Dark Pact Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Setup
  • 1. Use cards based on the number of players.
  • 2. Hand out player start cards.
  • 3. Shuffle the supply cards (including all Dark Pacts not handed out) to form the Supply deck.
  • 4. Players shuffle their 10 start cards.
• Card Types
  • Action cards
  • Treasure cards
  • Multiplier cards
• Play Overview
• Play
• A. Actions
  • Turn Example
• Modifying Actions with Multipliers
  • Multiply Examples
• B. Buy cards
  • Buy Example
• C. Clean-up
  • Clean-up Example
• Game End
  • Deck End (uncommon)
• Dark Pact Victories
  • Dark Pact Example
  • Dark Pact Notes
• The 13 Dark Pacts
• Notes
  • Fine Points
  • Specific Card Notes
• About the Exile and Graveyard
• Etiquette
• Storing the Cards
• Credits
• Frequently Overlooked Rules
• Setup Summary
• Sequence of Play
• Solo Player Rules
  • Contents Used For Solo Game
  • Solo Setup
  • Solo Play
  • Bot Behavior Summary
  • Bot Actions
  • Bot Behavior Chart
  • Bot Actions in Detail
  • Bot Specific Fine Points
  • Bot Buy Step
  • Bot Clean-up Step
  • Bot Sample Turn 1
  • Bot Sample Turn 2
  • Adjusting the Bot Difficulty

Contents

• 1 Exile tile — plus an alternative card version
• 1 Graveyard tile — plus an alternative card version
• 4 Grimoire tiles — labeled A, B, C, D
• 4 Summary cards
• 174 Game cards

52 Player cards

• 40 Start cards — each labeled A-B-C-D
• 12 Grimoire cards — each labeled A, B, C, D

122 Supply cards

• 13 Dark Pact cards
• 57 base cards
• 26 '3' cards
• 26 '4' cards

Player cards and Supply cards used in 3 or 4 player games have sort indicators in their lower right corners, as do the Dark Pacts used in players' first games. The indicators are: Player cards, Grimoire cards, Player Count, and First Game Dark Pact.

Setup

1. Use cards based on the number of players.

4 Players: use all 174 game cards.

3 Players: do not use the 26 '4' Supply cards or the 13 'D' Player and Grimoire cards.

2 Players: do not use the 26 '3' and 26 '4' Supply cards or the 13 'C' and 13 'D' Player and Grimoire cards.

2. Hand out player start cards.

Give each player (A-D) a summary card; an initial deck of 10 start cards marked with their corresponding player letter A-B-C-D; and the matching Grimoire tile and 3 Grimoire cards.

First Game: separate as many of the Dark Pacts marked I, II, III, IV as the number of players. Shuffle them and deal 1 to each player face up in their personal discard area. The player receiving the "I" pact, Secular Power, is the first player.

Later Games: Do not give out any Dark Pacts. Instead, choose a player to go first.

3. Shuffle the supply cards (including all Dark Pacts not handed out) to form the Supply deck.

First Game: Do not use the Demon game cards with a ✱ in their upper right corners: Jealousy, Torment, Mesmerize ('3'), or Torment ('4'). These attacks are tricky for new players to deal with. Add them in later games.

In the center, place the Graveyard tile (or card) towards one end. Put the Supply deck nearby. Flip 10 cards face up in the center to form the initial Supply. Place the Exile near the Supply's other end.

Alternative card versions of the Exile and Graveyard tiles are provided for those who prefer a portable card version.

4. Players shuffle their 10 start cards.

The first player draws 5 cards to form their initial hand. The next 1-3 other players clockwise draw 6, 7, or 8 cards, respectively, and then discard down to 5 cards in hand. Discarded cards are placed in each player's personal discard area. After all players have done so, begin play.

Card Types

Game cards are either Actions, Treasures, or Multipliers.

Action cards

An action card shows its Title, Trait, Curse point value, Effect, Player count, Cost, Card type(s), and a Curse point reminder.

Action cards are colored to indicate their action type: Curse, Attack Curse, Dark Pact, Insight, and React.

Treasure cards

Treasure cards have gold frames, with colored bottoms to indicate their type. A Treasure card shows its Title, an Income reminder, its Insight point value, its Effect, its Cost, and an Insight point reminder.

Multiplier cards

Multiplier cards, either 2x or 3x, are always played with an Action or Treasure. A Multiplier card shows its Multiplier number and its Cost.

Play Overview

Dark Pact is a deck-building game. Each player manages their own personal deck, which begins at 10 cards and will grow and change during the game.

Each player has their own draw pile, hand of cards, play area, and discard.

During your turn, you will play cards from your hand to your play area, following the instructions on each card as you play it. This may result in drawing more cards into your hand, discarding some of them, or other effects.

