Cultistorm Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
  • The Goal of the Game
  • Learning the Game
• Components
• Game Setup
  • The Symbols of Cultistorm
• Gameplay
  • 1. Cultist Phase
    • Warded Location
    • Summoning
    • The Cultist Threshold
    • Example
  • 2. Terror Phase
    • Activating Location Actions
    • Insanity
  • 3. Preparation Phase
  • 4. Investigator Phase
    • 1. Choosing an Investigator Die
    • 2. Movement
• End of the Game
• Variants
  • Using a Special Cultist Sect
  • 2-Player Variant
  • Using a Creature Set
• Explanation of Investigator Card Icons
• Reminder

Overview

The goal of the players is to fight the gathering Cultists and to prevent them from successfully completing their vile rituals. If the Cultists are able to summon the Great Old Ones, the Investigators must stop them in order to prevent the end of the world. The Investigators use spells, ancient wards, and relics of bygone ages, represented by symbols, to fight the Cultists and their masters.

During the game the Investigators will search for useful items, seek the help of locals, and learn Forbidden Knowledge. This will provide the Investigators with numerous actions that can support their fellow Investigators. However, the players can only use occult symbols in their own combat phases. This heavy reliance on the other Investigators necessitates strong cooperation. Constant communication and strategic thinking are key to defeating the Cultists and sealing all Locations.

The Goal of the Game

The goal of the players is to seal all five Locations, preventing the Great Old Ones from passing through the dimensional gate into our world. If all five seals are in place and there are no Great Old Ones in play, the Investigators win the game immediately.

The game is lost if any of the following conditions are met:

• If any of the Investigators go insane, or
• If a Great Old One reaches a Location, or
• If, at any point, there are more Cultists in play than the Cultist threshold.

If the Final Act Terror card is triggered, the game is about to end, and everything will get significantly harder. This can be triggered in two ways:

• The first time the Cultist deck runs out, or
• The last Terror crystal is placed on the Final Act Terror card (usually the fifth).

The Final Act card takes effect immediately, and the players have to finish the game in a way specified by the card.

Learning the Game

We advise that during your first game you only use the base game without any variant rules or expansions. Once you have familiarised yourself with the rules, we advise you to introduce the special sect's variant rules first.

Components

Location cards: 1. Name of the Location. 2. Location action. 3. Place of the Cultist die. 4. Artwork of the Location. 5. Short story reference number. 6. Card back.

Investigator cards: 1. Symbol. 2. Support action. 3. Optional effects. 4. Investigator card icon. 5. XP (not used in the base game). 6. Card back.

Cultist cards: 1. Name. 2. Skulls, representing the number of players. 3. Name and art of the Great Old One worshipped by this Cultist. 4. Sect symbol. 5. Occult symbols. 6. Artwork. 7. Card back.

Great Old One cards: 1. Name of the Great Old One. 2. Occult symbols. 3. If you see a symbol here, it means the Great Old One belongs to the second wave. 4. Short story reference number. 5. Artwork. 6. Card back.

Dice: 14 custom dice: 6 Cultist dice and 8 Investigator dice.

Investigator boards: 1. Name and artwork of the Investigator. 2. Melee or ranged. 3. Forbidden Knowledge. 4. Knowledge slot.

Item cards: 1. Name of Item. 2. Effect of Item. 3. Short story reference number. 4. Artwork. 5. Duration symbol (see below). 6. Card back.

Duration symbols:

• Discard to the Item's discard pile after use.
• Remove from the game after use.
• The effect is permanent, card stays on the table.
• The effect is immediate and unavoidable. Discard to the Item's discard pile after use.

Terror cards and Final Act cards: 1. Effect of the card. 2. Red gems. 3. Short story reference number. 4. Artwork. 5. Card back. 6. Final Act Card back.

Other components: Gate Seal cards and markers, Trophy tokens, the main board, Insanity and Permanent Insanity crystals, Terror crystals, Shrine markers, Time markers, Ward token, Protection marker, Terror marker, Cultist marker.

