Aeon’s End is a cooperative deck building game
where your deck is never shuffled.
Your goal is to defeat the nemesis before your home, Gravehold,
is overrun or the players are exhausted.
Each round, the players and the nemesis will take turns in a random order.
During a player’s turn,
they will be able to cast spells, acquire additional gems,
relics and spells from the supply,
manipulate their spell casting breaches and use their unique abilities.
All four of the different nemeses
included in the game are unique in the actions taken during their turns,
and will require a different strategy to defeat.
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<Components>
30 life tokens with value 1, 10 life tokens with value 5
: used to track the life of the players and minions.
21 charge tokens
: used to fuel players’ abilities.
: used to track the life of the players and minions.
10 power tokens
: used on certain nemesis cards to track the number of turns until a power resolves.
15 Fury/husk tokens
: used when playing against Rageborne or Carapace Queen.
2 life dials
: used to track the life of Gravehold and the nemesis.
4 player number tokens
: placed on player mats and used in conjunction
with the turn order cards to determine play order.
87 gem cards
86 spell cards
30 relic cards
*Player cards(gems, spells, and relics)
: used by the players to enhance their decks.
27 randomizer cards
: used to determine which player cards are available.
4 player aid cards
: used for quick reference of the phases of a turn.
8 player mats
: used for tracking the important information of each player.
16 breaches
: used by the players to cast their spells.
9 turn order cards
: used to determine the order of play during the game.
4 nemesis mats
: used to display the specific rules for each nemesis.
: used by the nemesis
against the players and Gravehold.
<Component Anatomy>
「Player Mats」
① Breach Mage Name
② Breach Setup
: The initial configuration of your breaches.
Not all players have the same amount of available breaches.
③ Starting Hand
: The five cards which you will have in your hand
at the start of the game.
④ Starting Deck
: The five cards, and the order in which they are placed in your starting deck.
Place the leftmost cards at the top of your starting deck.
⑤ Player Number
: Place your player number token here.
Player number is used in conjunction with the turn order deck to determine turn order.
⑥ Life
: Place your life tokens here.
⑦ Ability
: Each breach mage has a unique ability.
The player mat explains when that ability can be activated and what it does.
Abilities can only be activated
when you have a charge token on all of the spaces shown below the ability.
Once an ability is activated,
all of the charge tokens are removed.
⑧ Deck: Place your deck facedown here.
⑨ Discard: Place your discard pile faceup here.
⑩ Breach Mage Story: Has no effect on play.
Provides further lore into the world of Aeon’s End.
「Breaches」
Breaches are double-sided cards used to prep and cast spells.
A single spell may be prepped
by placing a spell card from hand to an opened breach during a player’s turn.
On a subsequent turn,
a player’s prepped spells may be cast by discarding the spell card.
① Open/Closed
: One side of the card is used to indicate that the breach is open,
the other indicates a closed breach.
② Breach Number
: Used primarily during setup to indicate
where each breach placed next to the player mat.
③ Open Cost
: The cost, in aether (
), to open the breach.
When a breach is opened, flip it to the opened side. Once a breach is opened,
it remains opened for the rest of the game.
④ Focus Cost
: The cost, in aether (), to focus the breach.When a breach is focused, rotate the breach card 90° clockwise.
The only time that spells can be prepped to a closed breach is
during the player’s turn in which that breach was focused.
You may open or focus breaches in any order.
For example, you may focus Breach III before Breach II,
or open Breach IV before opening breach II or III.
⑤ Opened Effect
: Some breaches have effects that occur
whenever a spell is cast from that breach while it is opened.
* Adjacency
: Some spells may refer to adjacent breaches.
Breaches are always adjacent to the one or two directly next to them physically.
For example, Ⅰ is adjacent to Ⅱ. Ⅱ is adjacent to Ⅰ and Ⅲ.
「Player Cards」
in order to defeat the nemesis.
Each player starts with a unique hand and deck of cards.
Players will acquire more cards for their deck
by spending aether () to gain them from the supply piles.
① Card Name
② Type
: There are three types of player cards
: gems, relics, and spells
• Gems are played to give you aether (),
the main currency of the game. Aether can be spent to gain more cards,
gain charges for breach mage abilities,
and focus breaches.
(Breaches are the conduits through which spells are cast.)
• Spells are the main way of dealing damage to the nemesis and his minions.
Spells must be prepped to a breach
(that is, the spell card must be placed on a breach card next to your player mat)
before you can cast them.
