Thunderstone Advance: Numenera Rulebook

Table of Contents

The Ninth World
Object
Contents
- Game Cards
- Other Items
Complete Card List
Setup
Gameplay
Additional Rules
Ending the Game and Victory
Traits
Alternatives for Game Setup
Solo Thunderstone
Example of Play
Scenarios
- The Ancient Evil
- In Search of the Convergence Master
Card Glossary
Lexicon
Credits
- German Edition
Setup Overview
Turn Reference
Experience Points as Cyphers

The Ninth World

The Damnation was defeated and driven into exile—already for the second time.

The siege of Dun Ordha was terrible, and the people of Caledron mourned the death of their once-great king, corrupted and tainted by the evil of the Thunderstones and the power of the Damnation. But that destruction was the only way to free the world from evil.

Weeks became months, and months finally became years. The world of Tala slowly recovers from the ravages of war. Dun Ordha has been rebuilt and harmony has been restored. Sleep comes more easily now. Perhaps that is it; perhaps the universe has decided that your trials, your worries as its unwilling defender, are over.

There are worse places to live, you still think, as sleep overtakes you after a long patrol through the Strathbhennie Woods.

But for the first time in months, your sleep is restless. Rest turns to dreams... vivid, clear, distinct. Dreams become nightmares... dark, ominous, foreboding. It feels as if you are being pulled away from this refuge, bent, and thrust into a strange and foreign place. Images rise before you—glowing, flashing lights; otherworldly, inhuman creatures; unusual people wearing armor and attachments that look as though they are part of their own bodies.

Is this real? Are you yourself, or some strange astral projection? It feels as though you have been broken into the smallest particles and transported through every plane of existence. You aren't sure whether this is still a dream; whether you have taken over the consciousness of another body; or whether you have been carried off to a new place, to once again be an unwitting pawn in the game of the universe. As you look around to get a sense of this new reality, the sun rises, cut in two by a gigantic obelisk, ominous and powerful on the horizon.

This world resembles nothing you have ever seen. The shapes, the buildings, the landscape—unreal, and yet very human...

Diary of a warrior, date unknown:

They call it the Ninth World, a place as ancient as any I have ever seen. I don't pretend to understand it, or to know how I came to be here. The inhabitants seem to be shaped directly from the true fabric of this world, bound and connected to it by invisible mysteries and magic that make no sense, even when they speak of them—I believe, in part, because they themselves don't understand it any better than I do. They claim that eight worlds existed before this one, even though, in truth, no one seems to remember proof that more than four ever existed.

Even their words are foreign to me. This world's heroes are called by terms I have never heard before. Their fighters and warriors are known as glaives, some of whom seem to possess superhuman strength or reflexes. Their sorcerers and clerics are called nanos and seem to draw most of their power from a connection to all things of this world... even through artifacts. The Aeon Priests, servants of their gods, seem to understand this connection better than most others. And finally there are the jacks—the rogues, rangers, and thieves, as I know them—tough sorts who make excellent scouts and craftsmen.

This ancient evil has come up with something new this time. In this new world, the Damnation has manifested as an intelligent virus that controls its hosts. The infected are known as the "Doomladen," and they recognize one another regardless of outward appearance. They are led by powerful creatures bearing strange numenera—the Thunderstones—and once again you must take up the fight to save this world.

This magic, and this way of fighting, are new to me. The evil and the dangers of this world are truly ancient, and like the places I have already seen, they are numerous, left behind by earlier gods, races, and creatures with unimaginable powers. I know that my presence in this world can only mean that I must face yet another very old evil, possibly one that is new even to this world. And for this fight I need a new kind of hero, one to battle this enemy with weapons and sorceries that are foreign to me.

The priests know it. They whisper about it. They call our enemies the Doomladen. They are bound to one another by a magical link, through which they act together and instantly recognize each other. The priests claim that this link has already infected many things. Its power has begun to corrupt creatures and people, and to reshape them according to its will. I don't know how to fight it, but I know what I am dealing with. I know that a world is threatened once again—only this time it is a world unlike any I have ever known.

Object

You are a heroic leader seeking the Thunderstones, ancient relics of evil power. You want to turn their own power against them, in order to banish their corruption from the world forever. To begin, you recruit a band of brave adventurers and equip them with fearsome weapons and legendary spells. Once they are ready, you lead them into the dungeon, defeat abominable monsters, and finally seize the Thunderstones!

The game ends when a player defeats the Thunderstone Bearer, or the Thunderstone Bearer reaches position 1 in the dungeon without being defeated. Now you count the victory points of all your cards in your deck, in your hand, and in your discard pile. Not all cards give you victory points. Look for the blue jewel in the lower right corner of your cards—it shows the victory points there. The player with the most victory points wins the game!

Aside from this rulebook, Thunderstone Advance – Numenera includes the following components:

Game Cards

Thunderstone Advance – Numenera uses 6 kinds of cards for play: basic cards, village cards, heroes, monsters, treasures, and special cards. The cards share some common features, but also have clear differences, so that they are useful in different circumstances. All cards can end up in your deck.

Basic Cards. These cards make up most of your starting deck. They represent the simplest resources available. Basic cards have differently colored frames, but they all carry the word "Basic" on their keyword line. You can buy additional copies of them during a village visit, but the village usually offers other, far more useful things. The two overviews "Village Card Breakdown" and "Hero Card Breakdown" on the next page show you the individual elements found on basic cards.

Hero Cards. These cards represent the heroes you recruit to fight at your side. You can recognize heroes by their blue frame. Nearly all hero cards have an attack value, as well as other traits and abilities that help you in combat against monsters. You can buy them and level them up during a village visit. The "Hero Card Breakdown" overview shows you the individual elements found on hero cards.

Hero Card Breakdown. Keywords; Card Name; Class Icon; Level; Gold Value (if any); Strength; Light Value (if any); Gold Cost; Attack Value, Traits, and Abilities; Experience Points to Level Up (if any); Victory Points (if any).

Village Cards. Village cards represent the various things you can obtain in the village. You can recognize village cards by their green frame. Among village cards you will find villagers who help you, weapons with which you equip your heroes, spells you use against monsters, and items that let you act more successfully. The "Village Card Breakdown" overview shows you the individual elements found on village cards.

Village Card Breakdown. Keywords; Card Name; Gold Value (if any); Weight (for weapons); Light Value (if any); Gold Cost; Traits, Abilities, and Effects; Victory Points (if any).

Monster Cards. All the dangers you can encounter in the dungeon are represented by monster cards. You can recognize monster cards by their red frame. Over the course of the game you only ever see a few monsters at a time; the others await you in the dungeon deck. The "Monster Card Breakdown" overview shows you the individual elements found on monster cards.

Monster Card Breakdown. Keywords; Card Name; Gold Value; Health; Light—as a trophy effect after the monster is defeated (if any); Level; Traits, Abilities, and Effects; Victory Points; Experience Points.

Special Cards. This general category covers all game cards that don't belong to the groups already named. You can recognize special cards by their brown frame; they usually cause unusual effects. Diseases, known in Numenera as Iron Wind (see page 25), and Thunderstone Shards both count as special cards and each has its own rules for how you gain and use them. Thunderstone Shards are found only in your starting deck.

Treasure Cards. In addition to monsters, you can sometimes also find a treasure with legendary powers in the dungeon. You can recognize treasure cards by their golden frame. See page 25 for the rules on handling treasures.

Other Items

Thunderstone Advance – Numenera includes further useful game materials that help you while playing.

Randomizer Cards. Randomizer cards let you assemble ever-new card sets for your games by drawing them from a special deck that contains one copy of most card types.

There are 3 different kinds of randomizer cards: village cards, heroes, and monsters. There are no randomizer cards for Thunderstone Bearers, special cards, or basic cards.

Randomizer cards have differently colored backs and the imprint "Random," so you don't accidentally shuffle them into the various decks. You use them only to set up the game, but never during a session.

The names at the top of the front of the randomizer cards denote the respective village cards, hero types, or monster groups. Additional information on the randomizer cards, both the values and the summary text, gives you an initial idea of how the respective cards function.

Oversized Card Dividers. The oversized card dividers help you keep your cards organized in the box. The dividers are color-coded according to the different card types. There are also 5 dividers labeled Deck, which let you store all the players' starting decks pre-sorted.

Bag for Experience Tokens. All experience tokens not controlled by any player are kept in this bag. When you defeat monsters during the game and gain experience tokens, you draw random tokens from the bag. When you have to spend experience tokens or pay with them, you put them back in the bag.

Experience Tokens. Experience tokens help you keep track of the experience points you gain during the game in combat against monsters. You can also use the differently colored experience tokens as cyphers, in order to use various boosts during the game—see page 23.

Setting Cards. The setting cards depict various regions of Numenera. Their text describes the respective effects of that setting.

Die. The 20-sided die is used together with the setting cards to determine random events.

Game Board. This double-sided game board shows a classic dungeon on one side and a wilderness dungeon on the other. The darkness values differ between the two dungeons, so you can choose your difficulty level.

Marker Tokens. This game also includes two sets of marker tokens, each in 5 player colors. You use these marker tokens together with the Rugged and Swift hero groups, whose abilities let them mark monsters in the dungeon. If one or both of these hero types are in play, each player chooses a color and takes the corresponding marker tokens. Multiple players may mark the same monster with tokens of the same type, and also with tokens of both hero types—see the glossary on page 34.

Complete Card List

Thunderstone Advance – Numenera contains a total of 597 cards. Please check while unpacking that the following cards are in the box:

Basic Cards (81 total)

16 Torch cards
20 Longspear cards
45 Regular cards

Village Cards (176 total — 8 of each village card, exceptions noted)

Fearmaker
Warder
Bio-energy Cutter
Bio-salvager
Chemical Injector
Village Jack
Village Headman
Mental Scramber
Paired Swords
Unstable Crystals (16 copies)
Nevajin
Partisan
Dart Thrower
Phase Disruptor
Backpack
Shield Bearer
Shock Nodule
Disruption Blade
Punch Dagger
Ray Emitter
Retaliation Nodule

Hero Cards (156 total—12 of each hero: six level 1, four level 2, two level 3)

Aeon Priest
Graceful
Charming
Swift
Learned
Rugged
Stealthy
Intelligent
Clever
Mystic
Strong
Strong-willed
Tough

Monster Cards (103 total—10 in each monster group plus 3 Thunderstone Bearers)

Ancient One • Level 3

Penumbra Fiend (2)
Lavrik-ca (1)
Philethis (2)
Stellar Weaver (3)
Syzygy Ghoul (2)

Automaton • Level 2

Dark Fathom (2)
Mastigophore (2)
Guardian Automaton (2)
Disassembler (2)
Zhev (2)

Beast • Level 1

Blood Barm (2)
Broken Hound (2)
Ithsyn (2)
Seskii (2)
Thuman (2)

Bandit • Raider • Level 2

Bandit Warrior (2)
Bandit Warlord (2)
Bandit Killer (2)
Mounted Raider (2)
Bandit Taskmaster (2)

Horror • Level 3

Erynth Grask (3)
Yellow Swarm (2)
Edacious Destroyer (2)
Night Howler (1)
Tetrahydra (2)

Infected • Level 2

Warrior Host (2)
Ocular Host (2)
Ravage Bear (2)
Terror Bird (3)
Tactile Host (1)

Monstrosity • Level 3

Callerail (2)
Cragworm (2)
Jiriskar (2)
Mesomeme (2)
Travonis Ul (2)

Ultraterrestrial • Level 2

Abycos (2)
Ellnoica (2)
Jurulisk (2)
Nibovian Wife (2)
Pallone (2)

Abhuman • Level 1

Chirog (2)
Culova (2)
Margr (2)
Murden (2)
Sathosh (2)

Verminous • Level 1

Laak (2)
Steel Spider (1)
Slicer Beetle (2)
Scutimorph (2)
Stratharian War Moth (3)

Thunderstone Bearers

Sarrak (1)
Convergence Master (1)
Phylethis (1)

Treasure Cards (6 total)

Stunner (1)
Veil Spike (1)
Dimensional Armor (2)
Quark Accipter (1)
Cellular Disrupter (1)

Special Cards (30 total)

10 Thunderstone Shard cards
20 Disease – Iron Wind cards

Randomizer Cards (45 total)

21 village randomizer cards
13 hero randomizer cards
11 monster randomizer cards

Setup

When you open the game for the first time, first unpack the components. Then you can set up the game.

Unpacking the Box

First, carefully remove the various tokens from the punch-out sheets. Put the marker tokens in the box and the experience tokens in the bag.

Unpack all the cards and sort them into individual stacks. In general, there are 8 cards in each village stack, 10 cards in each monster stack, and 12 cards in each hero stack; you can also find the complete card list on the previous page.

Once you have laid out all the stacks, separate the randomizer cards into 3 separate stacks of village, hero, and monster randomizer cards. You can tell them apart easily by their different backs.

Assemble the starting decks by stacking the following cards together: 6 Regulars, 2 Longspears, 2 Torches, and 2 Thunderstone Shards. This gives you 5 stacks.

Finally, unpack the oversized card dividers and place them in the box. Put each card stack next to the matching divider. If you're unsure which cards belong to which group, you can consult the complete card list again. Now the game material is unpacked and you can set up the game.

Preparing to Play

In a game of Thunderstone Advance – Numenera you will never need all the cards. Instead, before each game you randomly determine which opponents you will fight and which resources will be available to you for the task. The appeal lies in the search for the right strategy for using the available cards.

If this is your first game of Thunderstone Advance – Numenera, we recommend using the preset cards according to "First Game Setup." Together with the basic cards, this selection offers you a balanced first game without requiring you to make overly tricky decisions. Once you've gotten a feel for the flow of the game, you can play with the more complex cards that have more detailed text.

