Catharsis: Divine Wrath

Catharsis: Divine Wrath Rulebook

Table of Contents

Objective

You are a group of adventurers called together to hunt down and defeat a corrupted being before your party is killed or overwhelmed by despair.

Setup

Select a Boss to fight and follow the Setup instruction card(s) for how to prepare the Boss deck.
Each player selects a character deck and sets their Role card to the side of their play area. Follow any additional setup rules for your deck as described on your Role or Setup card. (For example, Luthia must get the Level 1, 2 and 3 versions for each of her powers.)
Each player then shuffles their deck of powers and draws 6 powers. Some characters may have Setup cards explaining special setup instructions. The Role card and the 6 powers becomes their Player Board. The remainder of your cards form a draw deck you'll keep face down next to your board.
Each player starts with 6 dice.
Set the Morale Tracker to the starting Morale.

Note: To increase the difficulty, you can follow the setup for Hard Mode or follow the setup adjustments outlined in the Challenges (page 20). If you need to make further adjustments to difficulty, you can make the game easier by giving yourself additional Morale, or increase the difficulty by starting at a lower value.

When you are ready to start, flip over the first Boss Deck card and begin your hunt!

For 1, 3, 4, or 5 players, remove or add player setups. (The sample setup diagram shows, for each player, a Player Board made of the Role card and 6 powers, with the Draw Deck beside it, and the Boss Deck and Morale tracker in the middle of the table.)

Setup for Solo Play

Follow the same setup as for multi-player games. Catharsis scales perfectly well with 1 to 5 players, so if you want to adventure with just one character or control several characters by yourself, you'll have an equally good experience!

Player Decks

Each player has a deck unique to them. Most decks have a total of 20 powers and a Role. Some characters, like Emberhoof and Luthia, have special setups. See their Setup cards for more information.
Each Role has a Passive effect and a Flip effect. So long as the Role card is face up, the player may use the Passive effect. The Flip effect requires flipping the Role card face down and is usually much stronger, but it prevents using the Passive effect until the Role card is unflipped.
Many Roles have Always Active effects that may conflict with the rules presented here. Roles override the rulebook. These effects are always in play, even if the Role is face down or somehow removed.
Once a Role card is flipped facedown, the only way to unflip it is by spending Morale. (See "Morale" on page 6.)
You can never have more than 6 cards on your Player Board at any time. If you are ever instructed to add a power to your Player Board and you already have 6, you must discard a power to add the new card to your Player Board or else discard your new power.
If you are ever told to replace a power, discard a power then draw a new one and place it in the same spot on your Player Board unexhausted.
If your deck(s) ever runs out of cards and you are instructed to draw, you do not draw any cards.
Abilities almost always require dice to activate them. The symbols on the cards tell you what dice to use:
- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 - Use a die with the indicated number. (Note that each player deck has unique symbols for the numbers.)
- ? - Use a die of any value.
- AA, AAA, etc. - Dice of equal value (pair, 3-of-a-kind, etc.).
- BB - A pair with a different value than other dice used on this ability.
  - ex. If 1s are used to fulfill the AA, use a number other than 1 for the BB.
As players use their abilities, they will exhaust (flip) the power to indicate that the power can no longer be used, unless the ability says "Does not exhaust." Exhausted powers can be unexhausted (unflipped) in several ways:

Anatomy of Player Deck Cards

Role Card: title; name of the character; Always Active effect (some are on the Setup cards); Passive ability; Flip ability; flavor text.
Power Card: ability cost; ability effect; indicator of choice of costs.
Setup Card: special instructions for setup; additional rules pertaining to this character. (Example: Soraten's Ground Power and Flight Power sides.)

Morale

Each Boss Deck tells you the party's starting Morale. Morale will steadily decrease as the hunt takes its toll and the players drain their resolve to continue forward.
As Morale reaches certain levels, noted on the Morale Trackers and on the Morale cards in each Boss Deck, it degrades, causing negative effects to the party.
Morale tiers and their effects are listed on the Morale cards in each Boss Deck.
Healing Morale: On rare occasions, Morale may be increased. Morale can never be increased to more than its starting value. In addition, Morale tier effects only happen once. For example, in the Murder Mystery deck, if the party decreases their Morale from 18 to 17, everyone takes 2 damage. If they have an Event that increases it back to 18, then spend 1 to refresh, they do not suffer the 2 damage a second time.
Along the way, players will need to regain access to their powers and Roles. After a Boss Deck card has been resolved but before drawing the next one and at the end of each round during combat, the players as a group may spend 1 Morale to refresh their Player Boards - unexhaust all of their powers and unflip their Roles. This does not restore any discarded powers. Already unexhausted cards are not affected. Note that after revealing the next Boss Deck card or starting to roll dice for the next round, it is too late - the new encounter is upon you!
- Do not be afraid to spend Morale. Healing for free 2 powers after combat may still leave the party mostly exhausted, and you never know what the next encounter will bring. It could be a brutal monster or trap! Just be careful that you don't try to keep your party at perfect health - Morale isn't infinite!
If spending Morale would cause the Morale tier to change, any Morale effect happens after refreshing.

