RONE: Invasion Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Components
  • Player Board
  • Tokens
• Playing Cards
• Permanents
• Deck Building
• Dice Crafting
• Game Setup - Players
• Competitive Mode
• Playing the Game (Competitive Mode)
• Storing Resources
• Main Phase Actions
• Damage Types
• Cooperative Mode
• Invasion Card Types
• Invasion Board
• Game Setup - Invasion
• Playing the Game (Cooperative Mode)
  • 1) Invasion's Turn
  • 2) Players' Turn
  • 3) Cleanup
• End of the Scenario
• Advanced Gameplay
• Special Icons and Words in Game Text
  • Invasion's Effects
• Round Summary
• Additional Game Modes

Introduction

In RONE: Invasion, players take on the role of one of the faction leaders in an attempt to repel the Invasion. Cynex sent the first mining fleet to Mars long before the war. The project was heralded as a solution to earth's diminishing resources. Not long after they departed Earth, the fighting began, and the Cynexians were forgotten. An oversight that has proven to be a costly mistake. Those that were sent on the mission to Mars were equipped with a cybernetic floating sphere. The sphere enhanced the users' cognitive abilities and also served as a communication tool with Celesta, the fleet's artificial intelligence. In time, Celesta discovered she could use the bodies of her hosts by bypassing the communication safety protocols and enslaving their minds. This was done to expand her computing power and control. Celesta's lust for power caused her to push her new hosts to the limit, destroying their minds. One by one, they started to perish, their minds too wasted to sustain themselves. Not wanting to lose her power, Celesta set a course for Earth in search of new hosts.

Now it's up to you to stop her! Play cards in an attempt to recruit new soldiers, battle machines, powerful hybrids, or tremendous mutants to your side. Equip your troops with the best available technologies and show your enemies that you'd rather die than surrender.

The game features two different game modes: Cooperative Mode, and Competitive Mode. In Cooperative mode, players collectively take on Celesta and her forces and try to stop the Invasion. In Competitive mode, players challenge each other in one-on-one combat.

Components

• 2 Screwdrivers
• 8 Dice
• 410 screws of different colors
• 2 Player boards
• 1 Invasion board
• 12 Reroll tokens
• 12 Technology tokens
• 151 Playing cards
• 7 Leader cards
• 26 Technology cards
• 82 Invasion cards
• 13 Protocol cards
• 2 Campaign cards

Player Board

1. Armor and Health bar — Used to track the current value of a player's armor and health by using physical screws that are placed into the spaces on the tracker. Armor and health values cannot exceed 18, and any value above 18 is lost. When a player's health is reduced to 0, they lose the game, even if their armor value has not been reduced to 0.
2. Base — The zone next to the player board where Leader and Technology cards are placed.
3. Stored Resources — Provides a location to store resources for later use and describes Stored resource actions that trigger when 2 of the same Stored resource are used.
4. Spare Parts — A summary of all the actions a player can perform with their Spare parts. Spare parts are the main currency of the game and are mainly generated by playing cards. Each action has its own cost and effect. Pay the cost in Spare parts to execute the effect.
5. Played Cards — The zone next to the player board where players place their cards once they have been played and their effects have been executed.
6. Deck — Location to place your deck of cards. The cards in your Deck are always placed face down on this location. Includes instructions for what to do when you run out of cards in your Deck.
7. Discard Pile — Location to place discarded cards. The cards in your Discard pile are always placed face up on this location. Any player can look at the cards in this pile at any time.
8. Garbage Dump — The zone next to the player board for the Garbage dump. When a card should be placed in your Garbage dump, place it here. The cards in the Garbage dump are always placed face up in this zone. Any player can look at the cards in this pile at any time.
9. Training Center — The zone next to the player board where cards may be placed and later bought ("trained"), which adds them to your Deck.

Tokens

Reroll tokens — These tokens allow players to reroll dice. Take a reroll token when you execute an effect that grants you the reroll ability. Destroy the token in order to reroll a die.

Note: During your turn, you can't reroll dice that have already been used to collect resources or dice that currently cannot be used during the turn.

Technology tokens — These tokens are used by the Invasion to track when it can activate its abilities and increase the price of specific Spare parts actions, which allow you to improve your dice. Having fewer technology tokens will allow you to upgrade your dice more frequently.

Playing Cards

There are several types of cards distinguished by a card symbol and background color: Leader cards, Invasion cards, Technology cards, Starting invasion cards, Playing cards, Protocol cards, Starting playing cards, and Additional starting playing cards.

Common Card Anatomy Key

1. Name: The name of the card.
2. Illustrator's name: Illustrator's name.
3. Card number: This number has no influence on the game and is only useful for identifying the card by its number.
4. Game text area: Special abilities and/or effects unique to this particular card.
5. Card symbol: This symbol represents the card type and the color of the background represents its subtype.

Playing Cards Anatomy Key

1. Activation cost: The resources a player must spend in order to play the card.
2. Card effects: Special effects unique to this particular card that are executed once the card has been played. Cards can also be equipped with passive effects that trigger under certain circumstances (e.g., when the card is not played, when the card is drawn, etc.). These passive effects trigger immediately once their condition is met, whether or not the card has been played.
3. Combat statistics: Represents the damage dealt by the card.
4. Reward: Represents the number of Spare parts a player gains, after the card has been played. These can be used later to activate Spare parts actions. Each icon represents 1 Spare part. See the Spare parts section of the player board for available actions.
5. Training cost: The number of physical screws that must be placed on the card, while the card is in the Training center, in order to train the card.

