Ascension: Rise of Vigil
Ascension: Rise of Vigil Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview
In Ascension: Rise of Vigil, players take on the role of great leaders struggling to unite a realm in turmoil. Each turn, you will play cards from your hand to gain Runes, Power, or other effects (like drawing cards). You can spend Runes to acquire new cards for your deck. Power is used to defeat Monsters, which earns you Honor and other rewards. The cards you can acquire and Monsters you can fight are constantly changing, so you always have different decisions to make!
Contents / Setup
- 1 Game Board
- 50 Beads:
- 25 Small 1 Honor clear tokens
- 25 Large 5 Honor red tokens
- 259 Cards:
- 4 Personal starting decks, each containing 8 Apprentice, 2 Militia cards and 1 Energy Shard
- 53 "Always Available" cards:
- 1 Cultist
- 26 Mystics
- 26 Heavy Infantry
- 100 Center Deck cards
- 60 Energy Shards (+2 extra starting Energy Shards)
Ascension: Rise of Vigil can be played with 1-4 players on its own and can support up to 6 players when combined with previous Ascension sets. To play Rise of Vigil by itself, simply follow the instructions below. To play the combined game, shuffle the center decks from each set together before you begin, along with 30 Energy Shard cards for each large set and 20 Energy Shard cards for each small set you include.
Each player has a personal deck consisting of eight Apprentices, two Militia, and one Energy Shard.
Each player shuffles his or her deck and draws five cards (leaving six cards in his or her deck).
Take the Heavy Infantry, Mystic and Cultist cards and set them to the side in reach of all players. These cards represent characters in your kingdom and are always available to be acquired or defeated on your turn.
Shuffle all of the other cards face down to form the Center Deck.
From the Center Deck, flip six cards face up in a row between all players. If you reveal a Treasure card, continue to reveal cards until you reveal a non-Treasure card and place all Treasure cards underneath it. This forms the Center Row.
Place the Center Deck on one side of the Center Row.
Reserve space on the other side of the Center Row for the Void. When a Monster in the Center Row is defeated or any other card is banished, it goes to the Void.
Place 30 Honor tokens on the table for each player. Large red Honor tokens are worth 5 points. Small clear Honor tokens are worth 1 point.
| Players | Honor |
|---|---|
| 2 Players | 60 Honor |
| 3 Players | 90 Honor |
| 4 Players | 120 Honor |
| 5 Players | 150 Honor |
| 6 Players | 180 Honor |
Randomly determine which player goes first.
Layout
The play area is arranged as follows:
- Mystic, Heavy Infantry and Cultist — the three "Always Available" stacks, set to the side within reach of all players.
- Center Row — six face-up cards flipped from the Center Deck. Any Treasure cards revealed are tucked underneath the non-Treasure card that follows them, so a single Center Row space may hold one or more Energy Shards beneath its card.
- Center Deck — placed on one side of the Center Row.
- Void (reserved) — space on the other side of the Center Row for defeated Monsters and banished cards.
- Honor Tokens — the pool of small clear (1 Honor) and large red (5 Honor) tokens.
- Personal Deck (11 cards: 8 Apprentice, 2 Militia, 1 Energy Shard) — after shuffling and drawing, this is the Starting Hand (5 cards) and the Personal Deck (remaining 6 cards).
Heroes & Constructs
Anatomy of a Hero card (example: Starcaller Leotan, a Lifebound Hero costing 6 Runes, worth 3 Honor, with the effect "Gain 4 Honor." and "Energize: Gain 1 Honor for each Energy you have gained this turn."):
- Name — the card's name.
- Faction — There are four different factions in Ascension - Mechana, Void, Lifebound, and Enlightened - each representing one of the worlds coming to your aid in battle.
- Cost — Number of Runes you must spend to acquire this card.
- Effect — What the Hero does when you play it.
- Honor — How much Honor this card is worth. At the end of the game the player with the most total Honor from their cards and tokens wins the game.
Heroes are the champions you acquire to aid you in your quest to save the realm of Vigil. You can play any number of Hero cards from your hand each turn. When you play a Hero from your hand, you gain the effect listed on the card. It stays in front of you until the end of the turn, and then it goes to your discard pile.
