How to Play Elden Ring Board Game (Concise Rules)

Name: How to Play Elden Ring Board Game (Concise Rules)
Uploaded: 2025-02-22T17:15:01.000Z
Duration: 58 min 24 s

How to Play Elden Ring Board Game

Setup Instructions

Nic introduces the guide for playing Elden Ring, applicable to all board game sets.

Each player receives a dashboard, Tarnished miniature, starting cards, a Flask of Crimson Tears, a Flask of Cerulean Tears, and a tri-dial.

Players must place their profile card in the designated slot and set tri-dials according to the card's numbers. Armor and weapon cards are placed below the dashboard.

Weather cards are separated into two decks based on their backs and shuffled separately before being placed face down with the time token showing the sun side up.

The setup includes shuffling event, spirit candle, hardship decks while ensuring no numbered cards remain. Cards from the stake of Marika are adjusted based on player count.

Campaign Structure

Elden Ring campaigns consist of five scenario types; players begin with "The Stranded Graveyard" narrative scenario found on page 4 of the scenario book.

Players read through narratives making decisions at key points which may involve placing objective tokens that can be removed under certain conditions.

Upon completing scenarios, players receive map cards representing future scenarios; later choices allow selection between multiple map cards.

Exploration Scenario

For exploration scenarios, players shuffle starting tiles marked with an “S” and draw one to place face up in play's center.

A site of grace token is placed active side up on the starting tile’s location along with each player's Tarnished miniature.

Guidance of grace cards are retrieved as objectives for the scenario; special rules and ending information should be reviewed during gameplay.

Player Actions During Turns

On their turn, each Tarnished can perform up to three actions: explore (draw tiles), trade (exchange materials), flask (replenish HP/FP), craft (create consumables), or move (to adjacent tiles).

When exploring by drawing new tiles, tokens matching locations must be placed accordingly; exceptions apply for Site of Grace and dungeon tokens which have specific placement rules.

Hardship Resolution Mechanics

Moving onto hardship-type tiles requires immediate resolution by drawing from the hardship deck; instructions vary based on day/night sections indicated on drawn cards.

If challenge levels are present on hardship cards, players draw attribute cards to compare against required points listed; success depends on meeting or exceeding these values.

Game Mechanics Overview

Attribute Cards and Hardship Tokens

Players must place played attribute cards in the discard slot and flip the hardship token to its exhausted side, indicating that no other tarnish will deal with this hardship. Completing a hardship does not count as an action.

Interacting with Locations

The interact action allows players to choose a location on the same tile as their tarnished character. Specific interactions include:

Effigy of the Martyr: Take the token and place it on your tarnished dashboard for later effects.

Stake of Marika: Place another stake card in inventory and discard the token if maximum cards are held; otherwise, just discard the token.

Spiritspring and Material Locations

Interacting with a Spiritspring lets players place their tarnished on any tile in play. For material locations (beast, flora, corpse, ruins), draw a corresponding card from its deck and flip the token to exhausted after interaction.

Special Location Interactions

When interacting with specific locations like finger reader crone or merchant:

Discard tokens accordingly; for example, only two murmurings of the crone cards exist—if both are held, only discard the token upon further interaction.

For spirit candle locations, draw from its deck but cannot interact if already holding a spirit candle card.

Site of Grace Mechanics

Upon interacting with an active site of grace:

Flip tokens to active sides, replenish tri-dials to maximum values, and reset flask tokens.

If engaging an enemy location during exploration scenarios, refer to scenario brief for combat setup instructions. Interaction must occur before drawing weather cards at turn's end.

Combat Encounter Setup

Defeat Mechanism

If a tarnished's HP reaches zero while exploring:

Discard a stake of Marika card to revive at an active site of grace.

If no stakes remain for revival, the party fails and must restart from scratch.

Encounter Participation Rules

During encounters in exploration scenarios:

Not all players may participate simultaneously; one can fight while others explore.

To join an encounter initiated by another player, they must discard an effigy of Martyr currently on their dashboard; failure results in non-participation without resolving remaining actions or drawing weather cards.

Combat Round Structure

In combat encounters involving multiple players:

Set up using encounter books based on scenario instructions.

Players position their tarnished miniatures within designated areas following board orientation rules.

Each participant draws from combat decks according to hand size limits set by tri-dials; mulligans allowed once per encounter start.

Combat Mechanics Overview

Turn Order and Actions

Each miniature takes turns based on a predetermined marching order, starting from left to right. The astrologer goes first, followed by two enemies, then the prophet.

Players can perform up to three actions per turn, with the option to repeat the same action as long as they do not exceed three total actions.