First Game Setup

Thunderstone Bearer: Phylethis
Village Cards: Chemical Injector, Village Headman, Mental Scramber, Paired Swords, Partisan, Backpack, Shield Bearer, Retaliation Nodule
Heroes: Learned, Stealthy, Mystic, Strong
Monsters: Horror, Ultraterrestrial, Verminous

If this is not your first game of Thunderstone Advance – Numenera, you can use the randomizer cards to make a random selection, as explained below. Using the randomizer cards always guarantees new games and challenges you and your fellow players with ever-new situations.

The game is set up in 3 steps: preparing the dungeon, populating the village with life, and putting the finishing touches on everything with final preparations.

Selecting the Monsters

You choose the monsters you will face in the dungeon. We describe the normal preparations here. With a little experience you can vary this according to your own ideas and thereby increase the difficulty level.

Shuffle the monster randomizer cards and reveal cards until you have found one monster group each of level 1, 2, and 3. You'll find the level of the respective monster group directly beneath the name, among the keywords. If you reveal a level a second time that you've already drawn, set that randomizer card aside and draw a new card as a replacement.
If you draw one or more dungeon-trait randomizer cards, set them together with the monster randomizer cards and use them in this game. This means you add further cards, such as treasures and traps, to the dungeon deck. If you have already selected a treasure group, set aside any further treasure randomizer cards.
If you draw a guardian randomizer card, choose 1 random guardian from all the available guardians.
Look for the groups of monsters, traps, and/or treasures in the box that match the randomizer cards and set them aside. These cards form the dungeon deck. Set aside any guardian cards you have drawn for now. Depending on the additional dungeon-trait randomizer cards drawn, the dungeon deck consists of 30 to 44 cards. Put the monster randomizer cards back in the box; you no longer need them for the current game.

Note: There are no guardians (other than the 3 Thunderstone Bearers) or traps in Thunderstone Advance – Numenera. The rules for a game with traps and guardians are listed below only for completeness, in case you play with already-available or future editions of the Thunderstone series that contain these cards.

So that your fellow players also get a good overview of the monsters, you should calmly show them the chosen randomizer cards.

Once you have selected the enemies, you now prepare the dungeon.

Preparing the Dungeon

The dungeon is a general term for the home of the monsters. Sometimes it's an underground labyrinth, a lonely fortress, or a swamp plagued by gloom. The inhabitants of the dungeon are found as monster cards in the dungeon deck, with a powerful Thunderstone Bearer in the lower part of the stack, guarding the final prize.

Place the game board on the table so that all players can reach it easily.
Shuffle all the cards of the dungeon deck (monsters, treasures, and/or traps).
Count out 10 cards from the stack and choose 1 Thunderstone Bearer for this game. Shuffle this Thunderstone Bearer together with the 10 cards, then place these 11 cards face down as the bottom cards of the dungeon deck on the Dungeon Deck space on the game board.
If you have chosen 1 additional guardian, count out another 10 cards from the stack and shuffle the guardian together with these cards. Place the 11 cards on top of the other 11 cards on the Dungeon Deck space on the game board.
Place the remaining shuffled monster cards face down on top of these cards. All these cards together form the dungeon deck.
Now draw cards from the dungeon deck and lay them out face up, one at a time, onto the empty spaces of the dungeon.
If you draw one or more traps and/or treasures, place them back underneath the dungeon deck. Draw further cards from the dungeon deck until only monsters occupy the spaces of the dungeon. Also ignore any Raid or Breach effects during this setup.

The dungeon is now set up. Next comes the village, where you will later improve your deck through the purchase of heroes, items, weapons, villagers, and spells!

Populate the Village

Now it's time to set up the village, so you can see what things are available to you.

Set aside the following number of basic cards per player: 3 Regulars, 2 Longspears, and 1 Torch each. Place the Regulars on the first village space for heroes, the Longspears on the first village space for weapons, and the Torches on the first village space for items. These village spaces are marked with the names of these cards.
Shuffle the hero randomizer cards and reveal the top 4 cards. Look for the hero types matching the randomizer cards in the box and place their cards on the matching village spaces. The hero cards must be sorted within each stack, with the level 1 heroes on top, the level 2 heroes beneath them, and so on, so that the heroes of the highest level lie at the very bottom of the stack. To make sorting easier, the level of each hero is shown next to the keywords, and each of these heroes has its own name.
Shuffle the village randomizer cards. Reveal one randomizer card after another, look for the matching village cards in the box each time, and place them on one of the village spaces of the corresponding category. For example, you would place the Paired Swords on one of the spaces for weapons. On both sides of the game board, the village spaces indicate how many cards of a category should be used at most, so that games aren't too unbalanced. If you reveal a randomizer card and all the spaces of that category are already filled, simply set that card aside and draw a new randomizer card. Repeat this process until you have filled 8 village spaces with village cards (plus the two basic cards Torch and Longspear). Note that not all village spaces will be filled! Even though following the game board's guidelines is genuinely recommended, you can of course ignore the guidelines and play with a purely random distribution of village cards. To do this, simply take the first 8 village randomizer cards.

Finishing Touches

Finish the game setup.

If one of the monster randomizer cards instructs you to use the Iron Wind disease deck, place it face down on the Disease Deck space on the game board.
Place the bag with experience tokens next to the game board. (Neither the disease deck nor the bag belongs to the dungeon or the village.)
If you want to play with one of the setting cards, either draw one randomly from the shuffled stack, or choose one together with your fellow players. See page 23 for details on setting cards.
Each player takes their own starting deck, shuffles it carefully, and places it face down in front of them. Now each player draws 6 cards from their own deck and takes them into hand.

Now you are ready for the game!

Gameplay

Overview

Choose a starting player, who begins with the first turn. After that, the players follow in clockwise order and each take their turn. When a player's turn comes up, they are called the active player. Normally you may not do anything during another player's turn, but some cards allow you certain actions (see page 24 for React abilities).

Unlike other card games, the cards you gain do not remain in play. Instead, they end up in your deck. Also, on your turn you don't just play 1 card and then discard it.

On a normal turn, you lay out all your hand cards face up in front of you and carry out some or all of the card effects as you wish. Afterward, you place all the cards on your discard pile and draw new cards from your deck, which you take into hand for your next turn.

On each turn, you choose one of the following 4 options:

Visit the Village: You buy new cards for your deck.
Fight in the Dungeon: You fight 1 monster.
Prepare: You try to improve your hand cards for the next turn.
Rest: You may destroy 1 unwanted hand card.

Each of these 4 options helps you refine the makeup of your deck and change the selection of cards you can draw in the following turns.

You'll find everything about visiting the village on page 16. Everything about fighting in the dungeon is on page 18. On pages 22 and 23 you get the information on the other two actions, Prepare and Rest.

Key Concepts

Thunderstone has a few fundamental concepts. Please keep the following points in mind as you continue reading the rulebook.

The Golden Rule

Thunderstone consists of dozens of different cards, many of which seem to contradict the following rules. If a card's text conflicts with or alters a rule in this rulebook, the card's text always takes priority. For further questions about the cards, please check the glossary starting on page 34.

Decks, Discard Piles, and Hand Cards

At the start of the game, all players have an identical deck of 12 cards. During the game you will change your deck entirely as you wish.

Your deck always lies face down in front of you. You also have your own discard pile. Whenever you gain new cards, you first place them face up on your discard pile. Your discard pile always lies face up.

When your deck is completely used up, leave it empty for the time being. As soon as you need cards from the empty deck, shuffle your discard pile and set it face down as the new deck. This can also happen in the middle of your turn. If that's the case, first draw as many cards as are still available in the deck. Only then do you shuffle the entire discard pile and draw the still-missing cards from the new deck.

Your hand cards are all the cards you have drawn this round, laid out in front of you, and neither discarded nor destroyed. All hand cards count as present. Any discarded or destroyed cards are not in your hand and therefore count as not present.

All card effects affect your hand cards, unless the text describes a different target.

Destroying Cards

Some effects in the game destroy a card. When a card is destroyed, it comes out of the game. Exceptions apply to the destruction of diseases and basic cards.

Destroyed diseases (Iron Wind) are placed back on the disease card stack, since there is an unlimited supply of these cards.

Destroyed basic cards (Torch, Longspear, and Regular) are placed back face up on their stacks in the village if they are destroyed from your hand. If they are destroyed from the village stacks, they come out of the game.

Note: Instead of putting the destroyed cards straight back in the box, it may be easier to place them face down next to or beneath the respective village stack. This way you can sort the cards more easily at the end of the game and put them back in the box as stacks.

Abilities

Many cards have special abilities described on them. You can recognize them by the keywords Village, Dungeon, React, or Spoils, followed by a colon. You may only use these abilities in the stated locations or at the stated time. You always have the choice of whether to use the abilities or forgo them, and in which order you apply them.

Village: These abilities give you extra gold, extra cards, or other benefits when you visit the village.
Dungeon: These abilities strengthen your band of heroes in combat against the monsters.
React: You may use these abilities at any time, even during a fellow player's turn.
Spoils: These abilities grant you bonuses when you defeat monsters in combat.

Abilities may each be used only once per turn, unless they also carry the designation "Repeat." A repeatable ability may be repeated as often as you wish. Repeatable abilities usually have a condition that you must meet again each time you use the ability. If you cannot or do not want to meet the condition, you may not use the ability.

Example: The level 1 hero Charming has the following repeatable ability:

Repeat Village: Destroy 1 disease to draw 1 card.

Thanks to this ability, you may destroy as many diseases as you have in hand, drawing 1 card each time. You may even destroy diseases that you drew because of this ability. If you have no (more) diseases in hand, you may not use this ability. You may only use this ability in the village.

When you use an ability, its effect takes place immediately and lasts until the end of the turn. Only the cards that have already been played at that point are affected by this effect.

Example: Your hero Tough Glaive is equipped with a weapon and has the following Dungeon ability:

Dungeon: If this hero is equipped, draw 1 card.

You also have 1 spell in hand, Retaliation Nodule, with the following Dungeon ability:

Dungeon: Additional Magic Attack +1 for each hero class present.

If you use the ability of the Retaliation Nodule first, you get an additional Magic Attack +1. If you then use the ability of the Tough Glaive and draw a Stealthy hero (thief hero class), the value of the additional Magic Attack does not change. But if instead you first draw the other hero thanks to the Tough Glaive, and only then use the Retaliation Nodule's ability, you get an additional Magic Attack +2 (since you now have 2 hero classes in hand).

You must always meet an ability's normal requirements in order to use it, unless the ability explicitly allows something else. For example, if an ability allows you to "level up a level 1 Regular," you must have 1 Regular in hand for the level-up, pay 2 experience points, and destroy the Regular before you may take a level 1 hero and place it on your discard pile.

Effects

Many cards (including almost all monster cards) have effects. Effects follow the same rules as abilities, except that you must use them. When an effect is carried out, it takes place immediately and lasts until the end of the turn. Only the cards that were in play at that point are affected by this effect. There are 6 effects in Thunderstone.

Aftermath: This effect takes place as soon as you have finished the fight against a monster, regardless of which side wins the fight.
Battle: This effect takes place once you have chosen a monster to fight, but before the fight is resolved.
Breach: This effect takes place only once, when the monster reaches position 1 in the dungeon (this effect does not exist in Thunderstone Advance – Numenera).
Global: This effect is always in effect and affects all players.
Raid: This effect takes place when the monster is placed into the dungeon.
Trophy: This effect takes place when the monster is in your hand.

Traits

Some cards also have traits. Traits are all the text that does not carry any of the named keywords for abilities or effects. For example, heroes usually have certain traits such as Physical Attack +1 or Magic Attack +2.

Trait text is always active and always applies, as long as the cards lie in front of you. If your laid-out cards change, the trait immediately adjusts and may change its effect.

Do as Much as You Can

When an ability is used against you, or you are affected by an effect, you must always do as much of the effect as you can and may only ignore the rest. This does not apply, however, to abilities that you yourself play from your own hand. For those abilities, all conditions must always be met in order to use their effect.

For example, if an Aftermath effect tells you to "discard 2 heroes," and you have only 1 in hand, you only need to discard that one hero. Since you don't have a second hero, you can't discard one either.

For example, if a monster's Aftermath effect tells you to "destroy 1 weapon and 1 item," and you only have 1 item in hand, you destroy that item and ignore the rest, since you have no weapon to destroy.

Visit the Village

When you visit the village, you try to gain additional help in the form of other adventurers, better equipment, or as-yet-unknown spells. Carry out the following steps in the order given. Some of the steps are optional; you don't have to carry out all of them.

Lay your hand cards face up in front of you (mandatory).
Use any Village abilities (optional) and use all Trophy effects (mandatory). You may choose the order freely.
Add up all the gold values of the cards laid out and buy 1 hero or 1 village card (optional).
Level up laid-out heroes using your collected experience tokens. You may level up as many heroes as you like, as long as you can spend enough experience points. Each hero, however, may only be leveled up once per turn (optional).

Afterward you end your turn (see page 26).

A detailed example of play follows on page 30.

1. Lay Your Hand Cards Face Up in Front of You

You must lay out all your hand cards and thus bring them along to the village visit, even if that could work against you.

2. Use Village Abilities and Trophy Effects

You may use the Village abilities and Trophy effects of your hand cards in any order. So you may use 1 Village effect, then activate 2 Trophy effects, and finally use another Village effect. However, you must finish all the abilities and effects you want to use in this step.

Most Village abilities give you extra gold, let you draw further cards, or destroy unwanted cards. You don't have to announce the use of an ability in advance, and you don't have to use all abilities.

