Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Card Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• How to Win
• Components
• Setup
• Players' Areas
• How to Play
  • 1. Main Deck Elimination (Optional)
  • 2. Acquisition Phase
  • 3. Combat Phase (Optional)
  • 4. Resolution
• Ending the Game
• The Evil Ex
• Drama
• The Cards
  • Adding and Eliminating Cards
  • Adding Cards to the Plotline
  • Hey! These Cards Are Double-Sided!
  • Storytelling
• Playing for the First Time Mode!
• Bonus Stages: Cooperative and Solo Play
• Cheat Code: Suggested Strategy
  • Pay Attention to Your Character's Combos!
  • Watch Out for Drama!
  • Your Best Cards Are Ahead of You
  • Flipping and Eliminating Cards
• FAQ
• Combat Example
  • Combat Declaration
  • Draw for Drama
  • Knives Draws Her Combat Hand
  • Button Mashing for Two
  • Blur of Blades
  • Aftermath
• Quick Start Guide
  • Setup
  • How to Play Your Turn
  • Ending the Game

How to Win

Your goal is to get your life together by earning Victory Points. The total Victory Points needed to win is determined by the Evil Ex selected by the players during the setup of the game. The game ends as soon as a player has enough Victory Points showing in their Player Area.

You earn Victory Points by overcoming Challenges (such as ninjas, robots, and awkward conversations), acquiring Power Ups! (a job, a place to live, and a date for Friday night), and even by defeating an Evil Ex!

Players: 1-4. Ages 13+. Time: 30-60 minutes.

Components

Double-sided cards galore!

• 146 Main Deck cards (Action Cards + Plot Cards)
• 14 Drama cards
• 68 Character Cards: 6 Character Cards with 6 Character Decks (10 cards each), and 2 Buddies
• 5 Evil Ex Cards

Card types:

• Character Cards
• Evil Ex Cards (Victory Points needed to win, Damage to defeat, Traits, Global Effect)
• Plot Cards: Challenge side (Damage to defeat, Victory Points, Combat conditions) and Power Up! side (Cost to acquire, Victory Points, Resources generated)
• Action Cards: Story side (Cost to acquire, Resources generated) and Combat side (Combat Move, Damage Value)
• Drama Cards

Example Character Card text (Kim Pine): Kim uses Work and Music. During setup, find Kim's Buddy Power Up! in her Character Deck, and give it to another player. When Kim's Buddy has Drama in their hand, Kim may benefit.

Setup

If this is your first game, make sure you check out Playing for the First Time on page 10 (see "Playing for the First Time Mode!" below).

1. Assign Characters. Randomly determine who will go first. The first player chooses their Character Card and the associated ten card deck and sets it in front of them. Cards associated with a character specific deck are noted by the character's face in the top right corner of the card. Do not use Kim Pine or Wallace Wells unless you are playing with three or more players.

2. Shuffle Cards. Shuffle all non-Character specific Action Cards (cards with Combat and Story sides) and Plot Cards (cards with Challenge and Power Up! sides) together and deal into two separate and equal piles. Because cards in the game are double sided, which side is facing up can and should be randomized in the shuffling process.

   Note: Any time you are required to shuffle cards for any decks, after you are done shuffling, flip the deck upside down to prevent players from getting a sneak peak at the deck because of the double-sided nature of cards.

3. Deal Out the Plotline and Set Drama Pile. Begin by dealing the top card from each of the Main Decks into the center of the table to form the first two cards of the Plotline. The first player then chooses and adds the top card from one of the two Main Decks to the Plotline. Before adding a card to the Plotline, the player may choose to Eliminate the top card from either Main Deck from the game.

   The next player clockwise repeats, and this continues until each player has added two cards to the Plotline. You should end up with a six card Plotline in a two player game, eight cards in a three player game, and ten cards in a four player game.

   Set the deck of Drama cards to the side.

