Waste Knights: Second Edition Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Overview
• Components
  • Gear Deck Holder
  • Board Elements
• Game Setup
• Player Setup
  • Quick Player Setup
  • Vehicle Sheet Overview
• Playing the Game
  • Golden Rules
  • Knight Actions
  • Move Action
    • Resolving Enemy Cards
    • Resolving Event Cards
    • Resolving Encounter Cards
  • Dice
  • Resolving Tests
• Knight Sheet Overview
  • Camp Action
  • Sharing space with other Knights
  • Explore Action
    • Exploration Card
  • City Action
  • Plot Action
  • Special Action
  • Pass
  • Grim Badlands
• Combat
  • I. Check Enemy Traits
  • II. Choose Weapon
  • III. Check Threat Tokens
  • IV. Combat Resolution
  • Enemy Card
  • Combat Traits
  • Bare-Handed Attack
• Other Rules
  • Gear Cards
  • Wounds and Radiation
  • Deal vs. Suffer
  • Gear Card Overview
  • Elimination
  • Damage
  • Attaching Injuries and Malfunctions
  • Starting Number of Knights
  • Adventures, Plots and Entries
  • Injury and Malfunction Cards
  • Solo Mode
  • Experience Points and Upgrades
    • Personal Upgrade Cards
    • General Upgrade Cards
• Threat Tokens Overview
• Credits

Game Overview

Waste Knights: Second Edition is a post-apocalyptic game of adventure and survival for 1-4 players. It is set in the Waste – dystopian Australia half a century from now, which has been ruined by global crisis, ecological disasters and machinations of a powerful corporation Cerbero.

Players become Waste Knights, rugged heroes (or villains) trying to survive in this brave new world full of crazed cybernetic constructs, mutants, feral beasts and the most fearsome of all – other humans, no longer bound by moral constraints of modern civilization.

The game is adventure-based, with each adventure custom-made to provide players with a unique experience. The goal of the game is based on the theme of a given adventure and changes depending on players' decisions and narrative choices. Each game is special thanks to hundreds of entries that contain gripping stories and strategic challenges, with the world around players reacting to their actions, but at the same time providing them with a living, breathing and deeply immersive background.

Components

• Rulebook
• Guide
• Book of Tales
• 1 Game Board
• 6 Knight Figures
• 6 Knight Sheets
• 6 Vehicle Sheets
• 4 Reference Sheets
• 40 Wasteland Cards (Desert / Highway)
• 30 Wasteland Cards (Scrub / Mountains)
• 20 Exploration Cards
• 10 Special Cards
• 64 Gear Cards
• Gear Deck Holder
• 8 Malfunction Cards
• 8 Injury Cards
• 24 Personal Upgrade Cards (4 per knight)
• 6 General Upgrade Cards
• 12 Custom Dice
• 4 Plastic Base Discs
• 1st Player Marker
• 10 Threat Tokens and bag
• 12 Challenge Tokens
• 30 Wound/Contaminated Wound Tokens
• 30 Damage Tokens
• 4 Experience (XP) Markers
• 24 Knight Tokens
• 10 Plot Tokens
• 12 Fuel Markers
• 12 Meds Markers
• 12 Ammo Markers
• 12 Radiation Tokens
• 15 Danger Markers
• 2 Camp Markers
• 20 General Tokens
• 1 Special Marker
• 1 Ramparts Marker
• 1 Time Marker
• 10 Entry Tokens

Gear Deck Holder

Please assemble the Gear Deck Holder as shown on the included diagram.

Board Elements

• City: Its terrain type is shown in a circle next to its name.
• Danger Icon: marks a hex with a hazard to resolve.
• Special Location (numbered): a numbered hex tied to adventure content.
• Camp Space: where dice, the Time Marker and Camp Markers start the game.
• Track: a numbered track (1-10) used by the Time Marker.

Game Setup

Perform the following steps before each game:

1. Place the Board.
2. Take the Special Deck and place it face-down. Do not shuffle it – the cards should be organized according to numbers in the upper-left corner of their backs. Important: Keep the cards face-down and avoid looking at them too closely when handling the deck.
3. Shuffle the Exploration Deck and place it face-down.
4. Separate wasteland cards according to their backs into two Wasteland Decks (for highway / desert and scrub / mountains), shuffle them separately and place them face-down.
5. Take the General Upgrade Deck and place it next to the board.
6. Shuffle the Injury Deck and place it with the Unconscious side face-up.
7. Shuffle the Malfunction Deck and place it with the Wrecked side face-up.
8. Search the Gear Cards for the Starting Gear (as marked on the bottom of the cards) and set them aside. Then shuffle the remaining gear cards and slide them into the Gear Deck Holder with the broken side face-up (so that light background and a red icon in the upper-right corner are visible).
9. Place all Dice, the Time Marker and 2 Camp Markers on the Camp Space of the board.
10. Take all Resource Markers (Ammo, Fuel, Meds) and form them into a Pool.
11. Take Wound, Radiation, Damage, Plot, Challenge, General, Danger and Entry Tokens and add them to the pool.
12. Take Threat Tokens and put them inside the bag – this is the Threat Bag.
13. Determine First Player: Each player rolls 1 die in each color and counts their successes (success icon). Whoever has the most, becomes the first player, taking the First Player Marker to indicate this. Re-roll the dice in case of a tie.

Player Setup

I. Choose Knights: Starting from the first player and going clockwise, each player chooses 1 Knight and takes their matching components – the Knight Sheet, Knight Figure and Personal Upgrade Deck. Then each player takes 1 set of Knight Tokens with a Plastic Base Disc in the same color, 1 Reference Sheet and 1 XP Marker. Finally, each player inserts their figure into the disc, places their knight tokens, personal upgrade deck and figure next to the knight sheet and places the XP Marker on the top space of the XP Track. Return all unused knight elements into the box.

