Buried Beneath

Buried Beneath Rulebook

Table of Contents

1. Components

1 Hero meeple (green)
8 Stat Markers (2 red, 2 white, 2 green, 1 yellow, 1 blue)
5 Villager meeples (blue)
1 Boss meeple (yellow)
4 Boss Markers (orange)
3 Skill Cool-down Dice (blue)
1 Force Wall (pink)
2 Monster Color Markers (1 black, 1 white)
12 Monster Unit dice (6 of each of two types)
1 Trap Marker (purple)
3 Hero cards
2 Boss cards
9 Village Map cards
6 Monster Camp cards

2. Setup

Place the Village Center card in the middle of the play area with a random side showing.
Shuffle all 8, two-sided map cards. Draw and place each one with a random side showing to form a 3x3 grid with the Village Center card in the middle. Make sure all cards are oriented the same. This grid is the village map. Re-arrange village map so that the Hidden Tunnel cards are positioned opposite of each other on the board. [See example on section 3.]
Choose one side of a Hero card to play. If you choose the Mage or the Ranger, take the Pink Wall or Pink Trap, keeping it nearby.
Take 4 Hero Stat markers and place them below your Hero card, using the Hero card's top stat numbers as the start value of each stat. The four stats are: Green Health, Blue Mana, Red Damage, and Clear Speed.
Take the 3 Blue dice, placing them aside. These track how many turns your skills have left in cool-down before you can use them again.
Place the Boss meeple close by.
Shuffle and draw a random Boss card. Place it close by. Place the Yellow cube by the 1 Stat Track under the Boss card. Until the Boss arrives, this tracks the current Wave number.
Place the Hero meeple on the Village Center location, this is your character.
Place 3 Villager meeples aside, forming a supply pile. These are the Villagers that have fled from the village after the initial attack. As you defeat waves of monsters, Villagers will be drawn back to help defend the village.
Place the 2 remaining Villagers, to the right of your Hero card, these are the bravest of the Villagers who have stayed behind to help you defend the village and are awaiting orders.
Place the 4 Boss markers to the side, these will be used in varying ways during play.
Place the remaining Stat Markers, the White and Black Monster Color Markers and the 12 Monster Unit dice close by.

Note: the printed rulebook numbers its setup steps 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and so on; no step 4 is printed. The numbering is transcribed as it appears.

3. Gameplay Overview

During the game you'll be assigning Villagers to various locations around the village to help the defense efforts!

Each Villager placed will provide different stat increases for your Hero or give you access to different Actions based on the symbols shown on the location.

Example: "This shown location would give..." -1 Mana; +1 Damage OR 1 Attack Action; +1 Speed OR 1 Move Action.

Monsters will be coming from all sides though, so make sure you pick a Villager's assignment carefully as you have to defend them too. You lose if all Villagers flee the village!

Monsters will be trying to get to the Village Center, making Villagers flee, and restricting different actions on the village map, if they reach it.

The Boss buried beneath the village prefers to hunt Heroes and Villagers directly, focusing them instead.

Each turn, monster units, represented by dice, will move toward the Village Center and then deploy from their camp cards, down connected paths to the first adjacent location.

You'll be fighting a different pair of monsters every Wave, each unique pairing will force you to adapt in clever ways to overcome the relentless advance.

Use your limited resources intelligently and efficiently to combat the increasing number of monsters over 4 Waves.

After all monsters have been defeated on Wave 4, the horror buried beneath the Village Center, bursts from the ground, giving you one final challenge to best. Can you solve the shifting puzzle and save this poor village from what would surely be a gruesome fate?

4. Wave Setup Phase

During this phase you will follow the steps below to setup the Wave of approaching monsters, based on the current Wave number.

Wave 1: Shuffle all 4 Monster Camp cards, draw 2.
Wave 2: Flip over the Monster Camp cards from Wave 1.
Wave 3: Shuffle & draw the last 2 Monster Camp cards.
Wave 4: Flip over the Monster Camp cards from Wave 3.

