Ostium

Ostium Rulebook

Table of Contents

Game objective

The manual focuses on explaining the rules for a two-player game. The changes required for single-player and three-player games can be found on pages 18 and 20, respectively.

During the game, players alternately take turns, trying to destroy all their opponent's Gates. They summon Creatures to the Battleground to attack their opponent's Gates and to defend their own.

The game is won immediately by the player with the last Gate(s) standing.

Game components

Gate Cards - Gates have 15 durability points. Destroying all your opponent's Gates ensures victory.

Gate Durability Cards - help track the hit points of two facing Gates (yours and your opponent's in the same column). If the health drops below 1, the Gate is destroyed.

Gate Durability Markers - used to track each Gate's health.

Creature Cards - these summoned Creatures create your armies:

Familiars - Creatures used to summon other, more powerful Creatures than themselves. They do not have the Side Domain abilities but can participate in Clan Synergy with their Clan's Creatures (page 9). Familiars belong to Clans and have the ability in the Main Domain: a discard arrow icon (the card can be discarded to use the ability to the right of the arrow) followed by a Crystal icon. (30 cards, 6 for each Clan)
Warriors - the backbone of your armies. They have Side Domain and Main Domain abilities. (50 cards, 10 for each Clan)
Primordials - inhabit a world where your armies collide. They offer great support for other creatures. They are marked with the Primordial clan symbol. (8 cards) Thanks to the abilities (double arrow icon) they can participate in the Power Fusion (page 12), and in the Clan Synergy of any Clan (page 9).
Sovereigns - possess unique and powerful Main Domain abilities that can greatly influence the game. Like Warriors, they take an active part in combat. The cost of summoning a Sovereign is very high, however after losing a Gate, you get the Sovereign card for free (page 15). The names of the creatures on the Sovereign cards are underlined. (10 cards, 2 for each Clan)

The starter deck designations are described under Game setup.

Creature card details (page 5)

Power - strength with which the Creature attacks and with which it must be attacked to be defeated.
Summoning Cost - the number of Crystals required for a card to be summoned from the Summoning Area to the Battlefield.
Clan Symbol - indicates that the Creature belongs to a specific Clan. Each Clan is marked with a different symbol, background colour, and the colour of the card elements.
Side Domains - these are the abilities that you can use if horizontally adjacent creatures belong to the same Clan. For descriptions of abilities, see page 24.
Name - the name of each Creature has no meaning in the game. Sovereigns' names are underlined.
Main Domain - defines the innate abilities of the Creature. For descriptions of abilities, see page 24.
Starter Deck Designation - symbols in the lower right corner of the Familiar card indicate which starting deck they belong to: first (I), second (II), and the third (III, three-player mode).

Game setup

Sit facing each other and place the game pieces according to the diagram shown. Toss a coin to determine the starting player.

Row of Gates - place 3 Gate cards in front of you, so that they are adjacent to each other horizontally. Your Rows of Gates must face each other.
Player Deck - each player prepares his starting cards: the starting player takes all the Familiar cards marked with the first starter deck symbol (I), and his opponent takes all the Familiar cards marked with the second starter deck symbol (II). Return the remaining 10 Familiar cards (III) to the box, as they are only used in the three-player game (page 20). These cards create the starting player decks, that you will build up as you play. Each player shuffles their deck and places it facedown next to their Battlefield.
Starting Hand - you draw cards from your decks into your hand. In the first turn of the game, the starting player draws 3 and the other player draws 5 cards. In all later turns, only the player that ends his turn refills cards in his hand up to a hand limit of 5 cards. Do not show your cards to your opponent.
Battlefield - you summon Creatures from the Summoning Area and from your hand to spaces on the Attack Row [4a] and Defense Row [4b].
Gate Durability Cards - place them between both players' Attack Rows. Place two Gate hit point markers on the "15" spaces on each card.
Discard Pile - each player has a discard pile where they move their defeated Creatures from the Battlefield and discard cards from their hand. The cards in these piles are placed face up. During the game, you can freely view your discard pile without changing the order of the cards. Place your discard piles so that they do not accidentally get mixed up with the player's deck, preferably on the other side of your Battlefield.
Primordials - build a deck by placing all the Primordials cards face up on top of each other.
Sovereigns - shuffle the Sovereign cards (their creature names are underlined) and put them aside in a face-down deck. Take the top 2 cards from the Sovereign deck [8a] and place them face up in the Summoning Area [8b].