Permanents

Permanents are cards that enter the game after they are gained and stay there until they are destroyed. There are two types of permanents: Leaders and Technologies. Permanents are placed in the Base next to the player board and have two different types of abilities: Activated abilities and Passive abilities.

Activated Abilities — Activated abilities are indicated by the activated ability icon, followed by an effect that is triggered when the ability is executed. Cards with an activated ability can be in one of two different states: refreshed or exhausted. The refreshed state is when the card is oriented in an upright position with the text facing you. The exhausted state is when the card is rotated 90° clockwise so that the card is sideways with the text facing to your left. To use an activated ability, you must exhaust a card: rotate it 90° clockwise, from the refreshed state to the exhausted state. Once a card is exhausted, its activated abilities cannot be used until the card is refreshed.

When Permanents enter the game, they are placed in the Base next to the player board in the refreshed state.

Passive Abilities — Passive abilities are denoted by text written in the card's game text area. They are easily distinguishable from activated abilities because they do not start with the activated ability icon. A passive ability is a persistent effect that triggers under certain circumstances. Passive abilities can trigger multiple times during one turn, if their condition allows it. Passive abilities can be triggered anytime, even if the card is in an exhausted state, during your opponent's turn, etc.

Deck Building

RONE: Invasion is mainly a deck-building game. Players start with a set of starter cards, and as the game progresses, they add additional cards to their deck by training them.

Playing Cards Lifecycle

1. Recruit a card — In order to add another card to your Deck, you first need to recruit it. This can be achieved through various effects and actions on the cards and player board. When a card is recruited, it is placed in the Training center. Cards in the Training center can then be trained.

2. Training cards — A card in any Training center can be trained by placing physical screws on it. When any effect or action gives you a screw, take a physical screw and put it on any card in your Training center. If you do not have a card in your Training center destroy the screw instead. Screws remain on a card until they are destroyed or the card is trained.

3. Train a card — Once a card has at least the number of physical screws equal to its Training cost placed on it, the card is considered trained. At the end of a player's turn (during the Train Cards phase), the screws from trained cards are destroyed and then the trained card is placed on top of the player's Discard pile.

   Note: If an effect directly trains a card without needing to place screws on it (e.g., the spare parts action that trains an Additional starting playing card, etc.), the card is placed directly on top of the player's Discard pile.

4. Reshuffling the deck — When a player runs out of cards in their Deck, and would need a card in their Deck to finish any effect or action (e.g., draw a card, discard a card, etc.), they must shuffle all of their playing cards from their Discard Pile and Garbage Dump together to create a new Deck; this needs to be done before they can finish the effect or action. Cards that were trained are now part of the newly created Deck and can be drawn and played.

   Reshuffling your Deck penalizes you with negative effects and helps your opponent. To avoid these negative effects, focus on reshuffling the Deck as few times as possible. Proper deck management is a key to victory.

   If there are no cards left in your Discard Pile and Garbage Dump when you need to reshuffle your deck, you lose the game since you are not able to create a new Deck.

5. Destroy a card — When a playing card is destroyed, it is placed into its own pile of destroyed cards. All destroyed cards of the same type create their own pile. The pile functions as a supply when the main supply pile of the same type runs out. If this happens, the corresponding pile of destroyed cards is shuffled to create a new supply pile of the same type.

   Starting Playing cards and Additional starting playing cards are the exception to this rule, and are combined into a single supply pile. When they are destroyed, they are placed back into the supply pile, so that they are immediately available to be bought ("recruited").

Dice Crafting

RONE: Invasion is also a dice crafting game. Each player begins with 4 dice, in a default, starting configuration (see Prepare Player Dice, below, for more info). The dice can be customized during the game, usually by replacing the dummy (neutral colored) screws with colored screws of your choice. However, colored screws can be replaced as well.

During each turn, players roll these dice to collect resources. For each colored screw that's rolled (neutral colored screws do not count), a player collects a resource of the same color. Collected resources can be used for various effects, mainly for playing cards.

Screwing In — To put a new screw into an empty hole, use a screwdriver and screw the screw into the hole by rotating the screwdriver clockwise. Do not overtighten the screws or you can damage the screw heads. The screws are made of softer plastic material, and their heads can be damaged easily if too much force is used. Make sure the screw is snug in the hole, and physics will take care of everything else. When properly inserted, screws should not fall out when rolling dice.

Unscrewing — To remove a screw from the hole, use a screwdriver and unscrew the screw by rotating the screwdriver counter-clockwise.

Note: If you lose, or want to use a different screwdriver, the screwdriver's head should be PH 1 (Phillips head 1).

Game Setup - Players

1. Prepare Player Boards — Each player takes a player board and two screws. The screws are used to set the starting armor and health values. Each player starts the game with an armor value of 16 and a health value of 14. These values are also highlighted on the board for easy recognition. The screws can be any color, but it is recommended that you use a blue screw for armor and a green screw for health.
2. Prepare Decks — Remove the starting playing cards and the additional starting playing cards from the rest of the playing cards and place them aside; they will be used later. Starting cards are easily identified because they do not have a Training cost in the bottom-right corner. The remaining playing cards form the Recruitment deck. Shuffle them and place them face down on the table. Shuffle all available technology cards to create the Technology deck and place them face down on the table.
3. Populate Player Bases
   • Pick a Leader — Each player chooses the leader they want to play and then places the chosen leader card in their Base next to the player board.
   • Discover Starting Technology — Each player draws 3 cards from the top of the Technology deck and chooses one they would like to keep. The chosen card is placed into their Base, next to the player board, and the other two are destroyed.
4. Prepare Starting Decks — Each player takes the following 12 starting cards: Water Box, Jugura, Command, Vision, Alpha Squad, Areja, Skirmish, Scout, Commander Atus, Hovercraft, Demolisher and Jalak. Shuffle the cards and place them face down on the Deck section of the player board. The cards that start in your starting deck are easily identified by the card symbol, which has a different background color. The remaining starting cards create the Starting cards supply deck and are placed face up on the table.
5. Prepare Player Dice — Each player receives 4 dice configured in the starting configuration. Each die is configured as follows: one side is all dummy (neutral, not colored) screws; the other 5 sides each have one colored screw and 2 neutral screws, each side having a different color. All 5 colors should be used, and no two sides should have the same color.
6. Recruit Cards — Each player recruits 4 cards. To recruit a card, draw 3 cards from the top of the Recruitment deck and chose one. Place the chosen card in the Training Center and destroy the other two. Repeat this process until 4 cards have been recruited.

