How to play Shards of Infinity

The goal

You are a Shard Master, a faction leader wielding a fragment of the shattered Infinity Engine. Everyone starts with the same 10-card deck. Each turn you play your hand to make Gems, which recruit Allies and Champions from a shared Center Row into your deck, and Power, which attacks enemy Champions and the other Shard Masters. Knock each opponent from 50 Health to 0. The last Shard Master standing wins.

Along the way you build Mastery, which never goes away and makes your cards stronger. At 30 Mastery, your starting Infinity Shard gives unlimited Power when you play it.

Saga mode and the chapters

The Saga Collection puts the original game and all its expansions in one box, and its rulebook is organized around Saga mode: five chapters that add new cards and rules one step at a time. Each chapter comes in a sealed Chapter Pack. When you first open the box, open only the clear-wrapped decks and leave the Chapter Packs sealed until their chapter starts.

Each chapter lists Saga Objectives, such as "have three or more Champions in play at one time" or "defeat an Ingeminex". Mark each one on the Saga Tracker when you complete it, in one game or over several, and move on to the next chapter when its objectives are done. The first Shard Master to win three games in Chapter 5 completes the Saga. You don't have to follow the Saga: you can play the chapters without the objectives, or open everything at once.

Setup

1. Board. Put the game board in the middle with the Competitive side up. (The Co-operative side is for the campaign.)
2. First player. Choose a first player at random. Play goes clockwise.
3. Shard Masters. Each player takes a Shard Master Hero Card (or Battlemat, in the Kickstarter edition) and a Health and Mastery Tracker. Pick Shard Masters in turn order or deal them at random.
4. Health and Mastery. Everyone starts at 50 Health. The first player starts with 0 Mastery and each player after that starts with 1 more: in a 4-player game, 0, 1, 2 and 3.
5. Starting decks. Each player takes a white-bordered starting deck of 10 cards (7 Crystals, 1 Shard Reactor, 1 Blaster and 1 Infinity Shard), shuffles it and draws 5.
6. Center Deck and Center Row. Shuffle the black-bordered cards into the Center Deck (in Saga mode, only the cards from the chapters you've opened) and turn 6 cards face up on the board. This is the Center Row.

Gems, Power, Mastery, Health and Shields

Gems

Spend Gems to recruit Allies and Champions from the Center Row.

Power

Spend Power to attack enemy Champions and players.

Mastery

Mastery is never spent. It builds up over the game, to a maximum of 30, and unlocks stronger effects on your cards.

Health

You start at 50 and can never go above 50. At 0, you're out of the game. Champions have Health too.

Shields

Reveal cards with a Shield value from your hand when you're attacked to prevent that much damage. Shields protect you, not your Champions.

Gems and Power you don't spend are lost at the end of your turn.

Your turn

A turn has three phases.

1. Play phase

Do any of these, in any order:

• Play cards from your hand into your Play Zone, for free, to gain Gems, Power, Health, Mastery and other effects.
• Exhaust your Champions to use their abilities.
• Recruit any number of Allies and Champions from the Center Row by paying their Gem cost. They go to your discard pile. Refill the Center Row immediately, before anything else happens.
• Recruit or Fast-Play Mercenaries (see Card types).
• Focus, once per turn: spend 1 Gem to gain 1 Mastery.
• Attack enemy Champions with Power.

2. Attack phase

• Assign your remaining Power as damage to your opponents. You can split it between them any way you like.
• Each attacked player may reveal cards with Shields from their hand to prevent that much damage. Revealed cards go back into their hand.
• Each attacked player loses Health equal to the damage left over. A player at 0 Health or less is out of the game.

3. End phase

1. Put any Mercenaries you Fast-Played into the Banish pile.
2. Put the Allies from your Play Zone into your discard pile. Champions stay in play; reset any you exhausted.
3. Discard the cards left in your hand.
4. Draw 5 cards.

Running out of cards. Whenever your deck is empty and you need to draw or reveal a card, shuffle your discard pile to make a new deck, then keep drawing.

