Space Invaders Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Game Setup
• How to Play
  • 1. Launch Attack
  • 2. Resolve Attack
  • 3. The Invaders Advance
  • 4. Clean Up
• Last Round Before the Final Assault
• Final Assault
• Winning and Losing
• Scoring
• Card Icons
• Player Card Powers
• FAQ
• Variants

Components

• 60 Invader Cards
• 28 Blast Tokens (7 each in 4 different player colors)
• 12 Player Cards (4 each of level 1, 2, and 3)
• 1 Game Board (2 sides)
• 1 UFO (4 pieces and 3 clips)
• 1 3D Arcade Shooter
• 1 Blast Wave Card (Side 1: Long Blast Wave; Side 2: Short Blast Wave)
• 1 Turn Token
• 1 Score Board
• 1 Armory Board
• 2 Health Trackers (Planet Health Tracker (white) and UFO Health Tracker (red))
• 1 Rulebook

Game Setup

1. Setup the Game Board:

   • If playing a 2-player game, flip the board to the red 2-player side as noted in the lower right corner of the Game Board.
   • If playing a 3-4 player game, flip the board to the black 3-4 player side.
   • Place the board approximately 4 inches from the edge of the table, so there is space to place the Shooter between the board and the edge of the table.
   • If playing a 1-player game, set up the game for either a 2, 3, or 4-player game, and then play all the Player cards on your own, following the standard rules of play.

   There are three main sections shown on the board:

   • a. Space: open space with 20 spaces to hold Invader cards.
   • b. The Planet: lower portion of the board that shows the planet surface. This section extends up to the top of the dotted section, as shown in the illustration.
   • c. UFO and Planet Health Tracker: each numbered from 0 to 20.

2. Take the Player Cards and shuffle the Level 1s, 2s, and 3s into separate decks. For each player, deal 1 card from each deck so each player has 1 card for each level. Each player places their 3 Player Cards in front of them.

3. Sort the 28 Blast Tokens by their 4 colors — red, orange, green and blue. Each player chooses a color and takes the 7 Blast Tokens for that color. Each player then places their 3 Level 1 Tokens on their Level 1 Player Card, both Level 2 Tokens on their Level 2 Player Cards, and both Level 3 Tokens on their Level 3 Player Card.

4. Each player takes 2 of their Level 1 Blast Tokens from the Player Card and places them above their Player cards. This area is where players will keep their "Active Tokens" until they are ready to attack on their turn. Blast Tokens on Player Cards will come into play later in the game.

   Note: In a 2-player game, each player places all 3 of their Level 1 Blast Tokens above their Player Cards.

5. Shuffle the Invader Cards together and deal cards into a deck based on the number of players and your chosen difficulty level, based on the chart below. The extra cards can be placed back in the box and will not be used in this game.

   # of Players	Training	Standard	Expert	Elite
   2	25	28	33	37
   3	30	34	40	45
   4	40	45	50	60

   From this Invader deck, deal 10 cards face up onto the spaces in the top 2 rows so they are filled. Place the remaining deck of Invader Cards next to the gameboard.

How to Play

The game is played in rounds. A round consists of 4 phases:

1. Launch Attack
2. Resolve Attack
3. The Invaders Advance
4. Clean Up

1. Launch Attack

Each round, players take turns launching each of their active Blast Tokens, trying to destroy Invaders and attack the UFO.

Starting with the player with the Turn Token, each player will launch their active Blast Tokens. "Active Blast Tokens" are the Tokens that are placed above each player's Player Cards.

After launching all their active Blast Tokens, that player will immediately resolve their attacks before another player launches their attack.

To launch a Blast Token, you must follow these rules:

• Launch your active Blast Tokens in any order that you choose.
• Place a Token on the button of the Shooter and press the white button to launch it.
• The 3D Arcade Shooter must be positioned below the bottom edge of the board. It may be moved for the best angle to fire but cannot cross the striped line on the bottom of the board.
• Blast tokens cannot be re-launched unless it has a special ability allowing you to do so.*
• After launching a Token, leave it where it lands.
• If any Invader Cards are disrupted and move out of place, leave them where they are. Do not straighten them out or put them back in their place.

*Exception: Any Token that lands completely in the planet area (below the top line of the dotted section) can be re-launched. After 3 consecutive launches that land in the planet area, the Token may no longer be launched this turn, and is placed off to the side.

Once a player has launched all their active Tokens, they will immediately resolve their attacks.

2. Resolve Attack

After launching all their active Tokens players check to see how successful their attack was. They will resolve their attack as follows:

1. If a Token lands on an Invader Card it is a successful hit! Place the Token off to the side. Discard the Invader Card from the game by placing it on the corresponding Score board space for that type of Invader. If a Token lands on more than one card, then all of those cards are destroyed.