• Relics have a variety of useful instantaneous effects.
③ Cost
: The amount of aether () you must spend to gain this card.
④ Effect
: The effect you resolve when you play the card.
Gems and relics have effects that are resolved immediately.
Spells need to be prepped to a breach before they can be Cast.
If any card contradicts this rulebook,
follow the card’s effect.
⑤ Flavor Text: Has no effect on play.
Provides further lore into the world of Aeon’s End.
「Randomizer Cards」
⑥ For each player card there is one additional copy that has a grey border.
The grey-bordered cards are used during setup to randomly pick
which gems, spells, and relics will be in the supply.
These cards are not played with during the game.
「Nemesis Mat」
② Life
: Starting life of the nemesis.
The nemesis’s life is tracked on its life dial.
If the life of the nemesis reaches zero, the players win.
③Unleash Effect
: The effect that occurs when the Unleash keyword resolves.
Each nemesis has a unique Unleash ability.
④Additional Rules
: Any additional rules that pertain only to this nemesis.
⑤Increased Difficulty
: An optional rule which can be used to adjust difficulty.
⑥ Difficulty Level
: How difficult this nemesis is compared to the other nemeses.
The difficulty level ranges from 1 (easiest) to 10 (hardest).
⑦ Nemesis Story
: Has no effect on play.
Provides further lore into the world of Aeon’s End.
⑧ Setup
: Additional information needed during setup for this nemesis.
「Nemesis Cards」
Nemesis cards are the attacks, minions, and powers the nemesis uses
against the players and Gravehold.
The nemesis deck is constructed at the beginning of each game
from a mixture of basic nemesis cards that can be used in any nemesis deck,
and a number of unique cards that are only used with that particular nemesis.
You may encounter the same nemesis many times,
but it will never attack you in exactly the same way twice.
① Card Name
② Type
: There are three types of nemesis cards: attacks, minions, and powers.
• Attacks
are resolved instantly and are then discarded.
• Minions
: Minions enter play with life tokens and stay in play until defeated.
They have continuous effects which are resolved
during the nemesis’s main phase.
If the life of a minion reaches zero,
it is instantly discarded.
• Powers: All power cards have “POWER X:” on them.
When a power card enters play,
place X power tokens on it.
Unless discarded, power cards stay in play for X nemesis turns
before resolving.
During the nemesis main phase,
remove one power token from every power card in play.
When a power card has no tokens left,
resolve its effect and then discard it.
③ Life
: Minion cards have life which can be depleted
by dealing it damage.
If the life of a minion reaches zero,
it is instantly placed in the nemesis discard pile.
④ Effect
: The effect to resolve for this nemesis card.
⑤ TO DISCARD effect
: Some power cards have a “TO DISCARD:” effect.
During any player’s main phase,
that player may fully resolve the effect listed to discard that power card.
If a power card is discarded this way,
its effect will not be resolved.
⑥ Flavor Text
: Has no effect on play.
Provides further lore into the world of Aeon’s End.
⑦ Nemesis
: The nemesis to which the card belongs.
Cards that say “Basic” may be used with any nemesis.
⑧ Tier
: There are three tiers of nemesis cards.
Tier 1 cards are less dangerous than Tier 2 cards,
which are less dangerous than Tier 3 cards.
Some unique nemesis cards are marked as Tier 0.
These cards are covered in the additional rules section of the nemesis
to which they belong.
<Preparation for Game>
「Player Setup」
① Each player chooses a player mat and a player number token.
② Each player builds their starting hand and deck as shown on their player mat.
The cards should be in the order shown with the leftmost card(s) being the top card(s)
of their deck and the rightmost card(s) being the bottom card(s) of their deck.
③ Each player receives one of each type of breach shown on their mat (I–IV as listed).
Players arrange their breaches as indicated on their player mat.
④ Each player starts the game with 10 life.
Set the Gravehold life dial to 30.
The players and Gravehold can never have more than their starting life.
* Starter Cards
: To differentiate the starter cards from the cards used in the market,
the cards used to form your initial hand and deck are denoted
with a
in
the lower left corner.
Ex)
Chris and Brown are playing a game of Aeon’s End.
① Chris is the first player and has chosen to play with Kadir.
He sets the Kadir player mat in front of her on the table.
He places the Player 1 token on the corresponding section of her mat.
② He checks her player mat to see that Kadir starts the game
with one Emerald Shard, three Crystals, and one Spark in his hand.
