Monster Hunter World: The Board Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

How to Win
Game Components
Game Set Up
Gameplay
Gathering Phase
Hunting Phase
The Monsters
The Hunters
HQ Phase
Appendix
Gameplay Summary
- Symbol Glossary

How to Win

Monster Hunter World: The Board Game - Ancient Forest is a cooperative arena combat campaign game. As hunters of the Fifth Fleet, your group will undertake quests to track down and slay the monsters of the New World to ensure the safety of the Astera basecamp and the Research Commission.

Choosing a quest allows you to hunt a specific monster. Completing quests unlocks additional quests and allows you to progress through the game.

To win Monster Hunter World: The Board Game - The Ancient Forest, you must complete a Key quest, before the campaign timer runs out.

Choosing quests gives you the chance to earn monster parts, which are used to forge more powerful weapons and armour. Your hunters will need better equipment in order to stand a chance of slaying the more difficult monsters. Choose your quests wisely!

Monster Hunter World: The Board Game - Ancient Forest is intended to be played over multiple play sessions. The character sheets will allow you to keep track of your resources, potions, weapons, and armour between gaming sessions. Character sheets may also be used to track which quests you have available to choose from next time.

Game Components

Hunters

When choosing a hunter, you should be aware that each hunter creates a dramatically different playing experience through their unique weaponry and fighting style. The four hunters in this set are:

Great Sword Hunter hits with serious force, building charge with each attack to unleash formidable power at the end of a combo.

Dual Blades Hunter favours swift strikes and mobility over raw hitting power, dashing in with a flurry of blows before dodging to safety.

Sword & Shield Hunter is incredibly versatile, offering a balance of defensive proficiency and offensive capabilities.

Bow Hunter carefully judges the perfect moment to attack, punishing monsters with a hail of arrows before closing in to cause maximum damage with the finishing shot.

Monsters

The monsters of the Ancient Forest are as varied as they are deadly. The four monsters in this set are:

Great Jagras is a gluttonous creature that will attack monsters even bigger than itself when hungry. It balloons to enormous proportions after each gigantic meal. Beware a crushing defeat.

Tobi-Kadachi builds up a static charge in its fur as it moves, which may be discharged for spectacular and powerful attacks. Prepare for an electrifying encounter.

Anjanath is a ferocious predator that prowls the Ancient Forest in constant search of prey. It's extremely aggressive and will attack without being provoked. Its bite is far worse than its bark.

Rathalos is an apex predator and the biggest threat in the Ancient Forest. Territorial and hostile, its fiery breath and vicious claws make it a daunting prospect indeed. Be prepared for burning terror.

Azure Rathalos is a subspecies of Rathalos. Take all of the aspects that make Rathalos such a devastating foe and make it faster. Brace for an airborne onslaught.

Quest Book

The quest book contains all the in-game information you need to play, including the quests and adventures for each monster as well as downtime activities.

Character Sheets

During the course of your campaign each hunter will carve parts of slain monsters to forge new equipment. You'll keep a record of anything your hunter gathers or forges on your character sheet.

Stamina Boards

Each hunter has their own stamina board, which you'll use when your hunter attacks or is attacked by monsters. Additional types of cards are placed on the stamina board to keep the play area nice and tidy.

Dice

Six sided dice which are used to determine the rewards you gain after slaying a monster.

Game Board

Hunters battle the monsters of the New World in the Ancient Forest, represented by the game board. Areas of the game board are divided into nodes, used to determine where miniatures are positioned.

Terrain

Different combinations of terrain tokens are positioned on the game board to represent varied environments.

Forge Reference Cards

Each hunter has their own set of new weapons and armour they can forge during the game, noted on the hunter's forge reference card. This card also tells you which monster parts and other resources you'll need to gather to be able to forge each weapon or piece of armour. These cards are numbered 625-628.

Time Cards

Quests have a time limit measured using time cards. Cards are drawn from a deck to mark the passage of time, as well as other random events. If the time deck runs out, the hunters fail the quest. These cards are numbered 222-281.

Armour Cards

Hunters mainly protect themselves by leaping out of the way of monster attacks. Should they make a miscalculation, their armour is the last line of defence. These cards are numbered:

2-4 for the great sword hunter
26-28 for the sword & shield hunter
50-52 for the dual blades hunter
74-76 for the bow hunter
292-375 other armour cards

Weapon Cards

Each hunter is defined by the weapon they carry. Weapon cards determine what attacks a hunter can make as well as how much damage they cause. These cards are numbered:

1 and 376-384 for the great sword hunter
25 and 405-413 for the sword & shield hunter
49 and 430-438 for the dual blades hunter
73 and 459-467 for the bow hunter

Attack Cards

These cards represent the attacks a hunter can perform and are played one at a time to cause the hunter's miniature to move and attack the monster. Multiple attack cards may be played in sequence to perform powerful combinations. These cards are numbered:

5-24 and 385-404 for the great sword hunter
29-48 and 414-429 for the sword & shield hunter
53-72 and 439-458 for the dual blades hunter
77-96 and 468-491 for the bow hunter

Damage Cards

When your hunter attacks, damage cards will be drawn from a deck to determine the amount of damage caused to the monster. When a hunter's damage deck runs out, their weapon has become blunt and must be sharpened. These cards are numbered 97-211.

Elemental Damage Cards

When your hunter uses elemental attacks, elemental damage cards will be drawn from a deck to determine the amount of damage caused to the monster. These cards are numbered 212-221.

Palico Cards

A trusty companion, a hunter's Palico will stay with them throughout their adventures. Each Palico is unique and will aid your hunter throughout the game. These cards are numbered 282-291.

Palico Tokens

When a Palico's ability is used, it's sometimes marked using a Palico token.

Hunter Tokens

Hunter tokens show which hunters are able to take a turn. When a hunter finishes their turn, flip their hunter token face down. Additionally, hunter tokens are numbered to show how threatening they are to the monster.

Elemental Tokens

When a hunter damages a monster with an elemental attack it's marked with an elemental token.

Ailment Tokens

When a hunter damages a monster with an ailment attack it's marked with an ailment token.

Physiology Cards

Physiology cards contain the vital statistics of each monster. These cards are numbered 610-624.

Behaviour Cards

Each monster is controlled by a deck of behaviour cards featuring unique attacks. These cards are numbered 545-609.

Break and Broken Tokens

When a hunter inflicts break damage on a monster it's marked with a break token.

When a monster's body part is broken it's marked with a broken token.

Track Tokens

Track tokens show the progress of hunting a monster.

Health Dials

Hunters and monsters each have their own health dial showing how much damage they may take.

Game Set Up

Playing Area Set Up

Place the game board in the centre of the playing area. Note that the game board has artwork on both sides, choose whichever side up you prefer.

Place a stamina board in front of each player.

Place the quest book and a supply of tokens within reach of the players.

Take the 10 elemental damage cards and shuffle them to create an elemental damage deck. Place this deck face down near the game board.

The Wildspire Waste

If you own Monster Hunter World: The Board Game - Wildspire Waste and you want to include its contents in your campaign, you'll need to include cards 509-561 and 646-649. Page 38 covers everything you'll need to include this content.

Hunter Set Up

Starting with the youngest, players select a hunter to use during the game. The hunter you select will have a unique symbol identifying which cards are used to play that hunter:

for the great sword hunter, numbered 1-24
for the sword & shield hunter, numbered 25-48
for the dual blades hunter, numbered 49-72
for the bow hunter, numbered 73-96

These are the starting cards for your hunter.

Each hunter's starting cards will include:

1 weapon card
3 armour cards
20 attack cards

Take the miniature and starting cards belonging to your hunter, marked by their symbol.

