Wraith & The Giants Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Card Diagrams
• Gameplay
• Player Action Step
  • Resolving a Card
• Movement Actions: Climb, Drop and Leap
  • Climb Action
  • Drop Action
  • Leap Action
• Attacking Actions: Sword, Bow and Fireworks
  • Sword Attack
  • Bow Attack
  • Firework Attack
• Scarring the Giant
• Healing
• Fearless Actions
• Refresh Step
• Giant Actions Step
  • Attack with the Leftmost Card in the Row, then Remove It
  • Add a New Card to the Right of the Row
  • Check for Additional Giant Attacks
• Wounded or Scarred Giant Cards
• Special Attacks: "When Revealed" and Always Active Cards
• Rage Effects
• Next Round
• End of the Game
• The Next Giants
• Dangerous Footholds
• Gauntlet Mode
• Additional Rules: Adult Wraith
• Additional Rules: Elder Wraith
• Symbols Reference

Components

• 3 Wraith Boards (Young, Adult, Elder), each with a First Action Row and Second Action Row, a Wraith Wound Limit, and a Giant Health value
• 3 Wraith Pawns
• 3 Wraith Decks (30 cards each)
• 4 Giants (Earth, Water, Air, Fire), each with its own board, Scars Limit, and Wounds modifier
• 4 Giant Decks (20 cards each)
• Wound Tokens: 32 "1 Wound" tokens, 15 "3 Wound" tokens
• 2 Player Aids, 1 Storybook
• Rage Pawn and Rage Card
• 12 Foothold Cards
• Foothold Tokens (used only in the Dangerous Footholds variant)

Setup

1. Place the boards in the middle of the table, with the Giant Board to the left of the Wraith Board.
   • Note: Your first play will be with the Earth Giant using the Young Wraith. In these Setup instructions, anytime it calls for Wraith or Giant components, use them for the selected Wraith and Giant.
2. Place the Wraith Pawn at the base of the Giant Board, not on any numbered space. This is considered the Ground.
3. Shuffle the Wraith Deck and place it face down below the Wraith Board. Draw an opening hand of 5 cards.
4. Prepare the Giant Deck:
   • Shuffle the Giant deck, then remove the top 5 cards from the game, unseen.
   • Place 5 cards face up in a row above the Giant Board. (Giant attacks are ignored during setup.)
   • Place the rest of the cards in a deck face down to the left of the row.
5. Place all Wound tokens in a pool in the play area, off to the side of the Wraith board.
6. Next to the Giant's Health area in the upper left corner of the Giant Board, create the Giant's health pool. The total number of tokens placed in the pool is the sum of the Giant's Health on the Giant Board plus the Wounds modifier value from the Wraith Board.
   • For the Young Wraith versus the Earth Giant, this will be 35 tokens. It's suggested to use a mix of 1's and 3's.
7. Place the Rage pawn below the first spot of the Rage track on the Rage Card.
   • Note: Foothold Tokens and Foothold Cards are only used when playing the Dangerous Foothold variant. When you are ready, explore this variant later in this rulebook.

Card Diagrams

Wraith Card: shows the card name, its Skill Symbols, and its Action Icons.

Giant Card: shows the Giant Logo, Giant Name, a Deck Identifier, the weak spot/Wound Limit, the weak spot location or region, the Area of Attack, the Attack Details, and the Attack Symbols.

Gameplay

The game is played over a series of rounds. Each round will have the same structure, following these steps:

1. Player Action Step: Play 2 cards from your hand. You may perform any number of Fearless Actions, health permitting, before and after you play your cards.
2. Refresh Step: Discard any number of cards, then refill your hand to 5 cards.
3. Giant Action Step: Attack the Wraith with the leftmost card, then reveal 1 new Giant Card, triggering additional attacks.

After the steps are complete, a new round is played following the same steps.

The game continues until the Giant is defeated or the Wraith fails to stop it from reaching the village.

If the Wraith is defeated, start the Giant fight over from the beginning.

Player Action Step

Each turn you must place a card into each of the two action rows, starting with the top one. Your player board will show where these rows are located. The action(s) on the card must be taken, even if the action(s) may not benefit you when played. When climbing these great Giants or covering the ground around them, you must keep moving.

