Beginner's guide to LOC

This guide is meant to provide newer players of Legend of the Cryptids a foundation from which to learn the game, as well as to provide useful tips which anyone can benefit from.

Starting out
If you've just started the game, and the in-game tutorial isn't doing it for you, check out our main gameplay article for a quick rundown of how to play, with links to more in-depth articles when needed. Additionally, don't forget to check out our game FAQ for quick answers to commonly asked questions!

Choosing your element
One of the first choices you'll have to make as a player is your element of choice. Once a decision is reached, you cannot alter it. You have three choices:

Which is the best option? In general, each of them have their advantages and disadvantages, but all three elements are very balanced in all facets of the game. On average, fire cards are more suited for an offensive role in battle, water cards are more suited for a defensive role, and forest cards have a balance of both offense and defense. That being said, all three elements have options allowing players to put up a strong offense or defense, regardless of element. In terms of events, card element plays practically no part whatsoever (outside of regular battles in Battle Royales), so element should not be a concern here.

In general, the choice essentially comes down to a personal preference. Feel free to check out our Card Gallery in case there are cards that you may prefer from one element over another. For a more in-depth view of card options for battling, check out our Best Deck guide.

Referral bonuses
Upon first starting the game, you will be asked to enter the name of a user who has referred you. Though not required, it is recommended that you enter the name of a user as doing so entitles both you and the user you referred to a free card. Keep in mind that the card you receive will not be particularly strong, and you will need to have many of the same card in order to evolve and produce a reasonably powerful card. Additionally, the card will be bounded only to you and will be untradeable. That being said though, receiving free stuff is never a bad thing is it?

If you are having trouble finding players, feel free to browse this wiki and just enter in the name of the first registered member you see.

Here is the current referral card:

(Calm) Temperance Scorch Dragon          (Imprison) Imprisoned Battle Dragon          (Carefree) Vagabond Hydro Dragon

Login bonuses
As a player, you will get a bonus reward just for logging in to the game each day. These bonuses may include potions, Coins, LCP Claim Tickets, and even rare limited addition cards! Keep in mind however that you won't get credit for logging in until you go to your home page! This is accessed through the "My Page" option in your in-game main menu.

Stats distribution
As you level up and gain new parameter points to invest in your personal stats, one of the hardest choices will be to decide where to put them in. Many of the 'top' players invest solely in energy, attack, defense. However, these individuals often use multiple in-game accounts, which is technically not permitted by Applibot, or even possible for many. Typically, people will tailor their stat allocation based on the event(s) they intend to focus on.

Odyssey Event

Energy will be the most useful stat here as ranking depends entirely on item collection, and collecting items is a very energy intensive event. That being said, bosses do drop a substantial amount of items which is dependent on the amount of hit points it has, which in turn is based on your game-decided 'Recommended front line'. Ultimately, the amount of attack needed to defeat these bosses depends on how good your cards are. If you are focusing on this event, it may be a good idea to invest most of your parameter points in energy, and to leave just enough attack to get you past the Odyssey bosses. The amount of attack needed will depend on the demands of your Recommended front line, with more high end front lines costing from 60 to 80 attack. Defense is irrelevant for this event, so that can be left at the default of 10.

Raid Event

This event has a rather low energy demand as ranking depends solely on damage dealt to bosses rather than quest progression. Often times, you can get by without much energy if you are in an active guild - one that pulls bosses and invites you to it. If you are searching on your own, you will need considerably more energy to find bosses at a steady rate. In general, the focus should be increasing your attack as much as possible, as having more allows more hits on raid bosses, and more value for each Power Potion spent. Again, defense is irrelevant for this event, so that can be left alone.

Battle Royales

This is a battle based event, so energy is completely irrelevant for this event. The main stats will be attack or defense. Exactly how much needed will depend on your role in your guild. If you plan on becoming a heavy hitter for your guild, the majority of your points should be invested in attack in order to fuel your attack cards. If you plan on being a defense leader, then you will want defense.

As a general tip, keep in mind that energy is needed to level up, which will account for the majority of your parameter points. As such, having more invested in energy will allow you to check in to the game less often, receive greater value for your Energy Drinks, and in general allow you to gain levels quicker.

