ALIENS: Hadley's Hope Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• 1. What Is Your Mission?
• Before Playing the First Game
• 2. List of Components
• 3. Preparation of the Game
  • Center of the Table
  • Personal Area
• 4. Development of the Game
  • I. Event Phase
    • Step One: Eclosion
    • Step Two: Failure
    • Step Three: Success
    • Step Four: The Queen
    • Step Five: Pass the Marker
  • II. Threat Phase
    • How to Calculate the Best Route
  • III. Action Phase
    • Human Actions
  • Use the Rooms Equipment
• 5. Survival: Additional Information for LV-426
  • Queen Alien
  • Closures
  • Power Loader
  • Description of the Objects
  • Settlers
  • Closures
  • Failures
  • Threats
  • Status Indicators
• 6. End of the Game
• 7. Conditions of Victory
  • For Human Players
  • For Xeno Players
  • Lose for All Players
• 8. Modalities of Items (Game Variants)
  • A) Adjustments for Different Numbers of Players
    • Items for 2 Players
    • Items for 3 and 4 Players
    • Items for 5 or 6 Players
  • Items in Solitary Mode
  • B) Difficulties of the Game
  • C) Occult Roll (Hidden Role Variant)
• 9. Encounters
  • Threats
    • Against a Facehugger
    • Against a Xenomorph
    • Against a Horde
  • Xeno Players
  • Queen
  • Settlers
  • Against an Android
• Components (Detailed)

1. What Is Your Mission?

As a component of the crew of the Otago commercial ship, you must locate and rescue the personnel of the surviving base. Once at least as many colonists as crew members make up the rescue mission, the protocol will allow you to get out of that hell where you will have to flee from xenomorphs, eggs that hatch, an enraged queen, and an endless number of faults that, little by little, are destroying what is left of the space base. In addition, it is important not to have been infected by the creatures. If a single crew member is infected and gets on the ship, it will be your end.

Remember that this is a semi-cooperative adventure, so if your teammates suspect you have been infected, they may leave you behind. When the end of the game is triggered, you can only win if the amount needed, according to the scenario, of Healthy Humans and Settlers have escaped. If not, Human players lose. In case one or several players are playing as Xenomorphs and the Humans lose, the Xeno Players can win, if the base is still standing. The player who has captured more Humans (adding the captures of players and settlers) will be the winner.

Before Playing the First Game

There are some components that need to be assembled before playing for the first time. These are the Power Loader and Threat markers.

The Power Loader consists of 4 pieces: two sides, a rear, and a base. To assemble, assemble the sides with the rear following the rail. Once fitted, carefully place the base until the tab crosses the back.

Threat markers are composed of two disks. Be careful to take both pieces of the same color. Remove the central cardboard from each circle and go through both pieces, as shown in the illustration with the plastic union.

2. List of Components

• 7 Bridges
• 12 Fault tokens
• 35 Sectors
• 12 Hazard tokens
• 6 double-sided Player Boards: Human and Xenomorphs
• 6 Settler tokens
• 6 Human Tokens
• 18 Status Indicators
• 6 Xenomorph Tokens
• 1 Power Loader
• 1 Alien Queen Token
• 1 Initial Player Token
• 6 Threat Markers (Disks)
• 24 Markers for the Player Board
• 7 Hidden roll tokens
• 1 Auxiliary Board
• 2 items listed as "Given" (this line is garbled in the translation and is kept as printed)
• 36 Event Cards
• 18 Closing Tokens
• 18 Object Tokens

3. Preparation of the Game

A basic level item will be explained first collaborative for 4 players. Later You will find other levels and game modes. If you want to see a detailed explanation of the components see page 19.

Center of the Table

1. Take 6 bridges (you can choose them or take them at random) and place them in the center of the table creating a set homogeneous (see page 16 to see different types of compositions depending on the number of players).
2. Take the 35 sectors and separate them by type: halls and corridors. The rooms have walls marked in green.
3. Separate the MUELLE room (Dock) and arrange it face up in one of the hollows of the bridges that is outside. Mix the remaining 9 floor tiles with the 20 aisles, upside down, and place them randomly in the gaps of the bridges to form the base.
4. Place the Auxiliary Board on the side of the table and on it, in their respective spaces, the fault lines, objects, and Closure tokens forming batteries. Faults and Objects must face up. Make a pile with Settler arrows face down on the reserved space above the auxiliary board. Arrange, face down, from the bottom square and ascending, as many Settler spaces as players in the departure; for our example 4. This will indicate how many Settlers should appear before you are able to escape in the Auxiliary Ship located in the Muelle Room. Form another stack with the status indicators, face down, and put it in the lower left corner of the Auxiliary Board.
5. Shuffle the Event cards and draw 15 cards at random to form a stack. Put it face down on the other side of the board which forms the base. Take the first card and reveal it. Leave it face up next to the stack; that is the current Event card in the first turn. Leave the Threat tokens near, the two dice and the Queen Alien token for when they are needed.

Personal Area

6. Each player chooses at random, or as you see fit, a player color, and takes the corresponding personal board, your Human token, your Xeno player token, your Threat Marker, the Personal Board Markers for life, actions, magnetic resource and nuclear resource. All markers are initially placed at the top of their respective columns.
7. Next, each player rolls a die. The one that obtains the highest result will be the initial player. The game will start from the initial player and in the clockwise direction.
8. Place the Threat Markers discs on the board. For this the initial player will check if he can put his threat in the first position of the active Events card (maybe that bridge is not in play or that the indicated sector is the Pier room). The second player will place it in the next available, and so on until all the players have placed their threat markers on the board. Threats appear with the lowest value, the 1. In addition, each player takes a threat line and, without looking at it, places it face down in the space of his Player Board.
9. Put the Player tokens on the Dock. Place the Power Loader in a sector adjacent to the Dock chosen by the initial player.

4. Development of the Game

Alien Hadley's Hope consists of 12 to 15 rounds of game maximum. In each round, all players must play a full turn.

In each round the following phases are played in this order:

• I. Event Phase
• II. Threat Phase
• III. Action Phase

I. Event Phase

At first all players start as Healthy Humans. Throughout the game it is possible that one of you may become an Infected Human or even Xenomorph. When all players have played their turn, the round ends and a new event card is drawn.