Game phases

Your turn consists of two phases - the Development Phase and the Attack Phase. Turns are played alternately, starting with the first player.

Development Phase

You build your army and prepare to attack.

In this phase, you can use the active abilities of Creatures entering the Battlefield. You can perform and repeat the following three actions in any order, and any number of times:

Discard a Creature
Summon a Creature
Move or Recall a Creature

Crystals generated by your cards are the currency in the game. You can use them to summon Creatures, move or recall them. Unspent Crystals are lost after your turn ends, so they are not represented by any dedicated markers.

Action 1 - Discard a Creature

You may discard any card from your hand to the discard pile. Only discarded Creatures that have the discard arrow ability can use the ability indicated to the right of the arrow (example A).

Creatures with the discard arrow ability summoned to the Battlefield cannot perform the ability indicated by the arrow!

You may discard any card from your hand at any time during your turn, but if the creature you discard does not have the discard arrow ability, you will not be able to use its abilities. Discarded cards are placed face up on the discard pile.

Example A - Agatha discards a Familiar card with a discard arrow ability and a Crystal ability. She collects 1 Crystal.

Action 2 - Summon a Creature

You can summon Creatures in several ways:

from your hand to the Battlefield - without paying its Summoning Cost. The creatures in your hand are already serving you, so summoning them is free,
from the Summoning Area to the Battlefield - by paying the full Summoning Cost of a Creature; this DOES NOT activate the Main Domain ability of played Creature,
from the Warrior Dismissal Zone to your discard pile - by paying 1 Crystal,
from the Warrior Dismissal Zone to the Battlefield - by paying the full Summoning Cost of the Creature.

You pay the Summoning Cost with Crystals collected by discarding cards (Action 1) and by summoning Creatures to the Battlefield.

Battlefield

You can only summon Creatures to an empty slot on your Battlefield. The Battlefield consists of three card slots in the Attack Row and three card slots in the Defense Row (diagram, page 6).

If you want to summon a Creature to an occupied location, you must first perform Action 3: Move or Recall the Creature (page 10).

Clan Synergy does not work diagonally! If cards only touch their corners, they are not considered adjacent.

There are five different Clans in the game, as well as Primordials, that can participate in Clan Synergy of any Clan.

Creature's active abilities are only available when it is summoned to the Battlefield (from your hand or the Summoning Area). When doing so, you can use:

Main Domain abilities of the Creature, as soon as it is summoned from your hand (or from the Summoning Area, if it has the Summoning Area ability) (example B),
Side Domain abilities of the currently summoned Creature, and Creatures adjacent to it horizontally, as long as they meet the conditions for Clan Synergy (described below).

If you summon a Creature from the Summoning Area and that Creature has the Summoning Area ability, treat it as if it were summoned from your hand.

All descriptions of abilities, both active and passive, can be found on the last page of this rulebook (see Abilities below).

Example B - Martha summons a Creature from her hand to the Battlefield with the following Main Domain abilities: an active ability (Collect 1 Crystal icon) and a passive ability (icon shown in the example; see Abilities). As a result, she collects 1 Crystal.

Clan Synergy

Clan Synergy occurs when adjacent Creatures (both horizontally and vertically) on the Battlefield belong to the same Clan. Thanks to Clan Synergy, you can use the Side Domain abilities and conduct a Power Fusion with the Gate (page 12).

If you summon a Creature to the Battlefield, while fulfilling the Clan Synergy condition, you may perform adjacent Side Domain abilities. This applies to both, the Summoned Creature and the Creatures already present on the Battlefield (example C).