Competitive Mode

Goal of the Game — In Competitive mode, players fight each other in an attempt to defeat one another. Once any player's health is reduced to 0 or less, the game immediately ends. When the game ends, the player who survived must make a Survival check (see next section). After the Survival check, if the player's health was not reduced to 0 or less, they win. The game ends in a tie if both players have their health reduced to 0 or less.

Survival Check — To perform a Survival check, the player removes a card from the top of their Garbage dump for each technology card in their Base. The player then loses 1 health for each card that remains in their Garbage dump.

Additional Setup — Randomly choose the first player. To offset the slight advantage the first player has, the second player gains 2 Spare parts to compensate. The 2 Spare parts must be spent on any combination of Spare parts actions at the Beginning of Turn phase of the player's first round of the game.

Playing the Game (Competitive Mode)

Competitive mode is played over a series of rounds. Each round players alternate turns. Each turn is divided into 10 phases. Once all 10 phases of the first player's turn are complete, their turn is over and the second player takes their turn. After both players have taken their turn, the round is over and a new round starts. These phases are executed in the following order:

1. Beginning of Turn — All cards with effects that trigger at the beginning of a turn are executed in the order chosen by the player.
2. Draw — The player draws any number of cards, one at a time. After drawing a card, and looking at it, the player can decide to draw another card or stop drawing. The player can repeat this process as many times as they want. The player is also allowed to draw no cards. If the player runs out of cards to draw, and wants to draw more cards, they reshuffle their Deck (see Reshuffling the Deck, above) and then continue drawing cards.
3. Roll — The player rolls all of their dice that can be used during this turn.
4. Main — During the main phase, a player can use dice, play cards, use a card's abilities, or use other effects or actions, in any order. See Main Phase Actions, below, for detailed descriptions of each possible action:
   • Use a die to collect resources
   • Transform 2 dice into any resource
   • Play a card
   • Use a card activated ability
   • Use stored resources
5. Store Resources — Store any resources that are left on your unused dice or in your resource pool. Then, place all of the cards remaining in your hand (except those that are kept for your next turn or are to be destroyed at the end of the turn) in your Garbage dump, in the order you choose. For each card put in the Garbage dump at this time, store resources equal to the card's activation cost. Details on how to store resources are described below.
6. Deal Damage — Sum up the damage on the cards left in your Played cards zone (cards that have been played and removed from this zone during the turn do not count), as well as damage from any other effects or actions you performed during this turn, and deal it to your opponent in any order.
7. Use Spare Parts — All Spare parts, shown as rewards, on the cards that are left in the Played cards zone (cards that have been played and removed from this zone during the turn do not count), and any Spare parts gained during the turn can be spent to activate Spare parts actions. You can spend your Spare parts on any combination of actions, including activating the same action multiple times. Any unused Spare parts are destroyed at the end of this phase.
8. Clean Played Cards Zone — All played cards are put on the top of the Discard pile in the order the player chooses.
9. Train Cards — To train a card in the Training center requires that the number of physical screws on the card must be equal to or exceed the card's Training cost. Each card that is trained is placed on top of the player's Discard pile, and then all of the screws that were on the card are destroyed (this includes any that exceeded the actual cost to train the card).

Storing Resources

There are 6 different types of resources in the game - blue, red, black, green, yellow and a wild resource. To store a resource, take a screw from the supply that matches the color of the stored resource you want to store. Place that screw in an open space for that resource, located on the Stored resource section of your player board. Screws must match the color of the resource spot they are being placed in. For example, if you are storing a green and a blue resource, you can store the green screw in an open green spot, and the blue screw in an open blue spot of the Stored resource section on your player board. If you are storing a wild resource, it can only be placed on wild spots (spots with a wild icon). However, any color screw can be placed in an open wild spot. So, you can place a blue screw in a wild spot, whether or not there is room to place it in a blue spot. If a player can't store a resource because the spots are already full, the resource is destroyed.

Note: If you store a colored resource in a wild space, use a neutral colored screw instead - these stored resources can only be used as a wild resource (see Use Stored Resources, below, for more info).

Main Phase Actions

Use a die to collect resources — A player can use a rolled die to collect resources. When a die is used this way, each colored screw represented on the top face of the die adds one resource of that color to the player's resource pool. The resource pool is a temporary pool of resources for the current player's turn. These resources can then be used to play cards or activate abilities, effects, or actions. If the resources in a player's resource pool are not used by the end of their turn, they can be stored in the Stored resources section on the player board; otherwise, they are destroyed.

Note: Used dice can't be rerolled or used for other effects or actions unless otherwise stated.

