Dark Souls: The Card Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Choosing a Character
• Setup
• Player Area
• Exploration
• Resting at the Bonfire
  • Remnant of Humanity Cards
• Encounter Setup
• Deck Basics
• Enemy Card Basics
• Enemy Activations
  • Enemy Attacks
  • Area Attacks
  • Player Reactions
• Player Activations
  • Attacking Enemies
  • End of Player Activation
• Boss Encounters
  • General Rules
  • Vordt Special Rules
  • Abyss Watcher Special Rules
  • High Lord Wolnir Special Rules
  • Pontiff Sulyvahn Special Rules
• Winning the Game
• Icons
  • Conditions
• Alternate Modes of Play
  • Custom Starting Decks
  • Different Bosses
• Reference
• Credits

Contents

Every card in this set has an icon to let you know that it's part of the core game. Future expansions will each have a different icon for easy identification.

This box contains everything you need to play Dark Souls™: The Card Game, whether you want to play solo or with a party of up to four players.

Starting Cards – As you explore the world of Dark Souls™ these cards will represent your Equipment and Stamina. Use these cards to defeat your enemies but be warned, when this deck is depleted, you die.

• 4 Character Data Cards
• 28 Assassin Starting Deck Cards
• 28 Herald Starting Deck Cards
• 28 Knight Starting Deck Cards
• 28 Sorcerer Starting Deck Cards
• 20 Remnant of Humanity Cards

Beyond your starting deck there are two types of cards players can add to their decks later in the game:

Treasure Cards – Common treasures are improved weapons and equipment you will find throughout the game to add to your deck. Transposed treasures are even more powerful, but much rarer. Evolve your deck with these Treasure cards to confront the more powerful enemies and bosses you encounter.

• 40 Common Treasure Cards
• 10 Transposed Treasure Cards

Stamina Cards – As you collect souls, you will buy improved Stamina cards making you stronger and more resilient as your deck evolves.

• 64 2-Soul Firekeeper Stamina Cards
• 32 5-Soul Firekeeper Stamina Cards

Tokens – Use these tokens to track progress, effects, wounds, and Souls throughout the game.

• 7 Encounter Cleared Tokens
• 20 Condition Tokens (5 Bleed, 5 Frostbite, 5 Poison, 5 Stagger)
• 18 Wound Tokens
• 16 Soul Tokens (12 one Soul, 4 five Soul)

There are several other types of cards that represent the encounters and enemies you will face during the game.

Encounter Cards – These cards describe the type and number of enemies you'll be fighting in your adventures.

• 10 Level 1 Encounter Cards
• 12 Level 2 Encounter Cards
• 8 Level 3 Encounter Cards

Enemy Cards – These cards describe the foes you'll fight in the world of Dark Souls™ as you progress towards the final boss fight.

• 20 Level 1 Enemy Cards
• 20 Level 2 Enemy Cards
• 10 Level 3 Enemy Cards

Boss Cards – These cards represent the final bosses themselves and their actions through Behaviour Cards. Defeating these bosses is how you win the game.

• 4 Boss Data Cards
• 4 Additional Boss Cards (Two Wolnir's Hands, Two Undead Legionnaire cards)
• 8 Abyss Watcher Behaviour Cards
• 8 Pontiff Sulyvahn Behaviour Cards
• 8 High Lord Wolnir Behaviour Cards
• 8 Vordt of the Boreal Valley Behaviour Cards

Bonfire Cards – Each time you rest at the bonfire, it burns down a little more. If all the bonfire cards are flipped before you defeat the bosses, you lose the game.

• 5 Bonfire Cards

Playing Boards – The battle boards allow you and your enemies to manoeuvre. The exploration board shows you where you can go and which bosses you'll be attempting to defeat.

• 1 Enemy Battle Board
• 1 Character Battle Board
• 1 Exploration Board

Choosing a Character

There are four playable characters to choose from in Dark Souls™: The Card Game. Each character starts with a unique set of strengths and weaknesses as defined by their heroic ability and Starting Deck. Heroic abilities are special talents that the characters can use during the game, but only once between rests at the bonfire. Each character also has a taunt value. Characters with a higher taunt value are better at drawing enemy attention their way.

