Villains and Minions
There are four Classic Villains that you can play against: Master Vampire, Alpha Male Werewolf, Pharaoh Mummy, and Zombie Horde. Like the Heroes, these Villains all are unique, and have their own level of difficulty. The Master Vampire is considered the simplest and a good starting point for new players. He will regenerate by sucking the life from his minions. The Alpha Male Werewolf is similar to the Master Vampire. He too will regenerate depending on the amount of minions left in the game. One of the differences is that when a player kills a Beta Werewolf, they gain a proxy of that monster to use with one of their attacks. The Pharaoh Mummy starts to become more complicated with “The Mummy Curse” cards. These cards are randomly shuffled into the Loot Deck and attach to monsters, or the Pharaoh Mummy himself (Curses are bad). The Zombie Horde is exactly what it sounds like, a whole lot of Zombies! Though it starts off as a normal game, once the Mutated Zombie, and the Zombie Horde come out, you can expect Proxy Zombies to follow. This is considered the hardest version of the game, with Zombies having a lot of attrition. You may also notice that ALL Villains have no weaknesses.
Master Vampire
This is the Master Vampire. When he takes any damage that doesn’t kill him and if there are any active minions, he will regenerate up to 4 health by stealing it from the weakest minion. Follow this list to determine the weakest minion. If there is a tie between minions go to the next statement on the list, otherwise choose that minion:
• The minion with the lowest current health
• The minion with the lowest bounty
• The minion with the lowest attack
• The minion closest to the Master Vampire
Let’s have a closer look at the last part of this card: “If this kills that minion, trash it and its loot.” The order of operations here is to apply any damage that may occur from a hero to that minion first, then apply the 4 damage from the Master Vampire. For example if the Conjurer attacked a minion adjacent to the Master vampire, first calculate all damage to all monsters and the villain from that attack. Then, if the adjacent monster is the weakest minion (after damage taken from the Conjurer) apply the Master Vampire’s 4 attack to that minion. Now if that minion dies it is trashed (discarded from the game), along with whatever loot it was guarding. The Conjurer would only get credit for the kill if her attack killed the minion before the additional 4 damage was applied from the Master Vampire.
Each Villain has a mini boss. These mini boss’s have the same health and attack as the Villain and tend to work in tandem. For the Pureblood Vampire, this means that while she is alive ALL Monsters are considered to be minions. So When the Master is damaged, and the Pureblood is alive, the weakest minion could very well be a normal monster. In addition, while the Pureblood is active, any opportunity that damages “Minions” will work on normal monsters as well, but as soon as a normal monster dies, it loses its “Minion” status.
Vampire Nobles, and Grotesque Gargoyles are the last two minion types of the Master Vampire. The Vampire Noble’s attack gets stronger with ever attack card played on it. The attack is calculated before a player lays down there attack card. For example, the first player to attack this monster will only receive 1 damage.
The Grotesque Gargoyle is impervious to attack cards with a main attack under the value of 3.
The Alpha Male Werewolf
The Alpha Werewolf relies heavily on his pack. After receiving damage, and as long as that damage did not kill him, the Alpha Werewolf will gain 1 health back for each active minion in play. Unlike the Master Vampire this does not effect the health of the minions in any way.
The mini boss for the Alpha Male Werewolf is the Alpha Female Werewolf. She works to help defend her mate. As long as she is active the Alpha Male Werewolf gains 1 to his defense. If She is adjacent to the Alpha Male and is attacked and killed by the Conjurer then the Alpha Male no longer has his defense and would take the full damage from the Conjures adjacent bubble.
The last two minion types of the Alpha Werewolf are the Beta Werewolf and the Grotesque Gargoyles. Along with the normal deck of minions, the Alpha Werewolf has a deck of Beta Werewolf Proxies. When a player kills a Beta Werewolf they would gain a proxy (Werewolf Familiar) of that Beta. Noting the same attack value of the Beta that they killed. This Proxy goes right into the players hand and may be used only once per game. When played, the proxy negates all damage to the hero, causes damage according to its attack value, and may be used with items, spells, or a hero attack card. Once played, the Proxy is trashed (discarded from the game).
The Alpha Werewolves Grotesque Gargoyle acts differently than the Master Vampire’s. When it is killed, it lashes out one last blow onto the hero that attacked it.
The Pharaoh Mummy
The set up and gameplay of the Pharaoh Mummy is a bit different than the other Villains. Once all is set up, trash the top 5 cards from the Loot deck and shuffle in the 5 Mummy Curse cards. When these cards come into play they will either help the Pharaoh Mummy, or hurt the players.
When does the Pharaoh Mummy become active? When the last Monster is drawn from the Spawn deck. Once that monster is placed with its loot, then the Pharaoh becomes active. When that happens, if there are any Mummy Curse cards being guarded by active monsters, all of those curse cards are then moved to the Pharaoh Mummy and their attributes are applied. The curse cards applied to the Pharaoh are NOT considered loot and the player who kills the Pharaoh will not receive the curses.
