Valiant Universe: The Deckbuilding Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Objective of the Game
• Contents
• Getting Started
  • Basics of Play
  • Setup: The Players (First Game)
  • Setup: The Facility (First Game)
  • Example of Setup (Three Players)
  • Setup: The Players (Optional, After First Game)
  • Setup: The Facility (Optional, After First Game)
• How to Play
  • On a Player's Turn
  • Card Actions
  • Making an Attack
  • Card Action Icons
  • Keywords
  • Card Action Icons (Continued)
  • Purchase Actions
  • Superhero Actions
    • Actions
  • Superheroes and Shut-Down Sectors
  • Facility Durability Tracker
    • Sector Shutdown
• Glossary

Objective of the Game

Each player assumes the role of an Organization within the Valiant Universe, attempting to infiltrate the Facility and gain control while fighting off any other Organizations along the way.

The Facility is abstractly represented by a grid of cards: 5 Levels (rows) x 5 Blocks (columns), for 25 decks of cards. Each deck on this grid is known as a Sector.

To gain ultimate control of the Facility, each player will play cards from their hands to deal damage to other Organizations and manipulate the cards in the grid—which represents the Facility morphing and changing. Players will also have the opportunity to purchase cards from their Zone of Influence (ZOI) on the Facility. Additionally, players can move their Superhero miniature around the Facility's Sectors to deal additional damage to Opponents, while making use of their Abilities on their Power card.

Along the way, the Facility may also strike back at the players. As fighting rages throughout the underground complex, damage is also inflicted not just to Organizations but to the Facility as well, marked using the Facility Durability Tracker. As more damage is received, more Sectors go into shutdown, making those cards unavailable for purchase, as well as potentially causing damage to a player's Organization.

As Organizations take damage, their Cohesion drops; a measure of their overall strength, morale, leadership, and ability to keep fighting. If an Organization's Cohesion ever drops to 0, they retreat from the Facility and are out of the game.

The last player remaining in the game is the winner as they seize control of the Facility and its exotic treasures!

Contents

Valiant Universe: the Deck-Building Game contains everything you need to play.

• 5 Superhero miniatures
• 5 Power cards
• 5 Zone of Influence cards
• 5 Organization Coherence Trackers
• 35 Harbinger Foundation cards
• 35 Renegades cards
• 35 PRS cards
• 35 GATE cards
• 35 Weaponeer cards
• 25 Shutdown cards (5 for each Organization)
• 25 Basic cards
• 1 Facility Durability Tracker
• 1 six-sided die
• 1 sheet of cardboard counters
• Rulebook

Getting Started

Basics of Play

The following provides an overview of how the game is played:

• The player who most recently read a Valiant comic (or just randomly determine) is the first player. That player takes his or her turn.
• Each turn, a player can take as many actions as they desire, until they either can no longer take further actions or decide to end their turn.
• Each turn a player can take three types of actions:
  • Card Actions
  • Purchase Actions
  • Superhero Actions
• Actions can be taken in any order.
• At the end of a player's turn, any cards left in their hand are discarded. The player then draws 5 cards. If the player runs out of cards, they shuffle their discard to draw the remaining cards. For example, if there were 2 cards left in the draw pile, the player would draw those 2 cards, then shuffle the discard into a new draw pile and draw the remaining 3.
• Each turn concludes with a die roll, which represents how much damage the Facility receives. If the Facility reaches 0 durability, it shuts down a randomly determined Sector and then resets.
• Play passes to the player on the left, and a new turn starts.
• The winner is the last player remaining after all other players have been eliminated.

Setup: The Players (First Game)

Each player performs the following steps to set up the game:

• Select an Organization. Take the following elements that correspond to that organization:
  • Organization Coherence Tracker
  • Superhero miniature and its corresponding Power card
  • 35 Sector cards (7 decks of 5 cards each)
  • 5 Shutdown cards
  • Zone of Influence card
• Sort all of the Organization's Sector cards into 7 decks, with each deck including all 5 copies of the same card.
• Although each Organization has a total of 7 Sector decks, only 5 will be used each game. Select 1 card from all of their Sector decks (including any non-player Organizations for the current game). Shuffle these 7 cards, and then draw 2 random cards. These drawn cards represent the decks that will not be used for this game. Take 1 card from each unused deck and place the rest back in the box.
• Take 2 Combat, 1 Maintenance, and 2 Manipulate Basic cards. Add the 2 cards from the unused Sectors (from the previous step).
• Shuffle those 7 cards and place them facedown as a draw pile.
• Place a token on the "20" for each player Organization Coherence Tracker.
• Using 2 tokens, select a total of 2 Hero-level Abilities from the three tiers on the Power card. You may wait until the Facility is built before selecting your Abilities.
• Draw 5 cards to form your starting hand.