Each weapon card will list a number of cards using this symbol. These are the weapon's damage cards. Take the combination of damage cards shown on the weapon card from the game box. These cards form your hunter's damage deck.

For example, the great sword hunter starts with 7x 1 damage cards, 4x 2 damage cards, and 1x 3 damage card in their damage deck.

There are 3 types of armour — head, body, and legs.

Take your hunter's 3 starting armour cards and place each one on the matching slot of your stamina board to equip them.

Take a character sheet and write your name and your hunter's name at the top. Take a hunter health dial and set it to 8, your hunter's full health. Set up your playing area as shown below.

Ran out of character sheets? Download a printable sheet from www.steamforged.com

Palicoes (1-2 Players Only)

Shuffle the Palico cards and give 2 to each player. Each player selects 1 Palico card to keep and returns the other card to the game box.

Palico abilities are used during the hunting phase, once per quest. You may only use your Palico ability during your turn.

If you'd like, there's room on your character sheet to name your Palico.

Gameplay

Phases of a Quest

Each quest is composed of three phases: gathering, hunting, and HQ phase.

Selecting Your Quest — Distribute hunter tokens, construct time deck

Gathering Phase — Gather tracks and resources, find the monster

Hunting Phase — Face the monster, slay the monster

Return to HQ — Gather rewards, forge new equipment, select a new quest

Select a Quest

To hunt a monster, you must select a quest for that monster. During a quest you'll track down the monster, fight it, and eventually slay it before returning to the Astera basecamp.

Each monster has its own set of quests located within that monster's section of the quest book.

For your first quest, turn to page 5 in the Ancient Forest quest book; the Great Jagras section.

Each quest has the following information:

The name and type of quest
The time limit
The Scoutfly level
Adventure starting point
A minimap

Complete or Fail

The hunters complete the quest by slaying the monster. The hunters fail the quest if they exceed the time limit, or if they faint three or more times between them. If the hunters fail the quest, immediately progress to the HQ phase on page 35.

Types of Quests

Each quest will be marked with a symbol for an assigned quest, or a symbol for an investigation quest. Assigned quests introduce you to a new monster you've not hunted before. Investigation quests require you to hunt a monster type you've already slain, but are more challenging.

You must complete the Great Jagras assigned quest before taking on any other quests. Once the Great Jagras assigned quest has been completed, you may choose to either take on an assigned quest for any of the other monsters, or take on a Great Jagras investigation quest.

Once you've completed a monster's assigned quest, you may choose to take on an investigation quest for that monster.

Assigned quests may be attempted as many times as needed, but once completed, can't be attempted again. Investigation quests may only be attempted a maximum of 4 times per monster, whether they're completed or not.

Investigation Quests

There are two types of investigation quest: investigation quests (indicated by a paw print symbol) and tempered investigation quests (indicated by a pale or bright pawprint symbol). When selecting an investigation quest, you may choose to play either an investigation or a tempered investigation quest.

Remember, to win your campaign you must complete a Key quest, before the campaign timer runs out!

Each time you attempt an investigation quest, you must select the next available adventure starting point.

Investigation quests feature a monster with a higher degree of difficulty than assigned quests, and greater rewards for completing them. Tempered investigation quests feature a monster with the highest degree of difficulty and the greatest share of rewards for completing them.

Monster Setup

For the monster you've chosen to hunt, locate the cards with the monster's symbol. These are the monster's behaviour and physiology cards.

Each monster has 13 behaviour cards and 3 physiology cards.

Using the physiology cards, locate the card with the star symbol matching the type of quest you selected — either an assigned, investigation, or tempered investigation symbol. Return the other physiology cards to the game box.

Locate the monster health dial and the monster's miniature.

Place the monster's miniature, physiology card, behaviour cards, and health dial to the side of the game board.

The Time Deck

Locate the time cards.

Separate the time cards with the blue gem symbol into one pile, and time cards with the red gem symbol into another pile.

Cards with the blue gem symbol form the base time deck, and will always be in the time deck. You'll shuffle cards with the red gem symbol into the time deck during quests when instructed to by the quest book.

Check the time limit for the selected quest. Shuffle the base time cards and then draw the amount of cards equal to the time limit for the quest. This is your time deck for the quest. Place the time deck face down to the side of the game board.

For the remainder of the quest the players will be instructed when to draw or discard one or more cards from the time deck to mark the passage of time.

When a time card is discarded, any effects listed on the card are ignored and the card is placed on the discard pile. When a time card is drawn, any effects listed on the card are resolved before placing the card on the discard pile.

Quests may ask you to discard a time card and place it next to the time deck. Cards discarded like this aren't placed on the discard pile and instead have their own location. Cards discarded in this way are counted later in the quest to resolve a special effect.

If the players ever need to draw or discard time cards when the time deck is empty, the players fail the quest. Immediately progress to the HQ Phase on page 35.

The Campaign Timer

The campaign timer determines the maximum number of days that may be spent performing quests and downtime activities at the basecamp before the players fail the campaign.

Each time you choose one of the following, 1 campaign day is spent:

Perform an assigned quest. If the quest is failed, the hunters can attempt it again without spending another campaign day.
Perform an investigation quest, whether the hunters complete or fail it.
Perform downtime activities, to a maximum of 3 activities per day.

It's entirely up to you how you spend your days, although we recommend spending around 20 days performing quests, and no more than 5 days on downtime activities.

Downtime activities are explained in more detail on page 48 of the Ancient Forest quest book.

The campaign timer for a standard campaign of Monster Hunter World: The Board Game is set to 25 days. Record spent campaign days on your character sheet.

Gathering Phase

In this phase, you'll track down the monster you've chosen to hunt. Along the way you may acquire monster tracks, potions, or useful resources.

Preparation

Turn to the pages for this monster's adventure in the quest book. If this is your first quest of the campaign, turn to the Great Jagras adventures on page 6 of the Ancient Forest quest book.

Set the monster health dial to the health level on the monster's physiology card, shown within the heart symbol.

Locate the track tokens and place them face down in the playing area. Mix the track tokens up so that you won't know which ones you're picking up.

You'll begin each adventure at a starting point determined by the selected quest, and progress according to the instructions given at each step of the adventure.

Remember, for the first quest of the campaign you'll be playing the Great Jagras assigned quest. The starting point for the Great Jagras assigned quest adventure is entry 1, named Assigned Starting Point.

Each time you attempt an investigation quest, you must select the next available adventure starting point, named Investigation Starting Point.

For example, the first time you attempt a Great Jagras investigation or tempered investigation you would start from the first investigation starting point, which in the case of the Great Jagras is entry 2, named Investigation 1 Starting Point. Your next investigation or tempered investigation would start from entry 3, named Investigation 2 Starting Point and so on.

Playing Your Adventure

One player should take the quest book and read aloud the text for the adventure's starting point. You'll then be faced with an option of where to go next. As a group, decide which direction to go in and then progress to the stated entry.

Each time you reach a new entry, continue to read the text aloud. You may gather new resources or potions. Any resources gathered are gained by all players, and should be marked on your character sheets. Any potions gathered should be put into a communal pool for all hunters to use.

Potions are explained in more detail on page 33.

When you gather track tokens, place the track tokens in a communal pool. Track tokens represent your hunters following and catching up with their quarry. These will change how monsters behave in the hunting phase, and they may alter some of your choices during the adventure.

Scoutfly Level

Upon locating the monster, flip all track tokens in the pool and consult the quest's Scoutfly level in the quest book. The Scoutfly level will instruct you to add an additional behaviour card when constructing the monster's behaviour deck.

