Gridhammer — Complete Reference
The complete compendium of every Aura, Placement, Defend, and Capture ability across all five houses. 60 abilities — 12 per house, organized as 3 escalation chains of 3 tiers plus 3 standalone abilities.
5 Houses · 60 Abilities · 15 ChainsStructure & Trigger Types
Every card in Gridhammer may have up to 4 ability slots, one for each trigger type. Abilities are house-locked — a card only rolls abilities from its own house.
| Category | Per House | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Chain Abilities | 9 | 3 chains of 3 tiers (Tier 1 / Tier 2 / Tier 3). Higher tiers are rarer and more powerful. |
| Standalone Abilities | 3 | Independent abilities that do not belong to a chain. Unique utility effects. |
| Total per House | 12 | 9 chain + 3 standalone = 12 abilities per house. |
| Grand Total | 60 | 12 abilities × 5 houses = 60 abilities in the game. |
Badge legend:
AURA — Passive, always-active while on the field.
PLACEMENT — Triggers when this card is placed.
DEFEND — Triggers when this card is about to be captured.
CAPTURE — Triggers when this card captures an enemy card.
TRAP — A delayed placement effect targeting a future slot.
Tier colors: Tier 1 (Uncommon) → Tier 2 (Rare) → Tier 3 (Legendary)
Stillforge cards specialize in raw power, corner protection, and total-power checking. Their chains focus on immunity to enemy modification, ally corner boosting, and the unique Total Power mechanic that uses all 4 corners instead of side sums. 12 abilities: 3 chains (9) + 3 standalone.
When checked, lock this card's corners for the entire check. (1 charge)
On capture, captured card gets +1 to touching corners.
Draw 1 card.
Runeweaver cards excel at debuffing enemies, suppressing abilities, and siphoning corner values. Their chains focus on aura-based enemy weakening, ability lockdown, and stealing power from captured cards. 12 abilities: 3 chains (9) + 3 standalone.
On capture, set the captured card's corners to the average of its total.
On placement, select any card on the board — remove all buffs and debuffs.
Remove attacker's card buffs before checking the flip.
Embercrest plates control the battlefield through Singe — apply it to weaken enemies, then consume it during flip checks for powerful bonuses. Offense consume abilities boost attacks and trigger chain captures. Defense consume abilities fortify your plates. 12 abilities: 3 chains (9) + 3 standalone.
When this plate captures an enemy, Singe the captured plate.
Select a side. On attack checks, consume Singe for +2 per consumed.
Select a side. On defense checks, consume Singe for +2 per consumed.
Singe weakens an enemy plate's highest corner by -1 and allows flip checks to pass through. Embercrest's real power is consuming Singe during flip checks: corner abilities give +1/singe, side abilities give +2/singe, all-corners abilities give +4/singe. Consumed Singe triggers Ember Cascade — spreading to 1 adjacent un-singed enemy. Offense consume abilities also trigger forced chain checks when singe is consumed during a capture.
Stoneheart cards are the masters of defense, blocking captures, preventing corner reductions, and rooting cards in place. Their chains focus on capture immunity, reduction blocking, and positional control via freeze effects. 12 abilities: 3 chains (9) + 3 standalone.
Adjacent allies immune to enemy corner-reducing aura effects.
On capture, draw 1 card.
Surrounding allies are immune to enemy abilities.
Shadowmine cards manipulate board positions, set delayed traps, and counter enemy attacks with unexpected reversals. Their chains focus on card movement, trap placement, and counter-attack reactions. 12 abilities: 3 chains (9) + 3 standalone (Shadow Swap is a T2 variant in the Movement chain).
Corner values hidden until attacked.
On capture, opponent discards 1 random card and you draw 1.
On placement, swap with surrounding ally, after swap conflict is resolved.
How abilities resolve in play
There are 4 ability trigger types. When multiple abilities fire simultaneously, they resolve in this order:
Singe is a status effect unique to Embercrest. When Singe is applied to a card, the singed card's highest corner immediately gets -1 (this is reversed when Singe is removed). When a flip check encounters a singed enemy that would hold (attacker <= defender), the check passes through to the next card in that direction — the singed card is not flipped by passthrough. Singe persists until consumed by an ability (such as Detonate) or until the card leaves the field. Singed cards can be identified by their visual indicator. Multiple Embercrest abilities apply, spread, and exploit Singe for devastating chain reactions.
Traps are delayed effects unique to Shadowmine. When a Shadowmine card with a trap ability is placed, the owner selects an empty slot on the board. When any card (friend or foe) is later placed on that slot, the trap activates and applies its effect to the placed card. Traps are hidden from the opponent. Each trap ability (Snare, Deadfall, Shadow Snatch) has escalating power.
When a card is placed and multiple effects trigger:
Some abilities have a limited number of uses indicated by charges. Once all charges are expended, the ability is spent and will not trigger again. Charge counts are noted in each ability description (e.g., "1 charge", "2 charges"). Abilities without a charge notation are unlimited and trigger every time their condition is met.