Setup: The Facility (First Game)

Next, set up the playing area in the following way:

• The Facility consists of a 5 x 5 grid of the 25 Sectors (decks) from the five Organizations.
• Determine which Levels the players' Sector decks will be placed:
  • In a 2-player game: use Levels 2 and 4.
  • In a 3-player game: use Levels 1, 3, and 5.
  • In a 4-player game: use Levels 1, 2, 4, and 5.
• Sectors for unused Levels, if any, will be randomly filled by non-player Organizations (i.e., the Organizations not chosen by the players).
• Randomly determine which player's Sectors will be placed in which Levels.
• Starting where the first Sector will be placed in Level 1, place the Zone of Influence (ZOI) card for the first Organization. The Block number for the placement matches the Level number, so the first organization's ZOI card is placed in Level 1, Block 1.
• Place the ZOI card for the Organization that will occupy the second Level, e.g., Level 2, Block 2.
• Proceed down each Level/Block until the final ZOI card for the fifth Organization is Level 5, Block 5 (i.e. in the far, bottom right-hand place where a Sector will be placed).
• Build the 5 x 5 grid by placing each of the appropriate Organization's 5 Shutdown cards in the Level based upon the ZOI cards. For example, if Level 1 contains the Project Rising Spirit (PRS) ZOI card, then place all 5 PRS Shutdown cards in a row to create Level 1.
• Fill the grid by randomly placing each Organization's 5 Sector decks face up into the appropriate Levels determined by the matching Shutdown cards.
• Place each Organization's corresponding Superhero miniature on their appropriate Zone of Influence card Sectors. (Non-player Organizations, if any, do not get a Superhero miniature; those unused miniatures remain in the box.)
• Place the Facility Durability Tracker next to the Facility grid, with a token marking its starting durability based on the number of players:
  • 12 for 2 players

Example of Setup (Three Players)

Neil is sitting down to a game with two other players, Amy and Tony. He's been reading Valiant's Harbinger series and has fallen in love with that storyline. Faith rocks! So he selects all the materials for the Renegades Organization.

He randomly determines that he'll use the following Sectors this game: Firestarter, Scout, Hacker, The Tank, and The Soul. He then selects 1 card from The Tactician Sector deck and 1 from the Omega Psiot Sector. After then placing those unused decks back in the box, he adds those 2 cards to 2 Combat, 1 Maintenance and 2 Manipulate Basic cards. Neil then shuffles those 7 cards, places them facedown, and draws his first hand of 5 cards.

Amy selected the Harbinger Foundation while Tony grabbed PRS, and they each prepare their Sectors in the same fashion as Neil.

They randomly determine that Neil's Renegades will be placed in Level 1, Tony's PRS will occupy Level 3, and Amy's Harbinger Foundation will go into Level 5. They also randomly determine that the non-player GATE will occupy Level 2 while Weaponeer will fill Level 4.

They place the ZOI cards according to each Level. Renegades ZOI card goes in Level 1, Block 1; GATE's ZOI card is placed in Level 2, Block 2; the PRS's ZOI goes in Level 3, Block 3; Weaponeer's card goes in Level 4, Block 4; and Harbinger Foundation is placed in Level 5, Block 5. They place all of their Organizations' Shutdown cards onto their respective Levels and then randomly place the Sectors for each Organization into their respective Levels. They randomly determine which 2 Sectors from the non-player Organizations will not be used and place those cards back in the box while randomly placing the remaining Sectors into the Facility.

Everyone places their tokens on the 20 value on their Organization Coherence Tracker. Amy places a token on the 28 of the Facility Durability Tracker (since there are three players) and sets the die, Lowest Coherence Token, and remaining tokens next to the grid.

Next, each player takes 2 tokens and selects their first Hero-level Abilities. Neil decides to take the first Ability from the Optimism and Flight tiers on his Power card.

They randomly determine that Tony will take the first turn. Now they are ready to play!

Setup: The Players (Optional, After First Game)

After the first game, the following optional rule applies if all players agree:

• Each player selects the 5 Sectors they will use instead of randomly determining them.

Setup: The Facility (Optional, After First Game)

Follow all the same rules for a first game setup, but with the following change:

• Each player determines the order they will place their Sectors into their Levels. For player Organizations, randomly determine the first player at the start of the game. That player places their Sectors first. Then proceeding clockwise around the table, the other players place all of their Organization's Sectors. Sectors for any non-player Organizations are still randomly placed.

How to Play

Valiant Universe: The Deck-Building Game is played in a series of turns, with each player completing their full turn before the next person starts their turn, in clockwise order around the table.

Facility Wrap: The Levels and Blocks of the Facility automatically wrap around to the other side of the Level or Block in question. This means that any movement of cards or Superheroes, as well as any adjacent-Sector damage, automatically wraps to the appropriate other side: i.e., left or right, top or bottom.

Round: A round is considered the start of your turn until the start of your next turn. If a card uses "round" in its description, that is the timeframe in which the effect can apply to you. This means it can be a short or long effect, depending upon when the card is played.

