One-Hit Heroes Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Objective
• Hero Setup
• Boss Setup
  • Difficulty Levels
  • Making the Game Easier
• Your Player Mat
• On Your Turn
  • 1. Scout — Reveal a card from the Boss Deck
  • 2. Fight — Play up to 3 cards and use your Items
  • 3. Rest — Clean up played cards and draw back to 5 cards
• Types of Cards
• Details: Dealing Damage and Gaining Aggro
  • Dealing Damage
  • Managing Aggro
  • Energy
• The Boss' Turn
  • Aggro Checks
  • Minions
• Attacks!
  • Other Common Boss Effects
• Surviving a Hit
  • Block with an Item
  • Play a Reaction
• ...Not Surviving a Hit
  • Rematch
• Winning the Fight
  • Card Packs
  • Next Fight
• The Armory
• Starting a New Episode
• Saving Your Progress
• FAQ
• Looking for More One-Hit Heroes?
  • Epilogue
• Common Boss Abilities
• Quick Setup
  • Hero Setup
  • Boss Setup
• Credits

Components

• 6 Hero Decks — Each playable Hero comes with 1 Hero Card and 11 Starter Cards.
• 35 Light Damage Tokens and 35 Heavy Damage Tokens — Damage Tokens represent the Boss' health. Remove all tokens from a Boss to defeat it. These are contained in a Token Tray.
• 4 Energy Sliders — These fit into your Player Mat and are used to track your Energy.
• 1 Hero Die — Some cards allow players to roll this die to deal extra damage.
• 1 Attack Die — Roll this when the Boss attacks to see if you get hit.
• 4 Player Mats — This is where you put your Hero Card, Item Cards, Energy Slider, and tokens to track your Aggro.
• 3 Episode Boxes — Each Episode Box contains a tray with Boss Mats, Boss Decks, Card Packs and other goodies. Each Episode is a self-contained adventure that you play independently of other Episodes.

Don't like reading? Watch the how-to-play video at Wiggles3D.com/OHH.

Objective

One-Hit Heroes contains three Episodes, each with four Bosses that you must overcome. Conquer all of the bosses within an Episode to win!

Warning: It's not easy being a Hero! One-Hit Heroes is filled with deadly Bosses, and you'll often lose a fight once or more before you win. If you get wiped out the first time, don't take it personally — this game is meant to be a challenge!

Hero Setup

Every Boss battle starts with this Hero setup. If it's your first time playing, peek at your cards before setting up so you have a rough idea of what your Hero can do.

1. Place a Player Mat in front of you.

2. Take any 3 tokens from the Token Tray. Place them in the first three hexagon-shaped slots on your Player Mat. These twelve slots make up your Aggro Bar.

3. Set an Energy Slider in the top-left slot so that all 3 Energy are visible.

4. Pick a Hero and take all their related cards. Place your Hero Card in the left slot.

5. Find your two cards with the Item symbol. These are Items. Place them in the two Item slots on your Player Mat. Once you find more Items, you can choose which two to start each battle with. The rest go in your deck.

   If you're playing as Sofia, take the Hero Die and put it near you.

6. Shuffle the rest of your cards and place them near you. This is your Draw Pile.

7. Draw 5 cards to form your hand, then choose a player to go first.

Solo Mode: Set up a second Player Mat with another Hero and alternate which Hero and Player Mat you use each turn.

Boss Setup

1. Pick an Episode. (If it's your first time playing, pick Episode 1.) Open the box, slide out the tray and take the Boss Mat labeled "Boss 1" beneath the name. Read the back of the Boss Mat, then place it face-up within reach of all players.
2. Find the Boss Deck with the same name as your Boss. Place it face-down by the Boss without shuffling it. The top card should have a 1 on the back.
3. Look at the top of the Boss Mat to see its starting health. Place the indicated Light and Heavy tokens near the Boss Mat (e.g. 10 Light and 5 Heavy).
4. Place the Attack Die nearby. Whenever the Boss attacks, roll this to determine who gets hit based on their Aggro.

Difficulty Levels

You can choose to up the challenge by increasing the game's difficulty level.

• Level 1: No additions. This is the standard One-Hit Heroes experience.
• Level 2: Add bonus health onto the Boss Mat. Keep this health pool separate from the boss's regular health.
• Level 3: Add 3 more Aggro to your Aggro Bar.
• Level 4: Add more to the Boss' bonus health pool.
• Level 5: Add bonus health onto the Boss Mat. You'll need some luck to win at this level!

The level you pick includes each level before it. For example, if you pick Level 3, you'll add bonus health to the Boss and start with 3 more Aggro.