Insanity crystals and Terror crystals are unlimited. The rest of the game components are limited by their quantity.

Investigators are represented by their miniature, a counter base, a badge marker, 2 target markers, a board and a deck of Investigator cards.

Game Setup

1. Assemble the game board and put it in the middle of the table. Look for the symbol on the lower right corner which indicates the adjacent section.
2. Choose five random Locations and put them on their designated places on the board. Place a Cultist die on each Location, on its designated place.
3. Assemble the Cultist deck. From the deck of Cultists, choose the cards corresponding to the number of players. You can do this by looking at the number of skulls in the top right corner. Shuffle the Cultist deck and draw one Cultist for each of the Locations. Place the Cultist marker on the Location card marked by the Cultist-marker symbol.
4. Prepare the cards of the Great Old Ones. Sort out the Great Old Ones of the first and second waves. The second wave ones are marked by an icon in the top right corner. Place both decks next to the board.
5. Place the following components next to the board, forming the supply: Investigator dice (all 8); Trophies; Insanity crystals; Gate Seal cards and tokens; Shrine markers.
6. Set up the Terror circle using the Terror cards. Prepare the Terror and Final Act cards and shuffle the two decks separately. Starting from the start symbol on the board, drawing from the top of the deck, place one face down card on every card slot except the last. Place the rest of the Terror cards next to the board. Draw one of the Final Act cards and place it on the card slot above the Final Act symbol. Put the other Final Act cards into the box, they will not be needed during the game. Place the Terror marker on the card above the starting symbol and place a Terror crystal on the card right away.
7. Every player chooses an Investigator! Players may choose their own Investigator after deciding together with the other players, but they can also decide to draw a random Investigator. The players take their Investigator board and plastic figure, then choose a colour and put the matching rubber ring on the bottom of the figure, in order to distinguish between the figures. Then players take the Investigator badge and two Target markers in their own colour. Finally, the players take their Investigator card decks, shuffle them and place them next to the Investigator boards.

The Symbols of Cultistorm

Star, Shield, Tentacle, Eye, Planet.

Gameplay

The game is played in rounds and each round is made up of six phases:

1. Cultist. New Cultists enter the game.
2. Preparation. Investigators draw Investigator cards.
3. Terror. The Terror marker advances on the Terror circle.
4. Investigator. Investigators perform actions.
5. Combat. The Investigators fight the Cultists.
6. Location Sealing. The Investigators seal gates.

(This is the order of the list as printed; the phase sections in the rulebook are numbered 1. Cultist, 2. Terror, 3. Preparation, 4. Investigator, 5. Combat, 6. Location Sealing, and are given below in that order.)

Certain cards and expansions can modify the rules of the base game. In this case the specific cards and expansions take precedence!

1. Cultist Phase

Every round starts with moving the Great Old Ones (if any), after which new Cultists appear, followed by rolling the Cultist dice.

1. Each Great Old One in play moves down toward its Location by devouring the Cultist closest to it, gaining its power. Slide the devoured Cultist underneath the Great Old One, in a way that the sect symbol is still visible. If, by devouring the last Cultist, the Great Old One arrives in front of the Location, the Investigators have this round to defeat it. Otherwise, in the next Cultist Phase the Great Old One reaches the Location and the players lose the game!
2. Move the Cultist marker clockwise along the Locations as many times as there are players. For each Location it enters, draw a Cultist and place it on the Location face up. The card should be placed on the topmost space of the Location.
3. Roll the Cultist die for each Location (whether a Cultist was placed or not) and place it on the Location card.

Warded Location

Certain game effects allow you to ward a Location. As long as the Location is warded, new Cultists cannot appear there. The Cultist marker still enters the warded Location, but Cultists are not placed.

Summoning

If the fourth Cultist is placed at a Location, a Great Old One is summoned. Look for the Great Old One belonging to the fourth Cultist that has summoned it. The name and picture of the Great Old One can be found on the Cultist card. Place the card of the Great Old One above the fourth, topmost Cultist.

