ELO Darkness Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Game Overview
• Key Concepts
  • Gameboard and Lanes
  • Hero and Action Cards
• Set Up
• How to Play
  • Farming Phase
  • Backing Phase
  • Combat Phase: Deployment
  • Combat Phase: Challenges
• End of Turn
  • Monster Objectives & Events
• Victory Condition
• Additional Rules
• Deckbuilding
• 4-Player Game
• Solo Mode
• Glossary & Keywords
• Credits

Components

• 1 Board 1vs1
• 1 Board 2vs2
• 1 Turn Token (double-sided)
• 1 Influence Track Token
• 2 Merchant Tiles
• 12 Tower Tokens
• 9 Location Tokens
• 4 Camp Tokens (double-sided)
• 12 Tower Minis (Deluxe Edition)
• 10 Class Tokens
• 20 Solo Mode Tokens
• 3 Minion Minis (Deluxe Edition)
• 3 Minion Pawns (Standard Edition)
• 30 Gold Tokens
• 10 Monster Tokens
• 1 Greedy Token
• 2 Threat Tokens
• 10 Spell Tokens
• 2 Item Deck Cover Cards
• 250 Hero Cards (50 Heroes)
• 50 Hero Tokens
• 70 Item Cards
• 50 Hero Draft Cards
• 18 Solo Mode Cards
• 40 Mana Cards
• 117 Action Cards
• 6 Roaming Cards
• 6 Free Lane Cards
• 14 Monster Cards
• 4 Monster Tiles

Game Overview

ELO Darkness is a customizable card game for 2 players or 2 teams, each consisting of 2 players, dueling on a strategic map and is inspired by the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) videogame genre.

Each player controls a deck of cards representing a team of Heroes.

The goal of the game is to advance until you reach the opponent's base on at least one of the Lanes on the map.

During each turn of the game, the players perform the 3 main phases:

FARMING PHASE: Players may buy Items and may discard Hero cards from their hand in order to gain resources.

BACKING PHASE: Players may retreat from Lanes in order to draw cards from their deck.

COMBAT PHASE: Players simultaneously select and play cards from their hand, face down, deploying them separately on each Lane. Then, the players declare and resolve the fights occuring on each Lane, which are called Challenges. The winner of a Challenge advances on the board towards the enemy Base destroying Towers and conquering positions.

We are going to explain the game for 2 players first, presenting all changes for the 4 and 1 player modes at a later stage.

Key Concepts

Gameboard and Lanes

The map (game board) is where the battle takes place. Three parallel Lanes (Desert, Forest, and Volcano) connect the players' Bases which are located at opposite corners of the board.

During the game, each Lane will contain 3 Location Tokens as well as 4 Towers indicating the steps along the way. Unlike Locations, Towers can be destroyed and removed during the course of the game.

A neutral marker on each Lane's path, called the Minion, indicates the current balance of this Lane. This is called the battlefront. Whenever a player wins a Challenge on a Lane, the Minion advances towards the enemy base to indicate the new position of the battlefront. If the battlefront reaches a player's base, that player immediately loses the game.

Hero and Action Cards

Cards are divided into 3 categories: Hero cards, Action cards and Mana cards.

Players construct a deck of 40 cards, including 5 Heroes (25 Hero cards in total. See below.), 12 Action cards and 3 Mana cards (see Deckbuilding on page 15).

Card Anatomy

• Card Symbol and Hero Trait
• Farming Symbol — The symbol indicates resources you gain when you discard this card during the Farming phase.
• Influence Value — Influence measures the impact of the Hero on a Lane, determining the card strength in combat.
• Ability name, Hero, and Class
• Ability Text
• Flavor Text

Hero Cards. Each Hero is represented by 5 Ability cards (Hero cards): 3x Normal Ability Card and 2x Ultimate Ability Card.

Action Cards. Action cards can have the Laner or Gank trait and represent generic combat maneuvers that are not restricted to any specific Lane. The difference between Laner and Gank Action cards is when/how you can play these cards during combat (see Combat Phase on page 9).

Mana Cards. Mana cards are special cards that players use to search their deck for specific Hero cards during the game.

ELO Darkness features 50 Heroes divided into 5 different Classes. Each Class serves a specific role on its team of Heroes in the game. These Classes are: Fighter, Mage, Marksman, Jungler, Support.

Fighters, Mages and Marksmen are associated with a particular Lane on the map (Desert, Forest, and Volcano Lane, respectively). All respective Heroes have the Laner trait. Thus, all their associated cards are Laner cards.

Junglers and Supports assist all Lanes in combat. The respective Heroes have the Gank trait. Thus, all their associated cards are Gank cards.

Note: Laner Heroes can temporarily gain the Gank trait during the game (see Backing Phase on page 8).

Set Up

1. Construct your deck and place it on its Base slot (see Deckbuilding on page 15). For the first game, we suggest using the Starter decks shown on page 16.
2. Place your Item deck on the Merchant tile near the board as shown above (see Deckbuilding on page 15). Place the Item deck cover card on top of your Item deck.
3. Place the Hero tokens (related to the 5 Heroes included in your deck) in the Tactical Area on the board as shown in the figure above. Laner Heroes' tokens are placed in the Laner Zone, while Gank Heroes' tokens are placed in the Gank Zone (see the Tactical Area structure in the scheme on page 9).
4. Place the Class tokens on the first step of the Experience table.
5. Shuffle the Monster deck, take Roaming cards, Free Lane cards, Greedy token, Threat token, gold tokens and Monster tokens and place them near the board within players' reach.
6. Flip the Turn token to determine the First player. Place the Turn token on the first space of the Turn Track.
7. Place the 4 Camp tokens on their respective location on the board between the Lanes.
8. Place the Influence gap marker on the "0" position of the Influence Track.
9. Place Towers, Minions and Locations on the board, following the scheme in the figure on the right.

Note: In the Deluxe Edition of the game, each player uses a different Tower miniature model. In the Standard Edition of the game, both players use the Tower tokens in place of the miniature as well as the coloured pawns in place of the Minion miniatures.

How to Play

At the beginning of the game, each player draws 7 cards and may perform a Mulligan, once.

What that means is, each player may choose any number of cards to put on the bottom of their deck, then draw that many cards.

A game consists of 10 turns and each turn is divided into 3 phases: Farming phase, Backing phase and Combat phase.

Farming Phase

Starting from the first player, each player performs the Farming phase in player order. During the Farming phase, players may farm resources (potentially levelling up their Heroes and looting Camps) and buy Items from their Item deck. Remember, Farming is optional.

