Only 4 cards cost 2 — and every one of them kills multiple Characters: re-sorting the 12 confirmed Chakra costs

What makes a card strong in a trading card game is never the effect on its own — it is the effect measured against its price. The same text is excellent for 1 and unplayable for 5.

In the NARUTO Card Game, that price sits inside the CHAKRA icon on the left edge of the card. Across our card database, the number in that icon is legible on 12 cards. That sounds thin, but 12 is enough for the pricing pattern to show.

And it shows sharply. Only four cards are known to cost 2 — and all four of them K.O. multiple Characters at once.

Scope of this article: everything below is tallied from cards registered in our card database. The sources are the sample card images on the official “About NARUTO CARD GAME” page and scans of the English demo cards handed out at Gen Con 2026 (SAMPLE watermark, NOT FOR SALE marking). The rulebook is still unpublished, so this article contains only what is printed on the cards plus arithmetic on those printings — with analysis clearly separated from fact.

1. Twelve legible costs — and all twelve are Support cards

First, the sample. There are 22 cards whose effect text we can read (20 Characters plus 2 Leaders). On 12 of them, the cost number is legible too.

These 12 share something hard to ignore: every one is a Character card with a [Support], and they line up exactly with the 12 confirmed Support cards we counted in the August 6 article on reading face-down cards.

But this needs care. We have not confirmed that cards without a Support lack a cost box. Our database explicitly records that the cost could not be read from the available images for Minato Namikaze N-007, Itachi Uchiha N-013 and Jūgo N-019. Unreadable is not the same as absent.

So the honest statement is narrower: the 12 cards whose cost we could read all happen to have Supports.

Is it a summon cost or a Support activation cost?

That coincidence matters because what the cost box actually pays for has never been stated.

In our July 30 guide to reading a card face we originally described it as the cost to put a Character onto the field. But the official site calls Chakra cards “cards required to activate Support effects such as Ninjutsu,” and the English site goes further: “Use Chakra to activate face down support cards.”

Meanwhile, putting Characters onto the field has its own dedicated card. The official site calls the Summon card “Cards required to play Character cards onto the battlefield” and tells you to “Rest your Summon card to bring one of your characters onto the field,” which matches the text printed on Summon Card (S-001) itself. We mapped the full set of summon routes in the August 6 article.

What this suggests (analysis): both official descriptions tie Chakra to activating Supports, summoning has a separate card, and every card with a readable cost carries a Support. Together those three points point toward the cost box being a Support activation cost. But the official site has not said so, and it may equally be a number used for both summoning and activation. We treat this as unconfirmed.

2. All four cost-2 cards are mass removal

Here is the core finding. Lined up by text, the cost-2 cards read like this:

• N-004COST2DMG1POW5HP4Naruto Uzumaki N-004 — [Support] Rasengan
  [During Your Main] K.O. all Characters.
• COST2DMG1POW4HP5Sasuke Uchiha (Chidori) — [Support] Chidori: One Thousand Birds
  [During Your Main] K.O. all Characters.
• N-006COST2DMG1POW7HP4Jiraiya N-006 — [Support] Fire Style: Toad Flame Bombs
  [During Your Opponent’s Attack] Choose up to 2 rested Characters: K.O. the chosen cards.
• COST2DMG1POW4HP7Orochimaru — [Support] Striking Shadow Snake
  [During Your Opponent’s Attack] Choose up to 2 rested Characters: K.O. the chosen cards.

Every one of them clears two or more Characters in a single activation. The first pair wipes the board outright; the second pair snipes up to two rested Characters.

Now compare the eight cost-1 cards: not one of them touches more than a single Character. The only K.O. is Hinata Hyuga’s Air Palm, which hits one non-EX Character, and Sakura Haruno’s Cha! bounces one card to hand.

Within what is confirmed, then, the line between one Chakra and two is the line between single-target and multi-target.

Two mirrored pairs

The four cost-2 cards also form two exact pairs:

• Rasengan (Naruto) and Chidori (Sasuke) — word-for-word identical text ([During Your Main] K.O. all Characters)
• Toad Flame Bombs (Jiraiya) and Striking Shadow Snake (Orochimaru) — also word-for-word identical ([During Your Opponent’s Attack] Choose up to 2 rested Characters: K.O. the chosen cards)

As set out in the August 4 demo deck breakdown, the Gen Con demo decks are built with relentless symmetry, and the cost-2 slot is no exception: one copy of each role goes to the Naruto side and one to the Sasuke side. (Which deck each card belongs to is our own inference from the trait line, not an official statement.)

3. The mirrored pairs have POW and HP swapped

Look at those two pairs numerically and the design work goes deeper.

In both pairs the POW and HP values are simply swapped. The Naruto side leans offensive (POW > HP), the Sasuke side defensive (HP > POW), and the totals match within each pair. DMG is 1 on all four.

Same effect, same cost, different body temperament handed to each side. The symmetry of the demo decks runs all the way into the stat box.

4. Higher cost does not mean a bigger body

Here is the reversal. The more expensive cards are, as Characters, the smaller ones.

• Eight cost-1 cards: six at 10, two at 11 (range 10–11)
• Four cost-2 cards: two at 9, two at 11 (range 9–11)

The two smallest bodies in the whole sample — total 9 — are both cost 2, and they are Rasengan and Chidori, the two cards that wipe the entire board. The rested-removal pair, Jiraiya and Orochimaru, sit at 11, level with the top of the cost-1 range.

