Elekt Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Preparation for the Game
  • 1. Zones
  • 2. Cards in Zones
  • 3. Attribute Tokens
  • 4. Ember
  • 5. Basic Units
  • 6. Elite Units
  • 7. Scepter
• Position at the Court
• Game Flow
  • Order at the Table
• 1. Recruitment Phase
• 2. Allocation Phase
• 3. The Confrontation Phase
  • The Course of the Confrontation
  • Occultism
  • Deceit
  • Violence
  • Authority
• 4. The End of the Round Phase
  • Changing Position on the Court
  • Ember Collection
  • Return of Units
  • Discovery of New Cards
• End of the Game
  • Winning the Titles
  • End of the Privilege Deck
  • Long Live the New Emperor!
• The Golden Rules
  • The First Golden Rule
  • The Second Golden Rule
• The Confrontation Phase in the Influence Zone - An Example
  • I. Confrontation on Occult
  • II. Confrontation on Deceit
  • III. Confrontation on Violence
  • IV. Authority Confrontation
• Card Anatomy
  • Unit
  • Unit Ability
    • Immediate Ability
    • Permanent Ability
    • Impact of Ability
  • Mission and Influence
  • Privilege
• Keywords
• Reference Table
  • The Priority of Abilities
• Credits

Components

• 25 Attribute tokens
  • 6 x Occult
  • 6 x Deceit
  • 6 x Violence
  • 7 x Authority
• 13 Ember tokens
• 1 Scepter token
• 17 Mission cards
• 17 Influence cards
• 12 Privilege cards
• 16 Base Unit cards
• 34 Elite Unit cards
• 4 aid cards
• 3 Zone boards

Preparation for the Game

1. Zones

Place three Zone boards in a line. In order from left to right: Mission Zone, Influence Zone, Court Zone.

2. Cards in Zones

Shuffle Mission cards and place them on the Mission board, face side down. This will be the Mission deck.

Shuffle the Influence cards and place them face side down on the Influence board. This will be the Influence deck.

Shuffle the Privilege cards, take 6 cards in advance, and place them on the Court board, face side down. This will be the Privilege deck. Discard the rest of the Privilege cards to the box.

Reveal the top card of each deck.

3. Attribute Tokens

Place all Attribute tokens next to the Mission board. They form the attribute pool.

4. Ember

Each player receives 2 Ember. The other Ember tokens should be placed next to the Court board. They form the Ember pool.

5. Basic Units

Prepare a set of four Basic Units (Acolyte, Nameless, Dignitary, Assassin) for each player. If there are less than 4 players in the game, the remaining Basic Units should be returned to the box, they will not be needed during this game.

6. Elite Units

Shuffle all Elite Units and place them face side down, next to the Court board. Leave some space for the discard Units pile.

7. Scepter

Each player draws one Elite Unit. The player whose card has the name closest to the beginning of the alphabet receives the Scepter (thus becoming the first player), and sets it so that it clearly indicates the direction of the first round (as desired, clockwise or counterclockwise). Picked cards should be shuffled back into the deck.

Position at the Court

The player who currently owns the Scepter begins a new round. The scepter indicates the direction of the queue (clockwise or counterclockwise), i.e. the order in which cards are drawn, units issued, etc. Instructions and descriptions of some cards require you to determine your position at the Court. The player who has the Scepter has the highest position at the Court. Position at the court is consistent with the direction of the queue, i.e. the player playing second has a lower position than the first player (who has the Scepter), and higher than the third one.

Example: Players are: Alex, Bartek, Celinka and Damian. Alex received the Scepter, so she begins a new round. The scepter lies counterclockwise. The order in the round will be as follows: Asia, Damian, Celinka, Bartek and so on. In this situation, Alex has the highest position at the Court, Damian is second, Celinka third and Bartek fourth, the lowest.

Game Flow

The game consists of successive rounds. Each round consists of four consecutive phases:

1. Recruitment phase

2. Allocation phase

3. Confrontation phase

   • Mission Zone
   • Influence Zone
   • Court Zone

   Order in the Zone: Occult → Deceit → Violence → Authority

4. End of the round phase

The game ends when any player wins the appropriate number of Titles or the cards at the Court Zone run out.

Order at the Table

Each player has their place at the Zone board where they place their Units. This place corresponds to their place at the table. Thanks to this, it is always known which Unit belongs to whom. On each board, the player allocate Units in his corner.

