Robo Rescue Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Objectives
• Components
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • Ending the Game (page 6)
  • 1. Program Command
    • Single Moves
    • Combi-Moves
  • Resolving Movement Cards
  • Modifier Tokens
  • Modifier Token Reference
    • Movement Card Modifiers
    • Other Modifiers
  • 2. Movement & Board Actions
    • Action Types
  • Switches
  • Standby Turns
  • 3. Conversions
  • Example Turn
• The Player Boards
  • 1. Oil Tanks
  • 2. Energy Stores
  • 3. Processor Array
  • 4. Cable Matrix
• The Cable Matrix
• Bonus Cards
• Game End
  • Determining the Ultimate Survivor
• Your Spacecraft
• Ability Cards
• Ability Summary
• Turn Summary

Game Objectives

Your task is to be the first to assemble the three (or four in a 2 player game) Rocket Engines needed to fix your Spacecraft. There are a variety of ways you can build rocket engines, and once you've satisfied any of these conditions, you'll take a rocket engine and add it to your spacecraft!

• Collecting Oil
• Collecting Processor Chips
• Collecting Energy Cubes
• Building Cable Connections

Supplies are limited, so you'll have to use more than one method if you want to build all 4 engines!

Components

• 4 Robot Figures
• 4 Container Boxes
• 2 Cable Dice
• 1 Data Drive
• 12 Standard Dice
• 48 Oil Cubes
• 8 Energy Cubes
• 16 Processor Chips
• 68 Cable Tokens
• 8 Power Tokens
• 32 Ability Cards
• 32 Bonus Cards
• 60 Command Cards
• 16 Rocket Engines
• 56 Action Tokens
• 68 Modifier Tokens
• 4 Player Boards
• 4 Spacecrafts
• 4 Spacecraft Stands
• 1 Game Board

Setup

1. Place the game board in the middle of the table, and place all the Action Tokens on their matching icons on the board, according to their type:

   • Oil
   • Cable Dice
   • Bonus Card

2. Place the Container Boxes on the light colored "+" spaces, and place the Power Tokens on their icons on the board, with their OFF side facing up (as shown).

3. Each player takes:

   • 1 Player Board
   • 1 Robot Figure (matches Player Board) and places it in the corner space closest to them, facing either space adjacent to it.
   • Their chosen Robot's corresponding Spacecraft
   • In a 3-4 player game: 1 Rocket Engine and adds it to their Spacecraft. In a 2-player game players start with 0 Rocket Engines. (See page 18 for Spacecraft Setup).
   • One of each Movement Card to form their starting hand (the three Movement Cards shown: left turn, forward, right turn)

4. Shuffle all remaining Command Cards together and place them face down near the board to form the Command Deck. Then do the same with the Bonus Cards to form the Bonus Deck. If either of these Decks is ever empty, shuffle its corresponding discard pile to form a new draw deck.

Page 5 shows an example setup for a 3-player game, with the steps numbered to match the list above.

Gameplay

Robo Rescue plays over an indeterminate number of player turns, each consisting of:

1. Program Command
2. Movement & Board Actions
3. Conversions

Note: Instead of taking a normal turn, you may choose to Standby, which works a little differently. See Standby turns on page 10.

To rescue your robot, you'll need to be efficient! Try to avoid taking Standby turns too often, and make good use of your actions!

Ending the Game (page 6)

Players continue taking turns in this manner until any player has managed to build all of their Spacecraft's Rocket Engines. After this, finish the current round of play so that all players have taken an equal number of turns. Then the game ends, and whoever has built all their Rocket Engines by this point wins! (There may be multiple winners).

1. Program Command

In order to move your Robot, you first have to program a Command sequence for them by placing Command Cards and Modifier Tokens on your Player Board. You may take either:

• A Single Move using only 1 Movement card
• A Combi-Move using 1 Combi-card and 2 Movement cards together

In either case, you may add up to 3 Modifier Tokens to your Command (see Modifiers on next page).

Note: You may hold up to 10 Command Cards and any number of Modifier Tokens.

Single Moves

To take a Single Move, play 1 Movement card onto the Single Move side of your Player Board. Then add any Modifier Tokens you wish to use.

Combi-Moves

To take a Combi-Move, play a Combi-card and 2 Movement cards onto the Combi-Move side of your Player Board. The Combi-card must go in the middle, and the Movement cards to the sides. The Combi-card has no effect aside from allowing 2 Movement Cards to be programmed in one Command.

Resolving Movement Cards

Each Movement card will move your Robot 2 spaces, according to the 2-part arrow shown on it. This first move is always in the direction your Robot is currently facing, and the second will either move them straight again, or rotate and move them to the left or right.