In the Event Phase, a new Event deck is discovered. That card indicates the events that occur at the beginning of the current round and determines where certain elements of the game may appear. These events can not be prevented. Each event indicates its location through combinations of letters and numbers. The letter indicates the bridge and the numbers the affected sector. The colors are helpful and match the color of the letters on the bridges.

In case the first option to locate an Event happens on a bridge that is not in the game, or because it is not available for some reason (Failure, that is, there is the Queen Alien, Threats or Xenomorphs), the next location is checked to its right and it is checked until the location is available for the Event to take place.

There are 4 steps in the Events Phase. All occur in the order indicated by the lines of the Events letter from top to bottom.

Step One: Eclosion

If any Human player or Settler is in the indicated sector and has assigned one or several Status Indicator tokens, you must show them. The Status Indicators are used to indicate if the Human who has it assigned is Healthy or Infected. These indicators must remain secret. If the indicator is assigned to a player he can see it whenever he wants. If the indicator is assigned to a Settler, it can only be checked by a player when using the specific equipment that allows him to see it. The players' Status Indicator lines are placed on their Player Board. The Status Indicators of the Settlers are placed on the Auxiliary Board next to their image.

The Status Indicator lines determine if that Human is Healthy or Infected. In case all the lines indicate that nothing is happening at all. In the event that a token shows Infected status:

• If he is a Human player, that player has just died. A creature in its larval or "bust-chest" state has hatched and made its way out of the unfortunate player's body. The player must remove from the board his Human token and his Threat marker. Any object in your inventory or Settler that accompanies you must leave it in the sector where it was. If you have closing doors, you must return them to the Auxiliary Board reservation. Threat indicator arrows should return to the bottom of your stack. The player must flip his Player Board on the Xenameter side and continue the game as well. The markers for Actions, Captured Humans and Skills start at level 0.
• If the hatching occurs in a Settler, it is considered to have also died. It retires its token, which returns to the inferior part of its pile, and its Threat indicator(s) also return to the inferior part of its pile.

The Xenomorph players or the Queen Alien are not affected by this Event. If there is no Human or Settler in the Sector indicated on the card, the Event is ignored.

Step Two: Failure

Each turn, the stress that the Xenomorphs have subjected to the Base causes a new Breakdown in the system. Take the upper Failure token of your pile and place it in the sector indicated by the letter. There are only 12 Fault tokens and they are of three types.

In order to know where to place the Fault token, consult the active Event card. In it you will find up to 6 possible sectors to place them. Check if you can put it in the first option; if you can not, move forward until you find one available. Breakdowns can be placed in all sectors except the Dock or a bridge that is not in play.

See page 15 to learn more about the breakdowns and their effects.

Step Three: Success

Some charts can describe different events that occur in a complete bridge. If the bridge is not in play, the event is ignored.

In addition, situations can occur that can not be met. In that case, the event is ignored. In this case, the event indicates that the position of the Queen Alien must be moved one position, but it could be that this phase is not yet in play. If so, the event is ignored and the game continues.

The types of events are:

• Closure of hatches: Yellow fasteners are placed in the indicated hatches.
• Opening of hatches: The Yellow Closure tokens are removed from the bridge and taken to your reservation.
• Increase of threat values: Increase 1 level the value of all threats that are on the base board.
• Sector rotation: Turn one position (60º) clockwise all sectors of the bridge indicated by the letter.
• Off of sectors: The sectors suffer a power cut and become unexplored sectors. If they had already been previously explored, the sectors turn face down and lose the red or yellow closing lines they had. If there were Objects or Settlers on the affected sector, their lines remain in that sector. A sector with Human or Xenomorphic player edges on it is not affected by this Event.
• Situate Colonists on the board: A die must be thrown, and the value obtained indicates the sector where a settler appears. If the sector obtained is not explored, or at stake, this event is ignored. Also if in that sector is the Queen Alien, Threats or Xeno players, the event is ignored. For example: if the die roll is 3, the Colonist will be placed in Sector 1 of the PBridge (as printed in the translation).
• Mix Threat Indicators: The players must deliver to the initial player the Threat indicators and he must shuffle them without looking. Then, the initial player will distribute the same number of threat lines to each player as he initially delivered.
• Move Threat Markers: The base board Threat markers advance according to their rules (see Threat Phase for more information).
• Discard Nuclear Resources: Players who are at that moment in the indicated sector must put their nuclear resource marker to zero.

Step Four: The Queen

The Queen Alien, if at stake, must move, following her rules of movement, one position. See page 13.

Step Five: Pass the Marker

The player who in the previous round was the starting player must pass the turn marker to the player on his left, who will become the new starting player.

The Event cards, in addition, have a guide on where to place threat markers, Xeno players or where Settlers may appear, which will be explained later. The placement rules are the same as the Faults.

II. Threat Phase

Starting from here, every player plays individually and fully the following phases.

Players who are playing as Xeno Players do not play this phase.

Each player controls and moves the Threat marker of their color. From now on we will call this marker simply Threat. The objective of these threats is to arrive as quickly as possible at a player's edge on the board.

Threats have a value of movement and strength. The movement value is marked by the points and the force by the digit. Thus, this Threat moves two sectors and has a force 3.

The threat lines that players have face down on their Player Board serve to determine the type of threat that is hidden behind the threat marker. They are taken when the Threat disc enters the board. When it is revealed, the encounter is resolved and discarded.

The active player must calculate which is the shortest and most accessible route to the nearest Human player's token, even if this is the one of the player controlling the Threat.

The movement of threat markers is governed by these rules. Threats can be moved through:

• explored or unexplored sectors;
• sectors with breakdowns;
• sectors occupied by others: Threats, Xeno player tokens, the Queen Alien, or Settler tokens.

The moment a Threat is in the same sector as a Human token, its movement stops, even though it is in the middle of its movement.

Threats can not move:

• through red closures;
• through yellow closures that show a hatch value greater than its strength (digit);
• between corridors and rooms not connected to each other.

If in its trajectory it meets a Settler's token, the threat and Settler lines are discarded and return to the bottom of their corresponding stacks. The Threat returns to the player's playing area (next to his Character Board). The Settler State indicator dial is removed and placed on the bottom of its stack.

On the Player Board, the space for the Threat is left empty until the Threat marker, disk, returns to the board in the next Threat phase.

If a player at the start of his Threat phase does not have his Threat marker on the board, he places it following the instructions on the Event Placement card, and takes a threat line that he places face down on his Player Board.

