In this post, I will explain everything you need to know about the Card Integration system in In Falsus. While the rhythm gameplay teaches you how to hit notes and improve your accuracy, Card Integration is where you actually build the Cards that determine your Power and Defense during Encounters.
The system can look confusing at first. You clear Encounters to earn Iota, place those hexagonal pieces onto a Blueprint, deal with placement restrictions and penalties, assign Traits, and then turn the finished setup into a playable Card.
I found that the most important thing to understand is that simply throwing your strongest Iota onto the grid does not always create the best Card. Your Potency average, colored Zones, placement penalties, and Blueprint rules can all dramatically change the final result.
Below, I will go through how Card Integration works, how to unlock Cards, what Iota do, how Blueprints work, every placement penalty you need to avoid, the damage formula, color advantages, Traits, and the different character Blueprints available in In Falsus.
In Falsus Cards & Integration Guide – Iota, Penalties
Card Integration is the main crafting mechanic used to create and improve playable Cards in In Falsus.
You collect hexagonal Iota pieces from cleared Encounters and place them onto character-specific Blueprint grids. The pieces you choose can provide different colors, shapes, tiers, Potency values, and sometimes bonus Traits.
Once your layout is complete, you can finalize the Card. Its Power and Defense are affected by the Zones you filled, your average Potency, and any placement penalties you received.
These finished Cards are then used in your Encounter loadout, where your rhythm performance turns their stats into actual combat damage.
How Card Integration Works
The entire system can be broken down into four main steps.
1. Farm Iota Pieces
You earn Iota by winning Encounters through Dive Clears.
Every piece can have its own Color, Shape, Tier, Potency, and Traits. These differences matter because not every Iota will fit every Blueprint or work equally well with every character.
2. Place Iota on a Blueprint
Next, you place your Iota pieces onto the Blueprint’s hex grid.
Your goal is to cover valuable colored Zones that provide base Power, Defense, and Trait Slots while avoiding placement penalties.
This is where planning becomes important. A layout that looks full is not necessarily good if it creates Overload, Overlap, or other penalties.
3. Assign Traits
Some Iota carry bonus Traits.
If your Blueprint has open Trait Slots, you can assign those Traits to the finished Card. These effects can provide healing, opening damage, Power multipliers, Defense multipliers, and other combat bonuses.
4. Build Your 5-Card Loadout
After crafting Cards, you can link up to five Cards into your loadout before entering an Encounter.
Your Card stats combine into your overall Power and Defense, allowing your rhythm notes to damage the opponent’s Resolve while your Defense helps keep your own Resolve alive.
How to Unlock More Cards
Cards are unlocked by progressing through the Scenario, similar to how songs become available.
The full game lists 50 Cards in total, while the earlier demo version included Nia: Path to Reality and Mei: 4AM, along with the Card Integration system used to create additional Card setups.
The Integration panel can show locked entries, making it clear that the Card roster expands as you continue progressing through the Scenario.
This is also why some returning players may be confused about how Cards work. Older demo builds existed before Card Integration became part of the current system and simply granted Cards differently.
In the current progression system, Scenario advancement is what opens access to more of the roster.
Remembrance Explained
Remembrance is a term shown on the Encounter screen that identifies where a particular Dive sits within the story.
On the loadout screen, it appears beneath the Dive name alongside the Difficulty Rating. It is displayed as a number together with an in-fiction calendar date.
For example, the Ghost Ray encounter “Unclear Dive” shows:
Remembrance 1 | 10276/8/27
The date format matches the Scenario timeline shown in the hub menu. Chapter 1, “The First Lie,” is also presented using the same in-fiction calendar system.
Based on how it appears throughout the game, a Remembrance effectively connects an Encounter to a particular moment in the Scenario timeline and story calendar.
The demo itself does not provide a deeper written definition of the term beyond its use on the Encounter screen.
Iota Basics
Iota are the raw materials used to create every Card.
They are hexagonal pieces earned from cleared Encounters, and every piece can be defined by five important attributes.
Color
Iota can come in Red, Green, Purple, Yellow, or Blue.
The Color determines which Blueprint Zones the piece can empower and also connects to the game’s color advantage cycle.
Shape
Every Iota has its own footprint on the hex grid.
The important thing to remember is that pieces cannot be rotated or flipped. If the shape does not fit your layout in its original position, you need to work around it.
Tier
Tier represents the grade of the Iota.
Higher Tier pieces are stronger, but your character’s Infusion skill determines which Iota tiers you are actually able to use for each color.
Potency
Every Iota has a Potency value.
