Basic leaves out everything marked Advanced. In Basic, a volley always goes through.
Each side picks a paddle color on the menu. One side plays the bottom half and the other plays the top. The kitchen is the row on each side of the net.
Serve: (Advanced: a Wind card is flipped first.) Play 0 or 1 Finesse card and draw as many Power cards as you like. If your cards total exactly 12, it's an Ace. Otherwise the ball moves your total plus Wind diagonally, and it must land 8 to 12 spaces away.
Serve from the right when your team's score is even and from the left when it's odd. The corner square outside the court is a legal spot.
Receiving: Before each serve, the receiving side can stand anywhere on their side.
Rally: Play 0 or 1 Finesse card and draw 0 or 1 Power card (at least one card in total). You must reach the ball within your total, and then the ball moves that same total in a straight line.
BOUNCE: When the ball is on your side, before cards are played, you can move it 1 space in any direction (staying on your side). The opponent who hit it last earns an Ace at the end of the rally, and a token goes where the ball ends up. You can't call BOUNCE on the serve, on the return, or when the ball is on a token.
Volley: If a shot passes your pawn, you can volley it from your square. You can't volley the serve or the return, or while you're in the kitchen.
Advanced.HIT duel: The hitter can call HIT on a volley. The defender flips their top Power card or takes the HIT. Then the hitter flips or lets the volley go. Ace is high, the hitter needs a strictly higher card, and ties go to the volley. Flipped cards are discarded.
If a ball lands exactly on a player who doesn't volley, it's a HIT.
Dink: Any shot totaling 4 or less is a dink. A dink can stop anywhere in the opponent's kitchen.
Advanced.Put-away zone: If you stand on your kitchen line (the row just behind the kitchen) and a shot crosses that row within 1 square of you, you can volley it and the hitter can't call HIT.
Advanced.Shot card: Each player has a Flat/Lob card. Flip it or leave it before any cards are played. A lob costs 3 of your total. It can't be volleyed, but it must land in the shaded back 3 rows or it gets smashed and you lose the rally.
Advanced.ATP: A flat shot hit straight ahead from the two outermost columns on either side, while you're in your kitchen or on your kitchen line, goes around the post. It can't be volleyed or put away.
Advanced.Erne: If you're on your kitchen line in the two outermost columns on either side, you can volley a flat ball that passes through the kitchen square in front of you. The hitter can't call HIT.
After you hit, move up to 2 spaces. (Advanced)Momentum: if you volleyed, that move can't take you into the kitchen.
Fatigue: If the hand or deck you need is empty, the hit is a flat 5. Empty hands and decks refill after the rally.
Only the serving side scores. Games go to 11, win by 2.
Doubles: Each hit, the Starter plays a Finesse card face up (or passes) and flips their shot card, without talking. The Controller then draws a Power card (or doesn't), may call BOUNCE first, and picks which pawn hits. The hitter repositions 2, then the other pawn gets a free 2. Roles swap every hit. Each partner serves before a side out (server 1, server 2), and the game starts at 0-0-2.
Shot colors: When you aim, each direction is colored by what the shot does. Red is a passing shot that lands in, blue is a lob, green is a dink, yellow means an opponent gets a volley chance, purple is a smash (a HIT or a put-away), and gray is a fault.
Situations: Pick a Situation card on the menu to start a doubles rally from that position at 0-0. Use Undo at the top to take back your last tap, as many times as you need. When the rally ends you can replay it, try the next card, or keep playing the game from there.