The Boss Deck

The Boss Deck represents all the dangers, monsters, traps, and more that the party must fight through on their way to defeat the Boss. The Boss Deck is comprised of five different types of cards: Monsters, Traps, Events, Specials, and the Boss. Some Bosses may introduce other types of cards.
Some Boss Decks introduce different kinds of counters. The Setup will explain how they work. Use a tracker to note counters applied to the party.
All Enemies (Monsters, Bosses, etc.) have health and deal damage, and many have special abilities.
- An Enemy's health is listed with five values. (ex. 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5) The first number is the amount of health if playing with one character, then two, three, four, and finally five characters. This is determined by how many characters started the game, so even if a character has died, which value you use doesn't change.
  - The Murder Mystery deck is designed for 3 to 7 players, so the first tier is for three characters and scales from there.
- An Enemy's attack usually follows the same rules. However, some Enemies do special damage (for example, decreasing Morale or attacking each player for 2 damage). If only one value is listed for an Enemy, that value applies to parties of all sizes.
- Many Enemies have special abilities. These will be listed after the Attack. Be sure to read them before beginning the fight - some affect the setup of the Enemy or how the players fight. Others happen upon beating the Enemy.
Traps and Events are things that happen to the party as they journey toward the Boss. Players may not use their powers when a Trap or Event is revealed. Traps are deadly challenges the players face, while Events tend to be beneficial or neutral. Sometimes Traps and Events offer the party a decision. If the party is tied or can't decide, players can roll off against each other or choose an option at random. Effects listed with slashes (ex. 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5) are based on the number of characters at the start of the game. If a character dies, it does not affect which number the party uses.
Specials offer a player the opportunity to gain a powerful ability at the expense of some of their current powers. To gain a Special, players must sacrifice some of their powers. It's a delicate balance you are striking: you are trading powers and possibly overall health to gain great strength. Specials always exhaust after use unless they say otherwise. They are not subject to Briggs's requirement of handing used powers to Liara, Fizzleboom & Burrr's Passive ability, or Dimirith and Sealaithe's limitation on when they can use bottom abilities. They do not benefit from Artrial's Preparation counters. Liara may not gain Specials.

Anatomy of Boss Deck Cards

Setup Card: title; flavor text; rules and mechanics pertaining to this Boss deck.
Trap and Event Card: title; flavor text; Event or Trap effect.
Enemy Card: title; flavor text; Enemy health; damage from attack; special rules for this combat; effect when the Enemy is defeated.
Special Card: title; flavor text; cost to acquire the card; cost to activate; activation effect.
Morale Card: title; starting Morale; Morale thresholds and consequences.
Murder Mystery Deck Card: title; flavor text; effect or Enemy; inactive murderer trait; active murderer trait; bonus to Murderer.

Gameplay

The flow of the game is:

Reveal the next Boss Deck card.
Resolve the Boss Deck card.
- If it is a Trap, Event, or Special, follow the directions on the card.
- If it is an Enemy (Monster or Boss), the party must fight and defeat the foe. (See Combat below.)
Upon resolving the card or defeating an Enemy, the party may spend Morale to refresh.
If the party defeated the Boss, you win! Otherwise, reveal the next Boss Deck card to continue the hunt.

Combat

During combat with a Monster or a Boss, players use their powers to attack, defend, help others get the dice values they need, and more. A round in combat follows this order:

Step 1: Start of Round
Step 2: Player Attack Phase
- All players roll dice and activate powers.
Step 3: Enemy Attack Phase
- Follow the instructions on the Enemy card.
Step 4: Refresh Phase
Step 5: End of Round

Step 1: Start of Round

Some effects, both player and Enemy, trigger at the start of the round. For example, Burn and Spore deal damage at the start of the combat round. Resolve all such effects in any order the party desires. If the Enemy is defeated due to a start of round effect, all players refresh up to 2 powers. Follow the steps listed in Gameplay for having defeated an Enemy.