Some general rules for using Village abilities:

You may use each Village ability only once per turn.
If you must discard a card because of a Village ability, place it on your discard pile immediately.
If a card is destroyed by a Village ability, remove it from the game immediately.
You may not use a card's Village ability if that card has already been discarded or destroyed by other Village abilities this turn.
You may not destroy a card whose Village ability you have already used, unless the affected card destroys itself through its own Village ability.
You may discard a card whose Village ability you have already used.

Example: The level 1 hero Rugged has an ability that can be used either in the village or as an Aftermath effect.

Village/Aftermath: Place 1 marker on 1 monster in the dungeon.

If you visit the village and have already used this ability, you may no longer use the ability of the Nevajin below:

Village: Destroy 1 hero. Gain gold equal to its Strength.

But if instead you use the Nevajin's ability first (without first activating the Rugged's ability), you may afterward also use the Nevajin's second ability (you may use this second ability even if you forgo the first):

Village: Destroy this card to draw 1 card.

You must activate all the Trophy effects of your laid-out hand cards (see page 23 for further details on Trophy effects).

3. Buy 1 Card

Once you have finished using Village abilities and Trophy effects, you may buy 1 card from the village stacks.

Add up all the gold values of the hand cards still laid out in front of you. Add or subtract from that sum all the gold values you gained or lost through Village abilities and Trophy effects. You may spend the total amount of gold in the village this turn. You get no gold from cards you have already discarded or destroyed.

You may buy 1 card in the village: 1 hero card, 1 village card, or 1 basic card. You may also decline to buy a card. The gold cost of the card must be less than or equal to your total gold. If a card effect lets you buy more than one card, the combined gold cost of all the cards must be less than or equal to your total gold. Unused gold is lost at the end of your turn; presumably your band of heroes spends it on a round of mead at the tavern, or to pry secret information about the dungeon out of mysterious beggars.

You may only buy the top card of a village stack or hero stack. This means you must first buy level 1 heroes, until players have taken all of them. Only then may you buy level 2 heroes, and so on. Each stack consists of a limited number of cards. Once a stack is empty, you can no longer buy the corresponding cards.

Reminder: Destroyed cards come out of the game, with the exception of diseases and basic cards, which, when destroyed from your hand, are placed back on or beneath the corresponding stacks on the game board.

You place each card you buy on your discard pile.

4. Level Up Heroes

Finally, you may spend experience points to level up your laid-out heroes.

To level up a hero, choose a laid-out hero card from your hand. Pay the stated experience points and level up the hero.

Destroy the old hero card before you retrieve the corresponding hero card of the next-higher level from the hero stack. Place the new hero card on your discard pile.

If there is no longer a card of the next-higher level in the hero stack, you may not level up the hero! You may not skip a level, and you may not level up a hero twice in the same turn (after the first level-up, the new hero goes on the discard pile and thus no longer counts as one of your hand cards).

As you can tell from the blue card frame, Regulars count as heroes. Regulars are level 0 heroes, so you need 2 experience points to level up a Regular into any level 1 hero available in the village.

You may level up as many heroes as you like on your turn, as long as you have enough experience points to pay the cost and meet all the conditions listed above. You don't have to level up any hero, and you may decline to do so. You may level up heroes whose abilities you have already used.

Fight in the Dungeon

When you enter the dungeon, your band of heroes works together to defeat 1 monster using the spells, weapons, and items in your hand. Carry out the following steps in the order given. Some of the steps are optional; you don't have to carry out all of them.

Lay your hand cards face up in front of you (mandatory).
Use as many Dungeon abilities as you like (optional), equip your heroes with weapons from your hand (optional), and use all Trophy effects (mandatory).
Choose one of the monsters in the dungeon to fight (mandatory).
Apply Battle effects (mandatory, if any).
Determine your total attack value and compare it to the monster's Health. The higher value wins the fight (mandatory).
Apply Aftermath effects (mandatory, if any).
If you do not defeat the monster, place the monster card face down beneath the dungeon deck (mandatory).
If you defeat the monster, place the monster card on your discard pile and take experience points (mandatory).
Carry out any applicable Spoils effects (optional).
Shift the monster cards and refill the dungeon (mandatory).
If a newly revealed monster has a Raid effect, carry it out now (mandatory).
If a monster with a Breach effect reaches position 1 in the dungeon, carry out that effect now (mandatory).

Afterward you end your turn (see page 26).

A detailed example of play follows on page 30.

1. Lay Your Hand Cards Face Up in Front of You

You must lay out all your hand cards and bring them along into the dungeon for the fight, even if that could work against you.

2. Use Dungeon Abilities, Equip Heroes with Weapons, and Apply Trophy Effects

You may use the Dungeon abilities and Trophy effects of your cards, and equip heroes with weapons, in any order you like. So you may first use a Trophy effect, then activate a Dungeon ability, equip a hero with a weapon, and finally use another Dungeon ability. However, you must finish all the abilities and effects you want to use in this step.

Using Dungeon Abilities. Most Dungeon abilities strengthen your attack, let you discard unwanted cards, or give you more light. You may activate each Dungeon ability of your laid-out hand cards in any order you like. You don't have to announce the use of an ability in advance, and you don't have to use all of them.

Some general rules for using Dungeon abilities:

You may use each Dungeon ability only once per turn.
If you must discard a card because of a Dungeon ability, place it on your discard pile immediately.
If a card is destroyed by a Dungeon ability, remove it from the game immediately.
You may not use a card's Dungeon ability if that card has already been discarded or destroyed by other Dungeon abilities this turn.
You may not destroy a card whose Dungeon ability you have already used, unless the affected card destroys itself through its own Dungeon ability.
You may discard a card whose Dungeon ability you have already used.

All other cards (items, spells, etc.) contribute their effects to the fight automatically. You don't need to equip a hero with them. You don't even need a single hero in hand to use these cards in the fight!

Applying Trophy Effects. You must activate all the Trophy effects of your laid-out hand cards. See page 23 for details on Trophy effects.

3a. Positions and Darkness

Before we explain the further rules for combat, you need to learn a few details about darkness.

Next to the dungeon deck there are always a few monster cards laid out face up. You may fight these monsters when you enter the dungeon. You may always freely choose which monster you want to fight.

The positions where these monsters lie form the dungeon. There are several positions in the dungeon. Farthest from the dungeon deck is position 1—the entrance to the dungeon. Each position toward the dungeon deck is 1 higher. When a monster card leaves the dungeon, you push all the cards from higher positions toward the entrance and refill the highest position with the top card of the dungeon deck.

The higher a monster's position, the further you must venture into the dungeon to fight it, and the more oppressive the darkness becomes. Your heroes will often have a hard time fighting effectively if you don't bring lights into the dungeon and your band of heroes is confronted with the darkness.

Darkness has a negative effect on your heroes' attacks. The deeper they are in the dungeon, the worse they fight. Fortunately, you can reduce the darkness with light.

When you fight a monster, the base value of darkness is identical to the monster's position. So a monster at position 2 has darkness 2. If the monster has a trait that increases the darkness, you add that value to the base value of darkness.

To determine the effects of the darkness on your band, add up all the light values of your laid-out hand cards. These are the values shown in the lantern symbols on the cards, with the exception of unequipped weapons. To this value you add all the activated light effects of your Dungeon abilities. You subtract your total light value from the total darkness value.

If the light extinguishes the darkness (if the result is zero or less), you suffer no penalty and may use the full total attack value in the fight. You get no bonus for surplus light.

If it is still dark, you suffer an attack penalty and reduce your total attack value by the amount of darkness remaining. The chosen side of the game board tells you whether this means Attack -1 per point of darkness (wilderness side), or even Attack -2 per point of darkness (dungeon side). You should factor in these effects before choosing a monster to fight.

Now you know which Dungeon abilities and Trophy effects you may use, which weapons you want to equip your heroes with, and what effects the darkness has.

3b. Choose One of the Monsters to Fight

Now you choose 1 monster in the dungeon that your band will fight.

Equipping Heroes with Weapons. Weapons belong to a special card type. A weapon alone does not help you in combat, and you may not use its Dungeon or Spoils effects unless you equip a hero with that weapon. An exception is React abilities, which you may use at any time.

For a hero to be equipped with a weapon, their Strength must be greater than or equal to the weapon's Weight. Please note that Strength is different from Attack. With Strength a hero can carry a weapon; with Attack you defeat monsters.

Each hero may be equipped with only one weapon per turn. Once a hero has been equipped with a weapon, you may not equip them with any other weapon in the same turn, even if the first weapon is destroyed or you must discard it.

If a weapon is destroyed in combat against a monster, or the hero must give it up due to other effects, you lose its attack values (such as Physical or Magic Attack), but not any abilities or traits you have already applied. If a hero equipped with a weapon is destroyed, you may not equip another hero with that weapon in the same turn.

Example: You have used the ability of your Backpack:

Village/Dungeon: Reveal the top 2 cards of your deck. Take 1 revealed item or 1 revealed weapon into your hand. Discard the rest.

Through this ability you have gained 1 Phase Disruptor into hand, with the following ability:

Village/Dungeon: Destroy this card and 2 other cards. Draw 1 card.

You may not apply the Phase Disruptor's ability to the Backpack, since you have already used its ability.

4. Apply Battle Effects

Unlike heroes and village cards with their Dungeon abilities, monster cards have Battle effects and Aftermath effects. Battle effects take place after you have carried out all desired Dungeon abilities and chosen a monster to fight. Aftermath effects only take place after the fight is over, regardless of whether you win or lose.

You only apply the Battle effects and Aftermath effects of the monster you are fighting. You ignore the Battle effects and Aftermath effects of the monsters laid out in front of you, or of other monsters in the dungeon that you are not attacking. Instead, you also apply Battle effects and Aftermath effects of your laid-out village cards and heroes, if they have any.

You must always carry out all Battle effects and Aftermath effects, no matter who wins the fight. Battle effects can even influence the outcome of the fight. You must factor in a Battle effect that reduces the Strength of one or more heroes before you can defeat the monster. If a hero can no longer carry their weapon, you lose that weapon's bonuses and traits. If you must destroy cards because of a monster's Battle effects, they are removed from the game immediately and you lose their support.

If you gain 1 card through a Battle effect, e.g. a disease, you place this new card on your discard pile, just like a card bought during a village visit. You do not take it into hand and thus do not lay it out in front of you. These cards have no direct effect on the current fight, but will of course sometimes have negative effects later.

Every card in your hand is present in the dungeon, even cards that offer no benefit to the fight or have no effect on it. Regardless of whether the card is involved in the fight, it can still be destroyed as a result of a monster effect.

Example: You have a hand full of weak heroes and a Shock Nodule.

Callerail — Monstrosity • Level 3 — Battle: Destroy 1 hero. Aftermath: Destroy 1 weapon.

None of your heroes can be equipped with this weapon, since it is too heavy. Even though you may not use it in the fight against the Callerail, you must still destroy this weapon because of the monster's Aftermath effect:

Aftermath: Destroy 1 weapon.

In addition to their effects, some monsters have traits. Traits are permanent powers or innate talents of the monsters, which you must always factor in as long as the monster is laid out in the dungeon. You'll find a list of traits and their effects on page 27.

If one of your hand cards is not affected by a Battle effect, you may not choose that card as a target and "waste" the monster's effect if there is another valid target. You must carry out all effects wherever possible, because the monsters are evil, not stupid!

Once you have applied all of the monster's traits and Battle effects, it's now time to determine the winner of the fight.

5. Determine Your Total Attack Value and Compare It to the Monster's Health

To determine the outcome of a fight against a monster, you must factor in 2 values: your band's total attack value and the monster's Health. A monster's Health normally doesn't change, but your band's total attack value can (often) change before and during the fight.

The total attack value consists of Physical Attack (with which you beat up the monster) and Magic Attack (with which you blow things up). The attack values of both attack types are determined separately and then added together. You get both attack types from cards, abilities, and Trophy effects that you lay out before the fight. Some cards even give you multiple bonuses.

Example: The spell Retaliation Nodule has 2 Dungeon abilities:

Dungeon: Magic Attack +1.

Dungeon: Additional Magic Attack +1 for each hero class present.

You always get the Magic Attack +1, even if none of your heroes are present. If, for example, you draw a thief later in your turn, you also get the additional Magic Attack +1.

Some Trophy effects, Battle effects, and other cards can prevent your heroes from fighting and thus reduce the total attack value. If a card reduces your attack value without specifying the exact attack type, you may decide whether to reduce the Physical Attack or the Magic Attack. In this case, both attack types are never affected. However, an attack value may not be reduced below zero.

To summarize: after you have applied all monster effects and traits, you determine your total attack value. First you calculate all bonuses for Physical Attack, and separately for Magic Attack. You get these values from the traits and Dungeon abilities of your laid-out cards, sometimes also from traits of a monster in the dungeon or Trophy effects of your cards. Add both values together and finally factor in the effects of darkness.

Now you compare your total attack value to the Health of the monster you attacked. If the total attack value is lower than the monster's Health, your band has lost the fight. You suffer no negative consequences because of this defeat. If the total attack value is equal to or higher than the monster's Health, you are victorious! Regardless of the outcome of the fight, you must now carry out the Aftermath effects.

6. Apply Aftermath Effects

If the monster has an Aftermath effect (or the village cards and heroes present do), you must now carry out all of these effects. Even if you already know whether you defeated the monster or lost against it, the monster can still land one last, fatal blow against you. You may only ignore an Aftermath effect if it has no effect. You do not carry out Aftermath effects of defeated monster cards in your hand!

7. If You Lose the Fight...

If you did not defeat the attacked monster, it withdraws from the dungeon. Place the monster card face down beneath the dungeon deck. You suffer no negative consequences because of this defeat, but you receive no victory points this round.

