Guilty Gods Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Objective
• Components
• Decks
• Creature Cards
  • Diagram I: Creature Card
• Summoner Cards
• Gnosis Points
• Game Setup
  • Choosing Decks
  • Drawing Starting Hands
• Initiative
• Renewing Creature Cards
• Divine Seals
• Creature Combat
  • Attacks and Defenses
  • Diagram II: Complete Defense
• Combos
  • Diagram III: Combo Slots
• Special Abilities of Creatures
  • Support Skills
  • Activating Special Abilities
• Levels and Expansions
• Summoners
  • Lilium
  • Umbra
• End of the Game
• Combo Examples
  • Example I
  • Example II
  • Example III

Objective

Guilty Gods is a dynamic card game for two players in which the participants embody ancestral divine entities locked in a titanic duel of power. The goal is to defeat your rival using as avatars a series of supernatural creatures aligned with your divine nature. Each player chooses one of the two decks available and uses their resources to attack the opponent while defending themselves.

The player who first reduces the opponent's Gnosis Points to zero, or forces the opponent to spend all of their creatures, is the winner.

Guilty Gods is a strategy game in which players must use the most suitable combos (combinations of two or more creatures played in a single move) to anticipate their opponent's strategies. Winning requires cunning and great skill. Although both decks work in the same way and use the same rules, each has different creatures and summoners at its disposal. Depending on which one a participant uses, each will have a very different play experience.

Components

• 52 Lilium Creature cards
• 3 Lilium Summoner cards
• 52 Umbra Creature cards
• 3 Umbra Summoner cards
• 2 ten-sided dice (10-sided dice)
• 14 Divine Seal counters

Decks

The box of Guilty Gods includes two decks: Lilium and Umbra. Although both are perfectly balanced, each offers a slightly different style of play, as set out below.

• Lilium: Embodies the primordial lady of nature and life. It is a deck balanced between its offensive and defensive aspects, with a multitude of special abilities that allow recovery of damage received.
• Umbra: The embodiment of the ancestral god of darkness and shadow. It is a deck focused on attack and offensive combos.

Creature Cards

Creature cards represent the entities that players use to fight their opponent. There are two types: Attack Creatures and Defense Creatures. They can be told apart by the colour of the crystal and the power spheres at the top of the card: Attack Creatures are orange and Defense Creatures are blue. Each of these spheres indicates which type of attack or defense the creature uses. It is very important to note that Attack cards and Defense cards have the order of their power spheres reversed. In this way, as will be seen in the section Creature Combat, their powers can be compared directly by placing one card against the other.

At the bottom of the card are the creature's name, its power level, and whether or not it grants a Divine Seal when played. If it does, the Supernatural Seal at the centre of the bottom edge will be lit up.

Finally, most Creatures also have special abilities, either when used directly or as support. In those cases, the abilities are shown in the boxes at the bottom of the card.

Diagram I: Creature Card

1. Physical Power
2. Magical Power
3. Supernatural Power
4. Divine Power
5. Creature Name
6. Left Combo Slot
7. Right Combo Slot
8. Divine Seal
9. Own Skill
10. Support Skill
11. Card Level

Summoner Cards

Each deck has three Summoner cards. The Summoner's name is shown at the top of the card and its powers in the box at the bottom.

Gnosis Points

Gnosis represents a player's divine power, as well as their resistance to the attacks of their rival. Players start with 10 Points, but during the game each time they suffer damage they lose a certain amount of Gnosis. When these reach 0, a player has lost the game. Gnosis Points are tracked with the 10-sided dice included in the Guilty Gods box.

Game Setup

Choosing Decks

At the start of the game each player chooses one of the two decks. It is best to reach an agreement based on the participants' preferences, but if this is not possible, both roll a die, and whoever rolls the higher result chooses first.

Drawing Starting Hands

Once this is done, both players shuffle their Creature cards and draw the first seven cards of the deck. Then they place their three Summoner cards for their deck face up in view of the opponent, and both roll a die to determine who has the Initiative. Whoever rolls the higher result may choose who makes the first move.

Everything is now ready to begin the fight.

Starting Hand Rule: If, when drawing the initial seven cards, all of them are Attack cards or all of them are Defense cards, a player may choose to draw again instead of keeping their starting hand. To do so, they simply show their cards to their opponent and return them to the deck. They then shuffle and draw seven new cards.

