LEGO: NINJAGO – Destiny's Bounty Adventures
LEGO: NINJAGO – Destiny's Bounty Adventures Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
1. Ready Your Ninja
Before your first game, you'll need to sort the components. If children are playing, let them help sort the LEGO elements while an adult learns the rules.
- Fold the four Ninja Chests.
- On the separate assembly sheet you'll find instructions on how to build the four Ninja (Kai, Nya, Cole, Zane) and the Spinjitzu Tornadoes and how to sort the LEGO elements.
- Place the following in each Ninja Chest:
- One Ninja
- Four Spinjitzu Tornadoes
- Each Ninja's LEGO elements
- Each Ninja's six Potential Cards
2. Sort the Components
Components for the Token Chest
Sort these components and place them on the table: Serpent Head (1), Victory Marker (1), Villain Tokens (60), Mastery Tokens (16).
Fold the Token Chest used for storing these components after playing.
Components for the Adventure Chest
Sort these components into three groups: Adventure Tokens (8), Event Cards (6), Adventure Cards (24).
Fold the Adventure Chest and fill it with the Adventure Cards (except the three gray cards featuring Adventure 1) and the 8 Adventure Tokens.
Contents: 124 LEGO elements, 6 Event Cards, 24 Potential Cards, 24 Adventure Cards, 60 Villain Tokens, 16 Mastery Tokens, 1 Victory Marker, 1 Serpent Head, 8 Adventure Tokens, 4 Ninja Chests, 1 Token Chest, 1 Adventure Chest, 1 game board, 1 assembly sheet, 1 set of rules.
3. Game Setup
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Game board: The game board features the ship Destiny's Bounty with 12 rooms. Flip both boards to find the correct sides for the number of players playing the game (2 / 3 / 4 players). Connect the two halves that match your number of players. (The Villain Track and the Victory Track are on the board.)
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Villain Tokens: Place the Villain Tokens face down (black side up) next to the game board.
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Mastery Tokens: Place the Mastery Tokens next to the game board.
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Choose a Ninja: Each player chooses a Ninja and takes the corresponding Ninja Chest containing their Ninja, gear, and Potential Cards.
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Place Ninja: Add your Ninja and two Spinjitzu Tornadoes to the base plate, and place your Ninja in one of the two central rooms on the game board.
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Arrange the Adventure Cards: The Adventures set a different scene for each game. There are six unique Adventures with increasing difficulty: Training (1 sword), Easy (2), Medium (3), Oh No! (4).
Choose one of the six Adventures (see the number in the top left). All Adventures can be played multiple times and in any order. For your first game, we recommend Adventure 1.
The Adventure Cards are labeled with letters, starting with A, and combine to create one large picture that shows the story of the Adventure. Lay the Adventure Cards in letter order face down next to each other beside the game board. The number of cards varies from Adventure to Adventure.
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Flip Adventure Card A and place components: Read the dialog aloud and place the following components: 8. Victory Marker 9. Serpent Head 10. Villain Tokens 11. Adventure Tokens (if any)
4. How to Win
This game is cooperative. Players win or lose together against the Villains of the game. The goal of the game is to protect the Destiny's Bounty ship from all the attacking Villains. To do this, the Ninja must defeat the Villains in the different rooms of the ship.
The Ninja and Villains move around the Bounty's 12 rooms. Villains advance on the golden path, and Ninja move from room to room.
The Goal of the Ninja
The Ninja are trying to reach their full potential by defeating the Villains in the rooms and by doing other important Ninja tasks, like drinking tea and reading comic books.
When a Ninja meets a Villain in a room, the Ninja will defeat the Villain if the Ninja's strength is equal to or higher than the Villain's strength. Place the defeated Villain face up on the Victory Track. Villains that are not defeated stay in the room. Villains cannot defeat Ninja.
If the Victory Track fills up with Villains and Mastery Tokens (see page 5) before the Villain Track does, the Ninja win!
The Goal of the Villains
The Villains are trying to reach the most vital areas on the ship: The control center, the gaming console, Wu's meditation spot, and, in a 4-player game, the stairs to the engine room.
When a Villain succeeds in reaching a golden step marked with a skull icon, place the Villain face down on the Villain Track.
If the Villain Track fills up with Villains before the Victory Track does, the Villains win - and the Ninja lose!
Revealing Villains
Villains are always added to the game board face down. Whenever a Ninja is in a room with one or more Villains, you must turn the Villains face up to reveal their strength. Revealed Villains stay face up until leaving the game board.
Body, Heart, and Mind
These are the three aspects of a Ninja that need to be in balance for the Ninja to reach their full potential. Villains can be either red, purple, or teal. Each color represents the aspect they are most vulnerable to. Sometimes charm and clever tactics are more efficient than brute strength.
- Body (teal)
- Heart (red)
- Mind (purple)
5. How to Play a Turn
Players take turns in clockwise order. There are three steps in a turn:
- A. Flip Event Card
- B. Move Your Ninja
- C. Clear Room
A. Flip Event Card
Every turn starts with a player flipping the top Event Card. Follow the instructions on the card and place the Event Card face up above the pile. There are six Event Cards on which you will find the following icons:
Villains arrive (Villain-to-cloud icon and Villain-to-moon icon): Take Villains from the pile and place one Villain face down on each of the golden paths on the game board by the entrances with the matching icon (cloud or moon).
The double-icon entrance (in 2- or 3-player games) counts as both icons. If you must place by both icons, you'll place two Villains here.
Villains advance (double-arrow icon): All Villains on the game board advance one step along their path toward the golden step marked with a skull icon.
When a Villain reaches a golden step marked with a skull icon, place it face down on the first available space on the Villain Track.
