Primal: The Awakening Rulebook

Table of Contents

Overview
- Campaign Mode
- Expedition Mode
Prologue
Campaign Rules
Expedition Rules
Additional Rules
Glossary
Credits

Overview

You start your adventure with the Prologue (page 3), which is a tutorial that teaches the basics of the gameplay and serves as the first scenario of the Campaign mode. This is your first step into the game.

Campaign Mode

Primal: The Awakening can be played as a series of multiple game sessions linked together by an overarching storyline. The Campaign mode features:

A story to be discovered: Choose your own path through the 30 different campaign quests and explore the lore of the game.
Crafting: Craft your weapons and equipment using the materials you collect from slaying monsters.
Character progression: Level up your character and customize your deck and playstyle.

The Campaign rules are covered in detail on page 37.

Expedition Mode

The Expedition mode is designed for players who prefer playing quick, one-shot scenarios over a longer campaign game. The Expedition mode features:

Standalone scenarios: Choose from a wide variety of scenarios and set the complexity level as you wish.
Quick and easy setup: Follow simple setup rules and start playing within minutes.
Customization options: Build your own hunter or use one of the ready-to-play preconstructed decks.

The Expedition rules are covered in detail on page 65.

Prologue

The Monster

In Primal: The Awakening, the goal of the game in each scenario is to defeat the corresponding monster. In the Prologue scenario, you will be fighting Vyraxen. This section features an overview of the components and key concepts relating to the monster.

Vyraxen component overview:

Miniature: Each monster is represented by a unique miniature.
Monster board: This features the following information:
- 2a. Monster's name
- 2b. Trophy icon
- 2c. Monster element (large icon) and elemental weaknesses (smaller icons)
- 2d. Health track
- 2e. Behavior slots (x3)
Behavior deck: This is the main monster deck and determines its unique moves during combat.
Stance deck: Stance cards represent the different stages of the combat. As the monster suffers wounds, it progresses through its stances.
Peril Deck: These are special abilities that relate to the various stances.
Objective card: Players may wish to complete the objective to gain the bonuses and advantages described in the card text.
Attrition deck: These cards are used during the Attrition phase, in which players are at risk of suffering damage based on the cards they played during their turn.
Struggle tokens: The monster accumulates these tokens over the course of the game. The struggle tokens represent the intensifying rage of the monster.

Health Track

The monster's health is tracked throughout the game using the Health track. The monster starts the game with 10 health, which you indicate with the health marker.

During the game, players will reduce the monster's health by inflicting wounds. When its health reaches 0, the monster is defeated. Damage and wounds are explained in more detail in the How To Play section on page 23.

Behavior Cards

Each monster comes with its own deck of behavior cards, which are identifiable by the corresponding monster trophy, and which represent that monster's unique moves and attacks.

During combat, the monster will activate behavior cards in response to the player's actions.

Each behavior card has a reaction icon (on the back) that corresponds to a specific trigger condition in the game. The reaction system is explained in detail on page 31. The back of a behavior card shows the monster trophy, the reaction icon and the refresh value.

The players will have to learn the specific behavior pattern of the monster to avoid its most powerful attacks and better plan their moves.

The front of a behavior card shows: monster trophy, aggression icon, name, card trait, base ability text and flavor text. Cards with a Boost effect additionally show a boost cost and boost ability text.

All the details concerning how cards are activated and resolved will be explained in the How To Play section on page 32.

Stance Cards

Stance cards represent the different stages of the combat. Each monster comes with 3 stance cards, which are labeled with the Roman numerals I / II / III.

The monster starts the game in Stance I and then advances to the subsequent stances, becoming more dangerous as it suffers wounds during the game.

A stance card shows: aggression level, toughness value, stance number (Roman numerals), exposure diagram, stance progression value and damage value.

The gameplay is described in full detail in the How To Play section.

Peril and Objective Cards

Each stance is associated with specific peril and objective cards via its stance number.

Peril cards are special abilities that are active during the corresponding stance, while objective cards are opportunities for the players to get bonuses and advantages, as long as the player can meet the specific conditions described in the objective text.

Both peril cards and objective cards show the corresponding stance, the trophy icon, the card name and the aggression icon, plus the peril text or objective text respectively.

Peril and objective cards come into play together with their corresponding stance, and are removed when that stance is complete. The progression through the stances is explained in detail on page 23.

The Hunters

This section features an overview of the components and key concepts relating to the hunters.

In the game, the players form a group of 2-4 hunters, with each player choosing one character from among the four available.

Each hunter has their own combat style and is associated with a unique weapon type, identified by a specific class icon.

Dareon — Great Sword (class icon)
Thoreg — Hammer (class icon)
Mirah — Great Bow (class icon)
Ljonar — Sword and Shield (class icon)

Solo mode: The minimum size for the hunter group is 2. You can play the game solo by taking the place of other players and controlling a minimum of 2 characters at the same time.

Player area (example for Dareon, Great Sword):

Miniature: Each hunter is represented by a unique miniature.
Hunter board: This features spaces and slots to organize your play area.
Action deck: The action cards represent the offensive and defensive moves you can make during combat.
Mastery card: This is your character's signature ability, which you will need to unlock during combat.
Equipment and Potion cards: The weapon (great sword in Dareon's example), armor, helm, potions and special items are what enable your hunter to face the monstrous creatures of Thyrea.

The hunter board also has a discard pile space.

Action Cards

Action cards are the skills and moves your hunter can perform during combat.

Action cards are divided into defensive and offensive cards. There are four types, and each type has a different color.

The Dodge and Parry are defensive cards, while the Maneuver and Attack are offensive cards.

An action card shows: stamina cost, card type icon, aggro icon, ability text, stamina icons, card ID and card trait.

The way you play cards from your hand and their corresponding effects are explained in detail on page 21.

Mastery Cards

Each player has a mastery card associated with their action deck that represents a signature ability. This ability is an important aspect of the character's gameplay strategy.

Note: Always keep your mastery card separate from your action deck.

At the beginning of the game, mastery cards are unfocused (i.e. on their unfocused side). Then, as the game progresses, players will have the opportunity to focus their mastery (i.e. turn it to its focused side) by meeting the specific conditions indicated on the card. Once focused, your mastery will give you a powerful ability for the rest of the game. Focusing your mastery card is explained in full on page 25.

The unfocused side shows a focus value, name, focus ability text and card ID. The focused side shows a focused icon, name, mastery ability text and card ID.

Equipment Cards

Weapon cards determine how much damage your attack cards deal (weapon damage).

They also determine the composition of your action deck: the exact number of cards of each color you must include in your action deck is shown on the left side of your weapon card (for example 6 x Attack, 6 x Maneuver, 6 x Parry, 6 x Dodge).

Note: Advanced weapons will allow players to customize their deck according to their favorite playstyle.

A weapon card shows: weapon name and level, class icon, action deck composition, ability text and weapon damage.

Armor and helm cards determine your health in combat. The sum of the health points of your equipped armor and helm is your health value, which is the amount of damage you can sustain before being KO'd (more details on being KO'd on page 29). Helm and armor cards show the helm/armor icon, the helm or armor name and level, and health points.

Combat Board

In Primal: The Awakening, the combat board represents the location where the fight takes place. The monster always occupies the center of the board. The board is divided into four sectors, each one relating to a specific side of the monster (i.e. front, flanks and rear).

Note: Always refer to the sectors as front sector, flank sector and rear sector, based on their corresponding side of the monster.

The combat board layout has a REAR sector, two FLANK sectors and a FRONT sector, plus a round tracker numbered 1 to 10.

Miniature Base Orientation

The bases of the monster miniatures feature raised segments, which indicate the monster's front side (which designates the front sector) and help players to position the miniature correctly on the combat board.

During the game, the monster will change its orientation by turning to players in specific sectors. When that happens, rotate the monster miniature so that the segments on its base are aligned with the diagonal lines on the board.

Note: When the monster rotates, the sectors of the board are redefined based on their corresponding side of the monster.

Movement and Positioning

During the fight, the hunters can move around the monster between adjacent sectors of the board (movement rules are explained in detail on page 19). Since monsters' and hunters' abilities can depend on the sectors, tactical positioning is crucial for the players to gain an advantage over the monster or to evade its attacks.

Example: Mirah (1) moves from the front sector to an adjacent flank sector (2).

Example: Later in the game, the monster changes its orientation by turning to Thoreg (1). This means that Thoreg is now in the front sector, while Dareon (2) is in the flank sector and Mirah is to the rear (3).

Environment and Terrain

The natural environment of the combat scene is represented by terrain tokens.

The setup rules for each scenario will indicate the type and exact number of terrain tokens to be placed, as well as their position on the board.

Each terrain token will be placed in one of the sectors of the board, and applies special game effects to that sector (the rules for each terrain are explained in detail in the Additional Rules section on page 89).

Note: There are special types of terrain that will be dynamically added to the board over the course of the fight (e.g. a monster may breathe fire across the board or fill the environment with dust!).

Terrain examples: Cyricae, Baethanis and Brush terrain tokens.

Prologue Setup

To setup and play the Prologue scenario, you need only the components presented below. Any other components will be used in the Campaign and Expedition modes, so can be kept in the box for now.

Note: A full components list can be found on page 39.

General Components

Combat board
4x Fire terrain token, 1x Brush terrain token, 1x Cyricae terrain token, 1x Baethanis terrain token
Round marker, Health marker, 3x Trigger token, First player token, Aggro token, 4x Threatened token
8x Deplete token, Vulnerable token, Stun token, Blind token, Confused token, 4x KO token
Attrition deck (10x cards)
6x Struggle token, 3x Bonus damage token (monster), 4x Strain token, 25x Counter token, 5x Bonus +1/+3 damage token, 8x Stamina token (weapon), 20x Damage token (1/5), 10x Damage token (10/50)

Vyraxen Components

You can identify Vyraxen's monster board and cards using the trophy icon and monster name.

Components: Vyraxen monster board, Vyraxen miniature, 3x Stance cards (I, II, III), 9x Behavior cards, 3x Peril cards, Hit the Tail! objective card.

While selecting cards, take only:

Stance I, Stance II and Stance III cards that display the symbol 0 (aggression level) on the top left of the card. These are double-sided cards, so use the side with the correct symbol.
Behavior cards that display the aggression icons for aggression level 0 (a total of 9 behavior cards).
The peril and objective cards, using the side with the aggression level 0 icon.

Starter Deck and Equipment

Each hunter has their own starter deck for the Prologue, consisting of 24 action cards associated with a specific mastery card. Starter decks only include cards displaying the card ID "S" on the bottom right of the card.

Note: The rest of the cards will become available to the players as upgrades as they play through the campaign.

Each hunter's starting equipment for the Prologue includes a level 1 base weapon (take the one that matches your hunter class icon), base armor and a base helm. Each hunter also takes 1 Alemore potion card.

Components: 4x Base Helm cards, 4x Base Armor cards, 4x Alemore potion cards.

Each hunter takes their miniature, hunter board, base weapon card, mastery card, starter deck (24 action cards) and 1x Wound card:

Dareon — Great Sword base weapon; Relentless Assault mastery card
Mirah — Great Bow base weapon; Ultimate Shot mastery card
Thoreg — Hammer base weapon; Massive Blow mastery card
Ljonar — Sword and Shield base weapon; Shield Master mastery card

Choose your hunter: Each player chooses a character to become their hunter. The one you choose in the Prologue will be your character for the entire campaign.

Setup Instructions

Follow the steps below to set up the scenario.

Place the combat board in the center of the table.
Place the monster miniature in the center of the combat board so that the front sector is the bottom one.
Place the hunter miniatures in the front sector.
Place terrain tokens as shown in the image: Brush (4a), Cyricae (4b), Baethanis (4c).
Place the round marker on the first space of the Round track.
Keep all the tokens indicated on page 13 (General Components) near the board.
Set up the monster area as shown in the image.
- 7.1 Place the monster board near the combat board, as shown in the image.
- 7.2 Place the health marker on 10 on the Health track on the monster board.
- 7.3 Shuffle the behavior cards to form the behavior deck and place it near the monster board.
- 7.4 Place the Stance I card and its associated peril and objective cards below the monster board. Any other stance and peril cards will be used later in the game.
- 7.5 Shuffle the base attrition cards to form the attrition deck and place it near the monster board.
Each player performs the following steps:
- 8.1 Place your hunter board in front of you on the table.
- 8.2 Place your starting equipment and potion cards on your hunter board in the spaces that correspond to their icons.
- 8.3 Shuffle your action deck and place it to the left of your hunter board.
- 8.4 Place the mastery card associated with your action deck face down (i.e. with the unfocused side face up) to the right of your hunter board.
Determine the aggro player: Assign the aggro token to one of the players.
Each player draws 5 cards from their action deck to form their starting hand.
Take the top 3 cards from the behavior deck and place them face down on the monster board in the three behavior slots.

You are now ready to play.

How to Play

A scenario consists of 10 rounds, in which players win by reducing the monster's health to 0 (success and failure conditions are explained in detail on page 35).

This section provides a detailed explanation of the rules for playing a scenario. It begins by presenting the structure of a round and explaining each step. Then it covers the player's turn in depth, and finally, it explains how the monster behaves during the game. By the end of this section, you should have a thorough understanding of the game and will be able to play the Prologue scenario.

Round Structure

The game is played in a series of rounds. A round consists of the following steps, which must be resolved in order.

Step 1: Consume

Each player may resolve the Consume ability on one of their cards (i.e. any ability text that begins with the keyword Consume). Players resolve these abilities in the order they wish.

Note: Each player can resolve only 1 Consume ability each round.

Step 2: Monster Upkeep

Resolve the following steps in order:

Behavior Refresh (skip this phase in round 1): Look at the behavior cards in play. Discard the behavior with the lowest refresh value and replace it with the top card of the behavior deck.
- Note: If more than one behavior card has the lowest refresh value, discard all behaviour cards tied for the lowest refresh value and replace them.
Struggle: The monster gains 1 struggle per player (see Player Count Icon for more details). Each time the monster gains struggle, place that number of struggle tokens onto the monster board.

Step 3: Player Turns

At the start of this step, the player with the aggro token becomes the first player and so receives the first player token.

The players take turns in clockwise order, starting with the first player. The player currently playing their turn is called the active player.

The player's turn structure is explained in detail in the next section (on page 19).

Note: The round does not have a step for the monster's turn. During the game, the monster dynamically reacts to the players' actions, based on its behavior cards in play. The reaction system is explained in detail on page 31.

Step 4: End of Round

When all players have taken their turns, all "At the end of the round" effects are triggered. Then the round is over: Advance the round marker by 1 along the Round track and begin a new round from step 1.

Player count icon: The icon is frequently used in the game and refers to the number of players who started the scenario. The designation "X per player" indicates an amount equal to X multiplied by the player count.

Consuming a Potion

Potion cards are an important resource for the players. They give them powerful advantages for a limited time.

When resolving a potion card ability, apply the corresponding ability text that follows the keyword Consume and then remove that card from the game (return it to the box).

Struggle and Unleash

When the monster gains struggle, if the total amount of struggle accumulated is equal to or higher than 3 per player, immediately resolve the following steps, in order:

All players immediately suffer damage equal to the monster's damage value indicated in the current stance, as explained in detail on page 27.
Remove struggle tokens until the monster has 1 per player.

The resolution of these steps is called Unleash.

Some monsters focus on accumulating struggle to perform Unleash, while others just spend struggle to boost their behavior card effect (the boost effect is explained in detail on page 32).

Controlling how much struggle the monster accumulates is an important aspect of the game. The players have different ways to remove struggle through their abilities and card effects. You will need to find the right balance between attacking, defending and removing struggle.

Player's Turn Structure

A player's turn is divided into the following phases: Movement phase, Action phase, Attrition phase and finally, End of turn. Resolve these phases in the following order.

Movement phase. Summary: Move into an adjacent sector or remain in your current position on the board.
Action phase. Summary: Play cards from your hand one at a time, resolving their specific effect.
Attrition phase. Summary: Check whether you suffer attrition damage based on the number of defensive cards you played this turn.
End of turn. Summary: Discard any played card and refill your hand. The monster turns to the player with the aggro token.

Movement Phase

During your Movement phase, you choose whether you want to move or stay in your current sector on the board.

If you move: Pay 1 stamina to place your hunter miniature in a sector adjacent to your current sector (two sectors of the combat board are said to be adjacent if they share a common border). Paying a stamina cost is explained in detail on the next page.
- Note: During your Movement phase you can only move once.
- Note: Unless specified otherwise, you must pay stamina every time you move.
If you do not move: You become threatened and take a threatened token (if you haven't already).
- Note: If you would become threatened, but you are already threatened, keep your threatened token (each player can only have 1 threatened token) and trigger any effects that activate when you become threatened.

Threatened: Staying in the same sector is dangerous as it makes you an easy target for the monster!

While you are threatened, you have a higher risk of suffering attrition damage (the Attrition phase is explained in detail on page 27). In addition, some behavior and peril cards interact with your threatened status, meaning that threatened players experience the harshest effects.

How to remove your threatened status: Players can remove their threatened status by moving on the board. When you move, immediately discard the threatened token to indicate that you are no longer threatened.

Stamina Cost

The action cards in your hand represent both your combat options and your amount of stamina.

Many situations in the game will require you to pay a stamina cost (common examples are moving on the board or playing an action card from your hand).

Each time you have to pay a stamina cost, you must generate the stamina needed to pay that cost. You generate stamina by discarding cards from your hand. Each card you discard for this generates 1 stamina for each stamina icon on its bottom left corner.

Note: You may discard multiple cards to generate enough stamina to pay a cost. If you generate more stamina than you need to pay, any surplus stamina is lost.

Stamina cost example: Playing a card. Ironblast has a stamina cost of 3. If you want to play that card, you will have to generate 3 stamina by discarding cards from your hand. You could discard Heavy Smash (2 stamina) and Tenacity (1 stamina) from your hand to generate 3 stamina.

Stamina cost example: Movement. Alice controls Mirah (1). She wants to move from the front sector to an adjacent flank sector (2). She must pay 1 stamina, and to do that she discards Acrobatics (1 stamina) from her hand.

Action Phase

During the Action phase, you may perform any of the following actions, in any order. Each action (apart from Revive) may be performed as many times as you wish.

Play an action card from your hand.
Activate an ability that begins with the keyword Action.
Revive (only once per turn).

Playing action cards

During your Action phase, you can play up to 5 action cards from your hand, resolving them one at a time.

The row of cards you play from left to right is called your sequence. The order in which you play your action cards in your sequence is important for many game effects (e.g. triggering abilities, monsters' reactions and more).

In order to play an action card from your hand, you must first pay its stamina cost (see page 20 for how to pay stamina costs).

When you play a card in your sequence, resolve the card ability text and then its specific effect depending on the card color:

Attack (Red): Deal damage to the monster equal to your weapon damage (damage and wounds are explained in detail on page 23).
- Note: Attack cards can only be played if you are in a sector on one of the monster's exposed sides. The exposed sides are indicated in the exposure diagram on the current stance card (see next page for how to identify the monster's exposed sides).
Maneuver (Blue): Remove 1 struggle token from the monster board.
Dodge (Green) and Parry (Yellow): These cards do not have any additional effect when played in your sequence. When you play a dodge or parry card, simply resolve its ability text.
- Note: The number of defensive cards you play in your sequence is important in order to avoid suffering damage during the Attrition phase (the Attrition phase is described in detail on page 27).

Aggro cards

Action cards feature an aggro icon in the top right corner. Cards with the red aggro icon are called aggro cards.

When you play an aggro card in your sequence, immediately take the aggro token. This means you have drawn the monster's attention (it will turn to your sector at the end of your turn, as described on page 30).

Exposed Sides

Stance cards feature an exposure diagram that represents each side of the monster (oriented with the front sector, i.e. the monster's front side, at the bottom). It indicates which of the monster's sides are exposed (in red), and which are protected (in black).

The exposure diagram is important so you can establish if players are able to play attack cards based on their position on the board.

Exposed side: Example 1 — According to the exposure diagram on the stance card, the front and rear sides are exposed. So Dareon (1) and Mirah (2) are in a sector on one of the monster's exposed sides.

Exposed side: Example 2 — The monster is oriented toward Ljonar's sector (3). According to the exposure diagram, the monster's exposed sides are the front and the rear. This means only Ljonar (3) and Thoreg (4) are in a sector on one of the monster's exposed sides.

Damage and Wounds

When you deal damage to the monster, place that number of damage tokens onto the current stance card.

Then if the total damage the monster currently sustains is equal to or higher than the current stance card's toughness value, perform the following steps to inflict a wound:

Reduce the monster's health by 1.
Remove an amount of damage tokens equal to the toughness value.

Toughness value example: In this example, the toughness value equals 2 multiplied by the player count. Progression value: In this example, it equals 7.

As it suffers wounds, the monster will become increasingly dangerous.

When the monster's health reaches the progression value indicated on the stance card, the current stance is complete and the monster advances to the next one:

Remove the current stance card from the game.
Reveal the next stance card, respecting the stance order (I, II and III).
Remove any peril and objective cards in play that correspond to the completed stance and reveal any cards associated with the next one.

Note: When the amount of damage the monster sustains is enough to inflict multiple wounds, you must inflict one wound at a time, because reducing the monster's health could cause the stance to progress and therefore modify the toughness value (see the example below).

Damage and wounds: Example — This example shows a two-player game, with Vyraxen in Stance I, with 9 health.

1. Let's assume that Alice deals 13 damage to Vyraxen with a single attack. She places 13 damage tokens on the stance card, which is enough to inflict a wound (the toughness value is 2 per player, which in a two-player game makes it 4). Alice reduces the monster's health by 1 and then removes 4 damage tokens from the stance card. There are still 9 damage tokens on the stance card, which is still enough to inflict a second wound: Alice brings the monster's health down to 7 and removes another 4 damage tokens from the stance card.

2. At this point, there are still 5 damage tokens on the current stance card, but the stance progression value has been reached, so Vyraxen advances to Stance II. Any remaining damage is carried over from Stance I to Stance II, but the toughness value in Stance II is 6 (3 per player), and so the remaining damage is not enough to inflict a third wound.

To sum up: The total of 13 damage was enough to inflict 2 wounds, with 5 damage remaining.

Sequence and Triggered Abilities

Playing a card in your sequence may trigger multiple abilities from the other cards you have in play (i.e. equipment cards, mastery cards or any other action cards in your sequence).

When that happens, the player decides the order in which they resolve the card abilities (i.e. in the order you wish, resolve the ability text of the card you played and any other triggered ability text from other cards).

Note: You must resolve all the game effects associated with a card (including any triggered abilities and monster reactions, which are explained in detail on page 31) before playing another card in your sequence.

Below are two examples that show how the order of cards in your sequence can be crucial for setting up powerful combos. These examples will also make some of the most common triggering icons in the ability texts more familiar to you (all triggering icons are listed and explained in detail in the Glossary on page 103).

Sequence: Example 1

1. Alice plays Reactive Guard as the first card in her sequence. This is a parry card, so other than its ability text, it has no effect. The triggering icon before the card ability text means that the ability will trigger if Alice plays an attack card as the next card in her sequence.

2. Next, Alice plays Dragon Strike. It is an aggro card, so Alice takes the aggro token. By playing an attack card, she triggers the card abilities of both Reactive Guard and Aurean Blade (her equipped weapon card). Dragon Strike also features a card ability: The triggering icon means that the ability is triggered if the card follows a parry card in your sequence. Alice chooses the order in which she resolves the three abilities. She looks and discard the top card of the attrition deck (Aurean Blade's ability), and then she draws 2 cards (1 for the Dragon Strike ability, and 1 for the Reactive Guard ability). Finally, Dragon Strike, being an attack card, deals damage equal to Alice's weapon damage, which is 4.

Note: The keyword Assist has no effect when the card is played in your sequence (see below for more details).

Assist

Assist is a very common keyword that features on many action cards.

During another player's Action phase, before or after any action, you may support the active player by discarding a card with the Assist keyword from your hand. If you do, the active player immediately draws 1 card.

Each player can only assist once per turn (i.e. the active player may receive a maximum of one assist from each other player).

Note: All keywords featured on the card ability texts are explained in the Glossary on page 106.

Sequence: Example 2

1. Bob plays Whirlwind and so takes the aggro token. The card ability is triggered if Bob plays a maneuver and an attack card in that order as the next cards in his sequence. As he has played a maneuver card, he removes 1 struggle from the monster board.

2. Next, Bob plays Charge. He resolves the card ability by choosing another player to draw 1, and then removes 1 struggle.