II. Choose Vehicles: Starting from the last player (i.e. the one sitting to the right of the first player) and going counter-clockwise, each player chooses 1 Vehicle Sheet and places it to the left of their knight sheet. Return all unused vehicle sheets into the box.

III. Choose Starting Gear: Starting from the first player and going clockwise, each player chooses 1 Starting Gear card. Repeat this process until each knight has exactly 1 Armor and up to 2 Weapons. Players place their weapons in the Hand Slots and their armor in the Armor Slot. The Starting Gear cards are placed with the working (green) side face-up.

Discard all unused Starting Gear cards next to the gear deck, with their broken side face-up, to create its discard pile.

IV. Take Starting Resources: Each player takes 2 resources of each type from the pool, placing Fuel in their Tank on the vehicle sheet and Ammo and Meds on their knight sheet.

Quick Player Setup

You may start the game straight away by resolving the quick setup. Starting from the first player and going clockwise, each player takes 1 set of knight tokens with the matching disc and 1 XP marker, then chooses one of the following sets with all necessary components:

• Johnny Taylor: Knife, Pistol, Trash Armor, Off-road
• Logan Harris: Knife, Pistol, Trash Armor, Truck
• Alinta: Barbwire Club, Vest, Bike
• Zoey Shaw: Sawn-off Shotgun, Trash Armor, Off-road
• Nelly Thompson: Knife, Pistol, Trash Armor, Bike
• Sallow Lee: Barbwire Club, Vest, Off-road

Important: Some gear and vehicle combinations may not be available depending on the knights you choose. In such a case, use any available components to make a suitable match.

Take the Guide or any other materials containing Adventures and decide, which adventure you wish to play. Always check the front page for any special setup rules or game components before you start preparing for a new playthrough. Everything else you need to know is hidden in narrative sections of the adventures – simply read, play and enjoy the story!

Important: If this is the first time you play Waste Knights: Second Edition, please read this rulebook to learn the basic rules and have a look at the introduction to the Book of Tales.

Vehicle Sheet Overview

1. Name.
2. Type.
3. Capacity: Number of Gear Cards that can be kept in your vehicle.
4. Speed: Number of Movement Points (MP) your vehicle provides whenever you move.
5. Tank: Number of Fuel that can be kept in your vehicle.
6. Bonus Speed: Number of extra MP your vehicle provides for spending 1 Fuel.
7. Chassis: Amount of Damage your vehicle can suffer before becoming Wrecked. This space also features the Repair Cost of each Damage.

Playing the Game

The game is played as a series of Rounds until the goal of the current adventure Plot (a branching story) is achieved. Each round consists of knight Turns. Starting from the first player and going clockwise, each player resolves their turn by performing 2 Actions. After all players have taken their turns, a new round starts. Certain effects may be triggered at the beginning or end of round depending on the current plot. Additionally, some plots have a time limit, forcing players to achieve their goals within a set number of rounds. In that case, the Time Marker is used. Move it 1 space up (toward space "10") or down (toward space "1") the Track at the beginning of each new round according to the instructions from the current plot sheet (except for the first round of the plot) to show the passage of time. Move the time marker before any other effects happening "at the beginning of round".

Golden Rules

Special effects from cards, sheets or books may contradict the rules from this rulebook. In such a case, these special effects always take precedence.

The terms "player" and "knight" are used interchangeably. The term "active knight" indicates the knight currently resolving their turn.

Most of the game elements are limited to what is inside the box. The only exceptions are: wound, radiation and damage tokens; general tokens; entry tokens. If any deck except the special deck and personal upgrade decks is exhausted, shuffle its discard pile to form a new deck.

You cannot have less than 1 die in any roll. When you lose dice, and the effect does not state otherwise, you choose which die to lose.

The number of your Successes cannot be less than 0.

Knight Actions

In their turn the active knight may perform up to 2 different actions. The basic actions are:

• Move Action
• Camp Action
• Explore Action
• City Action
• Plot Action (name)
• Special Action (name)
• Pass

Each action can only be taken once per turn (e.g. the knight cannot move and then move again). The exceptions to this are the Plot Action and the Special Action, which are followed by a unique name. The active knight can take more than one Plot/Special Action in their turn as long as each action has a different name. The actions can be performed in any order.

Move Action

Before the active knight starts moving, they must prepare their gear cards so that it is clear what weapons and armor are Equipped by the knight. Each knight can have 1 two-handed or 2 one-handed weapons in their Hand Slots as well as 1 armor in their Armor Slot. All other gear cards must be kept in the vehicle. No gear cards can be rearranged until the current Move Action is resolved (including combat or any tests).

In order to move, the active knight creates an imaginary, continuous route from their space to a different space of their choice. Then the knight counts how many Movement Points (MP) are required to cover this route (ignore the starting space). MP are provided by the knight's Vehicle, their number equal to the vehicle's Speed. The cost (in MP) of entering a given space of the board depends on the type of its terrain.

Terrain	MP Cost
Highway	0 MP
Desert	1 MP
Mountains	2 MP
Scrub	2 MP

Crater: Important: Crater spaces cannot be entered (i.e. they are impassable).

The knight spends the required number of MP and moves their figure along the chosen route to its last space. If the vehicle does not provide enough MP for the whole route, the knight may spend available Fuel, discarding them from their vehicle's Tank. There is no limit to the number of Fuel that may be discarded. Any unspent MP are lost at the end of movement.