You must always play into the top action row first. In the opening round, place your first card in each row at the right edge of your player mat. On future rounds, place that round's top- and bottom-row cards to the right of the previous cards in the row, overlapping them such that only the Skill symbols are shown on previous cards. Many of your actions will be affected by the quantity of Skill symbols you have in the row where they were played. Each matching symbol allows you to increase the value of the relevant action on the current card. Do not consider the symbols in the other action row.

After you play and resolve your first card in its entirety, then you must play a second card into the bottom action row. As above, any previously played cards are splayed so that only their Skill symbols are showing.

Example: On a card named Jump Slash, the Leap value is equal to the number of Foot icons in the row, and the Sword Attack value inflicts as many Wounds as there are Hand icons in the row. Timing your cards right is important!

After playing two cards from your hand and taking any number of Fearless Actions (see below), move on to the Refresh Step of your turn.

Resolving a Card

When a card is played, immediately take the actions on that card. Cards will typically allow you to move around the Giant and/or deal Wounds.

Cards may have more than one action on them. If a card has more than one action, you may resolve the actions in any order, but you must resolve one action fully before starting the other. For example, if the card allows you to move 3 spaces and attack, then you cannot move 1 space, attack, and move the remaining 2 spaces. You must resolve each action on the card if you are able to.

Movement Actions: Climb, Drop and Leap

To avoid attacks from the Giant and to position yourself to deal Wounds, you will frequently be using movement actions.

To understand movement, you must first familiarize yourself with the Giant's footholds.

Your pawn moves around the Giant by using footholds, marked by circles and lines on the Giant illustrations. These footholds are outcroppings, rough slopes, or other features of the Giant that you can climb onto. They are described as footholds generically, but thematically they may be any part of the Giant you are able to get footing on!

Footholds are connected to one another by lines, which show which footholds are adjacent to one another. If they are not connected by a line, they are not adjacent, no matter how close they may be on the Giant Board. It is important to note which direction the line goes: if the line goes from the top of one foothold into the bottom of the next, that means the second foothold is higher than the first one. Likewise, if you trace a line from the bottom of one foothold to the top of the second, the second one is lower than the first. This is important when considering the Climbing and Dropping actions.

The bottom of the Giant's mat is considered the ground. The ground is essentially one very large foothold. When there, you may climb up any of the lines leading from the ground.

Climb Action

Your pawn will Climb up any number of footholds. You must Climb at least 1 foothold, if your Climb value is greater than 0. Movement must be upwards, which means you follow a path from the top of the space you are currently on to a higher foothold.

If a player chooses to climb "above" a foothold that does not have a path leading upwards, then they drop down to the ground. However, they cannot do this if there is at least 1 path leading from the top of the foothold.

Drop Action

Move down adjacent footholds, at a minimum of 1 foothold dropped.

You must follow a line path. Dropping does not have a maximum number of spaces. No Wound is incurred by dropping through this action, unless via Fearless action.

Leap Action

Your pawn will Leap through any number of footholds in any direction, up to your Leap value. Like Climbing, you must Leap at least 1 foothold, if your Leap value is greater than 0. Each foothold must be adjacent to the next one, regardless of whether it's higher or lower than your current foothold. You may not end in the space where you began your Leap.

Attacking Actions: Sword, Bow and Fireworks

To Wound the Giant, you must attack its weak spots. These sections are shown on the face-up Giant row, where each card shows a weak spot or region that you may hit. When a region weak spot is shown, all the footholds with that letter are available to hit. As the rounds progress, certain weak spots may become unavailable to hit, so plan and time your attacks wisely.

Wounds are taken from the Giant's health pool, not from the general supply. If the Giant's health pool becomes empty, then it is defeated!

One of your goals will be to place enough Wounds on the weak spot to reach the Wound limit shown on the card, causing a Scar. See "Scarring the Giant" below.

Sword Attack

The sword attack allows you to Wound the weak spot that your pawn is currently on, for your Sword attack value. This value is either a numerical value, or a Skill symbol. Place Wound tokens equal to this value on the targeted weak spot.