3. Finally, Bob plays Dashing Blow, triggering the card abilities of both Whirlwind and Hammer Knight (his mastery card). First, Bob decides to place a counter on Hammer Knight, as per the corresponding card ability. Then he resolves the card abilities on Dashing Blow and Whirlwind, which both increase the damage of the attack. Bob adds those bonuses to his weapon damage, and then deals that total amount of damage to the monster.

Note: In card ability texts, the class icons refer to your weapon level. So for example, when controlling Thoreg, if you are instructed to increase the damage the attack deals by 3 hammer icons, that means you have to add an amount equal to three times your weapon level.

How to Focus Your Mastery

To focus your mastery card, you must collect the same number of counters as the card's focus value.

You can place counters on your mastery card by triggering the card's focus ability.

Once you have accumulated the same number of counters as the focus value, discard those counters and flip the card to its focused side, so that the mastery ability is visible and unlocked.

Note: Once focused, your mastery is unlocked for the rest of the game.

How to focus your mastery: Example — Hammer Knight's focus ability instructs you to place a counter on your mastery card when you play a maneuver and an attack card in that order in your sequence. When the second counter is placed on the card, the focus value (2) is reached, so you immediately flip Hammer Knight to its focused side, which unlocks its mastery ability.

Triggering Conditions

Some card abilities are triggered based on specific triggering conditions.

A triggering condition indicates a particular event in the game or a specific situation that must occur for the ability to activate. A triggering condition can be denoted by:

Bold text at the beginning of the ability text (which usually begins with the word "when" or "after").
A triggering keyword, in bold.
A triggering icon.

All keywords and icons are listed and explained in detail in the Glossary section on page 103.

Examples of triggering conditions for action card abilities include bold text at the beginning of the ability, a triggering keyword (Opening) and a triggering icon.

Note: Some abilities are triggered out of turn when their triggering conditions are met (e.g. Mirah's Cover fire). When that happens, simply follow the instructions on the card ability text.

Revive Action

Revive is an action that allows you to help other players recover faster from their KO status (for more details on being KO'd, see page 29). Reviving a KO'd player helps them get back in the fight.

Once per turn, during your Action phase, if you are in a sector with another player who is currently KO'd, you may pay 2 stamina to revive that player. If you do, flip that player's KO token to its black side.

If the black side is already visible, discard the token instead and that player rises (see page 29 for more details).

End of the Action Phase

When you do not want to or cannot perform any more actions, your Action phase ends.

At the end of your Action phase, if you have 2 cards or more left in your hand, you gain 1 stamina token, which you place on your hunter board.

Stamina tokens can be used to pay stamina costs: When you are paying a stamina cost, you may discard a stamina token to generate 1 stamina.

Note: Unless otherwise specified by card abilities, you cannot hold more than 1 stamina token.

Attrition Phase

The more aggressively you play, the more likely you are to suffer attrition damage.

During the Attrition phase, the active player must perform an attrition check.

To perform an attrition check, you resolve the following steps in order:

Reveal the top card of the attrition deck.
Suffer attrition damage unless you have a number of defensive cards (dodge or parry) in your sequence equal to or higher than the attrition value revealed. The attrition damage is equal to the monster's damage value, which is shown in the current stance card.
Discard the attrition card revealed.

Note: If you are instructed to reveal the top card of the attrition deck but it is empty, reshuffle the attrition discard pile to form a new deck and then reveal the card.

If you are threatened, reveal two attrition cards instead of one from the top of the attrition deck and use the attrition value that would give the worst outcome in terms of avoiding attrition damage.

Monster's damage value

The damage the monster deals depends on the current stance and so will vary throughout the course of the game.

When a game effect says that a player suffers the monster's damage, that player must suffer the amount of damage shown by the damage value in the bottom right corner of the current stance card (suffering damage is explained in detail on page 29).

Attrition: Example 1 — Alice has a defensive card in her sequence. She reveals an attrition card that shows an attrition value of 1. Since she has 1 defensive card in her sequence, she avoids attrition damage.

Attrition: Example 2 — Bob is threatened, so he reveals 2 attrition cards instead of 1 from the attrition deck. He must use the higher attrition value, which is 2. Since he has only 1 defensive card in his sequence, Bob suffers attrition damage which is equal to 1 (i.e. the current stance card's damage value).

Suffering Damage and Being Knocked Out

Each time you suffer damage, place that number of damage tokens on your hunter board.

When your total sustained damage reaches or exceeds your health value (e.g. the sum of your equipped armor's and helm's health points), you are knocked out (KO'd).

When you are KO'd, perform the following steps in order:

If you are the active player, your turn ends immediately (skip any other turn steps).
Remove all damage tokens and any other tokens from your hunter board.
- Note: If you have the aggro token, pass it to the first player (if that player is KO'd, pass it to the next player in player order instead).
Discard your entire hand of cards, and any cards in your sequence.
Add a Wound card to your discard pile and then reshuffle your discard pile into your deck.
Choose either your armor or helm card that is not currently depleted and place a deplete token on that card (deplete tokens are explained in detail on page 30).
Lay your miniature down on the board to indicate your hunter is knocked out.
Take a KO token and place it on your hunter board (red side face up).
The monster turns to the aggro player.

While you are KO'd, you cannot be the target of any card ability or game effect (apart from Revive).

When it would be your turn but you are knocked out, just flip your KO token to its black side. Play then passes straight to the next player. If your KO token is already on its black side, you rise, by following these steps:

Discard the KO token.
Draw up to your hand size limit.
Stand your miniature up on the board to indicate that you are not KO'd anymore.
Your turn is over (play passes to the next player).

Note: Other players may help you rise faster by performing a Revive action, which is explained in detail on page 26.

KO and Rise: Example — At a certain point in the game, Bob is knocked out. He takes a KO token and places it on his hunter board (red side face up). 1. At the beginning of what would be his next turn, Bob flips his KO token to its black side and then play passes to the next player. 2. At the beginning of what would be his next turn, Bob discards the KO token and rises: He draws up to his hand size limit and stands up his hunter miniature on the board. To sum up: It took Bob two turns to recover from being KO'd and get back in the fight.

Deplete tokens

Deplete tokens are placed on armor and helm cards to indicate that the equipment is depleted. The health points of depleted equipment do not count towards your health value.

If both your armor and your helm cards get depleted, you are out of the game until the end of the scenario (your KO token remains on its red side in front of you).

Wound cards

Wound cards are special cards that are added to your deck as a consequence of being KO'd. They clog up your deck, making it less efficient, and represent the serious injuries that your hunter has suffered.

Each player has their own reserve of 2 Wound cards (identify which are yours by checking the hunter class icon on the back).

End of the Player's Turn

At the end of your turn, follow the steps below:

Discard your sequence: Discard all cards from your sequence in the order you played them (the last card you played in your sequence becomes the top card of your discard pile).
Refill your hand: Draw cards from your deck until you reach your hand size limit (which is 5 by default). If you empty your deck this way, reshuffle your discard pile to form a new deck and then draw any remaining cards.
- Note: If you have more cards in your hand than your hand size limit before you refill your hand, discard down to your hand size limit.
Monster rotation: Turn the monster to face the aggro player (the player with the aggro token).

Play now passes to the next player. When each player has completed their turn, the round ends.

Fatigue damage (solo mode): When you empty your deck (i.e. when you draw or discard the last card of your deck), you suffer damage equal to your weapon level. This damage is called fatigue damage. Then reshuffle your discard pile to form a new deck.

Monster Reaction System

The game is based around a dynamic reaction system in which the monster's behavior cards are triggered in response to specific events and players' actions.

There are always three behavior cards in play, set out in the three behavior slots on the monster board.

Each behavior card has a reaction icon on the back that represents a specific triggering condition.

Below are the reaction icons and related triggering conditions that you need to know to play the Prologue.

Note: You can find a comprehensive list of all the reaction icons featured in the game on page 93.

Attack icon — Trigger: After a player plays an attack card in their sequence.
Maneuver icon — Trigger: After a player plays a maneuver card in their sequence.
Parry icon — Trigger: After a player plays a parry card in their sequence.
Dodge icon — Trigger: After a player plays a dodge card in their sequence.
End of round icon — Trigger: At the end of the round.
Threatened icon — Trigger: After a player becomes threatened. Note: If a player would become threatened but is already threatened, this reaction is still triggered.
Front sector icon — Trigger: When a player starts their turn in the front sector.
Flank sector icon — Trigger: When a player starts their turn in the flank sector.
Rear sector icon — Trigger: When a player starts their turn in the rear sector.
Rampage icon — Trigger: When you resolve another behavior card in play (see the Rampage step of the Behavior Card Resolution on the next page). Note: Behavior cards with this reaction icon are called rampage cards.

Behavior Card Resolution

When a behavior card in play is triggered, reveal that card (turn it face up) and resolve it by performing the following steps in order:

Reaction: Apply its effect by resolving the card base ability text and its boost effect (if any).
Rampage: Trigger any rampage cards in play (rampage cards are explained in detail on the next page).
Discard and Replenish: Discard the behavior card and then refill that behavior slot with the top card of the behavior deck.

Note: If the effects of any event or card ability trigger a behavior card in play, completely resolve that event or card ability before revealing the triggered behavior card.

Behavior Card Resolution: Example — 1. Alice plays a maneuver card in her sequence and resolves all effects related to that maneuver card (including any triggered abilities on her cards in play). 2. By playing a maneuver, she triggers the behavior card in the leftmost slot. 3. Alice reveals the triggered behavior and performs the Reaction step by resolving the card ability text and boost effect. 4. Since there are no rampage cards in play (behavior cards with the rampage icon), nothing happens during the Rampage step. 5. Alice discards the triggered behavior card and refills the behavior slot with the top card of the behavior deck.

Boost effect

Some behavior cards feature a boost effect at the bottom of the card. This is an additional ability that is resolved during the Reaction step of the card resolution.

To resolve the boost effect, remove an amount of struggle tokens from the monster equal to the related boost cost and then resolve the boost ability text.

Only resolve the boost effect if the monster has enough struggle to pay the boost cost.

If the monster does have enough struggle, always remove the required amount of tokens, regardless of the outcome of the boost effect.

Rampage Cards

Behavior cards that feature the rampage reaction icon are called rampage cards.

Rampage cards are triggered and revealed during the Rampage step of the resolution of another behavior card in play, which is called the triggering behavior.

When a rampage card is triggered, follow these special rules:

A triggered rampage card must be revealed and resolved immediately: Turn it face up and apply its effect by resolving its base ability text and any boost effect.
A triggered rampage card is discarded (and its behavior slot is replenished) along with the triggering behavior card during the Discard and Replenish step of that card's resolution.

Note: If multiple rampage cards are triggered, reveal and resolve those cards one at a time, in the order of your choice. Then discard all triggered rampage cards (and replenish their behavior slots) along with the triggering behavior card during the final step of that card's resolution.

Rampage: Example — 1. After playing a card in his sequence and resolving all effects related to that card, Bob triggers the behavior card in the leftmost slot. 2. Bob reveals the triggered behavior card and performs the Reaction step by resolving the card ability text and its boost effect. 3. Bob resolves the Rampage step by triggering the rampage card in play. Bob immediately reveals the triggered rampage card: He turns it face up and resolves its ability text and boost effect. Finally, Bob discards both the triggering behavior card and the triggered rampage card and refills the behavior slots with the top two cards of the behavior deck.

Escalation

When the behavior deck is empty (i.e. when the last behavior card of the deck either enters play or is discarded by any game effect), immediately reshuffle the behavior discard pile to form a new deck.

When this happens, the monster gains 1 struggle. This struggle gain is called escalation.

Multiple Behavior Card Resolution

When multiple behavior cards in play are triggered, reveal and resolve those cards one at a time, in the order of your choosing.

You can use the trigger tokens to indicate that a behavior card has been triggered: Simply place the trigger token on the card and then remove it once you reveal that card.

This is useful for keeping track of multiple triggered behavior cards or when time elapses between the triggering event and the behavior card reveal.

Multiple Behavior Card Resolution: Example — 1. After playing an attack card in their sequence and resolving all effects related to that card, Charlie triggers both behavior cards in play that have the attack reaction icon. To keep track of multiple behavior cards to be revealed, Charlie places a trigger token on each of those cards. 2. Charlie reveals and resolves the triggered behavior cards one at a time and he decides to start with the behavior card on the left. They remove the trigger token, turn that card face up and resolve its effect. Since there are no rampage cards in play, Charlie discards the behavior card and refills the behavior slot with the top card of the behavior deck. The new behavior card that enters play is a rampage card (in the leftmost slot). 3. Charlie reveals and resolves the remaining triggered behavior card: They remove the trigger token, turn the card face up and resolve its effect. 4. During the Rampage step, Charlie triggers the rampage card in play. They immediately reveal and resolve the triggered rampage card: They turn it face up and resolve its effect. Finally, Charlie discards both the triggering behavior card and the triggered rampage card. They replenish the behavior slots with the top two cards of the behavior deck.

Card Resolution Timing

It could be that multiple card abilities trigger at the same time. When that occurs, unless otherwise specified by the card text, the cards are resolved in the following order of priority, from left to right:

Stance cards → Peril cards → Behavior cards → Other cards

When multiple cards with the same priority are triggered (e.g. two peril cards, or an action card and an equipment card), the players decide the order in which to resolve those cards.

This means a player can maximize their combos and synergies by choosing the order in which they resolve any simultaneous effects.

Success and Failure Conditions

A scenario can end in two ways: Success or failure.

Success: Players successfully complete the scenario if they reduce the monster's health to 0.

Note: When they inflict the final wound, reducing the monster to 0 health, players immediately win the scenario.

Failure: Players can lose in two ways:

When a player is KO'd, if there are no more players standing (e.g. if all players are KO'd), you have failed the scenario.
If you reach the end of round 10, you failed the scenario (the hunters are no longer able to sustain the battle against the monster).

Note: Some monsters might feature special failure conditions. If this is the case, those conditions are explained on the corresponding cards.

Try again! Don't get discouraged if you lose! The monsters are tough and are designed to provide a challenging experience. If you fail, repeat the combat until you successfully complete the Prologue. You need to do this before you start your first campaign.

Let's play! Now that you have learned how to play the game, you are ready to play the Prologue! Once you have succesfully completed it, read the next section, End of Prologue, and then proceed to the Campaign Rules. Note: As you play through the Prologue, we suggest you keep this Rulebook close at hand and check the Glossary section on page 103 for any keywords or symbols on the cards.

End of Prologue

Congratulations on completing the Prologue! This begins your adventure into the world of Thyrea. Read the next section, Campaign Rules, to learn how to set up and run your first campaign.

Campaign Rules

Campaign Overview

In Campaign mode, players commence an adventure within the world of Thyrea that unfolds across multiple game sessions, with each game impacting subsequent games.

A campaign is structured in 11 Chapters. Each Chapter moves the story forward and offers the players different quests to choose from, which each correspond to a unique game scenario.

As players progress through the chapters, they will fight numerous different monsters, gather resources, upgrade their equipment and customize their hunter.

The campaign is designed so you can freely choose your path through the quests. The main narrative progresses in the background, and as you choose which quests to play through, you will be able to unlock special rewards and shape your own path through to the final chapter.

Note: The Campaign book is required to play the Campaign mode, as it contains all the narrative content and setup instructions for each scenario.

Campaign Objective

To successfully complete the campaign, players must complete all 11 chapters of the story.

A chapter is complete, and players move on to the next chapter, when they successfully complete a quest from those available for that chapter.

Note: If you play with the Hunter's Trial variant rules, at the end of the campaign you will be given a score as a measure of your success (for more details on the Hunter's Trial variant, see page 63).

Replayability

You will be able to replay a campaign as often as you wish. After you have completed a campaign for the first time, there will still remain much to be discovered. The background story will be the same, but playing through a campaign multiple times will give you the opportunity to encounter different monsters, unlock different quest paths and rewards, and uncover more details about the lore of the game.

Play the Prologue: The Prologue is a necessary step into the Campaign mode. Each time you start a new campaign, you begin with the Prologue scenario (page 3).

Approaching the Lore

The Campaign mode offers a narrative experience that enriches the gameplay of the scenarios, immersing players in the world of Primal: The Awakening. To fully enjoy the narrative experience, we suggest the following tips:

Explore the Detail. Take the time to read through the narrative content of each scenario you play. Set the right atmosphere at the table and pay attention to the details in the texts. These details not only immerse you in the game world but will often contain clues for understanding and interpreting the plot.

Take Notes. If you find it helpful, taking notes can assist you in keeping track of important information and connecting the clues you uncover along the way.

Ask Questions and Form Hypotheses. To enhance the collaborative experience of the game, begin each chapter of the campaign with a recap of the lore information gathered up to that point. Then after completing a quest, encourage yourself and your fellow players to raise questions about the scenario and plot. Engage in conversations and collectively form hypotheses.

Uncover the Narrative Puzzle. As you progress through the campaign, you'll gather numerous pieces of information that will gradually come together to shape the mystery concealed within the plot. No one will unveil the secrets of The Awakening to you. You, the hunters, are the only ones who have the opportunity to uncover them.

If you are ready, the world of Thyrea awaits you.

Component List

General: 1x Combat board, 1x Quest board, 1x Rulebook, 1x Campaign book, 1x Campaign sheet, 1x Character sheet, 18x Forge card, 3x Herbalist card, 5x Reference card, 34x Dividers.

Hunters:

Dareon miniature, Dareon hunter board, 19x Great Sword weapon card, 2x Great Sword (Special set), 44x Dareon Action card, 6x Dareon Mastery card, 2x Dareon Wound card
Mirah miniature, Mirah hunter board, 19x Great Bow weapon card, 2x Great Bow (Special set), 44x Mirah Action card, 6x Mirah Mastery card, 2x Mirah Wound card
Thoreg miniature, Thoreg hunter board, 19x Hammer weapon card, 2x Hammer (Special set), 44x Thoreg Action card, 6x Thoreg Mastery card, 2x Thoreg Wound card
Ljonar miniature, Ljonar hunter board, 19x Sword and Shield weapon card, 2x Sword and Shield (Special set), 44x Ljonar Action card, 6x Ljonar Mastery card, 2x Ljonar Wound card

Monsters:

Vyraxen miniature, Vyraxen monster board, 6x Vyraxen Stance card, 3x Vyraxen Peril card, 1x Vyraxen Objective card, 18x Vyraxen Behavior card
Kharja miniature, Kharja monster board, 6x Kharja Stance card, 3x Kharja Peril card, 1x Kharja Objective card, 20x Kharja Behavior card
Toramat miniature, Toramat monster board, 6x Toramat Stance card, 2x Toramat Peril card, 1x Toramat Objective card, 20x Toramat Behavior card
Dygorax miniature, Dygorax monster board, 6x Dygorax Stance card, 3x Dygorax Peril card, 1x Dygorax Objective card, 18x Dygorax Behavior card
Korowon miniature, Korowon monster board, 6x Korowon Stance card, 3x Korowon Peril card, 1x Korowon Objective card, 18x Korowon Behavior card
Orouxen miniature, Orouxen monster board, 6x Orouxen Stance card, 3x Orouxen Peril card, 1x Orouxen Objective card, 16x Orouxen Debility card, 18x Orouxen Behavior card
Felaxir miniature, Felaxir monster board, 6x Felaxir Stance card, 3x Felaxir Peril card, 1x Felaxir Objective card, 18x Felaxir Behavior card
Morkraas miniature, Morkraas monster board, 6x Morkraas Stance card, 3x Morkraas Peril card, 1x Morkraas Objective card, 18x Morkraas Behavior card
Ozew miniature, Ozew monster board, 6x Ozew Stance card, 3x Ozew Peril card, 1x Ozew Objective card, 18x Ozew Behavior card, 5x Ozew Swarm card, 5x Ozew Rumble card
Jekoros miniature, Jekoros monster board, 6x Jekoros Stance card, 3x Jekoros Peril card, 1x Jekoros Objective card, 18x Jekoros Behavior card
Hurom miniature, Hurom monster board, 6x Hurom Stance card, 2x Hurom Peril card, 1x Hurom Objective card, 18x Hurom Behavior card
Tarragua miniature, Tarragua monster board, 6x Tarragua Stance card, 2x Tarragua Peril card, 1x Tarragua Objective card, 18x Tarragua Behavior card
The Awakened miniature, 2x The Awakened monster board, 5x The Awakened Stance card, 6x The Awakened Peril card, 1x Storm marker, 4x Ballista token, 1x Envelope, 22x The Awakened Behavior card, 3x The Awakened Objective card, 2x Awakening card

Cards: 10x Attrition card, 14x Special Attrition card, 30x Quest card, 25x Reward card, 76x Helm card, 76x Armor card, 144x Item card, 72x Potion card, 8x Helm card (special set), 8x Armor card (special set).

Tokens and markers: 25x Counter, 1x Round marker, 1x Health marker, 4x Trigger token, 6x Struggle token, 1x First Player token, 1x Aggro token, 4x Threatened token, 4x KO token, 4x Exhaust token, 8x Deplete token, 8x Stamina token, 1x Vulnerable token, 1x Charge marker, 1x Hardening marker, 4x Defense token, 4x Disrupt token, 4x Acceleration token, 3x Bonus damage token (monster), 8x Bonus +1/+3 damage token (weapon), 8x Bonus +5/+10 damage token (weapon), 4x Dazed token, 2x Blind token, 4x Strain token, 1x Stun token, 1x Confused token, 4x Burning token, 16x Stone token, 8x Dust token, 40x Damage token (1/5), 16x Damage token (10/50), 1x Damage token (100/200).

Terrain: 4x Fire terrain token, 2x Brush terrain token, 6x Rock terrain token, 4x Water terrain token, 2x Plateau terrain token, 4x Sand terrain token, 2x Fog terrain token, 2x Baethanis terrain token, 2x Cyricae terrain token, 2x Wildmaw terrain token, 2x Synaerea terrain token.

Key Concepts

In this section, we introduce the Forge, the Herbalist, the deckbuilding rules and the quest cards. These are important concepts that you need to learn in order to play the Campaign mode. Once you have assimilated them, you will be ready to learn how to set up and play your first campaign.

The Forge

The Forge represents the location where you will craft any weaponry you might use in battle.

As you progress through the campaign, you will specialize in crafting unique equipment, based on the monsters you have slain.

Each monster in the game is associated with a specific element (for example: Vyraxen, the monster you encountered in the Prologue, is associated with the element of fire).

As a reward for defeating a monster, players will be instructed to unlock the forge card associated with that monster's element. Once unlocked, a forge card becomes available for all players to use, for the remainder of the campaign.

Each forge card represents a unique enhancement of the Forge and, in particular, the ability to craft equipment of a specific element.

A forge card lists the pieces of equipment you can craft during the campaign if you have the required materials it indicates. It features a weapon for each hunter class, armor, a helm and two items. A forge card shows the element, the level, the weapons, helm, armor and other items, and the required crafting materials.

Upgrading the Forge

Each forge card in the game comes in three different levels, with the higher level cards giving you access to higher level equipment. These advancements represent the growth of the Forge, and they will give you the chance to upgrade your equipment and offer better crafting options.

Note: The equipment cards' level always matches the level of their corresponding forge card.

During Chapter 1 of the campaign, you will be instructed to set the level of the Forge to 1. Each time you unlock a new forge card during the campaign, take the card from the box that matches the current level of the Forge.

Note: The Forge level will be tracked on the campaign sheet (for more details on the campaign sheet, see page 56).

Players will be instructed to level up the Forge as they reach specific chapters of the campaign. When that happens, replace all the forge cards you have unlocked with their corresponding upgraded versions.

Crafting Resources

As a reward for defeating monsters, you will receive crafting resources that can be combined to obtain the weapons, armor and other gear listed on your forge cards.

There are two categories of crafting resources:

Elements: Each monster drops the element resource of its type. The elements are Fire, Horn, Coral, Crystal, Thunder and Metal.
Materials: All monsters drop a combination of materials obtained from its body parts. The materials are Bones, Blood, Scales, Zima, Iride and Kobaureo.

The collection of all the crafting resources you own is called your crafting reserve and is tracked on your character sheet (for more details on the character sheet, see page 57).

How to Craft Equipment

Crafting equipment is a way for players to customize their character and their playstyle.

Players can craft equipment cards by spending elements and materials from their crafting reserve.

To craft a piece of equipment listed on a forge card, you must:

Spend 1 element associated with that forge card, and
Spend the exact amount of materials indicated on the forge card for that equipment.

When you craft a piece of equipment, take the corresponding equipment card from the box and add it to the set of equipment cards you already have. Those cards form your equipment deck.

Each time you craft a piece of equipment, update your crafting reserve on your character sheet by removing the amount of resources spent (for more details on the character sheet, see page 57).

