Repair: The Gundam Card Game's Recovery Keyword
Damage sticks to your Units — and Repair is how you wipe it off. How the keyword works, the end-of-turn timing that defines it, the additive way it stacks, and how to turn a survivable Unit into a wall that won't die.
Most keywords in the Gundam Card Game are about winning the attack step — hitting first, hitting harder, getting around blockers. Repair is the opposite. It's a patience keyword. It rewards Units that survive the turn rather than ones that swing for the fences, and it quietly turns the long game in your favor by undoing the chip damage your opponent works so hard to land.
To understand why Repair matters, you first have to understand a rule that surprises new players: in the Gundam Card Game, damage stays on a Unit. A Unit that takes 2 damage and survives is still carrying that 2 damage next turn, and the turn after — right up until it's healed or it's destroyed. Repair is the main way to heal it.
This guide breaks down exactly what Repair does, grounded in the official Comprehensive Rules, and then gets into the part that actually wins games: the timing, the stacking, the things Repair can't do, and the kinds of Units that make it shine.
The Short Version
<Repair (amount)> means: at the end of your turn, this Unit recovers that much HP. Because damage stays marked on Units between turns, Repair lets a Unit shrug off accumulated damage and reset toward full each of your turns. Three things define how it plays: it triggers only at the end of your turn (not your opponent's), it stacks by addition (Repair 1 + Repair 2 = Repair 3, not two separate heals), and it can't save a Unit that's already destroyed — it heals survivors, it doesn't prevent damage. Repair is at its best on durable, defensive Units you intend to keep on the board for the long haul.
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In This Guide
What Repair Actually Does
Repair is one of the Gundam Card Game's seven keyword effects, and its rules text is refreshingly short. Straight from the Comprehensive Rules:
“At the end of your turn, this Unit recovers (amount) HP.”
That's the whole effect. A Unit printed with Repair 2 recovers 2 HP at the end of each of your turns. A Unit with Repair 1 recovers 1. There's no cost to pay, no choice to make, and nothing to activate — it happens automatically as your turn ends, every turn, as long as the Unit is in play.
“Recovers HP” means it heals damage the Unit has already taken, moving it back toward its printed HP. It does not raise a Unit above its maximum — if a Repair 3 Unit only has 1 damage on it, it just clears that 1 and stops at full. Repair is a mop, not a bonus: it cleans up damage, it doesn't pile on extra toughness.
If you're still getting comfortable with how AP, HP, and destruction work in battle, our combat math guide covers the full damage-and-destruction sequence that Repair plugs into.
Why It Matters: Damage Sticks
Here's the rule that makes Repair worth a keyword slot at all, and the one new players most often miss: damage stays on a Unit. When a Unit takes damage in the Gundam Card Game and isn't destroyed, that damage doesn't disappear at the end of the turn the way it does in some other card games. It remains marked on the Unit — tracked with a damage counter — until something heals it or the Unit dies.
A Unit is destroyed when the total damage on it reaches its HP. So a Unit with 4 HP isn't “safe” just because it survived a hit for 2 — it's now a 2-damage Unit that the next 2 points of damage will finish off. In a grindy game, that accumulated damage is how boards get whittled down: one ping here, one trade there, and a turn or two later a once-healthy Unit is sitting one hit from death.
The core idea in one line: damage is a running tally that sticks around, and Repair is the eraser. Without persistent damage, Repair would do nothing — it's because damage accumulates that healing it each turn is so powerful.
That's the whole reason Repair is good. A Repair Unit doesn't just have its printed HP — it effectively has its HP back again every one of your turns, as long as no single swing kills it outright. Opponents who rely on chipping you down with small, repeated hits suddenly find their damage evaporating before it can add up.
The Timing: End of Your Turn
The single most important detail about Repair is when it fires: at the end of your turn. Not your opponent's turn. Not the moment damage is dealt. Specifically, the End Phase of the turn belonging to the Repair Unit's controller.
