Puzzle Strike
Puzzle Strike Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Object of the Game
Your goal is to overflow all your opponents' gem piles with too many gems.
Your gem pile is analogous to your half of the screen in a puzzle video game. It's a special zone on the table, separate from your hand, your discard pile, and your bag of chips. Your gem pile fills automatically over time and the more full it is, the more chips you get to draw each turn, but the closer you come to losing. If you ever end your turn with the gems in your pile totaling 10 or more, you lose the game. (For example, four 1-gems, a 2-gem, and a 4-gem total 10.)
You start the game with a small "deck" of chips, but you buy more chips as you play, allowing you to customize your deck as you go. Eventually, your deck should be able to "crash" several of your own gems each turn, which means breaking them (removing them from your gem pile) and sending to your opponents.
Example: Break a 3-gem in your gem pile (leaving a 1-gem and a 1-gem behind) to send 3 1-gems to the opponent. If gems in your pile total 10 or more, you lose!
Setup: Your Starting Deck
First, each player chooses a character from the 10 possible characters. Each character has exactly 3 Character chips with that character's picture at the top. Take your 3 Character chips, 1 Crash Gem chip, and 6 1-gem chips and put them in your bag. This is your starting deck. Draw 5 chips for your opening hand.
Quick Start Rules
- Pick your character, then put your starting chips in your bag and shake them up.
- Draw 5 chips.
- Set up the bank.
- Ante a 1-gem from the bank to your gem pile each turn.
- Play action chips from your hand.
- Crash Gems let you send gems from your gem pile to the opponent after you and you get money for doing so.
- Buy at least one chip from the bank each turn.
- Discard your hand, then draw 5 chips, plus any chips from the "height bonus" from having a full gem pile.
- If your gem pile totals 10 or more, you lose.
- The next player takes his turn.
Turn structure: 1) Ante, 2) Action, 3) Buy, 4) Cleanup
Setup: The Bank
Next, set up the bank. The bank consists of stacks of all the chips players are allowed to buy during the game, but you don't use all the chips every game. There are 24 different Puzzle chips, each with 5 copies. Select just 10 of these 24 stacks, put them in the bank, and leave the other 14 stacks of Puzzle chips in the box. The bank always contains the Gem, Purple, and Wound chips. For your first game, we suggest these 10 stacks of Puzzle chips:
This variation of starting stacks, along with the possible character choices in a 4-player game mean that there are 411,863,760 different starting conditions in Puzzle Strike.
The Bank
Puzzle Chips — 10 different stacks each game:*
| Chip | Cost | Effect | Copies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Combos Are Hard | 6 | If this is the only action you play this turn, gain any two different non-puzzle chips from the bank then trash this chip. | x5 |
| Draw Three | 3 | +chip, +chip, +chip | x5 |
| Gem Essence | 3 | Trash a gem chip from your hand. If you do, +brown arrow, +purple arrow, +red arrow, +blue arrow. | x5 |
| Knockdown | 2 | +action. Opponents reveal their hands then discard their largest gem chip. | x5 |
| One of Each | 6 | +action, +piggy bank, +$1, +chip | x5 |
| One-Two Punch | 5 | +action, +action | x5 |
| Really Annoying | 1 | Main: Each opponent puts a wound chip in his bag. Reaction: The player who attacked you puts a wound chip in his bag. | x5 |
| Self-Improvement | 4 | Main: Trash a chip from your hand or discard pile. Reaction: after you're attacked, +chip, +chip, +chip. | x5 |
| Sneak Attack | 3 | +action. Each opponent antes a 1-gem. | x5 |
| Training Day | 2 | +piggy bank. Trash a chip from your hand. If you do, gain a chip costing up to 2 more than the trashed chip. | x5 |
These ten stacks are recommended for the first game, but after that you can play any 10 stacks you want.
Gems, Purples & Wound — same 8 stacks every game:
| Chip | Cost | Copies |
|---|---|---|
| 1-gem | 1 | x64 |
| 2-gem | 3 | x20 |
| 3-gem | 5 | x16 |
| 4-gem | 7 | x12 |
| Combine | 4 | x20 |
| Crash Gem | 5 | x12 |
| Double Crash Gem | 9 | x10 |
| Wound | 0 | x24 |
Playing the Game
Turn Structure
A, A, B, C are the four phases each turn: Ante, Action, Buy, Cleanup. Do each phase in order on your turn.
Ante Phase
At the start of the game, your gem pile is empty. At the beginning of your turn, take a 1-gem from the bank and put it in your gem pile.