Crafting Equipment: Example — Alice wants to craft the Red Scale Armor listed on the Level 1 Fire forge card. First, she spends 1 Fire element from her crafting reserve. Then she spends the materials listed in the Red Scale Armor's requirement list: 1 Scales and 1 Blood. She takes the Red Scale Armor card from the box and updates her crafting reserve on her character sheet by removing any resources spent.

Class Restriction: You can only craft equipment cards that match the icons on your hunter board. This means each hunter can only craft the weapons with their corresponding class icon (Great Swords can only be crafted by Dareon, Great Bows can only be crafted by Mirah, and so on). Armor, helms and other items can be crafted by anyone, regardless of their class.

Trading resources with other players: Players can trade crafting resources with each other, as long as they are one-to-one exchanges of resources within the same category (i.e. only element-for-element or material-for-material exchanges are allowed).

Resource conversion: Players may convert resources in order to meet a crafting requirement by following the rules below:

Spend 1 element of any type in place of any 1 material. Example: You may spend 1 Fire element in place of 1 Scales.
Spend 2 materials of any type in place of any 1 material. Example: You may spend 1 Zima and 1 Iride in place of 1 Scales.
Discard an equipment card you already own instead of spending any 1 material. Example: You may discard your Great Sword base weapon card instead of spending 1 Scales. Note: When you discard an equipment card to obtain a resource, return that card to the box.
Discard an equipment card you already own instead of spending an element of the type associated with that equipment card. Example: You may discard a Flame Tongue weapon card instead of spending 1 Fire element.

Resource Conversion: Example — Bob wants to craft the Red Scale Armor. He does not have any Scales or Blood in his crafting reserve. However, he can convert an element resource and an equipment card he owns into any crafting material. Bob spends 1 Fire element to cover the element cost of the Red Scale Armor. Then he spends a Horn element in place of 1 Scales and discards his Great Sword card (returning it to the box) instead of spending 1 Blood.

How to Upgrade Equipment

If you want to craft a higher-level version of an equipment card you already own, you are upgrading that equipment.

When you upgrade a piece of equipment, you do not need to spend any elements (due to the Resource conversion rules). Simply discard the lower-level card (return it to the box) and spend the materials indicated in the requirements list for the upgraded equipment.

Upgrading Equipment: Example — Bob wants to craft a level 2 Flame Tongue. He already has a level 1 Flame Tongue. He spends only the materials in the level 2 Flame Tongue's requirement list, which are 1 Scales and 1 Blood. He discards the level 1 version he owns and gets the level 2 Flame Tongue card.

The Herbalist

The herbalist card represents the ability to prepare powerful potions for use in combat.

As a reward for successfully completing a quest, players will gain plant resources that can be combined to obtain the different types of potions listed on the herbalist card.

The herbalist card has a similar structure to the forge card and lists the plant requirements for 6 different potions, which each correspond to a specific potion card. It shows the level, the receipt (requirements) and the potions.

Upgrading the Herbalist: Just like the Forge, the Herbalist starts at level 1 at the beginning of the campaign and then levels up as you reach certain chapters of the story. When that happens, players will be instructed to upgrade the Herbalist, which means replacing the herbalist card with its higher level version. There are Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 herbalist cards.

Plant Resources

The regions of Thyrea are rich in herbs and plants with special properties, which will be obtained as rewards for completing a quest.

The entire collection of plant resources a player holds is called their plant reserve and is tracked on your character sheet (for more details on the character sheet, see page 57).

The plant resources are: Nillea, Mellis, Tarmaret, Albalacea, Anthemon and Saelicornia.

How to Prepare a Potion

To prepare a potion, choose one from the list on the herbalist card and spend the plant resources in the requirements list (plant type and quantity). When you prepare a potion, take the corresponding potion card from the box and add it to the set of potion cards you already have. Those cards form your potion deck.

Each time you prepare a potion, update your plant reserve on your character sheet by removing the amount of resources spent (for more details on the character sheet, see page 57).

Note: A player cannot have multiple copies of the same potion card. This means you cannot prepare a potion card if you already have a copy of that card in your potion deck.

Multiple requirement options: Some potions can be prepared using alternative resources. When you find a requirements list that shows different plant resources separated by a slash, this means you can choose either one of the requirements when preparing the potion on that card.

Preparing Potions: Example — Alice wants to craft the Imperia and Evok potions. Starting with Imperia, Alice spends 1 Anthemon and 1 Nillea as shown in the requirements list. To prepare Evok, she must spend 1 Tarmaret and then chooses whether to use Anthemon or Mellis. She has no Anthemon left in her reserve, so she spends 1 Mellis.

Trading plants: As for the crafting resources, players may trade plants with each other as long as they trade one-for-one. If you give a plant to another player, that player must give you a plant from their reserve in return.

Single-use effects: Unlike the equipment cards, potion cards are single-use effect cards: Once you use them in combat through their Consume ability, they are removed from the game (return them to the box). You will have to prepare them again in order to use them in later scenarios!

Deckbuilding

Each player begins the campaign with their mastery card and the action cards in their character's starter deck (the one they used in the Prologue). Those cards form their starting card pool, which is the set of cards they can use to build their deck.

When you reach certain chapters of the campaign, you will be instructed to upgrade your card pool by adding upgrade cards specific to your character.

When you are instructed to upgrade your card pool, choose a branch of your skill tree and unlock the corresponding upgrade cards.

Upgrade cards are identifiable by their card ID in the bottom-right corner of the card.

Hunter's Skill Tree

Each hunter has a unique set of upgrade cards, comprising 20 action cards and 5 mastery cards. These cards represent the hunter becoming stronger and more skilful, and they are structured as a skill tree that has 5 different branches, with 2 upgrade steps on each branch.

Each upgrade card is identified by a Card ID (in the bottom right corner of the card), which has a letter (A, B, C, D or E) that identifies the branch, and a number that identifies the upgrade step within that branch (1 = the first step, or 2 = the second step).

The first upgrade step of each branch enables you to unlock 2 new action cards and gives you access to the next step. The second step enables you to unlock 2 new action cards and a new mastery card.

Skill tree structure: Branches A, B, C, D and E each have an upgrade step 1 (two action cards) and an upgrade step 2 (two action cards plus one mastery card).

Card Pool Upgrade: Example — At a certain point in the campaign, Alice is instructed to upgrade her card pool. She chooses branch E, unlocks the two corresponding cards showing Card ID E1, and adds those cards to her card pool. Later in the campaign, Alice upgrades her card pool again and she chooses to use the second step on branch E. She unlocks the corresponding E2 cards, which are two action cards and the mastery card.

Deckbuilding Rules

Customizing your action deck is a way for players to play out unique and personalized strategies.

As you progress through the campaign and upgrade your card pool, you have the opportunity to construct a deck that works exactly the way you want, by combining the effects of your favorite pieces of equipment.

To build a custom deck for a campaign scenario, simply follow these steps in order:

Choose 1 weapon card, 1 armor, 1 helm and 1 item from your equipment deck.
Choose 1 mastery from your card pool.
Build your action deck to include the exact number of attack, maneuver, parry and dodge cards as shown on your chosen weapon card (if you do not have enough cards to build a deck that meets the color restriction of your weapon, you cannot use that weapon). You may use any action card from your card pool.

For example, the level 1 Flame Tongue says you must have exactly 6 attack cards, 4 maneuver cards, 5 parry cards and 5 dodge cards in your deck.

When building your action deck for a scenario, check for any equipment that would be effective against the monster you are going to fight in that scenario. A piece of equipment can be effective due to the elemental weakness of the monster, allowing you to add/remove additional cards from your deck (modifying the color restrictions of your weapon), as explained on the next page.

Effective Equipment and Deck Advantage

Each monster has its own specific elemental weaknesses, which are shown in the top left corner of its monster board.

When building your deck for a scenario, check how many equipment cards you have that are effective against the monster.

A piece of equipment is effective if the monster is weak against that equipment's element (this is the case for each of your equipment cards: Weapons, armor, helms and items).

For each 2 pieces of equipment that are effective against the monster, you gain the following deck advantage: You may add or remove 1 card of any color from your deck, modifying the color restrictions of your weapon.

Elemental weaknesses example: Vyraxen is weak against Horn and Coral elements (from Vyraxen monster board).

Elemental Weakness: Example 1 — Alice controls Dareon, with the equipment shown in the image. In a scenario against Vyraxen, she would have 3 effective equipment cards: Reefbound Helm, Dragon Claw, and Big Jaws. This means Alice would have 1 deck advantage, for which she may decide to add or remove a card of any color from her action deck.

Elemental Weakness: Example 2 — This time Alice has 4 effective equipment cards against Vyraxen, since her weapon, armor, helm and item all indicate Horn or Coral, which are both elements against which the monster is weak. This means Alice has 2 deck advantages. She could use those advantages to add 2 cards of any color to her deck (e.g. two attack cards, bringing the total number of attack cards in her deck from 5 to 7). However, she decides to do something else instead: She uses her first advantage to add 1 attack card to her deck and then uses her second advantage to remove 1 dodge card.

Elemental Weakness Table

Below is a table that shows the monsters that are weak against each element in the game.

Element	Monsters weak to it
Fire	Felaxir, Morkraas, Hurom, Tarragua
Horn	Vyraxen, Kharja, Korowon, Ozew
Coral	Vyraxen, Kharja, Toramat, Dygorax
Crystal	Kharja, Orouxen, Ozew, Jekoros
Thunder	Korowon, Orouxen, Hurom, Tarragua
Metal	Toramat, Dygorax, Felaxir, Morkraas

Quest Cards

Together, the quest cards make up the quest deck for the campaign and they represent the missions that may become available as you play through the story.

A quest card features a title, a brief introduction and a quest number that identifies the corresponding scenario in the Campaign book. The monster trophy and monster element icons shown at the bottom of the quest card identify the type of monster that you will encounter in the associated scenario.

You can use the quest numbers to find all the information and instructions needed for any quest in the Campaign book. This includes the narrative, the setup rules, the rewards and the expiration instructions for that quest (for more details on quest expiration, see next page).

Quest Board

The quest board represents a map of Thyrea and features 9 spaces for quest cards, which correspond to the different regions of the continent. Each region is associated with the element of the monsters that inhabit it.

Note: The quest board includes spaces for the quests in both the core game (Fire, Horn, Coral, Crystal, Thunder, Metal) and the expansions.

Each time you are instructed to unlock a quest, search the quest deck for the corresponding card and place it on the quest board in the space that matches the element icon for that quest's monster. Once unlocked, a quest is considered to be available for the rest of the campaign, until it is either successfully completed or expires (more details on quest expiration can be found below).

Note: Available quest cards that have the same monster element are placed in the same space on the quest board.

Quest Expiration

Some quests will be available for a limited amount of time because they expire when you reach specific chapters of the campaign.

When a quest expires, if that quest was available on your quest board, remove it from the game and immediately search the Quest Expiration section of the Campaign book (starting on page 116) for the corresponding expiration paragraph, which is identifiable by the quest number. The paragraph will contain any narrative and instructions related to the expiration of that quest.

Quest expiration can have significant consequences, such as unlocking of a new quest path or unique achievements. Remember to read the expiration paragraph every time an available quest expires.

Note: There are many more quests than you can actually complete during the campaign, so quest expiration will be a common event.

Campaign Setup

Each time you start a new campaign, you begin with the Prologue scenario (page 3). After successfully completing the Prologue, follow the steps below to set up the campaign:

Place the quest board in the center of the table.
Assemble the quest deck by putting together all the quest cards from both the core game and any expansions you own, and then place the quest deck near the quest board.
Take the Campaign book, which includes all the content you need for the campaign scenarios and chapters.
Take a campaign sheet and circle the first space on the Campaign Chapters track to indicate that Chapter 1 is next to be played.
Each player performs the following steps:
- a) Take a character sheet.
- b) Take your character's hunter board and starting equipment cards (the ones you used in the Prologue).
- c) Form your initial card pool by taking the starter deck (action cards and mastery card) that you used in the Prologue.

Now you have everything set up to start playing Chapter 1 of the campaign. Before you read how to play through a chapter, it will be useful to learn more about the campaign and character sheets.

Campaign Sheet

Session by session, players track their progress and accomplishments on the campaign sheet. The campaign sheet includes all the information you need to save and then resume a campaign game.

Campaign Chapters track: This is where you keep track of your progress through the campaign chapters. The aggression symbols indicate the monsters' aggression level, which increases as you advance through the chapters (for more details on the aggression level, see page 60).
The Herbalist: This is where you keep track of the Herbalist's level.
The Forge: This is where you keep track of the Forge's level, as well as of all your unlocked forge cards, which are indicated by their associated element.
Trophies: Each monster is represented by a trophy icon. This is where you keep track of the monsters you defeat.
Quests: This is an archive of your quests, which are listed by their quest number. Keep track of the quests you have unlocked (with a circle) and the ones that are completed or expired (with an X).
Achievements: This is where you write down any achievements you have unlocked over the course of the campaign. For more information about the achievement system, see the box below.
Hunter's Trial: This space is for the Hunter's Trial variant. Only use this section if you are playing with those rules, which are explained in detail on page 63.

Achievement system: The game uses an achievement system that allows players to keep track of any milestones and major accomplishments they achieve over the course of the campaign. Each achievement you gain will trigger special developments in the campaign, giving you access to unique quest paths and rewards.

Character Sheet

Each player uses a character sheet to keep track of the specific information that relates to their own hunter.

Player name and class: When you create your character for a campaign, write your name here (the name of the player) as well as your hunter class.
Skill tree: This is where you keep track of any upgrades from the different branches of your skill tree (for more details on the skill tree and deck upgrades, see page 49).
Crafting and Plant Reserve: As you gain resources during the campaign, note down the exact number of each material, plant and element you have in your reserve. Each time you craft a piece of equipment or prepare a potion, remember to update your reserve by removing any spent resources.
Notes: This is free space for you to write down your notes about the story or personal gameplay accomplishments.

Playing a Campaign

Each chapter of the campaign begins in Alborea, the city stronghold to which hunters return after each combat, so they can forge new equipment and choose their next quest in the story.

In this section, you will learn how to play a campaign chapter. Once you have learned how to play a chapter, you will be able to play the whole campaign by simply playing thorough all the chapters in order, from Chapter 1 to Chapter 11.

Each chapter can be considered a game session and follows the phase structure below:

Story phase → Quest Board phase → Crafting phase → Hunt phase

Story Phase

During the Story phase, players read the introduction of the chapter in the Campaign book (you can find the chapter introductions in the Campaign Chapters section on page 7 of the Campaign book).

The introductions move the story along with narrative detail, but they also include important instructions, indicated by the instruction icon, that may include leveling up the Forge and the Herbalist, card pool upgrades for the players, unlocking quests and quest expiration.

Once you have read and implemented all the information provided in the chapter introduction, you are ready for the Quest Board phase.

Note: When you find an instruction that begins with the name of a game expansion, this means that you only need to follow that instruction if you are using that expansion in your campaign (e.g. "Feather Expansion: Unlock Quest 36").

Quest Board Phase

During the Quest Board phase, players collectively choose a quest from the ones currently available on the quest board (for more details on the quest board, see page 54). Place the selected quest card in front of you on the table: This quest is now the active quest for the current chapter and determines the next scenario you will play.

Your choice of quest has a huge impact on the development of your campaign. Each quest provides a unique story path leading to special rewards and discoveries. Moreover, the forge cards and crafting resources you obtain are based on the monster you defeat, so you will have to carefully decide your strategy as a group.

Crafting Phase

Each player independently performs their Crafting phase by choosing any number of the following actions:

Craft equipment listed in your forge cards: A player may craft as much equipment as they wish from different available forge cards as long as they have the resources in the requirements list.
Prepare potions listed on your herbalist card: A player may prepare any number of potions, as long as they have the plant resources in the requirements list.
- Note: A player cannot have multiple copies of the same potion card (for more details on preparing potions, see page 48).

At the end of the Crafting phase, each player builds their action deck (for more details on deckbuilding, see page 50) and chooses up to 3 potion cards from their potion deck, for the next scenario.

Note: As the icons on your hunter board indicate, you can have a maximum of 1 item and 3 potion cards in play.

Hunt Phase

The Hunt phase consists of playing the scenario associated with the active quest.

Find the scenario that matches the active quest number in the Campaign book (all the scenarios are in numerical order in the Campaign book, starting on page 43).

First, read the narrative introduction, and then set up the game as indicated in the scenario page.

Each campaign scenario follows the same rules and structure as the Prologue and consists of fighting against a specific monster as indicated by the trophy icon on the top left of the scenario page.

How to Set Up a Scenario

The setup of a campaign scenario follows the same rules as for the Prologue, with the exception of the terrain configuration.

For that step, simply look at the scenario page and set out the terrain tokens on the board as illustrated in the combat board diagram.

Some scenarios feature special rules that are specific to that particular monster. In those cases, follow the instructions provided in the Special Rules section of the scenario page and refer to the Monster Rules section on page 95, if needed.

Aggression Level

As the campaign progresses and the hunters upgrade their deck and equipment, the monsters also level up their cards and abilities, to ensure an appropriate level of challenge.

Each monster comes in four different aggression levels across the game: Level 0 (Prologue), level 1, level 2 and level 3.

When you play a campaign scenario, the monster's aggression level is determined by your progress through the campaign chapters. As shown in the campaign sheet, the aggression level starts at 1 at the beginning of the campaign, advances to 2 at the start of Chapter 4, and goes up to 3 at the start of Chapter 8.

Monster Setup

To set up the monster of a scenario, check the aggression level associated with the current campaign chapter and use the monster components that correspond to that level. Make sure you follow the rules below:

Stance cards display a specific aggression level in the top left corner of the card: Simply use the set of stance cards (Stance I, Stance II and Stance III) for the appropriate level.
When you form the monster's behavior deck, only use behavior cards that are part of the set used for the current aggression level. Each aggression level is associated with a specific set of aggression icons (Level 0 (Prologue), Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 each have their own icon set).
Peril and objective cards are double sided cards, with each side showing one of two different aggression levels, as indicated by the corresponding aggression icon. When setting up the monster, use the side that shows the icon included in the set for the current level.

Setup Example: To set up Kharja for aggression level 2, shuffle all behavior cards with the aggression icons in the level 2 set and use the side of the peril and objective cards with the level 2 aggression icon.

End of the Scenario

The success and failure conditions for a campaign scenario are the same as for the Prologue (for more details, see page 35).

If you succeed, you have completed the quest. Perform the following steps in order:

Read the narrative conclusion for the scenario.
Gain your rewards for completing the quest. For more details on rewards, see Quest Rewards below.
Add the monster to your Trophies, by marking it on your campaign sheet.
Discard the completed quest card and return it to the box.
Advance to the next campaign chapter and begin a new session from the Story phase.

If you failed, play through the chapter again, starting from the Quest Board phase (place the failed quest card back in its corresponding space on the quest board). You can choose to play the same quest again or you may decide to change the active quest and try a different scenario.

Players do not progress to the next campaign chapter until they have successfully completed a quest.

Note: When you play through the chapter again, keep all your resources, your crafted equipment and prepared potions. Any potion cards that were consumed during the failed scenario are returned to those players.

Whether you succeeded or failed, each player removes all their Wound cards from their deck at the end of the scenario.

The monsters are designed to be tough, so losing a fight is all part of the game experience. Failing a scenario will not compromise the continuation of your campaign unless you are playing the Hunter's Trial variant (for more details on this variant, see page 63).

Quest Rewards

When you complete a quest, you gain various rewards, which are listed in the Quest Rewards section of the Campaign book (on page 105). Each quest has a specific reward paragraph, which is identified by its quest number.

Rewards can include:

A new forge card being unlocked
Crafting resources (elements and materials)
Plant resources
New achievements being unlocked
New quests being unlocked
New reward cards being unlocked

Reward cards come in various types (items, potion cards and so on) and are identified by their corresponding Reward ID, on the back of the card. When you unlock a new reward card, find a copy of that card in the box and give it to one of the players.

Note: Along with the quest rewards, you will also find a Keeper's vision, which is a special narrative content in the Quest Reward section that is unique to each completed quest. This contents serve as an extra tool to help players to unravel the mysteries of The Awakening.

End of the Campaign

Chapter 11 is the final act of the campaign. When you get there, the story will reach its epic finale. Any special rules and instructions needed to play the final chapter will be explained in the Campaign book.

Figure out the story: In the Campaign book, players will find a list of questions to be answered about the lore of the game. As an optional challenge, players may use the narrative content and the information they gathered over the course of the campaign to answer as many questions as they can about the mystery behind The Awakening.

How to Save the Game

You can easily save all the information you need to resume a campaign game by following these simple rules:

At the end of your game session, each player should keep their card pool, equipment and potions to one side, or separate them within the box.
Each time you unlock a quest, mark it with a circle on your campaign sheet.
Each time you complete a quest, mark it with an X on your campaign sheet.
- Note: This means that when you resume the game, you will know that the quests you need to place on the quest board as being available to play are the ones that are circled, and the quests to be archived will be marked with an X.
Each time you advance to a new campaign chapter, mark the completed chapter with an X and the new chapter with a circle. This way you will always know that the circled chapter is the next one to be played.

Game Expansions

The core game offers a complete campaign experience, with 30 quests to play, many different paths to follow and a wide variety of monsters to fight.

However, you can enhance your game experience by adding expansions to the core game. The expansions add new gameplay options, including new quests, monsters, equipment and hunter classes. Follow the instructions in the relevant expansion rulebook to find out how to integrate the components.

The Hunter's Trial (Variant Rules)

The Hunter's Trial is a variant for experienced players who want to put their skills to the test.

You must decide if you want to use these variant rules at the start of the campaign (we recommend that you play with the standard rules for your first campaign). If you choose to play with the Hunter's Trial variant, use the rules that follow:

Every time you fail a scenario, mark a space on the Defeat track of your campaign sheet. If you fill all 3 spaces on that track, your campaign is over and you must start again from Chapter 1.
Every time you successfully complete a scenario, reset the Defeat track and then add the number of defeats erased this way to the Total Defeats space on the campaign sheet. While the Defeat track gets reset each time you successfully complete a scenario, the Total Defeats value tallies all the defeats you have suffered across the whole campaign.
If you successfully complete a scenario on your first try, gain 2 valor points. Keep track of the valor points you earn during the campaign in the corresponding space on the campaign sheet.
If you successfully complete a scenario without any player being KO'd, gain 2 valor points.
- Note: If a player is KO'd and then rises before the end of the scenario, you do not gain any valor points, since a player was KO'd during the game.

At the end of the campaign, you are given a Hunter Score.

To calculate your Hunter Score: Start with 90, subtract the Total Defeats value noted on the campaign sheet twice and then add your valor points to the total. To summarize, here is the formula to calculate your score:

Hunter score = 90 − 2 x [total defeats] + [valor]

Ranking	Points
Dragon Slayer	130 points
Beast Master	110 points
Commander	90 points
Prime Hunter	80 points
Expert	65 points
Rookie	<50 points

If you want to reach the highest rankings, your combat tactics, crafting strategies and cooperation skills will need to be first-rate. Can you get a clean sweep?

Let's play! You're ready to play your first campaign! Go to page 8 of the Campaign book and begin Chapter 1 with the Story phase.

Expedition Rules

The Expedition mode provides a standalone game experience outside of the campaign.

An expedition is a one-shot scenario for 1-4 players, in which you can freely choose which monster to fight, as well as your hunter's equipment and deck. In this game mode, you can experience the wide variety that the game offers, including all the customizable options, in its most accessible and streamlined form.

Note: Players who prefer to gradually discover the game by progressing through the Campaign mode may wish to avoid playing these expeditions at first, so as not to uncover spoilers about specific gameplay features.

Setup and Play

To set up an expedition, choose a scenario from among those featured on pages 67 through 79. This booklet contains two expedition scenarios for each monster in the game.

The setup of an expedition scenario follows the same rules as for the Prologue, with the exception of the terrain configuration.

For that step, simply look at the scenario page and set out the terrain tokens on the board as illustrated in the combat board diagram.

Monster Setup

Each monster in the Expedition mode can be played at four different aggression levels: Level 0, level 1, level 2 or level 3. Choose the level you wish to play and then follow the rules on page 60 to select the monster's components for that level.

Note: The only difference from the rules as explained on page 60 is that in Expedition mode you can decide which aggression level you wish to play, whereas in the Campaign mode you have to stick to the level determined by the campaign chapter.

Hunter Setup

In Expedition mode, each player chooses a hunter from the 4 characters available and then chooses whether they will use a preconstructed deck or build their own.

Note: If you choose to play at aggression level 0, simply use your hunter's starter deck along with a set of base equipment cards as for the Prologue.