If there are Creatures of the same Clan on both sides of the summoned Creature, you may use all available (2 or 4) horizontally adjacent Side Domain abilities.

Familiars do not have any Side Domain abilities. However, they allow other Creatures from the same Clan to execute their Side Domain abilities.

Example C - Agatha activates the Clan Synergy, by summoning a card from her hand to the Battlefield next to a Creature of the same Clan. Thanks to this, she can use both abilities from the adjacent Side Domains of these creatures.

Summoning Area

You can summon creatures not only from your hand but also from the Summoning Area. At the beginning of a turn, the Summoning Area should contain:

six Warrior cards,
the Primordials card deck (until it runs out),
two Sovereign cards.

You use the collected Crystals to summon new Creatures from the Summoning Area. You can summon as many Creatures as you want, as long as you can pay their cost. Before you summon another Creature, the previous one must be:

summoned to your Battlefield, or
summoned to your discard pile (from the Warrior Dismissal Zone).

Summoning a card to the discard pile is not the same as discarding a card. You may not activate any card abilities of a card summoned from the Summoning Area to the discard pile.

When you summon a Warrior from the Summoning Area, do not refill his space in the Summoning Area immediately. You refill Warrior cards only after the Development Phase (page 11).

The Primordials cards are identical and are stacked face up in the Summoning Area. If the deck runs out of Primordials cards, you cannot summon them from the Summoning Area. All the Primordials are already serving you, so you can only summon them from your hand.

When you summon a Sovereign or add a Sovereign to your hand after your Gate is destroyed (page 15), immediately refill the Sovereign Summoning Area.

Action 3 - Move or Recall a Creature

If you want to make room in your Attack Row or Defense Row on your Battlefield, you can Move or Recall a Creature.

Move - for the cost of 1 Crystal, you can:

move a Creature to any unoccupied space on your Battlefield, or
swap any two Creatures on your Battlefield.

Moving or swapping Creatures does not allow you to use the Side Domain abilities - you can only activate them when you summon a Creature according to the Clan Synergy condition (page 9).

Recall - at the cost of 1 Crystal, you may immediately remove any Creature from your Battlefield and place it in your discard pile.

Recalling a card to the discard pile is not the same as discarding it. You can still activate certain abilities while recalling a card.

When recalling Creatures with the Summoning Area ability, you do not pay the cost of 1 Crystal.

When you recall a card with the skull (defeated/discard) ability, you can use it immediately (as if the recalled Creature was defeated in the Attack Phase, page 14).

Ending the Development Phase

You can freely decide when to end your Development Phase. You do not need to use all of your abilities nor play all of your cards. You can discard the cards in your hand or keep them for the next turn. Just remember, that when you keep your cards in hand, you will draw fewer cards at the end of your Attack Phase (pages 14-15) (hand limit of 5).

Try to use as many Crystals as possible during your turn, as all unused Crystals are lost at the end of the Development Phase.

Refilling the Warrior Summoning Area - after completing your Development Phase, fill in the Warrior Summoning Area according to the remove - shift - refill principle (example D):

remove - put the cards from the Warrior Dismissal Zone (on the rightmost column of the Warrior Summoning Area) onto the Warrior Dismissal Pile. If there are no Creatures in the Warrior Dismissal Zone, you can skip the REMOVE step.
shift - move all remaining Warrior cards as far as possible to the right,
replenish - place the next cards from the Warrior deck face-down in the empty spaces. Then flip them face up. You can refill the empty spaces in any order you like.

If there are not enough cards in the Warrior deck, shuffle the Warrior Dismissal Pile to create a new Warrior deck.

Example D - Remove, shift, and refill and flip the cards face up, as shown on page 11 of the rulebook.

Attack Phase

After the Development Phase is completed, all Creatures in your Attack Row attack the enemy. You must include all applicable bonuses.

