Gamehelptheloop

The LOOP

The LOOP is a quirky, cooperative, time-traveling strategy game where 1 to 4 players become temporal agents working together to thwart the evil Dr. Faux, a mad scientist creating chaos across the space-time continuum. Using quirky yet powerful Artifact cards, players must complete missions, destroy clones, and manage time-rending vortexes before it's too late.

Core rules

These rules cover S.A.B.O.T.A.G.E., which is the basic scenario. Three more scenarios which build on these are available; in addition, each scenario can be played at three different difficulty levels. See below for details.

Objective

Victory: Complete four missions to destroy Dr. Foo's Machine and save spacetime!

Defeat: The agents lose immediately if any of the following occurs:

• A second vortex is placed in any single Era.
• A fourth vortex is placed anywhere on the board.
• Dr. Foo completes his third cycle (21 turns).

Spacetime board

The board shows the 7 Great Eras of Spacetime, which are naturally arranged in a loop: Dawn of Time → Medieval Era → Renaissance Era → Industrial Era → Globalization Era → Age of Robots → End of Times (which connects back to Dawn of Time). Each Era is associated with a color. The next Era is the one clockwise, and the previous Era is the one counter-clockwise.

In the middle of the board is Dr. Foo's machine. It rotates as Dr. Foo travels through spacetime; the Era that it's centered on is Dr. Foo's Era.

Agents

Each of the five agents has their own special ability and a deck of six unique starting Artifacts. Each game is played with between two and four agents. In solo mode, or if the multi-handed option is enabled on a table, one player can play as multiple agents.

Each Agent has their own deck of Artifact cards, split between:

• Draw Pile: Facedown cards to draw from
• Hand: Faceup cards (minimum 3) that can be used during your turn
• Discard Pile: Used cards that will be reshuffled when the draw pile is empty

Cards in hand are either ready (normal orientation) or exhausted (turned sideways after use).

Artifact Dimensions

Each Artifact belongs to one of four Dimensions:

• Spiral - Elementary dimension
• Star - Elementary dimension
• Stripe - Elementary dimension
• Black Hole - Cannot be readied via LOOP actions

Turn Structure

Each turn consists of 5 phases in order:

I. Faux Phase

Dr. Foo causes trouble:

A) Add Clones and Reveal Artifact: Based on the current Cycle track position, draw Clone tokens (placing them in their designated Eras) and reveal Artifact cards (placing them in their Origin Eras).

B) Resolve Faux Card:

1. Reveal a Faux card showing which Era Dr. Foo travels to
2. Rotate Dr. Foo's Machine to point at that Era
3. Drop Rift cubes into the Machine: 2 base + 1 per Clone in that Era
4. Place fallen Rifts in the Rift slots of the Eras where they land
5. If an Era cannot hold all its Rifts, it becomes a Vortex

II. Action Phase

Perform any combination of these actions in any order:

A) Move: Spend 1 Energy from your Era to move to an adjacent Era.

B) Use an Artifact: Use a ready Artifact's ability, then exhaust it (turn sideways).

C) Do a LOOP: Spend Energy from your Era to ready exhausted cards of one Elementary Dimension:

• 1st LOOP costs 1 Energy
• 2nd LOOP costs 2 Energy
• 3rd LOOP costs 3 Energy (and so on)
• Black Hole cards can never be readied via LOOP

Free Move: Once per turn, move to an adjacent Era without spending Energy. Flip your Agent tile to show you've used this.

III. Acquire Artifact

You may take one available Artifact card from your current Era and place it on top of your draw pile.

IV. Complete Mission

If there's a revealed Mission in your Era with all required progress slots filled, you may complete it:

• Remove the Mission tile and place it in the completed pile
• Return all cubes on it to the supply
• Reveal a new Mission
• Attendance Reward: Reveal (players + 1) Artifact cards; each player chooses one to add to their deck, destroy the rest

V. Refresh

1. Flip your Agent tile back to charged (if used)
2. Place all cards from your hand into your discard pile
3. All players draw until they have 3 cards in hand
4. If the Faux deck is empty, start a new Cycle

Vortexes

When an Era becomes a Vortex:

1. The Mission there is permanently failed and removed
2. Place a Vortex tile in that Era
3. Return all Rift cubes from that Era to the supply
4. Destroy any Artifacts there; no new Artifacts can be placed in this Era

Vortexes cannot be removed once placed.

Clones

Dr. Foo's Clones have a fatal weakness: each Clone has a Paradox Era shown in its monocle. If a Clone ever enters its Paradox Era, it is immediately destroyed and returned to the bag.

Clones are primarily moved using Artifact abilities with Clone icons (Pull, Push, Carry, or Destroy effects).

Missions

• There should always be 2 revealed Missions on the board
• When a Mission is completed or removed by a Vortex, reveal a new Mission in Dr. Foo's Era (or the next clockwise Era with an unrevealed tile)
• Progress is tracked by placing cubes on Mission slots when conditions are met during your Action Phase
• A Mission can only be completed after finishing your actions while standing in that Mission's Era

Cycles

The game lasts up to 3 Cycles. Each Cycle consists of 7 Faux cards being revealed. When the Faux deck empties:

• Shuffle all 7 Faux cards
• Place them on the next Cycle track space
• If there's no next space (end of 3rd Cycle), the game is lost

Navigation Reference

• Your Era: Where your Agent pawn is located
• Adjacent Eras: The two Eras on either side of any Era (End of Times and Dawn of Time are adjacent)
• Next Era: Adjacent Era clockwise from your position
• Previous Era: Adjacent Era counter-clockwise from your position
• Dr. Foo's Era: The Era the middle chute of Dr. Foo's Machine points to

Artifact Ability Icons

• Energy: Add Energy cubes to Eras
• Rift: Remove Rift cubes from Eras
• Movement: Move Agents between Eras
• Artifact: Draw, discard, reveal, acquire, or destroy Artifact cards
• Clone: Pull, push, carry, or destroy Clone tokens