Puzzle Strike 2
Puzzle Strike 2 Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Component List
- Scepter of Power
- Gems: 30 purple gems, 30 pink gems, 30 blue gems, 30 green gems
- Tokens: 20 gem-tokens, 20 actions
- 3 large diamonds
- Player boards: 4 vertical player boards, 4 horizontal player boards
- Bank board
- Cards: 198 Cards total
- 30 Character cards
- 28 Starting deck cards
- 2 Ante Up cards
- 16 Wounds
- 61 Card deck: Grand Melee
- 61 Card deck: Birthday Bash
The Crash System
Your gem pile is a 14-space container that holds your gems. It starts empty. When gems go into it, gravity causes them to fall down as far as they can.
Each turn, you'll perform an ante, which means adding a few gems to your gem pile. Opponents can also send gems to you that will fall into your gem pile during your turn.
If you end your turn with more than 10 gems in your gem pile, you BUST! When you bust, you lose the game in 2-player mode; in 3-player and 4-player games busting triggers the end-game sequence.
On the one hand, you want to have as few gems as possible, because having too many makes you lose the game. On the other hand, the more gems you have, the bigger your "height bonus" is, which lets you draw more cards AND lets you send more gems to your opponent(s) (see "Height Bonus" below). Power is tempting, but be careful how greedy you are.
Crash Gems
Crash gems are the heart of the game. They allow you to get rid of gems in your own gem pile and send them to an opponent. Whenever you play a crash gem, you remove the TOP gem in your gem pile, put it in your super meter of the corresponding color, and send a gem-token to the opponent. That gem-token will fall into the opponent's gem pile (and become a real gem) on their turn. (Learn more about super meter on page 3.)
A single crash gem can send a lot more than just one gem to the opponent if you play your cards right. You can do it with color matches and the height bonus.
Color Matches
Whenever you crash a gem, you ALSO get to include all adjacent gems of the same color. So if your top four gems are all blue, then a single crash will remove all four, you'll put all four in your blue super meter, and you'll send four gem-tokens to the opponent. (Hint: use Swaps to rearrange your gem pile so that the top several gems are all the same color.)
Height Bonus
The more gems there are in your gem pile, the more "height bonus" you get. The bonus is marked to the right of your gem pile. It does two things for you:
- Send extra gems when you crash, and
- Draw more cards during your draw phase.
The height bonus for crashing ONLY triggers when you crash two or more gems of a given color at once. When you crash a single gem, you don't get the bonus. If you're crashing a double or more, then you get the bonus next to the highest gem that you're crashing. For example, if you have 6 gems in your gem pile, and the top four are the same color, crashing will send SIX gems (you break four because they are adjacent and the same color, then you get two bonus gems from the height bonus).
The extra gems you send from the height bonus don't go into your super meter. Only actual physical gems that were in your gem pile go to your super meter when you crash them.
Incoming Gems
When opponents send gems to you, you mark them with gem-tokens on your board's incoming zone. You also add gem-tokens to your incoming zone whenever your 14-space gem pile is full and something says to add more gems to it. For example, if you had 13 gems in your gem pile, and something said to add 2 green gems, you'd add one green gem (making it full, at 14) then add one gem-token to your incoming zone.
Blocks
On your turn, you can play blocks to reduce how many gems are incoming. For example, if you have 5 incoming gems, you could play a 3-block to reduce that to 2 incoming gems.
Dropping Incoming Gems
During your action phase, you can drop your incoming gems at any point to convert them from gem-tokens to physical, colored gems in your gem pile. Doing so doesn't cost any actions and you can drop multiple times per turn. When you drop your incoming gems, you have to drop as many as you can. If there's space for all of them in your gem pile, dropping makes them all fall. If there isn't space in your gem pile for all of them, then dropping means filling your gem pile up to 14, then the remaining stay as gem-tokens in your incoming zone.
If you have any incoming gems at the end of your action phase, you MUST drop them (and remember that you'll bust if you end your turn with more than 10 gems in your gem pile).
Drop Pattern
When incoming gems drop and convert to physical gems, determine which colors they become by looking at the Drop Pattern in the community bank. The first gem that falls is the color of the first card. The second is the color of the second card, etc. There are only 5 bank cards at any moment, so if more than 5 gems fall, it wraps around; the 6th gem that falls is the color of the first card again, the 7th is the color of the 2nd card again, etc.
Each time you drop gems, you check the bank's drop pattern at that moment. You never have to remember some earlier pattern of colors in the turn. Each time you drop, you always start with the left-most color in the bank. For example, if you drop but only have room to drop the first two incoming gems, then you crash a bunch of gems out of your gem pile, then you drop again, you do NOT start that second drop with the 3rd bank color. Drops always start fresh with the 1st (left-most) bank color.
Ante
At the start of your turn, you ante 2 gems of the same color (on later turns, this goes up). Whenever you ante (even from a card's effect), the gems are always the color of the 5th card in the community bank. That slot is marked by the huge rainbow ribbon, to remind you it's the ante slot.
Because your ante is always the color of the 5th slot, it means antes (unlike incoming gems that use the drop pattern) always give you multiple gems of the same color. If the 5th card is green, for example, anteing two gems means adding two green gems to your gem pile.
Later in the game, the ante increases to 3 gems, then to 4 gems. Whenever one of the two "Ante Up" cards is revealed from the bank deck, tuck it under the top of the bank board by the 5th slot so it shows "+1 ante, +1 action" to remind you that the pace of the game has increased. The changes start on the turn AFTER the Ante Up is revealed. (The +1 ante ONLY affects the ante phase, not any other effects that say to ante.)
If your gem pile is full (all 14 spaces), your ante gems are added as incoming gem-tokens instead.