If at the end of the movement the Threat has not reached any Human edge, the Threat evolves and becomes stronger and faster. Move the disc to a higher position.

If the Threat reaches a Human player's token, its movement stops. The active player shows the Threat level of his board and, depending on the Threat class, an Encounter is triggered. See the Encounters on page 18 for more details.

How to Calculate the Best Route

The best route will always be the shortest accessible route. Accessible means that the corridors are communicated and that there is no hatch with a Closing edge that the Threat can not cross. In case the Threat has two equally accessible and short routes, the Threat will choose the route that starts from the hatch with a lower value.

In the printed image the Threat has two possible objectives to try to reach. The Human Pris is not accessible, as there is no route to communicate with it. The Rachel Human token is 4 sectors from the Threat and can be accessed by two different routes. The Threat must choose the route that starts from the hatch with the least value.

III. Action Phase

In the Actions Phase players can perform multiple actions, from move to learn to handle objects. The actions have a cost of realization, action points, and are different for the Human players and the Xeno players.

Human Actions

During his turn each player can perform up to 5 actions. At your choice you can repeat the same action several times, spending action points each time. They can keep a count of the actions taken thanks to the counter of actions of their Player Board. The actions cost each 1 action point (PA). The available ones are:

• To explore: Players can explore a sector adjacent to their figure. To do this, they spend the PA, take the sector tile they wish to explore and turn it over. When placing it, you should orient it, look at the drawing and the picture on the right. When exploring a sector you can find hallways or rooms. Each time a room is revealed, two object rows must be placed immediately on top of it, without looking at them, from the stack of the Auxiliary Board.
• Movement: The Human player tokens can be moved through the sectors of the base board, paying 1 PA for each sector they enter, following these rules: They can only move to sectors previously explored and if they have an accessible route. Sometimes the hatches of the sector in which they are located are not connected to the adjacent sector. In this case, it is not possible to perform this action. They can not be passed through hatches with a Closure, later it is explained how to open Closures. If the sector to which you are going to enter has a Gas Leak Failure, entering that sector costs 2 AP.
• Rotate a sector: A player can rotate the sector where his Human token is in any direction one position (approximately 60º). You can also rotate an adjacent sector by exploring a position. Mechanical breakdowns prevent sectors from turning. With this action the player can cause some hatches to be cut off and therefore the token of a Human player can be "locked". Sometimes this is positive if a Xeno player or Threat were to reach you.
• Look at an object (free): During his turn, the player can look at an Object that is in the sector of the board where his Human token is without any cost of action points. They should leave it face down again in the same sector.
• Acquire an object: When a Human token coincides with an Object in the same sector you can take it to your inventory (maximum 6 Objects and Closures) of your Player Board and place it in the appropriate space according to the level of difficulty for that Human.

Orienting a sector tile is placing it correctly in relation to the tile from which it is explored. Both must have their hatches aligned and with the same value. That is, if you explore a tile from hatch 3, when placing the scanned tile face up, you must match its hatch 3 with the other, even if the aisles are not connected.

Accessible route: The routes are the paths that can be followed through the Halls or Rooms of the sectors. They are considered accessible when the road follows continuously and has no Closure or Blockade.

• Learn to use an object: Using 1 AP a player can acquire knowledge to handle an Object of his Inventory. To do this, move to a lower level of difficulty the object that you want to learn. Objects have a level of difficulty to be used. Not all the crew has the necessary knowledge to use any object. This difficulty is indicated in the lower part of the object and is different for the range. Depending on the rank of your Player Board, place it in the corresponding area of your inventory.

• Use an object: Once an Object is at level 0 of difficulty of a Player's Inventory, he can use it. To do this, in addition to paying 1 PA you must spend 1 nuclear or magnetic resource in some cases, as indicated by the Object. A player can not use an Object that is not in level 0 of his Inventory or if he can not pay the requested resource. Once the PA and the resource have been spent, the player must use the Object's ability immediately. See the Survival section on page 13 to find out how many Objects there are and their abilities.

• Leave an object (free): A player can at any time leave an Object that is in his Inventory in the sector where he is. This action does not consume PA. This can be useful if you no longer have space in your Inventory and want to get other Objects. You can leave any Object independently of the level in which it is, but if you decide to recover the Object, it returns with the normal level of difficulty. If you leave a Level 2 Medical Team for yourself, to which you have already reduced your difficulty to level 0, and you decide to recover it, its difficulty value becomes 2 again.

• Get resources: Some rooms provide resources. This is indicated by the icons of said resources printed in the Room. If your Human token comes to one, using 1 PA you can recharge 1 unit of the Resource it awards. On each player turn this can only reload 1 unit of the same resource per Hall. If you visit NURSING, you can spend 1 PA to get 1 Nuclear Resource and you can not repeat that action in this Room during this same turn. If you visit the CONTROL BRIDGE you can spend 1 AP to get 1 Nuclear Resource and then spend 1 AP more to get 1 Magnetic Resource in the same turn. However, you can not get more resources from this room during this shift.

Also, some Threats may not happen either. The number of the closed hatch represents its resistance. Only Threats with a force equal to or greater than this resistance can go through them. Closure flashes can be very useful to avoid being hit by Xeno players or Threats of less force than the Closure resistance. In the printed example, the player who controls Pris prevents a Xeno player or that Threat of value 2 from passing through that hatch to reach it.

• Remove a closure: A Human player may withdraw a Yellow Closure flag that is located in the same sector as his Human token. Simply remove it from the sector and put it in your Inventory. If you do not wish to add it to your Inventory, or do not have space for it, you must return the Closing token to the reservation in the Auxiliary Board. The Red closing arrows are explained later in Survival on page 13.
• Receiving objects, closures or settlers: A player may receive Items or Closures from another player's Inventory, or Settlers that he has rescued. Both must be in the same sector and the active player, who is the one who receives, must have space in his inventory and be able to place the objects and closures following the rules of level of difficulty; see the action Acquire an Object to know more details. The active player must spend 1 AP for each Object, Closure or Settler that he receives. The player who gives him the Objects, Closures or Settlers is not obliged to give him anything and it is he who must decide what he gives him, if he decides to do so. The player who gives the Objects must not pay any action point.
• Give objects, closures or settlers (free): When a player, out of turn, another player asks for something from his Inventory or some Settler, the player can decide what to give him or if he wants to do it. Giving something to another player can only be done out of turn and therefore, the cost is free.
• Rescue a settler: Settlers will appear throughout the game. To be able to rescue them, the player must have his Human token in the same sector as the Settler. Using 1 AP you can take the Settler's token and put it next to your Player Board. You can find more information about the Settlers in the Components section.
• Leave a settler: It may be that at some point you need to abandon a Settler's token. To do this, simply return the Settler's token from your playing area to the sector where your Human token is, spending 1 AP. It may be the case that you discover that the Settler you are trying to rescue is Infected. In the most extreme cases, it may be that a player decides to get rid of the Settler to avoid an encounter with a Xeno player or a Threat.
• Rescue a Human from the Hive: If we want to rescue another Human player or a Settler from the Hive Room (the Room where the Queen Alien has established her nest), we must reach that Room. Use 1 AP for each Human you wish to rescue.

