Not One Revealed Card Moves HP — Every Number in the Effect Text Sits on the Attacking Side, and the Only Durability Value That Changes Is the Leader's LIFE

Every Character card in the NARUTO Card Game prints three numbers in its stat box: DMG (damage), POW (power) and HP. Leader cards print LIFE in place of HP (how to read a card).

How widely those three numbers are spread is something we covered in the piece that laid out the DMG, power and HP of all 20 revealed Characters. This time we count along a different axis.

Which of those three numbers does the effect text actually touch?

We searched all 38 entries in our card database for the stat names themselves. The split is remarkably clean.

24entries with readable effect textof 38 registered

6cards that mention "power"

1card that mentions "damage"Ino Yamanaka N-011

0cards that mention "HP"

What this article is based on: everything below is tallied from the 38 entries registered in our card database. The sources are the sample images on the official “About the NARUTO Card Game” page, the official playmat handed out at Gen Con 2026, and scans of the English demo cards distributed at Gen Con 2026 (SAMPLE watermark, “NOT FOR SALE”); each card page lists its own source URL. The official rulebook and card list are unpublished, and neither the combat sequence nor the handling of HP has been announced. The demo cards may also differ from the final product. Where we speculate, we say so explicitly.

1. Hits per stat name — HP is the only zero

Here is the result of searching the 24 entries with readable effect text for “power”, “damage”, “HP” and “life”.

Power 3 move it, 3 read it6cards

Life both the Leader's LIFE2cards

Damage Ino Yamanaka N-011 only1cards

HP no hits0cards

HP returns zero. Nothing raises it, nothing lowers it, and nothing says “if HP is X or more” — not in any of the 24 revealed effect texts.

This is not a matter of a small sample. HP is printed on all 20 revealed Character cards, and the values run from 3 to 11 (the lowest is Choji Akimichi at HP 3, the highest Sasuke Uchiha N-014 at HP 11). A number that appears on every card and varies widely between them, and the effect text has never once referred to it.

2. Breaking down the six “power” cards — three move it, three read it

Power leads with six cards, but they split into two roles.

• Move power 3cards（50%）
• Read power as a condition 3cards（50%）

Moving power — three cards

• N-001DMG1POW3LIFE15Naruto Uzumaki N-001 (Leader)
  [Activate: Main] Turn 1 of your Chakra face-down and choose 1 Character: that card gets +3 power for this turn.
• N-011DMG2POW5HP8Ino Yamanaka N-011 (Character)
  [Activate: Main] [Once Per Turn] … all of your “Ino Yamanaka”, “Shikamaru Nara” and “Choji Akimichi” gain [Rush] and +5 power/+1 damage for this turn.
• COST1DMG1POW7HP3Choji Akimichi (Character)
  [Support] Multi-Size Technique / [Quick] Choose 1 Character: summon this card, and the chosen card has double power for this turn.

These three are the set we examined in the September 17 piece on Choji Akimichi, where Choji is the only multiplication in the game so far. All three last “for this turn” — no revealed card raises power permanently (how long effects last).

Reading power as a condition — three cards

• N-003DMG3POW11HP10Naruto Uzumaki N-003 (EX Character)
  [Summon Requirements] Place 1 of your Characters and 1 of your Characters with 10 or more power in the trash.
• N-005DMG2POW10HP8Gamabunta N-005 (EX Character)
  [Summon Requirements] Place 1 of your Characters with 10 or more power in the trash.
• N-007DMG2POW8HP8Minato Namikaze N-007 (Character)
  [During Your Turn] If this Character has 10 or more power, it gains [Rush].

All three read the same threshold: “10 or more power.” That “10” looks like a designed boundary, as we set out in the piece on [Rush] and the power-10 line.

So power, in everything revealed so far, does double duty: it is both the number that moves and the number that gets checked.

3. “Damage” appears once — and never moves without power

Only Ino Yamanaka N-011 mentions damage.

[Activate: Main] [Once Per Turn] If you have “Shikamaru Nara” and “Choji Akimichi”, all of your “Ino Yamanaka”, “Shikamaru Nara” and “Choji Akimichi” gain [Rush] and +5 power/+1 damage for this turn.

Two things are worth noting.

(1) No card moves damage on its own. Even Ino’s line reads “+5 power**/**+1 damage”, bundling the two. Nothing raises — or lowers — damage by itself.

(2) No card reduces an opponent’s damage either. Defence in the shape of “blunt their attack value by 1” has not been revealed at all.

Since a Leader has LIFE 15, a single point of damage translates directly into how many attacks it takes to win (15 attacks at DMG 1, 8 at DMG 2, 5 at DMG 3). That heavy a number, and exactly one card can move it.