A player's turn is divided into three parts: Action, Buy, and Clean-up.

• Action cards are played during the Action step;
• Treasure cards are played during the Buy step; and
• Multiplier cards are played in either step, along with an Action card or Treasure.

"A B C" is a useful teaching reminder: Action, Buy, Clean-up.

During the Buy step, you will purchase cards from the center supply and/or 1 card from your Grimoire, typically adding them to your hand.

During Clean-up, you will move cards from your play area to your discard, after resolving any clean-up effects on them. You then optionally discard cards from your hand and, if your hand has fewer than 5 cards, draw up to 5 cards, ready to play on your next turn.

Whenever you need to draw cards and don't have enough of them in your draw pile, reshuffle the cards in your discard to form a new draw pile and continue. All your game cards — except those currently in your Grimoire — collectively form your deck.

The goal is to build a deck that you can play to satisfy a winning condition listed on one of 13 unique Dark Pacts or — if the Supply deck runs out — the one with the most Insight points − Curse points. Most games end with a Dark Pact victory.

Play

Play proceeds clockwise, starting with the first player.

On your turn, you:

A. May play 1 Action.

B. May play Treasures and then Buy cards from the Supply and/or 1 card from your Grimoire to your hand.

C. Do Clean-up:

1. resolve any Clean-up effects (marked with the Clean-up icon),
2. discard cards in your play area,
3. you may discard cards from hand (before drawing cards),
4. if your hand has fewer than 5 cards, draw until you have 5 cards.
5. replenish the Supply as needed.

A. Actions

On your turn, you may play and resolve 1 Action card from your hand, placing it in your play area in front of you.

To resolve it, do its instructions in order, from top to bottom. If an instruction can't be fully done, do as much of it as you can before doing the next instruction. An instruction that says "may" is optional; all other instructions must be done (if possible).

• An instruction can affect cards in your hand, deck, discard, in play in front of you, or in the Supply, Exile, or Graveyard.
• Some effects apply to all players; while others affect your rivals: all players except you.
• References to different cards means cards with different titles.

+Actions. If a card provides +1 or more actions, you may, after resolving the current Action card, play additional action cards until you either run out of actions or cards to play or don't wish to play more.

• Actions are also listed in a card's upper left corner for ease of tracking them during play.
• The "+" listed before the # of actions indicates that they are added to your remaining actions for the turn and are not resolved until after this action card.

Draws. If a card effect provides draws, immediately draw that number of cards from your draw pile.

• If your draw pile runs out and you need to draw additional card(s), reshuffle your discards to form a new draw pile.
• There is no hand limit. You may count the cards remaining in your draw pile.

Coins. If an action card provides coins, during your later Buy step you will add them to any coins you play.

• Coins are also listed in a card's upper right corner so they can be easily totaled in the Buy step.

Curse and Insight Points. These points have no immediate effect when played but count towards satisfying some Dark Pact winning conditions or if the game ends due to the Supply deck running out.

Destroy. To destroy a card, choose a card as directed (typically from your hand or play area) and put it in the Graveyard.

Specific beats General. Card text may alter the rules. Always follow specific card text if there is a conflict.

Other terms used on actions include:

Exile. To exile a card, choose a Supply card and put it in the Exile.

Gain. To gain a card, take it from the Supply (or indicated location, usually the Exile or Graveyard) and put it in your hand unless the effect or the card gained indicates differently (onto your deck, in your discard pile, etc.).

Replenish. If an effect destroys, exiles, or gains cards from the Supply then, after resolving all affected cards, replenish the Supply by flipping new cards from the Supply deck to bring the Supply back to 10 cards.

Exception: do not replenish the supply during your Buy step (the Supply will be replenished at the end of Clean-up).

Reveal. To reveal card(s) from a location (typically your hand or the top of your deck), show them to other players before returning them to that location in the same order (unless otherwise instructed).

Discard. To discard a card, put it in your discard area face up.

• If you discard several cards at once, other players see only one of the discarded cards (the one on top of your face up discard pile).

Retrieve. To retrieve a card, take any card from your discard pile (unless it is empty) and put it in your hand. You may inspect your discard pile.

React. If an attack or another specified condition occurs, then other players — out of turn — may reveal React cards, typically to ignore the attack.

Turn Example

Alice begins with 5 cards in hand and uses her initial 1 action to play Personal Laboratory for +2 actions, using 1 of them to play Personal Library to draw 2 cards.

With 1 action left, Alice plays A Little Learning for +1 action and 1 draw and then Self-Sacrifice to destroy her Wisdom card, placing it in the Graveyard.

Alice now has 3 cards left in hand including Investigate, another action card, but she is out of actions to play it.

