CHUNITHM WARS Trading Card Game

History, how to play, and more

WHAT'S CHUNITHM WARS?

CHUNITHM WARS (チュウニズム大戦) is a score-stacking trading card game (TCG) that utilizes cards printed from SEGA's Card Maker machines. Its mechanics are best described as a blend of Pokémon and Solitaire, with the objective being to stack specific card skill effects until a score of 1000 points is reached.

CHUNITHM WARS became a popular game to play in-between sets of CHUNITHM itself to pass the time, and is especially played amongst character and story fans. The cards themselves are also seen as collectibles, and many deeply invested character fans collect stacks of their favorites.

Card Maker cabinets are only available in Japan. CHUNITHM Card Maker characters only encompass those released from ORIGIN to PARADISE LOST.

For those interested in playing, it's worth noting that all card skills are written in Japanese.

Official website rules - List of obtainable cards & their skills

This page & its translations are by DEADRKGK.

THE HISTORY & DEMISE OF THE CARD MAKER

Click to expand

Starting October 25th, 2018 during CHUNITHM AMAZON's service time, SEGA introduced Card Maker (カードメイカー) machines for their brand new rhythm game ONGEKI. With the Card Maker, users could roll the gacha for new ONGEKI characters to use in-game, as well as print commemorative cards to slot into the cabinet for easy character exchanges. CHUNITHM and maimai also received Card Maker support, with different benefits.

maimai's Card Maker benefits included the DX Pass---which depending on the tier purchased, gave in-game stat multipliers, along with extra time in Freedom Mode and difficulty unlocks. Users could also print cards featuring maimai characters, with the character roster rotating over time.

In 2025, both ONGEKI and maimai's Card Maker functions stopped supporting holographic foil prints. (CHUNITHM never supported foil.)

CHUNITHM's functions with the Card Maker were more simple. With the discontinuation of character maps from previous game versions, there was no way to obtain older characters. The Card Maker acted as a gacha to obtain characters from those discontinued maps, with users pulling from gacha pools dedicated to each game's version. Each character was 100 JPY to pull, and after ten card pulls, users were able to choose the character card they wanted for an additional 100 JPY. With each character pulled, users were given the option to print CHUNITHM WARS cards with said character artwork on them. Once the user returned to a CHUNITHM cabinet, all characters that they pulled would appear in-game.

Since Card Maker cabinets were (and still are) Japan-exclusive, the majority of international server players were unable to access discontinued map characters unless they played at the very beginning of its launch. This was an oversight on the account of the international server initially being based on CHUNITHM SUPER STAR, a game version that was exclusive to China.

CHUNITHM also had several Card Maker exclusive character variants, in which they'd run campaigns to pull these characters within specific time-frames. These were often themed after seasonal events not unfamiliar to gacha game players, such as Valentine's Day and Autumn onsen trips.

Besides gaining discontinued characters, CHUNITHM's Card Maker functions had no bearing on gameplay itself---it was created as an appreciation for the characters, and for the CHUNITHM WARS trading card game.

With time all characters were added to the Card Maker gacha pools, including limited time character variants. Character additions were quietly discontinued beyond PARADISE LOST. All discontinued map characters subsequently became available to redeem with CHUNITHM-NET's P-Points system.

Card Maker services for both CHUNITHM and maimai were terminated September 2nd, 2026. This made CHUNITHM WARS a legacy TCG, and made almost 200 character cards out of print---with many characters having these cards as their only official merchandise.

- HOW TO PLAY CHUNITHM WARS -

CHUNITHM WARS uses cards printed from the Card Maker. It requires 8 cards per person to play!
This game can be played with two or more people, so lets all prepare our cards and play together!
*Each person can only use 1 of each card.

Stack six character cards in a column and aim for 1000 points!

ABOUT CARDS

Below is a diagram of a CHUNITHM WARS card.

Labels are categorized as follows:

▲ゼーリ (Seelisch Tact) / ●リレイ (Relation) / ♥グミン (GUMIN) / ★シビュ (Sibyl Spirit Chronicles) / ◆ジェネ (Genesis Of Destiny) / ♠アニマ (Animalia) / ■メタヴ (Metaverse) / ♣イロド (Irodorimidori)

Difficulties are categorized as follows:

BASIC ADVANCED EXPERT MASTER

ABOUT COMBOS

When stacking cards, compare them to the previously placed card.
If their Label, difficulty, or both match, you'll get a COMBO and be able to stack your cards vertically!

COMBO SUCCESS!

ABOUT MISSES

When stacking cards, compare them to the previously placed card.
If their Label, difficulty, or both are different, you'll MISS, so stack the card on its left side.

ABOUT CHAINS

Skill effects can sometimes cause a CHAIN.
Stack the card on its right side!

- PREPARING TO PLAY -

STEP 1: Shuffle 8 of your character cards. This becomes your deck.

STEP 2: Decide the player that will start first. You can decide using criteria such as "the person who played CHUNITHM the most recently!"

STEP 3: Each player draws two cards from their deck, chooses one, and places it face down in front of them. (The remaining cards become your hand.)

STEP 4: Once every player has placed a card, each must turn the card face-side up and rotate it to the left to match the miss formation. These cards are now in the playing field.

When all is prepared...GAME START!

- GAMEPLAY -

STEP 1: The starting player receives the effects of any skill on the card placed by the player to their right if its skill has been activated.

STEP 2: Each player draws one card from their deck and adds it to their hand.

STEP 3: Players place one card from their two-card hand on the playing field, so that the card's score is visible. Depending on the parameters, the card may result in a COMBO or a MISS.

STEP 4: If the parameters required on the card's description are met, its skill will activate. (If a player before you has activated their own skill, you will receive their card's effect first.)

STEP 5: Your turn passes, and the player to your left takes their turn. Proceed through steps 2-5 in the same way.

STEP 6: Repeat steps 2-5 until all players have placed their sixth card (including the first card placed as a MISS).

STEP 7: The player whose total score from the cards played is the closest to 1000 points wins. If it's a tied score, it's a double-victory! (If you score 1001 or more points, you "bust" and lose.)

*The score to aim for may fluctuate to be more or less than 1000 points depending on the card skills activated.

- SUPPLEMENTAL RULES -

Precautions for 2-player games

When playing a round with only two players, skill effects that normally target multiple next players such as "Label Cancel (♥ ●MISS+)" only affect the other player. (You yourself are not affected.)

In the scenario of overlapping skills

When the effects of your card skills overlap those of the other player's, players must activate the effects in order from the skills that were activated first.

For example: when the effects of skills overlap after having achieved a COMBO.

In that case, your own COMBO will MISS first, so you will not receive the effect of turning your COMBO into a CHAIN. It will remain a MISS.

Previous player

Yourself

Skills that activate based on difficulty and Label parameters

Skills such as "when making a COMBO with BASIC difficulty, it becomes a CHAIN" or "the next player's COMBO/CHAIN of ♥, ●, or ◆ will become a MISS" will only activate when the parameters of those COMBOS/CHAINS are met.

For example: "when you and the next player play cards that form a BASIC COMBO, it causes a CHAIN."

Because it's a COMBO using BASIC difficulty, activating its skill causes a CHAIN!

Because it's a COMBO using its Label, it remains a COMBO.

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