Charge

During the Charge, all your Creatures in the Attack Row attack your opponent's Gates. Creatures can attack only in the column they are in (in a straight line between your Gate and the enemy's Gate).

While attacking, you may skip Creatures in your opponent's Attack Row. However, you cannot skip the Creatures in his Defense Row. If there is no Creature in front of the opponent's Gate in the Defense Row, you can attack the Gate directly.

When resolving the Charge, consider the passive abilities:

affecting the Power of Creatures (page 5): Attacker's Power icon (flame), Defender's Power icon (shield), Clan Count icon (purple flask),
enhancing the Power Fusion (described below): Power Fusion +1 icon (blue), Power Fusion +1 and any-Clan icon (purple robed figure).

Power Fusion

During the Charge, you can increase the attacking Creatures' power by using the power of the Gates. The standard power bonus from Power Fusion is +2. This bonus can be further increased by some Creatures' abilities.

A Power Fusion occurs when you can lead an uninterrupted chain from the Gate to the attacking Creature. The chains can only be created with Creatures participating in Clan Synergy (vertically or horizontally; example E).

Each Primordial may participate in the Power Fusion of any one Clan in each of your Attack Phases. Treat them as if they were a Clan Creature participating in a Power Fusion.

Creatures with the purple robed (any-Clan) ability can participate in the Power Fusion of one Clan of their choice per Attack Phase.

If you declare a Creature to be temporarily affiliated with a Clan, you cannot change its affiliation until the end of the Attack Phase.

Power Fusion only affects the Creature's attack power. It does not provide any bonuses to defending Creatures.

You can conduct up to 3 Power Fusions at the same time: one per active Gate.

You cannot run a Power Fusion diagonally, nor between Creatures of different Clans.

Fusion chains must not be crossed. Only one Power Fusion chain may pass through any one Creature per turn.

The power of the Creatures participating in the Power Fusion is not added together!

Example E - Martha wants to use the Power Fusion from:

Gate A - she is unable to do so because the red Creature (1) is not adjacent to any other Creature from its Clan.
Gate B - decides to run the chain through Creatures (2), (3), and (4), which belong to the same Clan. Creature (4) leads the attack against the opponent's Gate A. The chain could also stop on Creature (3), boost it with +2 Power, which would allow for a stronger attack against the enemy's central Gate.
Gate C - runs the chain through Creature (5) - the Primordial (whom she decides to assign to the Clan during this Attack Phase), to Creature (6), which then attacks towards the opponent's Gate C.

The Creature (3) still attacks but receives no Power Fusion bonus.

Defeated Creatures

If the Power of your attacking Creature (with all bonuses) compared to the Power of the attacked Creature (with all bonuses; example F) is:

greater - you defeat the attacked Creature. The attacking Creature pushes onward dealing damage reduced by the defeated Creature's Power (with all defense bonuses applied).
equal - you defeat the attacked Creature, but the attack is blocked (you cannot attack any further).
smaller - nothing happens. The attack has been blocked.

Example F - Agatha's Creature has a Basic Power of 1, and thanks to its passive ability (shield), it gains an additional bonus of +1 Power when attacked. The total Power of this Creature, only when attacked, is 2.

After defeating a Creature, rotate its card 90 degrees to indicate that it has been defeated. Until the end of the Attack Phase, all Creatures remain on the Battlefield, keeping and providing bonuses from their Passive Abilities and Clan Synergy.

In a single Attack Phase, the passive abilities of the Side Domains apply, even if one of the Creatures providing Clan Synergy has already been defeated. For this reason, return any defeated Creatures to the discard pile only after all attacks have been resolved.

In the Attack Phase, Clan Synergy occurs whenever Creatures of the same Clan are next to each other (example G).

Example G - Martha has the following Creature in her Defense Row. Its base Power is 2. Thanks to her Side Domain ability (shield), activated with Clan Synergy, it gains a +1 Power bonus. This Creature's total Power when being attacked is 3.