Modifying Actions with Multipliers

As part of playing an action card, you may play one or more 2x or 3x Multipliers. Multiply all multiplier values together (for example, playing a "2x" and a "3x" with a card produces a multiplier of 6). Then, multiply all numerals listed on the action card by this product (in this example, an action card with "+2 draws" would be treated as if it had +12 draws).

• If a number is spelled out (e.g. "one" instead of "1"), it is not multiplied by 2x or 3x cards. The number (#) sign on Sacrifice can be multiplied.
• Multiplier cards are played along with the card they are affecting as a single play, but are considered distinct cards in play for Dark Pacts that count cards in play.

Multipliers are discarded during Clean-up even if the action card they are modifying stays in play (e.g. Visions).

Multipliers can be played when using a revealed React card. After resolving the (multiplied) React effect, discard any Multiplier cards used before returning the revealed React card to your hand.

Multiply Examples

You play 2x and 3x Multipliers with A Little Learning, which multiplies its numerals by 6 (2 × 3) so that you receive 6 coins, +6 actions, and 6 draws. (This card also now has 6 Curse points, if that is relevant.) Note that A Little Learning is played once, to greater effect, not 6 times.

Many effects change when all numerals on a card are multiplied:

2x Torment produces 4 draws, not 2, for you while your rivals will discard 2 cards - but only if they have at least 8 cards in hand, which is quite different!

2x Enlightenment would allow you to gain a card up to cost 16, not 8, from the Supply.

B. Buy cards

The Buy step consists of two parts: playing Treasures (optionally and in any order) and then purchasing cards from the Supply and/or 1 card from your Grimoire.

Most Treasures provide coins. A few also produce other effects; resolve them as you play each Treasure.

2x and 3x Multipliers can be played with Treasures, affecting the number of coins they produce and any other effects involving numerical values. This includes any Curses on them (to help satisfy the Dark Pact Curse the Land).

After playing Treasures, spend coins from your Actions and Treasures played this turn to buy as many cards as you wish and can afford from the Supply. You may also buy 1 card from your Grimoire. Costs are in cards' lower left corners.

Restriction: If you have any Cursed Treasures — a Treasure with 1 or more Curses — in play, you cannot buy Insight actions.

Cards are bought one at a time, gaining them to your hand unless a card states otherwise (such as all Dark Pacts, which are placed in your discard area). Do not replenish the Supply after buying a card (do this in Clean-up instead, see below).

• Once a player starts spending coins to buy cards, they may not play any additional cards, such as Cursed Treasures or newly gained Treasures.
• After buying cards, any unspent coins are lost and do not carry over to future turns.

Your Grimoire can hold up to 3 cards. One of your 3 initial Grimoire cards, Inscription, after being bought and later played, allows you to shift a card from the Supply to your Grimoire if it has fewer than 3 cards.

Buy Example

Alice begins her Buy step with 2 coins on A Little Learning, and Self-Sacrifice in her play area (from her previous Action step). In her hand, she has 3 cards: a 2x Multiplier, Investigate, and a Copper.

Alice wants to buy Guiding Spirit, cost 4, from the Supply, so she plays the 2x Multiplier with her 1 coin Copper for 2 more coins and takes Guiding Spirit into her hand.

C. Clean-up

Clean-up effects are marked both in the text box and in the upper right frame corner, allowing you to easily spot them when your cards are overlapped.

Clean-up consists of five parts, done in order:

1. Do any Clean-up effects of cards in play, as instructed.
2. Discard cards in your personal play area to your discard pile.
3. You may discard any number of cards from your hand. You are not required to discard down to 5 or fewer cards in hand.
4. If you have fewer than 5 cards in hand, draw cards until you have 5 cards in hand (reshuffling your discards to become a new deck if needed).
5. If there are fewer than 10 cards in the Supply, replenish it by flipping cards from the Supply deck to bring the Supply back to 10 cards.

If the Supply is full, the next player clockwise begins their turn.

If you are unable to replenish the Supply due to its deck running out, proceed to Game End below.

Clean-up Example

Alice has no Clean-up effects on the cards she played this turn, so she puts them all in her discard pile. She then considers the Investigate action card in her hand and decides to discard it, keeping just the Guiding Spirit that she bought.

Alice then draws 4 cards: the 2 left in her deck and, after reshuffling her discards, 2 cards from her new deck.

1 Supply card is replenished, replacing the Guiding Spirit that Alice bought.

The next player then begins their turn.

On Alice's next turn, she plays Guiding Spirit. During Clean-Up, instead of discarding it, Alice will put it on top of her deck (before drawing).

Game End

Deck End (uncommon)

If you are unable to replenish the Supply due to its deck running out, the game ends instantly.