Step 2: Player Attack Phase

There are no turns in Catharsis. Players all act at the same time.
Players attack using their dice to activate unexhausted abilities they have on their Player Boards. Each power (card) has multiple abilities on them. Dice represent the chaos of battle, from finding an opening, to preparing your defenses, to gathering the necessary magic.
Each player rolls all of their dice. They may reroll any number of dice up to 2 times. Players cannot roll individual dice to determine which ones they want to reroll - a single reroll involves rolling all dice at once. Players may roll and reroll at any time this phase.
- Ex. Dave rolls 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, and 6. He's looking to get 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2 to use Soraten's Sky is the Limit top ability. He rerolls all of his dice and gets 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, and 4. He rerolls the 3, 3, and 4 and gets 1, 2, 5. He now has 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 5. He's stuck with these dice! Hopefully one of his partners can help him adjust his last die or he has other powers that need these values.
- Ex. Mary and Fred are playing as Luthia and Durhak. Both roll their dice up front. Mary has several abilities that can adjust dice, but she isn't sure which ones Fred might need, so she waits for Fred to complete his rerolling. After his first reroll, he realizes that he almost has enough to activate a power, but one die would need to be adjusted by 2. Mary can either use two powers that adjust a die by 1 or one power that adjusts a die by 2. She rerolls twice to see which she will be able to activate.
Players activate abilities by placing their dice on the power. Once an ability has been activated, the dice are set aside (they have been used for the round) and the entire power is exhausted, flipping it face down. This does not apply if the ability says "Does not exhaust."
For cards with a top and bottom ability, a player may only activate one of those abilities - either the top or the bottom ability. They cannot activate both. Using either exhausts the power.
If an ability has a cost with a double line in the cost (ex. 2 || 4), a player chooses one of the costs to fulfill.
Abilities only activate once unless the ability says it may be activated multiple times.
Players may use only their own dice to activate abilities. They cannot share dice unless an ability or encounter explicitly allows it.

Step 3: Enemy Attack Phase

Read the Attack line of the Enemy card(s) and follow the instructions there.
- If an Attack specifies "a player" (ex. "Deal 5 damage to a player."), all of the damage targets one player of the party's choice. If that player dies before taking the full amount of damage, the extra damage is dealt to another player. Continue this until all damage has been dealt.
- If an attack specifies "to the party," the players get to decide how to divide the damage among themselves. (Example: There are 3 players who encounter a Monster with, "Deal 5 damage to the party." The players may assign 5 damage to one player or split it between two or three players.) A player may not be assigned more damage than what would kill them.
If the players are all killed (all powers discarded from their Player Boards), the party has lost.
If Morale reaches 0 as a result of an Enemy Attack, the party instantly loses.

Step 4: Refresh Phase

After the Enemy has attacked and before players roll their dice starting a new round, the party may decrease Morale by 1 to unexhaust their powers and unflip their Roles. This is the only way to unflip a facedown Role in combat. Be careful - trying to keep everyone in perfect health can quickly drain Morale, but not refreshing often enough will result in the party being unable to fight effectively.
Return to the Player Attack Phase and continue fighting until the enemy is defeated.

Step 5: End of round effects and triggers

Some Enemies and players have effects that happen at the end of the round. Resolve all such effects in any order the party desires. If the Enemy is defeated due to an end of round effect, all players heal up to 2 powers. Follow the steps listed in Gameplay for having defeated an Enemy.

Winning the Game

Once the players have reduced the Boss to 0 health, have no other Enemies to fight, and have fully resolved any On Defeat Enemy abilities without dropping Morale to 0 or killing all of the party members, they have won!

Duo Powers (Megapack Expansion)

Duo powers are powers shared by two players. This can lead to a greater level of strategy and interaction as each player can activate the power by themselves, and when both work together, they can unleash a powerful effect. But all power comes at a cost...

Players may choose to gain a duo power by doing the following:
- Two players must agree to use a duo power - duo powers cannot be given to just one player.
- When drawing powers at the start of the game, each player draws one fewer power for each duo power they are part of.
- Find the duo power connecting the pair and set it between the two players.
Duo powers act as regular powers with the following rules:
- Duo powers are regular powers.
  - For Soraten, the card specifies if it counts as a Flight or Ground power or both.
  - For Luthia, the powers cannot be upgraded with Cobble.
  - For Goz, she does not put Combo counters on Duo Powers.
- Duo powers cannot be replaced.
- Either player may flip the power face down or discard it when taking damage.
  - For example, Dawn, playing Luthia, and Danielle, playing Durhak, each take a point of damage. Either Dawn or Danielle can choose to exhaust their duo power to take the one point of damage. Alternatively, they can both choose to deal the damage to their duo power, discarding it.
- Discarded duo powers can never be replaced. If an effect would let one or both players gain an extra power to replace a lost duo power, they instead each draw a power from their deck and add it to their Player Board as normal.
- Each player may only pay the cost of the relevant half of their shared duo power.
  - For example, on the duo power shared by Luthia and Durhak, the player playing Luthia can only activate the top half while the player playing Durhak can only activate the bottom half.
- Unlike normal powers where a player may only activate the top or the bottom ability, the two players can choose to activate both the top and bottom abilities at the same time. If they do, they gain the bonus specified in the middle of the card.

(Sample Duo Power, Luthia and Durhak - top: Deal 4 Burn. The Power of Fire: Sacrifice this power. Deal 16 Burn. Note: Continue to trigger Incinerate until the Enemy is below 12 Burn. Bottom: Spend 3 Divinity. Deal 4 Burn.)