Look at the bottom right of the 1st drawn Monster Camp card, if it shows a [icon 1], make sure the 2nd Monster Camp card is flipped over to its other side to show a [icon 2]. If the 1st card shows a [icon 3], make sure the 2nd card is flipped over to show a [icon 4]. (Bracketed icon glyphs are not reproduced in text; the printed sheet shows which symbol each refers to.)
Place the first drawn Monster Camp card on the bottom left of the village map, then place the remaining Monster Camp card on the top right, making sure the paths line up and connect on one side of the card.
Place the Black Monster Color Marker on the 1st drawn Monster Camp card, and the White Monster Color Marker on the 2nd card drawn. This aids in tracking which monster unit dice belong to which Monster Camp card.
Each Monster Camp card has a variable amount of squares showing the numbers 1-4, this tells you how many of these monsters attack each Wave. Based on the current Wave number, you will place a monster unit die of the matching marker color, on each square with a number less than or equal to the current Wave number.
Set each die's value to the value of the Health stat listed in the bottom left of the Monster Camp card. The dice represent individual monsters of the type listed on the card and their value represents their current Health points. While on the Monster Camp card, monsters cannot be attacked or interacted with in any way. Unlike a Hero or Boss, you will only track the monsters current Health stat, other stat gains will be one time bonuses.

5. Combat Loop Phase (Overview)

Once the Wave has been setup, you will begin the Combat Loop phase, this phase of the game repeats the Monster / Enemies Turn and then the Player's Turn, in that order, until all monsters are defeated or a Hero lose condition is met.

Enemies/Monsters Move
Monsters Deploy from Monster Camps
Enemies/Monsters Attack
Any placed Villagers are taken back and Hero returns to the Village Center.
Hero takes a turn placing Villagers to perform actions or boost stats. Reduce cool-downs at end of turn.

You'll need to implement strategic planning, clever use of the Rally action and your puzzle solving skills to defeat all the monsters of each incoming Wave.

If you ever feel like you made too many mistakes or don't think you can finish the Wave, you can always reset everything and restart the current Wave over again. Trying out different strategies is key to winning the game.

5. Combat Loop Phase: Movement

When moving a unit around the village map, going from one location to an adjacent location connected by a path, takes 1 Speed.

Units only block other units if they are of the same unit type, for instance, Villagers block Villagers, Monsters block Monsters and Heroes block Heroes. Blocked units cannot pass or enter the same location as a unit that is blocking it.

A location is defined as a bordered point of interest, shown on village map cards.

The middle, Village Center card has 5 locations and each other village map card has 2 locations.

Movement examples (as shown on the printed page): from location A, 1 Speed; from location B, 2 Speed; from location C, 3 Speed.

Moving Villagers

If an enemy unit causes an already placed Villager to move to a new location, ignore any positive effects and trigger each negative effect at the new location.

When a Hero causes an already placed Villager to move to a new location with a skill, ignore any negative effects and trigger each positive effect symbol shown at the new location, gain 1 stat point for each matching symbol triggered.

Special Locations

Hidden Tunnels: During a Move action, a Hero may use 1 Speed to move from a Hidden Tunnels location to the other Hidden Tunnels location.

A unit cannot use the Hidden Tunnels if the destination location is blocked by a unit of the same type.

6. Combat Loop Phase: Attack Types

Ranged attacks are noted by a Bow icon. The attack can only target an enemy in an adjacent location.

Melee attacks are noted by a Sword icon. The attack can only target an enemy in the attacking unit's current location.

Both attack types deal your current damage amount, noted by your Damage stat.

7. Combat Loop Phase: Monster Camp Card Breakdown

The printed breakdown labels the parts of a Monster Camp card: Monster Type; Enemy Color Marker Area; Monster Unit Starting Area; Deployment Paths; Movement Skill; Attack Skill; and the base stats at the bottom: Starting Health Stat, Base Speed Stat and Base Damage Stat.

Banshee example on the printed card: starting Health 2, Base Speed 2, Base Damage 1. Card text: "When Banshee enters a location with a [icon], Banshee gains 1 [icon]." and "When Banshee is defeated by a Hero with at least 2 [icon], The Hero loses 1 [icon]."