When damaging the Boss, you must remove all bonus health from their mat before removing their standard health. Bonus health cannot be restored.

Making the Game Easier

If you lose against a boss, you can retry the fight with a little help:

• Draw 7 cards and discard 2 before beginning the fight. You may pick any Hero to go first.
• If you still need more help, swap up to 2 of your drafted cards with ones from the Armory, or trade drafted cards with other players.

Your Player Mat

Energy Tracker — Whenever you gain, spend or lose Energy, adjust the slider here to keep track of it. You start each battle with 3 Energy.

Hero Slot — Place your Hero Card here.

Discard Pile — Cards you play with a Discard symbol go here at the end of your turn.

Draw Pile — Your Draw Pile can go anywhere you'd like. Place your deck somewhere in reach. Whenever you draw cards, it'll be from here.

Note: If you ever need to draw a card but your Draw Pile is empty, shuffle your Discard Pile and flip the cards face-down to make a new Draw Pile. Then continue drawing the required cards.

Aggro Bar — Whenever you deal damage to an enemy, take the matching amount of Light or Heavy tokens from that enemy and place them into your Aggro Bar. The more sections of your Aggro Bar you have covered, the more likely you are to get hit by an Attack!

Item Slots — You start each battle with two Items in play. Items you play go directly into one of these slots.

Burn Pile — Cards you've played with a Burn symbol go here at the end of the current turn or when destroyed.

Note: Cards in your Burn Pile don't get reshuffled into your draw pile, which means they're generally once-per-battle effects.

Play Area — Play your cards anywhere above or below your player mat. Just make sure you do not play cards directly into your Discard Pile or Burn Pile.

Cards move from play to their respective destinations at the end of each turn.

On Your Turn

One-Hit Heroes alternates between Hero turns and Boss turns.

On your turn, you'll scout, fight, and then rest. Then, it'll be the Boss' turn to retaliate!

1. Scout — Reveal a card from the Boss Deck

Reveal the top card of the Boss Deck and place it in a pile beside the deck. This lets you see what the Boss will do on their turn, giving you a chance to prepare and react.

This also shows you the back of the next card on the Boss Deck, which hints what will happen next turn.

Once you've flipped up the new card of the Boss Deck, it's time to fight!

Note: If you would reveal a card from the Boss Deck but none are left, flip the deck over without shuffling and reveal card #1 again.

2. Fight — Play up to 3 cards and use your Items

To fight, play up to 3 cards from your hand to your Play Area and use any "Once Per Turn" effects on your Items that you'd like.

3. Rest — Clean up played cards and draw back to 5 cards

Items you play remain in their Item Slot until destroyed.

Other played cards will either move to your Discard Pile or Burn Pile depending on the symbol on the top corner:

• Cards with the Discard symbol go to your Discard Pile. This means you can play them again if you draw them!
• Cards with the Burn symbol go to your Burn Pile, where you usually won't see them for the rest of the battle.

Once you're done discarding cards, draw until you have 5 in your hand.

If you already have 5 or more cards in your hand, don't draw any more.

If you ever need to draw a card but your Draw Pile is empty, shuffle your Discard Pile and flip the cards face-down to make a new Draw Pile. Then continue drawing the required cards.

Tip: Since you always refill your hand to 5 cards, you may want to play 3 cards a turn even if they're not all useful just to draw through more of your deck.

Types of Cards

Weapons deal damage when played. Damage removes Light or Heavy tokens from enemies and places them onto your Aggro Bar. The Damage Box in the center indicates a Weapon's default damage. See "Details: Dealing Damage and Gaining Aggro" below for more information.

Actions typically have non-damaging effects when played, like drawing cards or removing Aggro. For example, some Action cards remove Aggro from a Hero, making them less likely to get hit by attacks.

Items go into one of your two Item Slots, then remain in play until destroyed. You start each battle with two Items of your choice in play. Heroes can destroy items to block hits. See "Surviving Hits" below for more information. Many Items provide "Once per turn" effects that you can use on your turn, but some provide passive effects that work at any time. If your Item is destroyed, immediately move it to your Burn Pile.

Note: You may play an Item into an occupied slot, but it will destroy and replace your current Item.

Reactions are special: they don't count towards your 3 card plays a turn! Instead, they have specific times when they can be played, which is indicated on the center of the card and in the text box:

• Play on Ally's Turn: You can only play this during a different Hero's turn. Most cards specify a particular part of that turn, like when another Hero plays a Weapon.
• Play on Boss' Turn: You can only play this during the Boss' turn, you can choose the specific moment during that turn for optimal effect.
• Play at ANY time: You can play this at ANY time during the fight, including during your own turn. Playing these cards on your turn still doesn't count towards your 3 card plays a turn.