Champions (Megapack Expansion)

Champions offer a way to further customize your Catharsis game. Each Champion states on the card what modifications to your Setup are needed to add the Champion to your Player Board. Each adds powerful abilities and effects. Unless otherwise noted on the Champion card, they act like powers. Some have Always Active, Passive, and Flip effects similar to Roles that do not require dice to activate. However, these powers can be used to take damage and unexhaust when spending Morale to refresh.

For Champions who require you to discard a die as part of their Setup, if you have any powers with abilities that require six dice to activate, you may replace them.

Overview of Player Decks

The following is a guide to help players understand how each character works. You can play the game just fine without reading this section. If you have questions about a character or just want insight before you try one, read on!

Complexity Level: 1 means straightforward, great for introducing players to the game; 5 means more strategic decisions and complex interactions.

Ability to Solo: 1 means this character isn't designed to go it alone; 5 means this character can survive well even without other characters.

Calyxia, Chaosbringer

Complexity Level - 4. Ability to Solo - 4.

Calyxia is a demoness, a being of chaos made sentient. Her role in the party is to add a bit of chaos to everyone's lives while still helping the party advance their goal of successfully hunting down corrupted creatures. Calyxia wants to encourage chaos, but not evil and destruction - at least, not that she didn't bring herself.
All of Calyxia's abilities have Siphon effects. These are extra effects on the abilities. As a demoness, she draws on the order and life of those around her to power her abilities. This means that Calyxia's abilities tend to be a bit more powerful, but there's always a cost.
By activating a Siphon effect, you're feeding Calyxia's demonic soul, which earns you a Demonic. Demonic can be spent in many ways using your Flip effect. Just be careful - if your Role is flipped, you no longer gain Demonic.
Demonic can also be spent to prevent a Siphon effect from triggering, and if you save up 12 Demonic, you can even unlock one of Calyxia's Demon powers! There are five of them, and each is incredibly powerful, with the ultimate replacing an existing power on anyone's Player Board with a Demonic Power.
The one bit of advice we have for playing Calyxia is talk with your teammates. Don't just send Siphon effects their way as a surprise. (Unless you really want to embrace your chaosbringer nature!) Find out which costs they are willing to pay and when you might want to use your Demonic to block the Siphon effects.
In solo games, Calyxia can ignore the first Siphon effect each round, but she doesn't gain any Demonic from it, so think carefully about that tradeoff to make sure you can gain the Demonic you need to survive.

Durhak, The Devoted

Complexity Level - 3. Ability to Solo - 5.

Durhak is a warrior priestess who has been granted the power to channel her goddess. She is a powerhouse in many ways because her faith can help her fight, heal, protect, and more.
Almost all of Durhak's abilities generate Divinity, the power of her goddess. She can have at most 10 Divinity - anything more gets lost. As a mortal vessel, she can only hold so much power.
While her Role is unflipped, Durhak can spend Divinity once each round to do a wide variety of effects, making her incredibly flexible and self-sufficient.
When times are dire and Durhak is channeling the power of her Goddess, she can Flip her Role to become the Vessel, an incarnation of her goddess. In this form, all of her attacks deal extra damage. But maintaining this form consumes divine essence. At the start of each round, Durhak must spend 4 Divinity to stay as the Vessel, and she is unable to gain Divinity to help her sustain the form.
Changing back to her normal form occurs instantly when Durhak's Divinity reaches 0 or combat ends. This means if Durhak has less than 4 Divinity at the end of a round, she'll revert to her normal form at the start of the next round before getting to use any abilities. Moreover, Durhak's goddess expects her champion to use the power to crush her foes. If Durhak is still in combat when she unflips her Role, whether because her Divinity reaches 0 or an effect or ability unflips it, she takes damage. If she still has Divinity at the end of combat, she carries it over to the next combat.
When your Divinity is about to empty or if you need just a bit more damage to kill a foe, you can take divine gamble, rolling a die for each point of Divinity left. This will revert you to your normal form, so be careful that if you roll low, you aren't left in a bad position!

Goz, The World Champion

Complexity Level - 4. Ability to Solo - 3.

