2026. The latest main-series booster is OP-17 The World's Strongest Warriors, released on 28 August 2026, and OP-18 The Dominance of God is listed for 20 November 2026.

To learn, a Starter Deck is the simplest start. Bandai says each is a ready-to-play set that includes everything you need, for example the ST-31 deck, which holds a 51-card constructed deck, 10 DON!! cards, a playsheet and an OP-16 booster pack. Two people learning together can use two different starter decks, or Bandai's Set Sail Deck Set, which holds two decks, an OP-17 pack, a two-player playsheet and a guide book for each deck. We sell starter decks on our One Piece starter decks page, including Starter Deck ST-31, and our guide to the best One Piece starter decks compares them.

Sleeves help the cards last through games, and our sleeves page lists sizes. When you want to change cards, read the best One Piece cards guide for the banned list first.

Questions

How many cards are in a One Piece deck?

50 cards, plus one Leader card and a separate 10-card DON!! deck. No more than 4 cards can share a card number.

What does a DON!! card do?

It pays costs when you rest it, and it adds +1000 power to a Leader or Character during your turn when you give it to them.

Who goes first?

The players use Rock-Paper-Scissors, and the winner chooses to go first or second. The player going first draws no card and adds only 1 DON!! on their first turn.

Can you attack on the first turn?

No. Neither player can battle on their first turn.

What is the newest One Piece card set?

On Bandai's English product list, the most recent release is EB-05 (30 October 2026) and the latest main booster is OP-17 (28 August 2026). OP-18 is listed for 20 November 2026.