The story so far... Three hundred years ago, the World of Indines was rocked by a great war, known as the Centennial War. In this conflict, the dark forces of Overlord Rexan rose up and fought to contro! the world. Eventually, Rexan was defeated by a coalition of four heroes, and peace returned to Indines once mor: Visions have haunted the nights of the young priestess Magdelina Larington. In her deepest dreams, she has seen forebodings of Hepzibah Culotre, the legendary healer of ndines, resurrecting Overlord Rexan and plunging the world into conflict. Together with her friends Kallistar Flarechild, Vanaah Kalmor, and Seth Cremmul, Magdelina has set off to the south on a desperate crusade to stop the resurrection of the overlord. Meanwhile, Demitras Denigrande, the Overlord’s immortal advisor, and Heketch, his diabolic master assassin, stand ready to destroy anything that stands in the way of their master’s return to Indines... ... Asa trial before reviving Overlord Rexan, Hepzibah resurrected Cherri Seneca. After returning to life from the Afterworld, Cherri has been haunted by dark visions and waking nightmares, and the barriers of reality seem to be breaking down around her. ‘The Planestalkers guard the world of Indines against invasion from beyond the worlds, and now agents Khadath Ahemusei, Hikaru Sorayama, and Luc Von Gott search for — some way to save Cherri before alien forces led by Zaamassal Kett can lay their hands on her... In the far north, the technological empire of Willat has deemed the research of one of their top scientists to be illegal, and has destroyed his laboratories. Now the sole inheritor of Aaron Ross's research, his assistant Lixis Ran Kanda, flees to the south with Ross’s last creation, the homunculus Kehrolyn Ross. Pursued by the mercenary Rukyuk Amberdeen and Cadenza, they search for sanctuary in the forests of the continent, looking for a way to unlock the last secrets of Aaron’ research... ...as forces gather for these three conflicts that will change the fate of the world, heroes must choose sides and destinies. Who will you lead to victory in the coming war? BattleCon, World of Indines, Logos, Fighters, Cards, or Design, and all otherinchuded materials are (©2014 by Level 99 Games, All Rights Reserved. ZsLeet 99 Gre TeM Lead Designer D. Brad Talton Jr. Assisting Designers Steven Christopherson, Jared Roswurm, ‘Trang (Trish) Nhan, Bryan Graham Lead Fighter Illustrator Eunice Abigael Tiu (Nokomento) Design & Concept Artist Fabio Fontes (Ranter Works) Arenas Danny Hirajeta (Iron Clown Studios) Graphic Designer Joshua Van Laningham Project Manager Christopher Smith Playtesters Michael Robles, Sam Tapper, Kevin Bridgeman, Steven Pettit, Ernest Stewart, Joe Dwyer, Nathan Lewis, Matt May-Day, Ben May-Day, Daniel Castro, Derek Brunet, Joma Celino, Chris Holm, Guillermo Hernandez, Ken Andrews, Tim Wilson, Greg Krywusha, Matthew Fournier, Matthew Locklin, Brent Ur Proofreaders Sascha Parsa, Simon To, Mario Karcher, Lou Lessing, Kevin Miller, Dylan Thurston, Paul Ellison, Ori Avtalion, Aaron Mandel Special Thanks Kevin Brusky, Lynda Yang, Chad Krizan, Michael Mindes, Yaron Racah, Justin Kamerer Desqers Foreyore It was over three years ago when we launched War of Indines on Kickstarter. I had been making board games all my life, but this was my first attempt at bringing a real product to life. BattleCON: War was the culmination of years of development, as well as the beginning of something far bigger than L could have imagined at the time. BattleCON has come to life and flourished through the many fans who joined us on that first Kickstarter project and who have joined us in the years since. I consider it asuccess, not because it’s been a commercial blockbuster, but because it is a game that people have embraced and enjoyed. It’s a game that becomes a part of the people who play it. L consider BattleCON a success because it has made people happy. Now, in 2014, we have the opportunity to make a brand new edition of BattleCON: ‘War that encompasses everything we've learned about delivering quality and style, This new edition is true to the original, but also involves new artistic talents and more rigorous testing and balancing. Lhope that whether you are opening BattleCON for the first time, or a seasoned veteran revisiting the past, that this game will bring you limitless hours of excitement and fun with your friends and family. Thank you for your support, and Happy Gaming, fp yo ae - D. Brad Talton JrCOMPONENTS If components are missing, damaged 19 Fighter cards (1 blank) or defective, you can visit www. 19 Reference Cards (1 blank) battleconection.com to contact 95 Style cards (5 blank) Level 99 Games and acquire 19 Unique Base cards (1 blank) replacements at no charge. 4 Sets of 6 generic Base cards (24 total) 4 Special Action cards 4 Tag Bases 5 Paradigm cards (Zaamassal) $ Dark Pact cards (Hepzibah) 1 Form card (Kallistar) 3 Level cards (Magdelina) 10 Arena cards 1 Game board 18 Fighter stand-ups 27 Circular tokens 9 Pentagonal counters 3 Square markers 4 Plastic stands 1 Rulebook 1 Fighter and Mode Guide 18 Fighter sleeves 2 Life Spinners (unassembled) 5 Sheets of Punch-out tokens 1 Flight Guide Sheet ‘To assemble the Life Spinners: 1. Take 3 interlocking spinner pieces. 2. Find the corresponding base and face of each life spinner. 3. Punch out the holes in the center of the face and base, and insert the spinner cap into the base’s hole. 4, Place the face onto the cap, so that it can rotate freely against the base and you can see asingle number in the face's notched area.* 5. Push the spinner spindle lightly into the slot in the spinner cap, sealing the 3 together——, BR wT LE Bila BattleCON is a board game based on the principles of intense action, direct confrontation, and tactical positioning present in fighting video games. Unlike its peers in console gaming, however, BattleCON provides strategic elements and a more thoughtful pace—allowing the player to carefully choose his next moves and gauge his opponents’ strengths and motives. BattleCON is a standalone game that comes as acomplete boxed set. There are no random packs to buy, no exclusives, and no chase cards-you get the complete game up front in the box. While you can expand BattleCON with additional sets featuring new fighters, there is no buy-in to collect more powerful cards and no expensive rare cards to chase down—when you get a box, you know exactly whatyou are getting, Wert oF Ipnes Welcome to Indines (pronounced In- dean-z), a land of mystery, magic, wonder, and war. In this game, you will take on the roles of the champions of each nation or faction, participating in duels to determine their fates and the fate of the world as a whole. The World of Indines is also