Combine your deck, discard pile, hand, any cards in your play area, and any stored cards into a single deck and total its Insight points (from Insight cards) and any negative points from Curse cards, as listed in cards' lower right corners. Do not include cards in your Grimoire.

A few Insight cards list "Deck End" and "?" points. If a game ends via a Deck End, these add Insight points as described on the card.

The player with the highest total wins! If several players tie for most points, they all win.

Dark Pact Victories

If, during your turn, you satisfy the condition of a Dark Pact that you have in play, you win.

• With multiple Dark Pacts, you can win by satisfying any one of them.
• When using the "first game" Dark Pact setup, you do not have to satisfy the Dark Pact you were dealt to win (any Dark Pact you've acquired this game will work).

7 Keeper Dark Pact conditions are based on cards you have in play. Once played, a Keeper Dark Pact stays in play (due to its Clean-up condition). This allows you to play it on one turn and then win with it on a later turn.

6 Instant Dark Pact conditions involve playing the Dark Pact card as an action and then immediately revealing the listed cards in hand (or having 20 unused actions or all cards in play) to win.

• If you play an Instant Dark Pact and fail to win, your turn and the game continues.

Dark Pact Example

Later in the game, Alice has Curse the Land already in play and, after playing Research to both draw a card and retrieve a card, the Dark Pact Pierce the Veil in hand, along with her Personal Laboratory, Personal Library, and three 2x Multipliers.

As playing all three 2x Multipliers with her Personal Laboratory yields only 16 actions, not the 20 unused actions needed to instantly win with Pierce the Veil, Alice instead plays her Personal Laboratory, followed by 2x Personal Library to draw 4 cards. Among them are A Little Learning, another 2x Multiplier, and her Cursed Gold.

She plays A Little Learning and then begins her Buy step, playing three 2x Multipliers with her Cursed Gold for −25 total Curse points: −1 for A Little Learning and −24 (2 × 2 × 2 × −3) for her Cursed Gold.

This satisfies Curse the Land and Alice wins! (1 Curse point + 24 Curse points = 25 Curse points.)

Dark Pact Notes

Except for Deck End totals, a few card effects, and Insight card Buy restrictions, there is no disadvantage to having Curse cards in your deck. 2 Dark Pacts require them.

Similarly, there is no advantage to having Insight points, except for Deck End totals and 2 Dark Pacts. A 3rd Dark Pact requires 4 different Insight cards in play.

Most games end by a player satisfying a Dark Pact.

Keeper Dark Pacts have greater requirements than similar Instant Dark Pacts, as Keeper conditions can benefit from Multipliers, unlike revealed cards in hand.

The 13 Dark Pacts

7 KEEPER: based on cards in play

• Secular Power, 40 unspent coins
• Hallow the Ground, 45 Insight points
• Curse the Land, 25 Curse points
• Occult Mastery, 22 cards in play (not stored)
• Coins of Past Realms, 6 different Treasures
• Four-Fold Path, 4 different Insight cards
• Diverse Learning, 15 unique cards, no duplicates

6 INSTANT: reveal cards in hand | do condition

• Midas Touch, 13 coins in Treasures
• Sun Aspect, 19 Insight points
• Moon Aspect, 11 Curse points
• Great Potential, 19 cards in hand
• Pierce the Veil, 20 unused actions
• Great Work, all cards in play (no stored cards)

Notes

Fine Points

• Stored cards (due to Visions) are not considered in play and thus do not count towards Occult Mastery or the Great Work.
• A Ritual Knife, when revealed from hand for Midas Touch, will count either Curse cards or Spirits in play, but not any in hand.

Specific Card Notes

• Amulet of Protection and Exorcism: these ignore all attacks, including a Debt that you play or another player's Maxwell's Demon.
• Cursed Idol and Destructive Imp: these must destroy a card in play, which may be themselves.
• Awakening: the discard need not be one of the 3 cards drawn. Its ability to exchange a card in Exile with a card in the Supply can be used on a Spirit Lord.
• Cursed Brazen Head: action cards drawn may not be played (as you are in your Buy step), but Multipliers and Treasures drawn can be played.

About the Exile and Graveyard

Various powers send cards to either the Exile or Graveyard. Some powers count the number of various cards in them or allow players to take cards from them. More powers interact with the Exile than the Graveyard.

The Exile and Graveyard tiles, on one side, list the card types or traits that various powers which interact with the Exile or Graveyard may refer to, so that you can sort those cards around the tile for easy reference, placing all other types of cards on the tile. Use either tile side (or replace them with the card versions, which are more portable if you aren't using the Dark Pact box for storage), as you prefer.

Some powers count the number of different cards of a given type present, while other powers compare the total number of cards of a given type present (whether or not they are different) to the number of players.

