Rebirth of Chaos Yu-Gi-Oh! Online · Phase 1

Server Battle City · battle-city.net

Client Ver.060110.00

Duelist Levels update daily at 4:00

Score resets on the 1st

The Duelist’s Rulebook

Rules & format

Duels are played the way Yu-Gi-Oh! Online played them in 2005: the rules of that era, the clocks it published and the lobbies it ran.

Format & rule era

Yu-Gi-Oh! Online declared its own rule set: the OCG “New Expert Rules” with a Forbidden & Limited list of its own. The server reproduces those 2005 rules, which differ from today’s in ways that matter:

  • The hand limit is 6 cards at the end of your turn.
  • Tribute Summons need 1 Tribute for Level 5–6 and 2 for Level 7 or higher.
  • There is one Field Spell for both players. A new one destroys the one already face-up.
  • The turn player may use a summoned monster’s Ignition effect by priority.
  • Optional “when” effects can miss the timing.
  • Extra monsters live in the Fusion Deck. There is no Synchro, Xyz, Pendulum or Link.
  • Cards do what their own text in the game says, ruled as they were in 2005.

The game client holds no card logic of its own: every effect is resolved by the server’s rules engine. If a card behaves in a way you believe is wrong, report it in the forum’s Bug Reports board with the cards involved.

The turn

Every turn passes through the six phases on the game’s phase bar.

  1. Draw

    Draw 1 card. The first player draws too.

  2. Standby

    Standby effects resolve.

  3. Main 1

    Summon, Set and activate.

  4. Battle

    Not on the duel’s first turn.

  5. Main 2

    Summon, Set and activate.

  6. End

    Discard down to 6.

Deck construction

Main Deck40–80The 80-card cap is the game’s own limit
Side Deck0–15Optional
Fusion Deck0–15Fusion Monsters only, outside the 40
  • At most 3 copies of a card across all three decks, fewer for cards on the Forbidden & Limited list.
  • A deck may only hold cards your character owns, checked when the duel starts.
  • Build and save decks in Deck Construction. A new character’s deck starts out empty: build it from your starter deck’s cards before your first duel.

Lobbies

Beginner Lobby

For characters at Duelist Level 1 or with fewer than 35 duels: the only lobby new players see. The game allows no trading and no surrender here.

Lv. 2~8 Lobby

For Duelist Levels 2 to 8 with at least 35 duels. Reach Level 2 and you move up here, and no longer see the Beginner Lobby.

In any lobby you can chat, whisper privately, send D-Mail, and create or join a duel room. A room with a password is a friend duel: only someone who knows the password can join.

Playing a duel

Duel style

Duels are Single duels: one game, and a draw stands. Rooms created as a Match are currently played as a single duel too.

Who goes first

Both players throw rock-paper-scissors; a tie is thrown again. The winner chooses to go first or second.

Starting the duel

Each player starts with 8000 Life Points and draws 5 cards from a deck the server shuffles.

Time limits

3:00 Your turn For the whole turn
1:00 Responses Activating or chaining on your opponent’s turn
1:00 Choices Card lists and other windows, or the rest of the turn if longer
0:30 Rock-paper-scissors To throw, and to choose first or second

The clock shows on both screens. Running out of time loses the duel. Deliberate stalling is also a breach of the code of conduct.

How a duel ends

A player loses when:

  • their Life Points reach 0;
  • they must draw from an empty deck;
  • their opponent completes Exodia the Forbidden One or Destiny Board;
  • they surrender, allowed during their own turn everywhere but the Beginner Lobby;
  • they run out of time; or
  • they leave or disconnect.

If both players would lose at the same moment, the duel is a draw.

A duel that ends by leaving, surrendering or timing out during its very first turn records nothing for either player, and pays no card. Duels decided by play always count.

Rewards & ranking

Cards

After every recorded duel, both players open a pack and keep a card from it, winner and loser alike. Duels are free: every player has 9,999 Duel Points and nothing is ever charged.

Score

Winning raises your Score and losing lowers it. Every Score returns to 0 on the 1st of each month, so every month is a new race.

Duelist Level

Every character is Level 1 until it has played 35 duels. After that, each day at 4:00 server time, duelists are ranked by their Score for the month and placed on the pyramid. The new Level reaches you the next time you select your character.

  1. Level 8 Top 3%
  2. Level 7 Next 7%
  3. Level 6 Next 10%
  4. Level 5 Next 15%
  5. Level 4 Next 20%
  6. Level 3 Next 20%
  7. Level 2 Everyone else
  8. Level 1 Fewer than 35 duels

Friend duels are not recorded. A duel arranged from a room with a password, including every duel against a CPU, moves neither player’s Score or Level and pays no card.

CPU opponents

The server runs computer-controlled duelists who wait in the lobby. To duel one, create a duel room with that CPU’s password. About a second later the CPU challenges you: answer Yes and play. When the duel ends it goes back to waiting, so the next room with the same password starts a new duel.

The CPUs and their passwords are listed on the forum. Because they are called with a password, CPU duels are friend duels and are never recorded.

Trading

Trade cards with other players from the lobby. An offer nobody answers is withdrawn after a minute, and both players confirm before any card changes hands. Trading is not available in the Beginner Lobby.

Trades are final. Never trade cards for money, accounts or anything outside the game.

Accounts

  • A UserID is 3–16 letters and digits and is case-sensitive at login. The game’s login screen accepts nothing else, so no spaces, _ or -.
  • A password is 8–16 letters and digits, and cannot be the same as your UserID.
  • One account per email address. The server keeps only a fingerprint of your address, never the address itself.
  • Use a password you use nowhere else. The game’s login forces the server to keep passwords in a recoverable form.
  • Nobody from the team will ever ask for your password or your email code.

Register or recover an account

Code of conduct

The feather of Ma’at weighs every heart. Rebirth of Chaos is a small community run by volunteers: keep it a place people want to come back to.

Duel with honour

  • Play on the unmodified game through the launcher. No cheats, bots or altered clients.
  • Report bugs; don’t exploit them.
  • No win-trading, and no second accounts to farm Score or cards.
  • Don’t stall: take your turn and let your opponent take theirs.

Respect every duelist

  • No harassment, hate speech, threats or slurs, in chat, D-Mail or on the forum.
  • No spam, advertising or impersonating the team.
  • No sharing, selling or buying accounts, and no trading cards for real money.
  • Keep personal information, yours and others’, private.

Breaking these rules can lead to a warning, a mute, a suspension or a permanent ban, at the moderators’ discretion. To report a player, post in the forum’s Reports board with their UserID, the time and what happened.

The format follows the Yu-Gi-Oh! Online service’s own published rules and the Ver.060110.00 client. The server may refine them as the revival grows; changes are announced in the news.