To the Death!

To the Death! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Object of the Game

In the two player game, each player commands a champion, fighter, magician, and mender hero that is equipped with an ability granting damage tracker. Taking alternating turns, players will coordinate their hero's abilities for maximum effect, while anticipating their opponent's strategies. The winner is the first player to defeat each opposing hero. A two player game lasts 15 minutes.

In the solo game, your party of heroes will encounter four monsters and monster king over the course of five rounds of play. Each defeated monster grants an ability to each other monster, increasing the difficulty as the rounds progress. Victory is achieved by defeating the monster king. A solo game lasts 30-60 minutes.

Common Terms

Activation: A hero is activated when you activate one of its hero abilities, including attack, feat, and rest. When a hero skips its activation, you can't activate any of its hero abilities.

Adjacent: Cards next to each other in the same area are adjacent. Heroes and enemies are never adjacent.

Arsenal: The arsenal deck is made up of the 32 arsenal cards.

Check: A check is used to determine a random suit or value. To make a check, discard the top card of the deck. That card's suit and value is the check's suit and value.

Hero: Hero cards you control.

Enemy: Monsters and opposing heroes.

Heroes

Each hero card shows the following:

NAME - The hero's name.
CLASS & CLASS SUIT - The hero's class. The classes are: Champion, Fighter, Magician, and Mender.
STATS - The hero's starting area (near area or far area), melee weapon(s), range weapon(s), armor, and skill. Heroes begin the game with their damage card at health 6.
PRINTED ABILITIES - Each hero has three printed abilities found in a blue, red, and green box.

Heroes may be referred to by their class or area. A hero in the near area is a near hero, regardless of their printed starting area.

The term enemy in a hero's ability refers to opposing heroes and monsters.

Example hero card, Fisherman (Fighter): stats near area, melee weapon 1, melee weapon 1, armor 5, skill 1. Abilities:

8: Biggest Hook You Ever Saw: This hero gains a hook melee weapon with value 5. Melee attack.
5-7: Stunning Blow: When a weapon's attack value exceeds an enemy's armor by 6+, that enemy is dealt 2 damage. Activate this hero.
2-4: Legendary Catch: After this hero attacks, if all of its weapons dealt damage, it heals 2 damage. Melee attack.

Arsenal Cards

Suit - Identifies hero class, used to determine which hero is attacked by monster weapons.
Value - Used to activate abilities, determine check values.

Monsters

NAME - The monster card's name.
STATS - The monster's starting area, weapon(s), armor, skill, and starting health.
PRINTED ABILITIES - These abilities are active while this is the active monster.
PROGRESSIVE ABILITY (skull icon) - This ability is active while this is the active monster and while it is on the defeated monster pile.

Some monster cards create additional monsters. When a monster or other created card is put into play, put the top card of the arsenal deck into play face down to represent it.

CREATED MONSTER NAME & STATS - Created monsters have the same stat listings as other monsters.
CREATED MONSTER PRINTED ABILITY - Abilities below a created monster's stat line are treated as if they were printed on each monster with that name.

Example monster card, Goblins: Horde - At the beginning of the first enemy turn, put four goblin enemies into play. Goblin: stats near area, melee weapon 1, armor 5, skill 1, health 4. Gang - This enemy's weapons get +1 for each other enemy in play. Scared - After a goblin is defeated, this enemy can't be dealt damage by weapons. Progressive ability (skull icon): Each enemy has a shiv, a melee weapon with value 1.

Example monster card, Gryphon: stats far area, range weapon 2, range weapon 2, armor 6, skill 1, health 6. Flying - Hero weapon checks get -2. Dust Cloud - Draw 1 fewer card during the draw step (min. 3). Grasping Talons - When this enemy's range weapon damages a hero, you may discard a card. If you don't, that hero skips its next activation. Progressive ability (skull icon): Enemy range weapons have +2. (The printed callout markers partly cover the Grasping Talons text in the source image; the wording above is the legible reading.)

Monster Kings

NAME - The monster king's name.
CROWN (crown icon) - Identifies this card as a monster king.
STATS - The monster king's starting area, weapon(s), armor value, skill value, and health value.
PRINTED ABILITIES - These abilities are active while this card is in undefeated.