On a Player's Turn

A player may take any number of actions during their turn, until they either can no longer take further actions or decide to end their turn. Actions can be taken in any order.

Three types of actions can be taken:

• Card Actions
• Purchase Actions
• Superhero Actions

Additional details covering these action types are provided below.

Card Actions

A player can play any number of cards from their hand during their turn.

Each card contains two actions, as indicated by a variety of icons. However, unless specifically stated otherwise by a card's actions, a player can never use both actions at once. The player must declare which action they are using when the card is played.

The Card Action Icons section covers all the icons found on the cards and the actions they allow.

Action Modification: The text accompanying each icon may modify the basics of what the action accomplishes. Make sure to thoroughly review each card for how each action icon may be modified.

If no text accompanies an icon, then the rules for the icon apply exactly as presented (see Card Action Icons below).

Card action names, which are bold and italicized on the card, never convey rules. They are provided for story immersion. Only the icon and any accompanying text convey rules.

For example, Project Rising Spirit's Phase Out card has two different actions: Invisibility and Shift. The Invisibility action includes text which modifies the Redirect Defense icon, while the Shift action has no text, so the rule for the Standard Shift icon applies as normal.

Making an Attack

Many cards include one of the four types of Attack icons (see Card Action Icons below). When making an attack, regardless of whether it is a card-based attack or a Superhero attack, use the following rules (in addition to those described in the Card Action Icons section):

• There are only 3 valid targets of an attack:
  • A Sector
  • A Superhero
  • An Opponent
• Damage suffered by any of these targets immediately transfers to the Organization's Coherence Tracker.
• A player can only attack twice on their turn unless the player uses a card with the Chainable keyword (see Keywords below). The two attacks per turn come from the following actions:
  • 1 attack from a card
  • 1 attack from their Superhero (see the Superhero Actions section)
• When making a card-based Attack action, the player must designate one of their own Sectors as the origin for the attack (this can be a shutdown Sector; see Sector Shutdown below). A Superhero attack, on the other hand, originates from the Sector where the player's Superhero is located at the time of the attack.
• Regardless of the number or combination of cards a player uses when making an attack, the attacking player must play all cards that will be used in the attack before the target player(s) can play defensive actions, if any. If the attacking player's cards allow for multiple card-based attacks in a single turn, each attack action is considered a separate attack and is defended against separately.

Duplicating Other Cards: Even if a card duplicates another card—for example GATE's False Flag card's Master of Disguise action—and you duplicate a card with an Attack action, you cannot then take another Attack action (unless the player uses a card with the Chainable keyword; see Keywords below).

Damage Your Own Sectors: Due to the jumbled nature of the Facility, a player can damage their own Sectors. Be careful where you launch those attacks!

Direction of Effect: Many action modifications will use such directional terminology as "next Sector in line," "backward," or "Shift Sector 2 spaces." This "direction of effect" is always drawn from the originating Sector to the target Sector and then beyond, as far as detailed by the text on the card.

For example, the Renegades' Firestarter card's Pyrokinesis Attack action states the following: "Deal 2 damage to Sector and 1 damage to the next Sector in line." As per the rules above, the player would select one of their Sectors as the origin, then they would choose an orthogonally adjacent Sector to deal 2 damage. Continuing in that same direction, the next Sector adjacent to the target Sector would receive 1 damage. (Keep in mind that the Facility wraps around at the end of each Level or Block.)

In another example, the PRS's Psiot Strike card's Muscle Attack action states the following: "Deal 3 damage and knock Sector backwards 1 space." Following the rules above, the player chooses an origin Sector, then an orthogonally adjacent Sector takes 3 damage, and in a line from the origin Sector to the target Sector, the target Sector is then pushed backward 1 Sector (see Sector Movement below).

Sector Movement: If any card effect outside of a Standard Shift (see Card Action Icons below) moves a card (such as the Muscle Attack action noted above, or the Renegades' Scout card's Bull Form Action), the entire Level or Block does not shift. Instead, any displaced cards (whether 1 or more Sectors) move in to fill the hole(s) left by the moved Sector.

Example (Sector Movement): In another game, as part of Neil's turn, he first plays a Harbinger Foundation's Psychokinesis card he purchased two turns ago. He announces he'll be using the card's Tactical Swap action, and picks up the Mind Reader Sector—Level 3, Block 3—and the Apportation Sector—Level 2, Block 5—and switches the two decks' locations.