He also notices that Kadir starts with three Crystals and two Sparks in his starting deck.
Chris locates those cards and places his starting hand in front of his,
and his starting deck to the left of her play mat,
with the Sparks on the bottom of her deck
because those are listed second on the player mat.
③ Chris grabs one of each type of breach,
which are labeled Ⅰ-Ⅳ.
He places them above her mat and orients them
so that they match what is shown at the top of her mat.
The Ⅰ breach is open.
The Ⅱ and Ⅳ breaches have the yellow section to the left.
The Ⅲ breach has the yellow section on the bottom.
「Turn Order Deck」
⑤ The turn order deck is always composed of four player turn order cards
and two nemesis turn order cards.
The player turn order cards correspond to the player number tokens.
• For 2 players,
place two turn order cards for each player in the deck.
• For 3 players,
place one turn order card for each player plus the wild turn order card in the deck.
When the wild turn order card is drawn,
the players decide which one of them will take that turn.
The wild turn order card is a player turn order card.
• For 4 players,
place one turn order card in the deck for each player.
• Regardless of the player count,
add two nemesis turn order cards to the deck and shuffle it.
When the turn order deck is empty
and a new turn order card must be drawn or revealed,
shuffle all of the turn order cards together and place them facedown
to make the turn order deck again.
Ex)
⑤ Chris and Brown are playing a two player game,
so they will create a turn order deck that consists of two Player 1 cards,
two Player 2 cards, and two Nemesis cards.
+
+
Reference)
「Nemesis Setup」
⑥ Choose a nemesis to play against,
and set its nemesis mat near the players.
Carefully read all of the additional rules for the chosen nemesis.
⑦ Set the nemesis life dial equal to the number shown on the nemesis mat.
The nemesis can never have more than its starting life.
Each nemesis has a set of cards with their name written at the bottom left.
In addition to any specific nemesis cards,
some basic cards are included in each nemesis deck.
⑧ The nemesis deck
: The nemesis deck is comprised of between 20 and 31 cards
as determined by player count.
The nemesis deck has three tiers which increase in difficulty as the game progresses
and will consist of both nemesis specific and basic nemesis cards.
Tiers are indicated by a 1, 2 or 3 in the bottom right of the nemesis cards.
Each nemesis has nine nemesis specific cards
with the name of the nemesis written at the bottom left.
To build the nemesis deck:
• Locate the 9 nemesis specific cards used for this game,
and separate them into 3 piles of three cards according to the card's tier.
• Use the chart below to add basic nemesis cards
to each pile based on the number of players in the game.
• Shuffle each pile of cards separately.
• Place the tier 3 cards on bottom facedown,
the tier 2 cards facedown on top of the tier 3 cards,
and the tier 1 cards facedown on top of the tier 2 cards.
Combined, these tiers form the nemesis deck.
• Do not shuffle the nemesis deck once it has been created.
* Tier 0
Depending on which nemesis you’re playing against,
there may be other cards used besides the nemesis deck.
These cards are marked as tier 0.
Refer to the nemesis mat for specific setup instructions.
ex)
⑥ Chris and Brown have chosen to play against Rageborne.
Brown finds the Rageborne mat and sets it on the table.
She reads all of the additional rules regarding Rageborne.
⑦ She checks the mat to see that Rageborne starts the game with 70 life.
She grabs the nemesis life dial and sets it to 70.
⑧ Brown finds the fifteen nemesis cards with Rageborne written at the bottom.
She consults the chart to see what basic cards
she will need for a two-player game.
She finds three random tier 1 basic nemesis cards,
five random tier 2 basic nemesis cards,
and seven random tier 3 basic nemesis cards.
Then she sorts the Rageborne nemesis cards into tiers.
First he shuffles the three tier 3 Rageborne cards into the seven tier 3 basic cards
and places them facedown to start the deck.
Next, she shuffles the three tier 2 Rageborne nemesis cards
in with the five tier 2 basic cards and places those on top of the tier 3 cards.
Finally, she shuffles the three tier 1 Rageborne cards into the three tier 1 basic cards
and places those on top of the tier 2 cards.
At this point, Brown will no longer shuffle the nemesis deck.
She sets it beside the nemesis mat.
⑨ Brown notices that there are six tier 0 Rageborne cards left over.
With the nemesis deck now created,
Brown checks the Rageborne mat for further setup instructions.
The mat says,
“Shuffle all of the strike cards together
and place them facedown to form the strike deck.
