Handy Brawl
Handy Brawl Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- Components
- Setup
- Turn Sequence
- General Rules
- Icons
- Huntress
- Vampire and the Army of Undead
- The Pyromancer
- Spider Swarm
- Werewolf
- Blood Demon
- The Beastmaster
- The Sentient Verdancy
- The Assassin - Hero
- The Tangled Hair – Monster
- The Pied Piper – Hero
- The Circus Troupe – Monster
- The Monk – Hero
- The Ooze – Monster
- Characters
- Additional Content
Components
Game features 45 character cards divided into different character sets, each having its own unique color and symbol, and 10 reference cards. HERO sets consist of 5 cards each. MONSTER sets consist of 4 cards each.
Setup
What can I look at?
- There is no hidden information in Handy Brawl. You may look at any card whenever you want. Just remember not to change their rotation, side nor position when doing so!
Cards
- There are 2 different card types – HERO and MONSTER cards.
- You will control HERO cards. They are your way of winning the game.
- MONSTER cards on the other hand will try to kill you. You can't control them, but their actions are programmed and predictable so you'll know what's coming and you'll be able to prepare for it.
- Each card in the game is double sided, with each side having 2 separate parts (top and bottom), i.e. every single card has 4 different Sections.
- The top section of currently visible side of the card is referred to as the Active Section.
- Each section shows some Icons which represent Actions a HERO or a MONSTER will perform during the game.
Goal of the game
Goal of the game is to defeat all the MONSTER cards by rotating them so that they are all exhausted (the empty health icon; this icon will look differently depending on the character set). When all the MONSTER cards are out of health, you win the game – see Checking endgame conditions.
Ready? Great! Just follow my instructions and you will be fine
- Pick one HERO and one MONSTER card set (each card set has a different border color and set icon in top left corner). If this is your first Handy Brawl, you better choose the Warrior (5 blue cards) as your HERO and Ogre (4 brown cards) as your enemy, otherwise things may get nasty…
- Found all the cards? Mash them into a single deck, but make sure all of them are rotated so that a circle is visible in the top right corner. Now give them a nice shuffle! If you want to make things easier, make sure that a HERO card is on top.
- Take all the cards in your hand. You can start the game. Note that after this point, the deck is no longer shuffled and you will loop through the cards one by one until you either win or lose.
- It's best to keep the cards fanned out, so that you can easily see the icons of all the cards and prepare for upcoming hazards.
Turn Sequence
The game consists of a series of turns. Each turn is divided into 3 simple steps:
- Resolving top card of the deck.
- Moving top card to the bottom of the deck.
- Checking endgame conditions.
You will repeat those 3 steps until you defeat the monster or get defeated yourself. See how easy it is? Now let's look into the details.
1. Resolving Top Card
- Every turn you must resolve the top card of the deck. To do it, you will activate one row of icons pointed by a white stripe. Icons in a row are activated one by one from left to right.
- To resolve a HERO card, you may pick ANY ONE row of actions pointed by white stripe and activate them. Performing an action as the HERO is optional, unless an icon has an additional mandatory marker next to it (in that case you must perform the action).
- To resolve a MONSTER card, you must pick the FIRST row of actions pointed by a white stripe, which when resolved would change the state of any other card in the deck at least temporarily. If none of the actions in a row would change anything in the game, do nothing and move to 2nd step. (When checking if an action would change something, ignore the reactions).
Resolving a HERO card (example)
There are 2 rows to choose from. First – consisting of two actions. Second – consisting of two other actions. Player may choose exactly one row of actions starting with a white stripe. In that case HERO may either perform one action or the other. Both of these actions are optional, but will result in rotating the card (Rotate), which is mandatory. Player may also not choose any row, but that would be a wasteful decision.
Resolving a MONSTER card (example)
To resolve a MONSTER card, you must pick FIRST row of actions pointed by a white stripe which when resolved would change the state of any other card. In this example there are 2 white stripes:
- First starts with an action targeting MONSTER cards, but there are no other MONSTER cards in the deck. Choosing this group would have no effect on other cards so it is skipped.
- Second starts with an action which targets the closest non-HERO card in range 7. There are multiple valid targets so this row of icons is activated. Monster targets the closest healthy hero card. Lastly, Rotate is activated which concludes the activation of the card.
2. Moving Top Card to the back
- Simply move the top card to the bottom of the deck. (Example: a HERO card becomes wounded after rotation and a MONSTER card is moved to the bottom of the deck. The visible section after rotating is the Inactive section.)
3. Checking endgame conditions
- HERO won – All the MONSTER cards are exhausted.
- You win when all the MONSTER cards are exhausted.
- You lose when:
- All the HERO cards are exhausted.
- In a rare occasion in which all cards are exhausted (consider this a thematic win).
- HERO lost – All the HERO cards are exhausted.
General Rules
Health
Most cards in the game have a health level associated with every section of that card. The life distribution may vary between sets, but there are 3 main health levels depicted by health icons. Those icons are of different shape and colors to distinguish cards of different sets, but hold exactly the same information. The rulebook may use those health indicators interchangeably. If you see any health icon, it refers to the health level information and not a specific set.
- Healthy – Full health icon
- Wounded – Half-empty health icon
- Exhausted – Empty health icon
Health level transition: Healthy → (1 damage) → Wounded → (1 damage) → Exhausted.
Damage
Whenever a card is dealt damage, find a section with a lower life level and rotate it to that section. If there are multiple sections with the same health level to choose from, you can pick any of them (no matter if it is a HERO or MONSTER card). You cannot deal damage to cards that are already exhausted. If not stated otherwise, dealing damage means dealing exactly 1 damage.
If multiple targets are dealt damage at the same time, start resolving it from the ones closest to the bottom of the deck.
There are various reactions that may prevent damage, e.g. Block.
Allies and Enemies
Some rules may refer to allies and enemies. Allies are cards of the same set, while enemies are cards of different sets.
Targeting
Each Action in the game follows the same targeting rules which is related to that icon's background:
- White background – the action can target any card (in accordance to standard rules of that action).
- Black background – the action can target only enemies (in addition to the standard rules of that action).
- Other background (always identical to set color of the card) – the action can target only allies (in addition to the standard rules of that action).