Farming Resources

Discard any number of Hero and Mana cards from your hand.

You may discard only 1 card of each Class per Farming Phase and 1 card per Mana type. (Examples: You cannot discard 2 Marksman cards, in a single Farming phase. Also, you cannot discard 2 Mana Recover Marksman cards in a single Farming phase).

You must declare and discard all Hero and Mana cards at once. Then, resolve their effects in any order.

For each discarded Hero card, take the respective resources indicated by the Farming symbol at the top left of the card and assign 1 Experience point to the associated Hero (see Heroes Level Up).

For each discarded Mana card, search your deck for a related Hero card following the ability text on the card.

Heroes Level Up. When you discard a Hero card during the Farming phase, that Hero gains 1 Experience point. Move the respective Hero Class token forward by one position on the track.

Heroes can gain Experience points in other ways during the game. Collecting Experience points will cause the Hero to Level Up. This happens when the Experience marker reaches the Level 2 and Level 3 positions on the track. When a Hero levels up, the Influence value of their ability cards permanently increases. This value is important during combat (see Influence bonuses on page 11).

Looting Camps. When you discard a Jungler card during the Farming phase, you may loot 1 Camp on your respective half on the board. Camps are represented by tokens on the board and are located between the Lanes. Each side of the board contains 2 camps.

When you loot a Camp, turn the respective token face up to gain a temporary bonus during combat until the end of that turn. Every time you play a Hero card as Assault on a Lane adjacent to the Camp location (see Assault on page 10), they gain +1 Influence bonus.

At the end of that turn, remove the looted Camp from the board. All removed Camps are restored during the 6th turn as a consequence of the Camp Respawn Event (see Monster Objectives & Events on page 12).

Buying Items

After Farming, you can spend gold to buy any number of new Item cards from your Item deck.

Note: You can only buy Items after Farming resources, never before. However, you do not need to actually Farm any resources in order to buy new Item cards.

When you buy an Item card, search your Item deck for the card you want to buy and place it on the respective slot on your Merchant tile. The gold cost of each Item is indicated on the top left corner of the Item card.

Each slot on the Merchant tile is dedicated to a specific Class of Item. Items are divided into the same Classes as the Heroes. Only Heroes of the matching Class benefit from the effect of the associated Item.

Each Item can be upgraded (replaced) by a more powerful version by paying the cost indicated on the top right corner of the upgraded Item card.

Note: Upgraded items are printed on the back of basic Items. When you buy an upgraded Item, whose basic version is already on the Merchant Tile, simply pay the cost and flip over the respective card.

Note: You can also acquire the upgraded version directly. To do so, you must pay the cost of the basic Item plus the cost of the upgraded one.

Items give powerful effects and abilities which are discussed in more detail in the Combat section (see page 11).

Note: Items can also be sold within this phase in order to gain half their cost rounded down. Return sold Items to your Item deck. You can buy and/or sell any amount of Items in any order you desire.

Farming Example

Francis, the first player, starts the Farming phase with the following cards in his hand. He must declare all cards he wants to farm at once.

He decides to discard McKannon's Data Reload, Thiara's Golden Tears and Mana Recover Marksman.

• For discarding Data Reload, he draws 2 cards from his deck.
• For discarding Golden Tears he has the choice to draw 1 card OR to gain 1 gold. He chooses to gain 1 gold.
• For discarding Mana Recover Maskman he searches his deck for a Marksman card. He chooses Thiara's "Flaming Tears" and he adds it to his hand.

Francis assigns 1 Experience point to both McKannon and Thiara as they are the Heroes associated with the Data Reload and the Golden Tears cards. Since he has not farmed any Jungler card, he cannot loot any Camp this turn.

Before passing to the opponent, Francis decides to spend 1 gold in order to buy the Owl Drone (basic Marksman Item card).

Backing Phase

During the Backing phase players decide if they want to retreat from one or more Lanes in player order.

Note: You must declare all retreats at once.

If your opponent retreats from a Lane, you cannot also retreat from that Lane during the same turn; that Lane is then considered to be resolved for combat purposes.

The meaning of the Backing phase is that players can choose to lose ground to the opponent on one battlefront in order to gain advantages and to focus on the other fronts.

When you retreat from a Lane:

• Move the respective Minion 1 step back towards your Base
• Draw 1 card from your deck
• Both you and your opponent must place a Roaming card (see Roaming cards and Gank trait) on the Laner slot corresponding to that Lane on the board. (A Roaming card states that the Lane is resolved for combat purposes.)

Repeat these steps for each Lane from which you retreat.

Roaming Cards and Gank Trait

Roaming cards are general cards that are not part of a deck and are always available for this action specifically. They are used to indicate that a Laner Hero (that was previously associated to a specific Lane) now "roams" the map and may support other Lanes.

When a player places a Roaming card on a Laner slot, the Hero associated with that Lane gains the Gank trait until the end of the turn.

As long as a Hero has the Gank trait, all ability cards associated with that Hero are considered Gank cards. A Hero with the Gank trait can assist all Lanes during combat (see page 10). When a Hero gains the Gank trait, the player immediately moves the corresponding Hero token from the Laner Zone to the Gank Zone in the Tactical Area on the board.

Note: If at the end of the Backing phase all Laner slots are occupied by Roaming cards (that is to say the players retreated from all Lanes), skip the Combat Phase and end the turn.

Example: Supposing Thiara gained the Gank trait as a result of retreating from the Volcano Lane; the corresponding Hero token is moved from its position on the Laner Zone to the Gank Zone.

Towers and Minions

If a player retreats causing a Minion on one of the Lanes to leave a Tower position on their half of the board, that Tower is destroyed and its related token/miniature is removed from the game.

When Minion move, they ignore positions where a Tower has been destroyed (more details in Destroy Towers on page 12) and immediately move to the next space.

Backing Example

Example 1

1. Francis, the first player, retreats from the Forest Lane. So, he moves the corresponding Minion one space back towards his base and draws 1 card from his deck. Both players place a Roaming card on the Forest Laner slot and move their Mage Hero token from the Laner Zone to the Gank Zone in the Tactical Area on the board.
2. Lucy could now retreat from the Desert Lane and/or from the Volcano Lane. She decides to retreat from the Desert Lane. So, she moves the corresponding Minion one space back towards her base and draws 1 card from her deck. Retreating from that position, Lucy loses her tower and removes it from the board. Both players place a Roaming card on the Desert Laner slot and move their Fighter Hero token from the Laner Zone to the Gank Zone in the Tactical Area on the board.