Bow Attack

The bow attack allows you to Wound 1 weak spot that you are adjacent to, and it must be 1 foothold away to be attacked by the bow, as bows aren't effective in close-range combat. Place Wound tokens equal to this value on the targeted weak spot.

Firework Attack

The firework attack allows you to use a small explosive to Wound any weak spots you are on or adjacent to.

These typically inflict little damage, but they may hit several weak spots if planned correctly. Place Wound tokens equal to this value on the targeted weak spots.

Important Note: It is possible for multiple Giant cards to share a weak spot (ex. "A2" and "A" both share "A2" as a weak spot). If this is the case, you may distribute the number of Wounds inflicted across the applicable cards. The total inflicted by the attack action will not change, no matter how many Giant cards can be Wounded. In other words, if the Wraith is on a foothold reached by two Giant cards, a Sword attack that inflicts 2 Wounds could inflict 2 on one card and none on the other, or 1 on each, but not 2 on each.

Scarring the Giant

If the number of Wound tokens reaches the Wound Limit on the weak spot, then the Giant has been Scarred! Move the Wound tokens to the general supply in the play area (not the Giant's pool!) and flip over the card to reveal the Scar symbol. Scarred cards will not attack you when the Giant attacks; move them above the Giant's card row instead.

If the number of Scars in and above the Giant's card row are equal to the Scars Limit listed on the Giant board, then the Giant has been defeated!

Important Note: Excess Wounds will not be placed on the weak spot card. For example, if the card has a Wound Limit of 7 and it currently has 5 Wounds, then the Giant's card would need a minimum attack of 2 to turn it into a Scar. If you Attack causing 4 Wounds, only 2 Wounds would be placed on the card. The Giant card would then be turned over as a Scar, removing the Wounds to the general supply. The extra 2 Wounds that would have been dealt are not dealt, thus not removed from the Giant's pool.

Healing

Instead of placing a card face up, you may place a card face down in the action row. Remove 1 Wound from the Wraith and draw 1 card from your draw deck. The face down card shows that an action has been taken this round but will not contribute symbols to further actions, and that the actions on the card were not taken. To avoid taking the actions a card would require, you may play a card face down even if you don't need to heal a Wound.

Fearless Actions

On the Young Wraith Board, there are three actions you may always take:

• Drop
• Climb 1
• Sword Attack 1

These actions do not require a card, but instead require you to suffer Wounds. You may take multiple Fearless Actions before or after you play Action cards.

Each of the actions deals you 1 Wound.

Remember: if you've reached your Health limit, you lose the game even if the Giant is killed, so be careful with these actions. Taking extra actions can be powerful if timed correctly, but your Health is at a premium.

Refresh Step

After you've played both cards, you'll now refresh your hand.

First, discard any number of cards in your hand. These are discarded face up into a pile.

Second, draw until you have 5 cards. If there are not enough cards in the draw deck, draw until you run out of cards. Shuffle the discard pile and form a new draw deck and continue to draw until you have 5 cards. (Note: there may be some instances when you have more than 5 cards in your hand. If that is the case, then you may not draw new cards during this step.)

If you can fill your hand to 5 cards, then continue with the next step: Giant Actions.

During this step only, if you cannot fill your hand to 5 cards because there are fewer than 5 cards in the discard pile, your hand, and the draw deck combined, you'll automatically lose the game. Your Wraith has become too weak, and you've failed to defeat the Giant.

Giant Actions Step

The Giant will attack, then a new card will be added to the Giant's card row, and then the Giant may attack again. The turn is carried out in three steps:

1. Attack with the leftmost card in the row, then remove it from the game.
2. Add a new card to the right of the row, sliding all other cards to the left.
3. Check for additional Giant attacks.

Attack with the Leftmost Card in the Row, then Remove It

If there are no Wound tokens on the leftmost card, the Giant will try to make the attack called for at the bottom of that card. Cards that are Scarred do not attack, nor will they contribute to additional attacks.

An attack will target only the location or locations specified at the bottom of the Giant card. If the Wraith is on a foothold that matches that space, apply the effects listed on the card. Otherwise, the attack does not affect you.

The location will typically be part of the Giant's body but may include the ground, if stated.

The attacks generally inflict one of two types of damage.

