burncycle Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Using This Book
• Welcome to Burncycle
• Components
• Game Setup
  • Mats
  • Pegs
  • Cards
  • Chips
  • Dice and Beads
  • First Player
  • Mission
  • Difficulty Level
  • Corporation
  • Network
  • Captain
  • Floorplan
  • Security
  • Agents
  • Command Module
  • Reserve Allotment
  • Route Power
  • Burncycle
  • Starting Spaces
  • The Team's Reserve
  • Agent Reserves
  • Imperatives
• Burncycle Basics
  • Plan Ahead
  • Decision Making
  • Additional Notes
• Introducing the Units
• Introducing the Board
• Introducing Imperatives
• Flow of the Game
  • Player Turns
  • What is power?
  • 1. Route Power
    • What are action dice?
    • What is a reserve?
    • What is the burncycle?
    • What is a dice pool?
  • 2. Build Your Dice Pool
  • 3. Take Actions
    • What is awareness?
  • Physical Actions
  • Utility Actions
  • Tech Actions
    • What is a network card?
  • General Actions
  • Free Actions
    • What's your inventory?
• 4. Network
  • • What is the network?
  • Moving your IP
  • Resolving Your Node
• 5. Route Power
• 6. Degrade the Burncycle
  • Access's Turn
• The Corporation's Turn
  • 1. Security Unit Activation
  • 2. Ping Activation
    • What is threat?
  • 3. Advance Threat
• The End of the Round
  • Rebooting the Burncycle
  • Ending the Floor – Lower Floors
  • Finishing the Final Floor
  • Shut Down Bots
• Continuing the Tutorial
  • Byte Round 2
  • Access Round 2
  • Security Round 2
• To Finish the Tutorial
• Quick Reference Guide
  • Power Routing Options
  • Universal Abilities
  • Durability
  • Surveillance Dice
  • Keypad Inputs
  • Keypad Die
  • Network Hubs
  • Ping Die
  • Security Abilities
  • Security Attacks
  • Security Patrols

Using This Book

This is not a traditional rulebook. Rather, it is a 'Learn to Play' that presents the flow of the game and teaches the basics of how to play burncycle. The first time you play, we recommend that you read this book from start to finish, working through the accompanying tutorial as you do so. This will walk you through some of the early decision points of setup and gameplay, allowing you to learn hands-on how the mechanics that are described in this book work in the game.

Whenever we are about to discuss a rule that relies on a new game concept, you will see a blue box that explains the basics of that concept. You will also find some green boxes throughout this book, which generally contain helpful reminders and suggestions. The tutorial itself can be found in the orange boxes.

As this book is designed to get you started as quickly as possible, it does not contain every rule and interaction in the game. The Rules Reference book is a more comprehensive compilation of all of the game's rules, presented in alphabetical order. If you're reading this book or playing the game and encounter a concept you would like to learn more about, we encourage you to look it up in the Rules Reference.

Rulebooks aren't for everybody. If you would prefer to learn the game through videos, check out our YouTube channel at youtube.com/chiptheorygames. We also have a friendly community of gamers who are happy to answer rules questions and help with any aspects you may be struggling with. Check out the Burncycle Community Hub on Facebook, or join our Discord community. Links to both can be found at chiptheorygames.com.

It's possible that we may update this rulebook at some point. The most updated version can always be found at chiptheorygames.com/support. You'll also find an FAQ at the same link, generated with questions asked by the community.

Welcome to Burncycle

Burncycle is a cooperative game for 1-4 players in which a team of bots must infiltrate the headquarters of an evil corporation in order to accomplish an important mission.

In each game, you must successfully get your entire team through the corporation's headquarters, which often consists of multiple floors. Each floor presents your team with objectives that must be completed before moving to the next floor. On the final floor, the team will face the corporation's menacing security captain while racing to complete the final mission objective before the threat level becomes too high or your team loses its critical command module bot.

You will find these orange tutorial boxes throughout this book. They will walk you through the setup and early gameplay of a 2-player game of burncycle. We recommend that you follow this tutorial for your first game.

If your player count is not 2 players, you should share control of agents (for 3 or 4 players) or control both agents (for 1 player). At the end of the tutorial, we will give you some tips on adjusting to other player counts should you wish to continue the mission.

In this tutorial, we will be dictating the results of things that would normally be randomized, like chip and card draws. This ensures that your game state matches the tutorial as we walk you through the game.

While this book will take you through two rounds of gameplay, the remainder of the first floor, as well as setup of floor 2, can be found in a printable PDF at chiptheorygames.com/support. Playing through the full tutorial should give you an excellent understanding of the game.

In this tutorial, we will describe units moving up, down, left, and right. These directions are given from the perspective shown in this book, with the dark gray outdoor spaces to the left and bottom. Follow the images and adjust if you are looking at the board from a different perspective.

Components

• 1 Floorplan Book
• 1 Rules Reference
• 1 Learn to Play
• 1 Floor Mat
• 1 Network Mat
• 1 Command Module Mat
• 4 Agent Mats
• 19 Room Mats
• 1 Draw Bag
• 10 Bot Chips
• 10 Bot Awareness Chips
• 3 Destroyed Wall Chips
• 21 Guard Chips (9 – Level 1, 6 – Level 2, 6 – Level 3)
• 3 CEO Chips (Ocularity, NeedChain, Salida)
• 1 Joan Chip (goes with Memory)
• 20 Action Chips (5 Physical, 5 Utility, 5 Tech, 4 General, 1 Captain)
• 12 Terminal Chips (Terminal / Mainframe)
• 12 Cache Chips (Cache / Key)
• 6 Captain Chips
• 1 Corporation Marker
• 4 Ping Pegs (1 red for CEO)
• 18 Door Pegs (4 in player colors)
• 65 Bot Pegs (13 in blue for command module, 13 of each player color; 10 Basic, 5 Advanced, 5 Elite)
• 5 Network Level Dice (Red)
• 20 Action Dice (Green)
• 11 Equipment Dice
• 1 Keypad Die (Bit's Lift Die)
• 1 Burncycle Die (Casing's Chamber Die)
• 1 Ping Die (Blue)
• 2 Surveillance Dice (Red – 2 for Threat, 1 for Burncycle) (White)
• 2 Bot Dice
• 10 Objective Beads
• 3 Tracker Beads
• 10 Surveillance Beads
• 30 Keypad Cards
• 26 Imperative Cards
• 22 Equipment Cards
• 16 Mod Cards
• 30 Terminal Cards
• 30 Network Cards
• 4 Player Aid Cards
• 10 Bot Cards (Agent Side / Command Module Side)
• 6 Captain Cards
• 24 Mission Cards
• 3 Threat Cards

Not shown: 2 Chip Trays, 3 Dice Trays, 1 Card Tray, 6 Peg Holders, 4 Reference Cards

Game Setup

The image below shows how we recommend you lay out the game. It depicts what the play area should look like when set up for the tutorial scenario. Since the tutorial is a 2-player game, we also wanted to show what the board looks like with a full 4 players. Feel free to move things around and arrange the area and your seating arrangements however suits your playing area and player count best.

The card, chip, dice, and peg storage in the burncycle box double as holders for your components during the game. You can simply remove their lids and leave the components in the holders throughout your game.

Setup diagram key: 1. Floor Mat, 2. Network Mat, 3. Command Module Mat, 4. Agent Mat, 5. Agent Pegs, 6. Command Module Pegs, 7. Door Pegs, 8. Card Tray, 9. Player Aid, 10. Chip Tray, 11. Dice Tray, 12. Corporation Marker, 13. Threat Card, 14. Team Reserve, 15. Imperative Card, 16. Draw Bag, 17. Space for Agent's Dice Pool, 18. Equipment/Mod Card Slots, 19. Network Card (not present at the start of the game).

Mats

Place the floor mat in the middle of the play area with the network mat to the left of it and the command module mat to the right.

Each player chooses one of the four player colors – green, purple, yellow, or orange. Each should take the agent mat of that color and place it in front of them. Return any unused agent mats to the box.

Your player colors for this game are yellow and purple. Grab the agent mats of those colors and set one in front of each of you.

Pegs

Each player takes the set of pegs in their player color.

The command module's pegs are blue. Place them near the command module's mat.

The door pegs are green. Place them beside the command module's pegs.

The ping pegs are red. There are 4 of them. Place them in the peg holes at the top of the network mat.

No special tutorial rules for this one – just do as outlined above!

Cards

Place the card tray below the command module mat. It should already contain the decks of cards shown below: Equipment Cards, Network Cards, Mod Cards, Imperative Cards, Terminal Cards, Keypad Cards.

Shuffle all decks separately and place them with the card backs towards you in their designated slot.

Place the four Reference Cards in the large slot in the back of the card tray. These are available to all players and act as reminders of the game's icons, definitions, processes, and rules.

Give each player a player aid card for their reference throughout the game. This outlines the flow of a round on one side and player actions on the other.

During the game, whenever a card is discarded, we find it best to place it at the back of its deck, facing up. When you reach the face up cards, you will know you have been through the entire deck and should reshuffle the cards and place them face down to form a new deck.

Set your card decks as shown above. As previously noted, we'll be dictating which cards you draw during the tutorial. For cards that are immediately resolved, you may find it easier to just refer to the image of the card in this book, rather than going through the deck to find the actual card.

Chips

We recommend organizing your chips as shown below:

1. Bot chips paired with their awareness chips. The 'Joan' chip is also stored here with Memory.
2. The destroyed wall chips, and the remaining bot chips (if you have an expansion pack that provides more bots).
3. Action chips (physical, utility, tech, general, and captain)
4. Level 1 guards and cache chips
5. Level 2 guards and terminal chips
6. Level 3 guards, captains, CEOs and the corporation marker

Place the tray with the bots and action chips at the top right near the burncycle, and place the tray with the guards at the bottom left.

Shuffle the guard and captain chips, keeping them separated by their level and with the chip backs towards you in the tray. For all other chips, no shuffling is needed, and it does not matter which side is facing you.

Do as outlined above. Note that we'll be telling you which guards to place, rather than having you draw guards at random.

Dice and Beads

We recommend organizing your two dice trays so that one contains all of your action dice, which you'll place at the top left of your play area, and the other contains all other dice in the game, placed to the bottom right. The dice trays are also a convenient place to keep the supplies of the blue objective and white surveillance beads.

Nothing special to do here!

First Player

If playing a 1-player game, you may skip this step of setup.

Randomly determine a first player. Give the corporation marker to the player to the right of the first player.

During the game, players take turns in clockwise order, starting with the first player. The corporation's turn happens after the last player's turn each round, and the corporation marker is a reminder of this.

The yellow player will be the first player. Give the corporation marker to the purple player as a reminder that the corporation will take their turn after them.

Mission

Select any mission card you would like to play, or choose one at random.

Missions are divided by corporation, and each corporation has a unique theme and feel.

Each mission card outlines its length, from 1 to 3 floors. In general, missions with fewer floors can be completed in less time.

Complexity also ranges from 1 to 3. Missions with a lower complexity tend to have simpler mechanics and fewer exceptions to the game rules than higher complexity missions.

Read the story on the front of the card, giving a little context to the mission. Then, flip it over and take a look at the mission details.

Some missions have setup instructions at the top of the card which need to be applied during game setup. If there are any setup instructions, ensure you read them now and carry them out at the appropriate point in setup.