Example 2

1. Francis, the first player, retreats from the Forest Lane and the Volcano Lane. So, he moves the corresponding Minion one space back towards his base and draws 2 cards from his deck. In the Forest Lane, the Minion bypasses the position where a tower was destroyed in a previous turn. Both players place a Roaming card on the Forest and Volcano Laner slots and move their Mage and Marksman Hero tokens from the Laner Zone to the Gank Zone in the Tactical Area on the board.
2. Lucy could retreat from the Desert Lane; in that case the Combat phase would be skipped, because every Lane would have been resolved. She decides not to retreat.

Combat Phase: Deployment

The Combat phase is divided into 2 subphases: Deployment and Challenges.

In the Deployment subphase, players play cards face-down on the Laner slots following rules explained below. Then, all cards are revealed at the same time, Challenges begin and battles occur separately on each Lane with the winner advancing by one step towards the enemy Base on the board.

During the Deployment subphase, players must place a card on each available Laner slot in their own player area. A Laner slot is available if there is no Roaming card on it. Remember that a Roaming card states that the Lane is resolved for combat purposes.

For each slot, players can choose to deploy a Laner card from their hand, face down, or to place a Free Lane card (available near the board), face up.

Note: If you do not have enough Laner cards to deploy from your hand, you must place a Free Lane card.

At the start of Deployment, in player order, players announce if and where they are going to place Free Lane cards. Then, players select and deploy Laner cards from their hand on the remaining Laner slots.

Note: Only Laner (not Gank) cards can be deployed on a Laner slot.

Each Laner slot is linked to a specific Lane on the board. Laner Hero cards must be played on the respective Laner slot as suggested by the matching Class symbol on the top left corner of the card.

Action cards have no restriction and can be played on any available Laner slot.

Exhausted Laner and Free Lane Cards

If one of your Laner Heroes is Exhausted (see Exhausted keywords on page 21) you cannot deploy a card on its associated Laner slot. In that case you must place a Free Lane card on that Laner slot (see Combat Phase: Deployment for further rules on Free Lane cards).

Once both players have placed a card in each Laner slot, they simultaneously reveal all cards.

Combat Phase: Challenges

Challenges represent the battles occurring on each of the three Lanes.

During the Challenges subphase, players declare and resolve a Challenge on each of the Lanes one after the other.

The first player declares which Lane is resolved first. They become the Initiator of that Challenge and the chosen Lane becomes the active Lane.

To win a Challenge, a player must have a higher Influence value than the opponent on the active Lane. Cards deployed on Laner slots associated to other Lanes do not contribute in any way to the current Challenge.

Laner Card Activation

At the beginning of a Challenge, starting from the Initiator, players activate the ability text of Laner cards deployed on the active Lane.

Then, players check the printed Influence value of those cards and set the Influence gap using the Influence track.

If a deployed Laner card is a Hero card, the player adds any potential Influence bonuses associated with the Hero (Item cards and Hero Experience, i.e. +1 for Level 2 Heroes and +2 for Level 3 Heroes) and triggers the effect of the Item card sharing the Class symbol with the related Hero (if any).

More on Influence bonuses and Item effects on page 11.

Challenge Actions

After activating the Laner card, players take actions to change the outcome of the battle. Starting from the Initiator, players alternate performing 1 action at a time until they both, consecutively, decide to pass. This means that if a player performs an action, the opponent can always react.

Available actions during a Challenge:

• ASSAULT
• CHAIN
• GETTING GREEDY
• PASS

Assault

You can perform an Assault on the Lane by playing a Gank card on the active Laner slot.

Note: There is no limit to how many cards can be placed on each Laner slot.

When you perform an Assault by playing a Hero card, the associated Hero must be Ready and not already participating in the Challenge (see page 21 for detailed rules on the keyword Participating).

When you perform an Assault on the Lane follow these steps in order:

• Activate the ability text of the card
• Add its printed Influence value to your total Influence value on the Lane

If the Gank card is a Hero card:

• Add Influence bonuses associated to the Hero (Item cards and Hero Experience, if any)
• Trigger the effect of the Item card sharing the Class symbol with the related Hero (if any)
• Update the Influence Track, setting the current Influence gap (distance).

Chain

Each Hero, represented by the Hero Cards, has a Normal Ability (3 cards per deck) and an Ultimate Ability (2 cards per deck).

When one of them (Normal or Ultimate ability) is already in play on the active Lane, you can activate a Chain by playing the corresponding other Hero ability card from your hand on the active Laner slot. (E.g. if Thiara's Golden Tears is already in play, you can activate a Chain and play Thiara's Flaming Tears.)

The Hero must be Ready in order to activate the Chain.

Note: If a Normal Ability card is in play it can be chained with an Ultimate Ability Card and conversely if an Ultimate Ability card is in play it can be chained with a Normal Ability card.

When you activate a Chain, follow these steps in order:

• Activate the ability text of the card
• Add its printed Influence value to your total Influence value on the Lane
• Add Influence bonuses associated to the Hero (Item cards and Hero Experience, if any)
• Update the Influence Track, setting the current Influence gap. When you activate a Hero Chain, you must immediately Exhaust the respective Hero.

Getting Greedy

When a player is Getting Greedy as an action during the Challenge, he takes the Greedy token, which gives him a +1 Influence bonus on the Lane.

However, the opponent immediately draws 1 card from their deck. In addition, when you are Getting Greedy, your Heroes become threatened, which means they can be killed more easily during the Challenge Resolution. The condition threatened is explained in detail on page 21.

Note: In each Challenge, only one player can take this action.

Influence Track

The Influence Track on the board displays the current Influence gap between the players during a Challenge.

Every time the Influence gap changes, due to a game effect, move the Influence token, accordingly.

The Skull symbols show the number of kills that player may perform during the Challenge Resolution.

Influence Bonuses

A Hero card can get special Influence bonuses from many effects in the game:

• Many Item cards give an Influence bonus to each Hero card of the matching Class.
• When a Hero card enters play, it also gains an Influence bonus based on the Hero Experience Level (i.e. +1 for Level 2 Heroes and +2 for Level 3 Heroes). Note: When you activate a Chain, both cards get the Influence bonus from the Hero Experience Level! Each card immediately receives the bonus (if any), when played.
• Some Action cards (such as "Coordinated Assault" and "Counter Jungling") as well as some Hero cards (such as Hanami's "Feral Energy" and Fenrir's "The Shotgun") give an Influence bonus to other cards that enter play.
• If you looted a Camp this turn, each time you perform an Assault on a Lane adjacent to that Camp, you gain a +1 Influence bonus. Adjacent Lanes are the Lanes between which the Camp token is located on the board.