A card can NEVER target itself!
Important! The only cases of a card interacting with itself is with Rotate, Flip and Block actions.
Nested activations
Whenever a card is activated, treat it as a top card of the deck. For the remainder of STEP 1 of the turn the cards above the active one cannot be interacted with (they cannot be targeted and cannot use their reactions nor features, they are still taken into consideration when e.g. checking conditions of other cards).
Icons
Icons described in this section are shared between multiple HEROES and MONSTERS. Knowing them is essential to playing the game.
The basic icons fall into 4 basic categories:
- Actions – Those icons are mostly activated on the top card of the deck or as a result of activating a Reaction. They are the most common way you will be interacting with the cards.
- Reactions (gold background) – Those icons can be activated in various situations, but exclusively when being in the middle of the deck, thus a Reaction can never be activated on the top card.
- Conditions (red background) – Those icons describe a cost or condition which must be fulfilled in order to activate the action row pointed by it.
- Features (diamond-shaped icons) – Those icons introduce various passive abilities.
The same icons may appear on both HERO and MONSTER cards, however they may differ in how they work. If an explanation starts with "HERO" or "MONSTER" keywords, it explains how the card should be resolved if found on HERO or MONSTER card respectively.
1. Actions
Below descriptions don't take into consideration icon background and describe general rules of that actions. If a description mentions "choose any card", the icon background may change its meaning to e.g. "choose any ally card" (see Targeting).
Quicken & Delay
Those actions appear only on Hero cards. The number next to them references action power (rather than action range).
- Quicken - Move target card up to X spaces towards the front of the deck (a quickened card can never be moved in front of the active one).
- Delay - Move target card up to X spaces towards the bottom of the deck (bottom of the deck is the furthest it can go).
Example: HERO chooses to quicken the highlighted card 2 spaces toward the front of the deck. (HERO might have chosen any card in the deck except for itself and the ones with the Weight feature.)
Example: HERO chooses to delay the highlighted card 2 spaces towards the bottom of the deck. (HERO might have chosen any card in the deck except for itself and the ones with the Weight feature.)
Push & Pull
Those actions appear only on Monster cards. The number next to them references action range.
- Pull – Move the furthest card in range X behind the active one. In case of pulling HERO cards, don't target exhausted enemies.
- Push – Move the closest card in range X to the bottom of the deck.
Examples:
- MONSTER chooses furthest ally card in range and pulls it to the 2nd place.
- MONSTER chooses furthest non-exhausted enemy card in range and pulls it to the 2nd place in the deck (in order to attack it in the next action).
- MONSTER chooses the closest enemy card in range and pushes it to the end of the deck.
Hit
- HERO – Choose any card in range X and damage it.
- MONSTER – Choose the closest non-exhausted card in range X and damage it.
Example: 1. MONSTER attacks the closest non-exhausted enemy card in range. 2. After the attack HERO card becomes wounded. 3. Next steps would be to move the top card to the back of the deck. (Not shown in this example.)
Heal
- HERO – Choose any wounded or exhausted card in the deck and rotate it to its starting position (circle in top right corner).
- MONSTER – Choose the closest wounded or exhausted card in the deck and rotate it to its starting position.
Example: A card has been restored to its initial position (dot in top right corner).
Rotate
Rotate this card, so that its bottom section becomes an active one.
Double actions
Any two consecutive actions may be separated by an unequal sign. Those are considered to be 2 separate actions, meaning they are activated independent from each other and one or both of them can be skipped. However, if both of them are activated, the second action's target must be closer to the top of the deck than first action's target.
Example: MONSTER card is attacking twice a HERO card in front of it.
2. Reactions – Gold Background
Reactions are usually followed by some actions. In that case if a reaction is activated, activate all actions pointed by the arrow according to standard rules of 1st step of the turn (from left to right, one by one and without placing the card at the bottom of the deck). After resolving a reaction, don't change that card's position, unless the rules specifically tell you so.
Block
Can be activated in response to a Hit action (damage).
- Hero – May activate any one Block that is in range of the attack to negate received damage.
- Monster – Must activate the furthest Block that is in range of a Hit that is targeting an ally card (including self) to negate received damage.
- Block may be used to negate damage targeted at itself.
- Block is usually designed to negate a single damage, that's why it's usually followed by a mandatory Rotate. However it's not always the case!
Example:
- Currently resolved MONSTER card targets the closest enemy card with Hit action.
- There are 2 HERO cards in range, that can block the Hit action. Player may choose only one of them to block with. If they decide to do so, none of the HERO cards will be damaged, the blocking card will be rotated instead, because in both cases Block is followed by a mandatory Rotate action (which may not always be the case).
- (A card with Block cannot block if it is out of range.)
3. Conditions – Red Background
Conditions are a special set of icons that restrict the use of actions until certain conditions are met. Those limitations will differ between the characters, but their general rules stay the same.
A row of actions that starts with a condition may be activated only if a given condition is met.
- HERO - May activate a row of actions starting with a condition instead of other rows only if that condition is met.
- MONSTER – Must activate the first row of actions for which the condition is met (in addition to standard rules, that those actions would have to change the state of at least 1 other card in the deck).
Condition icons are not present in the first two character sets and their specifics will be explained at a later point.
4. Features
Weight
Cards with that icon cannot be moved by enemy cards (allies may still change its position).
Huntress
She usually hunts smaller game, but her skills will prove themselves in any situation. What one arrow cannot stop, a dozen can. She easily avoids enemy charges, unless that's her plan for luring them into well-hidden traps.
Huntress is suggested for players who already feel comfortable with basic game mechanics and want to try out something more complicated.
1. Reactions – Gold Background
Dodge
It is a defensive reaction which can be activated in reaction to any action that targets a card with active Dodge.
- If an action would target a card with the Dodge icon in its active section, that reaction may be activated to negate the effect of that action that would apply to the targeted card.
- Dodge is similar to Block action, however:
- It can negate ANY targeting action, e.g. Hit, Push or Pull.
- Unlike Block it cannot assist other cards.
Example: 1st attack may be negated by Dodge and hero card will be rotated as a result. 2nd attack cannot be negated as HERO card will not have an active Dodge anymore. HERO card will end up being wounded (not shown in the example).