Action Phase
Each turn you may play one Action chip — any chip with a banner. To play an Action chip, put it face up on the table and do whatever it says. (It won't go to your discard pile until the cleanup phase.)
Chips with +action on them let you play more actions that turn (see below).
If you ever have to draw a chip when your bag is empty, then put the chips from your discard pile (not including the chips you played to the table this turn) into your bag, shake your bag to shuffle them, then draw however many you're supposed to. Note that if your bag is empty, you don't actually fill it with your discard pile until you have to draw a chip.
Buy Phase
During this phase, you buy chips from the bank. You must buy at least one chip per turn. Bought chips go to your discard pile.
Play as many Gem chips as you want from your hand to the table, then add their values to any +gem power you might have gotten during this turn's action phase. That total is how much money you may spend this turn. You don't have to spend all your money each turn, but you get no benefit from unspent money because all your money — spent or unspent — will go to your discard pile at the end of your turn. You can buy as many chips as you want each turn, as long as you can afford to pay for them.
For example, if you had 6 money to spend this turn, you could buy any chip costing up to 6 or you could buy two chips costing 3. You could even buy a chip costing 1 and let your other 5 money go unused, if you want.
Wound chips are notable because they are the only chips in the bank that cost 0 to buy. Even if you have no money during a turn, you must still buy a Wound for 0.
Remember that the chips you buy go directly to your discard pile and their effects don't trigger when you buy them. You'll draw those chips later in the game though, so buying now is planning for the future.
Cleanup Phase
Check if the gems in your gem pile total 10 or more. If they do, you lose the game and other players continue playing until there's one winner. (This should be pretty fast!)
If your gem pile is still under 10, then make sure any chips you bought this turn are in your discard pile, put all the chips you played to the table this turn (including gem chips used as money) into your discard pile, and discard the chips in your hand. Then draw 5 chips.
Overflow
If you end your turn (or forfeit) when your gem pile totals more than 10 and there's at least two more players left, send the excess gems as 1-gems to your next opponent. For example, if you end a turn (or forfeit) with a gem pile totaling 13, then send 3 1-gems to the next opponent. He can counter-crash them (see below) if he likes.
The Height Bonus
The more gems you have in your gem pile, the more extra chips you get to draw. Remember this shorthand: "If your gem pile has 3 / 6 / 9 in it, then draw an extra +1 / +2 / +3 chips." In other words, if your gem pile totals 3, 4, or 5, draw an extra chip. If it totals 6, 7, or 8, draw two extra chips instead. If it totals 9, draw 3 extra chips instead. These bonus draws are in addition to the usual 5 chips you draw during the cleanup phase.
Remember that if you must draw and your bag is empty, you put your discard pile into your bag, shake it up, then continue drawing.
Stuff on the Chips You Need to Know
There are a lot of symbols and terms on the chips. Here's what they do:
+action. You may play another Action chip this turn.
+chip. Draw an extra chip from your bag.
+piggy bank. During the cleanup phase, you may keep a chip in your hand rather than discarding it. If you do, draw one less chip at the end of the turn though.
+gem power ($). Get extra gem power (money) to spend during the buy phase this turn.
Colored arrows give you an action that you can only spend on chips with a banner of that same color. There are brown, purple, red, and blue arrows; each one gives an extra action just for chips that have the corresponding color of banner.
Icons in the Banners of Chips
Attack. Attacks cause negative effects to other players.
Exclamation. The mightiest of all chips. Look on it and despair.
React. You can play reacts on other players' turns when you're attacked.
Crash Sphere. These appear only on Combines, Crash Gems, and Double Crash Gems.
Crash React. You can only play this when an opponent sends gems to your gem pile, but not if your opponent crashed a 4-gem (4-gems are too powerful!)
Some Important Terms
Trashing a Chip. To trash a chip means you take the chip from your hand and return it to the bank. It's a way to make your deck more efficient by getting rid of chips you don't need anymore. If you trash a character chip, just set it aside in a trash pile (no one can buy character chips).
Gaining a Chip. To gain a chip means to put it in your discard pile — not your hand. You'll draw it later though, don't worry.
Ongoing. It costs an action to play an "ongoing" chip to the table. Once it's there, you get the benefit each turn without paying an action.
Main and Reaction. Main refers to what the chip can do when you use it during the action phase of your own turn.
Reaction refers to what it can do as a reaction to something an opponent does on his turn. The situation you can react to is specified on the chip, except for the purple chips. Their reactions are explained on the next page. You can only play one reaction to any given event.
