Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure rules – how to play and how to score

Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure quick rules

The goal

You are thieves sneaking into a dragon’s lair. Everyone must go down into the dungeon, steal an Artifact and escape alive, grabbing gold and loot along the way. But every noise, every Clank!, draws the dragon. The player with the most points at the end wins.

A turn: play your five cards

Everyone starts with the same ten-card deck. On your turn, you play every card in your hand, in any order. They give Skill to acquire cards, Swords to fight and Boots to move. At the end of your turn, everything goes to your discard pile and you draw five cards.

Acquiring and fighting

Skill acquires cards from the Dungeon Row or the Reserve; they go to your discard pile. A Device is used once, then goes to the Dungeon discard pile. Swords defeat monsters in the Dungeon Row for their reward, and the Goblin can be defeated several times. In a Market room, an item costs 7 Gold.

Moving

Each Boot moves you through one tunnel; a tunnel with footprints costs two. A monster tunnel deals one damage per icon, unless you spend a Sword per icon, a lock requires a Master Key and an arrow sets the direction. When you enter a room, you take a single token. A Crystal Cave stops you for the rest of your turn.

Artifacts

Taking an Artifact is an action, possible as long as you are in its room. The deeper it is, the more it’s worth. You carry only one, two with a Backpack. Each Artifact taken and each Dragon Egg found moves the dragon up the Rage Track.

Clank! and the dragon

Noise puts your cubes in the Clank! Area. At the end of each turn, the Dungeon Row is refilled to six cards; if a new card shows the Dragon Attack symbol, all the cubes in the Clank! Area go into the Dragon Bag, and you draw as many as the Rage Track shows. Each cube of your color deals you damage; black cubes hurt no one.

Health and escape

On your tenth damage, you are knocked out: with an Artifact and outside the Depths, the townsfolk rescue you; otherwise, you lose. Escaping with an Artifact earns a Mastery token worth 20 points. The first player to escape or be knocked out moves along the Countdown Track, which triggers attacks and then knocks out everyone left in the dungeon.

Final scoring

Players who escaped or were rescued add up their Artifact’s value, the points on their tokens and items, one point per Gold, the points on their cards and 20 points for the Mastery token. The most points wins; on a tie, the most valuable Artifact wins.

Beginner pitfalls

Don’t go too deep without a way back: without an Artifact, you cannot be rescued. Watch the Rage Track and your cubes in the Clank! Area, acquire cards that give Boots, and don’t clog your deck with weak cards.

How to score Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure

Artifacts

The value of your Artifact, or of your two Artifacts with a Backpack.

Tokens and items

Chalice 7, Dragon Egg 3, Monkey Idols, Master Key and Backpack 5 each, Crown 10, 9 or 8.

Gold

1 point per Gold kept, Treasure tokens included.

Cards

The points in the top right corner of your cards: deck, discard pile and hand.

Mastery token

20 points if you escaped the dungeon with an Artifact, not if you were rescued.

Curses (The Mummy’s Curse)

Minus 2 points per Curse kept at the end.

Game end (optional)

Escaped, rescued or eliminated, for the record: an eliminated player scores nothing.

Worked example

Emma escapes the dungeon with a 25-point Artifact. She has a Chalice, a 9-point Crown and a Backpack (21 points), 14 Gold and 8 points of cards, plus the Mastery token: 25 + 21 + 14 + 8 + 20 = 88 points.

Common mistakes

• Giving Mastery to a player rescued by the townsfolk: only players who escaped get it.
• Scoring an eliminated player, without an Artifact or in the Depths: they score nothing.
• Forgetting kept Treasures: they count as Gold.
• Counting Gold spent at the Market: only Gold kept counts, items have their own points.

How to set up Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure

Follow the four parts in order. The sneakiest player goes first, or choose randomly.