Abbreviations/terms
Throughout the game, you will encounter many abbreviations, many of which you may not understand. For a more complete list, see out Glossary. Here are a few:


 * PP = Power Potion
 * EP/ED = Energy Potion/Energy Drink
 * MM = Monster Maestro (a now defunct game also made by Applibot)
 * Pure= The price in potions (usually all of either PP or ED)
 * Mix = The price in a mix of some PP or ED
 * Junk = A Rare considered too weak to put in the effort of enhancing or evolving
 * RM = Regular Max (an unevolved card fully enhanced)
 * PM = Perfect Max (an evolved card in which it's constituents were fully enhanced before evolving)
 * Fresh = A card that has not yet been enhanced (level 1)
 * UR = Ultra Rare
 * PM UR = Ultra Rare EX that is also PM
 * Imperfect = An evolved card that was evolved without fully enhancing both constituent cards first
 * Skilled Common = A common card that has a skill ability.
 * BR = Battle Royale
 * PC = Price Check

Currency
There are currently three types of currency currently being used:
 * Power Potions
 * Energy Drinks
 * Coins

Coins are the least valuable form of currency, and rarely do card trades involve coins, unless the cards are of particularly low worth. Primarily, Power Potions and Energy Drinks are used as currency in trades, due to the functions they serve in the game. In general, Power Potions and Energy Drinks are equivalent in value, although exchange rates between the two tend to fluctuate, depending on market conditions. Potions can often be exchanged for coins at a rate of around 500,000 coins for one potion, depending on market conditions.

Potions can be acquired in various ways. They can obtained through trades with other players, they can be gained form Quests and Events, or received through promotional campaigns. It is important to note that potions each have a "Bound" equivalent, which cannot be traded.

Enhancing and Evolving
Enhancing and Evolving are the two steps used to strengthen a card, and bring it to its maximum potential. But in order for a card to reach its potential, the processes of enhancing and evolving must be done carefully.

One of the mistakes newer players often make is evolving cards right away without enhancing the two base cards first, thinking that it doesn't matter. Because the process of evolution carries over a percentage of the two constituent cards' stats over to the next evolution, evolving right away only cuts down on the potential ceiling that the new card has. Even worse, when two base cards are enhanced fully before evolving, they both carry over 10% of their stats rather than 5%, meaning that you'll lose out on even more of a card's potential by evolving right away.

Example Fresh (unenhanced) stats: 1000/1000 means 5% or 50/50 from each card will be added = +100/100 added when evolving

Enhanced (same cards starting with 1000/1000) stats: 2500/2500 means 10% or 250/250 from each card will be added = +500/500 added when evolving

This example illustrates the difference that carefully enhancing base cards before evolving can have on a card's maximum potential. That being said, there are times when it may be better to simply evolve right away. Because enhancing cards costs a considerable amount of coins, the process of enhancing and evolving is often left for particularly strong rare cards, such as Herolord Verethragna, and Ultra Rare cards, such as Puppeteer Satanachia.

Most often, Common cards and Rare cards with a power less than 7 are simply sacrificed to enhance other cards, so it is more practical to skip enhancing these cards (unless you are a collector).

Easy enhancing
Basic enhancing can be a very time consuming and costly task. If done wrong, it can be even more demanding. However, there are several ways to streamline the process.

Common cards are going to be your biggest source of enhancer cards, and many newer players are often under the impression that these need to be bought from other players. Other than Skilled Commons, regular Common cards can be effectively foraged and gathered by going back and redoing your previously finished non-event Quests. These quests only give Common cards a reward for going through them, and offer a cost-effective way of amassing enough cards to enhance. The earliest chapter in the standard Quest gives a common card for every three energy spent, making this the most efficient way of gathering cards for enhancing.

In terms of cost, one can save on a lot of coins by enhancing using evolved Common cards. The cost of evolving is based on a flat rate for each card used to enhance, a rate which increases with card level, and does not consider the type of cards used to enhance. As such, since evolved cards give approximately double the experience of base enhancer cards, you can effectively cut your enhancing cost by almost half through this method.

It should be noted that cost savings will only be felt by using evolved Common cards for cards past level 12. Enhancing cards lower in level than 12 using evolved cards actually becomes more costly, since the enhancing rate of enhancer cards at these levels is actually lower than the cost to evolve a card.

