Aqualuma Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Components
• Setup
  • Setup scenario "PYRAMID"
  • Optional setup scenario "SHORT CUT"
  • Optional setup scenario "REMOTE PLACE"
• Gameplay Overview
• Gameplay
  • 1. Take Dice
  • 2. Actions (in any order or frequency)
    • 2.1 Play Magic Cards
    • 2.2 Area Actions
      • Perform Magic
      • Dissolve Magic
    • 2.3 Special Action Diving Station
      • A) Lightballs Actions
      • B) Special Effects
  • 3. End Turn & Darkness Phase
• Dark Phase
  • Special Dark Cards
  • Special Abilities
  • Tips
• Last Ignition
• End of Game
• Glossary
  • Magic Strips
  • Magic Cards

Game Components

• 1 diving station
• 5 underwater worlds
• 1 darkness board
• 5 darkness crystals
• 21 darkness cards
• 1 underwater die
• 6 character boards
• 6 character standees (+4 bases)
• 1 chest
• 16 magic strips
• 24 magic cards
• 21 dice (7 red, 7 green, 7 blue)
• 6 lightballs
• 1 token "final ignition"

In case of red-green-deficiency: red dice come with black pips, green dice with white pips. On the magic cards and the magic strips, red dice come with a black border.

Setup

1. Place the 5 underwater worlds in the shape of a pyramid in the center of the table. Place the diving station right on top! Place the "final ignition" marker with its colored side on the diving station.
2. Assemble the chest by putting together the components!
3. Place a random magic strip face up on each underwater world, except for the diving station. Use the remaining magic strips as a face-down draw pile. For your first game, we recommend using the magic strips showing a V on the back.
4. Randomly, place the lightballs tokens on each of the underwater worlds. Place the token below the magic strip matching its number – inactive side face up. Repeat until there is a light orb token on each underwater world. Check for the token with the number '1': If it is already placed, place another one there. If the light orb token with '1' is the last one, place it in the same underwater world that you put the orb before.
5. Add 3 dice of each color next to the diving station. These are instantly available. Put all other dice in the chest within easy reach.
6. Shuffle the magic cards and darkness cards separately. Place the darkness cards face down on the darkness board. Next to them, place the underwater die and the magic cards face-down.
7. Place a dark crystal on space 2 of each of the underwater worlds. This is the so-called darkness value. Draw darkness cards from the face-down pile according to the chosen difficulty level. Arrange them face up next to each other on spaces 1-5 of the darkness board. Darkness cards according to difficulty: easy 2, medium 3, hard 4, very hard 5.
8. Each player picks a character board and the corresponding character standee. Put your character into the base and place it on the diving station. In addition, each player draws 3 magic cards from the deck. For the first game, we recommend the following characters: Finn McMarlin, Crabigail, Captain Crumbs and Master Shellzen. Return all remaining character boards, character standees and bases back to the game box.

Setup scenario "PYRAMID"

Use this setup for your first games. (The pyramid layout is shown in a diagram; the diving station sits on top of the five underwater worlds.)

Optional setup scenario "SHORT CUT"

Place all underwater worlds in any order around the diving station; this way you can reach all worlds even faster. All other game & setup rules remain the same.

Optional setup scenario "REMOTE PLACE"

Place the diving station on the table. Arrange all other underwater worlds underneath in any order. Place the dark crystals as follows: Underwater world directly under the diving station crystal on space 3, in the next two worlds on space 2, in the fourth and fifth world on space 1. All other game & setup rules remain the same.

For even more variation, arrange the underwater worlds any way you like – just try out your own setups!

Gameplay Overview

Depending on the selected difficulty, a number of lightballs must be activated in the diving station during the course of the game. (Check out how this works on page 10.) To get these lightballs, you have to place dice on the magic strips in the underwater worlds of Aqualuma.

The dice colors or numbers required to obtain the important lightballs and other magic cards are printed on the magic strips.

Return the lightballs to the diving station and activate them to dispel the darkness.

