UniVersus has been around in various forms since 2005, initially launching as the Universal Fighting System before rebranding as UniVersus in 2021.
The cards have changed numerous times over the years; I even covered this in my UniVersus card back design guide!
Just like any collectable card game (CCG) or trading card game (TCG), the best and rarest UniVersus cards can be found in booster packs.
Booster packs contain cards at a variety of rarity levels and, in UniVersus, there are a pretty bewildering number of different card rarities!
So let’s take a look at each one of the UniVersus card rarities in turn and show you where you can find the codes on your cards.
Common (C)
Every CCG has common cards, of course. These make up the bulk of any booster pack you may buy, regardless of the series or set that the booster is from.
Common cards, which can be identified with their C at the bottom of the card, as highlighted with the purple circle above, tend to be the most basic cards in a set; not just in terms of their in-game mechanics, but also their design too.
That said, as Commons are prevalent, you may well see numerous Common cards as the staples in the decks of many players.
They won’t be the most powerful cards, but they can certainly have their uses.
Uncommon (UC)
A step up in rarity and, often, usefulness from Commons, Uncommon cards are the second most prevalent card type in any given game; UniVersus is no different in that regard.
It’s with Uncommon cards (which gave a UC code at the bottom of the card) that you’re going to see the slightly more interesting effects or combos occurring.
Though of course the most highly sought after cards won’t appear as Uncommons, there’ll still be cards in this category that’ll have plenty to offer; some combos and strategies will rely on effects from Uncommon cards, for example.
Rare (R)
It’s within the selection of Rares that most players will find their most useful cards; though these are thinner on the ground than Commons and Uncommons, Rare cards are often where the most useful and cost effective combo effects or bonuses can be found.
Though Rare cards which have an R at the bottom of the card won’t be the most powerful cards in the game, they’ll certainly be very useful to include in your deck.
They tend to be found at the rate of 1 per booster pack, though you may find something at a higher rarity level than Rare in the ‘slot’ that the Rare would usually be in.
It’s also worth noting that they’ll generally (though not always) be foil treated cards too, adding an extra layer of appeal and collectability!
Ultra Rare (UR)
Speaking of foil treated cards, those that have the UR rarity code are Ultra Rare; they tend to be very powerful cards that are only found in 1 in 4 boosters, in most sets.
Cards that are above Rare will always be foil treated, so that of course means that this applies to Ultra Rare cards too.
The foil finish on UR cards is incredibly appealing, as you can see from the above image.
As you’d expect, prices tend to take quite a leap when it comes to Ultra Rare cards, especially as (unlike with XR cards, as you’ll see), they tend to be the most useful cards when it comes to using them in game.
Extra Rare (XR)
Usually distributed at the rate of roughly 1 in every 6 booster packs, Extra Rare cards are scarcer, alternate art versions of other cards.
They don’t have to be Rare cards to begin with (they could be variants of any card rarity), so you may find a Common or Uncommon card popping up as an Extra Rare, which will have an XR on the bottom of the card.
Given their scarcity and fancy foil treatments, these cards tend to not be used in decks and for playing with and instead will often be of most interest to collectors.
This is often reflected in their value, which tends to be higher than cards at Rare level or lower.
Starter Exclusive (SE)
There’s nothing unusual about a card with SE printed on it; the rarity level of Starter Exclusive speaks for itself.
These cards will be found in Starter Decks exclusively, though you may find a variant of them appearing at a different rarity level in booster packs!
Promo (P)
Just like Starter Exclusives, you can pretty much guess what a Promo card, marked with a P (circled in purple above), is.
Given away at various events or for buying certain products, Promo cards can end up being highly sought after, though they aren’t always.
The value of one of these cards very much depends on what the Promo card is, or how easy it is to obtain.
Character Rare (CH)
In much the same way as Commanders in Magic: The Gathering or Leaders in Star Wars Unlimited, in UniVersus decks are headed up by a Character.