On Top of Your Bag. Putting a chip on top of your bag means just that — putting it on top of your bag rather than inside it. When you draw from your bag, first take any chips "on your bag" into your hand before drawing chips from inside your bag. If you put multiple chips "on your bag," then stack them and draw them in order.
The Purple Chips
The three purple chips are the heart of the game. They allow you to combine the gems in your gem pile and to get rid of those gems and send them to your opponents.
Combine
This chip combines two gems in your gem pile into a single gem if the total is 4 or less. For example a 2-gem and 1-gem combine to a 3-gem. You then get an additional action because of the +action. (Cost 4)
Crash Gem
You can use a Crash Gem on your own turn, or as a reaction on the opponent's turn (that's what the purple shield means). When played as a reaction, it's called a counter-crash. (Cost 5)
If you use it on your own turn, break one Gem chip in your gem pile, send that many 1-gems to the opponent who will take his turn next, and gain +1 gem power (money). For example, if you break a 3-gem, put the 3-gem back in the bank, send three 1-gems (from the bank) to the player who will take his turn after yours, and you get 1 extra money to spend during this turn's buy phase.
If the opponent before you breaks gems and sends them to you, you can react by using your own Crash Gem on his turn. This lets you reduce the number of gems sent to you, and you can even send gems back to him if you break more than he did.
For example, if the opponent before you breaks a 3-gem and you break a 1-gem as a reaction, you stop one of the three incoming 1-gems, and you only have to add two 1-gems to your pile. Because you broke one of your own, that's only a net increase of one 1-gem.
As another example, if the opponent breaks a 1-gem, you could break your own 4-gem as a reaction and you'd stop his incoming 1-gem and send three 1-gems back to him!
Using a Crash Gem as a reaction is good because it doesn't use up an action on your own turn, but it's usually a defensive move. Crashing on your own turn lets you defeat opponents more easily and it gives you gem power (money).
Double Crash Gem
The Double Crash Gem works the same way as the Crash Gem except that you can break two Gem chips in your gem pile instead of just one, and you gain +2 gem power that turn, instead of +1. (Cost 9)
Uncounter-Crashable!
4-gems are special. If you crash a 4-gem in your gem pile, no one can counter-crash it; they can't even play a purple shield chip as a reaction because the 4-gem is just that powerful! (If you use a Double Crash Gem to break a 4-gem and another gem, the whole thing is uncounter-crashable.)
Start Playing Now
You can probably stop reading these rules now. The rest of this stuff is just annoying, nitpicky rules in case you get stuck on some detail. You already know enough to start playing, so get started! Oh, and here are some recommended sets of 10 Puzzle chips to get you going:
First Game. Combos Are Hard, Draw Three, Gem Essence, Knockdown, One of Each, One-Two Punch, Really Annoying, Self-Improvement, Sneak Attack, Training Day.
Lots of Attacks. Combo Practice, It's a Trap, Knockdown, Mix-Master, Really Annoying, Recklessness, Self-Improvement, Sneak Attack, Stolen Purples, Thinking Ahead.
No Attacks. Draw Three, Gems to Gemonade, Iron Defense, One of Each, One-Two Punch, Recklessness, Roundhouse, Sale Prices, Secret Move, Training Day.
Combo Crazy. Combo Practice, Draw Three, Master Puzzler, It's Combo Time, One of Each, One-Two Punch, Recklessness, Roundhouse, Sale Prices, Sneak Attack.
Master Puzzler. Combos are Hard, Draw Three, Gems to Gemonade, Knockdown, Master Puzzler, Mix-Master, Risky Move, Roundhouse, Self-Improvement, Training Day.
More Rules
Choosing Characters
In a casual game, choose your characters however you like. In a serious competition, first determine the turn-order for each player randomly. Players then choose their characters one at a time in turn-order. The first player has the advantage of choosing any character he wants, while the last player has the advantage of choosing a counter-character — a character that's good against the other, already-chosen characters.
Choosing the 10 Puzzle Chip Stacks
In a casual game, choose the 10 stacks of Puzzle chips however you like. In a serious competition, choose the stacks randomly. If you're playing multiple games in a row against the same opponent(s), then after each game, each player other than the winner of the previous game can swap one stack in the bank with one stack in the box. The player who lost first in the previous game chooses first, and so on. If a stack is swapped out, it can't be swapped back in until next game.
Banner Colors
These are all the colors of the banners across the tops of chips: brown, red, blue, purple, gray (wound), and gold. If a chip has more than one color in the banner, such as Really Annoying's blue and red banner, then it counts as all those colors.
Do Things In Order
When a chip tells you to do more than one thing, do those things in the normal reading order: left to right, top to bottom. If a chip tells you to choose two or more things to do, first choose, then do your choices in any order.