Place Mastery Tokens (Mastery-to-teapot icon and Mastery-to-comic-book icon): Place a Mastery Token in a room marked with a teapot or a comic book.
There may be several Mastery Tokens in one room.
Sometimes drinking tea with your sensei or reading a comic book is just as rewarding as defeating a Villain.
A few times throughout the game you must flip an Adventure Card instead of an Event Card (see page 6). The above icons also appear on the Adventure Cards.
B. Move Your Ninja
It's now time to move your Ninja from room to room to find the Villains.
Number of moves: Ninja may make as many moves as the number of Spinjitzu Tornadoes they have. (Two Tornadoes = 2 moves.) At the start of the game, this means a Ninja may make 0, 1, or 2 moves.
Connecting rooms: Ninja can only move between connecting rooms - they cannot go through walls. A connecting room is any adjacent room connected to the Ninja's room with an open door.
Stop for Villains: If a Ninja moves into a room with a Villain, the Ninja must stop in that room.
If a Ninja starts a turn in a room with a Villain, the Ninja is not required to stay and defeat the Villain, but may move to another room instead.
C. Clear Room
When the Ninja is done moving, it's time to clear the room that the Ninja is in. The Ninja may collect Mastery Tokens and, if strong enough, defeat Villains.
The Ninja will defeat the Villain if the Ninja's strength is equal to or greater than the strength of the Villain:
A Ninja's strength is equal to the number of Spinjitzu Tornadoes the Ninja has on the base plate (2 Tornadoes = strength 2). If a Ninja has Potential Cards that increase the Ninja's strength, add them to the total strength of the Ninja (see page 6).
The Villains' strength varies from 2-5.
When clearing a room, you must follow these four steps in order:
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Ask Ninja to join you. You may ask one or more Ninja one move away to come to your room. This might help you to defeat any Villains in the room and to get around the game board faster. You may do this even if there are no Villains in the room. If possible, you may also defeat the Villain(s) on your own.
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Count your strength. Count how much strength all the Ninja in the room have in total.
Example 1: Two Ninja, each with two Spinjitzu Tornadoes, have a total strength of 4. They can therefore defeat this Villain with a strength of 4.
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Choose which Villains to defeat. Spend the Ninja's total strength to defeat any combination of Villains in the room. You may defeat as many Villains as you can as long as the total strength of the Ninja is higher than or equal to the total strength of the Villains you choose to defeat. Any Villains that are not defeated on your turn stay in the room. Remember that the Villains cannot defeat the Ninja.
Example 2: All three Ninja in the room have two Spinjitzu Tornadoes giving them each a strength of 2. Two of the Ninja also have Potential Cards that give them extra strength (2 + 2 = 4, and 2 + 1 = 3, plus 2 for the third Ninja). Their total strength is 9 and they can defeat Villains with a combined strength of up to 9, e.g., the (shown Villain combinations).
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Add tokens to the Victory Track. After the Ninja have defeated one or more Villains in a room, place the defeated Villains face up on the next available space(s) of the Victory Track. If there are any Mastery Tokens in the room, collect these and place them on the next available space(s) of the Victory Track to help complete it. Place Villain and Mastery Tokens in ascending order from left to right on the Victory Track.
You may collect the Mastery Tokens regardless of whether you have defeated a Villain or not, and regardless of whether there are Villains in the room or not.
Next Turn
The player to the left begins the next turn and starts by flipping the next Event Card in the pile.
6. Spinjitzu Tornadoes
When you cover this space (Spinjitzu Tornado icon) on the Victory Track, all Ninja earn an extra Spinjitzu Tornado. This increases the Ninja's strength and the number of moves they can make each turn.
Place the Spinjitzu Tornado on the base plate.
Example: This Ninja may now make 3 moves and has a strength of 3.
7. Potential Cards
When you cover this space (Potential Card icon) on the Victory Track, all Ninja earn a Potential Card. The Potential Cards give extra strength or cool Ninja abilities, such as going through walls. Once in play, the chosen card remains active for the rest of the game. The rule of the chosen Potential Card supersedes the rules of the game for that specific Ninja.
- Choose one of your Ninja's Potential Cards. You may discuss with your fellow Ninja which Potential Cards to choose.
- Upgrade your Ninja. Take your Ninja from the game board (remember which room it was in and whose turn it is!) and build the gear onto the Ninja. Look at the back of your selected Potential Card to see the corresponding weapon or gear and to get a suggestion for how to build it onto your Ninja.
- Place the chosen Potential Card title side up in front of you.
First time playing? We recommend that you choose one of your Ninja's three Potential Cards with the training dummy.
Not enough hands? Each Ninja has a LEGO element that can be added to the Ninja's back to hold the weapons.
8. Adventure Cards
Card A: Adventure Card A introduces the story and the setup.
Card B, Card C, Card D: The other Adventure Cards divide the game into chapters by introducing big events that happen in the game. Simply follow the instructions on these cards. Note that Adventure 1 only consists of three cards and that Adventure 6 consists of five cards.
When an Adventure Card introduces a new rule, that rule must be followed for the rest of that Adventure.
1st Chapter: Shuffle the six Event Cards and place them face down in a pile on top of Adventure Card B. After six turns, when all six Event Cards have been flipped, the next player flips Adventure Card B instead of an Event Card.
Next Chapter: Shuffle the six Event Cards and place them face down in a pile on top of Adventure Card C. After six turns, when all six Event Cards have been flipped, the next player flips Adventure Card C instead of an Event Card. Follow this pattern for all Adventure Cards.
If you haven't finished the game after flipping the final Adventure Card, place the deck of Event Cards to the right of the Adventure Cards and keep playing with the Event Cards.
The player who last drank a cup of tea starts. "Niinjaaa Goooo!"