(The order of a fight, as summarized on the game board: Dungeon Abilities → Battle Effects → End of Fight → Aftermath Effects → Spoils Effects, if you win with your band of adventurers → Raid Effects.)

8. If You Win the Fight...

Place the defeated monster on your discard pile. The defeated monster may give you gold, light, and/or further Trophy effects in future turns. Draw the experience tokens corresponding to the value shown on the monster card from the bag without looking, and place them in front of you.

9. Carry Out Spoils Effects

At the end of a victorious fight, you may now carry out the Spoils effects of all your laid-out village cards and heroes, as well as the Spoils effects of the monster you just defeated. The exception are Spoils effects of already-defeated monsters that you have laid out. You may not activate their Spoils effects again.

Example: The Bio-energy Cutter has the following Spoils effect:

Spoils: Each other player discards 1 card from their hand.

After you successfully defeat the Laak, you enjoy the fact that all the other players now have to discard 1 card.

If you buy a card through a Spoils effect, you may use the gold value of all the hand cards still laid out in front of you to buy 1 card from the village. If Spoils effects let you buy multiple cards, then—unlike a village visit—you may use the entire gold value of your laid-out cards for each purchase.

This concludes your excursion into the dungeon. Finally, the monsters prepare for the next fight.

10. Refill the Dungeon

Regardless of the outcome of the fight, one position in the dungeon is now empty. Push all monster cards from higher positions toward position 1 until the gap is closed, and refill the highest position with the top card of the dungeon deck.

11. Apply Raid Effects

Some monsters have a Raid effect. If you place such a monster into the dungeon, you must carry out the Raid effect immediately, once. If the monster is removed from the dungeon and later returns to play, you must carry out the Raid effect again. If the Raid effect requires a decision, the active player must make that decision.

If you place a monster with a Raid effect into the dungeon during game setup, you ignore this effect and do not carry it out.

12. Apply Breach Effects

Some monsters manage to sneak out of the dungeon to raid a nearby village or ambush adventurers. These monsters have Breach effects. When a monster with a Breach effect reaches position 1 of the dungeon, you must carry out the Breach effect immediately, once. Even if the monster then remains at position 1 for several turns, you do not repeat this Breach again. Only if the monster leaves position 1 and later lands on position 1 again must you carry out the Breach effect again.

If you place a monster with a Breach effect at position 1 of the dungeon during game setup, you ignore this effect and do not carry it out.

Prepare

Sometimes you have a selection of hand cards with which you cannot make a useful move. Prepare gives you a way to exchange your hand cards for the next turn.

Do not lay out your hand cards! Instead, place as many of your hand cards as you like back on top of your deck. You may choose the order of the cards freely. You will draw these chosen cards again directly at the end of the turn and take them into hand once more. You may not do anything else, but through this action you have better prepared your next turn. Afterward you end your turn.

Rest

Rest lets you destroy 1 card that you no longer need in your deck.

Do not lay out your hand cards! Instead, choose 1 hand card and destroy it. That's the entirety of Rest. Afterward you end your turn.

Additional Rules

There are a few more rules that concern additional aspects of the game.

Cyphers

The experience tokens in Thunderstone Advance – Numenera come in different colors. Regardless of their color, you may use any experience token to pay the cost of leveling up heroes (and any other general things for which you need experience tokens). In addition, you may also use them as cyphers: one-time boosts that help you in the village or the dungeon.

You don't learn the color of your experience tokens until you draw them randomly from the cloth bag, after you have defeated a monster. As a cypher, however, the color matters a great deal!

You may use 1 cypher per turn as a Village or Dungeon ability. Each cypher offers a different boost:

Blue: Draw 1 card.
Gray: Destroy 1 card.
Green: Additional Magic Attack +1.
Orange: Gain 2 gold.
Red: Additional Physical Attack +1.
Yellow: Additional Light +1.

Settings

Setting cards are the oversized cards depicting images of various regions of Numenera. You can use these setting cards to bring more variety and a somewhat greater element of chance to your games.

Before the game begins, all players must agree on 1 setting whose simmering dangers they wish to face.

Read the card text aloud and see when and how often the setting's effects are activated. Roll the 20-sided die (labeled d20 on the cards) and check the corresponding section. But be warned—settings can bring about game-changing shifts! You should plan for that from the very start!

Trophies

While most monsters give you victory points and a little gold, some of them have additional Trophy effects that enter your deck after a successful fight. But not all Trophy effects are positive for you.

You must always carry out the Trophy effects when you lay out the corresponding cards from your hand, regardless of whether you are in the village or in the dungeon. However, you never have to carry out Trophy effects when you are preparing or resting. In addition, you may not carry out Trophy effects if the corresponding cards are discarded or destroyed before you use their effects.

You may carry out Trophy effects in any order, mixed together with the other effects and abilities. Trophy effects don't require a hero, and you don't need to equip a hero with them. Trophies sometimes also grant light; so a monster with a light value counts as a trophy, even if the light value is negative (and thus increases the darkness).

Most Trophy effects can only be applied either in the village or only in the dungeon. If, for example, you gain an attack bonus, it does you no good in the village. Trophy effects only take effect if you have the corresponding card in hand. For monsters still in the dungeon, this effect is not yet active—you must defeat the monster first.

For some Trophy effects you must meet certain conditions before you can use them. If you cannot or do not want to do this, these Trophy effects are not available to you. All other effects or traits of defeated monster cards in your hand no longer have any effect.

Example: The Scutimorph has the following Trophy effect:

Battle: Destroy 1 hero. Trophy: You may destroy 1 Regular or 1 level 1 hero to gain additional Physical Attack +2.

You may choose not to destroy a hero. In that case, however, you also do not get the additional Physical Attack +2 from the Trophy effect.

React Abilities

Some cards offer you React abilities. You may use a React ability unexpectedly during any player's turn, usually to protect yourself or to help yourself. Each React ability tells you exactly when you may use it; its text describes the use clearly.

When you use a React ability, you show the card to all players and then carry out the text of the ability. Afterward, you take the card back into your hand. The React ability on a card may only be used once per turn.

You may use a React ability during any player's turn, as long as the conditions are met. If you have two (or more) identical cards with React abilities in hand and want to use several of them in the same turn, you must show all the corresponding cards. If several players want to use React abilities at the same time, the active player begins and the others follow in clockwise order.

Example: Swift Jack has the following React ability:

Physical Attack +4. React: After another player selects a monster with your marker to fight, that monster gains +2 Health. Aftermath: Place 1 marker on 1 monster in the dungeon (not a guardian).

You would like to attack the Scutimorph that Andreas marked with his Swift Jack on his last turn. Unfortunately, you don't know whether Andreas has another Swift (or even several) in hand, so you have to plan your fight against the monster carefully. The Scutimorph may end up being much stronger than it currently appears!

Ties

If an effect or ability refers to the "highest" or "weakest" card from a group, and 2 or more cards meet that criterion, the active player decides the tie.

Global Effects

Some truly powerful monsters have Global effects. These potent effects affect all players, heroes, and/or monsters. A Global effect remains active for as long as the monster is laid out in the dungeon. If a monster with a Global effect is removed from the dungeon for any reason, the Global effect ends immediately.

Multiple Global effects of the same kind are cumulative. Global effects are no longer taken into account for cards in your hand.

Guardians

The most powerful monsters in the dungeon deck are the guardians. They possess far greater powers than the other monsters. At the top stand the Thunderstone Bearers, the evil masters who hold the Thunderstones.

Guardians are shuffled into the dungeon deck (according to the rules given on page 11). When a guardian is placed into the dungeon, it behaves like any other monster.

Guardians are immune to all abilities or effects that would remove a monster from the dungeon without a fight, or that would force it to change position, until they are defeated. Guardians do not withdraw after winning a fight against you, and are never placed back beneath the dungeon deck.

Finally, a Thunderstone Bearer cannot be defeated in combat as long as there is still a regular guardian in the dungeon!

Treasures

The cards with a golden frame are treasures. You get them as additional rewards when you defeat certain monsters in combat. But you have to work especially hard for them!

The treasure randomizer card has the same back as the monster randomizer cards. When you prepare a random dungeon deck, simply shuffle all the monster randomizer cards together with the treasure randomizer cards. Then shuffle the treasure cards together with the monster cards. Of course, you can also play directly with treasures, without leaving it to chance.

If you draw a treasure card from the dungeon deck during the game, place it on the first empty position of the dungeon and draw another card. If it is another treasure, place it with the first treasure on the same position and draw yet another card. Repeat this process until you draw a monster. Place the monster on top of the treasure card(s). All the treasures are now guarded by the monster. In addition, the monster uses these treasures against you!

When you fight the monster in the dungeon, the traits, Battle effects, and Aftermath effects listed above the dividing line on the treasure cards apply as though they were printed on the monster card. If the monster is guarding two or more treasures, it gains all the effects and traits of the treasure cards beneath it.

If you defeat the monster, place the monster card and all the treasure cards beneath it on your discard pile. You have rightfully earned the prize! If you later draw a treasure card and take it into hand during the rest of the game, you use the traits and abilities below the dividing line—now the powers of the treasures belong to you!

If you do not defeat the monster, or the monster leaves the dungeon for some other reason, remove the treasures from the game and put them back in the box. The treasures are lost in the dark corridors of the dungeon. They become mysterious legends, still told in taverns years later.

Disease Cards: Iron Wind

Some effects cause you to suffer one or more diseases. These diseases are known as Iron Wind and lie on the face-down stack of disease cards. When you suffer a disease, you place it on your discard pile.

Diseases are not affected by monster traits or effects, unless these explicitly name diseases as their target. Diseases are special cards and count neither as village cards nor as monster cards.

You must subtract the attack penalty suffered from these diseases from either the Physical Attack or the Magic Attack, before other Battle effects are applied.

You can get rid of diseases in various ways. If you rest, you may choose and destroy a disease. Some heroes and village cards also allow you to destroy these cards. Diseases never come out of the game when you destroy them. Instead, you always place a destroyed disease face down beneath the disease card stack.

If several players receive diseases at once, the player to the left of the active player always takes 1 disease first, and the others follow in clockwise order. Should the disease card stack ever be empty (all diseases are in the players' decks), you're in luck, and you don't have to suffer a disease. If diseases are later destroyed during the game and become available again in the disease card stack, you must suffer diseases again if you are affected by the corresponding effects.

Zero and "No Value"

Neither Physical Attack nor Magic Attack can be reduced below zero. Darkness can reach any value, but it never reduces the total attack below zero. Strength likewise can never be reduced below the value zero. If a hero's Magic Attack is reduced to zero by an effect, the hero still has a Magic Attack, its value is simply zero. However, a value of zero (e.g. for Magic Attack) means that none of that thing is present, and thus a condition such as "Magic Attack is required" is not met.

"No value" has a different meaning than "zero." If, for example, you are supposed to discard a card with a gold value, you must choose a card with a gold value of zero or higher. You may not choose a card without any gold value at all (without the gold-sack symbol) in this case. By exactly the same rules, diseases have no gold cost and therefore cannot be chosen by you when a card with a gold cost is called for. This naturally does not mean that diseases cost zero gold—then they would have a symbol with the value zero. Diseases have no gold cost whatsoever and can never be bought.

End of Turn

As long as the Thunderstone Bearer has not reached position 1 in the dungeon or been defeated by you, you place all your hand cards on your discard pile, draw 6 new cards from your deck, and take them into hand.

All abilities and effects activated during your turn now end.

Now your left-hand neighbor continues the game with their turn.

Ending the Game and Victory

The game ends when the Thunderstone Bearer is defeated by a player, or reaches position 1 in the dungeon. If you remove a monster from position 1 and the Thunderstone Bearer advances to position 1, the game ends immediately after the end of your turn.

Each player now counts the victory points of all their cards in their deck, in hand, and on their discard pile, as well as any cards that, due to certain setting card effects, lie on a separate pile of their own. Look for the blue jewel in the lower right corner of your cards—that's where the victory points are shown.

Whoever among you has the most victory points wins the game! If several players are tied for the most victory points, whoever among those tied defeated the Thunderstone Bearer wins. If one of the other players defeated it, whoever among those tied has the most experience points wins.

Traits

This chapter lists all the traits that occur in Thunderstone. Not all of them are present in Thunderstone Advance – Numenera.

Darkness cannot be reduced: Light values and other card effects or card abilities cannot reduce the darkness. The darkness value for the affected monster always equals (or, due to negative effects, may even exceed) the value of its position in the dungeon.

Darkness +/- X: This trait changes the base value of darkness for the affected monster. Unlike a Battle effect, the trait is always active. Penalties from darkness are fixed values and are factored in during step 5 of the dungeon fight (Determine your total attack value), not beforehand as a Battle effect.

Ignores [something]: The [something] cannot contribute any advantage to the fight, whether directly or indirectly, including attack values, traits, abilities, effects, or light. The [something] is still present and can therefore be affected by Battle effects or Aftermath effects. This trait can also appear with the addition "...except." If you can meet this additional condition, it cancels the "Ignores" trait.

Immune to [something]: If a monster is immune to something specific, all attack values of that card are reduced to zero. The traits and abilities of that [something] still affect the monster. Any effects that don't directly concern the monster—such as light values, keywords, and modifications to another hero's attack values—are unaffected by this trait and may be used. This trait can also appear with the addition "...except." If you can meet this additional condition, it cancels the "Immune" trait.

Example: The level 1 hero Mystic has the following traits:

Physical Attack +1

Magic Attack +1

Even though the Chirog is immune to Magic Attack, that does not protect it against the Mystic's Physical Attack.