Rageborne gains 1 Fury token.”
Brown takes the six Rageborne cards
she had left over after creating the nemesis deck;
noting that the card type states
“Strike” instead of the regular Power or Attack.
She shuffles them and places them facedown next to the nemesis deck.
Brown also grabs all of the Fury tokens
from the box and places one of them on the
Rageborne mat to denote that Rageborne has gained one Fury token.
Reference)
「Supply Setup」
⑩ The supply piles are the player cards that can be gained during the game.
The supply is composed of nine supply piles.
Each pile contains several copies of the same card.
The players can determine these piles randomly,
using the randomizer cards,
or choose the cards they wish to use.
* Empty Supply Piles
If a supply pile runs out,
it is considered empty.
Do not replace it.
「Guidelines For Making The Supply」
Choose 3 gems, 2 relics, and 4 spells.
Put each card of the same name in its own separate pile,
in the middle of the table.
Gems
: are the primary
source of gaining aether().
Spending aether() is how
you gain new cards,
focus and open breaches, and gain charges.
* There are seven gem cards in each gem supply pile.
: have a wide variety of effects and are resolved as soon as they are played.
* There are five relic cards in
each relic supply pile.
Spells
: are the primary source
of damage to the nemesis and
its minions.
They must be prepped to a breach on one turn in order to be cast on a later turn.
* There are five spell cards in each spell supply pile.
Reference)
「Suggested Starting Supplies」
Below are some suggested starting supplies for learning the game.
Suggested Supply
: “Deck Destruction” (shown above)
Gems
: Jade, Searing Ruby, Burning Opal
Relics
: Flexing Dagger, Bottled Vortex
Spells
: Amplify Vision, Essence Theft, Planar Insight, Consuming Void
Suggested Supply
: “Free Charges!”
Gems
: Jade, V’riswood Amber, Diamond Cluster
Relics
: Unstable Prism, Mage’s Talisman
Spells
: Spectral Echo, Ignite, Feral Lightning, Wildfire Whip
ex
⑩ Chris and Brown choose to use the suggested starting supply, Deck Destruction,
because they like the ability to make their decks more efficient through cards
like Bottled Vortex and Consuming Void.
<Game Progression>
「Turn Order」
Aeon’s End has a variable turn order which is determined by the turn order deck.
At the start of the game and after each player or nemesis turn ends,
draw a card from the turn order deck to determine
who takes the next turn.
Place that card on the top of the turn order discard pile.
If you need to draw or reveal a card
from the turn order deck and that deck is empty,
shuffle the discarded turn order cards together facedown
to replenish the turn order deck.
「Player Turn Overview」
1. Casting Phase You may Cast any of your prepped spells in opened breaches.
You must Cast any of your prepped spells in closed breaches.
Place cast spells on the top of your discard pile as they are cast.
2. Main Phase You may resolve the following actions
in any order and as many times as you want:
(1) Play a gem or relic card
(2) Gain a card
(3) Gain a charge
(4) Focus a breach
(5) Open a breach
(6) Prep a spell to a breach
(7) Resolve a “While prepped” effect
(8) Resolve a “TO DISCARD:” effect
3. Draw Phase Place all the gems and relics
that you have played this turn on the top of your discard pile
in any order you choose.
Draw cards from the top of your deck
until you have five cards in hand.
If at any time a player’s life is reduced to zero,
that player is exhausted.
Read the exhausted section on page 18 for details.
ex)
Now that Chris and Brown have the game set up,
they start the game by drawing the top card of the turn order deck.
The Player 1 turn order card is drawn, so Chris will take the first turn.
On Chris’s turn,
he will play through the following phases in order
: casting phase, main phase, and draw phase.
During the casting phase,
he will be able to cast spells that he prepped on a previous turn.
Since it is the first turn of the game,
Chris will skip this phase and move straight to the main phase.
「Player Turn: 1 - Casting Phase」
Cast prepped spells:
• Any spells that are prepped in an opened breach may be Cast during this phase.
• Every spell prepped in a closed breach
(that is, a spell that was prepped to a focused breach in the previous turn)
must be Cast now.
• You choose the order in which you Cast your spells.
When a spell is Cast:
• Discard it to the top of your discard pile immediately,
then resolve the effect after the word ‘Cast:’ on the card.
• That spell can only deal damage to a single minion
or the nemesis unless otherwise specified.
• Some breaches have a “+1 damage when Cast” effect
while they are opened.