Locate all 13 of the monster's behaviour cards and follow these steps in order:

Remove the 3 behaviour cards with the hand symbol.
Place the remaining 10 behaviour cards to one side.
Determine which of the 3 removed cards to add in using the Scoutfly level.
Add the determined card to the 10 behaviour cards.
Shuffle these 11 cards to create the monster's behaviour deck.
Return the track tokens to the supply.
Return the other 2 removed behaviour cards to the game box.

With the gathering phase now complete, the players progress to the hunting phase.

Hunting Phase

In this phase, your hunters will face the monster they've tracked down in brutal combat and attempt to slay it.

Preparation

Turn to the section in the quest book illustrating the information for the selected quest. Search the game box for the terrain tokens required for the quest as shown on the quest's minimap.

The monster's starting node and direction; the hunters' starting nodes; Bush: place a bush token on this node; Rock: place a rock token on this node; Pond: place a water token on this node.

Place the monster's behaviour deck, which you prepared during the gathering phase, face down next to the monster's physiology card.

Each player takes a turn placing their hunter's miniature on any of the hunter starting nodes. Multiple hunters may be placed on the same node. Place the monster's miniature on the monster's starting node facing the direction shown by the arrow on the node symbol of the minimap.

Shuffle your attack deck and draw a hand of 5 cards. Ensure your hunter token is face up.

Nodes

During an encounter with a monster, each miniature must be centred on a node. When a miniature moves, move it from its current node to an adjacent node. An adjacent node is any node located directly next to the miniature's current node, in any direction.

Multiple hunters may be on the same node, so long as you understand which miniatures are on which nodes. Hunters can't move to the same node as a monster.

Terrain Nodes

Use the minimap for the quest to identify which types of terrain will be used, and where. Using the quest's minimap, place terrain tokens on the game board to mark each terrain node. The types of terrain nodes and their effects are:

Bush: While a hunter is on a bush node they have -4 threat. Bush nodes don't affect monsters.

Rock: When a hunter is on a rock node they may move 1 node without placing attack cards on their stamina board. Rock nodes don't affect monsters.

Pond: When a hunter enters a pond node for any reason they must discard 1 card from their damage deck. Pond nodes don't affect monsters.

Hunting Phase Summary

Hunting Phase Step 1 (Monster Turn)

To resolve a monster's turn, follow these steps in order:

Draw the top card of the monster's behaviour deck and reveal it.
Use the monster's behaviour card to determine the target for its attack.
Resolve the behaviour card.
Discard the behaviour card.

If a monster's behaviour deck is ever empty, shuffle all of the discarded behaviour cards to form a new behaviour deck.

If the hunters have fainted three or more times between them, the group fails the quest. Progress to the HQ phase on page 35.

Hunting Phase Step 2 (Hunter Turn)

As a group, choose a hunter whose hunter token is face up, then follow these steps in order:

Choose to use combat actions or preparation actions.
Resolve the chosen actions.
Draw a time card.

If a time card can't be drawn because the time deck is empty, the players fail the quest. Immediately progress to the HQ Phase on page 35.

If the monster's behaviour allows more hunters to take a turn, repeat step 2.

Hunting Phase Step 3 (Check For Quest Complete)

If your group hasn't slain the monster, return to step 1.

If your group has slain the monster, the hunting phase ends and the players progress to the HQ phase, see page 35.

The Monsters

Miniatures & Base Markings

Monster miniatures have markings on their base that divide them into four arcs. These arcs are the front, left, right, and rear of a monster. Monster arcs help to determine which way a monster is facing, where a monster attacks, and which parts of a monster may be attacked by your hunter.

Physiology Cards

Monster Name
Quest Type
Monster Health
Elemental Resistances
Status Ailment Resistances
Special Rules
Monster Body Parts - The areas of the monster that may be attacked
Body Part Arc - The arc your hunter must be within to attack this body part
Part Armour - The armour value of each body part of the monster
Part Break Value - The amount of break tokens required to break the body part
Break Token Stash - Where break tokens are placed for each body part
Part Break Rule - The effect that triggers once a part has been broken
Elemental Token Stash - Where elemental tokens are placed
Status Ailment Token Stash - Where status ailment tokens are placed

Example (Great Jagras physiology card): Gluttonous — Each time this monster deals 1 or more damage to a hunter it regains 1 lost health.

Behaviour Cards

Monster behaviours are presented as a series of symbols.

Behaviour Name
Track Symbol
Target Symbol - The monster's target
Movement Symbol - The monster's movement
Attack Symbol - The monster's attack
Monster Body Part
Hunter Turn Symbol
Hunter Attack Symbol

There's useful information that can be obtained from all parts of the behaviour card, so remember to pay attention to the back of the cards too!

Monster Turn

When the monster takes a turn, perform the following steps in order:

Draw a card from the monster's behaviour deck and place it face up. If the monster's behaviour deck is empty, shuffle the discard pile to create a new behaviour deck.
Resolve the monster behaviour card from left to right. The following section will describe each of these steps in detail.
If there are no hunters on the game board at the start of the monster's turn, draw a behaviour card and place it face up. Then the monster's turn ends, progress to Ending a Monster's Turn on page 27.

The Monster's Target

The monster's target is the hunter who currently has the monster's attention. The target is used to determine which way the monster will move and attack.

If the behaviour has the closest target symbol, the monster's target will be the hunter closest to it, determined by counting the nodes between the monster and the hunters. In the event of multiple hunters being the closest, the monster will target the closest hunter with the highest threat value. Threat values are printed on hunter tokens.

If the behaviour has the farthest target symbol, the monster's target will be the hunter farthest from it, determined by counting nodes between the monster and the hunters. In the event of multiple hunters being the farthest, the monster will target the farthest hunter with the highest threat value.

If the hunter the monster is targeting faints during the monster's turn, determine the next hunter the monster will target using the closest or farthest symbol on the behaviour card.

If there are no hunters on the game board, the monster's turn ends, progress to Ending a Monster's Turn on page 27.

Moving Monsters

When a monster moves, it moves in relation to its target. In any instance that there are multiple eligible nodes that a monster can move to, the players choose.

The monster must always directly face an adjacent node by having that node in the centre of its front arc. This means that the monster may only face one of eight directions because there are a maximum of eight adjacent nodes at any time.

Before and after each node of movement, including when the monster's movement symbol is numbered 0, the monster rotates to face its target. If this would cause the monster to not directly face an adjacent node, the monster instead faces the closest adjacent node to its target.

The number in the movement symbol shows how many nodes the monster will move. If the number is at the top of the symbol, the monster moves towards its target. With each node of movement, the number of nodes between the monster and its target must decrease.

If the number is at the bottom of the symbol, the monster moves away from its target. With each node of movement, the number of nodes between the monster and its target must increase.

If the number is on the left of the symbol, the monster moves to the node on its left. If the number is on the right of the symbol, the monster moves to the node on its right. Remember, before and after each node of movement, the monster rotates to face its target as shown below.

When a monster moves into the same node as a hunter, the hunter will immediately leap out of its path and move to an adjacent node that is within the monster's front arc before it turns to face its target. If there are no available adjacent nodes within the monster's front arc, the hunter may move to any adjacent node. The hunter does not play cards onto their stamina board to make this movement.

Irrelevant of which node the hunter moves to, the monster will continue its movement until it has moved an amount of nodes equal to the number shown in its movement symbol.

If the monster would move in such a way that takes it off the game board, the monster instead moves as far as it can up to the edge of the game board and then doesn't move any further.