Evolving Referral cards
Referral cards can often be tricky to evolve properly due to the many evolution forms that each one possesses. There are two ways of evolving referral cards. You can evolve them one-by-one as you get them, or you can create several evolved ones, and evolve the new evolutions together.

The first way is the simplest, with little fear screwing up until the late evolutions, due to the fact that most of the early evolutions can't enhanced. This method will result in a final evolution with reasonable stats.

The second way is much more time consuming. This method requires that you first evolve two cards, evolve two other cards, then evolve the two sets together. This step can be repeated using many more cards, up to a maximum of 1014 cards. This process will work for any card with more than three evolution forms. Doing so will result in a card with the optimal final evolution stats, but will likely result in you using more cards then you would likely be able to gather, not to mention the time commitment.

Most opt for the first option, and practically speaking, it is likely the best option as the additional gains in stats from using the second option is too small to warrant the time or effort. However, it is ultimately up to you.

Baby/young dragons
As you play through the game, you will likely encounter and receive three specific types of "baby" or "young" dragon cards. These cards work differently than normal cards, and each serve a practical function. These are:
 * Mighty Baby Dragon and Mighty Young Dragon
 * These are enhancer cards, and will give at minimum a 300% and 500% boost to experience respectively, regardless of level. These can often be bought or sold for a potion or less.
 * Prosperous Baby Dragon and Prosperous Young Dragon
 * These cards have no function except to sell back to the game for coins. They give 30,000 and 50,000 coins respectively. They have no real value on the trade market.
 * Genius Baby Dragon and Genius Young Dragon
 * These are also enhancer cards. Unlike Mighty dragons, they also provide a certain percentage to your card's skill up probability. Baby versions will provide a 15% probability boost at minimum, and the young versions will provide a 30% probability boost, regardless of card skill level. These can often be bought or sold at around 10 potions for baby versions, and double that for young versions. These are often saved for enhancing cards at a skill level of eight or higher.

Making potions
Potions, both Energy Drinks and Power Potions, are the key to success in the game, since they are used for both actual gameplay, as well as the dominant form of currency in the game. Whether you are making a push in an event, or trading for a coveted card, you will need potions. Here are some ways to save up some:
 * Quests
 * Regular quests, and event quests will give you bound potions of both kind for defeating bosses for the first few levels, afterwards giving unbound varieties once enough quests have been completed.


 * Sell your junk
 * Selling your Mighty Baby Dragons and Mighty Young Dragons is often more practical, since you will likely have far more than you'll know what to do with. Rates can go from 1 potion for two dragons to 1 potion for 1 dragon, depending on the market.
 * Sell your unused cards drawn from the LCP rather than hoarding them as you will save space, and gain valuable potions for your trouble.
 * Weak Rare cards are often used to skill enhance Ultra Rare cards, and many will pay plenty of potions to get them, often paying 1 potion for one Rare card.


 * Buy low, sell high!
 * A common strategy for many is to buy cards at their low point, and then to sell them back once they've risen in price. This strategy requires careful analysis and insight into the workings of the player market.
 * Since cards can be sold for a range of prices, many will make card for card trades in order to gain more potions then a straight potion for card trade would have yielded. This requires an in-depth working knowledge of most of the cards in the game.


 * Use your bound potions!
 * Bound potions are often given out in plentiful supply by the game. Try and save enough to these in order to achieve a decent rank in an event. This will allow you to keep your unbound potions, and will turn those untradable potions into tradable ones by selling off your event rewards.

Skill enhancing
Skill enhancing can be one of the most difficult and frustrating thing to accomplish. Because skill enhancing is based on probability rather than on a set amount of experience needed to advance to the next level, it is possible to use an exorbitant amount of skilled cards without ever gaining the next skill level. The following tips can help you avoid frustration:


 * Max out your probability
 * Try and aim as close to 100% probability as much as possible when enhancing, especially at higher levels. Though gambling on lower percentages won't likely cost you much on earlier levels, it can be especially costly at higher levels. While it may require a lot of cards, in the end you will find yourself a lot less frustrated, and you will have spent less cards in the long run, rather than exhausting your cards by gambling on low percentages.


 * Skill enhance your enhancer cards
 * When enhancing cards at higher skill levels, especially evolved Ultra Rare cards, it may be wise to skill up your enhancers, since the skill level of enhancer cards directly influences the percentage contributed to the overall probability. The higher the skill level of the enhancer card, the more percentage points contributed. This is especially important because only ten cards may be selected as enhancers at once.


