Virus
Virus Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- Aim of the Game
- Contents
- Contents Overview
- Glossary
- FAQ
- Setup
- Game Phases
- Combat
- Creatures Stats
- Exit Control Rooms
- Research Lab cards
- Clue cards
- Special room cards
- End of the game
- Errors during play
- Advanced Elements
- Variant
- Scenarios
- Walls System expansion
- Special contents
- Skills expansion
- Turn Sequence
- A little test
Aim of the Game
Players must find the Virus Q antidote and then escape before the laboratory self destructs at the end of turn 9. In order to do this the players must figure out a way to open the laboratory doors, find the necessary clues, and then locate and grab the antidote.
Contents
(+1 means there is an additional Blank card.)
- 2 Leaders each: Mutant, Executioner, Verduko, Desu
- 10 Minions each: Zombies, Dogs, Blooders, Trickers
- Heroes: Ariadne, Swarzy, Frederick, Clare
- 148 Room cards
- 25 Clue cards +1
- 25 Exit/Event cards +1
- 15 Boss cards +1
- 25 Wound cards +1
- 20 Elements tiles, 1 Antidote tile, 1 Variant tile, 4 Boss tiles, 4 Legend tiles
- 8 Advantages cards +1
- 5 Spy cards +1
- 12 Four-leaf tokens, 16 Heart tokens, 12 Adrenaline tokens, 16 Book tokens, 16 Shield tokens, 16 Explosive tokens
- 64 Action cubes, 64 Bullet cubes
- 4 player boards
- Rulebook
Contents Overview
Cards
Starting Room (1 card)
The entrance/exit to the Lab map. The players' miniatures are placed there at game Setup. During the game, the players can exit the lab from this room, once the room has been opened (see Exit Control Rooms).
Exit Control Rooms (2 cards)
During setup, place the two Exit Control Rooms in the locations indicated by the grid depicted on the Exit card drawn. Players must go to those rooms and activate them simultaneously in order to open the Starting Room, so that they can exit the Lab.
Scenario Room (1 card)
This is a special card, not used in normal play. See "Scenarios" section.
Room cards (144 cards)
The cards placed by players on the table during the Real Time Phase when their character explores new areas. Those cards form the Lab map.
They have two sides: front side shows the normal room, which is normally used during the game. The Back side shows the trap room: cards are placed on this side when the Event card drawn for the round contains the Trap symbol.
Inside Room cards group: Research Lab Room cards (28 cards)
You can identify them by a symbol (in a corner). These rooms are placed like normal rooms, but if they are placed so that 2-4 symbols (depending on Hero numbers) are adjacent to one another, they form a Research Lab, which allows a player to draw clue cards.
Decks
Wounds deck
Contents: all Wounds cards.
When: If a player takes 1 damage point he must draw 1 wound card and put it under his player board. After drawing, check the top of the deck (the back of the next card); if there is the heart symbol, the wound is Deep.
Wound cards are checked at game end or when the player dies: If a card shows the infection symbol, the player is infected. An infected player becomes a Creature Boss (or, if it happens at game end, can lose the game).
Exit deck
Contents: all Event/Exit cards.
When: this deck is used only at Setup. Draw 1 card to identify the position of the Exit Control Rooms. After that reshuffle it, flip it: now it's the Event deck!
Event deck
Contents: all Event/Exit cards.
When: starting with the second round, the Lead player must draw an event card to reveal the Event that is active for the round.
Clue deck
Contents: all Clue cards.
When: the last player to complete a Research Lab must draw 1 clue card (or 2 cards if the Research Lab cards are all the same color).
Boss deck
Contents: all Boss cards.
When: at Setup draw a Boss card for each Boss in the game. These cards identify the stats of the Boss and his special powers.
Room deck
Contents: all Room cards excluding Scenario, Starting and Exit Control Rooms. The cards to exclude are all in gray.
When: it's used during the Setup to draw the 3 Room cards to place adjacent to the Starting room, and to draw cards to create each player's Room Display. During the game, the players will use this deck to draw additional cards to refill their Room Display.
Tiles
Door tiles (4 tiles)
A player can place this tile from his stock to the Lab over a room doorway. A tile side represents the door as open, meanwhile the other side the door as closed.
Barrier tiles (16 tiles, 4 types)
A player can place 1 or more bar tiles from his stock over a room doorway. If he is placing more than 1 tile or if there is already 1 or more barrier tiles, the bar numbers of each tiles must increase accordingly from the bottom to the top: so, if the last tile is a 2-bars, under there must be a 1 and a 0 bar tile. (The four types are 0 bar, 1 bar, 2 bars and 3 bars.)
Breach tiles (8 tiles)
A player can place 1 Breach tile from his stock over a room wall creating a doorway.
Boss tiles (4 tiles)
These tiles are placed under the Leader Miniatures, which are Bosses, to mark them as Boss Creatures.
Antidote tile (1 tile)
This tile is placed on the Lab where (and when) the Antidote position is determined.
Child tile (1 tile)
A special tile used in Save the Child Scenario.
Legend tiles (4 tiles)
4 special tiles used when this Additional element is activated.
Cubes and Tokens
Action cubes (in player colors). They represent action points. Players must spend them from their stock to their reserve in order to perform any action. They are also spent in combat rolls.
Bullet cubes (gray). They are spent in combat rolls in combination with action cubes to allow the Hero to dodge or damage an opponent.
Hearts tokens (red). They represent Hero Stamina improvement. As all tokens, they can also spent directly in a combat roll to improve results.
Book tokens (white). They represent Hero Knowledge improvement. As all tokens, they can also spent directly in a combat roll to improve results.
Shield tokens (black). They can be spent to avoid wound cards. As all tokens, they can also spent directly in a combat roll to improve results.
Explosive tokens (yellow). They can be placed in the Lab Room to explode later. As all tokens, they can also spent directly in a combat roll to improve results.
Four-leaf tokens (green). They can be spent to reduce Creature movement. As all tokens, they can also spent directly in a combat roll to improve results.
Adrenaline tokens (blue). They can be spent to gain free actions. As all tokens, they can also spent directly in a combat roll to improve results.
Glossary
Difficulty level. Virus game allows players to choose how much Creature are strong determining the level of difficulty of the game (1-2-3). Starting level is 2. This level influences many things: movement of Creatures (1-2-3), Heroes Hit points (8-7-6), number of Boss Creatures in the game (0-1-2), number of seconds available in Real Time Phase, number of cards used by Boss player on Boss Player Variant.
Knowledge is a player stat which represents how many room cards can be in the player display. Initial value is 8 as shown on player board by this symbol (8). During the game is possible to increase this value purchasing book tokens. So the player Knowledge is the number of book tokens+8.
Stamina is a player stat, which represents how many action cubes the player can recover each turn. Initial value is 3 points as shown on player board by this symbol (3). During the game is possible to increase this value purchasing heart tokens. So the player Stamina is the number of heart tokens+3.
Hit points show how many wounds are required to kill an Hero. Initial value depends on difficulty level of the game: each Hero starts with 8-7-6 hit points respectively in 1-2-3 level of difficulty games. The current player Hit point score is the initial value - the numbers of wound cards taken.
Resources are points that a player can spend to purchase tokens/tiles from game reserve. There not tokens to represent them. In each turn players must determine how many they found and then spend them immediately to purchase tokens (heart, book, four-leaf, shield, adrenaline, explosive, bullet) and/or tiles (barrier, breach, door). The number of resources found each turn depends on player Exploration and Searching.
Advantages. Players can call for them flipping a Room card in their Room display in order to gain free resources, to improve their Combat result, or change a drawn card.
Advantages (Mayor). Players can call for them taking a Advantage card from game reserve in order to gain many free resources, to strong improve their Combat result, or turn 3 flipped card in their Room Display.
Countdown. The Real-Time phase lasts some seconds depending on Hero numbers and difficulty level used. Player must place a timer on game table to the seconds still available.
Alerted Area of X. The area of 4 rooms from X.
FAQ
Q: Do explosives also explode in the slow phase? Yes, if a Creature moves and activates them.
Q: I can take a Major Advantage in round 9? No.
Q: Can I still spend advantages to alter the combat throw or draw new cards (clue or wound) after the time is up? Yes.
Q: Can room cards from the net room be used as advantages? If yes, do they count towards the max. 8 face down cards? No.
Q: "They hear you!" movement: from the example I take it that action cubes of different colors are counted separately? The creature moves where? No. Count cubes independently from color. Check for cubes in each room in the Alerted Area. Then Creature moves in direction of the room with more cubes.
Q: Creature movement always stops, when they reach a hero? Yes
Q: If Leader Creature Desu moves into a room with 6 spaces used at the moment, I must move back 1 creature? Yes
Q: Creature movement dependent on difficulty level or by Creature type (Minion, Leader or Boss)? From difficult level, with a +1 bonus for the Dog. Doesn't matter if the Creature is a Minion, Leader or Boss.
Q: Discarding cards from room display: can I also discard a single card for 0 resources? No.
Q: If I discard 4 identically shaped cards, of which 2 are red and 2 are green, do I get 2*3 resources? Yes.
Q: If clue cards are incompatible in Spy mode, which cards are discarded? All incompatible cards must be discarded.
Q: "When the game ends, players must take into account wounds through the end of the current turn, such as wounds from using an Adrenaline token or from a deep wound." If this makes the Hero who exited with the antidote die, do the Heroes still win? No.
