Horizon Zero Dawn: The Board Game – Rockbreaker
Horizon Zero Dawn: The Board Game – Rockbreaker Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
1 Rulebook 1 Rockbreaker Board
13 Tracking Deck Cards
Rockbreaker: 1 Miniature 2 Rockbreaker Data Cards (1-2 Player and 3-4 Player) 5 Rockbreaker Behaviour Cards 5 Tunnel Cards
Adding the Rockbreaker to Your Games
There are two ways players may encounter the Rockbreaker as part of their game.
The first way of including the Rockbreaker is by using the tracking deck included in this expansion, enabling the players to hunt this immense machine as their quarry instead of choosing from the other quests available to them.
Alternatively, players can add the Rockbreaker to another quest from either Horizon Zero Dawn™: The Board Game or an expansion. If playing this way, the players should add the Hunters' Call card from the Rockbreaker tracking deck to the end of tracking deck they wish to use for the quest, face down at the end of the row after the standard Hunter's Call card.
If the players are encountering the Rockbreaker using these rules, after completing the standard Hunter's Call, resolve the Campfire Phase as detailed below instead of following the normal Hunters' Call sequence.
The Victory Step
Calculate glory and allocate Sun tokens to each player as in a standard encounter, including any changes in possession of the Leader and Fledgling tokens. Do not total up the points of each player's Sun tokens to see who has won the game.
The Level-Up Step
Skip this step unless the hunters haven't yet attained level 3. If they have yet to reach this level, the players may immediately increase their level by one, then select upgrade cards as normal.
The Merchant Step
Players visit a level 3 merchant to improve their equipment further before taking on their final challenge.
After these steps are completed, flip over the Rockbreaker tracking card as the final encounter.
Setting Up the Rockbreaker Encounter
Place the Rockbreaker board in the centre of the table and set up the encounter as detailed on the Rockbreaker encounter card.
If you're playing a game with one or two hunters, use the 1-2 player side of the Rockbreaker data cards. If you're playing with three or four hunters, use the 3-4 player side of the Rockbreaker data cards instead.
Shuffle the Rockbreaker behaviour deck and place it face down next to the playing area, then shuffle the tunnel cards and place them face down next to the behaviour deck.
The player with the Fledgling token draws from the event deck and selects their card as normal, revealing it immediately after making their decision. If there are no cards remaining in the event deck, reshuffle all the discarded cards to form a new deck.
Although the Rockbreaker board is a single large piece rather than four smaller tiles, hunters observe the standard rules when deploying and are placed in the quadrant indicated on the encounter card.
The Rockbreaker Data Cards
Note that although the Rockbreaker data cards look slightly different to the data cards for other machines, many symbols are the same and serve the same function.
The data card is numbered as follows:
- Name
- Players (1-2 or 3-4)
- HP
- Armour Value
- Salvage Value
- Glory Point Value
- Encounter Point Value
- Components
- Special Rules
- Structure Threshold
In addition, there are several new rules used for this huge machine, detailed below.
Rockbreaker card values (1-2 player side): Name: Rockbreaker. Players: 1-2. HP: 50. Armour Value: 2. Salvage Value: 3. Glory Point Value: 4. Encounter Point Value: 20. (Each value is read from the numbered icon on the scanned card and matched to the legend above; the scan shows them as icons only.)
Components (card text as printed): Each component has a letter-coded attack symbol; the number printed beside each letter is shown as the component's value on the scan. The small chip-icon values on two component rows are not reproduced here: the scan prints them as bare chip icons with no text explaining them, so they are not transcribed as rules.
- Digging Arm x4 (attack A, 6): Scrap two random tunnel cards when all A components are destroyed.
- Fuel Sac x2 (attack B, 8): This enemy suffers Fire.
- Exhaust Port (attack C, 10): no card text.
Transcriber's note: the Fire status is written for the flame icon on the card, using the name the base game rulebook gives that condition. The attack letter for the Exhaust Port is read from its glyph on the scan. The Rockbreaker's component rows are shown on the front (1-2 player) card only; the component rows of the 3-4 player card are hidden behind it on the scan and are not reproduced.