 * Use high rarity enhancer cards
 * Cards at higher rarity levels will contribute more to the overall probability than lower rarity cards. When enhancing, try and use enhancer cards of the highest possible rarity to maximize your odds of improving your skill level.


 * Make use of skilled commons
 * Skilled commons are often handed out in fair amounts during events. Be sure to utilize these cards to the fullest, since these are free.
 * A good strategy is to use these to skill up your enhancer cards, and then using those to skill enhance your main card. This is a cost effective way of improving your odds of skill leveling without spending too much potions on enhancer cards.

How to maximize your Attack/Defense
The key to maximizing the amount of damage you do/repel is in optimizing your frontline and backline. Since these lines make up your entire battle unit, optimizing them will allow you to make the most out of your current attack/defense power.

The immediate instinct of most players is to line up their front line with their most powerful attack/defense cards. However, these lines are rarely ever truly effective. Rather, the most important consideration for any frontline should be card skill. The skill of your cards will ultimately be one of your most important deciding factors in a battle, and since only frontline cards may activate them, those five slots should be saved for the cards with the best skills, regardless of their overall strength.

For example, a Vampyr King of Salvation may look nice on your defensive backline, but since its skill only activates when on offense, it would be better to sub in a Holy Wyvern instead since it offers a medium increase to defense for forest cards.

On your backline, the most important consideration should be a card's attack/defense to power ratio. The higher the ratio, the more efficient it is, and the more attack/defense you can output with your current attack/defense power. Skill is redundant here, since skills cannot activate on your backline anyway. An important thing to note is that the game automatically sets your backline for you, based on efficiency. As such, you should strive to fill your deck with as many efficient cards as possible, including duplicates, and avoid lower power efficiency cards unless you're a collector or have power to burn.

Checking your defense
When you attack, the battle report shows how much damage your front line did, as well as the overall damage that your entire deck inflicted (up to the limit of the attack power available). When you defend however, only the attack of the opponent's front line is shown. Because of this, you must formally ask your opponent what their damage total was in order to infer your own total defense.

What skills do I want in my front line?
Skills can often be the difference between winning and losing a battle, so it is essential to pick cards with skills which will benefit your deck and fit with your playing style.

One of the most popular form of skill is the boost. Whether for attack or defense, most players will line their front line up with skills which offer a large or great boost to their attack or defense. Boosts which affect all elements are great for people who use many different cards of different elements in their decks.

However, it has become increasingly common for people to use decks of one element in order to take advantage of the automatic 5% boost for their own element. Additionally, skills which offer a boost only to one element offer an additional 5% boost, compared with skills which affect all elements. Thus, using one element skills for a deck of only your element will offer you the most bang for your buck in the long term.

The other kind of skill is the drop. The drop works exactly like a boost, except that it affects your opponent's cards instead. This kind of skill works best when dealing with opponent's with a large amount of attack/defense, as a great drop to an opponent with a large amount of defense will result in a greater net loss to them, compared to the net gain from a great boost to your own paltry attack cards.

The least popular kind of skills are drops to one or two elements, whether a drop to attack or defense. This is because a drop to a specific element requires situational planning, which is often too much of a hassle for most players. However, these kinds of cards can often be more effective than a drop to all elements, as the same 5% bonus found in boosts to a single element applies to drops as well. Thus, a great drop only to water defense will be more effective against an opponent with all water cards than a great drop to all elements.

Single element attack drops are much more difficult incorporate in your front line than defense drops, due to the random nature of opponent finding. However, if defending against specific players, single element attack drops will become a more valuable skill than drops to all element attacks.

Additionally, there are skills which offer a boost or drop to both attack and defense. These skills are great for all situations, but they do suffer from a 5% penalty compared to a boost or drop to only attack or defense.

In summary, the kind of skills used in battle depends on the situation and your playing style. There is no wrong choice for skills (save ones that don't benefit you at all), as there are advantages and disadvantages for using different skill types. Pick the skill types that fit your needs, and try and get cards which offer a great boost/drop rather than a large, medium, or small boost/drop as there is a significant difference between the magnitudes.

Event overview
Here is a brief overview of each event, along with the general requirements needed to participate and rank reasonably well.