If he loses all the points of life, he is dead and becomes a Xeno player. You must remove your Human token and your Threat marker from the board. Any object in your inventory or Settler that accompanies you must leave it in the Hive. If you have Closing tokens, you must return them to the Auxiliary Board reservation. Threat lines should return to the bottom of your stack. You must flip your Player Board to the Xenomorph side and continue the game as well. The markers for Actions, Captured Humans and Skills start at level 0.

• To heal wounds: If the player has the Medical Equipment Object and the Resource that this Object requires, 1 Wound can be cured by spending 1 PA. To do this, you must move the Life marker up one position. A player can not have more than 6 points of life. If you want to repeat this action more than once on the same turn, you must pay 1 AP and 1 Resource each time.
• Use the Power Loader: A player who is in the same sector as the Power Loader can use it. To start, he must climb on it; this costs 1 PA. From this point you must move with the Power Loader at a rate of 1 movement per turn. The Power Loader is used to face the Queen Alien. You can read more information on page 13 (Survival).
• Defend (free): When a player needs to defend himself or defend another Human (Player or Settler), in his turn or out of it, he can do it without spending PA. But if to do so he uses an Object, he must pay the Resource that Object needs to function.

Use the Rooms Equipment

Some rooms have special equipment that allows other types of actions:

• First Aid Kit: Using 1 PA, 1 Wound can be cured. If in the sector it coincides with another player, it can cure him 1 Wound. This action can only be carried out once per shift.
• Operator: Here the player can remove a Status Indicator from his Player Board. To do this, you must also use an Object: medical equipment, the Resource to manage said medical equipment and 1 PA. The Status Indicator is chosen by the player, if there are several, and he returns it to the bottom of his stack, face down. You can only perform this action once per turn.
• Control Station: With this equipment you can perform different actions. Each time a room is accessed with this symbol, the player may only choose to perform 1 of the following actions.
  • Settler quest: the player rolls the dice and checks the sector where the Settler has appeared on the Event card. If the sector is not at stake, or in that sector is a Xeno player, a Threat and/or the Queen Alien, the Settler does not appear. This action can be repeated several times by paying 1 AP at a time.
  • Remote movement of the Power Loader: you can move the Power Loader remotely 1 sector as long as you do not have another player's license on it. You can not make more than one movement each turn remotely.
  • Look at the Object's base lines: you can look at any Object that is in the Base without needing to be in its sector.
  • Remote turn: players with official rank can use their own character's ability to remotely turn any sector of the board (except if the sector that wants to move has a mechanical breakdown).

Use Rank Skills

Each player, depending on their rank, has a skill. There are three types:

• Officer: Their ability allows them, in a Room with a Control Station, to remotely turn a sector (except if the target sector has a mechanical Breakdown).
• Subofficer: Their ability allows them to look, in a private way, at the Status Indicator of any Human (Player or Settler) without needing to have a Medical Equipment Object.
• Cargoman: Has the ability to fix faults without needing the Tools Object.

Summary of Human Player Actions (Cost 1 PA)

To explore; movement; rotate a sector; look at an object (free); acquiring an object; learn to use an object; use an object; leave an object (free); get resources; acquire closures; use a closing card; remove closures; receiving objects, closures or settlers; give objects, closures or settlers (free); rescue a settler; leave a settler; rescue a Human from the Hive; try to release from the Hive; to heal wounds; use the Power Loader; defend (free).

Xeno Players Actions

When a player stays at 0 of life or is killed as a result of a match (these assumptions are explained later), the player becomes a Xeno player. From now on, it will play as a Xenomorph, with the Xeno player Player Board, the Actions, Human and Skill markers and Xeno player token.

A Xeno player has 3 PA during his turn and can perform up to 3 actions. At your choice you can repeat the same action several times, spending action points each time. They can keep a count of the actions taken thanks to the counter of actions of their Player Board. In addition, you can not acquire any Object, Closure, or fix Breakdowns, and have 2 restrictions that you can not do.

The actions cost each 1 action point (PA). The available ones are:

• Movement: The Xeno player tokens can move through the sectors of the base board, paying 1 PA for each sector they enter. They can move through explored or unexplored sectors, even if they have a gas leak, but always through an accessible route. The unexplored sectors are fully accessible. If the Xeno player wants to cross a Yellow Closing line, ignoring that it is there, his Skill level is checked. If your Skill level is equal to or greater than the hatch number seen through the Closing token, you can go through it. If it is smaller, it is considered that this route is not accessible to that Xeno player.

If the Xeno player were trapped in a sector that did not have an accessible route through which to exit, the player can reposition his token in another sector. That new sector can be chosen between those indicated by the Event card that is in force in that round, in the lower part "Placement / Xeno players". The Xeno player token may appear in an unexplored sector. Immediately lose the rest of the AP that remain in the turn.

Sometimes, a Xeno player may be interested in ending up in a sector with no escape route to appear in the next turn in another sector, because their objectives are far from their current position.

• Observe a threat sheet: You can see, in private, the threat rate of any player using 1 AP at a time. The same turn can be repeated several times.
• Capture a Human: This is the main objective of the Xeno players. They can try to capture Human players and Settlers. In order to capture them they must be in the same sector as the Human.
  • If it is a Settler's token: the Settler's token returns to the bottom of his stack, face down.
  • If it is a Human player's token: it can defend itself in case of having a flamethrower. If this happens, the Xeno player disappears from that sector and appears where the current Event card indicates in that round, in the first available sector. If the Human player can not defend himself and the Xeno player captures it, the Xeno player must also appear in another sector, indicated by the Event card. You can read more about this in the Encounters section.