[Something] is required: Your band of heroes must have the named thing in order to fight the monster. This could be, for example, a sharp weapon, a Magic Attack, a cleric, or something else entirely. If you don't have the named thing in hand, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem, you cannot defeat that monster. If the named thing has a value (such as Magic Attack, Light, or Strength), that value must be greater than zero. You may still attack the monster even without the named thing, so that it withdraws from the dungeon and is placed back beneath the deck.

You may only choose the monster to fight if [something]: If your band of heroes does not have the named thing with them, you may not choose that monster to fight. The condition can be a specific hero type, a number of experience points, or something else entirely. You can neither defeat the monster nor lose against it in order to place it beneath the dungeon deck. If you enter the dungeon and cannot attack any monster at all, you end your turn (this counts as a failed attack).

You can only defeat the monster if/with/without [something]: If your band of heroes has/does not have the named thing with them, you cannot defeat the monster, regardless of total attack value, Health, etc. You may still attack the monster in order to place it beneath the dungeon deck.

Alternatives for Game Setup

With the following alternatives you can speed up the game setup or create alternative challenges.

Thematic Card Sets: We have put together several card sets suitable for both casual and tournament-style games. You'll find them on page 23. These card sets offer you diverse strategies with clever, sometimes more complex interactions between the various cards. Just try them all!

"4-4-4" Monster Distribution: After you have chosen the 3 monster groups, take 4 random level 2 monsters and 4 random level 3 monsters from them. Shuffle these 8 cards with the Thunderstone Bearer and set them face down as the bottom cards of the dungeon deck. Shuffle the level 1 monsters and fill the dungeon with these monsters. Then shuffle all the remaining monsters and place them face down on top of the dungeon deck. This preparation takes a bit longer, but guarantees an easier start to the game and a genuinely difficult ending.

Random Dungeon: Simply choose any 3 monster groups and shuffle them together as the dungeon deck. Shuffle a Thunderstone Bearer in with the bottom cards. Good luck fighting the monsters!

Custom Card Sets: There are, of course, countless other ways to assemble the village or the dungeon. Simply always choose different cards than you used in your last game. Deal out the randomizer cards and let all the players choose their favorite cards. Put together thematic card sets, e.g. a dungeon deck with all undead. Just always play however your group enjoys it most!

Solo Thunderstone

If you don't have any fellow players available, you can also enjoy Thunderstone Advance – Numenera alone. This solo variant requires only a few rule adjustments.

Set up the game according to the base game's rules, but do not yet place any monsters from the dungeon deck into the dungeon.

During your turn, you may visit the village, fight in the dungeon, prepare, or rest according to the known rules. At the end of your first turn, draw the top monster from the dungeon deck and place it on the highest position of the dungeon. On the following turns you always draw a new monster and place it again on the highest position of the dungeon. If a position already has a monster on it, you push that monster and all monsters directly in front of it forward by 1 position, toward the exit.

Once the dungeon is completely full, the foremost monster is pushed out of the dungeon from position 1. It reaches the village and attacks it! Place the monster face down on a monster scoring pile next to the village. This pile is your opponent: your goal is to have collected more victory points by the end of the game than lie in the monster scoring pile.

If you fight a monster and do not defeat it, you do not place it back beneath the dungeon deck. Instead, it goes onto the monster scoring pile. When you refill the dungeon at the end of your turn, you close the gap in the dungeon.

If you defeat a monster, you place it on your discard pile. Depending on the chosen difficulty level, one of the following now happens—there are two difficulty levels: easy and hard.

If you play the easy variant, you get a reward for the fight you won. At the end of your turn, you do not push the monsters further and do not draw a new card from the dungeon deck. You get a well-earned rest!

If you play the hard variant, you refill the dungeon at the end of your turn as described above.

Note that gaps arise in the dungeon from defeated or removed monsters, and these must be closed again by shifting the monsters before another monster can attack the village from position 1!

The game ends when you defeat the Thunderstone Bearer, or when the Thunderstone Bearer attacks the village and is placed on the monster scoring pile. If the Thunderstone Bearer is in the dungeon and the dungeon deck is empty, you continue to follow the rules given above and, at the end of each turn, shift the rearmost monsters by one position toward the exit, until the dungeon is completely empty.

Now add up all the victory points of your cards (hand cards, deck, and discard pile). Compare the total you achieved with all the victory points in the monster scoring pile. If you have achieved more victory points, you save the village from destruction and win the game! Otherwise, the village is overrun. Good luck on your next attempt.

Note: For this solo variant, we recommend that you not use any cards whose abilities let you place monsters back beneath the dungeon deck or change the order of the monsters in the dungeon.

Example of Play

The following example gives you an idea of how the various actions can play out in an actual game.

Andreas and Karsten have set up the game. The following 3 monsters lie in the dungeon:

Position 1: Stratharian War Moth
Position 2: Scutimorph
Position 3: Abycos

Turn 1:

Karsten looks at his hand cards. He has 3 Regulars, 1 Longspear, 1 Torch, and 1 Thunderstone Shard in hand.

With 5 gold he has the option, on a village visit, to buy one of the village cards on offer. Instead, he decides to attack directly! He enters the dungeon and lays out all his cards.

He equips a Regular with the Longspear and thus has a Physical Attack value of 4 and Light 1. He uses the Dungeon ability of the equipped Regular and draws 1 card: another Regular. This gives him a Physical Attack value of 5. Karsten looks at the monsters and chooses the Stratharian War Moth with 4 Health. Karsten has Light 1, which cancels out the darkness at position 1. The War Moth has no Battle effects or Aftermath effects, so Karsten simply defeats it. However, it does have a Spoils effect of its own. After defeating the monster, he uses the Thunderstone Shard and gains 1 additional experience point, so he now draws 2 experience points from the cloth bag.

Afterward Karsten pushes the monsters from positions 2 and 3 forward, reveals the top card of the dungeon deck (another Stratharian War Moth), and places it at position 3 in the dungeon. Finally he places all his cards on his discard pile and draws new cards. Since only 5 cards remain in his deck, he has to shuffle his discard pile and then draw the sixth card from the new deck.

Turn 2:

Andreas looks at his hand cards. He has 5 Regulars and 1 Torch—not really good starting cards in this game.

With 5 gold he has the option, on a village visit, to buy one of the offered village cards. But with only 2 gold he can't buy anything in the village. And even though Andreas would like to attack a monster in the dungeon, his Physical Attack value of 5 and Light 1 aren't enough. The Scutimorph and Abycos have too much Health, and the War Moth at position 3 is still surrounded by darkness with a value of 2, meaning Andreas would suffer an attack penalty of -4.

Heavy-hearted, he decides to rest. He reveals a Regular and destroys it. Normally, destroyed cards come out of the game, but the Regular is a basic card, so Andreas places it on the village stack with the other Regulars. He discards his hand cards and draws the remaining 6 cards of his deck.

Turn 3:

Karsten has 2 Regulars, 1 Longspear, 2 Torches, and 1 Thunderstone Shard in hand.

With 7 gold he decides on a village visit. He wants to have as fast a deck as possible, so he can soon start attacking the many easy opponents in the dungeon. His cards offer no Village abilities, so he simply buys 1 Mystic. Next, Karsten wants to level up one of his Regulars and spends his 2 experience points. He chooses a Stealthy, so that in the future he'll get 2 gold and a Village ability that lets him effectively improve his deck. Even though this hero group only has low attack values, the higher levels are very helpful in the dungeon. Finally, Karsten discards all his cards and draws 6 new ones from his deck.

Turn 4:

The remaining cards give Andreas a good opportunity to buy a village card. He decides on a Strong. With a Physical Attack +3, he is the strongest hero on offer, and since you cannot level up a Regular into this hero group, there's only one way to recruit one: hard-earned gold, plain and simple. Andreas buys this hero, discards his cards, and draws new hand cards. Since his deck is empty, he first has to shuffle his discard pile and set it up again as his new deck.

Turn 5:

Karsten's hand cards aren't as good this time. He has 3 Regulars, 1 Longspear, 1 Thunderstone Shard, and the Stratharian War Moth he defeated on turn 1 in hand. But 5 gold is nothing to sneeze at, especially with the help of the War Moth's Trophy effect (additional Light +1), since none of the monsters in the dungeon can be defeated anyway. So Karsten visits the village and buys a Partisan. This weapon will give him 2 gold in the future and works well with Regulars and Longspears. Karsten discards his cards and draws the last card of his deck. After shuffling his discard pile, he draws the remaining 5 cards.

Turn 6:

This time Andreas has strong hand cards. His Strong is accompanied by 2 Regulars, 2 Longspears, and 1 Torch. With a total attack value of 7, he can defeat the Scutimorph, which by now stands at position 1. But this monster gives Andreas a few problems, so he has to carry out his turn carefully.

The Scutimorph has a Battle effect that destroys 1 hero, and this effect is carried out before the outcome of the fight is decided. Andreas checks his options once more and first equips a Regular with a Longspear. He draws 1 Thunderstone Shard, which will be great in the event of a win but for now offers no benefit to the fight. Andreas could now equip the second Regular with the other Longspear to draw yet another card. If he does this and then fails to draw another hero, he cannot defeat the Scutimorph—his heroes would then have attack values of +3, +2, +2, but if one of them is destroyed by the Scutimorph's Battle effect, the total attack value would only be at most 5—not enough for a win. Instead, Andreas decides to play it safe and equips the Strong with the Longspear. This hero is strong enough to carry the Longspear, and now has an attack value of +4. Andreas attacks the Scutimorph. As the victim of the Battle effect he chooses the unarmed Regular, so that his total attack value remains at +6. Together with his Light +1, he defeats the monster! He uses the Spoils effect of the Thunderstone Shard for 1 additional experience point. Unfortunately, it's still not enough to level up the Strong after this successful fight.

Andreas pushes the two remaining monsters forward and fills the dungeon with a Jiriskar. This is a powerful opponent, and it will take a little while before one of the two players is strong enough to take on this fight.

Turn 7:

Karsten reveals 1 Regular, his Stealthy, 2 Torches, and 2 Thunderstone Shards.

Not great cards for fighting in the dungeon, but good cards for a village visit. Thanks to the Village ability of the Stealthy, Karsten can buy 2 cards, so he decides on 2 Bio-salvagers. He likes the ability, which lets him draw further cards, and hopes to defeat another monster next round, which would then be supported in his deck by the presence of these two villagers. He has to split his 8 gold between both purchases. Finally he discards his cards and draws 6 new ones.

Turn 8:

Andreas has 3 Regulars, 2 Thunderstone Shards, and 1 Longspear in hand. He looks at the two monsters at positions 1 and 2 in the dungeon. Regardless of which of these monsters Karsten manages to defeat on his next turn, Andreas judges his chances good of defeating the other one by drawing the right cards. He decides to prepare, placing 1 Longspear and 1 Regular back on top of his deck and discarding the other cards. Then he ends his turn and draws 6 new cards. With 1 Strong, 2 Torches, 2 Regulars, and 1 Longspear, it looks like a successful fight in the dungeon is coming up!

Scenarios

The Ancient Evil

Your next journey takes you deep into the wilderness. With a small number of well-equipped and cautious heroes (fortunately, they're equipped with powerful weapons), you face combat against Sarrak. But beware of the Ancient Ones. They are truly the stuff of nightmares—creatures that strike from the darkness and must be fought in ways you have never experienced before.

Use the wilderness side of the game board.

Heroes	Village Cards	Monsters
Rugged	Warder	Ancient One
Clever	Bio-energy Cutter	Beast
Strong-willed	Bio-salvager	Bandit • Raider
Tough	Nevajin	Sarrak (Thunderstone Bearer)
	Dart Thrower
	Backpack
	Punch Dagger
	Ray Emitter

In Search of the Convergence Master

Your final challenge is to find someone known only by the name Convergence Master. In this final challenge you will meet some of the strongest opponents this ninth world can hurl at you. The Doomladen will attack you constantly, and the greatest monsters you have ever seen await you. At the end comes the master himself, ever ready to draw on the powers of his fallen minions and rob you of a victory you thought secure. Amid all these dangers, the Abhuman offer you a little help, even if they can be deadly in their own way. Will you take on the greatest task you have ever faced?

Use the dungeon side of the game board.

Heroes	Village Cards	Monsters
Graceful	Warder	Automaton
Aeon Priest	Village Jack	Monstrosity
Charming	Mental Scramber	Abhuman
Intelligent	Unstable Crystals	Convergence Master (Thunderstone Bearer)
	Phase Disruptor
	Shield Bearer
	Shock Nodule
	Disruption Blade

Card Glossary

This chapter gives rulings for individual cards whose interactions with the rules are not immediately obvious.

Basic Cards

Longspear. Longspears are polearms. If you draw a Longspear as part of a Dungeon ability and can equip it to a laid-out Regular, you may then use the newly-armed Regular's Dungeon ability to draw a further card.

Regular. The Regular is a level 0 hero. To use its Dungeon ability, you must equip it with a polearm.

Village Cards

Fearmaker. Fearmaker has no cumulative effect; you only get a single additional turn after your regular turn, regardless of whether you activate the Aftermath effects of several present Fearmakers at once.

Warder. You may look at the top card of any deck you like. That may be your own deck, a fellow player's, the disease/curse deck, the dungeon deck, or, if you are using older editions of Thunderstone, the familiar deck or the minion deck.

Bio-energy Cutter. The affected players choose the card they must discard from their hand.

Unstable Crystals. The trait of these items takes effect immediately every time 3 crystals are present. This happens when you draw cards. If you already have 2 in hand and draw 1 more crystal, the effect takes place immediately.

Shock Nodule. You never gain more than 8 cards, even if you use the Dungeon ability of several of these cards at once. Only if other card effects or card abilities let you discard or destroy cards can you draw again, thanks to a second Shock Nodule, until you again have 8 cards in hand.