Some Insight cards are also Treasures (Talisman) or Spirits (Ancestral Spirit). These categories are listed next to each other on the Exile tile; place those cards overlapping both categories so that they can be easily seen.

Etiquette

Cards in the Exile and Graveyard may be inspected. You may inspect your own discards and count the cards remaining in your draw pile. If asked, you must state how many cards you have in hand.

Storing the Cards

The 180 cards come in three 54 card decks (the Exile, A, and C decks) and an 18 card deck. The diagram in the rulebook illustrates how to split the cards in each deck among the box's card compartments and how to store the Grimoire tiles.

Sort cards according to the indicators in the lower right corner of the card.

• The Base Game card indicator is blank.

The indicators are: Player cards, Grimoire cards, 3 Player Count, and 4 Player Count.

The compartments hold:

• Dark Pact cards, Graveyard card, and Exile card (15 cards)
• Base game cards (57 cards)
• '3' cards (40 cards, 1 tile)
• '4' cards (40 cards, 1 tile)
• Player A deck and A Grimoire tile and summary card
• Player B deck and B Grimoire tile and summary card (28 cards, 2 tiles)
• Player C deck and C Grimoire tile and summary card
• Player D deck and D Grimoire tile and summary card
• Extra space

Credits

• Game Design and Rules: Tom Lehmann
• Illustrations: Dug Nation
• Game Producer: Chris Zephro
• Graphic Design: Jody Henning
• Project Management: Andy Van Zandt

Frequently Overlooked Rules

• Cards are gained to your hand, unless otherwise stated.
• Once you start playing Treasures, you cannot play Actions (even if you draw new ones due to Treasure effects, such as Brazen Head).
• Once you start spending coins, you cannot play more Treasures.
• You can buy multiple cards in a turn (but only 1 from your Grimoire).
• The Supply is not replenished during your Buy step.
• You may keep unplayed cards in hand for use on a later turn.
• You may discard newly bought cards (to draw other cards).
• There is no hand limit; during Clean-up, draw until you have 5 cards in your hand.

Setup Summary

1. Use cards based on number of players.
   • 4 Players: use all 174 game cards.
   • 3 Players: do not use the 26 '4' Supply cards or the 13 'D' Player and Grimoire cards.
   • 2 Players: do not use the 26 '3' and 26 '4' Supply cards or the 13 'C' and 13 'D' Player and Grimoire cards.
2. Hand out player start cards and Grimoire tiles. Put 3 Grimoire cards under your Grimoire tile. First Game: hand out Dark Pacts I-IV (in discard areas).
3. Shuffle supply cards to form Supply Deck. Flip 10. Lay out the Exile, the Center Supply, and the Graveyard, with the Supply Deck nearby.
4. Determine Start Player. Shuffle 10 start cards. Draw 5-8 cards based on player order. Discard down to 5 cards in hand.

Sequence of Play

Play proceeds clockwise, starting with the first player.

On your turn, you:

A. May play 1 Action.

B. May play Treasures and then Buy cards from the Supply and/or 1 card from your Grimoire to your hand.

C. Do Clean-up:

1. resolve any Clean-up effects (marked with the Clean-up icon),
2. discard cards in your play area,
3. you may discard cards from hand (before drawing cards),
4. if your hand has fewer than 5 cards, draw until you have 5 cards.
5. replenish the Supply as needed.

Solo Player Rules

In Solo play, you play against a "Bot" opponent which tries to win in 1 of 3 ways:

• Four-Fold Path: put 4 different Insight cards in play.
• Hallow the Ground: have 45 Insight points in play.
• Deck End: try to exhaust the deck while having more Insight minus Curse points than the Solo player has when the last card is drawn.

You will attempt to win either by obtaining and satisfying any Dark Pact before the Bot satisfies either of these 2 Dark Pacts or by having more Insight minus Curse points than the Bot has if the game goes to a Deck End.

A Deck End is more common in Solo play, given that the Bot is always playing for that possibility.

Before Play: read the Card Types section and the Play, Actions, Buy, Clean-up, Game End and Dark Pact Victories sections of the main rulebook.

Contents Used For Solo Game

• 1 Exile tile — or an alternative card version
• 1 Graveyard tile — or an alternative card version
• 2 Grimoire tiles — labeled A, B
• 1 Summary card
• 96 Game cards

26 Player cards

• 20 Start cards — each labeled A-B
• 6 Grimoire cards — each labeled A, B

70 Supply cards

• 13 Dark Pact cards
• 57 base cards

Player cards and Supply cards used in 3 or 4 player games have sort indicators in their lower right corners, as do the Dark Pacts used in players' first games. Do not use the 26 '3' and 26 '4' Supply cards for a Solo player game.

