How to play Ascension

The goal

Ascension is a deckbuilding game. Everyone starts with the same small deck of weak cards. On your turn you play your hand to make two resources: Runes, which recruit Heroes and Constructs from a shared center row into your deck, and Power, which defeats Monsters for their rewards. As your deck grows stronger, you earn Honor. When the Honor pool runs out, the player with the most Honor from tokens and cards wins.

If a card's text ever contradicts the rules, follow the card.

Setup

1. Starting decks. Give each player a starting deck of 10 white-bordered cards: 8 Apprentice and 2 Militia. Each player shuffles their deck and draws 5 cards. The other 5 stay face down as their deck.
2. Always-available cards. Put the silver-bordered Mystics, Heavy Infantry and the single Cultist face up in their own piles on their spaces on the board. Any player can acquire or defeat these on their turn.
3. Center deck and center row. Shuffle all 100 black-bordered cards into the center deck and put it face down on its space. Turn the top 6 cards face up into the spaces on the right of the board. This is the center row.
4. Honor pool. Put 30 Honor per player into the Honor pool: 60 for 2 players, 90 for 3, 120 for 4. Large red tokens are worth 5 Honor, small clear tokens 1.
5. First player. Choose a first player at random. Play goes clockwise.

Runes, Power and Honor

Runes

Spend Runes to acquire Heroes and Constructs. A card's Rune cost is in its upper-right corner.

Power

Spend Power to defeat Monsters. A Monster's Power cost is in its upper-right corner.

Honor

Honor is how you win. You get Honor tokens from Monster rewards and from some card effects, and every Hero and Construct you own is worth the Honor shown in its bottom-left corner at the end of the game.

You can split your Runes and Power across as many purchases as you like during your turn, but anything you haven't spent is lost when your turn ends.

Card types

Heroes

Heroes are the allies you recruit. Play any number from your hand and you get their effect right away. Heroes you play stay in front of you until the end of your turn, then go to your discard pile.

Constructs

Constructs are weapons, magic items and machines. Once you play a Construct, it stays in front of you turn after turn instead of going to your discard pile, and you can use its effect again on each of your turns. You control a Construct only while it is in play in front of you. Some Monsters destroy Constructs; a destroyed Construct goes to your discard pile.

Monsters

Monsters are the forces of the Fallen One. Spend Power equal to a Monster's cost in the center row to defeat it: it goes to the Void (the zone for banished cards) and you gain its reward, usually Honor and sometimes another effect.

Starting and always-available cards

There are only so many Mystics and Heavy Infantry. Once a pile is empty, nobody can acquire more.

Factions

Heroes and Constructs belong to one of four factions: Enlightened (blue), Lifebound (green), Mechana (brown) and Void (purple). Cards with Unite get an extra effect when you play them in the same turn as another Hero of the same faction. The dots at the bottom of a card show how many copies are in the center deck.

Your turn

On your turn, do any of these, in any order, as many times as you like:

• Play a card from your hand to gain Runes, Power, Honor and other effects.
• Use a Construct you control for its effect.
• Acquire a Hero or Construct from the center row, or a Mystic or Heavy Infantry, by paying its Rune cost. It goes into your discard pile.
• Defeat a Monster in the center row, or the Cultist, by paying its Power cost, and gain its reward.

Whenever a card leaves the center row, refill the gap right away with the top card of the center deck, so the row always has 6 cards.

When you're done, end your turn:

1. Put the Heroes you played and any cards left in your hand into your discard pile. Constructs stay in play. Unspent Runes and Power are lost.
2. Draw 5 new cards.
3. Play passes to the player on your left.

Running out of cards. When your deck is empty and you need to draw or reveal a card, shuffle your discard pile to make a new deck. This is how the cards you acquire end up in your hand. Cards you've played this turn aren't in your discard pile yet, so they don't get shuffled in. If the center deck runs out, shuffle the Void to make a new one (take out any Apprentice, Militia, Mystic or Heavy Infantry first).

Banishing cards

Some effects let you banish a card, which puts it into the Void:

• From the center row: the card goes to the Void and is replaced from the center deck. Banishing a Monster this way is not defeating it, so you don't get its reward.
• From your hand or discard pile: the card leaves your deck. Banished Apprentice and Militia go back in the box; banished Mystics and Heavy Infantry go back to their piles, where they can be acquired again.

You can't banish a card you've already played this turn, because it's no longer in your hand. Banishing your Apprentice and Militia is usually a good idea: with fewer weak cards, you draw your strong ones more often.

Game end and scoring

The game ends when the last Honor token is taken from the pool. Finish the current round, so that every player has had the same number of turns. Players can still earn Honor after the pool is empty; use spare tokens from the box to keep track.

Then everyone adds up:

• the Honor tokens they've collected, and
• the Honor value of every Hero and Construct they own: in their hand, deck and discard pile, and Constructs in play.

The player with the most Honor wins. If two players are tied, the player who went last wins.

Playing solo

The rulebook includes a solitaire variant where you race the villain Samael for Honor:

• Put 50 Honor in the pool and set up the center row as usual. You take your turns as normal.
• When a card leaves the center row, slide the remaining cards to the right to fill the gaps, then add the new card from the center deck to the empty space on the left.
• After each of your turns, Samael takes a turn: he acquires or defeats the two cards furthest to the right in the center row.
• Cards Samael acquires are set aside and count toward his Honor at the end. Monsters he defeats go to the Void, and he gains only the Honor in their reward; he ignores their other rewards.
• Keep alternating turns until the last Honor token is taken. At the end of that turn, compare totals. If you have more Honor than Samael, you win.

Common questions

What happens, in order, when I defeat a Monster in the center row?

Banish it to the Void, refill its space from the center deck, then gain its reward.

Can I save leftover Runes or Power for later in my turn?

Yes. Spend part now and the rest later in the same turn. For example, play two Mystics for 4 Runes, acquire a 3-cost Hero, then a 1-cost Hero. Whatever is left at the end of your turn is lost.

Can I play an Apprentice for its Rune and then banish it?

No. A card you've played is in front of you, not in your hand, so an effect that banishes from your hand can't take it. To banish a card from your hand, you give up playing it.

Can I use "once per turn" Construct effects on other players' turns?

No. You only use the Constructs you control on your own turn. You don't have to use a once-per-turn effect as soon as you can, though; you can wait until later in your turn.

An opponent defeated Sea Tyrant and I only control one Construct. Do I lose it?

No, you keep your Construct.

More rulings, card errata and answers about mixing sets are in the Ascension FAQ.

Expansions and more help

Every Ascension set is a complete game with the same core rules, and you can shuffle sets together for bigger games of up to 6 players. Each set adds its own mechanics, explained in its own rulebook.

• Ascension expansions guide: every set in release order, what each adds and where to start.
• Ascension rulebooks: free PDFs for every set.
• Ascension FAQ: official rulings and card errata.
• Ascension Online: learn by playing on Steam, iOS and Android.