Ray Emitter. If you defeat, for example, a monster at position 2, you gain 2 experience points.

Hero Cards

Swift/Rugged. At the start of the game, each player chooses a color and takes the corresponding marker tokens for this hero group. To use 1 marker token, place it on 1 monster in the dungeon. If the monster leaves the dungeon for any reason, you get your token back. You may only place 1 marker token per player on each monster, but each player may have 1 token on every monster. You must carry out the Aftermath effect before the dungeon is refilled. To use the React ability, you must show a fellow player one of these heroes from your hand when the monster is chosen by a player, before any Battle effect is carried out.

Learned. Remember that you may discard cards whose abilities you have already used. So you may first use the abilities of other cards, then discard using this hero group's ability to draw additional cards.

Stealthy. This hero group is stronger than it appears. A level 1 hero that offers both 2 gold and an additional purchase is strong. Once they offer a purchase in the dungeon starting at level 2, this is a serious advantage for quickly improving your deck. And if you may take the bought card straight into hand, you might even be able to immediately level up a newly-bought hero during a village visit!

Intelligent. This hero group increases your total attack value through its React ability when cards are destroyed by Battle effects. Starting at level 2, they can react to their own Dungeon ability when it destroys a card. It can also react to destruction caused by Aftermath effects, even if that no longer affects the outcome of the fight.

Clever. If you use this hero's trait starting at level 2, they lose any weapon equipped to them at that moment. You may not re-equip that weapon to another hero. However, you may equip a Clever with a weapon, use the weapon's Dungeon ability, and then use the Clever's trait so that it drops the weapon again.

Strong. You may not level up this card during a village visit. This hero group may only be leveled up through its own Spoils ability. These heroes have no normal experience-point cost printed in the lower left corner, so this cost also cannot be paid.

Monster Cards

Penumbra Fiend. It is dark if your present cards don't have enough light points to completely extinguish the darkness.

Lavrik-ca. If this monster has zero Health, you may attack it even without any attack value at all. You need light with a value of at least 4 to achieve this, regardless of the actual value of the darkness at the monster's position.

Philethis. If you bring enough light, you may attack the monster even if you have no attack value at all. You need light with a value of at least 5 to achieve this, regardless of the actual value of the darkness at the monster's position.

Stellar Weaver. It is dark if your present cards don't have enough light points to completely extinguish the darkness.

Syzygy Ghoul. The number of cards depends on your light points before you use this ability. If the drawn cards give or remove light, this has no further effect. If, for example, you have light with a value of 3, you may draw 3 cards.

Zhev / Automaton group. Remember that "present" means all cards in your hand, not the monsters in the dungeon. This monster group interacts with monsters you have already defeated and hold in your discard pile.

Convergence Master. Remember that "present" means all cards in your hand, not the monsters in the dungeon.

Phylethis. The level of the monster is shown next to the keywords.

Warrior Host / Infected group. Remember that "present" means all cards in your hand, not the monsters in the dungeon.

Terror Bird. If you decide to fight in the dungeon and have a Doomladen in hand, you must fight a Terror Bird in the dungeon because of the Global effect. However, you may still carry out the other actions, e.g. visit the village instead.

Bandit Warrior / Bandit Taskmaster. Remember that you decide the order in which all effects are carried out, so some effects may end up having no effect on you.

Yellow Swarm. To defeat this monster, you need both Magic Attack and Physical Attack.

Edacious Destroyer / Night Howler. To defeat these monsters, you need both Magic Attack and Physical Attack. If only one attack type is present, it counts as both the higher and the lower value, so these monsters are immune to it.

Abycos / Ultraterrestrial group. If you play a game where this monster group faces the Swift hero group, your opponents may be able to make these monsters unbeatable. If the monsters are marked, they may gain so much additional Health that the total attack allowed by the trait is no longer enough.

Murden. It is dark if your present cards don't have enough light points to completely extinguish the darkness.

Sathosh. If you move this monster to position 3, you shift the monsters at positions 2 and 3 forward accordingly.

Treasure Cards

Dimensional Armor. Only once all Battle effects have been carried out do you check the monster's position to possibly gain Light +1. This means monsters such as Sathosh can still be moved within the dungeon by their own Battle effects.

Veil Spike. This refers to the current, possibly modified, attack value of the weapon at the moment the Battle effect is carried out.

Cellular Disrupter. If the monster is, for example, level 2, you must destroy 2 cards, plus an additional 1 hero.

Setting Cards

Every time the 20-sided die is rolled, the newly determined effect replaces the previous effect. The previous effect stops applying; there are no cumulative effects on setting cards.

Worked example, Obelisk of the Water God: The first player rolls the d20 at the start of the game. The respective abilities and effects remain active for all players until the next die roll. Every time a player defeats a level 3 monster, they roll the d20 again.

1: Global: Suffer 1 disease after you defeat a monster.
2–16: Global: Suffer 1 disease after you defeat a Doomladen.
17–18: Spoils: If you have defeated a Doomladen, destroy 1 disease.
19–20: Dungeon: Shuffle any monsters (not guardians) from the dungeon with the top 10 cards of the dungeon deck. Refill the dungeon. Guardians remain in their positions.

The other 5 setting cards (Amber Monolith, Foundation Stone, The Beanstalk, The Orgorek, The Twisted Spire) work the same way: each is read aloud, and its printed die-roll table is consulted whenever its trigger occurs. Their full texts are not printed in the rulebook itself (only on the oversized setting cards), so they are not reproduced here.

Lexicon

Discard pile. This is where all your discarded cards go. You only shuffle your discard pile when your deck is empty and you need to draw or reveal another card.

Discard. You place cards on your discard pile. When cards must be discarded, the affected player always decides for themselves which cards to discard, unless an effect requires otherwise.

Action. You choose the place you visit on your turn: village visit, fight in the dungeon, prepare, or rest.

Active player. The player who is taking their turn.

Attack. The unspecified form of Physical Attack and/or Magic Attack. This term is used on some cards, e.g. curses or certain traits.

Attack penalty. You suffer an attack penalty when the darkness is greater than the light you bring into the dungeon. Your band of heroes is hindered by the gloom and fights less effectively.

Attack value. The sum of a single hero's total Physical Attack and Magic Attack. A hero's attack value includes all equipped weapons and other effects that influence this value.

Present. All cards you have laid out in front of you and may use during your turn. This includes cards you draw during your turn. Destroyed or discarded cards do not count as present. If you play with older editions of Thunderstone, cards that remain permanently laid out in front of you, such as familiars, also count as present.

Equip. You equip heroes with weapons. To do this, the hero's Strength must be equal to or greater than the weapon's Weight.

Defeat. A monster is considered defeated when you follow the steps for fighting in the dungeon and win the fight. If the monster ends up on your discard pile some other way, it does not count as defeated (unless a card's text says otherwise).

Spoils effect. Some cards offer you this effect, which is carried out after you defeat a monster.

Village. This is where the villagers live. During a village visit you may strengthen your deck by buying new cards, and level up heroes.

Village ability. Some cards offer you this ability when you visit the village.

Village card. A card with a green border that, instead of a hero, offers other things and people.

Village stack. All village cards or basic cards with the same name form separate village stacks laid out in the village.

Dungeon. This is where the monsters live and await the fights against your band of heroes. The monsters lie at specific positions, beginning with position 1 at the entrance to the dungeon, farthest from the dungeon deck.

Dungeon deck. The face-down stack containing all the monster cards that will still enter the dungeon.

Dungeon ability. Some cards offer you this ability when you enter the dungeon to fight.

Darkness. It is dark in the dungeon. You suffer the effects of darkness in that the value of the darkness is subtracted from your total attack value. You can offset the darkness with light.

Breach effect. Some monsters have this effect, which is carried out when the monster reaches position 1 of the dungeon.

Experience point. You gain experience points after winning fights and through some effects or abilities. You may use experience points to level up heroes and to use certain cards' special abilities, or spend them as a cypher for one-time boosts.

Aftermath effect. Some monsters have this effect, which is carried out after you have compared your total attack value to the Health value. This effect is always carried out, regardless of whether you win or lose the fight.

Total attack value. The sum of all the Physical and Magic Attacks of the hand cards you have laid out in the same turn, including all bonuses and penalties. This includes bonuses from spells and penalties from darkness. This value decides whether you defeat a monster.

Total gold value. The total gold values of all laid-out hand cards, abilities, and effects within your turn, including all bonuses and penalties. This value is available to you for buying cards in the village.

Weight. The weight of a weapon. A hero's Strength must be equal to or greater than the weapon's Weight in order for you to equip them with that weapon.

Global effect. Some monsters have this effect, which permanently affects all players for as long as the monster is in the dungeon.

Gold cost. The cost of a card that you can buy in the village.

Gold value. The amount of gold you gain from a card, ability, or effect, which you can use to buy cards.

Hand cards. All the cards you have drawn and have available during your turn. During a village visit or a fight in the dungeon, you lay out all your hand cards face up in front of you; for the other actions, you show only individual cards or hold them all face down in hand in front of the other players. Any further cards you draw during your turn through abilities or effects also count as hand cards. Discarded or destroyed cards do not count as hand cards.

Hero stack. The heroes of a certain type lie sorted by level as a hero stack in the village. During a village visit, you may always buy the top hero of a hero stack instead of a village card. When you level up a hero, you look for the next-higher level in the corresponding hero stack. Hero stacks do not count as village stacks.

Level up. You may level up heroes at the end of a village visit. The hero cards show the experience-point cost you must pay to do so. A hero may only be leveled up to the next-higher level once per turn; you may not skip a level. You destroy the old hero and then look for the new hero card in the hero stack. Unlike buying a hero, the next-higher level does not need to be on top of the hero stack.

Fight. The fight lasts from the moment you choose 1 monster to fight, until the moment you place the defeated monster on your discard pile and gain experience points, or until you place the victorious monster beneath the dungeon deck.

Battle effect. Some monsters have this effect, which is carried out before you compare your total attack value to the monster's Health.

Show a card. You must occasionally show cards to other players, usually during another player's turn. Afterward you take the card back into your hand.

Health. The value on a monster card that your total attack value must reach or exceed in order to defeat the monster. This value can be changed by traits, abilities, and effects. Darkness has no effect on the Health value.

Light/light value. Light reduces the darkness in the dungeon. If a trait requires that "there is light," at least one of your hand cards must have a light value, regardless of its actual value. If a trait requires that "there is no light present," you may not have a single hand card with a light value. If a trait requires that "it must be dark," you may have hand cards with light values, as long as their total value is lower than the value of the darkness.

Trait. Rules text on a card that is neither an ability nor an effect, and always counts as active. For example, immunity, attack, bonuses, etc.

Monster. A card with a red border from the dungeon deck, which you must defeat in combat in order to gain its victory points.

Raid effect. Some monsters have this effect, which is carried out when the monster is placed into the dungeon.

React ability. Some cards offer you this ability, letting you react to something. You may play these effects at any time in the situations named on the cards.

Keyword. The terms beneath the card name that describe the card type.

Victory point. You count the victory points of all your cards (hand cards, discard pile, and deck) at the end of the game. The player with the most victory points wins the game!

Strength. A hero's ability to be equipped with a weapon. A hero's Strength must be equal to or greater than the weapon's Weight in order for them to be equipped with that weapon. If a hero's Strength is reduced below the weapon's Weight, they lose the equipped weapon.

Starting deck. The cards in your deck at the start of the game. The starting deck consists of 6 Regulars, 2 Longspears, 2 Torches, and 2 Thunderstone Shards.

Trophy effect. Some monsters have this effect, which is carried out when the monster is present in your hand. If a monster has a light value, this counts as a Trophy effect. Trophy effects must always be carried out. Some Trophy effects additionally specify village or dungeon, and may only be applied there.

Repeat. A modifier for some Village abilities or Dungeon abilities. Through Repeat you may carry out an ability as many times as you like, as long as you can meet the conditions.

Destroy. You remove a destroyed card from the game and put it back in the box.

Credits

Author: Mike Elliott

Additional Design: Joe Babbitt, Will M. Baker, Edward Bolme, Curt Crane, Jeff Quick, Mark Wootton

Development: Joe Babbitt, Will M. Baker, Curt Crane, Jeff Quick, Mark Wootton

Art Direction: Jeff Quick, Todd Rowland

Cover Design: Kieran Yanner

Graphic Design: Kalissa Fitzgerald

Rulebook Editing: Edward Bolme, Jeff Quick, Mark Wootton

Editing: Edward Bolme

Proofreading: Will M. Baker, Edward Bolme, Brandon Waite, Mark Wootton

Layout and Typesetting: Edward Bolme, Kalissa Fitzgerald

Production: Dave Lepore

Brand Management: Jeff Quick, Mark Wootton

Playtesters: Jim Baal, Will M. Baker, Aitor Bartolome, Eli Brown, Yannick Carlinet, William Collie, Kristin Crane, Jason Crognale, Melissa Cynova, Sam Fleming, Jim Getz, Sam Gibbs, Matt Hoyt, Brian Johnson, Viktor Koch, Hanák Pál Loránd, Nico Marquart, Rob McNair, Keith Miller, Tammie Miller, Enrique García Ostos, Cindy Proffitt, Jason Profitt, Jacek Pszczolkowski, Meredith Quick, Joe Rapier, Jamie Ross, Rob Searing, Mystery Shopper, James Stewart, Matt Vignau, Charles Washington, Joanna Zasadny.

Special Thanks: The Thunderstone team would like to thank Kay Wilke and Aitor Bartolome for their fast and dedicated work and their playtesting tools.

German Edition

Translation and Realization: Henning Kröpke

Typesetting and Layout: Christine Conrad

A special thanks goes to Stefan Malz.

