The King of Fighters Allstar Battle Cards Guide: How to Use Your Battle Cards Efficiently

The King of Fighters Allstar has more than proven itself to be an exceptional combination of beat ‘em up and RPG. If that is not enough to get action and adventure game enthusiasts on it, then the gacha element of obtaining and collecting fighters in tandem with various means of customizing each one should juice it up even further to pack hours after hours gaming fun and excitement.

Most especially for fans of the series, being able to form and battle with your very own unique ultimate trio of fighters, along with their respective strikers, is a treat in itself. Although some fighters, as well as some teams, have proven to be more effective than others, it should not stop you, or anyone, from continuing to try and discover new combinations of fighters as well as enjoy playing as whichever fighter is their personal favorite.

If you started out a little late in playing The King of Fighters Allstar and have a bit of need for some guidance on the basic concepts and features of the game, be sure to read The King of Fighters Allstar beginner’s guide as it provides some helpful tips and strategies to give you a good jumpstart on the game. While we encourage you to go with whichever fighters are your favorites in the series, it helps to know which ones stand out as the strongest in The King of Fighters Allstar and for that, we have a tier list that you may want to check out. Choosing from among the plethora of fighters in the game can be a challenging feat and although it is fun and exciting as well to mix and match your own crew, The King of Fighters Allstar teams guide can give you some ideas on themes and synergistic combinations that can pull you through the most challenging battles.

In this guide, we will be focusing entirely on the game’s battle card system. As battle cards are the core of what can make your fighters unique and more powerful than their counterparts on the other side of the battlefield or arena, making full use of the ones you have, as well as having a good idea of what to go for as far as these enhancements go, can make a huge impact on your team’s power and efficiency. While choosing from among the fighters for good ones to invest on can be a challenge for beginners, the attachment of specific battle cards for each of your favorite fighters can be an added challenge especially if you have not yet secured a firm grasp of the game’s mechanics. As such, make it a point to read through whatever helpful information you can find in the game and try to read through our other guides as well.

1. Battle Card Types

First and foremost, you have to understand that battle cards work the same way as gears in other games and each type more or less provides a different enhancement much like various gear types impact heroes or characters in conventional RPGs differently. There are categorically 5 types of battle cards in The King of Fighters Allstar namely: Special Cards, Set Cards, Option Cards, Evolution Cards and Level Up Cards. The first 3 can be equipped by your fighters and the latter 2 are used to further boost the perks that the former ones provide. Essentially, you would want your team to be fully equipped with the best cards in your collection before you head on to battle. While rarity levels of battle cards also impact their effectiveness, keep in mind that jamming the rarest cards on your top fighter will not necessarily yield the best results.

Special Cards are character specific cards that grant your fighter an additional skill in combat as well as boost that fighter’s HP, attack, and defense stats. If you have just started out the main story, you will notice an empty skill slot at the right side of your screen. Equipping a Special Card on the fighter you are using will unlock that skill. Special Cards can be equipped on any version of a character, which means that if you have Kyo Kusanagi’s Ura 121: Ame no Murakumo, for example, you can freely equip it on any version of Kyo Kusanagi. Take note that each fighter in the game may have more than 1 Special Card any while each may be of different rarity, you may come to find the more common one more viable depending on your play style.

Set Cards are cards that have a bonus effect when all 3 components are equipped on the same fighter. While set cards may be a little more challenging to collect, equipping one, or even just two cards from the set will still benefit your fighter. Each card can boost your fighter’s HP, attack, and defense stats as well as provide a passive boost in attack, defense, damage, or other attributes in percentages. Completing the 3-card collection, however, adds a more powerful buff that typically work in support of the initial stat boost granted by the individual cards. Going for a full set is definitely the goal but then, opt to equip 3 cards for the added stat boosts if you still do not have a complete set in your collection.

Last, but not the least of cards you can equip are the Option Cards, which also grant passive boosts on your fighter and can be equipped on any of them. Unlike the previous cards, the buffs provided by these cards depend on their rarity level. 6-star cards, for example, provide 3 different buffs to a fighter. 5-star ones have 2 option skills, and the rest will only add 1 buff. On top of it all, each card will also boost the fighter’s HP, attack, and defense values much like the other cards do.

2. Equip Battle Cards Based On Your Fighter’s Strength

For the most part, the initial HP, attack, and defense boost that battle cards provide your fighter are helpful and yet, these stat boosts do not vary that much based on the cards you equip, provided that the choices are among cards of the same rarity and level. As Special Cards are character-specific and you should consider yourself lucky to nab one specific to your top fighter, the set cards and option cards should be decided based on the core strength of your fighter.