Initiative

Once it has been determined who makes the first move, during the game each player takes turns holding the Initiative. That is, once one of the two participants attacks or renews their Creatures, they "spend" their Initiative and pass it to their opponent.

During their Initiative, the first thing a player does is decide which of the three Summoners at their disposal they will use for that round to channel their powers. Then they perform ONE of the following two actions:

• Make an attack move: As explained in the Combat section, during their Initiative a player may use an Attack move (either with a single card or with a Combo) using their Creature cards. Once their attack is finished, they spend their Initiative and pass it to their rival.
• Renew their Creatures: A player may spend their Initiative to discard all the Creature cards in their hand and draw seven new ones from the top of the deck. In doing so, they end their action and pass the Initiative to their opponent. This move can be very convenient when someone considers that their cards are not favourable to them, or when they think it is in their interest to force their opponent to attack.

If they wish, instead of discarding all of their cards, a player may keep one of them in hand (naturally, choosing the one that suits them best). If they do so, they draw only six cards from the deck.

If a player who has the Initiative has no Attack card in hand, they are obliged to Renew their Creatures.

Renewing Creature Cards

The Creature cards a player holds in hand are renewed in two different ways. First, a player may spend their Initiative to renew their Creatures, as explained in the previous section. Second, if at any time a player uses all the Creature cards they have in hand (whether attacking or defending), they immediately draw seven new cards from the top of the deck. That is, if a player plans carefully how they use their cards, they can draw new Creatures without having to pass their Initiative.

Divine Seals

Divine Seals are points of power that players have at their disposal to perform attack and defense combos as well as to activate the special abilities of their creatures and Summoners. Players start the game with no points but, as they use their cards, they can acquire Divine Seals to use later. In Guilty Gods, Divine Seals are represented by a series of counters included in the box.

When a Creature card is put into play, check whether it has the active Seal icon. If so, at the end of the move (whether attack or defense), the player immediately gains one Divine Seal. Likewise, in the case of Combos in which several cards are used, each of those cards that has the active Seal icon in turn provides one Divine Seal.

A Combo of four cards in which two of them have the active Seal icon would provide two Divine Seals to the player who used it.

Please note that the Divine Seals obtained as a result of a move are gained at the END of that move and NOT at the moment the cards are put into play. Therefore, a Seal cannot be used to activate the special ability of the card that provides it, or to create attack or defense combos, because at the moment that card is played it has not yet granted the Seal.

A player who has no Divine Seals uses an Attack card that provides a Seal. However, even if the attack succeeds and manages to cause damage to their opponent, the player could not use the Divine Seal provided by the card to activate the creature's special ability, because they do not actually obtain it until the move has finished.

Each player may have a maximum of seven Divine Seals accumulated. Once they reach that number, using Creature cards no longer provides them with new Seals.

Creature Combat

Attacks and Defenses

Each Creature has four types of powers shown at the top of its card, which determine how many attacks it can execute or stop. When a player has the Initiative, they choose an Attack Creature from their hand and place it on the table to carry out their offensive. In response to that move, their opponent does the same with one of their Defense cards, trying to stop or mitigate the effects of the enemy attack. In these cases, we have a Creature combat.

To resolve these encounters, the first thing needed is to place one card directly face to face with the other, joining the top of both (as shown in Diagram II). Then the power spheres of each are compared (remember that on Defense Creatures the order of the power spheres is reversed relative to Attack Creatures). If there is a Defense sphere in front of an Attack sphere, the attack is stopped. If there is not, the Attack has succeeded. Each Attack sphere that the defender is unable to stop inflicts one point of damage, which is automatically subtracted from their Gnosis. Therefore, if a Creature attacks with three spheres and the defender manages to stop only two with their Creature, they would lose one Gnosis Point.

Diagram II: Complete Defense

One point of damage. Complete Defense.

Naturally, nothing prevents a defending player from not playing a Defense card, either because they have no suitable one in hand or because they prefer to keep them in reserve for any other reason. In that case, since nothing stops the Attack, the defender suffers the full damage produced by the opposing Creature.

Combos

In Guilty Gods, Combos are a fundamental element for winning games. When a player is going to start an attack with their Creatures, if they wish they can use several at once through an Attack Combo. In this way, in a single move they combine a multitude of cards, increasing their chances of damaging the rival. Likewise, to stop an Attack Combo the defender must use a Defense Combo, playing several cards with which to oppose their adversary.