Item Effects

Item cards grant special effects and bonuses that trigger specific conditions explained in the Item ability text.

This symbol indicates that the corresponding Item effect is triggered during a Challenge, when a deployed Laner Hero card shares its Class with the Item or when a Hero card enters play as Assault on the Lane. The player triggers the Item effect after the Hero card ability has been activated.

Note: The Item effect can be triggered only once per Hero each turn. (You do not trigger it again when you activate a Chain).

Challenge Resolution

When both players pass, the Challenge is resolved. The player with the highest total Influence value on the active Lane is the winner. This is indicated by the Influence gap.

Note: In case of a tie, skip the steps below.

When you win a Challenge:

• Advance on the Lane moving the Minion one step forward towards your opponent's Base and destroy an opposing Tower if the Minion overtakes the Tower (see Destroy Towers on page 12)
• Assign 1 Experience point to your Heroes associated with the Hero cards you used during the Challenge. (Note: 2 Hero cards of the same Class only grant 1 Experience point in total)
• Kill a number of opposing Heroes depending on the final total Influence gap between players (see Kill below).

Kill

The winner of the Challenge may be able to kill 1 or more of the opponent's participating Heroes based on the Influence gap between the players. At the end of the Challenge, check the position of the Influence token.

For each White Skull symbol reached or surpassed, from the 0 position on the Influence track to the final position of the Influence token, kill 1 opposing Hero participating in the Challenge.

The Red Skull symbols indicate the number of kills if the opposing Heroes are threatened.

The player losing the Challenge decides which of their Hero or Heroes are killed. If a player may kill more Heroes than there are participating, simply kill all participating enemy Heroes instead.

When a Hero is killed temporarily remove the corresponding Hero token from the board. It will return to play Exhausted, at the beginning of the next turn (see End of the Turn on page 12).

Destroy Towers

If a Minion overtakes an opponent's Tower, the corresponding Tower token is removed from the board indicating that the Tower has been destroyed. The player who destroys a Tower (the player winning the Challenge in which the tower was destroyed), gets 2 gold OR draws 1 card from their deck.

Towers also get destroyed as a consequence of retreating during the Backing phase. If a player retreats, causing a Minion to overtake a Tower, remove it from the board. However, in this case, the opponent does not receive any reward.

Removing Towers from the game shortens the distances on the respective Lane. When a Minion ends up on a position in which a Tower has been previously destroyed, directly move it to the next position on the Lane.

Challenge Example

Francis, the first player, declares the Challenge on the Volcano Lane and becomes the Initiator of that Challenge.

1. Francis activates his card, Golden Tears, on the active Laner slot. Following the ability text of the card, he gains 2 gold having two Support cards in the discard pile.
2. The Golden Chest Item card gives a bonus to Marksman cards: since Francis has more gold than Lucy, Golden Tears has +2 Influence. Moreover, Thiara is at level 2 in the Experience Track, so his ability card gains a further +1 Influence bonus. Francis reaches a total Influence value of 4 (counting the printed Influence value on Golden Tears) and updates the Influence Track on the board, accordingly.
3. Lucy activates the Action card deployed on the active Laner slot, Peeling. She draws 1 card form her deck and decides to use the Boost effect of Peeling (see Boost keyword on page 21); She discards a card, Saerah's Bloody Shot, so that Francis is forced to discard a Hero card from his hand.
4. Following Bloody Shot's Special Activation ability, when Bloody Shot gets discarded, Lucy gains +2 Influence and 2 gold. This way, Francis loses the Golden Chest Influence bonus as both players now have the same amount of gold. Lucy reaches a total Influence value of 3 (counting the printed Influence value of Peeling) and she updates the Influence Track moving the Influence gap marker on the +1 position in Lucy's favour (2 Francis - 3 Lucy).

Then, the Challenge continues with players alternating taking actions.

5. Being the Initiator, Francis acts first. He decides to play Flaming Tears activating Thiara's Chain. Following the text ability of the card, he gains +2 Influence (having 2 Marksman cards in his discard pile) adding a total Influence value of 4 (including the bonus given by Thiara's Experience Level) and he updates the Influence Track on the board. Since he has activated a Chain, he Exhausts Thiara's Hero token in the Tactical Area.
6. Lucy reacts by playing Hotep's Cobra Hypnosis as an Assault. That card is considered a Gank card during this turn, thanks to the Roaming card on the Forest Laner slot. Following the ability of the card, Lucy Exhausts her opponent's Jungler Hero.
7. The Ocean Scythe Item card gives +1 Influence bonus to Mage cards and its effect is triggered, forcing Francis to discard a random card from his hand. Hotep is also at Level 2 on the Experience Track, so its ability cards get a +1 Influence bonus for a total Influence of 3. Lucy moves the Influence gap marker to the 0 position.

Francis passes.

8. Lucy gets Greedy. She gains +1 Influence, her Heroes become threatened, and Francis draws 1 card from his deck.

Francis could react to Lucy's action, but he decides to keep his remaining cards in his hand for the next Challenge in order to exploit the Coordinated Assault ability. Lucy wins the Challenge, as the Influence gap is +1 in her favor: she assigns 1 Experience point to Hotep and advances the Minion on the Lane by one position towards Francis' Base.

Both players discard the cards used in the Challenge and Exhaust all participating Heroes. Now, Lucy declares the next Challenge, choosing the Desert Lane and becoming the Initiator of that Challenge. The Combat phase continues.

End of a Challenge

When a Challenge ends, the related Lane is considered to be resolved.

Each player discards all cards played in the Challenge and Exhausts Heroes who participated in the Challenge by flipping the associated Hero tokens to their Exhausted side in the Tactical Area.

Note: Discard starting from the last card played, so that the card originally deployed on the Lane comes to be at the top of the discard pile.

Players alternate declaring Challenges until all Lanes are resolved (the second player declares the second Challenge and then the first player declares the third one).

When all Lanes have been resolved, the Combat phase ends.

End of Turn

The turn ends after the Combat phase has been completed.

Players do the following:

• Every looted Camp token is removed from the board.
• Each player checks their hand size limit. If a player has more than 5 cards in their hand, they must choose and discard down to 5 cards.
• Ready every Hero that was not killed: flip the respective Hero tokens in the Tactical Area to the Ready side.
• Killed Heroes respawn: the related Hero tokens return to their position on the Tactical Area, exhausted.
• Each player draws 2 cards from their deck. If the deck is empty, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck.
• The Turn token advances by one position and gets flipped, indicating the color of the first player of the upcoming turn.