The preconstructed decklists (for each hunter and aggression level) are on page 81, along with suggestions for equipment and potion configurations.

Players who choose to play at level 1, 2, or 3 and wish to build a custom deck to create their own combos and strategies must follow these steps:

Choose your weapon, armor, helm and item card. You may choose from the equipment cards listed on any forge card in the game, as long as the forge card matches the aggression level of the monster.
- Note: The weapon card you choose must correspond to your hunter class.
Choose a mastery from your hunter's set of mastery cards.
Build your action deck. It must include the exact number of attack, maneuver, parry and dodge cards as shown on your chosen weapon card. You can use any cards from your hunter's starter deck and can include upgrade cards from your hunter's skill tree based on the monster aggression level. The table below shows how many upgrade steps you can take in your skill tree based on the monster level (skill tree and upgrade cards are explained in detail on page 49).

Monster level	Upgrades
Level 1	2
Level 2	4
Level 3	6

Choose up to 3 potion cards from the ones listed on the herbalist card that matches the monster aggression level.
- Note: You cannot have multiple copies of the same potion.
If you have any deck advantages based on the monster's elemental weaknesses, you may modify your action deck in accordance with the deck advantage rules that are explained in detail on page 51.
- Note: You can check the monster's elemental weakness on its monster board or in the table on page 52.

Success and Failure Conditions

Expedition scenarios have the same success and failure conditions as the Prologue scenario (page 35).

Expedition Scenarios

Each monster has two expedition scenarios, each with its own terrain configuration on the combat board.

Vyraxen — Expedition 1 terrain: 1x Rock, 2x Brush, 2x Cyricae. Expedition 2 terrain: 1x Plateau, 1x Rock, 1x Baethanis, 1x Brush, 1x Cyricae, 1x Water.

Kharja — Special rules: Damaged sectors: In this scenario, players will be instructed to place damage tokens in specific sectors on the board to indicate they have been damaged. Damaged sectors have no inherent effect in the game, but some of Kharja's card abilities will reference them. Expedition 1 terrain: 2x Rock. Expedition 2 terrain: 2x Rock, 2x Cyricae.

Toramat — Special rules: Behavior deck setup: Leave Toramat's Crashing Charge and Out of Control behavior cards out of the behavior deck. These cards are considered to be out of play until a card ability instructs you to interact with them. Dust tokens: This scenario uses dust tokens. Keep these tokens near the board and use them when instructed by card abilities during the game. Dust tokens are explained in detail on page 95. Special attrition cards: Remove two base attrition cards with an attrition value of 1 from the attrition deck, and add in Toramat's special attrition cards instead. Special attrition cards are explained in detail on page 98. Hardening track: Set the hardening level to 0 by placing the corresponding marker in the space on the Hardening track. The Hardening track is explained in detail on page 95. Expedition 1 terrain: 1x Plateau, 2x Rock, 1x Baethanis, 1x Sand, 1x Wildmaw. Expedition 2 terrain: 1x Plateau, 2x Rock, 2x Sand, 1x Wildmaw.

Dygorax — Special rules: Dust tokens: This scenario uses dust tokens. Keep these tokens near the board and use them when instructed by card abilities during the game. Dust tokens are explained in detail on page 95. Hardening track: Set the hardening level to 0 by placing the corresponding marker in the space on the Hardening track. The Hardening track is explained in detail on page 95. Expedition 1 terrain: 2x Rock, 2x Sand, 1x Wildmaw, 1x Baethanis. Expedition 2 terrain: 2x Rock, 2x Sand, 2x Wildmaw.

Korowon — Expedition 1 terrain: 1x Plateau, 2x Rock, 1x Baethanis, 1x Brush, 1x Synaerea, 2x Water. Expedition 2 terrain: 1x Plateau, 1x Rock, 1x Baethanis, 2x Sand, 1x Synaerea, 2x Water.

Orouxen — Special rules: Debility cards: Each player has a reserve of 4 Debility cards associated with their hunter (see the matching class icon on the card back). Keep these cards close at hand and use them when instructed by card abilities over the course of the game. Debility cards are explained in detail on page 96. Expedition 1 terrain: 1x Plateau, 1x Rock, 2x Baethanis, 1x Synaerea, 2x Water. Expedition 2 terrain: 1x Plateau, 1x Fog, 1x Baethanis, 1x Sand, 1x Synaerea, 2x Water, 1x Rock.

Felaxir — Special rules: Special attrition cards: Remove two base attrition cards with an attrition value of 1 from the attrition deck, and add in Felaxir's special attrition cards instead. Special attrition cards are explained in detail on page 98. Expedition 1 terrain: 2x Rock, 1x Baethanis, 1x Cyricae. Expedition 2 terrain: 2x Rock, 2x Cyricae, 1x Fog.

Morkraas — Expedition 1 terrain: 2x Rock, 1x Baethanis, 1x Cyricae. Expedition 2 terrain: 2x Rock.

Ozew — Special rules: Behavior deck setup: Leave Ozew's Lightning behavior card out of the behavior deck. This card is considered to be out of play until a card ability instructs you to interact with it. Swarm deck setup (only if you play at level 2 or 3): Shuffle Ozew's Swarm cards to form the swarm deck and place it near the monster board. This deck of cards is considered to be out of play until a card ability instructs you to interact with it. Swarm cards are explained in detail on page 97. Rumble deck setup: Shuffle the Rumble cards to form the rumble deck and place it near the monster board. Rumble cards are special cards that are unique to Ozew. They are explained in detail on page 96. Expedition 1 terrain: 2x Rock, 2x Baethanis. Expedition 2 terrain: 2x Rock, 1x Baethanis, 1x Cyricae, 1x Fog.

Jekoros — Special rules: Charge track: Set the charge level to 0 by placing the corresponding marker in the space on the Charge track. The Charge track is explained in detail on page 95. Special attrition cards: Remove all base attrition cards with an attrition value of 1 from the attrition deck, and add in Jekoros' special attrition cards instead. Special attrition cards are explained in detail on page 98. Expedition 1 terrain: 2x Rock, 1x Baethanis, 2x Water. Expedition 2 terrain: 2x Rock, 2x Cyricae, 2x Water.

Hurom — Special rules: Arkeum tokens: This scenario uses Arkeum tokens. Keep these tokens near the board and use them when instructed by card abilities during the game. Arkeum tokens are explained in detail on page 97 of the Rulebook. Special attrition cards: Take Hurom's special attrition cards and place them near the monster board. These cards are out of play until a card ability instructs you to interact with them. Special attrition cards are explained in detail on page 98 of the Rulebook. Expedition 1 terrain: 3x Rock, 1x Baethanis, 1x Brush. Expedition 2 terrain: 3x Rock.

Tarragua — Expedition 1 terrain: 1x Plateau, 2x Rock, 1x Baethanis. Expedition 2 terrain: 1x Plateau, 2x Rock, 2x Fog.

The Awakened — Special rules: The Awakened features special components and rules that are explained in detail on page 99. Read those rules and then follow the steps below to set up these expedition scenarios. Note: These expedition scenarios must be played at level 3.

Use the alternative combat board (back of the board).
Place four ballista tokens face up in the corners of the combat board (black side up), as shown in the figure.
Take the Awakened's extended monster board.
Place the special Awakening cards in the rightmost two behavior slots on the extended monster board.
Set the storm level to 1 by placing the storm marker in the corresponding space on the Storm track.
Remove two base attrition cards with an attrition value of 1 and one with an attrition value of 2 from the attrition deck. Then add in the Awakened's special attrition cards instead.
Build the Awakened's behavior deck by shuffling its signature behavior cards together with 10 random instinct behavior cards. Alternatively, you could choose those 10 instinct behavior cards instead of picking them at random.
Take The Commander's Voice and Artillery Assault special objective cards (the other special objective cards are only available in Campaign mode).

Expedition 1 terrain: 4x Ballista token, 3x Rock. Expedition 2 terrain: 4x Ballista token, 2x Rock, 1x Plateau, 1x Fog.

Hunter Decklists

Dareon — The Great Sword

Dareon specializes in dealing crushing blows through powerful attacks and combos. His card abilities offer a versatile range of options, increasing the damage he deals and exploiting the Vulnerable keyword to double the impact of his attack.

Due to the high stamina cost of certain cards, cost reduction abilities will be crucial to enable Dareon to execute his most potent assaults. In addition, the keyword abilities Berserker and Resilience will allow you to draw extra cards, which are essential for consistently supporting the character's combo sequences.

The preconstructed deck's strategy focuses on building multiple attack sequences, and fully leveraging cost reductions and card abilities that allow you to play cards for free. While Red Scale Armor and Spined Helm contribute to hand management, Dragon Claw and Woltyar Gauntlet provide tactical damage bonuses, so are perfectly suited for maximizing the advantage of the vulnerable condition.

Suggested equipment for the preconstructed decks: Dragon Claw (weapon), Spined Helm, Red Scale Armor, Woltyar Gauntlet (item); potions Alemore, Imperia, Artrox.

Starter deck — Attack: Battle Cry, Double Slash, Dragon Strike, Jumping Slice, Massive Strike, Precise Strike. Maneuver: Aggressive Charge, Engage, Pressing Strike, Quick Attack, Slash to the Flank, Thwart. Parry: Deflecting Blade, Counterstrike, Guardian Blade, Heavy Clash, Reactive Guard, Voice of the Dragon. Dodge: Dragon Dash, Empty Fade, Endurance, Evasive Step, Retreat, Swift Dodge. Mastery: Relentless Assault.

Decklist level 1 — Attack: Battle Cry, Dragon Strike, Jumping Slice, Lacerate, Precise Strike. Maneuver: Aggressive Charge, Pressing Strike, Quick Attack, Slash to the Flank, Thwart. Parry: Balanced Defense, Counterstrike, Feral Desire, Reactive Guard, Voice of the Dragon. Dodge: Endurance, Empty Fade, Evasive Step, Retreat, Dragon Dash. Mastery: Relentless Assault.

Decklist level 2 — Attack: Battle Cry, Dragon Descent, Jumping Slice, Lacerate, Precise Strike. Maneuver: Aggressive Charge, Pressing Strike, Quick Attack, Rapid Slash, Slash to the Flank. Parry: Balanced Defense, Counterstrike, Feral Desire, Reactive Guard, Voice of the Dragon. Dodge: Endurance, Empty Fade, Evasive Step, Retreat, Dragon Dash. Mastery: Relentless Assault.

Decklist level 3 — Attack: Battle Cry, Blind Rage, Dragon Descent, Jumping Slice, Lacerate, Precise Strike. Maneuver: Aggressive Charge, Pressing Strike, Primal Fury, Quick Attack, Rapid Slash, Slash to the Flank. Parry: Balanced Defense, Counterstrike, Feral Desire, Guardian Blade, Reactive Guard, Voice of the Dragon. Dodge: Blade Reflex, Endurance, Empty Fade, Evasive Step, Retreat, Dragon Dash. Mastery: Relentless Assault.

Mirah — The Great Bow

Mirah is a versatile character who has low stamina cost cards and offers a good range of options for both offensive and defensive tactics. The excellent draw and recycle effects she commands, reflect her swiftness and agility. Her abilities allow her to use Stealth to execute her actions unseen, and she can also make extra movements on the board during her Action phase. She can neutralize peril cards using Blind and deal repeated damage through Volley.

The preconstructed deck gives you numerous options for drawing and recycling cards, so you can optimize your hand. The strategy for this deck is on emptying the action deck as early as possible in the game, so you can focus your mastery and trigger its powerful effect. The equipment has been specifically selected so you can cycle through your deck faster, while also adding some extra indirect damage into the mix.

Suggested equipment for the preconstructed decks: Ashbringer (weapon), Spined Helm, Crystal Armor, Gauntlet of Shell Blade (item); potions Alemore, Imperia, Vydia.

Starter deck — Attack: Blinding Shot, Cover Fire, Deadly Shot, Heavy Arrow, Precision Draw, Silent Arrow. Maneuver: Accurate Shot, Adrenaline Shot, Bouncing Shot, Rapid Burst, Sharp Shot, Targeted Shot. Parry: Decoy, Intuition, Graceful Defense, Lightning Escape, Prompt Reflexes, Swift Deflection. Dodge: Acrobatics, Backflip, Evasion, Long Range, Ranged Position, Sneaky Glide. Mastery: Ultimate Shot.

Decklist level 1 — Attack: Blinding Shot, Cover Fire, Deadly Shot, Heavy Arrow, Infinite Blast, Silent Arrow. Maneuver: Adrenaline Shot, Bouncing Shot, Rapid Burst, Sharp Shot, Targeted Shot. Parry: Decoy, Second Chance, Swift Deflection, Waiting Game. Dodge: Acrobatics, Evasion, Long Range, Refill the Quiver, Sneaky Glide. Mastery: Ultimate Shot.

Decklist level 2 — Attack: Blinding Shot, Cover Fire, Double Shot, Heavy Arrow, Infinite Blast, Precision Draw. Maneuver: Adrenaline Shot, Bouncing Shot, Rapid Burst, Sharp Shot, Targeted Shot. Parry: Nock the Arrow, Second Chance, Swift Deflection, Waiting Game. Dodge: Acrobatics, Evasion, Flash Arrow, Long Range, Refill the Quiver. Mastery: Ultimate Shot.

Decklist level 3 — Attack: Blinding Shot, Cover Fire, Double Shot, Heavy Arrow, Infinite Blast, Precision Draw. Maneuver: Combined Assault, Bouncing Shot, Midair Shot, Rapid Burst, Targeted Shot. Parry: Nock the Arrow, Second Chance, Swift Deflection, Waiting Game. Dodge: Acrobatics, Evasion, Flash Arrow, Long Range, Refill the Quiver. Mastery: Ultimate Shot.

Thoreg — The Hammer

Thoreg, the leader of the hunting party, is a control-oriented character who combines powerful attacks with the effects that remove struggle and offer assistance. The impact of his hammer blows can be devastating, but this comes at the cost of having to reduce your hand when you receive Strain, and needing to invest extra stamina to amplify your card abilities. While Thoreg has excellent attack cards that deal a huge amount of damage, the tactical options he offers extend beyond that.

With keyword abilities like Stun, Confuse, and various forms of control, such as cards that cancel the monster's behavior or remove extra struggle, Thoreg will always offer you a solution to the challenges of the fight.

The preconstructed deck pursues an offensive strategy centered around the mastery Massive Blow, with the keyword ability Stun being the key to your game plan. Skullshock is a very solid choice that helps you focus your mastery faster, while the other equipment cards encourage an offensive playstyle and invest all your stamina so you can reach your full potential.

Suggested equipment for the preconstructed decks: Skullshock (weapon), Red Scale Helm, Thunder Armor, Explosive (item); potions Alemore, Evok, Imperia.

Starter deck — Attack: Disruption, Frontal Assault, Heavy Smash, Ironblast, Knockout, Sledgehammer. Maneuver: Bludgeon, Charge, Concussion, Exhausting Strike, Rapid Blow, Whirlwind. Parry: Decisive Effort, Endeavour, Enrage, Iron Will, Tackle, Tenacity. Dodge: Evasive Action, Leverage, Mighty Strain, Perseverance, Sharp Reflexes, Stamina Boost. Mastery: Massive Blow.

Decklist level 1 — Attack: Disruption, Frontal Assault, Heavy Smash, Ironblast, Knockout, Sledgehammer. Maneuver: Concussion, Exhausting Strike, Impressive Strike, Rapid Blow, Whirlwing. Parry: Adrenaline Rush, Decisive Effort, Enrage, Tackle, Tenacity. Dodge: Evasive Action, Perseverance, Step Back, Mighty Strain. Mastery: Massive Blow.

Decklist level 2 — Attack: Disruption, Heavy Smash, Ironblast, Knockout, Sledgehammer, Stormstrike. Maneuver: Concussion, Exhausting Strike, Impressive Strike, Rapid Blow, Whirlwing. Parry: Adrenaline Rush, Decisive Effort, Enrage, Tackle, Tenacity. Dodge: Chase, Deep Breath, Evasive Action, Mighty Strain. Mastery: Massive Blow.

Decklist level 3 — Attack: Disruption, Heavy Smash, Ironblast, Knockout, Stormstrike, Tear Down. Maneuver: Concussion, Exhausting Strike, Impressive Strike, Rapid Blow, Whirlwing. Parry: Adrenaline Rush, Decisive Effort, Enrage, Tackle, Tenacity. Dodge: Chase, Deep Breath, Evasive Action, Mighty Strain. Mastery: Massive Blow.

Ljonar — Sword & Shield

As the team support, Ljonar offers a wide range of tactical options for you to create synergies with fellow hunters and protect them from the monster.

With his imposing shield, Ljonar assumes the role of the group tank, with card abilites that range from support efforts to impactful reactions to the monster's attacks - such as drawing cards through Resilience or triggering special effects by using Retaliate.

Furthermore, Ljonar possesses the ability to control the monster with Taunt, which manipulates the orientation of the monster, while consistently bolstering his allies.

The strategy of the preconstructed deck revolves around executing sequences of parry and attack cards, maximizing the benefits conferred by Thundercore and Shield Master. While Red Scale Armor helps with your hand size, other equipment cards enable you to retrieve cards from your discard pile so you can push forward with your strategy.

Suggested equipment for the preconstructed decks: Thundercore (weapon), Reefbound Helm, Red Scale Armor, Gauntlet of Shell Blade (item); potions Alemore, Imperia, Hatrox.

Starter deck — Attack: Aggro Strike, Beyond Limits, Concentrated Attack, Rapid Dash, Shield Dance, Shielded Strike. Maneuver: Bulwark, Counterattack, Drawn to Danger, Push, Surround, Tempo. Parry: Attack Plan, Battle Trance, Immolate, Last Breath, Shield Block, Undaunted Charge. Dodge: Agility, Anticipate, Feint, Momentum, Perseverance, Stamina Surge. Mastery: Shield Master.

Decklist level 1 — Attack: Beyond Limits, Over Here!, Rapid Dash, Shield Dance, Shield Strike. Maneuver: Bulwark, Counterattack, Drawn to Danger, Push, Sacrifice. Parry: Attack Plan, Battle Trance, Immolate, Last Breath, Shield Block, Shield Smash. Dodge: Agility, Anticipate, Feint, Perseverance. Mastery: Shield Master.

Decklist level 2 — Attack: Beyond Limits, Over Here!, Rapid Dash, Shield Dance, Shield Strike. Maneuver: Bulwark, Counterattack, Drawn to Danger, Push, Sacrifice. Parry: Attack Plan, Battle Trance, Last Breath, Shield Block, Shield Smash, Tempered Pain. Dodge: Agility, Feint, Mettle, Perseverance. Mastery: Shield Master.

Decklist level 3 — Attack: Beyond Limits, Over Here!, Rapid Dash, Shield Dance, Shield Strike. Maneuver: Bulwark, Counterattack, Pulsating Fury, Push, Sacrifice. Parry: Attack Plan, Battle Trance, Last Breath, Shield Block, Shield Smash, Tempered Pain. Dodge: Agility, Feint, Mettle, Snare. Mastery: Shield Master.

Additional Rules

As you play through either the Campaign or Expedition mode, you may encounter special rules that apply to monsters and terrain tokens. Refer to this section of the Rulebook whenever you need to know the special rules for a specific scenario.

Note: The setup rules for each scenario always indicate which terrains are to be used and which special rules apply to that monster.

Terrain

The terrain tokens represent the natural environment around the combat scene, and feature special game effects that apply to the sector of the combat board they are placed in. The rules for each terrain are explained below:

Baethanis: At the start of your turn, if you are in a sector with a Baethanis terrain, heal damage equal to your weapon level. (See Heal X on page 109 of the Glossary section)

Brush: At the start of your Movement phase, if you are in a sector with a Brush terrain, you may recycle a dodge card from your hand to hide in the brush. If you do, place your miniature on the Brush terrain token. Your turn pauses and play passes to the next player in player order. Then name a player who has not yet played their turn this round. When that player has completed their turn, leave the brush and resume your turn with the Movement phase.

While your turn is paused, you are not the active player and you cannot assist other players or taunt the monster.

When you resume your turn, you are once again the active player and you play out the rest of your turn in the usual way.

Note: Only one player at a time can hide in the brush. (See Assist, Recycle X and Taunt in the Glossary section on page 106)

Cyricae: When you play an attack card in your sequence, if there is a Cyricae terrain in your sector, increase the damage that attack deals by your weapon level.

Fire: While there is a Fire terrain in your sector (regardless of whether the fire is red or yellow), you cannot play cards into your sequence.

Fire terrains can be placed on the combat board as a consequence of card abilities. When a Fire terrain token comes into play, it is placed on the board with its red side face up. At the end of the round, flip any Fire terrain tokens to their yellow side. If a Fire is already yellow, remove it from the game instead.

Note: If you are instructed to place a Fire terrain but there is already a Fire in that sector, flip that Fire to its red side instead. All players in that sector suffer burning. (See Burning on page 107 of the Glossary section)

Terrain interaction: When you place a Fire terrain:

Remove any brush in that sector from the game.
Remove any water in that sector from the game and replace it with a Fog terrain.

Fog: When you move into a sector with a Fog terrain, you become threatened.

Plateau: At the end of your turn, if you are in a sector with a Plateau terrain, you may decide to move onto the plateau. If you do, place your hunter miniature on that terrain token.

While you are on the plateau, whenever a behavior card is revealed, you may immediately place your hunter miniature on that behavior card. If you do, perform the following steps:

Cancel the effects of that behavior card (e.g. skip the Reaction step of that card resolution).
Perform a riding check. (See Riding check on page 111)

Note 1: If you start your turn on a plateau, you must immediately step off it (place your miniature anywhere else in that same sector).

Note 2: Only one player at a time can be on a plateau.

Rock: When you would suffer attrition damage but you are in a sector with a Rock terrain, you may remove that terrain token from the game to prevent that damage.

Sand: When you move from a sector with a Sand terrain, increase the stamina cost of that movement by 1.

Synaerea: At the start of your turn, if you are in a sector with a Synaerea terrain, you may suffer damage equal to your weapon level to draw 1.

Water: While you are in a sector with a Water terrain, your sequence limit is 3 (instead of 5).

Note: A Water terrain modifies your standard sequence limit, but does not prevent any card ability or other game effect from increasing (or further decreasing) your sequence limit.

Water Spread: You cannot place more than one Water terrain token in each sector. If you are instructed to place a Water terrain token in a sector that already has one, place a Water terrain token in each of its adjacent sectors instead.

Wildmaw: At the end of your turn, if you are in a sector with a Wildmaw terrain and you are threatened, suffer damage equal to your weapon level.

Monsters

This section contains all the rules you need to know about the monsters in the game. Specifically, it explains all the reaction icons and the special rules that apply to specific monsters. It also includes a comprehensive list of all the trophy icons, which will help you identify the monsters and their related components during the scenario setup.

Monster Trophies

Each monster in the game has a unique trophy icon that helps you identify the components for that monster. Below is a list of all the monster names and their corresponding trophy icons:

Core game: The Awakened, Vyraxen, Kharja, Toramat, Dygorax, Korowon, Orouxen, Felaxir, Morkraas, Ozew, Jekoros, Hurom, Tarragua
Venom Expansion: Hydar, Reikal
Feather Expansion: Pazis, Nagarjas
Ice Expansion: Sirkaaj, Mamuraak
Nightmare Expansion: Taraska, Xitheros, Zekath, Zekalith

Behavior Reaction Icons

This section lists all the reaction icons you will come across in the game. Each icon represents a specific triggering condition, as listed below (see page 31 for more details on the monsters' reaction system):

Attack icon — Trigger: After a player plays an attack card in their sequence.
Maneuver icon — Trigger: After a player plays a maneuver card in their sequence.
Parry icon — Trigger: After a player plays a parry card in their sequence.
Dodge icon — Trigger: After a player plays a dodge card in their sequence.
End of round icon — Trigger: At the end of the round.
Rampage icon — Trigger: When you resolve another behavior card in play (which is called the triggering behavior) during the Rampage step of that card resolution (see Behavior Card Resolution on page 32). Note: Behavior cards with this reaction icon are called rampage cards and follow special resolution rules:
- A triggered rampage card must be immediately revealed and resolved: Turn it face up and apply its effects by resolving the base ability text and its boost effect, if it has one.
- Discard the triggered rampage card (and refill the behavior slot), along with the triggering behavior card, during the final step of that card resolution.
Threatened icon — Trigger: After a player becomes threatened. Note: When a player would become threatened but they are already threatened, this reaction triggers anyway.
Offensive card icon — Trigger: After the active player plays an offensive card in their sequence.
Defensive card icon — Trigger: After the active player plays a defensive card in their sequence.
Two offensive cards icon — Trigger: After the active player plays two offensive cards, next to each other in their sequence. Note: The behavior card is triggered after you play the second card in that sequence.
Two defensive cards icon — Trigger: After the active player plays two defensive cards, next to each other in their sequence. Note: The behavior card is triggered after you play the second card in that sequence.
Aggro card icon — Trigger: After a player plays an aggro card in their sequence.
Front sector icon — Trigger: When a player starts their turn in the front sector.
Flank sector icon — Trigger: When a player starts their turn in a flank sector.
Rear sector icon — Trigger: When a player starts their turn in the rear sector.
Water sector icon — Trigger: At the start of a player's turn, if that player is in a sector with a Water terrain.
Monster rotation icon — Trigger: After the monster turns to face a different sector (i.e. changes its orientation).
Movement icon — Trigger: After a player moves.
Move into water icon — Trigger: After a player moves into a sector with a Water terrain.
End of Attrition phase icon — Trigger: At the end of the Attrition phase.
Empty hand icon — Trigger: After a player empties their hand (i.e. has zero cards in their hand after playing, discarding or any other game effect). Note: The behavior card is triggered once the event that led to the player having zero cards in their hand has been completely resolved.
Enters play icon — Trigger: As soon as this card comes into play to fill a behavior slot. Special Resolution: If there are multiple triggered behavior cards in play, resolve this behavior card before all the other cards.
Flank presence icon — Trigger: At the start of a player's turn, if there is at least one player in a flank sector.
Rear presence icon — Trigger: At the start of a player's turn, if there is at least one player in the rear sector.