4. Assign an Evil Ex. Players collectively choose and set one of the Evil Exes between the main decks. Make note of the Global Effect (if any) listed on the Evil Ex card, as they may make certain types of Challenges more difficult to defeat or add other special conditions to the overall game. The Evil Ex can be targeted and fought like a Challenge during a player's optional Combat Phase, but defeating and acquiring the Evil Ex may have a global effect on the rules of the current game. Most importantly, the Evil Ex establishes the total number of Victory Points required for a player to win.

At the end of setup, the first player starts with four cards and all other players start with five cards.

Players' Areas

Each player has their individual play area that includes their Character Card, their Draw Pile, their Power Ups!, and their Discard Pile.

Your Character Card is an oversized card set in front of you that lists the Combo Moves you can perform during the Combat Phase. To the left of the Character Card is your Draw Pile. At the start of the game, the Draw Pile will be limited to cards from the character deck associated with your character as denoted by their face on the top right of the card. The Discard Pile goes below the Character Card, and when you acquire Power Ups!, they stay in play to the right of the Character Card.

Make sure you keep your Draw Pile and Discard Pile clearly separated with the Draw Pile oriented vertically, and the Discard Pile oriented sideways. Since all cards in this game are double-sided, it can be easy to confuse the two piles.

Note: As you play through the game, when you run out of cards in your Draw Pile, shuffle your Discard Pile to re-establish your Draw Pile.

How to Play

The active player goes through the following stages in this order:

1. Main Deck Elimination (Optional)

You may eliminate the top card of either OR both Main Decks next to the Evil Ex card. Cards that are Eliminated are removed from the game and set aside. This is an opportunity to remove cards that aren't useful to your character and are about to show up in the Plotline that may be useful for your opponent(s). Early in the game, you may want to Eliminate cards that you can't afford or Challenges that are too powerful to defeat. Later in the game, you will want to Eliminate weak cards that dilute the strength and efficiency of your Draw Pile. You may also want to remove cards that your Character can't acquire because they aren't flush with certain Resources. For example, Stephen Stills doesn't have Romance in his deck, so it's in his best interest to Eliminate cards with a Romance cost that show up atop the Main Decks. You may NOT look at the reverse side of a card that is on top of the Main Decks, so you can only decide based on what is visible.

2. Acquisition Phase

In this phase, use the Story side of Action Cards in your hand to generate Resources to acquire new cards from the Plotline for your deck.

While you may acquire cards based on what you see face-up on the Plotline, each Action and Plot Card in the Plotline has a hint in the bottom left of what Resource or Combat is on the flip side of the card.

Resources are Romance, Music, Work, and Any Resource.

Many cards can generate more than one type of resource, like the Love Song card. However, when you play an Action Card using the resources on the Story side, you can only generate one chosen type of resource the card provides. For example, Love Song can generate 1 Romance or 1 Music, but NOT both, and you must decide which resource will be used when you play it.

Card anatomy (Story side): the resources the card can generate when played (choose one); the cost to acquire the card; the resources generated by the other side of the card; the special ability triggered when the card is played.

Some cards have the Any Resource symbol, which means that card can be acquired using any of the three types of Resources (Music, Work, or Romance), but the resources spent to acquire that card must be all of the same suit. So if a card costs 3 of Any Resource, you may acquire it using 3 Romance or 3 Work or 3 Music but not a mixture of 2 Romance and 1 Work, or 1 of each.

As you acquire cards during this phase, Resources are used up and spent as you buy cards. If you have 5 Music generated, you can buy a single card with a cost of 5 Music, or a card with a cost of 2 Music and another card with a cost of 3 Music, and so on. Any Resources not spent are lost at the end of this Phase.

When a Power Up! is acquired, it is placed in front of you in the Player Area, and its ability is active as long as it is in play.

When you acquire an Action Card, it is placed in your Discard Pile, where it will eventually cycle into your hand and into play through the Draw Pile as the game continues.