Q: If I flee without fighting before, all creatures attack and I get 1 additional wound. But if I fight before fleeing, only the ones that I didn't dodge in the round attack (+1 additional wound)? Yes.
Q: Does a hero have to actually enter each room (but not necessarily explore/search each one) in order for the room to be included as part of a room group of the same color? No, room groups are made of connected rooms of the same color, that's the only criteria you need to check.
Q: If one hero explores 2 yellow rooms, and the other hero explores 3 yellow rooms, and they are all connected, does the room group for both heroes contain 5 rooms? Yes.
Q: Starting room generates Creatures? No. Only colored rooms (red, green, yellow, blue) generate Creatures.
Q: What miniature I have to use for Boss Creatures? Use normal Leader Miniature over the Boss tile. If you have Heroes Expansion, you can use the Diavolo Creature miniature for this purpose.
Q: The +1 positive cube that's listed in the lower right of the player board what means? It refers to Advantages which can be used to take +1 positive cube in Combat.
Q: When you move all creatures in a single room by "1 movement", what does "1 movement" mean? 1 Room.
Q: You do not spend Hearts or Books from your supply to gain more Actions and have more Cards, but for every other effect of every token, you have to spend the token. Yes, out of combat. In combat all tokens used are spent and go on the game reserve (or player reserve for action cubes).
Q: In this situation, the Creature moves? (Diagram: a Creature in room A; a Door tile sits between A and D along the top row; the path B-C-D leads around below it; a purple Hero stands in the far room of the top row.) Yes. The Creature in A cannot see and smell the purple Hero, but he can hear the noise in D from the B-C-D pathway; so he moves in B. The Creature cannot hear noise coming from pathway A-D, because the Door cancels it, but as there is an alternative he uses it.
Q: Can advantages be used to turn a token positive? Or just a bullet / action? No, only for cubes.
Setup
- Choose your Difficulty level. Use Difficult level 2 for first play.
- Place the Starting Room on an edge of the table, leaving plenty of space to build the map of the laboratory. Note: the game map may not extend behind the Starting Room. Take 3 random room cards from the Room deck and place them so they're connected to the Starting Room via their doorways. If any single doorway cards or Research Lab (contain an "L" in the corner) cards are drawn, discard them and draw a new card.
- Shuffle the Exit deck and draw a card. Place two Exit Control Rooms as shown on the card — the red square on this card is the Starting Room. Then return the used Exit card to the deck, shuffle it, and place it with the map face up, to be used as the Event Deck.
- Shuffle the Boss, Wound and Clue decks and place them on the table in the space behind the Starting Room.
- Remove the Scenario room from the Room deck. Return any room cards discarded in Step 2 and shuffle.
- 3-player game: Randomly remove 20 Room cards.
- 2-player game: Remove 3 Research Lab Room cards for each color (12 cards) and 10 normal Rooms cards for each color (40 cards); then reshuffle.
- 1-player game: Remove 4 Research Lab Room cards for each color (16 cards) and 16 normal Rooms cards for each color (64 cards); then reshuffle. Place the Room deck on the table near the other decks with the "normal room" side face up (the trap side with the 4 arrows should be face down).
- Each player draws 8 room cards and places them on the table face up (showing the card side without the 4 arrows) to create his Rooms display. If a player draws any Research Lab cards, discard them and draw new cards from the deck. When all players have finished drawing their 8 room cards, shuffle all discarded Research Lab cards back into the deck.
Note: we will call the Creature Leaders and the Creature Bosses simply Leader and Bosses, but they are always Creatures. We will call also "Creature group" the Creatures which are in a single room, also if there is only 1 single Creature.
Important! After reading the manual, it is recommended that players play the test game described on the last page of the rulebook to gradually familiarize themselves with the game mechanics before beginning a full game.
(Setup diagram labels: Boss deck, Wounds deck, Room deck, Clue deck, Event deck, Exit deck, Exit card, Exit Control Rooms, Starting Room, Player Rooms display, Game reserve, Player board, Player Action cubes stock (available), Player Bullet cubes stock (available), Player reserve (not available). Cannot be placed next to the Starting Room: a single doorway room or a Research Lab card.)
Game Phases
There are 4 different phases:
- Event phase (beginning with the second turn): Event takes place.
- Real Time phase: Players play simultaneously until the countdown ends.
- Slow phase: The Lead player moves the Creatures. Each player, in turn order, then places new Creatures on the map.
- Turn end phase: Players simultaneously gain resources and choose how to use them.
1. Event phase (from second turn only)
The Lead player draws an Event card and secretly reads it. If he is satisfied with it, he places it face up on the table to create the Event Pile and applies its effect.
If the Lead player does not like the Event card, he may spend 1 Advantage (see box "Advantages") to return it to the bottom of the Event deck and draw the next Event card. As long as the player has Advantages to spend, he may repeat this procedure until he draws an Event card he is satisfied with.
Important! When the Events Pile contains 8 cards, the last game turn starts. It is recommended that players stagger the cards in this pile so players may easily see how many more turns are left in the game.
Event card example
(Example card: "System reboot! Exit rooms may not be activated. If the exit door has already been opened, the exit is closed and must be re-opened. All door tiles are reset to the "open" side.")
Special effect: Describes the special effect that will be in play this turn.
Trap check: Starting with the Lead player, each player draws a room card from the Room deck and places it with the trap side face up on the table (the trap side is the one with the 4 arrows; see "Traps" section on page 17). Each card must be placed next to a room occupied by a Hero following normal positioning rules. If no suitable space is available, the player discards the card and does not place a trap card this turn.
2. Real Time phase
In this phase, each player performs actions until the countdown ends, he runs out of Action cubes, or he wants to stop — whichever comes first. Actions are performed simultaneously by all players. Each action has a cost which must be paid in Action cubes from the player's stock.
- When an Action cube is used, it must be placed on the room where the action has been performed.
- Players must fully complete 1 action at a time. They may not start a second action without having fully completed the first action.
- No going back! When a card, Creature, token or cube is placed, it must remain there and cannot be changed.
- When the countdown ends, all players must put their hands up; any actions not fully completed must be canceled. There is the exception of some aspects of Combat, which can be completed also if time expired (see "Combat" section on page 15). Some examples:
- "I'm placing a new room, but the card is still in my hand"; you may not complete the placement!
- "I'm placing Action cubes to search, but they are still in my hand"; you may not complete the search!
- "I've placed a room card, but I have not yet picked up the Action cube to place on it"; you may not complete the placement; return the room card to your Rooms display!
Tip: place only your action cubes in the room without move your Hero miniature there. At the countdown end, move the miniature in the place reached.
Actions Description
| Action available | |
|---|---|
| Move | move your Hero on adjacent room |
| Search | look in a room for resources |
| Open a Breach | place a tile to open a doorway in a wall |
| Place a Barrier | place a tile to close a doorway |
| Activate Door | place a door tile or open/close it |
| Place Explosives | place explosive tokens in a Room |
| Combat | fight opponents |
| Activate a Room | activate the room power |
| Use Adrenaline token | gain free action cubes |
| Use a Four-leaf token | reduce Creature movement |
| Exchange | exchange with other players |
MOVE. Move your Hero to an adjacent, connected and accessible room card or to an unexplored space. Spend 1 Action cube and place it in the destination room.
Two rooms are connected when there are 2 adjacent doorways on both cards (or a Breach between them). Note: Breaches, Doors, or Barriers on openings do not prevent a connection. A room is accessible when it's possible to use a doorway not blocked by closed Doors or Barriers, or a wall has been opened by a Breach.
If a player moves to an unexplored space he must explore it by placing a new room card of his choice there from his Rooms display. To remember which Hero explored that card, the Action cube the player has to spend should be placed on the corner of the card (on the white square).
Example: The purple Hero moves from A to B. The first room card was already there (connected), while the other 3 cards have been placed by the player (explored).
Important! New room cards must always be placed so that they match the cards they are adjacent to. Walls must be placed next to walls and doorways must be placed next to doorways. It is possible to break this rule ONLY by simultaneously placing a Breach on a wall which is adjacent to a doorway.
SEARCH. Spend 3 Action cubes and place them on a corner of the room card (NOT the corner with the white square). This action allows the player to find more resources (see "Turn end phase" section on page 14). A room may only be searched once per turn between all players.
COMBAT. See "Combat" section on page 15. At the end of the Real Time phase, place 1 Action cube used in combat, if any, on the room.
PLACE A BARRIER. Spend 1 Action cube (placing it in the room) to place a Barrier tile from your stock across a doorway of the Hero's room. Barrier tiles may have 0 to 3 bars. Players may use this action place multiple tiles in a doorway or to add additional bars to an existing Barrier in their room putting the new tile from their stock over the one on the map.
Barrier value is 0 (empty) with +2 for each bar. As long as the barrier value is equal to or higher than an adjacent Creature group value, the group cannot move through the Barrier. The Creature group value is +1 for each Creature and +2 for each Leader/Boss. If the Creature group value is higher, they destroy the Barrier and move through it. Return the Barrier to the game reserve.
- A Barrier requires the tiles in the right order. Example: a 2 bar barrier requires 3 tiles: empty, 1 bar and 2 bars.
- This action is only available outside of combat.
- A Hero cannot move through a Barrier, but may remove it by spending 1 Action cube. Return the Barrier to the game reserve.
- It is not possible to place a Barrier over a Breach, Door, or wall.
Example: 4 Creatures and 1 Leader are in a group. Their Creature group value is 6. A Barrier with 3 bars is located in front of them (Barrier value = 6). A new Creature enters the room, increasing the group value to 7; they will destroy the Barrier when they move through it.
