Aeon’s End rules: how to play and how to win

Aeon’s End quick rules

The goal

You are breach mages and you all play together against the game. You win if the nemesis’s life falls to zero, or if its deck is empty and nothing of it is left in play. You lose if Gravehold falls to zero life, or if all the mages are exhausted.

Who plays when

There’s no fixed turn order: a deck of Turn Order cards decides. Each card you flip points to a player or the nemesis, and the deck is reshuffled when it’s empty. The nemesis plays twice each time through the deck, but you never know when.

Your deck of cards

Each mage has their own deck, and you never shuffle it. When your draw pile is empty, flip your discard pile over as it is: it becomes your new draw pile. The order of your discard pile prepares your next hands. You never discard your hand at the end of your turn: just draw back up to five cards.

Your turn

First, cast the spells you prepared. Then, in any order, play Gems to gain aether, the game’s currency: buy cards from the supply, gain charges for your mage’s power (2 aether per charge), focus your breaches and prepare your spells. Finally, put your played cards on your discard pile in the order you choose and draw back up to five. Unspent aether is lost.

Breaches and spells

Spells are your only real way to hurt the nemesis. A spell is first prepared on a breach above your board and cast on your next turn. An open breach keeps its spell as long as you want. A closed breach only accepts a spell if you focused it this turn by paying aether: that spell must then be cast on your very next turn. You can also pay to open a breach for good.

The nemesis’s turn

Its minions and powers in play act first, from oldest to newest; each power loses a Power token, and at zero its effect triggers. Then draw a Nemesis card: an Attack applies right away, a minion or a power enters play. The word Unleash triggers the effect specific to each nemesis, written on its board.

Exhausted

A mage at zero life is exhausted: the nemesis applies its Unleash effect twice, and the mage destroys a breach and loses all their charges. They keep playing, but can’t regain life, and any damage they would take hits Gravehold instead, doubled.

Beginner traps

Spending everything on Gems (without spells, nobody gets hurt); forgetting that your discard order is your next hand; ignoring the nemesis’s powers, when some can be discarded by paying the cost after “To discard.” And talk to each other: you can share everything.

How to win Aeon’s End

Victory

The whole team wins if the nemesis’s life falls to 0, or if its deck is empty and nothing of it is left in play.

Defeat

The whole team loses if Gravehold falls to 0 life, or if all the mages are exhausted.

Nemesis

The sheet records the nemesis you faced (for those from expansions: “Other nemesis”).

Difficulty

Beginner, Normal, Expert or Extinction. Beginner: 12 life, Gravehold at 35, nemesis −10. Extinction: 8 life, Gravehold at 25, nemesis +10.

Gravehold life left

The dial value at the end of the game; 0 if Gravehold fell.

Nemesis life left

Useful after a loss: how much life it had left. 0 if you brought it down.

Example ending

Emma and Jake face Rageborne on Normal. Gravehold starts at 30 and takes 18 damage during the game: it has 30 − 18 = 12 left when the nemesis falls to 0. A team victory, recorded as 12 for Gravehold and 0 for the nemesis.

Common mistakes

• Looking for a winner among the players: you all win or lose together.
• Forgetting the second way to win: an empty Nemesis deck with nothing of it left in play.
• Healing Gravehold above its starting value: it can’t happen.
• Forgetting that an exhausted mage’s damage hits Gravehold instead, doubled.

How to set up Aeon’s End

Setup comes in four parts. The number of Basic Nemesis cards and the turn order deck depend on the player count; the difficulty mode changes starting life.