Any spell Cast from an open breach with this effect deals 1 additional damage,
even if that spell’s effect would normally not deal damage.
When you deal damage:
• To a minion, remove life tokens from
that minion card equal to the damage you dealt.
If a minion has no life tokens remaining,
it is immediately discarded.
• To the nemesis,
reduce its life total on the dial by the amount of damage you dealt.
If the nemesis has zero life remaining,
the players immediately win.
ex
For this example,
we have skipped ahead a few turns in the game to a point
where Brown has gained a few spells.
She starts the turn with a Spark and an Amplify Vision prepped as shown below.
Her Spark spell is prepped on breach Ⅰ,
which is opened, so he has the option of casting it now or waiting to cast it later.
Amplify Vision is prepped on a closed breach Ⅲ.
Since that breach is closed,
Amplify Vision must be cast this turn
Brown decides to cast Amplify Vision first.
She immediately places the Amplify Vision in her discard pile.
Then she resolves the Cast effect - dealing 2 damage to the nemesis.
The Ⅰ and Ⅱ breaches are open,
so she focuses the Ⅲ breach.
She turns that breach 90° clockwise.
Finally, Brown decides not to cast the Spark prepped on an open breach.
She wants to save this spell for a future turn
and be ready if a minion shows up.
* There are some effects in Aeon’s End
that will allow you to cast another player’s prepped spells.
When casting a spell other than your own,
you are the “you” referred to on the spell card.
You make all decisions pertaining to that spell.
For example
: You play a Garnet Shard to cast your ally’s prepped Dark Fire.
You must discard up to two cards
from your hand (Dark Fire’s effect) to your discard pile.
You also choose either the nemesis or a minion to suffer Dark Fire’s damage.
The cast Dark Fire spell card is placed on the top of your ally’s discard pile.
「Player Turn: 2 - Main Phase」
The following eight actions can be done in any order,
any number of times during a player’s main phase.
For example, you could play a gem, gain a card, prep a spell,
play another gem card, and gain another card.
1. Play a gem or relic card:
• When you play a card, you must execute all of the text on that card, if possible.
• If there is an “OR,” you choose exactly one of the options listed.
If you can only complete one of the two options,
you must choose that option.
• You may gain aether() even if you choose not to spend it.
• Any aether() gained on a turn that is not spent is lost.
Aether does not accumulate over turns,
nor can it be given to other players.
• At the end of your turn,
any gem or relic cards you played
are placed on top of your discard pile in any order.
2. Gain a card:
• You may gain a card from the supply
by spending aether() you
have gained this turn equal to the the cost
shown in the upper right-hand corner of the card.
• When you gain a card,
it is instantly placed on top of your discard pile.
3. Gain a charge
:
• You may pay 2 aether() to gain a charge.
• When you gain a charge,
place a charge token on your player mat beneath the ability description.
• You may not pay aether() to gain charges for your allies.
• You may not have more charges than your ability requires.
The maximum charges are denoted
by the number of spaces available on the player mat: 4, 5, or 6.
* Discard Order
Cards gained are instantly placed in your discard pile.
Any gem or relic cards that you play are placed in your play area.
At the end of your turn, during the draw phase,
played gem and relic cards will be placed in your discard pile
in any order you choose.
ex
On Chris’s first turn,
he has one Emerald Shard, three Crystals,
and one Spark in his hand.
He plays his three Crystals to gain 3 aether().
He plays her Emerald Shard,
which offers a choice
of gaining 1 aether() or having any player gain 1 life.
Since both players still have their starting life,
Chris chooses to gain 1 aether().
Chris has a total of 4 aether().
He has many options as to what she can do with this aether.
He chooses to spend
all 4 aether() to gain a Searing
Ruby.
He instantly places it in his discard.
or
) to gain two charges. or
which costs 2 aether(),
and gain one charge with his remaining
2 aether().
4. Focus a breach:
• You can focus a closed breach
by paying the focus cost shown near the center of that breach card.
• When you focus a breach, rotate the breach card 90° clockwise.
You may prep a spell to the focused breach this turn.
• Breaches may be focused any number of times per turn.
Any number of breaches may be focused per turn.
You may focus a breach without prepping a spell to it.
• A breach that has been rotated
so that the yellow quadrant is at the top has a focus cost equal
to its stated open cost and can be opened
by an effect that would otherwise focus this breach.
5. Open a breach:
• You can open a closed breach
by paying the open cost currently indicated on the top of that breach card.