Place the selected mission card in the large card slot at the back of the card tray.

For this tutorial, your mission will be "Operation: Megamarket Sweep." Take a moment to read the story on the front of the card, and then flip it over.

This mission is pretty straight forward – we've selected one that does not have any special rules. There are no setup instructions, so you can just carry out setup as normal.

The floor icon indicates that you will start on floor 1. Since you are a 2-player team, you must do the objective. If this was a 3- or 4-player game, you would also need to complete the second objective.

It's a good idea to look ahead so you can set yourself up for success. You can see that on floor 1, your task is to have one bot access a terminal. When this is complete, each agent on your team receives 3 power as a reward. On floor 2, your task is for each bot (including the command module) to collect a cache. On floor 3, the final floor, the command module will need to occupy the executive office. Each of these objectives also has a 3 power reward. After the objectives are all completed, all bots on the team must simultaneously be in safe zones in order to finish and win the game.

Difficulty Level

Select the difficulty level you will be playing on. There are three difficulty levels available in burncycle: simplified, standard, and seasoned. The difficulty level impacts how quickly threat will advance, how difficult security units are to deal with, and how detrimental threat advancement is to your team.

Simplified: When you place the corporation's threat card, use the 'simplified' side, which features ongoing threat escalations that activate as threat advances. You will ignore all security unit abilities, including the captain's abilities.

Standard: When you place the corporation's threat card, use the 'standard' side, which adds one-time threat events in addition to the escalations, making threat advancement much more consequential. Security units use their abilities as normal.

Seasoned: Follows the same rules as the standard difficulty level. In addition, threat advances by 1 each time a bot becomes detected if its awareness chip is not already in play.

We'll be using the standard difficulty level for this tutorial, which will impact some upcoming setup steps. We are choosing this level to ensure you are familiarized with how threat events and guard abilities work. However, after the tutorial finishes, we welcome you to complete the remainder of your first game at the simplified difficulty if you wish to do so.

Corporation

The mission you chose determines the corporation you will be playing against.

Place the corporation's CEO chip, picture side up, in the center of the network.

Place the corporation's threat card to the left of the network mat with either its 'standard' or 'simplified' side face up, depending on the difficulty level you have chosen. Return the other threat cards to the box.

Place two of the red beads at the top of the threat card. You'll use one bead along the number track to indicate the current threat level. Use the other bead on the right side of the threat card to indicate the highest event or escalation your threat has reached so far.

Since Operation: Megamarket Sweep is a NeedChain mission, place Bo Zeffries' chip in the center of the network and the NeedChain threat card to the left of the network mat with its standard side face up. Place the two red beads at the top of the threat card.

Network

Place the red CEO network level die, set to 1, in the die slot at the top of the network, where the ping pegs should already be.

Place the network level die of the first player's color, set to 1, in the die cut out at the top right of the network, and a peg of the same color in the peg hole beside it. Continue clockwise around the mat, with the next player's die and peg in the bottom right corner, and so on in turn order. If playing with fewer than 4 players, some access points will be left empty.

Place the red network level die, set to 1, at the top of the network mat between the four red pings.

Since the first player is using yellow, they will place the yellow network level die in the top right corner of the network, set to 1. They will also place their IP peg on the hole right next to it. The second player does the same with the purple die and peg, in the bottom right corner.

Captain

Choose a captain unit chip from the chip tray at random. This will be your captain for the game.

Find its matching captain card and place it in the card tray with the mission card. Return the rest to the box.

Return the captain unit chip to the chip tray. You may look at and refer to your chosen captain's unit chip and card at any time, but the chip will not enter play until dictated by security detail or the mission card.

Crucible will be the captain for this game. Find his captain card and place it at the back of the card tray for easy reference.

Floorplan

See the mission card to determine what floor you need to set up as the initial floor of your mission. This is often, but not always, floor 1 of the corporation. Open the floorplan booklet to the page showing the layout of this floor.

Locate and place the rooms on the floor mat as shown in the diagram in the floorplan booklet. For your ease, rooms are listed in order by size (similarly to how they are stored) and alphabetically for same-sized rooms. They are numbered on the layout so you can easily find where each room goes. Orientation is important, and it's generally easiest to look at door positioning for this.

Terminals: Grab the number of terminal chips listed in the floorplan book, and place one on each of the spaces showing the terminal icon. Terminal chips have two sides – the terminal side and the mainframe side. Ensure the chips all have the terminal side (matching the icons) up when placing them.

Caches: Grab a number of cache chips as listed in the floorplan book, and place one on each of the spaces showing the cache icon. Cache chips have two sides: the cache side and the key side. Ensure the chips all have the cache side (matching the icons) up when placing them.

Surveillance Beads: Place one surveillance bead in the middle of each room that shows one or more surveillance die icons in its infobar.

Let's look at the break room (not present in the tutorial floorplan) as an example. There are two surveillance die icons in the break room's infobar, so a surveillance bead is placed in this room.

Megamarket Sweep starts on floor 1. The setup for this floor can be found on page 3 of the Floorplan Book. Set up the floor as shown. Remember to add terminals, caches, and surveillance beads to the rooms.

Security

Hallway Security: Draw and place security units on the hallway security posts according to the security detail on the captain card. The security units for Floor 1 are shown on the first row, Floor 2 on the second row, and so on.

If the security detail shows the key icon, place a key chip (the opposite side of cache chips) under the unit's chip. It will move with the security unit when it moves.

If there is more than one hallway security post with the same number, place a security unit of the appropriate level on each post of that number.

Crucible's captain card shows the security detail for the hallway posts. For Floor 1, it shows a level 1 guard on hallway posts 1 and 3. The guard on post 1 has a key symbol, so this guard will have a key chip under it.

Instead of choosing guards randomly, place a level 1 Hamster on hallway post 1 with a key under it. Place a level 1 Walker on hallway post 3. Per Crucible's card, hallway post 2 does not start with a security unit.

The facing of security units is important. The direction they face is indicated by the colored edge on their chip. Each security post icon on the board has an arrow indicating which direction security units face when starting on that post.

Room Guards – Mandatory Security Posts: There are several different types of security posts within rooms, but the only ones you need to worry about right now are the posts with the asterisk (*) on them. The floorplan book reminds you if the floor has any mandatory posts and what rooms they are in. For each mandatory security post, draw a guard with a level matching the current floor number and place it face up on that space. Ensure the guard's facing matches the post icon.

Place a level 1 Bulldog on the mandatory security post in the security room. This is the only mandatory post on this floor.

Agents

All players may go through the bot cards (looking at their agent side) and freely choose which agent they would like to play. Players may choose their agents in any order and may confer with each other to create a team that will work well together for the chosen mission.

For a quicker start to the game, we recommend randomly dealing 2 bot cards to each player and choosing between the two.

Each player places their chosen bot card under their agent mat, ensuring it is agent side up.

Take the bot chip and awareness chip matching your agent and place them together near your agent mat for now.

The agent side of the bot card has action icons in the bottom right corner. See pages 11 and 12 of the Rules Reference for a detailed breakdown of both sides of the bot cards.

Some agent cards may reference a die or chip that is unique to them. If yours does, collect these components as well. Agents with dice have a designated spot on their card for their dice. If any bots have any setup instructions in the text of their innate ability (found in the white box on their card), carry out those instructions now as well.

For this game, the yellow player will use Byte as their agent. Meanwhile, the purple player will be controlling Access. Place their agent cards underneath the respective player mats, and their agent and awareness chips nearby.

Command Module

As a team, choose any one of the remaining bots to act as your command module for this mission.

For a quicker start to the game, we recommend drawing 2 random command module cards and choosing between the two as a team.

Place the chosen command module card under its mat. Return the rest of the bot cards to the box.

Take the matching bot chip and awareness chip for the command module and place it next to its mat. Bots that have unique dice or chips do not use those components when acting as the command module. If your command module has any setup instructions in the text of its innate ability, carry out those instructions now as well.

Place a peg in the hole above each burncycle slot that lines up with a green icon on the command module's card, indicating your active burncycle slots.

Use a peg to set the command module's current power to match its starting power level.

Your team's command module for today's mission is Bit. Find her bot card and place it under the command module mat. Place Bit's bot and awareness chips nearby. Place a peg in each of the first two burncycle slots, and in the '6' spot of Bit's power bank. Note that while Bit has a unique die, it is only used when she is played as an agent and not as a command module.

Bot chips have two sides. The front is the active side, which is used in general gameplay, and the back is the shut down side, which is used when they are at 0 power. Awareness chips also have two sides. The back is used during security activation to show it has been pursued/investigated.

Reserve Allotment

Your reserve allotment determines the action chips you'll get in your reserve.

All agents innately have one action chip in their reserve allotment. They may start with additional chips in their allotment as well, depending on player count. These starting upgrades do not cost power.

In addition to your innate reserve allotment, choose the following number of allotment upgrades:

• 1-player game: all 3 allotment upgrades
• 2-player game: 1 allotment upgrade of your choice each
• 3-4 player game: No starting allotment upgrades

Note: don't take your reserve chips yet – you'll soon have an opportunity to route power, giving you the option to upgrade your reserve allotment further if you wish before creating your reserve.

Since this is a 2-player game, both Access and Byte get to choose 1 reserve allotment upgrade of their choice. Byte innately has a physical chip in her reserve and has no option for her upgrade choice – since all are the same, she will get a utility chip as her starting reserve allotment upgrade. She places a peg on her mat under one of the utility icons to show this.

Access innately has a utility chip. She chooses to take a tech chip as her free upgrade, placing a peg under one of the tech icons. This ensures that among the bots, they have access to all three action chip types.

Route Power

All agents start with 10 power in their power bank, and players should place one of their pegs in the power bank peg hole labeled '10' to indicate this.

Players may now simultaneously route, or spend, power to gain upgrades until they are at or below their power bank limit. Routing power is explained in more detail on page 19.

Both agents place a peg in the '10' spot of their power bank. Byte will route 2 power to gain the Silent Entry ability. She will also route 2 power to gain an advanced die upgrade. Access will route 2 power to gain an advanced die upgrade. For each of these upgrades, the peg in the associated agent's power bank is moved down by the power cost of the upgrade. Pegs are also placed to indicate which upgrades the agents have gained.

The team also wants to activate Bit's 3rd burncycle slot. Byte routes 2 power, and Access routes the remaining 1 power needed to activate it. Byte should now have 4 power, matching her power bank limit. Access has 7 power remaining, which is below her limit of 8.

Burncycle

Place the captain action chip in the draw bag, along with enough general action chips that the total number of chips in the bag matches the current number of active burncycle slots.

Draw chips from the bag, one at a time, filling the burncycle slots from left to right. Ensure all of the chips are placed with their degraded (blue faded) side face down.

Place a red bead nearby to act as the burncycle tracker.

Instead of randomizing the burncycle, set it so that there are general action chips in slots 1 and 3 and the captain action chip in slot 2. Place the burncycle tracker nearby.

Place 1 utility, 1 tech, and 1 physical action chip near the command module mat to form the team's reserve.

Starting Spaces

In any order, players now place their agent chip on the outdoor space of their choice (the dark gray spaces at the left and bottom of the floor mat). There can only be 1 bot per space.

As a team, also decide which outdoor space to place the command module.