the backdrop for a series of games, not just BattleCON. You can check out www. level99games.com for more information on the many games that take place in this world. LEARING THE Don'tbe intimidated by this. or the number of cards in the game! BattleCON is an extremely simple game, and most of the cards and rules in this book exist to allow you to play different variants and to increase the replayability of the base game. In fact, each player will usually only use 14 cards over the course ofa duel. If this is your first time playing, use fighters listed as ‘Basic’ in the fighter guide (Cadenza, Hikaru, Kallistar, Luc, Magdelina, Vanaah), and follow along with the graphic quick-rules comic. After you feel comfortable with the basic mechanics and rules, you can gradually explore the more advanced fighters and play variants. -book Fuais The game has been divided into 3 separate Flights: Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced. These Flights release more complex fighters over time as you play and master the game. Follow along with the insert included in the game box to see the difficulty associated with the Flights, and introduce new elements to the game at a rate you feel comfortable with. Ser He Ryescor! Scanning this QR Code will take you to www.battleconnection.com/rules/ where you can watch a quick video tutorial of how to play the game. SHikaru and Khadath ‘Teach You Well it's called BattleCON, short for "Battle Connection" Sounds fun to me. So how dowe get started? dee ahead to Head dsl Detween two players. a Kit Setup First, welll each pick a Fighter: In this example, it seems natural that we each play as ourselves. So the first thing to do is assemble our Fighter kit Regardless of who you play; every kit uses the same 6 standard Bases. ‘Tell me about it. f ——— So these are like basic attacks, I guess. ‘Yes. Everyone has aheavy punch, a ‘What makes us unique is the Style everyone has a fireball, etc. with which we fight. The way you and Ithrow a punch will both be different, You also get one Ui and that's brought out in our styles. a signature move of sorts. Some fighters have extra materials In your case, they're these Elemental Tokens. In my case, I get a Gate Trap Marker that restricts your movement.‘You alsohave a Finisher Card with two sides, This isa unique special move you can use once during a duel. set it so that the 'A' side is showing, off to the side, Last but not least, take a second to trade Reference Cards with your opponent, and to read over your Unique Ability (UA). I recommend not worrying about the Reference Card until your second of third game, but it will definitely come in handy whea matches get intense. Incase youre curious, Tokens are circular, Markers are diamond-shaped, and Counters are pentagon-shaped. Tokens are used during Ante, while Markers are placed onthe board by your UA or effects. Counters usually track specific things, and aren't manually used at all Alright, [have all my stuff. Whaat else do Ineed to do? Set your Fighter's standup on the space witha dot in the center of the board here, so that you're on the left side of the track. ‘You also want to dial your life up to 20. How about the center dial that goes up to 10? ‘That's to keep track of the Force Gauge. Ifyou want to learn more about that, you'll have to read up on it in the Modes Section of the Fighter and Mode Guide. Just ignore it for now.We should also keep track of time. A duel lasts 15 beats, There are some extra, generic tokens that we can use to track time here in the box, orwe can just ignore it for casual play. A Beat is just a fancy term for round ofplay’, Since there aren't really turns, we track the time that passes in beats. And what about these empty slots on the board edge? ‘Those hold your starting discard piles. Take your yellow Style and Base and put them in the closer pile, then take your green Style and Base, and put them in the further pile ‘Those both have a'l' and a'2’ markin the corners too. Indeed. Once you're experienced, I recommend setting up your Bases specifically to deal with your opponent. However, since we're just learning, these defaults are fine. Go ahead and put ll the remaining Styles and Bases into your hand, You should have 5 Bases and 3 Styles in front of you now.Selection Alright, 'm ready to fight! Excellent. To begin a beat, we start by selecting attack pairs. ‘The attack pair is one style and cone Base, lined up together. Tl goahead and show you my attack pair, Evacuation Burst. So the numbers here add together? Yes. And in the case ofa wide range, like this one, the first two and last two numbers add up, so this attack has a range of 2~4, a power of 3, and a priority of 1. And of course, all the effects of both sides as well. Ok, I think I understand ‘We both pick attack pairs from cour hands and place them face- down, Are you ready? ‘Yep, I've played my attack pair. I guess a legal pair always has one red card and one blue card, right? You've gotit‘Now, before we reveal what attacks we picked, there's an Ante step. This is where you can throw in your tokens to enhance your attack, or use certain effects. Usually your Unique Ability will tell you what you can do during Ante. Some fighters, like me, don't do anything hers. SoT can use one token, whatever I like. Jost keep in ming that, hit or miss, the token will be gone after you use it. Ok, I'll throwin my Fire Token for +3 Power! Excellent. Then it's my turn to ante. Since Idon'thave Ante effects, Ihave to pass. And then what? ‘We keep going back and forth until we both pass in succession. You're notallowed to ante any thing else, so you have to pass too now. Alright, very well. Reveal and Start of Beat So, it’s time for the big reveal! I'm excited! hope you're ready! Teleport Burst! Advancing Drive!So now that we've revealed, it's time to leam about Triggered Effects. All of the effects on your card have two parts, a Trigger and an Effect. So in "Before Activating: Advance 1 or2 spaces," "Before Activating" is your trigger, and "Advance 1 or2 spaces" is your effect. All of your triggers will activate automatically whenever the time is right. Ah, gotcha, So this is what you meant when you said "no tums’. Yes, exactly. So the first trigger is always Reveal. Reveal triggers are pretty rare, so neither of us have any. Before the next trigger though, right after Reveal, we need to decide who is the Active Player. ‘The one who is going to do his attack first. Yes. This is decided by priority. The higher priority goes first, so it's clearly going to be you. Go me! Time to bring the beatdown. So the next trigger is Start of Beat, For this trigger, and its complement, End of Beat, the Active Player goes first, then the Reactive Player. So Ido my start of beat effect first, advance 1 space. ‘And1Ill step back 2 spaces with Burst.Active Player Attack So nowit's my time to shine. Get ready for my best attack. Keep in mind I'm letting you get away with this for instructional purposes only. Your entire attack is broken down into 6 steps: 1. Do your Before Activating effects. So I'm going to advance 2 spaces now. So now you've hit me, congratulations, No matter where I move to or what happens next, I've already taken the hit. 3. You should activate any On Hit effects you have. None forme this time. 4, Then, ifyou landed a hit, you do damage equal to your power. My power is 7 in this case So I take 7 damage. 