A Xeno player is not required to capture a Human even if they are in the same box. At the moment you capture a Human, Player or Settler, advance a position in your Catch counter and your turn ends immediately.

• Use your skill: Xeno players have 3 abilities that require a different skill level each. The Xeno players raise a position in their ability counter at the end of the Xeno player's turn. If they do not have the skill level required to perform one of these actions, they can not perform them. The skill level counter never goes down; that is, performing these skills DOES NOT consume skill levels, but it does count as a played action, so the action counter itself must move forward.
  • Action (Skill level 2 PH): The Xeno player can move his token to another sector immediately. You can choose between those indicated by the Event card that is valid in that round, in the lower part "Placement / Xeno players". The Xeno player token may appear in an unexplored sector. Immediately lose the rest of the AP that remain in the turn.
  • Rotate your sector (Skill level 4 PH): You can rotate the sector where your Xeno player token is in any direction one position (approximately 60º). Mechanical breakdowns prevent sectors from turning.
  • Agility (Skill level 6 PH): You can avoid using a Flamethrower Object against him.

Later, in the Encounters section, it is explained how Humans can defend themselves against the attack of a Xeno player or a Threat with a Flamethrower.

The Restrictions of the Xeno Players Are

• You can not finish your turn in the same sector in which you started that turn. If you start trapped in a sector with no exit, you can appear in another sector than those indicated in the current Event card; but this makes you lose all the PA you have.
• You can not finish your move in the Dock sector except if it is to capture a Human (player or Settler).

Summary of Xeno Player Actions (Cost 1 PA)

Movement; observe a threat; capture a Human; use your skill.

5. Survival: Additional Information for LV-426

To survive this rescue mission you will have to take into account the following challenges that you will have to face:

Queen Alien

The Queen Alien's appearance appears on the base board when the Hive room is revealed. At that time you must take your token and place yourself in that room. From now on, each time that in the Event Phase the Queen step is reached, the initial player must move one sector in the shortest path to the Muelle room (Dock).

The Queen Alien does not stop at any Closure or Breakdown. You can advance through explored or unexplored sectors but always following an accessible route.

You can not turn any sector, scan, or get Objects. You can only move to the Dock. Once she reaches that sector, she does not move again, unless she is removed from that sector with the Power Loader, after which she will try to return to it.

You can not fight with her to eliminate her.

In the case that in her trajectory until the Dock she finds a Settler or Human player, these are taken to the Hive immediately, but the Queen remains in the sector. If the Queen meets a Xeno player, nothing happens. The Queen is voided if she is in the same room as the Power Loader and therefore can not move or capture any Human.

Closures

The Closures can help us prevent Threats and Xeno player attacks. They can be purchased in the rooms. Taking a Closure, putting it on or taking it off, costs 1 PA each action. Their level of difficulty is 0 and they occupy space within the Inventory.

The Closures can become Locked closures (Red closing token), with the use of the Tools Object. Locked closures can be unlocked by using the Tools Object again.

Locked closures can not be crossed by anyone except the Queen Alien.

Power Loader

The Power Loader is located in a sector adjacent to the Dock room chosen by the initial player during the preparation of the game. It is not necessary to put it on the board until it is necessary, to avoid occupying space inside the Base Board.

The Power Loader can be used remotely, from a room that has a Control Station. This is explained in detail in the section Using the equipment in the rooms of the Actions Phase.

A player can also climb on it and use it. It is explained in the Actions Phase, Using the Power Loader. The main use of the Power Loader is to neutralize the Queen Alien, retaining her. A player, occupying the Power Loader, can use 1 AP to move with the Queen Alien to a sector adjacent to where they are. In this way, the Dock sector can be released if the Queen has reached it.

When a player is inside the Power Loader in the same sector as the Queen Alien, he loses 1 Wound in the Event Phase.

If a Human player uses the Power Loader to take the Queen off the Dock to another sector, then he can escape by leaving the Power Loader and the Queen behind, and if he manages to do so in the same turn, the Wound will be saved.

If a player has an encounter with a Threat or a Xeno player, the Power Loader does not defend him in any way.

Description of the Objects

The Objects are fundamental to be able to survive in the Base. They have a level of difficulty to use them and some of them require a resource to work. They are in the Rooms and occupy a space in the Inventory. Each player can have a maximum, including Closures, of 6 Objects. There are 8 types of Objects.

• Tools: There are 2 lines of Tools. You need a magnetic resource to be used. They serve to fix Breakdowns and turn Yellow Locks into Locks (red locks) or reconvert Locks to Locks again. The Human player must be in the sector where you want to use the Tools.

• Explorer: There are two Explorer lines. You need a nuclear resource to be used. They serve to explore sectors. It has a range of 6 actions: it can move and explore. When it starts up, it starts in the sector where the Human player controls it. Each action taken with the Explorer costs the player 1 PA and a nuclear resource. If another player takes it, the Explorer has the 6 actions available again. Use one of the dice to mark the actions you have already spent. When it has used its 6 actions it turns face down in the sector where it made its last action, and the die is removed.

• Medical Equipment: There are two lines of Medical Equipment. They need a magnetic resource to be used. They serve to perform 3 different actions:

  • Watch, in private, the Status Indicator of a Human player or Settler who is in the same sector as the player who uses the Medical Equipment.
  • Remove an infected Status Indicator from a Human player or Settler in the same sector of the player who uses it, as long as that sector has an Operating Room.
  • Retrieve a Wound in the life counter.

  The player may use the actions of the Medical Team for his own Settlers or for himself, or Humans in their same sector.

• Scanner: There are three lines of Scanner. You need a magnetic resource to be used. It serves to see the threat of any player, in private. The threats and Status Indicators should always be hidden information for the rest of the players. Revealing what these lines conceal could detract from the game experience and has a penalty of 4 wounds for the player.

Settlers

The rescue of the Settlers is what has led you to get into this nest. In order for the crew to attempt to escape, it is necessary that at least as many Settlers appear on the board as players are participating in the game. To indicate this, in the preparation of the game, as many Settler tokens from the stack as there are players are placed face down over the Settler spaces, below. Each time a Settler appears for a game action, these tokens are taken first.

When all the previously separated tokens have already left the Base Board, regardless of whether they have been rescued or not, the players may try to leave, following the victory indications explained below.