Example: Performing the Belly Charge behaviour, Great Jagras moves three times towards the hunter, ending in the same node as them. The hunter is moved to an adjacent node of their choice, and then Great Jagras turns to face them.

Monster Attacks

A monster can attack in different ways, which can be identified using the following symbols:

Range - The maximum range of the monster's attack, counted in nodes from the monster to the hunters.

Dodge Value - How difficult the attack is for the hunters to dodge. Dodging monster attacks is explained in more detail on page 33.

Attack Node - The monster will attack its target and any other hunters positioned on the same node. If the target is not within range, no hunters are attacked.

Attack Arc - The monster will attack hunters within the red highlighted arcs that are also within the attack's range.

Physical Damage - The amount of physical damage caused to hunters.

Elemental Damage - The amount of elemental damage caused to hunters. Elemental damage types are: Fire, Water, Ice, Thunder, and Dragon.

Status Ailment - The monster's attack causes a status ailment in addition to physical damage. Status ailment types are: Stun, Poison, Sleep, Paralysis, and Blastblight.

Hunters Suffering Damage

When your hunter suffers damage, reduce their health dial by the physical or elemental damage value of the monster's attack.

The amount of damage each hunter suffers is reduced by armour or elemental resistance as shown on page 33.

Hunters Suffering Status Ailment

When a monster attack with a status ailment effect damages a hunter, the hunter suffers the status ailment.

If a status ailment lasts until the end of your next turn, place a status ailment token on your hunter's weapon card as a reminder. Status ailments are:

Stun - Choose one attack card from your hand and place it face down on your stamina board. If you can't place a card on your stamina board, this status ailment has no effect.

Poison - Your hunter loses 2 health at the end of your next turn.

Sleep - You can't place attack cards on your stamina board to attack, move, or dodge until the end of your next turn.

Paralysis - If you have more than 2 cards in your hand, discard down to 2 cards.

Blastblight - Your hunter has -2 armour until the end of your next turn.

Ending a Monster's Turn

The monster's behaviour determines how the hunters may react.

Hunter Turn Symbol - The number of turns the hunters may take after this behaviour.

Hunter Attack Symbol - The number of attack cards each hunter may play face up on their stamina board during their turn.

Once the monster's turn ends, it's the hunters' turn.

The Hunters

Stamina Boards

Your stamina board is used to measure how much stamina your hunter has. Stamina boards have 5 attack card slots. During the hunting phase attack cards are placed on the stamina board from left to right, to show attacks being made and stamina being used.

When your hunter's stamina board is full of attack cards, you can't play any more cards onto it.

At the end of your turn, as your hunter's stamina slowly recovers, you'll draw a time card that will instruct you to discard the rightmost card on your stamina board.

Unless otherwise instructed, whenever you remove attack cards from your stamina board, remove the cards one at a time from the right. If you're given the option to remove attack cards from any slot of your stamina board, slide remaining cards to the left to fill empty slots vacated by the cards you've removed.

Anatomy of Attack Cards

Attack cards are presented as a series of symbols, sometimes including instructions.

Attack Card Name - The name of the attack card
Starting Weapon Symbol - Attack cards with this symbol are part of the weapon's starting deck, featuring a hexagonal border.
Agility Symbol - Used to dodge monster attacks and move during your turn.
Stamina Bar - The attack card uses stamina and is placed on your stamina board when played from your hand.
Damage Card Symbol - The amount of damage cards drawn that inflict physical damage to the monster. Damaging monsters is explained in more detail on page 30.
Special Rules - Any special rules the attack card has will be explained here.
Range Symbol - The maximum range of the attack, counted in nodes from your hunter to the monster.
Break Symbol - The amount of break tokens inflicted on the monster.
Combo Symbol - The number of face up attack cards that must be on your stamina board in order to play this card.
Weapon Symbol - Attack cards with this symbol belong to weapons forged during the game, featuring a square border.
Bonus Movement Symbol - Allows your hunter to move up to this many nodes without placing additional attack cards on your stamina board.
Status Ailment / Elemental Damage Symbol - The status ailment or type of elemental damage inflicted on the monster.
Bonus Armour Symbol - While this attack card is on your stamina board, your hunter gains additional armour equal to this number.

Stamina Bars

Attack cards will show stamina in one of three ways:

Normal Stamina - These attack cards use stamina and are placed on your stamina board when played from your hand.

Stamina End - These attack cards use stamina and are placed on your stamina board when played from your hand. Playing this card will end your turn.

No Stamina - These attack cards don't use stamina and are not placed on your stamina board when played. Discard these cards after resolving their effects. These cards don't count towards the maximum allowed by the monster behaviour.

To make the Jumping Slash attack, the hunter would place it in the left-most free space on their stamina board.

Hunter Turn

You must have a face up hunter token to take a turn. When you take a turn you must choose either combat actions or preparation actions. You can't use both combat actions and preparation actions in the same turn. These actions may be performed in any order, and unless otherwise stated each action may be repeated.

Combat actions are:

Play an Attack Card - You may play attack cards face up from your hand and resolve their effects.

Walk - Once during your turn, you may move your hunter one node.

Sprint - You may play attack cards face down from your hand onto your stamina board to move your hunter additional nodes.

Preparation actions are:

Use a Potion - Once during your turn, you may use a potion to recover health and stamina. If you have no potions you can't choose this option.

Sharpen - Once during your turn, you may shuffle your discarded damage cards into your damage deck.

Walk - Once during your turn, you may move your hunter one node.

Sprint - You may play attack cards face down from your hand onto your stamina board to move your hunter additional nodes.

Remember, when your hunter's stamina board is full of attack cards, you can't play any more cards onto it.

To end your turn, draw a time card and resolve its effects. The following section will describe each of these steps in detail.

Hunter Movement

Once during your turn, you may move your hunter one node without placing attack cards on your stamina board. This is called walking.

During your turn, you may play attack cards face down from your hand onto your stamina board to move your hunter. This is called sprinting. Attack cards played to sprint don't count towards the maximum allowed by the hunter attack symbol on the monster behaviour.

When sprinting, your hunter may move an amount of nodes up to the agility symbol on each card being played.

Hunters Making Attacks

To make an attack, follow these steps in order:

Select an attack card from your hand to play.
If it has a range symbol, the monster must be in range to play this card.
Check which monster arc your hunter is in, and select a body part in that arc to attack. Refer to the monster's physiology card to see which body parts can be attacked.
Resolve any effects of the attack card. If the attack card has any special rules, read those first. Then perform the symbols in the middle of the attack card from left to right.
If the attack card has a break symbol, place the amount of break tokens shown on the body part you're attacking.
If the attack card has a stamina bar, place it face up on the leftmost empty space on your stamina board.

Whenever your attack deck is empty, shuffle your discarded attack cards to form a new attack deck.

Monster Arcs

When you attack the monster, check which arc of the monster your hunter is within. This impacts which parts of the monster may be attacked.

If your hunter is on a node which is positioned in two monster arcs, choose a part in either arc to attack.

The monster arc you attack can impact the outcome of a hunt and its rewards, so choose wisely!

Hunters Damaging Monsters

When you attack the monster, draw a number of damage cards equal to the damage card symbol of your attack card.

Add together the values of any damage cards drawn, then reduce the total by the armour of the body part being attacked. Monster armour can only reduce damage from an attack to a minimum of 1. Reduce the monster's health by the result, then discard any damage cards drawn.

Use the monster health dial to track how much health the monster has. Once the monster has been reduced to 0 health, it has been slain.

While resolving an attack, if the amount of damage cards remaining in your damage deck is lower than the damage card symbol of your attack card, calculate the damage of the attack using the cards remaining in your damage deck.

