Video Game / Fights in Tight Spaces

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Fights in Tight Spaces is a single-player, turn-based, deckbuilding roguelite based on the moment-to-moment decision making in Fight Scenes. You and your enemies are represented on a small square grid, and possible actions you can take are represented by a hand of cards. With those cards, you must outplay and outwit your opponents to be the last one standing.

In a world where espionage consists mainly of analysts poring over data packets, Section Eleven's role is to find more direct solutions, taking on criminal organizations that fall beyond electronic communication. You are one such agent, tasked with taking a hands-on approach to keeping the peace, via smashing your fist into people's faces and people's faces into other things.

The game was developed by British studio Ground Shatter, published by Mode 7 Games, and released on Steam in Early Access on February 24, 2021, with the full release happening on December 2 that year.

A DLC, Weapon of Choice was released on September 28, 2023. Features include Gun Fu cards, Endless Mode, more enemies, another enemy faction, and a new skin for Agent 11. A second DLC, K-9 Division, was released on September 25th, 2025. It includes new cards and decks based around commanding a Canine Companion to fight alongside Agent 11, new enemies, a new enemy faction, and a remixed story mode. A third DLC, FRIGHTS in Tight Spaces, was released on October 27th, 2025; a self-contained Halloween Episode with a new enemy faction.

A fantasy-themed sequel, Knights in Tight Spaces, was released in March 2025.

Fights in Tight Spaces contains examples of:

• Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: The costs of medical and gym services rise sharply with each subsequent purchase you make in that location. Thankfully, this is only per location, so you'll always have an opportunity to purchase something each time you enter a new location.
• All Bikers Are Hells Angels: The first organization you face is the Death's Head biker gang. Their boss is a bearded fellow wearing a vest. Justified in that they're a resurgence of the Nordic Biker Gang wars of the 90's which actually did involve the Hell's Angels.
• All the Worlds Are a Stage: In the beta final mission, and the released game's daily missions, all the organizations you've defeated previously team up, so encounters can consist of any enemies previously encountered and at any location previously visited.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Each mission briefing takes place with the Handler in a non-descript office in Section XI's headquarters. The Weapon of Choice campaign starts with the Assassins having just raided the headquarters, wrecking the office and leaving the Handler injured.
• Always Accurate Attack: The Assassin boss has an attack where she fires the gun in the air and it will always hit Agent 11, regardless of their location.
• Anti-Frustration Features: Enemies with melee attacks that can reach further than one tile will generally try to position themselves as far from you as possible while still leaving you in attack range, and enemies with projectile attacks will similarly keep their distance and will often put a low wall between themselves and you. However, after you deal with all the close-range melee enemies, ranged enemies will start to close in on you so you aren't stuck spending turns continuously closing the distance on an enemy that keeps trying to run away.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: Block functions as armor that will absorb damage from any source until consumed. However, there are several attacks and enemies which ignore any Block and deal all of their damage directly to the target's health. Similarly, Block will negate Stun or Bleed effects except for certain cards that bypass it.
• Arbitrary Mission Restriction: Each fight has several optional objectives to complete, e.g. finish in a certain number of turns or defeat enemies in a particular way. Completing them earns a variety of rewards like money or stat enhancements.
• Artificial Brilliance:
  • Enemies will generally try to avoid being positioned for an easy Ring Out. While moving to attack the player, they will try to avoid ending up positioned directly between a player and a Ring Out barrier unless there is no other tile they can reach. Additionally, if their movement round starts with them in such a position, they will run to another side of the player.
  • Aggressive enemies will move every time the player uses a Movement card. They will do their best to close for an attack, but melee enemies with a long range attack will try to keep at their max distance while ranged attackers will try to move away as far as they can. These enemies will also avoid entering the attack field of other enemies, even if it means losing the chance to attack that round.
• Ass-Kicking Pose: Several enemies will announce their arrival with one of these. Agent 11, meanwhile, performs such poses when using buff cards, such as cracking their neck or raising their knee and doing a bit of shadowboxing.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Agent 11 - as you would expect from an obvious James Bond Expy.
• Bar Brawl: One of the locations you fight in is a bar. The final battle of the Death's Head Bikers will usually be in one.
• Bathroom Brawl: You'll often find yourself brawling in a bathroom.
• Blown Across the Room: Shotguns will push any target they hit one tile away from the shooter. If the target is knocked out and goes into ragdoll, their body can fly much further.
