Each round, players take turns choosing a character to do actions. When all characters have gone, the round ends, and new round begins.
Taking a turn
1) Choose a character: choose one of your characters without an exhausted marker. (No characters have exhausted markers at the start of the wound.)
2) Do two actions: do up to two actions with your chosen character. Actions can be basic or special, and a character may do the same action twice.
Basic actions: all characters can do these actions
Move – move up to 2 squares in any direction
Basic challenge – roll 2 dice to challenge an adjacent rival
Assist – stand up an adjacent ally that has been knocked down.
Interact – this action is not used in your first game, you will see it in scenarios
Special actions: all characters except basic characters can do these actions
Ability – spend an ability token to use an ability by placing it on your cooldown track on the number shown in the ability cost
Use item – some items require an action to use their rules
Rally: if the character you’ve chosen to act is knocked down, the character cannot do the actions above. Instead, the character can stand up by using both actions.
3) Exhaust your character: place an exhausted marker on the character card of the character you chose. The character cannot take another turn this round. Once you exhaust a character, it is the other player’s turn.
4) Next player takes a turn: the next player follows the steps listed above, beginning with Choose a Character.
Ending a round
When both players have exhausted all their characters, the round ends.
Cooldown: The player with the First player marker shifts everything on their cooldown track down one number. Then the other player does the same. Things that shift off the 1 return to play. Characters return to your starting area, ability tokens return to your ability token pool, and item cards return to the characters holding those items.
Refresh: Remove the exhausted markers from all character cards.
New first player: Pass the First Player marker to the other player. That player starts the next round by taking a turn with one of their characters.
Doing a move
When you move a character, you may move it straight into the next square or diagonally. However, you cannot move through rivals or obstructions.
Doing a challenge
Challenges allow you to knock down and knock out rivals. Remember that every character may do a basic challenge against adjacent rivals.
When you challenge a rival with a basic challenge, roll 2 dice. When using an ability to challenge, you roll an amount of dice equal to the number that follows “challenge”. Your opponent then rolls a number of dice equal to their defence.
You want to get more successes than your opponent.
- As the challenger, you get 1 success for each
and 3 successes for each 
.
- Your rival gets 1 success for each
and 3 successes for each 
.
If you have more successes than your rival, your character wins the challenge, and your rival loses. If you do not, your character loses the challenge. Unless otherwise specified by an ability, nothing happens if there is a tie or if the challenger loses the challenge.
When a standing rival is challenged and loses the challenge, the rival is knocked down. Tip the character over in the square where the character stood. If a rival that is knocked down is challenged and loses, the rival is knocked out. Remove the character from the map and place the character on the 1 of that player’s cooldown track.
Doing an ability
When a character does an ability action, follow these steps:
1) Choose an ability from that character’s card.
2) Spend an ability token of the appropriate type from your pool to play the ability’s cost, placing it on your cooldown track on the number shown in the ability’s icon. If you do not have the appropriate ability token available in your pool, you cannot use the ability.
3) Follow the rules of the ability in the order written on the card.
The above rules cover what you need to know to start playing your first game! When you try to do something you have not done before, or you have a question about how something works, refer back to these instructions or read the detailed sections that follow.
WINNING YOUR FIRST GAME
For your first game, play until one player has knocked out one of their rivals. After that, keep reading to learn how to play the full game experience by using scenario cards, items and mixing games.
