8 Bit Attack

8 Bit Attack Rulebook

Table of Contents

Introduction

8-Bit Attack is a cooperative game where players work together as a team. Either you share victory together, or you are all defeated together. Although 8-Bit Attack is normally a 2-5 player game, you can play it solo if you control two heroes at the same time, which is not difficult.

In the core game you face off against a mix of different enemies: Lovecraftian outer gods, aliens, myths, and demons. Expansions each focus on one of these enemy types. With more of these, you can add more fun and variety to your assaults.

How to Win

8-Bit Attack is played over five turns. Each turn you face an assault, then take your rewards and upgrade your hero. On turn five (or earlier, if you're amazing!), you fight the final lord. If you defeat him, you win! Give each other a hand of applause, or buy each other a drink, or something equally appropriate.

If you do not defeat the final lord on (or before) turn five, you lose, and the final lord conquers the world. He forecloses the mortgages on all your castles, cancels your pensions, and all the heroes spend the rest of their days on the streets, eating discarded fast food out of dumpsters. Don't let this happen.

Zelda's Tip: Hi! I'm Zelda. I'm here to help. Here's my first tip: you may not win the first time you play 8-Bit Attack. Practice makes perfect, though, and soon you'll be walloping that boss like a pro.

Components

1 tactics die
15 battle dice
128 Hit Tokens
20 timer tokens
20 hero sheets (Alien, Cultist, Demon, Myth)
20 champion cards
20 energy tokens
10 medals
80 minion cards (Demon, Myth, Cultist, Alien)
50 rune tokens
1 final lord standee
1 final lord assault card (one per final lord)
48 buff and debuff cards (6 of each)
1 game turn tracker
5 hint cards (Game Sequence)
7 assault cards (level 1 to 7)
15 potion tokens (health, energy, revive)

How to Set Up a Game

Shuffle each of the enemy decks (alien, cultist, demon, myth), plus the champion deck individually and place them face down on one side of the table. The decks have different back sides, so they are easy to tell apart.
Choose a final lord. You can do this either randomly or by consulting with each other and decide to use a final lord that you like, or one you haven't seen before. Place it by the other assault decks—you'll be visiting him before the game is through!
Place the final lord's standee on Turn 1 of the game turn track. He'll be marching down the track, hoping to ruin your days. When he's on Turn 5, you fight him.
Each player picks a hero. Again, you can do this randomly by shuffling the pile of hero cards and drawing one, or simply choose a favorite. The game's owner must resolve any disputes in this case (with great power comes great responsibility). Place your hero's hero sheet in front of you. Place its ascended side (the side without the locks) face down—you'll flip it face up when your hero ascends by spending 2 medals.
Each player should collect a number of hit point tokens equal to their hero's HP value. Place these on your hero's sheet as you take damage.
For Easy difficulty, players start with all 3 potion types. For Medium difficulty, players take just a health potion. For Hard, start without any potions.
Each player needs at least 2 battle dice. Of course, you can share, but our experience is that most people want their own.

Game Elements

Abilities – Every hero has cool abilities, printed on his or her sheet. Heroes start with two and gain one more when they ascend. These cost energy to use.

Allies – Allies are enemies from the alien, cultist, demon, or mythic deck, but from a deck that the assault's boss DOESN'T belong to. If you only own (or only want to use) one of the enemy decks, then your allies will be drawn from the same deck as the minions. This is no big deal.

Ascend/Ascension – Your hero can rise to greater heights, gaining even more amazing power. This costs 2 medals, and lets you flip his card over to the ascended side. You keep your runes though, so replace them on the flipped card.

Assault cards – The individual enemy onslaughts you must defeat to earn rewards and work your way to the final lord. They come in seven different levels of difficulty (with level 1 being the easiest). Each assault tells you the hit points of the champion you choose as boss and which minions are helping that champion.

Boss – The "boss" of an assault is a champion, selected for that purpose. Each assault has one boss, plus other minions, which are described on the assault card.

Champion cards – Some enemies are extra powerful and are called champions. The champion decks are where you draw your boss from. Champions also belong to one of the four categories (Aliens, Cultists, Demons, Myths), and this is stated on their card. However, their membership in a category only matters when they are the boss of an assault.

Enemies – The lords don't work alone—each has goons assisting them. These are drawn randomly as cards from the enemy decks. They are subdivided into Alien, Cultist, Demon, Myth, and champion decks. In addition, they can be further categorized as minions and allies, depending on the boss of the chosen assault.