Monster Objectives & Events

At the start of each turn, before the Farming phase, if the position of the Turn token shows an Event symbol, follow the respective Event instructions:

Monster Objectives (4th, 7th turn)

Shuffle the Monster deck and then reveal the first Monster card. Players take 1 Monster token from the supply for each card they have in their hand with a limit of 5 tokens per player. Then, they secretly bid a certain number of Monster tokens and simultaneously reveal their choice.

The player who reveals the highest number of tokens wins the Objective, but, must discard as many cards from their hand as the number of tokens they bid.

The winner adds the Monster card to their hand and immediately applies the "Reward" effects of that card, if any. Return all Monster tokens to the supply.

Note: In the case of a tie, both players discard cards from their hand equal to the number of tokens they bid and the Monster card is reshuffled into the Monster deck.

Camp Respawn (6th turn)

Return all Camp tokens to their position on the board.

Super-Minion Spawn (8th, 9th, 10th turn)

During these turns, whenever a player moves a Minion (advancing or retreating), they move it by two steps on turns 8 and 9 and by three steps on turn 10.

Victory Condition

The game immediately ends when a player Invades the opponent's Base.

Invade means that the Minion overtakes the last Location token on one of the Lanes.

That player wins the game!

After 10 turns, if no one Invaded the opponent's Base, the player who destroyed the highest number of Towers wins the game.

In case of a tie, players count the Experience points collected by their Heroes.

The player, whose Heroes collected more Experience points, wins.

If there is still a tie, it is a draw.

Additional Rules

Variant: Monster Tiles

This variant introduces an alternative to the Monster Objective events. During game setup, commonly decide if you want to use this variant. If you do, place the Monster tiles face up on the table. They will replace the Monster cards. Put these cards back into the game box.

The rules for the Monster Objectives are changed, as follows: The winner of the bid, selects a Monster tile and immediately places it to cover all their Laner slots in their own player area.

The Monster tile grants a special effect depending on the Lane. Remove the Monster tile from the game at the end of the turn (they stay in the game for only 1 turn).

Variant: Spell Token

When playing with this variant, during the setup of the game, each player may take 2 Spell tokens which represent special powers that can be used once in the game.

Each Spell token can be used in a specific phase of the game as indicated on the image below.

Here is a description for each Spell effect and usage:

• Speed — Use Speed at the beginning of your Backing phase. Add the top card of your discard pile to your hand.
• Heal — Use Heal when any player declares a Challenge. During that Challenge, whenever an opponent puts a card into play from their hand, you gain +1 Influence.
• Shield — Use Shield when any player declares a Challenge. During that Challenge, if you have at least one Tower standing on the active Lane, you gain Defense (see page 19) and +7 Influence.
• Curse — Use Curse when you declare a Challenge. You may discard a card from your hand. If you do, an opponent of your choice must discard a Hero card from their hand.
• Teleport — Use Teleport at the end of the turn. Search your discard pile for 1 Hero card and place it on top of your deck.

Once you have played a Spell, discard the respective token to indicate you cannot use it anymore.

Deckbuilding

After learning the basics of the game, we suggest that players build their own decks. ELO Darkness features different formats and deckbuilding modes, which are presented below.

Constructed Decks

Each player builds a deck from the cards they own. If you own 2 copies of the game, both players may use the same Hero cards in the deck.

A legal deck must contain exactly 40 cards, divided into 25 Hero cards, 12 Action cards, and 3 Mana cards.

You must pick 1 Hero of each Class. When picking a Hero, add its 5 Ability cards to your deck.

Each Action card and each Mana card is limited to a maximum of 3 copies per deck. (Some Action and Mana cards have a different deck limit specified on the card).

During deck building, a player must also build their own Item deck. The Item deck contains the Item cards available for the player to purchase during the game and must include exactly 2 Items for each Class (for a total of 10 Item cards).

Blind Pick

Sort the Hero Draft cards, according to Hero Class (color), shuffle them, and place them face down as 5 decks.

Each player draws 2 random cards from each of those decks. From those, players choose a team of 5 Heroes to use.

Then, each player constructs his deck by picking the respective Hero Ability cards and adding 12 Action and 3 Mana cards of their choice.

Finally, players separately build their own Item deck choosing 2 Item cards for each Class.

Draft

Place all Hero Draft cards face up on the table. From these, players will select the Heroes for their deck, by picking them in a specific order (see below).

Additionally, before drafting, players can jointly decide to ban certain Heroes from being drafted.

If you decide to ban Heroes, each player will remove two Heroes from the display and put them back into the game box. Select Heroes one-by-one, using the following player order (Player Blue, Player Orange, Player Orange, Player Blue).

For drafting, players select Heroes for their deck, one by one, following the player order shown below:

• Player Blue selects a Class and picks 1 Hero of that Class
• Player Orange picks 1 Hero of the same Class
• Player Orange selects a Class and picks 1 Hero of that Class
• Player Blue picks 1 Hero of the same Class
• Repeat until both have 1 Hero of each Class

Both players now have a team of 5 Heroes and must build their deck as described above (as in the Constructed mode). Players separately build their own Item deck choosing 2 Item cards for each Class.

Hero Draft Cards

Hero Draft cards have been designed to be used during the draft modes and to help new players in the deckbuilding process.

The Hero Power Bars indicate how well a Hero can perform the indicated functions in the game:

• Hand: drawing cards and increasing your hand size
• Gold: Gaining gold
• Influence: Gaining Influence during combat
• Control: Controlling the opponents' game; including discarding opponents' cards, Exhausting Heroes, stealing gold, etc.
• Special: Generating special effects. In some cases, these effects fall within previous categories based on how the Hero is played.

Starter Deck

The game can be played straight out of the box using the following preconstructed starter decks. Take the cards and shuffle them to form the individual player decks.

