Spell Cards

Spell Cards are special named moves that units can cast either to deal damage to enemy units or to support their allies. Using the right spell cards at the right times can completely change the tide of battle and push the fight in the player's favor. Consequently, it is also important to prepare a coordinated team in advance to deal with problematic spell cards from bosses.

### Acquiring New Spell Cards

Spell Cards are acquired as either guaranteed first-time clear rewards or as lucky drops from Main Quests and Event Quests. Many Quests are associated with certain units and so will usually only drop spell cards for that unit; however, some exceptions exist such as "Voile the Magic Library" dropping Non-Directional Laser on Lunatic, which is a card for Marisa. All spell cards have hard limits as to how many the player can obtain as well, and once a quantity limit for a spell card has been reached, Quests and Ghost Battles will no longer reward players with those cards.

### Assigning Spell Cards to Units

Spell Cards are assigned to Units in the "Unit" tab (ユニツト in Japanese). To access a unit's spell card tab, either click the red button underneath the unit's slot (below the green button just under the unit's level), or click the purple button on the unit's individual page (located just beneath the round gold button and to the right of the unit's EXP bar). There is also a master spell card list located in the Unit selection screen that can be accessed by clicking the rectangular purple button under the Deck List.

Once the unit's spell card page is open, there will be two large boxes on the left side. The bottom box shows all of the collected spell cards for that individual unit. To assign a spell card for the unit to choose in battle, click and drag the spell card's thumbnail picture to the shaded area of the top box. Similarly, dragging a thumbnail off of that shaded area will remove the spell card from the unit's arsenal. Clicking a thumbnail for a spell card will display information about the selected spell card on the right of the screen. Currently all spell card information in-game is completely in Japanese; to view rough translations of spell card effects, check our Unit List or our Spell Card list.

### Spell Card Stats

All spell cards have a name, a color attribute, a power level, and a specific bomb cost. Attack/Support type, number of hits, and special effects vary by card, with some cards lacking in special effects or attack type altogether.

* **Name:** All spell cards have a name associated with them, with most being based on original spell cards from the Touhou Project series. For some units, especially Daiyousei and Koakuma, there are spell cards that have original names for Hakurei Frontier, and these cards either have purposes not seen from the original characters' spell cards or are spell cards for characters that do not have any in the original series.
* **Power:** Marks the strength of an individual hit in a spell card. A multi-hit spell card's max power is thus calculated by multiplying this number by the total number of hits (Power x # of hits = Total power).
* **Attribute:** Just like units, spell cards also have individual attribute colors. While many times the attribute of a spell card matches the unit's attribute, most units also have spell cards that have a color that differs from their unit attribute. If the spell card in question is an attack, it will override the unit's color and will deal damage to enemies based upon its own attribute color. This override only applies to the unit's attack while they are using the spell card-- normal attacks and unit defense are still based on the unit's attribute and remain unchanged while a spell card is in action.
* **Cost:** The number of bombs needed to cast a spell card and put it in the activation queue.

* **Attack Type:** Denotes what targeting system a spell card will use and how many hits it will deal. All attack spell cards either do physical or magical damage, and all units have separate defenses for both (DEF for physical and MNT for magical). There are also three main attack styles: Overall, Simple, and Auxiliary.
	+ **Overall:** Overall attack spell cards strike every enemy in the opponent's party one time regardless of where the player has put the cross-hair. As such, aiming them is only important if the unit using an overall-type spell card has been darkened, as they will either hit the one target the player has marked or will pick a random target to hit. Meiling's unit skill forces overall cards to only hit her, meaning that they will essentially be restricted to one successful hit. All spell cards denoted as "attack once to all targets" on this wiki are overall types.
	+ **Simple:** Simple spell cards strike where the player has aimed in successive multi-hit bursts. A simple-type spell card's successive hits can also be redirected as they are being fired if the player selects a new target during its activation. If the player has not selected a target for the spell card to focus on, simple-type spell cards will choose targets to hit at random. If the unit using a single-type spell card has been darkened, only one hit will be fired. All spell cards denoted as "attack # times" on this wiki are simple types.
	+ **Auxiliary:** Auxiliary cards are spell cards that do not have a marked attack type or power. These cards often either create attack states where the unit counters or attacks outside of turn or are support cards that do something beneficial for the party. Some attack spell cards also create special states for the party or cast beneficial support effects, but as long as they have an attack type and power level they are still classed as attack cards, and so will fall into one of the latter two categories. To tell if a spell card is auxiliary, look for a power of 0 and a lack of an attack type. A true auxiliary spell card does not override the unit's other spell cards when cast and can be used at the same time as an attack card.

* **Special Effect:** Besides attacking, many spell cards carry special effects with them. Most effects only affect the actual card's attack, but there are three special types of special effects: Passives, States, and Activations.
	+ **Passive:** Special effects marked with [永] affect either the player's party or the opponent's party uncontrollably. They are attached to the spell card, which is always an active attack card, so if the spell card is canceled out or overridden, the effect stops. All special effects denoted with "Passively \_\_\_" on the wiki are passive effects that affect more than the unit casting it.
	+ **State:** Special effects marked with [自] create unique behaviors for the individual unit that last as long as the spell card isn't placed in the Used pile. Many auxiliary cards create these states as their only usage, but a few attack cards also create states. Overriding the original card that created the state with a new active spell card will still keep the special state's effect intact. All special effects denoted with "Creates a state where \_\_\_" on the wiki are special states that keep going for the rest of the battle.
	+ **Activation:** Special effects marked with [発動時] cause a unique one time effect to occur upon casting, which is then replaced by an attack every other time the unit uses the card. Stacking the same card will recast the activation effect while still keeping the previous card intact as usual, but again will only happen one time per card. All special effects denoted with "Upon activation \_\_\_" on the wiki are cards that cast a special effect once upon their first usage. Some older cards like Reimu's Fantasy Seal do not have the notation of this type but can still safely be considered part of this special effect type.

### Stacking Spell Cards

Staking multiples of the same spell card increases its own power by 0.5x per repeated card. This effect applies to other cards cast by the unit as well, with one important rule: **Stacking a unit's Attack Spell Cards only increases the power of the unit's Attack Spell Cards and stacking a unit's Auxiliary Spell Cards only increases the power of the unit's Auxiliary Spell Cards.** Having a damage increase from multiples of one attack spell card will not increase the effectiveness of an auxiliary card cast by the unit and vice versa.

* The spell card screen of a unit without a featured spell card.A unit's spell card screen with a featured spell card shown on the right.Clicking and dragging the thumbnail picture of a spell card to the shaded area assigns the card to the unit.This unit has the maximum amount of assigned spell cards in the shaded area, and cannot be given more.The unit's individual page also shows which spell cards she has assigned, and at what quantities.Clicking the Spell Card List button brings the player to this screen with a scroll bar that takes one down the entire collected list of cards a player owns.Clicking on a thumbnail from the spell card list displays the individual spell card and all of its information. Artist credits are on the bottom left, and the blue arrows on either side let the player see next or previous cards on the list.