Riftbound

riftbound-core-rules-spiritforged-patch-notes

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Riftbound Core Rules: Spiritforged Patch Notes

Published: 2025-12-05
Source: https://playriftbound.com/en-us/news/rules-and-releases/riftbound-core-rules-spiritforged-patch-notes/
Effective Date: December 12, 2025

Welcome to the Patch Notes for Riftbound, Spiritforged edition. This update to the Core Rules supports the Spiritforged expansion. Included are system clarifications, fixes to a few logical errors, and the new rules required to play with the mechanics in Spiritforged.

What This Is

The primary purpose of this rules update is to ensure all new cards in Spiritforged work when released in China on December 12. Some clarifications or housekeeping tasks were left undone to meet that goal. This is what patch notes will typically look like: system updates, clarity, and new rules focused primarily on new cards and mechanics, and secondarily on fixing known issues.

Important distinction: These updates serve only some of the purposes of typical patch notes. We change rules to make new cards work and to work toward systemic stability — not to balance card power. Any errata issued is for clarity and error correction, not power adjustment.

Rather than taking effect immediately, these rules have an effective date of December 12, 2025 to ensure the Chinese Spiritforged release is fully supported, while other regions have time to absorb changes without impacting major tournaments.

Patch Notes

Spiritforged Addition: Attachment, Attached, and Detached

Cards can now attach to other cards.

  • Attach is a verb — the act of one card being linked to another.
  • Attached is the state of being linked.
  • Detach is the opposite verb; there is no opposite “detached” state (everything isn’t constantly “detached,” it’s just not attached).

Cards that attach have a unique new frame. Players are encouraged to overlay the card to represent how attached cards append their abilities to the card on top.

The special attachment frame includes a Might Bonus — a number that modulates the Might of the card on top.

While a card is attached, its rules text becomes inactive (defined below).

  • NEW SYSTEM: Attachment, Attached, and Top-Most Card State added
  • NEW SYSTEM: Effect Text added to Parts of a Card
  • NEW SYSTEM: Might Bonus added to Parts of a Card
  • NEW RULE: New rules added to layers to account for attachments and might bonuses
  • NEW RULE: Attach action added
  • NEW RULE: Detach action added

Spiritforged Addition: Inactive Text

To support the attached state, the concept of text being inactive has been defined.

  • Inactive text is text that is ignored.
  • By default, certain sections of the new attachment frame — the effect text and might bonus — are inactive while the card is not attached.
  • When a card with these sections becomes attached, that section stops being inactive, and its rules text becomes inactive instead.

While inactive text has no effect on the game, it does still exist. Other effects can still check on it. Example: a card with Temporary still has Temporary even if it is inactive and won’t trigger. A hypothetical effect that says “Destroy a card with Temporary” could still choose something with an inactive Temporary keyword.

  • NEW SYSTEM: Inactive Rules System Added (Inactive but not forgotten)
  • NEW RULE: Exceptions to Inactive rules added

Spiritforged Addition: Equip

Equip is the keyword for the new Equipment card type.

  • Pay the Equip cost, choose a unit you control, and attach the Equipment to that unit.

  • You cannot use an Equip ability if the card is already attached to something (because its rules text becomes inactive when attached).

  • If the unit carrying the equipment is killed or otherwise leaves the board, you keep the gear — Equip it to the next contender.

  • NEW RULE: Equip keyword added (Get suited up)

  • NEW RULE: Equipment tag referenced in various rules

Spiritforged Addition: Quick-Draw

Some Equipment have the Quick-Draw keyword in addition to Equip.

  • Quick-Draw lets you play (and consequently attach) Equipment straight from your hand at Reaction speed.

  • Quick-Draw inherently contains Reaction as a nested part of it.

  • Quick-Draw is also a Play Effect that attaches the played Equipment directly to a unit you control — no need to pay the Equip cost.

  • Quick-Draw does not change when you can use an Equipment’s Equip ability, only when you can play it from your hand.

  • NEW RULE: Quick-Draw keyword added

  • NEW RULE: Quick-Draw contains Reaction (Lickity-split)

Spiritforged Addition: Weaponmaster

Some units have the Weaponmaster keyword.

