Card abilities are resolved as instructed by the text on the card with the additional restrictions described below:
- A card ability cannot be resolved more than once during the timing specified on the card. For example, a card with the timing of "when defending" cannot be resolved twice by the defender during a single attack.
- The word "you" on a Ship card refers to the corresponding ship. Abilities on Ship cards cannot affect other ships unless the ability specifies otherwise.
- The word "you" on Damage cards and Upgrade cards refers to the ship that has those cards. These cards only affect the ship that they are assigned to unless the card specifies otherwise.
- Unless a card ability uses the word "may" or has the "ACTION:" or "ATTACK" headers, the ability is mandatory and must be resolved.
- If multiple abilities resolve at the same time, the player with initiative chooses which of his abilities to resolve and resolves them in the order of his choosing. Then the opposing player does the same for his own abilities.
- If a ship is equipped with more than one copy of the same Upgrade card that does not require an action to trigger the card's ability, it can trigger each copy of that card at the specified timing.
- When a ship is destroyed, its card abilities are no longer active. The exceptions to this rule are card abilities whose effects have already been triggered and specify a time when the effect ends, such as "until the end of the Combat phase."