5. Ifyou did at least 1 point of damage, activate your On Damage effects. Idon'thave any of those either, at least not this time And finally, whether or not you hit, you use your After Activating effects. So nothing on that front.‘And that’sall there is to executing your attack. Most of the time you'll only do a few triggers. Well, since you went first and hit me, I become Stunned. Since I'm stunned, we skip over my Attack, and go straight to End of Beat. End of Beat and Recycle Doyoustill use your End of Beat effect, even if you're stunned? ‘Thankfully yes. Unlike other triggers, you canstill use Start of Beat and End of Beat effects, even if you're been stunned. Stunning someone before Start of Beat seems really tough. You'd be surprised what some people in this ‘world are capable of. Know your opponent! Ysnext? Hight So whatanext ll go ahead and use my Teleport effect to get over tohere. So after we finish our End of Beat effects, once again in player order, we both recycle. To recycle, pick up your outer discard pile and put it in your hand (discard pile2) and then slide your inner discard (discard pile 1) to the outside. ‘Now put the attack you played this turn into the empty spot. And my token? It-goes to its own special pile, and won't ever come back, unless you use an effect to recover it. Gott. And now we just go on to the next bea Yes. Now we go back to selection. 18Stun and Stun Guard ‘This Stun thing seems like a pretty sure gamble. Thave way better priority on my Styles than you do, so T can just keep you stun-locked forever. Try itand see what I'm ready. happens then. Me too. Ante? Wind, for +2 Priority. ‘rca ppp eo pulsoypnspus yt ee Sweeping Shot! Looks like we have no Start of Beat effects, and like usual, I'm way faster. So Idon'thave any triggered effects, and I hit you for 2 damage. Take that. Itstings a bit, but I'm not stunned this time. See my Strike Base? Ithas Stun Guard §. That means that you have to hit me for more than § damage to Stun me. ‘Well that's unexpected. So now I'll do my Reactive Attack. It works just like the Active Attack-Before Activating, Hit, On Hit, Damage, On Damage, After Activating, So I'll do 6 damage (2 extra due to your Sweeping Style's passive effect) and pull you all the way over here.‘That's pretty lame. Better not invest too much in pure speed then. Alright, let's finish this fight! Other Notes Any other things I should keep in mind while playing? ‘Well, when moving, advance always brings you towards your opponent, and retreat always moves you away. Also, you hop over the opponent's space when moving, without counting it. Advance and Retreat only determine the starting direction of your movement though, so it's possible to advance when you're right next to someone, and move past them to actually be further away. ‘The other thing to take note of is the new Base you just got back, Dash. 1 Dash isa pure defensive card. It won't hit your opponent or do any damage. However, it’s very fast, and ifyou move past your opponent when you use it, you'll be able to dodge his attacks byiits effects. Even if you're still in range of an attack, triggering Dashs special effect will let you dodge it. 1sSo you said I can to use all my triggers when they come up, but do Thave to? Yes. Every trigger is mandatory. The only time you ‘won't use a trigger is when you can't, due to limitations of the board, tokens, or other circumstances. Sometimes an effect will say 'may' or'up to’ In this case, you can optionally use that specific effect, coryou can choose zero on an'up te! amount, think I've got the basics down then. Attack Wheel Twas just thinking too, if know what's in your discard pile, Talso know exactly what's in your hand That's thinking like a winner. The Bases by themselves have avery direct relationship with each other. Knowing ‘what is in your opponent's cooldown can tell you what your power Bases are. Just beware, as Styles and your opponent's unique Base will quickly muddy up these relationships ifnot accounted for. ‘You're on!SEEING 4 FiqHER TO Mate pour SPE Choosing what fighter to master first is a big part of BattleCON. Pick one fighter and try them to see iftheir Style matches up to what you like. Once you find the one you want to play, stick with them and master how they fight, as well as how they interact with the other fighters. Not all matches will be as easy as others, and some will require radically new strategies that use your kit in unconventional ways. See if you can master all 18 fighters! Here are some of the classes of fighters you'll encounter... Sometimes all you have to do to win is fight better than the other guy. Brawlers specialize in well-rounded combat, and are typically quite mobile. Their abilities serve to boost their already formidable combat skills and stats, rather than to overwhelm with flashy effects. Fighters: Hikaru Sorayama, Zaamassal Kett, Kehrolyn Ross CONTERATECEF ER. Counterattackers utilize defenses to deal more damage than their opponents, even while trading blows. They typically possess superior defensive abilities. It’s not enough to hit these types-you must think specifically about how to avoid their retaliation. Fighters: Vaanah Kalmor, Lixis Ran Kanda, Rukyek Amberdeen Disruptors are fast and capable fighters who excel at shutting down enemy actions. This is usually accomplished by going faster and stunning the opponent, but sometimes through anticipatory use of special effects. Predicting and responding in kind is the key to victory. Fighters: Cherri Seneca, Demitras Denigrande, Regicide Heketch, Khadath Ahemusei, Luc von Gott Srecu sr Specialist fighters utilize extremely potent triggered effects and special powers. Opponents must always be careful to keep track of what options are in their hands, because ignoring the capabilities of these fighters can be deadly. Fighters: Hepzibah Culotre, Magdelina Larington, Sagas Seities, Seth Cremmul, Tatsumi & Juto HeyelcHr Heavyweights are all about power. No matter how strong your counterattack is or how good your disruption, they probably don’t care. The best thing to do is get out