Sharpen

When your damage deck is empty, your hunter's attacks will cause no further damage until your hunter sharpens their weapon.

Once during your turn, if you chose to use preparation actions, you may shuffle your discarded damage cards into your damage deck to sharpen.

When a hunter's damage deck is empty, attack cards can be played but they will cause no damage.

For example, if you play an attack card onto your stamina board that draws 2 damage cards, but you only have 1 card remaining in your damage deck, draw the 1 remaining card to determine the damage for the attack. Your hunter will need to sharpen before their attacks can continue to cause damage to the monster.

Part Breaks & Break Tokens

If your attack card has the break symbol, place an equal number of break tokens on the monster's physiology card in the break token stash of the body part being attacked.

When a body part has an amount of tokens equal to its part break value in its break token stash, that body part has been broken. If the broken part has any part break rules, resolve them.

Then remove all break tokens from the body part's token stash and replace it with a broken token to mark the body part as broken.

Part break rules remain in play until the monster is slain. Each part of a monster can only be broken once per hunting phase.

Breaking monster parts guarantees certain rewards upon completing the quest, so break as many parts as you can to increase your rewards!

Bonus Movement Symbols

If an attack card has a bonus movement symbol, the hunter may move up to the amount of nodes shown without playing face down cards onto your stamina board. If the bonus movement symbol is to the left of the damage symbol, this movement is made before damaging the monster. If the bonus movement is to the right of the damage symbol, this movement is made after damaging the monster.

When the number is in the centre of the symbol, the movement may be made in any direction.

When the number is at the top of the symbol, the movement must be made towards a monster. With each node of movement, the number of nodes between your hunter and the monster must decrease.

When the number is at the bottom of the symbol, the movement must be made away from a monster. With each node of movement, the number of nodes between your hunter and the monster must increase.

If the attack card has a range and the monster is not within range, the card can't be played. However, some attack cards allow your hunter to move as part of the attack. If the card allows your hunter to move into range before causing damage, it may be played.

Hunters Causing Elemental Damage

An attack card that has an elemental damage symbol (fire, water, ice, thunder, or dragon) will inflict elemental damage to a monster in addition to physical damage. These are elemental attack cards.

When you attack a monster with an elemental attack card, place an elemental token of that type on the elemental token stash on the monster's physiology card.

A monster's elemental resistance is shown as either:

Resistance 1 - Elemental damage is caused when there is 1 or more tokens of this type in the monster's elemental token stash

Resistance 2 - Elemental damage is caused when there are 2 or more tokens of this type in the monster's elemental token stash

Immunity - Elemental damage can't be caused by this elemental type. Don't place tokens of this type in the monster's elemental token stash

After placing a token, check the monster's elemental resistance as shown above to see if elemental damage has been caused.

When elemental damage is caused, draw an elemental damage card and reduce the monster's health dial by the value of the card drawn. Then remove all tokens of that type from the elemental token stash and return them to the supply. Then discard the elemental damage card.

If the elemental damage deck is empty, shuffle the discarded cards to form a new deck.

Hunters Causing Status Ailments

An attack card that has a status ailment symbol will cause a status ailment in addition to causing damage. These are status ailment attack cards.

When you attack a monster with a status ailment attack card, place a status ailment token of that type on the status ailment token stash on the monster's physiology card.

A monster's status ailment resistance is shown as either:

Resistance 1 - Status ailment is caused when there is 1 or more tokens of this type in the monster's status ailment token stash

Resistance 2 - Status ailment is caused when there are 2 or more tokens of this type in the monster's status ailment token stash

Immunity - A status ailment can't be caused by this status ailment type. Don't place tokens of this type in the monster's status ailment token stash

After placing a token, check the monster's status ailment resistance as shown above to see if a status ailment has been caused.

When a status ailment is caused, resolve the status ailment as listed below. Then remove all tokens of that type from the status ailment token stash and return them to the supply.

If a status ailment lasts until the end of the monster's next turn, place a token for the relevant status ailment on the monster's behaviour deck as a reminder.

Stun - The dodge value of the monster's next attack is 1 and can't be increased or decreased by any other effect

Poison - The monster loses 2 health at the end of its next turn

Sleep - Only resolve the hunter turn and hunter attack symbols of the next monster behaviour

Paralysis - If the monster's next behaviour card has a movement symbol, reduce the number in the movement symbol to 0

Blastblight - Each part of the monster has -1 armour until the end of its next turn

Dodging Monster Attacks

To dodge a monster's attack, you must play attack cards from your hand face down onto your stamina board. The total agility on those cards must equal or exceed the dodge symbol of the monster's attack to be successful.

If a monster's attack is successfully dodged, your hunter does not suffer any damage or status ailments from the attack, and moves a number of nodes up to the agility of the attack cards played to dodge.

Remember, when your hunter's stamina board is full of attack cards, you can't play any more cards onto it.

Armour & Elemental Resistance

When suffering damage from a monster's attack your hunter's armour or elemental resistance reduces the amount of damage your hunter suffers.

In addition, some armour will provide hunters with special abilities or other bonus effects. Make sure to read your armour cards carefully to understand when these abilities or effects come into play!

Your hunter's armour is calculated by adding together the amounts shown within the armour symbol on any pieces of armour they have equipped, as well as their weapon.

Reduce a monster's physical attack damage by the total armour of your hunter. Armour doesn't reduce damage from elemental monster attacks.

Your hunter's elemental resistance is calculated by adding together the amounts shown within these symbols (fire, water, ice, thunder, dragon) on any pieces of armour they have equipped as well as their weapon. Your hunter's elemental resistance is calculated for each type. Reduce a monster's elemental attack damage by the total resistance to that type.

Elemental resistances don't reduce damage from physical monster attacks.

Potions

Potions are used during a quest to recover lost health and stamina. Potions may be found throughout a quest.

Record the number of potions your group has on one group member's character sheet, regardless of who gained them. Anyone in the group may use potions regardless of whose character sheet they're recorded on.

When you use a potion, discard all the attack cards on your stamina board and then shuffle your discarded cards into your attack deck. Additionally recover all health your hunter has lost by setting your hunter's health dial to full.

The group may carry a maximum of 3 potions at a time. While the group has 3 potions any additional potions found must be ignored.

Anatomy of Armour Cards

Armour cards are presented as a series of symbols, sometimes including instructions.

Armour Card Name - The name of the armour card
Starting Weapon Symbol - Armour cards with this symbol are part of the weapon's starting deck, featuring a hexagonal border
Armour Slot Symbol - Identifies which slot of your stamina board this is placed on when equipped: head, body, or legs
Armour Symbol - While this armour card is equipped, your hunter gains armour equal to this number
Elemental Resistance Symbol - While this armour card is equipped, your hunter gains elemental resistance equal to this number and type
Special Rule - Any special rules the armour card has will be explained here
Set Bonus - A special rule that is only active when your hunter has all 3 pieces of armour equipped that are made from the same monster

Hunter Fainting

When your hunter's health dial reaches 0, your hunter faints and their miniature is removed from the board while they're carted back to camp to recover.

Discard 2 time cards. Discard any attack cards on your stamina board.

At the start of your next turn your hunter may return to the hunt. Place your hunter's miniature on any of the available starting nodes, return your hunter's health dial to full, and draw attack cards until there are 5 cards in your hand.

If the hunters faint three or more times between them, the group fails the quest. Progress to the HQ phase.

Ending Your Turn

You may choose to end your turn at any time. Usually this will be when you run out of attack cards to play, or if your stamina board is full.