So even inside cost 2: “K.O. all Characters” comes with a body of 9, “up to 2 rested” with a body of 11. The gap in reach shows up as a two-point gap in the body.

What this suggests (analysis): the Chakra cost appears to be priced against the jutsu, not the Character. In the August 7 stats round-up we found that all 12 Support holders sit in a narrow 9–11 band; what this article adds is that movement within that band runs inverse to the strength of the Support. Want the stronger jutsu, accept the smaller body. How much a one- or two-point difference actually matters is impossible to say while the combat resolution procedure is unannounced.

Note also that the two cost-1 cards at total 11 are Kakashi Hatake N-009 and Shisui Uchiha N-016 — the two cards that negate an opposing Support. Both pay for that negation inside the effect text itself (Kakashi reduces his own Life by 2; Shisui locks his own Chakra face-down), which we covered in the August 15 article on Life.

5. Half the cost-1 cards put themselves onto the field

Sorted by what they do, the eight cost-1 cards break down like this:

The group of four is the interesting one. Each of these carries the phrase “Summon this card” in its text:

• N-008COST1DMG1POW6HP4Shikamaru Nara N-008 — Shadow Possession Jutsu
  [During Your Opponent’s Attack] Summon this card and interrupt that attack.
• N-010COST1DMG1POW4HP6Karin N-010 — Hurry up and bite me!
  [During Your Opponent’s Attack] Summon this card and you gain 2 Life.
• N-021COST1DMG1POW5HP5Suigetsu Hozuki N-021 — Water Transformation Jutsu
  [Quick] Choose 1 Character: Summon this card, and the chosen card will not be affected by your opponent’s Support effects during this turn.
• COST1DMG1POW7HP3Choji Akimichi — Expansion Jutsu
  [Quick] Choose 1 Character: Summon this card, and the chosen card’s power is doubled during this turn.

One Chakra stops the opponent and leaves a Character standing on your board. A face-down Support here is not a consumable. All four of these have a body total of exactly 10.

Hinata Hyuga’s Air Palm and Sakura Haruno’s Cha! do not include that clause. So at the same cost of 1, whether the card sticks around changes what you actually get.

6. The denominator is five

Costs only mean something against a denominator.

As covered in the August 4 Chakra card explainer, you set up with exactly five Chakra cards, kept separate from your deck. Using one turns it face-down, and the Leader’s [Recovery] flips them all back up.

So cost 2 is two of your five. On a full board of Chakra that is two Rasengan activations with one card spare, or five cost-1 Supports.

That is napkin arithmetic, though. Whether there is a cap on how much Chakra you may spend in a turn, or how many face-down Supports you may activate, is unannounced.

7. What is still unknown

Costs are an area where the unknowns outnumber the knowns.

• What the cost number actually pays for. Summoning, Support activation, or both, is unannounced. (As set out in section 1, we lean toward Support activation, but it is not confirmed.)
• Whether cards without a Support have a cost box at all. The cost is simply unreadable on Minato Namikaze N-007, Itachi Uchiha N-013 and Jūgo N-019; we cannot say it is absent.
• How cost works for the four EX Characters. EX Characters print “This card cannot be played normally” and arrive via [Summon Requirements]. Whether Chakra is also involved is not explained.
• Whether cost 3 or higher exists. We have only seen 1 and 2, across 12 cards chosen for demo play. The retail ceiling is unknown.
• Any per-turn limit on spending or activations. How freely five Chakra can be spent is unannounced.
• How much [Recovery] restores. Whether it flips every Chakra or a limited number cannot be settled from the card text.
• Whether summoning via the Summon Card costs Chakra. S-001 only says “Rest this card to summon a Character card.”

Summary

• The number in the Chakra cost icon is legible on 12 cards: eight at cost 1, four at cost 2, and zero above 2
• All 12 have a [Support], matching the 12 confirmed Support cards exactly — but cards without a Support have not been shown to lack a cost box; on three of them it is merely unreadable
• All four cost-2 cards K.O. multiple Characters. None of the eight cost-1 cards does; they are limited to single targets, negation and self-summoning
• The four cost-2 cards form two exact mirrored pairs (Rasengan/Chidori, Toad Flame Bombs/Striking Shadow Snake), with POW and HP swapped between the sides
• Bodies are smaller at cost 2, not bigger (cost 1: 10–11; cost 2: 9–11). Both totals of 9 belong to the board wipes, so the cost is priced against the jutsu rather than the Character
• Four of the eight cost-1 cards contain “Summon this card” — one Chakra buys disruption and leaves a body behind
• The denominator is five Chakra; cost 2 is two-fifths of your resource

This article will be updated as more cards are confirmed — in particular if a cost of 3 or higher appears, or if a cost box is confirmed on a card without a Support. Confirmed cards live in the card database, keyword notations in the keyword list, and term definitions in the glossary. If you are starting from scratch, begin at the improvement roadmap.

Source: About NARUTO CARD GAME (official site)

Related articles

• Only 2 of 22 cards touch Life — and both change your own
• The Chakra Card, Fully Explained — How a Five-Card Resource Works, and How CP-001 (Gen Con Ver.) Differs
• Reading Face-Down Supports — How Far Can Public Information Narrow Down What Your Opponent Can Do?
• Every Confirmed Character Stat Line, Side by Side — The DMG/POW/HP Baseline and the Three Tiers It Reveals
• How to Read a NARUTO Card Game Card: DMG, POW, HP, LIFE, Chakra Cost, and the Trait Line