OPEN A BREACH. Spend 1 Action cube (placing it in the room) to place a Breach tile from your stock on the room where your Hero is standing. Breaches must be placed over a wall on the border of the room card. A Breach creates an opening in the wall. It can be used to connect existing rooms (a single Breach works on a double wall) or to create an opening to add a new room.
- This action is only available outside of combat.
- A Breach cannot be removed.
Example: The purple player spends 1 Action cube to place a Breach from his stock on a wall. His Hero then spends 1 Action cube to move through the Breach and into the adjacent room.
ACTIVATE A DOOR. Spend 1 Action cube (placing it in the room) to place a Door tile from your stock over a doorway in the room where your Hero is standing. When you place the door, you may choose whether the door is open or closed. A Hero in a room with a door may spend 1 Action cube to open or close it. A closed Door works like a Barrier of value 1 + X, where X is the number of Heroes behind the Door. A closed Door blocks view, smell and reduces noise, allowing players to ignore 1 Action cube when determining what Creatures hear (see "Creatures Movement" section below).
- This action is only available outside of combat.
- A Door may not be placed on a Breach, Barrier, or wall.
Example: the purple player can open the door by spending 1 Action cube then move his Hero into room A by spending another action cube.
Example: The purple player spends 1 Action cube to place a closed Door. The Creature in A cannot attack his Hero, as the Door serves as a Barrier of value 2. The Creature cannot see or sniff the purple Hero, but it can still hear him (2 cubes -1 cube for the door = 1 cube remaining).
Example: the Creature in A cannot see, sniff, nor hear the purple Hero as the single Action cube in the Hero's room is canceled by the Door.
PLACE EXPLOSIVES. Spend 1 Action cube (placing it in the room) to place up to 3 Explosive tokens from your stock in the room where your Hero is standing. Explosives are activated as soon as the Hero that placed them leaves the room and will explode when any Creature or Hero is present in the room or when any Creature or Hero enters the room.
The explosion deals X Damage points, where X is equal to the number of Explosive tokens in the room. When an explosion takes place, Damage points are dealt in the following order: first to Heroes and then any residual value to Creatures. If there is still a residual value, any remaining value is then applied to Leaders and then to Bosses.
If a Hero takes Damage points, the player draws 1 Wound card for each damage point he suffers and places it face up under his board. If a Creature takes Damage points equal to its HP, return it to the game reserve. Zombies and Leaders have 2 HP while all other Creatures have 1 HP. Bosses have a variable HP value (see "Creatures Stats" section on page 16). After the explosion, remove Explosive tokens and return them to the game reserve.
- This action is only available outside of combat.
- Limit of 6 Explosive tokens in a room.
- Activated Explosives cannot be deactivated.
Example: the purple Hero places an Explosive and moves to room B. When the Dog Creature arrives in the room, the bomb explodes, killing the Creature.
ACTIVATE A ROOM. Spend 1 Action cube (placing it in the room) to activate an Exit Control Room, First Aid, Net or Ammo room. Special effect rooms (Net, Ammo, and First Aid) may be activated no more than 3 times in a turn between all players. If combat is in progress, the player must spend 2 Action cubes to activate the room (see "Exit Control Rooms" and "Special rooms cards" on pages 17 and 18).
ADVANTAGES (box)
Players can call for Advantages in order to gain free resources, to improve their Combat result, or change a drawn card.
HOW TAKE THEM. Any player may take Advantages and/or Major Advantages at any time during the turn by verbally declaring it to the other players.
When a player takes an Advantage he flips a face-up card of his Rooms display to show "Trap" side (the one with the 4 arrows). This card continues to count towards the Rooms display limit but it is no longer available during the game. Players may not have more than 8 face down cards in their Rooms display.
A player can declare a Major Advantage only if he has an additional game turn available to play: in this case he must draw a Major Advantage card (value 1) and place it under his player board under the "Major Advantage" space to serve as a reminder. Value 2 can be used for 2 Major Advantages spent.
EFFECTS IN REAL TIME PHASE: During combat, a player may change 1 non-positive cube result to a positive result (up to 3 cubes for a Major Advantage).
EFFECTS IN TURN END PHASE: The player takes 6 bonus resources (18 resources for a Major Advantage).
GENERAL EFFECTS: The player may return to the bottom of the deck the card he just drew and draw a new one of the same type (Event, Wound, or Room card; Clue cards cost 2 Advantages). For a Major Advantage, restore 3 used room cards on the Rooms display by flipping them face up.
RECOVERING. A player may recover 1 spent Advantage by starting his Real Time phase 15 seconds later (or 2 Advantages by starting 30 seconds later). The player must declare this intention to the other players before players start the Real Time phase. The player then flips 1 (or 2) room card(s) from his display face up; these card(s) are now available for use.
A player cannot recover a spent Major Advantage. For each Major Advantage spent, the player must end his game 1 turn earlier.
ACTION COSTS TABLE
| Action | Out of Combat | In Combat |
|---|---|---|
| Move | 1 action/step | 1 action/step |
| Search | 3 actions/room | NO |
| Breach | 1 action+breach | NO |
| Barrier | 1 action+barrier | NO |
| Door | 1 action+door | NO |
| Explosives | 1 action/3 explosives | NO |
| Combat | NO | Variable |
| Activate a Room | 1 action | 2 actions |
| Use Adrenaline |
WOUNDS (box)
A Wound card can be face up or face down. Face up cards represent not-infective wounds. They are caused by explosives and certain traps. Face down cards may be infectious. They are caused by Creatures and certain traps. They can be flipped only at the end of the game or when the Hero dies. Infection determines if a player continues to play as Hero or as Creature if he dies, and in a competitive play influences the victory conditions.
Both types of wounds may be normal or deep. Every time a player draws a Wound card, he must check the back of the next card in the Wound deck; if there is a red heart on the next card, the wound is "deep" and must be placed under the "deep" wound space on the player board. If no red heart is present, the card is placed under the "normal" wound space.
If a player is unsatisfied with the card, for instance because the wound is deep, he may use 1 Advantage to return it to the bottom of the Wound deck and draw a new card.
Free and Peculiar Actions
USE AN ADRENALINE TOKEN. If used during Real Time Phase allows the Hero to immediately gains 7 Action cubes. The used Adrenaline token is returned to the game reserve. At the end of countdown, the player must discard all Action cubes from his stock and return them to his reserve and draw 1 Wound card and place it face-up under his player board.
USE A FOUR-LEAF TOKEN. Immediately reduce the movement of any Creature group by 1. Return the Four-leaf token to the game reserve. It must be used during the Slow phase before completing the movement of the Creature group.
EXCHANGE. Heroes not involved in a combat and in the same room may freely exchange Bullet cubes, Shield tokens, Adrenaline tokens, Explosive tokens, Door tiles, Breach tiles, and Barrier tiles.
3. Slow phase
Very Important! When the countdown is stopped, players are not allowed to discuss strategy or move game elements to test the ways to play the following turn.
A. CREATURE MOVEMENT
The Lead player must move Creatures on the table by 1-2-3 rooms depending on the difficulty level. For example, if the difficulty level is 2, each Creature must move 2 room tiles.
- The Lead player freely chooses the order in which the Creatures move.
- Creatures in the same room always move together as a group.
- When a new Creature joins a group and still has movement remaining, the entire group will move, even if the other Creatures in the group have already completed their movement this turn. Example: In a Difficulty 2 game, 3 Zombie group moves by 2 movements, then 1 Dog moves by 1 and join the 3 Zombies group. The Dog still have to move by 2 movements to do, so the whole group of 3 Zombies+1 Dog moves.
- Dog Creatures have a +1 bonus on Movement. This means if a group contains at least 1 Dog, the group will move 1 room further (with 2 or more Dogs, the Movement bonus is always +1).
- If Creatures move across a room with a +1 or +2 symbol, they immediately gain +1 movement or +2 movements.
- Rooms have a maximum capacity of 7. When all 7 spaces are used, the room is full. Leaders/Bosses take up 2 spaces in a room. All other Creatures and Heroes take up 1 space each.
- If Creatures reach a Hero, they stop.
Creatures will move using the following rules:
- They see you! They move towards a Hero in their direct line of sight (to see a Hero, their line of sight must be uninterrupted by walls, closed Doors, or full rooms). If more than 1 Hero is visible, they move towards the nearest Hero. In case of a tie, the Lead player chooses which Hero the Creatures move towards.
- They sniff you! If no heroes are in a Creature's line of sight, they move towards the nearest Hero within a connected 4 room distance. In case of a tie, the Lead player chooses which Hero the Creatures move towards. This connected 4 room distance from the Creature is the Creature's "Alerted Area". Note: Closed Doors block smell, so rooms separated by closed Doors are not considered.
- They hear you! If no heroes are in a Creature's line of sight and no heroes can be sniffed, they move towards the room with more Action cubes within his Alerted Area. In case of a tie, they move towards the nearest room. In case of further tie, the Lead player chooses which room the Creatures move towards. Note: if there is a closed Door in the pathway from creature to room, you can reduce by 1 the cube number of that room. If door noise reduction holds the Creature, but if there is an alternative pathway which allow Creature to avoid the Door, the Creature will able to move using the alternative way.
- If neither 1, 2, nor 3 is possible, the Creature group remains stationary. Lay the Creatures flat (they are still active, but this denotes the Creatures were unable to detect targets this turn). If the Creature group is already lying flat, return them to the game reserve.