Multiple reaction icons: Some behavior cards have two reaction icons instead of one. These behavior cards can be triggered by any of those triggering conditions (i.e. only one condition is needed for the card to be triggered).

Note: If there are multiple reaction icons, the icons are separated by "/" (which stands for "or").

Monster Rules

Some scenarios feature unique game components and special rules that are not explained elsewhere in the Rulebook, as they only apply to specific monsters. This section contains all those additional rules, labeled by their corresponding monster. The setup instructions for each scenario will indicate when you need to refer to the rules in this section.

Note: This section contains spoilers! Do not read it until you are instructed to do so by a scenario.

Charge Track (Jekoros)

The Charge track is a special track on the monster board that measures the monster's charge level over the course of the game.

Each time you are instructed to increase the charge level by X, move the charge marker X spaces along the track.

Jekoros' card abilities will interact with the charge level during the game.

Hardening Track (Toramat, Dygorax)

The Hardening track is a special track on the monster board that measures the monster's hardening level over the course of the game.

Each time you are instructed to increase the hardening level by X, move the hardening marker X spaces along the track.

When the hardening level reaches 3, the monster becomes Hardened (see Hardened on page 109).

Note: The monster remains hardened as long as the hardening level is at 3.

Dust Token (Toramat, Dygorax)

Dust is a special token that is placed on the board as a result of some monsters' card abilities.

At the start of your Attrition phase, immediately take a disrupt token for each Dust in your sector. When you receive a disrupt token, place it on a defensive card in your sequence. That card does not count during your attrition check this turn. Discard any disrupt tokens at the end of your Attrition phase.

At the end of the round, remove all Dust tokens from the board.

Note: You can have a maximum of 2 Dust tokens per sector.

Rumble Card (Ozew)

Rumble cards are special cards that indicate specific sectors of the board. Some Ozew's card abilities will relate to those sectors in the game.

Each Rumble card features a diagram that represents the sides of the monster (oriented so that the front side is at the bottom) and highlights specific sides in yellow.

While a Rumble card is active, the sectors of the combat board that correspond to the sides highlighted in yellow are called marked sectors.

Note: When a Rumble card becomes active, discard the previous active Rumble card, if any. If you are instructed to reveal a card from the rumble deck but the deck is empty, you must shuffle the rumble discard pile to create a new deck, and then reveal the card.

Debility Card (Orouxen)

Some of Orouxen's card abilities will instruct players to add Debility cards to their hand or discard pile.

Just like Wound cards, Debility cards clog up a player's deck. In addition, as stated in their ability text, you must place the Debility cards in your hand in your sequence at the start of your turn: They count towards your sequence limit as if they were action cards.

When you discard the action cards in your sequence during your End of turn step, discard all Debility cards in your sequence as well.

Note: At the end of the scenario, all players must remove all the Debility cards from their deck, just as for Wound cards.

Swarm Card (Ozew)

Swarm cards are special cards that enter play as a result of card abilities that are specific to Ozew.

Each Swarm card has an ability that remains active as long as the swarm card is in play.

In addition, you cannot deal damage to Ozew while a Swarm card is in play: When a player would normally deal damage to Ozew, they instead choose a Swarm card that is in play (if any) to be the target of that damage.

To defeat a Swarm card and thus remove it from play, players have to deal a cumulative amount of damage equal to or higher than Ozew's toughness value.

Note: When you deal damage to a Swarm card, if you defeat that card, any excess damage is lost.

Arkeum Tokens (Hurom)

Arkeum tokens are placed on the board as a result of card abilities that are specific to Hurom.

As described in Hurom's Floating Stones peril card ability, these tokens protect Hurom from the players' attacks: When you play an attack card, if you are in a sector with an Arkeum token, that token prevents any damage you would normally deal to Hurom. Then remove that Arkeum token from the board.

Note: In each sector, you can have a maximum of 1 Arkeum token per player.

Special Attrition Cards (Toramat, Felaxir, Jekoros, Hurom, The Awakened)

Some monsters have special attrition cards that are added into the attrition deck during the scenario setup (the setup rules for the scenario will explain how to form the attrition deck when using these cards).

Note: You can identify a monster's special attrition card by the trophy icon on the front of the card.

Special attrition cards may require the player to have specific defensive cards in their sequence instead of generic ones. For example, if you draw an attrition card that shows 1 parry or 1 dodge, you must have at least 1 card of that color in your sequence to avoid attrition damage.

Note: The special abilities or color requirements of a special attrition card may give a worse outcome than a basic attrition card in terms of avoiding attrition damage (e.g. if that player has no parry cards in their sequence, a special attrition card with 1 parry could prove to be worse than a basic attrition card with 2 defensive cards).

The Awakened

This section explains the special rules you need to play a scenario against the Awakened.

Ballista Tokens

Ballista tokens are placed in the corner of the combat board and represent the weaponry supporting the hunters in their battle against the Awakened.

During the game, the ballistas will activate at the end of each round as described in the objective card ability Artillery Assault.

Each ballista targets the two sectors nearest to its corner of the board. A ballista is considered to have line of sight to the monster if one of its targeted sectors is the front sector.

A ballista can be in either an unloaded state (with the grey side visible) or a loaded state (with the black side visible).

Example: Only ballistas 1 and 2 have line of sight to the monster, because they target the front sector.

Extended Monster Board

The Awakened's monster board has two sections, to create 6 behavior slots instead of the standard 3.

At the beginning of the game, the Awakened has 4 behavior slots available: The final two (rightmost) are occupied by special Awakening cards that lock those slots. Over the course of the game, the monster will remove the Awakening cards through specific card abilities that unlock those behavior slots.

Once unlocked, the additional slots follow the standard behavior slot rules and must be filled (and then refilled each time) with behavior cards from the top of the behavior deck.

Note: Although they occupy the behavior slots, Awakening cards are not behavior cards.

Storm Track

The Storm track is a special track on the monster board that measures the storm level over the course of the game.

Each time you are instructed to increase/decrease the storm level by X, move the storm marker forward/backward along the Storm track by X spaces.

Instead of being displayed on the stance cards, the Awakened's damage value is determined by the storm level. The damage value starts at 4 and then increases as the storm level reaches specific spaces along the Storm track.

Stance Deck

The Awakened has 5 stance cards instead of 3.

The stances follow the standard stance card rules, with the only exception being that the cards do not display the monster's damage value (the monster's damage value is determined by the storm level).

Special Attrition Cards

The Awakened features its own special attrition cards. These cards follow the same special attrition card rules as explained on page 98.

Instinct and Signature Behavior Cards

The Awakened has a pool of 22 behavior cards. These cards are divided into two categories:

Signature behavior cards: These behavior cards are identified by the Awakened's trophy icon and represent the unique moves that are specific to the Awakened.

Instinct behavior cards: The Awakened has 1 instinct behavior card for each of the other monsters in the game. These cards are identified by the corresponding monster's trophy icon.

While signature cards must always be included in the Awakened's behavior deck, the instinct cards are added in according to the specific rules of the scenario. This offers a large number of possible combinations that add to the variety and unpredictability of the fight in both Campaign and Expedition modes.

Note: See the Monster Rules section (on page 91) for any special rules that might relate to specific instinct cards.

Special Objective Cards & Sealed Envelope

The Awakened's set of cards includes objective cards that have a special card layout.

Note: While The Commander's Voice and Artillery Assault are always included in the setup of the scenario, The Heartpiercer is specific to Campaign mode and only used if you have unlocked it through certain achievements over the course of the campaign.

The game also includes 1 sealed envelope with the Reward ID S3. Do not open it until the game instructs you to do so. This envelope is specific to Campaign mode and contains a secret card that is unlocked by certain achievements.

Legendary Equipment Set

If you are playing in Campaign mode, you may be able to unlock special equipment sets. If you do, players may use these equipment cards in the final scenario against the Awakened.

The ability text on these cards interacts with the special mechanics of the Awakened, so the special equipment sets can only be used during that scenario.

Note: These cards are only available as unlocked components in Campaign mode. Do not use them in Expedition mode.

Glossary

This section is a practical and concise reference for special game terms, keywords and icons that you might come across as you play through the scenarios. Refer to this section if you have any questions while playing the game.

The Golden Rule

If the text on a card directly contradicts the text of the Rulebook, the text on the card takes precedence.

The Primal Rule

If players are unable to find the answer to a rule or timing conflict in the Rulebook, resolve the conflict in the way that the players believe to be the worst possible resolution at that moment for defeating the monster and successfully completing the scenario.

Icons

Color Icons

Attack icon (red): This icon refers to an attack card (i.e. a red action card).
Maneuver icon (blue): This icon refers to a maneuver card (i.e. a blue action card).
Parry icon (yellow): This icon refers to a parry card (i.e. a yellow action card).
Dodge icon (green): This icon refers to a dodge card (i.e. a green action card).

Note: The attack, maneuver, parry and dodge icons are also used as triggering icons related to playing cards of a specific color in your sequence (see page 105).

Card Type Icons

Offensive icon: This icon refers to an offensive action card (i.e. a maneuver or attack card).
Defensive icon: This icon refers to a defensive action card (i.e. a parry or dodge card).

Note: The offensive and defensive icons can also be used as triggering icons related to playing cards of a specific type in your sequence.

Class Icons

Great Sword / Great Bow / Hammer / Sword and Shield: These are the class icons that represent the different hunter classes.

When you see these icons in card abilities, they refer to your weapon level. When any of these icons is preceded by a number, it designates the total you obtain by multiplying that number by your weapon level (e.g. for Dareon, Great Sword, "2 great sword icons" means "two times your weapon level").

Note: Your weapon level is shown in the top right corner of your weapon card, below the weapon name.

Other Icons

Aggro icon: An action card that has this red icon in the top right corner of the card is called an aggro card. When you play an aggro card in your sequence, immediately take the aggro token. Note: In the card ability texts, this icon is used in place of "aggro card". For example, if a card says that a player must discard an aggro icon from their hand, it means they have to discard an aggro card (see also: Aggro player).

Monster damage icon: This icon refers to the monster's damage value, which is indicated on the current stance card. Each time an ability card states that a player suffers the monster damage icon, it means that player must suffer damage equal to the monster's damage value. Note: Some ability texts might say that a player suffers +X monster damage, meaning that they must add X additional damage to the monster's damage value.

Player count icon: This icon refers to the number of players that started the scenario. Card ability texts use "X per player" to indicate the number of players multiplied by X. Note: A player that is KO'd still counts towards the player count.

Player count −1 icon: This icon refers to the number of players minus one.

Player count /2 icon: This icon means half of the number of players that started the scenario (rounded down).

Stamina icon: This icon refers to a stamina resource. When paying a stamina cost, each action card you discard from your hand generates 1 stamina for each stamina icon shown in its bottom left corner (paying a stamina cost is explained in detail on page 20). Note: When an ability text says that you must pay stamina, it means you must pay that amount of stamina as a stamina cost.

Bonus damage icon (+1): During the game, the monster might add bonuses to its damage value. When that happens, track those bonuses by placing a bonus damage token on the current stance card. Note: Card abilities that give a damage bonus will specify how long that bonus lasts. Discard the token to indicate that the monster no longer has that bonus.

Double damage icon: This icon doubles the monster's damage value. Note: When you suffer doubled monster damage, the amount of damage is considered to be a single source of damage. Card abilities that prevent monster damage also prevent doubled monster damage.

Triggering Icons

Focused icon: [Ability]. This icon refers to the focused state of your mastery card (you can find this icon at the top of your mastery card when it is on its focused side). When you play an action card in your sequence, if that card ability text begins with this icon, it means you can only resolve the [Ability] if your mastery card is focused (mastery cards are explained in detail on page 25).

[Color]: [Ability]. A card ability that begins with a color icon ([Color]) means that the [Ability] is triggered when you play a card of that [Color] in your sequence.

In some cases, [Color] is not a single icon, but a specific sequence of color icons. This means the [Ability] is triggered when you play cards of those exact colors in that specific order into your sequence (the [Ability] is triggered when you play the final card required for that color sequence).

In the Relentless Assault (Dareon) example, by playing the required color sequence, you would trigger the ability twice. The 2nd and the 3rd card together satisfy the triggering condition a second time.

[Color] (arrow symbol): [Ability]. An action card ability that has the arrow symbol before a color trigger means you can trigger the [Ability] if the next card you play in your sequence is a card of that [Color]. (A detailed example of this trigger can be found on pages 24-25.)

[Color] followed by the arrow symbol: [Ability]. An action card ability that has a color icon followed by the arrow symbol means you can trigger the [Ability] if the previous card in your sequence is a card of that [Color].

As you progress, [Color] icons may be substituted with [Card Type] icons, meaning the same rules apply, but reference is made to the card's type, whether offensive or defensive, rather than its color.

Note: When [Color] is a sequence of icons of the same color, you can trigger the [Ability] multiple times simply by extending the sequence of that same color.

Keywords

Acceleration token: The monster gains acceleration from specific card abilities. Each time that happens, place an acceleration token on the monster board. During the Monster Upkeep phase, the monster gains 1 additional struggle for each acceleration token it has. (See also: Unleash: [Ability])

Active player: The player who is currently playing their turn is called the active player. Note: If a card ability targets the active player, but there is no active player at that point in the game (i.e. the active player has been KO'd), that card ability or effect has no effect. (See also: KO'd)

Action: [Ability]: A card ability that begins with the keyword Action followed by an ability ([Ability]) means you can resolve that [Ability] as an action during the Action phase of your turn.

Adjacent sector: Two sectors of the combat board are said to be adjacent if they share a common border.

Aggro player: This is the player with the aggro token.

Aim (Mirah): This is a card trait. A trait has no inherent effect in the game, but card abilities may reference other cards that possess or lack specific traits. (See also: Trait)

Assist: During another player's turn, either before or after any action, you may perform an Assist by discarding a card with the keyword Assist from your hand. If you do, the active player draws 1. Note: You can only Assist once per turn (although the active player may receive one Assist from each of the other players).

Attrition check: During their Attrition phase, a player must perform an attrition check. To perform an attrition check, resolve these steps in order: 1. Reveal the top card of the attrition deck. 2. Suffer attrition damage (equal to the monster's damage value), unless you have as many or more defensive cards in your sequence as the attrition value revealed. 3. Discard any attrition card revealed. Note: If you are threatened, you must reveal two attrition cards instead of one and use the attrition value that gives the worst outcome in terms of avoiding the attrition damage. (See also: Avoid attrition damage)

Avoid attrition damage: The active player is said to have avoided attrition damage if they do not suffer that damage during their Attrition phase. Note: When the active player would suffer attrition damage but a card ability or any other effect in the game prevents that damage, the active player is said to have avoided attrition damage. (See also: Attrition check)

Base weapon damage: The base weapon damage is the printed damage value on your weapon card. This value does not take into account any modifiers from card abilities or game effects. (See also: Weapon damage)

Behavior card in play: A behavior card is considered to be in play when it occupies one of the behavior slots on the monster board.

Berserker: This is a keyword ability. When you play a card with the keyword Berserker in your sequence, you enter the berserker state and remain in that state until the end of your turn. While in the berserker state, draw 1 each time you play an attack card in your sequence.

Blank: When a card is considered to be blank, treat that card as if it had no ability text. Note: Traits at the bottom of the card (e.g. Aim, Slash and Impetus) are not part of the card ability text and still count for any card interactions, even if the card is considered to be blank.

Blind: This is a keyword ability. When you inflict Blind, choose a peril card in play. That peril is considered to be blank until the start of your next turn. Note: Use the blind token to show a peril card has been made blank. (See also: Immune to blind)

Burning: When you suffer burning, take the corresponding burning token and place it on your hunter board. Then the next time you empty your deck, discard the burning token and suffer damage equal to your weapon level. If you suffer burning but you already have a burning token, discard the top 5 cards of your deck instead. Note: Damage suffered from burning is different from fatigue damage. They are considered to be different sources of damage and so must be dealt with separately. (See also: Empty (deck), Fatigue Damage)

Cancel the effects: When you cancel the effects of a behavior card, skip the Reaction step of that cards resolution. Note: The Rampage and Discard and Replenish steps are resolved normally.

Captured: When you are captured, perform the following steps: 1. Discard all cards from your hand and your sequence. 2. Place your hunter miniature on the monster board. 3. End your turn: Skip any phase and any End of turn steps. Play passes to the next player.

While captured, you skip the Consume phase at the start of the round. You cannot draw cards or be the target of any game effects until the start of your next turn.

At the start of your next turn, perform the following steps in order: 1. Place your hunter miniature in the front sector. 2. Draw up to your hand size limit. 3. Suffer damage equal to your weapon level. 4. Discard the top 2 cards of your deck. If an attack card is discarded this way, play your turn normally. Otherwise, skip your turn.

Note: You cannot have more than one player captured at any one time. If a player would be captured but another player is already captured, the player that would otherwise become captured suffers damage equal to their weapon level instead. Note: If there is only one player standing and that player becomes captured, follow the instructions for being captured and continue the game as normal.

Claw (Kharja): This is a card trait. A trait has no inherent effect in the game, but card abilities may reference other cards that possess or lack specific traits. (See also: Trait)

Confuse: This is a keyword ability. When you confuse the monster, place the confused token on the monster board and turn the monster to a sector of your choice. The next time the monster would activate a boost effect, discard the confused token instead and cancel that effect (the monster still pays the boost cost). Then at the start of the next round, if the confused token is still in play, it is discarded (boost effects are explained in detail on page 32).

Consume: [Ability]: A card ability that begins with the keyword Consume means you can only resolve the [Ability] during the Consume phase of each round. If you do, resolve the [Ability] and then remove the card from the game (return it to the box). Note: Each player can only resolve one Consume ability per round.

Counter: Many cards in the game require the players to keep track of cumulative actions so they can trigger effects and abilities. Use the counter tokens when you are instructed to place a counter on a card.

Critical health: A hunter's health is critical when it is reduced to half its value (rounded down) or less. (See also: Health value/Health points)

Current attrition level: The current attrition level is the attrition value of the top card of the attrition discard pile. Some card abilities (such as the Alemore potion card) interact with this value.

Dazed: When you become dazed, take the corresponding dazed token and place it on your hunter board. Then the next time you play a maneuver card in your sequence, discard the dazed token and consider that card to be blank. Note: The maneuver card you play still removes 1 struggle as usual, but the ability text is ignored. (See also: Blank)

Defense token: When you gain this token, place it on your hunter board. It counts as a defensive card in your sequence for your attrition check. Discard this token at the end of your attrition check. Note: This token does not count towards the color requirements for special attrition cards. (See also: Attrition check)

Deplete token: When you are KO'd, you must choose either your helm or armor card and place a deplete token on it. The health points of depleted equipment cards do not count towards your health value. If both your armor and your helm cards get depleted, you are out of the game. If so, keep the KO token in front of you, on its red side, until the end of the scenario. (See also: KO'd)

Disrupt token: When you take this token, place it on your hunter board. During your Attrition phase, if you have a disrupt token, you must place it on a defensive card in your sequence. That card does not count for your attrition check this turn. Discard this token at the end of your Attrition phase. Note: If you have a defense token, disrupt cancels that token instead. (See also: Attrition check, Defense token)

Empty (deck): When you draw or discard (or remove from the deck by any other game effect) the last card of your deck, you have emptied your deck. When that happens, you suffer fatigue damage equal to your weapon level and then reshuffle your discard pile to form a new deck. (See also: Fatigue damage)

Empty (hand): A player has emptied their hand when they end up with zero cards in their hand after playing, discarding or any other game effect.

Enhancement: [Ability]: A boost ability text that begins with this keyword means you must resolve the [Ability] along with the behavior card's base ability as a modification/enhancement of that ability text.

Escalation: When the behavior deck is emptied (i.e. when the last behavior card in the deck enters play or is discarded by any game effect), the monster escalates: Immediately reshuffle the behavior discard pile to form a new deck and the monster gains 1 struggle.

Escalation: [Ability]: A card ability that begins with the keyword Escalation followed by an ability ([Ability]) means you must trigger that [Ability] when the monster escalates. Note: Resolve the escalation before triggering the [Ability].

Exhaust: When you are instructed to exhaust a card, place an exhausted token on it. That card is considered to be blank for the rest of the scenario. (See also: Blank)

Exposed side: Players are only allowed to play attack cards in their sequence if they are in a sector on one of the monster's exposed sides. The exposed sides are shown in red on the stance card exposure diagram. Note: The exposure diagram is oriented so that the front sector is the bottom one, corresponding to the monster's front side. (See also: Protected side)

Fatigue damage: Each time you empty your deck, you suffer fatigue damage. The fatigue damage is equal to your weapon level. (See also: Empty (deck))

Finisher: After you play a card with the keyword Finisher in your sequence, your Action phase ends (you cannot take any more actions).

Firestorm (Vyraxen): This is a card trait. A trait has no inherent effect in the game, but card abilities may reference other cards that possess or lack specific traits. (See also: Trait)

First player: After the Monster Upkeep phase of each round, the aggro player becomes the first player for the current round and they take the first player token (placing it next to their hunter board). In each round, the players take turns clockwise, starting with the first player. Note: The first player token is useful for keeping track of the player order during the round.

Hand size limit: Your hand size limit is the maximum number of cards you can have in your hand at the end of your turn. Check your hand during the refill step at the end of your turn, and either discard down to or draw up to your hand size limit.

Hardened: Some monsters become hardened during the game. While a monster is hardened:

Each time you convert damage into wounds, remove all damage the monster currently sustains (i.e. any excess damage is not retained).
The monster cannot be stunned.
The monster cannot be confused.
You cannot inflict Vulnerable.

(See also: Stun, Confuse, Vulnerable, Wound (monster))

Heal X: This is a keyword ability. When you are instructed to Heal X, remove X damage tokens from your hunter board.

Health (Monster): The monster starts the game with 10 health, which is tracked using the Health track on the monster board. Each time a player inflicts a wound on the monster, reduce the monster's health by 1. If the monster's health reaches 0, the monster is defeated and players immediately win the scenario. (See also: Wound (monster))

Health value/Health points (Hunter): A hunter can sustain damage up to their total health value. Your health value is the sum of the health points of your helm and armor cards. Note: At any point during the game, your current health is equal to your total health value minus the amount of damage you currently sustain. (See also: Critical health)

Immune to blind: If a peril card is Immune to blind, you cannot choose that card as the target of the blind effect (i.e. you cannot place a blind token on it). (See also: Blind)

Impetus (Thoreg): This is a card trait. A trait has no inherent effect in the game, but card abilities may reference other cards that possess or lack specific traits. (See also: Trait)

Infuriate X / Y / Z: During the Monster Upkeep phase of the round, if a peril card with the keyword Infuriate is in play, the monster gains additional struggle based on the number of aggro cards the players collectively have in their hands (i.e. consider the total number of aggro cards the players as a group have in their hands). If they collectively have at least X, but fewer than Y aggro cards, the monster gains 1 additional struggle. If they have at least Y, but fewer than Z aggro cards, the monster gains 2 additional struggle. If they have at least Z aggro cards, the monster gains 3 additional struggle.