Goz is all about dealing damage and locking her foes down or pulling off an incredible wrestling move to prevent damage. And as a grappler, she is incredibly skilled at performing a move to get her foe to submit.
Goz's top abilities are not like most other characters'. They do not exhaust when activated - she's getting the foe into the hold and is applying pressure. Each time she activates a top ability, she places a Combo on it and the ability effect does not trigger.
Combo is Goz's bread and butter. Each power that has at least one Combo on it activates its top ability automatically for free at the start of each round. Each ability only activates once, no matter how many Combo are on it.
As she builds up Combo, Goz is ready to pull out a finishing move. When she activates a bottom ability, she removes all Combo and triggers the effect based on the number of Combo removed. Removing an amount other than one of the listed values has no effect - Goz did the move wrong.
Performing a wrestling move given her size is no easy feat and requires quite a bit of focus lest the foe slip from her grasp. If a power with Combo is ever exhausted for any reason, discard all Combo on it. Goz will need to reestablish the hold again.
Goz's Passive and Flip both help her generate Combo, letting her get to her ultimate abilities before being shaken off. Make sure you use both of them to help you pull off the most devastating moves much more quickly.
Goz plays a dangerous game - building up Combo requires you to protect your powers from taking damage and holding off on using their bottom effects, so you cannot afford to take as much damage as some other characters. Also, Combo disappears at the end of a combat, so each combat requires you to build up again.
An example of Goz's gameplay:
- Goz has Nail to the Eye, Dragon Grapple, and Up High Down Hard on her Player Board with three other powers. During the first round, she activates the top abilities of Nail to the Eye and Dragon Grapple, using all 6 of her dice. This places a Combo on each one. She then uses her Passive to place a second Combo on Nail to the Eye.
- At the start of the second round, Goz triggers the top ability of Nail to the Eye (preventing 1 damage) and Dragon Grapple (dealing 4 damage). During the second round, Goz triggers her Passive to place a third Combo on Nail to the Eye. Then she activates Up High Down Hard's top ability. Now, Dragon Grapple and Up High Down Hard have 1 Combo on each and Nail to the Eye has 3 Combo. Goz activates Nail to the Eye's bottom ability with her remaining dice to deal 8 damage and prevent 2 damage. She then flips her Role to give up to 3 powers that have Combo +1 more. If she had added a Combo to Nail to the Eye, it would have had 4 Combo, which prevents her from activating the bottom ability until she reaches the next threshold of 6 Combo.

Luthia, The Tinkerer

Complexity Level - 2. Ability to Solo - 5.

Luthia loves to tinker on her inventions, cobbling them together with various items she finds on her journeys. As a result, her powers have the incredible ability to level up into powerful forms. And her powers cover the gamut, from dealing damage, to inflicting status ailments on her foes, to helping her teammates, and more. Luthia has an invention to do it all!
Luthia doesn't have a player deck like most. She is immune to replace effects because of this. Instead she starts the game with 6 Level 1 powers of your choice. These are her starting inventions. Place the Level 2 and Level 3 versions of each power under their corresponding Level 1 versions. (Note that she takes damage if she must replace more than one card at a time, so traps and foes that make you replace cards can be quite unpleasant!)
As Luthia adventures, she gets new ideas and resources. Every time she activates an ability, Luthia gains a Cobble to reflect this. She can spend her Cobble during the Player Attack Phase to level up a power. It requires 7 Cobble to increase a power from Level 1 to Level 2 and 12 Cobble to increase a power from Level 2 to its ultimate Level 3 form. To level up a power, set aside the current Level and reveal the next Level beneath it. If you suddenly realize you need to deal a bit more damage, spend some Cobble and level up the ability! Leveling up does not unexhaust the power.
When in a bind, Luthia can use her Flip ability to discard a power and all of its Levels to gain 7 Cobble. It's a painful tradeoff - losing one of her inventions permanently - but she can get enough Cobble to instantly improve a Level 1 power or get most of the way to improving a Level 2 power.
She can also use her Flip ability to gain an extra Cobble. Be sure to use this ability right before the party spends Morale to refresh!
Luthia's range of tools have all kinds of abilities. See the Glossary for definitions of all of the different keywords.

Soraten, Wind Dancer

Complexity Level - 2. Ability to Solo - 4.

Soraten's powers are all double-sided. As a sky elf male, he has wings, but without his aeromancer love, he finds he cannot sustain his flight anymore. As a result, one side of his powers represents Soraten on the ground, and the other side represents him in flight.
At the start of the game and each time the party spends Morale to refresh, Soraten can set any of his powers to Ground or Flight. When he replaces a power, he can set the replaced power to either Ground or Flight. In addition, his Passive allows him to flip one power at the start of each round. This is important because he must alternate between using Ground and Flight abilities.
When Soraten uses a Ground ability, the next ability he uses, whether it's that round, the next, or even the next combat, must be Flight and vice versa. This represents his unique fighting style. He cannot use a power twice in one round - no matter the side he uses, the power is unusable for the rest of the round.
Ground abilities are weaker, but they are safer, too. Powers on their Ground side count as being unexhausted for the purposes of effects. Flight abilities are stronger, but count as being exhausted for purposes of effects. This means heal effects can flip Flight abilities to Ground, but not the other way around. If a power is affected by a heal effect, the Ground side is available to be used again.
When he takes damage, Soraten can flip a Ground power to its Flight side, or he can discard a Flight power. Given that Soraten needs a mixture of both powers to fight effectively, that means he's got a smaller health total than others.
In multi-player games, Soraten can use his Flip effect to Partner with another player, sharing their dice to help them optimize activating abilities.
In solo-player games, Soraten draws on his up-and-down fighting style when he Flips his Role to help him deal more damage or activate more abilities.

Catharsis: Megapack Characters

The following three characters are part of the Catharsis Megapack expansion.

Emberhoof, Brewmaiden

Complexity Level - 4. Ability to Solo - 5.