Dice – The game includes two types of dice—battle dice and the enemy tactics die. The tactics die is rolled each turn to determine which tactic the enemy applies. The battle dice are rolled by heroes to inflict harm on their enemies.

Fast defense – This represents heavy armor, thick skin, or other resistance to injury. This character may not be able to dish it out, but he sure can take it.

Fast hit – This represents a quick jab or swing that's hard to avoid. But because of the speed of the attack, it is necessarily a weaker strike, and may not be able to get past armor plate (i.e. fast defense).

Final lord cards – The ultimate bad guy who opposes everything you hold dear. Each game can have a different final lord (at least until you have defeated all of them and want to start over). You can choose randomly or just pick one you think would be fun.

Game turn track – Keeps track of how many turns the game has left. If you don't beat the final lord by the end of turn five, you lose. This means your battle vs. the boss is almost always turn 5, though if you're feeling really tough you could fight him earlier. If on turn 5 you're not ready to fight the boss, toss in the towel. You've lost.

Health and/or hit points – The vitality of a hero or an enemy. When reduced to zero, that enemy is eliminated from the fight, though a hero can return with a Revive potion.

Hero sheets – This has all the information you need to keep track of your hero's abilities, advancement, and energy tokens. You'll physically place runes, potions, and rewards on top of the sheet, or at least nearby it.

Medals – The world has reached a highly advanced economic state in which no one ever actually spends their wealth. Instead of gold, people just accumulate medals to show their fortitude. Spend medals to upgrade your hero. It costs 1 for 3 potions, 1 for a rune, and 2 to ascend a hero.

Minions – Minions are enemies from the alien, cultist, demon, or mythic decks—basically whichever deck the assault's boss belongs to.

Potions – Magical one-use drinks (on cards) that give you awesome…stuff. Buy 'em. Use 'em. A single medal earns 3 of them, one of each type (heal, energy, revive). You can only carry 1 potion of each type, but if you buy potions, you can give excess ones to another player before the fighting starts.

Runes – Little cardboard tiles that are placed right on your hero's card and add permanent stat bonuses to your hero. They're cool. Try to get them. They cost 1 medal each.

Slow defense – This represents a target who is agile and difficult to hit. Perhaps it is good at dodging.

Slow hit – This represents a slow, but powerful attack. It might have a long wind-up time, or you might have to telegraph where you're aiming. If the enemy can dance out of the way, you'll miss, which is what slow defense represents.

Tactics – Special powers for the monsters, printed on their cards. These don't require energy, just the correct roll on the tactics die.

How to Play

8-Bit Attack has a clear sequence of play on each turn.

Choose assault; draw enemy cards
Reset heroes
Assign heroes
Battle sequence a. Roll enemy tactics die b. Heroes attack c. Enemies strike back d. Remove timer tokens
Battle end check
Loot!
Advance game turn

Zelda's Tip: Don't panic. I know it looks like a lot of steps, but really, they are lightning quick and simple to work through.

Step One – Choose Assault

There are 7 assault cards, one per level. Plus, of course, the final boss card, which works a little like an assault. During the Choose Assault step, the players discuss what level of difficulty they wish to face. The assaults each give your team 1 medal per level. Thus, beating a level 1 assault just nets your team one single medal. But beating a level 7 means your team can divvy up 7 medals amongst you.

Of course, you can choose any assault level; the level you should choose depends on the number of players (more heroes can handle a tougher assault), and on your own experience (veteran players can take on challenges). If you have 2-3 players, we recommend starting with a level 1 assault. With 4-5 players, start with Level 2-3. Then, depending on how tough you felt that battle was, you can choose your next assault. Remember two things. First, you will be tougher next assault, because you will have used the medal(s) earned to boost your heroes. Second, you'll face four assaults before the final lord. You need at least 5 medals per hero to reach your full capacity of 3 runes and an ascension, plus probably 1 or 2 medals more for potions along the way. So let that also guide you.