Note: The current directional facing of your Robot dictates its movement path. Walls (the board edge) or objects (boxes and robots) may block this path, in which case the movement cannot be programmed. In other words, you must program a Command that allows your Robot to use all of its movement.

Example: The Movement cards below move your Robot along the path shown in the diagram (provided your Robot doesn't run into any obstacles).

Modifier Tokens

Modifier Tokens can be added to your Command to take special actions with your Robot before or after resolving a Movement card (see spaces 1, 3, and 5 below), or to alter the way a Movement Card itself is resolved (see spaces 2 and 4 below).

• You may program a max of 3 of Modifiers per Command. All 3 must be a different type and programmed to different positions. There is either 3 or 5 Modifier positions available, depending on the type of move you are programming.
• Each position tells you which types of Modifiers may be placed there. Eg: This position only allows a single Onestep, Turbo, OR Levitate Modifier Token to be placed on it.

Note: Modifier Tokens placed directly onto a Movement Card modify that Movement Card. All other Modifier Tokens are resolved on their own.

Once programmed, Single and Combi-move Commands are resolved in the order specified below:

Single Moves (positions 1, 2, 3): Once a Single Move is resolved, put any used Modifiers back to the supply, and discard the Movement Card.

Combi-Moves (positions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5): Once a Combi-Move is resolved, put any used Modifiers back to the supply, discard the Combi-card and take back the 2 Movement Cards to your hand.

Modifier Token Reference

Most Modifier Tokens are gained from Conversions (page 10) or Bonus Cards (page 15), and will improve your ability to maneuver your Robot around the board in some way or another. Let's take a look at how each Modifier Token works!

Movement Card Modifiers

Below Modifiers are resolved during Movement.

Onestep. Allows your Robot to ignore the second movement it would take from any Movement Card, instead moving it only a single space in the direction it is facing. When you shorten the move of a turning Movement Card, you have the option to choose which direction your Robot faces after moving this single space, allowing it to face either its original direction or the direction indicated by the turning Movement Card.

Turbo. Allows your Robot to push a single Object (Box or Robot) out of its way while moving. An object is always pushed into the space opposite from where your Robot is moving. If pushing an object would ever require that it be pushed into a wall, or that a second object be pushed, your Robot instead immediately ends their movement.

Levitate. Allows your Robot to float over top of an Object (Box or Robot) that would otherwise block its path. You must still land it on the other side of the object, in a space that doesn't contain an object.

Other Modifiers

Below Modifiers are resolved BEFORE or AFTER Movement.

90° Turn. Rotates your Robot 90° to the left or right. It stays in its current space.

180° Turn. Rotates your Robot 180°, facing it the opposite way, in its current space.

Blast! Can be used for 2 different things when it resolves:

1. When using a Blast! token to destroy a Container Box, your Robot must be adjacent to and directly facing it. The timing depends on when you meet this condition: you must activate the Blast! token BEFORE your movement if you start your turn adjacent to and facing the box, or AFTER your movement if you end your turn that way. When you destroy a Container Box, remove it from the game and gain 3 Oil.
2. Charge an Energy Cell if your Robot is ON A CORNER space when it resolves. Gain an Energy Cube and place it on your Player Board (max 2).

Portal. Opens up a Portal in the wall, allowing the next Movement Card you resolve to move your Robot through it, and into the space directly on the opposite side of the board (provided that space isn't blocked).

Remember that in general, one Modifier Token may be programmed to resolve before and after each Movement Card, and one may modify each Movement Card itself, but only a max of 3 may be used per Command, and all must be different types and in different positions!

You may program a Command using only Command Cards, but may not program one using only Modifier Tokens. If you can't or don't want to program a Movement Command using Command cards, you must instead take a Standby turn (see page 10).

2. Movement & Board Actions

Each time you finish resolving a Movement Card, you may immediately take a number of Board Actions:

• After a Single Move, choose 2 different Board Actions from those available on your Robot's current space (the Action icon or token must be present).
• After the first Movement Card of a Combi-Move, choose 1 Action from those available, and then after the second Movement Card, choose another 2 different Actions.

Board Actions must always be taken immediately after resolving a Movement Card, before anything else is resolved. They must always be chosen from those available on your Robot's space (haven't yet been removed), and each Action type may only be taken once per turn (i.e. on a Combi-Move turn, you may take up to 3 Board Actions throughout the turn, but only if they are each a unique Action type).