Special Rules:
- Unpredictable: At the start of the encounter draw a tunnel card to determine this enemy's starting position.
- Tunneller: When this enemy is not alert, instead of moving on a patrol route draw a tunnel card and place the enemy in the squares indicated. If there is a hunter within 1 square of its new location, this enemy becomes alert and resolves a behaviour card.
Structure Thresholds: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50.
Structure Threshold
The Rockbreaker's reference card has a series of structure thresholds listed on it, representing the machine's immense frame. Unlike standard enemies, the Rockbreaker provides glory points not only when it's killed or when its components are destroyed but also throughout the encounter as it suffers more damage.
Structure thresholds are linked to the Rockbreaker's hit points. If a hunter deals damage to the Rockbreaker's hit points with an attack or by destroying a component that takes the Rockbreaker's total damage above the next structure threshold, the hunter immediately gains 1 glory point. If a hunter exceeds multiple structure thresholds in a single attack, they gain glory points for each threshold they exceed.
Multiple Components
The Rockbreaker is a truly massive machine, with several systems of the same type that are linked together. These components are represented by a multiplier next to the name, which indicates the enemy has multiple components of the same type that can be destroyed.
Unlike normal components, a component with this multiplier can be destroyed as many times as is indicated by the number listed. Each time one of these components is destroyed, the hunter gains glory, and the players apply any effects and the damage listed to the Rockbreaker before placing a destroyed token on the enemy.
When the Rockbreaker has gained the number of tokens listed for that component, all of the components of that type have been destroyed, and the hunters may no longer target that component.
Immense Base
Due to its massive size, the Rockbreaker occupies four squares instead of a single square like most enemies. When the Rockbreaker moves, it enters multiple new squares per point of movement.
When moving towards a hunter, the Rockbreaker stops moving when the hunter is on any one of the four squares it occupies.
When determining range to or from the Rockbreaker players count the squares from the closest square that the Rockbreaker is occupying to their hunter.
In the example image on the printed page, the Banuk Survivor is on one of the four squares occupied by the Rockbreaker and is at range 0. The Nora Marksman is 2 squares away from the closest Rockbreaker square and so is at range 2.
Tunnel Cards
Some of the Rockbreaker's behaviour cards will require players to draw a Tunnel Card. To resolve this, remove the Rockbreaker from its current position and place it in the squares indicated on the tunnel card.
Barrage
Some of the Rockbreaker's behaviour cards feature a new attack symbol, Barrage. Attacks with Barrage target the hunter in range that has been attacked the least number of times during the Rockbreaker's current activation. If multiple hunters in range are eligible to be targets, the Rockbreaker targets the closest hunter instead.
Failing the Encounter
Choosing to face such an adversary is the preserve of not only the bold individuals touched by destiny but also those possessed of incredible folly and wild overconfidence.
At any time during this encounter, if the total number of times the hunters have fainted is equal to or greater than the number of hunters, or if the Rockbreaker leaves the playing area, the encounter immediately ends in failure.
If the encounter ends in failure, the players loses the game—the Hunters' Lodge does not entertain failure, especially not from those acting with such hubris!
Winning the Encounter
If the players defeat the Rockbreaker, the encounter immediately ends. The hunter that killed the Rockbreaker gains a Half-Sun token.
The players then resolve the victory step of the Campfire Phase to establish which hunters are awarded Sun tokens. Total how many victory points each hunter has earned, as if they had just finished the Hunters' Call.
The hunter with the most victory points is declared the winner, establishing themselves not only as the dominant figure of this quest but also as a hunter earmarked for patronage amongst the Hawks. Such an individual may look forward to a bright future within the Hunter's Lodge!
Quick Reference
Symbol Reference
Barrage
Attacks with Barrage target the hunter in range that has been attacked the least number of times during the Rockbreaker's current activation.
Structure Threshold
Structure thresholds: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50.
If a hunter deals damage to the Rockbreaker's hit points with an attack or by destroying a component that takes the Rockbreaker's total damage above the next structure threshold, the hunter immediately gains 1 glory point. If a hunter exceeds multiple structure thresholds in a single attack, they gain glory points for each threshold they exceed.