When you choose an assault level, take and set up that assault's card. This is done in three stages:

Draw a random champion. This champion card now becomes the boss for the current assault. Place the assault card so it covers the boss's hit point score—the assault card now becomes that boss's actual hit points, since he is now a mighty boss instead of an anonymous champion. For some assaults, this might actually be lower than the champion's original hit points. Too bad for him.
Next, draw the enemies listed on the card. a. A minion is an enemy from the same category as the assault's boss. You can tell a champion's category by the matching borders and frames as minions of the same category. For example, in a level 1 assault led by a Venge boss, you would draw 2 cards from the alien deck to serve as the opponents on this assault, because the Venge bears the alien border and frame. b. An ally is an enemy from a DIFFERENT category than the boss. For example, in a level 2 assault with a Venge as boss (with 2 minions and 1 ally), you would draw 2 cards from the alien deck as minions, then draw 1 card from any other deck (cultist, demon, myth) to serve as the ally. c. A champion is, of course, a card drawn from the champions deck. For example, in a level 6 assault against a Venge boss, he'd have 5 minions and 2 champions. So in this case you would draw 5 cards from the alien deck as minions, then 2 cards from the champion deck. In this case, unlike the boss, all champion helpers have their normal hit points.

Final Lord. To face the final lord, instead of choosing an assault you can choose to fight the Final Lord! The final lord acts as his own boss—you don't need to draw another "boss." However, you do need to draw one champion per player to accompany the final lord (this is stated on the card). The final lord always has 25 hit points PER PLAYER! So in a four-player game, the final boss has 100 hit points. In a two-player game, he only has 50.

Zelda's Tip: If you have 2-3 players or you are new to the game, choose a level 1 assault for your first challenge. Depending on how easily you defeated that assault, move up 1-3 levels for your next assault, and keep doing so until you're ready for the final lord.

Step Two – Reset Heroes

Each hero removes all hit tokens and takes exactly 4 energy tokens (even if they ended the last assault with 5 or more energy). Remember that if a hero has a Life Rune, it is included in the health total.

Also, any buffs or debuffs a hero has left from the previous assault are discarded. Heroes start with a clean slate.

Step Three – Assign Heroes

Each hero takes an enemy and places it in front of their hero sheet. For example, in a level 1 Assault, your team faces the boss plus 2 minions. That's three enemies. You'll face three possibilities:

If the number of heroes exactly equals the number of enemies, just have each player pick a foe, and you're done!
If you have more heroes than enemies, some heroes won't need to face a foe. They still fight but aren't targeted directly (some enemies can still hit them).
If you have more enemies than heroes, take the excess enemies and divvy them up among the heroes as you please. No hero can take a second enemy until every hero has at least one enemy, no hero can take a third enemy until every hero has at least two enemies, and so forth. To indicate a hero is facing extra enemies, place the additional enemies above its hero sheet.

This is an important step in your strategy, because your hero is going to be attacked by the enemies assigned to them.

Zelda's Tip: Don't bite off more than you can chew by generously taking on the scariest enemies unasked. I never do.

Step Four – Battle Sequence

Most of the game takes place during the battle sequence. This is when heroes strike—and are struck by—their enemies and is the heart and core of the game.

Basics. The fundamental principle of battle is that heroes can attack any enemy, regardless of who they are assigned to. But enemies must each attack the hero assigned to them, though some enemies may have an effect that can target another hero or heroes as well.

Battle Sequence Step 1: Reassign Enemies

You'll only have to do this if, in a previous battle sequence, a hero was KO'd. In this case, if any enemies no longer have a target, you need to re-assign these enemies to one or more of the remaining heroes. In doing this, you may not remove a current enemy from its hero—you can only assign new enemies to a hero. You don't need to keep the enemies "balanced" in this case.

Example: Hannah, Tarang, and Aurora are facing 4 minions. During the original Assign Heroes step, the players decided that Aurora would face two enemies, while Hannah & Tarang each take on a single foe. Tragically, Aurora is KO'd. In the next Reassign Enemies step, her two enemies need new targets—the players decide to place both minions against Hannah, who now faces three enemies (her original, plus Aurora's two newly-orphaned foes), while Tarang still only faces one.

Battle Sequence Step 2: Roll the Tactics Die

The enemy tactics die has three different faces—the orange, purple, and green hourglass. Roll the die and leave it on or near the assault card where everyone can easily see it—this die determines which tactic an enemy is going to use this round. You can often use this information to your advantage in battle against them.

Zelda's Tip: The reason that the tactics die is rolled before the heroes attack is so you can plan ahead. If the tactics die shows a purple hourglass, then you know that the minion is going to do her associated attack—say, a Cripple—this round. If you can kill her before she attacks, you can avoid this.