Action Types

There are 5 basic Board Action types:

• Command Card Actions. Draw 3 Command Cards from the deck and add them to your hand (this action is always available on every board space). You cannot take this action if you already have 10 cards in hand.
• Bonus Card Actions. Remove the Card Token from the board and draw 1 Bonus Card from the Bonus Deck. Then choose 1 of the 2 Bonuses available on the card and gain it immediately, discarding the card afterwards (see Bonus Cards on page 15).
• Power Actions. This action is only available if your Robot is on a space with a Power Token that's currently on its ON side (see Switches in next section). Take either a Blast! token or a Processor Chip, then flip the Power Token back to its OFF side.
• Oil Actions. Remove the Oil Token from the board and take 2 Oil Cubes from the supply, adding them to the Oil Tanks on your Player Board (see Oil Tanks on page 13).
• Cable Dice Actions. Remove the Dice Token from the board and roll the 2 Cable Dice. Gain Cable Tokens according to your roll result - each die face depicts a token type, with the wild face allowing you to choose any one token. The 2 tokens are then immediately added to the Cable Matrix on your player board, following the Cable Connection rules (see page 14).

Switches

Each space containing a Switch controls 3 Tokens that share either a row or column with it:

Switch tokens are shown OFF (grey) and ON (green).

After resolving each Movement Card, if an Object (Box or Robot) has landed on a Switch space, flip its 3 corresponding Tokens from their OFF side to ON side, or vice versa. This happens automatically - it is not considered an Action, and does not count towards your Action limit for the turn.

Switches are only activated after a Movement Card and any Board Actions have been fully resolved - a Robot or Box that is moved over a switch, but does not finish its movement there, does not trigger the Switch.

Standby Turns

If you are unable, or don't want to use any Command Cards to program a Command for your Robot, you must instead take a Standby turn.

During a Standby turn, you may not:

• Move or take Board Actions
• Use Modifier Tokens
• Activate Switches

Instead, you will simply draw 2 Command Cards (up to 10 max), and then skip straight to Conversions, which you may still make at the end of your turn.

Note: The Card Supplier, Jerry Can, and Cable Guy abilities may still be used on Standby turns, but all others require you to run a Command to use (see Abilities on page 19).

3. Conversions

After running your Command and taking Board Actions, you may then, as the last step of your turn, convert some of the resources in your possession into others. Your Player Aid shows you which conversions can be made:

• Spend 2 Command Cards, Modifier/Cable Tokens, or Oil
• Spend 3 Command Cards, Modifier/Cable Tokens, or Oil
• Spend 5 Command Cards.

Reminder that Blast! Tokens can destroy Container Boxes for 3 Oil, and that Switch tokens can be used to gain a Processor Chip or Blast! Token.

Resolve 1 of the following:

• Gain the shown Modifier Token from the supply
• Gain the shown Cable Token from the supply
• Gain a Master Coder Card
• Gain any 1 Movement Card of your choice
• Gain an Ability from the face up supply *

*See Ability Card reference on page 19.

Note: You may do multiple conversions each turn, but may only gain 1 of each reward type (ie. 1 Modifier Token, 1 Cable Token, 1 Ability Card, etc. per turn). You may also only use one resource type per conversion (Modifier & Cable Tokens are considered one resource type).

The Player Aid's conversion table is icon-based. Its rows read as: Spend 2 (Command Cards, Modifier/Cable Tokens, or Oil) to gain one of the 90, 180 or Turbo Modifier Tokens, a Cable Token, a Master Coder Card, or any Movement Card; Spend 3 (same resources) to gain one of the Turbo, Onestep or Levitate Modifier Tokens, or a Cable Token; Spend 5 Command Cards to gain an Ability from the face up supply.

Once you've finished making Conversions, your turn ends. If you programmed a Single Move, discard your Movement Card next to the Command Deck. If you programmed a Combi-Move, discard the Combi-Card and take your 2 Movement Cards back into your hand. In either case, return all used Modifier Tokens back to the supply (or to their Ability Cards). If you have more than 10 Command Cards in hand, you must also discard down to 10. The turn then passes to the player on your left.

Example Turn

Kai Tanaka, controlling KENZO, programs a Combi-Move Command with a 90° Modifier, a Turbo Modifier, and a Blast Modifier.

For the first part of this Command he resolves the 90° Modifier, turning KENZO to the right. KENZO will now be directly facing a Container Box.

Next, Kai resolves his first Movement Card, which has the Turbo Modifier on it, allowing KENZO to push the Box along as he moves two spaces straight ahead.