The open cost decreases each time you focus the breach.
• When you open a breach, flip the breach to the opened side.
Opened breaches stay opened for the rest of the game.
A spell can be prepped to a breach on the turn
that breach is opened and any subsequent turn.
6. Prep a spell to a breach:
• To prep a spell, play a spell card onto an opened breach
or a closed breach that has been focused this turn.
Only one spell may be prepped to a breach at a time.
You cannot prep a spell to a breach that already has a prepped spell.
• Prepped spells can be Cast during the casting phase of that player’s next turn.
7. Resolve a “While prepped” effect:
• You can use the effect of any of your prepped spells
that have a “While prepped” effect that is specific to the main phase.
Such effects may be used on the turn
that the spell is prepped or any subsequent turn if the spell is still prepped.
• Some “While prepped” effects do not occur during the main phase.
• Each “While prepped” effect may be used once per turn.
8. Resolve a “TO DISCARD:” effect:
• Some nemesis power cards have a “TO DISCARD:” effect.
During your main phase, you may fully resolve the effect
listed to discard that power card.
If a power card is discarded this way,
its effect is not resolved.
ex)
For this example,
we’ll jump ahead to Chris’s second turn.
He has three Crystals and two Sparks in his hand.
It is his main phase. He has only one open breach,
so he will need to either open or focus another breach
if he wishes to prep both of his spells.
Chris starts her main phase
by playing all three of her Crystals for 3 aether().
He now has three options that will allow his to prep both of his Sparks.
(1) He could focus her Ⅱ breach for 2 aether().
(2) He could open her Ⅱ breach for 3 aether().
(3) He could focus her Ⅲ breach for 3 aether().
He decides to open his II breach (option 2).
Chris flips the II breach card over to show that it is now opened.
This breach will remain opened for the rest of the game.
He will be able to prep spells to this breach this turn
and subsequent turns without paying any further aether() costs.
Finally, Chris preps both of his Sparks
by placing them on top of his breaches Ⅰ and Ⅱ.
Both Spark spells will be available to Cast
during his Casting Phase next turn.
「Player Turn: 3 - Draw Phase」
Once you have finished your main phase,
place all of the gem and relic cards
you played this turn on top of your discard pile in any order.
Then, keeping all unplayed cards in hand,
draw cards from the top of your deck until you have five cards in hand.
If at any time there are not enough cards in your deck to draw or reveal a card,
draw/reveal as many as you can
then flip over your discard pile to form a new deck and draw/reveal.
At no point in the game do you shuffle your deck.
Notes:
• You may not choose to discard cards during your turn.
Unlike other deck builders,
you do not discard your hand at the end of each turn.
• You may look through your discard pile at any time,
although you may not rearrange it.
• You may not look through your deck.
• There is no maximum hand size.
* No Deck Shuffling
Unlike many other deckbuilding games,
you do not shuffle your discard pile when your deck is empty.
Simply flip your discard pile over to form your deck.
ex)
It is the end of one of Brown’s turns.
During her casting phase, she Cast an Amplify Vision,
which was instantly placed on top of her discard pile.
On this turn, she played a Flexing Dagger, three Crystals, and a Jade.
She used the Flexing Dagger to focus his Ⅲ breach.
She used the 5
from the Jade and the Crystals to gain an Essence Theft.
When she gained the Essence Theft,
she placed it directly on top of the Amplify Vision in her discard pile.
Brown is now done with her main phase.
At the start of her draw phase, she places the Flexing Dagger, the Crystals,
and the Jade on top of his discard pile in any order.
Brown chooses to place the Dagger first,
then the Jade, and finally all of the Crystals.
Next, Bob draws cards from the top of his deck until he has five cards in hand.
His deck only has two cards in it.
Bob draws those two and then, without shuffling,
flips his discard pile over to form his new deck.
He then draws three more cards so that he has five cards in hand.
「Nemesis Turn Overview」
1. Main phase From oldest to newest,
resolve the effects of each minion and power card the nemesis has in play.
2. Draw phase Draw a card from the nemesis deck.
• If it is an attack card, resolve its effect immediately.
• If it is a minion card or power card,
place it into play with the appropriate number of life or power tokens.
Resolve any effects following “IMMEDIATELY:” on the card.
The rest of its effects will not be resolved this turn.
If at any time a player’s life is reduced to zero,
that player is exhausted.
Read the exhausted section on page 18 for details.