Every time a Settler's fate is revealed, he must immediately place on the Auxiliary Board, in the space set aside for them, on the left of his photo, a Status Indicator face down, without looking at it. When a Settler is discarded, his Status Indicator is discarded as well.

The Settlers can not take any action. When they are rescued their token is placed next to the Player Board that has performed the rescue, in the corresponding space.

Closures

The Closures can help us prevent Threats and Xeno player attacks. They can be purchased in the rooms. Taking a Closure, putting it on or taking it off, costs 1 PA per action. Their level of difficulty is 0 and they occupy space within the Inventory.

The Closures can become Locked closures (Red closing token), with the use of the Tools Object. Locked closures can be unlocked by using the Tools Object again.

Blocked closures can not be crossed by anyone except the Queen Alien.

Failures

There are three types of breakdowns: mechanical, pneumatic and gas leakage. Breakdowns appear on the Base Board through the Event cards. Failures can be fixed if a Human player is in the damaged sector and uses the Tools Object. The same sector can have more than one Fault.

The consequences of the breakdowns are the following:

• Mechanical breakdown: prevents the sector from turning.
• Pneumatic breakdown: prevents the closure of the hatches of the sector from being closed or blocked. When this breakdown is placed in a sector with closing edges, they are discarded.
• Gas leakage: when a sector suffers this breakdown, entering this sector or trying to fix this Breakdown costs 2 PA. The rest of the shares cost the same.

Threats

They consist of two elements: the Threat Marker (the disk), which indicates the strength and movement of the Threat and which grows as the turns pass if it has no encounter; and the Threat line, which hides the type of Threat that is and remains face down on the Player Board.

Once the threat lines are unveiled, they are returned to the bottom of your stack. Some hostile threats can be fought only with a Flamethrower.

The types of Threats shown by the Indicators are:

• Facehuggers: They can be from 1 to 3 (this is indicated by the number on the token). They are hostile.
• Xenomorphs: They can be from 1 to 3, indicated by the number on the dial. They are hostile.
• Horde of Xenomorphs: They are hostile.
• Settlers and cats: (this line is garbled in the translation and is kept as printed).

Status Indicators

These indicators are placed on the Player Board for Human players and on the Auxiliary Board for Settlers, next to their image. They determine if a Human is Healthy or Infected by a child of Alien. The same Human may have more than one Status Indicator. These are obtained when a player is captured and taken to the Hive. They can be discarded with the Medical Team.

6. End of the Game

The end of the game can occur for several reasons:

• One or more players manage to escape in the Auxiliary Ship.
• All players become Xeno players.
• When all Human players are captured at the end of a round.
• The Base has 12 Faults, which makes it uninhabitable for all players and Xeno players.
• When the deck of Event cards is exhausted.

When one or more of these conditions are met, the game ends and it is verified who has won and who has saved his life.

7. Conditions of Victory

Conditions vary depending on how the players have finished.

For Human Players

• Win if all healthy Humans, which includes the rescued Settlers, escape in the Auxiliary Ship that is in the Dock Room.
• Players can not attempt to escape on the Auxiliary Ship until as many Settlers have been found on the base as the number of players in the game have been rescued or not.
• Escaping in the Auxiliary Ship only requires that the highest ranking human present in the Muelle room (Dock) decide on the launch. Launching the auxiliary craft does not require PA expense and is instantaneous.

In the event that a player has become a Xeno player during the game, Human players can leave behind as many healthy Humans as there are Xeno players. That is, if there are two Xeno players, a Human player can leave behind two Human players or Healthy Settlers.

• This means that humans do not lose if they leave behind an infected human.
• Once the auxiliary ship has been launched, if there are human survivors in the base, they must show their state lines to all the players to determine if they are infected or not.
• It may be the case that a single Human player escapes and wins, provided that the other players and Settlers are infected at the time of the release.

If two or more Human players are in the Muelle room to escape from the Base, the active player must announce it so that the other players can give their opinion. The decision is made by the highest-ranking official, and among the officers the Captain in the first place.

For Xeno Players

If one or more players lost all their points of life during the game, they go on to play as Xeno players.

The Xeno players win if they remain in the base (that is, they do not flee in the Auxiliary Ship) with more healthy humans than Xeno players. Then, the Xeno player wins with the most captures he has achieved (see the Encounters section). In case two or more Xeno players are tied, they share the victory.

Lose for All Players

The Base collapses because the 12 Fault lines are on the Base. It is also lost if you finish playing turn 15, since there are no more Event cards left.

8. Modalities of Items (Game Variants)

The rules that have been explained so far contemplated a starting scenario for 4 players in basic mode. Next, games are explained to a different number of players, including Solitaire Mode, and different levels of difficulty, as well as the Hidden Role variant.

A) Adjustments for Different Numbers of Players

Items for 2 Players

Preparation of the game: They develop in a smaller scenario. The Base is made up of 5 Bridges and 25 Sectors. 10 corridors are randomly discarded. The Dock room is placed in a sector of the external perimeter and the other sector tiles are placed face down.

Development of the departure: There is no change in the development of the game. Remember that only 2 Colonists have to appear to be able to escape from the Base and that if one of the players becomes a Xeno player, the number of Settlers to rescue falls to 1 (although it is still mandatory that at least both appear).

End of the game: The game ends if the players have escaped from the Base in Healthy state along with at least 2 Healthy Settlers. If one of the players has become a Xeno player, the Healthy Human player must flee with at least 1 Healthy Settler. If the Xeno player gets the Human player to lose all his points of life, the Xeno player wins. If at any time all Healthy players are captured, or the Base has 12 Failures, or the Event cards are over, the game ends and both players lose.

In games of 2 or 3 players it is optimal that each player chooses a different rank to maximize the different skills of the crew, since each type of rank has a different ability.

Items for 3 and 4 Players

Preparation of the game: The Base is made up of 6 Bridges and 30 Sectors. 5 aisles are randomly discarded. The Dock room is placed in a sector of the external perimeter and the other sector tiles are placed face down.

Development of the departure: Respectively, 3 or 4 players must appear in order to escape from the Base. To escape, you only need to leave an equal or lesser number of healthy Humans and Settlers than the number of Xeno players at any given time.

End of the game: The game ends if the players have escaped from the Base; or if at any time during the game all players become Xeno players, or if at some point all Human players are trapped in the Hive, or if the base has 12 Failures, or if the Event cards have been finished.