Example monster king card, Unmaker Numenax: stats near area, two weapons of value 4 and 4, armor 5, skill 2, health 3. Abilities:

Unmake: At the beginning of the first enemy turn, defeat all but one hero, then put three resurrection stones into play.
Resurrect: When you activate feat, put any defeated hero into play exhausted and discard a stone. When this enemy would be defeated, discard a stone. If you do, this enemy heals 3 damage.
Dispel: When you activate an ability with one or more 0's, deal 1 damage to any hero and discard a stone.

Some monster kings put created monsters into play. They follow the same rules as monsters created by monster cards.

While a monster or monster king with a night sky background is in play, it is nighttime. Nighttime has no meaning, but may be referenced by card abilities.

Monster Damage Cards

Monster damage cards are used to track damage dealt to a monster by placing it underneath that monster so that their current health is top box showing.

The monster damage cards are labeled ENEMY and show the health boxes 1 to 9 (on one card) and 10 to 18 (on the other card).

Hero Damage Cards

CLASS SUIT & NAME - Only heroes that share a class with this card may attach it.
HEALTH BOXES - Identifies the current health of this hero and grants the hero the ability in the corresponding box.

The printed Fighter damage card shows these boxes, from the top:

Health 6 (starting box, no ability)
Health 5 - This hero's weapons have +1.
Health 4 - This hero's weapons have +2.
Health 3 - Burst icon: You may move any hero.
Health 2 - Burst icon: Melee icon or range icon attack each enemy.
Exhausted (health 1)

Ability Reminder Cards

NUMBERED SECTIONS - The numbered section values are a reminder that the hero's corresponding ability is active.
ENEMY ABILITY - This section is to remind you that an enemy ability is active.

Put these cards into play when an ability is used that lasts for the turn or into the next turn in order to remember it.

Challenge Cards

NAME - The card's name.
MONSTER KING ART - The art of the monster king faced in this challenge.
NARRATIVE - A brief story setting up this challenge.
MONSTER LIST - These are the monsters and monster king that are encountered during this challenge.
STORY NUMBER - Challenge cards may be played in sequence to tell a story.
CHALLENGE ABILITY - This ability is active during every round of the game.

Example challenge card, Against the Summoner: monster list Dream Slayer, Goblins, Lizardmen, Mummy, and monster king Hemgoth, Vessel of Wrath. Story number 08. Challenge ability: Overwhelming forces - After another ability puts an enemy into play, put an additional enemy of the same type into play. (The narrative paragraph on this example card is flavour text and is not transcribed.)

Area Reference Card

NEAR AREA REFERENCE - Reminder rules for heroes and monsters attacking from this area.
FAR AREA REFERENCE - Reminder rules for heroes and monsters attacking from this area.

Note: the body text on each reference card is printed in small type mixed with area and weapon icons and is not legible enough at the source resolution to transcribe verbatim. It is not transcribed here; the attack rules it summarises are under Attacking above.

Zones of Play

NEAR AREA - Near area (red up arrow) heroes are arranged here in a row.
FAR AREA - Far area (orange down arrow) heroes are arranged here in a row.
DECK - Contains the arsenal deck. If there are no cards in the deck and you need to use a card, shuffle the discard pile to create a new deck. After you search the deck, shuffle it.
DISCARD PILE - Discard cards are placed here in a pile.
STARTING HAND - Arsenal cards are drawn to and discarded from here.

In a two player game, the opposing player will also control four heroes with attached hero damage cards. The deck and discard pile are shared. Each player has their own hand of cards, near and far hero areas.

Solo Game Additional Zones

MONSTER DECK - This contains the monsters and monster king that will be used this game.

In a solo game, the monster near and far areas may be placed opposite the hero's, or may be placed to the right of the arsenal deck.

Two Player Game Set-Up

Each player chooses a champion, fighter, magician, and mender hero and hero damage cards and puts them into play. Each player must choose two heroes that start in the near area and two that start in the far area.

Shuffle the arsenal deck and place it in reach of each player. Determine the starting player. The starting player draws a three card starting hand. Their opponent draws five cards. During the starting players draw step, they'll draw up to five cards as normal.

Two Player Game Structure

Beginning with the starting player, players alternate taking hero turns until each of any player's heroes have been defeated.

