Introduction[]
**Players:** 1
**Play time:** ~20min
**Components needed:** all cards (without the green background color, no duplicate numbers), a tile of each symbol, all cubes
*Years of training at the monastery atop Wu Fen mountain have prepared you to withstand temptation and utilize your discipline. Now, the time has come to prove yourself. A demon was cut loose and is stomping and melting its way towards the monastery. The elder monks cannot help you any more. This is the monks' last stand. You have to face him and Hudai Pass. Prove yourself!*
You are a monk that is facing off against a demon in a climactic battle. Your combat moves are represented by your deck of cards. The demon collects cubes on his three tiles that represent different powers. You may lose your discipline, but if you get too corrupted, you will fall for the dark side. Beat the demon before he beats you!
Setup[]
Remove the (1, 1, 2) portion of the cards. The white cards are your starting deck, representing your base moves; shuffle them face-down and form a draw pile. Leave room for a discard pile. Keep all the black cards ready, openly. These are corrupted moves, available to you during your turn. Shuffle the rest of the cards to form a mind deck with the more advanced moves that lurk in the back of your mind. Draw three of these cards openly next to the mind deck and leave room for a discard pile. This is your Mind River and these moves may be added to your deck during your turn. Take 12 green cubes as your health and set 12 blue cubes as the maximum amount of corruption you can take.
For the demon, deal out three tiles in any order (I recommend "droplet", "gear" and "circles") as powers. Give him 12 yellow cubes as his health. Have the red cubes ready and distribute 2 onto each demon power.
.. image:: Setup.svg.png
Play[]
**Whenever the demon has no health cubes left, you win!**
**Whenever the monk has no health cubes left, the monk has no resistance cubes left and takes another corruption or any of the demon's powers exceeds 12, you lose.**
The game proceeds in consecutive turns of the following structure:
1. Play one combo 2. Obtain a new move 3. Apply any staged demon powers 4. Fill your hand up to four cards 5. Activate all demon powers from left to right
Play one combo
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Play move cards from your hand into a combo and resolve their effects as you play them. Cards have three characteristics:
A numeric value You may remove one cube from a power that has this many or less cubes. A 6 may remove one cube from any power.
A symbol You may resolve the effects of the symbol as per the table below.
A color The color dictates what moves you can make during your combo and it will supply additional benefits or corruption.
You are free to resolve these three characteristics in any order and skip any of them.
Symbols
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Build-up (Hammers) Get a purchase value of 3.
3rd eye (3 Circles) Move a cube from one demon power to another.
Defend (Stacked Stones) Remove 1 cube from the demon's staged damage.
Stab (Drop) Remove 1 yellow health cube from the demon.
Flow (Cog) Draw 1 card from your draw pile (reshuffle as necessary, if possible). If you want, permanently remove one card from your pattern from the game.
Pin (Crop/Arrow) Temporarily reduce a demon power by 3. Shift the red cubes above the tile and move them back down when a new turn starts.
Defence, pin and purchase value stack among all of the moves in your combo.
Colors
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In general, only cards of the same color may be played next to each other.
White May be played next to any other color. Only two white cards are allowed per combo.
Green Treat numeric values on this card as +1 (maximum 6).
Blue Remove 1 cube from the demon's staged damage.
Red Remove 1 yellow health cube from the demon.
Yellow Temporarily reduce a demon power by 1. Shift the red cube above the tile and move them back down when a new turn starts.
Black (Corruption) May be played next to any other color. Treat all numbers as 6. Take 1 corruption whenever you begin a turn with this card in hand.
You may also discard unwanted cards to receive 1 purchase value for each.
If you dare, you may also obtain a single new black corruption move card for free. You may use it immediately.
Obtain a new move
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Discard one card of your choice from the Mind River and replace it with a new drawn card. You may obtain a move card with a numeric value up to your purchase value this round. Add that card (if any) to your hand.
Apply any staged demon powers
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If damage from the demon is staged, apply it now and lose one health cube for each damage cube. If you lose your last health cube, you lose.
Fill your hand up to four cards
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Draw cards from your draw pile until you have 4 cards in hand. Reshuffle the discard pile to form a new draw pile, if necessary and possible.
For each card in your hand, look at its numeric value. For a 1/2, add a cube to the demon's left power, for a 3/4 add a cube to its center power and for a 5/6 add one to the right power.
If you have any black cards in your hand, take one blue corruption cube from the reserve for each. Lose, if you cannot take the required amount.
Activate all demon powers from left to right
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From left to right, activate and resolve each of the 3 demon powers. The effect of each power will depend on the number of cubes on it. Powers without cubes don't activate.
Powers ~~~~~~
Crush (Hammers) Permanently remove the card with the highest numeric value up to the amount of power cubes from the players hand. This card is removed permanently from the game. If not all cubes were used, continue this process with the rest. Select randomly in case of a cost-tie.
Mind pierce (3 Circles) Deal one corruption to the monk, if his total corruption is less than double the amount of power cubes. If there are more than 6 power cubes, deal another corruption.
Defend (Stacked Stones) Defend 1 incoming damage from the monk for each started three cubes.
Drain (Drop) Stage 1 damage to the monk for each started group of two cubes.
Confuse (Cog) Discard the card with the highest numeric value up to the amount of power cubes. If not all cubes were used, continue this process with the rest. Select randomly in case of a cost-tie.
Entangle (Crop/Arrow) If the amount of cubes doubled is more than the numeric values in your hand, you may only play a single card as combo.
Lastly, move all cubes you set aside with a pin move or yellow card back onto their tile.