Team Blue

Hero Cards: 3x Neutralizing Shield - Cleon, 2x Bionic Javelin - Cleon, 3x Data Transfer - Athos, 2x Arcane Research - Athos, 3x Golden Tears - Thiara, 2x Flaming Tears - Thiara, 3x Dark Denial - Max, 2x Sen's Hug - Max, 3x Data Reload - McKannon, 2x Grabbing Manoeuvre - McKannon

Action and Mana cards: x2 Warding, x2 Last Hit, x1 Play safe, x2 Peeling, x2 Minion Wave, x1 Coordinated Assault, x1 Taunt, x1 Call, 2x Mana Recover Marksman, 1x Mana Recover Fighter

Item Deck: Fighter: Thunder Helm → Titan's Helm; Mage: Elder's Formula → Elder's Tome; Marksman: Golden Chest → Legendary Treasure; Jungler: Dark Cloak → Night Veil; Support: Amethyst Blade → Aurora Blade

Team Orange

Hero Cards: 3x Infernal Charge - Kairos, 2x Dread Sword - Kairos, 3x Guardian's Threat - Hotep, 2x Cobra Hypnosis - Hotep, 3x Torrent of Arrows - Saerah, 2x Bloody Shot - Saerah, 3x Ancestral Ritual - Treehollow, 2x Awakening the Forest - Treehollow, 3x Guiding Light - Pan, 2x Dark Premonition - Pan

Action and Mana cards: x2 Warding, x1 Worth it, x1 Recall, x2 Peeling, x1 Coordinated Assault, x1 Brush, x2 Play Safe, x2 Minion Wave, 2x Mana Recover Jungler, 1x Mana Recover Support

Item Deck: Fighter: Golden Shield → Insurmountable Shield; Mage: Silver Sickle → Ocean's Scythe; Marksman: Merciless Archer's Bow → Killer Bow; Jungler: Sorceress Water → Fate's Cure; Support: Celerity Boots → Calavera Boots

Note: Starter Decks represent a fast and easy way to start playing; for this reason, Item decks contain only 1 Item per Class. (Starter Decks are not legal for Constructed, Blind Pick, or Draft modes)

4-Player Game

The 4-player variant follows the same phase structure as the 2-player game. The match is played by two Teams composed of 2 players each, fighting on the dedicated 2-Lane map.

The game ends after 10 turns or when one Team Invades the opposing Base from one Lane.

Differences to the 2-player standard game are presented below. If a rule, phase, or game element is not mentioned, it is handled as described in the 2-player mode.

4-Player Set Up Changes

Use the 4-player map. It shows 2 Lanes instead of 3. Randomly select two Lane types (Desert, Forest, Volcano) on which to play and place the corresponding Location tokens on the board.

Each player plays on one of the Lanes and places their deck on the related Base slot on the board.

The scheme shows the full structure of the 4 player board (including virtual areas for discard piles and Item decks). Complete the game setup as described in the 2-player mode by placing all relevant components on the indicated areas/positions.

Mini-Deck. In a 4-player game, each player controls 2 Heroes instead of 5 (1 Hero with the Laner trait and 1 Hero with the Gank trait). In a Team there can be only 1 Hero per Class (i.e. only 1 Support and 1 Jungler for Gank Heroes).

Each player builds a mini-deck of 20 cards. Mini-decks can be constructed or drafted (using the rules mentioned on page 15) and must contain:

• 5 Laner Hero cards corresponding to the chosen Laner Hero. Note: The chosen Lane must be legal for the chosen Laner Hero.
• 5 Gank Hero cards corresponding to the chosen Gank Hero.
• 10 Action cards (not more than 2 of each card, per deck)

Players also construct an Item mini-deck by choosing 2 Item cards for each Class corresponding to the Heroes they control.

How to Play (4 players)

At the beginning of a 4-player game, each player draws 4 cards instead of 7. Players can Mulligan as in a 2-player game.

General Rules

• Allies (players of the same team) may look at each other's hands and discuss all relevant decisions.
• Allies cannot exchange, borrow, or give cards to each other for any reason during the game.

Farming Phase. Farming phase is a Team phase: allies simultaneously perform this phase discarding cards from their hand.

Resources gained from Farming symbols are considered Team resources, i.e. gold is shared among the Team and allies jointly decide which ally draws cards as a consequence of Farming.

There is only 1 Camp token per Team that players can loot. When they are looted, those Camps give +1 Influence bonus to Hero cards played as Assault on any of the two Lanes on the map.

Backing Phase. Backing phase is also a Team phase. The Team decides whether and on which Lane(s) to retreat. Allies agree on which member of the Team draws cards as a consequence of the retreat.

Combat Phase: Deployment. During Deployment, each player in their respective Team, deploys a Laner card on their assigned Lane. Each player is restricted to their Lane. They must not deploy cards on the ally's Lane and slots.

Note: Retreating during the Backing phase allows the Laner Hero to gain the Gank trait in order to support the ally with an Assault on the other Lane.

Combat Phase: Challenge. Teams alternate declaring Challenges starting with the first Team (indicated by the turn token color, as in a 2-player game). The Team declaring a Challenge is the Initiator of that Challenge.

Challenges play the same as in a standard 2-player game. During the Challenges, actions go back and forth between Teams, instead of the players. This means that when one member of a Team takes an action, the turn moves to the other Team and so on.

Heroes with the Gank trait can assist both Lanes on the board using an Assault action.

Note: When a Team destroys a Tower, allies agree on which reward to gain: 1 card OR 2 gold. They also agree on which member of the Team draws that card.

Monster Objectives Event. Shuffle the Monster deck and reveal the first Monster card. Each Team takes 1 Monster token for each card its members have in their hands with a limit of 5 tokens per Team. Then, each Team secretly bids a number of tokens and simultaneously reveals its choice.

The Team revealing the highest number of tokens wins the Objective, but, at the same time, the Team must discard cards from their hand or hands equal to the bid number. (E.g. if 3 cards must be discarded one Team member could discard 1 card, and the other discards 2; or one of the players discards 3 cards.) One of the members of the winning Team (at Team choice) adds the Monster card to their hand.

Note: In case of a tie, both Teams must discard a total number of cards based on their bid and the Monster card is reshuffled into the Monster deck.

Spell Tokens (optional)

At the beginning of the game, each Team can take 2 Spell tokens which are shared between allies and work similarly to the standard 2-player game. When a Team member uses a Spell, they remove the related token from the game, indicating that the Team cannot use it anymore.

Victory Conditions

Victory conditions in a 4-player game are exactly the same as in the 2-player mode.

Solo Mode

The Solo mode is played against a virtual player (AI), making use of special game components that are not used in other modes.

AI cards replace Hero and Action cards of the opposing player.

Hand tokens represent your opponent's hand of cards. When you reveal Hand tokens during the Challenge, they trigger Assault and Chain effects that appear on the AI card. An AI card shows an Initiative Value, an Actions Value, an Influence Value, Ability Text and AI Actions.