Your turn can come to an end as a result of playing certain attack cards, so choose the order of the attack cards you play wisely!

When you end your turn, draw a time card and resolve its effects.

After you resolve your time card, if all hunter tokens are face down, flip all hunter tokens face up.

Ending The Hunting Phase

There are three ways in which the hunting phase may end.

If the monster's health dial has been reduced to 0, the monster has been slain. The quest is complete, move on to the HQ phase, and gather your rewards.
If you have fainted three or more times, the hunters fail the quest. Move onto the HQ phase.
If you ever need to draw or discard time cards when the time deck is empty, you fail the quest. The players move onto the HQ phase.

HQ Phase

In the HQ Phase, you'll carve resources from the slain monster, forge new armour and weapons, and set up for your next quest.

Recovery

Discard all attack cards in your hand and on your stamina board before shuffling your discarded attack cards into your attack deck. Shuffle your discarded damage cards into your damage deck. Return your hunter's health dial to full.

If you failed the quest, progress to the forging new armour and weapons section of the HQ Phase. You don't roll on reward tables or collect break rewards.

Shuffle discarded elemental damage cards back into the elemental damage deck.

Forge Reference Cards

Each hunter has their own forge reference card showing the weapons and armour they may forge and the resources required to forge them.

Weapons are separated into lines based on the resources required to forge them. More powerful weapons can't be forged unless you already own the weapon that precedes them in their line.

For example, using the above reference card for the dual blades hunter, the Strong Hatchets can't be forged unless you already own the Bone Hatchets and the Wild Hatchets.

The only requirement for new armour is to have the resources shown to forge them.

Weapon Rarity

Weapon cards will have one of four coloured symbols on them, indicating how rare they are. The higher the rarity of a weapon, the more powerful it is.

Starting symbols are rarity 1 weapons.

White symbols are rarity 1 weapons.

Yellow symbols are rarity 2 weapons.

Green symbols are rarity 3 weapons.

Purple symbols are rarity 4 weapons.

Armour symbols are similarly coloured to indicate their rarity.

Break Rewards

Breaking parts of a monster will grant you a number of additional rewards. When resolving reward tables, each group member gains the break rewards for monster parts broken during the quest.

Break rewards can be found on the reward table for each monster.

Reward Tables

The reward table for a monster is located on the reverse of its physiology card, and is used to determine which resources you've carved from the slain monster.

If you failed the quest, for any reason, don't roll on the monster's reward table.

Each group member rolls a number of dice as shown below. Check your result against the monster's reward table to determine the resources you've gathered as shown below.

Number of Hunters	Assigned Dice	Investigation Dice	Tempered Investigation Dice
2 Hunters	3 Each	4 Each	5 Each
3 Hunters	2 Each	3 Each	4 Each
4 Hunters	2 Each	3 Each	4 Each

When rolling on a reward table, each die may be spent to gain a single reward. However, you may combine any number of your dice to gain a specific reward. Record any resources you gather on your character sheet.

Example (Great Jagras Reward Table): In this example, you could choose to take the three separate rewards shown on the table for results 3, 5, and 6. However, if you really want the Great Jagras Scale on the 11th result, you could combine the 5 and 6 results to get 11.

Forging New Armour and Weapons

Now that you have your new resources it's time to forge the new armour and weapons you want.

When you forge a new weapon or piece of armour, note it down on your character sheet. Remember to cross off any resources from your character sheet that you've used to forge new armour and weapons.

You may freely trade any resources or armour you have with other group members. However, you can't trade weapons with other group members.

Particularly rare sets of armour sometimes feature set bonuses. Set bonuses are only active when your hunter has all 3 pieces of armour belonging to that set equipped. For example, a hunter equipped with all 3 pieces of Rathalos armour will be able to make use of the Rathalos Mastery set bonus.

Changing Weapon

When you equip a new weapon, follow the steps below in order:

Locate the new weapon card and replace the old weapon card with it on your stamina board
Construct a new damage deck using the damage cards listed on your new weapon card.
Replace your attack deck with your starting attack deck.
Replace attack cards in your attack deck as instructed by your new weapon.

Changing Armour

When you equip a new piece of armour, simply locate the new armour card and replace the old armour card of the same type with it on your stamina board.

Select a New Quest

It's time to choose another quest and proceed with your hunt! If you failed the quest, you may either reattempt it or choose another available quest.

To continue your adventure, return to selecting a quest on page 14.

Appendix

Monster Hunter World: The Wildspire Waste

Monster Hunter World: The Board Game - Ancient Forest, known as the Ancient Forest set, can be played with Monster Hunter World: The Board Game - Wildspire Waste, known as the Wildspire Waste set.

This gives you new hunters to experience, monsters to hunt, and equipment to forge!

If including hunters from the Wildspire Waste set in your Ancient Forest set campaign, follow the below steps in order:

When selecting your hunter, select any of the four hunters from the Wildspire Waste set.
If you've selected a hunter from the Wildspire Waste set, follow the steps shown in the hunter setup section on page 12 of the Wildspire Waste set's rulebook.

If including the additional monsters from the Wildspire Waste set in your Ancient Forest set campaign, follow the below steps in order:

Add 20 days to your campaign timer.
When selecting your first quest of the campaign, select the assigned quest for the Great Jagras, or the assigned quest for the Barroth.
When you've completed your first quest, you may select the assigned quest for any of the monsters in the Ancient Forest set or the Wildspire Waste set.
Completing the assigned quest for any monster allows you to select the investigation quests for that monster.
Adding the Wildspire Waste set gives more tempered investigation quests to choose from for your final hunt.

Arena Quests

For those who don't wish to play a full campaign but would still like to enjoy Monster Hunter: World - The Board Game, arena quests are a single session version of the experience.

When playing an arena quest, players use hunters with pre-set weapons and armour to battle a specific monster. Once the monster has been slain, the players have won the game.

To play an arena quest, turn to the arena quests section of the quest book and select an arena quest to play. Follow the game set up steps starting on page 10 of this rulebook. When setting up your hunter and their cards, equip each hunter as instructed by the arena quest.

Skip the gathering phase completely and go straight to facing the monster in the hunting phase.

If you're playing an arena quest with 1 or 2 players, give each player a Palico to use as described on page 13.

When creating the monster behaviour deck, don't use the Scoutfly level to determine which card is added to the deck. Instead, randomly select 1 of the 3 behaviour cards featuring the track symbol to add to the monster's behaviour deck.

Single Player Campaign

When selecting your hunter, select 2 hunters to play with instead of 1. Then follow the remaining set up steps for each hunter you've selected. Throughout your single player campaign, resolve rules and card effects as if each hunter is controlled by a different player.

Speed Run Campaign

For those seeking an additional challenge for their gaming experience. The campaign timer may be reduced to any of the following levels — the shorter the campaign timer, the more challenging the campaign will be to complete.

Medium campaign - 20 days Hard campaign - 15 days

Explorer Campaign

For those seeking a more relaxed gaming experience, don't use the campaign timer and take as long as you need!

Reduce Difficulty (3-4 Players)

To reduce the difficulty of a 3-4 player campaign or arena quest, give each player a Palico to use as described on page 13.

Gameplay Summary

Select a Quest

Gathering Phase — Read through your adventure in the Quest Book. Check the amount of tracks you've gathered against the Scoutfly Level.

Hunting Phase — Monster takes their turn. Hunters take their turn. Continue until the monster is slain or the hunters fail the quest.

HQ Phase — Hunters recover. Hunters select their rewards. Hunters forge any equipment they wish to forge. Select another quest or perform downtime activities.