Solo Setup

1. Assemble Solo player's start cards.

Give yourself a summary card; an initial deck of 10 start cards marked with their corresponding player letter A; and the matching Grimoire tile and 3 Grimoire cards.

2. Assemble Bot's start cards.

Give the Bot an initial deck of 10 start cards marked with their corresponding player letter B; and the matching Grimoire tile and 3 Grimoire cards.

• Return its Investigate, Cursed Copper, and Self-Sacrifice to the box.
• Add 1 Banishing Spirit from the base game to it.
• Put the Dark Pact Four-Fold Path from the Supply cards into the Bot's discard area.

3. Shuffle the Supply cards (and the 12 other Dark Pacts) to form the Supply deck.

In the center, place the Graveyard tile (or card) towards one end. Put the Supply deck nearby. Flip 10 cards face up in the center to form the initial Supply. Place the Exile near the Supply's other end.

Alternative card versions of the Exile and Graveyard tiles are provided for those who prefer a portable card version.

4. Shuffle start cards.

Shuffle your 10 start cards, draw 5 cards to form your initial hand. Shuffle the Bot's 8 start cards and draw 5 without looking at them. You are the first player. Begin play.

Solo Play

Alternate turns with the Bot, starting with you. Take your turn normally as outlined in the main rulebook. The Bot then takes its turn automatically, according to the Bot Behavior. The Bot counts as a "player" for cards that refer to players or rivals.

Bot Behavior Summary

• If possible, the Bot will satisfy a Dark Pact in play.
• Otherwise, if it has only 1 action, it will only try to gain more actions if possible (using Multipliers if applicable).
  • If it ever has more than 1 action, it will try to draw or retrieve cards.
• Otherwise play proceeds in this order:
  • It will play cards to gain single actions.
  • It will play cards that exile Supply cards not on its Buy List.
  • It will play cards that gain Buy List cards.
  • It will play Dark Pacts.
  • It will get rid of the Spirit Lord or Demons.
  • It will play Insight cards.
• Finally it will buy cards based on its Buy List priority, and keep up to 4 cards based on its Keep priority before discarding the rest and drawing at the end of its turn.
• Besides trying to satisfy a Dark Pact, the Bot's behavior of exiling cards from the Supply while gaining Insight cards drives the game towards a Deck End (where it should have more net Insight points than the Solo player).

Bot turn flow. The Bot turn starts by asking: Does the Bot have a Dark Pact in play that can be satisfied? If YES, satisfy it and the Bot wins. If NO, play all cards that generate more actions, using Multipliers if available, and check how many actions remain.

• With 2+ actions: if a card that draws more cards can be played, play it.
• Otherwise, check in order whether there is a card in hand that does one of the following:
  • Gives an action
  • Exiles Supply card(s) not on the Buy list
  • Gains a Buy list card
  • Is a Dark Pact
  • Gets rid of a Spirit Lord (or highest-cost Demon)
  • Is an Insight card (one that hasn't been played this turn)
• If none apply, proceed to the Buy step: Multiply the largest Treasure, play all Treasures, buy cards on the Buy list, check for "Deck End", then do Bot Clean-up.

Bot Actions

Follow the Bot Behavior Chart from top to bottom, left to right.

• Do a "▶" instruction only if the rest of that instruction can be done.
• "ALL X" is play all Multipliers in hand. "X" is to play 1 Multiplier in hand, choosing 2x before 3x.
• "↻" is go back to the top and start over.

Example: If the Bot has Hallow the Ground in play and Enlightenment, 2x, and 3x in hand, it will do its first instruction; WIN: to play them to win. (2 × 3 = 6, and 6 × 10 = 60 points, where 45 Insight points in play are needed to win.) Otherwise, the Bot moves on to its next instruction.

Example: When playing Awareness in the second instruction, the Bot will only discard a Copper, not any other card, to draw another card.

When a "↻" is reached, go back to the top line of the Bot Behavior Chart and start over.

Example: After playing Awareness in the 2nd instruction and discarding a Copper, the Bot draws a 3x. It then goes to the top instruction and checks again to see if it can win, now that it has another Multiplier card as well as a second action (to play Hallow the Ground if it was in hand).

Comment: It can be a bit tedious to start over and over again from the top but, after a few turns, you will know what will actually change when you do so and should be able to rapidly recheck and proceed.

If several listed cards are available for a choice to play, retrieve, or discard, choose the earliest one listed.

Example: In the 3rd instruction, if the Bot has both a Personal Library and an Awakening in hand, it will play Personal Library.

If a discard is ever required but not specified (for example, in response to an attack played by the Solo player), use the Discard priority from top to bottom.

Bot Discard Priority List

1. Other *
2. Copper
3. Silver
4. Lowest cost
5. Last drawn

* "Other" are any Spirit or Demon cards that the Bot received from your (the player's) play of either Haunting Spirit or Walpurgisnacht, respectively.