Do Everything You Can
If it's impossible to do everything a chip tells you to do, then do as much as you can. Don't move on to playing other chips until you've done everything you can on the current chip.
Simultaneous Effects
If a chip affects multiple players and the order matters, resolve the effects in turn-order, starting with the player whose turn it is.
Reaction Timing
If an opponent plays a chip then you play a reaction, your reaction resolves first, then the opponent's effect resolves.
Discard Piles are Public
All discard piles are public information and any player may look through any other player's discard pile at any time.
Notes on Specific Chips
Puzzle Chips
Combo Practice. If a player discards a Purple Orb chip instead of two chips, that chip must literally have a purple orb printed in the banner.
Combos Are Hard. The bank contains Puzzle chips, Gem chips, Purple chips, and Wounds. Remember that "gain" means to put the chips in the discard pile. You can't gain Master Puzzler with this.
Draw Three. So yeah … you draw three chips.
Gem Essence. The trashed gem chip goes back to the bank. You can use either the red arrow OR the blue arrow to play Really Annoying.
Gems to Gemonade. This only works when gems are "sent" to you. Crashing or counter-crashing gems in a gem pile "sends" gems but other operations like Sneak Attack do not. If you "send" gems to Rook then he uses Stone Wall to reflect, you can use this chip.
You can't counter crash AND play this chip as a reaction to the same "send" because you can only play one reaction per event.
It's a Trap. You can trap any kind of stack in the bank: a puzzle, gem, purple, or wound stack. If a stack runs out of chips, it stays trapped (that stack might fill up again if players trash chips). You can trap an empty stack if you want, as it might fill up later.
It's Combo Time. You pretty much just read the chip.
Iron Defense. You can use the Crash Gem on your own turns or use it to counter-crash when an opponent sends gems to you. After you use the Crash Gem, it goes to your discard pile as usual.
Knockdown. If an opponent has more than one Gem chip tied for largest in his hand, he only discards one of them.
Master Puzzler. You cannot play or gain Gem chips with this. You cannot play chips from your hand in the middle of resolving Master Puzzler. Remember to put the chips you "gain" with Master Puzzler into your discard pile. You don't gain a chip if it trashes as part of its effect, such as It's a Trap. If the bank is out of a certain chip, you can't use Master Puzzler to play that chip.
Mix-Master. For example, if an opponent's largest gem (in his gem pile) is a 3-gem, he splits it into three 1-gems. If an opponent has more than one Gem chip tied for largest in his gem pile, he only splits one of them.
One of Each. Have fun.
One-Two Punch. Not sure how you can go wrong here, it's pretty straightforward!
Really Annoying. This chip is both red and blue, so if you have either a red or blue arrow from another chip, you can play the main action of this chip. When played as a reaction, it counts as a blue shield and a red fist, so other players can react to the reaction with Really Annoying or Self-Improvement, for example.
Recklessness. Risky Move. Roundhouse. Hopefully these are all pretty simple!
Sale Prices. Treat the on-sale chips in the bank as if their costs really are lower. For example, Training Day looks at the discounted cost, not the cost printed on the chip.
Secret Move. You get the +piggy bank even on the turn you play this chip. You only discard this from the table if you buy a Combine, Crash Gem or Double Crash Gem chip.
Self-Improvement. It can't trash itself. You can only play one reaction to any given event. The reaction is unusual in that its effect happens after the attack finishes resolving.
Stolen Purples. Opponents discard only the chips that actually have purple spheres printed in their banners. You must steal a purple orb chip if possible. If there aren't any chips to steal, you don't trash this chip, but you must trash it if you do steal a chip.
Thinking Ahead. Remember that whenever you draw chips, first take any chips "on top of your bag" before you draw chips from inside your bag.
Training Day. It can't trash itself.
Character Chips
Grave - Reversal. This only works when gems are "sent" to you. Crashing or counter-crashing gems in a gem pile "sends" gems but other operations like Sneak Attack do not. If you "send" gems to Rook then he uses Stone Wall to reflect, you can use this chip.
You can't counter crash AND play this chip as a reaction to the same "send" because you can only play one reaction per event.
Grave - Martial Mastery. It can't trash itself.
Grave - Versatile Style. Enjoy.
Jaina - Playing with Fire. Example use: put a 4-gem from your hand into your gem pile, then crash it with Unstable Power that same turn.
Jaina - Burning Vigor. The ante comes from the bank.
Jaina - Unstable Power. If someone plays Stolen Purples and you have Unstable Power in your hand, you don't have to discard it because it doesn't have a purple sphere in the banner.