To form a Combo (whether of Attack or Defense, since the two cannot be combined in the same move), look at the Slots that the Creature cards have on their right and left. These spaces indicate whether or not an additional card can be placed on that side. If the slot is closed, it means that card does not allow a Combo, whereas if it is open, it means that another Creature with an open slot can be placed on that side. That is, to form a Combo it is necessary to connect laterally two or more cards that have open slots.

However, not all Combos are free. In most cases, open slots have a number inscribed that indicates the cost in Divine Seals that must be spent to play a combo on that side. Thus, to join two Creature cards whose slots are marked +1 and +2, it would be necessary to spend 3 Divine Seals. Of course, as long as the cards a player holds allow it and they have enough Divine Seals, there is no limit to the size of the Combo they may make.

As in a simple combat between two Creatures, during a Combo the cards must be positioned directly opposite one another, so that only one Defense card is in front of one Attack card. The defender may choose how to position their Defense cards, as long as they keep the structure of their combo move. Naturally, more than one Defense card may not be played unless the cards are joined together, as shown in Diagram IV.

Diagram III: Combo Slots

• Closed Slot: No possibility of a Combo on that side.
• Open Slot: Can be joined to another card with an open slot at no Divine Seal cost.
• Open Slot with Cost: Can be joined to another card with an open slot by paying the number of Divine Seals indicated on the slot.

Special Abilities of Creatures

Creatures have different special abilities that allow players to gain advantages or harm their rival. These are of two types: Own Skills and Support Skills. The former give benefits to the Creature itself that attacks or defends, while Support Skills join other Creatures to grant them additional powers.

Own Skills, for those Creatures that have one (since not all Creatures have them), are those that appear within a white text box with an arrow pointing upwards. Support Skills always appear below the card in an orange or blue text box, depending on whether the Creature is an Attack or Defense Creature.

Support Skills

Every Creature card can be played as Support in any Attack or Defense move. When doing so, it does not take part directly in the Attack or Defense of the move, but it grants special abilities to the Creatures that do, as described in its Support Skill box at the bottom of the card.

As with a Combo, when a Creature is played as Support it can only be part of moves of its same card type. That is, a Defense Creature can only support other Defense cards, and Attack Creatures can only support other Attack cards.

There are two types of Support Skills:

• Individual: If a Support Skill is Individual, it is directly associated with another card that is attacking or defending at that moment. In that case, it is placed below that card at the moment it is put into play, and it only provides special qualities to that card. That is, even if the card it is associated with forms part of a Combo, the Support Skill would have no effect on the other cards.
• Group: If a Support Skill is Group, it provides advantages to all the cards in a move, whether a single card or a Combo. In these cases, it is placed rotated on one of the sides of the move.

It is important to note that when played as Support, Creature cards do NOT provide Divine Seals, even if their Seal indicator is lit.

Activating Special Abilities

To activate a Creature's ability, whether Own or Support, two requirements are needed. First, a certain amount of Divine Seals must be spent, as indicated in the description of the ability itself. In the case of a Support Skill whose cost is indicated with an N, the cost in Divine Seals is equal to the level of the Creature to which it is attached.

The second requirement varies depending on whether it is an Attack or a Defense card, as set out below:

• Attack Creatures: To activate the special ability of an Attack Creature, it must manage to cause at least one point of damage to the opponent. Therefore, Creatures that use more than one type of Attack may use their abilities even if they are partially stopped; it is enough that one of their Attack types is not blocked for their special power to be activated. If it is a Group Support Skill, it is enough for one of the Creatures to cause damage.
• Defense Creatures: To activate the special ability of a Defense Creature, it must successfully stop the attack of an enemy card. Only if it manages to prevent the Creature it blocks from causing damage may it use its special power. It is important to note that to determine whether a defense is successful, the two cards involved are compared directly; it is possible to activate the special ability of the Creature even if the enemy move is a Combo that has caused damage, provided that the Defense Creature has managed to stop the attack of its paired card. If it is a Group Support Skill, it is enough for one of the Creatures to achieve a Successful Defense.

If a Support Skill has the word Automatic at the end of its description, it means that, contrary to what is usual, it does not require a successful Attack or Defense to act. Instead, it directly modifies the qualities of the Creatures next to which it is played.