Battle Sequence Step 3: Heroes Attack

The Heroes Attack step takes place in three parts:

A. Heroes roll their dice. Each hero rolls their battle dice. The battle dice have four possible results:

Critical – Inflict 2 damage on the target, ignoring all armor.
Slow hit – Inflict 1 damage on the target. The target subtracts its total slow defense from all slow hits rolled against it. Multiple slow hits can be combined against the same target. Example: The Troll minion has 1 slow defense. The heroes need at least 2 slow hit results to deal 1 damage. If they have 3 slow hit results, Troll will take 2 damage, and so forth.
Fast hit – Inflict 1 damage on the target. The target subtracts its total fast defense from the fast hits rolled against it. Multiple fast hits can be combined against the same target. Example: The Gryllus of Phlegethon has 2 fast defense. The heroes can't deal damage with fast hits unless they score at least 3, in which case this Gryllus will still only take 1 damage. It's better to apply critical or slow hits against such a foe.
Energy – Gain 1 energy token.

B. Heroes activate abilities & potions. After rolling dice, heroes decide if they wish to spend energy to activate abilities. Heroes can use an energy token they just gained in an attack roll to spend on an ability, even if it is used to reroll that same attack (and if they score an energy in the reroll, they can keep it, too). Heroes can also use potions at this time (see the Potions section on page 22 for details). Remember that heroes revived by a potion still get to roll their battle dice. Activating abilities happens simultaneously with the battle die roll, so don't worry about the sequence here. Always decide conflicts in favor of the heroes, within the spirit of the rules.

C. Heroes apply damage. The heroes now divide their attacks among the enemies. Each hero's attack must be fully applied to a single enemy—it cannot be split between enemies. (Abilities and traits may affect this.)

This is also when enemy buffs, debuffs, and defenses come into consideration.

Example: The Un-Man has 1 slow defense. The Star Vampire has no defenses. Hero Tarang rolls a critical hit and a slow hit on his two battle dice, and must now decide if he wants to apply his attack to the Un-Man—in which case the target will suffer just 2 damage—both from the critical, because the slow hit is stopped by its defense. He could instead aim at the Star Vampire and inflict 3 total damage—both the critical and the slow. What he can't do is apply the critical hit to the Un-Man and the slow hit to the Star Vampire. It's got to be all or nothing.

When an enemy is injured, place hit markers on its card. When that enemy has accumulated total hit markers equal to its hit points, it immediately dies.

Enemy "If Attacked" traits trigger. Many enemies have a trait that is triggered when they are attacked. Apply these now.

Example: The Slumbering Cultist has an "If Attacked" trait that inflicts 2 fast hits on each attacker.

Remove dead enemies. Discard the cards of any enemies who are killed. If all enemies are dead, the assault is over. In that case, just move on to step seven – Battle End Check. But if any enemies are still alive, go to step four – Enemies Strike Back.

Battle Sequence Step 4: Enemies Strike Back

The Enemies Strike Back step takes place in three parts:

A. Enemy attacks & tactics trigger. Pick one enemy, and go down its card line by line, applying each line as they come. When you are done, go to the next enemy. Keep it up until you have gone through all the enemies.

Most enemies have one or more attacks printed on their card. These are normally applied to the hero assigned to them. Some enemies have special triggered attacks or effects that may cause other effects.

Example: The Deep One applies 3 fast hits to ANY hero chosen by the players (i.e. it doesn't have to target the guy it is facing.)

Enemy tactics are listed on their cards, right after their attacks. These only trigger if the correct result on the tactics die is visible.

Example: The Fungi From Yuggoth has three different items on its card. First is its normal attack—three fast hits, so the Fungi aims at its assigned hero with this every round. Next, it has two different tactics—an orange and a purple. The tactic it uses depends on what result shows on the tactics die. If the die shows orange, then the Fungi hits its hero with a Fear debuff. If the die shows purple, then the Fungi hits any hero (chosen by the players) with 2 fast hits. If the die shows green, the Fungi doesn't use any tactics at all.

Go through every single enemy, inflicting damage, applying tactics, and so forth, until you are done. It's usually easier to keep track if you start at the right-most enemy and move through them right to left.

For each damage point inflicted on a hero by an enemy, place a hit token on the hero's sheet. Remember to include any Life Runes in his total. If a hero is affected by an enemy tactic such as fear or cripple, they must place the appropriate debuff card near their sheet, with 2 timer tokens on it. They can discard the debuff card after the last timer token is removed.