Anatomy of a Construct card (example: Tome of Erabus, a Void Construct costing 4 Runes, worth 2 Honor, with the effect "Once per turn, gain 1 Rune." and the flavor text "The truth of the present lies in the shadows of our past" — Emri):
- Name — the card's name.
- Cost — Number of Runes you must spend to acquire this card.
- Flavor Text — Each faction has its own style of flavor text. Flavor text has no game effect.
- Expansion Symbol — The color of the symbol tells you how many copies of the card are in the deck.
- Gold = UNIQUE
- Blue = TWO COPIES
- White = THREE COPIES
- Red = FOUR COPIES
Constructs are the many weapons, magical items, and fantastical devices you may acquire to use in your battles. Unlike Heroes, when you play a Construct, it stays in play and continues to help you turn after turn. You can play any number of Construct cards from your hand each turn. You can use a Construct's effect only on your turn, including the turn you play it.
Monsters & Treasure
Anatomy of a Monster card (example: Mordant Widow, a Monster with a defeat cost of 5 Power and the reward "Reward: Gain 4 Honor. For each opponent, you choose and destroy a Construct they control."):
- Power — How much Power you must spend to defeat this Monster.
- Reward — What you get and/or penalties your opponents suffer when you defeat this Monster.
Monsters in Rise of Vigil are mysterious creatures that have suddenly appeared after a long period of peace and begun ravaging the land.
Defeating Monsters gives you rewards, including Honor, which is the victory condition of Ascension. When you earn Honor for defeating a Monster, simply collect the appropriate number of Honor tokens and place them in front of you.
Anatomy of a Treasure card (example: Energy Shard, a Treasure worth 0 Honor whose effect box shows "+1 Energy" together with one additional +1 resource, and the flavor text "A remnant of something long since forgotten, their appearance in Vigil is shrouded in mystery."):
- Name — the card's name.
- Effect — What the Treasure does when you play it.
Treasure cards represent objects found throughout the world that may aid you in your quest. In Rise of Vigil, there is only one kind of Treasure card - Energy Shards.
Treasure cards do not occupy spaces in the Center Row. Whenever a Treasure card is flipped into the Center Row, continue flipping cards off the Center Deck until you reveal a non-Treasure card. All Treasure cards revealed this way are placed underneath that card in the Center Row. Whenever a player acquires or defeats a card with Treasure cards underneath it, he acquires those Treasure cards. Once acquired, Treasure cards are played just like heroes.
Example: A player acquires a card from the Center Row, and the card that replaces it is an Energy Shard. Since Energy Shard is a Treasure card, that player reveals the next card from the Center Deck and places it on top of the Energy Shard. Whatever player acquires or defeats that card also acquires the Energy Shard beneath it.
Gameplay
General Rules
At any time, if your personal deck is empty and you need to draw a card or reveal a card from the top of your deck, reshuffle the discard pile to replenish your deck. If the Center Deck runs out, reshuffle the Void to replenish it.
Hero cards played during your turn go into the discard pile at the end of your turn. (In other words, don't reshuffle Hero cards you've played this turn if you need to reshuffle your discard pile in the middle of your turn.)
Cards you acquire during your turn are placed in your discard pile.
Whenever a card leaves the Center Row, replace it immediately from the Center Deck. This happens before anything else occurs. Any time a player is making a decision, the Center Row should be full.
Some cards have effects when they enter the Center Row. The effects of these cards occur immediately, including at the start of the game when the Center Row is first dealt. These are called Fate cards, and their effects are written in white text within a black textbox, labeled with the Fate keyword.
Many cards will have text that contradicts these rules. If card text ever contradicts the rules, follow the card text instead.
Turn Breakdown
- Play cards from your hand to gain Runes, Power, Energy and Honor. Acquire Heroes and Constructs and put them in your discard pile for future turns. Defeat Monsters for rewards and Honor.
- Place played Hero cards in your discard pile after you are done acquiring and defeating cards.
- Draw five cards from your personal deck.