Any time a Great Old One enters play, every Investigator suffers an Insanity.

Cultists cannot appear at a Location while a Great Old One is present. While moving the Cultist marker, ignore any Location with a Great Old One.

If a Location is sealed, no Great Old One can be summoned there. However, Cultists there still count towards the Cultist threshold.

Certain game effects force you to summon a random Great Old One without the presence of the four Cultists. In this case, the Great Old One enters play on the Location of the Cultist marker. If that Location is sealed, put it to the next available Location in clockwise order. Only one Great Old One can be at a Location at a time. In the unlikely case that there is no available Location, every Investigator suffers one Insanity and the Terror marker moves as many times as there are Investigators in play.

The Cultist Threshold

Number of players	2	3	4	5
Cultist threshold	13	11	12	13

If, at any point, the number of Cultists in the game exceeds the Cultist Threshold, the players lose the game! Great Old Ones and devoured Cultists do not count towards this threshold!

Example

The Cultist marker moves three times, because three Investigators are playing.

1. Move the Cultist marker and put a Cultist into play. 2 moves remaining.
2. Move the Cultist marker and ignore this Location, because there is a Great Old One in play at this Location. 2 moves remaining.
3. Move the Cultist marker, but because this Location is warded, you do not put a Cultist into play. 1 move remaining.
4. Move the Cultist marker and put a Cultist into play. Remember that Cultists here are counted towards the Cultist threshold.

2. Terror Phase

Move the Terror marker clockwise to the next Terror card and place a Terror crystal on that card.

If a Terror card has as many crystals as the number of gems printed on it, the card is immediately flipped. Return the crystals to the supply, then read and resolve the instructions. Draw a new Terror card from the bottom of the Terror deck and place it where the activated Terror card had been.

Apply the same rules any time you need to move the Terror marker.

Activating Location Actions

Every time the Terror marker moves to the card next to the Location-action symbol (except for the setup), the players must activate a Location action. The players decide together which Location to activate.

Place a Shrine marker on the Location card you wish to activate. A Location needs to be activated only once: from then onwards, the action or effect on the card is active and available during the Investigator Phase.

Insanity

Each Investigator has a hand of four action cards, can carry up to two Items, and can suffer up to 4 Insanity before they go insane (by gaining the fifth).

Permanent Insanity: every Investigator can have permanent Insanity. This cannot be healed/removed by usual means, just with special Investigator card effects or abilities. If you already have a permanent Insanity and are about to gain another one, move the Terror marker instead.

3. Preparation Phase

In the first round, each player draws 4 cards.

In the following rounds, players can discard cards left over from the previous rounds and refill their hands up to 4.

Return any remaining unused Investigator dice to the supply.

A number of dice equal to the number of Investigators are taken from the supply. These dice are then rolled and placed in the middle of the board, creating the Investigator dice pool.

4. Investigator Phase

The following actions can be performed by any player in any order. Some actions can only be performed once per phase. This phase lasts until all players have passed and are ready for the Combat Phase.

Available actions during the Investigator phase: 1. Choosing an Investigator die; 2. Movement; 3. Use a Location action; 4. Search; 5. Trade Items; 6. Playing Investigator cards as support; 7. Gaining Forbidden Knowledge; 8. Choosing targets; 9. Pass.

There is a special action that can be done outside of the Investigator Phase as well:

Placing a trophy on a Location. An Investigator can only place a Trophy on a Location from their own supply. There is no limit to how many Trophies can be placed on a Location at the same time. Trophies can be placed on a Location even in the Combat or Location Sealing Phases at any time.

1. Choosing an Investigator Die

When you perform this action, you take one Investigator die from the dice pool.

An Investigator can perform this action only once, unless there are still Investigator dice in the pool after every Investigator has performed the action.

Certain game effects can add dice to the pool or to an Investigator. Before adding a die either to the dice pool or to an Investigator, roll it.

When an Investigator takes a die with the (re-choose) symbol, it must be changed to any another symbol.

At any time, an Investigator die can be rerolled for one Insanity.

