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Trading Cards / Disney Lorcana / How to play
Beginner’s guide

How to play Disney Lorcana

Everything you need for your first game: building a deck, inking cards, questing for lore and challenging your opponent’s characters.

The basics

Disney Lorcana is a two-player trading card game from Ravensburger. You are an Illumineer, using magical ink to bring Disney and Pixar characters, items, songs and locations into play. Your characters go on quests to collect lore, and the first player to reach 20 lore wins.

60

Card deck

Each player needs a deck of at least 60 cards.

2

Ink colours

A deck can use up to two of the six ink colours.

20

Lore to win

Be the first to collect 20 lore and you win.

Setting up a game

  1. Build or open a deck. At least 60 cards, from no more than two ink colours, with no more than four copies of any card with the same full name. A Starter Deck is ready to play straight away.
  2. Shuffle and draw seven cards. Both players shuffle their decks and draw an opening hand of seven.
  3. Change your hand once if you like. Put any number of cards from your hand on the bottom of your deck, draw the same number, then shuffle.
  4. Decide who goes first. The first player skips drawing a card on their very first turn.

The four card types

Characters

The heart of your deck. Each has strength (damage dealt in a challenge), willpower (damage it can take) and a lore value (lore gained when it quests).

Actions and songs

One-off effects that happen and are then discarded. Songs are special actions a character can sing for free, instead of paying ink.

Items

Stay in play once used, giving lasting effects or abilities you can use during your turns.

Locations

Places your characters can move to. Many give you lore at the start of your turn, and characters there can gain extra abilities.

The inkwell symbol: cards with an ornate border around their cost can be put into your inkwell as ink. Cards without it can’t be inked, so they can only be played.

Your turn, step by step

  1. Ready. Turn all your exerted (sideways) cards upright again, including your ink.
  2. Set. Any effects that happen at the start of your turn take place, such as lore from your locations.
  3. Draw. Draw one card.
  4. Add to your inkwell (once per turn). Put one card with the inkwell symbol face down into your inkwell. Ink is how you pay for cards: exert one ink for each point of a card’s cost.
  5. Play cards, quest and challenge. In any order: play characters, items, actions and locations; send characters questing; challenge opposing characters; move characters to locations; use abilities.
  6. End your turn. When you’ve finished, play passes to your opponent.

Drying ink: characters you play this turn are still “drying”, so they can’t quest, challenge or exert until your next turn, unless an ability says otherwise.

Questing and challenging

Questing

Exert (turn sideways) one of your dry characters to quest. You gain lore equal to its lore value. Questing is how you race to 20.

Challenging

Exert one of your dry characters to challenge an exerted opposing character. Each deals damage equal to its strength to the other. A character is banished once its damage equals or exceeds its willpower.

The key decision every turn: quest for lore, or hold characters back. Questing leaves your characters exerted, so your opponent can challenge them on their turn.

Keywords you’ll see early on

Bodyguard: may enter play exerted. Opponents must challenge this character if able.
Evasive: only characters with Evasive can challenge this character.
Rush: can challenge on the turn it’s played.
Ward: opponents can’t choose this character for effects, except to challenge it.
Challenger +N: gets +N strength while challenging.
Resist +N: damage dealt to this character is reduced by N.
Support: when it quests, you can add its strength to another chosen character this turn.
Shift: pay the shift cost to play this card on top of one of your characters with the same name.
Singer N: counts as cost N when singing songs.
Reckless: can’t quest, and must challenge each turn if able.

What to buy first

New to the game

A Starter Deck: a ready-to-play 60-card deck that teaches you the basics.

Building your collection

Booster packs and booster boxes add new cards to customise your deck. A booster box is the best value per pack.

The full experience

An Illumineer’s Trove: booster packs plus dice, card dividers and a storage box.

Ready to play?

Shop Disney Lorcana

Frequently asked questions

How long does a game of Disney Lorcana take?+

Usually around 20 to 30 minutes, making it quick to learn and easy to play several games in one sitting.

What age is Disney Lorcana suitable for?+

Ravensburger recommends Disney Lorcana for ages 8 and up.

What do the six ink colours mean?+

Each ink has its own play style. Amber supports and heals, Amethyst manipulates the game with magic and card draw, Emerald is tricky and evasive, Ruby is aggressive, Sapphire builds resources and lore, and Steel is strong at defence and removal.

Can I mix cards from different sets?+

Yes. Cards from any set can be combined in your deck, unless a specific tournament format says otherwise.

Do I need to buy booster packs to play?+

No. A Starter Deck has everything one player needs. Booster packs let you add new cards and customise your deck once you know the game.