• Bodyguarding a Badass: The K-9 storyline features the Carlton Boys being hired to act as muscle and guards for the pre-existing gangs. Agent 11 calls this out in the third chapter, asking if ninjas really need extra guards.
  Handler: Somewhat implausibly, we've received intelligence that The Jade Staff are also contracting the Carlton Boys' services.
  Agent 11: Do ninjas need protection?
  Handler: From you? I would take it as a compliment, Agent 11.
• Boss-Altering Consequence: The Sonic Ninja and Paramilitary both appear in rooms where the only objective is dealing a set amount of damage to Agent XI, and will later appear in the final room where all enemies must be defeated. While the two can be ignored in their first appearances, any damage they suffer will carry over to the final room, and if downed they will fail to appear at all.
• Boss Rush: The final mission of "K-9 Division" has a boss from the base game appearing in each room alongside the Carlton Boys boss.
• Bottomless Magazines: In play for everybody using a gun, naturally. The Agent can subvert this, however, by using the Reload card (to draw more pistol cards), while the Empty Magazine card will make them toss their gun to the ground.
• Brick Joke: The Frights campaign opens with Agent 11 snarking about the shoddy security of the Division's jail cells. The Handler waves off the complaint as security has improved, but he does make a note to double-check. At the very end of the campaign, the Handler muses he seems to have forgotten something just before an alert goes off due to prisoners escaping.
• Bring It: The Taunt card will make Agent 11 beckon the enemy with their hand.
• But Thou Must!: Choice: Fight the Ninjas/Escape the Ninjas. "Escape the Ninjas". "You fool, you can't escape the ninjas!" (Fight them anyway.)
• Canine Companion: The central addition of K-9 Division is a slew of new cards and two starter decks (K-9 Handler and K-9 Support) based on the presence of Agent K-9, a police dog that fights alongside Agent 11.
• Captured on Purpose: The first mission of the K-9 Division campaign ends with the various enemies being sent to jail. The next mission opens with the Handler revealing they had allowed themselves to be captured in order to identify Section Eleven's informants inside the prison and funnel enforcers in to deal with them.
• Cardboard Prison: At the end of the standard game, all the bosses get put in a single cell together, with Agent 11 questioning the logic of having them locked up together. Come the DLC campaign, all of them break out of jail, forcing you to kick their asses again... and then they get locked up together in the same cell anyway, suggesting that they'll be able to break out a second time.
• Chef of Iron: The Insiders chefs are pretty tough, too heavy to down, and make a triple attack with their cleaver. They will also heal themselves and their allies with food from time to time.
• Cherry Tapping:
  • Pocket Sand stuns the target enemy but also deals a single point of damage. "Sand Blasted" is an achievement for killing an enemy with this card.
  • "Death by Diplomat" is awarded for killing an enemy with the British Ambassador. Typically, this involves shoving the Ambassador into the target enemy to kill them with 4 points of collision damage. However, with the right card the Ambassador can be made to attack and get the kill themselves for 2 damage.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Agent 11 and their handler are black as are the rogue Section Eleven agents, the British Ambassador and Informant are yellow, Death's Head mooks are red, Insider mooks are orange, Jade Staff mooks are green, I Completi mooks are purple, the Assassins are brown, and the Carlton Boys are blue. Different enemy types also use varying shades of their faction's color to differentiate between them, such as the shiv-wielding Insider being a darker orange than the standard Insider mook.
• Combat Pragmatist: Agent 11 is willing to use things like stun darts, flash powder, and the environment itself to gain a leg up on their opponents. With the Weapon of Choice DLC, they can also simply bring a gun to a fist fight, and pull off tricks such as grabbing the target and shooting them in the gut. They're also willing to sic an attack dog on their enemies with Agent K and are not above ordering said dog to go for the groin.
• Combat Stilettos: The feminine variants of the Agent 11 wear heels, and are just as deadly.
• Continuing Is Painful: You can choose to start on a later mission if you want, but the game warns you that without amassed upgrades from previous missions, things will be considerably more difficult.
• Contractual Boss Immunity: Averted for the most part, bosses are vulnerable to any move up until the i Completi boss who cannot be pushed. While both Agent XI and the Assassin Boss cannot be pushed either the Assassin Boss in particular instantly recovers from attacks that down her.
• Counter-Attack: Some cards let you hit your enemies back if they hit you. The Counter Striker deck is built around these types of cards. Some enemies also have counter-attacks, which can make them an absolute bastard to fight - although it also leads to hilarious displays if you can abuse movement and redirection so that they end up counter-attacking impacts from their own side.
