Author cards and decks. | Deck Toolkit

Create persistent Data Assets and understand the exact reference-effect vocabulary.

Create a card asset

In the Content Browser, create Miscellaneous > Data Asset with class DeckToolkitCard.
Set a non-empty CardName, Description and EnergyCost.
Add entries to Effects in the order they should resolve.
Choose retain/exhaust flags and save the asset normally.

Field	Meaning
`CardName`	Display name. Required and not whitespace-only.
`Description`	Author-supplied display text; it does not generate gameplay rules.
`EnergyCost`	Integer from 0 to 1,000,000.
`bRetain`	Keep this copy in hand at turn end if it has not been played.
`bExhaust`	After resolving, move this copy to the exhaust pile instead of discard.
`Effects`	Ordered array of up to 64 FDTCardEffect entries. An empty array is valid.

Reference effect types

Type	Target and behavior
Damage	Damage the enemy. Add player Strength, apply enemy Vulnerable, absorb with Block, then reduce Health.
Block	Add player block; cleared when the next player turn begins.
Heal	Restore player health, capped by MaxHealth.
GainEnergy	Increase current energy.
Draw	Draw player cards until the requested amount, hand limit or available cards are exhausted.
Strength	Add an encounter-long player damage bonus to each hit.
Vulnerable	Add enemy vulnerable turns. Damage is multiplied by 1.5 and rounded down.

Amounts are nonnegative integers up to 1,000,000. Additive reference values are bounded. Vulnerable ages on EndTurn. These are fixed reference semantics, not a configurable target system.

Ordered effects and conditions

EDTCardCondition::Always always resolves. TargetDefeated resolves only when the reference enemy is already at zero health. The condition is evaluated when that effect executes. Effects after a lethal hit still run, allowing on-kill rewards.

For a card that deals damage and draws only on a kill, add Damage first, then Draw with TargetDefeated. Reversing the order changes the result. Damage itself expands into separate strength, vulnerable, block and health trace entries.

Create an authored deck

Create a Data Asset of class DeckToolkitDeck and assign card asset references to Cards. Duplicate references represent separate playable copies. Authored order is preserved on loading; Initialize then performs the seeded shuffle. A session assigns each copy its own InstanceId.

A deck asset is distinct from a player's named-deck JSON entry: the asset references card objects; the workshop composition stores your catalog's string IDs. Your host resolves those IDs to definitions before starting combat.

Validate before simulation

ValidateDefinition(FText& OutReason) checks names, costs, effect counts, enum values and amounts. Editor asset validation calls the same checks. Initialize validates every referenced card before replacing session state. A missing or invalid card rejects the complete reset.

Built-in examples

UDeckToolkitExamples::CreateExampleCards(Outer) returns 20 original transient definitions. They are useful for experimentation and tests; editing them does not create saved assets. Create your own Data Assets to preserve authoring changes.