Link Rating

A LINK Rating (Japanese: の Rinku no Sūjibun), often referred to as simply Link (Japanese: Rinku), is a property exclusive to Link Monsters, in place of a Level or a Rank. The original Link Number of a Link Monster Card is located next to its ATK, in the space normally taken up by the DEF on other Monster Card types.

A Link Monster's Link Number is equal to the number of Link Arrows it has, and is also the number of Link Materials that must be sent from the field to the Graveyard to Link Summon it. If a Link Monster is used as a Link Material, it can either be optionally treated as either a single Link Material or a number of Link Materials equal to its Link Number. Link Monsters with a Link Number of 3 or higher all require a variable number of Link Materials, with a minimum of 2.

As Link Monsters do not have Levels or Ranks, they cannot be used for Ritual, Synchro, or Xyz Summons; and any effects that would refer to the Level or Rank of a monster, such as those of "Gravity Bind", "Level Limit - Area B" and "Planckton", do not affect Link Monsters. Since Link Monsters do not have Levels, cards such as "Star Changer", "Scanner" and "Yellow-Bellied Oni" do not affect them at all. Cards that modify Levels or Ranks such as "Harmonic Waves", "Feedback Warrior", and "Xiangsheng Magician" also do not affect Link Monsters.

It appears that a Link Monster's LINK Rating has the same role of gauging the maximum original ATK it can have as with Levels and Ranks. So far, the limits are:
 * 1000 ATK for Link 1 monsters
 * 2000 ATK for Link 2 monsters
 * 2600 ATK for Link 3 monsters
 * 3000 ATK for Link 4 monsters