Important! Each Creature Movement rule is reapplied after each room a Creature enters – thus if a Creature moves into a space where they can see a Hero after a sniff movement, they will immediately move towards that Hero.
Example: the Creature in A must move to room C, as it can directly see the black Hero, regardless of how many purple cubes are in the rooms.
Example: the Creature in A cannot directly see a Hero, but it can sniff both purple and black Heroes. The black Hero is the closest, so the Lead player must choose if the Creature moves down or right. He chooses to move it down. For the second movement, the Creature cannot directly see any Hero but can still sniff both. As the black Hero is the closest, the Creature must move to C.
Example: The Creature in A cannot directly see or sniff any Hero, so players must count the cubes. There are 4 purple cubes in a room, so the Creature must move down towards them. After its first move, the Creature can now sniff the Black Hero, so he stops following the noise and proceeds to follow the smell of the Black hero. He continues to follow the smell of the Black Hero on his third move (in a Difficulty 3 game).
Special situations:
- A Creature group must move in a direction and an higher value Barrier/Door stops them. In this case the Creature group cannot move and stands still.
- A Creature group must move in a direction and a full room stops it. In this case the Creature group cannot move and stands still. Note: the Desu Leader ignores this rule (see "Creature Stats" section on page 16).
- A Creature group must move into a partially occupied room. In this situation, move Creatures of the player's choice into the room until the room is full. Example: A group of 4 Creatures must move straight and the adjacent room contains 6 Creatures: only 1 Creature may move in, filling the room (7 spaces); the other 3 remain in the first room.
B. PLACE NEW CREATURES
Starting with the Lead player and proceeding in clockwise order, each player must determine the number of new Creatures to place and the color of the rooms in which to place them.
The amount of Creatures to place is equal to the number of rooms containing 1 or more of the player's Action cubes with the exception of rooms without any color (Exit Control Rooms and Starting rooms), which do not produce Creatures.
The Creatures must be placed in a room of the same color as the room containing the Action cubes. For example, a player used 5 Action cubes: 1 cube each in 3 red rooms and 2 cubes in 1 green room. He must place 4 Creatures: 3 in red rooms and 1 in a green room.
- For every 4 Creatures that must be placed by a single player, 1 must be a Leader and is placed first. If no Leaders are available in the game reserve, ignore this rule.
- Players may freely choose which Creatures to take from the game reserve and which order follow to place them.
Creatures must be placed in rooms of the correct color following these rules:
- A Creature must be placed in an empty room of the correct color containing 1 or more Action cubes (any color). An empty room is a room without a Creature or a Hero.
- If option 1 above is not possible:
- A. Add the Creature to a room where are 1 or more non-lying down Creatures. That room must be in a Hero Alerted Area.
- OR
- B. Move all Creatures which are in a single room by 1 movement. Use the normal "See, Sniff, Hear" rules. The Creature group to move must be inside a room of the correct color and the room must be in a Hero Alerted Area. Note: At least 1 movement must be done to cover this obligation. If a Barrier or a Door stops a Creature (or a Creature group) from moving, the player will have to find another group to move or he will have to add a Creature instead. For example, a player must move Creatures in a green room. He chooses a to move a group of 3 Creatures into a room where there are already 6 Creatures. Since 1 Creature can still move and fill the room (7 spaces), he moves only 1 Creature. Even though the other 2 Creatures remain in the first room, the player's obligation to do at least 1 movement has been fulfilled.
Important! If Option 1 is not possible, you have to do Option 2 (A or B). If Option 2A or Option 2B is not possible you must choose the other option. If no Options are possible, do nothing. Note: If no more Creatures are available in the game reserve it means that neither Option 1 or Option 2A are possible, so players must choose Option 2B; they must move a Creature (or a Creature group)!
Example 1: The black player must place 2 Creatures in blue rooms and 2 Creatures in green rooms; the first Creature he places must be a Leader. The purple player must place 2 Creatures in green rooms.
The first Creature placed by the black player must be a Leader. He places the first Creature in A and the second Creature in B. Then he must place 2 Creatures in green rooms: in this case he has no choice as there are only 2 empty rooms with Action cubes (C & D), so he places the first Creature in D and the second in C.
The purple player must place two Creatures in green rooms. There are no empty rooms with cubes, so for the first placement the player can choose between: 1) moving the Creature in C or D one room card or 2) adding a Creature to a group in a green room (C or D). He chooses to move the Creature in D (see red arrow). He must then place his second Creature in D as D is now an empty green room with a cube.
Example 2: The purple player must place 1 Creature in a blue room and 4 Creatures in green rooms as this is the situation (diagram).
He must place the Creature generated by the blue room in A as it is the only empty blue room with an Action cube. For the green rooms he must place his first 2 Creatures, 1 in B and 1 in C.
For his last two Creatures, he can add a third Creature in B-C-D or move a Creature in B-C-D one room card. He chooses to move the green Creature from D to C (see red arrow).
He must place a Creature in room D for his final placement, as it is now an empty, green room with a cube.
4. Turn End Phase
A. WOUNDS
All Heroes with 1 or more deep wounds suffer 1 additional wound. Draw a Wound card and place it face down if at least one of the Hero's existing deep wounds is face down; otherwise it is placed face up. Face-down wounds can never be examined by anyone, even by the wounded Hero's player.
B. GAIN RESOURCES
FROM ROOMS DISPLAY
Players may discard from their Rooms display any group of cards with the same number of doorways and, for 2-doorways cards, the same orientation. This operation doesn't produce any resource for the player. All these cards must face-up (not showing the trap side). For example, a player can discard two 3-doorways cards or four 2-doorways cards with doorways at 90 degrees.
If all the discarded cards have also the same color, the player gains 3 resources (for a pair) or 7 resources (for three of a kind) or 11 resources (for four of a kind). Additional symbols on the card (like the Research Lab or Special Effect room symbols) have no effect.
FROM ADVANTAGES
Players may use Advantages to gain 6 resources for each Advantage used (18 for a Major Advantage).
FROM EXPLORATION AND SEARCHING
Check the map and gain resources from the rooms you explored and searched this turn (the room cards with your cubes in the corners). Determine the size of the room group for each card, where a room group is defined by connected rooms of the same color. Count the number of cards in that group (A). Then count the number of your points earned in that room group: 1 point for each explored room and 2 points for each searched room (B).
For each group, multiply A (group size) x B (points): the result is the number of resources you receive this turn.
The purple player moved from A to B. Check where he explored or searched (cubes in the corners): 1 blue room and 3 green rooms (1 green room is explored AND searched). Blue rooms: This card is part of a group of 2 blue cards (outlined in yellow), so its group size is 2. Player takes 1 point (1 single exploration). So 2 x 1 = he gains 2 resources. Green rooms: All 3 cards are in the same group (outlined in red). Group size is 5. The player takes 5 points (3 points from 3 explorations + 2 points from 1 searching). So 5 x 5 = he gains 25 resources. Total resources gained: 2 + 25 = 27.
Important! A player is limited to gaining a maximum of 30 resources in a turn. Discard any excess resources.
C. SPEND RESOURCES
Players must spend all of their resources to buy tokens or cubes available in the game reserve and place them in their stock. The cost for each item is listed below.
- Bullet (1 gray cube): 2 resources
- Heart token: 8 resources
- Shield token: 5 resources
- Explosive token: 6 resources
- Breach: 9 resources
- Barrier Bar: 3 resources*
- Book token: 7 resources
- Four-leaf token: 7 resources
- Adrenaline token: 9 resources
- Door: 7 resources
- Barrier (empty): 3 resources*
* A player spending 3 resource can buy an empty Barrier or improve a Barrier on his stock with another available on the game reserve with 1 more bar; in this last case stack the two tiles and use them as one. For example, a player can spend 6 resource to buy a Barrier with 1 bar (taking the tile with 0 bar and the tile with 1 bar), then he can spend 3 additional resources and buy the tile with 2 bars from the game reserve and stock it over the other two.
- Any resources not spent are lost.
D. RECOVER
- All players add X Action cubes from their reserve to their stock, where X is their Stamina value: initial value of 3 (as shown on player board) + 1 for each Heart token player has on hand; cubes available for recovery are limited by your reserve). Note: Players may not take cubes from rooms.
- Return all Action cubes from rooms and place them in their respective players' reserves.
- All players draw cards from the Room deck and add them face-up to their Rooms display up to their Knowledge value: initial value of 8 (as shown on player board) + 1 for each Book token player has on hand). If the Room deck runs out, the game ends immediately. If a player doesn't like a card he may return it to the bottom of the deck and draw a new one by using 1 Advantage for each card changed in this way. As long as the player has Advantages to spend, he may repeat this procedure until he draws a Room card he is satisfied with.
E. LEAD PLAYER
The player to the right of the current Lead player becomes the new Lead player. Begin the new turn.
Combat
Combat occurs during the Real Time phase when Heroes and Creatures share the same room. When that happens the Hero is involved in a Combat.
- A player involved in a Combat can: Combat, Move (flee), Use an Adrenaline token or Activate the current Room (if possible).
- Combat procedure is done in Real Time phase independently from other players, which will continue to play normally.
- After the player attack, the creatures make a counter-attack. Note: at least 1 Creature counter-attack must be done for each turn also if the player doesn't attack. In this case the counter-attack is done as soon the countdown expires.
- The Combat ends if player flees (see "Flee" section on page 16) or if there are no more Creatures in the room. So it's possible that a Combat lasts more than a turn.
