Saint Seiya: Deckbuilding – Hades Expansion Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
  • Player
  • Play Area
• New Content
  • The Styx Cards
  • The Void
  • The Shackle
  • The Underworld
  • Hero Spaces
  • Bonuses
  • Underworld Spaces
  • Trials
  • Awakening and Senses
  • Gaining Senses
  • Losing Senses
  • Abilities
  • Other Additions
• Duel Mode
  • Components
  • Heroes
  • Setup
    • Play Area
    • Players
  • Objective
  • The Houses
  • Specifics
• Clarifications
• Fight Sequence
• End of the Game
• Turn Summary
  • 1 - Main Phase
  • 2 - Upkeep Phase

Components

• 1 rulebook
• 1 Underworld play mat
• 113 cards: 18 new Reserve cards, 20 new Hero cards, 75 Underworld cards (the Styx)
• 51 mini-cards: 19 Trials, 18 Abilities for the classic mode, 9 new Epics, 5 Player aids
• 5 Senses boards and their 25 associated tokens
• 5 Void tokens
• 30 Soul tokens (values 1, 3 and 5)
• 10 Gate tokens
• 20 Victory Point tokens
• 5 new stands for the Hero markers

The rest of the material is used for the Duel mode (page 7).

The cards of this expansion are identified by the star icon at the bottom of the cards.

Setup

Player

The new Hero cards [yellow star] and [blue diamond], and the new Armor, are set aside, away from the play area (together with the 5 Hero cards [red triangle] of the base box).

Each player places a Senses board next to their Player board, takes an Awakening token, 4 different Senses tokens and their Void token.

The 5th Sense and Awakening tokens are placed face "active" on their respective spaces.

Play Area

In addition to the classic setup with the base box, Asgard and Poseidon, set up the Hades material as follows:

• Shuffle the 18 cards (numbers 16 to 31) into the Reserve.
• Place the new Underworld play mat close to the base box mat.
• Shuffle the 75 cards (numbers 32 to 77) to form the Styx, face down, on the area provided for the Underworld.
• Place the first 4 cards of the Styx face down on the first 4 Underworld spaces.
• Place 2 Gate tokens per player on the Gate of the Underworld, and the Hero markers on the space above it.
• Shuffle the Trial mini-cards to form a face-down draw pile next to the mat, and reveal 3 Trial cards on the spaces provided on the mat. Leave a specific space for the Trial discard pile.
• Shuffle the 18 Ability cards to form a face-down draw pile next to the mat.
• Each player takes 1 Soul per player before them in turn order, then place the remaining Soul tokens near the Wound, Freeze and VP markers.

Leave in the box the rest of the material, which is used for the Duel mode.

Adjust the length of the game by removing some [clock] tokens from the Clock during setup.

New Content

The Styx Cards

The Styx cards represent Hades' army. They occupy areas of play that are dedicated to them: the Underworld, the Shackle piles and the Void.

These cards can never join your deck (they have a different back).

Some information differs from ordinary cards:

• A Soul cost: the number of Souls to spend to place the card from the Underworld onto an opponent's Shackle pile (see below).
• A Grade: the number of Gate tokens added to the Gate of the Underworld when the Character leaves the Underworld. The Grade also sets the order of the Characters in a Shackle pile.
• A Soul gain: the number of Souls gained when the card is annihilated from the Underworld or placed under the Styx from a Shackle pile.
• Victory Points: at the end of the game, VP are gained if the Character is under your Void token, and VP are lost if the Character is in your Shackle pile.
• The following new effects:
  • A Shackle effect, applied when the card is on top of a player's Shackle pile.
  • An Underworld effect, applied as long as the card is in the Underworld.

The labels on a Styx card are: Name, Class, Strength cost, Soul cost, Grade, Shackle effect, Underworld effect, Victory Points (bottom left), Soul gain (bottom right) and Number.

The Void

You can face Characters in the Underworld to annihilate them (Strength cost).

Annihilating a Character immediately gains the Souls shown at the bottom right of the card.

When you annihilate a Character, place it under your Void token. At the end of the game, it gives the VP shown at the bottom left.

The Shackle

You can place a Character from the Underworld onto an opponent's Shackle pile by spending as many Souls as its Soul cost.

The Shackle pile is an area to the right of your Senses board where the cards that shackle you are stacked.

Note: there is no limit to the number of cards that your Shackle pile can contain.

A Character that joins a player's Shackle pile is placed according to its Grade and the other Characters already there.