• Damage Over Time: Some cards and enemies inflict a bleeding status effect, which causes those afflicted to lose health each turn. The Slasher deck centers around using bleed cards.
• Deadly Doctor: The Insiders doctors will stab you with a syringe, inflicting bleeding. They can also remove your combo by dropping their syringe and stomping on it.
• Deadly Dodging: Attacks that target multiple tiles affect the first character they reach, allowing Agent 11 to Set a Mook to Kill a Mook by simply stepping out of the way and letting someone else take the hit. There's also the Shimmy card, a specific action that allows Agent 11 to move 1-2 spaces in any direction, while any enemies that were targeting their position trigger their attacks (in addition to attacking on their own turn). Dodging a ranged attack will also cause it to continue onward, possibly resulting in an enemy shooting one of their own. This can also play to the disadvantage of enemies with dodges, if you're using a ranged attack to target whoever's behind them.
• Deadpan Snarker: Starting with the Insiders level, Agent 11 starts making witty comments about the next mission to their boss. It only comes up in the section openers, although the Taunt card does imply some use of it in combat too.
  Agent 11: (on being sent on an undercover mission into prison) I'm afraid orange isn't my colour.
• Denial of Diagonal Attack: The majority of attacks in the game can only target adjacent tiles or those in line with adjacent tiles, ignoring the diagonals. The only attacks capable of hitting diagonals hit multiple tiles at once, such as the 540 Kick.
• Destination Defenestration: Starting in the third mission, maps can contain large windows along the walls. Trying to shove an enemy through it will crack the glass the first time and break it a second time, creating a new kill spot.
• Developer's Foresight: The British Ambassador will simply cower in fear, not attacking anybody. However, if you use the Taunt card on him, which forces the target to attack, he'll pull out a pen and attack whoever he's facing, thought he does very little damage with it.
• Devious Daggers: Agent 11, being a spy, uses a knife for their bleed-inducing attacks as well as some ranged ones.
• Distressed Dude: The British Ambassador is regularly thrust into dangerous situations and must be rescued by Agent 11.
• Dodge the Bullet: If the player has a dodge active, Agent 11 avoids the bullet by ducking their head to the side in a Nonchalant Dodge. Enemies with dodges will also dodge with their own animation.
• Doesn't Like Guns: While some mooks bring guns, the vanilla game's Agent 11 only uses thrown darts and knives for their ranged attacks. Weapon of Choice does let you use a gun, but the intro of the DLC campaign makes it obvious that Agent 11 is uncomfortable with using them.
• Dressed to Kill: Two variants of the Agent 11 wear a sharp suit while taking on enemies.
• Drunken Master: The Drunken Master is a lieutenant of the Jade Staff who drinks from a sake bottle each turn to buff himself. He arrives in the arena by collapsing flat on the floor before picking himself up and sways unsteadily, while also having high damage output and a free dodge per turn.
• Dual Boss:
  • The final level of the "Weapon of Choice" campaign will have you face Agent XI and the Assassin Boss at the same time, albeit with no other enemies present (with the exception of summoned minions).
  • The final mission of "K-9 Division" features a series of rooms where the Carlton Boys boss fights alongside each of the gang bosses from the base game, including Agent XI in the final round.
• Easy Level Trick:
  • Most boss arenas spawn with a ledge or exit in which the bosses can be thrown out of to instantly end the fight. It's considerably harder to pull off without a good amount of positioning cards, but it is far easier to do against the Jade Staff's boss, whose fight happens on top of a building. The i Completi boss and Agent XI are specifically immune to this, however.
  • The Death's Head boss is initially accompanied by two ranged mooks. With the right cards, it is very easy to position the boss so he'll get shot by one or both mook each turn, significantly speeding up the kill.
  • The i Completi boss is accompanied by two Assassins who each deal a massive amount of damage. Stuns and Grapple can be used to position the boss so he takes their attacks instead, significantly speeding up the kill.
• Elevator Action Sequence: Elevators occasionally pop up as a map in the i Completi chapter. As a 3x3 square, they're the tightest space in the entire game, forcing you to adapt your tactics to it.
• The End... Or Is It?: The standard game ends with all of the organization leaders in jail... but the last line has one of them saying "(...and so it begins)". The Weapon of Choice campaign, meanwhile, ends similarly, but has one of them say "(Now we have all the information we need)". K-9 Division's campaign ends with a leader declaring "(everything is finally in place. we are go)".
• Evil Counterpart: In the full release, the final boss is Agent 11's corrupt predecessor, Agent XI.
