Gamehelptekken

TEKKEN – The Board Game: Rulebook

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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Key definitions

Possible positions

	Close Range – a situation on the Stage when two Characters’ Miniatures are placed on adjacent Spaces. Each Symbol that affects your opponent can be resolved only when your Characters’ Miniatures are in a Close Range. Otherwise, you just punch the air and nothing happens. Learn more about Symbols further in this rulebook.
	Distance – a situation on the Stage when two Characters’ Miniatures are NOT standing on adjacent Spaces. Whenever you would need to count Distance X Spaces away, X will be the number of Spaces between Miniatures in the shortest way. a) A straight line of hexes, the Distance in this example is 1 Space away. b) Not a straight line of hexes, the Distance in this example is 1 Space away.

Attack Card Anatomy

Each Attack Card includes: 1. An Attack Area – one of three lines, each one always contains the same set of Symbols – icons representing available actions (Find out more about each Symbol on p. XXX of this rulebook.): High – Strike 2 (fist icon, deals 2 damage), Mid – two Moves and Push (foot icon x2 and pushing hand, allows to move 1 Space twice and push opponent 1 Space), Low – Move and Strike 1 (foot and fist icons, move 1 Space and deal 1 damage). 2. A color: Yellow and Green for punches with fists, Red and Blue for kicks with legs. Colors are used to make sequences of cards called Combos. For your convenience, each color is marked with its own sign: 3. Extensions – may provide additional Symbols in specific Attack Areas for subsequent cards. You’ll find 1 Extension on each Common Attack Card and 3 Extensions on Special Attack Cards. Deck Identification sign to make the preparation of your deck easier.

Combo Board Anatomy

	Attack Slots, Combo 1, Combo 2, Character’s portrait, Deck, Discard (face-down).

Gameplay Overview

In TEKKEN – The Board Game, one Round is the act of playing until a single Health Bar is depleted.

Each Round consists of alternating turns called Strings – which include the flow of actions (Attack Cards, Combos, etc.) performed by the active player.

During the game, players switch between two roles:

• The active player, the one who is building the String at the moment, is the Offensive player.
• The other one who’s trying to interrupt the String and regain the initiative by foreseeing the Offensive player’s Attacks is the Defender. This process of guessing is called the Punish Attempt.

The Offensive player chooses an Attack Card and plays it face-down in the first Attack Slot. The Defender guesses which type of Attack Card is played and declares one of the three Attack Areas. Then the card is revealed. If successful – the Attack is interrupted and the Defender gains initiative, placing the Punishment token in the first available Attack Slot, guaranteeing one unblockable attack. Otherwise, the Offensive player resolves the Attack Card and the additional effects it triggers.

Turn Structure: The String

The String involves one or more Attacks by the Offensive player, broken down into these steps:

The Attack Steps

Optional: Before playing an Attack Card, use Heat, Dash, or Stance Change. Playing an Attack Card: Play an Attack Card face-down. Defender’s Punish Attempt: The Defender declares Attack Area. Reveal Attack Card and check if the  Defender guessed correctly (it matches with declared Attack Area). Attack defended – Successful Punish Attempt: Discard and switch roles. Attack succeeded –  Unsuccessful Punish Attempt: Resolve Attack (in any order): Symbols from Attack Card (and Extension, if Connected). Combo (if met conditions). Rage (once per Round, if revealed). Refill cards in hand (resolve Event, if drawn).

TURN STEPS EXPLANATION

Before playing an Attack Card

There are several possibilities to make your situation on the Stage slightly better. That’s not obligatory to do, but feel free to use them to prepare to fight.

Stance Change – If the Offensive player has 3 Attack Cards of the same color or 3 Attack Cards with the same Attack Area in the hand before playing a card, they may reveal their hand to the opponent and then discard these cards to their discard pile face-down and draw 3 new Attack Cards from their deck.

Dash – If the Distance is more than 1 Space between Characters, they may perform a Dash. Shorten the Distance to 1 Space between Characters’ Miniatures by moving the Offensive player’s Miniature as many Spaces as needed in the shortest possible way.