If you acquire an Action Card, you may immediately Eliminate that card and remove it from the game instead of adding it to your deck via the Discard Pile. In this case, any "On Acquisition" effects on the card that may exist are not triggered. This is a good way to deny your opponent a card from the Plotline that would be useful for their Character, even if you do not want it for yourself.

Many Action Cards have special abilities that are triggered when the card is played, such as "Eliminate one card" or "Flip one card in the Plotline." When you play a card with a triggered ability, trigger its ability in addition to generating resources that may be used for acquiring other cards. You do not have to choose between either generating resources or triggering an ability - both will occur.

Once you have acquired all the cards you wish to acquire, discard any remaining cards in your hand to the Discard Pile to end this phase.

3. Combat Phase (Optional)

During this optional Combat Phase, you draw a new hand, and using the Combat side of your Action Cards you can create special Combos unique to your Character, and Button Mash your way to victory! Defeating a Challenge or Evil Ex will net you a Reward that will strengthen your deck, earn you Victory Points, or even instantly win you the game, but make sure your deck is ready for battle because Failure will definitely set you back if you're unprepared!

Challenge card anatomy: Challenge traits (e.g. Musical), Victory Points, Damage to Defeat, Combat Conditions (FIGHT line, REWARD, FAILURE), and the Damage Value of the flip side.

1. Declare your intentions. Entering the Combat Phase, you declare and target any one Challenge in the Plotline or you can target the Evil Ex.

2. Draw a new hand. Draw five Action Cards from your Draw Pile and flip them so that you're looking at the Combat side. If you didn't acquire any cards during the Acquisition Phase, draw an additional card.

3. Determine Damage Value. Whether you are targeting a Challenge or an Evil Ex, your goal is to generate damage equal to or greater than the Damage Value of your target. This process is described in the next step, but first you must account for all possible modifiers to the Damage Value.

   Begin by looking at the FIGHT conditions on the Challenge and follow these instructions. Typically this includes a VS Draw and Drama Value. The opponent to your left draws the number of cards indicated by the VS Draw from the top of their Draw Pile and reveals them. Each Drama card revealed in this way increases the Damage Value of the Challenge as listed in the Fight condition line. So if the FIGHT line says "VS Draw 2, Drama +1" the player to your left reveals the top two cards of their Draw Pile, and each Drama card revealed in this way increases the Damage Value of the target by one. Some Challenges have No VS Draw, meaning their Damage Value never changes; others require you to draw from your Draw Pile. Once the VS Draw has been resolved, the player who revealed these cards may switch one card from their hand for one of the cards revealed in the VS Draw (This prevents the player on the left from losing one of their best cards in the VS Draw); after this is done, they discard the VS Draw cards to their Discard Pile.

   Some Challenges have Traits. The Evil Ex card (see Page 8) may have a Global Effect that increases the Damage Value of Challenges with certain Traits. For example, if the Katayanagi Twins are the Evil Ex chosen for the current game, they give a +1 TO ROBOTS. If a player ends up targeting the Giant Robot Challenge (which has the Robot trait), its base Damage Value of 9 is increased by one; it now requires a total Damage of 10 to defeat.

   Power Ups! you've accumulated in your Player Area may also add bonuses and/or contribute to your Damage total alongside Moves for Combos and Button Mashing.

4. Resolution

Once you have completed the Combat Phase (or skipped it), discard any remaining cards and draw five new cards from your Draw Pile. This will be your hand for your next turn.

Reminder: When you run out of cards in your Draw Pile, immediately shuffle cards from your Discard Pile to replenish.

• If you skipped the Combat Phase, draw an additional card. By skipping Combat, you will have a six card hand for your next turn, instead of five.
• If you completed the Combat Phase against a Challenge Card, resolve the REWARD or FAILURE effects. Often, the REWARD for defeating a Challenge Card is to Flip and Keep the card, giving you the Power Up! on the other side. Some Challenge Cards have a REWARD that provides Victory Points; keep the Challenge Card with your Power Ups. If a Challenge Card allows you to draw or forces you to discard cards, do that now as it will affect your hand size for the next turn. If a card forces you to add a Drama card, add a generic Drama card to your discard pile.