2. Actions
Maneuver
You may rotate any other card in the deck, but in such a way that its health level doesn't increase (it may stay the same or decrease).
- You may target any yellow-highlighted card in the deck.
- A card with a healthier target section cannot be targeted, because this would make the card more healthy.
- A card whose rotation would make it less healthy can be targeted, however this is usually not a good move!
The above example refers to Huntress cards. Other characters such as the Pyromancer may have a different distribution of health levels, thus allowing targeting and disallowing targeting some icons.
Arrow
- Choose any one card from the bottom 3 cards of the deck and damage it.
- Interactions with other icons:
- Dodge – If a targeted enemy has an active Dodge, they must use it to negate the damage. Another Dodge cannot assist in negating damage inflicted on another card (in contrast to negating Hit damage).
Example: Arrow can target one of the 3 bottom cards:
- Last card is a HERO card. You can damage it, but it's probably not the best idea.
- Second card from the bottom is a MONSTER card. If you target it, the Dodge icon will be activated and the card will be rotated. Unfortunately you will cause no damage.
- Third card from the bottom is another MONSTER card. If you choose to target it, it will be damaged. Even though there are other MONSTER cards with Dodge icon in the deck, they cannot block the Arrow action.
- You can also skip this attack entirely! (Also not the best idea).
3. Features
Trap
Trap is a feature that causes enemy cards which move over it to receive damage.
- If an enemy card is moved in any way OVER a card with Trap feature, that enemy card suffers damage.
- Trap never inflicts damage when being moved itself!
- Ally cards don't suffer damage when moving over cards with Trap features. (Think of it as the hero remembering where they set up her traps).
- One trap inflicts one damage, but single movement may result in triggering more traps and receiving more damage in the process.
- Triggering the trap doesn't end movement, but before continuing movement the card must first resolve taking damage.
- Trap inflicts damage only during 1st step of the turn (It doesn't damage enemy cards when they are put to the bottom of the deck as a natural course of the turn in step 2).
- Interactions with other icons:
- Block icon on a MONSTER card must be activated when triggering a trap to negate suffering damage. Cards other than the one triggering the trap cannot use their Block to negate the damage.
- Weight – if as a result of enemy card moving over a Trap, the enemy card is damaged and now has an active Weight feature, HERO must stop moving that card at that exact spot.
Example: HERO wants to quicken a MONSTER card 2 spaces forward. During the 1st movement, the MONSTER card triggers Trap. Because it has an active Block, it is activated and negates the damage. As the consequence of activating Block, the card is rotated. Now the MONSTER card has Weight in its active section. Even though HERO wanted to pull the card 2 spaces forward, 2nd movement is now impossible.
Vampire and the Army of Undead
Apparently, in the far north, the dead rise from their graves. Villagers who survived describe an army of undead led by a vampire lord. The aspen stake is said to be the most effective weapon against those creatures. Watch out for its hypnotizing abilities and sharp blood-sucking fangs.
Vampire is suggested for players who easily defeat the ogre and are looking for tougher challenge. He is definitely harder to beat and requires more planning to be taken down.
1. Actions
Resurrect
- Choose the closest exhausted card in the deck and rotate it to its starting position (dot in the top-right corner).
- This action is almost identical to Heal action. The only difference is it targets exhausted cards instead of wounded ones.
Flip
- Flip THIS card along the long edge.
Inspire
- Find another closest (ally) card in the deck, this is now the inspired card. Activate it as if it was now the top card of the deck (as if cards above it didn't exist – see nested activations). When resolving the inspired card, calculate all the action ranges from its actual position in the deck.
- After you perform Inspire, do not put the inspired card to the bottom of the deck, come back to the top card and continue with resolving other actions after Inspire.
- In case an action row has two or more consecutive Inspire actions, they will target the same card.
Example:
- Top card of the deck inspires the other closest ally card.
- The inspired MONSTER card performs its actions as if it was now the top card of the deck.
- The condition on conditional icon is met, because there are two exhausted ally cards in the deck, even though one of them is above the currently active card (see nested activations).
- The inspired card activates its first row and resurrects the closest ally card with the first action.
- The other two resurrect actions don't have valid targets, because the other exhausted ally card cannot be targeted as it's above the one that is performing the actions (see nested activations).
- Next the inspired card activates the Flip action and is flipped.
- After the inspired card ends its resolution, you must come back to the top card and activate the remaining icons in the row. In this case there is nothing else to activate.
2. Conditional icons – Red Background
Activate, if enough exhausted cards
This condition refers to the number of exhausted ally cards present in the deck.
- The condition is met only if X or more other exhausted ally cards are present in the deck.
Example: The condition is met, there are at least 2 exhausted ally cards. First row is activated and both of those cards will be targeted by Resurrect actions.
Example: The condition is not met, there is only 1 card exhausted, but 2 are needed. Next row starting with a different condition will be activated instead.
3. Features
Invulnerability
- A card with that feature cannot be targeted by any enemy action and cannot be damaged at all (not even by area effects like Pyromancer's Ablaze).
- Allies can still target cards with Invulnerability feature.
The Pyromancer
From birth, this youngling showed remarkable fire manipulation abilities. Their rebellious nature made them escape from the boring everyday life of magic school. Now they travel the world and make a living helping the inhabitants of the visited cities. This time however, they were given a job that could prove beyond their skill...
Pyromancer is suggested for players who feel comfortable with the other Heroes and want to experience some more challenging playstyle.
Health distribution
Pyromancer is the first character to have a different health distribution among its sections. Whenever a Pyromancer card would become damaged, you may choose which wounded section to rotate the card to (see Damage rules).
1. Conditions and Reactions
Two icons described in this section are directly related to each other, thus they are explained together.
Fire Energy
- Fire Energy icons visible in active sections of Pyromancer cards can be used to pay the cost of casting spells.
Pay the cost and activate
- Most of the action rows on Pyromancer cards are preceded by a Pay the cost condition. Actions to the right of it can only be activated after the player pays the specified cost.
- To pay the cost, you must find exactly X other cards with Fire Energy in their active section and rotate them. (Those icons are always followed by Rotate as a reminder).
- After you pay the cost, you may activate the icons following the Pay the cost icon.