That timing cuts both ways, and understanding it is what separates good Repair play from disappointment.
The good half: it heals before your opponent's swing.
If your Repair Unit attacks or blocks on your turn and survives with some damage on it, that damage gets cleaned up at the end of your turn — before your opponent gets their turn to attack into it. So your Unit greets the opponent's offense at full HP again, ready to block or trade from a position of strength. A Repair Unit you use aggressively on your own turn is patched up by the time it has to play defense.
The catch: it does nothing during your opponent's turn.
If your opponent attacks your Repair Unit on their turn and leaves damage on it, that damage just sits there through the rest of their turn. It isn't healed until the end of your next turn. So during the opponent's turn, a Repair Unit is exactly as fragile as its current damage says it is — the keyword offers zero protection in the window where you're getting attacked. The heal always comes on the back end, on your clock.
Mistake #1: Expecting Repair to save a Unit mid-attack.
Repair never heals in response to incoming damage. If your opponent swings for exactly lethal on your Repair Unit during their turn, it dies — the end-of-turn heal that would have saved it is on your turn, which never comes for that Unit. Repair is a between-turns reset, not an emergency shield.
A clean way to hold it in your head: Repair heals on the exhale. You do your thing on your turn, and as the turn closes, your Units catch their breath. Anything that happens to them on the opponent's turn has to wait for your next exhale to be undone.
How Repair Stacks (It Adds Up)
Some keywords explicitly can't stack — you can't give a Unit two copies of Blocker or First Strike to double them up. Repair is different, and the Comprehensive Rules spell out exactly how:
Example: a Unit with <Repair 1> that gains <Repair 2> becomes <Repair 3>.
So Repair doesn't create a stack of separate heals that each trigger — the values merge into one bigger number. Repair 1 plus Repair 2 isn't “heal 1, then heal 2”; it's a single Repair 3 that recovers 3 HP at end of turn. In practice the result is the same total healing, but the wording matters for how effects interact: anything that cares about “a Unit with Repair” sees one combined keyword, and anything that would copy or reference the Repair value reads the summed amount.
The takeaway for deckbuilding: if you have a way to grant Repair on top of a Unit that already has it — whether from a Pilot, a Command, or another effect — the bonus is genuinely additive, pushing a sturdy Unit toward “practically can't be ground down.” Stacking Repair high enough that it out-heals an opponent's per-turn chip damage is a real, if specialized, way to lock up the board.
What Repair Can't Do
Repair is strong, but it's narrow. Knowing its blind spots keeps you from over-valuing a Repair Unit and walking it into a loss.
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It can't save a destroyed Unit.
This is the big one, and it's confirmed in the official rulings: if a Unit is destroyed, it's no longer on the field, so it can't recover HP. Repair only ever heals a Unit that is still in play when your turn ends. If a hit reduces the Unit to its HP in damage, it's gone — there's no “heal at zero” rescue. -
It isn't damage prevention.
Repair doesn't reduce a hit or stop damage from landing. The damage happens in full; Repair just cleans some of it up later, on your turn. That's a different effect from cards that passively reduce incoming damage, which shrink the hit as it lands. Repair heals after the fact — useful against many small hits, useless against one big enough hit. -
It doesn't answer destruction or removal effects.
A card that destroys a Unit outright, or otherwise removes it, doesn't care how much HP it would have healed. Repair only matters for damage-based attrition; it does nothing against effects that send a Unit straight to the trash.
Mistake #2: Treating a Repair Unit as unkillable.
Repair beats slow chip damage, not burst. An opponent who can land a single large hit — or stack enough damage in one turn to reach the Unit's HP — kills it before any heal arrives. Don't leave a key Repair Unit parked in range of a swing that's lethal in one shot and assume the keyword has it covered.
Using Repair Well
Put the rules together and a clear profile emerges for where Repair earns its keep. It's an attrition tool — a way to win the long, grinding game by refusing to let your board be worn away.