Solo Game Set-Up

Choose a champion, fighter, magician, and mender hero and hero damage cards and put them into play. You must choose two heroes that start in the near area and two that start in the far area.

Shuffle the arsenal and draw a five card starting hand.

Build the monster deck by choosing four monsters and a monster king. Shuffle the monsters and put the king on the bottom of the monster deck.

Put an enemy damage card into play, then put the top monster of the monster deck into play.

Solo Game Structure

The solo game is made up of five rounds. Each round is made up of alternating hero and monster turns. Monsters take the first turn of each round. At the beginning of each round, put the top card of the monster deck into play.

When each monster in play has been defeated, the turn immediately ends and moves to the draw step. If there are any triggered, unresolved abilities, they do not resolve. After the draw step, a new round begins.

If each hero is defeated, you lose. If you defeat the monster king, you win.

Hero Turns

Hero turns are divided into steps:

Beginning step - Abilities that end at the beginning of the turn end now. Abilities that trigger at the beginning of the turn trigger and are resolved now in any order.
Main step - During the main step, each hero may be activated once in any order and you may activate any number of player abilities.

When a hero is required to skip its activation, you may not activate any hero abilities for that hero.
Draw step - At the beginning of the draw step, discard any number of cards from your hand. Then draw until you have five cards in hand.

The number of cards drawn during the draw step is calculated before cards are drawn. If an ability causes you to discard a card during the draw step, it's not replaced.
End step - Abilities that trigger at the end of the turn trigger and are resolved in any order. Abilities that end at the end of the turn end now. After all abilities trigger, resolve, and end, play passes to the next turn.

Activated Abilities

Activated abilities are written as: VALUE RANGE: NAME: EFFECT.

To activate an ability, you must discard a card from your hand whose value falls within the listed value range. When you activate an ability, you resolve its text in the order written.

To activate the Grave Knight's Unyielding ability, you must discard a 5, 6, or 7 from your hand. Example card: 5-7: Unyielding: This hero's weapons can't be blocked. When this hero's weapon checks a 6+, draw it. Attack.

In addition to their printed abilities, each hero has these abilities:

Discard any card: Attack: melee or range attack.
Discard any card: Rest: Heal 1 damage from this hero.
Discard three cards with the same value: Feat: Choose an ability that the discarded cards can activate. Trigger its effect twice.

Hero abilities may only be activated during the hero turn.

Player Abilities

Players have the following abilities:

Discard any card with value X: Block: Prevent all damage that would be dealt by an enemy weapon this attack if the weapon's check value is X.
Discard any card: Charge: Choose a near hero. While that hero is near, its melee weapons can attack far enemies.
Discard any card: Focus: Add +1 to the next check your hero or hero's weapon makes this turn.
Discard any card: Move: Move any near hero to the far area or any far hero to the near area.

When a hero moves, you can move them to any position in the area they're moving to.
Discard any card: Reset: Shuffle the discard pile into the deck.
Discard any card: Search: Discard a card to draw a card.

Block and focus may be activated during enemy turns.

You may activate focus multiple times to affect the same check.

Enemy Turns

Enemy turns are divided into steps:

Beginning step - Abilities that end at the beginning of the turn end now. Abilities that trigger at the beginning of the turn trigger and are resolved now in any order.

If a monster with an ability that triggers at the beginning of the enemy turn is put into play at the beginning of the enemy turn, its abilities trigger as if it were in play at the start of the turn.
Main step - At the beginning of the main step, each monster attacks with each of their weapons in printed order. If there is more than one monster in play, choose the order in which they attack.

If a monster gains additional weapons due to an ability, they attack with those weapon after its printed weapons.
End step - Abilities that trigger at the end of the turn trigger and are resolved in any order. Abilities that end at the end of the turn end now. After all abilities trigger, resolve, and end, play passes to the next turn.

Note: the source numbers the end step as 4 and no step 3 appears in the printed text.

Attacking

Heroes and monsters follow the same steps for attacking with a few exceptions.

Heroes either melee attack or range attack, attacking with only the weapon type specified by the attack.