of the way, as missing a powerful attack can be extremely costly for one of these fighters. Fighters: Cacenza, Kallistar Flarechild ‘Many fighters fitinto more than one category, and many can be played multiple ways once you get used to their Styles, Try them all and see who fits your garneplay the best! LeGrey DEREY Your primary goal in BattleCON is to win matches against other players in a head- to-head battle. Both you and your opponent will select one of the 18 fighters in the game and play a match. A single match consists of two or three duels. A duel is a complete game, beginning at 20 life points and ending with one player reaching 0 life. A single duel takes between 10 and 20 minutes, so a match is typically between 30 minutes and an hour long. The player who wins two out of the three duels is declared the winner of the match. In the course ofa single duel, the goal of each player is to reduce their opponent's life total to zero or fewer points. The first to accomplish this is declared the winner of that duel. A duel consists of up to fifteen rounds, called beats. In a beat, both players act simultaneously as they play out all of the steps of the beat. There are no ‘turns’ in BattleCON-both players are constantly engaged in the conflict. If you're just learning the game, it is recommended to use the two fighters “Hikaru Sorayama’ and ‘Khadath Ahemusei’ and follow along with the introductory rules comic. After following through the comic, you can use the detailed rules here to answer any questions that come up as you play the game. Each Fighter's Unique Ability is integral to their strategy. Mastering both your ability and how it interacts with the ability of your opponent is key to achieving victory and crushing all who oppose you.devi few zal Hikaru ante uptoonetaken ech best cop the feof that toe apie ark, ef tls and iq as allow hi sorecver Hemet Tobens He anak secon tek thes st Ficttet Cp Oekvey Fighters are specific personas that you use on the field of battle. Each player will select a different fighter at the start of the game and must use all of the Styles and Bases that are associated with that specific fighter. Each fighter card has the following components: 1. Name ~The name of the fighter. 2. Unique Ability — One or more unique abilities that this fighter possesses. These are staples of their personal strategy and are used during gameplay. Each fighter also comes with a Reference Card that you should give to your opponent. This helps both players to understand the playstyle of their opponent more quickly and get to the heart of the game. Some fighters are more difficult to leam than others, or require a familiarity with the core gameplay that makes them difficult to learn first. We suggest starting with the fighters from the “Basic” Flight (Cadenza, Hikaru, Kallistar, Luc, Magdelina, and Vanaah). The difficulty rating of a fighter can be found in the Fighter Guide, or on the Flight Guide sheet. Pace Carp OF RYE These cards are printed with their numbers aligned to the left and may be either unique toa fighter or generic, Those that are unique haye that fighter’s picture on them. Bases are the foundations of an attack pair. Bases have the following parts. 1. Name ~ The name of the Base. 2. Range — Thisis the distance theattack will strike at. Some ranges are expressed as two values (e.g.: 1~4). These ranges target all spaces included in the range (so 1~4 would target spaces at range 1, 2, 3, and 4). Attacks with a range of N/A will never hit unless they havea effect that says they do. Negative range values are treated as if they were 0. 3. Power — ‘his is how much damage the attack will do. Attacks with a power of N/Awill not do any damage. Negative power values are treated as iftthey were 0. 4. Priority — The speed of the attack. Higher priority attacks have the advantage of going first in combat-allowing you to stun or escape your opponent in many instances. Priority may be negative on some attacks. S. Effects — Special effects that are part of the attack. These are explained in detail later. 1af Beate Your) spendan etl Tskontahieamack snot tn sfet) These cards are printed with their numbers aligned to the right and are all specific to a certain fighter. Each Style can be paired with a Base to form an attack pair. A Style has the following parts. 1. Name — The name of the Style, ‘This pairs with the name of the Base to form the name of the attack. For example, the ‘Geomantic’ Style and the ‘Drive’ Base combine to form the ‘Geomantic Drive’ attack. 2. Range Modifier - The range of the attackis modified up or down by this amount. i. If only one side of the attack hhas a variable range like 1~4, add the single number to both sides (so 1~4 plus 2 would be3~6). it IF both sides of the attack range are variable, calculate the complete range by adding the highest and lowest parts of both sides (so 1~3 plus 2~3 would be 3~6). 3. Power Modifier — The power of the attackis modified up or down by this amount. 4. Priority Modifier — ‘he priority of the attack is modified up or down by this amount. 5. Effects — These effects are added on to the effects of the Base, giving the attack additional powers. Style effects work the same way as Base effects. ont Regina Be eset FINGER Camp OFRVESY Each fighter has a Finisher card that they can make use of during play. The Finisher card looks just like a Style, except that it has a white or black overlay and a complete border around the edge. A Finisher is not half ofan attack pair, though-it replaces the entire attack pair and whatever Base you play does not modify it. Finishers have two sides. During Setup, but before initial discards, each player should secretly select which Finisher they wish to tuse, then reveal them simultaneously. The'a’ side is the more universally useful side, and recommended for starting out with when learning a fighter. If this is your first time playing, it is reccomended that you leave Finishers out of the game. The actual usage of Finishers during gameplay will be explained later in the rules, under the ‘Variants’ section. ZOStec_ Cares ‘There are a few kinds of special cards in the game used by specific fighter kits. They are explained in complete detail on their respective fighters’ Unique Ability cards. ‘These are: Hepzibah’s Dark Pacts (5)1. Fighter eine - Each player chooses ‘one fighter. (choose secretly in a competitive game) They take all of that Fighter's cards (1 fighter card(A), 5 Styles(B),1 Finisher Card(C), and 1 Base(D)), plus a set of generic Bases (6 Bases_Strike, Dash, Drive, Grasp, Burst, and Shot) (B), to form a starting hand. Each player should also find any tokens, counters, markers, or extra cards that their Fighter uses (F) and place them beside their fighter