Use the magic cards to move through Aqualuma or to manipulate the dice. Use your special abilities and cooperate with the other heroes and heroines; only together can you survive the adventure.

Activated lightballs according to difficulty:

easy	medium	hard	very hard
3	4	5	6

NOTE: In a solo game, you also follow this setup. There are no special rules. You try to save Aqualuma from the darkness alone with your hero.

Gameplay

Decide together who will start the game. The game is played in a clockwise direction.

In your turn, you go through three phases in this order:

1. TAKE DICE
2. ACTIONS
3. END TURN & DARKNESS PHASE

1. Take Dice

Take exactly 3 of the available dice (you will find these next to the diving station), roll them and place them in front of you.

NEW DICE: If there are not enough dice available or you want a different selection, take all the dice from the chest and place them next to the diving station. They are now available.

Important: Whenever you take dice from the chest, immediately carry out the DARKNESS PHASE before continuing your turn.

2. Actions (in any order or frequency)

2.1 Play Magic Cards

During your turn you can play any number of magic cards from your hand. You can choose between the card's face or back.

If you play a card back up, choose one of the following actions:

• Take an available die, roll it and place it next to you. You can also use the action NEW DICE.
• Move to an adjacent underwater world. This is only possible if the worlds touch each other! If worlds are not adjacent to each other, you will need more movements to reach them.

If you play a card face up, you activate the card effect. Read about effects of MAGIC CARDS on page 16.

NOTE: If your character is in the same place as another character, you can swap cards or pass lightballs between each other.

2.2 Area Actions

In each underwater world, you can also perform magic or dissolve magic. To do this, your character must be in this world.

Perform Magic

The magic strip in each world indicates which dice are required. Place any number of your matching dice on the magic strip. The dice value and/or colors are relevant here (see page 14).

The magic strip must always be filled one after the other from left to right and there mustn't be any gaps.

If you place a die on the symbol +1, immediately draw a new magic card from the draw pile and move the light orb token at the bottom of this underwater world 1 space to the left. If a light orb is pushed out to the left, put it onto your player board. These lightballs must be moved to the diving station during the course of the game. You can use new magic cards immediately.

(Example in the book: you can take the "1" on your tableau and move the "3" 1 space to the left onto the "2".)

Dissolve Magic

If there is at least one die in the world in which your character is located, you can dissolve the magic. Perform the following steps:

• Check whether the dice have reached the arrow symbol. Move the dark crystal in this underwater world one space to the left for each arrow. If the dice have reached several arrow symbols, only execute the one that shows the most arrows. If the crystal is pushed to the left of the bar, it remains next to it.
• Take all dice from the magic strip and put them in the chest.
• If the dark crystal has been moved, replace the magic strip with a random new one. If not, leave the magic strip in place.

2.3 Special Action Diving Station

If your character is in the diving station, you can execute lightballs actions as well as special effects.

A) Lightballs Actions

From your player board, place as many collected lightballs as you like with the inactive side face up on the diving station.

And/or activate any number of lightballs that are in the diving station. To do this, place any number of your dice in the chest whose total value corresponds to at least the number of darkness cards currently on the darkness board (in the example in the book = 11). This activates exactly one light sphere. Turn it to the active side. You can activate additional lightballs with additional dice.

B) Special Effects

To perform a special effect in the diving station, place one of your dice with the value 6 on the corresponding space and perform the effect. The die remains there until the end of the game. Each effect can only be used once per game.

• (x5) Reduce the darkness value in an area by up to 4.
• Reduce the darkness value by 1 in all areas.
• (x3) Reduce the darkness value by a total of 3 in any number of areas.

3. End Turn & Darkness Phase

If you want to end your turn, follow these steps:

• Place your unused dice in the chest.
• Place your played magic cards on a shared discard pile.
• Draw up to 3 magic cards. If the draw pile is exhausted, shuffle the discard pile.
• Go to DARK PHASE.