Some spaces contain Danger Icons: Radiation, Contamination or Threat. If the knight's route goes through such a space, the knight must resolve the icons as follows:

• Radiation: The knight suffers 1 Radiation.
• Contamination: The knight suffers 1 Contaminated Wound.
• Threat: The knight draws 1 Threat Token from the Threat Bag. It will be resolved at the end of movement.

Important: If the Knight becomes unconscious as a result of resolving a danger icon, their movement stops immediately on the space which caused this state. Then, their turn ends.

When the active knight ends their movement, the player to their right draws 1 Wasteland Card from the deck matching the knight space's terrain type and places it face-up on the table. That player will roll dice, read entries and make any decisions resulting from the card drawn.

Important: A wasteland card is always drawn – even if the active knight ends their movement on a city or special location space.

Depending on the wasteland card type, the knight must resolve it as follows:

• Enemy: The knight must resolve combat.
• Event: The knight must test one of their skills.
• Encounter: The knight must resolve an entry matching the letter on the card drawn. Entries triggered by encounter cards are in the table at the bottom of the current Plot Sheet.

If any threat tokens have been drawn, they are resolved together with the wasteland card. Event and encounter cards (with their resulting entries) force the knight to resolve the Yellow side, while enemies – the Red side. All effects from the yellow side should be resolved immediately, while the ones from the red side are often resolved when an enemy attacks (see THREAT TOKENS OVERVIEW, p. 14 for details). After the knight has resolved all threat tokens, they should be returned to the threat bag and shuffled.

Resolving Enemy Cards

The active knight must resolve Combat with their enemy. See COMBAT, p. 10 for details. After you resolve the enemy card, discard it face-up next to its matching wasteland deck.

Resolving Event Cards

The active knight tests the skill shown on the event card (see RESOLVING TESTS), then resolves the test results. Additionally, each event card has a Condition Bar which describes special circumstances that might affect the resolution of the card.

After you resolve the event card, discard it face-up next to its matching wasteland deck.

Resolving Encounter Cards

The active knight checks if the letter from the encounter card drawn is matched with an entry number on the plot sheet currently in the game, as shown in the table at the bottom of the sheet. If it is, the number informs which entry to resolve from the Book of Tales. The player to the right of the active knight finds the entry and reads it aloud, allowing the knight to make decisions regarding the entry.

If there is no matching number, the encounter card is discarded and a new wasteland card should be drawn in its place. Any threat tokens are kept unresolved until a proper card is drawn.

After you resolve the encounter card, discard it face-up next to its matching wasteland deck.

Dice

Dice have 4 different colors indicating their strength but also risks involved in rolling them. Going from the weakest to the strongest: white, green, blue, and red.

Dice feature 3 types of icons. Their effects depend on whether the dice are rolled outside combat or in combat:

• Success (when testing) OR damage dealt (in combat).
• Fate: Considered blank (when testing) OR a potential special effect.
• Botch: Considered blank (when testing) OR after resolving your attack, break the weapon you used (in combat). Additionally, it might trigger a special effect of some cards.

Depending on the origin of your dice, there are a few dice types:

• Skill Dice: These are the basic dice you get whenever you use a skill i.e. when testing and in combat. Sometimes, certain gear cards, e.g. Dundee Hat, may provide you with additional skill dice.
• Weapon Dice: These are dice from your equipped weapon, which you are currently using in combat. They are added to your Blades or Guns skill dice (depending on whether it is a melee or guns weapon) to form your attack pool.
• Attack Dice: These are dice shown on enemy wasteland cards, plot sheets, or mentioned in various entries. They represent combat abilities of the opponent you are currently facing.

Resolving Tests

When the game instructs you to Test a skill, take all dice matching the required skill as shown on your knight sheet, and add any dice from your special abilities, upgrade cards and/or gear cards. Then roll the dice and check the results: if you obtain at least as many Successes as the Difficulty Level of the test shown in brackets (), the test is Passed. Otherwise, it is Failed. Finally, resolve all consequences of passing or failing the test.

If the difficulty level is "X" or is not mentioned, the higher the number of Successes obtained the better (0 Successes is considered a fail).

Attacks resolved in combat are also tests that use Blades or Guns skills, but certain abilities or effects may be resolved differently or cannot be used in combat. Additionally, knights often roll additional dice during these tests thanks to their weapons and/or armor.

Whenever you Gain dice, you add a certain number of dice to your dice pool. Whenever you Lose dice, you subtract a certain number of dice from your dice pool. You always roll at least 1 die.

Important: If you want to use any effects that provide additional Successes or allow you to gain dice, you must declare that you use them before rolling dice. However, dice re-rolls are declared and resolved after you see dice results.

Knight Sheet Overview

1. Name and Vocation.
2. Skills.
3. Special Ability.
4. Camp Action: Features Repair and explains how to use Meds to heal your knight.
5. Explore Action: Features Exploration and explains how to use Fuel to increase it.
6. Health: Amount of Contamination/Radiation your knight can suffer before becoming Unconscious.
7. Resilience Track: Amount of Radiation your knight can suffer and negative effects it causes.
8. Hand Slots: 1 two-handed Weapon Card or up to 2 one-handed weapon cards can be placed here.
9. Armor Slot: 1 Armor Card can be placed here.
10. Experience Points Track.

Camp Action

During this action the active knight may do any and all of the following:

• Heal: The knight may spend any number of Meds to heal. For each Meds spent the knight heals 3 normal Wound OR 1 Radiation, discarding proper tokens from their sheet. When healing Wound, the knight may also choose to heal Contamination, but healing it causes its token to be flipped to the normal (Wound) side. Therefore, it is twice as hard to completely heal 1 Contamination.