That's it! This ends your turn, and the player to your left clockwise takes their turn.

Ending the Game

The game ends the moment someone reaches the Victory Point goal as indicated on the Evil Ex Card. All Evil Exes score a ton of Victory Points when defeated. Most Power Ups! are worth Victory Points. Note that some Action Cards (typically Romance cards) may also provide Victory Points, but these last for the duration of the phase in which they are played, and if the player doesn't reach the threshold of total Victory Points necessary to win, the cards are discarded and the points go away until these cards are played again.

Whoever wins, look at your Power Ups! and use them to tell the story of your precious little life!

The Evil Ex

The game includes ten Evil Cards for players as a group to select from during Setup and place next to the Plotline.

Each Evil Ex Card has important information on how to win the game:

• In the top right corner, the Damage total shows the amount of damage required to defeat the Ex.
• In the bottom left corner of the artwork, you will see how many earned Victory Points defeating the Evil Ex in Combat is worth. Vanquishing most Evil Exes won't immediately mean you've won the game, but doing so generally gets you a long way towards the ultimate goal of earning enough Victory Points to win.
• In the bottom left below the earned Victory Points icon are the total Victory Points Needed to win the overall game.
• Next to the total Victory Points needed to win are Traits associated with the Evil Ex.
• The bottom section of the card has Global Effects that may alter overall game play. For example, Gideon Graves does not net you any earned Victory Points in Combat, because his Global Effect means that your Reward for defeating him is winning the game. Failure to defeat him during a Combat Phase however, means you lose and must drop out of the current game.

Fighting an Evil Ex is otherwise just like combating a Challenge during their Combat Phase. Unless specifically listed on the card (such as the Gideon Graves example), there are typically no Failure consequences for losing a Combat against an Evil Ex and no Draw/Drama effects; their toughness is predictable.

When a player defeats an Evil Ex, they claim it and gain the listed Victory Points, and keep the Evil Ex face-up in their Player Area with their Power Ups!, as the Global Effects and Victory Point total for the game remain in effect.

Example, Gideon Graves (Malevolent Mastermind): Damage total 13; Victory Points earned defeating Evil Ex: *; Victory Points needed to win: 20; Traits: Subspace, Romance; Global Effects: +1 to Subspace. REWARD Win the game. FAILURE Lose the game.

*Gideon awards no Victory Points. A player immediately wins OR loses the game upon completion of Combat due to Global Effects.

Drama

Every character deck starts with three Drama cards, representing the complications and baggage in their lives. On their own, Drama cards are useless, taking up space in your hand that could otherwise be occupied by useful cards. As such, you may want to Eliminate your Drama so your deck becomes more efficient and reliable. However, Drama can also be used to make life difficult for the people around you. When an opponent to your right targets a Challenge from the Plotline on their turn, they will have you draw cards from your Draw Pile, and every Drama card revealed in this way increases the Damage Value total of the Challenge. So eliminating Drama makes your life easier, but it can also make Challenges for your opponents easier. Many cards may add Drama to your discard pile upon Acquisition, and Challenges may add Drama to your deck if you are defeated in Combat, and those Drama cards will come back to haunt you as they are shuffled back into your Draw Pile. A few Action Cards actually add Drama to your deck every time they are played, so make sure it's worth it before you play these cards!

Many cards have Special Effects that come into play when you Match them to Drama Cards. To Match Drama, you must place a Drama card from your hand under the card in question; you may only Match each particular Drama card to one Action Card during a turn.