In a 3-player game, one corner is always empty. In a 2-player game, sit opposite each other and allocate Units on opposite sides of the boards.

1. Recruitment Phase

Each player draws 2 cards from the Elite Units deck.

Then chooses one of the two options:

• player keeps one card on their hand and discard the other to the discarded pile,
• player discards both cards to the discarded pile and draws a new Unit from the top of the Elite Units deck.

End of the deck: If the cards in the Elite Units have run out, shuffle the discarded pile and create a new Elite Units deck.

2. Allocation Phase

ALWAYS ONLY IN THE ZONE!

Unless otherwise stated, the ability on the card applies only to the Zone in which the card lies.

Starting with the player who currently has the Scepter, players allocate Units to the Zones. On their turn, the player:

• chooses a Unit from their hand and allocates it to one of the three Zones or folds
• if he/she folds, he cannot allocates any more Units in this phase.

When the player finishes their turn, it is the turn of the next player, in accordance with the direction set by the Scepter, who can also place the Unit and so on.

In a 3 or 4 player game, each player may allocate a maximum of 2 Units to one Zone. In a 2-player game, the player's Units limit in the Zone is 3.

The phase ends when each player allocates a Unit 5 times or folds.

Note: Even if a Unit was discarded or annihilated during the allocation phase, the player does not recover the lost allocation turn for it.

Number of players	2	3	4
Limit of Units in the Zone	3	2	2

3. The Confrontation Phase

In this phase, players fight to get a card from the Zone. First it is decided who gets the Mission card, then the Influence card, and finally the Privilege card.

The Course of the Confrontation

Each player counts all the Attribute symbols (on cards and tokens) that correspond to a given confrontation on their Units in this Zone. Modifies the result with Units ability and the effects of other cards.

The winner of the confrontation is the player who has the most symbols of the given Attribute. If two or more people with the most Attribute symbols tie in the confrontation on Occult, Deceit or Violence, then the confrontation has no winner and there is no effect associated with it. A tie in confrontation on Authority is resolved in favor of the player with a higher position at the Court.

After resolving the confrontation, players move on to the next confrontation in the same Zone, in order:

Occult → Deceit → Violence → Authority.

After getting a card in this Zone, the players move on to the next Zone and play confrontations in the same way, until all the cards are won or discarded (see Authority).

If a player does not have any Units in a given Zone, they do not take part in the confrontations in that Zone.

Occultism

Ebionites try to seize the Darkness to gain its gifts. Mighty wraiths and talented occultists cross their dark arcane in a ruthless duel.

In the confrontation on Occult, the players count Occult symbols on their Units in this Zone. A player who has more symbols than others wins the Occult and can attach 2 different Attribute tokens to any Unit in this Zone - he takes two different tokens from the pool and places them on one or two Units, Units can belong to him/her or any other player. Adding tokens on Units is called adding.

Note: If there are no tokens of the given Attribute in the pool, they cannot be added.

When a Unit is discarded or returns to the player's hand, all tokens on it are returned to the pool.

Deceit

The contenders for the throne collect reports from their spies and wraiths hunting in Shadowrealm. Now it will turn out who has outsmarted his rivals and has better allocated the funds.

In the confrontation on Deceit, players count Deceit symbols on their Units in this Zone. A player who has more symbols than others wins the Deceit and can swap one of their Units in this Zone with another of their Units in any other Zone. Attribute tokens attached to Units remain on those Units.

Note: The player cannot move a Unit to a Zone where he/she has no other unit of their own.

Violence

Challengers clash in a brutal duel. There is the clang of black steel and the roar of bloodthirsty demons. The loser will fall into the abyss of darkness.

In the confrontation on Violence, players count Violence symbols on their Units in this Zone. A player who has more symbols than others, wins against Violence and can annihilate one Unit in this Zone.

The owner of the annihilated Unit can save it. To save an Elite Unit, its owner must pay 1 Ember. Saving the Base Unit is free.

The saved unit returns to the owner's hand.

If the Unit is not saved, it is discarded.

Tokens lying on a Unit that returns to hand or is placed on the discarded pile, should be returned to the pool.

Authority

Once the gilded tapestry has been drenched with blood and the spies and spells have died down, the time has come to shine with prestige, dominate the opponent and take over the Empire.

In confrontation on Authority, players count Authority symbols on their Units in this Zone. The player who has the most Authority symbols wins the Authority confrontation and gets the card. If more than one player has the most Authority tokens, the player with the higher court position wins the confrontation (also when the number of Authority symbols on Units in the Zone is 0). They place the card in front of them so that it is visible to all players.

