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 (optional)

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.

⚠️ Note: Every Symbol in the game that affects an opponent only works when the opponent is in a Close Range (unless explicitly stated otherwise). That means your Characters’ Miniatures are standing on adjacent Spaces on the Stage.

Available Attack Types

There are three possible Attack Types that could be activated in your string:

Attack Card	Combo	Rage
The Symbols from an Attack Card itself and a Symbol from Extension, if it’s Connected (see below).	The Symbols from a Character’s Combo Board, if the condition is met (you’ve played at least two cards in one String in certain colors).	The Symbols from a Rage card become available to use when your HP is in the red zone.

You may choose which Attack Type to resolve first, and the Symbols within each Attack Type may be resolved in any order. However, if you started resolving Symbols from a specific Attack Type (e.g. Combo), you cannot intermix them with Symbols from another Attack Type (e.g. Rage).

Anytime you may skip resolving one or more Symbols played by you (i.e. you don’t have to Move anywhere, if you like your position on the Stage).

Attack Card

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Extensions grant additional Symbols in specific Attack Areas for subsequent Attack Cards. Extension Symbols are located on the right side of each Attack Card. You can apply their effect if the Extension Symbol on a previous Attack Card in a String matches the Attack Area on the card that is being resolved. If they do match, they form a Connected Extension.

Connected Extension (apply the effect).	Extension not connected (no additional effect).
Connected Extension (apply the effect).	Extension not connected (no additional effect).

⚠️ Note: Special Attack Cards have 3 Extension Symbols (one for each Attack Area), while Common Attack Cards have only 1. So if you’ve played a Special Attack Card in the first Attack Slot, that means that any card played on the next slot will create the Connected Extension.

Combo

The Offensive player may trigger an effect from the Character’s Combo Board if a just-played Attack Card fulfills the requirements.

COMBO STRUCTURE:

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1. Requirement Combo effect triggers each time the player fulfills the requirement presented in the upper part of the Combo (above the --v-- sign). Usually, it specifies the order and color of Attack Cards to be played in one String. 2. Effect Symbols that can be resolved if the Combo is triggered. Players may resolve Symbols from the Combo effect in any order or skip them if needed. You need to finish resolving Combo before switching to resolving any other Attack Types (i.e. the Attack Card or Rage Card).

	COMBO REQUIREMENTS EXAMPLES
	Any Attack Card right after a Card in a specified color played in one String.
	An Attack Card in a specified color played after any Card in one String.
	The Attack Card just played matches the color of the Attack Card in the previous Attack Slot.
	3 cards played one after another in one String, each in a different color.

⚠️ Note: Sometimes you may trigger more than one Combo at the same moment. In this case, resolve the effects of both Combos separately.

Rage

There are two Rage Cards available for each Character. Players secretly choose one of them at the beginning of the Round. 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 to the gamebox, it can’t be used again during this Round.

rage card

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

Available Attack Types Sumary

REMINDER!
Symbols from different Attack Types, such as Attack Card, Combo, and Rage, cannot be mixed! Note that the Extension Symbol is a part of the Attack Card effect. Example: It’s the second Jin’s attack in the String. He has a blue Attack Card with Extension in the Mid Attack Area on the first Attack Slot. 1. Jin played a Mid Area yellow Attack Card, and Kazuya’s Punish Attempt failed. 2. Jin decides to resolve his Combo first and performs Move and Sweep. 3. Jin starts to resolve his Attack Card. He sees the opportunity to push Kazuya onto the Stun Space. To do so, Jin performs a Move to stand in a straight line with Kazuya and Stun Space. 4. Jin uses a Strike Symbol from Connected Extension to deal 2 damage (+1 for the opponent being knocked down) before he Pushes the opponent away. Kazuya receives a Stun card and places it above the first available Attack Slot. Jin decides not to use the second Move Symbol from the Attack Card and ends his attack.
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Each Character has their own unique set of components. The components and the Symbols on them introduce unique mechanics specific to that Character.

You may find more detailed information about each Character’s Combos and Rage on the Characters’ Help Sheets.

	How to read schemes:
	Your Character’s Miniature on a Space on the Stage
	The opponent’s Character Miniature on a Space on the Stage
	Empty Space on the Stage, where you would need to move your Character’s Miniature.
	A Space between you and the opponent.
	Spaces where the opponent should stand on to receive the indicated damage, depending on the positions on the Stage. Note: This is not a Strike Symbol.
	Any distance in a straight line between Characters’ Miniatures, including Close Range.
	Blue arrow: Direction in which you have to move your Character’s Miniature in a straight line. Red arrow: Direction in which the opponent’s Character Miniature must be moved. Resolve all special Spaces on the way.
	Dotted arrow: move a Character’s Miniature to any of the indicated Spaces. Do not resolve special Spaces on the way.
	Push the opponent by X Spaces. Unlike the basic Push Symbol (pushing hand), this one can be resolved while in Distance.