Pegasus Spiele GmbH, Straßheimer Straße 2, 61169 Friedberg, under license from Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG).

www.pegasus.de • www.thunderstone.eu

Setup Overview

Assembling the Starting Decks

Each player receives 1 deck of 12 cards.
Shuffle your deck and draw 6 cards.

Preparing the Dungeon

Determine random monster groups.
Prepare the dungeon deck.
Fill the dungeon with monsters.
Set out disease cards and experience tokens.

Preparing the Village

Set out basic cards.
Determine random hero cards.
In the hero stack, the heroes of the highest level lie at the bottom, the level 1 heroes at the very top.
Determine random village cards.

Turn Reference

Visit the Village

Use any Village abilities and carry out all Trophy effects (page 16).
Buy 1 card (page 17).
Level up heroes (page 17).

Fight in the Dungeon

Use any Dungeon abilities, equip weapons, and carry out all Trophy effects (page 18).
Choose 1 monster to fight.
Carry out all Battle effects (page 20).
Determine your total attack value and see who wins the fight (page 21).
Carry out all Aftermath effects (page 21).
Place an undefeated monster face down beneath the dungeon deck.
Place a defeated monster on your discard pile and take the corresponding experience points.
Carry out all Spoils effects (page 22).
Push all monsters forward into empty positions and refill the highest position.
Carry out all Raid effects and Breach effects (page 22).

Prepare

Place any number of hand cards back on top of your deck. Place the remaining cards on your discard pile.

Rest

Destroy 1 card of your choice from your hand. Place the remaining cards on your discard pile.

Experience Points as Cyphers

Blue: Draw 1 card.
Gray: Destroy 1 card.
Green: Additional Magic Attack +1.
Orange: Gain 2 gold.
Red: Additional Physical Attack +1.
Yellow: Additional Light +1.

Thunderstone Advance: Numenera Rulebook

Table of Contents

The Ninth World
Object
Contents
- Game Cards
- Other Items
Complete Card List
Setup
Gameplay
Additional Rules
Ending the Game and Victory
Traits
Alternatives for Game Setup
Solo Thunderstone
Example of Play
Scenarios
- The Ancient Evil
- In Search of the Convergence Master
Card Glossary
Lexicon
Credits
- German Edition
Setup Overview
Turn Reference
Experience Points as Cyphers

The Ninth World

The Damnation was defeated and driven into exile—already for the second time.

There are worse places to live, you still think, as sleep overtakes you after a long patrol through the Strathbhennie Woods.

This world resembles nothing you have ever seen. The shapes, the buildings, the landscape—unreal, and yet very human...

Diary of a warrior, date unknown:

Object

Aside from this rulebook, Thunderstone Advance – Numenera includes the following components:

Game Cards

Hero Card Breakdown. Keywords; Card Name; Class Icon; Level; Gold Value (if any); Strength; Light Value (if any); Gold Cost; Attack Value, Traits, and Abilities; Experience Points to Level Up (if any); Victory Points (if any).

Village Card Breakdown. Keywords; Card Name; Gold Value (if any); Weight (for weapons); Light Value (if any); Gold Cost; Traits, Abilities, and Effects; Victory Points (if any).

Monster Card Breakdown. Keywords; Card Name; Gold Value; Health; Light—as a trophy effect after the monster is defeated (if any); Level; Traits, Abilities, and Effects; Victory Points; Experience Points.

Other Items

Thunderstone Advance – Numenera includes further useful game materials that help you while playing.

Randomizer Cards. Randomizer cards let you assemble ever-new card sets for your games by drawing them from a special deck that contains one copy of most card types.

There are 3 different kinds of randomizer cards: village cards, heroes, and monsters. There are no randomizer cards for Thunderstone Bearers, special cards, or basic cards.

Setting Cards. The setting cards depict various regions of Numenera. Their text describes the respective effects of that setting.

Die. The 20-sided die is used together with the setting cards to determine random events.

Complete Card List

Thunderstone Advance – Numenera contains a total of 597 cards. Please check while unpacking that the following cards are in the box:

Basic Cards (81 total)

16 Torch cards
20 Longspear cards
45 Regular cards

Village Cards (176 total — 8 of each village card, exceptions noted)

Fearmaker
Warder
Bio-energy Cutter
Bio-salvager
Chemical Injector
Village Jack
Village Headman
Mental Scramber
Paired Swords
Unstable Crystals (16 copies)
Nevajin
Partisan
Dart Thrower
Phase Disruptor
Backpack
Shield Bearer
Shock Nodule
Disruption Blade
Punch Dagger
Ray Emitter
Retaliation Nodule

Hero Cards (156 total—12 of each hero: six level 1, four level 2, two level 3)

Aeon Priest
Graceful
Charming
Swift
Learned
Rugged
Stealthy
Intelligent
Clever
Mystic
Strong
Strong-willed
Tough

Monster Cards (103 total—10 in each monster group plus 3 Thunderstone Bearers)

Ancient One • Level 3

Penumbra Fiend (2)
Lavrik-ca (1)
Philethis (2)
Stellar Weaver (3)
Syzygy Ghoul (2)

Automaton • Level 2

Dark Fathom (2)
Mastigophore (2)
Guardian Automaton (2)
Disassembler (2)
Zhev (2)

Beast • Level 1

Blood Barm (2)
Broken Hound (2)
Ithsyn (2)
Seskii (2)
Thuman (2)

Bandit • Raider • Level 2

Bandit Warrior (2)
Bandit Warlord (2)
Bandit Killer (2)
Mounted Raider (2)
Bandit Taskmaster (2)

Horror • Level 3

Erynth Grask (3)
Yellow Swarm (2)
Edacious Destroyer (2)
Night Howler (1)
Tetrahydra (2)

Infected • Level 2

Warrior Host (2)
Ocular Host (2)
Ravage Bear (2)
Terror Bird (3)
Tactile Host (1)

Monstrosity • Level 3

Callerail (2)
Cragworm (2)
Jiriskar (2)
Mesomeme (2)
Travonis Ul (2)

Ultraterrestrial • Level 2

Abycos (2)
Ellnoica (2)
Jurulisk (2)
Nibovian Wife (2)
Pallone (2)

Abhuman • Level 1

Chirog (2)
Culova (2)
Margr (2)
Murden (2)
Sathosh (2)

Verminous • Level 1

Laak (2)
Steel Spider (1)
Slicer Beetle (2)
Scutimorph (2)
Stratharian War Moth (3)

Thunderstone Bearers

Sarrak (1)
Convergence Master (1)
Phylethis (1)

Treasure Cards (6 total)

Stunner (1)
Veil Spike (1)
Dimensional Armor (2)
Quark Accipter (1)
Cellular Disrupter (1)

Special Cards (30 total)

10 Thunderstone Shard cards
20 Disease – Iron Wind cards

Randomizer Cards (45 total)

21 village randomizer cards
13 hero randomizer cards
11 monster randomizer cards

Setup

When you open the game for the first time, first unpack the components. Then you can set up the game.

Unpacking the Box

First, carefully remove the various tokens from the punch-out sheets. Put the marker tokens in the box and the experience tokens in the bag.

Once you have laid out all the stacks, separate the randomizer cards into 3 separate stacks of village, hero, and monster randomizer cards. You can tell them apart easily by their different backs.

Assemble the starting decks by stacking the following cards together: 6 Regulars, 2 Longspears, 2 Torches, and 2 Thunderstone Shards. This gives you 5 stacks.

Preparing to Play

First Game Setup

Thunderstone Bearer: Phylethis
Village Cards: Chemical Injector, Village Headman, Mental Scramber, Paired Swords, Partisan, Backpack, Shield Bearer, Retaliation Nodule
Heroes: Learned, Stealthy, Mystic, Strong
Monsters: Horror, Ultraterrestrial, Verminous

The game is set up in 3 steps: preparing the dungeon, populating the village with life, and putting the finishing touches on everything with final preparations.

Selecting the Monsters

Shuffle the monster randomizer cards and reveal cards until you have found one monster group each of level 1, 2, and 3. You'll find the level of the respective monster group directly beneath the name, among the keywords. If you reveal a level a second time that you've already drawn, set that randomizer card aside and draw a new card as a replacement.
If you draw one or more dungeon-trait randomizer cards, set them together with the monster randomizer cards and use them in this game. This means you add further cards, such as treasures and traps, to the dungeon deck. If you have already selected a treasure group, set aside any further treasure randomizer cards.
If you draw a guardian randomizer card, choose 1 random guardian from all the available guardians.
Look for the groups of monsters, traps, and/or treasures in the box that match the randomizer cards and set them aside. These cards form the dungeon deck. Set aside any guardian cards you have drawn for now. Depending on the additional dungeon-trait randomizer cards drawn, the dungeon deck consists of 30 to 44 cards. Put the monster randomizer cards back in the box; you no longer need them for the current game.

Note: There are no guardians (other than the 3 Thunderstone Bearers) or traps in Thunderstone Advance – Numenera. The rules for a game with traps and guardians are listed below only for completeness, in case you play with already-available or future editions of the Thunderstone series that contain these cards.

So that your fellow players also get a good overview of the monsters, you should calmly show them the chosen randomizer cards.

Once you have selected the enemies, you now prepare the dungeon.

Preparing the Dungeon

Place the game board on the table so that all players can reach it easily.
Shuffle all the cards of the dungeon deck (monsters, treasures, and/or traps).
Count out 10 cards from the stack and choose 1 Thunderstone Bearer for this game. Shuffle this Thunderstone Bearer together with the 10 cards, then place these 11 cards face down as the bottom cards of the dungeon deck on the Dungeon Deck space on the game board.
If you have chosen 1 additional guardian, count out another 10 cards from the stack and shuffle the guardian together with these cards. Place the 11 cards on top of the other 11 cards on the Dungeon Deck space on the game board.
Place the remaining shuffled monster cards face down on top of these cards. All these cards together form the dungeon deck.
Now draw cards from the dungeon deck and lay them out face up, one at a time, onto the empty spaces of the dungeon.
If you draw one or more traps and/or treasures, place them back underneath the dungeon deck. Draw further cards from the dungeon deck until only monsters occupy the spaces of the dungeon. Also ignore any Raid or Breach effects during this setup.

The dungeon is now set up. Next comes the village, where you will later improve your deck through the purchase of heroes, items, weapons, villagers, and spells!

Populate the Village

Now it's time to set up the village, so you can see what things are available to you.

Set aside the following number of basic cards per player: 3 Regulars, 2 Longspears, and 1 Torch each. Place the Regulars on the first village space for heroes, the Longspears on the first village space for weapons, and the Torches on the first village space for items. These village spaces are marked with the names of these cards.
Shuffle the hero randomizer cards and reveal the top 4 cards. Look for the hero types matching the randomizer cards in the box and place their cards on the matching village spaces. The hero cards must be sorted within each stack, with the level 1 heroes on top, the level 2 heroes beneath them, and so on, so that the heroes of the highest level lie at the very bottom of the stack. To make sorting easier, the level of each hero is shown next to the keywords, and each of these heroes has its own name.
Shuffle the village randomizer cards. Reveal one randomizer card after another, look for the matching village cards in the box each time, and place them on one of the village spaces of the corresponding category. For example, you would place the Paired Swords on one of the spaces for weapons. On both sides of the game board, the village spaces indicate how many cards of a category should be used at most, so that games aren't too unbalanced. If you reveal a randomizer card and all the spaces of that category are already filled, simply set that card aside and draw a new randomizer card. Repeat this process until you have filled 8 village spaces with village cards (plus the two basic cards Torch and Longspear). Note that not all village spaces will be filled! Even though following the game board's guidelines is genuinely recommended, you can of course ignore the guidelines and play with a purely random distribution of village cards. To do this, simply take the first 8 village randomizer cards.

Finishing Touches

Finish the game setup.

If one of the monster randomizer cards instructs you to use the Iron Wind disease deck, place it face down on the Disease Deck space on the game board.
Place the bag with experience tokens next to the game board. (Neither the disease deck nor the bag belongs to the dungeon or the village.)
If you want to play with one of the setting cards, either draw one randomly from the shuffled stack, or choose one together with your fellow players. See page 23 for details on setting cards.
Each player takes their own starting deck, shuffles it carefully, and places it face down in front of them. Now each player draws 6 cards from their own deck and takes them into hand.

Now you are ready for the game!

Gameplay

Overview

Unlike other card games, the cards you gain do not remain in play. Instead, they end up in your deck. Also, on your turn you don't just play 1 card and then discard it.

On each turn, you choose one of the following 4 options:

Visit the Village: You buy new cards for your deck.
Fight in the Dungeon: You fight 1 monster.
Prepare: You try to improve your hand cards for the next turn.
Rest: You may destroy 1 unwanted hand card.

Each of these 4 options helps you refine the makeup of your deck and change the selection of cards you can draw in the following turns.

Key Concepts

Thunderstone has a few fundamental concepts. Please keep the following points in mind as you continue reading the rulebook.

The Golden Rule

Decks, Discard Piles, and Hand Cards

At the start of the game, all players have an identical deck of 12 cards. During the game you will change your deck entirely as you wish.

All card effects affect your hand cards, unless the text describes a different target.

Destroying Cards

Some effects in the game destroy a card. When a card is destroyed, it comes out of the game. Exceptions apply to the destruction of diseases and basic cards.

Destroyed diseases (Iron Wind) are placed back on the disease card stack, since there is an unlimited supply of these cards.

Abilities

Village: These abilities give you extra gold, extra cards, or other benefits when you visit the village.
Dungeon: These abilities strengthen your band of heroes in combat against the monsters.
React: You may use these abilities at any time, even during a fellow player's turn.
Spoils: These abilities grant you bonuses when you defeat monsters in combat.