  The knight may split their healing between Wound and Contamination as they wish, but healing 1 Radiation requires the knight to spend 1 Meds separately. Any unused healing is lost.

• Repair: The knight may spend their Repair up to its value in order to flip a broken (red) gear card to its working (green) side. Each gear card features a Repair Cost which must be fully covered. The knight may flip as many gear cards as their Repair allows. Additionally, the knight may discard Damage from their vehicle by spending 1 Repair for each token.

  The knight may split their Repair between gear cards and vehicle Damage as they wish. Any unused Repair is lost.

  Important: If a gear card features "X" as its repair cost, it cannot be flipped to its working side as part of the Camp Action. You may repair such cards as part of the City Action (see p. 9) or when resolving special effects.

• Use Effects: Some cards or effects can be used only when performing the Camp Action (e.g. the Mil-feed gear card) as stated in their description.

• Upgrade: If the knight's XP Marker is on or beyond a highlighted space (3, 6, 9) of the XP Track, the knight may choose 1 Upgrade Card and place it next to their sheet (see EXPERIENCE POINTS AND UPGRADES, p. 13).

  Important: Upgrading the knight is also done automatically at the end of the knight's turn – it does not require the Camp Action.

Sharing space with other Knights

When at least 2 knights are on the same space of the board, place a Camp Marker on their space and move their figures to the Camp Space in the upper-left corner of the board. If one of the knights on the camp space performs the Camp Action, in addition to normal activities the knight may do the following:

• Trade: The knight may trade gear cards and/or resources with any other knights on the camp space. The knights may trade in any way they wish, ignoring the Barter Value of the traded gear cards.
• Repair and use special abilities: The knight may use their Repair to flip gear cards belonging to other knights or to discard Damage tokens from their vehicle sheets. Additionally, certain special abilities (e.g. the Master Tinkerer upgrade card) can affect knights on the same space as the active knight performing the Camp Action.

Explore Action

This action is mainly used to collect resources and items. When the active knight performs it, they draw the top card from the Exploration Deck and place it face-up on the table. Now, the knight checks the section matching the terrain type of their space – it shows what the knight has found and, possibly, negative effects connected with resolving the card.

If the knight accepts their findings, they simply gain any resources or Successes or draw gear cards as shown in the matching section. Then the knight must resolve all negative effects, if able, e.g. discard any resources if they have them, suffer Damage to their vehicle etc. Finally, the card is discarded face-up next to the exploration deck.

However, the knight may decide that they do not wish to resolve the card drawn. In such a case, the knight may draw another exploration card assuming that their Exploration is high enough. This value informs how many cards altogether can be drawn during one Explore Action (e.g. if a knight has Exploration 2, they may draw up to 2 cards per action). The new card drawn is placed face-up on any previous cards, so it is not possible to return to any previous card even if the new one is less beneficial. If the knight has used up all of their Exploration, they must resolve the last card drawn.

The knight may spend 1 Fuel per Explore Action to temporarily gain +1 Exploration. This allows the knight to draw 1 additional exploration card. This can be done at any point of the Explore Action. The knight cannot do it if their vehicle is Wrecked.

Important: Exploration cannot be lower than 1.

Exploration Card

1. Terrain Type Section.
2. Findings.
3. Negative Effects. (Place a Danger marker on your space, etc.)
4. Back of the Exploration Card.

City Action

This action can only be performed on City Spaces. There are 6 such spaces on the board, each marked with unique artwork, a name and a circle indicating the space's terrain type. When the active knight performs this action, they may visit (in any order) 2 different Shops from the following:

• Quack: The knight heals 1 Radiation and up to 4 Wound according to normal healing rules. Alternatively, if the knight has any Injury Cards attached, they may discard 1 chosen Injury card (shuffling it back into the Injury Deck).

• Garage: The knight repairs up to 3 Damage from their vehicle according to normal repair rules. Alternatively, if there are any Malfunction Cards attached to the knight's vehicle, the knight may discard 1 chosen Malfunction card (shuffling it back into the Malfunction Deck).

• Workshop: The knight flips 1 broken gear card to its working side. The Repair cost of the card is ignored. Even cards featuring "X" as their cost can be flipped this way.

• Stalls: The knight resolves Barter (3) by drawing 3 cards from the bottom of the gear deck and placing them with their broken sides face-up on the table – this is the Offer. Now, the knight may discard any number of resources and/or gear cards they have in order to acquire any gear cards from the offer. The knight must pay the Barter Value of the cards they wish to acquire. Each discarded gear card is worth its Barter value and each discarded resource is worth 1. The knight may also acquire resources instead of gear cards this way (e.g. they could discard a card with a value of 2 to gain 2 chosen resources or discard 1 Fuel to get 1 Ammo or 1 Meds). The knight can look at both sides of any gear cards in the offer.

  The knight does not have to acquire any cards from the offer or discard cards to gain resources. Once done, the knight discards all cards still in the offer next to the gear deck, broken side face-up.

Important: Even if the knight is on a city space, all other actions are still available – the knight is not forced to perform the City Action.

Plot Action

This action can only be performed if the current plot sheet or an entry allows it. Usually, Plot Tokens and Challenge Tokens indicate spaces with available Plot Actions (usually Special Locations that are otherwise treated as normal spaces). The plot sheet explains where a given Plot Action can be performed and how to perform it.

Plot Actions are followed by a unique name in brackets, e.g. Plot Action (Fighting a Robot). The active knight can perform more than 1 Plot Action per turn as long as each Plot Action they perform has a different name.