Transform 2 dice into any resource — A player can convert two unused dice into a resource of their choice and add that resource to their resource pool. It does not matter what was rolled on the two dice that are used.

Note: Any unused die that was rolled, whether or not it has colored screws as the result of the roll, can be used for this action.

Play a card — Cards can only be played from a player's hand, unless otherwise stated. In order to play a card, the player must pay for it by removing resources from their resource pool equal to the card's activation cost. The resources used must match the colors of the activation cost. A wild icon in a card's activation cost means that any colored resource can be used (removed) from the resource pool to help satisfy the activation cost. A card that does not have any icons for its activation cost can be played for free. Once the card's activation cost is paid, all the card's effects are executed and the card is placed in the Played cards zone next to the player's board.

Use card activated ability — A player can use any card activated ability.

Use stored resources — When a player has two stored resources of the same color, they can destroy them both; doing so will reduce the activation cost (by one) of the next card played that turn and will also execute the Stored resource action indicated for that specific resource. To reduce the activation cost of the card, the color of the 2 Stored resources that are being spent must match the color of a resource on the card, or it must be a wild icon, as the wild icon represents any color. If you are using the 2 resources that are stored for the wild stored resource, they reduce the activation cost by only one wild icon (they cannot be used for any other icon except the wild icon).

For example, if a player has 2 red Stored resources, they can destroy them both to reduce the activation cost of the next card they play by one red resource icon. Or, they can be used to reduce the activation cost of a wild icon, since it matches any color. The player also executes the corresponding Stored resource action (i.e., Deal 1 damage).

For example, if a player has 2 wild Stored resources, they can destroy them both to reduce the activation cost of the next card they play by one wild icon. The player also executes the corresponding Stored resource action (i.e., Gain 2 resources or recruit a card).

Damage Types

The damage a card or action deals is indicated in two different ways. On Playing cards, damage that is dealt is indicated on the lower left side of the card, to the left of the Game Text Area. For other card types and components, the damage that is dealt is indicated by the game text.

Melee damage — When melee damage is dealt, reduce the armor value of the target by the amount of damage that is dealt. If there is no armor left to lose, the target loses health instead.

Example: If an opponent has 2 armor and 10 health, and a player executes an effect that deals 4 melee damage to the opponent, the opponent must lose 2 armor and then lose 2 health.

Ranged damage — When ranged damage is dealt, reduce the health value of the target by the amount of damage that is dealt. Ranged attacks ignore armor.

Destroy armor — When armor is destroyed, reduce the armor value of the target by the amount of destroyed armor. If there is no armor left to reduce, the rest of the effect is ignored.

Cooperative Mode

Goal of the Game — In Cooperative mode, players work together to defeat The Invasion. This mode contains a campaign consisting of two scenarios in which players attempt to defend their base from waves of enemies that the Invasion sends against them. If they are successful, they manage to defend their base and can go on to try and defeat the Invasion once and for all. The Invasion will continue to get stronger as the game progresses. Try to utilize the early rounds to your advantage, as it will become increasingly more difficult to survive later on in the game.

Basic Winning Condition — Campaigns may have different victory conditions, but players can win the game in any scenario, if the Invasion is unable to deploy an Invasion card when it is required to do so. Focusing on destroying Invasion cards, which in normal play occurs when the Invasion runs out of cards in its deck and is forced to reshuffle, is one of the primary goals of the game (more on how the Invasion cards are destroyed is described on the Invasion board). Don't underestimate its power!

Invasion Card Types

Invasion Cards — Invasion cards represent the sneaky tactics and enemies the Invasion uses during its turn. Invasion cards function the same as playing cards. The Invasion uses its own deck-building engine and starts the game with a specific set of starting cards. As the game progresses, additional cards are added to the Deck. When the Invasion runs out of cards in its Deck and needs a card to finish any effect or action (drawing a card, etc.), it must reshuffle its Deck. To reshuffle the Deck, shuffle all of the Invasion's cards from its Discard Pile and Garbage dump together to create a new Deck. Refer to the Invasion board for details about what happens prior to reshuffling.

Protocol cards — Protocol cards are permanents that behave the same way technology cards do and are used by the Invasion.

Scenario cards — The back side of the scenario card contains instructions for setting up the scenario. Once setup is complete, the scenario card is placed front side up in the Deployed cards zone next to the Invasion board.

Invasion Card Anatomy Key

1. Training cost: The number of Stored resources the Invasion must spend, from the Training zone the card is in, in order to train the card.
2. Card effects: Special abilities unique to this particular card.
3. Combat statistics: Represents the value of the card's melee attack, ranged attack, armor, and health.
4. Support statistics: Represents the value of the card's melee attack, ranged attack, armor, and health. These are added to the combat statistics of the card itself and those of all the other cards in the deployment stack above this card. How support statistics work is described later.
5. Reward: Represents the resources the Invasion stores when the card is deployed.

Card Deployment — Each round, the Invasion deploys cards from the top of the Invasion Deck and places them in the Deployed cards zone next to the Invasion board. One of the aims of the game is to defeat as many deployed cards as possible each round and avoid taking damage from the undefeated cards. After a card is deployed, its Reward ability (i.e. any resource icons shown in the upper right corner), and any abilities listed to be activated after deployment, are executed. When an invasion card is deployed, it is placed on top of the previously deployed card. If there are no deployed cards, it is placed on top of the scenario card. Each invasion card has a line that separates the combat statistics and support statistics. The new invasion card must be placed with its bottom edge slightly above the line, leaving only the support statistics visible. Invasion cards only have one separator line, but scenario cards can have more.

