Abyss

To set up the game, place the main game board in the center of the playing area. Shuffle the exploration cards and place them face-down on their designated space. Shuffle the lord cards and place them face-down on their space, then deal the top six lord cards face-up into the spaces on the right side of the board. Place the shuffled face-down location tiles below the board, dealing one face-up beside it. Set the threat track nearby with its red token at the top. Place the double-sided monster tokens into a shuffled face-down pool, along with the key tokens. Put all pearls into a treasury cup. Each player takes a personal cup and one pearl from the treasury. Randomly select a start player.

Players aim to gain the most influence points by the end of the game. Influence is primarily acquired through recruiting powerful lords, forming alliances with various races, and controlling strategic locations. Making the right choices in these areas will be crucial to becoming the crowned leader of the ocean.

A turn consists of three steps. First, you may optionally 'Plot at Court' by paying one pearl to reveal a new lord card if there are empty spaces in the revealed lords row. Second, you must perform one of three main actions: 'Explore the Depths' (reveal exploration cards, offering them to opponents for pearls or keeping them), 'Request Support from the Council' (take a stack of face-down ally cards from the council area), or 'Recruit a Lord' (pay ally cards from your hand to claim a revealed lord). Third, if you have collected three keys, you must 'Control a Location' by choosing from available face-up location tiles or drawing from the face-down stack.

At the end of the game, players calculate their influence points. Points are gained from the values shown on their recruited lords (including those used to control locations), points from their controlled locations based on printed instructions, points from their affiliated allies (the highest-valued ally of each race), and points from any collected monster tokens. These points are recorded on the provided score sheet.

The game ends immediately when one of two conditions is met: either a player recruits their seventh lord (counting any lords used to control locations), or a player attempts to recruit a lord and the lord deck does not have enough cards to fully refill the court. After the end-game is triggered, the active player completes their current turn, and then every other player gets one final turn. After all players have taken their last turn, final scoring commences.