Legendary Encounters: Alien Covenant

Expansion for Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game

Legendary Encounters: Alien Covenant Rulebook

Table of Contents

A New Movie

The Covenant expansion adds a whole new movie to the Legendary® Encounters: An Alien™ Deck Building Game. This includes six new characters, a new Hive, and more Avatars, Strikes, Drones, and Agendas. It also adds more cards for the Queen Mother game mode including a new enemy: David.

New Characters

The Covenant expansion adds six characters with the [crew icon] crew to the game. For your first few games, we recommend using Chief Terraformist Daniels, Captain Oram, Walter 1, and Biologist Karine.

New Hive

You can now play through the movie, Alien™: Covenant, including a new Location, four new Objectives, three new Hive mini-decks, and an addition to the Hatchery: The Bloodburster Neomorph. There is also a Hard Mode version of the Location and Objectives.

New Strikes, Drones, Agenda

There are ten new Strike cards. Shuffle them into the base game's Strike deck. (If you're playing with any Hive mini-decks from the first Expansion, shuffle in the ten Strikes from that Expansion also.)

There are a handful of new Drones including some new Soldiers that will make the game even harder.

There are two new Agendas – one Good and one Evil.

New Covenant Keyword

Relationships are a theme throughout the film. Many of the crew are in romantic relationships, others are platonic like Daniels and Walter, and there's even creepy synthetic brother bonding.

The Covenant keyword allows you to pair up two characters by adding them to your deck at the same time. Here's how it works:

When you recruit a character with Covenant, if there's a lower cost character in the space directly to its left or right in the HQ you may also gain that card for free.

You must "recruit" a card to get its Covenant effect. If the second card you gain has Covenant also, that won't do anything since you didn't recruit the second card.

When you refill the two empty spaces, first refill the space where the Covenant card was.

Covenant only matters while the card is in the HQ. Once it's part of your deck, Covenant has no effect.

Using the Covenant keyword is optional. Covenant only works on face-up cards. If for some reason a card in the HQ is face down, it can't be gained with Covenant.

New Queen Mother Cards

The Neomorph is a new character group for the Queen Mother's Nest. During setup you may replace one of the original four character groups with the Neomorph's 14 cards.

You may also now play as David instead of the Queen Mother. The gameplay is the same except you'll use David's Avatar, starting cards, one of his role cards, and one of his Enemy cards instead.

If You Don't Have the First Alien™ Expansion…

Here's a quick summary of the concepts that were introduced in the first expansion:

A New Drone Chart

This replaces the Drone Chart from the base game:

Number of Players	Deck 1 Drones	Deck 2 Drones	Deck 3 Drones	Prep Rounds
1	0	0	0	0
2	0	1	2	0
3	2	3	4	0
4	4	5	6	0
5	4	5	6	1*

*The insert prints an asterisk after the 1 in the last row but gives no footnote text for it.

Hard Mode

These are tougher versions of Locations and Events to provide an additional challenge.

Soldiers

These are really tough Enemies that are another way to make the game harder. Just add one random Soldier to Hive mini-decks 1, 2, and 3. (Each Soldier has a 1, 2, or 3 on the bottom of the card.) The 3 Soldiers don't have to have the same name. You can mix and match them.

Queen Mother Mode

This mode adds an Alien player to the game from the beginning, including their own game mat, Barracks (called a Nest), and new keywords. (You won't be able to play this without the first Expansion.)

Specific Card Clarifications

Loud and Clear

If you're playing solo, when you activate this card, you may discard a Specialist or Grunt from your hand to draw a card.

Bloodburster Neomorph

This is a new Hatchery card that you can gain. If for some reason you need to gain a Bloodburster from the Hatchery, but there aren't any left, gain one from the Dead Enemies pile if possible.

Planet 4

With Hazard 3, "game strategy" includes verbal and non-verbal communication, showing cards from your hand, or otherwise trying to help each other make strategic decisions. You're still allowed to perform game actions. For example, if you activate They're Your Crew Now's class ability, you can still have other players draw a card.

