What is Disney Lorcana? A beginner's guide

• What is Lorcana?
• The six inks
• Card types
• Rules
• Building a deck
• Rarities
• All sets
• Getting started
• Frequently asked questions

What is Disney Lorcana?

Disney Lorcana is a trading card game (TCG) by Ravensburger. The game was released in 2023 and is set in the world of Lorcana, where characters from Disney and Pixar films come to life as glimmers. You are an Illumineer: a sorcerer who summons these glimmers with magical ink.

The goal is simple: be the first to collect 20 lore. You gain lore by sending your characters on adventures (questing). Meanwhile your opponent is trying to do the same, so you have to choose: gather lore yourself, or challenge and banish your opponent's characters.

Lorcana is usually played with two players. A game takes about 20 to 40 minutes and the rules are quick to learn, even for children from about eight years old.

The six inks

Every card belongs to one of six ink colours. Each ink has its own play style. In a deck you may combine at most two inks, and that combination determines how you play.

Card types

• Characters. The core of your deck. They have strength, willpower and a lore value. You quest and challenge with characters.
• Actions. One-off effects. A special kind is the song: you can play it for free by having a character sing it who costs enough.
• Items. Stay on the table and give an ongoing advantage or an ability you can use.
• Locations. Places you can move your characters to. Locations give lore at the start of your turn and can be challenged.

The rules in brief

Below you'll read the basics. All details, examples and keywords are in the complete Lorcana rules.

The inkwell: your source of ink

The ink cost is shown at the top left of a card. To play cards you need ink, which you get from your inkwell. Once per turn you may put a card with the inkwell symbol face down into your inkwell. Every card in your inkwell provides one ink per turn. That way you build up more ink step by step and can play increasingly expensive cards.

How a turn works

1. Ready. Ready all your used (exerted) cards.
2. Set. Start-of-turn effects trigger, and your locations give lore.
3. Draw. Draw a card. The first player skips this on the first turn.
4. Main. Do what you like in any order: ink one card, play cards, quest, challenge, move characters to locations and use abilities.

Questing and challenging

A character you've just played is still drying: the ink has to dry first. Only from your next turn can it do something, unless it has Rush. After that you have two choices:

• Quest. Exert the character and gain lore equal to its lore value.
• Challenge. Exert the character to attack an exerted character of your opponent. Both characters deal damage equal to their strength. If the damage is equal to or higher than the willpower, the character is banished.

The first to reach 20 lore wins. If your turn ends while your deck is empty, you lose.

Building a deck

• Your deck has at least 60 cards.
• You use at most two inks.
• Of each card (with the same full name) you may include at most four copies.
• Make sure enough cards have the inkwell symbol, otherwise you'll run short of ink.

Don't know where to start? A starter deck is already a complete deck. If you then want to strengthen it in a targeted way, you'll find what you need in the single cards.

Rarities: how rare is a card?

At the bottom of every card you'll see an icon showing how rare it is. A booster contains 12 cards, one of which is foil. The rarer the card, the smaller the chance you'll pull it.

All Lorcana sets in order

About every three months a new set comes out with new characters and mechanics. Click a set for all products and single cards from it.

1. 1Curator's Collection: Beauty and the Beast Edition
2. 2Curator's Collection: Heroines Edition
3. 3The First Chapter
4. 4Rise of the Floodborn
5. 5Into the Inklands
6. 6Ursula's Return
7. 7Shimmering Skies
8. 8Azurite Sea
9. 9Archazia's Island
10. 10Reign of Jafar
11. 11Fabled
12. 12Whispers in the Well
13. 13Winterspell
14. 14Wilds Unknown
15. 15Attack of the Vine!
16. 16Hyperia City

How to get started with Lorcana

1. Read the rules and play a practice game with open cards.
2. Choose a starter deck with an ink combination you like. You can play right away.
3. Play a few games and discover which cards you're missing.
4. Expand with boosters or buy specific single cards.
5. Protect your cards with sleeves and a deck box.
6. Tracking lore? Use our free lore counter on your phone.

Frequently asked questions

What age is Lorcana suitable for?

Ravensburger recommends Lorcana from age 8. Younger children can often join in with a little help reading the cards.

How many cards are in a booster?

A Lorcana booster contains 12 cards: six Common, three Uncommon, two cards of Rare or higher and one foil card. A booster box contains 24 boosters.

Is Lorcana available in Dutch?

No. Lorcana is published in English, German, French and Italian, and in a number of other languages outside Europe. In the Netherlands and Belgium people mainly play with English cards. The language is stated for every single card.

Can you play Lorcana with more than two players?

Yes. Lorcana is designed for two players, but with three or four players you play free-for-all. Everyone then needs their own deck.

Which sleeves fit Lorcana cards?

Lorcana cards are standard TCG size, 63 x 88 mm. So standard sleeves of 66 x 91 mm fit. Check out our accessories.