Odyssey Events
 * Needed:
 * High energy
 * no special cards required (can play with 1 card in your deck)
 * Uses:
 * Energy Drinks for questing (and gaining rank)
 * Power Potions to battle for treasure (optional)
 * Traps for protecting your treasure from attack (optional)


 * The good:
 * Easy to play solo, even at low level (as long as you have high energy)
 * Good if you are not in a guild, low level guild or in an inactive guild
 * Minimal attack power is needed to battle bosses and battle for treasure


 * The bad:
 * Hard to predict where you will rank as drops are random
 * Battling for treasure can be a pain (because people ignore the fact that fire only gets green/turquoise, water only gets blue/purple, forest only gets red/yellow)!

Raid Events
 * Needed:
 * High attack power, low energy
 * Good attack front line


 * Uses:
 * Energy Drinks for questing and finding bosses (optional)
 * Power Potions to battle bosses (and gain rank)


 * The good:
 * Rewards go straight to present list as opposed to filling up card inventory
 * Easy to predict how much damage you need to make a certain rank


 * The bad:
 * Hard to play solo - the essence is helping pull/defeat bosses with your guildmates;
 * Too many new URs for all the bosses now (Raid boss, Hidden boss, Secret boss, Ultra Secret boss, Victoria's Secret boss, etc)
 * Popularity means lots of competition
 * Almost twice the length of Odyssey events
 * More prone to crashes and errors

Battle Royale


 * Needed:
 * High attack or defense
 * No energy required!


 * Uses:
 * Power Potions to battle (needed to recover ATK to fight, and DEF when attacked)


 * The good:
 * Promotes team work
 * Less dependent on individual performance
 * Usually only four days in length


 * The bad:
 * Easy to burns Power Potions FAST
 * Strong/active guild needed to rank well
 * Minimal rewards during the course of the event
 * The better guild rewards are often confined to top 10 guilds (not always the case, since ranking rewards change from Battle Royale to Battle Royale)

General tips

 * If you do not go to the event page first, you will normally NOT get credit toward the event for whatever you are doing!
 * Try and focus on one event, since you'll have a better chance at finishing high in at least one of them
 * Try and tailor your attributes/parameters around a specific event in order to maximize your odds in at least one of them (see above)
 * Unless you're particularity efficient (optimal stats/cards) or in a particularly good guild, you will often expend more potions than you will receive once rewards are handed out

Odyssey tips
Odyssey events are one of the easiest to participate in as only energy, and a minumum amount of attack power, is required to rank well. As well, this event is one of the least popular, so competition will be lower compared to other events. As such, this event is one of the easiest for newer players to engage in. Here are some tips to help you do well:


 * Only target a player's elemental treasure color. This will help you stay away from traps. The following chart should help:


 * Try and target high ranking Odyssey players for treasure. These players can be found by looking at the event rankings. Many of these players don't bother trapping their element's treasure, and often possess only ten or so defense power, making them easy targets. Do gift them coins as thanks for taking their treasure however!


 * Though drop rates for event items are random, they average out when you have advanced far enough into the quests, so spending a lot of Energy Drinks will help your rank indirectly


 * Make use of Faerie's Blessings as much as possible, even if you have to purchase them. These will triple the amount of event items you will receive from drops.


 * Be time efficient when using your Faerie's Blessings. When one is used, try and squeeze twenty or more Energy Drinks in the ten minutes provided by your Faerie's Blessing. This, combined with the "Forge Ahead" feature, will help you get the most out of your Faerie Blessing.


 * Try to save your Energy Drinks until after you pass the twentieth chapter. This will allow you to maximize your Faerie's Blessing's triple drop rate time as there will be fewer boss interruptions.


 * Try and sync your Faerie's Blessings time with the "Boss Fever" time, since the double event item bonus from defeating a boss multiplies with the Faerie's Blessings bonus, resulting a 6x bonus to event items


 * Try and put together a decent attack front line. Though the Odyssey bosses' health is determined by your "Recommended Front Line", so is the event item drop from defeating it. Thus, a high powered attack frontline will help maximize the amount of event item dropped.