「Nemesis Turn: 1 - Main Phase」
Starting with the minion card or power card
that has been in play the longest,
the players will resolve the effects of each minion card and power card in play.
• PERSISTENT effects are resolved now.
• Each power card in play will lose 1 power token.
After removing a token, if a power card has no tokens on it,
resolve the effect that is shown after “POWER X:” and discard it from play.
ex)
For this example,
we’ll fast forward a few rounds into the game.
The nemesis turn order card has been drawn.
Rageborne starts his turn with one Fury token.
He has Bane Sire, Woven Sky with one power counter, and Provoker in play.
Those cards came into play in that order,
so Chris and Brown will resolve them in that order.
① First, Bane Sire’s persistent effect is “Unleash.”
Each nemesis has a unique “Unleash” effect listed on its nemesis mat.
Rageborne’s Unleash effect is “Rageborne gains 1 Fury token.”
Brown adds another Fury token to Rageborne, for a total of two Fury.
There are no power tokens remaining on that card, so it resolves.
Woven Sky’s effect is “Unleash.
Any player suffers 4 damage.”
The nemesis’s Unleash effect resolves,
so the players add one Fury token to Rageborne for a total of three.
Chris and Brown decide that Brown will suffer the 4 damage
because she has more life. Brown removes 4 life tokens from her player mat.
Woven Sky is discarded.
③ Finally, they resolve Provoker.
Provoker’s persistent effect is “Gravehold suffers damage
equal to the number of Fury tokens Rageborne has.”
Rageborne has three Fury tokens,
so Provoker causes Gravehold to suffer 3 damage.
Chris adjusts the Gravehold life dial down by 3, from 30 to 27.
「Nemesis Turn: 2 - Draw Phase」
Draw a nemesis card:
• If the nemesis deck is empty and the nemesis would draw a card,
instead Unleash three times.
If the drawn card type is:
• Attack card
Resolve the card’s effect immediately
in the order that it appears on the card.
Then, place the card in the nemesis’s discard pile.
• Minion card
Execute any effect that follows the word “IMMEDIATELY:”.
Then place the minion card into play with the number of life tokens indicated on the card.
• Power card
Execute any effect that follows the word “IMMEDIATELY:”
Then place the power card into play
with a number of power tokens as indicated on the card.
When resolving card effects:
• When resolving an effect that cannot be fully completed,
resolve as much as possible.
If you are given an option between two effects,
you must choose an option you can fully resolve.
• Persistent and power effects only occur during the nemesis’s main phase.
These effects are ignored for newly placed minion and power cards
until the nemesis’ next turn.
* Ambiguity
Nemesis cards may have ambiguous situations
where it’s not clear what or who should be affected.
In these cases the players make that determination.
For example, if you are resolving a nemesis card
that makes the player with the lowest life suffer damage
and two players are tied for having the lowest life,
the players decide who suffers the damage.
Another card may have the player with the most charges suffer damage
when no players have any charges.
In this case also,
the players choose who will suffer the damage.
ex)
After fully resolving the nemesis main phase,
Chris and Brown proceed to the nemesis draw phase.
During this phase, they will draw a card from the nemesis deck and resolve it.
Here are examples of the three types of nemesis cards,
along with how they would be resolved.
Attack Card
In this example, Chris and Brown draw Slaughter,
an attack card, from Rageborne’s nemesis deck.
Attack cards resolve immediately.
Slaugther’s effect is “Unleash. Gravehold suffers 3 damage.”
Rageborne’s Unleash effect is “Rageborne gains 1 Fury token.”
Chris adds a Fury token to Rageborne.
Then, Brown adjusts Gravehold’s life counter down 3 life from 27 to 24.
Finally, Slaughter is discarded to the nemesis discard pile.
Minion Card
In this example, Chris and Brown draw Haze Spewer,
a minion card, from Rageborne’s nemesis deck.
Haze Spewer is a minion with no instant effect,
so it is placed into play.
It has 5 life, so Abby and Bob place a 5 life token on it.
They also read Haze Spewer’s persistent effect so they know
what will happen during the next nemesis main phase.
This effect doesn’t resolve this turn
because persistent effects are only resolved
during the nemesis main phase,
which has already passed.
Power Card
In this example, Chris and Brown draw Eye of Nothing,
a power card, from Rageborne’s nemesis deck.
Since Eye of Nothing is a power card,
it is placed directly into play.
It has a power of 2.
Therefore, Chris and Brown place two power tokens on it.
