Tiny Epic Zombies

To set up, find the Cooperative Courtyard card and place it face up in the center of the playing area. Arrange the remaining 8 double-sided mall cards around the courtyard in a 3x3 grid, rotating them so their entrance symbols face outwards. Place one zombie figure in each room that has an entrance symbol. On the central courtyard card, place the barricade token on space '2' of its track and two white survivor tokens in the designated area. The zombie player shuffles the player cards, draws three, chooses one to be their zombie character (placing a horde cube on space '1' of its track), and shuffles the rest back. Each human player is dealt three random player cards, chooses one, and places their colored item meeple, a wound marker on '0', and an ammo marker on '9' on their character card. Any unused cards and tokens are returned to the box. Place two trap tokens (gray side up) next to the mall section with the 'Arm a Trap' instruction. Place supply tokens on rooms with box symbols. Place the vehicle token (motorcycle or police car, depending on the card side) in its designated room. Place the 12 item miniatures and the melee die nearby. Shuffle the nine objective cards, draw three, and place them face up, ensuring their cooperative side is visible. Follow the specific setup rules on each objective card. Separate the supply cards into two decks: Deck A (pickup/event symbols) and Deck B (remaining cards). Shuffle Deck A and set it aside face down. Shuffle Deck B and deal 12 cards face down to form the search deck. The zombie player draws 8 cards from the search deck, chooses one for each human player to place face down in front of them (unexamined), and keeps the rest.

The primary objective for human players is to cooperatively complete all three chosen objectives before the zombie player achieves their win conditions. Each objective card outlines specific tasks and components required for completion. The Zombie player's goal is to eliminate all human survivors or destroy their barricade, preventing them from completing their objectives.

The game proceeds in turns, starting with a human player (the one who most recently visited a mall, or chosen randomly). Each human player's turn consists of three mandatory moves. After each move, the player can perform one of three actions: kill one zombie (if present in the room or an adjacent room via ranged attack), use a room's ability or interact with a token, or collect items. Walls do not block movement or ranged attacks due to damage. If a player moves into a room with a zombie, they must perform a melee attack by rolling the melee die. An 'overkill' result grants a free additional move. Taking wounds or running out of ammunition can lead to being 'eaten alive'. If a player is eaten alive, they drop all their equipped items and draw a new character. If no survivor tokens remain in the courtyard, the humans lose. After a human player's turn, the zombie player takes their turn. The zombie player checks the last revealed search card for a noise match with the store's entrance symbol. If there's a match, they activate a special ability from their zombie card (determined by their horde marker's position) and move the marker up. Then, they add two zombies to matching stores (lowest numbered rooms first). If a store is full, the zombie attacks the courtyard, reducing the barricade strength. If the barricade reaches zero and no survivors are left, the zombies win. Finally, the zombie player assigns a new face-down search card to the human player who most recently revealed theirs.

Tiny Epic Zombies is a cooperative game, so there is no individual scoring for human players. The group either wins or loses together. The Zombie player also does not accumulate points; their victory is determined by meeting specific loss conditions for the human players.

The game ends immediately when either the human players or the zombie player meets their victory conditions. Human players win if they successfully complete all three cooperative objectives. The Zombie player wins if there are no survivor tokens left in the courtyard when a human player is eaten alive, or if the barricade strength in the courtyard is reduced to zero when no survivor tokens are present. Additionally, if the search deck runs out and human players have not completed all objectives after each has taken one final turn, the zombie player wins.