For each weapon, follow these steps:

Choose an enemy to attack.
Discard the top card of the deck as the weapon's check.
Add the value of the check to the weapon's printed value, then account for any bonuses or penalties applied to hero weapons by abilities. The final result is the weapon's value.
Compare the weapon's value to the enemy's armor value. If the weapon's value is equal to or less than the enemy's armor value, the weapon deals 1 damage to that enemy.

Repeat these steps for each weapon used in the attack.

Melee weapons may only attack near heroes or enemies.

Range weapons may attack any hero or enemy.

Enemies follow the same steps, except they attack with both melee and range weapons and they don't choose which hero each weapon is attacking. Instead, after an enemy weapon makes a check, it attacks the hero whose suit matches the check.

If an enemy melee weapon check matches the suit of a far hero, it attacks the near hero whose class comes next alphabetically, repeating.

(Diagram in source: Champion, then Fighter, then Magician, then Mender, with arrows between them in that order.)

Charging enemies may melee attack far heroes.

Weapons deal 1 damage unless otherwise specified by an ability.

Being Dealt and Healing Damage

When an enemy or hero is dealt damage, slide its damage card up one box for each damage dealt. The top visible box is the amount of their health remaining.

When a hero or enemy heals damage, slide their damage card down one box for each damage healed.

Some boxes of a hero's damage card grant them abilities. Heroes have the ability in the box that represents their current health. Burst icon abilities are triggered abilities and happen as soon as that hero is dealt or healed damage which results in the box containing that ability becoming their current health.

If a hero is dealt or healed two or more damage at the same time, they don't gain or trigger any abilities in the boxes between their starting and new health.

When a hero has one health remaining, they are exhausted. When a hero is exhausted by an ability, move their damage card to the one health box.

Example hero card, Archer (Fighter): stats far area, range weapon 2, armor 5, skill 3. Abilities:

8: Power Shot: Skill (10) to deal 2 damage.
5-7: Volley: Skill (10) to deal 1 damage to each near or far enemy.
2-4: Aim: This hero's range weapons deal +1 damage. Range attack.
Damage boxes: health 2 - Burst icon: melee or range attack each enemy; exhausted at health 1.

Example enemy card, Zombie: stats near area, melee weapon 3, melee weapon 3, armor 5, skill 2, health 5. Abilities:

Zombify: When this enemy's melee weapon damages a hero, that hero becomes a zombie hero. Zombie heroes may only be activated with 0's. 0's may activate any zombie hero ability. At the end of each hero turn, deal 1 damage to each zombie hero that didn't activate an ability, then deal 1 damage to each adjacent hero.
Brains: After this enemy attacks, if each of its weapons missed or were blocked, it's dealt one damage and attacks again.
Progressive ability (skull icon): At the beginning of each enemy turn, if there's only one near hero, enemy weapons get +2.
Health boxes: 2 and 1.

Defeated Heroes and Enemies

When a hero is defeated, remove it and its hero damage card from the game and discard each other card attached to it.

When a created enemy is defeated, discard the arsenal card representing it and remove that enemy from the game.

A monster card isn't defeated until each enemy created by it is defeated.

Putting Cards into Play

When an ability puts an enemy or other card into play, put the top card of the arsenal deck into play face down to represent the created card. The suit and value of the created card may not be revealed until it is discarded or revealed by an ability.

Monster cards are put into play on the defeated monster pile. When a card is added to the pile, place it so the progressive ability (skull icon) of each other card on the pile is visible.

Treat each progressive ability as if it were printed on the active monster card.

Checks

A check is used to determine a random suit or value. To make a check, discard the top card of the deck. That card's suit and value is the check's suit and value.

Two common types of checks are skill checks and weapon checks.

Skill checks are written as skill (X) where X is the target value of the check. When a hero or enemy makes a check, discard the top card of the deck and add its value to that hero or enemy's skill value. If the total is equal to or higher than the target value, the check is successful.

Ability Duration

Abilities end at the end of the turn they're triggered in unless otherwise specified. Abilities that begin "Next turn," begin at the beginning of the next turn and end at the end of that turn.

Getting Started with To the Death

To the Death has many heroes, monsters, and monster kings to explore. Selecting the heroes for your first party can be daunting. Understanding each hero's role in the game can make those decisions easier. While the function of individual heroes may vary, their class provides some clues as to how they'll perform in game.

