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This article explains rules of the Hololive TCG based on information from the pre-release experience event held on May 24, 2024. The content is extensive, so please bookmark it and revisit as you read.
- Background & Purpose
- Article Structure
- Explanation of the Game Board
- Types of Cards Used
- Parts of a Holomen Card
- Holomen Cards are categorized into 3 Types for Each Bloom Stage
- Flow of the Game
- 1. Pre-Game Setup
- 2. Turn Actions
- 3. End of the Game
- Conclusion
Background & Purpose
On May 4th, the Hololive Official Card Game (hereafter referred to as Hololive TCG) pre-sale experience event was held at the Card Game Festival.
After the event, while some suggested that the Hololive TCG is similar to other TCGs such as Pokemon card, it indeed has unique elements, so you might be wondering what kind of game it is.
To answer the question, "What kind of game is Hololive TCG?", I have summarized the rules at this point as much as possible based on my memory!
Therefore, I hope this will be useful for understanding the basic aspects of the Hololive TCG at this point (I will update as new information becomes available)
Therefore, it would be appreciated if you could use this as a reference for understanding the game in the future.
Article Structure
First, the article will explain about the game board used in the game, and then introduce the types of cards used.
After that, by explaining the flow of actual matches, it will explain how each card and section of the game board is utilized.
Explanation of the Game Board
First, let's explain the overall image of the game zones used in Hololive TCG. In Hololive TCG, you mainly play by utilizing 10 game zones. The following is an overall image of your board (the opponent side is the same).
The following table explains the purpose of each position shown in the image.
Number | Location / Item Name | Purpose |
1 | Main Deck | Place to set up a deck of about 50 cards including Holomen cards and item cards. Holomen cards are the main cards for the game. (Like monster cards in Yu-Gi-Oh) |
2 | Archive | Place for trashed item cards and Holomen cards whose HP has become 0. |
3 | Backstage | A place to standby your Holomen cards in a form that does not receive Arts (attacks) from your opponent |
4 | Yell Deck | Place to set up a deck of Yell cards. (About 20 cards)
Yell cards are like energy necessary for each Holomen to perform Arts on the opponent's Holomen. The number and color combination of Yells required varies for each Holomen. |
5 | Life Card | Place to deploy Yell cards that are your own life.
The number of Yells that can be placed is regulated by the life value written on the Oshi Holomen card. Set up the numerical value from the Yell deck upside down at the start. |
6 | Stage | Place to deploy Holomen directly involved in the battle.
The stage is further divided into subsequent collaboration positions, main positions, and Oshi positions. |
7 | Collab Position | A place to place Holomen for collaborating with Holomen in the main position to strengthen arts attack |
8 | Main Position | A place to place the main Holomen to fight. |
9 | Oshi Position | A place to place Oshi Holomen. Oshi Holomen is probably a trump card that can only be put in one deck. Oshi Holomen have information that becomes their own life and Oshi skills (something like a special move) written on them. |
10 | Holo Power Card | A place to place a card from the main deck upside down for each turn the player collaborates.
The activation of the Oshi skill of the Oshi Holomen depends on the number of cards placed in the Holo Power. |
* | Damage Stone | A peripheral tool used to express the damage received by your Holomen when they receive Arts (attack). |
* | Dice | Used when dice are needed for some Holomen's special abilities. |
Types of Cards Used
As mentioned a little in the earlier section, this section will explain more in detail about the types of cards used in the game! There are four main types of cards used. The existence of Yell cards, which affect the activation conditions of Holomen's Arts, is said to be similar to Pokemon's energy.
No | Card Type | Initial position | Overview |
1 | Holomen | Main Deck | Holomen are main cards used to battle in the game. (Like monster cards in Yu-Gi-Oh) |
2 | Yell | Yell Deck | Yell cards are like energy necessary for each Holomen to perform Arts on the opponent's Holomen. The number and combination of Yells required vary for each Holomen. |
3 | Oshi Holomen | Initially placed on Oshi Holomen | This is an important card that dictates the special move (Oshi skill • Oshi skill SP) and # of life cards that affect the game hugely. It is believed that you choose one card of your favorite Oshi and place it. |
4 | Item | Main | A card that allows you to gain special effects in a one-time use format. For example, you can temporarily increase the attack power of Holomen, etc. |
Parts of a Holomen Card
The following image and table explain in detail the elements written on the Holomen cards.
Number | Element Name | Explanation |
1 | Bloom Stage | Indicates the evolution stage of the Holomen card. |
2 | Hashtag? | It was not mentioned at the experience event, but there is a hypothesis that there may be special abilities that apply if you have a common hashtag. However, this is purely speculation. |
3 | Card Name | The name of the Holomen card. |
4 | Attribute | Indicates the attributes of holomen cards
At the time of the experience event, white, black, and green attributes were confirmed. There is a high chance that more will be added in the future |
5 | Holomen HP | Indicates the numerical value of Arts that Holomen can endure. HP decreases due to the opponent's Arts. |
6 | Ability | It was not mentioned at the experience event, but it is believed to be a column where special abilities are written.