Characters themselves can be at different rarity levels, but the most common (despite the name!) is the Character Rare, denoted by a CH on the bottom of the card (circled in yellow above).
Character cards can be found at the rate of 1 per booster pack, though there’s also a chance that the character you find may be higher than the CH rarity, as you’ll soon see!
Character Extra Rare (XR-CH)
That’s right; there’s a Character Extra Rare level, which has the XR-CH code on the card (which we’ve highlighted above with a yellow circle).
Here’s where you’re likely to find the most powerful and highly sought after Characters.
Given their scarcity in comparison to standard CH cards, the value of XR-CH cards tends to be high too, so if you’re not intending to use one of these in your deck, you’ve likely got yourself a very lucrative card!
Character Alternate Art Rare (CH-ALT)
Another rarity that pretty much speaks for itself, cards with the CH-ALT designation are Character Alternate Art Rare, which couldn’t be more self explanatory as a descriptor!
Prices for CH-ALT cards tend to be more variable than Character Extra Rares, often depending on a number of factors including the desirability of the art, the popularity of the character, and how powerful or useful they are in game.
Secret Rare (SR)
A quirk of modern CCGs, Secret Rare cards have set numbers that go above and beyond the number of cards in any given set.
For example, if a set has 153 cards, a Secret Rare can be numbered 154 and up.
We’ve circled the rarity code of SR in yellow above, as well as the card number, which is 155 of 153 cards in the set!
Though of course in the pre-internet days the existence of these cards really could have been kept secret, these days information regarding card lists, not to mention pack openings or discussions on community-led sites such as Reddit, is generally widely available, even ahead of launch of a set.
So even though Secret Rare cards (which have SR as their card rarity code) no longer truly feel like special, surprise pulls in a booster pack, their scarcity still makes them incredibly desirable.
For example, in many different UniVersus sets, you’re only likely to uncover a Secret Rare at the rate of 1 in every 72 booster packs!
Extra Secret Rare (XSR)
So if the Secret Rares are desirable, what does that mean for cards marked with XSR, which are Extra Secret Rare?
While we have no idea what the pull rate is for Extra Secret Rare cards, what we do know is that they’re definitely less prevalent than the already scarce Secret Rares, which are found at the rate of 1 in 72 packs.
As you can imagine, this makes XSR cards very exciting to pull from boosters, and of course they’re pretty valuable too!
We’ve highlighted both the rarity code of XSR and the card’s number with a purple circle in the image above; this shows that, following the Secret Rare convention of numbers going beyond the set’s ‘official’ number of cards, it’s 127/122.
Alternate Art Common to Ultra Rare (C-ALT to UR-ALT)
So far exclusive to the Collector Booster packs found in Challenger Series decks and the Yu Yu Hakusho Dark Tournament set, cards marked with C-ALT, UC-ALT, R-ALT and UR-ALT are alternate art cards from varying rarity levels; Common, Uncommon, Rare and Ultra Rare respectively.
With Collector Booster packs for the Challenger Series decks only available as one six-card booster pack with each pre-constructed deck, even the C-ALT cards are difficult to acquire, despite their designation as Commons!
Chrome Rare (CR)
Did you think we’ve covered the rarest cards in UniVersus already?
Think again, as Chrome Rares are here to blow your mind!
In fact, Chrome Rares are so limited in number that they have their serial number printed on the card; as the number of copies of a Chrome Rare card in print tends to be just 100 worldwide, this number will be shown as XXX/100 (we’ve circled this in yellow above, with the CR rarity on the right of the serialised numbering).
Due to this extremely limited availability, Chrome Rare cards are undoubtedly the most desirable cards in any UniVersus set, by far.
They will often sell for hundreds, sometimes even thousands of dollars on the rare occasion that they do pop up for sale online.
This year is certain to be the biggest year that UniVersus has seen, with numerous new sets including Godzilla, Tekken, Star Trek and Attack on Titan on the way.
Check out our upcoming UniVersus sets guide for more details on what to expect from what is surely one of the most versatile collectable card games available!