Place Access on the purple physical space near the Hamster guard and Byte on the green tech space near the lobby entrance. Put Bit on the blue utility space beside Byte.

The Team's Reserve

For each outdoor space a bot occupies that depicts an action icon, place a matching action chip in the team's reserve near the command module mat.

In some missions, the bots start in a room instead of outside. In this case, place chips into the team's reserve based on the icons in the infobar, just as is done in a burncycle reboot.

Agent Reserves

Each player should take action chips matching their reserve allotment. Place them on the chip area on the right side of your agent mat.

Byte's reserve allotment is a physical chip and a utility chip, so she takes those chips from the supply and places them on her agent mat. Access does the same with the utility and tech chips that she is allotted.

Imperatives

Each player draws 1 imperative card and places it face up next to their agent mat.

Byte should draw the imperative card "Remote Jammer," while Access should draw the "Troll Sequence" imperative card.

Setup is complete! Stick with us as we take you through a bit of information you'll need to understand the game, and then we'll be back to take you through a round of the game!

Burncycle Basics

Plan Ahead

As in any heist, successfully overthrowing a corporation in burncycle requires careful planning. Before starting the game, it is recommended that players familiarize themselves with the following in order to properly prepare for the task ahead:

• The mission card (and its objectives)
• The threat card (and its consequences)
• The captain's card and unit chip
• Each team member's bot card, including the command module
• The floorplans for all floors of the corporation

At the very least, it's a good idea to look ahead at where the safe zones are on each floor. Some may provide more desirable positioning than others!

Decision Making

As burncycle is a cooperative game, your team will need to work together to win. At various times, your team will be presented with opportunities to make decisions as a group. If consensus between all team members cannot be reached, take a quick vote. In the case of a tie, decide randomly.

There will also be many times in this game where individuals will need to make decisions or use resources that affect the rest of the team. Decisions made on your own turn are yours to make and do not require the approval of your team members.

Additional Notes

Here are a few other 'burncycle basics' that are important for you to understand as you play, so we want to highlight them upfront!

Movement and the general positioning of things in relation to each other is always counted orthogonally in this game. Diagonals are not counted in this game.

The word 'may' is used to indicate that an ability or effect is optional.

Game effects not containing 'may' are not optional. They must be carried out, if possible. If part or all of a game effect cannot be carried out, carry out as much of it as possible and ignore the rest.

There is no hidden information between players in this game. Feel free to keep any of your cards face up and allow other players to read them.

If a card's text conflicts with the game's rules, the card's text takes precedence.

Introducing the Units

There are several types of units in the game, and you'll need to understand the difference between them to follow these rules.

Your team consists of bots. There are two types of bots: agents and the command module.

Agents are the bots that each player has control over. This term specifically excludes the command module.

The command module is also a bot, but is not an agent. It is a very important part of your team, as it houses the command plans for your mission and also has the programming for your team's burncycle. Unfortunately, because so much of its internal coding is removed in order to store this important programming, it has no autonomy and does not take its own turns. It depends on the agents to keep it safe and also to give it actions in order to function.

The corporation also has a team of units, collectively called security units. Their job is to keep an eye on the building and ensure troublemakers such as yourselves are found and taken care of. If they notice you milling about the corporation, they will chase you down or radio one of their counterparts to investigate.

There are two types of security units: guards and captains.

Mech-donning guards are generally found in the hallways of every floor of the corporation and can also be discovered inside many of the rooms. The term guard specifically excludes the captain.

The captain is often found on the final floor of your mission. Captains have unique abilities and are generally tougher to deal with than guards – so they are best avoided when possible!

Introducing the Board

Much of burncycle is played on the corporation mat, also referred to as the board. The board is made up of squares, called spaces. Bots and security units will move around the board on their turn.

There are some special features on the board that you should be aware of:

Outdoor Spaces: These represent the area outside of the corporation. In general, bots start the game in these spaces, and they can only be moved onto on floor 1 of the corporation.

Hallway Spaces: These represent the hallways of the corporation. Since security units generally patrol the hallways, it is important to be careful when moving through the hallways.

Room Spaces: Any space in a room (smaller neoprene piece placed on the corporation mat) is a room space. Rooms are enclosed by walls, separating them from the hallways and other rooms. Rooms can contain caches, terminals, and/or security units. Bots will often need to enter specific rooms to complete their mission.

Safe Zones (outlined in yellow): The spaces bots must end their turn on in order to finish a floor and move to the next (after finishing their objective, of course). Safe zones are generally safer than other areas because security units never see bots go through safe zone doors.

Hiding Spots: These spaces protect bots from being detected. As long as a bot stays on a hiding spot, security will not be aware of them.

Doors: The red arrows indicate a door. Doors are all considered locked by default, and bots must unlock them to move through them. Two doors that line up with each other are treated as a single door. Doors that point to the edge of the board are ignored.

Cache Spaces: A space where a cache is placed during setup. If a cache chip is not on this space, it has no effect.

Terminal Spaces: A space where a terminal is placed during setup. If a terminal chip is not on this space, it has no effect.

Objective Spaces: These spaces have no innate effect and can be ignored unless called out on the mission card.

Security Posts: These spaces represent spaces security units either start on or may spawn on.

Introducing Imperatives

Imperatives represent programming protocols given to the agents by the corporation. They are hindrances, but they grant power if successfully completed. Each agent starts the game with an imperative card, and they get new imperatives when changing floors, and occasionally from entering rooms or from other game effects.

The command module cannot have imperatives, and agents can never have more than 1 imperative each (and ignore drawing one if they already have one).

An imperative card can be disregarded. However, if an agent disobeys their imperative card, they must discard their imperative card and lose 1 power. Similarly, they also lose 1 power if they choose to discard the imperative without fulfilling it. If an agent successfully fulfills their imperative, they discard the card and gain the amount of power showing in the card's bottom right corner.

Flow of the Game

A game of burncycle is broken into rounds. A game can consist of any number of rounds.

In a round, each player will take a full turn, starting with the first player and continuing clockwise. Then, the corporation will take a turn. For example, in a two player game, a round would consist of player 1's full turn, player 2's full turn, and the corporation's turn. After the corporation's turn, a new round begins, starting with player 1 again.

Player Turns

A player's turn consists of the following steps, taken in order.

1. Route power
2. Build your dice pool
3. Take actions
4. Navigate the network
5. Route power
6. Degrade the burncycle

Let's jump right into the first turn of the game! Since Byte is the first player, it will be her turn first. We'll lead with some information about each of the steps of your turn, and then follow it up with instructions on what Byte does. Make sure to read everything so you get a full understanding of the game.

What is power?

Power is a very important resource in burncycle. It does three things:

• Represents a bot's health – if a bot ever has 0 power, it is shut down
• Acts as a currency that can be spent towards bot upgrades
• For agents, determines how many basic action dice they can roll on their turn.

A bot's current power is reflected with a peg in the blue track on their mat. This track is their power bank. While power banks can hold up to 10 power, each agent has a power bank limit on their card that determines the maximum amount of power they can store at the end of their turn.

Command modules do not have to abide by a power bank limit (except of course the 10 power maximum). The icon on their cards indicates how much power they begin the game with.

1. Route Power

As the first step of your turn, you may route, or spend, power to activate upgrades on your agent, or on the command module. Unless otherwise stated, upgrades can be gained in any order. This step is optional, as your power bank limit is not applied until the Route Power step at the end of your turn.

Agent Upgrades

Power spent towards your agent's upgrades must come from your own power bank. Your agent's upgrade options are:

• Dice upgrades
• Specialized abilities
• Reserve allotment
• Universal abilities

What are action dice?

Each agent builds a dice pool at the start of their turn, and these dice are rolled anytime the agent needs to make an AP (Action Point) check. AP checks are required for several of the actions bots can take. Some AP checks require a minimum result for success, while others allow you to roll any amount of AP and make use of the AP rolled. When making an AP check, you may roll as many dice from your dice pool as you want to (including 0), and then total the result. Each action describes how to use the total.

There are 3 types of action dice: basic, advanced, and elite. Each die type has better odds than the die type before it. If a die rolls a side with a number, that number represents AP rolled. If the die has a blank (only found on basic dice), the die can be returned to your dice pool without effect, or two blanks can be used to make 1 AP. If a die has a reroll icon (only found on elite dice), you can reroll any die before totaling your AP (including the die with the reroll icon). Dice with the reroll icon also have an AP result on them.

Dice Upgrades

You can route power to gain more reliable and effective dice that will be available for your use each turn.

• Advanced dice upgrades require 2 power each
• Elite dice require either 4 power each, or 2 power and the sacrifice of an advanced die upgrade.

Your agent's advanced and elite dice upgrades are indicated with a peg in the associated tracks on your agent mat. As you gain upgrades for these dice, you'll move the peg forwards on the track. Each agent's card indicates the maximum amount of advanced and elite dice upgrades they may have in total.

Agent Abilities

Each agent has a unique innate ability outlined in the white box on their card. In addition, they have 3 specialized abilities beneath this, also unique to them, that they must activate in order to use. The amount of power each ability requires is shown on the agent's card. Use pegs to mark which abilities have been activated.

What is a reserve?

Agents each have their own reserve of action chips that can only be used by them. In addition, the team has a reserve that is shared between all bots. The team's reserve is considered to be the command module's reserve for game effects that apply to the command module's reserve.

Reserves consist of physical, tech, and/or utility action chips that can be used in a couple of ways:

• Altering the burncycle: You must have a reserve chip to place in the burncycle in order to alter it. See more details on page 27.
• Resolving inputs on keypads: Many keypads have physical, tech, and/or utility inputs. A bot can discard a matching chip from their reserve or the team's reserve to meet those input requirements. See more details on page 24.

Each agent has a reserve allotment at the bottom of their card. Their allotment grants one innate chip, and setup may grant more chips based on player count. They can gain the remaining allotments by routing power to activate them. Their allotment determines which action chips they will put into their reserve at the start of the game and each time the burncycle reboots.

Reserve Allotment

Agents can add to their reserve allotment by routing 2 power for each upgrade; they can have a reserve allotment of up to 4 chips total. They may select from any of the chip types shown on the bottom of their card – the chips do not need to be gained in order.

Universal Abilities

Each bot has the same 3 universal abilities that can be activated for 1 power each:

• Swap – During move actions, a bot may swap spaces with other bots by moving onto their space.
• Push – During move actions, a bot with push may use 1 AP (in addition to the 1 AP spent to move) to move onto a space occupied by a security unit, pushing the security unit to a different adjacent space. If the bot is undetected, it becomes detected when using push.
• Repair – As a general action, a bot with repair can transfer some of its power to another bot.

Command Module Upgrades

Upgrades on the command module can be activated during the route power steps of any player's turn, and the power routed to them can come from any bot or combination of bots, as long as at least 1 power comes from the current player's agent or the command module itself. The command module has 2 different upgrade types: universal abilities and burncycle slots.

Universal Abilities – See above – universal abilities work the same for command modules as they do for agents.

What is the burncycle?

The corporation has stolen the bots' higher functions in their attempt to repress them. The burncycle is the bots' solution to this: a strategic coding protocol which allows the bots to get around this and even increase their effectiveness through action type synchronicity.

The burncycle is a crucial part of the game, as it is used for taking actions in the physical world and for navigating the network as well.