Gate Destruction

Each Gate has 15 durability points (it cannot have more than 15). You keep track of its value by moving the markers on the Gate Durability Card. If the durability drops below the value of 1, the Gate is destroyed - remove the marker from the card.

Destroying the Gate unleashes devastating energy that engulfs everything in its path.

In the column of the destroyed Gate:

Defeat (rotate 90 degrees) the Creatures in the destroyed Gate's owner's column.
Defeat (rotate 90 degrees) the Creature in the attacking player's Attack Row. The wave of devastation does not reach the attacking player's Defense Row.

Flip the destroyed Gate face down.

You can still summon, move, and recall Creatures in a column with a destroyed Gate. However, you cannot start a Power Fusion from the destroyed Gate.

While attacking opponent Creatures in columns with a destroyed Gate, you can only defeat the Creatures there. Damage dealt to a destroyed Gate is ignored.

You can also destroy the Gate in the Development Phase, thanks to the Deal 1 damage to any opponent's Gate ability (see Abilities below).

By defeating enemy Creatures with a skull ability, you may also lose your Gate. Thus, it is possible, that in one phase both you and your opponent lose Gates. If this is the case, first consider the defender's Gate destruction consequences, then the attacker's.

Ending the Attack Phase

The Attack phase ends after all attacks have been resolved. Each of you collects your defeated (rotated 90 degrees) Creatures and places them face up in your discard pile in the order of your choosing.

Activate all skull abilities, as soon as you place the defeated Creature with that ability in your discard pile. If the order in which you activate this ability is important, the defender has priority.

Finally, draw cards from your deck to the limit of 5 cards in hand. If your deck runs out, create a new deck from your discard pile. To do this, flip the entire discard pile over without shuffling and place it in the space of the player's deck.

Never shuffle the discard pile or a player's deck (except for setup)! In a situation where you cannot draw the required number of cards (for example, you have removed too many of them out of play), you only draw as many cards in your hand, as you can. This means that you may have less than 5 cards in your hand.

If you destroyed an opponent's Gate this turn, the opponent draws 1 Sovereign card from the Summoning Area, without paying its cost. It will be the 6th card in his hand. If your Gate was destroyed during your turn, also draw 1 Sovereign card at no cost (as the 6th card in your hand). The defender has priority when drawing a Sovereign card. After drawing a Sovereign card, immediately replenish the empty space in the Summoning Area (page 10).

If more than one of your Gates has been destroyed in one turn, you still draw only one Sovereign card.

Game end

The game ends immediately when one of you loses all Gates. When that happens, do not resolve any skull abilities.

The game can end not only in the Attack Phase but also in the Development Phase, as a result of using the Deal 1 damage to any opponent's Gate and Deal 1 damage to each of your opponent's Gates abilities.

Sample turn

Example turn (page 15)

It's Martha's turn. Martha summons a Creature (1) from her hand to the Battlefield into the Attack Row. By performing this action, she collects two Crystals:

1 from summoning the Creature and activating its Main Domain ability (Crystal icon),
1 thanks to the double-arrow ability to activate the Side Domain of the adjacent Creature.

Then, she discards a Familiar card (2), thanks to which she gains another Crystal. She already has a total of three Crystals that allow her to summon a new 3-cost Creature (3) onto the Battlefield.

Additionally, she summons three more Creatures from her hand to the Battlefield:

(4) A Warrior from the Clan (symbol) to the Defense Row. He has no active ability and does not activate any Side Domain abilities,
(5) A Familiar from the Clan (symbol) to the Defense Row. It does not activate its Main Domain ability because it has been summoned to the Battlefield,
(6) A Primordial, thanks to which he can activate an ability from the Side Domain of a Creature adjacent horizontally. This ability (repair icon) allows her to repair one of the Gates.

Martha decides to repair the Gate, with the current durability of 11. She moves the durability token on the corresponding Gate's Durability Card to 12.

With no more cards in her hand, Martha ends her Development Phase.

