Gamehelptekken

TEKKEN – The Board Game: Step-by-Step How to Play

Goal of the Game:

Defeat your opponent by reducing their HP (Health Points) to zero, thus winning the Round. By default you win the game when you win three rounds.  

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During a round, players take alternating turns, called strings, in which one player attacks and the other defends. During a string, you’ll be playing Attack Cards and trying to make Combos, while your opponent will attempt to interrupt your String by guessing the card you played. Then you switch the roles and continue until either HP bar is depleted.

<please mark black points “0 HP” on the HP bar>

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At the beginning you’ll be asked to choose your character, let’s take Jin for this tutorial.

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And you’ll need to choose a Rage card at the beginning of the Round. Each Character has 2 Rage cards to choose from. Take the second one for now, you’ll learn how it works a bit later.

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Each player shuffles their deck and draws 3 Attack Cards, their Character Miniatures start at designated positions on the Stage – with one free space between them.

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Look at your cards in hand below the Stage. Each card has its color and represents one of three attack areas to strike at:

• High attacks deal two damage.
• Mid is an opportunity to move by two spaces and push the opponent away.
• Low attacks allow the challenger to strike once and move by one space.

<show 3 cards with different attack areas>

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You can apply effects that are affecting the opponent only while standing on adjacent spaces – in a Close Range. Otherwise you just punch the air and nothing happens. So, probably you wouldn’t play a card with High Attack Area on your first turn, unless you want to trick your opponent!

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When you click on a card you choose to play, the opponent won’t see it right away, their task in a position of Defender is to predict what you played: High, Mid or Low Area attack card. That process is called Punish Attempt.

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If guessed correctly, that means the attack is blocked, your card is discarded and turn ends. Moreover, your opponent gains a Punishment token placed over the first attack slot and plays the next attack card in that slot face-up, because you cannot block it. That would be quite unfortunate, ha?

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Let’s try to outtrick the opponent and choose the Mid area attack card. Click on it and confirm your choice, probably the opponent will try to mitigate the damage and say “Low”, but we are here to play strategically.

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Great, just as expected, your opponent wasn’t right, so now you can resolve symbols from the played card. You may freely choose the order of resolving those symbols. For each leg icon you may move by 1 space.

<Please make accent on this:>

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Let’s move closer to push the opponent 1 space away from you. Click on the space you would like to move on and confirm.

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Then decide if you want to push the opponent 1 space away from you in a straight line. Pushing the opponent itself does not deal any damage, only changing the miniature’s position, unless there are any dangerous spaces or walls on the way. Those pink fluffy Blasting walls are twice more dangerous than usual ones dealing 2 and 1 damage respectively, when pushed onto.

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After pushing the opponent, come closer again to take a convenient position for the next attack – let's take the space "P2". Now your rival is at your mercy between you and the devastating blasting wall!

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When the attack is resolved, the last step is replenishing cards in hand. Here on BGA that is done automatically, and you may see which card you’ve just drawn in the game log on the right side of the screen.

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It’s time to play your second card. Each Attack Card has one of 4 colors, they are important to make Combos. Have a look at your Character’s Combo Board:

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To activate Jin’s Combo 1 you would need to play a green or red card after a card in any color. Then you’ll have an additional fist icon – Strike symbol – the one that deals 1 damage while you are in a Close Range.

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Let’s do that and play a green Attack Card.

Luckily the opponent missed again in predicting your move, so you may choose which attack type to resolve first.

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There are 3 Attack types in the game:

• Attack cards with connected Extensions (if any). Will be explained in a moment.
• Combos (if triggered with appropriate card colors).
• Rage (a special attack that you choose at the beginning and may activate once per Round when your HP marker is in the red zone).

Each Attack type should be resolved separately, that is why you will always be asked what to apply first.

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In this case, your Combo and Attack Card are both Strike dealing damage and you are already in a Close Range to effectively resolve them. Click and confirm.

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See how the HP marker on your opponent’s HP bar is getting closer to the red zone with each damage you deal.

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Time to play the third card in your String. Pay attention to the symbols on the right side of each card. They are called Extensions, and provide additional Symbols in specific Attack Areas for subsequent cards, if they match with the Attack Area.

You’ll find 1 Extension on each Common Attack Card and 3 Extensions on Special Attack Cards. If the Extension symbol on a previous Attack Card in a String matches the Attack Area on the current card, they form a Connected Extension and grant additional effects.

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Each Character has 4 unique Special Attack Cards. Which are they? See on the Character cards on VS tile.

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Now any card you’ll play would make a connected Extension (providing you with additional move or strike, depending on the attack area), if Defender’s Punish Attempt is unsuccessful. Let’s trigger Combo 2 by playing a yellow card and deal some more damage.

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The foot icon is to Move, and the other one is Sweep – it knocks down the adjacent opponent. While knocked down, the opponent will lose 1 additional HP for each Strike (count Strike symbols - fists, not damage dealt) received until their next String. At the beginning of their String, the Character gets up and is no longer knocked down.

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Start with resolving the Combo 2. You don’t have to move, if you like your position on the Stage. You are already in a Close Range and may resolve Sweep on the opponent to knock Kazuya down. Knocked down Character will have this icon on them in the digital version. If you play Tekken “offline”, lay the miniature down on the same space.