Emberhoof is a fun-loving boozehound who loves to share a drink with her friends. But only if she can drink, as well. Did she mention that she loves a good drink? Not that she has a problem. She could stop at any time. But fighting in deadly battles and saving the world is so much more fun when you're drunk!
At the start of the game, Emberhoof always has the same 6 powers. She has no player deck, so she's immune to effects that would make her replace a card, but she takes damage if an effect or Enemy requires she replace more than one card at a time, so be careful when adventuring!
In place of a deck of powers, Emberhoof has a deck of Drinks. You'll be cycling through this deck quite a bit. It's all the creations she's come up with over the years. She always has the top card face up, and once per round, she can move the top card to the bottom of the deck if it's a drink she's not in the mood for. And like any good party host, she will match anyone drink for drink. This means that each round, she automatically gains a drink. (Up to a maximum of 4.)
Drinks are fun boosts and effects you can give to other players or use yourself. Each Drink has four levels, which correspond to the number of drinks that player has. As they consume more Drinks, all their Drink effects get better. And the Drinks have a wide range of effects, so everyone will want some Drinks! But there's a downside.
At the start of each round, each player with a Drink must make a Drunk roll. They roll a die, and if they roll equal to or less than the number of Drinks they have, they suffer the Drunk effect on all of their Drinks, discard the Drinks, and shuffle them all back into Emberhoof's Drink deck. Emberhoof, having built up a tolerance to alcohol over the years, her Passive gives her +2 on her Drunk rolls, meaning she can safely handle 2 Drinks at any time, and even at her maximum, she has a much reduced risk of getting Drunk.
Emberhoof has two powers that can remove a Drink from a player and can use her Flip effect to help other players out with their Drunk role, so use those to help manage your and your compatriots' effects. She can also dole out Drinks, so don't be stingy with them! However, she can only unflip her Role if someone gets Drunk - including her.
Emberhoof has one power called Brewfest that allows her to give everyone in the party a Drink. It has a maximum of 5 Drinks it can give out, so if playing a deck that allows more than 5 players (like the Murder Mystery deck), choose which 5 you will give Drinks to.

Lumi, Ice Elf

Complexity Level - 3. Ability to Solo - 1.

Lumi is a support character through-and-through. She loves to help others, and that's reflected in her very unique style of gameplay!
Lumi's main mechanic is her aura of ice that creates Ice counters. These are powerful tokens that help keep powers the same, preventing them from exhausting. They can also make it easier for allies (or herself!) to activate abilities, reducing their activation costs.
Every round, Lumi generates Ice, and all of her top abilities have the capability to create more. Ice is a party resource, so she can give the Ice to any player unless an ability or effect says otherwise.
The more Ice she stacks on an ability, the better. With one Ice, a power doesn't exhaust. With two or three Ice, the power becomes cheaper to activate. The problem is that Ice is fragile, and using an ability on the power or exhausting the power for any reason immediately destroys all the Ice on it.
Lumi's bottom abilities often consume Ice to trigger powerful effects. The challenge is that most players will not want to lose the precious resource - they'll want more! You'll find yourself being pulled in many directions as your allies will all be asking for your help.
Having grown up in the far north where her ice elven sisters practice necromancy, Lumi has learned a few things about how to raise the dead - and give the newly dead a second chance. Her Flip ability is incredibly powerful. She can bring any one player who has died back to life. Not full life, as they only have two powers on their Player Board. But that can be enough to swing a battle. The tradeoff for channeling this power, though, is that Lumi can only unflip her Role if another character dies. This means that she's funnelling her magic into sustaining her friend rather than using it for her aura, so she no longer automatically gains Ice.

Tsuna, The Enchantress

Complexity Level - 3. Ability to Solo - 3.

Tsuna has charmed quite a few people over the years, and she can summon them to help her in her journeys. They aren't trained adventurers, so they are in danger of being killed, but if any fall, there are always more to follow.
Tsuna has two types of cards: powers and Thralls. At the start of the game, separate them into two decks. Each has its own discard. The Thralls are the people Tsuna has enchanted who will help her fight. They can be used like normal powers and exhaust after activating.
The big difference is when Thralls take damage. A Thrall who takes damage (1 for an exhausted Thrall or up to 2 for an unexhausted one) is discarded and replaced with a power (not a Thrall). Thralls discarded this way are placed in the Thrall discard pile.
Thralls are special in another way, too. They all have a Flip ability that costs no dice to use. So there's definitely a reason to keep several around!
At the start of the round, you may discard any number of powers and replace them with Thralls. Powers discarded this way return to the bottom of her player deck, not the power discard pile.
Your Thralls have many different abilities, so don't feel shy about using them. However, be careful about using them to take damage - your Thralls don't replenish, and once you run out, all of your Thrall-related effects do nothing. You can afford to lose several Thralls without too much concern, but fully filling your Player Board with Thralls will cause you to run out of people to do your bidding.
One of your powers will let you return a Thrall from your discard to your Thrall deck, so you'll never fully be out of the game. But even better is using your Role to prevent 1 damage each round to make sure your Thralls don't leave in the first place.