Intro to Heroes

Champions (blue box icon) have the highest average armor values and are usually best positioned near. Their abilities are usually focused on damage mitigation, either by providing an armor bonus, redirecting enemy attacks, or even drawing cards which can be used to block.

The best champions tend to have armor 8, a weapon with value 3+, and one or more abilities that prevent enemy damage.

Fighters (sword icon) are weapons specialists. Many fighters have more than one weapon, and their activations are usually best used to attack. Fighter abilities often provide weapon bonuses to themselves and other heroes, create extra weapons or attacks, and deal additional damage. Fighters have the second highest average printed armor and the most printed weapons.

The best fighters tend to have multiple weapons with value 2 and abilities that allow their weapons to deal additional damage.

Magicians (wand icon) are magic users that focus on dealing damage to enemies. Most magicians have at least one ability that deals damage without attacking, usually by passing a skill check or other test. They also often allow you to draw extra cards or manipulate check values. Magicians have low armor and high skill.

The best magicians tend to have abilities that deal damage to each enemy, or 2 or more damage to single enemy, and draw two or more cards.

Menders (hand icon) are a utility class that specializes in healing the party. Their abilities are often the widest ranging, allowing you to heal other heroes, draw cards, move heroes, manipulate the deck and/or discard pile, and provide stat bonuses to other heroes. Magicians have the lowest average printed armor, the fewest weapons with the lowest printed weapon value, and the highest average skill. (Source text reads "Magicians" in this sentence; transcribed as printed.)

The best menders tend to have abilities that heal damage from more than one hero, give weapon bonuses to each hero, and draw cards.

Starter Heroes

For your first few games, consider starting with the heroes below. Remember that you must use two heroes that start in the near area and two that start in the far area.

Sellsword (Champion)
Bard (Fighter)
Shadow Mage (Magician)
War Priest (Mender)
Grave Knight (Champion)
Archer (Fighter)
Wizard (Magician)
Dreamer (Mender)

Intro to Monsters and Monster Kings

Monsters fall into a few broad categories:

Single, strong enemies with several weapons and high armor.
Groups of weak enemies that are overwhelming the first turn but lose threat as they thin out the horde.
Far monsters with range weapons and disruption abilities that discard cards from your hand or force heroes to move.

Each type requires different tactics. To combat a monster like the basilisk, you may need to use focus on weapon checks so you can overcome its armor. You will also need to block its attacks, especially against menders and magicians since their armor is too low for attacks against them to miss.

Groups of enemies like the goblins produce several attacks each turn, but with a weapon value of 1, most will miss. Moving your champion hero to the near area and each other hero to the far area will help to mitigate the damage they can deal. These enemies become much weaker as you defeat them, so take advantage of it and take a few turns to rest most or all of the heroes.

Far enemies require your range-based heroes to charge in order to attack, essentially doubling the cost to activate them. Since you'll have fewer cards each turn to activate hero abilities, it may be best to concentrate weapon and damage bonuses on one hero so its attack is worthwhile.

These enemies make good first opponents, but keep in mind that To the Death is balanced to be difficult:

Gladiator
Goblins
Ratman
Sphinx

Monster kings take the same basic forms as normal monsters, except that they're designed to be far more lethal. Sekzar, the Grave Swarm is formidable, but can be faced on your first game without being overwhelming.

Example Turns

The gladiator doesn't have any abilities that trigger at the beginning of the enemy turn, so the first thing it does each enemy turn is attack. Attacks are made by resolving each weapon's attack in printed order from left to right.

The gladiator's first melee weapon checks the 5 (Fighter suit). The value's check is added to the weapon's value for a total of 8. The check's suit is Fighter, but the bard is far, so the attack is against the war priest instead since mender follows fighter alphabetically.

With no 5s in hand, you don't have the option to activate block, so the war priest is dealt 1 damage. This triggers the gladiator's trophy ability.

Trophy - After this enemy's melee weapon damages a hero, attach a card in your hand to this enemy as a trophy. This enemy's weapons have +1 for each attached trophy. While this enemy has three or more attached trophies, its weapons deal +1 damage.

To resolve the ability, you discard the 2 (Mender suit) and attach it to the gladiator.