The noble Knight is the best at blocking and defending against vicious blows, while the spellcasting Sorcerer trades defense for a more powerful and varied offense. The underhanded Assassin can use a sneaky backstab to inflict more damage on his foes, while the spiritual Herald can heal other players and encourage them to fight all the harder!

At the start of the game, players simply choose the character card and Starting Deck for the character they wish to play.

For example, the Knight's heroic ability card, Stand Fast, reads: "Flip this card over to Block 3."

Setup

To set up a game of Dark Souls™: The Card Game, take the character battle board and the enemy battle board and put them in the middle of the play area, a short distance apart.

Each player puts their character card on an empty space on the character battle board (with the side with the heroic ability text face up) to represent where they are standing. Note: only one character card can ever be on a space at once. Each player then shuffles their character's Starting Deck and puts it face down in front of them.

The exploration board has two sides to explore. Each side has two boss icons printed on it, showing which bosses you'll be fighting on this playthrough. For your first game we recommend the side with Vordt and Pontiff Sulyvahn. Put the exploration board on one side of the play area.

Take the Encounter Cards and split them into three decks (Levels 1, 2, and 3). Shuffle each deck and deal a card face down into each encounter space on the exploration board (so put a level 1 Encounter Card on each space marked with the level 1 icon, and so on). Put the remaining Encounter Cards back in the box; they are not needed for this game session.

Take the enemy cards and split them into three decks (Levels 1, 2, and 3), shuffle each deck and put them face down next to the exploration board.

Find the boss cards and behaviour cards for the two bosses shown on the exploration board. Put them somewhere within easy reach for when you reach the boss fight.

Find and shuffle the Common Treasure Deck and put it face down within easy reach. Do the same with the Transposed Treasure Deck.

Sort the Bonfire Deck into order (with 1 on the top and 5 on the bottom) and put this deck face up within easy reach.

Finally, take the Stamina Cards, sort them into eight separate decks (sorted by Stamina type and cost). You should have four 2 Soul Stamina decks and four 5 Soul Stamina decks. Put these decks face up within easy reach to form the Stamina Market.

The play area, once set up, is arranged as follows: enemy decks, treasure decks, exploration board and stamina market are laid out near the enemy battle board and character battle board. Each player has their own player area. The boss behaviour deck and data card, and the Bonfire deck, sit near the tokens. Each player area also contains the loot pile and inventory.

Player Area

Each player will need some space in front of them for their Deck and Discard Pile:

• Deck – Players are free to count the number of cards remaining at any time but may not look at the front of the cards.
• Discard Pile – Players discard cards here when they use them in game. Players can freely look through their own discard piles.

In addition, the party as a whole will need space for the following:

• The Loot Pile, which will include Souls and Treasure cards from the most recent encounter.
• The Inventory, which will include Souls and Treasure cards from prior encounters.

Exploration

Following any of the paths from the Bonfire on the exploration board, players simply choose a direction and then flip the next Encounter Card on that route. Note: the encounter icon shows how challenging that encounter will be so choose your route wisely (Level 1 is easy, Level 3 is very difficult). The Encounter Card remains in this space for the entire game.

When players move into a space, they must fight the encounter as described in "Encounter Setup" below, before they may continue to explore further along the route.

Once an Encounter Card has been defeated, leave the card face up on the encounter space of the exploration board and place an Encounter Cleared token on top of it. Players do not reshuffle their Decks. Cards which have been discarded stay discarded until the players return to the Bonfire.

Each Encounter Card shows the amount of Treasures you find (based on the number of players in the game). Each encounter provides these Treasures each time it is defeated, not just the first. Draw and put these cards into the Loot Pile. Additionally, each enemy defeated gives up a number of Souls (as shown on their Enemy Card).

For example, the High Wall of Lothric Encounter Card carries a table showing, for each possible number of players (1–4), the Treasure rewarded and the Enemy numbers for that encounter. An Enemy Card such as Winged Corvian shows how many Souls it rewards when defeated.

Move the indicated number of Souls and Treasures into the Loot Pile after first moving any Souls and Treasures already in the Loot Pile to the Inventory.

The contents of the Inventory are safe, but don't count on the Souls and Treasures you've just moved to the Loot Pile just yet!

The players can now choose either to rest at the Bonfire (as described in the next section) or to press on and risk the current Loot Pile in another fight.

If the players decide to continue, choose another encounter. This encounter must be either next to the Bonfire or next to an encounter which has already been cleared. Flip the Encounter Card on this encounter and follow the same process as last time.