Midori - Dragon Form. The ante comes from the bank. This does stop opponents from reacting with Crash and Double Crash Gems, as well as Grave's Reversal. It doesn't stop Gems to Gemonade or Rook's Stone Wall though.
Midori - Rigorous Training. "Gained" chips go to your discard pile.
Midori - Purge Bad Habits. The gained chip comes from the bank and goes to your discard pile.
Setsuki - Speed of the Fox. It's pretty self-explanatory!
Setsuki - Bag of Tricks. Have fun.
Setsuki - Double-take. If you gain extra actions (+arrows) with this chip, you can't actually use them because your action phase ends before you can.
Rook - Stone Wall. The reflected gems are "sent," so the opponent can play reactions that usually trigger off sent gems such as a Crash Gem or Grave's Reversal.
You can't counter crash AND play this chip as a reaction to the same "send" because you can only play one reaction per event.
Rook - Big Rocks. For example, you could trash a 2-gem from your hand (return it to the bank), then take a 3-gem from the bank and put it in your hand.
Rook - Strength of Earth. If you can legally combine, you must. If you can't legally combine, you still get the +chip and +brown arrow.
DeGrey - Pilebunker. If an opponent has more than one Gem chip tied for largest in his hand, he only trashes one of them.
DeGrey - No More Lies. The trashed chips go to the bank.
DeGrey - Troublesome Rhetoric. "Equal or lesser value" refers to the cost of the chip.
Valerie - Burst of Speed. Breaking gems on your own turn always sends them to "the opponent who will take his turn next." If you take an extra turn, you do NOT become that opponent. The gems still go to the next player.
Valerie - Chromatic Orb. This chip is purple, brown, red, and blue, so an arrow of any of those colors will let you play it. You can't use the crash effect as a reaction, but others can react to it with a purple shield.
Valerie - Creative Thoughts. Enjoy the chip.
Geiger - Research & Development. If you don't find any Purple Orb chips in your bag, you can't complete the exchange. In this case, ignore the text on the chip and just gain +action.
Geiger - Future Sight. Remember that whenever you draw chips, first take any chips "on top of your bag" before you draw chips from inside your bag.
Geiger - It's Time for the Past. Remember that "puzzle chips" are the 10 stacks of chips that change every game.
Lum - Poker Winnings. This acts as a 2-gem during the buy phase. Like a 2-gem, it doesn't cost an action to play. It does nothing any other time (for example, Risky Move can't put it in your gem pile.)
Lum - Panda's Bargain. Have fun.
Lum - Living on the Edge. The check of your gem pile size only happens the moment you play this chip — if your gem pile size changes later in the turn, it doesn't matter.
Argagarg - Hex of Murkwood. The ante comes from the bank.
Argagarg - Bubble Shield. The ongoing effect of the bubble triggers only after your chance to counter-crash. It will not trigger if you counter-crash all incoming gems. If some gems are still incoming, the bubble's effect is not optional.
The reaction half the chip can only be played when the chip is in your hand, not when it's "ongoing" on the table.
Argagarg - Protective Ward. The +blue arrow is not part of the "ongoing" effect. You get the blue action only the turn you play the chip to the table.
Purple Chips
Combine. If your gem pile has gems that you can't combine or no gems at all, you can still play a Combine chip to get the +action. You might do this to turn a +purple arrow into a +black arrow.
Crash Gem. You only get the +$1 if you actually break a gem in your gem pile.
Double Crash Gem. If you have only one gem in your gem pile, it's still legal to play a Double Crash Gem, though it would do nothing more than playing a regular Crash Gem in that case. You get $1 for each gem you break, which would normally be $2 total.
Gem Chips
1/2/3/4-Gems. These only count as money when you play them from your hand to the table during your buy phase. They don't count as money when they're in your gem pile.
In the unlikely event that you run out of 1-gems, you can still ante with face-down puzzle chips that you aren't using in the current game. They can represent 1-gems in your gem pile.
Wounds
You are only allowed to buy one Wound per turn. Wounds are bad for your deck, so you wouldn't want to buy more anyway, unless you were trying to disrupt the game.
More Information
If you have more questions that weren't answered here, visit www.sirlingames.com or boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/67928/puzzle-strike.
Contents
- 332 Chips
- 120 Puzzle Chips (24 x 5 copies)
- 30 Character Chips
- 20 Combines
- 16 Crash Gems
- 10 Double Crash Gems
- 64 1-gems
- 20 2-gems
- 16 3-gems
- 12 4-gems
- 24 Wounds
- 4 bags
- This 8-page rulebook