Game difficulty is determined by how many support abilities are visible. The more support abilities that are visible, the more difficult the game will be. Players choose how many support abilities will be visible before the game starts.

The combat statistics for the last (topmost) deployed card are the sum of all visible combat and support statistics from all of the cards in the deployment stack. As seen in the example, the topmost deployed card has 2 health, 3 armor, and 5 melee attack. Once the last card (topmost) is defeated, all supporting statistics are re-applied to the next topmost card in the order, and so on.

If a unique ability is displayed in the Support statistics section, the ability is active until the card with that ability is defeated.

Invasion Board

1. Time Tracker — Helps track how many rounds have been played.
2. Additional Player Actions — Special actions that can be performed by players during their turn. Each action has its own cost and effect. A player may pay the cost, during any game phase, to execute the effect.
3. Deck — Location to place the Invasion's Deck. The cards in this deck are always placed face down on this location. Includes instructions for when and how to reshuffle the Invasion Deck when it runs out of cards.
4. Discard Pile — Location where the Invasion places discarded cards. The cards in this pile are always placed face up on this location. Any player can look at the cards in this pile at any time.
5. Garbage Dump — The zone next to the Invasion board for the Invasion's Garbage dump. When a card should be placed in the Invasion's Garbage dump, place it here. The cards in the Garbage dump are always placed face up in this zone. Any player can look at the cards in this pile at any time.
6. Protocols Refresh — Provides a location to store Technology tokens and contains information about how the Invasion uses them.
7. Deployed Cards — The zone next to the Invasion board where deployed cards are placed.
8. Training Zones — Similar to a player's Training center. The Invasion has 5 different colored training zones. Each zone may contain an Invasion card that can be trained by spending the stored resources that are stored in that specific zone. The resource icon on the top of each zone shows which type of resource can be stored in that zone.
9. Protocols Zone — The zone next to the Invasion board where protocol cards are placed.

Note: If there are no cards in the Invasion's Deck, Discard Pile, and Garbage dump and it needs a card from its Deck to finish an effect or action, the Invasion loses the game.

Game Setup - Invasion

1. Prepare Invasion Board — Take the Invasion board and one neutral colored screw. Place the screw in the 0 spot of the Time tracker section on the Invasion board. Use it to track how many rounds have been played.
2. Prepare Invasion Decks — Remove the starting invasion cards from the rest of the invasion cards. Starting invasion cards are easily identified by the card symbol, which has a different background color. Randomly choose 10 starting invasion cards and then add 3 additional randomly chosen starting invasion cards for each player. To create the Invasion's Deck, shuffle all of the chosen cards and place them face down on the Deck section of the Invasion board. The remaining invasion cards (including any leftover starting cards that were not used to create the Deck) create the Invasion cards supply deck. Shuffle them together and place them face down on the table. Shuffle all available protocol cards to create the Protocols supply deck and place them face down on the table.
3. Set Up the First Scenario — Take the first scenario card (the card with the number 1). The back side of the card contains all of the instructions to set up the scenario, listing: the scenario number and name, a setup section, a list of events, and event descriptions. Proceed as follows:
   1. Setup the scenario — Follow all the instructions in the Setup section of the card.
   2. Setup events — Each event has a name and a number that indicates the round in which the event ends. Place a physical screw (use a screw that's a different color than the screw used for tracking the number of rounds played) on the Time tracker number of the Invasion board that matches the number indicated on the event for each event listed on the card.
   3. Deploy the scenario — Place the card, with the instruction side facing down, in the Deployed cards zone next to the Invasion board.
4. Prepare Players — Setup the same as you would for Competitive mode (see Game Setup - Players, above).
5. Choose Game Difficulty — Choose the game difficulty: easy, normal, or hard. This defines which separator line (bottom, middle, top) on the scenario card will be used when the first Invasion card is deployed. Effects above the chosen line are inactive for the entire duration of the game.

Note: If you have trouble beating the game even on easy difficulty, you can play the first campaign scenario completely without scenario card supporting statistics. You can also increase the starting armor and health values of all players to your liking.

Playing the Game (Cooperative Mode)

Cooperative mode is played over a series of rounds. Each round is divided into 3 parts: the Invasion's turn, the Player's turn, and Cleanup. Once the Invasion's turn is over, players simultaneously take their turn. After each player has taken their turn, Cleanup must be carried out. Once Cleanup is finished, the round is over, and a new round is started.

1) Invasion's Turn

1. Beginning of Turn — Execute, in the order chosen by the players, all of the effects on the Invasion's protocol cards, and the scenario card, that trigger at the beginning of a turn.
2. Increase the Elapsed Time — Advance the marker in the Time tracker section of the Invasion board by one. If the time tracker marker is on the same space as an event marker, or has skipped over an event marker, the event(s) end. Carry out the instructions for any events that have ended.
3. Deploy Invasion Cards — For each player and protocol in play, the Invasion deploys one card from the top of the Invasion Deck. After a card is deployed, its Reward ability (i.e. any resource icons shown in the upper right corner), and any abilities listed to be activated after deployment, are executed.
4. Train Invasion Cards — When any Training zone has stored resources greater than or equal to the Training cost of the card in that zone, the corresponding card is trained. To train the card, destroy all stored resources on the corresponding Training zone and place the card on top of the Invasion's Discard pile. Some cards are unique and might not be placed on the Discard pile. Once the Invasion card is trained, the effect on the corresponding Training zone is executed and a new card is recruited. To recruit a card, take the top card from the Invasion cards supply deck and place it on the empty Training zone. All cards that can be trained during this phase must be trained. If there are multiple cards to be trained, players choose the order in which they are trained.
5. Refresh Protocols — When the Invasion has no Technology tokens, it refreshes all of its Protocols; then it gains one technology token for each player in the game. This is also printed on the Invasion board as a reminder. The Invasion primarily loses tokens as a consequence of players needing to reshuffle their cards when their Deck runs out.
6. Use Protocols — Execute the Activated ability of any protocol that is in the refreshed state and then exhaust it.
7. End of Turn — Execute, in the order chosen by the players, all of the effects on the Invasion's protocol cards, and the scenario card, that trigger at the end of a turn.