During an encounter, if a player needs to draw a card from their Deck and cannot, all players are defeated. The encounter ends and players must immediately rest at the bonfire.

After this, shuffle all enemy cards back into their respective decks.

Resting at the Bonfire

When the players rest at the bonfire—whether by choice or because they were defeated—flip the top bonfire card face down.

If the fifth bonfire card is flipped face down, the players lose. The embers fade away, and the First Flame gutters and dies, leaving the world in darkness.

If at least one bonfire card remains face up, resolve the text effect of the new top card. Remove all Encounter Cleared tokens from the Exploration Board (except from Cleared Boss Encounters); those encounters must be fought again before players can progress. If any characters have used their heroic ability, flip their cards so that the heroic ability text is face up again.

If the players were defeated, then discard all Souls and Treasures from the Loot Pile. Shuffle any Treasures back into their respective decks.

If the players chose to rest at the Bonfire, move any Souls and Treasures from the Loot Pile into the Inventory.

Players can then buy new Stamina cards for the cost in Souls shown on each card and add those to the Inventory. To pay a cost in Souls, reduce the number of Souls in the Inventory by that amount.

Put each player's discard pile and hand back into their Deck. Then, using cards in the Inventory, players can freely swap cards and add cards to their Decks, up to the max deck size limit shown on the top Bonfire card. When a card is removed from a player's Deck, that card enters the Inventory and can be added to another player's Deck.

Players should work as a team to buy improved Stamina cards and upgrade their Decks. Once all players are satisfied with the cards in their Decks, they shuffle them and place them face down.

Remnant of Humanity Cards

Players may face a situation in which there are not enough cards available in the Inventory to reach the maximum deck size on the current Bonfire card. In this case, Remnant of Humanity cards are always in the Inventory, and may be used to fill out any player's Deck.

A Remnant of Humanity card is identified by its Name, Number, Max Deck Size, and a Text Effect. For example, the "Glowing Logs" Remnant of Humanity card has a "When Revealed" effect of "Gain a 2-Soul Stamina Card," and another example card's printed effect reads "Draw a card."

Encounter Setup

To begin an encounter, put each character card on an empty space on the character battle board. This means that if players have just won an encounter, they can reposition their characters. At the start of any encounter where players don't have cards in their hand, each player draws six cards. If any player has no cards with attack actions in hand, they can choose to shuffle their hand back into their deck and draw a new six-card hand, but they must keep the new hand. Players have a hand size of six.

After this, draw the number of enemies shown on the Encounter Card and put them on the enemy battle board. Each enemy card must be put in the space indicated on its card; this is that card's spawn location.

If an enemy card has a spawn location and that space is already filled by another enemy card, put the enemy card on an unoccupied space on the same row. If the whole row is full, just put the enemy card anywhere on the enemy battle board.

Say the first enemy drawn for an encounter has a spawn location of Front Left. This means that the enemy card would go in the Front Left square on the enemy battle board. If the second enemy spawned should also go in the same space, then the players can choose to put it in either of the remaining two empty Front spaces on the enemy battle board. If all three Front spaces already have enemy cards on them and a fourth enemy spawns with a Front spawn location, just put the enemy card anywhere on the enemy battle board.

After enemies have been set up, all enemies activate. Once this activation has been resolved, then all characters activate. Then all enemies activate again. Activation continues in this way until either all enemies are destroyed or the players lose the encounter. For more on activation, see "Enemy Activations" and "Player Activations" below.

Deck Basics

Cards in Decks come in two types, Equipment cards and Stamina cards. Equipment cards have actions on them which allow players to fight their enemies. Stamina Cards provide the resources needed to pay for Actions on Equipment cards. Each action has a cost in Stamina (which can be 0).

Different equipment needs different types of Stamina to use. Using a knightly Longsword requires completely different skills to using a Longbow, for instance!

There are four different kinds of Stamina: Dexterity, Intelligence, Faith, and Strength.

If a Stamina icon on an Equipment card is "colourless," any type of Stamina can be discarded to pay for that cost.

Cards with two Stamina types separated by a slash can be discarded for either type of Stamina (not both). Cards with multiple Stamina types with no slash generate 1 of each type of Stamina shown.