The gladiator's second melee weapon checks the 7 (Champion suit). You discard the 7 (Magician suit) to activate block and reduce the attack's damage to 0.

The gladiator is out of weapons to attack with, so its dominate ability triggers. The gladiator makes a check and gets the 0 (Magician suit), exhausting the shadow mage, which moves its damage tracker directly to the lowest box.

Dominate - At the end of the first enemy turn, make a check. The hero whose suit matches the check is exhausted.

At the beginning of the enemy turn, you have three cards in hand: 8 (Champion suit), 6 (Fighter suit), and 3 (Champion suit).

You can activate heroes in any order. First, discard the 3 (Champion suit) to activate the bard's furious fife ability. This ability gives all hero range weapons a bonus of +2 this turn.

2-4: Furious Fife: Hero range weapons get +2. Range attack.

The suits of hero weapon checks only matter if an ability references them. The bard's range weapon checks the 2 (Mender suit), which is added to its weapon value of 2 + 2 from furious fife for a total of 6 against the gladiator's armor value of 6. Matching an armor value is a hit, so the attack deals 1 damage.

Next, discard the 8 (Champion suit) to activate the war priest's great heal ability, choosing to heal the shadow mage.

8: Great Heal: Heal 2 damage from any hero.

The mage heals 2 damage, which moves its damage tracker to health 3, triggering its ability and allowing it to attack.

Burst ability: This hero may melee or range attack.

The shadow mage's weapons have +2 from furious fife. The first range weapon checks the 3 (Fighter suit), missing the gladiator. The mage's second range weapon checks the 4 (Magician suit) and deals the gladiator 1 damage.

Even though it attacked, the shadow mage hasn't been activated yet this turn because the ability that allowed it to attack wasn't one of its hero abilities. You can still activate the sellsword and shadow mage. Your remaining card is the 6 (Fighter suit).

None of the sellsword's abilities a 6 could activate have the potential to deal 2 damage to the gladiator, but the shadow mage could if they attack and both weapons hit.

Another option is to activate rest for the shadow mage. Resting won't trigger an ability since health 4 grants a skill bonus, but it would set up the mage to attack again if the gladiator damages it next turn.

The final ability to consider is to move the war priest from near to far. Since the gladiator's weapons are melee and trigger from dealing damage, it's not a bad idea to have only the champion near since it's the hardest hero for the gladiator's weapons to hit.

Which of these three abilities would you choose?

Notes

The printed Notes pages (pages 20 to 22) are blank note-taking pages with artwork and contain no rules text.

Challenge Card Variant

To use a challenge card, choose any four heroes and hero damage cards following normal game set up rules. To build the monster deck, use the monsters listed in the enemy list box. Shuffle the monsters as normal, then place the monster king on the bottom of the monster deck. Then place the challenge card into play on the defeated monster pile.

Tips and Strategies

When choosing hero's damage cards, pick the abilities which best compliment that hero. Magicians with high skill might prefer a card which can trigger direct damage for a successful skill check, while a magician with a high value weapon might benefit more from the card that can grant their weapon additional damage.

Hero position matters. Against enemies with low value weapons like the Lizardmen, try keeping just your champion hero in the near area. Because monster melee weapons can change their targets, think about which heroes are in the near area together. Having only the champion and mender heroes in the near area means that any monster melee weapon that checks a sword, wand, or hand will be attacking the mender.

On the other hand, if the Champion and fighter were together, only monster melee weapons that check the sword are attacking the fighter.

In two-player games, try to focus on defeating one hero at a time. As heroes are defeated, you'll be able to do more with each of your remaining heroes. You might move your fighter from far to near, activate charge, activate an ability, and move it back to far in the same turn since you can devote more resources to fewer heroes.

Before important checks, pay attention to which cards are in the discard pile. If many of the high value cards have been discarded, consider either using the focus ability to boost the check, or using the reset ability to shuffle the discard pile into the deck before making the check.

Sometimes it's best to not defeat a weak enemy right away. If an enemy is only capable of doing a few points of damage per turn, consider resting your heroes for a few turns before defeating it. Similarly, many heroes have abilities which bolster their defenses or weaken monsters during the enemy turn. Using these abilities the turn before a new monster card is put into play can save you a lot of damage because the first enemy turn is often the most impactful turn for a monster card.