The Last Lighthouse
The Last Lighthouse Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 1 Lighthouse Card
- 1 Darkness Card
- 16 Nightmare Cards
Each Nightmare Card can be either a trap or a nightmare, depending on which symbol is on top.
Setup
- Partially overlap the bottom of the Lighthouse Card with the Darkness Card, revealing your starting health of 6.
- Shuffle the Nightmare Cards into a face-down deck.
- Draw 4 cards to form your hand of traps.
- Choose a difficulty. Then create the sea, which is a row of cards to the right of the lighthouse. Draw 4 cards, and starting from the left, place the nightmares first, then traps, based on your chosen difficulty. Ignore Placement effects during setup.
| Difficulty | Nightmares | Traps |
|---|---|---|
| Easy | 1 | 3 |
| Normal | 2 | 2 |
| Hard | 3 | 1 |
| Nightmare | 4 | 0 |
Gameplay
Your goal is to keep the lighthouse lit throughout the night, as nightmares attack and threaten to extinguish it. The game consists of a series of rounds, each with five steps:
Step 1: Take Two Actions
You may take up to two actions in any order and combination. For each action, you may place a trap or defeat a nightmare. If you cannot perform either action, skip this step.
Place a Trap
Place a trap from your hand into the sea. It may be placed in any position. Activate that trap's Placement effect, if any.
Defeat a Nightmare
Choose a nightmare in the sea to defeat, and see how many traps are in range. Traps can attack different distances to the left and right, and do 1 damage each.
Over the course of the game, shift the Darkness Card up and down to represent your changing health. For each damage taken, cover 1 number; for each point of health regained, reveal 1 number.
The number of nightmare and trap icons indicate Nightmare and Trap health, respectively. If you deal damage greater than or equal to the nightmare's health, you defeat it. Activate its Defeat effect if any, then place it in your hand as a trap (rotated so the trap icon is at the top). There is no hand size limit.
Example — Nightmare: This nightmare has a health of 1, and can reach up to 3 spaces to the left, and 2 to the right.
Example — Trap: This trap has a health of 2, and can reach up to 2 spaces to the left, and 1 to the right.
Step 2: Add a Nightmare
Draw 1 card and place it as a nightmare at the rightmost position in the sea (farthest from the lighthouse). Activate that nightmare's Placement effect, if any.
Each nightmare or trap must be defeated all at once (you may not combine damage from different actions or different rounds to defeat them).
Step 3: The Nightmares Attack
First, the nightmares attempt to attack the lighthouse. For each nightmare within range of the lighthouse, the lighthouse is damaged by one. Then continue to Step 4.
If the lighthouse is not attacked, the nightmares try to defeat a trap, starting with the leftmost trap. Nightmare attacks are like trap attacks: each nightmare can deal 1 damage to traps within its range.
If there are enough nightmares in range to overcome the trap's health, activate its Defeat effect if any, remove it from the game, and close any gaps. If the trap is not defeated, the nightmares attempt to defeat the next trap to the right, and so on until either a trap is defeated or all traps survive.
Step 4: The Tide Changes
The leftmost card in the sea is affected by the tide. If it is a nightmare, move it to the right side of the sea. If it is a trap, remove it.
Step 5: Survey the Sea
If there are 4 nightmares in a row anywhere in the sea, the lighthouse takes 1 damage.
Additional Notes
- Traps and nightmares have effects that occur when they're placed or defeated. You must resolve these effects if possible.
- A card's Placement effect only triggers when it is placed in the sea according to the "Place a Trap" player action, placing a nightmare in Step 2, or an effect that says "place."
- When a trap or nightmare with a Placement effect enters the sea, activate only that effect. Do not activate other Placement effects.
- A card's Defeat effect only triggers when it is defeated by direct damage from other cards, not when it is removed due to other effects.
- As cards enter the sea, shift the existing cards to make room as needed. As cards leave, shift remaining cards to close gaps.
- Cards in the sea may never be moved to the left of the lighthouse. If a card is adjacent to the lighthouse and must move further left, it stays in the same position.
End of Game
Victory
If the lighthouse is lit and the deck is empty at the end of any round, you win the game!
Defeat
You lose the game if the darkness engulfs the lighthouse.
Credits
Design: Scott Almes Development: Dustin Dobson Playtesting Lead: Michelle Skevington-Carter Writing: Ian Howard Rules Editing: Michael Lee Art: Anastasia Khmelevska Graphic Design: Milan Zivkovic
More games @ buttonshygames.com