Special Action

This action is not covered by any other action type. It may become available through certain game effects, or as a result of controlling some game components.

Special actions are followed by a unique name in brackets, e.g. Special Action (Regain Consciousness). The active knight can perform more than 1 Special Action per turn as long as each Special Action they perform has a different name.

Pass

The knight may choose to pass and forfeit their action. However, it is strongly recommended to use all available actions as the game often has a round limit, making each action very valuable.

Grim Badlands

The Waste is a barren, brutal place, and so are the rules of survival. Whenever you encounter a situation or rules conflict forcing you to make an independent decision, such as which die to re-roll for your enemy, or which knight to choose when some negative effect occurs, always choose the option worst for the players.

Combat

Combat usually occurs at the end of the Move Action when the active knight draws an Enemy wasteland card. Normally, knights cannot fight each other although some adventures may allow that under special circumstances. In combat the player to the right of the active knight is responsible for resolving enemy traits and threat tokens, rolling dice and making any decisions regarding the enemy. Each combat is resolved as follows:

I. Check Enemy Traits

The active knight checks for any bolded traits on the enemy card. Depending on the trait some are resolved immediately (e.g. Threat), while some will affect combat later. If the enemy has Threat (X), X additional Threat Tokens should be drawn from the bag now.

II. Choose Weapon

The active knight must choose 1 equipped weapon featuring dice icons to attack with. There are Ranged and Melee weapons. In order to attack with most ranged weapons, the knight also needs at least 1 Ammo. If the knight has no weapon or does not wish to use one, they may choose to attack Bare-handed thus rolling only their Blades skill when the time comes.

Important: Each combatant can only attack once per combat by rolling dice to make either a ranged or melee attack.

III. Check Threat Tokens

If there are any threat tokens on the table, remember to resolve them once per combat at the proper time (see THREAT TOKENS OVERVIEW, p. 14).

IV. Combat Resolution

1. Engagement Step: Resolve effects marked as "Engagement", starting from the enemy.

Important: If the enemy has Ambush, it attacks at the beginning of this step (before the active knight has a chance to use any Engagement effects), no matter its attack type and the active knight's abilities.

2. Ranged Attacks Step: Any combatant making a ranged attack resolves it now. If this is the knight, they must spend 1 Ammo. Next, they form their dice pool by adding their Guns skill and Attack Dice from the weapon used. If this is the enemy, it uses its Attack Dice as shown on its card.

If both combatants make ranged attacks, they do it simultaneously. For the sake of clarity the enemy should roll its dice first, followed by the knight.

The combatant rolls dice and resolves them (see DICE, p. 7), dealing 1 Wound for each obtained Success and using other icons as described on their cards.

The knight can use abilities only from the weapon card used to attack, even if they have another weapon equipped.

Important: All dice results must be resolved, if possible.

When the knight is dealt any Wound, they may use their equipped Armor (by breaking or discarding it) to prevent as many Wound as its Protection Level allows. Any remaining Wound must be received – place the proper number of tokens on the Health space of the knight sheet. No combatant can have more Wound/Radiation than their Health – any excess is ignored.

Important: If the enemy has Armor Piercing, Wound it deals cannot be prevented. Additionally, remember to resolve any threat tokens accompanying the enemy attack.

When the enemy is dealt any Wound, they usually cannot prevent them. Therefore simply place the wound tokens on the enemy card.

Now check if any combatant is defeated. It happens when they have as many Wound/Radiation as their Health. If this is the case, go straight to the Resolution Step – the defeated combatant cannot retaliate in step 3 or 4.

Important: If the enemy has Relentless, it cannot be defeated until the beginning of the Resolution Step. Therefore, it may still attack in melee and use its abilities as normal.

3. Advance Step: Resolve effects marked as "Advance", starting from the enemy. If any combatant is defeated, go straight to the Resolution Step.

Important: Some knight weapons, e.g. the Frag Grenade, may be used in this step. Using them does not count against the "1 attack limit per combat" and unlike other weapons, they do not take any Hand slot.

4. Melee Attacks Step: Any combatant making a melee attack (including bare-handed attacks) resolves it now. Follow the rules for ranged attacks except that melee weapons do not require the knight to spend Ammo and the Blades skill is used instead of the Guns skill.

Then go to the Resolution Step.

5. Resolution Step: Resolve effects marked as "Resolution", starting from the enemy. Many of them are triggered depending on whether the enemy is defeated or not. If the enemy is Relentless, but received enough Wound to be defeated, it is defeated now.

If the knight defeats the enemy, they gain all Rewards shown on the enemy card: XP, gear cards (drawn from the bottom of the deck – never from an upgrade deck) and/or resources. The knight gains the rewards even if both they and their enemy are defeated (it may happen if they attacked simultaneously).

Finally, discard the enemy card face-up next to the matching wasteland deck and return all wound tokens on it to the pool and all threat tokens to the bag (remember to shuffle them).

Important: The combat ends now. Do not resolve more than 1 attack for each combatant. If the knight has not defeated the enemy, they gain no rewards and simply part ways with the enemy.

Enemy Card

1. Name.
2. Type: Machine, Beast, Mutant, Gang, Cult.
3. Attack Type (Ranged or Melee) and Attack Dice.
4. Health.
5. Rewards: What the knight receives for defeating their enemy.
6. Traits: Keywords triggering special effects in combat.
7. Text Box: Describes special combat abilities.

Combat Traits

Ambush: This combatant attacks first no matter its attack type (i.e. their melee attack may even precede a ranged attack and the opponent's abilities). Resolve at the beginning of the Engagement Step.