To play a Hero card from your hand, simply place the card face up in front of you, announce its effect, and follow the instructions on the card. Any choices required by the card must be made at that time and any conditionals must be met for additional effects, though any Runes or Power generated can be spent until the end of your turn. You do not have to pay any costs to play Heroes from your hand.
Example: Skyrocket Drone says "Gain 1 Rune and an additional 1 Rune if you control a Construct." If you do not control a Construct when you play Skyrocket Drone, you gain 1 Rune. If at some point later in the turn you put a Construct into play, you do not gain an additional Rune.
Constructs are played just like Heroes, except Constructs remain in play and can be used every turn. If a Construct has multiple abilities, each one may be used once per turn.
Example: Ogo Demontrap says "Once per turn, gain 1 Power. Energize 4: Once this turn, gain 3 Honor." You may use the Construct to produce Power and later in the turn use its second ability to generate Honor if you meet the Energy threshold.
Acquiring Heroes and Constructs
You need Runes to acquire Heroes and Constructs. Runes come from Heroes played from your hand or from Constructs you have in play. You may acquire any number of cards as long as you have enough Runes. To find out how many Runes you get from a card, look in the game text box of the card. If a card provides Runes, there will be a Rune symbol with a number.
Loamspeaker Druid costs five Runes to acquire. You can get three Runes from playing it.
You may acquire any Hero or Construct in the Center Row as well as Mystics and Heavy Infantry, which are Always Available. When you acquire a card, place it in your discard pile and replace the card in the Center Row with the top card of the Portal Deck.
Defeating Monsters
To defeat a Monster, a player must have enough Power (generated by cards with Power in their text box — e.g., Heavy Infantry). A card's Power is found in its game text box. Cards that generate Power will have a Power Icon with a number.
The Defeat Cost of a Monster is listed in the upper-right corner of the card. This cost has a Power Icon behind it.
When you defeat a Monster, you gain a Reward. Most rewards include Honor, and how much Honor you gain is equal to the number indicated on the Honor symbol. If the Monster has another effect as part of its reward, that effect occurs immediately after the card is replaced in the Center Row.
After defeating a Monster, place it in the Void and replace it in the Center Row. You may defeat any number of Monsters as long as you have enough Power.
Lagoon Troll requires 3 Power to defeat. Heavy Infantry generates 2 Power.
Trophy: Some Monsters have a special kind of reward called Trophy. When you defeat a Trophy Monster, you gain the Honor portion of its Reward immediately, and then instead of banishing the monster you place it in play face-up on the table in front of you. At any time during your turn, you may banish a Trophy you control to gain the indicated effect. You can use a Trophy the turn you get it or save it for a future turn.
Example: Serpent Siren says "Reward: Gain 1 Honor. Trophy: You may banish this to gain 1 Energy." When you defeat Serpent Siren, you gain 1 Honor immediately and put the card face-up in front of you. You can banish it immediately to gain 1 Energy, or you can wait to use it at a later time.
The Cultist is Always Available to defeat and is never banished to the Void. There is no limit to how many times you can defeat the Cultist in one turn.
Some Monsters have the keyword "Energized" before part of their reward. This is an effect that only happens if you have reached the indicated Energy threshold at the time you defeat that monster. For more information, see "Energy" in the "New in Rise of Vigil" section.
Ending Your Turn
After you are done playing cards from your hand, acquiring Heroes and Constructs, and defeating Monsters, place any remaining cards in your hand and any Heroes played during your turn into your discard pile. You lose all unspent Runes and Power.
Draw five cards to replenish your hand. If you run out of cards in your deck and need to draw more, simply reshuffle your discard pile into your deck. When you end your turn, play passes clockwise around the table.
Game End
The game ends when a certain amount of Honor has been earned, depending on the number of players.
| Players | Honor |
|---|---|
| Two Players | 60 Honor |
| Three Players | 90 Honor |
| Four Players | 120 Honor |
| Five Players | 150 Honor |
| Six Players | 180 Honor |
Set this much Honor aside in Honor tokens before starting the game. When the final Honor token is earned, the game ends at the end of the current round (after the last player to start the game takes a turn). Thus, each player will play the same number of turns during the course of the game. Players can still gain Honor even when the set number of Honor tokens is gone. Use additional Honor tokens left over to track any Honor earned by players before the game ends.