KO'd / KO token: When your total sustained damage reaches or exceeds your health value, you are knocked out (KO'd). When you are KO'd, perform the following steps in order:

If you are the active player, your turn ends immediately (skip the rest of your turn).
Remove all damage tokens and any other tokens from your hunter board. Note: If you have the aggro token, pass it to the first player (if that player is KO'd, pass it to the next player in player order instead).
Discard your entire hand of cards, as well as any cards in your sequence.
Add a Wound card to your discard pile and then shuffle your discard pile into your deck.
Choose either your armor or helm card, but not one that is currently depleted, and place a deplete token on that card.
Lay your miniature down on the board to indicate that your hunter is knocked out.
Take a KO token and place it on your hunter board (red side visible).
The monster turns to the aggro player.

While you are KO'd, you cannot be the target of any card ability or game effect (apart from the Revive action).

When it would normally be your turn but you are KO'd, simply flip your KO token to its black side. Play then passes to the next player. If your KO token is already on its black side, you rise instead.

Note: When a player is KO'd but there are no more players standing (i.e. all players are KO'd), you have failed the scenario. Note: If you are KO'd during the resolution of a card ability, immediately perform the KO steps. Play then continues normally. Resolve any pending effects and reveal any behavior cards that were triggered before the player was KO'd. If the active player is the target of those card abilities, those abilities now have no target and so do not take effect. (See also: Deplete, Health/Health points, Rise, Revive, Standing player)

Legendary: An equipment card with the keyword Legendary is considered to be effective against all monsters in the game (including the Awakened), regardless of their elemental weakness. The rules for effective equipment are explained in detail on page 51.

Lose focus: If you lose focus, flip your mastery card to its unfocused side, which locks your mastery ability. To unlock your mastery again, you will need to refocus your mastery card.

Move / Movement: When a card ability or other game effect says you must/may move, that means you must/may perform a movement that places your hunter in a sector adjacent to your current one. Unless otherwise specified, moving always cost 1 stamina. (See also: Paying a stamina cost)

Opening: [Ability]: A card ability that begins with the keyword Opening means the [Ability] is only triggered if that card is the first card in your sequence.

Permanent: Peril and objective cards with the keyword Permanent do not get removed from the game when their associated stance is complete. Instead, they stay in play until the end of the scenario.

Protected side: Players cannot play attack cards in their sequence while they are in one of the sectors on the monster's protected side. The protected sides are shown in black on the stance card exposure diagram. Note: The exposure diagram is oriented so that front sector is the bottom one, corresponding to the monster's front side. (See also: Exposed side)

Reaction icon: Each behavior card has a reaction icon (on the back of the card) that indicates a specific triggering condition. All behavior card reaction icons are explained on page 93.

Recycle (X): This is a keyword ability. When you are instructed to Recycle X, you may discard X cards of your choice from your hand to draw X. Note: Some card abilities may force you to perform Recycle by saying "you must recycle X". In those cases, you have to discard X and then draw X.

Reflexes (Hurom): This is a card trait. A trait has no inherent effect in the game, but card abilities may reference other cards that possess or lack specific traits. (See also: Trait)

Resilience: This is a keyword ability. After you suffer the monster's damage, you may reveal a card with the keyword Resilience from your hand to draw 1. Note: You can only reveal each card with Resilience once per round this way.

Resistant: When you complete a stance card with the keyword Resistant, do not carry any excess damage over to the next stance.

Retaliate [Color]: [Ability]: This is a keyword ability. A card ability text that begins with the keyword Retaliate followed by a specific color requirement means that whenever you suffer the monster's damage, you may reveal the corresponding [Color] from your hand to trigger the [Ability]. Note: For each instance of damage you suffer, you can only trigger the [Ability] once (even if you revealed multiple [Color]). Note: [Color] may be a single card requirement or a specific set of multiple cards. If multiple cards are required, you must reveal all those exact cards in those specific colors, at the same time, to be able to trigger the [Ability].

Reveal an action card: If you are instructed to reveal an action card, it means you have to show that card to the other players without playing it.

Riding check: When you are instructed to perform a riding check, resolve the following steps in order:

Reveal the top card of the attrition deck and the top card of your action deck.
Compare the attrition value of the revealed attrition card with the number of stamina icons on the revealed action card. If the number of stamina icons is equal to or higher than the attrition value, deal your weapon damage to the monster and choose a sector on the board to place your miniature in. If it is lower, suffer the monster's damage and place your miniature in the front sector.
Discard both cards.

Note: If you are KO'd as a consequence of a riding check, place your miniature in the front sector and then follow the usual KO steps.

Rise: A player rises when they come back into the fight after being KO'd. When you rise, perform the following steps: 1. Discard your KO token. 2. Draw up to your hand size limit. 3. Stand your miniature up on the board to show that you are no longer KO'd. 4. Play passes to the next player. Note: When you rise, your health value decreases because depleted equipment does not add its health points to your health value. (See also: KO'd, Deplete, Revive)

Sequence: During your Action phase, you can play up to 5 action cards from your hand, resolving them one at a time. The row of cards you play from left to right is called your sequence. The sequence shows the order in which you play your action cards and it is significant for many game effects (e.g. triggering abilities, monster's reactions and so on). Note: You must resolve all the game effects related to a card (including any triggered abilities and any monster reactions, which are explained in detail on page 31), before playing another card in your sequence. Note: Your standard sequence limit is 5, which means you cannot play more than 5 action cards per turn. However, there are specific card abilities and game effects that increase/decrease your sequence limit, thereby modifying the maximum number of cards you can play during your turn.

Setup: [Instructions]: Resolve the [instructions] of any card with the keyword Setup at the beginning of a scenario.

Shield (X): Each time any source of damage deals damage to the monster, reduce that damage by X if the current stance card has the keyword Shield X. Note: The damage reduction is applied to each source of damage. (See also: Source of damage)

Slash (Dareon): This is a card trait. A trait has no inherent effect in the game, but card abilities may reference other cards that possess or lack specific traits. (See also: Trait)

Source of damage: A source of damage is any effect in the game that causes the monster (or any hunter) to suffer damage. The most common examples of sources of damage are attack cards or any card abilities that say "deal damage".

Stamina (Generate stamina): When you pay a stamina cost, you need to generate stamina to pay that cost. To generate stamina, a player needs to discard cards from their hand (or discard stamina tokens, if they have any). Each card discarded this way generates 1 stamina for each stamina icon shown in its bottom left corner. Note: You may discard multiple cards until you generate enough stamina to pay a cost. If you generate more stamina than you need to pay a cost, any surplus stamina is lost. Note: When paying a stamina cost, you may also discard stamina tokens to generate 1 stamina for each token discarded this way. (See also: Stamina token, Stamina cost)

Stamina (Stamina cost): Many effects in the game require players to pay a stamina cost (moving or playing action cards in your sequence are the most common examples). To pay a stamina cost, a player must generate stamina by discarding cards from their hand (or by discarding stamina tokens, if they have any). Note 1: A printed stamina cost of X on an action card means that you can decide the value of that stamina cost (you can also choose it to be 0). As the ability text will explain, that card ability will depend upon the cost you decide to pay. Note 2: Card abilities cannot reduce the stamina cost of cards with printed cost of X. Note 3: When a card ability text or a game effect says a player must pay stamina, that is a stamina cost. (See also: Generate stamina, Stamina token)

Stamina token: When you gain a stamina token, place it on your hunter board. When you are paying a stamina cost, you may discard this token to generate 1 stamina. Note: Unless otherwise specified by card abilities, you cannot hold more than 1 stamina token. (See also: Stamina cost, Generate stamina)

Stance II/III: [Ability]: When a card ability begins with the keyword Stance II/III, it means you can only resolve the [Ability] if the monster is in Stance II or III.

Standing player: A standing player is a player that is not currently KO'd. (See also: KO'd and Rise)

Start: [Ability]: A card ability that begins with the keyword Start means the [Ability] is triggered at the start of your turn. Note: If multiple card abilities with this keyword are triggered, you can decide the order in which you resolve those abilities.

Stealth: This is a keyword ability. When you play an action card with the keyword Stealth in your sequence, that card do not trigger reaction icons containing color or card type icons. All the behavior reaction icons are explained in detail on page 93.

Strain token: When you take a strain token, place it on your hunter board. Then the next time you refill your hand, discard all your strain tokens and draw one card fewer for each strain token discarded this way.

Stun: This is a keyword ability. When you stun the monster, place the corresponding stun token on a behavior card that is in play. That card cannot be triggered this round. Then choose a player, who reveals up to two attack cards from their hand and deals their weapon damage to the monster for each card revealed this way. Note: The stun token on a behavior card keeps track of the stunned effect. Discard it once you have resolved any "at the end of the round" effects. Note: You cannot place more than 1 stun token on a behavior card. If you would normally stun the monster but the monster is already stunned, do not place a stun token. You can, however, move the stun token to a different behavior card in play. You still choose another player to reveal attack cards and deal their weapon damage to the monster, as the normal Stun effect states.

Target: If a game effect or any card ability is directed towards a game element, that element is said to be the target of that effect or ability.

Taunt: This is a keyword ability. During another player's turn, you may taunt the monster by discarding a card with the keyword Taunt from your hand. If you do, the active player draws 1, you take the aggro token and the monster immediately turns to your sector. Note: You may only taunt the monster once per turn.

Threatened: When you become threatened, take a threatened token and place it on your hunter board. During the attrition check, if you are threatened, you must draw 2 attrition cards instead of 1 and use the attrition card that gives the worst outcome in terms of avoiding attrition damage. Note 1: When you move, discard your threatened token. Note 2: If you would normally become threatened but are already threatened, keep the threatened token (each player can only have a maximum of 1 threatened token) and trigger any effects that are activated by you becoming threatened. (See also: Attrition check, Avoid attrition damage, Move/Movement)

Threatened sector: A sector is said to be threatened if it includes at least one threatened player.

Toughness: Each stance card has a toughness value, which determines how difficult it is to inflict a wound on the monster. To inflict a wound, players must deal a cumulative amount of damage to the monster equal to the toughness value. Note: The toughness value is always given by a number displayed on the stance card multiplied by the number of players (more details about dealing damage and inflicting wounds are on page 23). (See also: Wound)

Trait: Traits can be found on action cards (e.g. Aim, Slash, Impetus) and behavior cards (e.g. Firestorm, Claw, Water Cycle). They have no inherent effect in the game, but some card abilities reference other cards that possess or lack specific traits. Note: In action cards, traits are located at the bottom of the card, whereas in behavior cards, they appear above the ability text.

Unleash: When the monster gains a certain amount of struggle, if the total struggle accumulated is equal to (or higher than) 3 per player, the monster immediately unleashes. When the monster unleashes, resolve the following steps, in order: 1. All players immediately suffer the monster's damage (this damage is referred to as Unleash damage). 2. Remove struggle tokens until the monster has 1 per player.

Unleash: [Ability]: A card ability that begins with the keyword Unleash means the [Ability] is triggered when the monster unleashes.

Unstoppable: While the monster is unstoppable, each time a behavior card is triggered, the monster gains 1 struggle (after that card has been resolved).

Volley X: This is a keyword ability which means you may discard X cards from the top of your deck and deal damage to the monster equal to your weapon level for each offensive card discarded this way. Note: The total damage you deal when resolving a Volley effect is considered to be a single source of damage. (See also: Source of Damage)

Vulnerable: This is a keyword ability. When you inflict Vulnerable, place the vulnerable token on the monster board. While the monster is vulnerable, when you or another player deal damage to the monster, you may discard the vulnerable token to double that damage. At the end of the round, if it is in play, remove the vulnerable token from the monster board. Note 1: The effect of Vulnerable doubles the amount of damage caused by a single source of damage. Note 2: You cannot inflict Vulnerable if the monster is already vulnerable. (See also: Source of damage)

Water Cycle (Korowon): This is a card trait. A trait has no inherent effect in the game, but card abilities may reference other cards that possess or lack specific traits. (See also: Trait)

Weapon damage/+X damage: The weapon damage is the printed damage value on your weapon card plus any modifiers from card abilities or other effects in the game. Note: If a weapon gains +X damage (or is said to have +X damage) as the result of a card ability, the weapon damage is modified by +X for the duration specified in that ability text (if it is not specified, the weapon damage is modified for the entire duration of the scenario). You may place the bonus damage tokens on your weapon card to keep track of the modified damage value. (See also: Base weapon damage)

Weapon level: Your weapon level (i.e. level 1, level 2 or level 3) is shown in the top right corner of your weapon card, below the weapon name. (See also: Weapon damage)

When focused: [Ability]: If your mastery ability text begins with "When focused", it means the [Ability] is triggered when you focus that mastery card (i.e. immediately after you flip it and unlock the ability).

When revealed: [Ability]: When you complete a stance, you reveal the card that corresponds to the next stance. If that card ability begins with "When revealed", trigger its [Ability]. Note: When a stance card is revealed, if the monster currently sustains enough damage to suffer a wound, inflict that wound before triggering the "When revealed" ability.

Wound / Inflict a wound / Suffer a wound: Every time the monster suffers a wound, reduce the monster's health by 1. When the monster is reduced to 0 health, you have defeated it and immediately win the scenario. There are two ways that the monster can suffer a wound:

Players can inflict a wound by dealing the amount of damage required by the stance's toughness value (dealing damage and inflicting wounds are explained in detail on page 23).
A card ability might say that the monster suffers a wound under specific game conditions. When a card ability says that the monster suffers a wound, players must immediately reduce the monster's health by 1 and then check the current stance progression value to see if the monster advances to the next stance.

(See also: Health (monster), Hardened)

Credits

Game Design and Development: Tommaso Mondadori, Alberto Parisi. Rulebook: Tommaso Mondadori, Giovanni Gambarelli. Rulebook Proofreading: Board Game Circus (Harriet Cooper). Playtest: Play Up Game Studio. Art Direction: Tommaso Mondadori, Laura Valdinoci. Worldbuilding and Narrative Design: Tommaso Mondadori, Giovanni Gambarelli, Laura Valdinoci. Writers: Laura Valdinoci, Tommaso Mondadori. Other contributors: Lorenzo Trebbi, Maurizio Landini, Tommaso Tafani. English Translation and Proofreading: Ciarán Michael Durkan, Margherita Zottola for Centro Linguistico Cesena. Translation and Content Review: Laura Valdinoci, Sara Baroni. Graphic Design: Daniel Comerci. Graphic Layout: Alberto Parisi, Elisa Amadori. Art: Daniel Comerci, Consuelo Pecchenino, Francesco Sala, Arianna Gelloni, Camille Alquier, Leonardo Casciarola. Sculpting: Daniele Angelozzi, Alessandro Depaoli, Andrea Di Natale. Miniatures Consultant: Michael King. Production Management: Alberto Parisi, Tommaso Mondadori, Luca Ricci.

Primal: The Awakening Rulebook

Table of Contents

Overview
- Campaign Mode
- Expedition Mode
Prologue
Campaign Rules
Expedition Rules
Additional Rules
Glossary
Credits

Overview

Campaign Mode

Primal: The Awakening can be played as a series of multiple game sessions linked together by an overarching storyline. The Campaign mode features:

A story to be discovered: Choose your own path through the 30 different campaign quests and explore the lore of the game.
Crafting: Craft your weapons and equipment using the materials you collect from slaying monsters.
Character progression: Level up your character and customize your deck and playstyle.

The Campaign rules are covered in detail on page 37.

Expedition Mode

The Expedition mode is designed for players who prefer playing quick, one-shot scenarios over a longer campaign game. The Expedition mode features:

Standalone scenarios: Choose from a wide variety of scenarios and set the complexity level as you wish.
Quick and easy setup: Follow simple setup rules and start playing within minutes.
Customization options: Build your own hunter or use one of the ready-to-play preconstructed decks.

The Expedition rules are covered in detail on page 65.

Prologue

The Monster

Vyraxen component overview:

Miniature: Each monster is represented by a unique miniature.
Monster board: This features the following information:
- 2a. Monster's name
- 2b. Trophy icon
- 2c. Monster element (large icon) and elemental weaknesses (smaller icons)
- 2d. Health track
- 2e. Behavior slots (x3)
Behavior deck: This is the main monster deck and determines its unique moves during combat.
Stance deck: Stance cards represent the different stages of the combat. As the monster suffers wounds, it progresses through its stances.
Peril Deck: These are special abilities that relate to the various stances.
Objective card: Players may wish to complete the objective to gain the bonuses and advantages described in the card text.
Attrition deck: These cards are used during the Attrition phase, in which players are at risk of suffering damage based on the cards they played during their turn.
Struggle tokens: The monster accumulates these tokens over the course of the game. The struggle tokens represent the intensifying rage of the monster.

Health Track

The monster's health is tracked throughout the game using the Health track. The monster starts the game with 10 health, which you indicate with the health marker.

Behavior Cards

Each monster comes with its own deck of behavior cards, which are identifiable by the corresponding monster trophy, and which represent that monster's unique moves and attacks.

During combat, the monster will activate behavior cards in response to the player's actions.

The players will have to learn the specific behavior pattern of the monster to avoid its most powerful attacks and better plan their moves.

All the details concerning how cards are activated and resolved will be explained in the How To Play section on page 32.

Stance Cards

Stance cards represent the different stages of the combat. Each monster comes with 3 stance cards, which are labeled with the Roman numerals I / II / III.

The monster starts the game in Stance I and then advances to the subsequent stances, becoming more dangerous as it suffers wounds during the game.

A stance card shows: aggression level, toughness value, stance number (Roman numerals), exposure diagram, stance progression value and damage value.

The gameplay is described in full detail in the How To Play section.

Peril and Objective Cards

Each stance is associated with specific peril and objective cards via its stance number.

Both peril cards and objective cards show the corresponding stance, the trophy icon, the card name and the aggression icon, plus the peril text or objective text respectively.

Peril and objective cards come into play together with their corresponding stance, and are removed when that stance is complete. The progression through the stances is explained in detail on page 23.

The Hunters

This section features an overview of the components and key concepts relating to the hunters.

In the game, the players form a group of 2-4 hunters, with each player choosing one character from among the four available.

Each hunter has their own combat style and is associated with a unique weapon type, identified by a specific class icon.

Dareon — Great Sword (class icon)
Thoreg — Hammer (class icon)
Mirah — Great Bow (class icon)
Ljonar — Sword and Shield (class icon)

Solo mode: The minimum size for the hunter group is 2. You can play the game solo by taking the place of other players and controlling a minimum of 2 characters at the same time.

Player area (example for Dareon, Great Sword):

Miniature: Each hunter is represented by a unique miniature.
Hunter board: This features spaces and slots to organize your play area.
Action deck: The action cards represent the offensive and defensive moves you can make during combat.
Mastery card: This is your character's signature ability, which you will need to unlock during combat.
Equipment and Potion cards: The weapon (great sword in Dareon's example), armor, helm, potions and special items are what enable your hunter to face the monstrous creatures of Thyrea.

The hunter board also has a discard pile space.

Action Cards

Action cards are the skills and moves your hunter can perform during combat.

Action cards are divided into defensive and offensive cards. There are four types, and each type has a different color.

The Dodge and Parry are defensive cards, while the Maneuver and Attack are offensive cards.

An action card shows: stamina cost, card type icon, aggro icon, ability text, stamina icons, card ID and card trait.

The way you play cards from your hand and their corresponding effects are explained in detail on page 21.

Mastery Cards

Each player has a mastery card associated with their action deck that represents a signature ability. This ability is an important aspect of the character's gameplay strategy.

Note: Always keep your mastery card separate from your action deck.

The unfocused side shows a focus value, name, focus ability text and card ID. The focused side shows a focused icon, name, mastery ability text and card ID.

Equipment Cards

Weapon cards determine how much damage your attack cards deal (weapon damage).

Note: Advanced weapons will allow players to customize their deck according to their favorite playstyle.

A weapon card shows: weapon name and level, class icon, action deck composition, ability text and weapon damage.

Combat Board

Note: Always refer to the sectors as front sector, flank sector and rear sector, based on their corresponding side of the monster.

The combat board layout has a REAR sector, two FLANK sectors and a FRONT sector, plus a round tracker numbered 1 to 10.

Miniature Base Orientation

Note: When the monster rotates, the sectors of the board are redefined based on their corresponding side of the monster.

Movement and Positioning

Example: Mirah (1) moves from the front sector to an adjacent flank sector (2).

Environment and Terrain

The natural environment of the combat scene is represented by terrain tokens.

The setup rules for each scenario will indicate the type and exact number of terrain tokens to be placed, as well as their position on the board.

Terrain examples: Cyricae, Baethanis and Brush terrain tokens.

Prologue Setup

To setup and play the Prologue scenario, you need only the components presented below. Any other components will be used in the Campaign and Expedition modes, so can be kept in the box for now.

Note: A full components list can be found on page 39.

General Components

Combat board
4x Fire terrain token, 1x Brush terrain token, 1x Cyricae terrain token, 1x Baethanis terrain token
Round marker, Health marker, 3x Trigger token, First player token, Aggro token, 4x Threatened token
8x Deplete token, Vulnerable token, Stun token, Blind token, Confused token, 4x KO token
Attrition deck (10x cards)
6x Struggle token, 3x Bonus damage token (monster), 4x Strain token, 25x Counter token, 5x Bonus +1/+3 damage token, 8x Stamina token (weapon), 20x Damage token (1/5), 10x Damage token (10/50)

Vyraxen Components

You can identify Vyraxen's monster board and cards using the trophy icon and monster name.

Components: Vyraxen monster board, Vyraxen miniature, 3x Stance cards (I, II, III), 9x Behavior cards, 3x Peril cards, Hit the Tail! objective card.

While selecting cards, take only:

Stance I, Stance II and Stance III cards that display the symbol 0 (aggression level) on the top left of the card. These are double-sided cards, so use the side with the correct symbol.
Behavior cards that display the aggression icons for aggression level 0 (a total of 9 behavior cards).
The peril and objective cards, using the side with the aggression level 0 icon.

Starter Deck and Equipment

Note: The rest of the cards will become available to the players as upgrades as they play through the campaign.

Components: 4x Base Helm cards, 4x Base Armor cards, 4x Alemore potion cards.

Each hunter takes their miniature, hunter board, base weapon card, mastery card, starter deck (24 action cards) and 1x Wound card:

Dareon — Great Sword base weapon; Relentless Assault mastery card
Mirah — Great Bow base weapon; Ultimate Shot mastery card
Thoreg — Hammer base weapon; Massive Blow mastery card
Ljonar — Sword and Shield base weapon; Shield Master mastery card

Choose your hunter: Each player chooses a character to become their hunter. The one you choose in the Prologue will be your character for the entire campaign.

Setup Instructions

Follow the steps below to set up the scenario.

Place the combat board in the center of the table.
Place the monster miniature in the center of the combat board so that the front sector is the bottom one.
Place the hunter miniatures in the front sector.
Place terrain tokens as shown in the image: Brush (4a), Cyricae (4b), Baethanis (4c).
Place the round marker on the first space of the Round track.
Keep all the tokens indicated on page 13 (General Components) near the board.
Set up the monster area as shown in the image.
- 7.1 Place the monster board near the combat board, as shown in the image.
- 7.2 Place the health marker on 10 on the Health track on the monster board.
- 7.3 Shuffle the behavior cards to form the behavior deck and place it near the monster board.
- 7.4 Place the Stance I card and its associated peril and objective cards below the monster board. Any other stance and peril cards will be used later in the game.
- 7.5 Shuffle the base attrition cards to form the attrition deck and place it near the monster board.
Each player performs the following steps:
- 8.1 Place your hunter board in front of you on the table.
- 8.2 Place your starting equipment and potion cards on your hunter board in the spaces that correspond to their icons.
- 8.3 Shuffle your action deck and place it to the left of your hunter board.
- 8.4 Place the mastery card associated with your action deck face down (i.e. with the unfocused side face up) to the right of your hunter board.
Determine the aggro player: Assign the aggro token to one of the players.
Each player draws 5 cards from their action deck to form their starting hand.
Take the top 3 cards from the behavior deck and place them face down on the monster board in the three behavior slots.

You are now ready to play.

How to Play

A scenario consists of 10 rounds, in which players win by reducing the monster's health to 0 (success and failure conditions are explained in detail on page 35).

Round Structure

The game is played in a series of rounds. A round consists of the following steps, which must be resolved in order.

Step 1: Consume

Each player may resolve the Consume ability on one of their cards (i.e. any ability text that begins with the keyword Consume). Players resolve these abilities in the order they wish.

Note: Each player can resolve only 1 Consume ability each round.