Your finished Card uses your average Potency to calculate its Potency Multiplier, which means weak filler pieces can reduce the effectiveness of the entire build.
Traits
Some Iota also carry optional bonus Traits.
These can provide effects such as healing, damage surges, and stat multipliers. However, a Trait needs an available Trait Slot on the Blueprint before it can become active.
Blueprint Anatomy
A Blueprint is the hexagonal grid where you build your Card.
There are three important types of tiles you need to understand before placing your Iota.
Colored Zones
Colored Zones are the most valuable parts of the Blueprint.
Covering them generates your base Power, Defense, and Trait Slots. The total value of the filled Zones becomes the foundation for your finished Card’s stats.
Because of this, I usually recommend prioritizing these Zones before trying to fill empty parts of the grid.
Blank Tiles
Blank tiles are safe to use, but they do not provide additional stats.
They can still be useful when you need to connect parts of your layout or when an Iota shape cannot fit directly onto a more valuable Zone.
Dark Tiles
Dark tiles are the dangerous part of the grid.
Layouts that depend on them can run into the Falsehood penalty, and a Card that touches no safe tile at all receives this penalty without limit.
You should always pay attention to which tiles your Iota are actually connecting with before finalizing the build.
Card Integration Walkthrough
Here is how the full craft-to-combat process works.
1. Place Iota Into the Blueprint Grid
The first step is placing your Iota pieces onto the hex grid.
Each piece covers the tiles underneath its shape. The covered Zones contribute toward your base stats.
For example, a layout using 2 of 6 available Iota on Nia: Path to Reality can create:
- Base Power: 1,000
- Base Defense: 400
- Average Potency: 110
- Potency Multiplier: ×1.10
- Penalties: 0
With no penalties, the layout keeps 100% of its stats.
This is a good example of why a clean setup can be better than simply forcing more pieces onto the Blueprint.
2. Assign Traits and Finalize the Card
Once your Iota layout is complete, you can move to the Finalize Card screen.
Iota carrying Traits can fill the available Trait Slots on the Card.
For example, Inner Concentration++ can provide:
Total POW +66% during the Card’s Phase
After selecting your Traits, you can use the Integrate option to lock in the Card.
3. Obtain Your Finished Card
After Integration, the game calculates the final Power and Defense values.
A finished Nia: Path to Reality setup can come out with values such as:
- 2,420 Power
- 807 Defense
Those numbers are determined by the filled Zones, Potency Multiplier, and penalty reduction.
A clean build with zero penalties keeps the full value of the stats it produces.
4. Build a 5-Card Loadout
Before entering a Dive, you can link up to five Cards into your loadout.
Your total Power and Defense update as you choose your Cards.
There is one important restriction: you cannot use two Cards from the same Blueprint in the same loadout.
This means you need to plan your five slots around different Blueprints rather than simply crafting multiple versions of the same Card.
5. Connect During an Encounter
Once the Encounter begins, your loadout faces the opponent across the rhythm chart.
Your Total Power determines how effectively your successful notes damage the opponent’s Resolve, while your Defense helps protect your own Resolve.
Keep landing your notes, survive the Encounter, and reduce the opponent’s Resolve to successfully Connect.
Clearing Encounters is also what gives you more opportunities to earn Iota and continue improving your Cards.
Placement Rules
There are several hard rules controlling how Iota can be placed on a Blueprint.
Breaking these rules can result in penalties, so it is worth checking your layout carefully before integrating.
Iota Limit
Every Blueprint has an Iota Limit.
This controls how many pieces you are allowed to place. Going beyond the allowed number triggers the Overload penalty.
No Rotation or Flipping
Iota must be placed exactly as they are.
You cannot rotate or flip their shapes, so you need to build around the pieces you actually own.
Sometimes the strongest-looking piece simply will not fit your current layout, and forcing it can create more problems than benefits.
Maximum Three Iota Per Tile
You can stack up to three Iota on the same tile.
Placing a fourth piece over that tile triggers the Overlap penalty.
Power and Defense Must Stay Above Zero
A finished Card must have both Power and Defense above 0.
If either stat reaches zero, the Card is not a valid craft.
The Five Placement Penalties
Penalties reduce the final value of your Card’s stats.
This is one of the most important systems to understand because even a powerful Iota setup can become nearly worthless if you accumulate too many penalties.
Overload
Overload happens when you place more Iota than the Blueprint’s Iota Limit allows.
Out of Bounds
Out of Bounds happens when part of an Iota extends beyond the edge of the Blueprint grid.