Overview of Boss Decks

Challenge Scale: 1 means straightforward, great for introducing players to the game; 5 means more strategic decisions and complex interactions.

100-Eyed Dragon

Normal Mode Challenge Level - 2. Hard Mode Challenge Level - 3.

This deck will have you doing one giant combat. The fight doesn't end, so characters with end of combat effects won't get to trigger them, nor will the party be able to get free healing at any point. You'll have to balance doing damage and preparing for the 100-eyed dragon's attacks. But you'll have three tools and allies from the airship to help you fight off the dragon and all the dangers it brings with it. You'll need to split your efforts between many priorities to survive.

Battle with Fate Deck

Normal Mode Challenge Level - 4. Hard Mode Challenge Level - 5.

This deck will have you journeying through different worlds and attempting to predict where you and your party will end up at the end of each one. Each world will test you in different ways, making predicting difficult. And you want to predict as accurately as possible - the more you err, the more Paradox you'll build up. And if you make it through all of the worlds, you will find that all of your Paradox will come back to haunt you as you fight the Avatar of Paradox.

Ice Elf Lich

Normal Mode Challenge Level - 3. Hard Mode Challenge Level - 5.

Twenty waves of zombies and other undead are coming, and you must survive them all. As you fell each monster, all party members will gain Kill Point Tokens, a resource that can be used to help in a variety of ways, including refreshing all of your powers. Which is important because the party has no Morale. And the whole time, you will be slowly freezing to death.

Murder Mystery

Normal Mode Challenge Level - 3. Hard Mode Challenge Level - 5.

People are dying, the city gates are sealed, and you must find out who is brutally murdering innocents. As you investigate, you will slowly discover the motives of the killer. These motives will strengthen the murderer, and, if you can survive until the end, you will have to defeat them with every decision you made impacting the strength of your foe. Can you save the town from the terror that haunts them?

Undercity Crab

Normal Mode Challenge Level - 1. Hard Mode Challenge Level - 4.

Earthquakes rocked the city above, caused by the tunneling of bizarrely mutated crabs. Your party must adventure down four levels of tunnels, facing traps and monsters, and defeat the one causing the problem before the tunnels collapse on you. Throughout your journey, you will encounter treasures that will help the party, but you only have room for a few. You will have to decide whether to stay to hunt for treasures or rush forward to defeat the foe who, left alive, will cause a city to fall on your heads.

Challenges

Sometimes, your team is just so good, so amazing that you need an extra challenge. Sometimes, you just want to make progress towards extra difficult goals. And sometimes you want to prove that you are the best board gamers. No matter your motivation, we offer you brave souls challenges that will push you to your utmost. These challenges are presented in increasingly difficult tiers.

Mortal

Beat a game as Calyxia, Chaosbringer without ever spending Demonic to prevent your Siphon abilities from triggering.
Beat a game as Luthia, The Tinkerer, without leveling up any abilities beyond Level 2.
Beat a Divine Wrath Boss Deck with a character from the base game of Catharsis.
**Beat a game solo with Flazz and Bogg, Mixer and Grabber, without ever using a four ingredient epic potion.
All characters start the game with 1 Burn counter that cannot be removed by any means.

Sage

Beat the 100-Eyed Dragon and fully upgrade all 3 tools.
Defeat any Boss Deck, but each character begins play with only 5 powers.
Encounter the first Monster and Trap of any Boss Deck twice.
Beat a game solo as Durhak, The Devoted, without ever becoming the Vessel.
When playing Soraten, Wind Dancer, when spending Morale, flip all but 1 power to Ground.
When fighting the Undercity Crab Boss Deck, the party can have at most 2 Treasures.

Angel

Beat the 100-Eyed Dragon on Hard Mode.
Beat a game solo with Luthia, The Tinkerer without leveling up any powers.
Beat the Battle of Fate Boss Deck by starting the game with 15 Paradox.
**Beat a game solo with Lumi, Cryomancer.
**Beat a game solo as Flazz and Bogg, Mixer and Grabber, without using a single potion.
**When playing as Kendall, Marmotologist, and George, Starweaver, beat a game without using top abilities.
**When playing Emberhoof, Brewmaiden, get 19 drinks out in one 5-player game.

Avatar

Beat the Ice Elf Lich Boss Deck with each player starting at 0 KPT.
When spending Morale, as Soraten, Wind Dancer, flip all but 1 ability to Flight.
Beat the Battle of Fate Boss Deck on Hard Mode.
Beat the Undercity Crab Boss Deck on Hard Mode.
**Beat a game as Emberhoof, Brewmaiden, without giving any other player a Drink.
**For Tsuna, Enchantress, beat the game without using any Thralls.