Raid tips

 * When putting together your frontline, aim for cards with a high attack/power ratio in order to maximize your damage efficiency
 * Try and include Ultra Rare cards with anti-Raid Boss skills in order to boost your damage to bosses
 * Try and include a current Ultra Rare raid cards, since they will give a larger boost to current event bosses than older cards
 * A good front line composition might include two older Raid Ultra Rares, one current Raid Ultra Rare, and two high powered/high attack efficiency Ultra Rares (or three current Raid Ultra Rares since three are released every during event)
 * It may be a good idea to create a low power front line to take down early Raid bosses, which have low health, in order to save power
 * The same could be said of bosses with low remaining health
 * Try and save your time and potions on Raid "Hidden Bosses" and "Secret Bosses" since those bosses offer 2x bonus to damage
 * The same could be said of Orbs of Sacred Light, since the bonuses add up to become a 3x bonus
 * When looking for Hidden or Secret bosses, try look during the twentieth or fortieth minute of each every, since they are more likely to appear then
 * Since the event is long, and competition is high, be prepared to expend a lot of time and potions on accruing damage in order to achieve a high rank
 * Since elemental bonuses don't apply, feel free to use cards of any element in your frontline

Battle Royale tips

 * Be prepared to expend a lot of Power Potions on this event
 * Try and put together a strong backline for this event, as this will help bolster your overall attack or defense
 * Don't take on the opposing defense leader unless you are confident in winning
 * Since only one person needs to defeat the opposing defense leader, leave them for your guild's strongest attacker
 * Skills matter, so choose them carefully in order to maximize your odds of winning
 * Since you have the opportunity to pick your opponent from a list when attacking, try and pick your skills based on the situation
 * e.g. A great drop in water defense may work better against a strong water defense leader with a lot of defense power and a strong backline of water cards
 * When attacking, aim for opponent's who give a lot of Battle Royale points in order to maximize your rank (the base amount is shown under each opponent)
 * Since your point rewards decrease as your opponent's defense decrease, try aiming for player's constantly using potions since their defense will constantly refresh
 * Since Battle Royale points are scaled based on attack power expended, try and attack at maximum power since as this will help you avoid losing battles unnecessarily
 * Don't forget to gift tokens to players in your guild!
 * You need at least 1 token in order to be able to gift, but you receive 2 tokens for each one you gift (ie: you have 1, gift to another player, now you have 3 - gift again, now you have 5, etc!)
 * Don't forget to use your tokens before the event ends or you will lose them (some have reported tokens carrying over to the next Battle Royale, though this is not confirmed).
 * When Ramparts are up for the opposing guild, ensure that anti-Rampart cards are in your front line since they offer a large boost to damage against them.
 * Let your Guild's Rampart attackers deal with ramparts whenever possible, or if you do attack them, make sure you have help.

Be honest
At the end of the day, Legend of the Cryptids is only a game, and as such will only be fun if everyone is playing honestly. That means lying, cheating, and scamming are a no no. While it may be tempting, all you'll end up doing is hurting your in-game reputation and making unwanted enemies.

Avoiding scams
As a newer player, you'll inevitably be taken advantage of by older players looking to steal your newly acquired Ultra Rare. The following tips will help you steer clear of con artists.


 * Don't trade for unenhanced evolved cards. These cards have the potential to be Imperfect cards, and unless this is what you want, you'll possibly end up with an unmovable asset.


 * Avoid paying full price for imperfect cards. Many will advertise these as being valuable, but in reality they are often valued at less than half of the original base card. Use this wiki to help determine if a card is a PM card.


 * Beware of people who offer card enhancing services. Many will keep your cards and run off, never to be seen again. If you must use a card enhancer, always demand collateral, even if you know them.


 * Beware of new players asking for handouts. Many of these people have multiple accounts at levels higher than 100.

Take advantage of bound potions
Before using up your unbound potions to progress through an event, be sure to take advantage of your bound ones first. These are often given out in plentiful supply by the game, and can often be stockpiled to create a healthy supply. With careful planning and patience, you can stockpile enough to achieve a decent rank in an event without spending any of your hard earned unbound potions.

It's a new day
The in-game clock resets at exactly 5:00 AM (PST) daily. This is when your daily login bonus, ability to remove friends, and any other once-a-day activity will be allowable again.

Take advantage of your presents storage
Excess cards and items not sent to your main inventory will automatically be sent your presents inventory instead. In this way, the presents inventory can be used as an extra storage compartment by intentionally loading your card or item inventory to the max before receiving a new card or item.