Gameplay
Character Roles
Upon starting the game, a player can choose between two roles — The extremely powerful Monster, or a team-oriented Minion.
Minion
The minion role is ideal for those who enjoy a cooperative experience. It relies heavily on teamwork with their three partners, with each bringing unique strengths to compensate for the others’ shortcomings. Some unique rules for the minion role are listed below:
The minion team always consists of 4 characters- note that it is NOT necessary to have 4 players, as a player can control multiple minion characters if need be. A 2 player minimum is recommended, with each controlling 2 minions.
Minions have a deck size of 25 cards, with a starting hand size of 5. There is no hand size maximum.
Minions can play 1 action card per turn.
Minions can play 1 reaction per turn.
Minions draw 1 card during each ‘draw phase.’
Minions can communicate with one another, however sharing exactly what card is being played next is not allowed.
When a minions’ health hits zero, they enter the Downed state. They must sit out for a turn, after which they are revived by each remaining minion sacrificing a combined total of 20 hp. The player then revives with 10 hp. Note that if the remaining minions cannot sacrifice a total of 20 hp, downed minions CANNOT revive.
If a minion can no longer play any cards, they are out of the game.
The minion party wins if the Monster hits 0 hp, or can no longer play any cards.
The minion party loses if they all reach 0 hp, or can no longer play any cards.
Given their team based playstyle, the minion role is also broken down into 3 sub-roles, which each provide an important function to the team. Note that it is not strictly necessary to have all 3 roles within a team composition, and characters can be chosen freely.
Tank: Tanks exist to keep them and their comrades alive, utilizing skills that change attack targets, raise armor, or reduce incoming damage. While not as offensively impressive as some other roles, they help keep more fragile members safe- and often get unique benefits for doing so.
Support: Support minions can provide a wide array of benefits to themselves and other members of the party ranging anywhere from healing to stat buffs to card draw, and often serve as the ‘backbone’ for many team compositions and strategies. Support characters can have extremely varied playstyles and goals, so rarely do they share the same strategy.
DPS: Built for the sole purpose of dealing massive damage, DPS minions can quickly shred through a bosses health if given the proper conditions to do so, and are often incentivized to create the right circumstances in order to find that window of opportunity. In opposition to their high damage they are often fragile and lacking in options for supporting other members of the team, making them reliant on their tank and support allies to reach their full potential.
Monster
The Monster role is ideal for a player who wants to feel powerful, and enjoys the thrill of disrupting their friends’ carefully laid strategies. Monsters have their own unique gimmicks, mechanics and playstyles, making each one vastly different to play- though all will feel appropriately powerful for a final boss! Some unique rules for the Monster role are listed below:
The Monster is always controlled by 1 player, regardless of if they have multiple entities to control.
Monsters have a deck size of 40 cards, with a starting hand size of 8. There is no hand size maximum.
Monsters can play 2 action cards per turn.
Monsters can play 2 reactions per turn.
Monsters draw 2 cards during each ‘draw phase.’
In the circumstance of a speed tie, the Monster decides the order of play within the timeline.
The Monster wins if all minions hit 0 hp, or can no longer play any cards.
The Monster loses if they reach 0 hp, or can no longer play any cards.
Characters
The Chef
The chef utilizes its unique ability of creating ‘recipes’ using combinations of ingredient cards, which in turn provide a myriad of useful buffs for the team. This can range from healing, to card draw, to an increase in attack power, making the chef an extremely versatile support when given time to set up. A careful balance of contributing towards recipes with ingredients and sustaining your allies is a must for optimal play!
Haunted Armor
The Haunted armor is a defensive powerhouse who excels in protecting himself and the team, accomplished through armor-granting cards and a unique token system that allows the use of additional defensive reactions. Through careful balancing of this resource, the character can greatly increase survivability for himself and his allies.
The Druid
The Druid excels in both Damage and Monster disruption, with the unique capability to 'Charge' her action cards over the course of multiple turns using their unique 'Growth' mechanic. By sacrificing other cards towards an action capable of growth, its effects are bolstered- or sometimes changed entirely! Aside from being slower than normal actions, the Druid must also contend with the risk of the monster knowing their next play, making cooperation with defensive characters like The Haunted Armor vital.
The Berserker
The Berserker grows stronger every time he inflicts or takes damage, earning 'rage' tokens per every instance that can be used for self-heal or boosting his own attack power. A lower base health makes this careful balance very important, however mastering this ebb and flow can make the berserker a character capable of staggering amounts of damage in short bursts. Mechanically he is a fairly straightforward character, making him ideal for new players.
The Dragon
The Dragon is the first 'Monster' character included in the game, and wields the ability to destroy his foes hands as well as their health using his ability to inflict massive amounts of the 'burn' status effect. Burn forces the players to choose between discarding cards from hand or take health damage, allowing the dragon to whittle down their options and defenses before going in for a massive, decisive strike. More about this powerful character (including their art) will be revealed soon!
Card Types
There is a total of 5 different types of cards. These are Character Cards, Action Cards, Unique Cards, Lair Cards, and Modifier Cards.
Character Cards
Character cards are a visual indicator of the most important information for a character. The front of a character card will display their portrait, maximum health, and innate armor (if they have any.) The backside of the card will list any unique traits or important keywords they have, explaining them to the players. This card is separate from a player's deck and always remains on the field. All players regardless of team may view this card at any time. When a character is down or out of the game, turn this card sideways for easy indication.
Action Cards
Action Cards are what make up a players’ deck, and are the cards that will be placed upon the timeline. These are one-sided, and display important information such as the cards’ speed and effects. These come in two varieties, Basic Action Cards and Character Action Cards. Basic action cards are shared by every character within a certain class (eg. ‘Minion characters’ or ‘Monster characters’) and tend to have basic, universal effects. Character Action cards on the other hand are unique to the character they belong to, and can ONLY be used by them.
Unique Cards
Unique cards are seperate from a player’s deck, and will typically contain vital information to the character they belong to. These have no consistent purpose and vary depending on the character they belong to- an example of this is the Chef’s Recipe card. Not all characters have a Unique card associated with them. Like the Character card, these are freely viewable by all players unless specifically stated otherwise, and sit directly next to the Character card.