Details: Dealing Damage and Gaining Aggro

Dealing Damage

When you play a card that deals light damage or heavy damage, move the matching token from that enemy onto the leftmost open slot of your Aggro Bar.

Whenever you lose Aggro, remove tokens from the rightmost slots of your Aggro Bar.

Whenever you deal heavy damage, you may choose remove light damage instead. This can be useful if the Boss has no heavy damage left to take. However, you can't do the reverse.

For example, Sidearm deals one Light damage. Take one Light token from the Boss and place it into your Aggro Bar.

Managing Aggro

Your Aggro level is determined by which colors you have covered with tokens. The more Aggro you have, the more likely you are to be hit when the Boss attacks, so you will want to remove Aggro from yourself and your allies whenever you can.

Once your Aggro Bar is full, any tokens you gain are discarded to the token supply.

This means you can take Aggro from other Heroes when you're already at full capacity for easy Aggro removal.

Energy

You start each battle with 3 Energy.

Many of your strongest effects require you to spend or lose Energy. Some cards can also give you Energy back.

To change your Energy level, move the slider to cover the symbols on your Hero Mat. You have a maximum of 3 Energy.

If a card says "Lose Energy", you still get its other effects even if you have zero Energy. But if an effect says "Spend Energy" and you can't spend it, you don't get the effect.

The Boss' Turn

The Boss' turn happens after each player's turn. For example, in a game with two Heroes, Caceus and Sofia, the turn order runs: Caceus, then the boss, then Sofia, then the Boss again.

First, resolve the effect on the Boss Mat. Then, resolve the revealed card from the Boss Deck.

Aggro Checks

Some cards are split in two. If both halves share a blue background, just resolve them from top to bottom. But if one has a different-colored border, that's an Aggro Check!

Resolve the top half like normal. Then, check if ANY player has the Aggro indicated on the lower half of the card.

If ANY player has enough Aggro for the Aggro Check, resolve the lower half of the card affecting ALL Heroes.

For example: on one card, if ANY Hero has any tokens in the Yellow part of their Aggro Bar, that Boss will attack twice. Otherwise, it'll only attack once.

Minions

Some Boss fights include smaller cards with spaces for tokens. These are Minions. When a Minion gets revealed, add the indicated number of Light and Heavy tokens from the supply to the card. Minions stay in play until you defeat them by removing their tokens.

Some minions have powers similar to those on Boss Cards. Minions resolve their effects after the Boss, and in numerical order.

You can damage Minions just like Bosses. When dealing damage you can choose to split damage from a single card between minions and bosses.

When you defeat a minion, return it to the Episode Tray.

Attacks!

A common symbol you'll see on Boss Cards and the Boss Mat is the attack. Whenever the boss attacks, a player must roll the Attack Die to see who gets hit.

The Attack Die's faces carry increasing odds of being hit — 16%, 33%, 50%, 66%, 83% — depending on how far up your Aggro Bar is filled.

For example, a player in the GREEN Aggro Zone has a 33% chance to get hit when the boss attacks.

• MISS! Nobody gets hit! This is the best result you can hope for.
• All players with any tokens in their PURPLE Aggro Zone get hit.
• All players with any tokens in their RED Aggro Zone get hit.
• All players with any tokens in their YELLOW Aggro Zone get hit.
• All players with any tokens in their GREEN Aggro Zone get hit.
• HIT! All players get hit, regardless of their Aggro!

For example, if you have tokens up in the red section of your Aggro Bar, you'll get hit when the Attack Die rolls RED, YELLOW, GREEN or HIT.

Other Common Boss Effects

Gain X Aggro — Place that many tokens from the supply into your Aggro Bar.

Discard a card — Move any card from your hand to your Discard Pile.

Burn a card — Move any card from your hand to your Burn Pile.

Restore — Add the indicated tokens from the supply to the indicated enemy. Restore can't grant an enemy more tokens than its original amount, and it can't revive defeated enemies.

Destroy an Item in Play — Move an Item from one of your Item Slots to your Burn Pile.

Lose Energy — Reduce your Hero's Energy by 1.

Surviving a Hit

If you're about to get hit, your team needs to either block the attack with an Item or play a Reaction that saves you!

Block with an Item

Blocking stops you from taking a hit. In order to block with one of your Items, you must destroy it by moving the Item from your player mat to your Burn Pile.

Some Items, like Force Shield, can be used to block for other heroes.

Items can only be used to block if they are on your player mat. They cannot be used while in your hand, discard pile, or burn pile.

Play a Reaction

Reactions have a variety of effects that can save you. When played, they interrupt whatever is about to happen to do their effect first.