• Exactly What I Aimed At: A variant applies with the Near-Miss card, which makes you miss the first target (who will be stunned despite being unharmed), but allows you to hit whoever's behind them. The "I Wasn't Aiming At You" achievement is rewarded for using this card to kill a boss.
• Excuse Plot: There are criminal organizations up to no good and it's up to you to take them out. You don't even see the investigations and spywork beyond brief allusions in random events, the game just goes from one Fight Scene to another.
• Failure Is an Option: The boss fight in Frights opens with the Occultist boss revealing that if the Ambassador dies, a demon lord will be revived and the fight has two objectives: Kill the boss and protect the Ambassador. However, the Ambassador dying will not cause a game over or result in an change to the fight itself. The only change is the post-mission dialogue where the chief either passes along the Ambassador's thanks or laments his death.
• Fight Like a Card Player: The various actions you can take are represented as cards.
• Final-Exam Boss: The base game's final boss is a variation. While it doesn't strictly have distinct "phases", the boss's abilities change every turn, unlike every other enemy you've faced. Combining this with the high-level mooks that accompany them, which themselves have elite versions of gimmicks seen elsewhere in the game, means that beating the boss requires you to be familiar with practically every mechanic seen so far and how to deal with them.
• Finger Poke of Doom: Bruce Lee's famous one-inch punch is one of the available cards, with Agent 11 stopping their hand within one inch of the enemy, then suddenly punching them for a huge amount of damage.
• Forceful Faceplant: The Head Smash is a vicious maneuver that does a lot of damage to an enemy, but can only be done when you and your opponent are next to a wall or an obstacle.
• Foreshadowing: Agent 11 works for Section Eleven, whose symbol is the Roman numeral for 11, XI. The final boss is your predecessor, the rogue Agent XI.
• Fragile Speedster: Agent K has several cards that let them move anywhere on the map so long as there is a valid path, quickly repositioning to attack or block whatever enemy needs focused. However, two or three attacks will down them and even after getting back up a debuff card will be added to the deck for the rest of the round.
• Friendly Fireproof:
  • The British Ambassador takes no damage from your attacks, but he will be moved around by them so you can keep him out of the line of enemy attacks and can take collision damage in the process.
  • The Bartender and Ninja Enforcer take no damage from attacks by other enemies.
  • After a certain point in the DLC, the Gas Mask Assassin will make all other enemies immune to friendly fire though he himself remains vulnerable.
  • Agent K and Agent 11 cannot hurt each other but they can still push each other and certain attacks that apply a buff on hitting such as Palm Strike can also trigger.
• Fright Deathtrap: The version of the Warning Shot used by the Assassin Boss will cause you to take damage, possibly resulting in Agent 11 dying from sheer intimidation.
• From Stray to Pet: Agent K was apparently a stray when Agent 11 found them being beaten by gang members in an alley. Agent 11 rescued the dog and the two fought together on 11's mission, earning Agent K a spot in the K-9 unit.
• Frontline General: Every boss character fights alongside their minions to take down the player.
• Gameplay Grading: At the end of a fight, the player will receive a numerical score. The base score for each room is 200, with points added for defeating lieutenants and bosses, and points removed for taking damage. Various percentage modifiers are then applied based on side objectives completed, difficulty, type of enemy, and time to complete. The scores are summed up at the end of the run, with additional bonuses for any unspent money, remaining health, and successful completion of a full run.
• Gathering Steam:
  • The basis of the combo mechanic, which raises by one each time you land a blow and goes down when you move. Some cards are more effective at high combo levels, and some require a certain combo level to be usable at all.
  • The Rising Strength card gives additional damage modifier every turn for 5 turns. The "Increased Strength" enhancement on the other hand gives +2 damage modifier every 3 turns starting off with the second turn. Palm Strike grants a permanent damage modifier when played and can be played repeatedly in a given round to stack the boost.
  • On the enemy side, the basic Prisoner mooks of the Insiders gain 1 damage every turn they're on the board. While their base damage of 10 is a modest figure, leaving them alone for too long can lead to getting overwhelmed with damage you can't feasibly block.
  • For another villainous example there's the Assassins in the Weapons of Choice DLC, who gain extra effects with every Mission:
    • The Cutthroat initially starts off improving other enemies' damage, but then he eventually starts to dodge an attack every turn and his attacks get deadlier.