After replenishing the cards in the Summoning Area, Martha begins her Attack Phase. Creatures in the Attack Row of Martha's Battlefield begin the Charge:

Creature [2] attacks with a base Power of 3 + 1 (passive Attacker's Power icon), boosted by 2 by the Power Fusion chained from Gate A through Creature (1). Additionally, Creature [1] has the Power Fusion +1 icon ability, which also strengthens the Fusion by 1. The total Power of Creature (2) is therefore 7 (3 + 1 + 2 + 1). Martha decides to skip Agatha's Creature in the Attack Row. She defeats Creature (7) which had 0 Power (rotates it 90 degrees) and breaks through dealing 7 damage to Agatha's Gate D.
The Creature (4) attacks with a base Power of 1, boosted by 2 by the Power Fusion chained from Gate B passing through the Familiar (3). The total Power of the Creature (4) is 3. Martha decides to attack and defeat the Creature (8) (rotates it 90 degrees) in the opponent's Attack Row in the same column. It does not break through, because the defeated Creature's (8) Power is equal to the attacking Creature's Power 4. [Printed as written: the text gives the total Power of Creature (4) as both 3 and 4 here; transcribed as printed.]
Primordial (6) has a base Power of 0 but can attack thanks to the Power Fusion. The fusion chain led from Gate C through Creature (5) increases its Power by 2. In addition, the Power Fusion +1 icon ability of Creature (5), with a value of 2, additionally increases the attacking Creature's Power by 2. Therefore, the total Power of the Primordial (6) is 4. Martha must attack the Creature (9) (with a base Power of 2, increased by 2 thanks to the shield ability, to a total of 4) in Agatha's Defense Row. The Primordial has enough Power to defeat this Creature (rotate it 90 degrees), however, it does not break through.

Martha's turn is over (printed as "Marta's turn is over"). Agatha collects the defeated Creatures from her Battlefield and places them face up in any order she chooses on top of her discard pile. Martha used all the cards in her hand, so she draws 5 new cards from her deck.

Solo mode

Solo and three-player modes are played according to the rules for the two-player game, with the exceptions described in the following sections.

In solo mode, you fight a virtual player. You can imagine that you are fighting this duel with me - the great Auxilio!

Solo mode - Differences

Unlike in the two-player game, the opponent's Battleground in single-player mode is also the Warrior Summoning Area. This means that you will be able to summon new Creatures from this Area during the Development Phase, and in the Attack phase, defeat the remaining ones.

Solo mode - Goal of the game

Your goal is to destroy all your opponent's Gates before:

the enemy destroys your Gates, or
the Warrior deck is depleted.

Solo mode - Game setup

Player's Area - your Battlefield remains the same as in a two-player game. You are the starting player, but your starting hand consists of 5 cards.
Place the Primordials and Sovereign cards within reach.
The Warrior Summoning deck is also your opponent's deck. Draw the top 6 cards from the deck and place them face down on your opponent's Battlefield. Flip them and arrange all creatures on the opponent's Battlefield with their Primary Domains facing you (in the standard game they are facing the other way).
The Out of Play Pile is also the Warrior Dismissal Pile. It is empty at the beginning of the game.

Unlike the two-player game, when the Warrior Summoning deck is depleted, you do not replenish it with the Creatures from the Warrior Dismissal Pile. In this case, you immediately lose!

Solo mode - Player turn

Development phase - the Development Phase is the same as in the 2-player mode, with the following exceptions:

The Warrior Summoning Area is also your opponent's Battlefield, so you summon Warrior cards from it (after paying their Summoning Cost).
At the end of the Development Phase, you do not replenish the Warrior Summoning Area (that is, your opponent's Battlefield). The spaces on the enemy's Battlefield from which you summoned Warriors will therefore remain empty during your Attack Phase.

Attack phase - is played the same as in the 2-player mode.