First, it may cause you to remove Wraith cards from the game, sight unseen, for each time the "remove a card" symbol appears. These cards are taken off top of your draw deck. If they cannot be taken from the draw deck, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck and then remove the cards. If there are no cards left to remove, then you will have one final turn to defeat the Giant. If you reach the Refresh step with fewer than 5 cards in your hand and discard pile, you lose.

Second, it may deal you Wounds: 1 Wound to the Wraith for each time the Wound symbol appears. Place Wound tokens on your Wraith image on the Wraith Board. If the total number of tokens on your board is equal to or greater than your wound limit, you lose.

After the Giant's first attack is resolved, remove the leftmost card in the Giant's card row from the game, placing it to the left of the Giant deck. If it is a Scarred card and is face down, instead move it above the Giant Row, where it will count towards the Giant's Scars Limit.

Add a New Card to the Right of the Row

Draw the top card from the Giant deck and place it face up to the right of the card row. If there is no card to draw, then the Giant has reached the Village and you have lost. Go to the "End of the Game" section.

Check for Additional Giant Attacks

The symbols along the left side of the bottom section of the newly drawn Giant card must now be checked. If any of those symbols match one or more other cards in the row, then those cards attack. The newly added card does not attack at this time – only the ones that were already in the row. Resolve the attacks from left to right.

Cards whose attacks are triggered this way are not discarded immediately; they may attack again in a later round if able.

Wounded or Scarred Giant Cards

Cards that have at least 1 Wound token on them, or that are turned over due to Scarring, do not wound your Wraith or apply their text effect, unless their text states otherwise.

Special Attacks: "When Revealed" and Always Active Cards

Giant cards may have special attacks that may inflict Wounds or cause your Wraith to move to new footholds.

"When Revealed" cards will affect your Wraith immediately when they're drawn for the Giant card row (except during Setup).

"Always Active" cards will affect the Giant and your Wraith until they become Scars or are discarded from the Giant card row, regardless of any Wounds on them.

Rage Effects

If a Giant card that is trying to attack the Wraith is not able to deal Wounds — for example, if it's Wounded or Scarred, or if the Wraith has moved to a foothold out of range — move the Rage Track marker up 1 space, building the Giant's Rage. The first time this happens, place the Rage marker in the lowest space of the track.

The next Giant attack that causes you to remove a card or suffer a Wound will also trigger the Rage Track's effects. Inflict damage on the Wraith as indicated by all symbols next to and below the position of the Rage Track marker. Afterwards, reset the marker below the track's lowest space.

Stunned: If you are stunned by this Attack, the first Action card you play on your next turn will do nothing, although its symbols will still be displayed for future effects.

Next Round

If the Giant and Wraith are still alive, then the game continues into the next round. The next round is played as the first, with you playing two Wraith cards, refreshing your hand, then the Giant taking an action step.

End of the Game

There are several ways the game may end:

• You win if you have defeated the Giant in one of two ways:
  • You emptied the Giant's health pool.
  • You dealt the Giant a number of Scars equal to its Scars Limit, counting Scars in and above the Giant Row.
• You will lose if any of the following occurs:
  • The Giant cannot draw a card during its action step (showing that it has reached the village).
  • You must refill your hand, but you cannot (showing that you have run out of stamina and can no longer fight).
  • You are dealt Wounds equal to or exceeding your wound limit (showing that you have fallen while defending your village).

The Next Giants

After you have defeated the Earth Giant, the Wraith will fight against the next giant that challenges the village. The game will be setup again as described in the setup section, with the next giant's components used in place of the Earth Giant. Reference the Giant Player Aid to identify the next giant in order. You will play against all giants as the Young Wraith before facing them again as the Adult Wraith, and then the Elder Wraith.

As you play, explore the storybook to follow the story of the Wraith fighting through these varied Giants!

Dangerous Footholds

Important: Ignore this section if you have not yet completed the game in its entirety as the Young Wraith.

To make each Giant harder to defeat, players may add the provided Foothold tokens which will affect the movement of your Wraith, making it more challenging to overcome.

To set up, shuffle the 3 Giant Foothold cards included with the Giant you're facing and reveal 1, placing the others back in the box. Add 2, 4, or 6 Foothold tokens to the Giant's board, based on the Wraith you're playing, then continue the setup as normal. You may add more Foothold tokens than recommended if you're playing as a Young or Elder Wraith, but do not use fewer than the recommended number.