Enemies Turn: Enemies Move

If there are monster units on the village map, starting with the monster type closest to the Village Center, move their movement speed towards the Village Center location. Move all enemies of a single type before continuing to the next.

Each monster has a Movement Skill on their Monster Camp card indicated by the movement icon. Make sure to read carefully to find out what it does and when it activates.

If a monster makes it all the way to the Village Center location, remove the monster unit die and pick a Villager on the map or right side of your Hero card to flee, placing it to the left of your Hero card in the fled Villager area.

Not only does the monster scare off a Villager, but it also damages one of the village buildings!

Take a Boss marker and place it on one of the corner locations of the Village Center card.

You may not place a Villager on this location until the marker is removed after Wave 4.

If a monster makes it to the Village Center and all 4 Boss markers are already being used to cover locations, you immediately lose.

When moving, monsters take the shortest, most direct, non blocked path and will always try to go left or right before going up or down.

Do not count through blocked locations when determining the distance. Units with all their paths blocked will not move until unblocked.

You make the final decision if there's more than one location with the same distance to the middle, Village Center location.

Enemies Turn: Enemies Deploy

After both types of monsters have moved, if monster units still remain on any of the Monster Camp cards, and their movement to the connected location is not blocked, move a monster unit (represented by a die on the card) off the card, down a connected path, to the first connected location. Ignore the monster's normal move speed when deploying.

Then move the Monster Camp card one card spot in a clockwise rotation around the village map, aligning the paths by centering the Monster Camp with the next village map card. This is known as the deploy process, make sure to pay attention to it so you can keep track of where the future monsters are going to be attacking you from.

Enemies Turn: Enemies Attack

Resolve attacks for each living enemy on the village map that has a valid target in range. Resolve attacks for all monsters of the same type before moving on to the next type.

An enemy will target a Hero in their range before a Villager in their range, unless their card says differently.

Melee and Ranged attack targeting works the same for the enemies as it does for a Hero.

Each monster has an Attack Skill on their Monster Camp card indicated by the attack icon. Make sure to read what it does and when it activates for each attacking monster.

When a Hero takes damage, reduce the green Health stat marker, to indicate health loss.

You lose immediately when a Hero has 0 Health, 0 Damage or 0 Speed.

Villagers that take any damage during this phase, flee in terror. Move the Villager off the map, placing it to the left of your Hero card. Fled Villagers have run off into the forest and, unless a specific skill is used, won't return until you defeat the current Wave of monsters.

8. Combat Loop Phase: Hero Card Breakdown

The printed breakdown labels the parts of a Hero card: Hero Name; Starting Health Stat; Starting Speed Stat; Starting Damage Stat; Starting Mana Stat; Attack Type; Hero Skills; Skill Cool-Down Time; Stat Track; Fled Villager Area; and Active Villager Area.

Example Hero card shown: The Mage.

Gale Winds [2]: Move an enemy or Villager from any location, to an adjacent location. If a monster, it loses 1 health.
Force Wall [3]: Place or move the Force Wall token between two cards to block movement along a single path for enemies.
Chain Lightning [2]: Deal 2 damage to an adjacent enemy, this damage also bounces to a monster in a location adjacent to the targeted enemy.

Player Turn

Begin your turn by taking back all Villagers on the village map, placing them to the right of your Hero card. This is skipped on the first turn.

If not yet facing the Boss, move your Hero back to the Village Center location.

If you're facing the Boss now, SKIP moving your Hero back to the Village Center location.

Take your available Villagers from the right side of your Hero card and one by one, place them on any location that does not already contain a Villager, Enemy unit or Boss Marker.

A Villager may never be placed or moved onto the middle, red-bordered Village Center location.

Placing Villagers

If the location contains symbols with a red X through them, before taking any actions or increasing your stats, you must first decrease the value of each of your stats by the number of stat symbols shown with a red X through them.

For example, the above Villager placement will first reduce your Damage stat by 1, then you could increase your Health stat by 1 or spend 1 stat to take a Rally action.