Symbol Glossary

Hunter Symbols: Starting Weapon Symbols (great sword, sword & shield, dual blades, bow); Agility Symbol; Range Symbol; Damage Card; Break Symbol; Bonus Movement; Combo Symbol; Bonus Armour.

Elemental Symbols: Elemental Damage — Fire, Water, Ice, Thunder, Dragon. Elemental Resistance — Fire, Water, Ice, Thunder, Dragon.

Status Ailment Symbols: Stun, Poison, Sleep, Paralysis, Blast.

Stamina Bars: Normal Stamina, Stamina End.

Monster Symbols: Track Symbol; Target Closest; Target Furthest; Hunter Turn Symbol; Hunter Attack Symbol; Movement Symbol; Attack Symbol; Range; Dodge Value.

Monster Health & Body Parts: Monster Health; Head Body Part; Torso Body Part; Leg Body Part; Tail Body Part; Wing Body Part; Claws Body Part; Attack Node; Attack Arc.

Monster Elemental Damage: Fire, Water, Ice, Thunder, Dragon.

Monster Hunter World: The Board Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

How to Win
Game Components
Game Set Up
Gameplay
Gathering Phase
Hunting Phase
The Monsters
The Hunters
HQ Phase
Appendix
Gameplay Summary
- Symbol Glossary

How to Win

Choosing a quest allows you to hunt a specific monster. Completing quests unlocks additional quests and allows you to progress through the game.

To win Monster Hunter World: The Board Game - The Ancient Forest, you must complete a Key quest, before the campaign timer runs out.

Game Components

Hunters

When choosing a hunter, you should be aware that each hunter creates a dramatically different playing experience through their unique weaponry and fighting style. The four hunters in this set are:

Great Sword Hunter hits with serious force, building charge with each attack to unleash formidable power at the end of a combo.

Dual Blades Hunter favours swift strikes and mobility over raw hitting power, dashing in with a flurry of blows before dodging to safety.

Sword & Shield Hunter is incredibly versatile, offering a balance of defensive proficiency and offensive capabilities.

Bow Hunter carefully judges the perfect moment to attack, punishing monsters with a hail of arrows before closing in to cause maximum damage with the finishing shot.

Monsters

The monsters of the Ancient Forest are as varied as they are deadly. The four monsters in this set are:

Great Jagras is a gluttonous creature that will attack monsters even bigger than itself when hungry. It balloons to enormous proportions after each gigantic meal. Beware a crushing defeat.

Tobi-Kadachi builds up a static charge in its fur as it moves, which may be discharged for spectacular and powerful attacks. Prepare for an electrifying encounter.

Anjanath is a ferocious predator that prowls the Ancient Forest in constant search of prey. It's extremely aggressive and will attack without being provoked. Its bite is far worse than its bark.

Azure Rathalos is a subspecies of Rathalos. Take all of the aspects that make Rathalos such a devastating foe and make it faster. Brace for an airborne onslaught.

Quest Book

The quest book contains all the in-game information you need to play, including the quests and adventures for each monster as well as downtime activities.

Character Sheets

During the course of your campaign each hunter will carve parts of slain monsters to forge new equipment. You'll keep a record of anything your hunter gathers or forges on your character sheet.

Stamina Boards

Dice

Six sided dice which are used to determine the rewards you gain after slaying a monster.

Game Board

Hunters battle the monsters of the New World in the Ancient Forest, represented by the game board. Areas of the game board are divided into nodes, used to determine where miniatures are positioned.

Terrain

Different combinations of terrain tokens are positioned on the game board to represent varied environments.

Forge Reference Cards

Time Cards

Armour Cards

Hunters mainly protect themselves by leaping out of the way of monster attacks. Should they make a miscalculation, their armour is the last line of defence. These cards are numbered:

2-4 for the great sword hunter
26-28 for the sword & shield hunter
50-52 for the dual blades hunter
74-76 for the bow hunter
292-375 other armour cards

Weapon Cards

Each hunter is defined by the weapon they carry. Weapon cards determine what attacks a hunter can make as well as how much damage they cause. These cards are numbered:

1 and 376-384 for the great sword hunter
25 and 405-413 for the sword & shield hunter
49 and 430-438 for the dual blades hunter
73 and 459-467 for the bow hunter

Attack Cards

5-24 and 385-404 for the great sword hunter
29-48 and 414-429 for the sword & shield hunter
53-72 and 439-458 for the dual blades hunter
77-96 and 468-491 for the bow hunter

Damage Cards

Elemental Damage Cards

When your hunter uses elemental attacks, elemental damage cards will be drawn from a deck to determine the amount of damage caused to the monster. These cards are numbered 212-221.

Palico Cards

A trusty companion, a hunter's Palico will stay with them throughout their adventures. Each Palico is unique and will aid your hunter throughout the game. These cards are numbered 282-291.

Palico Tokens

When a Palico's ability is used, it's sometimes marked using a Palico token.

Hunter Tokens

Elemental Tokens

When a hunter damages a monster with an elemental attack it's marked with an elemental token.

Ailment Tokens

When a hunter damages a monster with an ailment attack it's marked with an ailment token.

Physiology Cards

Physiology cards contain the vital statistics of each monster. These cards are numbered 610-624.

Behaviour Cards

Each monster is controlled by a deck of behaviour cards featuring unique attacks. These cards are numbered 545-609.

Break and Broken Tokens

When a hunter inflicts break damage on a monster it's marked with a break token.

When a monster's body part is broken it's marked with a broken token.

Track Tokens

Track tokens show the progress of hunting a monster.

Health Dials

Hunters and monsters each have their own health dial showing how much damage they may take.

Game Set Up

Playing Area Set Up

Place the game board in the centre of the playing area. Note that the game board has artwork on both sides, choose whichever side up you prefer.

Place a stamina board in front of each player.

Place the quest book and a supply of tokens within reach of the players.

Take the 10 elemental damage cards and shuffle them to create an elemental damage deck. Place this deck face down near the game board.

The Wildspire Waste

Hunter Set Up

Starting with the youngest, players select a hunter to use during the game. The hunter you select will have a unique symbol identifying which cards are used to play that hunter:

for the great sword hunter, numbered 1-24
for the sword & shield hunter, numbered 25-48
for the dual blades hunter, numbered 49-72
for the bow hunter, numbered 73-96

These are the starting cards for your hunter.

Each hunter's starting cards will include:

1 weapon card
3 armour cards
20 attack cards

Take the miniature and starting cards belonging to your hunter, marked by their symbol.

For example, the great sword hunter starts with 7x 1 damage cards, 4x 2 damage cards, and 1x 3 damage card in their damage deck.

There are 3 types of armour — head, body, and legs.

Take your hunter's 3 starting armour cards and place each one on the matching slot of your stamina board to equip them.

Take a character sheet and write your name and your hunter's name at the top. Take a hunter health dial and set it to 8, your hunter's full health. Set up your playing area as shown below.

Ran out of character sheets? Download a printable sheet from www.steamforged.com

Palicoes (1-2 Players Only)

Shuffle the Palico cards and give 2 to each player. Each player selects 1 Palico card to keep and returns the other card to the game box.

Palico abilities are used during the hunting phase, once per quest. You may only use your Palico ability during your turn.

If you'd like, there's room on your character sheet to name your Palico.

Gameplay

Phases of a Quest

Each quest is composed of three phases: gathering, hunting, and HQ phase.

Selecting Your Quest — Distribute hunter tokens, construct time deck

Gathering Phase — Gather tracks and resources, find the monster

Hunting Phase — Face the monster, slay the monster

Return to HQ — Gather rewards, forge new equipment, select a new quest

Select a Quest

To hunt a monster, you must select a quest for that monster. During a quest you'll track down the monster, fight it, and eventually slay it before returning to the Astera basecamp.