Solo Mode Setup

1. Construct your own deck and prepare your play area just as in a 2-player game (Experience Track, Tactical Area, Item deck, Camp tokens, Influence Track).
2. Choose a Mission (optional, see below) and follow the corresponding instructions for the setup of Towers, Minions, and Turn track. Alternatively, you can play a complete solo game; in that case, follow the standard setup for Towers and Minions as in a 2-player game.
3. Shuffle the AI deck and place it on the opponent's Base slot.
4. Create a face-down pool of 7 random Hand tokens and place them on the board. This is called the Hand pool.
5. Place the remaining Hand tokens as a reserve face down near the board.

Missions (optional)

When playing a Mission in Solo Mode, you win by meeting specific Victory conditions such as reaching a specific amount of Victory points, conquering 1 or more Towers, defending your Base for a certain number of turns, and so on.

More official Missions as well as community-generated Missions are available at www.elodarkness.com/solo-mode.

Example Mission — Back Door. Starting Turn: 3rd (Place the Turn Token on position 3 of the Turn Track.) Victory Condition: Conquer the enemy Base (standard victory condition). Defeat Condition: Standard defeat conditions. Special Rules: None.

Example Mission — Under Siege. Turn: 5th. Victory Condition: Survive until the end of turn 7 or reach 10 Victory points. In the latter case, you instantly win the game. Defeat Condition: Standard defeat conditions. Special Rules: At the beginning of the game, level up 3 of your Heroes once (i.e. from Level 1 to Level 2). You gain 1 Victory point each time you kill an enemy Hero. You gain 3 Victory points each time you win a Challenge with a difference of 3 or more Influence.

How to Play Solo

A solo game follows the same turn structure as a 2-player game. The changes only affect the opponent's behavior (i.e. the "actions" of the AI).

Farming Phase. The AI gains resources based on the Farming symbol of the top card in the AI discard pile. On the first turn, the AI skips the Farming phase.

For the AI, the "draw 1 card OR gain 1 gold" symbol yields "1 card AND 1 gold" instead of "1 card OR 1 gold."

When the AI would draw a card, add 1 random Hand token to the Hand pool. Take it from the Hand token reserve.

When the AI gains 1 gold, add a gold token to the AI gold pool. (Form an AI gold pool near the board.)

Note: AI Heroes do not receive/earn Experience points.

Backing Phase. The AI never retreats.

When you retreat from a Lane, place a Roaming card on both your and the AI's Laner slot. Each Roaming card in the AI's Laner slots increases the Action number on each AI card by 1 until the end of the turn.

Combat Phase. The AI's actions are simulated by the AI cards. The number of Hand tokens in the Hand pool represents the AI's hand size.

Combat Phase: Deployment. Draw an AI card for each available Laner slot in the AI's area and place it there, face up. These cards are considered to be deployed by the AI.

You may look at the opposing cards before performing your standard Deployment.

Combat Phase: Challenge. The first player (turn order) declares the first Challenge, becoming the Initiator of that Challenge (as in a 2-player game).

When it is the AI's turn to declare a Challenge, check which of the AI cards currently played on a Laner slot has the lowest Initiative value. The AI declares this Challenge, first.

When a Challenge begins, starting from the Initiator, activate the ability text of cards deployed on the active Lane.

Next, check the printed Influence value of the AI card deployed on the active Lane, compare it to the printed Influence value of the card you deployed on the active Lane, and set the Influence gap using the Influence track on the board.

Then, take X random Hand tokens from the Hand pool and assign them to the AI card deployed on the active Lane. X is the Actions value printed on the AI card.

Note: Remember to increase the Action number by 1 for each Roaming card in the AI's slots.

Reveal those Hand tokens. Now, start taking actions, similar to a 2-player game. Alternate taking actions between you and the AI, starting from the Initiator of the Challenge.

AI Actions

The AI performs its actions in the exact order, as shown on the active AI card, from top to bottom.

Assault and Chain AI actions are ONLY triggered if the revealed Hand tokens assigned to the AI card, show the related matching symbol. If an action cannot be performed because a corresponding Hand token was not revealed, immediately continue with the next action.

When Assault or Chain AI actions are triggered, activate the related ability text of the AI card and then add the related printed Influence value to the AI's total Influence on the active Lane. For the purpose of any ability effect, treat Chain and Assault AI actions as if the AI had played a Hero card as Assault or Chain.

Example: Two Hand tokens have been assigned to the AI card. Upon reveal, they show an Assault and a Void symbol. Consequently, only the Assault AI action (and the gold action, depending on the AI's gold pool) will be triggered during this Challenge.

If you reveal multiple Chain or multiple Assault Hand token symbols, increase the AI's total Influence value by 1 for each additional symbol after the first one.

Actions on AI cards requiring a gold payment, trigger without the need of any Hand token symbol. These actions are always triggered when the AI has enough gold. Once they have been activated, discard the respective amount of gold from the AI's gold pool.

When you get Greedy in a solo game, you immediately add 1 Hand token to the Hand pool and then reveal a random Hand token.

Note: the AI cannot get Greedy.

Discard the AI card and the assigned Hand tokens at the end of the Challenge. Discard Hand tokens to the reserve, face down and immediately shuffle the reserve.

If the AI destroys a Tower, it gains 2 gold AND you add 1 Hand token to the Hand pool.

Solo Mode Ability Effects

In order to adapt the Hero ability texts to the solo variant, the following effects are modified as stated:

• Discard opponent's cards: When the AI has to discard a card from its hand, remove a Hand token from the Hand pool. If the AI has to discard a Hero card, remove 2 Hand tokens instead.
• Exhaust opponent's Hero: When you are instructed to Exhaust a Hero during a Challenge, remove 1 revealed Hand token of your choice from the active AI card, if available. If you are instructed to Exhaust a Hero outside of a Challenge (e.g. during the Farming Phase), substitute 1 random Hand token from the Hand pool with a Void token you take from the Hand token reserve.
• Kill opponent's Hero: When you kill Heroes during a Challenge, reduce the printed Action number of AI cards played on the next turn by the number of killed Heroes (to a minimum of 0).
• Look at the opponent's cards: When an ability effect instructs you to look at one or more cards in the opponent's hand, reveal Hand tokens instead of looking at cards. Consider Chain and Assault tokens to be Hero cards. Remember that you still need to select Hand tokens at random. However, this effect allows you to know in advance, what tokens are available to the AI.
• Targeting an opponent's Hero card: When an ability effect would target an opponent's Hero card, you may target the active AI card (having a related printed Influence value and an ability text) OR one of its Chain and Assault AI actions, instead. The printed influence value of the AI action corresponds to the printed Influence value of the targeted Hero card; the ability text of the AI action corresponds to the ability text of the targeted Hero card.