It has no immediate effect,
so there is nothing else that Chris and Brown have to resolve this turn.
They read the card’s effect so they know what it will do when it resolves.
Power tokens are removed and powers resolve
during the nemesis main phase – neither of these actions will happen this turn
as the nemesis main phase has already passed.
Eye of Nothing has a “TO DISCARD:” effect.
Any player may resolve the effect listed here
during their main phase to discard that power card.
<Exhausted>
If a player’s life is reduced to zero,
that player is exhausted.
Resolve the following effects in order.
• Resolve the nemesis’s Unleash effect twice.
• The exhausted player destroys one of their breaches,
discarding any spell prepped in that breach.
Destroyed breaches can be returned to the box – there is no way
to regain a destroyed breach.
The remaining breaches stay in their current positions.
• The exhausted player discards all of their charge tokens.
The exhausted player continues to participate in the game
as usual with the following exceptions:
• Exhausted players cannot gain life.
• When a card deals damage to the player with the lowest life,
it always deals that damage to the non-exhausted player with the lowest current life.
• When an exhausted player suffers damage,
instead deal twice that amount of damage to Gravehold.
This includes excess damage when a player initially becomes exhausted.
If all players become exhausted,
the game ends immediately and the players lose.
ex)
Later in the game during the Nemesis Main Phase,
Bleed Static’s effect (The player with the most prepped spells suffers 2 damage
for each of their prepped spells.) is resolved.
① Chris has 3 spells prepped,
which is more than Brown,
so he will suffer 6 damage.
He only has 2 life left.
The first 2 damage she suffers causes his to become exhausted.
As a result of being exhausted,
he does these steps:
② Resolves Rageborne’s Unleash effect twice.
Rageborne gains 2 Fury tokens.
③ Destroys his IV breach and discards the spell that was prepped on it.
④ Discards all his charge tokens.
⑤ The remaining 4 damage is doubled and suffered by Gravehold.
He adjusts the Gravehold life counter down from 24 to 16.
<Game Terms>
Ally
: An ally is any player other than you.
Destroy
: Cards which are destroyed are permanently removed
from the game and are not used or interacted
with in any way once they are destroyed.
‘OR’ effects
: When a card gives two options separated by an “OR”
, you may choose either option,
unless you cannot fully resolve one of them.
In that case, you must choose the effect that you can fully resolve.
‘To Discard’
: Some nemesis power cards have “TO DISCARD:” effects on them.
During a player’s main phase,
that player may resolve the text following “TO DISCARD:” to discard
that power card from play.
If a player does discard a power card this way,
that card has no effect.
Unleash
: Some nemesis cards will say “Unleash.”
Each nemesis has a unique effect that is resolved when this happens.
This effect is listed on each nemesis mat.
<Game End>
In all situations,
when an end game condition is met, gameplay ends instantly
without further resolution of effects.
The players are victorious if any of the following conditions are true:
• The nemesis has no cards in its deck and no minions or powers in play.
• The nemesis has 0 life.
The players lose if any of the following conditions are true:
• All the players are exhausted (have 0 life).
• Gravehold has 0 life.
In addition, a nemesis may have a specific victory condition listed on the nemesis mat
that causes the players to lose instantly.
<Variable Difficulty>
Aeon’s End has adjustable difficulty.
Play the nemesis mat as written to play in normal mode.
To adjust the difficulty,
follow the rules below:
「Beginner」
Each player starts the game with 12 life (2 more).
Gravehold starts with 35 life (5 more).
The nemesis starts with 10 less life.
「Expert」
Use the Increased Difficulty rules shown on the nemesis mat.
These rules may affect Setup, Unleash, or Additional Rules section of that nemesis.
「Extinction」
Use the Increased Difficulty rules.
Also, each player starts the game with 8 life (2 less).
Gravehold starts with 25 life (5 less).
The nemesis starts with 10 more life.
<Solo Play>
You can play solo as multiple separate mages
where you control all of those mages.
If you choose to play like this,
just follow the rules as normal for the player count
related to the number of mages you chose to play.
To play a true solo experience,
consult the chart for constructing the nemesis deck.
Create the turn order deck to contain 3 player turn order cards
and 2 nemesis turn order cards.
When any of the player turn order cards are drawn,
the solo player takes a turn.
In solo play, you are your own ally.
For example, if a card gives a charge to an ally,
you instead gain that charge yourself. Otherwise,
play the game as normal.
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