Cards in each player's deck are also worth Honor, indicated by the number in the Honor symbol on the bottom, left-hand corner of the card. When the game is over, count the Honor from Heroes and Constructs (this includes your hand, deck, discard pile, and played Constructs), along with all Honor tokens acquired during the game. The player with the most total Honor is the winner!
If multiple players have the same number of Honor Points, the last player to start wins (i.e., the starting player loses all ties, the second player loses to third and fourth, etc.).
New in Rise of Vigil
Treasure
Treasure is a new type of card in Rise of Vigil. Treasure cards are different from most other card types in that they do not take up spots in the Center Row. When a Treasure card enters the Center Row, it remains in that spot and the next card from the center deck is flipped on top of it. Repeat this process until a non-Treasure card enters the Center Row. Whenever a player acquires or defeats a card in the Center Row, that player acquires all Treasure cards underneath it.
Once acquired, Treasure cards are played just like heroes. Players also start with one Energy Shard in their starting deck (indicated by the basic card frames).
Energize
Energy is a new type of resource in Rise of Vigil. Unlike Runes or Power, Energy is not spent. Some cards have Energize abilities which turn on when you reach a certain Energy threshold. The Energize text on a Hero, Construct, or Monster reward is active if you have gained Energy equal to or greater than its Energize number that turn.
Example: Darkwalker says "Gain 2 Power. Energize 1: You may banish a card from your hand or discard pile." Playing Darkwalker will always give you two power. If you have gained one or more Energy during your turn before you play Darkwalker, you will also be able to banish a card from your hand or discard pile. If you have two copies of Darkwalker, you can use both of their Energize powers even if you have gained only one Energy that turn, since Energy is a threshold resource and is not spent.
(Darkwalker is a Void Hero costing 3 Runes and worth 2 Honor; its printed text reads "Gain 2 Power." and "Energize 1: You may banish a card in your hand or discard pile.")
Gameplay Variants
Team Play
Number of Players: 4 or 6 (in teams of 2)
Rules:
- Set aside 30 Honor tokens per player.
- Teammates sit across from one other.
- Your teammate is not harmed by the rewards from any Monsters you defeat (e.g. if you kill a Noxious Soul, your teammate does not have to discard a card at random)
- You may spend one additional Rune when you acquire a card to add that card to your teammate's deck instead of yours.
- At the end of the game, combine your Honor total with that of your teammate's to determine the winning team!
Solitaire
Number of Players: 1
Rules:
- Set aside 50 Honor tokens.
- Lay out the Center Row as normal, but whenever a card leaves the Center Row, the replacement card always enters on the left-hand side and the remaining cards slide over to the right.
- You take the first turn of the game. At the end of each of your turns, the Cult is considered to acquire or defeat the two cards furthest to the right in the Center Row.
- All cards acquired by the Cult are set aside and only used to determine its Honor total at the end of the game.
- Any Monsters defeated go to the Void, and the Cult receives any Honor from their reward. All other effects are ignored.
- Continue playing this way until the last Honor token is gone, then compare your score to the total Honor earned by the Cult. If you have more Honor, you win!
Glossary
Banish: When a card is banished, it is placed in the Void pile. Defeated Monsters are also banished to the Void. Players cannot interact with anything in the Void unless they have cards that allow them to do so. Banishing weaker cards like Apprentices and Militia from your personal deck can increase your chances of drawing more powerful cards that you acquire during the game.
Always Available cards and starting deck cards do not go to the Void when banished. Starting deck cards are set aside outside the game and always available cards are put back in their appropriate Always Available zone when banished.
Constructs: Constructs are the many weapons, magical items, and fantastical devices you may acquire to use in your battles. After you play a Construct from your hand, you can gain an effect from it every turn it remains in play.
Destroy: Destroy means to put into the discard pile from play and generally refers to Constructs.