Then he plays the Renegades' Scout card and announces he'll be using the Bull Form action. He designates the origin as his own The Soul Sector—Level 1, Block 5—and the target as the Mind Reader Sector. This will push The Soul Sector down 2 Sectors on the Facility, replacing the current Sector occupied by Telekinesis. Neil moves The Soul deck there, and then takes both the Telekinesis and Mind Reader decks and moves them up to fill the 2 empty Sectors; i.e. Mind Reader in Level 1, Block 5, and Telekinesis in Level 2, Block 5. Finally, for the last part of the Bull Form action on the Scout card, 1 card from each moved Sector is trashed. This not only removes more PRS cards out of the game to deprive those from Tony, but by setting the move up as he did, Neil's put a shutdown Sector into Amy's ZOI, which she'll have to spend time moving or take damage at the end of her turn.

Sector Movement and Damage: Any Attack action that also moves a Sector must deal damage to move the target Sector(s); if the damage is blocked completely—for example through Defense icons—then a Sector is not moved.

Lowest Coherence Token: As soon as the first player is damaged, they receive the Lowest Coherence token; simply place it on or in front of their Organization Coherence Tracker. Once another player has a lower Coherence value at the end of a turn—whether due to damage on that other Organization, or the player with the token healed their Organization—the token is moved to the player with the lowest Coherence value at the end of that player's turn (it does not move in the case of ties).

The player with the Lowest Coherence token applies additional rules when using Standard Defense cards (see Card Action Icons below).

Card Action Icons

As previously mentioned, the text on cards will modify these icons. When in doubt, cards take precedence over these rules.

• Orthogonal: As detailed under Standard Attack (see Card Action Icons below), "orthogonally adjacent" means the Sector either up, down, left, or right from the origin Sector, not the 4 diagonal Sectors. Only cards that include either the Diagonal Attack icon or specifically use the word "diagonal/diagonally" in the text allow diagonal direction.
• Order of Damage Resolution: After an Attack action from a card has been played, all cards with any type of Defense icon resolve their actions first, then attacking damage (if any remains) is applied to the target, in the order the cards were played.

Example (Order of Damage Resolution): On her turn Amy has the following cards in hand: Electronic Warfare (Weaponeer), Infiltration (Weaponeer), Mind Control (Harbinger Foundation), Psiot Strike (PRS), and The Tank (Renegades).

Amy could play her Electronic Warfare card, announcing she'll use the Viral Assault action, designating an appropriate origin and target Sectors. Then she could play Mind Control and use the Chainable action, which will allow her to immediately play another attack with Psiot Strike—a potential of 4 total damage. However, if Amy reorders the cards, she can potentially do more damage. First, she plays the Infiltration card's Sneak Attack action, which deals damage and includes the Chainable keyword. She then plays Electronic Warfare's Viral Assault action. Then she plays Mind Control, using the Chainable action to then play Psiot Strike and use the Muscle action. This gives her a potential of 6 total damage in place of only the 4 of the previous order.

In both instances, she doesn't want to use The Tank, as it would open her up to a counterattack by her Opponent due to the Counter keyword.

• Returning Cards to Draw Pile: When any card allows a player to "look at X cards" and then "return X cards" to the draw pile (whether that is on top or bottom), the player may always choose which order to place said cards.
• Lock: This places a single token on any Sector, Locking that Sector into place; it cannot be Shifted (though cards may still be purchased from it) until it is Unlocked. A card cannot be Locked more than once.
• Unlock: This Unlocks a previously Locked Sector; simply remove the token and place it back into the common pool.
• Trash: A card with the keyword Trash indicates that the action may be used to trash, or remove from play, the indicated card or another specified card. Trashing should not be confused with discarding. Trashing permanently removes a card from play, while discarding simply moves the card into an Organization's discard pile.
• Chainable: A card with the keyword Chainable allows for 1 additional attack. This can occur in two ways:
  • On the Attack card: If taking a card-based Attack action and the card with the Attack icon (of any type) includes the keyword Chainable, then the player may immediately play another card with any type of Attack icon for a second attack.
  • On another card: After taking a card-based Attack action, the player may play a second card that includes the keyword Chainable and then play a third card with any type of Attack icon for a second attack.

The following additional rules apply to the Chainable keyword:

• If the cards allow, a player can chain together multiple card-based attacks (see Making an Attack above, for additional details).
• Origins and Target: The origin Sector and the target of any subsequent chained attacks need not be the same as the first attack.
• Superheroes: Unless specifically stated otherwise, the Chainable keyword never works with a Superhero attack.

Keywords

Cards may include specific keywords that allow for additional options. Those keywords are the following:

• Armor: Armor nullifies damage: 1 armor point negates 1 point of damage. This usually applies to an Organization's Augment Slot (see Manipulation below).

• Counter: A card with the keyword Counter on it means that an Opponent may play a card with an Attack action in response to an attack as though that responding card includes a Counterattack Defense icon. All the rules that apply for the Counterattack Defense icon apply for the card played as the Counter, including the order of damage resolution (see Counterattack Defense and Order of Damage Resolution above).

• Chainable: See Card Action Icons and the Chainable rules above.

• Trash: See Card Action Icons above.

