Introduction
Oh, how I love this game! It’s a wonderful balance of cute art, strategy, rolling dice, and messing with your friends. However, it can be quite tricky to first pick up when you see the massive stack of cards and how different they all are. So, please allow me to be your humble guide to learning and mastering the art of Here to Slay.
Objective
In Here to Slay, there are two win conditions. You will need to either collect at least one of each of the six classes of hero card and have them all in your party at the end of your turn, or you will need to slay three monster cards using the heroes in your party. All the while, you’ll be up against your opponents who will try to skew the odds against your favour by trying to stop you placing cards down or by adding or subtracting from your dice rolls for various things.
Setup
As it’s all cards, the set up is fairly straightforward. Start by having each player pick one of the six party leaders (the large light-backed cards) and place it face up in front of them – though note that “The Shadow Claw” cannot be used for a two-player run of this game – and place the rest back in the box. Whoever picked their party leader last will have the advantage of getting to play first. You might also each want a copy of the rules reference cards that are provided in the game.
Next, you will need to shuffle the monster cards (the large dark-backed cards) and lay three out face up in the middle of the play area with the rest face down in their own little draw pile next to it.
Last, but not least, shuffle the big ol’ desk of the regular cards, deal 5 cards to each player as their starting hand, then put the rest in the middle of the play area to form the draw pile. Now you’re ready to begin!
Turn actions
In Here to Slay, on your turn, you have three action points to spend on the following:
For one action point (you may do one of these two or three times, spending another action point each time):
· Draw a card from the draw pile,
· Play a Hero (add to your party), Item (add to a hero card), or Magic card from your hand,
· Roll to attempt to use the effect of a hero already in your Party.
For two action points:
· Roll to attempt to slay a monster card.
For three action points:
· Discard your entire hand and draw five new cards.
Some cards will say you can perform an action “immediately”, meaning you don’t have to spend another action point to take that action.
Your turn ends when you either run out of action points, or you skip the rest of your turn and forego your remaining action points.
Cards
Let’s try to demystify the many types of cards you will encounter in this game. There is no hand limit in this game, and no limit to the number of heroes in your party. The only limit is those action points above.
Classes
It’s first good to know the six classes that appear on your party leader and on hero cards, and will be relevant for a few other cards:
You’ll probably notice throughout the game that heroes of the same class generally have similar vibes of effects. For example, thief cards tend to steal cards from other players, and guardians tend to protect cards from being stolen or help better your odds on dice rolls.
Party leaders
These are permanent effects that you possess throughout the whole game, and there is one party leader for each of the six classes. For example, if you chose “The Cloaked Sage”, every time you play a magic card in the game, you get to draw a new card. Your party cannot be taken away from you or destroyed in any way. They do count towards the game objective of collecting all the classes but do not count towards party requirements for slaying monster cards.
Monsters
These are your fearsome foes for this game (if you don’t count your fellow players as foes!) If you manage to slay one of them, you will receive a new permanent effect (which is detailed in the white tab at the bottom of the card). But one does not simply outright fight a monster in Here to Slay – you first need the right party composition. On each monster card is a “requirement”, which shows a variety of icons that is the minimum your party needs to be in order to try and attack it (as previously stated, this does not include your party leader). Sometimes this will be just a minimum party size, and at other times, you will need a hero of a specific class in order to take them on.
Once you have fulfilled the requirements and are ready to attack the monster, you will roll the two dice to see if you succeed or fail! How do you know if you’ve succeeded or failed? Well, there are two boxes on each monster card – one red with “X-” and one green with “Y+” inside it. If your dice roll is equal to or lower than the X number, you fail and are subject to the effect describe next to it (usually discarding some cards or sacrificing some of your hero cards). If it is equal to or higher than the Y number, you succeed and may add the monster to your player area! This is usually next to your party leader, but it doesn’t particularly matter, as long as you can easily see and remember the new effect you have just obtained.
Heroes
Hero cards have coloured borders. Each hero card shows you a fun little hero that you can choose to add to your party. They will each have the icon to represent their class displayed. When placed or activated, you will need to roll the two dice to see if you can use the hero’s effected described on the card. How do you know if you’ve succeeded? Well, to the left of the effect is a little green box with “X+” in it. When you add together the roll of your two dice, if it is equal to or greater than the X number, you get to use the effect! If not, well unfortunately, you’ve missed out and can’t get your action point back (but if you’ve just played your hero – don’t worry! They still get to be in your party, and maybe you’ll be able to succeed on their effect another time.)
Items
Item cards have dark grey borders. When you play one of these, you choose a hero to attach it to (each hero can only have a maximum of one item attached to it) and slide the item card under the hero card so just the description of the effect is poking out the bottom. Items are permanent effects for the hero card to which they are attached. For example, you may get +1 on your dice roll when rolling for that hero’s effect, or it may be counted as a different type of class than the one of the hero card. Unless otherwise stated, when a hero card is destroyed, sacrificed, or stolen and has an item attached to it, the item also gets destroyed, sacrificed, or stolen along with it.
Magic
Magic cards have light grey borders. These are fun immediate actions, such as drawing cards, removing items, adding to your rolls, stealing heroes – you name it! Just do what the card tells you to when you play it.
Modifiers
Now this is where things start to get devious! Modifiers are borderless cards with an image of a potion on it and, as the name suggests, can be used to modifier dice rolls – yours or another player’s. They will add to or subtract from the result of the dice roll, depending on the particular modifier card. If you want to use a modifier with a dice roll, you must use it IMMEDIATELY after the dice have been rolled. Multiple people can use multiple modifiers on the same dice roll, just to throw more chaos into the mix. You will notice that most of the modifiers have both a positive and negative value on them, you simply chose which you want of the two you want to use, and state it as you play it.
Challenges
These are borderless cards with an image of swords clashing on them. Challenge cards are your way of trying to derail some of your opponent’s moves. When a player ( we’ll call them the defender) wants to play a hero, item, or magic card, another player (the challenger) may play a challenge card immediately (make sure this is before they have tried to roll for an effect if it’s for a hero card!) This means that the defender’s new card is now at risk of being discarded and lost. The defender must first roll the two dice to set the challenge value. The challenger must them also roll the two dice. If they roll equal to or higher than the defender, the defender must then discard the card they were trying to play, and they will not get a new action point to replace the one they lost. I notice that challenge cards are often a bit forgotten in Here to Slay, so make sure to give them their time to shine!
Terms
The main rulebook helps with clearing up the differences in some terms used, but just to restate:
· Discard: move a card from your hand to the discard pile,
· Sacrifice: move a card from your Party to the discard pile
· Destroy: move a card from another player’s Party to the discard pile,
· Steal: move a card from another player’s Party to your Party.
Overview
So, as a TLDR; in Here to Slay, on your turn, spend action points to draw cards, play cards, use party cards’ effects and attack monsters. Use modifier cards to change the value for any dice roll that is used for attacking monsters, using card effects, or for challenge cards. And use challenge cards for the chance of stopping a player from playing a new card. First to six classes obtained or three monsters slain wins, so keep an eye out on what your opponents are doing!