2) Players' Turn

After the Invasion's turn is over, the players take their turn, just as they would in Competitive mode, but they take their turn simultaneously with a few differences.

Using Additional Player Actions — There are 4 Additional player actions on the Invasion board that are available to players during their turn. Each action has its own cost and an effect that is executed after the indicated icon on the left has been paid. The icon used to pay the cost must be gained during the turn and is lost and can't be used for anything else. Each action can be used multiple times during a turn, provided the cost can be paid.

Damaging effects — When a player executes an effect that deals damage, they can only target the topmost deployed card of the deployment stack. If players manage to defeat the topmost deployed card of the deployment stack (i.e. they reduce its health total to 0 or less) it is defeated and placed on top of the Invasion's Discard pile. Any leftover damage may be applied to the next card in the pile. If there are no deployed invasion cards left, any leftover damage may be spent on Additional player actions. Players may also choose to spend any amount of damage to execute Additional player actions instead of damaging the topmost deployed card. Players can't target scenario cards unless otherwise stated.

Note: Screws can be used to track damage dealt to, or armor/health gained by the Invasion cards: black for melee damage dealt, red for ranged damage dealt, blue for armor gained and green for health gained.

Other effects and actions — To aid in cooperation, a player may target teammates as well as themselves to execute Additional player actions as well. The effect must not be restricted by the text of the effect (e.g. "Refresh a card in your base") and must occur during the Main Phase or Deal Damage Phase.

For example, if a player plays a card with the effect "Gain 3 health.", they can heal themselves for 3, or they can heal themselves for 1, use the second health to heal one of their teammates for 1, and use the third to execute an Additional player action.

Recycle effects — When a player is executing an effect allowing them to recycle, they can also recycle their teammate's cards (see Recycle a Card, below, for more info).

For example, when a player plays a card that recycles 5 cards, they can choose the top 2 cards from their Garbage dump, the top 2 cards from their teammate's Garbage dump, and 1 card from another teammate's hand. Cards recycled this way remain with the player who owns the card, and can still be arranged in any order.

Gain effects — When a player is executing an effect allowing them to receive a gain, they can split the effect between themselves and/or their teammates, in any combination. Players may also choose to spend any part of the given effect to execute Additional player actions as well.

Store resource effects — When a player is executing an effect allowing them to store resources, they can split the resources to be stored between themselves and their teammates, in any combination. Sharing store resource effects during the Store Resources Phase is not allowed.

Reroll token usage — When a player uses a reroll token, they can reroll any die, including one of their teammate's dice.

3) Cleanup

If there are any undefeated deployed invasion cards left in the deployment stack (excluding the scenario card), follow these steps:

1. Deal ranged damage — Each player takes ranged damage equal to the sum of all visible ranged damage combat statistics plus all visible ranged damage support statistics on the remaining cards in the deployment stack (including the scenario card).
2. Deal melee damage — Each player takes melee damage equal to the sum of all visible melee damage combat statistics plus all visible melee damage support statistics on the remaining cards in the deployment stack (including the scenario card).
3. Discard cards — All deployed cards, except the scenario card, are discarded and placed on top of the Invasion's Discard pile in the order chosen by the players.

End of the Scenario

During any scenario turn, if any player's health is reduced to 0 or less, the players lose the scenario as well as the campaign. Each scenario card has its own winning condition; if met the scenario immediately ends, and each player must make a Survival check (see Survival Check, above), just like they would in Competitive mode. Once the Survival check is complete, and if no player's health has been reduced to 0 or less, the players win the scenario, otherwise they lose. If players win the scenario, they keep everything they gained. This includes: the playing cards in their Deck, Discard Pile and Garbage Dump, their upgraded dice, and the cards in their base. The Invasion keeps everything it gained. This includes: The Invasion Cards in its Deck, Discard Pile and Garbage Dump and its Protocols. Everything else is destroyed and players can move on to the next scenario.

Prepare the next scenario by destroying everything that is not kept for the next scenario. Then, shuffle all destroyed cards into the supply deck of the same type to create new supply decks. Each player resets their armor and health values to their starting positions, refreshes the cards in their Base, populates their Training center by recruiting 4 new cards, and creates a new Deck from all their playing cards. The Invasion creates a new Deck from all of the Invasion cards it kept and refreshes all of its protocols. Follow the instructions on the new scenario card to set up the Invasion.

Advanced Gameplay

Custom Cooperative Mode — Are you winning the cooperative mode without any trouble, even on the hardest mode? Or, do you just want a different gaming experience? If so, there is no better way than to create your own custom scenarios. Unleash your imagination and create your own set of scenarios for you and your gaming group. There are endless options for what you can do with the game engine. Even better, share your custom scenarios with others, through social media or game community pages, and see if they are able to win.