card or into play as specified by their Unique Abilities. Each Fighter also has a Reference Card (G) that details their Styles and Bases. Trade Refirence Cards with your opponent, so you haven idea of what their capabilities are. ‘The discard pool (H) is where things such as tokens gowhen anted. Until anted, they remain off the board ina seperate pool. Each Fighter's complete kit is listed in the Fighter Guide. The name of the fighter kit a card belongs to is always listed in the bottom center of the card. 2. Board Setup - Place the Fighter's standups con the third (1) and fifth (J) spaces respectively, so that each Fighter is on its owner’ left hand side of the board. Use the Life Spinners (K) to keep track of each player'slife points. All playersstart with 20 life. Use paper and pencil to track 15 beats. After recycling at the end of each beat, you will reduce this count by one, from 15, 3. Finishers & Initial Discards Each player chooses one side of their Finishers to use and sets it off to the side with the chosen side face up. This is done simultaneously. Then, each player chooses two Bases and two Styles’. These will form two pairs that should be placed in discard 1 (L) and discard 2 (M) respectively. These cards will not be available at the start of the game but will become available soon. Make sure your two discard piles are separated and that you know which is which, as they both have very important functions. (see “Recycle” for more information) 3b. Fighter Setup - Some Fighters (particularly advanced Fighters) require some additional setup. The Fighter’s Unique Ability will tell you what extra setup steps they may have to complete. 4, Game Start - Once you have completed these actions and filled both discard piles, you can begin the game. The Beat Sequence list (N) shows the stops in a beat to follow. *When learning the game or trying a new Fighter; the Bases and Styles marked 'l' and '2’ form the starting discard piles. These are optional, but are intended to help you to set up the game and jump into anew fighter quickly. ZAnattack pair is formed by selecting one Style and one Base from the player’s hand and placing those face-down in front of them. An attack pair has the power, range, and priority of the Base, plus the modifiers specified on the Style and all the effects of both cards. Since there are 5 Styles and 7 Bases, each fighter has 35 possible attacks (and even more when you factor in Unique Abilities!) Casein The objective of each duel is to reduce the opponent's life points to zero before your opponent can do the same to you. ‘The first player whose life points reach zero is eliminated, and the remaining player is declared the winner of the duel. A duel has a time limit of 15 beats. At the end of the 15th beat, if no player has eliminated the other, then the player with the highest life total is declared the winner. Fly Every beat of BattleCON follows a similar pattern. Each of these steps is done by each player simultaneously (or in priority order, after the Reveal Step). 1. Select attack pairs 2. Ante 3. Reveal attack pairs 4. Execute attacks 5.Recycle 1 ~ SeLecT ATK Pars Each player chooses one Style and one Base from their hand, then places those cards face down in front of him where their opponent can see the backs of the cards clearly. A legal attack pair always has one red-backed and one blue-backed card. Once both players have attack pairs placed down in front of them, move on to the Ante 2 Ae A fighter’s unique ability may provide that fighter with tokens, markers, or other ante powers that are used during this step. Powers that can be used during this step will instruct you to do something ‘as an Ante... ‘during Ante.’ ‘The most common things to ante are ‘Tokens. A token’ exact effect depends on the unique ability of the fighter using it. Almost all ante options are granted by Unique Abilities on your fighter card. Tokens are in a fighter’s “token poo!” area until they are used. After being used, they are typically moved to a “token discard pool.” You can use any space on the board for these two pools. As long as you know which is which, it doesn’t matter. Unless otherwise stated by a fighter’s unique ability, tokens are discarded to their own separate discard pool and cannot be retrieved exceptbby the effects ofthat fighter’s Styles and Bases. Not all fighters are able to retrieve their tokens, so pay attention to your options for recovery before you use them recklessly! Starting with the player who was Active BBPlayer during the previous beat (orrandomly, on the first turn), players take turns anteing. Players may always ante more (as faras their unique abilities allow), but antes can never be taken back. Once both players have consecutively elected to pass on anteing farther, move on to the next step. 2 ~ FeeArnce Paes Both players simultaneously flip over their face-down attack pairs. Any Reveal Effects occur at this time. Reveal effects can occur in any order the players wish. After resolving all Reveal effects, check the priorities of both attacks (considering any modifications provided by tokens, Styles, and passive special abilities). Ifthe total priorities tic, then a Clash occurs. Reveal effects normally do not have any timing, and generally serve to improve the priority of the Styles they are printed on, Players can execute Reveal effects in either order, even simultaneously. They continue to provide their benefits, even after a Clash, and are never activated more than once per beat. PRorty Te? — CL! Ina Clash, both players must play a new Base face-down from their hands. They simultaneously show the played Base and put it on top ofthe old one, hiding the effects and stats of the original Base and forming a new attack. Players then check to see if another Clash has occurred. If ithas, continue again as above. Ifeither player runs out of cards during the Clash, then both players skip directly to recycling their top attack pairs (everything before recycling is skipped) and a new beat begins. During the Recycle Step, only recycle the top attack pair (the one your fighter actually executed after all Clashes), and return all other cards to your hand. The player who has higher priority after Reveal effects and any Clashes are determined is called the Active Player, and the one with lower priority is called the Reactive Player. Later changes in priority do not affect who is Active or Reactive player, After Reveal effects and Active/ Reactive player are resolved (by Clashes if necessary), Start of Beat effects take place. ‘The Active Player executes all of their Start of Beat effects, then the Reactive Player executes all of their Start of Beat effects. Once the Start of Beat effects are resolved, attacks begin.4~ ATR. The Ae is activates their attack first by performing the following steps*: 1, They perform any Before Activating effects listed on their cards. If there are multiple effects, they choose in which order to use them. 2. They check to see if the opponent is within their range. Range is counted in spaces, with the space occupied by the player being space zero (so adjacent fighters are at range 1, and fighters at the start of a match are at range 2). * It is possible for some effects, such as Seths’s Omen Base, to stun the Active Player. If this happens, their attack is skipped, and you should move straight to the next step, Reactive Attack. 