    • The Gas Mask Assassin doesn't start off with anything special other than gaining a bit of block every turn but eventually he prevents enemies from damaging each other (unless they are damaging him), gains Advance and a repositioning move each turn and gets a melee Counter that pushes the attacker away.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: The i Completi Bartender never attacks Agent 11, instead running away from them each round and triggering a random effect.
• Going by the Matchbook: One random event has Agent 11 find a matchbook at a crimescene, leading to a nearby bar (where you have a chance to either gain money or get into a Bar Brawl). The 'refuse' option gripes about how cliched and outdated the trope is.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: While Agent 11 and a few mooks and bosses use complicated moves, most enemies will stick to bog-standard brawling. That makes them no less dangerous, however.
• Goomba Springboard: Heavy enemies are treated as walls by moves such as Wall Kick, allowing Agent 11 to use them as a jumping surface while attacking.
• Gratuitous Ninja:
  • The entire point of the Jade Staff.
    Handler: I wasn't expecting to say this, but Berlin has a bit of a ninja problem.
    Agent 11: Don't we all?
  • Agent XI is accompanied by Sonic Ninja, a paramilitary-themed ninja.
• Groin Attack: Agent K has the attack card "Testekill" which does indeed show the dog biting at the targeted enemy's groin as a killing attack.
• Gun Fu: Weapon of Choice lets you engage in this with gusto, as drawing a gun still allows you to use any of your melee cards.
• Halloween Episode: The self-contained campaign of FRIGHTS In Tight Spaces sees Agent 11 take on a demonic cult that has kidnapped the British Ambassador to use as a Human Sacrifice. The chapter takes place inside a Haunted House filled with environmental traps and supernatural phenomena.
• Hand Cannon: Section 11 appears to prefer the Desert Eagle as its standard handgun, as it's used by Agent 11, their boss, And Agent XI's mooks.
• A Handful for an Eye: Pocket Sand is a weak attack which also applies a single stack of stun to the target. The card is especially strong because the stun is applied even if the target has a block, dodge, or armor which would negate other stun abilities.
• Hard Mode Perks:
  • The game uses a level system where your score for a run is used as experience for your profile, and gaining new levels unlocks more powerful cards. Higher difficulties have score multipliers which can increase your earned points by up to an extra 50% on Purist and Brutal. This means a player who starts on higher difficulties will more quickly unlock more powerful cards.
  • On the normal difficulties, the game gives you hand assistance: if the first four-out-of-five cards in your hand are not Movement cards, then for the fifth card the game forcibly draws a Movement card so that you're guaranteed to have one, resulting in e.g. a hand with 4 attacks and 1 movement. This is convenient for learning the ropes and making sure you're not flat-footed against ranged enemies. However, on Purist and Brutal mode, where this mechanic is absent, you may be able to have a hand with 5 attacks in it instead, thus allowing you to output even more damage if everything is set up right.
  • Brutal difficulty has the perk of increasing the timer on all side objectives, something not available on any other difficulty. This is balanced out by the fact that failing any side objective will cause a game over.
• Harder Than Hard: Brutal difficulty outright warns the player that it's unfairly hard. Failing any timed objective causes an instant game over, as does letting the British Ambassador die.
• Heavily Armored Mook: Certain enemies can simulate this trope by passively generating block to mitigate damage, and some mini-bosses will retain block they've built up between turns. The best way to eliminate these foes is by Ring Out.
• Hereditary Curse: The British Amassador's family is cursed and the Occultists believe sacrificing him will allow them to resurrect a demon lord.
• High-Altitude Battle: The final mission takes place aboard an in-flight plane, with Agent 11 parachuting onto its wing where he has his first fight with Agent XI.
• Hyperactive Metabolism: The Prison Chef has the ability to heal himself and all other enemy units by handing out and eating some food.
• Institutional Apparel: The Insiders are a prison gang, their mooks mainly wear jumpsuits, and appropriately their faction color is orange.
• Intimidation Demonstration: The Warning Shot card will make you fire off a shot into the air, causing the targeted enemy to be stunned. The Assassin Boss can also do it to you, but it causes you to take damage instead.
• Ironic Nickname: The leader of the Carlton Boys is "Baby Face" Carlton, whose description notes he "looks nothing like a baby."
• I Shall Taunt You: The "Taunt" card forces any enemy in the battle to use their attack immediately, likely hurting their friends. The "Get Over Here" card, meanwhile, compels an enemy to take two steps towards you, which can lure them into the attack zones of other goons or force an elusive enemy into the player's reach.
• It's Raining Men: Every character (except the ambassador) will spawn in by falling from the sky. The final mission of the vanilla campaign also has Agent 11 arrive onto the plane of the Final Boss by parachute.