Card Action Icons (Continued)

• During an Opponent's Turn: During an Opponent's turn, when that player attacks, this icon allows for the card to be played in response to that attack to reduce 2 damage.
• Standard Attack: This icon represents an attack against 1 Sector, located orthogonally adjacent (either up, down, left, or right) from the origin Sector (see Making an Attack above, for additional details).
• Counterattack Defense: This icon—or the keyword Counter—represents a defense against an attack on an Opponent's turn, allowing for a single card-based Attack action from another card to be made against the attacking Opponent, using the following rules:
  • Resolve text effects for the Counterattack Defense action, if any, then discard the card.
  • The card played for the counterattack must include one of the four Attack icons. Superhero card-based Attack actions cannot be used.
  • Only a single attack can be made as part of this Counterattack Defense, unless the player plays a card with the Chainable keyword (see Keywords above).
  • The Attack action card played for the counterattack is not discarded. It is kept in the player's hand after resolving the attack and defense. However, if the player used the Chainable keyword to make multiple attacks at the attacking Opponent, any other cards played beyond the first Attack action card are discarded.
  • Any counterattack damage applied must be directly targeted to the attacking Opponent, as described by the card being used; damage to other Opponents can only occur if the counterattack deals damage to multiple Sectors (hence other players are "splashed" with damage).
• Diagonal Attack: This icon represents an attack against 1 Sector, located diagonally adjacent from the origin Sector (see Making an Attack above, for additional details).
• Anywhere Attack: This icon represents an attack against 1 Sector, located anywhere on the Facility (see Making an Attack above, for additional details).

Hint: Using Defense can be very effective. However, don't spend too many of these cards (unless you're about to be eliminated). Remember you don't draw cards until the end of your turn, so you could leave yourself with only Superhero actions if you burn all of your cards before your turn.

• Heal: This icon allows the player to increase their Coherence value on their Organization Coherence Tracker; the card will specify what value. Unless specifically stated otherwise, Heal actions can only be played on the active player's turn and only affect the active player's Organization.
• Manipulation: This icon represents an interaction with any Organization's Augment Slot, in one of two ways as specified by the action's text:
  • On a player's turn, this card can be played into his or her Organization's Augment Slot (see the Augment section below); each card will clarify if it can be placed in an Augment Slot in this fashion. Only a single Augment card may be in an Organization's Augment Slot; cards attached to an Augment do not count against this limit. If the player places a new card down and one is already in play, the older card and any other cards/tokens attached to it are automatically discarded.
  • On a player's turn, regardless of the action associated with this icon, the player may play this card—ignoring the associated action—and discard any other card from their hand to remove a card from another player's Augment Slot; in this instance, it will remove all cards, including any stacked underneath that player's Augment. (The exception is Firestarter's Sunder Augment action, which allows for the same result without discarding the extra card.)
• Augment: Note that any cards in an Augment Slot are referred to in the rules simply as "a player's Augment."
• Discard: No Augment (or any amount of cards placed underneath the Augment) is discarded until the last effects of an Augment are delivered. Only then are it and any connected cards discarded. The only exception is if a new card is placed into the Augment Slot. In that case, the new Augment replaces the current card(s) as noted above.
• Standard Shift: This icon allows for the shifting of any one Level (right or left) or one Block (up or down) by 1 space, using the following rules:
  • Remember the Facility automatically wraps left to right, top to bottom.

Some cards may specifically note that a Standard Shift may be more than a single shift, or performed more than once with the same card action.

Example (Standard Shift and Chaining): From the previous example, Amy—as the Harbinger Foundation—is throwing everything at Neil, who's playing the Renegades. She plays the Infiltration card, using the Sneak Attack action; the origin is her Telesthesia Sector, and the target is the Omega Psiot Sector. Next is the Viral Assault action from the Electronic Warfare card; the origin is the Telesthesia Sector, and the target is the Scout Sector. Then she plays the Mind Control card for the Chainable action for another attack. Finally she plays Psiot Strike, using the Muscle action; once more, the origin is the Telesthesia Sector, and the target is the Scout Sector. At the moment, she holds on to The Tank to see what Neil will do.

Neil has the following cards in hand: Medbot (PRS), Mind Reader (PRS), False Flag (Weaponeer), Enhancements (GATE), and a Combat Basic card. Once Amy has laid out all of her attack cards, Neil responds. First he plays Medbot, using the Shield action, which reduces Infiltration's 2 damage to 1. Next Neil plays Enhancement as a Counterattack Defense to use its Counterstrike action, and then plays the Combat Basic card as the follow up for that Counterstrike; the origin of Neil's counterattack is the Scout Sector, and the target is the Telesthesia Sector.

Amy applies 1 damage to her Organization Coherence Tracker, then immediately plays The Tank, using the Psionic Projection action in response to Neil's Counterattack Defense. This action deals 3 damage directly to the counterattacking Opponent, so Neil lowers his Organization Coherence Tracker appropriately.