• The Characters are stacked, offset, from the highest Grade on top to the lowest at the bottom (see the diagram).
• The Strength cost, Soul gain and VP must always remain visible.
• If Characters of the same Grade are already there, the last arrival is placed on top of them.

Example: if Pharaoh of the Sphinx (a Grade 3 Character) joins this Shackle pile, the card is placed between Aphrodite of Grade 4 and Charon of Grade 3.

• The Character on top of a Shackle pile applies its Shackle effect. This effect permanently affects the shackled player.
• At the end of the game, each player loses the VP shown at the bottom left of each Character remaining in their Shackle pile.
• You can face a Character from your Shackle pile (Strength cost). When its cost is reached, you may gain the Souls shown at the bottom right of the card, then place it (face down) under the Styx.

The Underworld

The Underworld is represented by the new mat, which includes the following areas:

• The Styx, the Underworld draw pile.
• The 5 Underworld spaces, on which the cards are placed face down. The cards are revealed according to the position of the Hero markers. The 1st space is called Elysion, and the last one is the Gate of the Underworld.
• If there are Gate tokens on the Gate of the Underworld, no card can be placed there.
• The 5 Hero spaces, on which the Hero markers move.
• The 3 Trial spaces, where the available Trials are revealed (see page 6).

Hero Spaces

The Hero markers start the game at the Gate of the Underworld, and can be moved using the effect of your 8th Sense (see page 6), or by other game effects.

When a player reaches Elysion, they immediately place their Hero card from the set-aside area into their hand.

The Underworld cards under a Hero marker and to the right of a Hero marker are automatically revealed. The Appearance effect applies immediately when the card is revealed in the Underworld.

In the Underworld, a player may face (Strength cost), or place into an opponent's Shackle pile (Soul cost), only the Characters that are under their Hero marker or to its right.

When a player faces the Underworld Character that is opposite their Hero marker, they may choose to apply one of the bonuses matching that space. These bonuses are obtained when the Character is annihilated, except for the bonus "-1 Strength", which applies during the fight.

Bonuses

• -1 [Strength]: reduce the cost by 1 Strength. (Applies during the fight.)
• 1 [VP token]: gain 1 Victory Point token.
• 1 [Soul]: gain 1 additional Soul.
• 1 [Energy]: gain 1 Energy.
• Draw 1 card.

Example:

• Moving Shun's Hero marker revealed Queen, whose Appearance effect applies.
• Shun can now face Queen with one of the 3 available bonuses (reduce its cost by 1 Strength, gain 1 additional Soul, or gain 1 VP token). He may also face Zelos, but without any bonus.
• At the end of the turn, if all the Underworld spaces are occupied, a Gate token is removed and the cards are shifted to the right. The card to the left of Queen now faces Shun and is revealed, then the top card of the Styx is placed face down on Elysion.

Underworld Spaces

At the end of the turn, the Underworld is prepared in one of these 3 cases:

• A. If at least one Underworld space is empty: shift all the remaining cards in the Underworld to the right, then complete the Underworld.*
• B. If all the Underworld spaces are occupied and there are Gate tokens on the Gate of the Underworld: remove one Gate token. If it was the last one, shift all the cards in the Underworld to the right, then complete the Underworld.*
• C. If all the Underworld spaces are occupied and there is a card on the Gate of the Underworld: the Character on the Gate of the Underworld is placed on the Shackle pile of the active player, and as many Gate tokens as its Grade are added to the Gate of the Underworld. The Exit effect of a card in the Underworld applies only at this moment, before it is placed on the Shackle pile.

* Completing the Underworld means adding new cards from the top of the Styx to the empty spaces, from right to left.

Reminder: cards are placed face down, except on the spaces under a Hero marker or to the right of a Hero marker.

Trials

Each Trial card gives a condition to fulfil during the main phase of your turn.

When the active player fulfils the condition of a Trial, they may immediately discard it in order to choose one of the following:

• use their Awakening; or
• draw an Ability.

Discarded Trials are only replaced during the Upkeep phase (see page 7).

If the Trial draw pile is empty, shuffle the Trial cards from the discard pile to form the face-down draw pile.

Example: the Trial titled FROID (Cold) reads "Freeze one of your cards." If, during your turn, a game effect Freezes one of your cards, then the condition is fulfilled.

Awakening and Senses

At the start of the game, each player has their Awakening token and their 5th Sense token.

Each Awakening and Sense token has an "active" side and an "inactive" side.

Each player may only use these tokens during the main phase of their turn, and only if they are on their "active" side, to apply the effect corresponding to each token.

Once used, the player exhausts the Sense by turning it immediately to its "inactive" side.