God

Beat a game solo as Durhak, The Devoted without ever spending Divinity.
Beat the Ice Elf Lich deck on Hard Mode and unlock ending D.
Beat a game solo as Goz, World Champion, without ever activating a bottom ability.
Beat the Murder Mystery deck on Hard Mode.
**Win a game with Tsuna, Enchantress in the party, she may only activate Thralls and may never take damage on a non-Thrall power.

**These challenges require characters from Expansion content - Catharsis Saga: Chapters 3, Catharsis Saga: Chapter 4, and the Megapack Expansion.

Glossary

Ability - Part of a power. Each ability has one or more costs required to activate it and has an effect. Abilities that list multiple attacks (ex. "Deal 2 damage twice," or "Deal 2 damage. Deal 3 damage.") can target separate enemies with each attack. An effect that modifies an ability affects all of it.
- For example, a player uses an ability that says, "Target ability deals +2 damage," on an ability that says "Deal 2 damage. Deal 3 damage." The second ability now deals 4 damage and 5 damage.
Adjust die/dice by # - Select the listed number of dice across any number of players and change them up or down by the given number. Dice do not cycle around (e.g., a 1 cannot become a 6). If you cannot make an adjustment in a certain direction, you must either choose a different die or choose a different direction to adjust that die. (For example, if you had to adjust a 2 by 2, you cannot go lower, so you must adjust it upwards to a 4, or you can choose a different die to adjust.) You cannot target already-used dice with this ability.
Always Active - Effects that always affect the character. Even if their Role is flipped or removed from the game, this effect still pertains.
Armor # - Each round, the party must deal this much damage before being able to reduce an enemy's health.
Armorshred # - Permanently decrease the Enemy's Armor by this amount.
Attack - Abilities activated that deal damage are considered attacks. Some abilities may have multiple attacks such as "Deal 4 damage. Multiattack 2." or "Deal 2 damage. Deal 3 damage." An effect or ability modifying a single attack only affects one of these damage numbers. If an effect or ability modifies all attacks, it will affect all of those attacks.
- For example, a player uses an ability that says, "Target attack deals +1 damage," on an ability that says "Deal 2 damage. Deal 3 damage." The player can either make the first attack deal 3 damage OR make the second attack deal 4 damage, leaving the other one the same.

Dice Chart

The printed chart shows, for each character (Calyxia, Durhak, Goz, Luthia, Soraten, Emberhoof, Lumi, Tsuna), the character's own die faces for the values 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, A, B and ? (wild). (Graphic only; not reproducible as text.)

Catharsis Quickplay Rules

Setup

Pick a Boss deck. Set aside and follow any Setup cards. Set the Boss aside, shuffle the remaining cards, and add the Boss to the bottom of the deck. Place the deck in the middle of the table.
Set the party's Morale to the maximum for the Boss you're facing.
Each player chooses a character. Set your Role card to the side. Shuffle the remaining cards, draw 6 powers at random, place them face up, and then set the rest of the deck to the side. Take 6 dice. Follow any other setup on your Role card.

Gameplay

Draw the top card of the Boss deck.
- a. Trap, Event, or Special: Read the card and follow any directions on it. Players can't use powers.
- b. Enemy card: Set the Enemy's health for 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 players. Follow any special setup. Then fight. (See Combat below.)
After the card is resolved and before drawing a new Boss deck card, the party may spend 1 Morale to refresh (unflip) all powers and Role cards.

Damage

For each point of damage, choose 1:
- a. Exhaust (flip face down) a face up power.
- b. Discard an exhausted power. It is not replaced.
If a player has discarded their last power, they are dead.
- a. Dead players still count for party size (like for Enemy health and attacks). If all players are dead, the players lose.
Morale: When first reaching a Morale threshold, suffer the Morale effect listed on the Morale tracker. At 0, the players lose.

Combat

Start of round effects and triggers
Player Attack Phase
- a. Each player rolls all their dice. You may reroll any number of dice 2 times.
- b. Assign dice to the abilities on any number of your powers. You cannot use multiple abilities on one power. Vertical lines indicate a choice in costs. An ability must be paid in full, and dice cannot be saved for the next round. Activate abilities and Role powers in any order.
- c. Passive powers are only usable while the Role card is face up. Activate your Flip power by flipping your Role card face down. Role cards can only be unflipped by spending Morale, not by healing.
- d. Powers preventing damage can prevent damage from players' powers or the foe this turn only.
- e. After using an ability, exhaust (flip) the power.
- f. If at least one enemy is alive, go to Enemy Attack Phase.
- g. If all Enemies' health is reduced to 0, the combat is over and, after resolving On Defeat effects, the party earns rewards based on the encounter type:
  - i. Monsters: Each player heals 2. Go to Gameplay Step 2.
  - ii. Boss: You win the game!
Enemy Attack Phase
- a. Each enemy attacks based on the party size. Dead party members count but can't be affected.
  - i. Damage "to the party" is split among the players as they choose.
Refresh Phase
- a. The party may spend Morale to refresh.
- b. Return to Player Attack Phase.