With that out of the way, Neil continues defending by playing False Flag's Obfuscation action against Amy's Psiot Strike, which allows him to shift the damage from Telesthesia to the Scout Sector. Amy, now out of cards, can't do anything at this point and so applies that 3 damage to her Organization Coherence Tracker. Additionally, the Muscle action on Psiot Strike will knock the Scout Sector back from Level 1, Block 2 to Level 5, Block 2, with the Sector in that location taking the current Scout's location. After all of that, Neil will apply 2 more damage to his Organization Coherence Tracker—1 remaining from the Infiltration and 1 from the Electronic Warfare—for 5 total damage from Amy's attack, while Amy herself received 4 in response.

Neil's cards put him in a fantastic position to blunt Amy's attack and mount an effective counterattack. However, he's now out of cards and will not fill his hand until the end of his next turn, leaving him very vulnerable during Tony's turn and limiting him to only Superhero Actions during his turn. Time will tell if it was worth such a huge defense.

• Special Shift: A Special Shift icon follows all of the rules for a Standard Shift icon, but the text on the card provides the specific shift action. For example, "Swap any 2 Sectors" shifts only the 2 chosen Sectors; the Sectors can be shut down or have Superheroes on them, but they cannot be Locked.

Hint: Shift can be used to move cards into your ZOI for purchase. Also, it can be offensive, either moving your Sectors into a better position to be an origin for an attack, or for moving shut-down Sectors into Opponent's ZOI. And don't forget to move those shutdown Sectors out of your ZOI before you take damage at the end of your turn.

• Superhero: This icon allows a card to be played as part of Superhero's Actions (see Superhero Actions below).
• Misc.: This icon is used for various actions that are not covered by one of the icons above. For example, both the keywords Lock and Unlock will fall under this icon.

Purchase Actions

On a player's turn, they may purchase cards from the Facility using the following rules:

• The player must discard any 2 cards from their hand to purchase any 1 card from their Zone of Influence (ZOI). The ZOI is all the Sectors in the Level and Block corresponding to the player's Zone of Influence card (9 Sectors).
• Cards from a Locked Sector can still be purchased.
• Cards from a shut-down Sector cannot be purchased.
• Cards from a Sector with any Superhero on it may be purchased (unless a Superhero in that Sector has active Abilities that modify that).
• Any purchased cards are immediately placed in the player's discard pile (unless specifically stated otherwise).
• A player may purchase any number of cards as long as they can discard the necessary number of cards for each purchase. For example, with a standard hand of 5 cards—and without using any card actions—a player only has enough cards to purchase 2 cards from Sectors by discarding a total of 4 cards.
• Text on cards may modify these rules. For example, a card may allow for the purchase of a card outside of the player's ZOI.

Sector Shutdown: Once all cards have been purchased from a Sector, it shuts down, applying various effects (see Sector Shutdown below).

Hint: Purchasing cards are critical, but don't pick up too many or it'll take too long to cycle through your deck. Also, if other players quickly bought the card you were looking for, just adjust your tactics and move to other combinations of cards. There's lots of great options.

Superhero Actions

On a player's turn, they may choose to have their Superhero participate in Superhero Actions. However, the Superhero can only ever take 1 of each Superhero Action in a turn, with additional limitations provided below.

Superhero Abilities: Each Superhero has access to a Power card. The card has three tiers of progressively more powerful Abilities that are activated during gameplay: Hero, Super, Legend. Players start with 2 Hero-level Abilities activated. After each Facility reset, players choose another Ability, by either choosing a new Hero-level Ability on a previously un-opened tier, or upgrading to the next level of an existing Ability tier (see Activate New Superhero Ability below).

Example (Purchase Actions): On his turn Neil has the following cards: Tactician, Omega Psiot, and The Soul (all Renegades cards), Nano Swarm (GATE) and Mind Reader (PRS).

While he's got some good attack cards, he feels the need to shift up his current strategy, and so will build up his deck. Neil decides he's going to purchase as many cards as he can from the Facility. He reviews his options and notes of the 9 Sectors in his Zone of Influence (ZOI), 3 are shut down, leaving him only 6 options for purchasing.

Second, he notices that Connections (GATE), a card he'd like to purchase, is just outside of his ZOI. He plays Tactician to use the Tactical Swap action to shift the Connections card into his ZOI. Next he discards both Omega Psiot and The Soul to purchase the Connections card he just shifted into place, putting it into his discard pile. Now he plays Nano Swarm to use the Recovery Drone action to pick up The Tank (Renegades) from his ZOI for free, placing that into his discard pile as well. Finally he trashes Mind Reader out of the game to grab Reconnaissance (Weaponeer) for free, putting that into his discard. Normally Neil would need at least 2 Shift actions just to move it into position, so he would otherwise need multiple cards and turns to pull that off.

