Challengers! Beach Cup Rulebook

Table of Contents

Contents
- Add-on for the 1st Challengers! game
Setup
- Setup notes
Goal of the Game
Gameplay
- Round overview
Deck Phase
Match Phase
Final & Game End
2-Player Game
The Robot
Solo Mode
Effects
Credits

8 Starter Decks — 6x Cards Each
1 Robot Deck — 20x Cards
1 Rainbow Set — 20x Cards
4 Flags
40 Fans
28 Trophies (Front: Round / Back: Fans)
4 Beaches
9 Tournament Plans
6 Additional Sets: 40x Cards Each — Fairytale Forest, Toy Store, Mountain Top, Secret Base, University, Beach Club
3 Card Trays

Add-on for the 1st Challengers! game

9 Giga-Tournament Plans
8 Giga-Tournament Dog Cards
16 Trainer Cards
16 Trainer Double-Sleeves

The 1st Challengers game (not included) is required to use the Giga-Tournament Plans & extra Dog Cards.

Setup

Players already familiar with the 1st Challengers game can read only the highlighted text.

Take the beaches according to your player count and place them on the table.
Give a Tournament Plan to each player according to the number of players. Then, each player sits at the beach half corresponding to the icon and background color depicted in the first line of their Tournament Plan.
Place the flag of the matching color in the middle of each beach.
Sort all Trophies according to their round number into piles. Then shuffle each of those piles separately. For each beach, create a face down stack of Trophies by drawing one from each pile and by stacking them in descending order (7 at the bottom, and 1 on top). Place a stack on the Trophy icon of each beach.
Form a general supply with the fans.
Place the 3 card trays (A, B, C) at a spot that is easy to reach.
Take all the cards of the Rainbow Set (This Set is needed in every game). Select 5 of the 6 additional Sets and put the remaining one back into the box. Then, separate all cards of each Set by Level (A, B and C). Shuffle all Level-A cards together and place them as the Level-A-Pile, face down, in the corresponding card tray. Repeat these steps with the cards of Level B and Level C. Note: We suggest to not play with the Fairytale Forest Set in your first game.
Each player takes the 6 cards of the Starter Deck matching the icon of their Tournament Plan.
Each player leaves a free space at the right of their deck for their exhaust pile.

When playing with an odd player count the Robot Deck is used (see details on p. 4).

Leave 3 cards worth of space between beaches. Each card tray has a discard compartment and a Level-Pile compartment.

Setup notes

The player count is highlighted in white in the upper right corner of each Tournament Plan.
The Set icon in the top left and right corners shows which Set the card belongs to.
The letter in the bottom right shows the Level of the card.
If you want to combine the 1st Challengers game with Challengers Beach Cup use either the Basic City Set or the Rainbow Set. Then select any 5 Sets of the 12 available Sets and continue the usual Setup.

Goal of the Game

First: Qualify yourself for the final by being one of the two players with the most fans at the end of the 7th match.

Then: Win the final!

Gameplay

For 3 to 8 players (see additional rules for 2 players and solo mode on pp. 3-4)

Players are participating in a 7-round tournament.

Each round starts with the Deck Phase and is followed by the Match Phase. During the Deck Phase, players improve their deck by selecting new cards. During the Match Phase, each player plays against one opponent.

After the 7th round, the two players with the most fans are facing each other in the final.

Round overview

DECK PHASE (independent)

A. Move to another beach (if necessary).
B. Draw and pick cards.
C. Remove cards from your deck (optional).

MATCH PHASE (with an opponent)

A. Shuffle your deck and determine who begins.
B. Attack until one of your cards is in flag possession.
C. If you win, take the top-most Trophy.

Deck Phase

Each player handles their Deck Phase independently from the other players and in their own time.

A. Move to another beach (if necessary)

Check your Tournament Plan. It indicates at which beach half you will play the current round. If necessary, change your seat. Take your Tournament Plan, deck, won fans and Trophies with you.

Overview of a Tournament Plan:

The 7 rounds of the tournament are represented by the lines from top to bottom.
You can see in which beach half you will play in the current round by the icon and its background color.
The letters indicate which Level Pile(s) are available to you (for more details see p. 3).
Stars represent the number of fans you take, when choosing this option.
The Trophy you are competing for this Match Phase is identified by the number on it.

B. Draw and pick cards

Draw 5 cards from one of the available Level Piles of the current round.

