Clank!: Catacombs

To set up Clank!: Catacombs, place the main board and set the dragon rage track based on player count. Separate and shuffle depth and regular dungeon tiles, stacking them nearby alongside token piles, the market board, and the artifact stack in ascending value order. Place 24 black dragon cubes into the dragon bag and keep ghost cubes ready. Lay out the starting tile with the monkey shrine and mastery tokens. Organize card piles into the reserve, goblin, and face-down dungeon deck with a six-card dungeon row, handling any arrive effects. Finally, each player takes 30 Clank cubes, a pawn placed at the crypt, three lockpick tokens, and a starting deck of ten cards, drawing an opening hand of five.

The main goal is to navigate a shifting subterranean dungeon, acquire treasures and a mandatory artifact, and escape back to the surface crypt before being knocked out by the dragon. Players compete to earn the highest total score through artifacts, cards, gold, and tokens, claiming the title of greatest thief.

On your turn, you must play all cards from your hand into your play area. Cards generate three main resources: skill (blue) to buy new cards and use devices, swords (red) to defeat monsters, and boots (yellow) to move through tunnels and explore new tile pieces. After playing and resolving cards, you end your turn by discarding played cards, drawing a new hand of five, refilling the dungeon row, and resolving potential dragon attacks based on collected Clank cubes and newly revealed dragon symbols.

When the game ends, eligible surviving players or those knocked out on pink depth tiles calculate their final scores. Add up point values printed on collected artifacts, all cards in your hand, deck, and discard pile, gold tokens, monkey idols, secret tomes, and satisfied prisoner conditions. The player with the most points wins, with ties broken by the most valuable artifact.

The game concludes immediately once every player has either safely returned to the starting crypt with an artifact or been knocked out by taking too much damage. Additionally, the game ends instantly if the dungeon deck runs out when trying to refill the row or if the dragon bag is empty after an attack, knocking out all remaining players.