Card types

Allies

Allies are the most common cards. Recruit them into your discard pile; when you later draw one, play it for free and carry out its effects from top to bottom. Allies go to your discard pile at the end of your turn.

Mercenaries and Fast-Play

Mercenaries are Allies you can use right away. When you pay a Mercenary's cost, either recruit it to your discard pile as normal or Fast-Play it: put it straight into your Play Zone and gain its effect now. A Fast-Played Mercenary goes to the Banish pile at the end of the turn instead of joining your deck. It still counts as an Ally you played that turn, for Unify and other faction bonuses.

Champions

Champions are recruited like Allies, but once you play one it stays in your Play Zone from turn to turn. Once per turn you can Exhaust it (turn it sideways) to use the ability after the word "Exhaust"; it resets at the end of your turn.

To destroy an enemy Champion, deal it damage equal to its Health in a single turn; damage doesn't carry over between turns. A destroyed Champion goes to its owner's discard pile, so they can draw and play it again later.

Mastery thresholds

Many cards get stronger at a Mastery threshold. Your starting Infinity Shard gives 2 Power, 3 Power at 10 Mastery, 5 Power at 20, and unlimited Power at 30. A card checks your Mastery when you play or Exhaust it. If the card itself gains you Mastery, that counts toward its own threshold.

Factions

Allies and Champions belong to six factions: Homodeus, Order, Undergrowth, Wraethe, Aion and Prism. Faction keywords such as Unify reward you for playing several cards of the same faction in one turn.

Banishing

When an effect lets you Banish a card from your hand or discard pile, put it in your Banish pile; it's out of the game. You can't Banish a card you've already played this turn. Banishing your weakest starting cards means you draw your best cards more often.

Relics, Warp, Ingeminex and Destinies

Saga mode adds these one chapter at a time. Outside Saga mode, mix in whichever you like.

Relics (Chapter 2)

Each Shard Master has two Relics, set aside at the start of the game. Once you reach 10 Mastery, you can recruit one of them for free into your discard pile at any time. Only one Relic per game; the other goes to the Banish pile.

Warp (Chapter 3)

Warp lets you Fast-Play Allies from the Center Row without paying their cost, including Allies that aren't Mercenaries. They go to the Banish pile at the end of the turn.

Ingeminex (Chapter 4)

When an Ingeminex is revealed from the Center Deck, put it in its own area on the board and refill the Center Row. At the end of the turn of the player who revealed it, its Attack hits every player. On your turn, you can spend Power equal to its value, all in that turn, to defeat it: it goes to the Banish pile and you gain its Reward. Defeat it on the turn it's revealed and its Attack doesn't happen.

Destinies (Chapter 5)

Deal each player 3 Destiny cards; each keeps 1 face up beside their Shard Master. Once you reach 5 Mastery, you can activate it, for free, and use its abilities for the rest of the game.

Playing without Relics? Take the Ingeminex Corruption out of the Center Deck. Without Destinies, take out Malice and Agony. Their rewards need those cards.

How to win

A player whose Health drops to 0 is eliminated. When only one Shard Master remains, they win. If the last players are knocked out at the same moment, the game is a tie.

Solo: the Nemesis Challenge

To play alone, you face another Shard Master, the Nemesis, who has no deck and plays straight from the Center Deck and Center Row. You win by reducing the Nemesis to 0 Health.

Setup. Choose a Shard Master for yourself and one for the Nemesis, each with a Health and Mastery Tracker. Add an 11th card to your starting deck, depending on your Shard Master:

Your turn follows the normal rules. Then the Nemesis takes a turn:

1. Reveal the top card of the Center Deck. If it's the Nemesis's faction, the Nemesis gains 3 Mastery.
2. The Nemesis plays the revealed card, then every card in the Center Row of the same faction as the revealed card. It gains their Power, Mastery and Health; Champions go into play under its control. You make any choices for it.
3. It activates its Champions' Exhaust abilities, one at a time, in the order you choose.
4. It spends its Power: first on you, if that would take you to 0; otherwise destroying your Champions from the highest cost down, as far as its Power goes; then any Power left over hits you.
5. At the end of its turn, Banish every Ally it played from the Center Row and refill the row.