Step 2: Monster Upkeep

Resolve the following steps in order:

Behavior Refresh (skip this phase in round 1): Look at the behavior cards in play. Discard the behavior with the lowest refresh value and replace it with the top card of the behavior deck.
- Note: If more than one behavior card has the lowest refresh value, discard all behaviour cards tied for the lowest refresh value and replace them.
Struggle: The monster gains 1 struggle per player (see Player Count Icon for more details). Each time the monster gains struggle, place that number of struggle tokens onto the monster board.

Step 3: Player Turns

At the start of this step, the player with the aggro token becomes the first player and so receives the first player token.

The players take turns in clockwise order, starting with the first player. The player currently playing their turn is called the active player.

The player's turn structure is explained in detail in the next section (on page 19).

Step 4: End of Round

Consuming a Potion

Potion cards are an important resource for the players. They give them powerful advantages for a limited time.

When resolving a potion card ability, apply the corresponding ability text that follows the keyword Consume and then remove that card from the game (return it to the box).

Struggle and Unleash

When the monster gains struggle, if the total amount of struggle accumulated is equal to or higher than 3 per player, immediately resolve the following steps, in order:

All players immediately suffer damage equal to the monster's damage value indicated in the current stance, as explained in detail on page 27.
Remove struggle tokens until the monster has 1 per player.

The resolution of these steps is called Unleash.

Some monsters focus on accumulating struggle to perform Unleash, while others just spend struggle to boost their behavior card effect (the boost effect is explained in detail on page 32).

Player's Turn Structure

A player's turn is divided into the following phases: Movement phase, Action phase, Attrition phase and finally, End of turn. Resolve these phases in the following order.

Movement phase. Summary: Move into an adjacent sector or remain in your current position on the board.
Action phase. Summary: Play cards from your hand one at a time, resolving their specific effect.
Attrition phase. Summary: Check whether you suffer attrition damage based on the number of defensive cards you played this turn.
End of turn. Summary: Discard any played card and refill your hand. The monster turns to the player with the aggro token.

Movement Phase

During your Movement phase, you choose whether you want to move or stay in your current sector on the board.

If you move: Pay 1 stamina to place your hunter miniature in a sector adjacent to your current sector (two sectors of the combat board are said to be adjacent if they share a common border). Paying a stamina cost is explained in detail on the next page.
- Note: During your Movement phase you can only move once.
- Note: Unless specified otherwise, you must pay stamina every time you move.
If you do not move: You become threatened and take a threatened token (if you haven't already).
- Note: If you would become threatened, but you are already threatened, keep your threatened token (each player can only have 1 threatened token) and trigger any effects that activate when you become threatened.

Threatened: Staying in the same sector is dangerous as it makes you an easy target for the monster!

Stamina Cost

The action cards in your hand represent both your combat options and your amount of stamina.

Many situations in the game will require you to pay a stamina cost (common examples are moving on the board or playing an action card from your hand).

Note: You may discard multiple cards to generate enough stamina to pay a cost. If you generate more stamina than you need to pay, any surplus stamina is lost.

Action Phase

During the Action phase, you may perform any of the following actions, in any order. Each action (apart from Revive) may be performed as many times as you wish.

Play an action card from your hand.
Activate an ability that begins with the keyword Action.
Revive (only once per turn).

Playing action cards

During your Action phase, you can play up to 5 action cards from your hand, resolving them one at a time.

In order to play an action card from your hand, you must first pay its stamina cost (see page 20 for how to pay stamina costs).

When you play a card in your sequence, resolve the card ability text and then its specific effect depending on the card color:

Attack (Red): Deal damage to the monster equal to your weapon damage (damage and wounds are explained in detail on page 23).
- Note: Attack cards can only be played if you are in a sector on one of the monster's exposed sides. The exposed sides are indicated in the exposure diagram on the current stance card (see next page for how to identify the monster's exposed sides).
Maneuver (Blue): Remove 1 struggle token from the monster board.
Dodge (Green) and Parry (Yellow): These cards do not have any additional effect when played in your sequence. When you play a dodge or parry card, simply resolve its ability text.
- Note: The number of defensive cards you play in your sequence is important in order to avoid suffering damage during the Attrition phase (the Attrition phase is described in detail on page 27).

Aggro cards

Action cards feature an aggro icon in the top right corner. Cards with the red aggro icon are called aggro cards.

Exposed Sides

The exposure diagram is important so you can establish if players are able to play attack cards based on their position on the board.

Damage and Wounds

When you deal damage to the monster, place that number of damage tokens onto the current stance card.

Then if the total damage the monster currently sustains is equal to or higher than the current stance card's toughness value, perform the following steps to inflict a wound:

Reduce the monster's health by 1.
Remove an amount of damage tokens equal to the toughness value.

Toughness value example: In this example, the toughness value equals 2 multiplied by the player count. Progression value: In this example, it equals 7.

As it suffers wounds, the monster will become increasingly dangerous.

When the monster's health reaches the progression value indicated on the stance card, the current stance is complete and the monster advances to the next one:

Remove the current stance card from the game.
Reveal the next stance card, respecting the stance order (I, II and III).
Remove any peril and objective cards in play that correspond to the completed stance and reveal any cards associated with the next one.

Damage and wounds: Example — This example shows a two-player game, with Vyraxen in Stance I, with 9 health.

To sum up: The total of 13 damage was enough to inflict 2 wounds, with 5 damage remaining.

Sequence and Triggered Abilities

Playing a card in your sequence may trigger multiple abilities from the other cards you have in play (i.e. equipment cards, mastery cards or any other action cards in your sequence).

Sequence: Example 1

Note: The keyword Assist has no effect when the card is played in your sequence (see below for more details).

Assist

Assist is a very common keyword that features on many action cards.

Each player can only assist once per turn (i.e. the active player may receive a maximum of one assist from each other player).

Note: All keywords featured on the card ability texts are explained in the Glossary on page 106.

Sequence: Example 2

2. Next, Bob plays Charge. He resolves the card ability by choosing another player to draw 1, and then removes 1 struggle.

How to Focus Your Mastery

To focus your mastery card, you must collect the same number of counters as the card's focus value.

You can place counters on your mastery card by triggering the card's focus ability.

Once you have accumulated the same number of counters as the focus value, discard those counters and flip the card to its focused side, so that the mastery ability is visible and unlocked.

Note: Once focused, your mastery is unlocked for the rest of the game.

Triggering Conditions

Some card abilities are triggered based on specific triggering conditions.

A triggering condition indicates a particular event in the game or a specific situation that must occur for the ability to activate. A triggering condition can be denoted by:

Bold text at the beginning of the ability text (which usually begins with the word "when" or "after").
A triggering keyword, in bold.
A triggering icon.

All keywords and icons are listed and explained in detail in the Glossary section on page 103.

Examples of triggering conditions for action card abilities include bold text at the beginning of the ability, a triggering keyword (Opening) and a triggering icon.

Note: Some abilities are triggered out of turn when their triggering conditions are met (e.g. Mirah's Cover fire). When that happens, simply follow the instructions on the card ability text.

Revive Action

Revive is an action that allows you to help other players recover faster from their KO status (for more details on being KO'd, see page 29). Reviving a KO'd player helps them get back in the fight.

If the black side is already visible, discard the token instead and that player rises (see page 29 for more details).

End of the Action Phase

When you do not want to or cannot perform any more actions, your Action phase ends.

At the end of your Action phase, if you have 2 cards or more left in your hand, you gain 1 stamina token, which you place on your hunter board.

Stamina tokens can be used to pay stamina costs: When you are paying a stamina cost, you may discard a stamina token to generate 1 stamina.

Note: Unless otherwise specified by card abilities, you cannot hold more than 1 stamina token.

Attrition Phase

The more aggressively you play, the more likely you are to suffer attrition damage.

During the Attrition phase, the active player must perform an attrition check.

To perform an attrition check, you resolve the following steps in order:

Reveal the top card of the attrition deck.
Suffer attrition damage unless you have a number of defensive cards (dodge or parry) in your sequence equal to or higher than the attrition value revealed. The attrition damage is equal to the monster's damage value, which is shown in the current stance card.
Discard the attrition card revealed.

Note: If you are instructed to reveal the top card of the attrition deck but it is empty, reshuffle the attrition discard pile to form a new deck and then reveal the card.

Monster's damage value

The damage the monster deals depends on the current stance and so will vary throughout the course of the game.

Suffering Damage and Being Knocked Out

Each time you suffer damage, place that number of damage tokens on your hunter board.

When your total sustained damage reaches or exceeds your health value (e.g. the sum of your equipped armor's and helm's health points), you are knocked out (KO'd).

When you are KO'd, perform the following steps in order:

If you are the active player, your turn ends immediately (skip any other turn steps).
Remove all damage tokens and any other tokens from your hunter board.
- Note: If you have the aggro token, pass it to the first player (if that player is KO'd, pass it to the next player in player order instead).
Discard your entire hand of cards, and any cards in your sequence.
Add a Wound card to your discard pile and then reshuffle your discard pile into your deck.
Choose either your armor or helm card that is not currently depleted and place a deplete token on that card (deplete tokens are explained in detail on page 30).
Lay your miniature down on the board to indicate your hunter is knocked out.
Take a KO token and place it on your hunter board (red side face up).
The monster turns to the aggro player.

While you are KO'd, you cannot be the target of any card ability or game effect (apart from Revive).

Discard the KO token.
Draw up to your hand size limit.
Stand your miniature up on the board to indicate that you are not KO'd anymore.
Your turn is over (play passes to the next player).

Note: Other players may help you rise faster by performing a Revive action, which is explained in detail on page 26.

Deplete tokens

Deplete tokens are placed on armor and helm cards to indicate that the equipment is depleted. The health points of depleted equipment do not count towards your health value.

If both your armor and your helm cards get depleted, you are out of the game until the end of the scenario (your KO token remains on its red side in front of you).

Wound cards

Each player has their own reserve of 2 Wound cards (identify which are yours by checking the hunter class icon on the back).

End of the Player's Turn

At the end of your turn, follow the steps below:

Discard your sequence: Discard all cards from your sequence in the order you played them (the last card you played in your sequence becomes the top card of your discard pile).
Refill your hand: Draw cards from your deck until you reach your hand size limit (which is 5 by default). If you empty your deck this way, reshuffle your discard pile to form a new deck and then draw any remaining cards.
- Note: If you have more cards in your hand than your hand size limit before you refill your hand, discard down to your hand size limit.
Monster rotation: Turn the monster to face the aggro player (the player with the aggro token).

Play now passes to the next player. When each player has completed their turn, the round ends.

Monster Reaction System

The game is based around a dynamic reaction system in which the monster's behavior cards are triggered in response to specific events and players' actions.

There are always three behavior cards in play, set out in the three behavior slots on the monster board.

Each behavior card has a reaction icon on the back that represents a specific triggering condition.

Below are the reaction icons and related triggering conditions that you need to know to play the Prologue.

Note: You can find a comprehensive list of all the reaction icons featured in the game on page 93.

Attack icon — Trigger: After a player plays an attack card in their sequence.
Maneuver icon — Trigger: After a player plays a maneuver card in their sequence.
Parry icon — Trigger: After a player plays a parry card in their sequence.
Dodge icon — Trigger: After a player plays a dodge card in their sequence.
End of round icon — Trigger: At the end of the round.
Threatened icon — Trigger: After a player becomes threatened. Note: If a player would become threatened but is already threatened, this reaction is still triggered.
Front sector icon — Trigger: When a player starts their turn in the front sector.
Flank sector icon — Trigger: When a player starts their turn in the flank sector.
Rear sector icon — Trigger: When a player starts their turn in the rear sector.
Rampage icon — Trigger: When you resolve another behavior card in play (see the Rampage step of the Behavior Card Resolution on the next page). Note: Behavior cards with this reaction icon are called rampage cards.

Behavior Card Resolution

When a behavior card in play is triggered, reveal that card (turn it face up) and resolve it by performing the following steps in order:

Reaction: Apply its effect by resolving the card base ability text and its boost effect (if any).
Rampage: Trigger any rampage cards in play (rampage cards are explained in detail on the next page).
Discard and Replenish: Discard the behavior card and then refill that behavior slot with the top card of the behavior deck.

Note: If the effects of any event or card ability trigger a behavior card in play, completely resolve that event or card ability before revealing the triggered behavior card.

Boost effect

Some behavior cards feature a boost effect at the bottom of the card. This is an additional ability that is resolved during the Reaction step of the card resolution.

To resolve the boost effect, remove an amount of struggle tokens from the monster equal to the related boost cost and then resolve the boost ability text.

Only resolve the boost effect if the monster has enough struggle to pay the boost cost.

If the monster does have enough struggle, always remove the required amount of tokens, regardless of the outcome of the boost effect.

Rampage Cards

Behavior cards that feature the rampage reaction icon are called rampage cards.

Rampage cards are triggered and revealed during the Rampage step of the resolution of another behavior card in play, which is called the triggering behavior.

When a rampage card is triggered, follow these special rules:

A triggered rampage card must be revealed and resolved immediately: Turn it face up and apply its effect by resolving its base ability text and any boost effect.
A triggered rampage card is discarded (and its behavior slot is replenished) along with the triggering behavior card during the Discard and Replenish step of that card's resolution.

Escalation

When this happens, the monster gains 1 struggle. This struggle gain is called escalation.

Multiple Behavior Card Resolution

When multiple behavior cards in play are triggered, reveal and resolve those cards one at a time, in the order of your choosing.

You can use the trigger tokens to indicate that a behavior card has been triggered: Simply place the trigger token on the card and then remove it once you reveal that card.

This is useful for keeping track of multiple triggered behavior cards or when time elapses between the triggering event and the behavior card reveal.

Card Resolution Timing

Stance cards → Peril cards → Behavior cards → Other cards

When multiple cards with the same priority are triggered (e.g. two peril cards, or an action card and an equipment card), the players decide the order in which to resolve those cards.

This means a player can maximize their combos and synergies by choosing the order in which they resolve any simultaneous effects.

Success and Failure Conditions

A scenario can end in two ways: Success or failure.

Success: Players successfully complete the scenario if they reduce the monster's health to 0.

Note: When they inflict the final wound, reducing the monster to 0 health, players immediately win the scenario.

Failure: Players can lose in two ways:

When a player is KO'd, if there are no more players standing (e.g. if all players are KO'd), you have failed the scenario.
If you reach the end of round 10, you failed the scenario (the hunters are no longer able to sustain the battle against the monster).

Note: Some monsters might feature special failure conditions. If this is the case, those conditions are explained on the corresponding cards.

End of Prologue

Congratulations on completing the Prologue! This begins your adventure into the world of Thyrea. Read the next section, Campaign Rules, to learn how to set up and run your first campaign.

Campaign Rules

Campaign Overview

In Campaign mode, players commence an adventure within the world of Thyrea that unfolds across multiple game sessions, with each game impacting subsequent games.

A campaign is structured in 11 Chapters. Each Chapter moves the story forward and offers the players different quests to choose from, which each correspond to a unique game scenario.

As players progress through the chapters, they will fight numerous different monsters, gather resources, upgrade their equipment and customize their hunter.

Note: The Campaign book is required to play the Campaign mode, as it contains all the narrative content and setup instructions for each scenario.

Campaign Objective

To successfully complete the campaign, players must complete all 11 chapters of the story.

A chapter is complete, and players move on to the next chapter, when they successfully complete a quest from those available for that chapter.

Replayability

Play the Prologue: The Prologue is a necessary step into the Campaign mode. Each time you start a new campaign, you begin with the Prologue scenario (page 3).

Approaching the Lore

Take Notes. If you find it helpful, taking notes can assist you in keeping track of important information and connecting the clues you uncover along the way.

If you are ready, the world of Thyrea awaits you.

Component List

General: 1x Combat board, 1x Quest board, 1x Rulebook, 1x Campaign book, 1x Campaign sheet, 1x Character sheet, 18x Forge card, 3x Herbalist card, 5x Reference card, 34x Dividers.

Hunters:

Dareon miniature, Dareon hunter board, 19x Great Sword weapon card, 2x Great Sword (Special set), 44x Dareon Action card, 6x Dareon Mastery card, 2x Dareon Wound card
Mirah miniature, Mirah hunter board, 19x Great Bow weapon card, 2x Great Bow (Special set), 44x Mirah Action card, 6x Mirah Mastery card, 2x Mirah Wound card
Thoreg miniature, Thoreg hunter board, 19x Hammer weapon card, 2x Hammer (Special set), 44x Thoreg Action card, 6x Thoreg Mastery card, 2x Thoreg Wound card
Ljonar miniature, Ljonar hunter board, 19x Sword and Shield weapon card, 2x Sword and Shield (Special set), 44x Ljonar Action card, 6x Ljonar Mastery card, 2x Ljonar Wound card

Monsters:

Vyraxen miniature, Vyraxen monster board, 6x Vyraxen Stance card, 3x Vyraxen Peril card, 1x Vyraxen Objective card, 18x Vyraxen Behavior card
Kharja miniature, Kharja monster board, 6x Kharja Stance card, 3x Kharja Peril card, 1x Kharja Objective card, 20x Kharja Behavior card
Toramat miniature, Toramat monster board, 6x Toramat Stance card, 2x Toramat Peril card, 1x Toramat Objective card, 20x Toramat Behavior card
Dygorax miniature, Dygorax monster board, 6x Dygorax Stance card, 3x Dygorax Peril card, 1x Dygorax Objective card, 18x Dygorax Behavior card
Korowon miniature, Korowon monster board, 6x Korowon Stance card, 3x Korowon Peril card, 1x Korowon Objective card, 18x Korowon Behavior card
Orouxen miniature, Orouxen monster board, 6x Orouxen Stance card, 3x Orouxen Peril card, 1x Orouxen Objective card, 16x Orouxen Debility card, 18x Orouxen Behavior card
Felaxir miniature, Felaxir monster board, 6x Felaxir Stance card, 3x Felaxir Peril card, 1x Felaxir Objective card, 18x Felaxir Behavior card
Morkraas miniature, Morkraas monster board, 6x Morkraas Stance card, 3x Morkraas Peril card, 1x Morkraas Objective card, 18x Morkraas Behavior card
Ozew miniature, Ozew monster board, 6x Ozew Stance card, 3x Ozew Peril card, 1x Ozew Objective card, 18x Ozew Behavior card, 5x Ozew Swarm card, 5x Ozew Rumble card
Jekoros miniature, Jekoros monster board, 6x Jekoros Stance card, 3x Jekoros Peril card, 1x Jekoros Objective card, 18x Jekoros Behavior card
Hurom miniature, Hurom monster board, 6x Hurom Stance card, 2x Hurom Peril card, 1x Hurom Objective card, 18x Hurom Behavior card
Tarragua miniature, Tarragua monster board, 6x Tarragua Stance card, 2x Tarragua Peril card, 1x Tarragua Objective card, 18x Tarragua Behavior card
The Awakened miniature, 2x The Awakened monster board, 5x The Awakened Stance card, 6x The Awakened Peril card, 1x Storm marker, 4x Ballista token, 1x Envelope, 22x The Awakened Behavior card, 3x The Awakened Objective card, 2x Awakening card

Key Concepts

The Forge

The Forge represents the location where you will craft any weaponry you might use in battle.

As you progress through the campaign, you will specialize in crafting unique equipment, based on the monsters you have slain.

Each monster in the game is associated with a specific element (for example: Vyraxen, the monster you encountered in the Prologue, is associated with the element of fire).

Each forge card represents a unique enhancement of the Forge and, in particular, the ability to craft equipment of a specific element.

Upgrading the Forge

Note: The equipment cards' level always matches the level of their corresponding forge card.

Note: The Forge level will be tracked on the campaign sheet (for more details on the campaign sheet, see page 56).

Crafting Resources

As a reward for defeating monsters, you will receive crafting resources that can be combined to obtain the weapons, armor and other gear listed on your forge cards.

There are two categories of crafting resources:

Elements: Each monster drops the element resource of its type. The elements are Fire, Horn, Coral, Crystal, Thunder and Metal.
Materials: All monsters drop a combination of materials obtained from its body parts. The materials are Bones, Blood, Scales, Zima, Iride and Kobaureo.

The collection of all the crafting resources you own is called your crafting reserve and is tracked on your character sheet (for more details on the character sheet, see page 57).

How to Craft Equipment

Crafting equipment is a way for players to customize their character and their playstyle.

Players can craft equipment cards by spending elements and materials from their crafting reserve.

To craft a piece of equipment listed on a forge card, you must:

Spend 1 element associated with that forge card, and
Spend the exact amount of materials indicated on the forge card for that equipment.

When you craft a piece of equipment, take the corresponding equipment card from the box and add it to the set of equipment cards you already have. Those cards form your equipment deck.

Each time you craft a piece of equipment, update your crafting reserve on your character sheet by removing the amount of resources spent (for more details on the character sheet, see page 57).

Resource conversion: Players may convert resources in order to meet a crafting requirement by following the rules below:

Spend 1 element of any type in place of any 1 material. Example: You may spend 1 Fire element in place of 1 Scales.
Spend 2 materials of any type in place of any 1 material. Example: You may spend 1 Zima and 1 Iride in place of 1 Scales.
Discard an equipment card you already own instead of spending any 1 material. Example: You may discard your Great Sword base weapon card instead of spending 1 Scales. Note: When you discard an equipment card to obtain a resource, return that card to the box.
Discard an equipment card you already own instead of spending an element of the type associated with that equipment card. Example: You may discard a Flame Tongue weapon card instead of spending 1 Fire element.

How to Upgrade Equipment

If you want to craft a higher-level version of an equipment card you already own, you are upgrading that equipment.

The Herbalist

The herbalist card represents the ability to prepare powerful potions for use in combat.

As a reward for successfully completing a quest, players will gain plant resources that can be combined to obtain the different types of potions listed on the herbalist card.

Plant Resources

The regions of Thyrea are rich in herbs and plants with special properties, which will be obtained as rewards for completing a quest.

The entire collection of plant resources a player holds is called their plant reserve and is tracked on your character sheet (for more details on the character sheet, see page 57).

The plant resources are: Nillea, Mellis, Tarmaret, Albalacea, Anthemon and Saelicornia.

How to Prepare a Potion

Each time you prepare a potion, update your plant reserve on your character sheet by removing the amount of resources spent (for more details on the character sheet, see page 57).

Note: A player cannot have multiple copies of the same potion card. This means you cannot prepare a potion card if you already have a copy of that card in your potion deck.

Deckbuilding

When you reach certain chapters of the campaign, you will be instructed to upgrade your card pool by adding upgrade cards specific to your character.

When you are instructed to upgrade your card pool, choose a branch of your skill tree and unlock the corresponding upgrade cards.

Upgrade cards are identifiable by their card ID in the bottom-right corner of the card.

Hunter's Skill Tree

The first upgrade step of each branch enables you to unlock 2 new action cards and gives you access to the next step. The second step enables you to unlock 2 new action cards and a new mastery card.

Skill tree structure: Branches A, B, C, D and E each have an upgrade step 1 (two action cards) and an upgrade step 2 (two action cards plus one mastery card).

Deckbuilding Rules

Customizing your action deck is a way for players to play out unique and personalized strategies.

To build a custom deck for a campaign scenario, simply follow these steps in order:

Choose 1 weapon card, 1 armor, 1 helm and 1 item from your equipment deck.
Choose 1 mastery from your card pool.
Build your action deck to include the exact number of attack, maneuver, parry and dodge cards as shown on your chosen weapon card (if you do not have enough cards to build a deck that meets the color restriction of your weapon, you cannot use that weapon). You may use any action card from your card pool.

For example, the level 1 Flame Tongue says you must have exactly 6 attack cards, 4 maneuver cards, 5 parry cards and 5 dodge cards in your deck.

Effective Equipment and Deck Advantage

Each monster has its own specific elemental weaknesses, which are shown in the top left corner of its monster board.

When building your deck for a scenario, check how many equipment cards you have that are effective against the monster.

A piece of equipment is effective if the monster is weak against that equipment's element (this is the case for each of your equipment cards: Weapons, armor, helms and items).

Elemental weaknesses example: Vyraxen is weak against Horn and Coral elements (from Vyraxen monster board).

Elemental Weakness Table

Below is a table that shows the monsters that are weak against each element in the game.

Element	Monsters weak to it
Fire	Felaxir, Morkraas, Hurom, Tarragua
Horn	Vyraxen, Kharja, Korowon, Ozew
Coral	Vyraxen, Kharja, Toramat, Dygorax
Crystal	Kharja, Orouxen, Ozew, Jekoros
Thunder	Korowon, Orouxen, Hurom, Tarragua
Metal	Toramat, Dygorax, Felaxir, Morkraas

Quest Cards

Together, the quest cards make up the quest deck for the campaign and they represent the missions that may become available as you play through the story.

