Level

A Monster Card's Level is a rough indication a card's power ranking, represented by a number of stars in the top-right. The term Level is sometimes informally called Stars, and even appears in some card errors. The highest Level a monster can have is 12, and the minimum is one. A Monster Card cannot be treated as Level 0, even with an effect, the minimum will always be Level 1. An exception to the minimum level of 1 rule is located in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's World Championship 2010 Reverse of Arcadia in which the game can possibly display a level of 0 under certain conditions.

Monster cards from Level 1 to Level 4 may be Normal Summoned from the Hand with no cost or restriction (unless the card itself has a restriction against it in its effects). Level 4 monsters are the strongest monsters that may be summoned from the hand in this way, and are thus the most commonly used monsters. Levels 5 and 6 monsters are stronger but either require a Tribute to be Normal Summoned or have a Special Summoning condition, and Level 7 and higher monsters require two Tributes to be Normal Summoned, assuming they may be Normal Summoned at all. Level 9 and higher monsters are relatively rare, and usually are stored in the Extra Deck rather than the Main Deck, though there are noteworthy exceptions, such as "[Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon]]", "Machina Fortress", or any of the "Earthbound Immortals".

A common rule is that Level 3 and lower monsters generally have less than 1700 ATK, Level 4 monsters have less than 2000 ATK, Level 5 and 6 monsters have less than 2500 ATK, Level 7 and Level 8 monsters have less than 3000 ATK, Level 9, Level 10's have less than 4000 ATK and Level 11 to 12 have less than 5000 ATK. Usually monsters that break this rule have penalties or special conditions, although this trend is broken by a few cards.

Level 7 and 8 monsters are generally considered the most powerful monsters that may be reliably summoned and are usually the trump cards for whatever deck uses them. Anything higher often has extraordinary, overpowering effects or sheer ATK value, but they are also usually restricted in some other way, such as not being able to be re-summoned from the Graveyard, or stringent summoning conditions, like the "Sacred Beasts". A few even have paralyzing weaknesses to balance out their power, such as the "Earthbound Immortals", who all have a common effect of destroying themselves if there is no Field Spell Card on the field.

Due to the higher requirements involved in summoning them, higher-level monsters are typically not as numerous as lower-Level monsters in a player's Deck, assuming the Deck is properly balanced. It's also important to note that although a monster's level usually corresponds to its combat effectiveness, sometimes properly-supported low-level monsters can be far more effective. For example, "Copycat" and "Relinquished" base their ATK upon the opponent's monster, and "King of the Skull Servants" can have an enormous ATK in the right deck.

The level of a monster is also necessary in the summoning of both Ritual and Synchro monsters. Ritual monsters require tributing monsters whose combined levels are equal to or greater than the level or the Ritual Monster you are attempting to Ritual Summon. Synchro Monsters require both the tuner monster and the Synchro material monster(s) levels to be exactly equal to the Synchro Monster's.

Example:

There are also monsters with Negative Levels.


 * See also Summoning Rules.