As we mentioned in our beginner’s guide, The King of Fighters Allstar hosts a unique core system where you can enhance stats and skills of your fighters based on their cores. Each core layout and content is unique for every fighter and while there is a bit of customization option from beginning to mid game as a result of prioritization, your fighter will eventually be able to unlock all nodes in his core.

To determine the core stats that your fighter has, tap on the “stat details” button at the right side of the fighter screen. You will see that while each fighter has base stats not just for HP, attack, and defense but also for penetration, critical rate, and others. For starters, therefore, try and bank on choosing cards for your fighters based on these other stats. If your fighter intrinsically has high critical rate and critical damage rate and the same is likewise enhanced by cores, then going for battle cards that further boosts these stats should be your priority.

3. Level Up And Evolve The Cards You Use

As your fighter reaches new levels through gaining experience in battle as well as consuming experience potions, their stat attributes increase. Like fighters, though, all battle cards can also be levelled up and evolved and each new level brings about an increase in the stats they provide. Lower rarity cards have lower level caps and once maxed out, you will need to evolve them to the next star rank before you can proceed to level them up further.

To proceed with the enhancement of your battle cards, simply tap on the battle card icon at the main screen then tap on the card you wish to enhance. Tapping on the “level up” tab will take you to the enhancement page and you will notice different tabs at the right side of the screen. For starters, consider using the miscellaneous cards on the farthest tab first as these cards will provide a bigger boost to the experience points gained by the cards you want to enhance. When close to maxing out a card, be sure to use the other low rarity cards as fillers.

While you can also sell cards you do not need for some gold, we advise you to instead use them as enhancement materials. There are much better ways to earn gold in the game, anyway. Likewise, do not readily dispose of extra 5 to 6-star doubles as you can use them for a more rewarding game feature that we will be discussing later.

All cards below a 6-star rank has temporary caps that can be further extended through evolving. Expectedly, higher rarity ones will require evolution cards that are more challenging to acquire. There are various types of evolution cards and material requirements mostly differ from one card to the next as well. Be sure to check the ones you need. If you are missing some components, tapping on the “go” button at the right side of the card enhancement page will show you the stages where you can get them.

4. Check For And Target Cards You Need Via The Exchange

At some point in the game, spending your hard-earned rubies will be a decision that will be divided between spending it on summoning more fighters or more battle cards at the summon portal. While the choice is entirely up to you based on what you need more, getting either random fighters or battle cards will lose appeal the more of each type you collect. In essence, every gacha system of acquiring materials, characters, or any such item in any game are largely, if not entirely dependent on luck, and if you feel bad about your draws, you should consider banking on more focused approaches to getting the cards you need.

A typically missed feature of The King of Fighters Allstar lies among the usual windows you visit via the icons at the bottom of your main screen called the “Exchange”. Through this feature, you can exchange your special and option card doubles for specific cards that you need. The exchange rate may seem high at first glance, with a 4 to 1 on a special card and a 6 to 1 for an option card, although, there hardly is any point in keeping extra copies of these cards unless you equip them on more than 1 character. You can also exchange league coins you earn from arena league matches for skill enhancement cards that are hard to obtain. As such, be sure to expend all 3 daily attempts in the arena league matches to keep earning league coins.

5. Farm Battle Cards From Power Up Dungeons

If you have played the game for a while or have read our beginner’s guide, then you should know by now that the power up dungeon is your all-in-one go-to place for farming. More specifically, the Battle Card Dungeon and Battle Card Evolution Dungeons are what you need to spend your extra action points (AP) if you want to keep growing and evolving your battle card collection. In both game modes, you need to clear the lower level challenge first before you can unlock and farm on the next one. Expectedly, the higher the difficulty level of the dungeon, the better the rewards you will get.

The Battle Card Dungeon is your source for various special, option, and set cards as well as level up cards while the Battle Card Evolution Dungeon is a lot more self-explanatory as far as possible drops are concerned. In any dungeon, you can tap on the “I” at the upper right corner of the pre-battle screen to see the obtainable cards in that specific dungeon and to motivate you as well to keep farming for the 5-star cards.

This wraps up The King of Fighters Allstar battle cards guide. Be sure to spend some time experimenting with various battle card combinations as much as you mix and match the fighters in your team. If you have some tips regarding battle cards that you would like to add to what we discussed, feel free to drop us a note in the comment area!