Other specifications:

• If the AI must banish a card from its hand in order to cancel an ability effect, it always complies, discarding a Hand token, if possible.
• The AI's total printed Influence value corresponds to the sum of the printed Influence values on the active AI card and all its activated AI actions.

End of the Turn

Follow the same rules for the "End of the turn" as in a 2-player game.

The AI does not draw any cards from its deck. Instead, add 2 random Hand tokens to the Hand pool from the Hand token reserve.

Events

Monster Objectives and Camp Respawn events completely change in the solo mode. Instead of the regular events, do the following:

• Monster Event: All AI cards get a permanent +2 Influence bonus until the end of the game. Note: The bonus becomes +4 at the 7th turn due to the second Monster event.
• Camp Event: The AI's Assault actions get a +1 Influence bonus until the end of the turn.

Victory Conditions

Victory conditions are indicated in the specific Mission rules. In case you are playing a full solo game (without Missions), victory conditions are the same as in the 2-player game.

Banned Heroes and Items

Some Heroes and Item cards are not compatible with the solo rules.

Reddie (Marksman), Sienna (Support), Seah'mun (Mage), Sibena (Fighter), Glip (Jungler), and the Item Dragon Slayer (Fighter) must not be used.

Glossary & Keywords

The following is an alphabetical list of terms and keywords that may occur during play.

ALLY: In a 4-player game, two players belonging to the same Team, are referred to as allies.

ASSAULT: Assault is an action that players can take during Challenges; see page 10 for more detail on Challenges.

BANISH: When a card is banished, it is removed from the game and placed near the board to form a pile of banished cards. This card cannot be used anymore in the current game.

BLANK: If a card is considered to be blank, its printed text box is treated as if it did not have any of its printed content.

BOOST: Any card with Boost allows you to discard 1 card from your hand to trigger the corresponding effect.

CHAIN: Chain is an action that players can take during Challenges; see page 10 for more detail on Challenges.

DECK LIMIT: If a card has the text "deck limit: X" no more than X copies of that card may be included in a player's deck.

DEFENSE: If you gain Defense, you may not advance on the active Lane. Additionally, no Heroes (neither yours nor your opponent's) can be killed during this Challenge.

DISCARD PILE: The discard pile is a virtual area next to the game board.

• Any time a card is discarded, place it faceup on top of its owner's discard pile. You, but not your opponent, may look at your discard pile at any time.
• The order of the cards in a discard pile may not be altered unless a player is instructed to do so by a card ability.
• If multiple cards are discarded simultaneously, the owner of the cards places them into their discard pile, in any order.

EXHAUSTED: When a Hero is Exhausted, flip its associated Hero token to its grey side.

• If a Laner Hero is Exhausted during the Deployment phase, its owner must deploy a Free Lane card on the Laner slot associated to that Hero, if available.
• During a Challenge, while a Hero is Exhausted, you cannot perform an Assault or a Chain action by playing a card associated to that Hero.
• Abilities that require Exhausting a Hero in order to trigger its effect, do nothing if that Hero is already Exhausted.
• At the end of a Challenge, players must Exhaust all their participating Heroes.

FROZEN: When a Challenge is frozen it means that no other actions can be taken by any player.

GREEDY: Getting Greedy is an action that players can take during Challenges; see page 11 for more detail on Challenges.

HAND DOMINANCE: In a 2-player game, you have hand dominance if your current hand size is greater than the opponent's. In a 4-player game, the hand size of the Team is the sum of the hand size of the allies.

INFLUENCE ADVANTAGE: You have the Influence advantage during a Challenge if your total Influence value is currently higher than the opponent's.

KILL: A Hero can be killed as a consequence of losing a Challenge on a Lane or as a direct effect of an ability text. Heroes cannot be killed before Challenge Resolution, not even by cards.

When a Hero is killed, remove its associated Hero token from the board; it will return to play Exhausted at the beginning of the next turn.

LOOK: When a player is instructed to look at one or more cards, that player does not show those cards to any other player (except for their ally in a 4-player game).

PARTICIPATING HERO: A Hero with the Laner trait participates in all Challenges taking place on its associated Lane (except the Free Lane card is deployed on that Laner slot). A Hero with the Gank trait participates in a Challenge when an associated Hero card is in play on the active Laner slot.

PLAYERS ORDER: If the players are instructed to perform a sequence in player order, the first player performs their part of the sequence first, followed by the opponent.

PUT INTO PLAY: Some card abilities may cause a card to be put into play. This is different from playing a card from your hand. For example, for this reason, a player is allowed to put a Hero card into play, even if that Hero is currently Exhausted.

RAMPAGE: If a player gains Rampage, they advance the battlefront one extra position on the Lane, if they win the current Challenge.

REACTION: A Reaction is a triggered ability. Each time the trigger occurs, the reaction takes place as described in the corresponding ability text.

• If multiple Reactions are triggered simultaneously, resolve them in player order.
• A Reaction could trigger other Reactions. Always completely resolve a Reaction ability before you start to resolve further Reactions to that triggering condition.

READY: A Hero is Ready, as long as they are not Exhausted. Ready all Exhausted Heroes at the beginning of each turn.

RECYCLE (X): You may discard X cards from your hand and then draw X cards from your deck.

REWARD: When a Monster card has a Reward effect, trigger that effect after winning the Monster Objective.

SPECIAL ACTIVATION: Normally card abilities trigger during a Challenge when activating Laner cards deployed on the active Lane or when the card enters play as an Assault or Chain action. However, cards with Special Activation are triggered in special game situations as stated on the cards.

TARGET HERO/PLAYER: If a card targets a Hero or player, the player resolving the effect chooses and declares the Hero/player targeted by the ability.

TEAM: In a 2-player game, a Team is a single player and their group of Heroes. In a 4-player game, a Team consists of the allied players and their groups of Heroes.

THREATENED: Threatened is a condition that can be assigned to Heroes during a Challenge. When you lose a Challenge while your Heroes are threatened, the opponent may often kill more of them (based on the Influence gap). In order to know how many Heroes are killed while threatened, players look at the number of passed Red Skull symbols on the Influence track.

Credits

Game Design: Tommaso Mondadori, Alberto Parisi

Art Direction: Laura Valdinoci

Graphic Design: Alberto Parisi

Illustrations: Leonardo Casciarola