Dark Phase

A) Draw a new darkness card from the face-down deck and place it on the darkness board in the column with the fewest cards. If several columns have the same number of cards, choose the column most to the left. The columns are thus filled with several cards during the course of the game. If the draw pile is empty and you cannot draw a darkness card, go directly to END OF GAME.

B) After placing a new card, you must work through each card in this column from top to bottom.

Move the dark crystal one space to the right in each of the worlds depicted on the cards: the darkness value increases. If the crystal is to the left of the track, place it on the first space. If a dark crystal reaches the last space on the far right, go to LAST IGNITION.

Special Dark Cards

1. If there is a dice symbol on the card, roll the underwater die once. Move the dark crystal one space to the right in the underwater world shown on the die. If you roll a ?, decide together which underwater world the crystal will be moved to.
2. If nothing is shown on the card, no crystal needs to be moved for this card.
3. Decide together in which underwater world the crystal will be moved for the card marked with ?

Special Abilities

Each character has two special abilities. These are described on the character boards. You may use them during your turn.

Tips

• You may openly discuss your hand cards.
• You should agree among yourselves who needs which dice.
• You are playing cooperatively, so you may give tips to each other.
• Important: Whenever you are standing in the same place, you may exchange cards and/or pass on lightballs.

Last Ignition

When a dark crystal reaches the last space of the darkness track for the first time in at least one underwater world, perform the following steps.

• Flip the "last ignition" token.
• Reduce the darkness value by a total of 5 in any number of areas.

Then continue playing as before.

NOTE: If you reach the last space on the darkness track of an underwater world again, the game . (Printed as-is; the following word is missing in the source. See End of Game: reaching the last space for the second time loses the game.)

End of Game

The game ends as soon as one of these three conditions is met:

You have activated all the light balls in your diving station corresponding to the selected difficulty level?

• You are true heroines and heroes: Aqualuma is safe, the Darkness has been dispelled.

You have reached the last spot of the darkness track in any underwater world for the second time?

• Sadly, you lost! The Darkness still threatens Aqualuma. Get ready to start a new game right away.

You can't reveal any more darkness cards?

• Unfortunately, you lost! The darkness has become too powerful. Try again right away and save Aqualuma together.

Glossary

Magic Strips

(Printed as pictures with captions; the captions in reading order, as extracted. Each strip shows the dice required, left to right.)

• only even numbers; all dice are the same color
• sum of dice is less or equal 10; die 3 green / die 4 red / die 4 blue; rest any color
• sum of 2 dice equal 7; any colors
• all dice show the same number; any colors
• die 1 & 2 / 3 & 4 / 5 & 6 same number (any colors)
• increasing numbers; any colors
• die 2 & 3 same color / die 4 & 5 same but different color
• only odd numbers; all dice are the same color
• sum of 2 dice equal 7; dice 1 & 4 red / 2 & 5 green / 3 & 6 blue
• sum of dice is less or equal 10; any colors
• die 1 & 2 / 3 & 4 / 5 & 6 same number; die 2 / 4 / 6 blue, rest any color
• increasing numbers; dice 2, 4 and 6 are green; rest any colors
• increasing numbers; all dice are the same color
• all dice same number; die 2 / 4 / 6 red, rest any color
• die 1 & 2 / 3 & 4 / 5 & 6 same number; die 2 & 3 blue / die 4 & 5 green / die 6 red
• sum of 2 dice equal 7; die 1 & 2 same color / die 3 & 4 same but different color / die 5 & 6 same but different color
• dice 1-3 same number; dice 4-6 same but different number; dice 1-3 same color / dice 4-6 same but different color

Magic Cards

• Re-roll up to 2x any number of your dice.
• Re-roll up to 3x one of your dice. You can switch dice.
• Re-roll up to 4x one of your blue / red / green dice. You can switch dice.
• Reduce the number of a die by exactly 1.
• Change a blue / red / green die to 1 / 2 / 3.
• Change a blue / red / green die to 4 / 5.