District 12 · The Ink Sea
How to play Inkbit Tides
A two-player card game. Take turns, send your crew into battle, and knock out the enemy Captain's Life. Hit their Captain when they have no Life left, and you win.
1. THE GOAL
A two-player card game. Take turns, send your crew into battle, and knock out the enemy Captain's Life. Hit their Captain when they have no Life left, and you win. The game is for two players and works with printed cards or, in the future, on the web.
2. READING A CARD
| Top-left circle | Cost: how much Ink you pay to play the card (1–10). Captains show a crown instead. |
| Name bar | The crew member's name. Its colour shows the Element. |
| Black box, top right | Power: who wins a fight. |
| Blue box | Counter (+1,000 or +2,000): discard from your hand to boost a defender. |
| Red box | LIFE (Captains only): how many Life cards you start with. |
| Black strip | Class · Crew · Element. |
| Text box | Abilities, in [brackets]. |
| Bottom strip | Tier (1–20), tier name, Card ID and edition, e.g. IT-120 · 3/18. |
3. ELEMENTS & CLASSES
FlameAttack hard, gain power when attacking.
TideControl: bounce cards, look at decks.
GaleFast and cheap, lots of Rush.
StoneDefence: Guard and Anchor.
BoltShrink enemy power, play with Ink.
ShadowRecover cards from the discard, disrupt hands.
12 classes: Captain, First Mate, Swordsman, Gunner, Navigator, Cook, Doctor, Shipwright, Musician, Brawler, Sniper, Lookout.
4. BUILDING A DECK
- 1 Captain (a card whose Class is Captain), face up from the start. It is not part of the deck.
- A 40-card main deck using only the Captain's Element plus one other Element.
- Up to 3 copies of the same Card ID.
- Up to 2 cards of Tier 16–20 (Legend and above) in total.
- An Ink pile of 10 (any face-down cards or 10 round tokens), kept to the side.
5. SETTING UP
- Place your Captain face up.
- Shuffle and draw 5 cards. You may reshuffle and redraw once (mulligan).
- Deal Life cards face down from the top of your deck, equal to your Captain's LIFE (4 or 5).
- Flip a coin. The winner chooses to go first or second.
- The first player skips their first draw, gets only 1 Ink, and cannot attack on their first turn.
6. YOUR TURN
| Refresh | Turn all your rested (sideways) cards back to active. |
| Draw | Draw 1 card. |
| Ink | Take 2 Ink from your Ink pile and place them active (max 10 on the field). |
| Main | In any order: play crew by resting Ink equal to their Cost (max 5 crew on the field); use Your Turn / Once abilities; rest 1 Ink to give a crew member +1,000 Power this turn; attack. |
| End | Effects that last "this turn" end. Pass the turn. |
7. ATTACKING
- Declare: rest an active Captain or crew member. Crew played this turn cannot attack unless they have [Rush].
- Choose a target: the enemy Captain, or an enemy crew member that is rested.
- Defend: the defender may rest a [Guard] crew member to take the hit instead, then discard Counter cards from hand to add their Counter value.
- Resolve: if the attacker's Power is equal to or higher than the target's, the attack succeeds.
- Crew hit: KO, sent to the discard pile. Captain hit: the top Life card goes to the defender's hand ([Trigger] cards may be used at once). Captain hit at 0 Life: game over.
8. ABILITY KEYWORDS
[Rush]Can attack the turn it is played.
[Guard]When an ally is attacked, rest this card to become the target.
[Boarding]+1,000 to +3,000 Power when attacking (as printed).
[Broadside]On play: one enemy card gets −Power (as printed) this turn.
[Plunder]When this card KOs a card, draw 1.
[Tailwind]On play: take 1 extra Ink from your pile, rested.
[Salvage]When KO'd: return a card of the printed Cost from your discard pile to your hand.
[Anchor]Cannot be returned to hand or deck by the opponent.
[Spyglass]On play: look at the top cards of your deck and reorder them.
[Feast]Your turn, once: rest 1 Ink to give an ally +1,000.
[First Aid]On play: set one rested ally back to active.
[Shanty]All your crew get +1,000 during your turn.
9. SIGNATURE ABILITIES
Only the five animated foil tiers carry a signature ability.
| T16 Legend | Legend's Call. On play: search your deck for a card of the same Element and add it to your hand. |
| T17 Mythic | Mythic Wake. Cannot be KO'd by cards with Cost 6 or less. |
| T18 Secret | Tide of Secrets. On play: your opponent reveals their hand and you choose 1 card to discard. |
| T19 Treasure | Crown of Storms. Once per game: double this card's Power until end of turn. |
| T20 Sovereign | Ink Sovereign. On play: KO every enemy card with Cost 5 or less. This card cannot attack this turn. |
10. THE 20 TIERS
5,555 cards from 444 designs. Tiers 1–5 copper · 6–10 silver · 11–15 gold · 16–20 animated foil (55 cards).
| Tier | Name | Designs | Editions each | Cards |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Common | 101 | 7 | 707 |
| 2 | Common+ | 38 | 18 | 684 |
| 3 | Uncommon | 36 | 18 | 648 |
| 4 | Uncommon+ | 34 | 18 | 612 |
| 5 | Rare | 32 | 17 | 544 |
| 6 | Rare+ | 30 | 16 | 480 |
| 7 | Super Rare | 28 | 15 | 420 |
| 8 | Super Rare+ | 25 | 14 | 350 |
| 9 | Epic | 22 | 13 | 286 |
| 10 | Epic+ | 20 | 12 | 240 |
| 11 | Elite | 18 | 10 | 180 |
| 12 | Elite+ | 15 | 9 | 135 |
| 13 | Heroic | 12 | 8 | 96 |
| 14 | Heroic+ | 10 | 7 | 70 |
| 15 | Champion | 8 | 6 | 48 |
| 16 | Legend ✦ | 5 | 5 | 25 |
| 17 | Mythic ✦ | 4 | 4 | 16 |
| 18 | Secret ✦ | 3 | 3 | 9 |
| 19 | Treasure ✦ | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 20 | Sovereign ✦ | 1 | 1 | 1 |
11. QUICK GAME (SKIRMISH)
Quick game: 20-card deck plus Captain, LIFE 3, max 6 Ink, max 3 crew on the field. Great when you only own a few cards.
12. EXAMPLE TURN
Turn 3, with 5 Ink: play Bram Seafog (Cost 1, Rush) by resting 1 Ink, and attack the enemy Captain right away with 3,000 Power. The Captain has 5,000, so rest 2 more Ink to give Bram +2,000. 5,000 against 5,000: the attack succeeds and your opponent takes a Life card into their hand. Then spend the last 2 Ink on a Cook with [Feast] to defend next turn.
Inkbit Tides is an art collectible with game rules for fun. There are no cash prizes. Not financial advice.