Armor Piercing: Wound dealt by this combatant cannot be prevented. Resolve when dealing Wound.

Relentless: This combatant cannot be defeated until the beginning of the Resolution Step. Active for the whole combat.

Threat (X): Draw and resolve X additional threat tokens for this enemy (see THREAT TOKENS OVERVIEW, p. 14).

Bare-Handed Attack

During combat, if you have no weapon equipped or choose not to use one, you have to attack Bare-handed. This attack is considered a melee attack using your Blades skill.

Other Rules

Gear Cards

Gear cards represent items collected by knights. They are basically divided into 3 categories:

• Weapons are usually kept in hand slots (Equipped) and aid in combat. If kept in a vehicle, they have no effect besides the ones with no Hand icon (e.g. grenades). A weapon's abilities can only be used when a knight is actively using the weapon to attack.
• Armor is usually kept in the armor slot (Equipped) and protects the wearer. If kept in a vehicle, it has no effect. An armor's abilities can only be used when a knight is actively using the armor.
• Drugs and Utilities are only kept in a vehicle. They are always considered Equipped as long as a knight has access to their vehicle.

A gear card can be in Working condition (the green icon and dark background visible) or in Broken condition (the red icon and light background visible). If something causes a working card to break, it should be flipped to its back. If something causes a broken card to break again, it must be discarded.

Important: Broken gear can be repaired – see Camp Action – Repair, p. 8 and City Action – Workshop, p. 9.

The knight may keep up to 2 weapons in their hand slots, 1 armor in their armor slot and as many gear cards of any kind inside their vehicle as its Capacity allows. It is best to keep all cards that have no effect when in the vehicle (most weapons and all armor) horizontally to indicate this.

The knight can freely rearrange their gear cards between their hand/armor slots and their vehicle, or discard any unwanted gear cards, before or after performing an action, e.g. you could do it before starting your move and wasteland card resolution or after it, but not while resolving it.

Whenever the knight acquires a new gear card, they must immediately equip it or place it in their vehicle. If all slots and the vehicle Capacity are full, the knight must immediately discard any gear cards down to their weapon, armor and Capacity limit.

Wounds and Radiation

The knight may be affected by 3 types of negative effects:

• Wounds: Wounds are marked by placing Wound tokens (red side up) on the Health space of the knight sheet. They are usually dealt in combat and can be prevented using armor.
• Contaminated Wounds: Contaminated wounds are marked by placing Contaminated Wound tokens (green side up) on the Health space of the knight sheet. They are treated as normal Wound for the most effects of the game – they normally count towards the knight's Health. However, they cannot be prevented using armor, and healing them causes them to be flipped to they normal Wound side, thus making them twice as hard to discard.
• Radiation: Radiation is marked by placing radiation tokens on the Resilience Track of the knight sheet, starting from the leftmost space. High levels of Radiation make the knight suffer certain long-term, negative effects as described on the knight sheet. The knight can have as much Radiation as their Resilience allows. If the knight must suffer Radiation but the track is full, any excess Radiation must be suffered as Contaminated Wound.

All of those effects can be healed using Meds as part of the Camp Action, at the Quack as part of the City Action and using certain special effects.

Important: If the knight has as many Wound/Contaminated Wound as their Health, they lose consciousness and must immediately draw 1 card from the Injury Deck.

When the knight becomes Unconscious, they are temporarily out of the game and cannot perform any actions or affect the game until they perform the Regain Consciousness Action as described on Injury cards. Then the Injury card is flipped and the knight must attach it to their sheet to mark that they are temporarily affected by some long-term negative effect. The knight can discard Injury cards by visiting the Quack in any city.

Important: The knight must spend Meds to heal only when performing the Camp Action (not when Regaining Consciousness, visiting the Quack, or via other special effects).

Deal vs. Suffer

When a knight is Dealt something (usually Wound), they can prevent it using different effects. When a knight Suffers something (usually Contaminated Wound or Radiation), they must simply take the mentioned number of tokens and place them on their sheet.

Gear Card Overview

1. Name.
2. Type: Weapon, Armor, Utility, Drug. Green if Working, red if Broken.
3. Barter Value.
4. Text Box.
5. Repair Cost (broken side only).
6. Attack Type: Ranged or melee (weapon only).
7. Attack Dice: Added to the skill used in combat (weapon only).
8. Hands Required (weapon only).

Full-auto (weapon only): This combatant may spend 1 Ammo to choose and re-roll any of their dice. Resolve after rolling dice.

Protection (X) (armor only): This combatant prevents X Wound. Contaminated Wound or Radiation cannot be prevented. Resolve after being dealt Wound.

Elimination

Some rare game effects can Eliminate a knight from the game. In this case, the knight automatically loses the game: their gear cards and resources are discarded and all other game components belonging to them are returned into the box. The player controlling the eliminated knight cannot return to the game. This may result in losing key Adventure assets and end in the knights' defeat.

A knight can also be eliminated by taking too many Injury cards. If the knight already has 2 Injury cards attached and loses consciousness (i.e. they would take the third Injury card), they are immediately eliminated from the game instead.

Also see below for how vehicle Malfunction cards can eliminate a knight.

Damage

The knight's vehicle may suffer Damage. This is marked by placing Damage tokens on the Chassis space of the vehicle sheet. When it has as much Damage as its Chassis, it becomes Wrecked and the knight must draw 1 card from the Malfunction Deck.

Damage can be discarded by repairing the vehicle as part of the Camp Action, at the Garage as part of the City Action and using certain special effects.