Super Moves
You have four super moves: one for each color of gem. These super moves are listed on your vertical board and each one has a 4-space meter. Whenever you fill a meter (all four spaces filled), that super move activates and you reset the meter to empty (return the gems that were in it to the supply). If your super meter fills in the middle of doing what a card says, finish the card's effects, then do the super move. Likewise, if a card triggers other cards to be played, finish the whole chain of triggers, then do the super move.
Your super moves:
- Overload (purple). The opponent antes a blue gem, then a pink gem, then a green gem.
- Purify (blue). Choose a color, then you may destroy all gems of that color in your gem pile.
- Energize (green). Gain 2 actions, draw 2 cards.
- Trickshot (pink). Put a bank card into your hand. You may play it for free (any time during your turn).
Filling Your Meters
The two main ways to fill your super meters are to crash gems in your gem pile, or to hold the scepter (see next section) and use its Command Decision power to gain super meter.
Super Meter Details
Overfill. Whenever you fill one of your super meters past four spaces, activate that super and keep the extra gems. For example, if your green super meter had 3 gems in it, and you crashed 2 more green gems, you'd activate your green super move (because it reached a full state of 4 gems), empty it by returning 4 green gems to the bank, then fill it with 1 more green gem.
Destroying Gems. Some cards (and the blue super move Purify) say to "destroy" gems in your gem piles. You do NOT put "destroyed" gems into your super meter—just return them to the supply.
Simultaneously Filling Meters. Sometimes, you'll fill more than one of your super meters at the same time. When this happens, perform the supers in the order they are listed (from top to bottom) on your board.
If It's Not Your Turn. If one or more of your super moves activate on an opponent's turn (probably from using the scepter's Command Decision), that's fine. You still get the benefit and it happens right away, even if it's not your turn.
- Energize: you get the extra action tokens and cards right away, but you can't use them until your turn.
- Trickshot: you put the bank card into your hand right away, even if it's not your turn, but you can't actually play it right then. You can only play cards during your action phase. That card will be free during your next action phase while it's in your hand.
Supers Are Mandatory. When your supers activate, you must perform the actions they say. The blue super, Purify, does let you choose to do nothing though (It says "you may" destroy all gems of the chosen color).
The Scepter of Power
The scepter is a powerful tool that comes with a dangerous drawback. If you have it, hold onto it as long as you can because it fills your super meters over time, but be careful not to lose the game by being too greedy with it. Player 1 starts with the scepter.
Nexus of Power. Whoever has the scepter attacks everyone else simultaneously. For example, if you crash and send 3 gems, that means sending 3 gems to EACH opponent. It also means any effect that refers to "the opponent" actually affects ALL other players. Players who don't have the scepter only ever attack the scepter player on their turns. If you don't have the scepter, "the opponent" always refers to the player who does.
Dangers of Hubris. If you have the scepter at the start of your turn, any gem-tokens in your incoming zone automatically drop into your gem pile at the start of your action phase, before you're able to take any actions. Also, your blocks do not negate incoming gems (though you can still play block cards to get their other benefits). These drawbacks make it difficult to defend yourself while holding the scepter.
Command Decision. If you have the scepter, after the end of each OTHER player's turn, you step in to make a command decision:
- Power Up: You add one gem to each of your four super meters.
- OR — Yield: You give the scepter to the player who just ended their turn. (This is the point of holding the scepter!)
In other words, if you decide to keep holding the scepter across turns, your super meter fills up, eventually giving you access to powerful defensive and offensive techniques. If you choose to give away the scepter, probably because you know that you can't survive all the gems coming at you, then you're giving an opponent that advantage.
The Diamond
The diamond is a once-per-game boost that you can use to activate one of your super moves.
Each player OTHER than player 1 starts with a diamond. Put it on your vertical board at the start of your game, then set it aside when you use it.
You can use your diamond any time during your action phase, and it costs 0 actions to do so. When you use it, pick one of your four super moves, activate it immediately, then continue your action phase. If you had any gems in that color's super meter, you get to keep them in your meter.
You usually want to use your diamond to save yourself from busting, but if you're bold, you could use it offensively to force an opponent to bust.
Initial Setup
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Pick a bank deck: Grand Melee or Birthday Bash (Grand Melee recommended for your first game).
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Then each player picks a character. Get your character's 3 cards.
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Each player grabs a 7-card starting deck (consisting of 2 Swaps, 2 Crash Gems, 2 Basic Blocks, and 1 Skip Ahead) then adds their character's three cards to it to create a 10-card deck. Everyone draws 5 cards for their opening hand.
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Each player also gets a vertical player board and a horizontal board.
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Each player adds two gem-tokens to their incoming zone.
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Set up the bank board by shuffling the deck (either Grand Melee or Birthday Bash) and putting it on the deck slot. Deal out 5 cards into the 5 slots to the left of the deck. Put the wound cards in the wound slot. The trash slot starts empty.
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Get the two red "Ante Up" cards. You need to insert them at specific places in the bank deck (this is after you already dealt out 5 cards from the bank deck into the 5 slots). If X is the number of players (2, 3, or 4), then you want 4X cards on top of the deck, then the first Ante Up card, then 4X more cards, then the next Ante Up card, then the rest of the deck.
For example, in a 2-player game, the first Ante Up card should be after the 8th card from the top. Then after it, there should be 8 more bank cards, followed by the second Ante Up card, followed by the rest of the bank deck on the bottom.
(Rest-of-deck sizing: 2-player: 8 cards then 8 cards; 3-player: 12 cards then 12 cards; 4-player: 16 cards then 16 cards.)
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Give the SCEPTER to player 1 and a DIAMOND to each other player. You're ready to play!
Turn Structure
Players take turns in clockwise order. Decide randomly who goes first and give them the scepter. Remember that all other players start with a diamond. On your turn:
- Ante. Add two gems to your gem pile (the color of the 5th bank card).
- Action. You get 3 actions per turn. (See below about dropping your incoming gems into your gem pile.)