3. If the opponent is in range, then the Active Player resolves any On Hit effects. 4. Ifthe opponent was hit by the attack, then the opponent takes damage equal to the power of the attack, reducing the damage taken by their own attack’s Soak value (ifhe has this effect-see Common Effects on page 29). 5. [fany damage was done, On Damage effects are resolved. Also, ifany damage was done, the opponent may be stunned. This stun can be prevented by an opponent with Stun Guard (see the section on Stun, page 28). 6. If a player's life is reduced to zero or fewer points (at any time), the game immediately ends, with the remaining player being declared the winner. 7. The Active Player resolves any After Activating effects, regardless of whether or not the attack hit or did damage. FR ~ REACTS If the Reactive Player is not stunned, they may activate their attack by following the same steps as the Active Player. A stunned playerskips activation entirely, including any Before and After Activating effects. Once the Reactive Player's attack has been resolved (or been stunned), move on to the next step. Stech Races: Some attacks haye special ranges of X orN/A. These attacks are treated differently than normal. Attacks with a range of N/A (on either side of the attack pair) never hit opponents. Attacks with a range of X (on either side of the attack pair) have their range defined by some special passive or triggered effect. Range boosts or penalties do not apply to these special ranges—they can only hit or miss due to their effects. 5 ~ Reocte Both players activate any End of Beat effects they possess (Note that UA’s that activate at the end ofeach beat happen after recycling). Ifboth players have End of Beat effects, the Active Player executes all of their effects first. End of Beat effects will still be executed by the Reactive Player even if they were stunned. Finally, both players: 1. Pick up their second (outermost) discard pile, 2. Move their first (innermost) discard pile into their second discard pile, and Zs3. Move the attack pair they just played face-up into their first discard pile. Once you have recycled your discard piles, reduce the beat count, and you are all set to start the next beat! When this count reaches 0, the player with the most life wins. ‘Recycling means that each attack pair ‘you play will take 2 beats of cycling, before it can be recombined into new attacks. Be careful before you use your strongest attack-it might be more usefil as two parts instead of one! “Resotue c1S During the course of the game, you will need to resolve many special effects that your attacks have. How to resolve these effects is explained in detail here. There are two kinds of effects, Passive Effects and Triggered Effects. Passive effects are always active from the time the attack is revealed until the end ofthe beat or until the card that the effect is on leaves play, For example, Seth’s Vanishing Style states “Attacks at range 4 or greater do not hit you this beat.” This is a passive effect and should be followed as long as it is face-up on the player's current attack pair. Its instructions should be obeyed by both players at all times. Triggered effects have two parts: a trigger and an effect. An example of a triggered effect might be “Before Activating: Advance 1 or2 spaces.” This means that the effect is triggered and resolved during the Bofore Activating step (during step 2 of the attack). If a player has multiple triggered effects with the same trigger, then they choose what order to activate them. All triggered effects are mandatory-you must use them when they trigger. Already triggered effects remain active even ifthe card that triggered them leaves play. A player who has multiple triggered effects chooses the order they activate in. If triggered and passive effects would conflict with one another, the passive effects take precedence. TREGERS Reveal: ‘this effect happens as soon as cards are revealed. There is no priority order on these effects, so they all happen simultaneously. Start of Beat: This effect happens after priority is determined. The Active Player performs all Start of Beat effects, then the Reactive Player performs all Start of Beat effects. Before Activating: This effect happens after a player activates their attack. You will not perform your attack (or these effects) if stunned (this negates the whole activation and the effect before it resolves). On Hit: This effect happens immediately when you confirm a hit against an opponent. Many On Hit effects target ‘the opponent’, meaning the opponent that you confirmed a hit against. On Damage: This effect happens immediately after you apply 1 or more damage (not life loss) to an opponent. Many On Damage effects target ‘the opponent’, meaning the opponent that you damaged. Some UA‘ effects may also activate when “wedamage is dealt, After Activating: This effect happens after your attack finishes activating, regardless of whether or not it hit. You will not perform this effect if you do not activate your attack due to being stunned (this negates the whole activation and the effect before it resolves). End of Beat: This effect happens before recycling your discard piles. The Active Player activates all of their End of Beat effects, then the Reactive Player activates all of their End of Beat effects. You always perform these effects, even ifstunned. Sus Brees Some triggered effects will apply powers to the current or next beat of combat. These are called “Status Effects” and are separate from the cards, tokens, or abilities that generate them. The box contains some tokens that you can use to track status effects, but status effects are not tokens. Moervenr Many effects will cause fighter’s standups to move. The only way to move on the boardis by these effects or by the unique abilities of fighters. Movement will be specified by triggered effects or afighter’s unique ability in the form ofeffects such as “After Activating: Advance 1, 2, or 3 spaces.” When you move, you move into and out of each space on the way to your destination. There are 6 kinds of movement: Advance - This