Scott Pilgrim and Knives Chau thrive on Drama, and have cards in their starting deck that have Match Drama effects, while Stephen Stills and Ramona Flowers have cards that are stronger when no Drama cards are in hand. When playing as Stephen or Ramona, you're strongest when you are able to completely eliminate Drama from your deck, while Knives and Scott thrive with a certain amount of Drama in their decks. However, too much drama will cripple most decks, especially early in the game, so even if you're playing as Scott or Knives, you will want to strike an effective balance in your deck and hand between gaining Drama and eliminating it.

The Cards

Adding and Eliminating Cards

When you add or Acquire a card from the Plotline or from an effect, whether it's an Action Card or Drama Card, it is placed into your Discard Pile.

When you have the opportunity to Eliminate a card, you may choose any card in your hand, your Discard Pile, or the Plotline. You may NOT look through your Draw Pile to Eliminate a card you haven't drawn yet. Some cards only allow you to Eliminate cards from the Plotline.

Adding Cards to the Plotline

Any time a card is removed from the Plotline during your turn, whether it is Acquired or Eliminated, immediately replace it with the top card chosen from either of the Main Decks next to the Evil Ex Card. As the active player, you also decide which side of the chosen card to place face up. The ability to choose what card and which side of that card enters the Plotline has huge strategic ramifications.

Hey! These Cards Are Double-Sided!

That's right! You aren't allowed to look at the backs of cards in the Plotline once they are placed, but the lower left corner of the card tells you the Resource generated on the opposite side of Action Cards or the Damage value of the Challenge on the opposite side for Power Ups!.

Because cards are double-sided, shuffling can be awkward since nothing is completely hidden, so always flip your deck every time you finish shuffling. When you have cards in your hand, you may of course look through all your cards on both sides so you can see the side you need for the current phase, Story or Combat.

Because the cards are double-sided, you will see the top card on both of the Main Decks, and what is on top of your opponents' Draw Piles. Thus, when considering a Combat Phase, you will KNOW if the player to your left has a Drama card on top of their deck. You may also check to see how much Drama an opponent has in their hand.

Storytelling

In Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Card Game, you are building a story. Your chosen character will be overcoming Challenges and Acquiring the building blocks of a Precious Little Life. It will add humor and variety to your enjoyment of this game if at the end of the game or every now and then you stop to consider your Character's current story. For example, if you are playing as Ramona Flowers and have acquired the Power Ups! for Knives Chau, Barista, Popular Blog, and Buzz, you might say to everyone at the table "when I came to town, I didn't know anybody until I met Knives at the Second Cup, and she helped me get a job slinging lattes. It was terrible, but I started a blog called 'Cuppa Dirt' about all the bizarro customers I served until it blew up and now I'm a minor celebrity in Toronto - Comeau is a fan."

Playing for the First Time Mode!

As a deck building game, Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Card Game has lots of moving parts, and if you've never played before, the number of choices can be intimidating. You may Eliminate cards at the start of your turn, but which cards should you Eliminate? Which side of a card should you place into the Plotline? How bad is Drama? To help ease you into the game, a number of cards in the Main Deck have a FIRST CHAPTER icon in the bottom right corner. This tutorial mode for your first play through is slightly streamlined with broadly useful, low-value cards to help familiarize players with how to play the game without worrying too much about maximizing strategy with the additional considerations involved with the Elimination phase.

For your first play through:

• Choose Matthew Patel as your Evil Ex. The two Demon Hipster Chicks required for his Global Effect ("During Setup, stack two Demon Hipster Chicks onto this card. They must be defeated before Matthew can be attacked.") are marked with the First Chapter icon and are included in the First Chapter deck. Find them and place them on Matthew Patel.
• Create the Plotline using the First Chapter Deck. Deal six cards for a two player game, eight cards for a three player game, or ten cards for a four player game. Split the remaining cards into two equal piles to create the Main Decks on both sides of the Evil Ex Card.
• Ignore the Elimination phase for this first play through.
• When a card leaves the Plotline, the active player can replace it with the top card from either pile. Place the chosen card directly into the Plotline with the face-up side showing; don't worry about looking at the other side of the card. If either pile runs out of cards, you may add a stack of cards from the other Main Deck.