For example, if the Attack Die rolls GREEN, Tactical Retreat can be played to change the Attack Die to MISS, preventing everyone from getting hit!

You can mitigate the odds of getting hit in the first place by managing your Aggro. Each color of Aggro that you don't have covered on your Player Mat is one extra Attack Die face that doesn't affect you!

...Not Surviving a Hit

Sometimes you don't have Items to block, or relevant Reactions to play. If any one Hero gets hit, the whole team has lost the fight!

Rematch

If you lose against a boss, you can retry the fight but with a little help:

• First, repeat the Hero and Boss setups as shown above, making sure that the boss deck is back in numerical order with card 1 on top.
• Then, draw 7 cards and discard 2 before beginning the fight. You may pick any Hero to go first.

If you still need more help, you can try swapping up to 2 of your drafted cards with ones from the Armory, or trade drafted cards with other players.

Winning the Fight

Once you've removed all Light and Heavy tokens from the Boss, you've defeated it! Now it's time to get some new cards and take on the next Boss!

Card Packs

Each Boss has a special wrapped Card Pack corresponding to them. Take the one from the Episode Box that matches the Boss you've defeated and crack it open.

Whoever dealt the final token of damage to the Boss chooses a card to add into their deck first. From there, players draft cards in a clockwise fashion until 2 cards have been drafted by each player.

The 2 cards you draft get shuffled into your deck and remain there until the end of the Episode. Place any remainders into the Armory section of the game box.

Next Fight

After you've defeated the first Boss, take out Boss #2 in the Episode Tray and put away the Boss that you've just defeated.

Refer to Hero Setup and Boss Setup above to reset your Heroes and set up the new Boss. The Hero who dealt the finishing blow on the previous Boss gets to take the first turn.

You don't need to always start your battles with your original two Items! If you draft additional items, you can choose any two items to start each battle with. Shuffle the rest into your deck.

The Armory

The Armory is how your Heroes gear up and prepare for battle... but at the start of your adventure, it's completely empty. Heroism for its own sake is great, but your other goal is to bring back lots of loot from each mission you take. Build the most advanced arsenal in the world!

The first time you play an Episode, you'll open a card pack after each victory to get your cards.

When you complete an Episode, remove all drafted cards from your Hero decks and shuffle them into the Armory part of the game box.

Whenever you defeat a Boss you've already looted, shuffle the Armory Deck and reveal the top 10 cards. Each player drafts 2 of these cards.

Once finished, shuffle the unchosen cards back into the Armory Deck.

Discover new synergies by combining cards from different Episodes!

Starting a New Episode

When you defeat the last Boss of the Episode, you've completed the Episode!

Separate all the cards you've drafted out from your Hero's starting deck. Check the bottom-right corner of the card: a grey rectangle indicates a hero's Starting Card, while a gold rectangle represents a card drafted from card packs.

Place your deck of Hero Cards into one of the six tray slots in the game box. Then, take all the drafted cards from the Episode and shuffle them into the Armory card tray in the game box.

The Hero Slots hold your Hero deck. The Armory holds cards from card packs.

Note that you don't have to sort Armory cards: your first time playing the game has a curated experience, but each subsequent attempt at an Episode lets you draft cards from any Episode and Boss for a unique experience each time you play!

Saving Your Progress

Need to take a break between battles in an Episode? You can save your progress by placing your Hero Deck, including the cards you've drafted so far, into one of the six hero card slots in the game box tray.

When packing your Episode materials back into their Episode Box, place the Boss Mat of your upcoming battle on top of the other materials so you remember who you're fighting next.

FAQ

Is your question not here? Check up the digital FAQ at wiggles3d.com/ohhfaq, or scan the QR code provided.

I just opened up a Boss and it comes with all these components and I don't know what to do with them. Help?

The back of each Boss Mat has instructions about how to set everything up for that battle.

Can you redraft cards between Bosses?

You're meant to keep your drafted cards between Bosses. Redrafting between fights might make bosses a little too easy...

...But if you need it, I suggest checking the setup options for Making the Game Easier above to make things a bit easier.

If I want to sort the cards back into their original card packs, is there a way I can look up which cards came from which packs?

Yes. Check the bottom-right of each card for a code. The letters of a code indicate the Episode.

Each card pack has eight cards in it, so cards 1 to 8 are always in the first card pack of an episode. For example, WE-9 is from the second card pack in Episode 2: The New West.

What exactly gets doubled by Twin Arrow? Like, if I double your Leech, will you draw 2 cards?

Any damage amounts in the Damage Box, as well as any applicable damage amounts in the text box. However, other effects, such as drawing cards, don't get doubled.

