Strength

**Strength** is an attribute present in all Ally, Hero, and Rival cards/tiles.

It represents the resilience of a character, and their ability to defeat opposing characters or resolve Events.

The Strength value of character may be modified by other cards or effects in play.

## Altering Strength

Strength can be altered by card text and Abilities; these alterations can be permanent or temporary.

* **Card Abilities**: Some cards have the Ability to increase or decrease the Strength of characters in a location, a Domain, or the character to which an Item is attached. The alteration can be permanent or temporary.
* **Allies/Heroes**: Some Allies/Heroes have the Ability to increase or decrease the Strength of other characters at their location, the Domain, or a specific character in their location or Domain. Some Allies/Heroes increase their own Strength as well as the Strength of other Heroes.
* **Activated Abilities**: Some activated Abilities have the effect of temporarily increasing or decreasing Strength of characters.
* **Strength Tokens:** Some cards and text will result in Strength Tokens being placed onto a character. These tokens will increase the Strength of the character as long as that token is on them. There are two sides of these tokens; one for +1 Strength, and one for -1 Strength.

## Uses

* **Vanquish**: During a Vanquish action, compare the Strength of an opposing character and Allies, the opposing character is defeated if the combined Strength of the Allies equals or exceeds their Strength.
* **Events**: Events have a Strength requirement in the lower-left corner. The Event is resolved if the combined Strength of the Allies equals or exceeds this Strength requirement.
* **Effects**: Several effects target characters of a certain Strength.
* **Specialties and Items:** Some Items, Specialties, and various other game text may target characters of a certain Strength.

## FAQ

* Whenever referring to a character's Strength, always consider all other card Abilities that are in effect in play. For Example, if a character has a Strength of 5 printed on their card, but another card in play gives them -1 Strength, then that character's Strength is considered to be 4 for all purposes.
* If an opposing character's Strength is reduced to 0 by other card Abilities, you must still use a Vanquish action or card Ability to defeat that character. However, if you use a Vanquish action, no Allies need to be discarded. You **cannot** defeat an opposing character if you have no Allies at that opposing character's location.
* If an Ally's Strength is reduced to 0 by other card Abilities, you may **not** use that Ally to defeat an opposing character in any way.

## Clarification

* The strength of a character is only altered after being played: anywhere else, they are considered to have the printed Strength. For example, if there is an ongoing effect that prevents characters of a Strength of 4 or less from being played and another ongoing effect that gives all characters -1 Strength, and you want to play a character with a Strength of 5, you can play that character since their current Strength is 5 and they meet the playing restriction, though once played, their Strength will be 4.
* Strengths cannot be decreased below 0. For example, if Killmonger attaches two copies of Wound to Iron Man, he has 0 Strength, not negative 1.