Example: The level 1 hero Charming has the following repeatable ability:

Repeat Village: Destroy 1 disease to draw 1 card.

When you use an ability, its effect takes place immediately and lasts until the end of the turn. Only the cards that have already been played at that point are affected by this effect.

Example: Your hero Tough Glaive is equipped with a weapon and has the following Dungeon ability:

Dungeon: If this hero is equipped, draw 1 card.

You also have 1 spell in hand, Retaliation Nodule, with the following Dungeon ability:

Dungeon: Additional Magic Attack +1 for each hero class present.

Effects

Aftermath: This effect takes place as soon as you have finished the fight against a monster, regardless of which side wins the fight.
Battle: This effect takes place once you have chosen a monster to fight, but before the fight is resolved.
Breach: This effect takes place only once, when the monster reaches position 1 in the dungeon (this effect does not exist in Thunderstone Advance – Numenera).
Global: This effect is always in effect and affects all players.
Raid: This effect takes place when the monster is placed into the dungeon.
Trophy: This effect takes place when the monster is in your hand.

Traits

Trait text is always active and always applies, as long as the cards lie in front of you. If your laid-out cards change, the trait immediately adjusts and may change its effect.

Do as Much as You Can

Visit the Village

Lay your hand cards face up in front of you (mandatory).
Use any Village abilities (optional) and use all Trophy effects (mandatory). You may choose the order freely.
Add up all the gold values of the cards laid out and buy 1 hero or 1 village card (optional).
Level up laid-out heroes using your collected experience tokens. You may level up as many heroes as you like, as long as you can spend enough experience points. Each hero, however, may only be leveled up once per turn (optional).

Afterward you end your turn (see page 26).

A detailed example of play follows on page 30.

1. Lay Your Hand Cards Face Up in Front of You

You must lay out all your hand cards and thus bring them along to the village visit, even if that could work against you.

2. Use Village Abilities and Trophy Effects

Some general rules for using Village abilities:

You may use each Village ability only once per turn.
If you must discard a card because of a Village ability, place it on your discard pile immediately.
If a card is destroyed by a Village ability, remove it from the game immediately.
You may not use a card's Village ability if that card has already been discarded or destroyed by other Village abilities this turn.
You may not destroy a card whose Village ability you have already used, unless the affected card destroys itself through its own Village ability.
You may discard a card whose Village ability you have already used.

Example: The level 1 hero Rugged has an ability that can be used either in the village or as an Aftermath effect.

Village/Aftermath: Place 1 marker on 1 monster in the dungeon.

If you visit the village and have already used this ability, you may no longer use the ability of the Nevajin below:

Village: Destroy 1 hero. Gain gold equal to its Strength.

Village: Destroy this card to draw 1 card.

You must activate all the Trophy effects of your laid-out hand cards (see page 23 for further details on Trophy effects).

3. Buy 1 Card

Once you have finished using Village abilities and Trophy effects, you may buy 1 card from the village stacks.

You place each card you buy on your discard pile.

4. Level Up Heroes

Finally, you may spend experience points to level up your laid-out heroes.

To level up a hero, choose a laid-out hero card from your hand. Pay the stated experience points and level up the hero.

Destroy the old hero card before you retrieve the corresponding hero card of the next-higher level from the hero stack. Place the new hero card on your discard pile.

As you can tell from the blue card frame, Regulars count as heroes. Regulars are level 0 heroes, so you need 2 experience points to level up a Regular into any level 1 hero available in the village.

Fight in the Dungeon

Lay your hand cards face up in front of you (mandatory).
Use as many Dungeon abilities as you like (optional), equip your heroes with weapons from your hand (optional), and use all Trophy effects (mandatory).
Choose one of the monsters in the dungeon to fight (mandatory).
Apply Battle effects (mandatory, if any).
Determine your total attack value and compare it to the monster's Health. The higher value wins the fight (mandatory).
Apply Aftermath effects (mandatory, if any).
If you do not defeat the monster, place the monster card face down beneath the dungeon deck (mandatory).
If you defeat the monster, place the monster card on your discard pile and take experience points (mandatory).
Carry out any applicable Spoils effects (optional).
Shift the monster cards and refill the dungeon (mandatory).
If a newly revealed monster has a Raid effect, carry it out now (mandatory).
If a monster with a Breach effect reaches position 1 in the dungeon, carry out that effect now (mandatory).

Afterward you end your turn (see page 26).

A detailed example of play follows on page 30.

1. Lay Your Hand Cards Face Up in Front of You

You must lay out all your hand cards and bring them along into the dungeon for the fight, even if that could work against you.

2. Use Dungeon Abilities, Equip Heroes with Weapons, and Apply Trophy Effects

Some general rules for using Dungeon abilities:

You may use each Dungeon ability only once per turn.
If you must discard a card because of a Dungeon ability, place it on your discard pile immediately.
If a card is destroyed by a Dungeon ability, remove it from the game immediately.
You may not use a card's Dungeon ability if that card has already been discarded or destroyed by other Dungeon abilities this turn.
You may not destroy a card whose Dungeon ability you have already used, unless the affected card destroys itself through its own Dungeon ability.
You may discard a card whose Dungeon ability you have already used.

Applying Trophy Effects. You must activate all the Trophy effects of your laid-out hand cards. See page 23 for details on Trophy effects.

3a. Positions and Darkness

Before we explain the further rules for combat, you need to learn a few details about darkness.

Next to the dungeon deck there are always a few monster cards laid out face up. You may fight these monsters when you enter the dungeon. You may always freely choose which monster you want to fight.

Darkness has a negative effect on your heroes' attacks. The deeper they are in the dungeon, the worse they fight. Fortunately, you can reduce the darkness with light.

If the light extinguishes the darkness (if the result is zero or less), you suffer no penalty and may use the full total attack value in the fight. You get no bonus for surplus light.

Now you know which Dungeon abilities and Trophy effects you may use, which weapons you want to equip your heroes with, and what effects the darkness has.

3b. Choose One of the Monsters to Fight

Now you choose 1 monster in the dungeon that your band will fight.

Example: You have used the ability of your Backpack:

Village/Dungeon: Reveal the top 2 cards of your deck. Take 1 revealed item or 1 revealed weapon into your hand. Discard the rest.

Through this ability you have gained 1 Phase Disruptor into hand, with the following ability:

Village/Dungeon: Destroy this card and 2 other cards. Draw 1 card.

You may not apply the Phase Disruptor's ability to the Backpack, since you have already used its ability.

4. Apply Battle Effects

Example: You have a hand full of weak heroes and a Shock Nodule.

Callerail — Monstrosity • Level 3 — Battle: Destroy 1 hero. Aftermath: Destroy 1 weapon.

Aftermath: Destroy 1 weapon.

Once you have applied all of the monster's traits and Battle effects, it's now time to determine the winner of the fight.

5. Determine Your Total Attack Value and Compare It to the Monster's Health

Example: The spell Retaliation Nodule has 2 Dungeon abilities:

Dungeon: Magic Attack +1.

Dungeon: Additional Magic Attack +1 for each hero class present.

You always get the Magic Attack +1, even if none of your heroes are present. If, for example, you draw a thief later in your turn, you also get the additional Magic Attack +1.

6. Apply Aftermath Effects

7. If You Lose the Fight...

8. If You Win the Fight...

9. Carry Out Spoils Effects

Example: The Bio-energy Cutter has the following Spoils effect:

Spoils: Each other player discards 1 card from their hand.

After you successfully defeat the Laak, you enjoy the fact that all the other players now have to discard 1 card.

This concludes your excursion into the dungeon. Finally, the monsters prepare for the next fight.

10. Refill the Dungeon

11. Apply Raid Effects

If you place a monster with a Raid effect into the dungeon during game setup, you ignore this effect and do not carry it out.

12. Apply Breach Effects

If you place a monster with a Breach effect at position 1 of the dungeon during game setup, you ignore this effect and do not carry it out.

Prepare

Sometimes you have a selection of hand cards with which you cannot make a useful move. Prepare gives you a way to exchange your hand cards for the next turn.

Rest

Rest lets you destroy 1 card that you no longer need in your deck.

Do not lay out your hand cards! Instead, choose 1 hand card and destroy it. That's the entirety of Rest. Afterward you end your turn.

Additional Rules

There are a few more rules that concern additional aspects of the game.

Cyphers

You don't learn the color of your experience tokens until you draw them randomly from the cloth bag, after you have defeated a monster. As a cypher, however, the color matters a great deal!

You may use 1 cypher per turn as a Village or Dungeon ability. Each cypher offers a different boost:

Blue: Draw 1 card.
Gray: Destroy 1 card.
Green: Additional Magic Attack +1.
Orange: Gain 2 gold.
Red: Additional Physical Attack +1.
Yellow: Additional Light +1.

Settings

Setting cards are the oversized cards depicting images of various regions of Numenera. You can use these setting cards to bring more variety and a somewhat greater element of chance to your games.

Before the game begins, all players must agree on 1 setting whose simmering dangers they wish to face.

Trophies

Example: The Scutimorph has the following Trophy effect:

Battle: Destroy 1 hero. Trophy: You may destroy 1 Regular or 1 level 1 hero to gain additional Physical Attack +2.

You may choose not to destroy a hero. In that case, however, you also do not get the additional Physical Attack +2 from the Trophy effect.

React Abilities

Example: Swift Jack has the following React ability:

Physical Attack +4. React: After another player selects a monster with your marker to fight, that monster gains +2 Health. Aftermath: Place 1 marker on 1 monster in the dungeon (not a guardian).

Ties

If an effect or ability refers to the "highest" or "weakest" card from a group, and 2 or more cards meet that criterion, the active player decides the tie.

Global Effects

Multiple Global effects of the same kind are cumulative. Global effects are no longer taken into account for cards in your hand.

Guardians

Guardians are shuffled into the dungeon deck (according to the rules given on page 11). When a guardian is placed into the dungeon, it behaves like any other monster.

Finally, a Thunderstone Bearer cannot be defeated in combat as long as there is still a regular guardian in the dungeon!

Treasures

The cards with a golden frame are treasures. You get them as additional rewards when you defeat certain monsters in combat. But you have to work especially hard for them!

Disease Cards: Iron Wind

Diseases are not affected by monster traits or effects, unless these explicitly name diseases as their target. Diseases are special cards and count neither as village cards nor as monster cards.

You must subtract the attack penalty suffered from these diseases from either the Physical Attack or the Magic Attack, before other Battle effects are applied.

Zero and "No Value"

End of Turn

All abilities and effects activated during your turn now end.

Now your left-hand neighbor continues the game with their turn.

Ending the Game and Victory

Traits

This chapter lists all the traits that occur in Thunderstone. Not all of them are present in Thunderstone Advance – Numenera.

Example: The level 1 hero Mystic has the following traits:

Physical Attack +1

Magic Attack +1

Even though the Chirog is immune to Magic Attack, that does not protect it against the Mystic's Physical Attack.

Alternatives for Game Setup

With the following alternatives you can speed up the game setup or create alternative challenges.

Random Dungeon: Simply choose any 3 monster groups and shuffle them together as the dungeon deck. Shuffle a Thunderstone Bearer in with the bottom cards. Good luck fighting the monsters!

Solo Thunderstone

If you don't have any fellow players available, you can also enjoy Thunderstone Advance – Numenera alone. This solo variant requires only a few rule adjustments.

Set up the game according to the base game's rules, but do not yet place any monsters from the dungeon deck into the dungeon.

If you defeat a monster, you place it on your discard pile. Depending on the chosen difficulty level, one of the following now happens—there are two difficulty levels: easy and hard.

If you play the hard variant, you refill the dungeon at the end of your turn as described above.

Note that gaps arise in the dungeon from defeated or removed monsters, and these must be closed again by shifting the monsters before another monster can attack the village from position 1!

Note: For this solo variant, we recommend that you not use any cards whose abilities let you place monsters back beneath the dungeon deck or change the order of the monsters in the dungeon.

Example of Play

The following example gives you an idea of how the various actions can play out in an actual game.

Andreas and Karsten have set up the game. The following 3 monsters lie in the dungeon:

Position 1: Stratharian War Moth
Position 2: Scutimorph
Position 3: Abycos

Turn 1:

Karsten looks at his hand cards. He has 3 Regulars, 1 Longspear, 1 Torch, and 1 Thunderstone Shard in hand.

With 5 gold he has the option, on a village visit, to buy one of the village cards on offer. Instead, he decides to attack directly! He enters the dungeon and lays out all his cards.

Turn 2:

Andreas looks at his hand cards. He has 5 Regulars and 1 Torch—not really good starting cards in this game.

Turn 3:

Karsten has 2 Regulars, 1 Longspear, 2 Torches, and 1 Thunderstone Shard in hand.

Turn 4:

Turn 5:

Turn 6:

Turn 7:

Karsten reveals 1 Regular, his Stealthy, 2 Torches, and 2 Thunderstone Shards.

Turn 8:

Scenarios

The Ancient Evil

Use the wilderness side of the game board.

Heroes	Village Cards	Monsters
Rugged	Warder	Ancient One
Clever	Bio-energy Cutter	Beast
Strong-willed	Bio-salvager	Bandit • Raider
Tough	Nevajin	Sarrak (Thunderstone Bearer)
	Dart Thrower
	Backpack
	Punch Dagger
	Ray Emitter

In Search of the Convergence Master

Use the dungeon side of the game board.

Heroes	Village Cards	Monsters
Graceful	Warder	Automaton
Aeon Priest	Village Jack	Monstrosity
Charming	Mental Scramber	Abhuman
Intelligent	Unstable Crystals	Convergence Master (Thunderstone Bearer)
	Phase Disruptor
	Shield Bearer
	Shock Nodule
	Disruption Blade