KENZO is now in a space containing a Cable Dice, Command Card, Oil and Switch icon, and Kai may choose 1 of these Board Actions (though not the Switch Action, since it's currently OFF). He chooses to take the Dice Action, rolling the 2 Cable Dice and gaining 2 Cable Tokens (we'll talk about Cable Tokens soon).

Now the Blast! Modifier resolves, and since KENZO is facing AND next to a Box, he gets to destroy it, removing it from play and gaining 3 Oil.

Then the second Movement Card is resolved, moving KENZO one space forwards, and then one space to the left. KENZO gets to take 2 of the available Board Actions on this final space. With the Power Token being in its ON position, Cable Dice, Bonus Card, Command Card and Power Actions are all available, but remember that Kai already took a Cable Dice Action before, so he can't take another now. Kai chooses to take the Bonus Card Action, removing the token and drawing a Bonus Card, and the Power Action, gaining a Processor Chip and flipping the Power Token to its OFF side.

Kai draws the following Bonus Card, and decides to take the 2 Turbo Tokens from it, skipping on the Oil.

He also takes the Processor Chip and adds it to his Player Board.

The last thing Kai can do on his turn is Convert resources into others, following the restrictions on his Conversions Table. He chooses to trade in 5 of his Command Cards for one of the available Ability Cards, and 2 oil for one of the Cable Tokens he currently needs.

Kai's turn is then over. He puts all Modifier Tokens back to the supply, discards the Combi-card, takes back the 2 Movement Cards to his hand, and passes the turn to the next player.

Now that you know the basic turn flow, let's go more into detail about the last few important aspects of the game.

The Player Boards

Your Player Board is the center of your rocket building efforts. All of your means to construct Rocket Engines are tracked here on this board. As a general rule, once a Rocket Engine has been built, all pieces used to build it are locked onto your Player Board. There are 4 ways to build them:

1. Oil Tanks

Each time you gain Oil during the game, you may choose which Oil Tank to put it into. Each tank holds up to 9 Oil, which can be spent on Conversions, but only up until you place the 9th cube on them.

Once full, each Oil Tank will automatically produce 1 Rocket Engine, and the Oil Cubes on it are then locked. You may hold a max of 18 Oil and gain a max of 2 Rocket Engines from Oil collection.

2. Energy Stores

Whenever you gain an Energy Cube (by using a Blast! Token in a corner space), add it to one of these two Energy Cube spaces. Once both are filled, you immediately gain a Rocket Engine.

You may gain a max of 2 Energy in a game, and only 1 Rocket Engine from them.

3. Processor Array

Each time you gain a Processor Chip, add it to one of these 4 slots. Once you have all 4 filled, you gain a Rocket Engine.

You may gain a max of 4 Processor Chips in a game, and only 1 Rocket Engine from them.

4. Cable Matrix

As you build your Cable Matrix, you can gain up to 2 Rocket Engines by connecting socket A to A, B to B, or circling the G1 or J2 nodes (see next page).

The Cable Matrix

When you gain one or more Cable Tokens, you must immediately place them in your Cable Matrix. Each Cable Token you place must be lined up so that one of the Cable ends connects to an existing endpoint (socket A, socket B, or the G1 or J2 node) or one on a previously placed Cable.

As you can see, there are places where the different paths cross through the same space. Because each space can only have one Cable running through it, it is not possible to fully build all 4 paths. You could not, for example, circle the G1 node AND run a cable from socket A to A.

The following diagram shows the 4 possible Cable Connections you can use to build a Rocket Engine (A to A, B to B, circling G1, and circling J2). While these diagrams show a possible configuration, other routes may also achieve the same connection.

Be careful how you place your Cable Tokens! Once cables are placed, they cannot be rearranged. They can be removed entirely when making Conversions, but only if loose on one end (a Cable Token cannot be Converted if it is connected to something on both ends).

• Each Cable token may be flipped/rotated freely when placing it.
• Whenever you gain a Cable Token that cannot be placed legally (properly connected), it is returned to the supply.

Let's look at an example! Kai has already encircled G1, and is working towards connecting B to B. She takes a Cable Dice Action, and rolls two Cable Tokens. The first Cable cannot be placed in the circled space (where Kai wants her next Cable Token) without cutting off the path to B. She could connect it to B directly, but doesn't want to deal with a bend being there, so she just connects it to the top left A socket, where she can Convert it away later. The other Cable Kai rolled is exactly what she needs to keep heading straight for socket B! She places the Token, and then continues with the rest of her turn. If she wanted, she could still remove Cables on the loose end of this path to Convert them, but once it connects to the other B endpoint and earns a Rocket Engine, all Cable Tokens in that line will be locked in.