Pair it with high HP.
Repair scales with survivability. A fragile Unit with Repair often just dies before the heal ever matters, because the damage that lands is already close to lethal. A high-HP Unit, on the other hand, can soak a hit, survive, and be patched back up — so the keyword does the most work on durable bodies built to stick around. The bigger the HP pool the Repair is topping off, the more total damage it ends up negating over a game.
It's a defensive, control-leaning keyword.
Repair fits the patient, defensive side of the color pie far more than the aggressive side — the play patterns that want to hold the board, trade efficiently, and grind the opponent out over many turns. If you're leaning into a slower, attrition-focused game plan, our color and color-pair primer walks through which identities want that kind of recovery-and-resilience shell.
Repair + Blocker is the classic wall.
The natural partner for Repair is Blocker. A Unit that can rest to redirect attacks onto itself and heals back up at the end of your turn becomes a recurring roadblock: it eats an attack on the opponent's turn, then mends the damage on yours, ready to block again. That cycle — absorb, heal, repeat — is one of the most reliable ways to stonewall an aggressive opponent. (Just remember the order of operations: the block and the damage happen on the opponent's turn; the heal comes on yours.)
It also plays nicely with a Unit you intend to attack with. Swing on your turn, take some return damage from a blocker or a trade, and Repair tidies it up before you have to defend with the same Unit — letting one good body pull double duty as threat and wall across the turn cycle.
The mindset: don't think of Repair as “+X HP.” Think of it as “the opponent's chip damage has a shelf life.” Every point of small, incremental damage they invest in a Repair Unit expires at the end of your turn. Force them to either commit a lethal burst all at once or watch their efforts reset — and most of the time, making them find the big hit is exactly the tax you want to impose.
Repair FAQ
Does Repair trigger on my opponent's turn too?
No. Repair only activates at the end of your turn. Damage dealt to the Unit during your opponent's turn stays on it until the end of your next turn.
If my Repair Unit is destroyed, does it heal first?
No. A destroyed Unit is no longer on the field, so it can't recover HP. Repair only heals Units that are still in play when your End Phase happens.
Can Repair raise a Unit above its printed HP?
No. It recovers damage already taken, bringing the Unit back toward full. If there's less damage on the Unit than its Repair value, it simply heals what's there and stops at maximum HP — the excess is wasted.
What happens if a Unit gets a second Repair?
The amounts add together into one value. A Repair 1 Unit granted Repair 2 becomes Repair 3 — a single heal of 3, not two separate heals.
Does Repair work while the Unit is rested?
Yes. Repair has nothing to do with a Unit being active or rested — it's an end-of-turn effect that fires regardless of the Unit's position, as long as the Unit is in play. That's part of why it pairs so well with Blocker, which rests the Unit as a cost.
Repair is the last piece of the Gundam keyword puzzle — the recovery counterpart to the combat, defensive, and aggressive keywords. For the full board-state picture it plugs into, the EX Base and EX Resource tokens guide and the shields and Burst triggers guide round out how damage, HP, and survival all fit together.
- What it does: <Repair X> recovers X HP at the end of your turn.
- Why it matters: damage stays marked on Units, so healing it resets the Unit toward full each turn.
- Timing: end of your turn only — heals before the opponent's offense, nothing during their turn.
- Stacking: additive — Repair 1 + Repair 2 = Repair 3 (one combined heal).
- Limits: can't revive a destroyed Unit, isn't damage prevention, doesn't stop removal or burst.
- Best on: high-HP defensive Units, especially alongside Blocker, in patient attrition decks.
Outlast Them.
Repair won't win you a race — but it'll win you the war of attrition. Build it onto a durable body, back it with a Blocker, and you've got a Unit your opponent has to kill in one shot or not at all. Most of the time, they can't — and that's how the grindy games tip your way.
That completes the Gundam keyword set: combat, defense, aggression, and now recovery. Put them together and you understand every keyword that decides a battle.
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