Tension Cards Guide

Tension Cards are Tribe Nine’s equivalent of weapon systems in other games. They can be acquired
through either gacha, dismantling owned cards and purchasing them from the card shop, or rarely acquired
as drops from defeating certain enemies.

Each card has two important traits: their Tension Phase requirement and their effect(s). You can have
up to 5 Tension Cards equipped at a time. Tension cards will activate when you enter their specified tension
phase, and deactivate if you leave that tension phase.

Currently, tension can be gained in two ways: performing a chain skill, which requires you to break an enemy;
or by a select few cards/characters who can generate additional tension in some way.

There are many parts under effect details, so let's break them down one by one.

Tension needed to activate effect

Shows the required tension phase needed to activate a card. Do note that tension cards will still be activated at
higher phases than the one required to activate it. There are 4 stages of Tension when fighting: 0, 1, 2, and EX
(basically 3 but cooler 😎).

Do note that the bar doesn’t need to be completely filled for the Tension Card to be activated.
For example, let's use this cool but garbage (for the most part) tension card.

The Tension needed to activate the effect is Phase 2. However, in the photo below, we see that even though the bar is at 1 ½ progress, it is still phase 2.

This is because whenever you reach the cap of a phase, you’ll be in that phase until you either reach the next higher or lower cap.

So in this example, we are in phase 2 even though the bar is filled to the 1 ½ section. If it were to hit the next bottom (left) line
(indicated by the frowny face), we will be in phase 1 and the card would deactivate (even if other conditions are met).

If it hits the very right bar (indicated by the smiley face), we will be in phase EX (3) and the card can still be activated if the
other conditions are met. The previous card would be activated at any point from the frowny face to the smiley face AFTER
hitting phase 2 (The line between the frowny and smiley face).

Effect Target

Show who will get the benefits from the card. It can range from the whole party, or to the operating character, or to any character that can activate the additional conditions.

For example, this card will affect all party members.

This card will affect the character who met the condition (In this case, the operating character ONLY and when they get knocked out)

This card will affect a specific target who granted the debuff to the enemy (in this case, a character who gave an enemy the debuff attention). For this card, any character who uses a secondary attack will cause the effect to be activated, not just the character who granted attention.

This card will affect everyone on the team except the operating character.

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Effect Description

This is the text located underneath the Effect Target section. It tells additional conditions for the card to be activated, the buff/debuff/effect that the card gives, and/or the duration of the condition.

The Description of this tension card is as follows: “When the operating character executes Counterattack successfully, grant party members [Star Actor] for 3.6s.”

It is important to know who gets affected by your cards, as well as ALL the conditions required to activate it.
Cards have additional conditions to be activated that are in the description of the card. Let's use the previous picture as
an example. This card is activated when the following conditions are met: When your team is in Phase 0 and when the
operating characters successfully use a counterattack.

Now, who benefits from this card? By reading the description, we see that it gives party members [Star Actor] for 3.6s.
Does this mean everyone?

Star Actor increases the attack point of all characters except the operating character by 5%. Additionally, when
switching characters, the effect will be removed from everyone. It is important to understand what each tension card in
your team does and who it affects. For example, if you are operating the only DPS on the team, then it is probably not
worth using this card, as it doesn’t boost your DPS damage.

Leveling a Tension card increases the blue sections of the Tension Card.

Leveling uses Kane (General Currency) and TP (General Currency). The higher level you get your cards, the greater effect it’ll have, but also more resources will need to be put into the card.

Unlocking Tension Card Level Cap allow the cards to reach higher levels. Unlocking Tension Card Level Cap uses materials given from exploration and/or rifts (the first 3 required materials in this example), and at higher levels, drops from Ferocious Enemies (the 4th required material in this example).

Do note, the higher rarity (⭐) of a tension card, the more materials it will take. Ascension does the same thing as leveling: increases the blue sections of the Tension Card. In order to ascend a card, you need duplicate copies of that card. Ascension goes up to V (Five).

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Currently most of the strongest cards in the game are phase 0/phase 1 cards. There are a handful of usable phase 2/EX cards that may be worthwhile,
but remember that outside of ambushes you must build up anywhere between 2-3 bars before you can even access their effects.
This is because boss fights start you off at anywhere between 0 bars (vs our currently available two boss battles of SHARK and Brave Diver)
or 1 bar (vs our currently available end game bosses in Fractal Vice).
Unless you’re running Iroha with passive 1 maxed out, you’re only building 1.5 bars of tension per break.
Keep this in mind when deciding what cards to run. If you want specific suggestions, check out our character guides where we list some good options.

These are cards that are pretty universal no matter what team you're running.

Full Party + Strike Zone is a powerful combination that is always good. Crit rate is very easy to get through Tension Cards and allows your characters
to focus on crit damage and their main damage stat of choice.

Excuse or Maximization apply Control, a debuff that provides 15% crit rate to anyone hitting the debuffed target.

Things to Hold On To is another source of crit rate provided you can get a shield onto your team. This can be done either via characters or by equipping
Ejection.

All Out drops from the duo Endrones roaming elites and provides a simple damage% increase at the cost of draining stamina when you attack.
While tricky to use for some characters, the damage increase is noticeable.

Feel free to look at our Tension Card Tier List to see some other suggestions. You can click on a card to see a brief review of each card as well.

Some tension cards work very well together. Some cards serve as the anchor for other cards. For example, let’s look at a very good combination of cards that should be on everyone’s team.

This card (which is given as a pre-registration reward) grants Critical Rate and Defense Point increases to
the whole team. However, when characters are granted Unity, it doubles the amount.

But how do you get Unity?

This card seems lackluster, until you realize that it grants Unity to the whole team at the start of the battle
and lasts infinitely. That means that whenever “Full Party” is activated, the whole team will get double the allotted
Critical Rate and Defense Point! It is important to find good combinations of Tension Cards that work with your playstyle.

The following cards are very good, have a lot of value, have good uptime, and are easier to proc for many teams. You don’t have to use these cards, but they are worth looking at.

In the end, tension cards have a drastic impact in your fights. It is up to you to find out how these cards benefit you and your team, or to see if they are a hindrance to your progress. Just because a card is a high rarity does not make it good. Just because a card is a low rarity does not make it bad. There are an abundance of factors that determine the “worth” of a card.

Dredge

Content Creator for Tribe Nine