The letters A, B or C show the available Level Piles. The number of card icons shows how many cards you can choose and add to your deck.

The white stars show the amount of fans you take if you choose this option.

Discard the cards you did not pick in the discard compartment of the corresponding card tray. When no additional card fits in the compartment, shuffle all cards in it and place them at the bottom of the corresponding Level Pile.

The options shown on a Tournament Plan line are:

A — Pick 3 cards from Level-A-Pile.
B / C — Pick 2 cards from Level-B-Pile or pick 1 card from Level-C-Pile.
B / C (with fans) — Pick 2 cards from Level-B-Pile + 2 fans or pick 1 card from Level-C-Pile.

Once per Deck Phase, if you have not picked all your cards, you may draw new cards. Keep already picked cards and discard all other cards drawn this Deck Phase. Then draw as many cards as you just discarded from the same Level Pile.

C. Remove cards from your deck (optional)

At the end of the Deck Phase, you may remove any number of cards from your deck. Put each removed card in the discard compartment of the corresponding card tray (Level A, B or C). If you remove Starter Deck cards (S), put them back into the box.

Overview of a card

Name of the card.
Set icon.
The base power is indicated in upper corners of each card.
Level A cards have a base power up to 4, Level B up to 7 and Level C up to 11.
Many cards have effects and some of those effects give a power bonus (see "Effects" section on p. 4).

Most of the cards are in 4 copies. Rare is used if there are 3 or less copies. Common is used if there are 5 or more copies.

Match Phase

You play the Match Phase with your opponent, independently of the other players.

A. Shuffle your deck and determine who begins

Shuffle your deck and place it face down next to your Tournament Plan.

IMPORTANT: During the Match Phase you must not look at your cards or rearrange their order except if an effect allows you to do so.

Determine who begins with a flag toss. That player reveals the top card of their deck, puts it at their beach half and places the flag on their card. This card is now in flag possession. From round 2 onwards, the player who has the Trophy with the higher round number begins. If there is a tie, toss the flag.

B. Attack until one of your cards is in flag possession

When the card of your opponent is in flag possession, you are on the attack.

During your attack, reveal cards one after the other until their total power is equal to or greater than the total power of the card in flag possession. Compare the total power after each revealed card.

If you have to reveal more than 1 card, add up the base power and power bonuses of all revealed cards.

As soon as the total power of your card(s) is equal to or higher than the total power of the card of your opponent, take the flag and place it on your latest revealed card. You must not reveal more cards than needed to get in flag possession.

Attack: Total power of the cards = First card's base power + power bonuses + Second card's base power + power bonuses...

In flag possession: Total power of the card = Card's base power + power bonuses

Your latest revealed card is now in flag possession. Slide all other cards that you may have revealed during your attack underneath your card in flag possession.

Your opponent has to put the card that has just lost the flag and all cards below it face up on seats of their bench. All cards with the same name must share the same seat. Each seat can only contain cards of the same name.

Your opponent is on the attack now. Continue to play until a player wins the match.

There are 2 ways to win:

Your opponent is on the attack but cannot get enough total power to get in flag possession.
Your opponent must put one or more cards on their bench but does not have enough empty seats available.

The 6 seats of the bench are located on your right.

C. If you win, take the topmost Trophy

If you win the match, take the Trophy of the current round from your beach and place it next to your Tournament Plan.

The back of a Trophy shows how many fans it is worth. Keep it hidden from other players. The amount of fans on the Trophies increases in later rounds. (Front: Round / Back: Fans)

At the end of a match, collect all cards that are part of your deck: from your bench, your beach half, your exhaust pile and your unplayed cards.

After rounds 1 to 6, continue with the Deck Phase of the next round.

Final & Game End

After round 7, every player adds up the fans depicted on their collected fans and on the back of their Trophies. The players with the most and second most fans are facing each other in the final.

Break ties in favor of the tied player who won more Trophies. If there is still a tie, it is broken in favor of the player who has the single Trophy with the highest round number.

Before the final starts, you don't draw and pick new cards, but you may remove cards from your deck as in the Deck Phase.

Determine who begins as usual.

The player who wins the final is the winner!

2-Player Game

There are two changes to the game end:

You don't play a final. Instead, the player with the most fans after the 7th round wins.
You win the game immediately if you have at least 11 fans more than your opponent at the end of a Match Phase.

Keep your fans and won Trophies face up, so you can always see the number of fans each player has.