Zelda's Tip: Remember the tactics die is the same for all enemies. You can ignore all tactics that weren't rolled this turn.

Remember that heroes may have traits, armor, buffs, and debuffs, all of which can affect the enemy damage inflicted.

B. Remove KO'd heroes. Any hero whose damage equals or exceeds his health is KO'd and can no longer participate in the fight (unless a revive potion is used on that hero during the Heroes Activate Abilities & Potions step). Heroes can be revived even if they've been KO'd for several turns in a row.

C. Remove timer tokens. All heroes and enemies with a buff or debuff card remove one timer token from each such card during this step. If all timer tokens are removed from a card, the effect ends and the card is removed.

Source note: the printed sub-step list for Step 4 names B as "Remove Timer Tokens" and C as "Remove KO'd Heroes", but the body text prints the KO'd-heroes paragraph before the timer-token paragraph. The body order is transcribed here as printed.

Step Five – Battle End Check

If at least one hero and at least one enemy are still in the fight, keep battling—return to the start of step four (Battle Sequence), roll the tactics die, and so forth.

If all heroes are dead, the fight is lost. Go directly to step seven – Advance Game Turn. The fight has become more critical.

Zelda's Tip: If you lose one assault, don't give up. You still have a good chance to succeed. If you lose two assaults, you might still be able to win, but it's not as likely. If you lose three assaults, only a miracle will save you.

If all enemies are dead, including the assault's boss, the fight is won! It's time to gather your medals!

Step Six – Loot!

The heroes gain 1 medal per assault level. For example: If you have just beaten a level 5 assault, the team gets 5 medals. Players must decide who gets what. In a two-player game, you might divide 5 tokens as 3 for one player, 2 for the other. Or give all five to one player—it's up to your own haggling to figure how to do it.

See the Loot & Upgrading Your Hero section (page 26) for details on this process.

Step Seven – Advance Game Turn

After all heroes have applied their loot, advance the epic boss figure one step on the game turn track.

Losing the game. If the epic boss was on turn 5 at the start of this turn, he has nowhere to advance during this step. In this case, you lose the game, and the kingdom is conquered. Time to drown your sorrows in a big bowl of ice cream. We're not here to judge.

Source note: Step Three's "Remove Dead Enemies" paragraph reads "go to step seven – Battle End Check", but Battle End Check is printed as Step Five. Transcribed as printed; the intended step is Step Five.

Potions

A potion is a token which you can use only on your turn. You can only carry one of each type of potion—one health, one energy, and one revive. You can use only one potion per turn. If you use a potion on yourself, then you can also attack and use abilities. If you use the potion on another hero, then you must give up your attack and any abilities for that round of combat.

Three types of potions exist:

Health potion – Immediately gives the target 6 health (up to its maximum health).
Energy potion – Immediately gives the target 4 energy.
Revive potion – This can only be used on a KO'd hero. It restores all of the hero's health, gives 4 energy, and brings the hero back to fighting shape; the newly revived hero can immediately engage in battle the same round you revived him. This is the only potion you can use if you yourself are KO'd, and you must use it on yourself in that case. If you are not KO'd, you can use a revive potion on another hero. As with other potions, you'd have to give up your attack and any ability to play it on someone else, since you're not using the potion on yourself.

When you buy potions, divide them up among the heroes such that no hero has more than 1 of each type of potion. If you can't do this, you lose any excess potions. (So don't do this.)

Zelda's Tip: Remember, at the start of each boss fight, your energy goes back to 4, so don't waste energy potions by using them at the end of a fight.

Buffs and Debuffs

Some abilities and tactics inflict an ongoing effect on the target. These are "buffs" if the effect is beneficial and "debuffs" if harmful, but they work similarly.

Take the appropriate card (buff or debuff) and place it next to the affected character. Place two timer tokens on the card. During the Remove Timer Tokens substep, discard a timer token from each card. When the second timer is removed, also take away the card—its duration is finished. If a character gains another copy of buff or debuff, do not add another card; instead, just add extra timers to the existing card.

Empower – The target gets one extra fast hit added to any other damage inflicted.

Fear – The victim takes an extra damage per enemy (or hero) that attacks it.