When placing your Villager on a location with a Mana, Speed, Damage or Health symbol, you will pick a single option from below, A or B.

A. Increase your stat value for that symbol by 1.
OR
B. Spend 1 shown stat point to use an Action. The guide on the next page shows you how each Action works and what the cost to perform it is.

For Damage, Speed and Health Actions, once the stat reaches 1, you can still perform the action, but do not have to spend your last point. Mana is the only stat that can reach 0 without the game ending.

9. Combat Loop Phase: Action List

Attack icon (Damage stat): Spend 1 Damage stat point as an Attack Action, resolve an attack with your Hero unit against any 1 enemy within range of the attack type, dealing damage equal to your pre-spent Damage value. Reduce the monster unit's die value to indicate when it loses health.
Move icon (Speed stat): Spend 1 Speed stat point as a Move Action, move your Hero up to your pre-spent Speed value, in locations. When another action is used, all current unused speed is lost.
Mana icon: Spend 1 Mana stat point as a 'Use a Skill' Action, to use a Skill that's not in cool-down. Then place a Blue Cool-down die on the used skill icon, setting its value to the cool-down value listed in brackets next to the skill name. Actions granted for using a Skill do NOT require spending the matching stat to use the action.
Health icon: Spend 1 Health stat point as a Rally Action, to collect placed Villagers from the village map that are NOT on locations that show a skull icon. The total number of Villagers you can collect is equal to your pre-spent Health value. Place them to the right of your Hero card, they can be placed again as normal this turn.

10. Combat Loop Phase: End of Player Turn and End of Wave

At the end of your turn, reduce any Hero Skill cool-down dice on your character card by 1.

If the die is already at 1, remove it from the card and the skill can be used again next turn.

If there are still monsters remaining for the Wave, continue back to the Monster turn, otherwise, process the end of the Wave.

If Wave = 4: Once all monsters have been defeated, the ground beneath the Village Center cracks and crumbles away, leaving an open wound in the ground for the horror below to escape its timeless prison!

Take the Green, Yellow, Clear and Red stat markers, these are used to track the Boss's stats. Place them under the Boss card.

Set each marker's value to the starting value of the matching stat listed on the Boss card.

Place the Boss on the Village Center.

Take any Boss markers off the village map and place them close by, forming a supply pile.

11. End of Wave

If Wave = 1-3: Once all monsters have been defeated, you may proceed to the next Wave.

Take all placed and fled Villagers back, placing them to the right of your Hero card.

Reset all your stats to their starting values, remove any cool-down dice from your Hero card and move your Hero back to the Village Center.

Take 1 Villager from the supply, placing it to the right of your Hero card with the rest of your active Villagers.

Using the Boss Stat Track, increase the Yellow Wave marker value by 1 to indicate the new Wave number for next round.

12. Winning and Losing

HOW TO WIN: Survive Wave 4 and reduce the Boss to 0 health.

HOW TO LOSE: You immediately lose for any of the following:

All Villagers have fled during a wave.
Hero ever has 0 Health, 0 Speed or 0 Damage.
A 5th Boss marker would be placed on the Village Center card before the end of Wave 4.

13. Boss Card Breakdown

The printed breakdown labels the parts of a Boss card: Starting Health Stat; Starting Speed Stat; Starting Damage Stat; Starting Armor Stat; Boss Name; Attack Type; Special Skills and Instructions; and the Stat Track.

Example Boss card shown: The Monstrosity.

Special skill text as printed on The Monstrosity card: "When The Monstrosity has 0 [skull icon], place a Boss marker on a [skull icon] gaining the shown stat. Set [icon] back to its starting value. If there are no [skull icon] left to cover, The Monstrosity is defeated. After defeating a Villager, The Monstrosity gains 2 [skull icon]."

Note: parts of the Boss card skill text are overlapped by the card art in the printed sheet; the wording above is the legible portion, with unreadable icons marked.

14. Boss Overview

The Boss will move and attack during the combat phase in the same order as a normal monster unit would. The only difference is that the Hero does NOT return to the Village Center location at the beginning of their turn.