2. Movement

When you perform this action, you can move your Investigator to another Location. The first Move action is free in every phase, but during subsequent Move actions you suffer one Insanity. Multiple Investigators can be on the same Location.

It is not the movement itself that drives you mad, but the constant exposure to the places invaded by Cultists.

3. Use a Location

When you perform this action, you can use any activated Location action. You can only use your Investigator's current Location. Can be used multiple times unless the Location states otherwise.

4. Search

When you perform this action, you can draw cards from the Item deck up to the number of search icons you have on your Investigator cards. First check for any Unexpected Event cards. You must resolve all of them, if any. From the cards you drew you can then choose to keep one, putting the rest into the Item discard pile.

Every player can only search once per turn.

You can have up to 2 Items at a time (Trophies and Gate Sealing cards are not Items). If at any point you have more than 2 Items, you must discard cards until you have 2.

If the Item deck runs out, the discard pile cannot be reshuffled, unless by an action!

If you wish to track your search progress you can use your Investigator badge.

5. Trade Items

When you perform this action, Investigators can freely give each other or exchange Items, as long as they are on the same Location and do not exceed the Item limit at the end of the action.

6. Playing Investigator Cards as Support

When you perform this action, you play one of your Investigator cards face up in front of another Investigator. The supported Investigator must resolve the support effect. There are also Investigator cards with optional effects on them: you can choose to resolve them as well. After playing an Investigator card you suffer one Insanity and draw a new Investigator card from your deck.

You cannot play an Investigator card that the supported player cannot resolve.

If you have played an Investigator card with the no-draw icon, you cannot draw a new card.

In every Investigator deck you can find regular and unique cards marked with a special icon. When you play a unique card as support, you will not suffer Insanity.

Cards with the combat symbol resolve during the Combat Phase.

7. Gaining Forbidden Knowledge

When you perform this action, you may spend Trophies to grow more powerful. Every Investigator has 3 abilities (as written on their Investigator board) that can be developed in order. Developing Investigator abilities costs Trophies.

1. A level 1 ability costs 1 Trophy.
2. A level 2 ability costs 2 Trophies of the same type.
3. A level 3 ability costs 2 Trophies of the same type.

Place the Trophies in the corresponding knowledge slot on the Investigator board. These choices are permanent!

Developing abilities has the following effects:

• When you activate a level 1 ability: Move the Terror marker one step as usual.
• When you activate a level 2 ability: Move the Terror marker one step as usual. A Cultist appears on the Location of the Investigator who activated their ability.
• When you activate a level 3 ability: Move the Terror marker one step as usual. A Cultist appears on the Location of the Investigator who activated their ability. The Investigator receives a permanent Insanity crystal.

When an Investigator activates a new ability, they must choose any one of the available Gate Seal cards, as long as there are any. Gate Seal cards are not Item cards.

8. Choosing Targets

When you perform this action, place a Target marker on a Cultist you want to fight on your Location during the following Combat Phase. Sometimes Investigators are so powerful that they should choose to fight two Cultists instead of one. Remember to use the second Target marker. Choosing a target is not mandatory.

One Cultist can be targeted by multiple Investigators.

During combat, the Investigators can decide in which order they want to fight the Cultists, but their combat symbols are not added up.

9. Pass

When you perform this action, you either ran out of possible other actions to take or decided to finish your Investigator Phase.

5. Combat Phase

After the Investigators have prepared for the upcoming fights, they need to take on the Cultists and/or Great Old Ones on their Locations. During a combat the Investigators fight their chosen targets. A fight is resolved by comparing the occult symbols.

The fights are resolved one after the other. Combats resolve starting from the Location marked by the combat-start symbol, followed by the next Location clockwise. Multiple Investigators at the same Location can resolve fights in any order.

If an Investigator is at a Location that has any Cultists on it and the Investigator decides not to fight at all, the Investigator suffers an Insanity. (If an Investigator decides not to fight at all when the Location is empty, the Investigator does not suffer an Insanity.)