Rolling
Each player chooses how many cubes to roll from his stock and rolls them on his player board. He may add Adrenaline, Book, Shield, Four-leaf, Explosive and Heart tokens as he chooses.
- A single roll can be used only against a single Creature group.
- The player must roll at least 1 Action cube.
- All cubes and tokens (if any) must be rolled together.
- All rolls completed before the Real Time countdown ends are valid.
- If countdown expires during the Combat, Damage points and Dodge calculation may be calculated and applied at the beginning of Slow Phase, same for the Creature counter-attack. If there is a positive Four-leaf token, the player can also make a re-roll and then check results at the beginning of Slow Phase.
Check results
- Any elements that do not touch a square are all negative. Set these elements aside, off of the player board.
- If 2 or more elements touch the same square, they are all negative. Set these elements aside, off of the player board.
- Each remaining element which touches a single red-bordered square is positive.
- The player may use 1 or more Advantages (see "Advantages" section on page 9) to move 1 negative cube back on the board to a positive position for each Advantage used.
Example: Cubes in A are positive, while cubes in B and C are negative.
Example: The player can spend an Advantage and move a negative cube back on the board to a positive position (D).
Use Successes
After rolling, the player calculates the number of Successes, which is equal to:
Positive Bullet cubes x positive Action cubes.
Check the previous example: after spending the Advantage, the player scores 2 positive bullet cubes x 2 positive action cubes = 4 Successes.
The other elements have the following effects:
- A positive Four-leaf token allows the player to re-roll all elements (except that Four-leaf token, which is returned to the game reserve).
- A positive Book token doubles the positive Bullet cubes (two Books x3, three Books x4, etc.).
- A positive Heart token doubles the positive Action cubes (two Hearts x3, three Hearts x4, etc.).
- A positive Shield token allows the player to recover all tokens (not cubes) rolled to his stock (except that Shield token, which is returned to the game reserve).
- A positive Adrenaline token allows a player to recover all cubes rolled (not tokens) to his stock.
- A positive Explosive token allows you to flee without taking the 1 Damage point penalty (see "Flee" section below).
Successes are spent as follows:
- Dodge (1 Success). For each Success spent, the Hero Dodges 1 Creature in the current Combat. Some Creatures, like Trickers, Leaders, or Bosses, require a higher number of Successes to be Dodged.
- Deal damage (3 Successes). For each 3 Successes spent, the Hero deals 1 Damage point to a valid target of his choice in the current Combat.
- The player chooses the order he spends his Successes. For example, the player may first kill a Creature and then Dodge the others.
- All Successes must be spent immediately or they are lost.
- Creatures don't take wounds; the player must inflict Damage points equal to a Creature's HP in a single roll to kill the Creature.
Important! If there are not positive Shield or Adrenaline tokens, all rolled bullet cubes and tokens are returned to the game reserve; Action cubes are returned to player reserve.
Example: The purple player is in combat with 3 Creatures. He rolls 4 Successes. He could: 1) kill 1 Creature and Dodge 1 Creature leaving just 1 Creature to attack him. 2) Dodge all Creatures (3 Successes spent, 1 Success lost), avoiding all attacks from the Creatures counter-attack: this can be useful to prepare to flee.
Creatures counter-attack
After the player's roll (or at countdown ends if the player doesn't attack), each surviving and unDodged Creature performs 1 attack. Each attack automatically causes Damage points. Each Creature's attack causes 1 Damage point, except Blooders and Leaders which cause 2 Damage points. Bosses cause variable Damage points (see "Creatures Stats" section).
Damage points and Wound cards
The player must draw 1 Wound card from the Wounds deck for each Damage point suffered and place it face down under his player board. If a player is unsatisfied with the card (for example it's a deep wound), he may use 1 Advantage to return it to the bottom of the deck and draw a new Wound card. He may use multiple Advantages to return multiple cards if desired.
Important! Shield tokens can prevent damage. For each Shield token spent from the player's stock, a player may negate 1 Damage point. Return any Shield tokens used in this manner to the game reserve.
Flee
The player may flee from combat at any time by moving to an adjacent room. If he does so, all unDodged Creatures in the combat will perform an immediate attack causing Damage points. In addition, the Hero takes 1 Damage point as a penalty. This penalty cannot be avoided by using Shield tokens. It can only be prevented by rolling a positive Explosive token.
Example. The purple player moves from A to B thus fleeing combat. He suffers 2 immediate attacks from the Creatures in A. He spends 2 Shield tokens to avoid Damage points from the Creatures attacks, but he cannot avoid the additional penalty Damage point.
Death
As soon as a player has a number of Wound cards (face-down or face-up) equal to his Hit points, his Hero dies. At turn end, if there is at least another alive Hero in the game, place the killed Hero miniature in the same room as another Hero of his choice. Reset the player's tokens, rooms and cubes as they were at setup, but with the following penalties: Take just 5 bullet cubes and 5 Action cubes in his stock. Flip 6 room cards face down on the player's Rooms display.
If the killed Hero was carrying the Antidote, place it in the room where he died. Player clue cards remain active in the game.
Note: If at the turn end all Heroes are dead the game ends.
Multi-player combat
If they all still have to roll, players can attack the same target together. Each player simultaneously rolls on his own player board, these Successes are added together, then a 1 point penalty is subtracted from the total.
- Dodges are made considering the Heroes as a group.
- Damage points taken are equally divided among players (rounded up).
For example, 1 Boss (4 HP, 2 dmg) and 2 Zombies (2 HP, 1 dmg) are fighting 2 players. The players declare they are attacking together. One player rolls 4 Successes and the second player rolls 6 Successes, resulting in 9 Successes (4+6-1=9). The players choose to deal 2 Damage points to one Zombie (6 Successes), killing it, to Dodge the Boss (2 Successes) and the other Zombie (1 Success). So there is not a counterattack, as the Boss and the Zombie has been dodged.
Creatures Stats
Creature Stats are: HP, Size, Dodge value, Damage, and, in some cases, special abilities. For Creatures, the base value is 1 for all stats.
Each type of Creature has a specific bonus:
- Zombies: +1 HP
- Dogs: +1 Movement
- Tricker: +1 Success required to Dodge
- Blooder: +1 Damage
The standard value for Leaders is 2 for all stats. Each Leader has a specific bonus:
- Desu: Trample. Desu may move into or through a full room. When it moves into a full room, move two other normal Creatures (size 1) back to the room Desu entered from to satisfy the space limits. For example, Desu moves into a room where there are already 1 Leader, 4 Creatures, and 1 Hero. Place Desu in the room and move two Creatures into the room from which Desu just entered.
- Mutant: Sniff the entire map. It sniffs behind doors and has unlimited range for sniffing.
- Verduko: Distance Attack. When it ends its movement, it deals 1 Damage point to the nearest visible Hero in Verduko's Alerted Area.
- Executioner: -1 Action. When it ends its movement, each Hero in its Alerted Area loses 1 Action cube (from his stock to his reserve).
Boss
Bosses have different stats. These stats are shown on the respective Boss card. All Bosses possess all of the Leader powers (Trample, Sniff, Distance Attack, -1 Action).
Important! Keep the Boss card hidden until a Hero interacts with the Boss (moves up its room or performs a ranged attack).
Exit Control Rooms
Exit Control Rooms are placed during game setup and must be activated simultaneously by Heroes to open the exit on the Starting room. The number of Heroes required to activate each room depends on the number of living Heroes.
- 4 living Heroes: one of the Exit Control Room must be activated by 1 Hero, the other Exit Control Room by 2 other Heroes.
- 2-3 living Heroes: both Exit Control Room must be activated by 1 Hero each.
- 1 living Hero: it is enough to activate just 1 Exit Control Room; the player chooses which one.
A Hero must spend 1 Action cube to activate a Exit Control Room. If combat is in progress, the Hero must spend 2 Action cubes (see "Activate a room" section on page 10).
Research Lab cards
These cards may be used as normal rooms or to create Research Labs by connecting the highlighted corners together.
In there are 4-3-2-1 living Hero, players have to connect at least 4-4-3-2 Research Lab cards. This allows a player to draw 1 Clue card. If a player is unsatisfied with the card, he may use 2 Advantages to return it to the bottom of the deck and draw a new Clue card. This is possible only before to place it on the table. He may use multiple Advantages to return multiple cards if desired.
In a 2 to 4 Hero game, if a Research Lab is formed by cards that are all of the same color, players may draw 2 Clue cards instead of 1. In a single player game, if the player connect a third Research Lab card to a group of 2 Research Lab cards, and all cards are of the same color, he may draw 1 additional Clue card.
This Research Lab made by 3 cards of the same color, allows the player to draw 2 clue Cards instead of 1 in 1-2 Hero games.
- The player who places the last Research Lab room card draws the Clue card(s). He may draw them at any time during that turn.
- If a player adds new card(s) to an already used Research Lab, he doesn't has to draw additional Clue cards.
Clue cards
Players obtain Clue cards by building Research Labs. They place the cards so they are visible to all players.
If at any time during the Real Time phase the Clue cards points to a unique room on the table, place the Antidote tile on that room. When a player reaches the Antidote tile he may spend 1 Action cube to pick it up!
Important! All incompatible Clue cards on the table must be immediately discarded and placed on the bottom of the deck. For example, the clue "A room with 4 doorways" is not compatible with another clue "A room with 3 doorways" and both must be discarded.
Clue cards have the following meaning (check the number on the card):
- A room with 4 doorways.