The Robot

If you play with an odd number of players, the Robot substitutes for a missing player.

Place a Tournament Plan that corresponds to your player count next to the beach half indicated in the first line of the Tournament Plan. If all players agree, it is recommended to use the Tournament Plan that only shows the icon for the Robot.

The Robot start cards (S) form the Robot's Deck. Place it next to its Tournament Plan. It should consist of: 1 Alpha, 1 Beta, 1 Good Bot, 1 C.H.A.M.P. and 4 Cyborg cards. Exclude the extra Cyborg card (S*), unless you are using the Trainer cards.

The Robot does nothing in the Deck Phase.

At the start of the Match Phase, shuffle the Robot's Deck. Play according to the rules of the Match Phase by revealing cards for the Robot when it is on the attack.

If the Robot wins the match, place the Trophy of the current round back into the box.

After the match, take all cards of the Robot's Deck and its Tournament Plan. Place them in the beach half it is playing next according to the Robot's Tournament Plan.

For Level 1, the Robot's Deck only consists of the Robot start cards (S). If you want to play with a higher difficulty level, during setup, shuffle the R-cards and:

Level 2 — replace the Alpha-card by a random R-card.
Level 3 — as Level 2 and additionally replace the Beta-card by a random R-card.

Solo Mode

You play alone against the Robot. The rules of the 2-player game apply. In contrast to the multiplayer game, the Robot collects the Trophies it has won and can also win the game immediately if it has at least 11 fans more than you.

Follow the Setup with Robot as described above. If you want a special challenge, shuffle the 3 SOLO cards with the other Robot cards (R) before replacing 1-5 of them depending on the chosen difficulty level.

If you want a real challenge, you can try even higher difficulty levels in the solo mode:

Level 4 — as Level 3 and additionally replace the Good Bot-card by a random R-card.
Level 5 — as Level 4 and additionally replace the C.H.A.M.P.-card by two random R-cards.

Effects

When you reveal a card without keywords, you must immediately resolve the effect of that card as much as possible.

Important: If a card gets an immediate power bonus, that card keeps it even in flag possession.

When you reveal a card with bold keywords, these indicate when their effect applies or will be resolved.

During the attack: Their effect only applies to the attack in which you reveal them. The effect is no longer active when one of your cards is in flag possession.
From the bench: Their effect applies as soon as this card is on the bench and is active as long as it remains on the bench. The power bonuses of multiple cards with the same name add up.
In flag possession: Their effect applies as soon as the flag is placed on this card and is active as long as the flag remains on it.
No flag win: This effect only applies when the card fails to get in flag possession.
Flag loss (1st Challengers game only): Their effect is resolved when the flag is taken away from this card. Therefore this card must have been in flag possession beforehand. Flag loss effects are resolved prior to effects that apply when a card gets in flag possession.
Special: These cards have special rule-breaking effects (see the card's description).
When picked: Their effect is resolved immediately once, only during the Deck Phase in which you pick this card.

If the first revealed card that begins a match has an effect, don't forget to resolve it.

If an effect lets you take fans, take them from the general supply and place them next to your Tournament Plan.

If an effect has a power bonus based on fans, those on the back of your Trophies don't count.

With some effects, you can put cards on your exhaust pile. There is no limit to the number of cards in your exhaust pile. Put all cards on the exhaust pile face up, so you don't mix them up with the cards of your deck.

Cards of the Rainbow Set have all Set icons. They receive all Set-specific power bonuses and can be targeted by all Set-specific effects of other cards.

For example: You have both Coffee Machine (one set) and Ice Bob (another set) on your bench. You reveal the Backpacker (Rainbow set). It has the power bonus of the Coffee Machine during the attack. If it gets in flag possession, it also has the power bonus of the Ice Bob.

Credits

Designers: Johannes Krenner & Markus Slawitscheck

Producer: Sophie Gravel

Game Editors: Martin Roy, Roman Rybiczka, Julian Steindorfer & Martin Bouchard

Illustrators: Olivier Fagnère, Jeff Harvey & Chris Quilliams

Graphic Designers: Sandra Galicia, Alexandra Gosselin, Emeline D'Aoust & Vincent Fugère

Consultant Cultural Sensitivity: Calvin Wong Tze Loon

Pretzel Games is committed to diverse representation and accessible gaming for all. If you have any concerns or suggestions, please contact us through our website.