Bonus Cards

Each time you take the Bonus Card Action, you draw a Bonus Card from the deck and immediately choose one of the two Bonus effects on it, either the top half or the bottom half.

There are a variety of Bonuses that may be granted, including:

• Modifier Tokens (1, 90, 180, Turbo, Portal, Levitate)
• Cable Tokens
• Oil Cubes
• Command Cards

Some Bonuses grant multiple rewards, others only one. The example card seen here allows you to either gain the two shown Cable Tokens, or 2 Oil. After a Bonus is taken, the card is discarded.

Game End

As soon as a player successfully installs all of their Rocket Engines, the game continues until the current round is completed (ending with the player to the right of the First Player). At the end of the round, all players who have successfully built all their Rocket Engines secure their triumphant return back home and are declared winners!

Determining the Ultimate Survivor

If two or more players complete their spacecraft in the final round, you must determine the Ultimate Survivor to break the tie. Each tied player will score their collected resources as follows:

• 1 point for every Oil Cube and Cable Token.
• 2 points for every Processor Chip.
• 4 points for every Energy Cube.

The player with the highest total score is the Ultimate Survivor. If there is a tie in points, all tied players are considered Ultimate Survivors!

Page 17 contains the Engineer and Robot character backstories (engineer names, robot names and flavour text for the four player characters); these are flavour and are not transcribed here.

Your Spacecraft

At the beginning of the game, your Spacecraft should be constructed as follows (see the page 18 illustrations).

In a 3-4 player game, start with 1 Rocket Engine already on the Spacecraft, since you only need to add 3 to win. Each time you build a Rocket Engine, slide it onto the back end of your Spacecraft.

Ability Cards

Each time you gain an Ability Card, place it in front of you, and place one of the standard dice on the card, showing the number of pips listed on the card. This is the number of times you may Activate the Ability before it and any modifier tokens on it are discarded. Tick the die down once each time you activate the Ability to keep track of this.

During your Conversions, you can gain 1 Ability Card from those available in the face up supply in exchange for 5 Command Cards. You may also gain a Master Coder Ability in exchange for 2 Command Cards, 2 Tokens, or 2 Oil. Whenever you gain one of the 4 face up Ability Cards, immediately replace it with one from the Ability Deck. If the new card is a duplicate of any card already in the Ability Supply, discard it and draw a new one. Continue drawing until all four cards in the supply are different.

• You may only have 3 Ability Cards at a time, including the Master Coder
• You may only have one Ability of each type
• Each Ability may only be used once per turn
• When an Ability Card is discarded, return it to the bottom of the Ability Deck

Ability Summary

• Ultimate Rotator (uses a standard die): Take a 90° and a 180° Modifier Token and place them on this card. One or both may be used on each Ability activation, and are returned to the card instead of discarded at end of turn.
• Stepshortener (uses a standard die): Take a OneStep Modifier and place it on this card. It may be used once each activation, and is returned to the card instead of discarded.
• Antigravity (uses a standard die): Take a Levitate and Portal Modifier and place them on this card. They may both be used on each activation, and are always returned to the card instead of discarded.
• Turbo Driver (uses a standard die): Take a Turbo Modifier and place it on this card. It may be used once each activation, and is returned to the card instead of discarded.
• Card Supplier (uses a standard die): At the start of your turn, you may activate this to draw 1 Command Card. Cannot be used if you are already at max hand size.
• Jerry Can (uses a standard die): At the start of your turn, you may activate this to gain 1 Oil.
• Cable Guy (uses a standard die): At the start of your turn, you may activate this to roll ONE Cable Die and add the corresponding Cable Token to your Cable Matrix.
• Action Repeater (uses a standard die): When taking Board Actions, you may activate this to perform an Action up to 2 times during your turn, provided the Action is available to you twice.
  • Single Move: You may only perform the Command Card Action twice. All other actions are one-time use and are no longer available once resolved.
  • Combi-Move: You may perform any action twice, as long as it is available on both the intermediate and final spaces of your move. For example, you could choose a Bonus Card Action on the first space and again on the second, if it was available on both.

Turn Summary

1. Program Command
   • Can be Single or Combi-Move
   • Add up to 3 Modifiers (must be different types and in different modifier spaces)
2. Movement & Board Actions
   • Resolve Movement with any movement modifiers
   • After each Movement:
     • Take Board Actions
     • Resolve Switches
     • Resolve Modifier Tokens
3. Conversions
   • Convert resources shown on the left side of your conversion chart to those shown on the right

If taking a Standby turn: 1. Draw 2 Command Cards. 2. Make Conversions.