If a resolution of a Terror card is triggered, the effect must be resolved immediately, before anything else happens.

Placing a Trophy can also be done after the fights are resolved.

Resolution of Fights

During a fight, Cultists and Great Old Ones are protected by occult symbols. These occult symbols must be matched by the Investigators in order to defeat the Cultists and the Great Old Ones.

Symbols are provided by:

• Character abilities
• Investigator cards in hand
• Support Investigator cards granted by other Investigators
• Items
• Location actions
• Investigator die

Investigators spend their symbols to match their target's symbols. Every card and effect providing a symbol can be used only once during the Combat Phase.

Strength of a Cultist

Every Cultist can have 3, 4 or 5 symbols in a fight. Each Cultist has three symbols on it by default. Additional symbols can be provided by the Cultist die and/or the Location. The Cultist gains one additional symbol for each of these effects:

• If the Cultist die is not blank.
• If the Cultist's Location symbol matches that of the Cultist's sect symbol.

Melee and Ranged Combats

Ranged fighters (represented by the gun symbol on their Investigator board) can attack any Cultist on their Location.

Melee fighters (represented by the boxing symbol on their Investigator board) can only attack the Cultist at the bottom of the Cultist column.

You can only attack Great Old Ones at the bottom of the Cultist column (see further details later).

Defeating a Cultist

Once an Investigator has spent enough symbols to defeat an enemy in a fight, they receive a Trophy matching the Cultist's sect symbol from the supply, if there are any. Some special Cultists do not have symbols: in this case, Investigators do not get Trophies.

After defeating an enemy, put the card in the Cultist discard pile!

The Investigator who resolved the fight discards the Investigator cards used, returning any Investigator cards to their owner's discard pile, returns the Investigator die to the supply, and discards any Items (if instructed).

Fighting the Awakened Great Old Ones

The Investigators can only fight a Great Old One if it is the only creature at a Location.

Combat rules apply to the Great Old One (see Combat Phase above), only with a few differences:

• Investigators fighting a Great Old One suffer one Insanity at the beginning of the combat.
• Each devoured Cultist gives its sect symbol to the Great Old One, making it immensely powerful compared to the Cultists.

Example: here the Great Old One has 9 symbols: 5 from the card, 2 devoured Cultists, 1 Cultist die, and 1 Location symbol.

After Defeating a Great Old One

Put the Great Old One's card back in its Great Old One pile. Great Old Ones are not removed from the game, as they might return later. After a victory against a Great Old One, the Location the fight took place on is automatically sealed, and all the Trophies on it are moved back into the supply (see Location Sealing Phase below). If the Location was sealed by defeating a Great Old One, the Location's Gate Seal card is not required.

6. Location Sealing Phase

To win the game, the Investigators need to seal all the Locations in play.

Sealing a Location has conditions:

1. The Investigators need to collect as many Trophies as there are players.
2. The Trophies must be placed at the Location.
3. The Trophies placed must have the same symbol as the Location.
4. The Investigators need to have the Gate Seal corresponding to the Location. This can be acquired by gaining Forbidden Knowledge (see the previous part).
5. The Locations must not have a Great Old One on them.

Investigators place the Trophies from their own supplies. Any number of Trophies can be placed during any phase (Investigator, Combat, or Sealing). To permanently seal a Location, the Investigator who has the seal has to be present on the Location that fulfils all five of the criteria listed above.

If there are any Cultists at a Location when the sealing action happens, the Investigator who performs the action suffers as many insanities as there are Cultists. Otherwise there are no ill effects when sealing a Location.

Heroic sacrifice: If an Investigator goes insane while sealing the fifth and final Location, the Investigators win the game instead of losing it!

After a Location has been successfully sealed, all Trophies on it are returned to the supply.