- Buy. Buy 1 card per turn by putting it into your discard pile. Pay the buy cost by adding that many incoming gems to your incoming zone.
- Draw. Discard your hand, then draw 5 cards plus your height bonus.
- Command Decision. At the end of each non-scepter player's turn, the scepter player gets +1 to each of their super meters -OR- gives the scepter to that player.
Ante
Add two gems to your gem pile (they fall from the top down). These gems are the same color as the 5th card in the bank.
Later in the game, the ante increases to 3 gems, then to 4 gems. Whenever one of the two "Ante Up" cards is revealed from the bank deck, tuck it under the top of the bank board by the 5th slot so it shows "+1 ante, +1 action" to remind you that the pace of the game has increased. The changes start on the turn AFTER the Ante Up is revealed. (The +1 ante ONLY affect the ante phase, not any other effects that say to ante.)
Action
If you have the scepter you MUST drop your incoming gems at the start of your action phase (costs 0 actions). If doing so fills your gem pile to 14 and you still have leftover incoming gems, you can drop the rest whenever you want during the action phase.
You get 3 actions to spend, which you can track with action tokens on your player board. (If one or two of the Ante Up cards are in effect, you'll start your turn with 4 or 5 actions, respectively.)
Any time during this phase (even multiple times), if you have incoming gems, you may drop them into your gem pile (costs 0 actions). If you have any incoming gems at the end of your action phase, you MUST drop them then.
Players other than player 1 have a diamond—a once-per-game item—which they can spend for 0 actions to activate one super move any time during their action phase.
At the end of your action phase, put all the cards you played this turn into your discard pile. You also lose any unspent actions.
Buy
Each turn, you add a card (just one card) to your deck from the bank. This is called your "buy" for the turn. That card goes to your discard pile and you'll draw it later, after your discard pile cycles back to your deck. It's mandatory that you buy one card during your buy phase. Your discard pile is always face up, by the way.
There is a buy cost listed below each card on the bank board. You pay this cost by putting that many gem-tokens into your incoming zone. The two left-most slots are the most attractive because their buy cost of 0 means you don't get any incoming gems. Choosing a card with a higher buy cost means you'll have to deal with more incoming gems next turn. Also, be aware that some cards have effects that can increase or decrease the buy cost on your current turn. The buy cost of a card can never be less than 0 though.
Any time any of the 5 bank slots are empty, slide all bank cards to the left, so there's one per slot. Deal out new cards from the bank deck left to right to fill any empty slots. Usually this means dealing a single card into slot 5, though some effects can remove more than one bank card.
Draw
Discard your hand, then draw 5 cards plus whatever your height bonus is. Your height bonus is marked on your board by your gem pile. If you have enough gems that you've reached "+2 height bonus", that means you'll draw 5 + 2 = 7 cards during the draw phase. As always, if you run out of cards to draw, shuffle your discard pile back to your deck and continue drawing.
Command Decision
Every time a player who doesn't have the scepter ends their turn, the scepter holder must make a command decision:
- Power Up: The scepter player adds one gem to each of their four super meters.
- OR — Yield: The scepter player gives the scepter to the player who just ended their turn.
Playing A Card
To play a card from your hand, pay its action cost and put it face-up in the middle of your player board (unless it's a creature; then see below). The action cost is in the upper left corner. Each turn, you have 3 action points to spend, though some cards give you extra actions. You might want to put your action tokens on each card as you play them to help you track your spending.
When you play a card, you immediately do whatever it says. It will stay in the middle of your draw board until the end of your action phase. At that point, it goes to your discard pile. During your action phase, if an effect would make you draw a card while your deck is empty, then shuffle the cards from your discard pile (NOT including the cards you played this turn) to create your new deck then continue drawing.
Creatures
Creatures are special in that you play them directly to your creature slot. Creatures provide ongoing effects and are NOT discarded automatically each turn like your other cards.
You can only have one creature at a time. If you have a creature, then play another one, the old creature goes to your discard pile and the new creature goes into your creature slot.
Defeating Creatures
The gem icon in the lower right of a creature shows how the opponent can destroy it (er, put it to sleep). Whenever they break at least the number and color of gems shown with a single crash, your creature is automatically discarded from play. The height bonus and other bonuses don't count toward this number—for example, they'll have to crash three actual green gems in their gem pile to defeat a creature that requires green 3.
Their crash still sends gems as usual (including extra gems from the height bonus) when a creature is destroyed.
Remember that when you have the scepter, all the other players are your opponents, so you could potentially destroy all their creatures with a single crash (if they happened to require the same color). If you don't have the scepter, you can only destroy the creature of the scepter player.
Winning the Game
Your goal is to overflow your opponents' gem piles with too many gems. If you end your turn with more than 10 gems in your gem pile, you BUST. In a 2-player game, the game is over and your opponent won. In a 3-player or 4-player game, if you bust, you lose and the remaining players enter the exciting Grand Finale, where they each take one final turn. (If a non-scepter holder busts, the scepter-holder automatically chooses to Power Up during the final Command Decision before the Grand Finale.)
Grand Finale!
The scepter lights up with an energy blast, causing its holder to drop it (and no one can claim it). The blast gives all Grand Finale players a bunch of incoming gems. Your goal is to send as many gems as possible back to the scepter without busting.
- Set the Bar. Look at the highest number of incoming gems any Grand Finale player has, then set ALL their incoming gems to that number. For example, if player 1, 2, and 3 have 8, 11, and 22 incoming gem-tokens respectively, then give players 1 and 2 more incoming gems until each player has 22 total.
- Minimum Quantity. If players still have fewer incoming gems than "10 plus 5 for each Ante Up card revealed so far," then set their incoming gems to this number instead.
Each player takes their final turn. Track the quantity of gems you send to the scepter as your score. Any gems you force the scepter to ante count as sent gems that increase your score. Ignore any instructions about doing anything else to "the opponent"; the scepter can't discard cards, etc.