Example: If this card is at the top of the deck, the player may activate one of the three rows of icons.
- To activate the row starting with the 2-cost condition, the player must first rotate 2 other cards with Fire Energy icons on them.
- To activate the row starting with the 1-cost condition, player must first rotate 1 other card with a Fire Energy icon on it.
- In both cases the player cannot pay with the visible Fire Energy on the top card, the cost must be paid with different cards.
- If the player cannot pay or doesn't want to, they must choose the last row of icons.
Another example:
- Player resolves the top card of the deck.
- Player cannot activate the row starting with the 3-cost condition, because player has only 3 Fire Energy icons available (visible on cards highlighted with red color). Remember that the top card cannot use its own Fire Energy to pay the cost.
- Player decides to activate the row starting with the 2-cost icon. First he must pay the cost.
- Player pays the cost by finding exactly 2 other cards with Fire Energy icons in the deck and rotating them.
- There were 3 valid targets and player chose to pay with the 2 cards highlighted with the red color (already rotated on 2nd picture).
- Once the cost has been paid, player may perform the actions.
- Now the player performs Ablaze and Fireball. He targets the 2 cards highlighted with red color (already rotated on 3rd picture).
- The last two things would be to rotate the top card and move it to the bottom of the deck (both things not shown in the example).
2. Actions
Maneuver
- See Maneuver in Huntress Section.
Resurrect
- Choose any exhausted card in the deck and rotate it to its starting position (circle in top right corner).
- See Resurrect in the Vampire section for an example.
Fireball
- Choose exactly one card with Fire Energy that was used to pay the cost and damage both cards adjacent to it. This effect doesn't damage the top card of the deck.
- Fireball always has a Pay the cost cost related to it.
- Two fireballs can be grouped together. To activate both of them, choose two different cards that were used to pay the cost. See Double Actions for more details.
Example:
- Player decides to activate line with Fireball. They must first pay the cost.
- After paying the cost (by rotating the 3rd card in the deck), player activates Fireball and damages both cards that are adjacent to the card that was used to pay the cost. (Cards are already damaged in the 2nd image).
- As shown in the example, this effect also damages ally cards.
- (Cost paid / Action performed.)
Interactions with other icons:
- Block – if a targeted enemy card has an active Block, that reaction must be activated, thus preventing Fireball from inflicting damage to that card only. (The other card still receives damage, unless it has an active Block as well).
Ablaze
- Choose any two (different) cards with Fire Energy that were used to pay the cost and damage every card in between them.
- Ablaze always has a Pay the cost cost related to it.
Example:
- Player chooses the Ablaze row. To activate it, they must first pay the cost.
- There were exactly 3 cards with Fire Energy icons and player has rotated all of them (2nd image).
- Now the player performs Ablaze action. They must choose exactly 2 cards that were used to pay the cost. They decide to choose two red-highlighted cards (2nd image).
- All the cards between the 2 cards chosen in the previous step are now damaged as a result of Ablaze action. (Red-highlighted cards in 3rd image).
- As shown in the example, this effect also damages HERO cards.
- The last step would be to rotate the top card and put it on the bottom of the deck (not shown in the example).
Interactions with other icons:
- Block – if a targeted MONSTER card has Block icon in its active section, that icon must be activated, thus preventing Ablaze from afflicting damage to that card only. (The card with Block does not prevent damage dealt to other cards targeted by Ablaze action.)
Teleport
- Swap places of any two different cards in the deck of a specified type.
- Teleport always targets 2 cards and it can swap both ally and enemy cards depending on the icon colors.
- Cards swap places instantly, they don't move one space at a time like in case of Quicken, Delay, Pull or Push.
- Variants: swap places of 2 ally cards; swap places of 2 enemy cards; swap places of 1 enemy and 1 ally card.
Interactions with other icons:
- Weight – Remember that Monster cards with Weight icon cannot be moved by enemy actions, thus cannot be moved by the enemy action icons shown in the original.
Spider Swarm
Huge spiders have invaded the capital undergrounds. The sewers are broken and everyone is too afraid to go there. The city officials are going to pay a lot to the volunteer who takes care of this case.
Spider Swarm is suggested for experienced players. This Monster may prove itself deadly if the deck is not manipulated in the right way.
1. Features
Blocking features
The first feature of this set (icon not named in the text) blocks several HERO actions (the list of blocked action icons is shown as pictures in the original). It does not block activating reactions (such as Block and Dodge), paying the cost or activating Rotate and Flip (the last 2 never target other cards). The actions after the reactions may still be blocked! It may happen that when resolving a group of HERO actions, some of them may become blocked or unblocked as a result of resolving others, e.g. a card with that feature may be pushed away. Before resolving any single HERO action, always make sure that it is not currently blocked.
Web
- Web prevents an enemy card directly in front of a card with Web icon from activating actions that would change the position of any other card in the deck (other than the one being resolved).
- I.e. Web blocks actions such as: (movement action icons shown in the original; not named in the text).
- Web does not block a card from being put at the bottom of the deck as a natural course of the turn in step 2.
- It may happen that when resolving a group of HERO actions, some of them may become blocked or unblocked as a result of resolving others, e.g. a card with Web may be damaged and no longer have Web in its active section. Before resolving an action, always make sure that it is not currently blocked by Web.
Example: The player cannot perform neither of two actions, because the Web is blocking both of them. They must still choose one row which will result in activating Rotate, which is not blocked by Web.
Example: Unfortunately for the player, Web is blocking all movement actions on the card. If they can activate the row starting with a condition, they would still be able to perform the action after it, even though the preceding action is blocked by Web.
Venom
- Venom prevents an enemy card directly in front of a card with Venom icon from activating actions that would change the side or rotation of any other card in the deck (other than the one being resolved). Effectively it blocks attacking and healing.
Example: Unfortunately Venom blocks both actions. Player may only choose 3rd row and activate Rotate.
Example: Although the player cannot perform the blocked action, they may still choose to either rotate the card or activate a different action.
