Builds in Kyoto Xanadu run on Action Cards equipped inside a Class CP budget. This guide explains how that budget works, the difference between Action and Support Cards, and how the academy's class pillars quietly decide how much you can equip.
The Class CP budget
Every card you equip costs Class CP, a cost-point pool that starts small and grows as you progress. Because early Class CP is tight, spreading it across many weak cards leaves you worse off than committing to a few strong ones. Think of Class CP the way you would a limited energy budget: fill it with the pieces that most change how your main character fights, and leave slack until the pool expands.
Action Cards and Support Cards
Action Cards shape what a character does — new skills, empowered attacks, changes to how their Soul Device behaves. Support Cards tilt the numbers and utility around that — survivability, resource generation, Aether management. A healthy early loadout is one or two Action Cards that suit your Soul Device plus a Support Card that keeps you alive or topped up, rather than an all-offence stack that folds on the first tough boss.
Wisdom, Virtue and Valor
Attending classes raises three pillars — Wisdom, Virtue and Valor — and these do more than flavour. They gate story and request options and feed into your Class CP and card access, which is why lessons are genuine progression. Investing a little in the pillar that widens your Class CP early pays off on every future loadout, so do not skip class in favour of grinding.
Early build advice
- Commit, don't spread. Two strong cards beat five thin ones under a small Class CP budget.
- Match cards to your Soul Device, not to a theorycrafted ideal your character can't support yet.
- Keep one survivability or Aether card equipped for deep labyrinth runs.
- Grow Class CP first when you're unsure — a bigger budget unlocks every other choice.
New here? The beginner guide sets the daily rhythm, and the combat guide covers the Issen-and-Secret-Art fundamentals your build should support.