moyement brings you closer to an opponent. (ex: “Advance 1, 2, or 3 spaces”) Retreat — This movement takes you farther from an opponent. (ex: “Retreat 1 or 2 spaces”) Pull - This movement brings an opponent closer to a (ex: “Pull the opponent up to3 spaces”) tS: ob ESSh0 Push — This movement puts an opponent further from you, (ex: “Push the opponent up to 3 spaces”) fia $ OMHOO0SO Move — You may choose either direction to adyance or retreat. (ex: “Move 1 space”) Move directly - Teleport immediately to the space specified. Any repercussions of the movement, such as triggers that state ‘if you switch sides’ or “if an opponent switched sides’ still occur. All restrictions on movement still apply to Direct Movement. (ex: “you cannot move past Khadath” would apply to the Direct Movement below) When Direct Moving, you do not move into the spaces between your destination and your position, as with normal movement. Instead, you move out of your current space and straight into the destination space. (ex: “Opponents cannot enter spaces adjacent to Khadath” would not stop Hikaru’s Direct Movement below) VicSome effects (like Sagas’ Soul Mirror) allow you to switch or swap places with an opponent (or other things like markers). ‘This is considered a special form of direct movement where your and your opponent's fighters are placed in each other's respective spaces. Movement effects are mandatory. If an effect says ‘advance 1 or 2 spaces, then the player must move either 1 or 2 spaces forwards. You cannot choose to remain where you are. For all moves except movement, you must pass through the spaces between your current position and your final destination. If an effect specifies ‘up to, such as “Advance up to 2 spaces’, then the player has the option of choosing a movement of zero (which is less than 2) and remaining stationary. You are not considered to have moved if you choose zero, but this is still considered a movement effect. Negative movementis never allowed. When moving, you hop over opponents and do not count the spaces they occupy against your movement. S08 SESS Ifa legal movement cannot be made, then the movement is ignored entirely, (ex: “advance 3 spaces” when there are only two spaces left on the board). direct Ifa legal movement is possible given the effect moving the fighter, then it must be taken, (Example: Hikaru must move 1 space forwards or backwards, but the edge of the board is behind him, In this case, he is forced to choose the forwards movement, since itis the only legal, available move). ‘Advance’ and ‘Pull’ just determine the initial direction of the movement. It's possible to pull someone past you so that they are farther away than when they started, and it’s possible to advance far past someone in order to create distance. These are just two examples of how these effects might be used to set up a ranged position, even when they normally close distance. Suny, © MMuTy All attacks have the potential to stun opponents when they hit. A stunned opponent is unable to react with an attack of their own. Thus, in order to score hits a player must be fast enough to strike first, maneuverable enough to avoid damage, or defensive enough to prevent stun. ‘A stun occurs whenever a player takes damage greater than their Stun Guard value, Stun is checked at all times, so stunning may occur when damage is taken outside of normal attacks. Attacks that have no Stun Guard on them have a Stun Guard of zero. Here are a few examples that you can follow along with using your own cards. All of these examples ignore range and movement. Example 1 - Hit and taking damage: Cadenza and Kallistar are dueling. Kallistar uses a ‘Blazing Strike’ (4 priority) and ZBCadenza uses a ‘Battery Drive’ (3 priority). Kallistar will go first. She hits Cadenza for 4 damage. Because Cadenza has no Stun Guard or Soak effects, he takes 4 damage and is stunned. He will not be able to use the movement effect on his Drive Base, but he can still utilize the effect on his Battery Style, since itis an End of Beat effect and not prevented by stun, Example 2 - Taking no damage: Cadenza uses ‘Clockwork Drive’ (priority 1, Soak 3) and Kallistar uses ‘Ignition Grasp’ (priority 4). Kallistar will hit first, dealing 3 points of damage to Cadenza, Cadenza has Soak 3, which reduces the damage he takes by up to 3 points. Thus, he takes 0 damage. Because he has not taken any damage, he is able to retaliate and score 6 damage on Rallistar. Example 3 - Stun Guard greater than damage: Cadenza uses ‘Mechanical Strike’ (priority 1, Stun Guard 5) and Kallistar uses “Volcanic Grasp’ (priority S). Kallistar will hit first, as usual, and deal 2 points of damage. Cadenza takes the damage, but because the damage is lower than or equal to his Stun Guard value, he is not stunned. He can hit Kallistar back for 6 damage. Example 4 - Damage greater than Stun Guard: Cadenza uses ‘Mechanical Shot’ (priority 0, Stun Guard 2) and Kallistar uses ‘Flare Strike’ (priority 5, in elemental form). Kallistar will hit first, dealing 9 damage to Cadenza. Cadenza takes the damage, and since it is higher than his Stun Guard value, he is stunned and will notactivate his attack. Example § - Stun by effect: Cadenza uses an extremely defensive ‘Clockwork Strike’ (priority 0, Soak 3, Stun Guard 5), Kallistar uses a ‘Caustic Grasp’ (priority 6, in elemental form). Kallistar will go first, dealing 5 damage to Cadenza. Cadenza’s Soak absorbs 3 points of the damage, so he takes ‘You can still be stunned even after youattack. It usually doesn’t have any meaningful effect, since you've already made your attack, but some fighters who care about being stunned for any reason will need to be careful about the possibility of a Reactive Player stunning them even when they gp first. only 2, which is Jess than his Stun Guard of 5. However, Kallistar's Caustic Style has a special effect “On Hit, Elemental Form: The opponent is stunned.” Cadenza is stunned because of the effect and will not activate his attack. This is called an auto-stun effect and can stun regardless of the opponent's Stun Guard and Soak, Example 6- Stun Immunity: Cadenza uses the same ‘Clockwork Strike’ and Kallistar uses her same ‘Caustic Grasp This time, however, Cadenza decides to ante one of his Iron Body tokens during the Ante Step. This ante gives him the effect of Stun Immunity due to his unique ability. Now when Kallistar hits first, her Caustic effect will attempt to stun Cadenza. Cadenza is immune to stun, however, so no effect or damage can prevent him from executing his Clockwork Strike for7 damage. a1Comvon ErEcs Lose Life — Effects that say “lose life” do not ever cause stun. Only effects that “deal damage” can cause stuns, Soak does not prevent loss of life from these effects. Loss