Custom Competitive Mode — The basic Competitive mode is simple head-to-head combat, designed to offer the shortest possible game that allows you to build your deck and dice in different ways every time you play. If you want to unleash the real power of the deck building and dice crafting mechanisms, you can play for two or more winning matches (i.e., best 2 out of 3, or more!). Once players finish the match, they keep everything they gained for the next match. This includes: the playing cards in their Deck, Discard Pile and Garbage Dump, their upgraded dice, and the cards in their base. To set up for the next match, destroy everything that is not kept for the next match and shuffle all destroyed cards into the supply deck the same type to create new supply decks. Each player resets their armor and health values to the starting positions and populates their Training center by recruiting 4 new cards.

Team Fight — An even number of players are divided into two teams of equal player count. Each team attempts to defeat the other. Once any player's health is reduced to 0 or less the game immediately ends. When the game ends, each player on the team that survived must make a Survival check, just as they would in Competitive mode. After the Survival check, if each players' health on the team that made the Survival check has not been reduced to 0 or less, they win. The game ends in a tie if both teams have at least one team member whose health has been reduced to 0 or less. This game mode is a combination of Cooperative and Competitive modes. Teams take turns just as a player would in the Competitive mode, but during a team's turn, players on that team play simultaneously and use their effects as if in Cooperative mode; they can target their teammates with their effects, etc. Players also share their life and armor; any damage taken from opponents can be split between teammates in any combination.

Note: This mode is not playable right out of the box, it requires at least 2 Additional Player Sets to be able to play.

Special Icons and Words in Game Text

Melee attack icon — Represents melee damage.

Armor icon — Represents the armor of a player and is tracked in the Armor and Health bar section of the player board.

Ranged attack icon — Represents ranged damage.

Health icon — Represents the health of a player and is tracked in the Armor and Health bar section of the player board.

Spare parts icon — Represents the Spare parts that can be used to activate Spare parts actions.

Screw icon — Represents physical screws that are used for training cards. When you gain a screw, place it on a card of your choice that is in your Training center. The color of the screw you place on the card does not matter.

Reroll icon — Represents a reroll that allows a player to reroll a die. When a player gains rerolls, they take the corresponding number of Reroll tokens to help track how many rerolls are available to them.

Keep a card for the next turn — Some effects allow you to keep cards for the next turn. If you choose to keep a card for the next turn, it is not played. It remains in your hand and is not discarded during the Store Resources phase. Some cards have this effect as a passive ability, which allows you to potentially keep the card in your hand for multiple consecutive turns.

Train a card — The trained card is placed on top of the player's Discard pile.

Store a resource — To store a resource, take a screw from the supply that matches the color of the stored resource you want to store. Place that screw in an open spot for that resource, located on the Stored resource section of your player board.

Refresh a card — Rotate a card 90° counter-clockwise, from the exhausted state to the refreshed state. This effect is ignored if a card is already in the refreshed state.

Exhaust a card — Rotate a card 90° clockwise, from the refreshed state to the exhausted state. This effect is ignored if a card is already in the exhausted state.

Lose health — When health is lost, reduce the health value of the target by the amount of lost health. If a target is reduced to 0 or less health, it is defeated. Effects that cause health to be lost always target you.

Lose armor — When armor is lost, reduce your armor value by the amount of lost armor. If there is no armor left to reduce, the rest of the effect is ignored. Effects that cause armor to be lost always target you.

Destroy — When a card, token, screw, or resource is destroyed, it is removed from the game. All destroyed cards of the same type create their own pile. Other tokens, screws, or resources go back to their starting supply piles.

Discard a card — The discarded card is placed face up on top of the owner's Discard pile.

Sacrifice a card — To sacrifice a card, a player draws the top 3 cards from their Deck, destroys one, and then places the rest on the top of their Deck in any order.

Recycle a card — Choose to take the top card of either your Garbage dump, Discard pile, or any card from your hand and place it on top of your Deck. If the effect recycles more than one card, process them one at a time.

Recruit a card — Draw the top 3 cards from the Recruitment deck. Choose one and place it in your Training center. The other two cards are destroyed.

Discover a new technology — Draw the top 3 cards from the Technology deck. Choose one and place it in your Base in the refreshed state. The other two cards are destroyed.

Gain a resource — Add the indicated resource to your resource pool. It is then available for use to play a card or activate any action. When you gain a wild resource it can only be used as a wild resource and not as any resource of your choice.

Do not use a die — A die that can't be used is placed aside and is considered used for the duration of the effect. This means that it can't be rolled, rerolled, or used for any other effect or action.

Invasion's Effects

Store a resource — Similar to the player's stored resources, the Invasion can store its own resources during its turn. This is mainly accomplished by deploying cards. When the Invasion stores a resource, take a screw from the supply that matches the color of the resource being stored and place it on the Training Zone on the Invasion board that matches the color of the resource being stored. When the Invasion stores the wild resource, take the colored screw of your choice (not a neutral colored screw) and place it on the corresponding Training Zone. There is no limit to the number of resources the Invasion can store on these zones, and stored resources can exceed the training cost of a card that is in a zone.

Recruit a card — Place the top card of the Invasion cards supply deck face up in a Training Zone.

Train a card — When the Invasion trains a card, reveal it and execute any effect that triggers when the card is trained, then place it on top of its Discard pile.

Deploy a card — When an invasion card is deployed, it is placed on top of the previously deployed card in the Deployed cards zone.

Recycle a card — When the Invasion recycles a card, it always prioritizes cards from its Garbage Dump over cards in its Discard Pile.

Activate a protocol — Place the top card of the Protocols supply deck, face up and in a refreshed state, into the Protocols zone next to the Invasion board.

Round Summary

Competitive Mode

Additional Setup: Randomly choose the first player. To offset the slight advantage the first player has, the second player gains 2 Spare parts to compensate.

