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Palworld TCG guide · 8 min read

How to play the Palworld TCG: your first game in 15 minutes

From opening the Trial Deck to winning your first game: what is on the table, how a turn flows and when the game ends.

8 min read5 sectionsReviewed 2026-08-03

What you need

Two legal decks: 50 cards in the main deck and 10 Soul cards in the Soul Deck, with a maximum of 2 colors among Red, Blue, Green and Purple (Colorless cards are free), up to 4 copies per name and a cap of 8 Lucky Pals. The ETD01 and ETD02 Trial Decks come ready to play and meet all of this.

The table

Each player has a Deck, a Soul Deck, a Soul Area, a Base (maximum 5 Pals) and a Graveyard. You start with 10 life and 5 cards in hand, with one mulligan available if the hand stalls. The player going second places 1 extra soul into their Soul Area at the start.

The turn, in short

Stand (stand your cards), Draw (draw 1), Soul (place 2 souls, maximum 10), Main (play, attack, Assign) and End (clean up damage). The first player skips Stand and Draw on their opening turn.

How you win

Attack the opposing player with your Pals: each point of Strike forces a Damage Check. If the defender reveals no Lucky Pal among the cards, they lose 1 life per point. Take the opponent from 10 to 0 and the game is yours.

Next step

Once the first game flows, read the combat guide and the souls guide to understand the two systems that decide 90% of plays, or open the full rules digest.

Related guides

Sources and editorial review

This guide was reviewed against the locally documented Palworld 1.0 workflow or official TCG mechanics on 2026-08-03. Product availability and software compatibility can change; verify external tools before installation or purchase.