To perform an action, simply discard an amount of Stamina equal to the action's Stamina cost, and then resolve the action. If the action is a quick action, return the Equipment card to your hand after performing the action. If the action is a standard action, discard the Equipment card after performing the action.

Let's look at the Knight's Longsword. To make a quick action, this card requires the player to discard 1 Strength Stamina, 1 Faith Stamina and 1 Stamina of any type. Once this Stamina is discarded, the player can perform the action and inflict 2 damage on an enemy card.

The Sorcerer's Robes are very different. The quick action requires the player to discard 1 Intelligence Stamina. Once this Stamina is discarded, the player can block 2 damage inflicted by an enemy card.

Enemy Card Basics

Enemy cards contain all the information you need to know about that enemy:

1. Enemy Level – This is also on the back of the card, and shows how powerful the enemy card is (Level 1 Enemy, Level 2 Enemy, or Level 3 Enemy).
2. Souls – This is how many Souls the players will gain if they defeat this enemy card.
3. Attack value – This is how much damage the enemy card inflicts when it attacks.
4. Defense value – This shows how resistant the enemy card is to damage.
5. Hit points – This shows how many wounds the enemy card can take before being defeated.
6. Weakness – This shows the type of attack the enemy card is weak to.
7. Spawn Location – This shows where the enemy card spawns on the enemy battle board.
8. Attack – This shows where the enemy card will attack, as well as any additional effects inflicted.
9. Special Rules – Some enemy cards have a special rule which takes effect during the encounter. Be sure to read enemy cards carefully to make sure you don't miss any special rules!

For example, the Irithyllian Slave Warrior has the special rule "Invisibility: This card cannot be attacked while there are non-Invisible enemies in play."

Enemy Activations

During an encounter, all enemies activate at the same time. When the enemies activate, they each perform the action shown on their card. This is usually attacking a single character. Enemy cards activate and resolve their actions in this order, referring to the spaces on the enemy battle board: front left, front middle, front right, back left, back middle, back right.

Enemy Attacks

1. Each enemy that attacks will attack the character in the target space shown.
2. If there is no character in that space, the enemy attacks the character with the highest taunt value in the target row.
3. If there are no characters in the target row, the enemy attacks the character with the highest taunt value in the other row.

Enemy cards attack their target for an amount of damage equal to their attack value.

The Skeleton has a target of the front-right space. There are no characters in that space, so the Skeleton will attack the character with the highest taunt value in the front row. There are no characters in the front row, however, so the Skeleton will now attack the Knight in the back row, since the Knight has the highest taunt value.

Some enemy cards have a Reanimate special rule: the first time each Encounter this card is killed, it is not removed from the Encounter and regains its full HP.

Area Attacks

Some enemy cards will attack a specific area of the character battle board instead of one space. If an enemy card attacks multiple spaces on the character battle board, then all characters in those spaces will be hit by the attack. However, if there are no characters in those spaces, the attack misses entirely.

The Silver Knight Spearman attacks all cards in the middle column. As a result, the attack will hit both the Herald and Assassin and inflict 4 damage on both.

Player Reactions

A player can use one quick action or standard action to react to an enemy's attack. The player simply pays the required Stamina and performs the action.

• Block actions reduce the damage by the listed amount.
• Dodge actions allow the player to avoid all damage and effects from the attack.
• Some heroic abilities allow the character to respond to an attack, for example the Knight's heroic ability, Stand Fast ("Flip this card over to Block 3"). This uses the character's defensive action but does not cost any stamina.

Players may choose not to defend themselves, or they may not be able to Block or Dodge all damage. The player must discard one card from their hand or from the top of their deck (player's choice) for each point of damage remaining.

For example, the Sorcerer has been attacked by a Crossbow Hollow and is about to suffer 3 damage. The player chooses to pay 1 Intelligence Stamina to use the quick action on their Sorcerer's Robes to Block 2 of the damage. This leaves 1 damage left over, which means the Sorcerer player must discard one additional card from either their hand or the top of their deck, as they choose.

Once all enemies have activated, players draw until they have six cards in their hand. Remember, if any player needs to draw a card and cannot, the encounter immediately ends and the players must rest at the bonfire.

Player Activations

After the enemies have activated, all players will activate their characters. Players can act in any order they choose, switching between players freely. Remember to work together as a group for the best results!