 

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Great, let’s resolve Strike from the Attack Card. Click and confirm. That way you deal 3 damage: Strike 2 from the High attack area +1 damage for Kazuya being knocked down.

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Since you still have one Move from connected Extension, and it’s your last card in a String, let’s strategically go away from Kazuya.

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You just finished resolving a card, then (automatically) took a new card and...Oh, what’s happened? You just draw a card that is not an Attack, it’s an Event.

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Each Stage has its own gimmick and Event – when you draw an Event card, it immediately triggers the effect, depending on the chosen Stage, and goes to the discard pile. Draw another card to refill your hand to 3 Attack Cards.

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On the Descent Into Subconscious each player, starting from the Offensive, takes 1 Cracked Floor token and places it on any Space without a crack on the Stage (also under another player’s Character Miniature).

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Cracked Floor: Whenever you successfully attack the opponent who’s standing on a Cracked Floor Space, reveal 1 Breakage token for each Strike symbol resolved. ATTENTION! Count Strike symbols, not damage dealt. There are 3 Breakage tokens with a Crack and 3 empty ones. When the 3rd Breakage token with a Crack is revealed, the floor breaks: reset all Breakage tokens (shuffle them face-down), place all Cracked Floor tokens at the side, and flip the Stage Board to the Underside. Both Characters land on the appropriate Spaces same way as they were standing on the Upperside. The Offensive player places the Punishment token on the next Attack Slot on their combo board (if there is no available slot, place the Punishment token next to the Combo Board, creating an additional slot). The next card played by this player is unblockable.

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When you open the 3rd Breakage token, the Floor is broken and you fall down to the Underside.

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Each turn you will either play your Attack Cards or defend yourself by predicting your opponent’s actions. Heat is a powerful thing and can be used only once per Round, let’s leave it for the next time and end your String.

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Kazuya played his first card in a String and it’s your turn to Defend. Let’s think, what it could be. High area attack cards will not deal you any damage as you are not in a close range and your opponent won’t have any means to move. Using Mid, Kazya may only push you, but there are no walls or dangerous spaces around you, and you’re safe. Try Low!

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Kazuya tricked you by playing High Area Attack, preparing to make a Combo.

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Before playing any attack card, the attacking player may decide to activate Heat.  The opponent decides to do it now.

Heat Activation:

The Offensive player gains an additional fourth Attack Slot (marked by the Heat Token placed on the right side of the Combo Board), and their String does not end even if the Defender guessed correctly, it only blocks the current Attack Card (effectively guaranteeing the possibility to play 4 Attack Cards in this String).

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If the Attack Card is blocked while Heat is activated, the attacking player discards the played card to the discard pile and places a Stun card in that Attack Slot. Attacks are interrupted, but the String is continued.

The Defender does not gain the Punishment Token after a successful Punish Attempt.

After activation, the Heat Token can’t be used again during this Round.

<There should have been a green high attack area card>

Stun cards are not considered an Attack card, so even though Kazuya has 3 attack cards in different colors in one string, they are not in a row, so the second combo cannot be triggered.

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Kazuya’s string is over and it’s your turn to attack. Sometimes the game may ask you if you want to make an optional action.

There are 3 optional actions in the game. You are already familiar with Heat.

Dash allows you to shorten the distance between you and your opponent to 1 space.

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Stance Change – if you have 3 cards of the same color or with the same Attack area, you may decide to discard them and draw 3 new ones instead.

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Cool, but your opponent will see what you discarded and it will be easier for them to predict what you have left in deck and hand.

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Let’s deal some more damage with a strike, while the opponent is standing on a Cracked floor.

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Activate Heat to maximize the chances to win.

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Kazuya has no more Heat, so if you guess correctly, you’ll finally get the Punishment token.

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It is placed on your first Attack Slot and now your opponent will not have a chance to block your next attack. Feel free to choose.

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You both do not have much HP left, so you finally may activate the Rage. That one you chose at the beginning._______________________________________________

The chosen Rage card is revealed and becomes available when the Character's HP drops to 6 or fewer – reaches the red section of the HP bar. From now on, the player may activate the effect of the Rage during their String. It can be resolved as one of the Attack Types when resolving the Attack. After activation, discard the Rage Card, it can’t be used again during this Round.

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Some Rage Cards contain extra requirements like an exact position on the Stage or specific Attack Cards played to activate. If you activate a Rage Card and meet its requirements, resolve the Symbols available on the Rage Card the same way as Combo Symbols.

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What does this mean at all? Those hexes are your positions on the Stage: Blue posture is always your Character, red is your rival. Solid blue hex is a space where you need to move in the direction of a blue arrow: behind the opponent in a straight line.

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Look at the Stage: there is a perfect setup to resolve this Rage. If Kazuya would stand near the wall, you couldn’t meet conditions and gain the effect. Confirm rage and deal 3 damage to your opponent.

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Just one more step – resolve the Attack card, subtracting the last HP and defeating your rival. Congratulations, now you know how to play TEKKEN – The Board Game.