2. Swarm condition
This icon introduces a new deadly way in which MONSTER cards may strengthen each other. If the top card of the deck is a MONSTER card AND a continuous group of one or more Spider Swarm cards is positioned directly behind it, then activate all Swarm rows of cards in that group before you activate the top card of the deck. Start with the most distant one and continue towards the top until you've resolved the Swarm row of the card directly behind the top card of the deck (don't activate the Swarm row visible on the top card). Then continue with activation of the top card of the deck according to standard rules.
- When activating a Swarm row, treat the card it is on as if it was now the top card of the deck (see nested activations rules).
- The Swarm row is never activated when being as an actual top card of the deck.
- Each section of Spider Swarm has a Swarm row.
Example:
- Top card of the deck is a Spider Swarm card. Before the player resolves it, they must see if there is a group of other Spider Swarm cards directly behind it. In this case there are 2 cards (red- and yellow-highlighted).
- Starting with the most distant Spider Swarm card within that group (yellow-highlighted card) the player must activate all of their Swarm rows.
- Yellow-highlighted card performs Hit targeting the closest enemy card.
- Player decides to block the attack with Block on the most distant HERO card. This concludes the activation of the yellow-highlighted Spider Swarm card.
- Now the player must activate the Swarm row of red-highlighted Spider Swarm card. When resolving Pull, remember that the pulled MONSTER card cannot be pulled above the active card (and red-highlighted card is considered to be the active one at the moment).
- Performing the remaining actions concludes the activation of the red-highlighted Spider Swarm card.
- Now the player finally resolves the top card of the deck. They must ignore the Swarm row and find another one starting with a white stripe.
- MONSTER performs Hit of the last row. (Don't confuse it with the Swarm row, which in this case happens to have exactly the same effect). Player decides to block the attack with the remaining Block.
- This concludes the activation of the top card. Now the player would put the top card to the bottom of the deck (not shown in the example).
- In the next turn there will be 3 Spider Swarm cards at the top of the deck. This is a very deadly situation for the player, they should have prepared better!
Werewolf
Banished from society for a curse placed upon him by envious enemies. He tries to find a remedy for his condition, while proving that he is not a threat to everyone around him…
The Werewolf introduces more complex gameplay scenarios due to his cards being multicolored, that's why it's suggested for players who don't have any troubles with the rules that were presented with previous sets.
A Hero or a Monster?
The Werewolf is the first character whose cards are a mix of hero and monster sections. It is also the first character having two distinct health icons and multicolored card borders.
Cards with active sections having a sun health icon (and a bright border) are considered to be hero cards. Cards with active sections having a moon health icon (and a dark border) are considered to be monster cards.
Even though the hero and monster Werewolf sections come from the same set of cards, they are considered to be enemies! What's more, Werewolf monster and any other monster set are considered to be enemies as well! (Illustrated: Werewolf Hero Section and Werewolf Monster Section are Enemies; Werewolf Monster and another Monster are Enemies; Werewolf Hero and the other Monster are Enemies.)
Health distribution
Werewolf is another character to have a different health distribution among its sections. Whenever a healthy Werewolf card would become damaged, you may choose which wounded section to rotate the card to (see Damage rules). You may choose to rotate the card to the hero wounded or monster wounded section (keeping him a Hero or turning him into a Monster).
Actions
Most Werewolf actions have already been introduced with previous sets, but are now used in an unusual way. When playing with the Werewolf, keep an eye on the actions' backgrounds, because some of them may be targeting enemies instead of allies and vice versa, which may be unintuitive at first.
Maneuver, Teleport
Those two actions work exactly the same way as before. Please see Maneuver and Teleport sections for examples.
Hit, Heal
Those two actions also work exactly the same way as before, but this section has been put as a reminder to look at the background colors of those actions, because Werewolf may use Hit to target enemies and Heal to target allies.
Inspire
- Please see the explanation and example in the Vampire section.
- You may target any enemy card in the deck (due to black icon background).
Claws
Damage all enemy cards in range X. Remember, when damaging multiple cards, resolve the damage starting with the most distant one (see Damage).
Interactions with other icons:
- Block – if a targeted card has Block icon in its active section, that icon must (in case of MONSTER card) or may (in case of HERO card) be activated, thus preventing Claws from afflicting damage to that card only. (The card with Block does not prevent damage dealt to other cards targeted by Claws action.)
Example:
- Werewolf monster card is on top. It activates the first Claws row of actions and performs Claws, targeting 3 cards directly behind it.
- Remember that when dealing damage to multiple targets, the most distant one is resolved first. In the example it's a monster card and because the Werewolf treats other monsters as enemies, it will be damaged.
- In the 2nd picture, the enemy card is already damaged. Note that the Block on the other monster card didn't assist in blocking the damage, because all the cards are targeted with that attack at the same time.
- Now the second card is resolved. It's a hero card. Even though it comes from the same set, the Werewolf treats it as an enemy and it becomes wounded.
- Because Werewolf cards have 2 different wounded sections, player may choose which section to rotate the card to (hero wounded / monster wounded). In this case player chooses one of them.
- In the 3rd picture the Werewolf attacks its last target. The enemy card is already exhausted, so it cannot be damaged further, but it will still actively use its Block to negate the damage, which will result in rotating the card.
- In the 4th picture, you can see the final result of performing Claws action. Now the player needs to rotate the card and put it on the bottom of the deck.
Losing the game
Remember than in Step 3 of the turn, you lose the game if all Hero cards are exhausted. Monster sections are not considered to be Hero sections, which means you lose, when all non-exhausted Werewolf cards are currently in their Monster sections!
Blood Demon
In the mountains far to the west, a group of cultists summoned a creature from another dimension. The cult is no longer a concern as the demon has already fed on it, but it continues to wreak havoc in the numerous provinces of the kingdom and someone needs to take care of it.
Blood Demon is the most difficult MONSTER set and may require multiple attempts to even get close to being defeated. If you haven't played all the other character sets, please do so, before trying to take on this one.
Health distribution
Blood Demon has a health distribution similar to the Pyromancer. Whenever a Blood Demon card would be damaged, you may choose which wounded section to rotate the card to (see Damage rules).
Conditions
Activate, if enough Rage counters
This condition refers to the number of Rage counters present on other ally cards in the deck.
- The condition is met only if X or more Rage counters are present on other ally cards in the deck.
- Rage counters are represented by small circles and can be found inside the health icons of active Blood Demon card sections. A health icon can have 0-2 Rage counters (1 Rage counter; 2 Rage counters).