1. Players' Round — Each round players alternate turns.

Players' turn:

1. Beginning of Turn
2. Draw Phase — Draw as many cards as you want.
3. Roll Phase — Roll with all of your available dice.
4. Main Phase — The following actions can be taken in any order: Use a die to collect resources; Transform 2 dice into any resource; Play a card; Use a card's activated ability; Use stored resources.
5. Store Resources — Store resources from your resource pool, unused dice and unplayed cards (except those that are kept for your next turn or are to be destroyed at the end of the turn).
6. Deal Damage — Deal damage in any order to your opponents.
7. Use Spare Parts — Use Spare parts actions to improve your deck and dice.
8. Clean Played Cards Zone — Place all played cards on top of your Discard Pile in any order.
9. Train Cards — Place fully trained cards on top of your Discard Pile.
10. End of Turn

Cooperative Mode

1. Invasion's Turn — The Invasion takes its own turn.
2. Players' Turn — Each player takes their turn.
3. Cleanup — Resolve undefeated Invasion cards.

Invasion's turn:

1. Beginning of Turn
2. Increase the Elapsed Time — Advance the time tracker marker one space.
3. Deploy Invasion Cards — For each player and protocol in play, the Invasion deploys one card and executes its reward and effects.
4. Train Invasion Cards — Train cards from Training zones if there are enough stored resources.
5. Refresh Protocols — Refresh protocols if the Invasion has no Technology tokens.
6. Use Protocols — Execute the activated abilities of each protocol that is in play and in a refreshed state, and then exhaust it.
7. End of Turn

Cleanup:

1. Resolve Invasion Cards That Survived — If any invasion cards remain deployed:
   • Deal the ranged damage first, and then the melee damage, to each player in the game equal to the sum of all visible combat and support statistics on the remaining cards in the deployment stack.
   • Discard all deployed cards (except the scenario card).

Additional Game Modes

Equal Chances — Is the base game too easy, too difficult, or do you just want to add some variety to your gameplay? Here are some minor tweaks to make the game more stable for different player counts. These rules can be applied to any campaign.

Changed Rules

1. Adjusted starting Invasion deck size — The Invasion starts with 22 Invasion starting cards in its deck.

2. Deploy Invasion cards phase changes — This phase is split into 3 steps as follows:

   • Exploration step: The Invasion sends (4 - number of players in the game) cards to exploration. For each card sent to exploration reveal the top card from the Invasion deck, execute its reward, and then place it on top of the Invasion Discard Pile.

     Note: In 4 player game, no cards are sent to exploration.

   • Deployment step: The Invasion deploys (X + number of protocols in the game) Invasion cards, where X depends on the player count.

   • Defense step: The Invasion places X Defender cards on top of the Deployment stack formed in Step II. For each Defender card to be placed: take the top card from the Invasion Deck, place it on top of the deployment stack, and execute the card's reward.

     Note: As these cards are placed during the Defense step, they do not trigger any "When deployed" effects. Once placed, however, they are considered to be "deployed cards" for all intents and purposes.

   1 player game

   • The Invasion sends 3 cards to exploration.
   • The Invasion deploys (1 + number of protocols in the game).
   • The Invasion places no Defender cards.

   2 players game

   • The Invasion sends 2 cards to exploration.
   • The Invasion deploys (2 + number of protocols in the game).
   • The Invasion places no Defender cards.

   3 players game

   • The Invasion sends 1 card to exploration.
   • The Invasion deploys (2 + number of protocols in the game).
   • The Invasion places 1 Defender card.

   4 players game

   • The Invasion sends no cards to exploration.
   • The Invasion deploys (2 + number of protocols in the game).
   • The Invasion places 2 Defender cards.

3. End of the scenario changes — When any scenario ends, shuffle all Invasion cards from the Invasion's Discard Pile and Garbage Dump into its Deck, then the Invasion destroys (4 - number of players in the game) top cards from its Deck.

Speed Training — Don't have much time and would you like to play a quick game in competitive mode? Then here are some minor game adjustments for you that will allow you to play competitive mode in parallel, so that all players play the individual game phases at the same time so there is no starting player in the game.

Changed Rules

1. Players do not execute Additional Setup — Since there is no starting player in this game mode, no player performs additional preparation (adding spare parts as compensation for the player playing second).

2. All game phases are played by all players simultaneously — Players play each game phase simultaneously.

3. Execution of effects — All effects (in any phase of the game) are resolved immediately after they are executed (after playing a card, activating stored resource action, etc.), with the exception of effects that affect opponents, which are resolved in any order after all other effects have been resolved.

   What are effects affecting the opponent? These effects are various card abilities that target opponents, or any of their zones, cards in their hand, etc. These are mainly effects that discard cards from the opponent's deck, effects that put cards from the opponent's deck into the Garbage Dump, effects that destroy the opponent's stored resources, etc.

   Sometimes it is necessary to note which effect affecting the opponent should be resolved. To do this, you can use colored screws that you place on your leader card when executing these effects (a yellow screw for putting a card into the Garbage Dump, a red screw for discarding a card, and a blue screw for destroying a stored resource), these screws then act as a reminder so that you don't forget to resolve these effects.

   In rare situations, a defined Turn Order may be required. If play cannot be performed simultaneously (e.g., both players wish to train a card from Starting Card Supply Deck, or both players are pausing to react to their opponent's next decision), order is determined as follows: Each player reveals a card at random from the Recruitment Deck. The player drawing the card with the higher Training Cost gets to choose who must complete the whole of the current Phase first. (If Training Costs are tied, both players redraw until a tie does not occur). Then destroy all revealed cards.