Dragon Ball Z: Over 9000

Each player selects one of the 12 available character roles and places their corresponding character card in front of them. Players then draw 6 power tokens from the central pile, choosing to keep one token in their reserve slot and allocating the remaining 5 to the four attack/defense slots on their character card, face down.

The primary objective is to raise your character's power level to over 9000. The game concludes at the end of a round when at least one player has achieved a power level exceeding 9000.

Starting with the player with the lowest power level, players take turns attacking an opponent. To attack, a player chooses one of their four slots and pushes the token forward, declaring their target and the attack type (kick, punch, or high blast). The defending player then chooses one of their own slots to reveal a token, attempting to block the attack with a matching defense icon or the same attack icon. If the defender reveals a power-up token, the attack is successful unless the attacker also revealed a power-up token.

If an attack is successful, the attacking player's power level increases by one. If the defending player successfully blocks an attack by revealing a matching defense icon or the same attack icon, they gain one power level, and the attacker loses one. If a player reveals a power-up token and the opponent does not reveal an attack token, the player automatically gains one power level. Character-specific special powers can be activated by flipping a Dragon Ball token from the reserve slot, providing unique advantages.

The game ends at the conclusion of a round where one or more players have a power level exceeding 9000. If only one player has achieved this, they are declared the winner. If multiple players have surpassed 9000, all players who did so reset their power level to 5000, and a new round begins. Play continues with new tokens drawn until one player clearly has a higher power level than all others, making them the winner.