Rule[]
Ships and unique squadrons gain the defense tokens indicated on their ship and squadron cards during setup and place them next to their corresponding cards. Defense tokens can be spent by the defender during the “Spend Defense Tokens” step of an attack to mitigate the damage it suffers.
- Defense tokens begin the game on their readied side. When a readied defense token is spent, it is flipped to its exhausted side. When an exhausted defense token is spent, it is discarded.
- If the defender’s speed is “0,” it cannot spend defense tokens.
- The defender cannot spend more than one defense token of each type per attack.
- A defense token cannot be spent more than once during an attack.
- Defense tokens can be spent as part of a cost for upgrade card effects. If spent in this way, a defense token does not produce its normal effect.
Source: RRG 1.5.0 p. 4/5
Timing[]
After attack dice are rolled, modified, and the attacker spent his accuracy icons, the defender can spend one or more of his Defense Tokens during Spend Defense Tokens step. Defense Tokens are spent before critical effects are declared and take place.