   Blast Tokens must land ON Invader cards, and not just touch the edge of the card. If the edge of the Token is just barely on the Invader Card then it is still destroyed, as long as the Token is actually on the Invader Card.

2. If a Token lands inside the UFO it is a successful hit! Remove the token and place it off to the side. Move the UFO health Tracker down 1 space on the UFO health track to show that the UFO has taken 1 damage.

3. If a Token did not successfully attack any Invaders or land in the UFO, then remove it and place it off to the side. (A successful attack would be either landing on an Invader Card, or being within range with the Blast card, if the Blast Token had one of those abilities.)

4. If a Token lands on an Invader that is shielded or requires 2 hits (see the Card Icons section), then move the Blast Token on to the center of that Invader Card and leave it there until either the shield has been destroyed, or another player's Blast Token has attacked. (See the Card Icons section for a more detailed example.)

5. If, after the last player has completed their turn, there are Blast Tokens remaining on an Invader that is shielded or requires 2 hits to destroy it, then those Tokens are removed and placed off to the side. Those blasts do not carry over to the next round.

All Tokens moved "off to the side" are placed in a stack in the armory slot with the matching color until the end of the round. They should not be placed back above the Player cards at this time, so that it is clear which players have taken their turn in this rounds and which ones have not.

Once a player has finished resolving their attacks, the next player to the left takes their turn and launches their attack.

Once the last player in turn order has resolved their attacks, move to the Invaders Advance phase.

3. The Invaders Advance

If any cards were knocked out of alignment during the Launch Attack phase, straighten them out now.

Starting with the rightmost column and moving from the Invaders closest to the planet towards to the UFO, it's time for the advance! Move the Invader the number of spaces closer to the planet indicated by the icon in the bottom left corner of each Invader Card:

• 1: Move forward 1 space down.
• 2: Move forward 2 spaces, pushing any Invaders in front of it down.
• 3: Move forward until it is blocked by another Invader. If there is nothing in front of it, move it all the way down past the last space, and into the planet area.

Note: When an Invader moves into the planet area, it does not block other Invaders from moving into the planet area. There are no actual spaces in the planet area.

After moving the first column, proceed to the next column to the left and so on until all five columns of invaders have been moved.

After moving all the invaders, if any of them moved past the last space in a column and into the planet area, these invaders have damaged your planet. Proceed as follows:

1. Add up the total damage from invaders that have attacked the planet. This is the number shown in the red area at the bottom center of the card. (Example: an Invader with a 1 and an Invader with a 2 that both reached the planet area deal 1 + 2 = 3 damage.)
2. Move your Planet Health (white) Tracker down this number of spaces on its health track.
3. Take these Invader cards and shuffle them back into the deck of Invader cards. These invaders will attack you again in a later round.

4. Clean Up

Prepare for the next round by doing the following:

1. Each player now moves all their active Blast Tokens back to the space above their Player Cards.

2. If, during the Invaders March Phase, the Planet Health Tracker reached one or more spaces with an explosion icon, this signals that reinforcements are sent in, and each player takes the number of new Blast Tokens equal to the number of those spaces reached.

   Players must always choose from their lowest available level of Tokens. If players run out Tokens on their current level, they may move up to the next level Tokens.

   For example: The Invaders Advance phase resulted in your planet losing 5 health. The health Tracker moved from 20 down to 15. Since the number 16 has an explosion icon, all players receive 1 new Token to add to their active Blast Tokens. They move the Token from their lowest level Player Card to the area above their Player cards with the rest of their active Tokens.

3. Using the Invader deck, refill the top 2 rows with Invader Cards — place one Invader Card in each empty space. When filling rows, always start in the top row closest to the UFO and move down, filling from right to left (starting closest to the health tracks).

   Pass the Turn Token to the next player on the left. They will be the starting player for the next round.

4. Starting with the new start player, a new round begins with their Launch Attack phase.

Last Round Before the Final Assault

If there are 6 or fewer Invaders remaining after refilling spaces, then the next round is the last round before the Final Assault.

This is the last round for Invaders, so they will try to cause more damage when they advance. All Invaders are assumed to have a 2 for movement and will crash into the planet to double their damage in a last-ditch effort to stop you.

Since these Invaders crash into the planet, they are considered destroyed, and do not get shuffled to form a new deck. If your planet has not been destroyed (by reaching 0 health), move to the Final Assault.

Note: During the last round, no reinforcements are sent in when your planet takes damage.