  • This is a Play Effect that chooses an Equipment you control, then lets you pay that Equipment’s Equip cost, reduced by [A], to attach it to the unit with Weaponmaster.

  • It can even choose Equipment that’s already attached to a different unit. Since inactive text like Equip costs can still be referenced by other effects, Weaponmaster can check on that cost and reference it to determine the cost you need to pay.

  • NEW RULE: Weaponmaster keyword added

  • NEW RULE: Exceptions and clarifications added to Inactive (check the Inactive section)

Spiritforged Addition: Repeat

A spell mechanic that lets you get the effect of your spell a second time.

  • Repeat is an optional additional cost.

  • When paid, lets you execute the effect of the spell one additional time.

  • You can only pay this cost once.

  • This still only counts as playing the spell once (sorry, Ravenbloom Student).

  • NEW RULE: Repeat as a keyword added (It bears Repeating)

Control of Abilities

Added a rule to clarify the unlikely situation where control of an object changes while an ability originating from that object is on the chain. Control of the ability will not change along with its originating object.

  • NEW RULE: Control of abilities on the chain is independent of the objects from which they originate

Priority and Focus

Clarified the language around priority and focus:

  • Priority is the singular and exclusive right to take discretionary actions. Only the player with priority may act.

  • Focus is like a “home base.” It is an additional permission and a tracking tool. Focus passes around to make sure everyone gets a turn to play Actions in showdowns, even as priority bounces around.

  • There is no situation where more than one player can contest having authority to do something at the same time.

  • CLARIFIED: Priority is the singular exclusive right to take discretionary actions during a closed state

  • NEW RULE: Granting priority to a player either creates priority or removes it from a player that has it (No sharing. Even if you hold hands.)

  • NEW RULE: Having focus without priority does not grant the right to take discretionary actions

Deathknell

Deathknell worked before but was fuzzy and not logically consistent for many players. New steps have been added in Cleanups, Kill Instructions, and in the Deathknell keyword itself to capture intent. This was prompted by Svellsongur existing and requiring reliable Deathknell support.

Note: This is somehow a Kog’maw buff despite Deathknell being clarified.

  • CLARIFIED: Deathknell now works
  • NEW RULE: New rules added to Cleanups to support Deathknell
  • NEW RULE: New rules added to Kill action to support Deathknell
  • NEW RULE: New rules added to Deathknell to support remembering state and information about the game object with Deathknell after it dies

Cleanups

  • CLARIFIED: Removal of Contested status is not a part of the Special Cleanup at the end of combat (a previous formatting/numbering error made this unclear)
  • NEW RULE: Added rule for ceasing showdowns being staged
  • NEW RULE: Added rule for ceasing combat being staged
  • CLARIFIED: Various improvements and adjustments across cleanups and special cleanups

Playing Units to Valid Locations

The rules previously specified that units could be played to any “valid location” but neglected to spell out which locations are valid.

  • NEW RULE: By default, a player can play a unit to their base or to a battlefield they control
  • NEW RULE: Specific cards may restrict or expand the list of valid locations (Validating)

Double and Swap

Added both double and swap to the list of game actions. Simple English meaning isn’t sufficient when these verbs are applied to numerical values for a limited duration.

Note: Gearhead gets away with using the simple English meaning of double because it’s not being used as a verb and doesn’t have a duration — “gives double its Might bonus” = “gives twice its Might bonus.”

  • NEW RULE: Double added to the list of game actions
  • NEW RULE: Swap added to the list of game actions

General

  • CLARIFIED: Various housekeeping and updates to language across the document, including adjusting or removing examples that are no longer accurate
  1. Vendetta Rules FAQ and Clarifications — 2026-08-14
  2. Unleashed Rules FAQ and Clarifications — 2026-04-29
  3. Unleashed Errata Updates — 2026-04-03
  4. Riftbound Core Rules: Unleashed Patch Notes — 2026-03-30
  5. Tournament Rules, January Update — 2026-01-30
  6. Riftbound Spiritforged FAQ — 2026-01-14
  7. Riftbound Spiritforged Errata — 2026-01-14
  8. Riftbound: Origins Card Errata — 2025-10-28
  9. Riftbound Core Rules: Patch Notes (Origins) — 2025-10-24

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