Each character can perform one or more of the following actions, but each action may only be performed once per character during each player activation:

• Discard one or more cards to draw an equal number of cards.
• Move their character card one space to the left, to the right, forwards, or backwards. Each character can move only one space per activation, so players should plan their positioning carefully. If there is another character in the space a character wishes to move to, swap the cards' positions. This takes up both characters' movement for this activation. Characters and enemies can only move onto spaces on their own respective battle boards.
• Make 1 attack action.
• Use one non-attack action on an Equipment card (such as Heal or Search).
• Use a heroic ability.

Once all players have completed all the actions they want to take, all players draw until they have six cards in their hand again.

Attacking Enemies

A player can only attack an enemy card that is in the same column as their character card. A player can only attack an enemy card if there are no other cards in the column between their character card and the enemy card.

In this example, the Assassin wants to attack the Winged Corvian, but cannot because the Peasant Hollow is in the way. The Assassin will have to kill or move the Peasant Hollow before being able to make attacks on the Winged Corvian.

The player chooses the attack they want to make on one of their equipment cards, then discards Stamina and makes either a quick action or a standard action. The enemy takes an amount of damage equal to the number shown on the attack action. The damage is reduced by the enemy's Defense value.

Most attacks have one of four types: Heavy, Skilled, Precise, and Magical.

Many enemies also have a weakness, which will match one of the four attack types. If an attack's type matches the enemy's weakness, the attack ignores the enemy's Defense value.

After making the attack, place wound tokens on the enemy card equal to the damage left after Defense. If that number equals or exceeds the enemy's hit points, the enemy is defeated. Remove the enemy card from the enemy battle board.

For example, the Assassin's Backstab action reads: "Flip this card over to inflict 1 damage to an enemy card in the same column as this card. This damage ignores the target's defense."

For example, the Sorcerer pays 1 Faith Stamina and 1 Intelligence Stamina and uses the quick action on the Soul Arrow to attack the Winged Corvian for 1 damage. Since the Winged Corvian has 1 Defense, normally this would result in nothing happening. The Soul Arrow's attack type matches the Winged Corvian's weakness, though, so the attack ignores the Winged Corvian's 1 Defense. This means that the attack does 1 wound to the Winged Corvian, which is enough to defeat it!

End of Player Activation

At the end of the characters' activation, if all enemies have been defeated, the players can choose to immediately rest at the bonfire. Otherwise, all players draw until they have six cards in hand. (Remember: If a player has to draw a card and can't, the character dies and the players must immediately return to the bonfire.)

Boss Encounters

General Rules

Bosses are especially big, powerful enemies which follow some different rules to normal enemies. A boss is always placed in the front middle space on the enemy battle board at the start of the encounter. If the boss card has two sides, put the side with the Fog Gate symbol face up.

The boss has a deck of behaviour cards that determine what it does each activation. After placing the boss card (and any additional cards that take part in the Boss Encounter), shuffle its behaviour deck and place that deck face down in easy reach.

Each time the boss activates, draw the top card of the boss behaviour deck and place it face up. Each behaviour card will show where the boss moves, how it attacks for that activation, and its weakness for the upcoming character activation. Resolve the move then the attack shown on the behaviour card. If the behaviour deck has no cards left, flip the pile of discarded behaviour cards without shuffling it to form a face down behaviour deck.

Some cards need to be flipped over once a certain amount of damage has been inflicted. If this happens, any excess damage inflicted on the first side is not carried over to the second side.

For example, the Vordt of the Boreal Valley behaviour card "Icy Touch" reads: "When a player character starts its turn in the front row, it suffers Frostbite," and "Chilled to the Bones" reads: "When a player character suffers damage from Frostbite, it suffers 1 additional DMG."

Vordt is at 1 HP. A character inflicts 2 damage to him. This reduces Vordt to 0 HP, and the additional 1 damage is lost. The players flip the Vordt card to his Heat Up side and continue to fight Vordt until they or Vordt are defeated.

Vordt Special Rules

Vordt is the simplest of the bosses included in the game, and is a good choice for the first boss you fight.

When Vordt reaches 0 HP, he is not defeated like a normal enemy, he instead Heats Up. Flip the Vordt card over. The players must now continue to fight Vordt's Heat Up side (identified by the Heat Up symbol). Once the players have reduced this side to 0 HP, they have finally defeated Vordt!