No one holds the scepter during the Grand Finale. When a player wins the game, they may hold the scepter one last time, lording it over the weaker players.
Players skip the Buy Phase and Command Decision during final turns and ignore any new Ante Up cards revealed during the Grand Finale. If a player busts during a final turn, that's fine, keep going until everyone takes their final turn.
The winner is the Grand Finale player who sent the most gems to the scepter without busting. If everyone busted, the winner is whoever sent the most gems.
Parts of a Card
The upper left of the card shows the action cost to play it. The frame, as well as the falling blocks to the right of the action cost show the color of the card, for purposes of ante and drop pattern on the bank board.
The bottom left icon shows which deck the card belongs to (Grand Melee or Birthday Bash) so that you can separate the decks if they accidentally get mixed together. The bottom middle symbols tell you how many copies of that card are in the deck (either 1, 2, or 3).
Cards that go in your starting deck, including character cards, all have a white dot in the upper left corner. This has no gameplay meaning, but when the game is over, the white dots help you quickly separate out the starting deck cards from the bank deck. Wound cards aren't in your starting deck, but they also have a white dot in the upper left to help you make sure you separate them from the bank deck when the game is over.
Character cards can't be trashed, and they have a symbol in the lower right corner to remind you.
What All The Symbols Mean
- Swap. A swap is when you switch the position of two adjacent gems in your gem pile. Swaps are optional, so you can skip them if you want.
- Crash. Break your top gem and adjacent gems of the same color. Put all those gems into your super meter (of that color). Send that many gem-tokens to the opponent plus your height bonus, if any. (If it's unblockable, ignore their incoming zone and send gems to their gem pile immediately.)
- Action. Gain an action. (You may spend it any time during your action phase.)
- Deep Swap. Switch the position of ANY two gems in your gem pile, even if they aren't adjacent. Optional, so you can skip if you want.
- Deep Crash. The same as a crash, but you can use it on ANY gem in your gem pile, not just your top gem.
- Top Card. Put a bank card on top of your deck. This isn't a buy, so don't pay any buy cost for it. (You still buy as usual in the buy phase.)
- Buy Cost Adjust. Reduce (or increase) your buy cost this turn by 1 (minimum of 0). This effect ends at end of turn.
- Block. Negate this many of your incoming gems.
- Draw a card.
- Present. Draw a card and play it for free (meaning pretend it has 0 action cost). This isn't optional so you must do it if possible.
- Trash this card. (Put it in the trash slot on the bank board.)
- Discard a card.
Example of Play
The players decide to use the Grand Melee bank deck, then Alice picks Grave and Brob picks Jaina. Alice will go first, so she takes the scepter and Brob gets his diamond. Each player adds 2 gem-tokens to their incoming zone.
Alice Turn 1
Alice has her opening hand of 5 cards. She antes two blue gems (because the 5th card in the bank is blue), then gets 3 action tokens for her action phase. Because she has the scepter, she must immediately drop her 2 incoming gems at the start of her action phase. They convert to 2 pink gems in her gem pile because the 1st and 2nd cards in the bank are pink.
She spends 2 actions to play Crash Gem from her hand. That breaks her top 2 gems because they're both the same color (both pink). She puts those 2 pink gems into her pink super meter. She does get a height bonus here because she broke at least two gems of the same color. The highest gem broken was in position 4 in her gem pile, which gives a +1 bonus. So she sends a total of 3 gem-tokens to the opponent's incoming zone.
Then she uses her last action to play Skill Up, which lets her put a bank card in her hand. If she had more actions she could play the bank card she's getting immediately, but in this case her goal is just to break up the pair of 2 green cards in a row in the bank. That drop pattern is going to make it too easy for her opponent to crash (two pinks a row, then two greens in a row!). She plays Skill Up to put the green card in slot 3 (Unleashed Tiger) into her hand. She slides the slot 4 and 5 cards to the left and deals a new card from the bank deck, which is another blue card. She's out of actions so her action phase is over.
For her buy phase, she buys the pink card in slot 1: Kidney Shot. She puts it in her discard pile, then deals out a new (purple) card to slot 5. She wanted Kidney Shot anyway, but it was an especially good choice because it prevented the bank's drop pattern from starting with two pinks.
She discards her hand then draws 5 cards (she has no height bonus). Her turn ends.
Brob Turn 1
Brob has his opening hand of 5 cards. He antes two purple gems (because the 5th card in the bank is purple). He gets his 3 action tokens and considers what to do about the 5 incoming gems on his board (2 he started the game with + 3 that Alice sent). He could play some sort of crash now and break the two purple gems he anted, or he could drop the 5 incoming gems first.
Brob drops the incoming gems. Now he has a purple gem on top and 2 blue gems in a row under that. He plays Jaina's Unstable Power card which costs 3 actions (all his actions for the turn). This is a double crash, so it crashes the purple gem then it also crashes both blue gems underneath. The first crash is only breaking a single gem so it doesn't get the height bonus, but the second crash is breaking two gems of a color, so it does get the bonus. That highest of the blue gems was in slot 6 when it was crashed, so that's +2 height bonus.
Brob puts the 1 purple and 2 blue gems into his purple and blue super meters, respectively. His opponent takes 5 incoming gems (1 purple + 2 blue + 2 height bonus).
For the final part of resolving Jaina's Unstable Power card, Brob puts two wound cards from the bank into his discard pile (that's the drawback for such a powerful effect).
Brob's action phase is over, and he considers what to buy. He most strongly considers the two left-most cards, since they have 0 buy cost, and he decides to take the card in position 1: a pink card called Brass Knuckles. He moves it from the bank to his discard pile, slides the rest of the bank cards left, and deals out the next bank card into slot 5. It's a pink card.