If a retrieve is required but not specified, use the Retrieve priority.

Bot Retrieve Priority List

1. Buy order
2. Highest cost
3. Top discard

Retrieve cards starting with the cards on the Buy list, then those with the highest cost, then the top discard.

Bot Behavior Chart

• ▶ WIN: Hallow the Ground in play + ALL X highest cost Insight card.
• play all Personal Laboratory, Awareness (only discard Copper) ↻
• if 2+ Actions: play 1 Personal Library OR 1 Awakening (to draw) ↻
  • if not: X 1 Research OR X 1 A Little Learning ↻
  • if not: ▶ Ancestral Spirit to retrieve Personal Laboratory, Awareness, Research, or A Little Learning ↻
• play 1 Research OR 1 A Little Learning ↻
• play Banishing Spirit(s) to Exile all Supply cards not on the Buy list ↻
• ▶ Enlightenment to gain Insight card (Play ↻) or Buy list, X if needed ↻
• ▶ Attunement to gain Buy list, use 1+ X only if needed ↻
• ▶ Greater Circle to gain Ancestral Spirit ↻
• ▶ Inheritance (take different/highest cost; give same/lowest cost) ↻
• Hallow the Ground; Four Fold Path ↻
• ▶ Exorcism Spirit Lord or the highest cost Demon
• play as many different Insight cards: Wisdom (do not discard), Ancestral Spirit (to retrieve), Awakening (to draw)
• Begin Buy step: play ALL X on largest Treasure, then play all other Treasures.
• ▶ WIN: Four-Fold Path, based on different Insight cards in play.

Bot Actions in Detail

First, the Bot tries to win with the Hallow the Ground Dark Pact — if it has it already in play and has enough Multipliers in hand along with a card that provides sufficient Insight points.

Fine Point: If the card potentially being multiplied is Enlightenment — which can gain and immediately play an Insight card — if either Attunement (5 Insight) or the 2nd copy of Enlightenment (10 Insight) is available in the supply, then the bot will play 2x, 2x, Enlightenment to gain and play that card and win with either 45 or 50 total Insight.

Until it has more than 1 action, the Bot can't win by playing both Hallow the Ground from hand and a multiplied Insight card (as that is 2 actions).

The Bot's next steps are attempts to gain more actions and draw more cards. In these instructions, the Bot is attempting to play multiple actions and then draw cards without using up its last action.

If it cannot generate extra actions by playing Personal Laboratory or Awareness, then the Bot will attempt to do so by playing a multiplier card on Research or A Little Learning (cards that generate +1 Action which, if multiplied, will generate more). If it has neither of those cards but has Ancestral Spirit, it will then attempt to retrieve these cards.

If the Bot does generate more actions, it returns to the top and will attempt to play Personal Library or Awakening to draw more cards into its hand. It will repeat this process until it has generated all the actions and cards it can while saving 1 action to play at least 1 other card.

With its remaining actions (usually only 1 at this point), the Bot first plays actions that generate another action (Research, A Little Learning, Banishing Spirit).

It then possibly plays one of several possible non-chaining or terminal actions. Most of these begin with "▶" and are only played if they can be done completely (for example, the Bot will play Greater Circle only to gain Ancestral Spirit, not other spirits).

As many of these actions involve drawing or gaining additional cards, "↻" is listed after them as gaining extra actions or draws could result in the Bot building a larger hand as described above.

Bot Specific Fine Points

• Enlightenment: it will play any Insight card it gains. If multiple Insight cards are present, its priority is one it does not yet have, then the highest cost Insight card. Otherwise, play it only if it will gain a buy list card.
• Inheritance: its priority is to give itself an Insight card it does not yet have, then the one with the highest cost. Its priority to give to you is an Insight card it already has, then the one with the lowest cost.
• Research: the Bot always retrieves (if possible) before it draws.
• Oppression (if played by you): the Bot uses Discard priority (see above) to determine which 2 cards it puts on its deck.
• Mesmerize (if played by you): if the Bot has both 2x and 3x multipliers, it puts a 2x on its deck.
• Generous Spirit (if played by you to destroy cards): the Bot will only destroy any "other" cards it has in hand (see Discard priority).

Bot Buy Step

The Bot first generates as many coins as it can by playing all of its Treasures, multiplying the largest one. It then checks for a Four-Fold Path win again.

• Begin Buy step: play ALL X on largest Treasure, then play all other Treasures.
• ▶ WIN: Four-Fold Path, based on different Insight cards in play.

A Four-Fold Path victory is checked after playing Treasures, as the Insight Treasure Talisman could, if played, satisfy this condition.