For special abilities, I have observed that there are Realize that can be activated when they appear and Colabo that can be activated when a collaboration occurs. |
7 | Arts (Attack) | The effect to reduce the HP of the opponent's Holomen.
The black mark on the left in the red frame indicates the type of Yell needed for Arts. The middle of the red frame represents the name of the technique.
The right side represents the attack power of Arts. |
8 | Unknown | This was not mentioned at the experience event, but some restrictions may apply depending on the mark |
9 | Restrictions, etc.? | It seems that there are cases where restrictions, etc. are written on the card. For example, it was confirmed that there are restrictions such as realization which allows you to draw a card from the main deck. |
Holomen Cards are categorized into 3 Types for Each Bloom Stage
The Holomen cards explained above can be classified into three types for each Bloom stage.
The Bloom stage refers to the evolution stage of Holomen, and the higher you go, the more the storonger that holomen can get . This may be a system that is familiar to Pokemon?
Stage | Effect |
Debut | You can place it in the main position or backstage on your turn without any conditions. However, the Arts firepower is weak |
1st | If the same character's Debut Holomen is on the field, you can place it on top of the Debut Holomen |
2nd | If the same character's 1st Holomen is on the field, you can place it on top of the 1st Holomen |
However, since Bloom is basically an enhancement, there seem to be restrictions such as you can only do it once per turn and you cannot do it on the turn you place the Holomen in the previous stage.
Flow of the Game
The following shows the overall flow of the game. Like a regular TCG, the game is conducted in the flow of pre-game preparation → each turn → end of the game.
1. Pre-Game Setup
To start the game, both players do the following:
- Draw 7 cards from the main deck
- After drawing, the player can optionally return all their hand cards to the deck, shuffle them, and redraw from the deck.
- However, if you redraw for the 2nd time, the total number of cards you can draw decreases by one as you keep redraw. For example, if you decide to redraw 7 cards for the second time, you can only redraw 6 cards for the 3rd time.
- Therefore, although you can redraw, the probability of getting a good hand decreases simply because the total number of cards you can draw decreases from the second time.
- Place Oshi Holomen in the Oshi position
- Place Debut Holomen from the hand in the main position
- Place Life cards
- Set up as many life as the life value written in the bottom right of the Oshi Holomen card, and draw that number from the Yell deck to set up life
2. Turn Actions
- Draw one card from the main deck
- Draw one card from the Yell deck and attach the Yell card to any Holomen
- After that, do the following freely (There is no restriction on the execution order of each action)
- Deploy Debut Holomens in the hand in the main position or backstage
- You can put out multiple cards in the backstage, but only one in the main position
- Bloom any Holomen
- However, you can only do this once per turn and you cannot do it on the turn you place the Holomen in the Bloom previous stage
- Use an item card
- Collaborate with Holomen in the main position
- You can collaborate by placing Holomen in the backstage in the collaboration position and collaborating with Holomen in the main position.
- When you collaborate, depending on the effect of Holomen, you can increase the Arts firepower of Holomen in the main position etc.
- You can only do this once per turn.
- Use Oshi skill or Oshi skill SP
- However, there are restrictions on the number of uses etc.
- Use Arts (Attack)
- Give damage equal to the Arts firepower of the attacking source to the opponent's Holomen
- However, in order for Holomen to perform Arts, it is necessary to have the appropriate combination of Yells required for that Holomen.
- When the HP of the opponent's Holomen becomes 0 or less due to Arts
- The opponent archives their Holomen.
- The opponent cuts one life, and places that life (i.e., Yell card) to your other holomen
Actions That Need to be Taken Depending on the Situation
3. End of the Game
By freely combining the turn actions explained above, the basic victory condition is to whittle down your opponent's life. Other victory conditions may be similar to other TCGs.
Victory Conditions
- Deplete all of the life set on your opponent's life
- Make your opponent draw when their deck is exhausted
- The number of Holomen on the stage becomes zero
- I don't understand the meaning of this, so I will update it as soon as I confirm it!
Unfortunately, due to the time constraint, I couldn't play until the end at the experiential meeting.
However, I was able to fully enjoy the complexity and the fun that comes with it in this game!
I will compile my personal thoughts and observations on the fun of this game in another article, so please look forward to it!!
Conclusion
How was it?
In this article, I explained the basic specifications and rules of the hololive Official Card Game, based on the information I got when I participated in the preliminary experiential meeting on 2024/05/24.
There are still some parts that are not confirmed or accurate, but I would be happy if you could look at this article to get an overview!
If the information is updated, I will update the contents of the article, so I would be very happy if you bookmark this article and refer to it as needed!!