In the lobby, the player selects:
- Companions (squad)
- Action cards (a deck of 15-20 cards)
- Resources to bring along (they must choose which resources are most needed for a particular mission)
- Supplies: Consumed each turn. If they run out, the player fails the mission. Consumption depends on the size of the squad.
- Tools: Affect the ability to perform certain actions on event cells, the ability to camp, and activate action cards
- Luck: the rarest resource. Allows you to reroll the dice
In addition to common resources, each companion has two attributes:
- Spirit - the character's energy, vitality, and health. When it reaches 0, the companion dies.
- Frost - an indicator of how cold the character is. As it increases, it causes negative effects.
A turn consists of the following phases:
1. Preparation Phase
2. Movement
3. Cell activation
4. End Phase
Preparation Phase
At the beginning of a turn, a player rolls a die. The number rolled + the base value (2) is the player's Action Points (AP). The player can reroll the die by spending Luck.
Next, they can:
- If they haven't spent AP yet, perform the preliminary actions
- Set up a camp
- Dispose action cards
- Perform standard actions:
- Choose a Lead Companion - the one who will lead the squad (0 AP)
- Activate action cards (spends AP depending on the card)
- Scouting (1 AP)
- Sort your gear (change hand) (1 AP)
Movement
After preparation phase, the player chooses a cell on the map to which the squad will move. The cells available for movement are determined by the remaining AP.
When moving, the Lead Companion loses 2 Spirit, all companions gain Frost points based on the cells they've passed along the way. At the end of the path, the player loses 1 Supply per companion.
While moving along a path, a player can stop early if they encounter a cell with the Obstacle type, an unrevealed Danger cell, or a Trap cell.
Cell Activation
When a player stops on a cell, its type is revealed, and if it hasn't yet been visited by any player (except for cells with the Source and Settlement types, which each player can visit only once), a random event occurs, which depends on the terrain, type, and weather.
A random event usually offers various action options with varying positive or negative effects. To react to random events, a player can spend action cards if they are appropriate for the event (for example, crossing a chasm using the Rope card).
When checking for randomness, a die is rolled, which the player can reroll by spending Luck.
After activation, the cell becomes visited.
End Phase
If the player has any remaining Action Points after activating the cell, they can perform standard actions.
A preliminary action. Camp allows you to restore Spirit and reduce Frost of your companions.
To activate camp, a player spends Tools (depending on the cell type) and 1 Supply per companion. Player also can discard cards from their hand to increase the effect of rest.
During resting in a camp, a player can also heal companions' injuries (remove an Injury card).
After resting in a camp, the player ends their turn.
A preliminary action. A player can dispose any number of cards from their hand, receiving resources in exchange:
- Provision cards provide 2 Supplies
- Equipment cards provide 2 Tools
A player cannot dispose skill cards or injury cards.
After disposing, if the card was not a single-use card, it is replaced with a special "Junk" card, which has no effect but takes up space in the hand.
After disposing, the player continues their turn.
A standard action. Initially, the player sees only the terrain of a cell, but not its type. The player can spend 1 AP to reveal the type of the selected cell within the available action area.
A standard action. The player discards all cards in their current hand and draws 5 new cards. This action can only be performed once per turn.
Cells have type and terrain.
Terrain affects the AP cost to pass through it and the amount of Frost received by companions:
- Plain
- Forest
- Hills/Cliffs
- Rivers/Ponds
Cell types determine the event that occurs. Examples:
- Empty cell - nothing happens
- Normal cell - can be either a positive or negative event
- Danger - always a negative event that can be prevented. Stops the player in their tracks if the cell is not revealed
- Obstacle - stops the player in their tracks
- Trap - a cell where a player has set a trap for another player. Depending on the trap type, it can either stop the other player or harm them without stopping
- Settlement - an opportunity to exchange resources and other events
- Source - always a positive event that provides supplies
- Special Event - a special cell depending on the mission type
The player initially sees only the terrain of the cell. The type is revealed when activating the cell, either through scouting or using action cards. Exception: Source and Settlement cells are immediately visible on the map
The current weather affects the cost of actions and movement within cells. Weather examples:
- Fair
- Snowstorm
- Freezing Rain
- Frost
- Thaw
- Mosquitoes
Each weather type can have two stages (for example, Frost and Extreme Frost).
Weather can change during a mission.
Companions make up your squad. Depending on the size of your squad, your supply consumption and the amount of starting resources you can take on a mission change.
Each companion has a positive and negative trait, as well as a specialization. They impose passive effects that affect your squad, influence resource consumption, and determine the actions available in random events.
In addition, each companion adds two skill cards to your action deck, which depend on their specialization. Cards are added to the deck if the player has selected this companion.
An companion's state is characterized by Spirit and Frost.
Spirit is the character's energy, vitality, and health. When it reaches 0, the companion dies.
When an companion dies, their skill and injury cards are removed from the deck. If all companions die during a mission, the mission fails, but the game does not end; the player receives reputation penalties and can recruit new companions.
Frost is an indicator of how cold the character is (1-10). It increases and causes negative effects. Upon reaching maximum Frost, the companion begins to lose Spirit every turn.
During random events, an companion can become injured. Injury is a special card added to the deck. While it is in hand, the party suffers a negative effect from it.
As companions complete missions, they gain experience. After accumulating enough experience, the companion levels up. Depending on the level, the following changes:
- maximum amount of Spirit
- ability to swap skill cards (however, their number does not change)
- increase a positive trait
- decrease a negative trait
As the character develops, the player can also add a second specialization to a companion in a special building in the city called the School
Action cards are purchased in the city or obtained during random events. Cards can provide a bonus to the player or negatively impact other players.
Before starting a mission, the player creates a deck of 15-20 cards from their collection. A player can hold no more than 5 cards in their hand at a time.
Cards can be passive or activated (or both passive and activated). Passive cards act as long as they are in hand. Activated cards typically require an Action Point (AP) to use. Depending on their type, they can be used:
- without a specific target
- on a specific companion
- on a map cell
After activation, activated cards are discarded.
Activated cards can be single-use cards. In this case, they are removed from the deck after use. The deck cannot contain more than 3 single-use cards at the start of a mission.
At the beginning of each turn, if a player has fewer than 5 cards in their hand, they draw 1 card from their deck. If the deck runs out, the discard pile is shuffled and then used as the player's next deck.
A player can get rid of cards in their hand by disposing or changing cards .