For example: The round begins with only 4 remaining Invaders on the Game Board, so this will be the last round before the Final Assault on the UFO. At the end of the last player's turn in this round, there are still 2 remaining Invaders. Since they are both considered to have a 2 for movement in this round, they both attack. Their attack values are a 1 and a 2, so they will do 6 damage to your city (1 + 2 = 3 damage x 2 = 6 total damage).

Even though the Health Tracker moved past a number with an explosion icon, no reinforcements are sent in, and no new Blast Tokens are taken by the players. Since the planet still has remaining health, the players move on to the Final Assault.

As soon as the last Invader has been destroyed (and there are no more cards in the deck), the current round ends immediately. This can happen even if you started the round with more than 6 Invaders in play.

If the UFO has not yet been destroyed, move to the Final Assault. If the UFO was already destroyed, then congratulations — you win the game!

Final Assault

All the Invaders have been destroyed and now you are making your final assault on the UFO. You must defeat the Space Invaders in this final round … or the planet will be destroyed.

• Players take all their active Blast Tokens, and in turn order launch them one at a time at the UFO.
• No Player Card powers may be used during the Final Assault.
• Each time a Token lands inside the UFO, move the UFO Health Tracker down one space. As soon as the Health Tracker reaches 0, you win!
• If players launch all of their Tokens and the UFO still has health remaining, then the UFO attacks, doing 20 damage to your planet… game over.
• Destroying the UFO only results in an immediate victory during the Final Assault, since all of the Invaders have already been destroyed.
• If the UFO is destroyed during a normal round of play, players still need to destroy all of the Invaders.

Winning and Losing

If players work together and destroy all the Space Invaders and the UFO, you have saved the planet and you ALL win!

However, if the Planet Health Tracker reaches 0 during the game, or the players fail to destroy the UFO by the end of the Final Assault, you lose. The Space Invaders have successfully blown the planet to bits.

Scoring

While you play, keep track of your High Scores.

During setup, place the Score Board on the table off to the side.

During the game, any time an Invader Card is destroyed, place it on the corresponding space on the Score Board.

At the end of the game, tally your score and enter it on the High Scores page of the rulebook along with your initials. Your score is counted as follows:

• +100 points if you won the game.
• +20 points for each hit on the UFO. (Once the UFO is destroyed, additional hits do not count.)
• +10 points for each destroyed Invader that was a shield generator, or one that took two hits to destroy.
• +10 points for each health remaining on your Planet Health track. (Example: 6 remaining health would be 60 points.)
• +50 points if you were playing on the Expert level.
• +100 points if you were playing on Elite.

Card Icons

An Invader with the shield icon is shielding all adjacent cards (above, below, and to the left and right — not diagonally). An Invader cannot be destroyed if an adjacent card has a Shield icon.

Shields cannot shield other shield cards. In other words, two shield cards adjacent to each other have no effect on each other.

Example: Kallen launches his Token and lands on an Invader that is adjacent to a shield. He leaves his Token on the Invader (moving it to the center of the card). On Carter's turn, he launches a Token and lands on the shield generating Invader. At the end of his turn, when he is resolving his attacks, he discards the Invader with the shield and also the Invader that Kallen had hit.

If Carter had not destroyed the shield generating Invader (and no other player had either), then at the end of the round Kallen's Token would have been removed with no effect.

An Invader with the double-hit icon must be hit 2 or more times in the same round in order to be destroyed. If it is hit only 1 time, nothing happens.

Example: Cory launches his Token and lands on an Invader with this icon. He leaves his Token on the Invader Card (moving it to the center of the card). On Carrie's turn, she launches a Token and lands on this same Invader. When she resolves her attacks, she will discard the Invader Card since it was hit twice in the round.

If Carrie had not landed on this Invader (and no other player had either), then at the end of the round Cory's ship would have been removed with no effect.

Player Card Powers

Every game will provide a different mix of Blast Token powers for each player. Those powers are found on each Player Card.

Each power only relates to that level of Token. For example, when launching a level 2 Blast Token, it has the power shown on the level 2 Player Card for that player.

Here are the possible powers for each level:

• Before launching, indicate the Invader that you are attacking. If you successfully attack that Invader with this shot, then at the end of your turn you may take 1 bonus shot at the UFO.
• If your Token does not land on an Invader, you may move your shot by one short card length of the Blast Wave Card. Flip the Blast Wave Card to the short side and place one end of the card up against your Token. If the other edge of the card reaches an Invader, then it is successfully attacked.
• If your Token lands on an Invader Card, you may choose to attack an adjacent Invader instead of the one that you landed on. If you choose to attack an adjacent Invader that takes 2 hits to destroy, or a shielded Invader, simply move your Token over to that Invader Card.
• If you successfully hit the UFO with this Token, you can launch again for a bonus shot. Immediately after launching and hitting the UFO, move the UFO health Tracker down one space to show that you hit the UFO, and then immediately re-launch this Token.
• You may re-launch this Blast Token 1 time. This is in addition to any re-launches from landing in the planet area. If you re-launch then any invader you landed on previously does not count.
• You can destroy Invaders that are shielded, and Invaders that require 2 hits, with a single hit of this Token.
• If you do not land on any Invaders or attack the UFO, then place the Shooter where this Token lands and you can take 1 bonus shot at the UFO from this spot.
• If your Token does not land on an Invader, you may move your Token by 1 long card length of the Long Blast Wave Card. Flip the Blast Wave Card to the long side and place one end of the card up against your Token. If the other edge of the card reaches an Invader, then it is successfully attacked and is removed from play.
• You may use the long card length of the Long Blast Wave Card toward two different Invader cards. Place one end of the Long Blast Wave Card up against your Token. If the other edge of the card reaches an Invader, then it is successfully attacked. You can attack up to two Invaders in this way. If you landed on any Invader cards, then those Invaders count toward this total.
• If you successfully attack the UFO, you may remove 2 damage from your planet. Move the Planet Health track up 2 spaces to regain this health.
• If you are attacking the UFO with this Token, you may launch it up to 3 times to get a single hit. You must state before your first launch that you are activating this ability. Any Invader cards that you land on during these launches do not count. If you successfully attack the UFO, then you do not get to continue launching this Token.
• If you hit any Invaders, then choose one adjacent Invader to hit as well. The additional Invader can be adjacent to any of the Invaders that you landed on, either vertically or horizontally. If the additional Invader that you choose requires two hits, then move your Token on to that Invader Card.

FAQ

Q: My Token landed on multiple Invader cards. Can I destroy them all? A: Yes! You can attack multiple Invaders with one launch.

Q: Where does my Shooter need to be placed when firing? A: You may place it anywhere as long as it is below the striped Game Board edge and may move it between shots.

Q: I landed on two different Invaders with one Token, and both require 2 hits to destroy. What do I do with my Token? A: Leave your Token where it is for now. If one of the Invaders gets hit later, then that Invader is destroyed, and you can move your Token over to the center of the other Invader card. If during play the Invader Cards get bumped and moved and you are no longer on one or both Invaders, then your hit no longer counts toward that card.

Q: Speaking of bumping Tokens off Invaders, what if I land a Token on an Invader and then I knock that Token off with my next shot? A: In this case, you have not successfully attacked the Invader. You don't officially determine attacks until you resolve your Tokens at the end of your turn.

Q: I launched my Token and it fell off the table backwards. Now what? A: You're in luck! Since your Token went off the table backwards, it's still considered in the planet area. Re-launch!

Q: Do we need to wait until the Final Assault to attack the UFO? A: No! You can attack the UFO at any time. In fact, some of the special abilities will help you do that. The final assault only happens if you haven't destroyed the UFO yet when the last Invader is destroyed.

Q: I have the following situation: There are 3 cards in a column. The top row has an Invader with speed 1, the next row has an Invader with speed 2, and the bottom row has an Invader with speed 3. I move the Invader with speed 3 first during resolution, and then I move the 2. The 2 only moves forward one row since the 3 is in front of it. Next, I move the Invader with speed 1, and that pushes the other Invaders forward. The speed 3 Invader is now pushed into the planet area, so it is attacking us. That leaves the 2 in the bottom row with nothing in front of it. Does the 2 attack us now also? A: No. The speed refers to the speed of the Invader when it moves. Since it already moved, the 2 does not activate again after being pushed forward.

Q: What if I bounce my Token into the UFO? Does it still count? A: Yes, wherever the Token finally lands is where it counts.

Q: I have the power that lets me attack adjacent Invaders instead of the one I landed on. I landed on 2 Invaders. Can I attack 2 adjacent Invaders instead of the ones I landed on? A: Yes. Think of each card as a separate hit. Let's say you hit cards A and B. Instead of attacking those cards you could attack a card adjacent to A and a card adjacent to B. You could not, however, attack 2 cards adjacent to A.

Variants

• Instead of using the Shooter, hang your Token off the edge of the table and flick it into the air with your finger.
• When playing on Expert level or higher especially, but as an option in any game, you do not get to re-launch ships if they land in the planet area.
• Do you find the game too easy on the Elite level? Try removing the top row of cards from play, so that you only have three rows of Invaders. All other rules remain the same, and you still refill the top two rows every round.
• An easy way to adjust the difficulty level to make it either easier or harder, is to simply change the number of times you need to hit the UFO. Feeling like a sharpshooter? Set the UFO to 20 health. You can also start the game with the Planet Health Tracker set lower than the setup shows.