Good evening. The good old Rexler seems to be finally back on track and seeing use on the mats.

As of late a question was popping up among my local group: when does rexler's ability kicks in? Does it need damage cards already dealt from a previous attack?

My assumption is that it works as it did in the past version

Attack > defense > deal damage resolving any hit/crit > focus expenditure and bam.

Pretty much it's supposed to work in the same way with the differences that it doesn't need any token expenditure and Rexler must have an evade token.

So: attack > defense > deal and resolve hit and crits > rexler's ability.

Correct?

The question comes down to when he activates. I'm honestly not sure which one is correct, but it seems like there are two possibilities:

1. Is it after the attack is considered to be a hit? In that case, it would be immediately after the "Compare Results" step, before damage was dealt... which means you'd need to have some prior damage in place on the ship.
2. Or, is it after the full process of an attack that did hit? Here, Rexler gets to punch his shot through, THEN you get to flip one of their damage cards (including any that were freshly dealt, and pre-existing conditions).

It is after the attack, but it only works if the attack hit.

yup, it's after you perform an attack that hits, as stated on the card. so you need to perform the attack before the effect kicks in, so damage is dealt before you get to expose a card.

There is a 2e sequence. Can't exactly call it a flow chart, since it's just presented as a list on pp. 4-5 of the Rules Reference , but it does locate when things happen.

1. Declare Target
2. Attack Dice
3. Defense Dice
4. Neutralize Results
5. Deal Damage
6. Aftermath
   1. Defender resolves "after defending" triggers which are not bonus attacks
   2. Attacker resolves "after attacking" triggers which are not bonus attacks - Rexler Brath's ability happens here
   3. Defender resolves bonus attacks
   4. Attacker resolves bonus attacks

Thanks guys!