Quest Board

Note: The quest board includes spaces for the quests in both the core game (Fire, Horn, Coral, Crystal, Thunder, Metal) and the expansions.

Note: Available quest cards that have the same monster element are placed in the same space on the quest board.

Quest Expiration

Some quests will be available for a limited amount of time because they expire when you reach specific chapters of the campaign.

Quest expiration can have significant consequences, such as unlocking of a new quest path or unique achievements. Remember to read the expiration paragraph every time an available quest expires.

Note: There are many more quests than you can actually complete during the campaign, so quest expiration will be a common event.

Campaign Setup

Each time you start a new campaign, you begin with the Prologue scenario (page 3). After successfully completing the Prologue, follow the steps below to set up the campaign:

Place the quest board in the center of the table.
Assemble the quest deck by putting together all the quest cards from both the core game and any expansions you own, and then place the quest deck near the quest board.
Take the Campaign book, which includes all the content you need for the campaign scenarios and chapters.
Take a campaign sheet and circle the first space on the Campaign Chapters track to indicate that Chapter 1 is next to be played.
Each player performs the following steps:
- a) Take a character sheet.
- b) Take your character's hunter board and starting equipment cards (the ones you used in the Prologue).
- c) Form your initial card pool by taking the starter deck (action cards and mastery card) that you used in the Prologue.

Now you have everything set up to start playing Chapter 1 of the campaign. Before you read how to play through a chapter, it will be useful to learn more about the campaign and character sheets.

Campaign Sheet

Session by session, players track their progress and accomplishments on the campaign sheet. The campaign sheet includes all the information you need to save and then resume a campaign game.

Campaign Chapters track: This is where you keep track of your progress through the campaign chapters. The aggression symbols indicate the monsters' aggression level, which increases as you advance through the chapters (for more details on the aggression level, see page 60).
The Herbalist: This is where you keep track of the Herbalist's level.
The Forge: This is where you keep track of the Forge's level, as well as of all your unlocked forge cards, which are indicated by their associated element.
Trophies: Each monster is represented by a trophy icon. This is where you keep track of the monsters you defeat.
Quests: This is an archive of your quests, which are listed by their quest number. Keep track of the quests you have unlocked (with a circle) and the ones that are completed or expired (with an X).
Achievements: This is where you write down any achievements you have unlocked over the course of the campaign. For more information about the achievement system, see the box below.
Hunter's Trial: This space is for the Hunter's Trial variant. Only use this section if you are playing with those rules, which are explained in detail on page 63.

Character Sheet

Each player uses a character sheet to keep track of the specific information that relates to their own hunter.

Player name and class: When you create your character for a campaign, write your name here (the name of the player) as well as your hunter class.
Skill tree: This is where you keep track of any upgrades from the different branches of your skill tree (for more details on the skill tree and deck upgrades, see page 49).
Crafting and Plant Reserve: As you gain resources during the campaign, note down the exact number of each material, plant and element you have in your reserve. Each time you craft a piece of equipment or prepare a potion, remember to update your reserve by removing any spent resources.
Notes: This is free space for you to write down your notes about the story or personal gameplay accomplishments.

Playing a Campaign

Each chapter of the campaign begins in Alborea, the city stronghold to which hunters return after each combat, so they can forge new equipment and choose their next quest in the story.

Each chapter can be considered a game session and follows the phase structure below:

Story phase → Quest Board phase → Crafting phase → Hunt phase

Story Phase

During the Story phase, players read the introduction of the chapter in the Campaign book (you can find the chapter introductions in the Campaign Chapters section on page 7 of the Campaign book).

Once you have read and implemented all the information provided in the chapter introduction, you are ready for the Quest Board phase.

Quest Board Phase

Crafting Phase

Each player independently performs their Crafting phase by choosing any number of the following actions:

Craft equipment listed in your forge cards: A player may craft as much equipment as they wish from different available forge cards as long as they have the resources in the requirements list.
Prepare potions listed on your herbalist card: A player may prepare any number of potions, as long as they have the plant resources in the requirements list.
- Note: A player cannot have multiple copies of the same potion card (for more details on preparing potions, see page 48).

At the end of the Crafting phase, each player builds their action deck (for more details on deckbuilding, see page 50) and chooses up to 3 potion cards from their potion deck, for the next scenario.

Note: As the icons on your hunter board indicate, you can have a maximum of 1 item and 3 potion cards in play.

Hunt Phase

The Hunt phase consists of playing the scenario associated with the active quest.

Find the scenario that matches the active quest number in the Campaign book (all the scenarios are in numerical order in the Campaign book, starting on page 43).

First, read the narrative introduction, and then set up the game as indicated in the scenario page.

Each campaign scenario follows the same rules and structure as the Prologue and consists of fighting against a specific monster as indicated by the trophy icon on the top left of the scenario page.

How to Set Up a Scenario

The setup of a campaign scenario follows the same rules as for the Prologue, with the exception of the terrain configuration.

For that step, simply look at the scenario page and set out the terrain tokens on the board as illustrated in the combat board diagram.

Aggression Level

As the campaign progresses and the hunters upgrade their deck and equipment, the monsters also level up their cards and abilities, to ensure an appropriate level of challenge.

Each monster comes in four different aggression levels across the game: Level 0 (Prologue), level 1, level 2 and level 3.

Monster Setup

Stance cards display a specific aggression level in the top left corner of the card: Simply use the set of stance cards (Stance I, Stance II and Stance III) for the appropriate level.
When you form the monster's behavior deck, only use behavior cards that are part of the set used for the current aggression level. Each aggression level is associated with a specific set of aggression icons (Level 0 (Prologue), Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 each have their own icon set).
Peril and objective cards are double sided cards, with each side showing one of two different aggression levels, as indicated by the corresponding aggression icon. When setting up the monster, use the side that shows the icon included in the set for the current level.

End of the Scenario

The success and failure conditions for a campaign scenario are the same as for the Prologue (for more details, see page 35).

If you succeed, you have completed the quest. Perform the following steps in order:

Read the narrative conclusion for the scenario.
Gain your rewards for completing the quest. For more details on rewards, see Quest Rewards below.
Add the monster to your Trophies, by marking it on your campaign sheet.
Discard the completed quest card and return it to the box.
Advance to the next campaign chapter and begin a new session from the Story phase.

Players do not progress to the next campaign chapter until they have successfully completed a quest.

Whether you succeeded or failed, each player removes all their Wound cards from their deck at the end of the scenario.

Quest Rewards

Rewards can include:

A new forge card being unlocked
Crafting resources (elements and materials)
Plant resources
New achievements being unlocked
New quests being unlocked
New reward cards being unlocked

End of the Campaign

How to Save the Game

You can easily save all the information you need to resume a campaign game by following these simple rules:

At the end of your game session, each player should keep their card pool, equipment and potions to one side, or separate them within the box.
Each time you unlock a quest, mark it with a circle on your campaign sheet.
Each time you complete a quest, mark it with an X on your campaign sheet.
- Note: This means that when you resume the game, you will know that the quests you need to place on the quest board as being available to play are the ones that are circled, and the quests to be archived will be marked with an X.
Each time you advance to a new campaign chapter, mark the completed chapter with an X and the new chapter with a circle. This way you will always know that the circled chapter is the next one to be played.

Game Expansions

The core game offers a complete campaign experience, with 30 quests to play, many different paths to follow and a wide variety of monsters to fight.

The Hunter's Trial (Variant Rules)

The Hunter's Trial is a variant for experienced players who want to put their skills to the test.

Every time you fail a scenario, mark a space on the Defeat track of your campaign sheet. If you fill all 3 spaces on that track, your campaign is over and you must start again from Chapter 1.
Every time you successfully complete a scenario, reset the Defeat track and then add the number of defeats erased this way to the Total Defeats space on the campaign sheet. While the Defeat track gets reset each time you successfully complete a scenario, the Total Defeats value tallies all the defeats you have suffered across the whole campaign.
If you successfully complete a scenario on your first try, gain 2 valor points. Keep track of the valor points you earn during the campaign in the corresponding space on the campaign sheet.
If you successfully complete a scenario without any player being KO'd, gain 2 valor points.
- Note: If a player is KO'd and then rises before the end of the scenario, you do not gain any valor points, since a player was KO'd during the game.

At the end of the campaign, you are given a Hunter Score.

Hunter score = 90 − 2 x [total defeats] + [valor]

Ranking	Points
Dragon Slayer	130 points
Beast Master	110 points
Commander	90 points
Prime Hunter	80 points
Expert	65 points
Rookie	<50 points

If you want to reach the highest rankings, your combat tactics, crafting strategies and cooperation skills will need to be first-rate. Can you get a clean sweep?

Let's play! You're ready to play your first campaign! Go to page 8 of the Campaign book and begin Chapter 1 with the Story phase.

Expedition Rules

The Expedition mode provides a standalone game experience outside of the campaign.

Setup and Play

To set up an expedition, choose a scenario from among those featured on pages 67 through 79. This booklet contains two expedition scenarios for each monster in the game.

The setup of an expedition scenario follows the same rules as for the Prologue, with the exception of the terrain configuration.

For that step, simply look at the scenario page and set out the terrain tokens on the board as illustrated in the combat board diagram.

Monster Setup

Hunter Setup

In Expedition mode, each player chooses a hunter from the 4 characters available and then chooses whether they will use a preconstructed deck or build their own.

Note: If you choose to play at aggression level 0, simply use your hunter's starter deck along with a set of base equipment cards as for the Prologue.

The preconstructed decklists (for each hunter and aggression level) are on page 81, along with suggestions for equipment and potion configurations.

Players who choose to play at level 1, 2, or 3 and wish to build a custom deck to create their own combos and strategies must follow these steps:

Choose your weapon, armor, helm and item card. You may choose from the equipment cards listed on any forge card in the game, as long as the forge card matches the aggression level of the monster.
- Note: The weapon card you choose must correspond to your hunter class.
Choose a mastery from your hunter's set of mastery cards.
Build your action deck. It must include the exact number of attack, maneuver, parry and dodge cards as shown on your chosen weapon card. You can use any cards from your hunter's starter deck and can include upgrade cards from your hunter's skill tree based on the monster aggression level. The table below shows how many upgrade steps you can take in your skill tree based on the monster level (skill tree and upgrade cards are explained in detail on page 49).

Monster level	Upgrades
Level 1	2
Level 2	4
Level 3	6

Choose up to 3 potion cards from the ones listed on the herbalist card that matches the monster aggression level.
- Note: You cannot have multiple copies of the same potion.
If you have any deck advantages based on the monster's elemental weaknesses, you may modify your action deck in accordance with the deck advantage rules that are explained in detail on page 51.
- Note: You can check the monster's elemental weakness on its monster board or in the table on page 52.

Success and Failure Conditions

Expedition scenarios have the same success and failure conditions as the Prologue scenario (page 35).

Expedition Scenarios

Each monster has two expedition scenarios, each with its own terrain configuration on the combat board.

Vyraxen — Expedition 1 terrain: 1x Rock, 2x Brush, 2x Cyricae. Expedition 2 terrain: 1x Plateau, 1x Rock, 1x Baethanis, 1x Brush, 1x Cyricae, 1x Water.

Korowon — Expedition 1 terrain: 1x Plateau, 2x Rock, 1x Baethanis, 1x Brush, 1x Synaerea, 2x Water. Expedition 2 terrain: 1x Plateau, 1x Rock, 1x Baethanis, 2x Sand, 1x Synaerea, 2x Water.

Morkraas — Expedition 1 terrain: 2x Rock, 1x Baethanis, 1x Cyricae. Expedition 2 terrain: 2x Rock.

Tarragua — Expedition 1 terrain: 1x Plateau, 2x Rock, 1x Baethanis. Expedition 2 terrain: 1x Plateau, 2x Rock, 2x Fog.

Use the alternative combat board (back of the board).
Place four ballista tokens face up in the corners of the combat board (black side up), as shown in the figure.
Take the Awakened's extended monster board.
Place the special Awakening cards in the rightmost two behavior slots on the extended monster board.
Set the storm level to 1 by placing the storm marker in the corresponding space on the Storm track.
Remove two base attrition cards with an attrition value of 1 and one with an attrition value of 2 from the attrition deck. Then add in the Awakened's special attrition cards instead.
Build the Awakened's behavior deck by shuffling its signature behavior cards together with 10 random instinct behavior cards. Alternatively, you could choose those 10 instinct behavior cards instead of picking them at random.
Take The Commander's Voice and Artillery Assault special objective cards (the other special objective cards are only available in Campaign mode).

Expedition 1 terrain: 4x Ballista token, 3x Rock. Expedition 2 terrain: 4x Ballista token, 2x Rock, 1x Plateau, 1x Fog.

Hunter Decklists

Dareon — The Great Sword

Suggested equipment for the preconstructed decks: Dragon Claw (weapon), Spined Helm, Red Scale Armor, Woltyar Gauntlet (item); potions Alemore, Imperia, Artrox.

Mirah — The Great Bow

Suggested equipment for the preconstructed decks: Ashbringer (weapon), Spined Helm, Crystal Armor, Gauntlet of Shell Blade (item); potions Alemore, Imperia, Vydia.

Thoreg — The Hammer

Suggested equipment for the preconstructed decks: Skullshock (weapon), Red Scale Helm, Thunder Armor, Explosive (item); potions Alemore, Evok, Imperia.

Ljonar — Sword & Shield

As the team support, Ljonar offers a wide range of tactical options for you to create synergies with fellow hunters and protect them from the monster.

Furthermore, Ljonar possesses the ability to control the monster with Taunt, which manipulates the orientation of the monster, while consistently bolstering his allies.

Suggested equipment for the preconstructed decks: Thundercore (weapon), Reefbound Helm, Red Scale Armor, Gauntlet of Shell Blade (item); potions Alemore, Imperia, Hatrox.

Additional Rules

Note: The setup rules for each scenario always indicate which terrains are to be used and which special rules apply to that monster.

Terrain

Baethanis: At the start of your turn, if you are in a sector with a Baethanis terrain, heal damage equal to your weapon level. (See Heal X on page 109 of the Glossary section)

While your turn is paused, you are not the active player and you cannot assist other players or taunt the monster.

When you resume your turn, you are once again the active player and you play out the rest of your turn in the usual way.

Note: Only one player at a time can hide in the brush. (See Assist, Recycle X and Taunt in the Glossary section on page 106)

Cyricae: When you play an attack card in your sequence, if there is a Cyricae terrain in your sector, increase the damage that attack deals by your weapon level.

Fire: While there is a Fire terrain in your sector (regardless of whether the fire is red or yellow), you cannot play cards into your sequence.

Terrain interaction: When you place a Fire terrain:

Remove any brush in that sector from the game.
Remove any water in that sector from the game and replace it with a Fog terrain.

Fog: When you move into a sector with a Fog terrain, you become threatened.

Plateau: At the end of your turn, if you are in a sector with a Plateau terrain, you may decide to move onto the plateau. If you do, place your hunter miniature on that terrain token.

While you are on the plateau, whenever a behavior card is revealed, you may immediately place your hunter miniature on that behavior card. If you do, perform the following steps:

Cancel the effects of that behavior card (e.g. skip the Reaction step of that card resolution).
Perform a riding check. (See Riding check on page 111)

Note 1: If you start your turn on a plateau, you must immediately step off it (place your miniature anywhere else in that same sector).

Note 2: Only one player at a time can be on a plateau.

Rock: When you would suffer attrition damage but you are in a sector with a Rock terrain, you may remove that terrain token from the game to prevent that damage.

Sand: When you move from a sector with a Sand terrain, increase the stamina cost of that movement by 1.

Synaerea: At the start of your turn, if you are in a sector with a Synaerea terrain, you may suffer damage equal to your weapon level to draw 1.

Water: While you are in a sector with a Water terrain, your sequence limit is 3 (instead of 5).

Note: A Water terrain modifies your standard sequence limit, but does not prevent any card ability or other game effect from increasing (or further decreasing) your sequence limit.

Wildmaw: At the end of your turn, if you are in a sector with a Wildmaw terrain and you are threatened, suffer damage equal to your weapon level.

Monsters

Monster Trophies

Each monster in the game has a unique trophy icon that helps you identify the components for that monster. Below is a list of all the monster names and their corresponding trophy icons:

Core game: The Awakened, Vyraxen, Kharja, Toramat, Dygorax, Korowon, Orouxen, Felaxir, Morkraas, Ozew, Jekoros, Hurom, Tarragua
Venom Expansion: Hydar, Reikal
Feather Expansion: Pazis, Nagarjas
Ice Expansion: Sirkaaj, Mamuraak
Nightmare Expansion: Taraska, Xitheros, Zekath, Zekalith

Behavior Reaction Icons

Attack icon — Trigger: After a player plays an attack card in their sequence.
Maneuver icon — Trigger: After a player plays a maneuver card in their sequence.
Parry icon — Trigger: After a player plays a parry card in their sequence.
Dodge icon — Trigger: After a player plays a dodge card in their sequence.
End of round icon — Trigger: At the end of the round.
Rampage icon — Trigger: When you resolve another behavior card in play (which is called the triggering behavior) during the Rampage step of that card resolution (see Behavior Card Resolution on page 32). Note: Behavior cards with this reaction icon are called rampage cards and follow special resolution rules:
- A triggered rampage card must be immediately revealed and resolved: Turn it face up and apply its effects by resolving the base ability text and its boost effect, if it has one.
- Discard the triggered rampage card (and refill the behavior slot), along with the triggering behavior card, during the final step of that card resolution.
Threatened icon — Trigger: After a player becomes threatened. Note: When a player would become threatened but they are already threatened, this reaction triggers anyway.
Offensive card icon — Trigger: After the active player plays an offensive card in their sequence.
Defensive card icon — Trigger: After the active player plays a defensive card in their sequence.
Two offensive cards icon — Trigger: After the active player plays two offensive cards, next to each other in their sequence. Note: The behavior card is triggered after you play the second card in that sequence.
Two defensive cards icon — Trigger: After the active player plays two defensive cards, next to each other in their sequence. Note: The behavior card is triggered after you play the second card in that sequence.
Aggro card icon — Trigger: After a player plays an aggro card in their sequence.
Front sector icon — Trigger: When a player starts their turn in the front sector.
Flank sector icon — Trigger: When a player starts their turn in a flank sector.
Rear sector icon — Trigger: When a player starts their turn in the rear sector.
Water sector icon — Trigger: At the start of a player's turn, if that player is in a sector with a Water terrain.
Monster rotation icon — Trigger: After the monster turns to face a different sector (i.e. changes its orientation).
Movement icon — Trigger: After a player moves.
Move into water icon — Trigger: After a player moves into a sector with a Water terrain.
End of Attrition phase icon — Trigger: At the end of the Attrition phase.
Empty hand icon — Trigger: After a player empties their hand (i.e. has zero cards in their hand after playing, discarding or any other game effect). Note: The behavior card is triggered once the event that led to the player having zero cards in their hand has been completely resolved.
Enters play icon — Trigger: As soon as this card comes into play to fill a behavior slot. Special Resolution: If there are multiple triggered behavior cards in play, resolve this behavior card before all the other cards.
Flank presence icon — Trigger: At the start of a player's turn, if there is at least one player in a flank sector.
Rear presence icon — Trigger: At the start of a player's turn, if there is at least one player in the rear sector.

Note: If there are multiple reaction icons, the icons are separated by "/" (which stands for "or").

Monster Rules

Note: This section contains spoilers! Do not read it until you are instructed to do so by a scenario.

Charge Track (Jekoros)

The Charge track is a special track on the monster board that measures the monster's charge level over the course of the game.

Each time you are instructed to increase the charge level by X, move the charge marker X spaces along the track.

Jekoros' card abilities will interact with the charge level during the game.

Hardening Track (Toramat, Dygorax)

The Hardening track is a special track on the monster board that measures the monster's hardening level over the course of the game.

Each time you are instructed to increase the hardening level by X, move the hardening marker X spaces along the track.

When the hardening level reaches 3, the monster becomes Hardened (see Hardened on page 109).

Note: The monster remains hardened as long as the hardening level is at 3.

Dust Token (Toramat, Dygorax)

Dust is a special token that is placed on the board as a result of some monsters' card abilities.

At the end of the round, remove all Dust tokens from the board.

Note: You can have a maximum of 2 Dust tokens per sector.

Rumble Card (Ozew)

Rumble cards are special cards that indicate specific sectors of the board. Some Ozew's card abilities will relate to those sectors in the game.

Each Rumble card features a diagram that represents the sides of the monster (oriented so that the front side is at the bottom) and highlights specific sides in yellow.

While a Rumble card is active, the sectors of the combat board that correspond to the sides highlighted in yellow are called marked sectors.

Debility Card (Orouxen)

Some of Orouxen's card abilities will instruct players to add Debility cards to their hand or discard pile.

When you discard the action cards in your sequence during your End of turn step, discard all Debility cards in your sequence as well.

Note: At the end of the scenario, all players must remove all the Debility cards from their deck, just as for Wound cards.

Swarm Card (Ozew)

Swarm cards are special cards that enter play as a result of card abilities that are specific to Ozew.

Each Swarm card has an ability that remains active as long as the swarm card is in play.

To defeat a Swarm card and thus remove it from play, players have to deal a cumulative amount of damage equal to or higher than Ozew's toughness value.

Note: When you deal damage to a Swarm card, if you defeat that card, any excess damage is lost.

Arkeum Tokens (Hurom)

Arkeum tokens are placed on the board as a result of card abilities that are specific to Hurom.

Note: In each sector, you can have a maximum of 1 Arkeum token per player.

Special Attrition Cards (Toramat, Felaxir, Jekoros, Hurom, The Awakened)

Note: You can identify a monster's special attrition card by the trophy icon on the front of the card.

The Awakened

This section explains the special rules you need to play a scenario against the Awakened.

Ballista Tokens

Ballista tokens are placed in the corner of the combat board and represent the weaponry supporting the hunters in their battle against the Awakened.

During the game, the ballistas will activate at the end of each round as described in the objective card ability Artillery Assault.

Each ballista targets the two sectors nearest to its corner of the board. A ballista is considered to have line of sight to the monster if one of its targeted sectors is the front sector.

A ballista can be in either an unloaded state (with the grey side visible) or a loaded state (with the black side visible).

Example: Only ballistas 1 and 2 have line of sight to the monster, because they target the front sector.

Extended Monster Board

The Awakened's monster board has two sections, to create 6 behavior slots instead of the standard 3.

Once unlocked, the additional slots follow the standard behavior slot rules and must be filled (and then refilled each time) with behavior cards from the top of the behavior deck.

Note: Although they occupy the behavior slots, Awakening cards are not behavior cards.

Storm Track

The Storm track is a special track on the monster board that measures the storm level over the course of the game.

Each time you are instructed to increase/decrease the storm level by X, move the storm marker forward/backward along the Storm track by X spaces.

Stance Deck

The Awakened has 5 stance cards instead of 3.

Special Attrition Cards

The Awakened features its own special attrition cards. These cards follow the same special attrition card rules as explained on page 98.

Instinct and Signature Behavior Cards

The Awakened has a pool of 22 behavior cards. These cards are divided into two categories:

Signature behavior cards: These behavior cards are identified by the Awakened's trophy icon and represent the unique moves that are specific to the Awakened.

Instinct behavior cards: The Awakened has 1 instinct behavior card for each of the other monsters in the game. These cards are identified by the corresponding monster's trophy icon.

Note: See the Monster Rules section (on page 91) for any special rules that might relate to specific instinct cards.

Special Objective Cards & Sealed Envelope

The Awakened's set of cards includes objective cards that have a special card layout.

Legendary Equipment Set

If you are playing in Campaign mode, you may be able to unlock special equipment sets. If you do, players may use these equipment cards in the final scenario against the Awakened.

The ability text on these cards interacts with the special mechanics of the Awakened, so the special equipment sets can only be used during that scenario.

Note: These cards are only available as unlocked components in Campaign mode. Do not use them in Expedition mode.

Glossary

The Golden Rule

If the text on a card directly contradicts the text of the Rulebook, the text on the card takes precedence.

The Primal Rule

Icons

Color Icons

Attack icon (red): This icon refers to an attack card (i.e. a red action card).
Maneuver icon (blue): This icon refers to a maneuver card (i.e. a blue action card).
Parry icon (yellow): This icon refers to a parry card (i.e. a yellow action card).
Dodge icon (green): This icon refers to a dodge card (i.e. a green action card).

Note: The attack, maneuver, parry and dodge icons are also used as triggering icons related to playing cards of a specific color in your sequence (see page 105).

Card Type Icons

Offensive icon: This icon refers to an offensive action card (i.e. a maneuver or attack card).
Defensive icon: This icon refers to a defensive action card (i.e. a parry or dodge card).