Brob discards his hand, then draws 6 cards (5 +1 for the height bonus of having 4 gems). Because his draw pile only has 5 cards and he need to draw 6, he draws 5, shuffles his discard pile to create his new draw pile, then draws the 6th card.
Brob's turn is over, and now Alice must make a Command Decision (this always happens after the end of every non-scepter-player's turn).
Alice can either add 1 gem to each of her four super meters, or give the scepter to Brob. She'd really like to hold on to the scepter if possible, but it's risky. She already has 5 incoming gems, plus 2 in her gem pile, and will have to ante 2 more next turn. If she keeps the scepter, she'll be at 9 next turn...but she decides to keep it. Her decision is to power up so she adds one gem to each of her 4 super meters.
Alice Turn 2
Alice antes 2 pink gems because the 5th bank card is pink. She then drops her 5 incoming gems (she has to because she has the scepter). The gems become these colors: green, blue, blue, purple, pink because that's the drop pattern in the bank. Remember that she still had 2 blue gems at the bottom of her gem pile from her first turn.
Then she plays Grave's Sword Slice for 1 action, which lets her crash if her top gem is a different color than her second gem, which it is. She puts the top gem (which is pink) into her pink super meter, then would normally send 1 gem-token to the opponent, but Grave's Sword Slice says this crash is unblockable. This bypasses the incoming zone and Brob must immediately add a blue gem to his gem pile.
Alice's last action filled her pink super meter to a full 4 gems, so the Energize super triggers now. (The 4 pink super meter gems: she crashed 2 pink gems on turn 1, then got a super meter of each color by keeping the scepter in her Command Decision, then 1 from Sword Slice.) She returns the 4 pink gems to the supply, gets 2 more actions, and draws 2 more cards. She now has 4 actions left.
Alice plays a Swap card (1 action), which gives 2 swaps. She uses them to move the purple gem on top of her gem pile down twice so that the top two gems become blue. She spends 2 more actions on Crash Gem to break those two blue gems. She puts them in her super meter, then sends 4 gem-tokens to the opponent's incoming zone (2 blue + 2 height bonus). Alice has one more action, but nothing good to spend it on so she ends her action phase.
Alice buys the card in slot 1, a green card called Dash that she really wants. This is going to leave two blue cards in a row in the drop pattern, which she might regret, but she'll risk it. She slides the bank cards to the left then deals out a new card to slot 5, which is a purple card.
Alice discards her hand then draws 7 cards (5 +2 for the height bonus of having 6 gems).
Brob Turn 2
Brob antes two purple gems because the 5th card in the bank is purple. He has 4 incoming gems and he plays Basic Block (costs 1 action) to block all 4 of those.
He's down to 2 actions, then plays Jaina's Burning Vigor, which costs 1. It lets him trash a wound card from his hand, get +1 action, and causes the opponent to ante a gem (in this case, a purple gem because the 5th card in the bank is purple). He does have a wound from the previous turn, so he trashes that and goes back up to 2 actions remaining.
Brob plays Jaina's Playing with Fire which costs 0, draws 2 cards, and adds two incoming gems to himself. He does this because he sees that the first two bank cards are both blue and he can now drop them to get 2 blue gems in a row on top of his gem pile.
Brob plays a Crash Gem, crashing his top 2 blue gems + a height bonus of 3, sending a total of 5 gems.
The 2 blues he just crashed fill his super meter to full, so the Purify super activates. He could use Purify to get rid of the gem color he has the most of in order to play it safe, but he instead decides to get rid of greens in order to set up some future offense. Getting rid of his 2 greens leaves him with 5 gems total, and he knows that with a single Swap Card (later), he could move the pink gem to the bottom, which would line up four juicy purple gems in a row. Getting rid of purple gems would have left him safer, at only 3 gems total in his pile, but figures 5 gems (4 of which are the same color) is safe enough.
(Play continues...)
After Brob buys a card, Alice's command decision is, as Brob expected, to yield the scepter, giving it to Brob. Alice will start her next turn with 6 gems + 5 incoming + an ante of 2 more. She'll be in a rough spot at 13 gems, but now she'll be able to block, so she actually will survive her next turn.
Brob and Alice continue playing and have a jolly good time.
Solo and Cooperative Play
In this mode, 1 - 4 players can play against an automated AI opponent named Puzzle Dragon.
- The Dragon always has the scepter and can't lose it.
- The Dragon acts last in turn order (for example, if there are three humans the turns are: HHHDHHHD, etc.)
- The Dragon does track its own incoming gem-tokens, but does not use a deck, colored gems, or a gem pile.
- The Dragon uses a stack of cards to track its "Power." The Dragon's Power starts at 1 and increases by 1 during its buy phase each turn.
Difficulty Settings
- Easier: Players start with a diamond.
- Harder: The Dragon's Power starts at 2. Or 3 if you dare! Or 4 if you double dare!
Setup
Each player follows the standard game setup on page 5, except players start without a diamond. You can use either bank deck (Grand Melee or Birthday Bash).
When inserting the two Ante Up cards into the bank deck as mentioned in step 7 of Initial Setup, the "number of players" is the number of human players.
The Dragon starts with an empty incoming zone and a single wound card (or any spare card) to denote its starting Power of 1.
Dragon's Turn
Each time the Dragon takes its turn, it does the following:
- Ante 2 gem-tokens to its incoming zone (or 3 or 4 if Ante Ups are in effect).
- Block. Remove (Power) × (# of human players) gem-tokens from the Dragon's incoming zone. For example, if there are 4 cards in the Dragon's Power stack, and there are 2 human players, it blocks 4 × 2 = 8.
- Send (Power) gem-tokens to each human player's incoming zone. Then send an additional number equal to the largest run of adjacent same-color cards in the bank (minimum 1). (This step doesn't remove any gem-tokens from the AI's incoming zone.)
- Action.
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a) Look at the color of the 5th card in the bank, destroy all creatures of that color, then do the action below of that color:
- Crash X where X = (Power).