The Bot then spends these coins on cards in its Buy list in the priority order given (from top to bottom) until it either has no coins left to spend or all available items on its Buy list that it can afford have been bought.

Bot Priority Buy List

1. Hallow the Ground
2. Enlightenment
3. Talisman
4. Ancestral Spirit
5. Awareness
6. Awakening
7. Attunement
8. 3x Multiplier
9. Gold
10. 2x Multiplier
11. Grimoire-2x Multiplier
12. Research
13. Amulet of Protection
14. Banishing Spirit
15. Inheritance
16. Exorcism
17. Greater Circle
18. Grimoire-Silver

Bot Clean-up Step

Do the following steps in order:

• Leave any Dark Pacts in play. Do any other Clean-up effects and discard any other cards in play.
• Keep up to 4 cards on the priority list (this may be fewer than 4 cards) and discard all other cards from the Bot's hand.
• Draw to 5 cards, without looking at the newly drawn card(s).

Bot Clean-up Priority List

1. The highest cost Insight card
2. All Multiplier cards
3. Personal Laboratory
4. Personal Library
5. Banishing Spirit
6. Research
7. Greater Circle
8. The highest cost Treasure
9. Dark Pacts

Bot Sample Turn 1

After the Solo player goes, the Bot's hand of 5 cards are revealed: 2x, A Little Learning, Personal Library, Wisdom, and Copper.

The Bot can't do the first two steps. It does not have 2 actions, so it does not play Personal Library. Instead, it plays 2x with A Little Learning, draws Silver and Banishing Spirit and returns to the top.

With 2 actions now, the Bot plays Personal Library (which draws 2 cards) and draws Personal Laboratory, exhausting its draw pile, and then its only remaining card, Four-Fold Path (which began in its discard pile). It plays Banishing Spirit which has +1 Action, 1 Draw, and Exiles any number of cards from the Supply. The Bot draws nothing (due to having no cards in its deck or discard pile), and removes 7 of 10 cards from the Supply, leaving only a 2x, Enlightenment, and Ancestral Spirit. It refills the Supply to 10 cards and returns to the top of the Bot Behavior Chart.

It plays Personal Laboratory, returns to the top, and then cannot do anything until it plays Four-Fold Path and returns to the top of the Bot Behavior Chart again.

It then can't do anything until it plays Wisdom (to no effect) and enters its Buy step. It plays Silver and Copper, adding 3 coins to the 2 it earned during its action step for a total of 5 coins. With only 1 insight card in play, it doesn't satisfy Four-Fold Path.

Consulting its Buy list, it cannot afford the Enlightenment (cost 12) in the Supply, so it spends 4 coins to buy the Ancestral Spirit and can't buy anything else with its 1 remaining coin.

During Clean-Up, the Bot leaves Four-Fold Path in play, discards its other played cards, keeps Ancestral Spirit, reshuffles, and draws 4 cards to refill its hand to 5 cards without you looking at its newly drawn cards.

Solo Player's Turn 2: The Player then takes their next turn, during which they exiled Enlightenment from the supply.

Bot Sample Turn 2

The Bot's hand is revealed: 2x, Ancestral Spirit, A Little Learning, Personal Laboratory, and Silver.

The Bot plays Personal Laboratory. As it has 2 actions but no Personal Library or Awakening, it plays A Little Learning, which draws Banishing Spirit. It returns to the top of the Bot Behavior Chart but does nothing until it plays Banishing Spirit, removing all but a 2x, Gold, and Research from the Supply, which it refills with 7 new cards that include Awareness.

The Bot returns to the top of the Bot Behavior Chart and does nothing until it reaches the final action step bullet and plays its Ancestral Spirit (despite not having anything in its discard pile to retrieve).

It then enters its Buy step and plays 2x Silver for a total of 5 coins to spend. It buys Awareness for 2 coins and then can't afford the Gold, 2x, and Research cards in the Supply, so it buys the Silver from its Grimoire.

During Clean-up, the Bot keeps both the Awareness and Silver it bought and draws 3 more cards (unseen) to end its turn.

The Bot now has 3 of the 4 Insight cards it needs to win with Four-Fold Path, if it can draw and play them all in a single turn. With a 2nd Silver in its deck, the Bot should now be able to afford more expensive cards, especially 2x Multipliers. With Banishing Spirit, the Bot is rapidly going through the Supply deck, setting up a Deck End victory.

Will the Bot win before the Player can acquire a Dark Pact and satisfy its condition? Play and find out!

Adjusting the Bot Difficulty

Make the Bot Easier to beat: Do not count the Bot's Wisdom card towards the number of Insight cards it needs to have in play to win via the Four-Fold Path.

Make the Bot Harder to beat: Start the Bot with Talisman or Hallow the Ground in its deck, or even both!