Overlap
Overlap happens when more than three Iota are stacked on the same tile.
Disconnect
Disconnect occurs when parts of your layout lose their connection to the grid’s safe tiles.
Falsehood
Falsehood occurs when a Card touches no safe tile at all.
Unlike the other penalties, this one has no limit or floor. A layout that completely fails this requirement can be punished without limit.
Penalty Scaling
Here is how many stats your Card keeps depending on the number of penalties.
| Penalties | Stats Kept |
|---|---|
| 0 | 100% |
| 1 | 89% |
| 2 | 56% |
| 3 or more | 0% |
This is why avoiding penalties should usually be your first priority.
One penalty already reduces your Card, while two penalties remove almost half of its potential value. At three or more penalties, the Card keeps 0% of its stats, regardless of how good the Iota inside it may be.
The Card Damage Formula
Every crafted Card uses the same basic calculation for its Power and Defense.
STATS = (SUM OF FILLED ZONES) × POTENCY MULTIPLIER × PENALTY REDUCTION
The Potency Multiplier is calculated as:
POTENCY MULTIPLIER = AVERAGE POTENCY ÷ 100
There are three major things I would focus on when building a Card.
First, try to keep your penalties at zero. One mistake reduces your stats to 89%, while two penalties drop them to 56%.
Second, protect your average Potency. A low-Potency filler piece can drag down the output of the entire Card.
Finally, fill as many valuable colored Zones as possible without breaking the placement rules or damaging your Potency average.
During Encounters, your Total Power divided by the total number of notes determines your damage per note.
Difficulty also affects the reward scaling through:
Difficulty Multiplier = 1.00 + Level × 0.05
Color Advantage Cycle
The five colors follow a one-directional advantage cycle.
Red ⇒ Green ⇒ Purple ⇒ Yellow ⇒ Blue ⇒ Red
This advantage provides ×1.25 damage.
That means:
- Red beats Green
- Green beats Purple
- Purple beats Yellow
- Yellow beats Blue
- Blue beats Red
The advantage only works in that direction.
Attacking against the cycle does not provide the bonus, so check the Encounter’s color before locking in your loadout.
On close Encounters, the ×1.25 damage advantage can make a meaningful difference.
Example Traits
Traits are bonus effects carried by individual Iota.
Here are examples of some of their strongest ++ variants.
| Trait | Effect |
|---|---|
| Opening Recovery++ | Heals 11% of Resolve at the start of the Encounter. |
| Opening Surge++ | Deals opening damage equal to 0.11 × Total Power. |
| Inner Concentration++ | Multiplies the Card’s Power by ×1.66. |
| Inner Rigor++ | Multiplies the Card’s Defense by ×1.66. |
Traits can have a major impact on how a Card performs, but you need available Trait Slots on the Blueprint to make use of them.
Character Blueprints
Each of the five leads has a named Blueprint associated with a signature color.
Remember that a loadout cannot contain two Cards from the same Blueprint.
| Character | Blueprint | Color |
|---|---|---|
| Nia | Path to Reality | Red |
| Mei | 4AM | Blue |
| Ayame | A Warm Gaze Seeking Others | Green |
| Iris | Lost Garden of Bonds | Yellow |
| Story | First Drop of Abyss | Purple |
This gives you access to all five colors across different Blueprint types when building a full loadout.
Infusion and Core Skills
A character’s Infusion skill determines which Iota tiers you can use for each color.
Higher Infusion allows access to higher usable Iota tiers, making character progression important for improving your Card builds.
Characters also have Core Skills, which provide tolerances that can soften some placement restrictions.
This can allow certain layouts to work more comfortably than they otherwise would.
Because of this, I recommend paying attention to the type of Iota you are actually farming. Leveling a character whose Blueprint color matches the Iota you regularly collect can make your inventory much easier to use.
Card Integration can initially feel like a separate game sitting beside the rhythm mechanics, but the two systems are closely connected.
Your accuracy determines how effectively you perform during the chart, while your Cards provide the Power and Defense that turn those successful notes into Encounter damage and survival.
When building Cards, I would focus on the basics first: fill valuable colored Zones, keep penalties at zero, protect your average Potency, and avoid wasting pieces simply to fill every available tile.
Once you understand those rules, you can start experimenting with Traits, color advantages, Infusion levels, and different Blueprint layouts to create stronger five-Card loadouts.
The biggest mistake you can make is looking only at how many Iota you managed to place. A clean layout with strong Potency and no penalties can be far more valuable than a crowded Blueprint that loses half of its stats before the Encounter even begins.