Abyss Watcher Special Rules

When the Abyss Watchers fight, they fight as one. At the beginning of this encounter, put the Abyss Watcher card in the front middle space as normal. Then place the two Undead Legionnaire cards in the front right and front left spaces. Players can attack the Undead Legionnaires just like ordinary enemies.

The Abyss Watcher's behaviour card "As One" reads: "This card attacks each time the Abyss Watcher draws a behaviour card. This card's target is the space directly opposite it on the player battle board." The behaviour card "Brotherhood of the Abyss" reads: "Both Undead Legionnaire cards begin in play on the front row of the enemy battle board."

While the two Undead Legionnaires are in play, each time the Abyss Watcher resolves a behaviour card, each Undead Legionnaire will attack the space on the character battle board directly opposite it and inflict 1 damage. If the Abyss Watcher would move into a space occupied by an Undead Legionnaire, swap the position of the two cards.

When the Abyss Watcher is reduced to 0 HP, remove any remaining Undead Legionnaires from the enemy battle board. The Abyss Watcher now Heats Up as described in the Vordt section. Once the players have reduced the Heat Up side to 0 HP, they have defeated the Abyss Watcher.

High Lord Wolnir Special Rules

High Lord Wolnir sets up in the back middle space of the enemy battle board. Then place Wolnir's Right Hand in the back right space and place Wolnir's Left Hand in the back left space.

Wolnir's Hands begin in play. Each Hand card ("Undying Will") can only be attacked if it is in the front row, unless the attack has the Ranged symbol.

Wolnir himself cannot be moved or attacked. Wolnir's Hands will move as shown on Wolnir's behaviour cards. The Hands can only be attacked when they are in the front row unless the attack is Ranged.

When a Hand is reduced to 0 HP, remove it from the enemy battle board. This has no effect on any of Wolnir's attacks. When both Hands are removed from the enemy battle board, Wolnir is defeated.

Pontiff Sulyvahn Special Rules

Once Pontiff Sulyvahn has suffered five wounds, flip his card over. Set the five wound tokens aside and fight Sulyvahn's Clone. Once Sulyvahn's Clone is reduced to 0 HP, flip the card back over and place the wound tokens on Pontiff Sulyvahn's card. Continue to fight Pontiff Sulyvahn until he has suffered five more wounds. Then flip the card over and fight Sulyvahn's Clone once again. Once Sulyvahn's Clone is reduced to 0 HP, flip the card back over, place any wound tokens back onto Pontiff Sulyvahn's card and continue to fight.

Each time Sulyvahn's Clone is flipped face up, it has the amount of HP printed on the card.

Pontiff Sulyvahn is defeated when he is reduced to 0 HP.

Winning the Game

When a Boss Encounter is Cleared, it remains Cleared for the rest of the game. The boss does not respawn. When all Boss Encounters on the exploration board are Cleared, the players win the game!

Icons

Dark Souls™: The Card Game uses icons to help players recognise abilities and effects across different card types.

• Area – Area attacks hit all opposing cards in the indicated spaces. If there are no opposing cards in the listed row or column, the attack misses and has no effect.
• Block – The action reduces the amount of damage from an attack by the amount shown. Any additional effects of the attack, like inflicting a push or a condition, still apply even if the damage is reduced to 0.
• Damage – The attack does the indicated amount of damage to the target.
• Dodge – The action causes the character to avoid all damage and effects from an attack.
• Heal – The targeted character moves the number of cards indicated from the bottom of their discard pile to the bottom of their deck, face down.
• Shift – The character who performs the action may move a number of spaces equal to the number shown, following the normal movement rules.
• Push – The target of the attack is moved one space in the direction indicated, unless there are no more spaces in that direction. If there is another card in the space the target is pushed to, the two cards swap positions.
• Ranged – The attack can target an enemy even if there are other cards in the column between the character and the intended target.
• Search – The character can look through their discard pile and choose the indicated number of cards. Those cards are placed face down on top of the character's deck in any order the player chooses.

Conditions

Some attacks inflict conditions on the target of an attack. When the condition is applied, put the relevant condition token on the card to mark the effect. Condition tokens are removed after the condition takes effect, but the same condition can be reapplied to the same card later. A card can't have a condition applied while already suffering that condition; if a subsequent attack would reapply that condition, ignore that part of the attack and apply all other effects.