Each Giant's Foothold tokens add unique difficulties to your ascent up their bodies, and each will be activated and removed from the game when you've ended your movement on it.

• Earth Giant: Move to an adjacent Foothold, then discard the last card you added to each of your Action rows.
• Air Giant: Move to an adjacent Foothold, then shuffle your hand into your deck. At the start of your next turn, draw 4 cards.
• Water Giant: Move to an adjacent Foothold, then remove the top card of your deck from play.
• Fire Giant: Move to an adjacent Foothold, then suffer 1 Wound.

Move the Rage Track marker up 1 space when you trigger and remove a Foothold token from play.

Gauntlet Mode

If you are seeking a greater challenge after defeating all of the Giants, attempt the Gauntlet Mode, with two difficulty levels:

• Impossible: If you are defeated, instead of restarting the game against the current Giant, restart the game with your current Wraith facing the Earth Giant.
• Insane: If you are defeated, instead of restarting with your current Giant and your current Wraith, restart from Earth Giant as the Young Wraith.

Additional Rules: Adult Wraith

The Adult Wraith has a new ability for you to use: special skills. These special skills are actions that you may take after damaging the Giant. They are powerful but require good timing to be used most effectively.

When setting up the game, place a number of Wound tokens from the Giant's health pool onto the skill pools on the Wraith's board matching the number listed. The remaining Wound tokens will stay in the Giant's health pool.

When a Giant's weak spot is injured, you no longer take Wounds from the health pool next to the Giant's board, but rather from one or more of the skill pools. You may take them from any skill pool that you choose.

The player will place 1 Wound token in the blue area of this skill pool at the start of the game.

When one of the pools on the Wraith's board is emptied, the special skill will be triggered. This may occur in the middle of placing Wounds on a weak spot. If that happens, finish placing Wounds, then activate the special skill. You may activate multiple special skills on a turn if their pools are emptied on that turn.

After the skill is used, refill the skill pool with Wounds from the Giant's health pool. If there aren't enough to fill up the pool entirely, fill with whatever Wound tokens are available. If there are no Wound tokens available to refill a skill, it may not be used again.

A skill can be used more than once in a turn if its pool is refilled and emptied again through additional attacks on the Giant.

You defeat the Giant if all Wounds are removed from the skill pools and the Giant's health pool.

Additional Rules: Elder Wraith

The Elder Wraith will have the same skills the Adult Wraith has, as depicted on her board.

In addition, the Elder Wraith has Spells on her action cards. Below the normal ability, there is a spell. This is a special additional action or ability that can be taken when the card is played.

Each spell has a prerequisite that requires the Wraith Pawn to be in the location shown. The prerequisite will either be a number or a letter. If it's a letter, the pawn must be on a foothold with that letter. If it's a number, they can be in any letter section, but the number of the foothold must match.

The spell is resolved before or after resolving the action(s) listed, but for the spell to take effect, the Wraith Pawn must be in the listed section when the spell is cast.

Example: On a spell card named Dazzling Light, with the prerequisite "if in B," the spell swaps the locations of two cards in the Giant's row, and Wounds move with the affected cards. The player must be in the B section to trigger the Dazzling Light spell.

Symbols Reference

• Climb: Climb the Giant upwards, up to your Climb value.
• Leap: Leap to any adjacent footholds, up to your Leap value. Cannot finish Leap on your starting foothold.
• Drop: Drop any number of footholds. Must drop at least 1, if able, and can only go downwards.
• Sword (current foothold): Deal the number of Wounds shown to a weak spot that matches your current foothold.
• Bow (adjacent foothold): Deal the number of Wounds shown to a weak spot in an adjacent foothold.
• Firework (current and adjacent footholds): Deal the number of Wounds shown to each adjacent weak spot, as well as the one you are currently on.
• Remove card: Remove the top card of the Wraith deck from the game for each of these symbols.
• Wound: Deal 1 Wound to the Wraith for each of these symbols.

Wound Note: You can exchange a 3 Wound token for three 1 Wound tokens (and vice versa) at any time during the game.