Awakening and Sense tokens are recharged during the Upkeep phase by turning them back to their "active" side (see page 7).

Gaining Senses

A player gains a Sense when they use their Awakening after completing a Trial.

In this case, add the next Sense token to your board, on its "active" side (5th, 6th, 7th, 8th).

Losing Senses

A player loses a Sense when they defeat a Character by Strength.

In this case, remove the highest Sense token from your board (8th, 7th, 6th, 5th).

Note: Awakening is not a Sense; it can never be lost.

Abilities

Abilities are a new type of card that can never join your deck.

When a player draws an Ability card, it is kept face up in front of them. A player cannot draw an Ability if they already have 3.

An Ability can be used in 2 different ways:

• activate its Ability effect; or
• activate the Talent effect of another card (see below).

Once used, the Ability card is placed face down under the Ability draw pile.

Other Additions

Heroes [yellow star]

These cards have a "Discard / Talent" effect that the player may activate, as they choose, through one of the 2 keywords:

• Discard: the Hero is discarded.
• Talent: the player places one of their Abilities under the Ability draw pile (the Hero is not discarded).

Heroes [blue diamond]

Each time your Hero marker reaches Elysion, you may immediately place your set-aside Hero card into your hand.

Armor [yellow star] / [red triangle]

When a Character is acquired by a player, all the players who have their Bronze Armor equipped or in hand may exchange that Armor for the new one. In this case, the former Bronze Armor is removed from the game.

New Epics

The new Epics are only playable with the Hades expansion (the star icon). You may mix them with the other Epics that remain compatible with the Hades expansion.

Souls

The Soul tokens represent the Souls in your possession. If there are no more Souls available, you can no longer gain any.

Duel Mode

This mode is played exclusively by two players and lets you take on the role of the Gold Saints. Some of them, now under Hades' orders, try to reach the Altar of Athena, while the others face their former allies by defending the 12 Houses of the Sanctuary.

Components

To make the rules of this mode easier to follow, the two players are distinguished: one plays the Gold Saints and the other plays the Renegades.

• A - 2 Player boards: Gold Saints and Renegades.
• B - 2 Hero markers: Gold Saints and Renegades.
• C - 2 counters: Gold Saints and Renegades.
• D - 2 Hero markers to attach to the 2 supplied stands: Gold Saints and Renegades.
• E - 25 new cards:
  • 12 Heroes for the Gold Saints (numbers 78 to 83)
  • 12 Heroes for the Renegades (numbers 84 to 89)
  • 1 Athena, Divine Warrior (number 90)
• F - 29 mini-cards:
  • 6 Abilities for the Gold Saints (numbers 97 to 102)
  • 6 Abilities for the Renegades (numbers 103 to 108)
  • 12 Houses (numbers 109 to 120)
  • 5 Altars of Athena (numbers 121 to 125)

Heroes

The Heroes in the personal draw piles have no rank, and they are also Gold Saints.

These cards have a Talent effect associated with their Constellation symbol.

To activate the Talent effect of a Hero, you must place the Ability with the same Constellation symbol under your Ability draw pile.

Example: to activate the Talent effect of Mu, you must place the Ability Psychokinesis, which has the same Constellation symbol, under your Ability draw pile.

Setup

Play Area

1. Follow the classic mode setup, except for the Clock and the classic mode Abilities, which are not used.
2. Choose an Altar of Athena and place it face up near the mats. The other Altars of Athena are set aside from the game.
3. Form a pile with the Houses, sorted beforehand by number, so that the House of Pisces is under the pile and the House of Aries is on top.
4. Reveal the 1st House (the House of Aries).

Note: you may also decide to shuffle the House cards for more randomness.

To adjust the length of the game, you may remove some Houses at random during setup.

Players

Each player takes the material associated with one side (the Gold Saints or the Renegades). Each player follows these steps:

5. Take your Hero marker and your Player board. The Renegade player begins the game.
6. Take and shuffle your 12 Heroes to form your face-down draw pile on your Player board.
7. Take and shuffle your 6 Ability cards to form your Ability draw pile. Note: each player has their own Ability draw pile.
8. Take a Void token, an Awakening token and 4 different Sense tokens, then place your 5th Sense and Awakening tokens face "active" on their respective spaces.
9. Set your counter to "6" and place it near the House revealed.
10. Set aside the Athena, Divine Warrior card from the game.

Leave in the box all the material linked to the Bronze Saints (Hero cards and Bronze Armor, Hero markers, Hero stands, Player boards and Sense boards).