Some things work differently for the Nemesis. If it would gain Gems, it Banishes that many cards from the top of the Center Deck instead. If it would draw cards, it gains 1 Mastery per card instead. Ignore anything it can't do, such as banishing its own cards. Below 15 Mastery it ignores Dominion, Echo, Inspire and Unify; at 15 or more, those count. Its destroyed Champions are Banished.

The Nemesis wins if your Health reaches 0, if its Mastery reaches 30, or if the Center Row needs refilling and there aren't enough cards.

Co-op: the campaign

The co-operative campaign, Shadow of Salvation, has the Shard Masters team up against bosses from the future. It's an optional side quest in Chapter 3 of Saga mode, and the Battle Book walks you through it battle by battle. Here is how a boss battle works, from the Shadow of Salvation rules:

• Setup. Use the Co-operative side of the board and set up a normal Center Deck. Everyone starts at 50 Health and 0 Mastery. Choose a Team Leader to break ties when the team can't agree. The Battle Book tells you each boss's starting Health and special rules.
• The Fate Deck. Shuffle the boss's 6 Attack cards with its two groups of Shadow Champions to make an 18-card Fate Deck.
• Boss turns come first. Starting with the Team Leader, each player draws a Fate card. Attack cards take effect, and some stay in front of you as Ongoing Attacks. A Shadow Champion goes into play in front of you and attacks you: it destroys your Champions first, highest cost down, then deals the rest of its damage to you. Each Shield card can be revealed once per boss turn.
• Player turns are simultaneous. Everyone plays at once and recruits with their own Gems, but you can combine Power to defeat Shadow Champions and the boss. When a Shadow Champion in front of you is defeated, gain 2 Mastery. When you gain Health, you can give it to any player.
• Winning and losing. Reduce the boss to 0 Health and the team wins. If a player is knocked out, the survivors get one more turn; if the boss is still standing at the start of the next boss turn, the team loses, and the Battle Book tells you where the story goes next.

For an easier game, skip the first boss turn of each battle (Novice). For a harder one, the boss gains double Mastery (Heroic). Completing the campaign also unlocks Shadow Champion mode for competitive games.

Read the full Shadow of Salvation campaign rules (PDF), or listen to the voice-acted Battle Book as you play.

More ways to play

The rulebook also has these optional variants:

• 2v2 and 3v3 Team Attack. Teams of two or three. You can only deal damage to the opponent across from you (in 3v3, the nearest opponent on your left), but you can attack any opponent's Champions. Everyone starts at 0 Mastery.
• 3 Player Bloodbath. Every point of Power you assign to an opponent hits both opponents.
• Five Player Alliance. The players on either side of you are your allies and the other two are your enemies. Defeat both enemies to win, possibly together with an ally.
• Health Auction. Bid Health for the right to go first and pick your Shard Master.
• Destiny Row, Mystery Relics and Relic Draft. Pick Destinies from a shared row, deal Relics at random, or draft them.
• Shadow Champion mode. Draft Shadow Champions and summon them in a competitive game.

Common questions

Do I discard Shield cards when I use them?

No. You only reveal them; they stay in your hand to play on your next turn. In a multiplayer game you can reveal the same card against each opponent who attacks you, and you can reveal as many Shield cards as you like.

Can I use Shields to protect my Champions?

No. Shields only prevent damage to you.

Does a Fast-Played Mercenary count as an Ally I played?

Yes. Fast-Playing a card counts as playing it, so it counts toward Unify and Dominion.

Can I play a Crystal for its Gem and then Banish it from my hand?

No. Once you play a card it's in your Play Zone, not your hand.

Do cards with no cost count as even or odd cost?

Neither. Crystals, Blasters and Relics have no cost.

Card-specific rulings for Relics, Ingeminex and Destinies are in the rulebook's F.A.Q. on pages 32–34.

Keep playing

• Shards of Infinity rulebooks: the Saga Collection rulebook and the original rules for each expansion.
• Score Tracker: track Health and Mastery in your browser.
• Shards of Infinity Online: play the digital version.