When the knight's vehicle becomes wrecked, its owner cannot move, gain bonuses to their Exploration, or use any vehicle-based effects (e.g. from upgrade or part cards) until they perform the Long Fix Action as described on Malfunction cards. The wrecked vehicle also loses its special abilities. Then the Malfunction card is flipped and the knight must attach it to their vehicle sheet to mark that it is temporarily affected by some long-term negative effect. The knight can discard Malfunction cards by visiting the Garage in any city. As long as a vehicle is wrecked, it cannot suffer any Damage or have any damage tokens placed or removed from its sheet. Additionally, a wrecked vehicle cannot be wrecked again and you cannot attach Malfunction cards to it (ignore such effects).

The vehicle cannot be lost in any way, and it cannot be exchanged by its owner during the game unless some special effects allow it.

However, a knight can be eliminated by attaching too many Malfunction cards to their vehicle, thus rendering it completely useless (and preventing themselves from continuing their journey). If the knight's vehicle already has 2 Malfunction cards attached and becomes wrecked (i.e. it would take the third Malfunction card), its owner is immediately eliminated from the game instead.

Attaching Injuries and Malfunctions

If some effect instructs you to attach an Injury card to your knight sheet or a Malfunction card to your vehicle sheet, take the card from its matching deck, flip it to its front and slide it partially under the proper sheet so that the card effect is visible. You do not suffer any Wound or Damage in this process, or perform any special actions normally required by these types of cards.

Important: If this would be your third Injury or Malfunction card, your knight is immediately eliminated (see above).

Starting Number of Knights

Whenever you encounter the Starting Number of Knights icon, treat it as a number equal to the starting number of knights, e.g. if a plot instructs you to "collect challenge tokens equal to the starting number of knights", you must collect as many challenge tokens as there were knights at the beginning of the game.

Example: If there are 3 knights in the game and the game asks you to "collect 2x challenge tokens (per starting knight)", you should collect 6 challenge tokens.

If any knight has been eliminated, they are still counted towards this number until the end of the game.

Adventures, Plots and Entries

When you start the game, after resolving the setup, refer to the introduction in the Book of Tales. This source contains terms used in Plot Sheets (adventure parts) and Entries (short narratives) and how to handle them.

Inside the Guide you can find all Adventures with different branching plots. Always look at the front page of the adventure you wish to play and follow any instructions from it so that you do not spoil fun for you or your friends.

Injury and Malfunction Cards

1. Name
2. Type
3. Special Action
4. Permanent Effect

Example cards:

• Injury Card – Unconscious Side (State: Injury): Draw this card and place it next to your knight sheet when the number of your Wound/Contaminated Wound is equal to your Health. Your turn ends immediately. You can only perform the following action: Special Action (Regain Consciousness): Heal 1 Radiation and 4 Wound. Then flip this card.
• Injury Card – Front Side (Broken Arm, Injury): You can only use 1 one-handed weapon. Place this card in your weapon slot to mark this.
• Malfunction Card – Wrecked Side (State: Malfunction): Draw this card and place it next to your vehicle sheet when the number of your vehicle's Damage is equal to its Chassis. You cannot perform the Move Action, spend Fuel to gain Exploration, or use any vehicle-based special effects until you perform the following action: Special Action (Long Fix): Repair 3 Damage. Then flip this card.
• Malfunction Card – Front Side (Rattled, Malfunction): Your vehicle loses 1 Chassis (to a min. of 2).

Solo Mode

It is possible to play the game solo in two ways: using a dedicated solo adventure or playing 2 knights in adventures enabling 2 players to participate.

There is basically only one difference between the solo mode and enjoying the game with friends – the solo player must make all choices and read all entries to themselves. Therefore, it is recommended not to look at other entries or narrative parts too closely.

Finally, when a solo player encounters some decision regarding activities of their enemies or negative effects of adventures or entries, they should choose the option least favorable to their knight(s). Remember that the Waste is an unforgiving place and act accordingly!

Experience Points and Upgrades

During the game, knights gain Experience Points or XP for defeating powerful enemies, facing dangers and resolving plots. Whenever a knight gains any XP, they advance their XP Marker by the indicated number of spaces along the XP Track on the knight sheet. If the marker ends on a Highlighted (darker) space of the track (3, 6 or 9) or crosses it for the first time, the knight has learned something new or acquired unique gear as represented by cards in upgrade decks: either their Personal Upgrade Deck or the General Upgrade Deck. When this happens, the knight may choose 1 Upgrade Card at the end of their turn (freely and even when unconscious) or as part of their Camp Action.

There are 2 types of upgrades available in the game:

• Personal upgrades marked with a knight's portrait are restricted only to the knight shown on a given card. Players take them during the setup and keep in their area.
• General upgrades marked with the XP icon are available to all knights. They are placed during the setup next to the board.

Knights may look at any upgrade decks whenever they wish – they are never shuffled.

When a knight advances, they may choose 1 card from any deck and place it with the chosen side face-up. In case of unique gear cards, they are acquired in the working (green) condition. In case of other cards, once acquired they cannot be flipped.

Some cards feature an XP Requirement (usually 6 XP). This means that the knight cannot choose a given card if they do not already have at least that many XP.

XP are not spent to acquire upgrade cards – they stay on the same level. If a knight gains more than 9 XP, they flip the XP marker to its "+10" side and record the new value. When this happens, the highlighted spaces are considered "refreshed" and the knight may gain new upgrade cards according to normal rules.

Personal Upgrade Cards

1. XP Requirement.
2. Knight's Portrait.

Example: "Jack of All Trades" (Personal Upgrade Card, XP Requirement 6): When making any test (except in combat), you may gain 1 white die. Once per turn.