of life can never reduce a player to below Llife. Stun Guard - A number will be specified (ex.: Stun Guard 5, Stun Guard 3). Whenever the player takes damage this turn, they are not stunned unless the total damage taken from this attack is greater than their Stun Guard rating. Stun Guard is always a passive effect. Attacks with no Stun Guard specified have an implied Stun Guard of zero. Ifa player gains multiple instances of Stun Guard, they stack. (ex.: Stun Guard 5 and Stun Guard 3 become Stun Guard 8) Ta player would take damage multiple times in a turn, Stun Guard applies separately to each one. The player must take damage higher than their Stun Guard in a single attack for their Stan Guard to be broken. Soak — A numberwill be specified (ex.: Soak 3, Soak 1, Soak 2). Whenever the player would take damage this turn, they reduce the damage taken by the amount specified. Multiple Soak effects stack together (so Soak 3+ Soak 1 = Soak 4). Soak is always passive effect. Ifa player would take damage multiple times in a turn, their Soak applies to each individual time they would take the damage. Stun Immunity — The fighter cannot be stunned by any means or effects. Stun Immunity overrides any effect or damage that would normally stun a fighter and removes any current stunned state. It does not prevent any damage. Opponent is Stunned - The opponent becomes stunned. This ignores any Soak and Stun Guard effects the opponent may have, but will not bypass Stun Immunity. You/Opponent has +/- X Power/ Priority /Range - Effects like this are called ‘status effects’ Unless a status effect says otherwise, it starts working right away, and stops working when cards recycle after the end of the beat. Ifa status effect starts working later or works longer than the current beat, it will say something like “You have +2 Priority during the next beat” or “The opponent has -1 Power until the end of the next beat.” Opponents/Attacks at range X do not hit you - This is called a ‘dodge’ effect, and typically lasts for as long as the cards which revealed it remain in your attack pair. Dodge effects prevent ahit from being scored against you, which prevents all damage, On Hit, and On Damage effects from taking place. You are simply considered ‘out of range’ of the attack. Discard additional Styles/Bases - Some effects will cut down your options by making you discard more Styles and Bases from your hand. These go to the discard pile specified and cycle around normally. If no discard pile is specified, they go to the discard with your current attack pair this beat. During the Set Step, ifa player somehow has no Styles or no Bases in his hand, then the beat ends immediately and discard piles recycle again, leaving one pile empty temporarily. 30Canes & Sepurs ‘Tokens, markers, and counters are kinds of pieces in the game that are governed by similar rules. A Fighter's Unique Ability will typically grant them one or more of these kinds of game pieces to use. TOES Welg LHe, All Tokens are circular, ‘Tokens are typically either in a fighter’s ‘Token Pool or Token Discard Pile. Tokens in the Token Pool can be anted during the Ante Step. Tokens with identical names (such as Crescendo) can be anted together as a stack of 1 or more tokens. Tokens with different names (Explosive Shell, AP Shell, etc.) must be anted oneat a time. Unless otherwise stated, a token goes to its owners’ token discard pile immediately once anted. This discard pile is separate from the normal discard piles. ‘Ihe token’s benefit is called a Status Effect. All such Status Effects go away during the Recycle Step unless otherwise noted. MARKERS All Markers are diamond-shaped, Markers occupy spaces in the play area. Markers can occupy the same spaces as fighters and other Markers without interference. A Marker does not count as ‘occupying the space’ the same way that a fighter standup does, Two markers with the same name and controlled by the same fighter cannot occupy the same space. Many Unique Abilities give specific rules for marker placement that may supersede these rules. COUNTERS [Ore All Counters aré pentagon-shaped. Counters are used for keeping track ofthings that cannot be represented by Tokens or Markers, such as Magdelina’s Divine Conduit Ability or Tatsumi’s Tidal Bond Ability. Counters work differently for each fighter who controls them, so make sure to check out the fighter’s individual abilities to see how their counters function. All Standups are tombstone-shaped. Each fighter has a Standup that they use during the game to display their position on the board. Two opposing standups can never occupy the same position on the board. When afighteris moved, pushed, orpulled, it is always their standup this applies to, unless another effect states otherwise. aVARANTS Now you know how to play the core BattleCON game, but that’s just the beginning! The Variants section will allow experienced players to incorporate arenas, Finishers, and more into your games! Tt will take many, many games to experience everything BattleCON has to offer, but that’s the fun of it! Keep exploring new play modes, and you're bound to find new things to challenge you and your friends. Note: The Special Actions Variant (#2) is considered to be standard-once you've mastered it, you should use it in all game modes. (except those expressly telling you not to) Varun Hf ATE Freer DIFFICULTY: NOVICE Once you are familiar with the basic game, you can try playing with Finishers to add an exciting new element to each game. Before the duel begins, each player secretly decides which side of his Finisher card he wants to use. Together, both players reveal their Finishers at the start of the duel. The Finisher cards sit off to the side of the board, near the fighter cards for each player. This is done at the same time as choosing discards. You can check your opponent's Finisher at any time. It cannot be switched to its reverse face during the duel. Vang He FINS Once your life is at 7 or below, you are able to use your Finisher, During the Ante Step, after setting down your attack pair, you canante your Finisher. When you do, retrieve your attack pair—only the Finisher will be executed this turn. No further antes can be made by either player after a Finisher is anted, Regardless of what happens (whether you hit with it or not), if you anted your Finisher it will be removed from the game at the end of the beat. During the turn you use a Finisher, you do not cycle your discard piles as usual. CLasHnG, witty Finsietes Finishers always win priority ties without Clashing. If two Finishers Clash, then they both downgrade into Cancels (see the Special Action section). They are otherwise just like attacks and can be stunned out, dodged, and retaliated against.