- A room with 3 doorways.
- A room with 2 doorways.
- A room with 1 doorway.
- A room in a group of 3 or more adjacent red rooms.
- A room in a group of 3 or more adjacent yellow rooms.
- A room in a group of 3 or more adjacent blue rooms.
- A room in a group of 3 or more adjacent green rooms.
- A room with a single Door token, if there are at least X Door tokens placed on rooms. X is the current number of Heroes.
- If there are at least X+1 Breach tokens placed on rooms, a room with a single Breach token. X is the current number of Heroes.
- A room adjacent to a Trap room.
- A room filled to capacity with Creatures. 13-20. Any room in the orange zone. The little red square represents the Starting Room.
- A room adjacent to a blue room.
- A room adjacent to a yellow room.
- A room adjacent to a red room.
- A room adjacent to a green room.
- A room without any Creatures.
Special room cards
Traps
Some Events require players to flip and/or place room cards on the Trap side. The Trap side shows 4 arrows to differentiate it from the normal side. A symbol on the corners specify the trap category:
- Lasers. Every Creature or Hero in the room at the beginning of the Real Time phase or any Creature/Hero who enters the room immediately suffers 1 Damage point. Affected players draw a face-up Wound card. Note: Creatures cannot take partial damage, so a Laser trap cannot kill Zombies (since they have 2 HP).
- Gas. Every Hero in the room at the beginning of the Real Time phase or any Hero who enters the room immediately draws 1 face-down Wound card.
- Creature movement bonus. There are +3 and +4 symbols, which represent a Movement bonus for Creatures.
- Creature proliferation. These symbols (x2, x3) require the player to place 2 or 3 Creatures (depending on the number in the red circle) in this room immediately after it is placed.
Special Effect rooms
First Aid Room. A player may spend 1 Action cube in this room to transfer 1 wound from his deep wounds space to his normal wounds space (max 3 Action cubes per turn among all players).
Ammo Room. A player may spend 1 Action cube in this room to gain 3 bullet cubes (max 3 Action cubes per turn among all players).
Net Room. A player may spend 1 Action cube in this room to draw 2 room cards (max 3 Actions cubes per turn among all players). These cards may be used like those in a player's Rooms display, but must be kept separate and do not count towards the player's Rooms display limit or Advantages.
End of the game
The game ends immediately when one of the following conditions has been met:
- When all Heroes have exited the map or all Heroes has been killed.
- At the end of the 9th turn.
- When the Room deck runs out.
Important! When the game ends, players must take into account wounds through the end of the current turn, such as wounds from using an Adrenaline token or from a deep wound.
Victory conditions
At least 1 Hero must exit the map with the Antidote before the last turn expires. To exit a player in the Starting room must spend 1 Action cube after the Exit Control Room have been activated.
This gives all players the win (regardless of whether the Heroes are dead, alive, or infected). If this does not occur, all players lose.
Ranking players
If you want to determine the best player in a winning game, follow these guidelines:
- If a single Hero, infected or not, leaves the map with the Antidote, that player is the best player.
- If more than 1 Hero exits the map, non-infected Heroes are ranked in reverse order of exit, then infected Heroes without the Antidote are ranked in reverse order of exit.
Errors during play
Important! Purposeful errors are not allowed. This rule is only for errors caused by distraction.
If a player places a room card incorrectly, alert the other players of the error during the Slow Phase. Do not correct game steps already completed (Creature placement, Creature movement and/or resource generation), but any Clue card drawn as a result of an error must be reshuffled back into the deck. Replace the incorrect room card with a compatible card taken from the Rooms display of the player who made the mistake. If no compatible card is available, draw from the Room deck until a compatible card is found and then reshuffle the discarded cards into the Room deck.
As a penalty, the player who made the error takes 1 face-up Wound card and places it under his player board. If nobody remembers who made the mistake, do not assign a wound penalty and take replacement card directly from the room deck.
Advanced Elements
These additional elements increase game difficulties and rules complexity. We suggest to try them after the first play.
SPY MODE
Setup. Create a Spy deck with X Hero cards (card with the girl) plus 1 Spy card (with the evil guy), where X is the number of Heroes. Shuffle the deck and give a single random card to each player. Each player keeps this card secret until the end of the game. The remaining card is NOT revealed and should be returned face down to the game box. If a player receives the Spy card, he will be the Spy against the other players and his victory conditions will be different.
Clue cards. Each player must keep his Clue cards hidden, but have to tell other players which clues are (obviously the Spy will lie). You can take a written note about it, to easily remember the player declaration. If at any time during the Real Time phase what players have stated about their Clue cards points to a unique room on the table, place the Antidote tile on that room. When the Antidote token is taken by a player, all players must show their clue cards for a verification. If the current Antidote position is wrong or if clues are not sufficient to determine a unique position, remove the Antidote tile and continue playing. Revealed cards remain face-up on the table (as usual discard all incompatible cards).
Victory Conditions. The player taking the role of the Spy and wins if one of the following conditions occur:
- He flees the map uninfected and the Antidote and all Heroes remain inside the map.
- He leaves the map (infected or not) with the Antidote and the other players remain inside.
- He leaves the map (infected or not) with the Antidote and all other players who exit are infected.
The Spy variant is compatible with the Ranking players modality.
PLAY AS BOSS: UP TO 5-6 PLAYERS
With this variant, 1 or 2 players can play as a Boss from the beginning of the game. This allows competitive play and increases the player limit to 6.
This variant can be also used when an infected Hero dies to check if he must continue to play as Boss against other Heroes. If there are still other surviving players in the game, during the following Slow phase control the dead Hero's face-down Wound cards: If he was infected (1 or more Wound card have the infection symbol on the flip side), the Hero becomes a Boss.
Aim of the game for a Boss player. The Boss player who kills the last Hero in the game wins.
Setup (if you are starting a game). Use the following variations on normal setup:
- 1 Hero: Use 4 Leaders (1 per type) with 1 Boss player, or 6 Leaders (1 per type+2 randomly chosen) with 2 Boss players.
- 2 Heroes: use 6 Leaders with 1 Boss player, or 8 Leaders with 2 Boss players.
- 3-4 Heroes: no variations.
In difficulty 1-2-3 games, each Boss player draws 4-5-6 Boss cards, keeping them secret from the other players. In difficulty 2 or 3 games, Boss cards are not assigned to Leaders placed during the Setup. These Leaders are just normal Leaders and are not treated as bosses.
Setup, if infected Hero dies. Player draws 2 Boss cards and immediately places one of them on his character.
Phases. During the game, the boss player acts during the Slow phase. Particularly he changes the rules of these two sub-phases:
CREATURE MOVEMENT. If there is at least 1 Boss in the game, the Boss player owning it moves all Creatures in the Boss's Alerted Area (along with his Boss) in the direction of his choice. If there are two Boss players contending for the same Creature group's movement, the player owning the Boss nearest to this Creature group moves them. In case of a tie, Creature groups are moved by the Boss player nearest in turn order to the Lead player.
PLACE NEW CREATURES. For each active Boss in a room containing any Action cubes, the Boss player owning this Boss places Creatures instead of the player(s) owning these Action cubes. If two Boss players are eligible to place Creatures for the same Hero player, the Boss player nearest in turn order to the Lead player will place them.
Important! Creatures moved by Boss players may explore, moving into unexplored areas. Draw the first card in the Room deck and place it on the chosen unexplored space. If the card is not compatible, draw another card until you find one that fits. Incompatible cards must be reshuffled with the Room deck.
Additional actions. At any moment during the Slow phase, Boss players may perform the following actions:
- Activate a Boss: A Boss player may transform a Leader in the game who is not involved in combat into a Boss. The player must take one of his Boss cards and place it face-up on the table in front of him so it is visible to the other players. Any remaining Boss cards are kept hidden. The Boss card shows the Boss's stats. Place Boss markers of the same color under the Boss miniature and on the corresponding Boss card. Each Boss player may only have 1 Boss in the game at a time.
- Deactivate a Boss: A Boss player may deactivate his Boss, but only if his Boss is not wounded. The player takes the corresponding Boss card back into his hand. The deactivated Boss returns to its original Leader status.
- Additional movement: Any player owning an active Boss in the game may give 1 additional movement to the Boss or any Creature group within the Boss's Alerted Area by taking 1 Damage with the Boss. Place a Bullet cube on the Boss card to mark the damage.
- Healing: A Boss can recover 1 Damage point if skips 1 entire turn (without doing any actions, movements, or combats).
- Minion transformation: A Boss player may discard one of his Boss cards to transform a Creature not involved in combat into an available Leader of his choice. The player's last Boss card cannot be discarded in this way.
- Adding minions: A Boss player with an active Boss may add 2 Creatures of his choice within his Boss's Alerted Area by taking 1 Damage with the Boss.
When a Boss is killed, the corresponding Boss card is discarded. When a Boss player loses his last Boss card, he draws 1 Boss card at turn end. He may continue to do this until the end of the game. If the Boss deck runs out, shuffle all discarded Boss cards and make a new deck.
Wounded Boss: Bosses must take wounds into account, registering them with Bullet cubes on the Boss card.
Laid Down: Boss miniature are never laid down during Slow phase.
ADVANCED COMBAT
Expert players can use Advanced Combat instead of normal Combat. This Variant adds Ranged Attack, Multiple Attack: Divided and Player vs Player option.
Ranged attack: Shooting from a distance
A Hero may perform a ranged attack if he is not directly involved in combat. Roll using the same rules as for a normal attack.