If Humans manage to escape healthy and in sufficient numbers, Human players win.

If all are Xeno players, or all Humans are captured, or have not escaped correctly (leaving behind more Humans and Settlers healthy than Xeno players), or if an infected has entered the Auxiliary Ship, the Xeno player wins that has captured more Humans. In case of a tie, they share the victory.

If the game has ended with all the players captured untransformed, or by Breakdowns, or by the end of the deck of Event cards, all players lose.

It may be the case that you suspect that one of the Humans is not Healthy, perhaps has too many State Indicators. In that case you can propose to leave him. If you reach this agreement by majority, the players that are going to flee can leave behind a Player or Settler. Then at the end, what matters is not to take any infected in the Auxiliary Ship and can leave behind as many humans (Players or Settlers) healthy as Xeno players remained.

Items for 5 or 6 Players

Preparation of the game: The 7 Bridges and the 35 Sector tiles are used. The Dock is placed on the outer perimeter and the other tiles face down.

Development of the departure: The game is normally played considering the number of Settlers that must be found: 5 or 6 depending on the number of players.

The number of healthy Humans that can be abandoned in the Base is equal to the number of players that have become Xeno players in the game. If one or several Human players leave the Base leaving healthy humans (other players or Settlers) behind them in a greater number than the Xeno players, Humans lose.

End of the game: It's the same as for 3 and 4 players.

Items in Solitary Mode

Preparation of the game: The board is prepared with 5 bridges and 25 sectors. The Hive Room is removed from the game. The Dock Room is placed in a peripheral hole in the Base. The remaining 8 rooms are mixed with 16 corridors. In this game you do not play with the Power Loader or with the Queen Alien. The deck of Event cards consists of 26 cards.

The Threat Indicators of the solitary game are: 2 Cats, 3 Facehuggers (translated in the source as "Atrapacaras") and 3 Xenomorphs.

Development of the departure: In single player games, you only need to find a Settler and go out with him, both Healthy, in the Help Ship. If the 12 Failures are placed in the Base, nothing happens. You can continue playing, ignoring that step of the Event card.

End of the game: If the player manages to flee with a Healthy Settler, he wins. The player loses the game if:

• the Event cards are over;
• the player flees without a Healthy Settler;
• the player is not healthy;
• the player is dead.

B) Difficulties of the Game

The game can be played with different difficulties. We recommend that you start with the basic one until you have a command of the rules. There are 4 types of difficulty: basic, medium, extreme and Ripley level.

• Basic level: The Human players have 5 actions and in the preparation of the game only the Threat Indicators of the types are included: Settler, Cat, the 3 lines of Facehuggers and the 3 lines of Xenomorph.
• Medium level: Human players play with 4 actions and in the preparation the same Threat Indicators of the basic level are included.
• Extreme level: Human players play with 4 actions and in the preparation one more Threat Indicator is included: 1 Xenomorphic Horde.
• Ripley level: Human players play with 4 actions and in the preparation the second Xenomorphic Horde Threat Indicator is included. That is to say, it is played with the two hordes.

C) Occult Roll (Hidden Role Variant)

To create more tension in the games you can play with this variant to any number of players, except the solitary game, and with any level of difficulty. During the preparation of the game the Hidden Role tokens are taken. There are 6 Human and 1 Android. You take as many Human tokens as players are going to play and the Android one is added. Each player takes 1 and keeps it secret during the game. The excess token is returned to the box without looking at it.

The players with Human role will play the game in the habitual way with the caution of knowing that the possibility exists that one of them is an Android.

The Android must play as if it were a normal Human being and try not to discover their role. It has its own victory condition: to get all humans, players and colonists discovered, to be infected. At any time during his turn, he can reveal his role as an Android to make all the Status Indicators public. If everyone shows they are infected, they win. If a player manages to escape or the game ends before everyone is infected, he loses.

The Android also loses if it is captured, loses a fight against a Facehugger, or its life marker reaches 0. To see how to solve a combat consult the following page.

The Android can not flee in the Auxiliary Ship.

9. Encounters

Throughout the game there will be different meetings between players, Threats, Xeno players, and the Queen Alien that will lead to Combat. Here's how to act in each case:

Threats

If a player is in the same sector with a Threat, the Threat line of the player who controls it is revealed. The Threat can be a Settler or a cat. In these cases, nothing negative happens. If it is a Settler, the player can "rescue" him by taking him to his Player Board.

It could also be that the Threat was a Facehugger, Xenomorph or Horde of Xenomorphs. In these cases, if the Human player does not have a Hiding Place Object or Flamethrower, the player is captured.

When the player is captured he is placed in the Hive Room and can, in his turn and as an action, try to escape. The other players can also rescue him, provided he is in the revealed Hive room. If not, they can not find it. In the Actions Phase, this procedure is described.

When a Human player is captured his token is placed in the Hive Room. If said Room has not yet been revealed, the Human token is placed outside the Base Board.

If a Human player is out of the Base because the Hive is still not in play, the other players can not attempt the action of rescuing him.

If the Human player is in a Hiding Place because he has used the Object, although the Threats are in his same sector, the Encounter does not take place. If the Human player has a Flamethrower Object, he can use it against the Threat and a Combat can occur in some cases. When the encounter with the Threat ends, the Threat marker disappears from the board and returns to the player's zone, and the Threat line is discarded whatever the result, and returns to the bottom of the Threat stack.

Against a Facehugger

The player is faced with the force of the Threat (the digit that appears in the Threat Marker). To do this, he rolls a die and must overcome the force value. If his result is less than or equal to the force, he loses the fight. The player can, before throwing the die, lower the strength of the Facehugger by lowering his Life Points on his Player Board. For each life point that you lose, you reduce the strength of the Facehugger by 1. You can not lower the force value below 1.

• If he loses the fight, the player is captured.
• If he wins, the Threat disappears.

Remember that to use the Flamethrower you must spend 1 AP if you are on your turn and the necessary resource.

It may be that the player encounters more Human players in the sector when they are reached by the Facehugger. It attacks all players starting with the weakest, the one with the least points of life.

If there are more than one Facehugger, one must fight one by one until they are eliminated or the player or players are captured.