• Jack of All Stats: Your starting deck is a balanced one that mixes offense and defense together.
• Keystone Army: On a boss mission at the end of an act, the second the boss dies, all the action stops, any remaining queued attacks are aborted, and the player instantly wins, no matter how many other enemies are surrounding them seemingly ready to beat them up. This even applies if the boss merely bled out passively. The final boss Agent XI is an exception as the objective for completion is to defeat all enemies in the room, not just the boss.
• Kung Fu-Proof Mook: Minibosses are often immune to being Downed, and there are Jade Staff and i Completi minibosses who are also immune to friendly attacks, making redirection less useful against them.
• Lawman Gone Bad: The Assassin Boss was a GIGN operative before she eventually switched sides and became a criminal.
• Life Drain: The Occultist boss periodically casts a spell which drains health from the Agent and Ambassador before healing every enemy in the room.
• The Mafia: The Section Eleven boss says that i Completi is a modern take on the Mafia structure and responsible for most of the crimes in the Mediterranean area. Their mission can have you fighting in spaces like suites, sun decks, and hotel rooms.
• Magical Ninjutsu: The Mystical Ninja and Ninja Master are the only enemies in the base game with abilities that appear supernatural in nature. The Mystical Ninja use a blast of chi to strike enemies while the Ninja Master teleports around the arena and can summon a clone.
• Marathon Boss: Downplayed. The final mission of each campaign is a series of combat rooms featuring a running fight with the main boss of the campaign alongside their henchmen through their headquarters. While there are no events, gyms, or med centers to break up the combat, ending a room still rewards cards and triggers any end of room bonuses from Enhancements.
• Might as Well Not Be in Prison at All: The Insiders seem to have full run of the prison, appearing everywhere from cells to secure areas like medical wards and kitchens. They've even equipped themselves with armor and shotguns stolen from the prison's armory.
• Mini-Boss:
  • Each gang has three lieutenants who have unique appearances, high HP, and gimmicks that make them tougher than regular henchmen. They typically appear one at a time during levels, but the iCompleti boss is accompanied by two Assassin lieutenants.
  • The final boss has two unique lieutenants who fight alongside him. Defeating one of the lieutenants during one phase of the fight permanently removes them from all subsequent phases.
• The Mole: The Informant is a member of an enemy gang who is secretly working with Section Eleven. When encountered, they will attack Agent 11 to maintain their cover and must be kept alive for a bonus.
• Mook Commander: Some enemies passively grant a buff to all other enemies while active, such as Chonk giving all enemies free Block and Gas Mask Assasssin making all enemies except himself immune to friendly fire.
• Never Bring a Gun to a Knife Fight: Some enemies come to the fight armed with guns, but in the tight confines and crowded melees of the game's arenas, Agent 11 can avoid giving them a clear shot, close the distance for a beat-down, or exploit their relatively high damage to take out other henchmen.
• Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: The Weapon of Choice DLC gives you the ability to use a gun. Nothing prevents you from simply gunning down the mostly-melee mooks, although the small size of the locations means that it's not a guaranteed win.
• No Sympathy Between Mooks: Set a Mook to Kill a Mook applies to all enemies, leading to cases where minions can wind up stabbing or shooting their own lieutenants or boss, just because they were shoved in front of the minions' path.
• Non-Lethal Warfare: The survival of the bosses to be imprisoned and several cards imply that Agent 11 doesn't actually kill any of the criminals; he just beats them unconscious.
• Once per Episode: In the "Weapons of Choice" campaign, each mission will feature two rooms where you fight a single Assassin mini-boss and a third room where you fight both mini-bosses at once.
• One-Hit Kill: The buzzsaw and spike floor traps in Frights do enough damage to instantly kill the player or any enemy standing on them.
• One-Hit Polykill: This is possible with any card that can hit multiple tiles at once, such as Piercing Shot which injures all enemies in a row. Knocking enemies into each other can also potentially cause this.
• Palette Swap: The Carlton Boys faction use the same models as the basic iCompleti enemies but with a blue shade instead of purple and some new weapon models. Their boss uses the a blue recolor of the iCompleti boss with a set of brass knuckles.
• Parrying Bullets: If the player's block is high enough, Agent 11 can block bullets and thrown knives by catching them on their bare forearm. That said, bullets do high enough damage that it's unlikely the player can fully block multiple attacks this way.
• The Pen Is Mightier: The British Ambassador carries a pen. He's normally too scared to use, but using the Taunt card will make him attack with it... for very little damage.