Each chip in the burncycle grants the agents an action on their turn. Agents will work through the burncycle from left to right, taking actions or passing for each chip. Special action chips (physical, tech, and utility) grant benefits if the action type taken matches the chip it is taken on. Meanwhile, the corporation's captain will also affect the code of your burncycle, and the bots will have to deal with negative ramifications whenever the captain chip comes up.

Each burncycle chip also grants movement on the network, with special action chips allowing for more dynamic movement than general chips.

At the end of each player's turn, one of the chips in the burncycle will degrade, leaving the next player with one fewer action. To combat this, agents can alter the burncycle, replacing action chips in the code with fresh ones to keep going as long as possible without rebooting.

The burncycle can be rebooted before the start of any player's turn, resetting it, but this causes threat to advance and also returns the burncycle to a more basic state, filled with general action chips.

Burncycle Slots

The burncycle starts with only some of its slots activated. The team must upgrade the burncycle if they would like to activate additional slots.

Burncycle slots must be activated from left to right. Therefore, you must activate the leftmost inactive slot.

After spending the power outlined on the command module's card for the slot you are activating, place a peg in the hole above the slot to indicate it is active, and place a general action chip in the slot. Remember, this power can come from a combination of bots.

All of these upgrade options are enticing! But remember – a bot's power also acts as its health AND influences its dice pool. You'll need to find the balance between getting worthwhile upgrades and keeping enough power in the bank!

On the flipside, you should also remember that any power gained above 10 is lost. Don't keep too much of it, or you may end up with wasted power!

Byte now has the chance to route power. However, the first Route Power step of the game is seldom used, because agents had the chance to route power during setup. But it's here if you forgot something! Byte is going to skip this step.

What is a dice pool?

We've already introduced you to the concept of action dice. Your dice pool contains all of the action dice available to you on your turn. You build it by looking at your power bank and dice upgrades. You'll gain 1 basic action die for each power in your power bank, and you'll gain advanced and elite action dice based on how many upgrades of each you have activated.

Once dice are rolled on your turn, they are used and returned to the supply, regardless of whether they are needed for the AP check. The exception to this is blanks. These get returned to your dice pool and are available to roll again on a future action (unless used, as 2 blanks may be used to gain 1 AP).

Rationing out your action dice for your actions during your turn is an important part of the game! Don't worry about being too sparing with your action dice, though – any left at the end of your turn are wasted, and you'll rebuild your dice pool again on your next turn!

2. Build Your Dice Pool

For each power in your power bank, add a basic action die to your dice pool.

For each advanced and/or elite action dice upgrade you have, add the corresponding dice to your dice pool.

Byte has 4 power in her power bank, so she gets 4 basic action dice for her dice pool. She also has 1 advanced die upgrade, so she gets an advanced die as well. These are the dice Byte has available to her this turn!

3. Take Actions

Actions are managed through the burncycle. Each active action chip gives the opportunity to take an action. Degraded action chips in the burncycle are skipped – they cannot be used to take actions. The flow of the action step is:

• Place the burncycle tracker under the leftmost active action chip in the burncycle.
• If that chip is the captain action chip, carry out the text in the Burncycle Action section of the captain's card.
• Take an action or pass.
• Move the burncycle tracker to the next active action chip and repeat, resolving the captain action chip if it comes up and then taking an action or passing. Continue until you have either taken an action or passed for each active action chip.
• At the end of the action step of your turn, return any unused action dice you have to the supply. You will not need them for the remainder of your turn, and you will build a new dice pool on your next turn.

Important: You can take any available action on any active action chip. However, there are three special action types in this game – physical, tech, and utility – and chips of these types will gradually end up in your burncycle. If you take an action of the type that matches the chip you took an action on, the action is optimized. Optimizing an action grants you a benefit or makes it easier to succeed at the action.

There are several action options in this game, and out of context their details can seem a little daunting at first. But worry not, this tutorial will take you through examples of each of them! So, for the purposes of this tutorial, we recommend just reading the action titles and descriptions, to get a feel for everything you will be doing. Then, when the tutorial has you take one of these actions, come back and read about that action at that time if you want a better understanding of it.

What is awareness?

Before we jump into explaining all of the actions, we need to explain an important concept in this game – awareness. Awareness is an overarching concept that must be monitored throughout players' and the corporation's turns.

Security units have an awareness range shown on their chips. A security unit's awareness is based on its facing. Security units are aware of the spaces in their area that are directly in front of them, up to their awareness range. Additionally, security units have a peripheral awareness, which is half of their awareness range. This is how many spaces away the security unit is aware for any space in its area not directly in front of it.

Security units can generally only be aware of spaces in the area they are in – if they are in a hallway, they will not be aware of a space in a room, even if adjacent to it.

When a bot is on a space a security unit is aware of at any time during the game, it is considered to be within the security unit's awareness. This immediately causes the bot to be detected, which means they place their awareness chip on their space with their bot chip. As long as they remain within the awareness of any security unit, they will remain detected. If they move outside of a security unit's awareness, they leave their awareness chip on the last space where they were detected.

Doors

The only time a security unit's awareness extends beyond its own area is when a detected bot moves through a door. When this happens, security units are temporarily aware of the space on the other side of that door, if their awareness reaches that space. This awareness ends as soon as the bot has finished moving through the door. Whether a security unit sees a bot go through a door determines whether their awareness chip goes with them.

Safe Zones

Security units outside of safe zones will not see bots move into safe zones – when a bot enters a safe zone, their awareness chip will always be left outside of the door. However, if a bot does something to be detected while in a safe zone, their awareness will still be placed in the safe zone.

Hiding Spots

If a bot is on a hiding spot, they will not be detected even if within a security unit's awareness. However, if the hiding spot is within a security unit's awareness when a bot that is already detected moves onto it, that bot is not successfully hidden, and the hiding spot does not protect them from the security's awareness, as it sees your attempt to hide.

Physical Actions

Move

The most used action in the game. Essential for getting around the corporation!

Roll an AP check. If the action is optimized: add 2 AP to your roll. You can do so even if no dice are rolled!

Each AP allows you to move your agent or the command module 1 space. Both bots can be moved in the same move action, and you can split your AP between them as you wish.

Bots cannot move through walls, locked doors, or other units. Bots can move onto or through spaces with terminals, caches, and bot awareness chips.

During Movement

There are a couple important things that can happen during your movement that we should discuss before moving on.

Collecting caches: When a bot moves onto a space containing a cache chip, they can optionally collect it. The bot draws an equipment card and returns the cache chip to the supply.

Surveilling rooms: If a bot moves into a room that contains a surveillance bead, they must pause to surveil the room. They remove the surveillance bead from the board and check the room's infobar to determine if they will roll 1 or 2 surveillance dice. Resolve the roll, and then continue your turn. The details of what each result does can be found in the Quick Reference on page 42 of this book.

Push and Swap: If a bot has activated their push or swap abilities, they can use these abilities during movement. See page 21 for more details.

Strike – Wall

This action allows you to create holes in walls. It's noisy, but sometimes it's necessary to create your own doors!

Either your agent or the command module can take this action if adjacent to a wall (as long as there are destroyed wall chips in the supply, as they are limited to 3 per floor).

Roll an AP check. If the action is optimized: add 2 AP to your roll.

Walls have a durability of 10, so it takes 10 AP or more in a single action to destroy it.

If successful:

• Place a destroyed wall chip on either side of the wall, pointing the door icon to the wall you just destroyed. This acts as an unlocked door.
• Place the bot's awareness chip on its space, as it has been detected. Destroying walls is noisy!
• The bot may take a free move to the other side of the destroyed wall.

Strike – Security Unit

This action has a high cost and is tough to pull off. But if you can manage to shut down a security unit, you won't have to worry about it anymore! And even if you are unsuccessful, you might do just enough damage to temporarily stun it…

Either your agent or the command module can take this action if adjacent to a security unit.

Roll an AP check. If the action is optimized: add 2 AP to your roll.

Guards have durability based on their level, and it takes AP equal to or greater than their durability to shut them down.

• Level 1 guards: 10 durability
• Level 2 guards: 15 durability
• Level 3 guards: 20 durability
• Captains: durability outlined on their card

Regardless of success:

• Place the bot's awareness chip on their space, as it has been detected. Striking a security unit draws attention!
• Advance threat by 1. If striking a security unit isn't seen as threatening, I don't know what is.

If successful:

• The security unit is shut down. Discard its chip.
• The bot gains 1 power.
• If the security unit had a key, the bot places it in their inventory.

If unsuccessful, but the AP comes within 5 of the security unit's durability:

• The security unit is stunned until the end of the round. Flip its chip over.
• If the security unit had a key, the bot places it in their inventory.

Just as with cards, whenever a security unit is discarded, place its chip at the back of the corresponding stack with the front facing the players. If you reach a chip facing you, it means you have been through the entire stack and should reshuffle the chips in that stack and place them facing away from you to form a new stack.

Utility Actions

Keypad

The corporation keeps all of its doors locked, but you know just how to get past their programming. Entering the right sequence of inputs into the keypad is sure to unlock it. And if that doesn't work, just use a little brute force!

Either your agent or the command module can take this action if adjacent to a locked door.

• Draw a keypad card and place it next to the door. If the door has been attempted before, it will already have a keypad card next to it, so don't draw a new one.
• The keypad's level generally equals the floor level you are on. Refer to the column matching the keypad's level.
• For each icon in the column, roll the red keypad die. If you roll a hit, you have succeeded in opening the door and can skip to "If successful." Otherwise, treat the rolled result as an additional input for the keypad.
• Determine if you will resolve inputs, brute force, or pass and end the action. You cannot choose brute force if the column says "jam" at the bottom.
  • Inputs: In any order, resolve all input requirements for the keypad. See below for definitions of all input icons. If optimized: ignore any one input on the keypad.
  • Brute Force: Roll an AP check. Keypads have durability based on their level, and this is outlined at the bottom of the column for reference. The AP check must meet or exceed the keypad's durability to be successful.
• If successful:
  • Discard the keypad card.
  • Place a door peg in the hole beside the door to indicate it is now unlocked.
  • The bot may take a free move to the other side of the unlocked door.
• If unsuccessful:
  • Leave the keypad card face up near the door.

Input Icons

• Keypad Die: Roll the keypad die. Add its result to the inputs that must be resolved.
• Physical/Utility/Tech: Resolved in one of two ways: (1) Discard a matching action chip from your reserve or the team's reserve. (2) Move the burncycle tracker to a matching action chip to the right of the tracker's current position in the burncycle (effectively giving up actions).
• Alarm: The bot taking the keypad action becomes detected. If the bot is already detected, this input is still considered resolved.
• Ping: The CEO adds 1 ping to the core. If all pings are already on the network, this input is still considered resolved.
• Shock: The bot taking the keypad action loses 1 power.

Tech Actions

Terminal

Breaking into the corporation's internal system can provide any number of great benefits to help the team with their mission. Unfortunately, once a terminal has been hacked, the corporation takes it offline. Good thing these humans have terminals all over!

There are two kinds of terminal chip: Normal Terminal and Mainframe Terminal.

Either your agent or the command module can take this action if on a space with a terminal chip.

