Level

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A Level Star

A Level (formerly Level Star[Notes 1]; Japanese: レベル or レベル[Notes 2] Reberu) is a property of monsters that generally provides a rough indication of how powerful it is.

Levels play an important role in Normal, Ritual, Synchro, Xyz, and Pendulum Summoning. Many card effects may also specifically interact with monsters of certain Levels.

Card layout[edit]

The original Level of a Monster Card is represented by a number of stars a yellow star on an orange circle printed in the top-right, unless they have a Level condition treating them as a different Level. In the TCG/OCG, it can range from 1 to 12.

Mechanics[edit]

Not all monsters have Levels. Xyz Monsters have Ranks and Link Monsters have Link Ratings, instead. Spell/Trap Cards Special Summoned as monsters by the effect of "Magical Hats", as well as Boss Duel monsters, do not have Levels.

A monster can only have a single Level at a time.[1] Card effects can freely raise a monster's Level to arbitrarily large values in excess of 12, but cannot lower it below 1.

Normal Summoning[edit]

Excluding monsters with Summoning conditions that specify otherwise,

  • Level 1 to 4 monsters can be Normal Summoned or Set without Tributes
  • Level 5 and 6 monsters require 1 Tribute to be Normal Summoned or Set (this is a Tribute Summon or Tribute Set)
  • Level 7 and higher monsters require 2 Tributes to be Normal Summoned or Set (this is a Tribute Summon or Tribute Set)

If the Level of a monster in the hand is changed (such as due to the effect of "Level Conversion Lab" or "A Legendary Ocean"), the modified Level is considered when Normal Summoning the monster.

Role in Special Summons[edit]

A monster's Level is also important in nearly all cases of Ritual, Synchro, Xyz, and Pendulum Summoning.

  • Cards that perform Ritual Summons usually require monsters to be Tributed (usually from their hand and/or field) whose total Levels are greater than or equal to the Level of the Ritual Monster to be Ritual Summoned, though some demand exact matching.
  • To Synchro Summon a Synchro Monster, the player must usually send Synchro Materials from their field to the Graveyard whose total Levels exactly equal the Synchro Monster's Level.
  • To Xyz Summon an Xyz Monster, the player must usually overlay 2 or more Xyz Materials they control whose Levels all equal the Xyz Monster's Rank.
  • Pendulum Summoning allows the player to Special Summon multiple monsters who each have a Level that is between the Pendulum Scales of the cards in the Pendulum Zones.

Negative Levels[edit]

In the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's anime and manga, as well as in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Tag Force series of video games, Dark Synchro Monsters have negative Levels. It is not possible for monsters to have negative Levels in the TCG/OCG.

Gallery[edit]

Trivia[edit]

  • There is an observed convention of an "upper limit" to the amount of ATK a monster at a certain Level can have; monsters who go beyond their "limit" will typically have negative effects to make them harder to use.
    • Level 3 monsters generally have no more than 1750 ATK
    • Level 4 monsters have no more than 2000 ATK
    • Level 6 monsters have no more than 2600 ATK
    • Level 8 monsters have no more than 3000 ATK
    • Level 10 monsters have no more than 4000 ATK
    • Level 12 monsters have no more than 5000 ATK

In other languages[edit]

"Level" in languages other than English
Language NameRomanized
French Niveau
German Stufe
Italian Livello
Portuguese Nível
Spanish Nivel
Japanese レベルReberu
Korean 레벨Rebel
Chinese (Traditional) 等級Děngjí
Chinese (Simplified) 等级Děngjí

Notes[edit]

  1. In the card text of early Ritual Monsters and Ritual Spell Cards
  2. Abbreviated form (with the kanji character meaning "star") only used in the card text of Trap Monsters and cards that Summon Tokens.

References[edit]