So, Leech would deal double damage, but still only draw 1 card.

How do I sequence "Whenever you..." effects? Like "Whenever you play a Reaction, lose 2 Aggro": do I remove the 2 Aggro before or after resolving the Reaction?

For example, if I have no Aggro and I want to play a Reaction that deals damage, I'd rather deal the damage first before losing Aggro...

You get to choose.

Can I play a Reaction that mentions something that hasn't happened? Like, can I block for a hero or change the Attack Die if the Boss hasn't Attacked or hit anyone that turn?

No, you cannot. Reactions can only be played once the trigger condition listed on the card has been met. For example, after the Boss attacks.

I like finding ways to discard or burn Reactions I don't need in order to free up space to draw more cards next turn.

Some cards like Taunt mention taking Aggro from "other Heroes". Can I split this however I want, like two Aggro from one Hero and three Aggro from another? ...and can I Taunt while I'm already at full Aggro, effectively removing 5 Aggro from other Heroes?

Yes, and yes.

How come you can play Toxic Blast without a Weapon in your hand, but Edric can't play Blue Flame without discarding 3 cards from his hand?

Because my cards are superior. Haha.

When you play a card that says "Do X to do Y", like "Discard 3 cards to deal two Heavy", you can only do the second thing if you can fulfill the first part.

Meanwhile, when you play a card that says "Do X. Do Y.", you try to resolve their effects independently. So for Toxic Blast, I only need to Discard a weapon if I have one, but I still get to deal the heavy damage regardless.

If I use a "once per turn" item, destroy it, and bring it back, can I use its effect again?

You've been playing too much of that other card game. No, you can't use an item's "once per turn" effect twice in one turn.

Can I play a card on my turn even when it's useless, like "Spend Energy to remove 3 Aggro" if I have no Energy?

Yes. Note that it will still go to its appropriate Discard or Burn Pile at end of turn even if it didn't do anything.

When a card says "Draw any card from your Discard Pile" can I choose the card?

Yes.

Hey, I'm supposed to reveal 10 cards from my Armory but I only have 8 left. Do I only have 8 to pick from?

Yes, you'll only have 8 cards to draft from.

Looking for More One-Hit Heroes?

Epilogue

Face The Infinite in this multi-stage boss fight so huge it had to be put into its own Episode Box! Defeat The Infinite and unlock a secret that'll transform how you play each Episode…

DO66-0 is your mechanical canine companion, ready to help you by granting powerful upgrades. DO66-0 comes equipped with 3 game modes: Solo Mode, Beginner Mode, Boost Mode.

Discover more at Wiggles3D.com.

Common Boss Abilities

Attack! — Roll the Attack Die. Hit each Hero with any Aggro matching the color on the die. If the die rolls HIT or MISS, it hits or misses all Heroes respectively.

Gain X Aggro — Place that many tokens from the supply into your Aggro Bar.

Discard a card — Move any card from your hand to your Discard Pile.

Burn a card — Move any card from your hand to your Burn Pile.

Restore — Add the indicated tokens from the supply to the indicated enemy. Restore can't grant an enemy more tokens than its original amount, and it can't revive defeated enemies.

Destroy an Item in Play — Move an Item from one of your Item Slots to your Burn Pile.

Lose Energy — Reduce your Hero's Energy by 1.

Quick Setup

Hero Setup

Grab a Player Mat and pick a Hero deck.

Place your Hero Card and any two Item Cards into their slots on your Player Mat.

Place any 3 tokens into your Aggro Bar.

Shuffle your deck and draw 5 cards.

Boss Setup

Pick an Episode, then grab the Boss Mat and Boss Deck for whatever Boss you need to defeat next in that Episode.

Read the back of the Boss Mat.

Set out Light and Heavy tokens as shown on the Boss Mat to form its health.

Without shuffling, place the Boss Deck face-down.

Credits

Game Design: Connor Reid & AC Atienza

Character Design: Alex Diochon

Artwork: Alex Diochon, Zachary Whistle, Niels Vestergaard

Graphic Design: Connor Reid

Editor: Peter Nesbitt

Producer: Don Reid

Special Thanks: Jesse Carter, Christyn Carter

Playtesters: Kae, Psiguy7, Sam Charney (Mosgon), So and So, Tighe Skye

Icons: Flaticon.com, Lorc, Delapouite & contributors at Game-Icons.net

One-Hit Heroes is a registered trademark of Wiggles 3D Incorporated. ©2024. All rights reserved. Made in China. Contact: [email protected], www.Wiggles3D.com. London, Ontario, Canada. N6K 5R1.