Example:
- Top card of the deck is a Blood Demon card. Player must count number of active rage counters visible on other Blood Demon cards. In this example there are 4 rage counters visible, marked with yellow circles. Remember that even if there were any rage counters on the top card, they would not be counted.
- Knowing number of the counters we can now resolve the top card of the deck. First row starts with a Rage condition. Fortunately for the player, there are not enough rage counters to trigger that action row. If there were, player would lose the game on the spot due to the Death action.
- Second row starts with another Rage condition. It will be activated, because there are at least 3 rage counters present. The Void action will be activated and will target the closest non-exhausted enemy card, exhausting it immediately.
- Note that Void action cannot be prevented by any reaction, including Block.
Actions
Death
When this action is activated, the player immediately loses the game. Prevent monster from activating this icon at all cost. This action cannot be negated by any Reaction.
Void
Choose the closest non-exhausted enemy card in the deck and exhaust it. This action cannot be negated by any Reaction.
Claws
Damage all enemy cards in range X. Remember, when damaging multiple cards, resolve the damage starting with the most distant one (see Damage). For example and interactions with other icons see Claws in Werewolf section.
The Beastmaster
The royal falconer may be a grumpy loner, but she's always up to the task. The fight is never equal if you have a pack of furry friends by your side...
Beastmaster is a very complex character. Manipulating it efficiently requires a perfect understanding of nested activations rule and a good recognition of more intricate game situations.
Heroine and her furry friends
This hero set introduces 2 separate character icons: the Beastmaster icon and the animal icon. Cards with those icons share the same border color and treat each other as allies. 3 cards with the Beastmaster icon symbolize the Beastmaster, whereas 2 cards with the animal icon illustrate her animal companions.
These 2 separate icons were introduced to better visualize the following differences:
- The Beastmaster cards have a health distribution similar to cards from different sets.
- The animal cards don't have a regular health distribution. They start the game exhausted and will never change that state, because all 4 sections of animal cards have an empty paw icon. This means that animal cards will never be a target of actions which ignore exhausted enemies, e.g. Hit or Pull.
- That also makes the Beastmaster a very squishy hero. It takes only 6 points of damage to take her down! In comparison, all the previous hero sets could endure 10 hits.
Actions and Reactions
The Beastmaster doesn't introduce any new actions nor reactions. For the rules of the existing ones, please refer to basic actions and reactions; Dodge, Arrow and Maneuver sections of the Huntress; Teleport and Resurrect sections of the Pyromancer and Claws section of the Werewolf.
Assists
Even though no new actions were introduced, this set will use them in a very different way. Animal cards include new conditions called assists. Those assists can be either action assists or reaction assists.
Those conditions can never be activated when the animal card is on top of the deck. Instead, they will be used to enhance effects triggered by the Beastmaster cards.
Every Beastmaster card has some special action and reaction placeholder icons, which can be filled with action and reaction assists from the animal cards. Respectively, an action placeholder can be filled only with action assist and a reaction placeholder only with a reaction assist.
- Using the assists is always optional, the same way using actions and reactions is. E.g. if a row contains 2 action/reaction placeholders, the player may fill one, both or none of them with assists.
- If a player wants to fill 2 different placeholders coming from a single row with action/reaction assists, those assists must come from 2 different animal cards!
- Using some of the assists comes with a cost. If an assist condition contains a second arrow, before the player activates the action or reaction assist, they must first pay the cost, which is always either rotating or flipping the animal card.
- The animal cards have numbers ranging between 0-3 inside their health icon. Those numbers have no impact on the game and play only an informative role. The higher the number, the more powerful assists the animal card offers.
The assist conditions visible on the 2 animal cards on the left (40 and 41) can be used to fill the placeholder icons of the Beastmaster card on the right (38).
- The reaction placeholder can become a Block if the card on the right becomes a target of an attack. If a player chooses to do so, the animal card providing it (41) would be rotated due to the assist cost.
- The action placeholder can become one of several actions, for example Arrow. If player chooses the Arrow, the card with arrow assist (41) would be rotated due to the assist cost.
- If player decides to activate the action row or reaction row with 2 placeholders, the filled assists must come from 2 different cards. E.g. player can turn one placeholder into one assist and the other into a different assist, but cannot use two assists that come from the same card.
Example
- The monster card on top performs an action. It ignores the first hero card, because it's an exhausted animal card (41).
- Card 37 would receive damage, but instead the player decides to activate an assist reaction row available on card 38.
- The placeholder could be filled with either of two reactions available on animal cards. Choosing Dodge wouldn't help here, because Dodge can only negate damage targeted at a card with Dodge on it. Here the attack goes somewhere else. Player decides to use Block.
- Player needs to pay the assist cost of filling the placeholder with Block by rotating the animal card 40. The assist cost is indicated by the second arrow in the reaction assist row.
- As a result the animal card is rotated and the player negates the damage by using Block.
- Now the player has a chance to fill the action placeholder with some assist action. If they decide so, it must come from an animal card which hasn't yet assisted this turn.
- Player can either fill it with one of two actions coming from card 41.
- The player decides to fill it with Arrow. Again, they must pay the assist cost by rotating the animal card used to provide the action.
- As a result the animal card is rotated and player damages an enemy card (16) with Arrow.
- Having used both placeholders, now the player needs to activate Rotate and rotate the card 38.
- This concludes the enemy attack. Now the top card can be placed at the bottom of the deck.
The Sentient Verdancy
The royal alchemist is quite smart, but he's also a real mess. Every time a new potion fails to produce the expected results, it is thrown out the window. Unfortunately, most of the decoctions end up in the royal garden. The last potion must have been extremely botched, because it brought some plants to life. At first, everyone was happy because they ate all the rodents in the castle. Now there's some concern because the King's cat is missing and the gardener is already late for lunch...
The Sentient Verdancy is a complex character. You should be familiar with nested activations rule before taking on this monster.
Health distribution
Sentient Verdancy has a health distribution similar to the Werewolf. Whenever a Sentient Verdancy card would be damaged, you may choose which wounded section to rotate the card to (see Damage rules).