- Block X where X = the highest block value shown on any card in the bank, or block 3, whichever is higher.
- Crash X where X = the highest action cost of any card in the bank.
- Each human player discards 2 random cards.
Crashing means removing that many gem-tokens from the AI's incoming zone, then adding that many to every human player's incoming zone.
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b) If the first Ante Up is in effect, also look at the color of the 4th card in the bank, destroy all creatures of that color, then do the action above of that color.
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c) If the second Ante Up is in effect, also look at the color of the 3rd card in the bank, destroy all creatures of that color, then do the action above of that color.
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- Buy. The Dragon buys the left-most card in the bank, adding it to its own stack of cards which track its Power. Slide the rest of the bank cards left and deal out a new card into slot 5 as usual. The Dragon doesn't use the bought cards for anything other than tracking its Power (the number of cards in its stack).
Whenever humans send the Puzzle Dragon unblockable gems or make it ante, it just gets that number of gem-tokens in its incoming zone. (It's too mighty to be bothered by your feeble tricks.)
Winning the Game (Solo/Coop)
Like in the competitive mode, the game ends soon after any player busts (ends their turn with more than 10 gems). The Dragon busts if it ends its turn with more than 10 gem-tokens. In solo play, if you bust, then you lose; if the Dragon busts, you win.
In cooperative play, if any player or the Dragon busts, then the rest take one more turn each. Compute each player's score at the end of their final turn. Their score is the sum of the number of gems in their gem pile plus any incoming gems they have (the Dragon only has incoming gems). Each player's score is locked in at end of that player's final turn and can't change after that.
If EVERY human player's score is lower than the Dragon's score, then the humans win as a team. Otherwise, the Dragon wins.
More Rules
Do Things in Order. When a card tells you to do more than one thing, do those things in the normal reading order: left to right, top to bottom. Swaps (and deep swaps) are optional, but nothing else is.
Do As Much As You Can. If it's impossible to do everything a card tells you to do, then do as much as you can. Don't move on to playing other cards until you've done everything you can on the current card.
Finish Before Moving On. When performing the actions on a card (or from a super move), finish the current card (or super move) before doing anything else. For example, if a card said to crash twice, but the first crash filled and activates your super meter, you would crash twice (finishing everything the card said to do), THEN you'd perform the appropriate ability from your super. As another example, if a card said to do "thing 1, then thing 2" and another effect said to draw a card whenever you do thing 1, you'd finish everything on the first card (so you'd do thing 1, then thing 2) then you would draw a card.
If a card gives you more actions, you get the action tokens immediately, but you must still finish the rest of what that card says before you actually spend these actions on something.
The Birthday Bash deck's "present" mechanic is notable. If a card gives two presents, for example, finish everything about the first present before moving on to the next. That first present could trigger playing another card that itself gives more presents. In other words, finish the first action (a present) including all sub-actions that it spawns (even sub-presents!) before moving on to the next action.
Refill Bank Immediately. Any time something says to remove a card from the bank row for any reason, slide the remaining bank cards to the left and deal out a new card before taking other actions. In other words, any time you would ever check the colors of the bank cards for a drop pattern, there should always be 5 cards showing.
Component Limits. If you run out of components for something (such as gems), use stand-ins temporarily. This probably won't happen, but if it does, you're not limited by the physical components.
Gaining a Card. To "gain a card" means to put that card in your discard pile.
"The opponent." If you don't have the scepter, "the opponent" means the player with the scepter. If you do have the scepter, attacks and effects that affect "the opponent" affect ALL other players. So "the opponent antes a gem and discards a card" means each other player would ante a gem and discard a card.
Buying Tips
Buy Cost. You usually want to buy one of the left two cards because they have 0 buy cost. If there's a really important card in the bank, it might be worth it to pay more. You can avoid the buy cost entirely with the "top card" mechanic, which lets you put any card from the bank on top of your deck (you might draw it that same turn if you have any effects that can draw cards). The green super move Trickshot also lets you get a card from the bank without worrying about the cost.
Consider the Drop Pattern. A major factor in determining your buy is the drop pattern that you leave behind for the next player. If buying a card will result in two or three of the same colors in a row in the bank, do you really want to give the next player that good of a drop pattern? Maybe, but it's dangerous.
Character Bios
The characters in Puzzle Strike are from the Fantasy Strike universe. Fantasy Strike is a fighting tournament held by Garus Rook.
Through spirited competition, Fantasy Strike brings together people from many different backgrounds and regions.
Grave
Grave lives to improve his skills every day, wondering what limits there are to a person's potential. He's dedicated, serious, and strong-willed. He carries a sword, but he was warned at a young age to "use it only when necessary, and no more." He has no such limit on tapping power from the blue dragons of lightning and thunder, though.
Grave trains alongside his sister Jaina and under Master Midori at his dojo in Dragon Tail Vale. Grave cares little about politics, and instead focuses on individual power. Many expect him to win the Fantasy Strike tournament against the previously undefeated Rook.
Jaina
Jaina's fiery temper goes hand-in-hand with her fiery attacks. Don't look at her wrong, or cross her brother Grave, or she'll have some words for you, and maybe her knee, too. She fights with a magic bow, strung with fire, and she taps the power of red phoenix dragons.
Jaina often overextends herself in combat, trying things beyond her mastery. This extra spunk can overwhelm enemies, but also results in her own injuries and burns. Master Midori does not approve.
Midori
Master Midori believes in honor above all else, and instills respect and ethics in his students, as well as physical training. His master before him taught techniques too deadly to be used, and Midori saw first-hand how that power warped his now-exiled brother. Midori protects his students from such taboo knowledge.
The blood of green dragons flows through Midori's body, and he can take the physical form of a dragon for short times when his focus is strongest. His personal fighting style is defensive and solid, but his dragon form allows for powerful offense as well.