Once you know how to play, mix the First Chapter cards together with the rest of the Main Deck cards. If you need a refresher or are introducing the game to a friend, you can always pull them out for a casual game!

Bonus Stages: Cooperative and Solo Play

After you've learned the base game, perhaps you'd like to team up with your friends instead of racing against each other to see who can get their life together first.

In the cooperative variant, you play as a team working together as a group. This follows the standard rules of play, with the following exceptions:

• If you're playing with two or more players, double the Victory Point requirement shown on the Evil Ex... and double the Victory Points received for defeating the Evil Ex. If Matthew Patel is your Evil Ex of choice, you need twenty Victory Points [instead of ten] to win the game, and if you defeat him in Combat, he is worth six [instead of three] Victory Points for your team.
• Victory Points are a shared pool amongst all players, but Power Ups! remain in each individual's Player Areas, and only affect that player, not the collective team.
• EXCEPT for Housing Power Ups. Your team may only have one single Housing Power Up! amongst you, and must be kept in a central location so every player may receive its benefits as a team. Any player may replace it with a better Housing Power Up! on their turn, and you may use the Elimination phase to get rid of inferior housing!

The goal in the cooperative mode is to defeat the Evil Ex within a certain number of turns as shown on the table below. The first column refers to the number of players, and the top row refers to Evil Exes with corresponding Victory Points earned in Combat vs. total Victory Points needed to win the game. The calculated numbers are how many turns each player gets to take. If you don't reach the Victory Point goal or win condition within that number of turns, you all lose!

In solo variant, it's you versus the world! Try to defeat the Evil Ex and their base Damage on your own in the number of turns corresponding to the table below.

Number of Players	10/20 VP	12/24 VP	15/30 VP	18/36 VP	20/40 VP
1	4	4	5	6	7
2	4	4	5	6	7
3	3	4	5	5	6
4	3	3	4	4	5

Cheat Code: Suggested Strategy

Pay Attention to Your Character's Combos!

When acquiring Action Cards from the Plotline, keep an eye on how the combat side may match needed moves on your Character Card's Combos. Remember: if the Story Side of Action Cards are face-up in the Plotline, by looking at the bottom left corner, you can see what move is on the opposite Combat Side of the card.

Eliminate the weaker cards from your starting deck, so eventually each time you draw cards, your hands become increasingly powerful and effective. Eliminate combat moves that aren't pertinent to your Combos. As Stephen Stills or Ramona Flowers, you'll want to Eliminate cards that Match Drama once you've Eliminated your Drama. Don't be too attached to your starting deck!

• Knives Chau wants to acquire cards that provide left arrows, and to avoid cards with right arrows. She wants to Eliminate the cards in her starting deck that provide right arrows, as they will clutter up her attempts to pull off Combos during any Combat Phases. Wallace Wells however, will want to acquire right arrows and Eliminate left arrow cards.
• Kim Pine needs A buttons and down arrows, and can't use up arrows or B buttons. Stephen Stills wants up arrows and B buttons and to avoid down arrows and A buttons. Stephen would do well to acquire Power Ups! with the Friend trait to improve the Teamwork Combat card in his starting deck.
• Scott Pilgrim and Ramona Flowers are both very flexible and have a possible combo for every combat move. However, you may want to choose a particular Combo and focus on acquiring cards that narrowly support that combo during Combat, rather than having a deck that's so diverse that it is never able to actually draw into any combos.

Watch Out for Drama!

Be careful about collecting too much Drama early in the game! Even Knives Chau and Scott Pilgrim don't want to have their deck be more than 1/3rd Drama. Be careful about acquiring cards from the Plotline that automatically add Drama to your deck upon acquisition, or targeting Challenges for the Combat Phase that give you Drama if you fail to defeat them.

You DO NOT have to play every card in your hand. Scott doesn't have to play Hot Mess, and Knives doesn't need to have a Teenage Meltdown if it's not worth the extra Drama.