Each monster has its own set of quests located within that monster's section of the quest book.

For your first quest, turn to page 5 in the Ancient Forest quest book; the Great Jagras section.

Each quest has the following information:

The name and type of quest
The time limit
The Scoutfly level
Adventure starting point
A minimap

Complete or Fail

Types of Quests

Once you've completed a monster's assigned quest, you may choose to take on an investigation quest for that monster.

Investigation Quests

Remember, to win your campaign you must complete a Key quest, before the campaign timer runs out!

Each time you attempt an investigation quest, you must select the next available adventure starting point.

Monster Setup

For the monster you've chosen to hunt, locate the cards with the monster's symbol. These are the monster's behaviour and physiology cards.

Each monster has 13 behaviour cards and 3 physiology cards.

Locate the monster health dial and the monster's miniature.

Place the monster's miniature, physiology card, behaviour cards, and health dial to the side of the game board.

The Time Deck

Locate the time cards.

Separate the time cards with the blue gem symbol into one pile, and time cards with the red gem symbol into another pile.

For the remainder of the quest the players will be instructed when to draw or discard one or more cards from the time deck to mark the passage of time.

If the players ever need to draw or discard time cards when the time deck is empty, the players fail the quest. Immediately progress to the HQ Phase on page 35.

The Campaign Timer

The campaign timer determines the maximum number of days that may be spent performing quests and downtime activities at the basecamp before the players fail the campaign.

Each time you choose one of the following, 1 campaign day is spent:

Perform an assigned quest. If the quest is failed, the hunters can attempt it again without spending another campaign day.
Perform an investigation quest, whether the hunters complete or fail it.
Perform downtime activities, to a maximum of 3 activities per day.

It's entirely up to you how you spend your days, although we recommend spending around 20 days performing quests, and no more than 5 days on downtime activities.

Downtime activities are explained in more detail on page 48 of the Ancient Forest quest book.

The campaign timer for a standard campaign of Monster Hunter World: The Board Game is set to 25 days. Record spent campaign days on your character sheet.

Gathering Phase

In this phase, you'll track down the monster you've chosen to hunt. Along the way you may acquire monster tracks, potions, or useful resources.

Preparation

Turn to the pages for this monster's adventure in the quest book. If this is your first quest of the campaign, turn to the Great Jagras adventures on page 6 of the Ancient Forest quest book.

Set the monster health dial to the health level on the monster's physiology card, shown within the heart symbol.

Locate the track tokens and place them face down in the playing area. Mix the track tokens up so that you won't know which ones you're picking up.

You'll begin each adventure at a starting point determined by the selected quest, and progress according to the instructions given at each step of the adventure.

Remember, for the first quest of the campaign you'll be playing the Great Jagras assigned quest. The starting point for the Great Jagras assigned quest adventure is entry 1, named Assigned Starting Point.

Each time you attempt an investigation quest, you must select the next available adventure starting point, named Investigation Starting Point.

For example, the first time you attempt a Great Jagras investigation or tempered investigation you would start from the first investigation starting point, which in the case of the Great Jagras is entry 2, named Investigation 1 Starting Point. Your next investigation or tempered investigation would start from entry 3, named Investigation 2 Starting Point and so on.

Playing Your Adventure

Potions are explained in more detail on page 33.

Scoutfly Level

Locate all 13 of the monster's behaviour cards and follow these steps in order:

Remove the 3 behaviour cards with the hand symbol.
Place the remaining 10 behaviour cards to one side.
Determine which of the 3 removed cards to add in using the Scoutfly level.
Add the determined card to the 10 behaviour cards.
Shuffle these 11 cards to create the monster's behaviour deck.
Return the track tokens to the supply.
Return the other 2 removed behaviour cards to the game box.

With the gathering phase now complete, the players progress to the hunting phase.

Hunting Phase

In this phase, your hunters will face the monster they've tracked down in brutal combat and attempt to slay it.

Preparation

Turn to the section in the quest book illustrating the information for the selected quest. Search the game box for the terrain tokens required for the quest as shown on the quest's minimap.

Place the monster's behaviour deck, which you prepared during the gathering phase, face down next to the monster's physiology card.

Shuffle your attack deck and draw a hand of 5 cards. Ensure your hunter token is face up.

Nodes

Multiple hunters may be on the same node, so long as you understand which miniatures are on which nodes. Hunters can't move to the same node as a monster.

Terrain Nodes

Bush: While a hunter is on a bush node they have -4 threat. Bush nodes don't affect monsters.

Rock: When a hunter is on a rock node they may move 1 node without placing attack cards on their stamina board. Rock nodes don't affect monsters.

Pond: When a hunter enters a pond node for any reason they must discard 1 card from their damage deck. Pond nodes don't affect monsters.

Hunting Phase Summary

Hunting Phase Step 1 (Monster Turn)

To resolve a monster's turn, follow these steps in order:

Draw the top card of the monster's behaviour deck and reveal it.
Use the monster's behaviour card to determine the target for its attack.
Resolve the behaviour card.
Discard the behaviour card.

If a monster's behaviour deck is ever empty, shuffle all of the discarded behaviour cards to form a new behaviour deck.

If the hunters have fainted three or more times between them, the group fails the quest. Progress to the HQ phase on page 35.

Hunting Phase Step 2 (Hunter Turn)

As a group, choose a hunter whose hunter token is face up, then follow these steps in order:

Choose to use combat actions or preparation actions.
Resolve the chosen actions.
Draw a time card.

If a time card can't be drawn because the time deck is empty, the players fail the quest. Immediately progress to the HQ Phase on page 35.

If the monster's behaviour allows more hunters to take a turn, repeat step 2.

Hunting Phase Step 3 (Check For Quest Complete)

If your group hasn't slain the monster, return to step 1.

If your group has slain the monster, the hunting phase ends and the players progress to the HQ phase, see page 35.

The Monsters

Miniatures & Base Markings

Physiology Cards

Monster Name
Quest Type
Monster Health
Elemental Resistances
Status Ailment Resistances
Special Rules
Monster Body Parts - The areas of the monster that may be attacked
Body Part Arc - The arc your hunter must be within to attack this body part
Part Armour - The armour value of each body part of the monster
Part Break Value - The amount of break tokens required to break the body part
Break Token Stash - Where break tokens are placed for each body part
Part Break Rule - The effect that triggers once a part has been broken
Elemental Token Stash - Where elemental tokens are placed
Status Ailment Token Stash - Where status ailment tokens are placed

Example (Great Jagras physiology card): Gluttonous — Each time this monster deals 1 or more damage to a hunter it regains 1 lost health.

Behaviour Cards

Monster behaviours are presented as a series of symbols.

Behaviour Name
Track Symbol
Target Symbol - The monster's target
Movement Symbol - The monster's movement
Attack Symbol - The monster's attack
Monster Body Part
Hunter Turn Symbol
Hunter Attack Symbol

There's useful information that can be obtained from all parts of the behaviour card, so remember to pay attention to the back of the cards too!

Monster Turn

When the monster takes a turn, perform the following steps in order:

Draw a card from the monster's behaviour deck and place it face up. If the monster's behaviour deck is empty, shuffle the discard pile to create a new behaviour deck.
Resolve the monster behaviour card from left to right. The following section will describe each of these steps in detail.
If there are no hunters on the game board at the start of the monster's turn, draw a behaviour card and place it face up. Then the monster's turn ends, progress to Ending a Monster's Turn on page 27.