Example: On the first turn of a fight, Moose uses Bestial Roar, which places an empower card, plus two timer tokens, on all heroes. On the next Remove Timer Tokens substep (after enemies attack), every hero removes one timer token, leaving them with one token apiece. The next turn, Naomi uses her Rebel Yell trait. Normally this would give her an Empower, but since she already has one, she just adds 2 timer tokens to her empower. On the following Remove Timer Tokens substep, all the other heroes lose their last timer token and their empowers end, but Naomi still has two timer tokens left on her card, thanks to Rebel Yell.

Hero Abilities

Abilities are printed on the hero sheet. Each hero starts with two abilities and gains a third when they ascend.

While abilities are theoretically always available, you can only activate them by spending the correct amount of energy (this is marked on the card). If you can't (or don't want to) spend the energy to activate an ability, it does nothing.

When do abilities take place? Abilities are activated after the hero attacks but can then retroactively affect that attack. They must be applied before battle damage is dealt to the enemies.

Example: John Dark's Wall of Fire ability lets him apply his damage to all enemies in play. Plus, if your attack included at least one critical hit, all those enemies gain an Affliction 1 (with 2 timer tokens apiece). Sweet!

Some abilities do not affect your attack; in this case, you also get to attack.

Example: Doc Hunter's Cauterize ability lets him heal a single target on his team by 4 HP. This could be himself. In addition, it heals the player with the lowest health by 4 HP, which might be the same player. This doesn't interfere with his attack.

Traits (ascended heroes only). A trait is an automatic bonus that the hero always benefits from. By default, it is assumed to be active, though a player can choose not to apply a trait he is qualified for.

Example: When Cindrew is ascended, she gains the Choking Provoke trait. Any enemies assigned to her transform their critical hits into fast hits for that turn, which is obviously better for her or anyone targeted by that particular enemy. Of course, an enemy that doesn't inflict critical hits won't be affected.

Enemy Tactics

Many (not all) enemies have tactics. These work a lot like abilities. However, tactics do not cost energy, and the enemy only uses them if the tactics die is the matching result.

An enemy can keep using a particular tactic again and again, so long as the tactics die keeps rolling the necessary result.

Example: If the tactics die shows the orange hourglass, then the Besotted Venge inflicts two extra fast attacks on the hero assigned to him. Ouch!

Enemy Traits

Enemies can have traits as well. Traits are always in effect, and don't depend on the vagaries of the tactics die.

Example: The Wyvern is immune to all debuff effects. This trait is always active.

Loot & Upgrading Your Hero

You can spend your medals on three different possible rewards: potions, runes, and ascending your hero. You don't have to spend your medals all at once, but can save them to combine with those from a later assault.

Potions. Spend 1 medal to gain three potion cards, one of each type: a Health, an Energy, and a Revive. These don't all have to be given to the same player. And in fact they can't be, if that would lead to someone having more than 1 of a given potion. You can only carry 1 of each type.

Runes. All heroes have three open slots for Runes.

Example: Randolph Carter has open slots for a Life Rune, a Precision Rune, and an Armor Rune. Elyse Greengrass has open slots for two Life Runes, and a Precision Rune.

Each rune costs 1 medal. Simply pay up and choose the rune of your choice. There are 7 different runes:

Life – Adds 5 health. Remember to include this in your total when taking hits.
Dodge – Adds 2 slow defense.
Aegis – Adds 1 slow defense and 1 fast defense.
Armor – Adds 2 fast defense.
Precision – Gives you rerolls on 2 dice when you attack. You can use this to reroll 2 dice at once, or 1 die at a time (up to 2). You must accept a reroll, even if it is worse than the original result.
Enhancement – Add +1 damage to all of your critical hits.
Power – Add +1 slow hit to your battle total. Even if you roll no slow hits on your dice, this still gives you 1.
Speed – Add +1 fast hit to your battle total. Even if you roll no fast hits on your dice, this still gives you 1.
Vampiric – Adds 1 fast hit and regain 1 health when you attack.

Zelda's Tip: Your hero sheet says which runes you can take—but you can take them in any order. Some people like to take a Life Rune first to be more durable, but killing the enemy faster also makes you "durable."

Medals used for ascension. Spend 2 medals to ascend your hero. This gives you an extra attack die, a new ability, and a trait! Flip your sheet over to the ascended side. Keep your runes (and transfer them to the other side of your sheet).