• Pistol-Whipping: Having your gun drawn doesn't alter the animations of the melee cards, possibly resulting in you hitting enemies with it. The assassins also use this, as the Boss and upgraded Gas Masker will strike with their guns as a melee counter.
• Power Fist:
  • Brass Knuckle is a special card which adds extra bleeding damage for each attack done that round, which is especially effective with decks focused on multi-hits.
  • The Carlton Boys boss uses a set of brass knuckles with give him a large cleave attack that deals massive damage while also applying bleed.
• Power-Up Food: The Treats card is a jar of doggy treats which both heal Agent K and give them a temporary attack bonus for the round.
• Prison: The second mission has you infiltrating a correctional facility to dismantle a powerful prison gang.
• Protection Mission: Sometimes, there is a friendly target that you have to protect with free healing as a reward. The British Ambassador is an immobile character who will be targeted by the enemies if he is easier to reach. The Informant is a member of the enemy group who will attack the player to maintain their cover. Both can be moved around with cards such a Grapple, but only the Ambassador is immune to friendly fire.
• Punched Across the Room: Attacks that cause knockback will occasionally have that effect upon killing an enemy, causing them to fly ridiculous distances.
• Purely Aesthetic Gender: You can choose one of three characters to represent Agent 11, and the game remains the same either way.
• Pushy Mooks: Inevitable, with the game's emphasis on careful positioning. The Biker attacks with an advancing kick, the Bouncer has a shove that can auto-trigger on Agent 11's turn, and the Mystical Ninja has a ranged shove.
• Railing Kill: Some level edges are guarded by railings, making it impossible to tackle or suplex enemies off the edge, but any other push attack will push them over the railing to their doom, in classical fashion. The player can even use a basic sideways shove to flip them over and out.
• A Rare Sentence: Even Agent 11's boss is surprised to have to tell you that Berlin has a ninja problem.
• Reaction-Seeking Feint: Can be invoked with the Near Miss card, which will prompt the first enemy in your line of fire to dodge, allowing the bullet to actually hit whoever's behind them.
• Recurring Boss: The Assassin lieutenants will constantly reappear in the DLC campagin, getting stronger with each time. Agent 11 will eventually start making fun of them for being so persistent.
• Renegade Splinter Faction: The Carlton Boys are an offshoot of the i Completi who remained in the organized crime business but act as guns for hire rather than controlling territory. While separated, the factions do still view each other as family to a degree and work together against Agent 11.
• Ring Out: If someone gets pushed out of the level, they're done. Makes sense when you're throwing them off prison walkways or onto subway tracks. Makes a bit less sense when you shove someone out of a public restroom and they pass out rather than just coming back in again.
• Samurai Shinobi: The Jade Staff faction's enemies are all labelled as some flavor of Ninja, but the Armored Ninja, Armored Swordsman, and Jade Staff Boss take more design cues from samurai than from ninja. All of them are opportunistic assassins, though.
• Self-Duplication: The Ninja Master can summon a weaker clone of herself to attack Agent 11.
• Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: Your enemies are capable of hurting each other with both regular attacks and counters. With clever planning, you can win a battle while throwing only a few of your own blows. Cards that reposition you and/or your enemies like Dodge, Redirect, Grapple, Push and Shove are particularly useful for it, especially when upgraded (since an upgraded Grapple or Redirect costs no momentum to use).
• Shield-Bearing Mook: A couple of enemies have the special property that they can't be damaged from the front - necessitating that the player move around them and attack from the sides or rear, or throw them onto the floor instead.
• Short-Range Shotgun:
  • Played straight with the Shotgun Biker miniboss and Gentleman enemies who dual-wield sawn-off shotguns. Their blast is a cone with only a single tile of range, allowing Agent 11 to avoid damage by standing just two tiles away.
  • Averted with the Shotgun Prisoner enemies. Their riot shotguns appear to fire a solid slug or beanbag which has unlimited range and zero spread.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Discombobulate card, consisting of a double clap to the ears, is a clear reference to the pit-fighting scene of Sherlock Holmes (2009). It even grants you a rewind when used, alluding to Sherlock's Awesomeness by Analysis.
  • The Spartan Kick card is based on the memetic "THIS IS SPARTA!" scene from 300, with its card depicting Agent 11 kicking a mook down a well.
  • The Pocket Sand card is a reference to Dale from King of the Hill, who called this attack while throwing sand in his target's face.