In a rare situation, when no player has Units in a given Zone and, as a result, nobody gets a card in a confrontation on Authority, a face up Mission / Influence / Privilege card is discarded.

4. The End of the Round Phase

After the face up cards are won in all Zones, the The end of the round phase begins.

Changing Position on the Court

The winner of the Privilege card from the previous phase awards the Scepter to any player (they can choose themselves if they want) and determine the direction of the game by setting the Scepter accordingly. If no one has obtained the Privilege, their position at the Court does not change.

Ember Collection

Each player draws as many Ember tokens as the number of Units they currently have in the Court Zone. It cannot exceed the Ember limit, i.e. 3.

Return of Units

Each player takes on his hand all of his Units lying in the Zones and puts Attribute tokens attached to them into the pot.

Discovery of New Cards

Players reveal the top card from the deck on the Mission, Influence, and Court boards.

Ember LIMIT: 3

At no time in the game can a player have more Ember than the limit.

End of the Game

The game ends when one of the two situations occurs:

• as soon as one player wins the required number of Titles,
• after the end of the round in which the last Privilege card was obtained or discarded.

Winning the Titles

When a player wins the required number of Titles, the game ends immediately and he becomes the winner - the new Emperor-Elect. The number of Titles required to win depends on the number of players.

Number of players	2	3	4
Titles needed to win	7	6	5

Examples of Titles:

• Lord of Storms — from the Mission card
• Herald of His Name — from the Influence card

Each ribbon counts as 1 Title.

End of the Privilege Deck

Only 6 Privilege cards are earned in each game. When the last Privilege card is removed from the Court board, the round is played until the end and the game concludes. The winner is the player with the most titles. In the event of a tie, the player with the higher position at the Court wins.

Long Live the New Emperor!

When the game is over, the winner chooses his Herald from among the losers. This person must say aloud: "Long live the new Emperor!" And the list of all titles of the winner in any order, with due respect.

The Golden Rules

The First Golden Rule

The texts on the cards always have priority over the rules in the instructions.

Example: The Plague Harbinger ability text says, "If you win on the Occult, the tokens you attach don't have to differ." Although the rules say that the tokens must be different [see: Confrontation phase → Occult], the text on the card changes the rules in this Zone.

The Second Golden Rule

If the ability tells the player to discard something that he does not have, the player does not have to do it. However, if the ability requires payment for its use, and the player has no Ember to pay for it, he cannot use the ability.

Example: The text on the Mission card The Mechs are stealing Ember is "After allocating a Unit, the player immediately discards 1 Ember, if he has." The player has allocated a Unit but does not have Ember that he can discard, so he does not reject anything.

The Confrontation Phase in the Influence Zone - An Example

I. Confrontation on Occult

There are 2 Occult symbols on Asia Units and 1 symbol on Bartek's Units. Asia wins on Occult, so she can attach 2 different Attribute tokens to her Units in this Zone. She decides to add Authority to the Ecstasy animator and Violence to the Acolyte. She cannot attach two identical tokens.

II. Confrontation on Deceit

Bartek wins on Deceit because he has 1 Deceit symbol and his opponent has none. Bartek decides to exchange one of his Units in this Zone with another of his Unit allocated to another Zone. He decides to exchange Demiurge of Ember with the Foggy Crawler who was previously in the Court Zone. Demiurge of Ember moves to the Court Zone, and the Foggy Crawler in the Influence Zone.

Note that the exchange does not affect the tokens attached to the Units. A unit moved to another Zone retains tokens that were attached to it earlier.

III. Confrontation on Violence

Asia has 1 Violence token lying on the Acolyte, Bartek has no tokens. Asia wins on Violence and annihilates one Unit. She chooses Bartek's Ecclesiastes. Bartek decides to pay 1 Ember to save the Ecclesiastes, so this card returns to his hand. The Authority Token that lay on this card is removed and returns to the pool.

IV. Authority Confrontation

The Influence Card changes the rules in this Zone. The text on the card states that every Deceit also counts as Authority.

There are 4 Authority symbols on Asia Units. There are 2 Authority symbols on Bartek's Units and 2 Deceit symbols that count as Authority, i.e. also 4. Ties in a confrontation on Authority are resolved in favor of the player with a higher position at the Court. Bartek has a higher position in the Court, so he wins the confrontation and gets the card Temple in honor of the Emperor, which gives him first Title.