Objective

The game ends when the 12th House is acquired. The active player then ends their turn, and then each player calculates their VP in the same way as in the classic mode.

Notes:

• The Altar of Athena revealed during setup influences the game.
• The Altars of Athena No. 121 and 122 give VP at the end of the game.
• If the Altar of Athena No. 125 is revealed, the game ends as soon as a player acquires their 7th House.

The Houses

During your turn, in addition to the actions of the classic mode, you may face the revealed House.

A player may acquire the revealed House by reaching the Strength cost shown on their counter. When a player acquires a House, they keep it face up near their play area, and the next House in the draw pile is revealed.

The starting cost of the 1st House is 6 Strength for both players.

When a new House is revealed, each player sets their counter to "6" and adds "1" for each House in their possession (12 Strength maximum).

On their turn, a player may reduce the cost of the revealed House by fulfilling the condition shown on it. In that case, they reduce their counter by the value shown by the reduction symbol.

Note: this condition may be fulfilled as many times as the player wishes, but the cost of a House cannot go below 1 Strength.

At the end of their turn, the player reduces their counter by "1".

Example:

1. After acquiring the House of Gemini, a new House is revealed.
2. The Gold Saint has 1 House and sets their counter to "7". The Renegade has 3 Houses and sets their counter to "9".
3. On their turn, when the Gold Saint fulfils the condition of the House of Leo (gain 1 Energy), the player may reduce its cost by 2 Strength (counter reduced by "2").
4. At the end of their turn, the player reduces their counter by "1".

House cards are labelled with the name, the reduction and the condition. For example, the House of Aries has the condition "When you acquire an Armor" with the reduction of 3 Strength on the cost of the House of Aries. The House of Sagittarius has the condition "You may destroy a Hero in your hand" with the reduction of 5 Strength on its cost.

Specifics

Athena, Divine Warrior [blue diamond]

When your Hero marker reaches Elysion, you may place Athena, the card set aside from the game, into your hand.

Abilities

A player draws their Abilities from their own Ability draw pile. When they use an Ability, they place it under their own Ability draw pile.

Epics

If you play with the Epics, you may include all the Hades and Poseidon Epics, except for Seventh Sense, Athena's Exhaustion and Melting of the Ice.

When a player acquires a House, the Epic receives 1 Hourglass token.

Clarifications

• Permanent game effects (those without a keyword) can be activated as many times as you want. Example: if you have Shaka's Rosary in play, you gain 1 Soul each time you annihilate a Character.
• An effect targeting "a Character name" targets all the cards of that Character, unlike an effect targeting "this" or "this one", which refers only to that card and does not target other cards with the same name. Example: all Seiya played alongside Marin of the Eagle gain +1 Cosmos. The Talent effect of the Hero card Dōko of the Balance targets only this card and not the other Dōko of the Balance.
• You suffer only one Shackle effect at a time. The Shackle effect of the Character on top of your Shackle pile ends when it is placed under the Styx. The Shackle effect of the new Character on top of your Shackle pile applies only after the complete resolution of the fight. Example: when Charon is placed under the Styx, you do not gain the 3 Souls. Rock of the Golem applies its effect after Charon has been placed under the Styx.
• A face-down Underworld card is not considered a Character, and it cannot be targeted by effects targeting Characters or classes of Characters. When it is revealed, it also becomes a Character, which remains revealed until it leaves the Underworld.
• If the card revealed by the effect of your 6th Sense is not a Hero, that card is placed face down on top of your draw pile, and you turn your Awakening token to its "inactive" side. You may activate your 6th Sense even if your Awakening token is already on its "inactive" side.
• The effect of your 8th Sense lets you move your Hero marker towards Elysion as well as towards the Gate of the Underworld.
• The cost of a card can never be reduced below 1 Strength and 1 Cosmos.
• Acquiring a card means placing it, from a common or opposing zone, into a zone that is yours: your hand, your discard pile, your draw pile, your cards in play and marked, your destroyed cards, your Void, your Abilities, and your Houses and Pillars. Example: stealing a card from an opponent, or receiving the Ring of the Nibelungen, are acquisitions. Cards set aside at the start of the game already belong to you and are not acquired. Example: evolving a Hero with your Bronze Armor is not an acquisition. In the Duel mode, when a player reaches Elysion and places Athena, Divine Warrior in their hand, this is not an acquisition. Cards that join your Shackle pile are not acquired by you.

Fight Sequence

Free during your turn.