- When a Hero makes a ranged attack is not involved in a Combat, so it's possible to make multiple Ranged attack in the same turn following the normal rules for each attack.
- After the roll, the player must remove 1 positive cube from his roll, plus one additional positive cube for each room of distance. Thus if the distance is 0 (same room) the penalty is 1 cube, if the distance is 1 (adjacent room) the penalty is 2 cubes, etc. Note: Distance 0 only happens when a player is not directly involved in combat because he is protected by another player (see "Multi-player combat: divided" section below).
- The player does not suffer any Creature counter-attack.
- A direct sight line is required to shoot; the line is drawn from Room center and must be uninterrupted by walls, closed Doors, Barriers, or full rooms. Exception: It is possible to shoot through a Barrier if who is shooting is standing adjacent to the Barrier.
Multi-player combat: divided
If more than 1 Hero is fighting in the same room, each player takes an equal number of Creatures and performs a normal combat only against his own Creatures. If Creature number is not divisible, some Heroes may face 1 more Creature than other Heroes, but no more than 1. A player can choose to take more Creatures than normal if all players involved in the combat agree. In that case there is a penalty to apply; each additional Creature forces the player to discard 1 positive cube on combat roll.
For example, if there are 3 Creatures and 2 Heroes and a player takes all 3 Creatures, he suffers a penalty of 1 positive cube on combat roll. The other player, with zero opponents, will be considered out of combat and will be able to take any action, including a ranged attack.
Player vs Player (only for Spy mode variant)
A player not involved in combat may attack another player. The attacking player must declare the attack, the target, and the distance (if any). He then rolls for the attack. The target player may act as he wishes. If he roll a counter-attack, he must declare his intention and the distance (if any), provided he is not involved in another combat and the countdown is not expired.
- PvP Combat allows player to do multiple attacks in the same turn.
- If a player flee a not-ranged combat, he takes 1 wound as penalty.
- Players must declare their roll results (Dodges/Damage points dealt) and register them. PvP Damage points and Dodges are applied at the beginning of the Slow phase.
Example: Blue and Yellow players are in the same room. Blue declares an attack on the Yellow player and rolls first getting 7 Successes; he declares 2 Damage points and 1 Dodge to Yellow. Yellow player declares a counter-attack, rolls, and gets 4 Successes. He declares 1 Damage point and 1 Dodge. Blue then declares a second attack against Yellow, rolls, and gets 12 Successes; he declares 4 Damage points and then moves away 3 rooms (1 wound penalty). Yellow declares an attack at distance 3, rolls, removes 4 positive cubes for the distance penalty, and gets 1 Success; he cannot declare Damage points, so he declares 1 Dodge. The Real Time phase then ends as the timer goes off. During the Slow phase, players check the combat results. Blue player: Damage points/Dodges: 2/1+4/0=6/1 for a total of 6 Damage points caused and 1 Dodge. Yellow player: 1/1+0/1=1/2, for a total of 1 Damage point caused and 2 Dodges. Calculate the final result: The yellow player takes 4 Damage points and must draw 4 Wound cards. The blue player draws 1 Wound card as a penalty since he fled the combat.
Tip: Use the Spy card and the ruler on player boards to register Dodges and Damage points. Place the Spy card under the left side of the board and move it up to register Dodges and right (under the board) to register Damage points. The number on the card near the player board shows the Damage points (2 Damage points); the number on the board near the card side shows the Dodges (1 Dodge).
Important! Any Wound card taken from player vs player combat is face up if the player who caused it has no wounds or only face-up wounds; conversely they are face down if the attacking player has 1 or more face-down wounds.
Combat FAQ
Q: Is Combat performed during the Real Time phase? YES
Q: If I have some additional Successes to spend, may I use them against other Creatures in another room? NO. All Successes obtained in a single roll must be spent against targets all in the same room.
Q: Does my roll have to result in at least 1 positive action cube and 1 positive bullet cube? Otherwise my Success result will be zero? YES.
Q: Can I make a ranged attack if I have another Hero in the middle of my Sight line? YES, but if there is a full Room in your Sight line you cannot shoot beyond it. You may shoot a target in a full Room if your Sight line is not blocked to that room.
Q: What does "Distance 0" mean? If you are not involved in a Combat you can perform a ranged attack in your current room (Distance 0). This occurs when the Creatures in your room have all been assigned to other players.
Q: May players attack "Together" using ranged attacks? YES.
Q: May I attack a Creature group with a ranged attack? YES, if Creatures are in the same room and you get sufficient Successes.
Q: If I attack another player at distance 1 and then he moves, what distance do I attack at? You always consider the distance you declared before your roll, in this case it would be an attack of distance 1.
Q: If I'm in combat with Creatures and another Hero shoots me in a ranged-attack, may I use the rolled Successes to Dodge him? NO. Your roll can be used only in a single Combat.
Q: May I dodge the ranged attack of two players using the same roll? NO. You must choose which player to counter-attack. However, if both players are attacking "together", it is considered 1 attack and you may dodge them.
Q: Is it possible to roll outside of combat? No. Players only roll for an attack or counter-attack.
Q: If I exit the map, may I use a ranged attack against Creatures or other players? No. If you exit the map, your game ends.
Q: On a ranged attack of distance 1, I must remove 2 positive cubes from my roll. Which cubes do I remove? The Player may choose which cubes are removed.
DIFFICULTY LEVEL 1
This level is optional as it is much easier than a normal game (Difficulty level 2). It is useful when combined with an additional element such as the Boss variant. This reduces your opponent's strength and balances the game better.
LEGEND TILES
To increase game difficulty, place one of the 4 Legend tiles in front of each of the four Creature types (Blooders, Dogs, Zombies, Trickers), so each Creature type is now linked to a color. Split Leader miniatures between each group, as you prefer. When in Slow phase, you must check the activated rooms when adding/moving Creatures: for each room of a given color, you must add Creatures according to the corresponding color's Creature group. For example, if you activated 2 green rooms and 1 red room, you must add 2 Creatures from the green group and 1 from the red group. If there are no more Creatures available in the corresponding group, you must move Creatures of corresponding Legend group instead.
ADDITIONAL FINAL ATTACK
This option give another bonus to Creature increasing game difficult. If at the beginning of Slow Phase a Hero is located in the same room with some creatures, all creatures will attack the Hero. If there are more than an Hero damage points are divided between them (rounded up). Is not possible to dodge this attack, but it's possible to use Shield tokens to absorb it.
Note: Irreducible Boss needs this additional element into the game. If you are not using it, discard the Boss.
Variant
NO REAL TIME
It is possible to play Virus without the use of a countdown in the Real Time Phase. In this variant, all players still play the Real Time phase together as in a normal game. When a player finishes his actions or chooses to stop, he passes. When all players pass, the phase ends.
Advantages: Players may pay 3 Action cubes at any time during the Real Time phase to recover 1 Advantage. Place the cubes in the player reserve.
Talking: In this variant, players are allowed to speak about game strategies.
Additional Creatures: After each Event phase, the Lead player must place/move X additional Creatures. Check the number at the bottom-right corner of the Event card drawn this turn. If the number is 1-5, X is equal to 0; if it is 6-7, X is equal to the current number of Heroes (H); if it is 8-9, X equals Hx2; if it is 10, X equals Hx3 For example, if the card number is 9 with 3 living Heroes, X will be equal to 6. The Lead player must add 6 Creatures to the game (1 Leader and 5 Creatures).
Use point 2 (A or B) of the "Place new Creatures" rules (page 12), but ignore the room color restrictions.
CAMPAIGN MODE
This variant requires the Skills expansion. It allows to link a game to the following ones, so that a player will use the same character in an increasing difficulty games sequence.
First play Setup. Use normal Setup with Difficulty 2, but applying these modifications:
- Base Knowledge is 5 instead of 8.
- Base Stamina is 1 instead of 3.
- Hit points are 5/4/3 instead of 8/4/3. (as printed)
- Starting Skills are 0.
Base starting Stats above, can be permanently modified before each game spending XP. Each Hero starts with 10 Experience Points (XP). The stats modification must be registered on a paper sheet.
Pre-Play. Players can spend XP for:
- Increase Knowledge: +1 point spending 2 XP, +2 points spending 5 XP.
- Increase Stamina: +1 point spending 3 XP, +2 points spending 7 XP.
- Increase Hit Points: +1 point spending 2 XP, +2 points spending 5 XP.
- Gain a Skill: +1 Skill spending 4 XP, +2 Skills spending 10 XP. If more than a player wants to gain the same Skill, make an auction: each player makes a secret bid with XP (use game cubes hidden in the player's fist to represent the XP bidded). If there is a tie, repeat the bid. Only the winning player pays the XP bidded.
XP can be stored for the following game. Note: a player cannot gain more than 2 points in each stat, or more than 2 Skills per game. For example: a player can spend XP to gain +2 in Knowledge, +1 in Stamina and +1 Skill; but cannot gain +3, or more, in Knowledge in a single Pre-Play.
How to earn XP. Hero can gain XP by:
- 1 XP every 4 killed creatures. Each player keeps killed creature miniatures near their own player board. When the Slow phase begins, each player puts these miniatures back in the game reserve and registers on a paper sheet the kills made. At game end, these kills are converted in XP.
- 1 XP every killed Boss. All Heroes, which are in combat in the same room of Boss when the Boss dies, gain 1 PE. (as printed)
- 2 XP for surviving at game's end.
- 1 XP if not infected and survived at game's end.