Actions
This set introduces a new variant of Claws action with roman numerals (I, II), instead of Arabic numerals (1, 2, …). Those actions work almost the same way, but instead of damaging all cards in a given range, they damage all cards positioned in odd (I) or even (II) places. The positions of the cards are counted relatively to the position of the card performing the Claws action and not from the top of the deck.
Example:
- As a result of the player attacking the first Verdancy card, the Claws action is activated.
- Counting from the next card, that action damages all the enemy cards with odd position numbers.
- In the example, only card "3" would be damaged, because "1" is an ally.
Reactions
On damage reaction
It's a reaction that is activated when a card bearing it receives damage.
- Whenever a card with that reaction receives damage from any source, before you resolve that damage, activate the reaction row.
- After resolving the reaction row, don't forget to resolve the damage that activated the reaction!
Example:
- The Huntress performs an attack and damages the first Verdant card. Because it has an on-damage reaction, before the player resolves the damage, we need to activate it.
- As a result, a Heal action is activated first, healing the last Verdant card in the deck.
- Next, the second action is activated, damaging the other Huntress card in the deck.
- After resolving the reaction row, we now resolve the initial damage that activated the reaction.
The Assassin - Hero
Conditions and Reactions
Pay the cost and activate
- See Pyromancer's Pay the cost and activate section for detailed explanation.
- This resource system works exactly the same way, but instead of paying with Fire Energy reactions, player must pay with Dodge instead.
- Dodge reactions can be still used in a regular way as well (see Huntress' Dodge section for explanation).
Skyfall
- Whenever a card with Skyfall is being moved over a different card, you may activate this reaction to immediately stop the movement and deal damage to the last card that you moved over.
- You may activate the reaction at any point of the movement, but you have to move at least one space.
- After activating the reaction, the remaining movement points are lost. This is a great opportunity to avoid enemy manipulation actions.
- Skyfall may be activated no matter if the movement was initiated by an ally (Quicken/Delay) or an enemy (Push/Pull).
- You may activate the reaction on an exhausted card to stop the movement in a desired place, even though you will deal no damage.
- Interactions with other actions:
- Teleport – Teleport action instantly swaps places of 2 card instead of moving them 1 space at a time, that's why you can't trigger this reaction when moving cards with Teleport.
Actions
Poison
- Damage any wounded card in the deck.
- This action ignores enemy Block reaction. You deal damage without triggering it.
Backstab
- Choose exactly one card with Dodge that was used to pay the cost and damage the card that is in front of it (closer to the top of the deck). Remember this effect cannot damage active cards (usually the top card of the deck).
- This action ignores enemy Block reaction. You deal damage without triggering it.
- Backstab always has a Pay the cost cost related to it.
- Two backstabs can be grouped together. To activate both of them, choose two different cards that were used to pay the cost. See Double Actions for more details.
The Tangled Hair – Monster
The old king was insecure with him losing hair and got a magical hair growth stimulant to solve the issue. As he didn't wear his glasses in the shower, he couldn't read the small letters on the back of the vial. He applied way too much potion and shortly after his hair started to grow uncontrollably. They grew so fast, he started struggling to breath, entangled in all that madness. You need to cut the hair, before the king drowns...
Additional information
The Tangled Hair cards have additional information that can be found inside cards' health icons.
- The hourglass icons can be found only on the main enemy card and inform you about how many full loops are left, i.e. how much time you have before you lose. This is just for your convenience, otherwise they have no mechanical meaning.
- The numbers on all the other cards inform you about the number of damage you have to deal for the card to reach a section without a self-regeneration effect. This is just for your convenience, otherwise they have no mechanical meaning.
Additional setup step
After you shuffle all the cards, move the card 51 to the bottom of the deck. You may also adjust the difficulty, by giving yourself less time and putting card 51 in a different place. For ultimate challenge rotate card 51 to section B and put it at the bottom of the deck – you'll have one less loop to win the game.
Mandatory action row
This is the first set that introduces a mandatory action row. A mandatory action row is a row that must be activated no matter if there are no actions that would change the game state (have a valid target). A mandatory action row is always the last row and follows all the other rules of activating a card, this means that it might not be activated if there is an action row above that is activated. Mandatory action row is denoted by an exclamation mark.
Features
Invulnerability
- A card with that feature cannot be targeted by any enemy action and cannot be damaged at all (not even by area effects like Pyromancer's Ablaze).
- Allies can still target cards with Invulnerability feature.
Wall
- Enemy actions cannot move anything over a card with a Wall feature.
- Interactions with other actions:
- Teleport - Teleport action instantly swaps places of 2 card instead of moving them 1 space at a time, that's why you can use Teleport to swap places of 2 cards, even if they are on the different sides of the card with a Wall feature.
The Pied Piper – Hero
Additional information
- The Pied Piper set consists of 4 hero cards and 1 Rats monster card. The hero and Rats treat each other as enemies. Rats and different monsters treat each other as enemies as well.
- This works the same as for the Werewolf hero.
Actions
Hypnosis
Hypnosis action works exactly like Inspire action with the following changes:
- This action can target only exhausted enemies.
- When hypnotized enemy activates its action row, it treats all the Pied Piper hero cards as allies and all Pied Piper's enemies as enemies.
- When resolving the Hypnosis, the conditional rows are always skipped, so e.g. hypnotized Vampire will not resurrect anything etc.
Summon the Rats
- Turn the Rats card to their healthy section (note that their starting section is not healthy).
- This action can target only the Rats card, unlike the Hypnosis.
Reactions
Modifiers
- Before an action of any character is resolved, if it has some number related to it, you may activate any number of modifier reactions to modify that number by applying the math operations, e.g. "-2" allows you decrease the range of actions such as "Hit X" or power of actions such as "Delay X" by 2.
- You can't modify actions without a number such as Heal, Resurrect or Arrow.
- You can't modify conditions.
- Modifying an "infinity" is allowed but doesn't actually change the value.
- If you modify a value to a negative number, it defaults to zero.
- If there are more actions in a row, each of them can be modified separately, even by the same hero card (if it has a modifier after using the previous one).
- The modifiers are applied after the enemy chooses which row to activate. This means that you can't modify a row so that it wouldn't have a valid target and a different row would be chosen instead.