Example: "Boom Stick" (Personal Upgrade Gear Card, XP Requirement 6): You resolve your Ranged attack before your enemy's Ranged attack. Ignore 1 Fate die you obtained. Botch: Deal 1 Wound.

General Upgrade Cards

1. General Upgrade Icon.

Example: "Controlled Fury" (General Upgrade Card): When attacking bare-handed or with a Melee weapon, you may flip this card to deal 1 additional Wound.

Upgrade cards cannot be traded or lost in any way (unique gear cards do not have any Barter value). If such a card must be discarded for some reason, it is returned to its deck (either its owner's deck or the general upgrade deck). The knight may willingly discard their unique gear card following these rules (i.e. return it to their upgrade deck) in order to pay some cost or requirement based on "discarding a gear card". Besides that, upgrade gear cards follow all normal rules for gear cards.

Important: A knight can have up to 6 upgrade cards of any kind, and their XP is limited to 19. Any further gains of upgrade cards or XP are ignored.

Important: If 2 or more knights would have to choose a general upgrade card at the same time and cannot agree, who should go first, start from the first player or the player closest to them in the clockwise order.

Threat Tokens Overview

Event and encounter cards (with their resulting entries) force the knight to resolve the Yellow side, while enemies – the Red side. All effects from the yellow side should be resolved immediately, while the ones from the red side are often resolved when an enemy attacks.

The threat tokens are double-sided (yellow / red) and include the following effects:

• Yellow side: You suffer 1 Wound. / Red side: You are dealt 1 Wound – resolve when your enemy attacks.
• Yellow side: You suffer 2 Wound. / Red side: You are dealt 2 Wound – resolve when your enemy attacks.
• You immediately discard 1 chosen resource.
• You suffer 1 Radiation. / You suffer 1 Contaminated Wound.
• Your vehicle suffers 1 Damage. / Your vehicle suffers 2 Damage.
• You lose 1 Success from the first test made when resolving your wasteland card. / Your enemy immediately gains +1 Health.
• Your enemy gains 1 white die. Resolve when the enemy attacks. / Your enemy gains 1 blue die. Resolve when the enemy attacks.
• Your enemy automatically obtains 1 Fate. Resolve when the enemy attacks. / Your enemy gains the Armor Piercing trait. Resolve when the enemy attacks.
• Your enemy immediately gains the Ambush trait. / Your enemy re-rolls all blanks once. Resolve when the enemy attacks.

Credits

Game Design: Marek Mydel and Paweł Szewc

Editing: Aleksandra Miszta and Mateusz Szupik

Proofreading: Aleksandra Miszta, Łukasz Chełmecki and Jan Jewuła

Story Writers: Marcin Strzyżewski, Marek Mydel, Michał Guzik, Paweł Szewc and Szymon Stoczek

English Proofreading: Łukasz Chełmecki and Wallace Frye Jr.

Graphic Design: Aleksandra Miszta, Michał Lechowski, Mateusz Szupik and Krzysztof Bernacki

Cover Art: Jarosław Marcinek

Character Art: Jarosław Marcinek

Game Board Art: Michał Lechowski

Interior Art: Tymoteusz Chliszcz, Bartłomiej Fedyczak, Aleksander Karcz, Michał Lechowski, Robert Rejmak, Piotr Rossa, Tomasz Ryger, Tomasz Ściolny and Michał Teliga

Art Direction: Aleksandra Miszta

3D Modelling: Stratominis Studio

Project Manager: Marek Mydel

English Translation: Marek Mydel, Paweł Awdejuk

Publisher: Galakta

Playtesters: Konrad Andrzejczak, Patrycja Andrzejczak, Wojciech Animucki, Kamil Bednarczyk, Krzysztof „Krzyś" Bernacki, Stanisław Błaszkiewicz, Marek Braun, Adam Cetnerowski, Jakub Chechłacz, Łukasz Chełmecki, Konrad Czubak, Artur Ćwik, Krystian Dobrowolski, Krzysztof Dyrek, Martyna Ejlak, Anna Gajewska, Bartłomiej Gajewski, Radosław Głombiowski, Mateusz Godzik, Piotr Goszyk, Przemysław Górecki, Michał Guzik, Marcin Hoffmann, Sonia Horbatowska, Jan Jewuła, Tomasz Jędrzejczak, Maciej Kałek, Robert Karcz, Rafał Klimczak, Marian Kolondra, Joanna Kołakowska, Piotr Kołakowski, Anna Lewandowska, Jan Loda, Przemysław Magiera, Sebastian Majsterek, Karol Masłowski, Wojciech Michalik, Aleksandra Miszta, Katarzyna Miszta, Kuba Motyl, Apolonia Mruczkowska, Agnieszka Niewińska, Leszek Nowak, Natalia Paluch, Rafał Paluch, Marcin Podsiadło, Magdalena Prześlica, Mateusz Pszczółka, Marta Raczek-Karcz, Przemysław Rajski, Krzysztof „Jaxa" Rudek, Marta Sandomierska, Joanna Sendorek, Bartosz Sieńczak, Mateusz Sikora, Tomasz Siwek, Adam Szczodrowski, Natalia Szewc, Tomasz Szewc, Damian Szostak, Katarzyna Szostek, Adrian Szulc, Mateusz Szupik, Filip Szwejser, Tomasz Szymański, Michał Walter, Marcin Wandzel, Damian Węcław, Konrad Zając, Krzysztof Zalewski

Publisher Address: GALAKTA, ul. Łagiewnicka 39, 30-417 Kraków, +48 12 656 34 89, Poland