Note that Neil could've used the Weightlessness action from The Soul to purchase outside of his ZOI, but he would've had to discard 2 cards to purchase it, and he has no more cards left in his hand. Three new cards have been added to his discard pile, and one of them was well outside his ZOI. Neil draws 5 new cards and play passes to his left.

All Abilities on the Power card are cumulative, so if a player has unlocked the Legendary-level Ability of a tier, that player's Superhero can also use the Hero- and Super-level Abilities of that tier. All modifiers and effects are also cumulative, but multiple unlocked Abilities on a given tier still do not allow a Superhero to take more than 1 of each of their three actions.

All Abilities modify the rules below.

Activate New Superhero Ability: There are two ways to gain a new Ability from the Power card.

• Skipping Turn: The player takes no Superhero actions and must discard 5 cards to immediately choose a new Superhero Ability; their turn is over. The new Ability must be the lowest level Ability available. (If a player has less than 5 cards at the start of their turn, they cannot gain a new Superhero Ability in this fashion; even if a player has more than 5 cards, they discard them all and their turn is over.)

• Facility Reset: After each Facility reset (see Facility Reset below), every Superhero automatically gains a new Ability.

• Sector Shift: As previously noted, a Superhero moves with the Sector it occupies when the Sector is moved by any player.

• Purchase Cards: Cards can be purchased from the Sector occupied by a Superhero (unless a card or Ability states differently).

• Enhancement: Unless a card specifically states that it can enhance a Superhero Action (beyond the Superhero icon), no card can be used to enhance a Superhero Action.

Hint: Don't forget your Superhero! Often you get so caught up in your card action you may forget your Superhero. The other players certainly won't remind you!

Example (Superhero Abilities): On Tony's turn he reviews his Bloodshot Power card, noting that he's got the Legendary-level Ability unlocked on the Control Computer tier and has the Hero-level Ability on the Psionic Resistance tier. He also looks at the cards in his hand and notes that only Nano Swarm (GATE) has the Superhero icon, allowing that card—if appropriate—to affect the actions of his Superhero this turn.

Example (Superhero Movement and Attack): Building on the example from page 13, let's say Neil's Superhero, Faith, started the turn on Apportation (Level 1/Block 5) and currently only has 1 movement, while Amy's Livewire is on the Medbot (Level 2/Block 4). When Apportation is swapped for Mind Reader (which moves Faith with it to Level 3/Block 3), and after he uses his Scout card, Neil first moves Faith to Telesthesia (Level 2/Block 3). Then Neil pushes Livewire and he can choose one of the following target sectors: either Mind Reader (Level 1/Block 5), the now shut down Sector (Level 2/Block 5) or The Soul (Level 3/Block 5). Obviously Neil chooses the shut down Sector as it automatically hits Amy with 1 point of damage when her Superhero enters it.

Looking at the Facility, he sees a great opportunity. He takes a Move action to move Bloodshot 1 Sector, placing the miniature on a shut-down Sector. (Due to the Hero Ability on the Psionic Resistance tier, the Sector's shutdown has no effect on Bloodshot.) This move also places Bloodshot in the same Sector as Amy's Livewire Superhero (she was pushed there by another player). Tony announces a Superhero attack from Bloodshot to Livewire, then plays Nano Swarm to use the card's Super Strength action. These actions inflict a total of 4 damage to Amy's Organization [1 (base Superhero attack) + 1 (Super Ability on the Control Computer tier) + 1 (Legendary Ability on the Control Computer tier) + 1 (Super Strength action from Nano Swarm)]. And because it's Superhero-to-Superhero damage, Amy cannot block the attack and must take the full 4 points!

Actions

A Superhero may only take 1 of any and all of the following action combinations during a turn (the actions are detailed below):

• Move and Attack or Push (any order). A Superhero may only push once and only attack once in a turn; they cannot forgo a push to attack twice or vice versa. However, provided the Superhero can move more than one Sector in a turn, a Superhero can split its movement up between the attack and push actions.

Move: The Superhero may move 1 space orthogonally (up, down, left, or right).

Push: The Superhero may push another Superhero in two ways:

• If the target Superhero is in the same Sector, it is pushed into one of the 8 adjacent Sectors (i.e., orthogonally or diagonally), as determined by the pushing player.
• If the target Superhero is in an adjacent Sector, draw a line from the Pushing Superhero, to the target Superhero, and then to the next Sector in line. The pushing player may push the Superhero into either that Sector or the two adjacent Sectors that are diagonally located from the target Sector.

Hint: Pushing a Superhero and then moving in the opposite direction is a great way to keep a Superhero with a more damaging attack from striking on its next turn.

Sector Shutdown: Superheroes that are pushed into a shut down Sector automatically take damage (see Sector Shutdown below).

Hint: As noted above, a Superhero moving into a shut down Sector automatically takes 1 point of damage. Setting your Superhero up to push another into a shut down Sector and then attack is a great way to increase damage. Or, as noted above, the player could also move away to try and prevent an attack on that Superhero's turn.