Movement and Combat Cards

A player can move a tarnished into an adjacent square either horizontally or vertically. If another tarnished occupies the target square, they can switch places.

The draw action allows players to draw combat cards from the deck up to their hand size. When empty, reshuffle the discard pile to form a new deck.

Using Flasks and Consumables

Players can use flasks to replenish HP or FP by flipping an active flask token. Consumables are resolved according to their card text.

There are three types of combat cards: attack cards (identified by an attack symbol), action cards, and buff action cards.

Playing Combat Cards

When playing a card with an FP cost, reduce it from the FP dial. Action cards are discarded after use; buff action cards go into a buff slot but only one can be active at any time.

Attack range is determined by red squares on the card; one red square hits one enemy in the lane while multiple squares hit all enemies in that lane.

Damage Calculation and Effects

Special rules may apply for certain attacks requiring players to draw attribute cards for additional effects. Damage is calculated after considering enemy armor values.

If damage equals or exceeds an enemy's HP, that enemy is defeated and removed from play. Various symbols allow for different effects like movement or status infliction.

Discarding Actions and Summoning

The discard action allows players to perform light attacks or restore FP by drawing attribute cards for damage calculation against enemies.

Summoning occurs once per combat if conditions are met; successful summons place spirit ashes tokens on board with specific behaviors outlined on initiative cards.

Final Steps After Combat

Understanding Tarnished Row Effects and Enemy Behavior

Common Tarnished Row Effects

The critical hit row allows a tarnished to draw an additional attribute card when attacking, choosing one to keep and discarding the other.

The reposition row enables the tarnished to move initiative cards one space left or right, ignoring other tarnished cards nearby.

On the stand fast row, drawing an extra attribute card occurs during defense, with similar selection rules as in attacks.

If both a tarnished and enemy occupy a critical hit row, the player draws three attribute cards instead of one.

Armored effects reduce damage dealt by 1; however, powerful attacks cannot be mitigated by any rule or effect.

Enemy Behavior Mechanics

When reaching an enemy card in marching order, read its behavior from top to bottom and left to right for movement instructions.

Enemies move towards the closest tarnished based on directional symbols; if obstructed or leaving the battlefield, they do not move.

Action symbols may be divided vertically; enemies prioritize resolving actions on the left unless unable to do so.

An example illustrates how a rotten stray attacks: it inflicts damage while moving forward unless it cannot attack.

Players can defend against attacks by discarding combat cards or using defense cards that may require spending FP (Focus Points).

Defense Mechanisms Explained

When using a defense card, players draw from the attribute deck and allocate symbols according to profiles on their defense card.

For instance, using Focused Defense allows allocation of attributes for total defense points; special symbols can further reduce damage if conditions are met.

After resolving damage calculations, any inflicted damage is deducted from the tarnished's HP value accordingly.

If a tarnished’s HP reaches zero due to damage taken, they are defeated immediately; this ends their turn until conditions are reset with Marika stakes.

Once all turns are completed in initiative order, shuffle initiative and enemy cards for subsequent rounds until combat encounters conclude.

Encounter Setup for Boss Fights

Game Mechanics Overview

Boss Placement and Behavior

Models with large bases occupy multiple squares on the grid, affecting their placement in rows and lanes.

When a boss is introduced, if its miniature cannot be placed due to occupied squares, move existing enemies to the nearest vacant squares.

Shuffle and place boss behavior cards facedown to create a deck; draw cards each round for marching order alongside tarnished initiative cards.

Quest Management

Players can progress or complete quests during scenarios using quest markers; completion text must be resolved when a quest is finished.

Guidance of grace type quests affect all tarnished players, while event and spirit candle quests are personal and only affect the specific player.

Class quests are also personal; upon completion, they are removed from the game, allowing players to collect new sequential class quest cards.

Scenario End Procedures

At scenario end, reset tri-dials, reshuffle combat decks with discarded cards, and remove completed map cards from play.

Players can spend runes gained during gameplay to improve their tarnished characters at the Roundtable Hold.

Character Upgrades

Players may add new attribute cards by paying rune costs; one card must leave for every new card added to maintain a total of 10 in the deck.

Weapons can be upgraded by paying rune costs; upgrades allow searching for sequential weapon improvements up to level +3.

Equipment Management

Only one instance of an individual weapon can be equipped at any time among players. Rune equip costs apply when changing weapons or armor.

Talismans provide benefits as per their special rules section and are added to the tarnished dashboard accordingly.

Memory Cards Integration

Each weapon has associated combat cards that change based on upgrades; some weapons may indicate ranges for combat card numbers instead of fixed values.