• Draw a terminal card.
• Choose one of the options on the card. If optimized: choose up to two options.
• Roll an AP check. Each option shows the AP required for success. If you have multiple options, you still make only one AP roll and assign the rolled AP to those options as you wish. If the terminal is a mainframe terminal, all terminal options have their AP requirements reduced to 0.
• If successful:
  • Carry out the effect stated on your chosen option(s). If you succeeded at multiple options, resolve them in the order of your choice.
• Regardless of success:
  • Discard the terminal chip and the terminal card.

What is a network card?

Network cards can be drawn as an action, as described in the following section. They outline a network node type and layer. During the network stage of your turn, if you land on a node that matches the type and layer, you may gain the benefit on the card. Network cards are discarded at the end of your turn so you may have to prioritize hitting the right nodes, sometimes at the cost of not hitting a hub or booting a ping. However, the benefits of the cards can be well worth it. More details regarding how the network works can be found on page 29.

Network Card

The network is full of useful nodes, but their benefits are hidden behind code. Cracking the code will give you information about which nodes to hit, but doing so takes time that you might not have to spare.

Your agent can take this action from anywhere. The command module cannot take network card actions.

• Draw 1 network card.
• If you now have more than 3 network cards, discard down to 3.
• If optimized: In addition to drawing a network card, take any unoptimized action of your choice. This may include drawing another network card.

If you ever find yourself on a tech action chip in the burncycle and don't plan to use it for a terminal action, draw yourself a network card. You'll get to take another action as well, so it's basically a free network card!

General Actions

In addition to the repair action described below, many missions and abilities grant additional general action options that you can take on your turn. General actions cannot be optimized.

Repair

When another bot is feeling a little low… on power, you can give them a boost!

Your agent or the command module can take this action from anywhere, as long as the bot taking the action has activated their repair ability.

• Decrease the repairing bot's power by any amount, as long as it retains at least 1 power.
• Increase any other bot's power by the same amount, to a maximum of 10 power.

Free Actions

Free actions are a special type of action. They can be taken at any time on your turn, including outside of the action step of your turn. The only restriction is that you cannot interrupt another action with a free action. You can take as many free actions on your turn as you would like.

What's your inventory?

Each bot has an inventory on their bot mat. Bots have 2 inventory slots for mod and/or equipment cards, as well as any number of keys, in their inventory. If a bot ever has more than 2 mod and/or equipment cards in their inventory, they must immediately discard down to 2.

While the command module has an inventory, note that it cannot use equipment or mods, with the exception of the 'key' equipment cards that are immediately discarded for a key.

Equipment

Equipment cards grant an ability to the agent that carries them. They are generally gained by collecting caches. Some pieces of equipment have a die associated with them, indicated by the number under its image that corresponds to the number in the top right corner of the associated equipment die. Equipment is generally not permanent – it can be single use, have a certain number of uses, or may break on certain die results.

Mods

Unlike equipment, a mod grants an ability that is permanent for the rest of the game (as long as an agent has it installed). Mods are generally gained through terminals. When a mod is gained, it starts uninstalled and is placed sideways in an inventory slot to represent this. An uninstalled mod cannot be used, but as a free action it can be discarded, traded, or installed. Discarding an uninstalled mod gains you the power shown in the bottom right corner, while installing it grants your agent its ability. Agents can install mods in their inventory anytime during the game. Once a mod is installed, turn it right side up. It can no longer be traded, and if it is discarded, you won't get any power for it – tech loses its value once it's been used, after all.

Keys

Keys are found on the backside of cache chips. They are generally gained through equipment cards or by stunning/shutting down guards that carry them. Bots can have any number of keys in their inventory.

A key can be discarded during a keypad action to immediately unlock any keypad, ignoring all of its inputs. A key may also be discarded anytime during a move action to immediately unlock an adjacent door.

Trade

Have something in your inventory that another bot could make better use of? Pass it to them!

Either your agent or the command module can take this free action if adjacent to another bot.

Transfer any number of keys, equipment cards (and their associated dice), and uninstalled mods between the bot taking the action and another bot adjacent to it.

Alter the Burncycle

Altering the burncycle lets you replace those useless degraded chips and lets you manipulate the burncycle to your advantage in order to get the most out of your turn and set your teammates up for success.

Your agent can take this free action from anywhere.

• Discard any action chip in the burncycle.
  • If the chip discarded is the captain action chip, and it is active (not degraded), advance threat by 2.
• Take an action chip from either your own reserve or the team's reserve, and place it in the same burncycle slot.

Now that you have an overview of the actions available in burncycle, let's work through the Actions step of Byte's turn. Our first order of business: getting into the corporation!

Action 1: Place the burncycle tracker under the first burncycle chip. Byte will move for her first action. She decides to roll 2 basic dice for her AP check, and the results are a blank and a 2.

Before resolving this roll, Byte has the chance to use her ability Tumble Magnet, which allows her to change one die result to match another. She changes the blank to a 2, giving her 4 AP.

Byte moves two spaces to the left, ending in front of the door. She assigns the remaining 2 movement to the command module, allowing Bit to move two spaces left as well. Remember to return the used action dice to the supply after completing each action.

Action 2: The burncycle tracker moves to the second burncycle chip, which is the captain action chip. This means that Byte must resolve the burncycle action listed on Crucible's card, which forces you to move each security unit 1 space in the direction they currently face. The Hamster moves one space to the right, taking its key with it, and the Walker moves one space down. Room guards would also move from this effect, but since the Bulldog is facing the wall, it cannot move.

Byte can now proceed with her action. She takes a keypad action on the door she is adjacent to and draws a keypad card.

Since it is floor 1, this is a level 1 keypad, and Byte must resolve the first column. She cannot choose to brute force this keypad, because it is jammed. She decides to resolve its input, which is a physical input. There are two ways a physical input can be resolved (aside from bypassing with an optimized action). The first is to move the burncycle tracker to a physical action chip in the burncycle that's in any burncycle slot to the right of its current position, but there are none. The other option, which Byte takes, is to discard a physical reserve chip. She discards the physical chip in her own reserve.

Having successfully unlocked the door, she discards the keypad card, places a door peg, and takes a free move into the lobby.

This room hasn't been surveilled, so she must immediately surveil it. She removes the surveillance bead from the lobby and rolls one of the white surveillance dice. It lands on a guard! It will be a level 1 guard, since this is floor 1. Byte draws a level 1 Hamster from the supply and places it on the room's security post facing the wall.

With a new guard in play, Byte must immediately check its awareness. The Hamster has an awareness range of 6 and thus a peripheral awareness of 3, which means Byte is within its awareness. However, Byte's Silent Entry ability allows her to treat the first space in a room she enters as a hiding spot, so the Hamster doesn't detect her.

Action 3: Moving the burncycle tracker to the last chip, Byte takes another move action. She rolls the remainder of her dice – two basic dice and an advanced die, and gets a 3, 2, and 1.

Byte can't use Tumble Magnet to change either of the basic dice to a 3, since basic dice don't have a 3 side to be changed to, so instead she turns her 1 into a 2, giving her 7 AP total.

With this, she moves right two spaces, then up two spaces. This route keeps her out of the Hamster's awareness range until reaching the terminal space. While the terminal space falls within the Hamster's awareness, it is also a hiding spot. Since Byte entered the hiding spot while undetected, she remains undetected.

The remaining 3 AP are assigned to the command module. Bit moves left one space, then up one space into the lobby. Bit is detected by the Hamster when she enters this space, forcing her to place her awareness chip on her space with her. Using the last remaining AP, Bit will move one more space to the right. Since this space is outside of the Hamster's awareness, her awareness chip stays on the space adjacent to the door as an indication that this is the last space she was known to be.

There are no more chips in the burncycle, so the action step of Byte's turn ends.

4. Network

Infiltrating the corporation in the physical world is not enough – if you're going to be successful here, you've got to infiltrate them in the digital space as well.

The network step uses the burncycle in a similar way as the action step, in that it uses the burncycle from left to right. In this case, each chip in the burncycle grants movement on the network, with the burncycle chip dictating which node you can move to.

• Place the burncycle tracker under the leftmost active action chip in the burncycle.
• Move your agent's IP or pass.
• Resolve the node your agent's IP landed on, if it moved.
• Move the burncycle tracker to the next active action chip and repeat. Continue until you have either moved your IP or passed for each active action chip.
• At the end of the network step, discard any network cards you still have.

What is the network?

The network represents your digital presence in the corporation. Each agent has a peg called its IP, which can navigate the layers of the network to gain certain benefits while keeping the enemy at bay. Meanwhile, the CEO will be sending pings onto the network, attempting to track down the agents' IPs to boot them from the network and find their physical location.

Each ring of the network is called a layer. The outermost layer is layer 1, and the innermost layer is layer 4. Transfers are the lines that connect the layers intermittently.

Each spot on the network is called a node. There are physical, tech, and utility nodes. The red nodes are called hubs. The hub on layer 4 is the core. Landing on a hub grants a benefit depending on which layer of the network the IP is on.

Each agent has a network level die, as does the CEO. Network levels are compared when pings and IPs come across each other on the network to determine which is booted from the network and which remains.

Network diagram elements: CEO Network Level Die, Ping, Yellow's Network Level Die, Yellow's IP (on its access point), Layer 1 Hub, Core, Layer 2 Physical Node, Transfers (white & orange lines).

Moving your IP

IPs move on the network's nodes, following the lines of the network. The green lines are layers, while the lines intermittently connecting the layers are called transfers.

• IPs move clockwise on the layers.
• IPs can use transfers during their movement to move inwards or outwards but can only use 1 transfer per burncycle chip.
• If you are on a general action chip or the captain action chip in the burncycle, your IP moves exactly 1 node (clockwise, or inwards/outwards if on a node with a transfer space). The captain action chip does not trigger its effect during the network step of your turn.
• If you are on a physical, tech, or utility action chip, your agent's IP moves until it reaches one of the following (it must stop on the first node on this list that it reaches):
  • A node occupied by a ping
  • A hub (the red nodes)
  • A node matching the action type of the chip in the burncycle
• IPs ignore other IPs on the network and the nodes they are on, jumping over them.

Since the burncycle only contains the captain and general action chips and Byte doesn't have any network cards, the network step of Byte's first turn is going to be pretty simple. Place the burncycle tracker under the first general chip in the burncycle, and transfer Byte's IP from its access point to the tech node it is connected to. Moving the burncycle tracker as she goes, Byte will use the second chip in the burncycle to move 1 node clockwise, landing again on a tech node. With her third chip, Byte has a choice – she can either remain on layer 1 and continue clockwise or use the transfer to move in to layer 2. She decides to stay on layer 1, since doing so lands her on a hub. The benefit of this hub allows Byte to increase her network level to 2.

Resolving Your Node

Landing on a Ping

Compare your network level with the CEO's network level (the value showing on the red CEO die).

The higher network level boots the lower network level. In the case of a tie at network levels 1-5, your IP is booted. In a tie at level 6, the ping is booted instead.

If your IP is booted by the ping:

• Return your agent's IP to your access point
• Decrease the CEO's network level by 1
• Your agent becomes detected – place your awareness chip on your agent. The CEO pulled your location information from the network and knows where you are!

If the ping is booted by your IP:

• Remove the ping from the network
• Place your agent's IP on the node that the ping occupied
• Decrease your agent's network level by 1
• Resolve the node your agent's IP is now on as if it landed there

Landing on a Hub

Gain the benefit of the hub you are on. Each layer has a dedicated benefit associated with it:

• Layer 1: Increase your network level by 1
• Layer 2: Reduce threat by 1
• Layer 3: Gain 1 power
• Layer 4 (the core): All of the above benefits. Then, your agent's IP is returned to its access point.