Each Boss has unique stats and skills and most of them have only one thing on their mind, hunting the Hero. The Boss will move their full speed during the enemy movement phase, trying to get within attack range of their target, usually being adjacent to or in the Hero's location, unless their card says otherwise.

A Boss will attack, take damage and is generally treated like a Hero. The Boss however, has no cost to perform an action, each one is free.

When a Boss is attacked, it cannot take more damage from a single source, than the listed value for the Armor stat. For example, if the Armor value is 3, you cannot deal more than 3 damage to it in a single attack action.

Even though the Boss will target Heroes over Villagers normally. If there are no Heroes in range, but there is a Villager in range, it will attack the Villager and vice versa.

Quick Reference: Info

This shown location would give: -1 Mana; +1 Damage OR 1 Attack Action; +1 Speed OR 1 Move Action.

The Hero card breakdown (Hero Name, Starting Health, Speed, Damage and Mana stats, Attack Type, Hero Skills, Skill Cool-Down Time, Fled Villager Area and Active Villager Area) is shown on section 8.

Quick Reference: Terms

Hero: Your picked Hero character.
Monster: A black or white die that represents a monster unit from a Monster Camp.
Boss: The horror buried beneath the village.
Enemy: Either a Monster or Boss unit.
Deploy: The process of a monster unit moving off of their Monster Camp and into the village.
Adjacent: In a location connected by a path to the main location in question.
Flee: When a Villager flees, it is removed from the village map and placed to the left of your Hero card, it cannot be placed until next Wave.
Damage: Used to activate Attack actions. How much Health a unit loses when being attacked by an opposing unit.
Speed: Used to activate Move actions. Distance a unit can move per Move action used.
Health: Used to activate Rally actions. How much damage a unit can take before being defeated and removed from the village map.
Mana: Used to activate and use Hero skills.
Armor: The maximum amount of damage a Boss can receive from a single source of incoming damage.

Quick Reference: Flow

Wave Setup Phase

Wave 1: Draw 2 Monster Camp cards.
Wave 2: Flip Monster Camp cards from Wave 1.
Wave 3: Draw the last 2 Monster Camp cards.
Wave 4: Flip Monster Camp cards from Wave 3.
1st Monster = placed in bottom left.
2nd Monster = placed in top right.
Check your Monster Camp cards, make sure that one shows a [icon 1] and the other shows a [icon 2].

Combat Loop Phase

Steps A-D repeat until no enemies remain.

A. Enemy Units Move
B. Enemy Units Deploy from Monster Camps
C. Enemy Units Attack
D. Player's Turn.

Player's Turn steps:

Collect Villagers to right side of Hero card.
If Boss hasn't become active yet, move Hero unit back to Village Center location.
Place Villagers on valid locations, one by one.
Reduce cool-downs by 1 for all Hero skills.
If on Wave 4 and all monsters are eliminated, take the drawn Boss card and setup the Boss, then proceed to the final showdown!

Quick Reference: Actions

Attack icon (Damage stat): Spend 1 Damage stat point as an Attack Action, resolve an attack with your Hero unit against any 1 enemy within range of the attack type, dealing damage equal to your pre-spent Damage value. Reduce the monster unit's die value to indicate when it loses health.
Move icon (Speed stat): Spend 1 Speed stat point as a Move Action, move your Hero up to your pre-spent Speed value, in locations. When another action is used, all current unused speed is lost.
Mana icon: Spend 1 Mana stat point as a 'Use a Skill' Action, to use a Skill that's not in cool-down. Then place a Blue Cool-down die on the used skill icon, setting its value to the cool-down value listed in brackets next to the skill name. Actions granted for using a Skill do NOT require spending the matching stat to use the action.
Health icon: Spend 1 Health stat point as a Rally Action, to collect placed Villagers from the village map that are NOT on locations that show a skull icon. The total number of Villagers you can collect is equal to your pre-spent Health value. Place them to the right of your Hero card, they can be placed again as normal this turn.

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