If a player plays a Blessing to destroy a Mummy Curse Card applied to the Pharaoh then the Villain loses that attribute. If that attribute is +5 health and the Pharaoh has health equal to or less than 5, then the Villain would be defeated, and that hero would gain the bounty.
The Mummy Vizier is the right hand of the Pharaoh, and attempts to help keep the curse alive through the game by giving +1 defense to any monster guarding a Curse. As long as the Vizier is active and the Pharaoh has a curse the Villain also gains +1 defense.
The final two minions of the Pharaoh are the Mummy Priest and the Vengeful Spirit. The Mummy Priest’s objective is to get curses from the Loot deck to the Pharaoh. When a player kills a Priest, before reseting the next monster, check the top card of the Loot deck. If it is a curse, apply it to the Pharaoh, otherwise trash the card. Continue the game from there. If there are still monsters in the spawn deck then add a loot card from the deck in the empty space and spawn a monster, otherwise activate the Villain and remaining monsters.
Mummy’s Curse
These 5 cards are shuffled in the Loot deck before gameplay begins. When Spawning a monster and a Curse card is revealed, place that card as Loot for the new spawn and draw a second card from the Loot deck. If the second card is also a Curse, then apply that Curse to the Villain and draw another card from the Loot deck. Continue this until a normal Loot card is drawn. Once a Loot card has been drawn place it as loot with the first Curse card and Spawn a monster as normal.
As all curses in the game, a player who has a Mummy’s Curse applied to their hero at the end of the game will receive -3 VP for each Curse.
The First Mummy’s Curse: If a hero has this Curse they can not use their hero ability. Besides a blessing, or killing a Vengeful Spirit, the only way to get rid of this Curse is to pass it to a Hero when a monster’s ability is triggered. If this Curse is applied to the Pharaoh, then the Villain will have +1 attack.
The Second Mummy’s Curse: If a hero has this Curse they can not discard at the end of their turn. Once the player with the Curse shuffles their deck for any reason, they may pass this Curse to another Hero. If this Curse is applied to the Pharaoh, then the Villain will have +1 defense.
The Third Mummy’s Curse: If a hero has this Curse they are -1 to any and all healing effects. This includes eating food, and drinking potions. The player may pass this Curse to anyone who heals for 3 or more. If this Curse is applied to the Pharaoh, then the Villain will have +5 health.
The Fourth Mummy’s Curse: If a hero has this Curse they can not combine items. The player may pass the Curse to a Hero who uses an item to kill a monster. If this Curse is applied to the Pharaoh, then the Villain will have +1 attack.
The Fifth Mummy’s Curse: If a hero has this Curse they receive an additional damage when attack by a monster. Once the player dies, they may pass this Curse to another Hero. If this Curse is applied to the Pharaoh, then the Villain will have +1 defense.
Zombie Horde
The final Villain of the game is the Zombie Horde. It comes complete with 12 Zombie Proxies that will be used throughout the game. When the Zombie Horde is activated, Proxies will be placed on every monster and two Proxies will be placed on the Villain. These proxies may add to a monsters health, attack value, or even defense value. See bellow for more details on how Proxies work.
The Mini Boss of the Zombie Horde is the Mutated Zombie. When this Zombie is activated it calls out a Proxy onto itself and any adjacent monsters. This would include the Villain if it is adjacent.
As stated before, Zombies have a lot of attrition. The Hulking Zombie is a case in point. For every attack card played on a Hulking Zombie it gains +1 defense. As an example, the first time this monster has an attack card played against it, there would not be a defense value. If there are two attack cards that have been played, and a hero lays a third card down, the Hulking Zombie would have a defense value of +2 for that attack.
The Vengeful Spirit forces a hero to discard their hand after attacking. This includes if the hero kills the Vengeful Spirit.
Zombie Proxies
Zombie Proxies, or “Deadheads” cover active monsters. They must be killed before the active monster they cover can be encountered. Each “Deadhead” has health, attack, and defense. They are worth points (amount of their health) at the end of the game, but are not considered monsters or “Zombies” for scoring purposes. The numbers in the upper right corner denote the player count. For a 4 player game you should use all three of these “Deadheads”, for a 3 player game you should use (1-4) and (3-4). For a solo or two player game you should use (1-4) only.
Basic Monsters
In addition to the story monsters (Villain and its minions), there are 12 Basic Monsters (6 different types): Vampires, Werewolves, Zombies, Mummies, Spirits, and Gargoyles.
If this monster is activated at the beginning of the game, make sure all monsters are placed before activating the Vampire’s ability. He takes health from adjacent “active” monsters and adds it to his own.
Cornering a wounded animal is never a good idea. In this case, if the Werewolf has 6 or less health points, he becomes much more aggressive with his attack (+2).
If this monster is activated at the beginning of the game, make sure all monsters are placed before activating the Zombie’s ability. Add +1 health to all “active” monsters (including this Zombie).
A weakened hero cannot face this monster. Any hero with less than 5 health may not attack this Mummy.
Make sure you’ve had your fill of food before attacking this Spirit. If you have food in your hand when you attack it will all be discarded.
After killing this Gargoyle you will only be allowed to draw up to 4 cards at the end of this turn.