Your Best Cards Are Ahead of You

Your starting deck isn't terrible, but it's not great. Yet. The goal of the game is to build a better deck as you build a better life. In addition to eliminating Drama, over time you will probably want to [the sentence ends here in the printed rulebook].

Flipping and Eliminating Cards

Flipping cards in the Plotline using an ability on an Action Card can be a powerful tool for denying cards to your enemies or creating opportunities for yourself. If you can't acquire a Power Up! because you don't have the necessary Resource(s), you might be able to flip it and defeat the Challenge on the other side in Combat. If the Plotline is full of cards that aren't useful, remember that when you acquire a card, you have the option to immediately Eliminate it and remove it from the game. So as Knives Chau, you may purchase a Workin' card that would generate a right arrow (on the Combat Side of this card), but then immediately Eliminate it, since it would not help with any of Knives' Combos.

FAQ

This "Friend" Power Up! has a Music symbol on it. What? And if I'm playing as Stephen Stills, can I acquire... Stephen Stills... as a Friend? What!? When a Power Up! provides a Resource, such as your new friend Stephen Stills generating 1 Music, this is added to your pool of resources at the start of your turn. It may only be used once each turn. And yes, you may acquire yourself as a friend / Power Up!, and you may also defeat your own character as a Challenge Card. We all go through some stuff.

If I Eliminate my Drama, aren't I helping the person to my right? While eliminating Drama means your opponents can't be antagonized by your deck during their Combat Phases, remember that you have the option to swap out a card from your hand for one of the cards drawn during a FIGHT condition during a Combat Phase targeting a Challenge. This won't make a fight more difficult for your opponent, but it lets you trade out a card so you'll have a chance at a different card for your next turn.

What happens when a Challenge says "FIGHT: VS Draw 3, Drama +1" and the player to my right doesn't have that many cards in their Draw Pile? They draw what they can and then shuffle their Discard Pile. If they still don't have enough cards because they've Eliminated a lot of cards from their deck or drawn a large hand due to rewards, they draw as many cards as they can and you're off the hook for the rest.

Combat Example

Combat Declaration

Knives Chau finishes her Acquisitions Phase and discards her hand. She studies the Challenge cards in the Plotline. If there were no Challenges, or none she thought she could defeat, she may skip her Combat Phase and draw an extra card along with her new hand at the end of her turn. However, she declares she is going to target Despair. The Challenge has a base Damage of 6.

Despair (Challenge, 6): FIGHT VS Draw 2, Drama +1. REWARD Flip and keep. FAILURE Discard 1 card to your Discard Pile. (Flip side: Joy, a Power Up!: On Acquisition: You may flip or eliminate 1 card in the Plotline.)

Draw for Drama

The FIGHT instructions on Despair are: "VS Draw 2, Drama +2." The player to the left is Kim Pine! Kim draws the top two cards from her Draw Pile and reveals a Drama card and Headshot. Because one of the two cards from the VS Draw is a one Drama, the Challenge targeted by Knives (which had a base value of 6) now has an increased Damage value of 8, or +2 because of Kim's Drama card. Before Knives begins playing her Combat, Kim has the option of exchanging one of the cards in her hand for either of the two cards she pulled in the VS Draw.

Once the Fight condition is resolved, Kim places the two cards from the VS Draw in her Discard Pile.

Knives Draws Her Combat Hand

Knives draws five cards (if she didn't acquire any cards during the Acquisition Phase, she would get to draw one extra card for a total of six). Knives now needs to figure out how to generate eight points of Damage out of this hand.

Her Combat cards: Business Time (On Victory: Eliminate 1 card), Chau Down, Love Hurts (Draw 1 Card. On Victory: Add 1 Drama to your Discard Pile), Surprise! (Match Drama: Deal an additional 1 damage).

Button Mashing for Two

Knives can't generate a Combo with the right arrow or A button moves, so she Button Mashes - playing as many cards as she wants and inflicting one point of damage per card played.