The Circus Troupe – Monster
Conditions
Each Circus Troupe card has a special symbol located in its health icon. This symbol is the same across different sections of the same card, but different cards have different symbols.
Stunt with a Partner
All rows of Circus Troupe cards start with a Stunt condition. These conditions always include one of the symbols that can be found in Circus Troupe health icons. Whenever a Circus Troupe card is activated, activate the conditional row whose symbol matches the symbol of next closest Circus Troupe card.
Imagine two clowns performing a stunt together. They all have different skills so each pair of performers will surprise you with some fresh and deadly trick!
If there's no Circus Troupe card in front of the currently active one, no row is activated.
Actions and Reactions
The Circus Troupe doesn't introduce any new actions nor reactions.
Note that some of the cards have Block reaction that is not followed by Rotate action, similarly to the Vampire card.
- Circus Troupe's set color is red, so some actions will have red background almost identical to the color of conditions. Sorry for the poor choice but I was running out of unique colors. Everything that's on the right side of an arrow is an action (though it should be obvious anyways).
The Monk – Hero
Combat Stances
Each Monk section has a stance symbol inside its health icon. Its always one of two: way of the open hand or way of the fist. The number of visible stance symbols will affect the power or range of various actions. Additionally, to activate some conditional rows you will need a specific number of the symbols to be visible.
Conditions
Activate, if enough stance symbols visible
Player may activate this row of active section only if enough matching symbols are visible on other Monk cards. Similarly to the Pyromancer and Blood Demon ignore symbol on the card with the condition you are checking.
Reactions
Some reactions of this set are preceded by a condition. Such reactions may be activated only if the condition is met. See the section above.
Actions
This set doesn't introduce any new actions, but uses the existing ones in a different way. Some actions instead of numbers indicating their power or range have stance symbols. In such cases, the power or range of that action is determined by the number of matching symbols on other Monk cards (again, don't count the symbol on the card with the action you are performing).
Example: In the example player cannot activate the conditional row (yellow), because there are only 2 matching symbols on other cards (don't count the one on the top card). If they choose the second row (blue), you perform two actions – Hit 0 (that will have no effect, because there isn't a single fist symbol on your cards) and Delay 2, because there are 2 open hand symbols on other cards.
The Ooze – Monster
Features
United
Cards with this feature cannot be damaged as long as they are adjacent to at least one other card with this feature. They can still be affected by other actions that don't cause damage.
Interaction with Block:
- If the attacked Ooze card has active United feature, then no damage is dealt, thus no Block is activated at all (no matter from which card, the one being attacked or any other ally in range).
- If the attacked Ooze card does not have active United feature and there is another Ooze with active Block in range of the attack, then that Block will be activated and the card will be rotated (doesn't matter if the card with Block had active United feature or not).
Reactions
Skyfall
This action has been introduced in The Assassin – Skyfall section. Please refer to that section for basic rules. The Monster performs that action in the same manner with the following differences:
- Whenever a Monster card with Skyfall is being moved over a non-exhausted enemy card, it immediately stops the movement and deals damage to the card.
- Skyfall is activated no matter if the movement was initiated by an ally or an enemy.
- Interactions with other actions:
- Teleport – Teleport action instantly swaps places of 2 card instead of moving them 1 space at a time, that's why you can't trigger this reaction when moving cards with Teleport.
- Trap – If a Monster card moves over an enemy card with Trap feature, first activate the Skyfall reaction and resolve its damage (Of course only if that card with Trap is non-exhausted). Then resolve the damage from the Trap. If after resolving Skyfall, a different reaction becomes active such as Block, it can be immediately used to negate Trap damage.
Characters
Each Monster is represented by a set of 4 cards which share a color and a set symbol. If you decide to play with a certain monster, take all of their corresponding cards. Each Hero is represented by a set of 5 cards sharing a color and a set symbol. If you decide to play with a certain hero, take all of their corresponding cards.
Heroes
- The Warrior – Blue: Warrior is suggested for beginners as he uses only the basic actions.
- The Huntress - Green: Huntress is suggested for players who already feel comfortable with basic game mechanics and want to try out something more complicated.
- The Pyromancer - Orange: Pyromancer is suggested for players who feel comfortable with the other heroes and want to experience some more challenging playstyle.
- The Werewolf – Yellow/Black: If you haven't played all the other heroes, please do so before trying the Werewolf.
- The Beastmaster – Dark Olive: Beastmaster requires perfect knowledge of Nested Activations rule. Make sure that you are familiar with it before trying out this hero!
- The Assassin – Pink: Assassin is the most fragile hero with lots of ways to avoid being damaged.
- The Pied Piper – Light Blue: Pied Piper is a hero who uses his musical powers to hypnotize exhausted enemies. Make use of your Rats and don't let them off leash and you'll be fine.
- The Monk – Peach Orange: The Monk requires a careful stances manipulation to fluently transition between defense and offense. Unleash the devastating way of the fist or leverage way of the open hand to become invulnerable to punches.
Monsters
- The Ogre – Brown: Ogre is suggested for beginners as he uses only the basic actions and is relatively easy to defeat.
- The Vampire and his Army of Undead – Turquoise: Vampire is suggested for players who easily defeat the ogre and are looking for tougher challenge. He is definitely harder to beat and requires more planning to be taken down.
- Spider Swarm - Purple: Spider Swarm is suggested for experienced players. This Monster may prove itself deadly if the deck is not manipulated in the right way.
- Blood Demon – Burgundy: Blood Demon is a deadly creature and may take multiple attempts to be defeated.
- Sentient Verdancy – Dark Blue: Sentient Verdancy is a tough enemy that reacts to player's actions with powerful effects.
- The Tangled Hair – Light Brown: The Tangled Hair is a unique Monster. It doesn't bite back, but you have limited time to beat it. Are your offensive skills up to the challenge?
- The Circus Troupe – Red: Circus Troupe is hard to manage. You need to keep some of the cards together or away from each other at the right time, to have a chance at winning.
- The Ooze – Green (different one than the Huntress): Separate the Ooze blobs and avoid its powerful short-ranged attacks. Brute force won't be enough for that Monster.
Additional Content
Puzzles
Visit dedicated BGG page to solve additional puzzles.