Viral: The Hive Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Components
• Setup
• General Rules

Game Components

• 20 Virus Upgrade cards (4 for each player), each with a normal virus side and a super virus side
• 5 Hive tiles (1 for each player)
• 5 Mutation cards (1 for each player)
• 20 Virus tokens (4 for each player), each with a front face and a Shield face

Setup

When playing the Viral board game with this expansion, follow all the normal rules with the following changes:

1. During Setup, each player also receives: 4 additional Virus tokens, a 6th Starting Mutation (Versatile), the Hive tile, and the 4 Upgrade cards for their faction.

2. Place your Upgrade cards in front of you with the normal side facing up in a 2x2 grid.

   The normal side shows the special power, but with a lock icon indicating that the power is unavailable. Cost to unlock the special power (turn the card super side face up) is shown on the card, as the icon with the red cross.

3. Zone tiles are placed BEFORE the initial infection.

4. After placing the initial infections, starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, each player will connect their Hive tile to a single organ that does not belong to zone 2 (heart) and that does not already have a Hive tile.

5. Place ONLY 5 Event cards instead of the normal 6 (the game lasts 5 rounds).

6. If playing a 2 player game, DO NOT create a dummy player.

General Rules

1. Hives are considered organs adjacent to a single organ, and the viruses in them are immune to cures and crisis tokens. There is no limit to the number of viruses in a Hive.
2. Hives do not count as part of the zone they are in. Any viruses can move in and out of the Hive to its connected organ (or be pulled/pushed in and out).
3. Players should only reveal their chosen cards when it is their turn to resolve them (they are no longer revealed simultaneously).
4. Each Upgrade virus card shows how many viruses you must discard to be allowed to flip the card to the super virus side.
5. Once during their turn, the active player may remove viruses from their Hive (discard them to your player card) as payment to flip one of their Upgrade Cards to its super virus side.
6. The super virus side shows the special power unlocked (without the lock). The unlocked special powers are considered to be always in effect.
7. Players can always resolve blue background actions of their Mutation cards in their respective Hive instead of the chosen zone.
8. (VERY IMPORTANT) In step 1, during each of the two times players are choosing the cards simultaneously, each player may make a free infection in their Hive, normal side up. (This happens 2 times per round.)
9. In a 2 player game, players need to have at least 2 viruses in each organ of a zone to control that zone.