Life Points

Life Points are the "health" left for a player while playing the game. An official duel starts with 8000 Life Points for each player, though sometimes players play with more or less depending on the situation. If the player's Life Points deplete to 0, the player loses. Once a player gets to 0 Life Points, they cannot get lower and have negative Life Points. Other common amounts are 4000 and 2000 Life Points (4000 is the most common amount used in the various anime series, while 2000 was used before the Duelist Kingdom tournament in the original series), or even 16000, offered in some Video Games.

Losing Life Points can be caused by the following:


 * One of your Attack Position monster attacks/is attacked by a monster with a higher ATK, in which case, the difference is dealt to you as Battle Damage.
 * Attacking a Defense Position monster that has a higher DEF than the ATK of the monster you are attacking with.
 * Paying a cost for a card e.g. Banisher of Souls.
 * Certain Spell, Trap, or Effect Monster effects.
 * Getting attacked by a monster directly in a Direct Attack, in which case, the damage you take is equal to that monster's ATK.
 * Piercing Damage.