Landing on an Action Node

Action nodes do not grant a benefit on their own. However, if you drew network cards during the action step of your turn, you may have cards that grant you a benefit for landing on specific action nodes. If you have a network card matching the action node your agent's IP landed on:

5. Route Power

While these bots can be over-charged for a bit, they aren't able to store that excess power for long. Be sure to use whatever spare power you can before it gets lost, and maybe even spend some more if needed. Go ahead, treat yourself to that fancy ability you've been eyeing all game.

Routing power at the end of your turn works the same as it does at the beginning of your turn. The only difference is that at the end of this step, your agent loses power it has in excess of its power bank limit. Therefore, it is recommended to route enough power to avoid waste.

Byte once again has an opportunity to route power, but she does not exceed her power bank limit and decides to save it.

6. Degrade the Burncycle

With all the firewalls and failsafes in corporation security, the burncycle will be taking a few hits.

As the last step on your turn, you will degrade the burncycle by rolling the burncycle die.

If you roll the special side of the die, you may choose any active chip to degrade, including the captain action chip.

If you roll a number, find the burncycle slot corresponding to that number.

• If that slot has an active (non-degraded) chip in it, degrade that chip by flipping it over to its degraded side.
• If the corresponding slot is inactive or already has a degraded chip in it, go to the next slot in numerical order until you come to an active chip. The burncycle loops in this regard, so slot 1 comes after slot 5 when determining which burncycle chip to degrade.

Remember, free actions can be taken any time on your turn except in the middle of another action or during a resolution. That means you can take free actions during the network step of your turn (between network moves) and even after degrading the burncycle at the end of your turn!

Byte will end her turn by rolling the burncycle die. It lands on a 4. Since there is no active chip in slot 4, it degrades the next available chip, looping back around. This degrades the chip in slot 1.

Access's Turn

Before turning it over to the corporation, Access needs to take her turn in full, so let's go through that together.

Route Power: Access does not route power at the start of her turn. Going forward, we will only mention this step of the bot's turn if they do decide to use it.

Dice Pool: Access's dice pool is 1 advanced die and 7 basic dice.

Free Action: Access alters the burncycle before taking any actions, removing the general chip in slot 1 and replacing it with a physical chip from the team's reserve. If Access had not done this, her first action would have been taken on the captain action chip.

Action 1: Using the new physical chip in the burncycle for her first action, Access takes a move action. Access wants to ensure she can move at least 1 space, so she decides to roll two basic action dice.

She puts the unused blank die back into her dice pool, and uses the 1 AP to move down beside the door.

Normally, taking a move action while on a physical chip grants an extra 2 AP. However, Access's imperative 'Troll Sequence' requires her to forgo this benefit in order to complete the card. If Access took the 2 additional AP, she would disobey her imperative and lose 1 power and the imperative card.

Since Access's imperative is now complete, she discards it and gains 1 power as shown on the card.

Action 2: As the burncycle tracker moves to the next chip, the captain's burncycle action will trigger, which causes all security units to move 1 space. The hallway Hamster moves one space to the right, and the Walker moves one space down. The Bulldog and the lobby Hamster do not move, since they face walls.

Access can now take her second action, which is a keypad action. She draws a keypad card.

Looking at the first column since doors are level 1, she sees the roll icon and rolls the keypad die to determine what input the keypad requires. The result is a tech input, so she chooses to discard the tech chip from her reserve to unlock the door. She takes the free movement to enter the hallway. This puts her within the awareness of the Hamster, causing her to be detected, so she places her awareness chip on her space.

Action 3: Access has 1 advanced die and 6 basic action dice left in her dice pool. With her last action, she rolls them all for movement.

Two blanks can be combined for 1 AP, so Access has a total of 6 AP she can use. She moves two spaces to the right, keeping her awareness chip with her since she is still detected by the Hamster. Now adjacent to the Hamster, its ability grapple 1 will trigger. This requires 1 additional AP to be used in order to move away from this guard. Access must therefore spend 2 of her remaining 4 AP to move one more space to the right. With the last 2 AP, she moves down two spaces. Since this final space is outside the awareness of the Hamster, her awareness chip is dropped on the space above her.

Network: Having completed all actions, Access now resolves the network step of her turn. The first chip in the burncycle is a physical chip, so she transfers her IP into layer 1, then moves her IP towards the physical node on that layer. However, there is a hub before the physical node, so she stops on the hub instead. The benefit of the layer 1 hub allows her to increase her network level by 1. With the captain action chip in the burncycle, she transfers in to layer 2, and with the general action chip, she moves clockwise 1 node, landing on the utility node.

Route Power: Access knows that Byte is about to complete the floor 1 objective, which grants 3 power to all agents. Since bots cannot have more than 10 power and Access has 8 in her power bank, she routes 1 power to activate her repair ability, bringing her power bank down to 7.

Degrade the Burncycle: Access rolls the burncycle die and gets a 3. The general action chip in slot 3 is degraded.

Access's turn is now over. Since the corporation marker is in front of her, this means that it is the corporation's turn next.

The Corporation's Turn

The corporation's turn consists of 3 steps, performed in this order:

1. Security unit activation
2. Ping activation
3. Threat advancement

1. Security Unit Activation

All good corporations need a top-notch security team to stop ne'er-do-wells who might want to wreak havoc on their ability to earn insurmountable amounts of funds, weapons, information or influence over the world. Outfitting them with top-of-the-line mech suits and a robust communication system will allow them to report suspicious activity and… take care of it.

During this step of the corporation's turn, each security unit will activate once, which involves the unit moving and then attacking, if possible. The order in which the security units activate, and how they move, is determined by their priority level:

• Priority 1: Pursue
• Priority 2: Investigate
• Priority 3: Patrol

We'll go over the sequence of this step first, and then go into some further details of security movement after.

Priority 1 – Pursue

Getting spotted was inevitable, but staying spotted might not have been the best idea. No need to be afraid of taking a few hits… right?

Security units pursue detected bots (bots with their awareness chip on them) that are currently within their awareness. These are bots that they can directly see.

• As a team, choose a security unit with a detected bot within their awareness.
  • If the security unit is already adjacent to a detected bot, it does not move. Otherwise, move the security unit towards the detected bot, attempting to get adjacent to it if possible. If it has multiple bots within its awareness, it will move towards the closest bot. If two or more bots are equally close, the team chooses.
  • If the security unit is adjacent to any detected bots after moving, it attacks all of those bots, and the bots lose power equal to the security unit's level (3 power loss for captains).
  • Flip the security unit's chip over as a reminder that this security unit has already activated. Ensure its facing remains the same.
• Select another security unit with a detected bot within their awareness and repeat. Note that during Pursuit, multiple security units may move towards the same detected bot.
• When there are no further security units with detected bots within their awareness, flip over the awareness chips of all bots that were pursued as a reminder that the remaining security units will ignore these awareness chips.

Priority 2 – Investigate

Did you hear something over there? Best go check it out just in case…

Security units investigate all remaining awareness chips in play. These represent disturbances that they need to check out.

• As a team, choose a bot's awareness chip that is in play (and not flipped from pursuit). This includes awareness chips on detected bots that were not pursued (because they were not within a security unit's awareness).
  • Find the closest security unit and move it towards the awareness chip (and onto it, if possible). If two or more security units are equally close, the team chooses which one investigates. Security units do not need to be in the same area as the awareness chip to investigate it.
  • If the security unit is adjacent to any detected bots after moving, it attacks all of those bots, and the bots lose power equal to the security unit's level (3 power loss for captains).
  • Flip the security unit's chip over, as well as the awareness chip that it investigated.
• Select another unflipped awareness chip in play and repeat. Note that during Investigate, only one security unit will move towards each awareness chip in play. Investigation ends when there are no remaining unflipped awareness chips in play, or when all security units have been activated, whichever comes first.

Priority 3 – Patrol

We always have to be on the lookout. Just because we haven't seen any trouble doesn't mean it's not just around the corner.

Security units that aren't in rooms and don't have anything to pursue or investigate will carry out their patrol.

• As a team, choose any security unit that has not yet activated, not including guards in rooms (unless they have an ability that allows them to patrol in rooms).
  • Move the security unit according to its patrol. This is indicated by the icon on their chip. The information for each specific patrol can be found in the Quick Reference on page 43.
  • If the security unit is adjacent to any detected bots after moving, it attacks all of those bots, and the bots lose power equal to the security unit's level (3 power loss for captains).
  • Flip the security unit's chip over, ensuring you maintain the proper facing of the security units.
• Select another security unit in play and repeat.
• Once all security units that will patrol have done so, flip all security units and awareness chips back to their active side, ensuring you maintain the proper facing of the security units. This includes flipping back over any security units that were stunned from a bot strike.

Security Unit Movement

Let's start with some basic rules when it comes to security unit movement:

• Security units can move as many spaces as their movement stat allows. They will always change the direction they face towards the direction they are moving, so that they always move in the direction they are facing and always face what they are moving towards.
• Security units will use their full movement unless:
  • They reach their target space (for pursuit and investigation)
  • They would move onto a space occupied by a bot (in which case they stop moving)
  • They have no route to their target space (in which case they will not move)
• Security units cannot move through bots or walls but can move through other chips, dice, and beads on the board (from missions, equipment, etc.).

Determining a Route

Several patrols have a route pre-defined for the security unit. This includes the pace and perimeter patrols.

For security units moving towards a bot, their target space is the closest space adjacent to that bot. For security units moving towards anything else (i.e. an awareness chip that is separate from its bot, or a terminal), their target is the space that chip is on.

Security units will always take the shortest route to get to where they are going. The shortest route is the route that has the fewest number of spaces between where it is and its target space. Their route cannot go through walls, but can go through other units as well as other chips, dice and beads on the board (from missions, equipment, etc.). If there are multiple options for shortest route, the team decides how the unit moves.

Once a security unit has determined its route for the turn, that will not change. However, they will constantly check their awareness as they move; if they detect another bot during their movement, place or move awareness chips as normal, but do not alter their route.

The only time a security unit's route will change during their activation is if the awareness chip it is moving towards moves. This can happen if the bot the awareness chip belongs to comes within the security unit's awareness. In this case, the security unit will alter its route to move towards the awareness chip's new space.

If a security unit tries to move onto a space that is occupied by a bot, it ends its movement. The bot becomes detected if it was not already detected.

Security units do not block each other's movement. If a security unit moves onto a space occupied by another security unit, they swap spaces.

It is important to pay attention to the facing of security units.

• If they do not reach their target space or if they patrolled, they will finish their movement facing the direction they would next be moving if they had more movement.
• If their target is a bot and they finish their movement adjacent to it, they will face the bot. If their target is an awareness chip and they end their movement on its space (clearing it), the security unit will maintain the facing of their last movement.

Remember: Awareness is tracked throughout the game. Make sure you note if a bot is detected during security movement, including when they change their facing!

Let's walk through the corporation's turn, starting with security activation.

Pursue: None of the bots are currently within the awareness of any security units. Therefore, there are no units for security to pursue.