4. The finding: the only durability value that changes is the Leader’s LIFE

This is the sharpest asymmetry the count turned up.

Two cards mention life.

• N-009COST1DMG1POW7HP4Kakashi Hatake N-009
  [Support] Lightning Blade / [When a Support Activates] Negate that card. Then, lose 2 of your life.
• N-010COST1DMG1POW4HP6Karin N-010
  [Support] Hurry up and bite me! / [During Your Opponent’s Attack] Summon this card, and you gain 2 life.

As set out in the August 15 piece on life, both of them move your own life (no revealed card reduces an opponent’s life through an effect).

Side by side:

Both numbers represent “lose this and you are gone”, yet the Leader’s LIFE moves and a Character’s HP does not shift by 1. On the evidence of every revealed card face, a Character’s HP stays exactly as printed, from the moment it hits the field until it leaves.

What we read into this (speculation): if HP never moves, then sizing up a Character-versus-Character trade is settled by reading the card faces. The scenario where an opponent’s face-down card raises HP and puts the target out of reach does not exist among the revealed cards. Power, meanwhile, swings by +3, +5 and ×2 — so the only numbers you have to read your opponent for are on the attacking side. That said, this holds only across the 24 revealed texts; nothing guarantees that unreleased cards contain no durability buffs.

5. All 12 cards that interfere with the board are all-or-nothing

One consequence of HP never moving is worth counting too: nothing revealed so far interferes with an opponent’s Characters or actions by shifting a number partway.

Twelve cards in total. K.O. it, bounce it, stop it, negate it — the result is always “all” or “nothing.” Nothing revealed so far says “drop its power by 3 so it is easier to take down” or “chip its HP so the next attack finishes it” (every removal card, mapped; only three cards say “negate”).

Put another way: among the revealed cards, every piece of partial number manipulation in this game points one direction — making your own side stronger (+3, +5 and ×2 power, +1 damage, +2 life are all on your own side).

6. What remains unannounced

This tally is a complete census of what the effect text says. It includes nothing about how the rules resolve. None of the following has been announced.

• Whether HP is a value that depletes at all. Whether combat chips HP cumulatively, or power comparison settles a fight in one step, is unannounced. As we wrote in the stats overview, even “DMG reduces HP” is unconfirmed
• What causes a Character to be K.O.‘d. Whether HP reaching 0 does it, or some other check, is unannounced
• Whether DMG reduces a Leader’s LIFE by exactly that value. Also an inference
• Whether a temporary power boost counts for the “10 or more power” checks. As noted in the power entry in our glossary this is unconfirmed, and if it does count, the [Summon Requirements] of Naruto Uzumaki N-003 and Gamabunta N-005 become dramatically easier
• Whether a power boost helps on defence. With the combat sequence unpublished, we cannot say whether +3 power means “survives the trade”
• Whether a card touching HP truly does not exist. We have 38 entries, 24 with readable text, and no new card face has been revealed since July 31. The next reveal is the NYCC panel “NARUTO: What’s Next?” (October 8–11), livestreamed worldwide on the official YouTube channel

Summary

• Searching the 24 entries with readable effect text for the stat names gives six for power, two for life, one for damage and zero for HP
• The six power cards split into three that move it (N-001 at +3, N-011 at +5, Choji Akimichi doubling it) and three that read it as a condition (the [Summon Requirements] of N-003 and N-005, plus N-007’s [Rush] condition). Every threshold read is the same: “10 or more power”
• Only Ino Yamanaka N-011 moves damage, and only as “+5 power/+1 damage”. No card moves damage on its own, and none lowers an opponent’s damage
• No card touches HP. All 20 revealed Characters print a value between 3 and 11, and nothing raises it, lowers it or checks it
• The only durability value that changes is the Leader’s LIFE (Kakashi Hatake N-009 at −2 of his own, Karin N-010 at +2 of her own)
• The 12 cards that interfere with the board are all all-or-nothing; zero shift a number partway. Every piece of partial number manipulation points at strengthening your own side

Revealed cards live in our card database, term definitions in the glossary, and per-keyword breakdowns in the keyword list. To study the rules ahead of release, start from the improvement roadmap.

Source: About the NARUTO Card Game (official site)

Related articles

• Every DMG, power and HP across the 20 revealed Characters
• Only two cards touch LIFE 15 — and both say “your” life
• Choji Akimichi’s “double power” is the only multiplication revealed
• Only four cards mention [Rush] — and the “power 10” line shows up in three places
• Six of the seven removal cards come from face-down