Gamehelpresarcana

Overview

• Players build powerful artifacts and locations and race to 10 points.
• Use your own mage and 8-card artifact deck throughout the game, producing various essence and spending them to build your own artifacts or to claim Places of Power.
• There are 5 types of essence: Calm (blue droplet), Elan (red flame), Life (green shape), Death (black skull), Gold (gold nugget).

Setup

• The supply has 8 magic items and 5 types of essence. During the game, magic items are claimed for a round and then returned.
• Put the 5 Places of Power, the shuffled monument deck, and 2 face-up monuments in the center. During the game, these can be claimed by any player.

• Each player gets 1 of each type of essence, 2 mages, and a deck of 8 artifacts. Draw 3 artifacts as your starting hand, inspect your overall artifact deck, and select 1 mage for the game.
• In counter-clockwise order, each player chooses 1 magic item for the first round, starting from the player to the right of the first player.

Gameplay

Each game usually consists of 4-6 rounds. Each round has 3 phases:

Phase 1: Collect

• Each player activates their collect abilities (hand icon), which gives them new essences to use on their turn.

If there is a number on the essence, take that number of essences; otherwise take 1.

If multiple icons are separated by a +, take all of them.

If multiple icons are separated by a /, choose 1 to take.

If a pentagon is shown, choose any type of essence, subject to the restrictions. For example, some cards do not let you collect Gold.

• Some card abilities result in essence being stored on a card. You may take essences off some components (including places of power), but if you take any essence off a component, you must take all of them.
• After collecting, pay the collect costs (if any) and resolve any effects caused.

Phase 2: Actions

• Starting with the first player, each player resolves one of 5 possible actions, until everyone has passed:
• Play an artifact: place an artifact from your hand onto the table, paying its cost.
• Claim a monument/Place of Power: place the card you claimed in front of you, paying its cost. You may claim the top monument on the deck.

• Discard an artifact: discard an artifact from your hand into your discard pile, where it will be recycled into your draw pile at the end of the round. Then, gain 1 gold or any other 2 essences.
• Activate a power: use a power on one of your components, depicted as cost and effect, separated by a triangle icon.

Each use of a card's power is a separate action. Reactions are used out of turn and are not actions.

If a card is turned, its powers (except some reactions) cannot be used.

You must pay all of the required cost to use a power.

If there is an equal sign on the pentagon, you have to pay identical essences.

If you have to place essences on a component, take them from the supply.

If the effect produces a mix of essences, total the cost, modify by any modifiers, and take any mix of essences from the supply.

If you need to choose any opponent, you can choose an opponent who has passed.

Life loss is only inflicted on opponents that haven't passed. If an opponent cannot pay the loss, lose any other 2 essences instead. If an opponent has no essence, nothing happens.

Reactions are used on another player's turn, when its activating conditions happen. It can be used if the card is turned, unless turning the card is needed to react.

Discarding is from your hand, while destroying is from the playing field. Either way, the card is put into your discard pile. When destroying a card, put any essence on it back to the supply.

If you have no cards in the deck when you need to draw a card, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck.

• Pass: if you are the first to pass, take the starting player token. Then, swap your magic item for another in the supply and draw 1 card. You need to wait for the other players to finish before you can continue with the new round.

Once you pass, you cannot do any actions or be affected by life loss, but can still be affected by rivals' other powers (such as destroying cards).

Phase 3: Victory

• After all players have passed, check if anyone has 10 or more points.
• If at least 1 player has 10 or more points, the game ends and the player with the most points wins.

If several players are tied, count the number of remaining essences, with gold counted as double. The player with the most essences wins.

If any players are still tied, they share the victory.

• If nobody has 10 or more points, straighten all components and begin the next round.

Variants

First Game

• Use the beginner sides of the places of power.
• Give each player a pre-set 3-card hand, with 5 random artifacts in the deck and the matching mage.

Draft

• Instead of drawing 8 artifacts, deal 4 artifacts to each player.
• Each player keeps 1 and passes the rest clockwise. Repeat 4 times.
• Each player draws 4 artifacts again and repeats the passing process 4 times.
• These 8 artifacts become your deck. Shuffle and draw 3 for your starting hand.