A skill is activated only once per use, regardless of the number of Divine Seals the player has. For example, if a Creature allows an additional point of damage to be dealt to an opponent by spending one Divine Seal, six Seals could not be spent to cause six points of damage to the rival.

Naturally, it is possible to activate both a Support Skill and an Own Skill if an Attack or Defense is successful.

Levels and Expansions

Since each Guilty Gods deck represents a different deity, it is perfectly possible to use one of them to play against any other expansion. For example, Umbra or Lilium could be used to face any other deity from future decks.

The Level of a creature determines its potential, as well as the maximum number of cards of that same type that exist in the deck. The higher it is, the fewer cards of that type exist.

Summoners

Summoners are the supernatural powers that channel the players' divine powers. Each has very different abilities that help its deity win. All decks have three Summoner cards and, at the start of the game, players place them face up on the table in view of their rival.

Each time a player holds the Initiative, the first thing they must do is declare which of the three Summoners at their disposal they will use that turn and, to represent which one they choose, rotate that card sideways. This gives them a series of powers and abilities described on each Summoner card. It is very important to choose correctly each turn, in line with the strategy a player has planned for that round.

Naturally, each player is free to change Summoner or keep the one they have active each time they regain the Initiative.

There are two types of Summoner powers: those that are automatic, and those that have a cost in Divine Seals. The former are activated simply at the start of the turn at no cost, whereas to use the latter a certain number of Seals must be spent.

A detailed explanation of the use and operation of the Summoner powers of both decks follows.

First Turn: During the first turn of the game, the player who holds the Initiative may NOT select any of their Summoner powers.

Lilium

Sarah: When you use Sarah as your Summoner, you automatically gain as many Divine Seals as the damage your rival causes you at the end of an Attack move.

Kairos: When you choose Kairos as your Summoner, at the start of your Initiative you may draw one card from the deck. This ability never allows you to hold more than seven cards in hand, so if you already have seven, you must immediately discard one of them of your choice.

Astraega:

• Chain of Actions: This ability returns the Initiative to you immediately after you have spent it, whether to make an Attack move or to Renew your Creatures. It has an Activation cost of two Divine Seals.
• Protection: This ability allows you to spend two Divine Seals to reduce by one point the damage produced by an enemy attack. Note that this power does not cancel the success of an Attack move. Even if the damage of a Creature is cancelled, it can still activate its special abilities if it had managed to reach you.

Umbra

Aizen:

• Combination: This ability opens a Closed Slot of a Creature card, allowing you to use it in a combo with any other appropriate card. It has an Activation cost of three Divine Seals.
• Chain of Actions: This ability returns the Initiative to you immediately after you have spent it, whether to make an Attack move or to Renew your Creatures. It has an Activation cost of two Divine Seals.

Ophiel: While Ophiel is your Summoner, all of your successful Attack moves produce one additional point of damage, whether they are individual Creatures or Combos. That is, if you play an Attack Combo that produces 4 points of damage, you would cause a total of 5 points of damage to your rival.

Genma: When you choose Genma as your Summoner, at the start of your Initiative you may take one Divine Seal, provided that you have 6 or fewer.

End of the Game

The game ends when one of the players defeats their opponent, either by reducing their Gnosis Points to zero or by causing them to run out of cards.

• Loss of Gnosis Points: When, as a result of an enemy attack, a player's Gnosis Points are reduced to zero, that player loses the game. Note that effects that restore Gnosis Points always take place at the end of the turn, so they do not allow a player to recover once their Gnosis has reached zero.
• Running Out of Cards: When a player who has the Initiative is unable to put an Attack card into play and their deck no longer has any new cards to draw, they automatically lose the game, regardless of how many Gnosis Points they have left.

Combo Examples

Example I

This move is not possible, since the Defense cards are not joined laterally to form a Defense Combo.

Example II

Support Card: Individual. In this move the Attack Combo has been completely stopped by the defender, who would suffer no damage. The Divine Seal cost of the Attack Combo would be 1 and that of the Defense Combo would be 1.

Example III

Support Card: Group. In this move the defender would receive three points of damage. The Divine Seal cost of the Attack Combo would be 6 and that of the Defense Combo would be 3. In addition, since it has caused damage with its Attack, the attacker could also activate the Support Skill of the Archiquimera by spending one additional Divine Seal.