Energize: Cards with Energize have additional effects if you've gained enough Energy on the turn you use them. Multiple Energize cards can be activated with the same Energy, since Energy is not spent.
Energy: Energy is a threshold resource used to activate additional effects on cards with Energize.
Heroes: Heroes are the champions you can acquire to aid you in your quest to save the realm of Vigil. When you play a Hero from your hand, you gain the effect listed on the card, and then it goes to your discard pile at the end of your turn.
Honor: Honor is the key to victory in Ascension. Whoever earns the most Honor wins the game.
Monsters: Monsters are the minions of Deofol that are trying to break through and destroy your world. Defeating Monsters gives you rewards, including Honor that wins you the game.
Power: Power is one of the two main resources in the world of Ascension. Power is used to defeat Monsters and earn rewards.
Runes: Runes are one of the two main resources in the world of Ascension. Runes are used to acquire Heroes and Constructs so you can add them to your deck.
Treasure: Treasure is a card type that doesn't take up spots in the center row. When a Treasure card enters the center row, it remains in that spot and the next card from the center deck is flipped on top of it. Repeat this process until a non-Treasure card enters the Center Row. Whenever a player acquires or defeats a card in the Center Row, that player acquires all treasure cards underneath it.
Trophy: Trophy is an additional reward on some Monsters. When you defeat a Monster with Trophy, gain the Honor reward immediately and put it face-up in play in front of you. You may banish it for its effect immediately or save it for a future turn.
Ascension F.A.Q.
General Rules Questions
How does the Fate trigger for Omnicron work? Do the extra spots remain after Omnicron leaves the Center Row?
A: Omnicron adds an additional card to the Center Row for each Treasure under it. If there are two Treasures under Omnicron, add two additional cards to the Center Row. These extra cards remain after Omnicron leaves the Center Row, and are replaced as normal if they are acquired or defeated.
How does the Fate trigger for Loamspeaker Druid work after the Honor pool has been emptied? Does the game continue or does it end after the current cycle of turns?
A: The Honor pool emptying triggers the end of the game at the end of the current cycle of turns. Additional Honor being added to the pool does not alter when the game ends after the pool has been emptied.
What happens if I gain enough Energy later on to meet the Energize threshold of a card I played earlier in the turn?
A: Energize abilities only occur if you meet their Energy thresholds at the time the card is played. Gaining Energy later in the turn will have no effect on previous cards played. A Construct with an Energize power may be used at any point during a turn after its Energy threshold is reached.
How does Oziah, Judge of Logos work? Can I choose the order of my rewards? Do Fate effects revealed occur before or after I gain my rewards?
A: Oziah, Judge of Logos defeats all Monsters in the center row when played. You may choose what order to gain their rewards. Any Fate effects revealed do not occur until after you have gained all rewards.
What happens if a Treasure replaces a card banished by Truth Seeker, and then Spirit Merchant would flip on top of that Treasure? Does Spirit Merchant's Fate trigger?
A: Truth Seeker's effect acquires the Treasure before the Spirit Merchant enters the Center Row on top of it, so it is not there to trigger Spirit Merchant's Fate effect.
If I gain Energy after playing Starcaller Leotan, do I gain additional Honor?
A: No. Starcaller Leotan only counts Energy you have gained at the time you played him.
Have questions about Ascension strategies and gameplay? Wondering what happens when you combine Rise of Vigil with other cards and expansions? Check out the official Ascension F.A.Q. at www.AscensionGame.com/FAQ
Credits
- Ascension Game Design: Justin Gary
- Rise of Vigil Lead Design: Justin Gary
- Lead Development: John Fiorillo
- Additional Game Design / Development: Gary Arant, Brian Kibler, Jeff Liu, Patrick Sullivan
- Website and Marketing: Ryan O'Connor
- Graphic Design Lead: Ryan O'Connor
- IP Development Lead: Justin Gary
- Additional IP Development: Eric Tice, Brian Kibler, Ryan O'Connor
- Flavor Text: Eric Tice, Brian Kibler
- Project Management Lead: Ian Estrin
- Rulebook: Justin Gary, Brian Kibler, Ryan O'Connor
- Card Art: Eric Sabee