After deciding on the sequence she wants to play her Combat cards, Knives lays Chau Down for one damage, then Love Hurts, which adds a second damage, but more importantly, Love Hurts triggers the effect "Draw One Card". She then draws Harsh from her Draw Pile, which generates a left arrow.

Blur of Blades

Knives now has three cards in her hand with the left arrow move. She plays all three to trigger her Blur of Blades Combo. This inflicts five points of Damage, which, adding the two points from her Button Mash, totals seven out of the eight she needs for victory. However, her Surprise! card has an effect: "Match Drama: Deal an additional 1 damage." Knives plays the Drama card from her hand onto Surprise!, giving her the eighth point of damage she needs. She also could have matched her Drama to Harsh, which has the effect of "Match Drama: Draw 1 card" which would have also let her gain her eighth Damage point by playing whatever card she drew as a single Button Mash.

Knives Chau's Combos: Double Daggers, Yoga Inferno, Blur of Blades (5 damage), Teenage Dream, All The Knives.

Aftermath

If Knives still had any cards in her hand, she would now discard them to her Discard Pile. She draws five new cards from her Draw Pile and now resolves her combat effects. She has two On Victory effects from the cards she played. Love Hurts makes her add one Drama to her discard pile, but Business Time lets her Eliminate one card, and she chooses to Eliminate this new Drama. The Reward for defeating the Despair Challenge is "Flip and Keep," so she flips the card and acquires the Power Up! Joy.

Quick Start Guide

Setup

1. Assign characters and starting decks. Players choose their Character and associated starting decks. Each player has their individual play area that will include their Character Card, their Draw Pile, their Power Ups!, and their Discard Pile.
2. Shuffle cards. Shuffle Action Cards and Plot Cards and deal into two Main Decks.
3. Lay out Plotline. Take turns dealing top card from either of the Main Decks to form the Plotline. Before adding a card to the Plotline, player may choose to remove the top card from either Main Deck from the game. Repeat until you have a six card Plotline in a two player game, eight cards in a three player game, and ten cards in a four player game. Set the Drama cards in a deck to the side.
4. Assign an Evil Ex. Select one of the Evil Ex cards and place between the main decks. Make note of any Global Effects and how many Victory Points are required to win the game.
5. Draw cards. First player draws up to four cards, all other players draw up to five.

As you play through the game, when you run out of cards in your Draw Pile, shuffle your Discard Pile to re-establish the Draw Pile.

How to Play Your Turn

1. Main Deck Elimination. (Optional) You may eliminate the top card of either OR both Main Decks next to the Evil Ex card.
2. Acquisition Phase. Play the Story side of Action Cards in your hand one at a time to generate resources and trigger any abilities. Spend resources to acquire new cards from the Plotline for your deck. Trigger any "On Acquisition" effects. When a Power Up! is acquired, its ability is active as long as it is in play. When acquiring an Action Card, it is placed in your Discard Pile. You may also instead Eliminate an acquired card instead of adding it to your Discard Pile. When done, discard any remaining cards in your hand to the Discard Pile to end this phase.
3. Combat Phase. (Optional) Draw a new hand of 5 cards, or 6 cards if no cards were acquired in the Acquisition Phase. Target a Challenge or the Evil Ex. Check Fight conditions (if any) and check any VS Draw with player to the left (if any). Button Mash and/or build Combos by playing cards one at a time with the Combat side of your Action Cards to try and generate Damage against targeted card. Check any pertinent Power Ups!, global effects or traits. Discard your hand.
4. Resolution. Resolve any Reward or Failure effects on Challenge or Evil Ex. Resolve any On Victory effects from your Combat cards. Draw a new hand of five cards. If you skipped the Combat Phase, draw an additional card. End the turn, pass to player to your left, clockwise.

Ending the Game

The game ends the moment someone reaches the Victory Point goal as indicated on the Evil Ex Card.