Setsuki
Setsuki trains at the secret ninja academy called the Fox's Den. Though she's small and not physically strong, her speed and agility know no match. Through a mix of speed and deception, she can confuse opponents into making mistakes.
Setsuki heard that Grave defeated the mighty Rook in a sparring match, and now seeks him out for guidance. She's admired him for some time from afar, but she now feels compelled to see what she can learn from him personally.
Rook
Rook's past is unknown, though he is known to be an old being, connected to nature. He governs the Morningstar Sanctuary, a haven for free thinking, artistic endeavors, and scientific research that is immune to the laws of Flagstone. He is kind, thoughtful, and wise. Valerie and Geiger are his artistic and scientific advisors.
Rook and his long-time friend DeGrey are old enough to remember the last time a government stole its citizens' personal freedoms. From prison, DeGrey urged Rook to create an event that would unite the disparate peoples and remind them they're not so different from one another. That event is the Fantasy Strike tournament.
DeGrey
DeGrey is a master of language and debate. He fights for the rights of all, even those of low status, or the poor. If there is an injustice being done, he's compelled to right it, or at least expose it to the world. And if justice requires his mighty fist to get done, then so be it. Only tyrants need fear tyrant-killers. His outspoken views in Flagstone City caused him to end up imprisoned at Daggerfall.
DeGrey is much older than his body would suggest. Long ago, at the moment of his would-be death, he struck a deal with the Nox Oracle that let him live until his true task of slaying tyrants is fulfilled.
Valerie
Valerie has heterochromia, meaning she has one blue eye and one green eye. She "sees things differently," and expresses herself through painting. Emotionally, she experiences highs and lows, which she believes gives her even more appreciation for the full spectrum of human feelings.
She also happens to like both boys and girls—a crime in the capital city of Flagstone. She now lives at Rook's Morningstar Sanctuary, a protected city labeled as "enemy of the state" by Flagstone. She serves as Rook's artistic advisor, alongside Max Geiger, Rook's scientific advisor.
Geiger
Geiger is precise and logical. He made his living as a watchmaker though he also studied and experimented in the sciences. His research was branded as "unholy" by Flagstone City, and he sought refuge at Rook's Morningstar Sanctuary to continue his research. There he serves as Rook's scientific advisor.
Geiger's fascination with time may be on the verge of bearing fruit: he's learning that time can be bent and shaped, but he does not yet know the limits. Can a future disaster be avoided? Or can that one regret of the past be undone? If it could be, is it worth the risk to unravel one's life experiences?
Lum
You might not know it from first glance, but Lum is a smart and logical panda. It's just that he loves gambling and chaos and he loves for lots of fun things to happen. He likes to roll dice, but he knows the odds very well. His favorite game is Pandánte.
The Pandalands are having tough times these days, though Lum's spirits still remain high. He sought out Argagarg the water shaman for advice in the nearby Murkwood Marsh. There he learned of the Fantasy Strike tournament and after calling "heads, we enter; tails, bamboo," he signed up.
Argagarg
Humans see the Merfolk (or "fish people") as a barbaric race, but the stereotype is all wrong. Argagarg is a cultural leader and he preaches non-violence and tolerance. They say his heart is bigger than any human's. While some want war with the warlike-humans, Argagarg prefers a diplomatic attempt.
Argagarg draws on the magic of water spirits, demonstrating that water can crash, but it can also flow. It's dangerous and gentle; it can take any form, yet it's formless. Few have the patience to grind down Argagarg when he's able to keep their attacks at bay.
FAQ
General Questions
The game ended really fast. Did we do something wrong? The game can sometimes end quickly, sometimes in 2 or 3 turns. Just play again, if so. That said keep these things in mind:
- If someone holds onto the scepter when they shouldn't, that can end the game fast. Careful about holding it while you have too many gems.
- If you allow doubles and triples of a color in a row in the bank without breaking that up during your buy phase, you're handing an opponent a favorable drop pattern that can let them send you a lot of gems.
- The height bonus for crashes does NOT apply if you crash only a single gem. You must crash at least two of a color to get the height bonus.
Can I play Block cards when I'm holding the scepter? Yes. The restriction here is that while you hold the scepter, block icons with a number in them effectively have the number 0 (block shields can't negate incoming gems), but everything else on Block cards still works as usual. Some Blocks draw a card, destroy a gem in your gem pile, etc., and the scepter-holder still does those things.
Ante Up. When does the "Ante Up" card take effect? As soon as it's revealed (meaning when it becomes the top card of the bank deck), that's when you tuck it under the 5th slot in the bank. Its new effects take place at the start of the next player's turn. Note that you ignore any new Ante Up cards that are revealed during the Grand Finale of a 3-player or 4-player game.
Ante Overflow and Unblockable Overflow. If my gem pile is full and I have to ante or receive an unblockable attack, what happens? Any gems you'd add beyond 14 are added to your incoming zone as gem-tokens instead.
Destroying Creatures. Does the height bonus help me destroy creatures? No. If a creature has a blue 3 in the lower right corner, you need to really break 3 blue gems in your gem pile with one crash to destroy the creature. The height bonus doesn't help.
Multiple Supers. If I crash 8 gems of one color, will that activate that super twice in a row? Yes.
Double Crash. If the first crash of a card that double crashes activates my super, what happens exactly? You must finish everything on the card (and any other cards it might trigger), then the super move triggers, then you can continue with your action phase.
Super Move Timing. If I play Brass Knuckles, then a Crash Gem which fills one of my super meters, does the super trigger before or after the crash from Brass Knuckles? After. If a super meter is full, that super happens right AFTER you resolve all your in-progress effects and triggers. So after the crash that Brass Knuckles triggers.
Overload (Purple Super). Can you Overload an opponent with the scepter's command decision to instantly bust them before they can do anything about it? No. Command decision takes place after the end of their turn and whether they bust is checked at end of turn. If you Overload them just after that which results in them having more than 10 gems, they have until the end of their NEXT turn to save themself.
