Learn to play

How to Play

Focus is a head-to-head Expandable Card Game. Reduce your opponent's Leader to 0 HP before they do the same to you. Matches are best-of-3.

The turn structure

Every turn moves through four phases, in order:

1
Gather
At the start of each of your turns you automatically draw back up to your minimum hand size (5 cards by default).
2
Focus
Cards from the top of your deck are automatically added to your Focus zone. How many is printed on your Leader — this is the resource you'll tap to pay costs.
3
Main
The bulk of the turn. Play Units by paying their Focus cost, play Skills under your Units, cast Skills you've already played, set Skills face-down, play a Rally card under your Leader, and activate abilities.
4
Return
End your turn. Everything face-up you didn't spend — cast Skills, used Focus, an uncast Rally card — sweeps to the Drop pile. Only face-down cards stay in play for next turn.

Zones

Leader: Your Element's champion. Sets your Focus generation, carries a per-turn activated ability, and is what your opponent is really trying to kill.
Focus: Your resource. Tap Focus cards to pay for Units, Skills, and abilities.
Units: Played to a lane for a Focus cost. Each carries a Skill Zone underneath it.
Skills: Go three stages: Play (free, face-up under a Unit), Cast (pay its cost), Resolve (its effect happens). Any Skill can instead be set face-down to hide it — your opponent can't tell what it is until you cast it, it resolves, or it's revealed.
Standby Skills: A special kind of Skill that reacts to something your opponent does — always played face-down. It sits hidden until its trigger condition happens, then you choose whether to pay its cost and react. You never cast it yourself.
Rally: Works like a Skill, but plays under your Leader instead of a Unit.
Drop Pile & Oblivion: Spent, face-up cards land in your Drop pile at Return. Cards removed from the game entirely go to Oblivion instead.

Playing a Skill

1. Play

Place a Skill under one of your Units. Always free.

2. Cast

Pay the Skill's Focus cost to activate it.

3. Resolve

Its effect happens. An untargeted attack hits whatever sits directly across it — the enemy unit in the same lane, or their Leader if that lane is empty.

Two rules to watch for

Surge: A passive bonus that switches on for any card at 25 HP or less — a reward for playing on when you're behind.
Regen: If you ever have to draw or gain Focus with an empty deck, your Drop pile shuffles back in as your new deck — but your Leader takes 5 damage each time. It keeps you in the game, but it isn't free.

Best learned by doing

Focus has a full in-app Tutorial that walks you through a real game turn by turn — Gather, Focus, Main, and Return — ending with you winning your first match.