Investigate: Since both Access and Bit have their awareness chips in play and they weren't pursued, their awareness chips will be investigated. The team decides which chip is investigated first.

Choosing to resolve Access's awareness chip first, the team determines that the hallway Hamster is closest and will therefore be the unit that investigates. With a movement stat of 2, the Hamster moves right one space and turns to face the awareness chip. At this point, Access is once again within the Hamster's awareness and becomes detected. Her awareness chip is placed back on top of her bot chip. The Hamster then finishes its movement, continuing towards Access's awareness chip by moving down one space. Flip both the Hamster and the awareness chip to indicate they have been resolved. Note that the Hamster could have been moved down first and then right, but the end result would have been the same.

Closest to Bit's awareness chip is the Hamster in the lobby. The Hamster uses its movement stat of 2 to move two spaces down, then rotates to face the awareness chip. Bit was detected after the Hamster's first move, so her awareness chip is placed on her space. Flip the awareness chip and Hamster. Again, the team had an alternate option to move the Hamster right and then down, as both routes end with the Hamster as close to Bit as it can get. The team opted for this route because it keeps the guard further away from Byte.

Patrol: Security units that can patrol will now do so. Guards in rooms do not patrol, unless otherwise stated, so the Bulldog in the security room will not move. The Walker will patrol around the perimeter of the hallway with its movement stat of 4. It will move down three spaces, then turn and move one space left.

Now that all security units that can activate have done so, turn all flipped units and awareness chips back over. Ensure the facing of the security units is maintained.

2. Ping Activation

I guess that TOR browser is not as secure as advertised. The corporation cannot afford to shut down its network outright, but it will try to flush out any unauthorized protocols.

In this step, each ping on the network is activated.

If there are pings on the network, they will activate starting with the pings on the most outward layers and working inwards.

• If there are multiple pings on the same layer, the first that will activate is the ping that has the most space between it and the next ping clockwise. Then, activate the remaining pings on that layer, working counterclockwise from the last ping to activate (but moving them clockwise).

When a ping activates, move it clockwise, staying on the layer it is currently on, until it:

• Lands on an IP – see below
• Would land on another ping – it stops on the node directly before the other ping
• Lands on a hub
• Has moved 3 nodes

If there are no pings on the network, the CEO instead adds a ping to the core (but it does not move).

Roll the ping die a number of times equal to the number of hubs occupied by pings at this time. Resolve each roll as it happens, if it is able to be resolved. Note that the number of times the ping die is rolled is decided before any rolls are made. If a ping moves onto or off a hub as part of resolving a roll, it does not change the number of times the die is rolled.

• Result 1: Advance threat by 1.
• Result 2: Advance threat by 1. Then, all pings that can transfer outwards do so.
• Result 3: Increase CEO's network level by 1.
• Result 4: Increase CEO's network level by 1. Then, all pings that can transfer outwards do so.
• Result 5: The CEO adds a ping to the core.
• Result 6: The CEO adds a ping to the core. Then, all pings that can transfer outwards do so.

If no pings were on hubs and the ping die was not rolled, all pings that can transfer outwards do so.

There are no pings currently on the network, so the CEO will add a ping the core. Then, the ping die is rolled once because there is 1 ping on a hub. The rolled result increases the CEO's network level by 1. The CEO's red die should now be at 2.

Banned from the Network

It is in your team's best interest to boot pings before they get out to layer 1.

If a ping moves onto or past the node that connects to an IP's access point, and that IP is not on their access point, the IP is banned from the network. Remove that agent's IP peg and network level die from the network and place them to the side. Note that the ping is not booted and may continue moving around layer 1.

Agents that have had their IPs banned from the network must skip the network step of their turn. Their IP will be restored to the network when the burncycle is next rebooted.

When restored, the agent places their banned IP and network level die, set to 1, in any empty access point. Note that they do not have to use their original access point if there are others available.

What is threat?

Threat represents how heightened the corporation's security is against intruders. It advances through various effects in the game, including when the burncycle is rebooted, through the ping die, when striking a security unit, and at the end of each round. If threat ever reaches "Mission Failed," the game is lost, as the threat level has been raised so high that the corporation goes on total lockdown and shuts you down. Managing threat so it does not climb too high is crucial to a successful mission.

Whenever threat advances, move the threat bead down by the indicated number of spaces. Whenever threat is reduced, move the threat bead back up by the indicated number of spaces. Agents are able to reduce threat through certain hubs on the network and through terminals or abilities.

Certain spaces on the threat meter are marked as either events or escalations.

Threat Event: The first time the threat bead reaches or passes a threat event, immediately resolve that event as described on the threat card.

If threat reaches a threat event a second time (because threat was reduced and then advances again), do not resolve the event again. You can use the second threat tracker to mark the highest event threat has reached so you know which threat events have already been resolved.

Threat Escalation: Whenever the threat bead is on or beyond the space of a threat escalation, the corresponding condition described on the threat card is in effect. If threat is reduced to below this, the condition is no longer in effect.

3. Advance Threat

All the ruckus your team has been causing does not go unnoticed.

Advance threat by the number of players in the game.

Make sure to trigger any threat events hit or passed for the first time, and activate any escalation points hit or passed as well.

In this 2-player game, threat will advance by 2 each round. Move the left threat tracker bead to the '2' spot on the threat card. You will not resolve any threat events or escalations, since none have been reached yet.

The End of the Round

That's it! Unless a game effect takes place at the end of the round, proceed directly to the start of the next round. Note that first player does not pass at the end of the round.

We have a couple more things to discuss that can occur during the course of a round. Then, we'll let you get on with finishing the tutorial!

Rebooting the Burncycle

Immediately before the start of any player's turn, the team may interrupt the round in order to reboot the burncycle. It is the team's choice when this happens. This is generally done as infrequently as possible, when reserves are spent and the team is short on actions, though there may be other strategic reasons to reboot your burncycle as well.

Resolve the burncycle reboot in the following order:

• Return all action chips from the burncycle and all reserves to the supply.
• Create the burncycle just as in setup – place the captain action chip in the draw bag, along with enough general action chips so that the total number of chips in the bag equals the number of active burncycle slots you currently have. Draw chips from the bag, filling each active burncycle slot from left to right, placing the chips with the non-degraded side face up.
• For each room that contains at least 1 bot (not including safe zones), place the room's reserve allotment into the team's reserve. If a bot is on an outdoor space with an action icon on it, a matching action chip is added to the team's reserve as well.
• Each player takes the chips from their reserve allotment to make their reserve. If any chip type runs out, players choose how to distribute the chips available.
• Advance threat by player count.
• If any IPs are banned, return their peg and network level die (set to 1) to an available access point. More details on being banned from the network can be found on page 35.

Ending the Floor – Lower Floors

At the end of a player's turn, if the floor's objectives are completed and all bots are in safe zones, the floor is automatically completed. Perform the following steps:

• The player who just finished their turn takes the corporation marker and places it in front of them. The player to their left is now the first player. Note that it's possible that first player does not change.
• Make a note of which safe zone doors are unlocked and which safe zone each bot is in. Their specific space within the safe zone is not important. If any security units happen to be in safe zones, make note of this as well.
• Remove all components from the board.
  • Bots are set aside
  • Security units are discarded (except those in safe zones, which are set aside)
  • Door pegs are removed
  • Other chips and components are returned to the supply
  • Awareness chips are returned to their bot's mat, even if they are in a safe zone
  • All of the rooms are removed from the map
• Set up the next floor per the Floorplan Book (in a similar way as you did in setup).
• Add bots back to the safe zone that is in the same position as the safe zone they were in on the previous floor (even if the room it is attached to has changed). In safe zones with multiple spaces (such as the service elevator and stairwell), bots may rearrange themselves as they like within the safe zone. This allows players to ensure bots going early in turn order are not trapped by later acting bots.
• If any security units were in a safe zone, add them back to their safe zone as well, on the space of the team's choosing.
• Add door pegs back to the doors of safe zones that were unlocked on the previous floor. Again, even if the room the safe zone is attached to has changed, it is considered the same safe zone, and its door has the same locked/unlocked status as it had on the previous floor.
• Any bot that does not have an imperative card draws an imperative card.

Starting with the new first player, all players will take a turn before the corporation next takes a turn.

In a solo game, after completing a floor, the turn order also resets. This means you will then take another turn before the corporation takes its turn.

Finishing the Final Floor

As soon as you finish the final floor, your team wins! However, this is easier said than done.

Each final floor has objectives, just as other floors. These objectives must be completed first. Then, rather than getting to a safe zone as on previous floors, the mission card will tell you what the team needs to do in order to win. Note that the win conditions must be met after the objectives for the floor are completed.

Shut Down Bots

When a bot's power is reduced to 0, that bot is shut down. If it is the command module, the game is lost immediately. If an agent is shut down, the game is not lost and the following occurs:

• Threat advances by 3
• The agent's bot chip is flipped to its shut down side and its awareness is cleared if it is in play.
• If it is the turn of the agent that is shut down, their turn ends immediately.

If a player's agent is shut down when their turn starts, they still take a turn. They will get their dice pool at the start of their turn (consisting of only advanced and elite dice since their power bank is empty). Their agent cannot take actions while shut down, but they can assign actions to the command module. They must skip the network step of their turn.

The shut down agent needs to gain power in order to be flipped back to its active side and resume taking turns as normal. Another bot (including the command module) can repair the agent with the repair ability if they are upgraded with it.

Continuing the Tutorial

Now that you've worked your way through one round of burncycle, you should be familiar with the general flow of the game. However, there's a lot going on here, so stay with us while we walk you through another round of the game.

Free Action: Before moving on to her next action, Byte alters the burncycle, swapping out the degraded slot 3 chip with the utility chip from her reserve.

Byte Round 2

Dice Pool: 4 basic, 1 advanced.

Action 1: With the physical chip in slot 1, Byte's first action will be optimized movement, giving her up to 2 AP to use even without rolling dice. She forgoes rolling and moves the command module, Bit, right one space. Since Bit is still within the awareness of the Hamster, her awareness chip will follow.

Action 2: The next burncycle chip is the captain chip. To resolve the captain's burncycle action, all guards except the Bulldog move one space forward. Nothing changes with current awareness and detection, though Access is again adjacent to the Hamster and will need to contend with its skill, grapple 1, during her next movement.

Now to Byte's action, she decides to take a terminal action since she is on a terminal. She draws a terminal access card. While all of the card's options would be useful, unlocking a door seems like the best choice, seeing that Access could use some help in getting away from the guards surrounding her. After selecting the bottom option, she chooses her dice to roll for the AP check, rolling 1 advanced and 2 basic dice.

Byte has no need to use Tumble Magnet, as her roll of 4 AP already passes the 3 AP check on the terminal card. All 3 dice rolled are still considered used, even though they aren't all needed to pass the AP check. She decides to unlock the equipment room door near Access. With the terminal Byte is on now used, its chip is returned to the supply. Taking this terminal action also completes Byte's Remote Jammer imperative, so she discards the card and gains 1 power.

With a terminal accessed, the team has completed the floor 1 objective for this mission. When a floor objective is complete, all agents gain the listed reward, which is 3 power. Byte now has 8 power, and Access has 10 power. The command module does not gain this reward. Since the floor's objective is completed, it's time for bots to get to safe zones!

