Axie Infinity Wiki: Cards, Runes, Charms and All Mechanics

This Axie Infinity wiki covers the core game mechanics reference that players need most: the nine Axie classes and their relationships, how body parts determine cards, the Rune system, the Charm system, all status effects, breeding mechanics, and the Homeland land system. Bookmark this page as your in-game reference when building teams, evaluating Axies on the marketplace, or crafting competitive loadouts.

Axie Classes and Type Advantages

Each Axie belongs to one of nine classes. In Axie Origins, classes determine which ability cards an Axie can use and provide bonus and penalty multipliers against specific opposing classes.

Class bonus/penalty: attacking an Axie of your weak class deals 15% less damage. Attacking an Axie of your strong class deals 15% more damage. Class advantage creates tactical positioning incentives and team counter-picking considerations in competitive play.

Body Parts and Cards

Each Axie has six body parts: eyes, ears, mouth, horn, back, and tail. Eyes and ears provide passive stat bonuses only. Mouth, horn, back, and tail each contribute one battle card to the Axie’s card set.

Each body part card belongs to one of the nine classes regardless of the Axie’s own class. This means a Beast Axie can have cards from other classes on its body parts, enabling hybrid card combinations that cross class lines. When evaluating an Axie’s battle potential, assess the four body-part cards individually — do they create synergies with each other and with your team’s other Axies’ cards?

Key card attributes: Energy cost (0 to 3), Shield value (how much shield it generates on the user), Attack damage (damage dealt to target), and Special effects (status effects, buffs, conditional triggers).

Rune System Reference

Runes are craftable passive items that attach to Axie slots. Each Axie can hold one Rune. Rune effects apply continuously throughout the battle as long as the Axie is alive.

Rune rarity tiers from lowest to highest: Common, Rare, Epic, Mystic. Higher rarity Runes have stronger effects and cost more SLP and AXS to craft. Rune effects include:

Stat Runes: Flat increases to HP, Speed, Morale, or Skill stats. Simple and reliable, most useful for Axies where a specific stat increase is meaningful for their role.

Class Runes: Provide bonuses when specific class cards are played. A Beast Rune might grant bonus damage to all Beast cards played by this Axie. These amplify the effect of class combo strategies.

Trigger Runes: Activate under specific game conditions — when HP drops below a threshold, when a specific card is played, when a status effect is applied. Trigger Runes create conditional power spikes that skilled players integrate into their tactical plans.

Crafting cost: SLP cost scales with Rune rarity. AXS is required for Epic and Mystic tier Runes. Crafting Runes is one of the primary SLP and AXS sink mechanisms in the current Axie economy.

Charm System Reference

Charms attach to specific card slots on Axies and modify the effects of those specific cards. Each body-part card slot can hold one Charm, giving each Axie up to four Charm slots (for the four card-contributing body parts).

Charm effect types include: damage modifications (+% to card’s base attack), shield modifications (+% to card’s shield generation), Energy modifications (reduce or increase card’s Energy cost), effect additions (add a status effect to a card that doesn’t normally have one), and conditional triggers (bonus effects when specific conditions are met during card play).

Charm rarity tiers follow the same Common/Rare/Epic/Mystic structure as Runes. Higher rarity Charms provide stronger modifications. The correct Charm for a card depends on your team strategy — a damage Charm on a card used primarily for its shield generation is wasted; a shield Charm on a tank Axie’s defensive card is correctly allocated.

Status Effects Reference

Axie Stats Reference

HP (Health Points): Total damage an Axie can absorb before being eliminated. Higher HP Axies last longer under focused attacks. Plant and Reptile classes naturally have higher HP.

Speed: Determines initiative and turn order when multiple Axies act simultaneously. Faster Axies can attack before slower ones. Speed also affects dodge chance against certain attacks.

Skill: A secondary stat that increases combo damage — the bonus damage triggered when playing multiple cards in the same turn. Higher Skill Axies generate more value from multi-card combos.

Morale: Affects critical hit chance and determines last-stand behavior. High Morale Axies have a chance to survive at 1 HP when they would otherwise be eliminated, and deal bonus damage in Last Stand before finally going down.

Breeding Mechanics

Breeding creates new Axie NFTs by combining the genes of two parent Axies. Both parents must be unlinked from each other (no direct family relationship between them). Breeding costs SLP plus AXS, with costs scaling by breed count.

Gene inheritance: Each body part slot has three gene positions — dominant (D), recessive (R1), and minor recessive (R2). When breeding, each position in the offspring is determined by random inheritance from either parent’s corresponding gene position according to set probability weights (dominant has highest probability of inheritance).

Breed count limit: Each Axie can breed a maximum of 7 times. After 7 breeds, the Axie can no longer breed. Lower breed count Axies are more valuable because they have more remaining breeding potential.

Breeding costs by breed count: Cost 1 (first breed) is lowest. Cost 7 (final breed) is highest. The progressive cost structure is intentional — it makes later breeds economically less attractive and naturally limits total Axie supply inflation from breeding.

Homeland Reference

Homeland is Axie Infinity‘s land management game mode. Players who own Land NFTs from the Axie universe can develop their land plots, assign Axies as workers, and generate resources for the Axie Infinity economy.

Land types: Savannah, Forest, Arctic, Mystic, Genesis. Genesis land is the rarest. Mystic land is second rarest. Land type affects which resources can be produced and the base rate of resource generation.

Rune Shards and Moon Shards: The primary resources generated through Homeland. These shards are materials used in Rune and Charm crafting, connecting Homeland gameplay directly to the competitive Origins economy.

Totem and Building system: Land owners place Totems and Buildings on their plots to increase resource production rates and unlock additional features. Different Totem types enhance different resource types, and Building combinations create additional bonuses based on placement patterns.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the strongest Axie class?

No single class is universally strongest — effectiveness depends on the opponent’s team composition. Plant is the most universally useful tank class because of its HP and shield generation. Beast and Bird are the primary damage dealer choices in most competitive metas. The strongest team is one with synergistic card combinations across classes rather than any single class dominating.

How many Rune slots does each Axie have?

Each Axie has one Rune slot. With a three-Axie team, you can equip up to three Runes per team in battle. Rune effects are passive and apply throughout the battle as long as the Axie carrying them is alive.

What is the maximum breed count for Axies?

Each Axie can breed a maximum of 7 times. The breed count is tracked on-chain in the Axie’s NFT data and cannot be changed. Lower breed count Axies are more valuable on the marketplace because they have more remaining breeding potential.

How do I find an Axie’s card set?

On the Axie Marketplace, each Axie listing shows its six body parts. Hover over or click on the four card-contributing body parts (mouth, horn, back, tail) to see the specific card each part contributes. The card name, class, damage, shield value, and special effect are all visible before purchasing.

This wiki covers the core mechanics framework. As Axie Infinity continues to evolve through balance updates, new card sets, and additional Rune and Charm types, check the official Axie Infinity documentation and community resources for the most current specific values and new additions to each system.