If you're not sure if something would count as discussing game strategy, err on the side of not being able to do it. If the team is forced to make a decision that involves showing their hands, they can show them but can't discuss anything, and the current player will make the decision.

The Necropolis

Once during each player's turn they may put a Barracks character into the Necropolis, which means a character that started the game in the Barracks. The character must have a different "character name" (such as Captain Oram or Chief Terraformist Daniels) from the other characters in the Necropolis. So to complete Objective 2, you'll need one of each of the four different Barracks characters – not just cards with four different titles – to be in the Necropolis.

Remember: Until you've completed this Objective, you can't complete any part of Objective 3.

David (Special Card)

When this card replaces a David character, find that card wherever it is and remove it from the game. Then put the David special card wherever the character card had been. If this puts him into your deck, shuffle your deck afterwards.

They Are a Dying Species

Objective 3's Event says to "kill all copies of that card everywhere." This includes each player's hand, deck, play area, and discard pile, as well as in the HQ, Barracks, Operations, etc. Shuffle each player's deck and the Barracks when you're done.

The Lonely Perfection of My Dreams

When you've completed this Objective, you've done it! You've defeated David's xenomorph creations. You can re-enter cryosleep and make the journey to Origae-6 to complete your colony mission. Perhaps when you get there Walter will help you build your cabin. The cabin on the lake…?

You now have a choice to make. Enter your cryotube and sleep well knowing you've won a Minor Victory. Or if all players agree…

You've figured out that Walter has been replaced by David, and you choose to fight the evil synthetic. If you choose to fight David, put Objective 3B "The Entry of the Gods into Valhalla" into play and follow its setup instructions. If you defeat David you win a Major Victory. Otherwise, all is lost.

To fight David, pay Attack equal to his Defense to force him to draw a Strike. Ignore any text on Strikes he draws this way. If he draws an Enemy, treat it as though the next player did so. If the total damage on his Strikes is ever greater than or equal to his Health, he's expired and the players win!

Since the Complex is no longer part of the game, ignore any effects that reference the Complex.

Creative (David)

When this version of David is revealed, take each Enemy with Facehugger or Bloodburster in its name from the Hatchery and Dead Enemies pile, and shuffle them together to make an Experiment pile. To reveal an Experiment, turn over the top card of the Experiment pile. If it's got Facehugger in the name, put it in front of you. If it's a Bloodburster Neomorph, gain it.

If the Experiments pile is ever empty and you need to reveal a card from it, make a new Experiments pile following the instructions above.

Deceitful (David)

When David becomes Secretive, he can't be fought. However, he will still strike normally. When he stops being Secretive turn his card upright again.

Fatherly (David)

When this version of David is revealed, shuffle all Soldiers from outside the game and in the Dead Enemies pile to make a Soldier pile. If this pile is ever empty and you need to take a card from it, make a new Soldier pile using all the dead Soldiers.

Note: There is no Hard Mode version of this Objective.

Queen Mother Mode Additions

In Queen Mother Mode, whether you're playing as her or as David, some of the new Strikes work a little differently:

Distraction: If the Queen Mother or David player draws this, they can't give it to a human player. (Similarly, a human player can't give it to the QM/David player.)
Unidentified Life Form: If this is drawn by the QM/David player, give it to the next human player.
Monumental Tragedy: If this is drawn by the QM/David player, they take the 1 Attack, but its text affects the human players. The QM/David player chooses which coordinate card to kill.

Game Contents

200 cards and this Rules Insert

6 New Characters (14 cards each)
1 New Hive (1 Location, 4 Objectives, 33 Hive Cards)
10 Strikes
5 Avatars
5 Role Cards
4 Drones
4 Bloodbursters
2 Agendas
9 Soldiers
4 Hard Mode Location and Objectives
21 David Cards (12 Starting, 1 Avatar, 4 Roles, 4 Enemies)
1 Nest Character (14 cards)