Trickshot (Green Super). How does the timing of Trickshot work? When the super activates, you immediately put a bank card in your hand, even if it's not your turn. You can only play cards on your turn though, during your action phase. The chosen card costs 0 actions to play until the end of your action phase, or until it leaves your hand by discarding. To make it easier to track, you might put the card sideways on the table to remind everyone that it's free to play.
Buy Cost. Does the order matter when you have multiple adjustments to my buy cost? No. For example, if you have -2 and +1 adjustments, that totals -1 regardless of the order. You can't go below 0, but you can while you are still computing.
Are discard piles face up? Yes. The content of all discard piles is public knowledge and any player can check any discard pile at any time.
What happens if the bank's draw deck runs out of cards? If the bank deck is empty and you need to draw from it on your turn, you BUST. In a 2-player game, you lose. In a 3-player or 4-player game, shuffle the bank cards in the trash pile to make a new draw deck, then play the Grand Finale.
Characters
Grave - Sword Slice. This does nothing if you only have one gem in your gem pile.
Valerie - Chromatic Orb. The crash does nothing if you only have one gem in your gem pile. (You'd still draw a card then though.)
Valerie - Three Colors. If adding a gem pushes an existing gem above the top (14th space) of the gem pile, it becomes a gem-token in your incoming zone.
Setsuki - Double Take. Double taking a crash that fills your blue super meter results in you having to end your action phase, then any incoming gems drop, then your blue super triggers. Also, when Double Taking a Sucker Punch, you get 3 crashes total.
Geiger - Focused Research. If you have fewer than 4 cards in your deck, look at as many as you can; this doesn't cause you to draw more to trigger a reshuffle.
DeGrey - Tyrant Crusher. The 50% bonus is applied BEFORE adding the height bonus.
Argagarg - Protective Ward. A "Block card" means the word "block" is shown as the card type in the small gray box. It doesn't mean you actually blocked any gems.
Grand Melee Deck
Bloodlust. Deep crashes count as a crashes, so Bloodlust does make them unblockable.
Dash. "Crash card" means the word "crash" is shown as the card type in the small gray box.
Sucker Punch. If a player trashes this from the bank (like with DeGrey's Search for the Truth), that player does get the crash.
Birthday Bash Deck
Super moves and presents (in general). If you have a chain of cards that trigger other cards, such as a card that gives you "presents" which lets you play other cards that give you more presents, etc, you activate your super moves right AFTER your resolve the entire chain of cards (if you have any full super meters at that point).
Gemscout Owl. This triggers only after your drop is complete. For example, if the bank colors are green, pink, blue, purple, purple and you drop 5, when the drop is finished your top two gems are both purple. In this case, Gemscout Owl wouldn't destroy any gems because your two topmost gems are the same color.
Box Layout
The base set's box is designed to also store the contents of the Bold Adventures expansion. The slots are extra wide so each deck and each type of card can use card sleeves and still fit in the box. Store the boards on the left side of the box. The plastic lid for the gems helps them stay in place if you store the game on its side.
Quick Reference
Starting deck is 10 cards: 3 character cards, 2 Swap, 2 Crash Gem, 2 Basic Block, and 1 Skip Ahead. Draw 5 for your starting hand. Your incoming zone starts with 2 gem-tokens. Remember to add the two Ante Up cards to the bank deck in the right spots. Player 1 starts with the scepter; each other player starts with a diamond.
The Scepter
- The scepter player attacks everyone simultaneously. Other players only attack the scepter holder.
- The scepter player must drop their incoming gems at the start of their action phase and their blocks do not negate incoming gems.
- The scepter player must make a command decision at the end of each other player's turn.
Turn Structure
- Ante Phase — Add 2 gems on top of your gem pile. (The same color as the card in slot 5 in the bank.)
- Action Phase — You have 3 action points to spend playing cards from your hand. If you have the scepter: your incoming gems must fall into your gem pile at the start of this phase (costs 0 actions). Any time during this phase (even multiple times), if you have incoming gems you may drop them into your gem pile (costs 0 actions). If you have any incoming gems at the end of your action phase, you MUST drop them then. Whenever gems drop, drop as many as you can. The colors they become are determined by the Drop Pattern order of cards in the bank.
- Buy Phase — Put one card (and only one) from the bank into your discard pile. This is mandatory each turn. You receive incoming gems equal to the "buy cost" listed on the bank board below the card you bought. Afterwards, remember to slide all bank cards to the left and deal out more until all 5 slots are filled.
- Draw Phase — Discard your hand, then draw 5 cards plus any bonus cards from your gem pile's current height bonus.
- End of Turn / Command Decision — Every time a player who doesn't have the scepter ends their turn, the scepter holder must make a command decision: Power Up (adds one gem to each of their four super meters) OR Yield (gives the scepter to the player who just ended their turn).
- Grand Finale (final turns after someone busts in 3p/4p) — No one has the scepter. Set everyone's incoming gems equal to whoever has the most, but with a minimum of 10 more + 5 more per Ante Up card. Track how many gems you send to the scepter as your final score (plus any gems you make it ante). Skip the Buy Phase, Command Decision, and ignore new Ante Up cards during final turns.
Remember:
- Crash the top gem only, unless it's a deep crash.
- Swap adjacent gems only, unless it's a deep swap.
- The height bonus for crashing only applies if you crash a run of TWO or more same-color gems.
- Block to negate incoming gems that will later fall into your gem pile.
- Only one creature at a time per player. Playing a new one replaces the old and sends the old one to the discard pile.
- Break the number and color of gems shown in the lower right corner of an opponent's creature to destroy it.
- Put the physical gems from your crashes into your super meter.
- Add your height bonus to the number of gems you send to the opponent's incoming zone whenever you crash two or more gems of the same color.