Solo mode - Opponent's turn

Development phase - the opponent's Development Phase is limited to refilling the opponent's Battlefield (according to the remove - shift - refill principle, page 11). When refilling Creatures, add them from the right to the left column. Thus, first refill the enemy Attack Row, and then the Defense Row. Add one Creature at a time. Treat them as if they were summoned from the hand by your opponent. Activate the Main Domain abilities of each creature added in this way. If the conditions for Clan Synergy are met, perform the Side Domain abilities as well.

The following active abilities do not resolve on your opponent's turn because they do not provide any bonuses for the virtual opponent: Collect 1 Crystal, Draw 1 card, Discard this card and perform the ability to the right of the arrow, and Summoning Area ability.

However, the opponent can still use the following active abilities:

Place the top card of the Warrior Summoning deck on the Out of Play pile.
Damage the human player Gate with the most durability. If your Gates are tied for the highest durability, decide which Gate takes damage.
Repair the virtual player's Gate with the least durability. If more than one Gate has the same (lowest) durability, decide which Gate to repair.
Remove the Creature from the human player's Battlefield with the highest Summoning Cost. If more than one Creature in your Battlefield has the same (highest) Summon Cost, choose the one with higher Power. If that does not give you a definite answer, the choice is yours.
Clan removal (crossed blades icon) - similarly to the Remove a Creature (dagger) ability above, but choose the Clan with the most creatures on the human player's Battlefield, followed by the highest total Summoning Cost, followed by the highest total Power.

Solo mode - Attack phase

The enemy Creatures always attack in such a way, as to use their Power optimally. Usually, they focus on your Attack Row first, then on your Defense Row, and finally on the Gates.

When it is not possible to simultaneously defeat your Attack and Defense Row Creatures, but:

it is possible to defeat your Creature only in the Attack Row, or only in the Defense Row - the Creature in the Defense Row is attacked (and after defeating it, the Gate is attacked),
it is not possible to defeat your Creature in the Attack Row, but it is possible to defeat the Creature in the Defense Row - the Creature in the Defense Row is attacked (and after defeating it, the Gate is attacked),
it is not possible to defeat your Creature in the Defense Row, but it is possible to defeat the Creature in the Attack Row - the Creature in the Attack Row is attacked, and any further attack damage is blocked.

If no Creatures can be defeated, the attack in this column is blocked and nothing happens.

Solo mode - Power Fusion

Possible Power Fusion chains must be run in such a way, that the virtual opponent:

defeats as many of your Creatures as possible, and
attacks your Gate with the highest durability.

Decide how to run the virtual opponent's Power Fusion, you must choose the worst case scenario for the human player.

In the enemy's Attack Phase, you must consider all the bonuses resulting from passive abilities, as described in the two-player variant.

Solo mode - Gate destruction

After a Gate is destroyed for the:

Virtual player - the opponent cannot take a Sovereign card to his hand (because it does not exist). Instead, place the top (face-down) card of the Sovereign deck on top of the Warrior Summoning deck,
Human player - add one of the face up Sovereign cards to your hand, as described in the two-player variant.

Solo mode - Game end

You lose immediately if:

the enemy destroys all your Gates, or
all cards in the Warrior deck run out.

You win immediately if:

you have destroyed all your opponent's Gates.

Three-player mode

Three-player mode - Game setup

Player areas - the layout remains the same as in the two-player game, the difference being that each player only has two Gates, placed in the outer columns. Although there is no Gate in the middle column, players can summon Creatures to it in the usual way.
Sovereign and Primordials Summoning Space - place it within players' reach. Leave some room for the Out of Play Pile [2a].
Warrior Summoning Space - place it within players' reach. Leave a free space for Warrior Dismissal Pile [3a].
Gate Durability Cards - place them between your Battlefields (as shown in the diagram).
The player starter deck - contains 10 Familiars. The third player takes all cards marked with the third starter deck symbol (III). At the beginning of their first turn, players draw from this deck accordingly:
- first player - 3 cards,
- second player - 4 cards,
- third player - 5 cards.