• Simultaneous Warning and Action: Can be done by the player by using the Warning Shot card before (or even after) immediately ventilating them with gunfire. The Assassin Boss, meanwhile, uses this attack only after spending several turns trying to gun you down.
• Situational Damage Attack: Certain moves can deal lots of damage, but require specific circumstances in order to use. For example, Head Smash requires your target to be next to a wall or an object, and Wall Jump Punch requires you to be between a wall and your target.
• The Spiny: The Jade Staff boss wears a set of armor adorned with spikes which actually serve a functional purpose, damaging Agent 11 any time the boss takes damage.
• Splash of Color: The game environment is entirely colorless and has only minimal texturing, while the silhouettes of characters are a bright, solid color, save for some selective detailing in white (like the undershirt of Agent 11's nice suit). A character getting hit will also produce bright red blood.
• Stout Strength: The Chonk, Prison Enforcer, and Ninja Enforcer lieutenants are both notably overweight and formidable opponents.
• Tattooed Crook: The Insiders have the Brawler and the Tattoo Guy, with the former even having a facial tattoo of a skull.
• Teleportation: The Ninja Master has the unique property of teleporting every time she moves to any point on the map.
• Three-Strike Combo: One attack is three punches delivered in quick succession, and another delivers two punches and a kick. Also, most decks start with three Momentum per turn, and pretty much all the attack cards in the Balanced starter use only one Momentum, so you can chain, say, Quick Strike, Quick Kick/Front Kick and Long Strike/Hammerfist into a three-hit sequence that also pushes the enemy away.
• Throw-Away Guns: The Empty Magazine card will cause the Agent to throw their gun to the floor after spending all the ammo in it. Nothing prevents you from immediately drawing another gun afterwards.
• Throwing Your Gun at the Enemy: The Throw Gun card. As its damage depends on how much Combo you have accumulated, it's possible for throwing the gun to be more dangerous than shooting it.
• Time Rewind Mechanic: Depending on the difficulty, you get a number of rewinds per each fight, allowing you to go back to the start of the current turn. The Discombobulate card will also grant you an extra rewind.
• Timed Mission: The Deadly Deal enhancement turns every room into a timed mission as each turn Agent 11 will suffer 3 points of damage. The player must end the mission before the ticking damage kills them. Completing a mission will restore their health to full for the next round.
• Tranquillizer Dart: Agent 11's Stun Dart is a ranged attack which deals decent damage and stuns the target for one round.
• Unexplained Recovery: All of the bosses will survive fighting you to be jailed, even if you threw them off a roof. It gets particularly noticeable with the Assassins, who keep coming back for another fight.
• Unfriendly Fire: Although informants are forced to attack you to keep their cover intact, you can exploit the Deadly Dodging mechanics in order to allow them to attack their "buddies".
• Use Your Head: The Tattoo Guy and the Insiders boss rely on headbutts, the latter's being described as "A brutal knocking of heads". The player can also get in on the action with the Headbutt card, which deals combo-dependent damage and stuns the target if they lose health from it.
• Video Game Caring Potential: Agent K is powerful in a fight, but also a rather adorable dog with special Pet and Treats cards that shows the two Agents are quite fond of each other. Protecting Agent K from taking hits is not only good gameplay but also necessary to avoid seeing a poor dog get kicked around by your enemies.
• Villain Team-Up: The premise of Endless Mode and the Daily Runs is that Agent 11 has angered the enemy gangs enough that they're all working together against Section XI.
• Wall Run: Downplayed with the Wall Kick card, where Agent 11 briefly runs along a wall in order to land a flying kick on a target.
• We Need a Distraction: The i Completi will pull this on you, as their bartenders will weaken you with distracting bartending tricks. You can also use the Distraction enhancement, which reduces damage received.
• Where It All Began: The K-9 Division campaign starts with Agent 11 beating up thugs in a bar before chasing the Carlton Boys around the world. The final mission opens with the Handler revealing their boss had been in the backroom of the bar all along and has spent the extra time preparing for the Section Eleven's attack.
• A Winner Is You: Complete the final mission, and you're treated to a scene where the leaders of the organizations you've felled are in prison, while the Section Eleven boss congratulates you on your work.
• With My Hands Tied: The boss of the Insiders fights with his hands chained in front. It doesn't really restrain him, as he relies solely on headbutts.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Among the various throw cards you have the Suplex (a German Suplex, to be specific) and the Chokeslam. The Grappler deck specializes in this, starting with a collection of Throw cards, and completing a run rewards the "Wrestler" achievement.