1. The condition to meet in order to be allowed to face the card. If there is no condition, or the condition is fulfilled:
2. Play cards and/or use the equipped Armor to face the card.
3. When the Strength or Cosmos cost is reached and the player decides to end the fight, the following must be resolved immediately, in this order (pending cards are in no play zone while their effect is being resolved):

• Field card: the card is pending while its Defeated effect is applied. Once it has been applied, the Flame and Sapphire effects apply, then the card is placed in your discard pile (if acquired by Strength) or in your hand (if acquired by Cosmos).
• Underworld card: the card is pending while its Annihilated effect is applied. Once it has been applied, you gain the Souls indicated, then the card is placed under your Void token.
• Card of your Shackle pile: the card is pending while you gain the Souls indicated. Once that has been done, the card is placed under the Styx and its Shackle effect ends.

Once the card has been placed, the cards played for the fight are discarded.

Pending: a card is pending when its effect is being resolved following a fight. As long as its effect is not resolved, the card is in no play zone.

End of the Game

Once the game is over, each player gathers all their cards in order to count their Victory Points (VP):

• The cards in their hand, draw pile and discard pile
• The cards in play (Armor, Relic...)
• The marked Characters
• The Characters under their Void token

Other elements of the game also affect VP:

• The Characters in their Shackle pile
• The VP tokens in their possession
• The end-of-game effects of the revealed Epics
• The Pillars acquired
• The Houses acquired (Duel mode)

Turn Summary

This is a recap of all the possible actions and steps of a turn in the classic mode. The additions of this expansion are marked "New".

1 - Main Phase

During your main phase, you may perform these actions in the order of your choice and, unless stated otherwise, you may perform the same action several times.

• Play a card from your hand. A Character must always face a card (Field, Underworld, Shackle pile or Pillar). The Arrival effect of a card can only apply at the moment it is played. You may have only one Armor equipped at a time.
• Activate an effect of one of your cards in play (Discard, Wound, Freeze or Destroy).
• Acquire a card from the field by reaching its Strength or Cosmos cost. The Defeated effect of a card applies at that moment. A card acquired through Cosmos is placed in hand instead of being discarded.
• Heal a wounded or frozen card using Heal.
• Once per turn, activate a Technique on your Player board.
• Once per turn, use the Armor of Odin (Asgard).
• Destroy an available Pillar by reaching its Strength cost (Poseidon).
• [New] Annihilate a Character in the Underworld by reaching its Strength cost. The Annihilated effect of the Character applies at that moment, then you gain the Souls indicated and place the Character under your Void token.
• [New] Place under the Styx a Character from your Shackle pile by reaching its Strength cost. You gain the Souls indicated on the Character.
• [New] Place a Character from the Underworld into the Shackle pile of another player by spending its Soul cost.
• [New] Exhaust an active Sense to activate its effect.
• [New] Use your Awakening or draw an Ability by completing a Trial.
• [New] Activate the effect of one of your available Abilities.
• [New] Activate the Talent effect of one of your cards in play.

Warning: certain effects may affect your turn: the effects of the field and of the Underworld, the Character on top of your Shackle pile, the Relics, and the revealed Epic.

2 - Upkeep Phase

This phase ends the player's turn. It consists of a succession of steps to apply in this order:

1. Discard all your cards in play (the marked cards, the equipped Armor and the Relics in play are not discarded), along with the cards in your hand that you do not wish to keep for the next turn.

2. Draw until you have 5 cards in hand.

3. Prepare the field:

   • Discard the card on the rightmost space of the field. The Exit, Flame and Sapphire effects of the removed card apply in that order.
   • Shift all the remaining cards to the right of the field.
   • Complete the field by revealing new cards from the Reserve on the empty spaces, from right to left. The Arrival effect applies at that moment.

4. [New] Prepare the Underworld in one of these 3 cases:

   • A. If at least one Underworld space is empty: shift all the remaining cards in the Underworld to the right, then complete the Underworld.*
   • B. If all the Underworld spaces are occupied and there are Gate tokens on the Gate of the Underworld: remove one Gate token. If it was the last one, shift all the cards in the Underworld to the right, then complete the Underworld.*
   • C. If all the Underworld spaces are occupied and there is a card on the Gate of the Underworld: the Character on the Gate of the Underworld is placed on the Shackle pile of the active player, and as many Gate tokens as its Grade are added to the Gate of the Underworld. The Exit effect of the card applies only at this moment, before it is placed on the Shackle pile.

   * Completing the Underworld means adding new cards from the top of the Styx to the empty spaces, from right to left (face down, unless a Hero marker has reached the space).

5. [New] Reveal new Trials on each empty Trial space.

6. [New] Recharge your inactive Senses and Awakening.