Three-player mode - Differences

Each player removes his defeated Creatures onto his discard pile at the start of his Development Phase, instead of at the end of each Attack Phase.

During the game, you take your turns clockwise.

Three-player mode - Goal of the game

The game is immediately won by the player with the last Gate standing.

The first person to lose all their Gates loses immediately and is eliminated from the game. The remaining players continue the game as if they were playing a standard match (with only two Gates).

Three-player mode - Gate destruction

When a Gate is destroyed, follow the standard rules. Destroying a Gate defeats the Creatures in the players' columns, as described in Attack Phase instructions above.

Remember - there can be only one winner!

Three-player mode - Game turn

Development phase - the Development Phase follows the standard rules. You can play Creatures in the middle column (without a Gate) as if it had a Gate.

Attack phase - the column from which the attack is carried out determines the direction of the attack. When attacking from the:

left column - you can only attack the closest enemy column to your left,
right column - you can only attack the closest enemy column to your right,
middle column - you can attack the middle column of one selected enemy.

Treat defeated Creatures, that were attacked again before being removed, as having 0 Power. They enable Clan Synergy, as long as they remain on the Battlefield. Place your defeated Creatures in the Discard Pile at the start of your Development Phase.

Abilities

If there is a number next to an ability icon, the ability's value is equal to that number (e.g., 2 repair icon - repair the Gate, regaining 2 durability points).

Ability icons are named by their function below; the printed icon key is on page 24 of the rulebook. Judgment call: the discard-and-use icon shown on pages 8 and 15 (a dark block with a right arrow) is treated as the same ability as the black minus icon in the page 24 key, which is the ability it describes.

Active abilities

Repair icon (hammer) - Repair your Gate by increasing its durability by 1 point. (A Gate cannot have more than 15 durability points). You cannot repair a destroyed Gate.
Rebuild icon (crossed hammers) - Rebuild a destroyed Gate. Set its durability to 1. The Gate can be repaired again.
Draw icon (black plus) - Draw 1 card from your player deck.
Discard arrow icon (black minus) - Discard this card from your hand to your discard pile, and perform the ability shown to the right of the arrow icon.
Out of Play icon (red card with X) - Remove from the game any one card from your discard pile or your hand. Place it in the Out of Play Pile.
Damage icon (single red spike) - Deal 1 damage to any opponent's Gate.
Damage All icon (red spike with target) - Deal 1 damage to each of your opponent's Gates.
Summoning Area icon (blue hooked shape) - A Creature with this ability summoned from the Summoning Area to the Battlefield can immediately execute its remaining Main Domain abilities as if summoned from the player's hand. In addition, you can Recall it at any time during your Development Phase (remove it from the Battlefield to your discard pile) at no cost.
Remove a Creature icon (dagger) - Choose any Creature from your opponent's Battlefield and immediately place it in his discard pile. The chosen Creature cannot use its skull ability.
Clan removal icon (crossed blades) - Choose any Clan and remove all Creatures of that Clan from the entire Battlefield (for all players), according to the same rules as for the dagger ability. Players place their removed Creatures in their Discard Pile in any order they want.

Passive abilities

Defender's Power icon (shield) - An attacked Creature with this ability gains 1 additional Power.
Clan Count icon (purple flask) - Choose one Clan during each Attack Phase. An attacking Creature with this ability gains additional Power, equal to the number of creatures of the selected Clan on the Battlefield (for all players).
Attacker's Power icon (flame) - An attacking Creature with this ability gains 1 additional Power.
Power Fusion +1 icon (blue) - Adds 1 to the Power Fusion in which a Creature with this ability participates.
Power Fusion +1 and any-Clan icon (purple robed figure) - Adds 1 to the Power Fusion in which a Creature with this ability participates. Additionally, it can participate in the Power Fusion of any Clan (same as the Primordials).
Defeated/Recalled icon (skull) - A defeated or Recalled Creature with this ability may perform the ability indicated to the right of the discard arrow icon when it is placed on the discard pile.