The Big List of All Symbols and Effects

Combat effects

Fast defense – Decrease the total damage inflicted by fast hits by 1 per icon. This is subtracted from the total fast hits inflicted on the target—not per attacker.
Fast hit – Inflict 1 damage per fast hit, subtracting any fast defense.
Slow defense – Decrease the total damage inflicted by slow hits by 1 per icon. This is subtracted from the total slow hits inflicted on the target—not per attacker. Example: Hannah Hazard has her Dodge Rune, which adds 2 slow defense. One enemy hits her with 1 slow hit, and another with 2 slow hits. This is a total of three slow hits, so she takes 1 damage.
Slow hit – Inflict 1 damage per slow hit, subtracting any slow defense.
Critical hit – Inflict 2 damage per critical hit. Fast and slow defenses do nothing to block a critical hit. The Enhancement Rune can increase the damage your critical hits inflict.
All Targets – Hits all heroes (or all enemies). The effect is equal, but the results might not be. Example: On a red timing hourglass, the Librarian enemy hits all heroes with four slow hits. Heroes with slow defense will take less damage from this. It's still pretty awful though.
Ongoing – This effect occurs every time this enemy (or hero) takes a turn.
If Attacked – Many enemies have a trait that is triggered when they are attacked. Apply these now.
Single Target – The players must decide which target is hit by the enemy. Some affect other enemies, some affect the heroes—bad effects always target the opposite side, and good effects the same side. So an enemy with a heal effect would only heal other enemies. If there is more than one Single Target icon, then the effect happens that many times. The players could decide that the same hero gets hit multiple times. If the Single Target targets an enemy (for instance if it's a buff or heal), then the heroes can pick which enemy gets the advantage. However, they must choose an enemy which can benefit from the effect if at all possible. You can't choose to heal an uninjured enemy, for instance.

Buffs

Empower – The target gets one extra fast hit added to any other damage inflicted. Example: Tarang rolls 2 battle dice while empowered and scores a critical hit plus an energy. He inflicts 2 damage for the critical, plus a fast hit on his target.
Taunt – The precise effects depend on whether a hero or an enemy is taunting.
- Hero – Rearrange the enemy cards however you want. There is no purpose in taunting more than once during a single combat round.
- Enemy – Enough damage must be assigned to kill the taunting enemy before any heroes can assign their attacks to other targets. If more than one enemy is using taunt, the heroes can target any taunting enemy.
Ward – The next character's attack directed at the target gets ignored in its entirety. If a hero has the ward, pick one enemy who is attacking that hero and ignore all damage from that enemy. If an enemy has the ward, then one hero targeting that enemy loses the entire attack (which must be able to inflict at least one damage). Unlike other buffs, once the ward triggers, all timer tokens on the ward are immediately discarded as well. Of course, if the timer tokens expire, it also expires. The timer tokens are only used to let the ward stick around if it isn't used immediately.

Debuffs

Affliction – When a timer token is removed from this card it deals damage equal to the number of the affliction value.
Cripple – For an enemy, all printed critical hits become slow hits. For a hero, any rolled critical hits become slow hits.
Fear – The victim takes an extra damage per enemy (or hero) that attacks it. Example: The hero Mercy Dexter targets the champion Tulszcha with Fear. Tulszcha has 2 fast defense. Mercy hits Tulszcha with 1 fast hit roll, and her ally Rurik the Restless hits Tulszcha with 1 slow hit and 1 critical. Normally, Mercy would score 0 damage vs. Tulszcha, and Rurik would score 3 damage. But thanks to Fear, each of them add 1 to their total, so Tulszcha takes a total of 5 damage—1 from Mercy, and 4 from Rurik.
Immune to Debuffs – This hero or enemy is immune to debuffs.
Silenced – The victim cannot use any abilities or tactics on its turn.
Stun – The victim cannot attack or use abilities or tactics on its turn. It just gets skipped. A hero can still use a potion, however.

Symbol Quick Reference

The quick-reference card shows these icons, in order: Ongoing, Fast Attack, Fast Defense, Slow Attack, Slow Defense, Critical Hit, All Targets, Single Target, If Attacked, Purge, Empower, Cripple, Draw 1 Ally, Draw 1 Alien, Draw 1 Myth, Draw 1 Demon, Draw 1 Cultist, Ward, Heal 1, Heal 2, Heal 3, Heal 4, Fear, Taunt, Affliction 1, Affliction 2, Affliction 3, Immune to Debuffs, Silence, Stun.