5-Minute Dungeon

To set up, each player selects a hero mat and the corresponding deck of cards, placing the hero mat face-up in front of them. Players then shuffle their hero deck and draw a starting hand, with the number of cards drawn depending on the total number of players in the game. The dungeon is prepared by taking the boss mat for the current dungeon, combining the indicated number of door cards with two challenge cards per player, shuffling them, and placing this combined deck on top of the boss mat to hide its symbols.

The primary objective of 5-Minute Dungeon is a cooperative one: players must work together to fight their way through five increasingly difficult dungeons, each culminating in a boss battle. The ultimate goal is to defeat the final boss, the Dungeon Master, within the strict 5-minute time limit for each dungeon, to win the game.

During a round, which lasts 5 minutes, players deal with challenges by playing cards. They can defeat a door card by playing resource cards (swords, arrows, scrolls, jumps, or shields) from their hand to match all the symbols on the door card. Resource cards are placed in the center of the table and then swept away. Alternatively, players can use action cards, which have special effects like instantly defeating a monster or pausing time, and are also swept away after use. Hero-specific abilities, shown on each hero mat, can also be activated by discarding three cards face-up to a player's discard pile. After playing or discarding cards, players immediately refill their hand back to its starting size.

5-Minute Dungeon is a fully cooperative game, meaning there is no individual scoring. The entire party either wins or loses together. Success is measured by the collective ability to defeat all five dungeon bosses within their respective 5-minute time limits. If the party fails to defeat a boss before the timer runs out, they lose that round and must restart the entire game from the first dungeon, Baby Barbarian.

The game concludes in one of two ways: victory or defeat. Players achieve victory by successfully navigating and defeating all five dungeons, culminating in the defeat of the Dungeon Master (Boss #5). If, however, the 5-minute timer runs out during any dungeon before the boss is defeated, the party loses that round and must restart their entire adventure from the very first dungeon, Baby Barbarian. The game continues until either all five bosses are defeated or the players decide to give up after repeated failures.