Some Advice for a Great Game Experience

The primary goal of Cultistorm is for everyone to have a good time. We would like to give you some tips on how to play a cooperative game:

• It is not worthwhile to ruin your game because of a small rule error. Find a solution that is acceptable to everyone, and then, after the game, you can check the exact rules.
• Listen to everyone. A more experienced player might be able to find a solution faster than the rest of the group. Nevertheless, play the game as a team: maybe it will not be perfect, or maybe there will be a better outcome. Listen to each player's ideas.
• If a support card can be played with different outcomes, decide beforehand who is to have the deciding vote: the supporter or the supported.
• About replay in the Investigation Phase: during planning, you can safely take Investigator dice, play Action cards, and place Target markers to preview your options. But if you do anything that has direct consequences - for example, drawing a new card - that card can no longer be returned.

End of the Game

If the Final Act Terror card is triggered, the game is about to end and everything will get significantly harder. This can be triggered in two ways:

• The first time the Cultist deck runs out
• If the last Terror crystal is placed on the Final Act Terror card (usually the fifth)

The Final Act card takes effect immediately, and the players have to finish the game in a way specified by the card.

Whichever effect triggers the end game, flip the Final Act card face up, read the text, and resolve it. The resolution of the Final Act card has immediate effects on the game: for example, a Great Old One is usually summoned.

If a second wave Great Old One enters play, it can do so even if another Great Old One is already present at a Location. The Investigators have to defeat both of them.

If the Cultist Deck runs out, reshuffle it.

The Investigators win:

• If all five Locations are sealed and there are no Great Old Ones in play.

The game is lost if any of these happen:

• An Investigator goes insane.
• A Great Old One reaches a Location card.
• The number of Cultists exceeds the Cultist threshold.
• The Investigators do not manage to seal all the Locations before they defeat every Great Old One after the activation of the Final Act card.

Variants

Using a Special Cultist Sect

If you would like to make the game more difficult and varied, you can also use special Cultist sects. There is one such deck in the base game, but the expansions and the promo sets add further sets to the world of Cultistorm.

We suggest that you use no more than one of the special Cultist sects during a game, because these Cultists also have special actions and effects which make fighting them more difficult.

Modified setup. During setup, after having assembled the Cultist deck according to the third step, randomly remove Cultist cards from the deck corresponding to the number of players and replace them with the Cultists of the special Cultist sect of your choice. Place the Great Old One belonging to the sect separately next to the board - do not shuffle it in with the other Great Old Ones!

If, as a consequence of an effect, a Great Old One is summoned while a special Cultist is in play, summon the Great Old One belonging to the special sect (if not yet in play). Otherwise, summon a regular Great Old One. It is also possible that it will be summoned multiple times during a game.

Naturally, more experienced players looking for more challenges can also play with multiple special Cultist sects. In this case, remove Cultist card sets from the deck for each special sect you want to play and replace them with special Cultist card sets.

2-Player Variant

Modify the base rules with the following:

Setup. All Investigators count as ranged for purposes of fighting.

Rules:

• In every Cultist Phase you move the Cultist marker three times instead of two.
• The hand limit of Investigators is five instead of four.
• There are three Investigator dice in the pool instead of two.
• Sealing a Location requires three Trophies instead of two.

Using a Creature Set

If you want to play with one or more Cultist's Creature card set, randomly remove five Cultist cards from the Cultist deck for each Creature set, and replace them with the Creature cards. You can also combine the special Cultist sect and creatures in the same game - but be aware, every additional creature or Cultist set will make the game increasingly difficult.

Explanation of Investigator Card Icons

• Special character cards. Playing them does not give you any Insanity.
• When you are searching, you can choose from as many Item cards as you have this symbol in your hand.
• The player who received the support can use the effect of the card in their own combat round.
• After playing this support, the Investigator who played it cannot draw a new card.
• Ignore the rest of the icons on the cards.

Reminder

• Every Investigator can suffer up to four Insanity before they go insane (by gaining the fifth).
• Every Investigator suffers one Insanity when a Great Old One enters play.
• If you do not fight, move the Terror marker and suffer Insanity (but only suffer the Insanity if there are Cultists at your Investigator's Location).
• If you fight a Great Old One, suffer one Insanity.
• The Item limit is 2. Trophies and Gate Sealing cards are not Items.