IWhat you are doing

You are collecting armor. Complete a set and it becomes attuned — yours, and dangerous. Attune enough sets and you win.

Everything else in the box exists to make that harder: spells that steal what you've built, attacks that force you to hand pieces over, and monsters that sit on your chest and stop you doing anything useful until you kill them.

IIComponents

140 cards. Spell Attack Cards and Monster Cards are both kinds of Spell Card — anything that refers to "a spell" means all three.

IIISetup

1. Shuffle and deal five cards to each player. Place the rest face-down as the deck.
2. Give each player two dice. They only ever track damage on a monster — three of the five monsters have more than 6 health, so one die will not cover them.
3. Agree the target. With 2–3 players you need five attuned sets to win. With 4–5 players you need four.
4. Youngest delver goes first. Play passes to the left.

IVYour turn

Draw two cards, then take up to three actions. If your hand is empty at the start of your turn, draw five instead of two.

An action is any one of these

• Bank a card — put it face-up in your health pool for the HP printed on it
• Equip an armor piece — play it to your board, in front of you
• Cast a spell — most cost one action; Resurrection and Time Warp cost two
• Play a Spell Attack Card
• Summon a monster onto an opponent
• Attach a Set Bonus or an Enchant to one of your attuned sets

You may take fewer than three actions, or none. Unused actions do not carry over.

End of your turn

Any monster on you acts now — see Monsters. Then discard down to seven cards in hand.

VArmor

Ten sets. Each takes two, three, or four pieces. Pieces within a set are identical — you are assembling one item out of copies of itself, and it is not finished until you have them all.

A completed set is attuned. Attuned sets are what you win with, what carries Set Bonuses and Enchants, and the only thing Overpower can take.

Wildcards

Nine wildcards each show two sets and count as a piece of either. Two Mimic Armor cards count as a piece of any set, and are worth 0 HP — they build, but they can never pay.

A set completed with wildcards is a complete set in every respect: for winning, for Set Bonus tiers, and for monster requirements.

The marks

Every set carries a mark, and every attack made with it strikes in kind — the Infernal Crown burns, the Frostbite Gauntlets freeze, the Nightfall Band strikes from shadow. Ten sets, ten marks: earth, arcane, nature, ice, holy, charm, shadow, fire, physical, lightning.

In this edition the marks have no effect on play. Damage is damage, whatever mark it carries. Nothing resists it, nothing amplifies it, and no card in this box asks you what kind of damage you dealt. You may safely ignore them.

VIHealth, banking, and paying

Your pool is the face-up cards in front of you representing health. Any card can be banked for the HP printed on it — a spell you'll never use is three health.

When something costs you HP, you pay by handing over cards. You may pay with anything on your table: cards from your pool, or armor from your board, including pieces of an attuned set.

• No change is given. If you owe 2 and your smallest card is worth 5, you pay the 5.
• If you cannot cover it, you pay everything you can and the rest is forgiven. There is no debt.
• If you have nothing at all, you pay nothing. Being broke is a defence, briefly.
• Attack damage burns health. Pool cards paid for attack damage go to the discard pile, destroyed. The attacker gains nothing from them.
• When the health runs out, attacks take armor. If an attack's payment reaches your armor, those pieces go onto the attacker's board. They keep them. Strip the pool, loot the armor — that is what attacking is for.
• Drains absorb everything. When a spell explicitly takes or harvests HP — Siphon Life, Soul Harvest — the payment goes to that player: pool cards join their pool, armor joins their board.

If paying breaks an attuned set, its Set Bonus and Enchant fall into your pool as HP. The set can be rebuilt and re-fitted later.

VIIAttacking

Spell Attack Cards name two damage types. Play one, choose a set you own from those two, and deal damage equal to your current rank in it — the number on that set's ladder for the number of pieces you have equipped.

• Paired attacks hit every opponent.
• Wild Attack hits one opponent, using any set you own.
• You need at least one piece of a set to attack with it. You do not need the whole set.

VIIIReactions

Two cards are held rather than played: Divine Shield and Counterspell. They are played out of turn, in response to a spell.

• You may only react to a spell that affects you.
• Reacting is free — unless it's your turn. The active player spends one of their three actions to react. Spend all three attacking and you have no defence of your own.
• Reactions are played from your hand, never from your pool.

IXMonsters

Summon a monster onto an opponent. Only one monster can be on a player at a time, and the target must already have the number of attuned sets printed on the card — monsters are for people who are winning.

While a monster is on you:

• You cannot play any spell that targets another player. Reactions and cards affecting only yourself are fine.
• Your attacks must be spent striking your own monster instead.
• Excess damage is lost. A 30-damage strike on a 2-health Goblin kills a 2-health Goblin.
• Damage carries over between turns. Track the running total with your dice.

Monsters act at the end of your turn, so you always get a chance to fight back first. Kill it during your turn and it never triggers at all. Killing it discards the card and draws you the reward.

Divine Shield can stop a monster as it is summoned. It does nothing once the monster has landed.

The Dragon takes nothing and costs nothing. It simply stands in the way: while it lives you cannot claim victory, however many sets you have attuned. Kill it and you win the instant it falls — on any turn, including someone else’s.

XSet Bonuses

Eight cards, one copy of each. Attach one to an attuned set whose size meets the tier on the card. A set holds one Set Bonus. It stays there permanently and changes how you play for the rest of the game. If the set is stolen, the bonus goes with it.

XIEnchants

Four cards, one copy of each. An Enchant goes on an attuned set that already carries a Set Bonus, and affects only that set.

Twinstrike doubles base damage only — it does not double Cataclysm's extra 4. Soulbound stops Overpower, but not Banish, and not payment.

XIIWinning

The moment you have the target number of attuned sets in front of you — five at 2–3 players, four at 4–5 — you win immediately, on any player's turn. Taking a completed set with Overpower can win you the game on someone else's turn.

XIIIGlossary

Attuned

A complete set. Only attuned sets count toward victory, carry Set Bonuses and Enchants, or can be Overpowered.

Bank

Play a card face-up into your pool for its HP value. Costs one action.

Equip

Play an armor piece onto your board.

Pool

Your face-up health. Cards here are spent to pay damage.

Rank

How many pieces of a set you have equipped, and therefore how much its attack deals.

Reaction

A card played out of turn in response to a spell. Free unless it's your turn.

Spell

Any Spell Card, Spell Attack Card, or Monster Card.

Strike

Spend an attack on the monster sitting on you rather than on a player.

Summon

Play a monster onto an opponent.