• Bleed – The next attack against this card gains +1 damage.
• Frostbite – This card suffers 1 damage the next time it moves.
• Poison – This card suffers 1 damage at the end of its next activation.
• Stagger – This card suffers 1 damage the next time it makes an attack.

Alternate Modes of Play

Once you've played through Dark Souls™: The Card Game a few times and have gotten a feel for it, you may wish to use the rules presented here to further enhance your gameplay experience. These rules particularly benefit more experienced players looking for more options to add to the game.

Custom Starting Decks

This option provides players with the option of building their own starting decks instead of using the four prebuilt starting decks. At the start of the game, choose characters as normal. Instead of taking their characters' starting decks, players construct their own 28-card starting decks using any of the cards in the four starting decks and the Remnant of Humanity cards. Once everyone has created their custom starting decks, play proceeds as normal. This option is best used by those players who've already played the game several times, and want to delve deeper into the options available in true Dark Souls™ style. If you want to play a spell casting Knight, or a tanky Assassin, this is the option for you!

Different Bosses

The exploration board comes printed with our suggested boss runs for your first few times playing the game. However, you should feel free to mix and match various different boss options. We've deliberately split the bosses up into slightly easier bosses (Vordt, High Lord Wolnir) and harder bosses (Abyss Watchers, Pontiff Sulyvahn). It's our advice to use one boss from each of these categories when choosing your opposition, but feel free to mix this up! You could choose to face Vordt and High Lord Wolnir for an easier game, or truly challenge yourself and take on the Abyss Watchers and Pontiff Sulyvahn on the same playthrough!

Reference

Equipment & Attacks

• Area attacks hit all opposing cards in the indicated spaces.
• Block this much damage.
• Inflict this much damage.
• Dodge all damage and effects of attack.
• Heal: Move this many cards from bottom of discard pile to bottom of deck.
• Shift this many spaces.
• Push target one space in direction shown.
• Ranged: This attack can target cards behind other cards.
• Search: Select this many cards out of discard, place on top of your deck.

Conditions

• Inflict Bleed: Next attack against this card gains +1 damage.
• Inflict Frostbite: Suffer 1 damage next time card moves.
• Inflict Poison: Suffer 1 damage at end of next activation.
• Inflict Stagger: Suffer 1 damage next time card attacks.

Stamina

• Dexterity
• Intelligence
• Faith
• Strength
• Any

Attacks & Weaknesses

• Heavy
• Precise
• Magical
• Skilled
• None

Player Card Types

• Assassin Starting Card
• Herald Starting Card
• Knight Starting Card
• Sorcerer Starting Card
• Common Treasure Card
• Transposed Treasure Card
• Remnant of Humanity

Enemy Card Types

• Level 1 Encounter
• Level 2 Encounter
• Level 3 Encounter
• Level 1 Enemy
• Level 2 Enemy
• Level 3 Enemy
• Abyss Watcher Boss Card
• Pontiff Sulyvahn Boss Card
• High Lord Wolnir Boss Card
• Vordt Boss Card
• Boss Starting Side
• Boss Heat Up Side

Credits

Dark Souls™ series by BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc.

Game Design: David Carl Game Development: Bryce Johnston Additional Development: Alex Hall, Rich Loxam, Steve Margetson Graphic Design and Layout: Tom Hutchings Editing: Darla Kennerud

Playtesting: Aaron Boyhan, Jessica Carl, Philip Goermann, Scott Hooper-Jones, Daniel K. Johannson, Tim Jürgens, Rhys Philips, Stefanie Schnitzler, Patrick Vance, Dominic Westerland and numerous members of the Steamforged Games team.

Steamforged Games: Charles Agel, Christine Agel, Philip Andrews, Michael Archer, Edward Ball, Ash Beria, Russ Charles, Corey Davies, Matt Elliot, Jay Finnegan, John Ford, William Freer, Jamie Giblin, Mat Hart, James Hasker, John Hockney, Richard Jennings, Michael Jenkins, Ronan Kelly, Adam King, Bryan Klemm, Andrew Lyons, Sherwin Matthews, Hussein Mirza, Louis Moore, Sam Page, Aitch Parker, Jamie Perkins, Greg Plail, Firoz Rana, Gareth Reid, Zach Stein, Doug Telford, Jak Thraves, Adam Tudor, Matt Warren, Paul Waters, Marc Williams.