Card Anatomy

Unit

• Unit name
• Unit Type — Wraith or Cultist. Some abilities relate to a specific type of Unit.
• Marking of the Basic Unit — the cost of saving the Unit with the shield is always zero Ember.
• Unit Attribute Symbols — there are 4 types of Attributes: Occultism, Deceit, Violence, Authority.
• Unit ability

Other symbols used on cards:

• The symbol of confrontation — for example "Occultism".
• Symbol of any Attribute token — a question mark.

Unit Ability

The Unit's ability modifies the normal rules of the game. A Unit's ability always works only in the Zone in which the unit is placed, unless it is clearly stated otherwise on the card. There are two types of abilities: immediate abilities and permanent abilities.

Immediate Ability

Immediate ability can be used immediately after the Unit is allocated in the allocation phase.

To use Immediate ability with cost, you must first pay the indicated number of Ember tokens. If a player is unable or unwilling to pay Ember, he cannot use this ability. You cannot pay more Ember tokens to trigger an ability once again.

The player decides whether to use an ability when allocating a Unit to a Zone - he may or may not use that ability. If the ability is not used when the Unit is allocated, it cannot be used later.

Permanent Ability

Ability without an arrow works in the manner and circumstances described on the card.

Impact of Ability

When an ability on a card refers to a "Unit", it always means a Unit in the Zone in which the card is located. Whereas:

• this Unit refers to a Unit which has a description of the ability,
• other Unit - not applicable to the Unit with the description of the ability, but applicable to other Units,
• any Unit - one Unit selected in the Zone by the card owner may belong to the owner of the Unit or to another player,
• no Unit - neither this nor any other Unit.

Mission and Influence

• Titles. That's what you're fighting for. There are 2 titles on this card.
• Card name
• Special ability. The ability from the Mission / Influence card changes the rules in the Zone. It works as long as the card is on the Zone board and only covers that Zone. After removing the card from the board, the ability stops working.

Privilege

• Name of the privilege
• A description of the action. The privilege lying on the Court's board does not affect what is happening in the Zone. The players who obtain the Privilege card place it in front of them and can use their ability in the circumstances described on the card.

Keywords

• discard [card] – Elite and Basic Units cards are placed on the discarded pile. Mission, Influence and Privilege cards are removed from the game (i.e. returned to the box).
• discard [EMBER] – move the indicated amount of Ember lying in front of you to the Embers pool. If you don't have Ember, nothing happens.
• collect [EMBER] – take the indicated amount of Ember lying in front of the other player and put it in front of you.
• pay [EMBER] – move the indicated amount of Ember lying in front of you to the Ember pool. If you do not want or cannot pay, you cannot do the action.
• add [Attribute token] – take the indicated Attribute token from the pool and place it on the card.
• remove [Attribute token] – remove the indicated Attribute token from the card and return it to the pool.
• [?] – any Attribute token.
• annihilate [Unit] – indicate the Unit to be discarded. The owner decides if he/she wants to save the Unit. If he/she does not save it, the Unit is discarded and the tokens lying on it return to the pool.
• save [Unit] – when your Unit is annihilated, you can save it paying 1 Ember token for an Elite Unit and at no cost to the Base Unit. The saved unit returns to the owner on hand.
• allocate [Unit] – during the allocation phase, select the Unit card from your hand and place it in one of three Zones in its corner. When you allocate a Unit, you can use the ability (immediate ability, with or without an Ember cost).
• place [Unit] – select the Units card from your hand and place it in one of the three Zones in your corner. You cannot use this Unit's instant Ability or make any effects related to the allocation.

Reference Table

Number of players	2	3	4
Titles needed to win	7	6	5
Limit of Units in the Zone	3	2	2

Player, remember! Unless otherwise stated, all abilities from Unit, Mission, and Influence cards work only in the Zone in which they are located!

The Priority of Abilities

Privilege → Unit → Mission → Influence → Other.

(This ordering is printed on the game's aid card, shown in the Components section of the rulebook rather than written out in the rules text.)

Credits

Author: Krzysztof Głośnicki Artist: Katarzyna Malinowska Graphics and layout: Joanna Cetnarska Project coordination: Marcin Kotowski Translation: Marcin Sikora

Producer: WhatTheFrog Publishing, Dimundi sp. z o.o., ul. Wały Piastowskie 1/1508, 80-855 Gdańsk — www.WhatTheFrog.pl — [email protected]