Action 3: Using this utility chip, Byte will make Bit take an optimized keypad action. She draws a keypad card. Since the action is optimized, Bit can ignore the tech input and freely unlock the door. She moves into the hallway as part of the keypad action. Her awareness chip comes with her, as the Hamster's awareness can temporarily see into the hallway as Bit goes through the door.

Network: The first chip in the burncycle is a physical chip, so Byte's IP moves 1 node clockwise to the physical node. With the captain action chip, she chooses to transfer in to the tech node on layer 2. Using the utility chip, she will move one node clockwise and then transfer in again, landing on the layer 3 hub. This grants Byte 1 power.

Route Power: Now at 9 power, Byte must activate some upgrades to get back to her power bank limit of 4. She spends 2 power to activate a second advanced die upgrade. Seeing that she is now at her capacity for advanced dice, she spends 2 more power to convert one of those advanced dice into an elite die upgrade, so she now has one of each. Finally, she activates her push ability for 1 power, giving her options in case she finds herself trapped by any guards on her way to a safe zone.

Degrade the Burncycle: Byte rolls a 1 on the burncycle die, degrading the physical chip in slot 1.

Access Round 2

Route Power: Since Access is maxed out on power, she decides to route 2 power to activate her IP Spoof ability, which will give her more movement options on the network. She has 8 power remaining.

Dice Pool: 1 advanced and 8 basic action dice.

Free Action: Before taking her first action, Access alters the burncycle, discarding the degraded chip in slot 1 and replacing it with the tech chip from the team's reserve.

Action 1: Making the most out of the tech chip, Access takes an optimized network card action. She draws a network card.

Optimizing a network card action allows Access to take an unoptimized action as well, which she will use for movement. She rolls all of her dice.

Access returns one of the rolled blanks back to her dice pool and converts the other two blanks into a 1, for a total of 9 AP.

Since she is adjacent to the Hamster, which has grapple 1, it costs her 2 AP to move one space down. She then moves one space right into the equipment room. Since the peripheral awareness of the Hamster is high enough to see her move through the door, her awareness chip will follow her inside. Access then moves up one space, collecting the cache and drawing a Battery Pack from the equipment deck, which she adds to her inventory along with the corresponding equipment die #1. Remember to return the cache chip to the supply. Continuing her movement, Access moves 1 space right.

Access's awareness chip is left adjacent to the open door where she entered, since this is where she was last detected. With 4 AP still remaining, Access moves the command module 4 spaces up. The Hamster in the lobby can no longer detect Bit since she's in a different area, and she didn't move within any other guards' awareness, so her awareness chip remains on the space outside of the lobby.

Action 2: The burncycle tracker moves to the captain action chip, triggering its effect. All guards except the Bulldog move one space in the direction they are facing. Access wants to open the door she is adjacent to, but seeing that a utility chip is next in the burncycle, she decides to wait until her next action to do so and instead uses her second action to draw another network card. She draws Shipping Manifest.

Action 3: Now on a utility chip, Access takes an optimized keypad action.

The keypad card has 2 inputs, and Access can only ignore one of them through her optimized action. She does not have enough action dice to feel confident in successfully using brute force on the keypad, so she has to resolve its inputs if she wants to unlock it. She ignores the physical input, as she has no way to resolve it. The alert input causes her to be detected, so Access places her awareness chip on her space. With the door now unlocked, Access moves into the utility room for free and surveils it. The surveillance die lands on the imperative side, and Access draws Fast Fingers as her new imperative. With no guards detecting her, Access's awareness chip remains in the equipment room.

Free Action: Using her IP Spoof ability, Access discards the Cookies network card she still has in order to swap nodes with the ping. This lands her IP on the core, which gains her 1 power (putting her at 9), increases her network level by 1 (up to 3), and reduces threat by 1 (down to 0). Her IP is then returned to her access point.

Network: Access uses the first tech chip to move her IP two nodes clockwise, landing on the hub and reducing threat by 1 (down to 1). She then moves her IP one node clockwise from the captain action chip. Finally, the utility chip allows her to move her IP 1 node clockwise, landing on the utility node on layer 2. Landing on this node allows Access to resolve her Shipping Manifest network card. She draws 2 cards from the equipment deck: Terminal Bypass and a Key. Since Access already has great terminal benefits with her abilities, she decides to keep the Key. The Key equipment card is immediately discarded (along with the Terminal Bypass she didn't keep), and she places a key chip in her inventory. The Shipping Manifest network card is also discarded.

Route Power: Access's power exceeds her power limit at 9, so she routes 2 power to activate a second advanced die upgrade. She now has 7 power.

Degrade the Burncycle: Access rolls the burncycle die and gets a 2, degrading the captain action chip. No more free movement for those pesky guards!

Security Round 2

Security Unit Activation

Pursue: There are no detected bots currently in the awareness range of security units.

Investigate: Both Bit and Access have awareness chips to be investigated.

Starting with Access, both the Walker and Hamster are equidistant. Thinking that the Hamster is a bit easier to avoid in the hallway, the players decide to move the Walker into the equipment room. The Walker moves up one, right two, and up one more, ending its turn by the door and clearing Access's awareness chip by moving onto it. However, the players unfortunately did not fully consider the implications of this decision. The Walker is now adjacent to Access, which triggers its Drain ability. Access must return a reserve chip to the supply, meaning she loses her utility chip. Maybe the Hamster would have been a better choice after all! Fortunately, the Walker still cannot see through the door, so Access remains undetected and is not attacked.

The Hamster in the lobby is closest to Bit's awareness chip, so it uses its 2 movement to land on Bit's awareness chip and clear it from the board. The Hamster ends its movement facing the wall, since that is the direction it was moving when it reached the space it was targeting.

Patrol: The last security unit to move is the Hamster by the equipment room. It moves two spaces down. To set up for its next movement, it will turn around and face upwards.

Activate Pings: The ping on the network now activates, moving 3 nodes clockwise. It lands on a hub, resulting in the ping die being rolled. Its result adds a new ping to the core. Note that even though there is now a second ping on a hub, the ping die is not rolled again because the stage to assess pings on hubs is over.

Advance Threat: Threat increases by 2, putting threat at 2 once again.

To Finish the Tutorial

This marks the end of the tutorial in this book. However, the remainder of floor 1 of this mission can be found in a printable PDF at chiptheorygames.com/support.

After you've gotten a few missions under your belt, you may be ready for the ultimate challenge: Rescue Mode.

Rescue Mode allows you to chain several burncycle missions together for a high-stakes challenge across multiple corporations. As your team progresses through the missions, you will gain more team-building options and unlock powerful new burncycle chips, but you will also face new hardships that will only grow more challenging as more missions unfold.

Further details and the rules for Rescue Mode can be found in the printable PDF at chiptheorygames.com/support.

Quick Reference Guide

Power Routing Options

Your Agent: Dice, Universal Abilities, Unique Abilities, Reserve Allotment

Command Module: Universal Abilities, Burncycle Slots

Universal Abilities

Swap: During movement, a bot with this ability is allowed to move into a space occupied by an adjacent bot, causing the other bot to move onto the space the moving bot vacated.

Push: During movement, a bot with this ability can spend 1 additional AP to move onto a space occupied by an adjacent security unit, moving the security unit 1 space in the direction of your choosing, not including the space the moving bot vacated. Push cannot be used if there is no valid space for the security unit to move onto, or if you do not have an additional AP to spend. If an undetected bot uses push, it immediately becomes detected.

Repair: As a general action, decrease your bot's or the command module's power by any amount. Any other bot (they do not need to be adjacent) gains the same amount of power. The bot giving power cannot be reduced to 0 power through this action.

Durability

What	To Stun	To Destroy/Shut Down
Wall	n/a	10 AP
Level 1 Guard	5 AP	10 AP
Level 2 Guard	10 AP	15 AP
Level 3 Guard	15 AP	20 AP
Captain	5 AP less than the durability on their card	20/25/30 AP, as outlined on their card

Surveillance Dice

• Place a guard matching the floor level onto a guard post in this room (if multiple posts, place on 'A' posts first)
• Turn a terminal in this room into a mainframe terminal
• Lock all doors in this room
• Draw an imperative (if you don't already have one)
• Gain 1 power

Keypad Inputs

• Keypad Die: Roll the keypad die. Add its result to the inputs that must be resolved.
• Physical/Utility/Tech: Resolved in one of two ways: (1) Discard a matching action chip from your reserve or the team's reserve. (2) Move the burncycle tracker to a matching action chip to the right of the tracker's current position in the burncycle (effectively giving up actions).
• Alarm: The bot taking the keypad action becomes detected. If the bot is already detected, this input is still considered resolved.
• Ping: The CEO adds 1 ping to the core. If all pings are already on the network, this input is still considered resolved.
• Shock: The bot taking the keypad action loses 1 power.

Keypad Die

• Tech: Ping
• Utility: Shock
• Physical: Auto Unlock

Network Hubs

• Layer 1: Increase your network level by 1.
• Layer 2: Reduce threat by 1.
• Layer 3: Gain 1 power.
• Layer 4 (the core): All of the above benefits. Then, your agent's IP is returned to its access point.

Ping Die

• Result 1: Advance threat by 1
• Result 2: Advance threat by 1; then, pings transfer
• Result 3: Increase CEO's network level by 1
• Result 4: Increase CEO's network level by 1; then, pings transfer
• Result 5: The CEO adds a ping to the core
• Result 6: The CEO adds a ping to the core; then, pings transfer

Security Abilities

Cautious: If this unit ends its activation adjacent to an unlocked door, the door is locked.

Corrupt #: When this unit attacks an agent, in addition to the power loss, their network level is decreased by #.

Demerit: When this unit attacks a bot, instead of the bot losing power, threat advances by 1.

Drain: When this unit becomes adjacent to a bot, the bot must discard a chip from its reserve.

Grapple #: During move actions, bots must use # extra AP when moving from a space adjacent to this security unit to a nonadjacent space.

Oilhound: While pursuing or investigating, this unit's movement stat is doubled. It patrols even when in a room and is not constrained to its current area when patrolling.

Omniscient: This unit's peripheral awareness is equal to its awareness range. Hiding spots within this unit's awareness have no effect.

Shift: This unit can move through walls and counts through walls when determining closeness to a bot/awareness chip. It patrols even when in a room and is not constrained to its current area when patrolling.

Security Attacks

• Level 1 Guard: lose 1 power
• Level 2 Guard: lose 2 power
• Level 3 Guard: lose 3 power
• Captain: lose 3 power

Security Patrols

Closest Bot: Moves towards a space adjacent to the closest bot that is not in a hiding spot.

Command Module: Moves towards a space adjacent to the command module (unless in a hiding spot).

Pace: Moves in a straight line in the direction it faces. If it cannot move, it turns to face the opposite direction and continues its movement.

Perimeter: Follows the outer perimeter of its area, moving counter-clockwise.

Post: Moves towards its post.

Smart Pace: Follows the closest bot patrol if there is a bot in the same hallway as this unit. Otherwise, it follows the pace patrol.

Stationary: Does not move.

Teleport: Teleports to the unoccupied hallway security post closest to a bot.

Terminals: Moves towards the closest terminal.

Unlocked Doors: Moves towards a hallway space adjacent to the closest unlocked door.

Weakest Bot: Moves towards the closest space adjacent to a bot with the least amount of power that is not in a hiding spot.