- 3 XP if Heroes win the play.
Following games. If the previous game has been won by Heroes, the next play must be increased in difficulty. You can do that in several ways:
- Increasing difficulty level.
- Adding Legend Tiles.
- Playing one of the three available Scenario (or a your customized Scenario!)
- Adding the Spy modality. Note: in this case the spy player gain XP in the same ways of other players but can gain the final 3 XP only if he/she wins, otherwise gets 0 XP if Heroes win.
- Adding a player which plays as Boss (you can repeat this point adding another player which plays as another Boss).
- Adding the special Teleport-Drifting rooms and the Morbo card.
- Adding the Additional Final Attack element.
If a Hero dies, the player must discard all Skill cards owned and take an equal number of new Skills (or up to the Skills available). Discarded Skills will be available again in the following play.
Scenarios
Room Positioning Method. Draw 3 random cards from the Event deck. Check the number on the bottom-right corner and take the highest value on these cards. Count an equal number of room spaces from the Exit Control Room located furthest from the Starting room. You can count moving straight ahead (away from the Starting room), left or right, as you prefer. If you reach the end of the table, stop immediately. Repeat the procedure once with 3 other random Event cards. You may not invert the previous movement. Place the Scenario room there.
As an example, see the configuration (diagram: Starting Room with two Exit Control Rooms and the Scenario Room). Player draws 3 Event cards and the highest number is a 4. The player must count 4 spaces away from the Exit Control Room; he may count straight ahead, to the left, or to the right. In the example above, he chooses to move straight ahead as shown by the black squares. He draws 3 more cards and the highest number is a 3. This time the player chooses to count 3 spaces to the right as shown by the red squares and places the Scenario room.
REBOOT
When players open the entrance door, use the "Room Positioning Method" above to place the Scenario room. This room is the Computer Room.
Scenario Goal: Deactivate the Computer Room and achieve the normal game victory conditions. The Spy ignores this Scenario's requirement. To deactivate the Computer Room, 1 or more players must reach the Room and simultaneously pay 1 Action cube, 1 Book and 1 Explosive token.
SAVE THE CHILD
Scenario Goal: Keep the Child safe and achieve the normal game victory conditions. The Spy ignores this Scenario's requirements.
Setup: The second time a Trap symbol appears on the selected Event card, after applied the Event, the Lead player must place the Scenario Room with the Child tile placed on it. The Scenario room must be placed halfway between the Starting Room and the nearest Exit Control Room and must be placed in an isolated area (without any adjacent rooms).
Child Movement: Each Event phase, before to draw the Event card, the Lead player must check if the Child can see any Creatures or if a Creature in the Child's Alerted Area.
If so, the Lead Player moves the Child up to 3 spaces away from the Creature(s). The Child must be moved until he cannot see and/or hear any Creatures or until he has moved 3 spaces.
If not, the Lead Player moves the Child 1 space.
When the Child explores, draw the top room from the Room deck and place it. If the Room is not compatible with the previous rooms, discard it and draw a new card until you find a compatible one. Reshuffle the discarded cards back into the Room deck.
When moving Creatures the Child is considered a Hero, but they can only sniff and/or see, but not hear him.
If one or more Creatures enter the room with the Child without any Heroes present, the Child dies.
If a Hero meets the Child, the Child will follow him automatically and Child Movement procedure is not more required.
If that Hero dies, the Child will automatically follow another Hero in the same room. If there are no more Heroes in the room, the Child dies.
THE CAPTIVE
At the beginning of the game use the "Room Positioning Method" to place an additional room. Place the Hero of the youngest player in this room. This Hero begins the game with penalties: he starts the game as if he had just come back from the dead as well as with a random face-down deep wound.
Scenario Goal: The Captive must exit the map and players must achieve the normal game victory conditions. The Spy ignores this Scenario's requirements.
Walls System expansion
The Walls System is an expansion for the game that contains 3D pieces that can be used in place of the normal game tiles. If still available, it should be possible to find it in your favorite game shop.
It contains 8 Breaches, 4 Doors, 12 Walls, and 4 Barriers+12 bars. The first two components are used as normal tiles, while walls are placed during the Slow phase wherever two adjacent room cards show 2 walls on the same side. Walls help players to quickly understand the room situation.
The Barrier are used like the respective tiles, but players simply add Bars to their Barrier to improve their strength. Bars are separated elements, so simply players can buy an additional bar (3 resource/bar) when required. On the Setup place 1 Barrier and 3 bars in the game reserve for each Hero in the game.
Special contents
The following mini-expansions and add-ons were added thanks to backers achieving stretch goals during the crowd-funding campaign for Virus. They are described below.
Teleport room card* (4 cards). If 2 or more Teleport room cards are on the table, players may use them to move from one Teleport room to another Teleport room of their choice. A player must spend 1 Action cube to activate a Teleport room.
Creatures will automatically teleport to another Teleport room when they enter a Teleport room. If several Teleport rooms are available, the player who moved the Creatures selects which Teleport room to move the Creatures to. Note: it's not possible to see, sniff, or hear through the connections between Teleport rooms.
Smoke bombs (4 tokens). These special tokens may be purchased like any other token, for 10 resources each. A player may use them when his Hero is in the same room as any Creatures. If used, no combat may take place in that room during this turn and the player may flee without taking any penalties. Smoke bombs also prevent player vs player combat and ranged combat. At turn end the Smoke bomb must removed and placed on game reserve.
Morbo wounds* (1 card). If the back of this card appears when a player draws a Wound card, the player must place the drawn card over his player board. This player is now infected by the "Morbo". During the Wounds sub-phase of the Turn-End phase, all players in the same room as a Morbo infected player must draw a face down Wound card.
Multicolored room* (2 cards). This card may be whatever color a player wants it to be any time he must take a room's color into account.
Resolution Tokens (4 tokens). These special tokens may be purchased like any other token for 10 resources each. A player may roll them in combat. A successful result allows the player to fix the result of one other rolled cube or token, making it successful as well.
Drifting room* (2 cards). During the Lead player sub-phase, if any Creature or Hero is located in this room, the new Lead player must move this room to a free adjacent space of his choice; repeat up to 4 times until the room is separated from all other room.
Diavolo miniature* (2 miniatures). Players can use these miniatures as Boss Creatures instead to use a Leader miniature over a Boss tile.
* this element is included in Heroes Expansion. If still available, it should be possible to find it in your favorite game shop.
Skills expansion
Skill expansion has been achieved during the crowd-funding campaign for Virus. It's included in Heroes Expansion and contains 16 skill cards. Skill cards give players additional powers. You can play Virus with or without them. Powers are described on Skill cards.
Skill assignment
Method 1: Place 2X+1 skill cards on the table, where X is the number of players. The Lead player takes 1 skill, with every other player selecting a skill in clockwise order. Each player then takes a second skill card, beginning with the last player and returning to the Lead player in counter-clockwise order.
Method 2: Place 2X+1 skill cards on the table, where X is the number of players. Beginning with the Lead player and going in clockwise order, each player places 1 Action cube from his stock on a skill card of his choice or passes. If there are already 1 or more cubes on the card, the player must place the same quantity +1 and return the current cube(s) to their owner. Continue for several rounds until all players pass. Each player takes up to 2 skill cards where his cubes are on. Return the cubes to the player reserves.
Turn Sequence
- Check the Event! (Event Phase)
- Countdown starts: Do Actions (Real Time Phase)
- Move Creatures (Slow Phase)
- Add Creatures (Slow Phase)
- Take Resources (Turn End Phase)
- Spend Resources (Turn End Phase)
- Recover (Turn End Phase)
- New Lead Player (Turn End Phase)
A little test
Before playing a standard game, it can be useful to play this test where players can check if rules are clear. The test shows 4 steps in increasing complexity. Each step presents an objective that players must complete before moving to the next step up and shows if Events, Creature movement and new Creature placement rules must be used or not.
Setup. Follow normal setup procedure for difficulty 2 but do not place any Creatures adjacent to the Starting Room. Place rooms as shown in the rulebook's diagram (rooms A-G; not reproduced here). Place 2 Dogs in room B, 2 Blooders in C, 2 Trickers in D, and 2 Zombies in E.
Step 1. This step allows players to learn how to place room cards and experience the Real Time phase, as well as how resources are collected and spent.
- Objective. All players must reach Exit Control Room A and activate it simultaneously.
- Events: Do not use Events.
- Move Creatures: Do not move Creatures.
- Place new Creatures: Do not place new Creatures.
- Tip: Buy some Heart and Shield tokens.
Step 2. This step allows players to experience combat.
- Objective: Each player must reach a different room (B, C, D, or E). Each player has to perform 1 Combat with the Creatures there.
- Events: Do not use Events.
- Move Creatures: YES!
- Place new Creatures: Do not place new Creatures.
- Tip: Use Advantages in combat.
Step 3. This step allows players to learn about Clue cards and how to place the Antidote.
- Objective: Complete a Research Lab around G, draw a Clue, and place the Antidote*.
- Events: Do not use Events.
- Move Creatures: YES!
- Place new Creatures: YES!
- Tip: Try to make a single color Research Lab to draw 2 Clues.
* Players normally must collect several clues before being able to locate the antidote, but in this simplified game players may place it in Exit Control Room A after finding a clue or two.
Step 4. This step teaches players how to finish a game and exit the map.
- Objective: Players must take the antidote and exit the map.
- Events: YES!
- Move Creatures: YES!
- Place new Creatures: YES!
- Tip: Fly, you fools!