Note: If you need to enter any special Spaces on the way, apply the effect.

Heat – Once per Round, you may activate the Heat Token to gain an extra Attack Slot in the String. During that String, you will not lose initiative even if the Defender guessed the Attack Area correctly and blocked your Attack. Learn more on p. XX of this rulebook.

Playing an Attack Card

Atack Slot

The Offensive player places 1 hidden (face-down) Attack Card to the first available Attack Slot on the Combo Board. Attack Slots are marked on the Combo Board with , and the cards should be played above them, consequently from the leftmost to right.

ATTENTION!

If the Offensive player has the Punishment Token on the Attack Slot, they play an Attack Card as Punishment in that slot face-up instead: it cannot be predicted and blocked. In this case, skip the Defender’s Punish Attempt step and proceed immediately to Resolving the Attack Card. Punishment Token Note: You can get the Punishment Token in a Successful Punish Attempt. Read on to learn more.

Defender’s Punish Attempt

The Defender is trying to anticipate which type of Attack Card the Offensive player chose to play and declares one of the three Attack Areas (High, Mid, or Low). Then the Offensive player reveals the Attack Card.

Unsuccessful Punish Attempt: If the declared Attack Area does not match the Attack Area on the played card. The Attack is not blocked. The Offensive player proceeds to Resolving the Attack Card step.

Successful Punish Attempt: If the declared Attack Area matches the Attack Area on the played card. The Attack is blocked, the String is interrupted, and ends immediately. The Defender gains the Punishment Token and places it on their first available Attack Slot. The Offensive player discards all the cards from their Attack Slots to the discard pile face-down. Proceed directly to Refilling Attack Cards in Hand step and switch the roles (Exception: Heat, p. XX).

Pro-tip:

while guessing, try to analyze the situation on the Stage. cards available in the Common deck You can find cards available in the Common deck on the VS tile and Character Special Attack Cards on their Character Cards. Try to track which cards your opponent played, which Extensions they have on the previous Attack Card, pay attention to their available Combos on the Combo Board, and look at your Characters Miniatures positions on the Stage to know what your opponent would like to play.

Resolving the Attack Card

The revealed Attack Card contains a set of Symbols to be resolved and can trigger Combo and/or Rage if the player decides so.

SYMBOLS: Below you will find the most common Symbols in the game. You can also meet some other Symbols (i.e. on Characters’ components or Stage Boards), read more about them on the appropriate Help Sheets.

Move symbol	MOVE	Move your Character’s Miniature to an adjacent free Space (not onto Walls or the other Miniature). Note! Each Move Symbol allows you to Move by 1 Space.
Strike symbol	STRIKE	Deal X damage (opponent loses X HP). Mark the received damage by moving the HP marker on the HP bar by X Spaces towards the centre. Note! A Strike Symbol without a number means Deal 1 damage. You can deal damage with Strike only in Close Range.
	PUSH	While in Close Range, Push your opponent away X Spaces from your Character in a straight line. If there is a Wall on the way, instead of moving further, they hit the Wall and take damage, depending on the Wall type: 1 damage for Regular Walls , 2 damage for Blasting Walls . You’ll find additional information about the Stage-specific Wall types on the Stage Help Sheets. Note! A Push Symbol without a number always means Push by 1 Space.
	SWEEP	Knock down the adjacent opponent’s Miniature (lay it on its side on the current Space). While knocked down, they lose 1 additional HP for each Strike (count Strike Symbols, not damage dealt) received until their next String. At the beginning of their String, the Character gets up. Note! Knocked Down Characters can be Pushed as usual.
	STUN	Stun the opponent by placing a Stun Card in their next available Attack Slot above their Character’s Combo Board. A player cannot play an Attack Card to a slot marked with the Stun card; therefore plays 1 Attack Card less for each Stun card during the next String. Return Stun Cards to the supply after that String. Note! Do not consider the Stun card as a played Attack Card.