Example (as printed in the translation): Enter a Threat where there are two Players, one of them with a Settler. The Threat is shown and there are three Facehuggers. One of the players has a flamethrower and spends a Nuclear Resource to kill the 3 automatically. He did not need the PA because he was defending. If you did not have the Resource, there would be Combat: the two players defend themselves by throwing the die. One rolls a 3 and overcomes the threat that was in level 2. The other one rolls a 1 and does not kill any Facehugger. As there are 2 live Facehuggers, one captures the Settler and the other takes the player with fewer life points. In case of a tie between the two, it is drawn who is the victim.

Against a Xenomorph

No combat occurs. The player must use the Flamethrower as many times as there are Xenomorphs, paying, if he is playing in his turn, 1 AP and 1 resource each time. If he could not finish all the Xenomorphs, he is trapped. If there are several Human players and they do not finish with the Threat, they are captured as many players as Xenomorphs will remain alive, choosing the weakest Humans; in the event of a draw, a draw is made of the victims of the attack.

Against a Horde

No combat occurs. Players who encounter the Horde are captured.

Xeno Players

When a Human player and a Xeno player are in the same sector, the Human player can defend himself using the Hiding Place Object, as explained in the previous point, or the Flamethrower Object. No combat occurs.

If the Human player defends himself with the Flamethrower, paying 1 PA if he is in his turn and 1 Resource, the Xeno player retires and appears in another sector indicated by the Event card. The Xeno player loses his next turn.

If the Human player can not defend himself or hide, the Human player is captured. If there is more than one Human player, the Xeno player chooses which player is captured.

Queen

Against the Queen Alien you can not use any Object except the Power Loader. Human players are captured immediately.

Settlers

When a Settler's token encounters any threat, Xeno player or Queen, it returns to the bottom of his stack and discards his Status Indicator.

Against an Android

The Androids have strength 4. It can be destroyed by a Flamethrower or a result of 5 or 6. If the player fails, he gains 1 Wound and the Android flees to an adjacent sector of his choice.

Components (Detailed)

Next we explain in a more detailed way the different components of the game:

• Bridges: The Bridges make up the skeleton of the game board: the Base Board. These create the connections and unions between the different sectors. Each bridge has 5 holes where the round tiles of Sectors are placed. Each Bridge is identified with a letter of a certain color and each hole for the Sectors with a number, such that each Sector can be identified by the letter and the corresponding number. In the preparation of the game one should generate a configuration as compact as possible (see the different configurations on page 16, Modalities of Matches).
• Sectors: The Sectors are the round tiles that fit inside the holes of the bridges. They represent the Halls and Hallways of the Hadley's Hope Base. During the preparation of the game, they are placed face down (except the Pier room) and remain that way until they are explored. Once this happens they turn around. On both sides they show numbers from 1 to 6 that are used to orient the tiles during the game and to determine the movement of the Threats or the Queen Alien. The players will advance through the board of the Base by these tiles of Sector, Halls and rooms explored. Sectors can have up to 6 communication hatches with other sectors. No line can cross a sector tile if it is not following a line communicated between the corridors and without any blockage.
• Rooms: The Rooms have the edge highlighted in green and an icon to remember that each time it is explored, two Object lines must be placed face down on it. There are 10 types of rooms. In them you can find magnetic and/or nuclear resources, in addition to Closures. In the Halls we can also find equipment that allows us to perform different actions available there. There are 3 types of equipment:
  • Kit: Using 1 PA can heal 1 Wound. If in the sector it coincides with another player, it can cure him 1 Wound. This action can only be carried out once per shift.
  • Operator: Here the player can remove a Status Indicator from his Player Board. To do this, you must also use an Object: medical equipment, the Resource to manage said medical equipment and 1 PA. The Status Indicator is chosen by the player, if there are several, and they return it to the bottom of their stack, face down. You can only perform this action once per turn.
  • Control Station: With this equipment you can perform different actions. Each time a room is accessed with this symbol, the player may only choose to perform 1 of the following actions:

If a Threat or a Xeno player appears in a sector with independent Halls, it appears in the Hall that has the hatch of inferior numerical value. In this case, the Threat or Xeno player would appear in the independent Hall that joins the hatches 1 and 2, and when it moves it will be able to leave by one of the two hatches following the corresponding rules.

• Player Boards: The Player Boards have two sides: on one, the characteristics of the Human player, and on the other, of the Xeno player or Alien. The Human side allows you to keep track of life, actions played during the turn, and magnetic and nuclear resources available to the player. It also has three spaces for Objects and Closures: the Inventory, although it can only hold a total of 6 Objects and Closures. The board also has a space to place the Status Indicators and the Threat lines. It also has information about the player's profile, such as his rank and the special ability that his profile can perform.

The Xeno player side allows you to track the captured Humans (Settlers and players), Skill level and actions. It also has information about the available actions according to the level of Skill you are in and a reminder of your restrictions.

In the course of the game, it may be the case that a player wants or is forced to abandon an Object in a sector with independent Halls. In that case he leaves it in the Hall where his Human token is found. The same thing happens with the Closure tokens or Settlers.

• Human Files: These allow players to move around the Base Board while in a Healthy or Infected state.
• Xeno Player Tables: These allow players to move around the Base Board when their status is Xeno player. They reach that state when they lose all life points.
• Queen Sheet: The Alien Queen token is placed on the Base Board when the Hive Room is revealed. (See the Encounters section.)
• Threat Markers: The discs represent the different threats that players warn in the Base through their senses and the different scanners they have. Each player controls their own Threat marker in their own color. The marker is composed of two cardboard discs joined by a plastic snap that you must assemble before playing your first game. The lower disk has numerical values from 1 to 6 to indicate the strength of the threat, and points that range from 1 point to 3 points indicating the number of movements they can perform.
• Markers of Actions, Life and Nuclear and Magnetic Resources: These serve for the players to track them on their Player Board.
• Xeno Player Action, Skill and Human Captured Action Markers: These serve so that players who must play as Xeno players keep track of their actions, skill level or Humans that they have captured. They are the reverse of the markers of actions, life and resources on the Human side.
• Closure cards (Yellow): Yellow Closure tokens can be obtained in any room explored in the Base. Players can only take one per turn per room and they are placed in the Inventory. They serve to close the hatches that connect one sector with another. They should be placed inside the circular tile with the hole it has over the number so that it can be seen.
• Locked closures (Red): The red closing bolts. Using the Tools Object, a Human player can convert a Yellow Closure to a Red Closure. The Blockades are impassable except for the Queen Alien and Xeno players of Skill 6 and Threats of Force 6.