Attack: The Superhero may attack either a Sector or another Superhero, but never both. The attacking player must designate the target each turn.

• Sector: The Superhero attacks 1 Sector, either the Sector it is located on or an orthogonally adjacent Sector. Apply 1 damage to the corresponding Organization; the target player can defend against this attack normally by using cards with Defense icons.
• Superhero: Use the following rules when a Superhero attacks a Superhero:
  • The target must be in the same Sector as the attacker (unless the attacker has range due to Abilities or cards).
  • If the attacker has any range due to Abilities (or cards), unless specifically stated otherwise, the attack must be drawn orthogonally, in a straight line, from the attacker's Sector to the target's Sector.
  • Apply 1 damage to the corresponding Organization (this may be increased due to Abilities or cards).
  • Any damage (including any modifiers for Abilities or cards) cannot be reduced in any way.

Superheroes and Shut-Down Sectors

If a player ends their turn with their Superhero on a shut-down Sector (see Sector Shutdown below), that player's Organization takes 1 damage, which cannot be defended against. This is cumulative with the damage applied from shut-down Sectors located in a player's ZOI.

Facility Durability Tracker

At the end of every player's turn, as the very last action, the player rolls the die and applies that much damage to the Facility Durability Tracker. As soon as the tracker reaches 0, the following occurs in the following order before the next player's turn starts:

• One Sector shuts down
• The Facility resets
• Each player activates a new Superhero Ability

The rules below cover the details for these three steps:

Sector Shutdown

To determine which Sector shuts down, roll the die twice, first for the Level position and then for the Block position; reroll 6s. The indicated Sector is now shut down. Take the Shutdown card from the bottom of the Sector stack and place it on top of that deck. If the die rolls indicate an already shutdown Sector, reroll until the result is a Sector that has not already shut down.

The following rules now apply for the duration of the shutdown:

• Cards cannot be purchased from this Sector.
• The Sector deals 1 point of damage to any Organization that includes that Sector in their ZOI at the end of that player's turn. This means a player can receive multiple points of damage if they have multiple shut-down Sectors in their ZOI at the end of their turn.
• The moment that any Superhero enters a shut down sector (including on another player's turn), that corresponding Organization takes 1 point of damage.
• The Sector deals 1 point of damage to any Organization that has a corresponding Superhero on a shut-down Sector at the end of that player's turn. This is cumulative with the rules above, so that if a Superhero was pushed into a shut down Sector that is also in that player's ZOI, and the Superhero didn't move out of that Sector by the end of that player's turn, the corresponding Organization would take 3 points of damage.
• Damage from shut-down Sectors cannot be defended against.

Facility Reset

Move the Facility Durability Tracker token back to the starting durability based upon the number of players. If a player has been eliminated (see below), place the token at the new value based on the remaining numbers of players:

• 12 for 2 players
• 20 for 3 players
• 28 for 4 players
• 36 for 5 players

Activate New Superhero Ability

All players choose another Ability, either by opening up a new tier or delving deeper into a given tier by moving the token to indicate the unlocked Abilities. Remember that all unlocked Abilities are cumulative, so if a player has unlocked the Legendary-level Ability on a tier, that player's Superhero can use any Ability on that tier.

Skipping Turn: As noted, unlike Skipping Turn (see Activate New Superhero Ability above) to gain a new Ability, the Facility reset allows a player to gain an Ability further in a tier, not just the lowest level Ability.

Organization Elimination

When an Organization Coherence Tracker reaches 0, that player is eliminated, with the following results:

• Every time a player is eliminated from the game, the Facility—regardless of where its token tracker is located—automatically shuts down and resets; i.e. a Sector is shutdown and players gain a new Superhero Ability. Remember to place the token at the lower level for the number of players still active when the facility resets.

Winning the Game

The last player remaining after all others have been eliminated is the winner.

If all remaining players were eliminated simultaneously, the Facility won!

Glossary

• Ability: An effect conveyed by the Power cards. Three different tiers on each Power card, each with its own levels of Abilities: Hero, Super, Legend.
• Armor: Armor nullifies damage: 1 armor point negates 1 point of damage.
• Block: Column.
• Facility: The 5 x 5 grid of 25 Sector decks representing the secret underground Facility.
• Facility Durability Tracker: How players track the damage on the Facility during the game.
• Level: Row.
• Lock: A Locked Sector cannot be moved (though cards can still be purchased from it).
• Organization: One of the five player factions.
• Organization Coherence Tracker: How players track their damage during the game.
• Power Card: The card containing the Abilities usable by a Superhero.
• Sector: One of the 25 decks of cards that compose the Facility.
• Shutdown: When a Sector (deck) is showing its shut-down card.
• Tier: Each Superhero Power card includes three tiers, consisting of three Abilities.