Use Toggles to make changes to how the standard game plays. They’re great for mixing the game up a bit, or to make things more advanced!

There is a Trello board containing tonnes of game variations for you to try out.

Alternatively, you can download a slightly less up to date PDF:

Get it here. 

Feedback and additional experimentation most welcome!

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The standard version of the game can sometimes feel incredibly unbalanced, depending on which cards come up, so if you prefer something less chaotic, the game is easily adjustable. 

Below are a few gameplay suggestions to make the game more balanced, less luck based and offering players more control.

Play with more Staks!

This gives you many more choices and a greater impact on the game. 2 Staks each works well, but you can play with more.
Each Stak gets its own nominated attacker on your turn. You can for example attack a few times with one Stak, play a few cards, attack with the other, play more cards, then return to attacking with the original Stak. The decision tree branches a lot more this way, and it becomes very important what you do. If playing this way, we recommend using dice to show damage on cards and double-sided counters to show when a Stak has attacked once or can no longer attack. The game can get very confusing with several players each with lots of Staks, especially after a long entry-effect chain, but using dice and counters you can get as complicated as you wish!

Balanced decks

These allow you to have a more balanced game where each player has cards of a roughly equal strength. To setup: sort the cards into piles based on their rank and divide each rank pile equally between the players to create separate decks (any excess cards per rank are left out of the game). Each player shuffles and deals from their own deck and has their own supply and scrapheap pile to play from, rather than a shared pile. Other than this the game plays as normal.

You can also setup a point balanced game, where each player creates a deck to the same total rank points value, eg 120. You can have any number of cards in your deck.
When playing, each player can play with as many Staks as they wish. Each Stak gets its own attack on your turn, and you get one card in hand at the start of the game for each Stak you have. The rest form your individual supply pile.
Eg. player 1 plays with 2 Staks, so has a starting hand of 2. Their cards are generally high ranked so they have enough cards to make Staks that are 9 deep.
Player 2 chooses lower ranked cards so has more of them; they play with 4 Staks, 4 in their starting hand and opt for a deep supply pile because they have a lot of bountiful bots in their deck.
The extra attacks that player 2 gets due to having more Staks will balance out the fact that player 1’s cards are higher ranked.

Defend against attacks

Play with ‘reactive play’! This is a toggle that allows you to counter your opponent’s attacks so you’re not left stuck with strong cards in hand and a pathetic defence.
It also becomes key when to hold back cards and you can lure out your opponent’s defenders.
To play this way, when an attack is declared, the defending player may choose to play a card onto the Stak that would be attacked. If they do this, the declared attack is dismissed (the player is still free to choose a different card to attack with if they have not already attacked), and any entry effects of the defending player trigger as normal.
Eg. I say I am attacking with my core 6 against your core 5. You play a fatal bot in defence. I then play out a core 1 and attack with this, to which you respond by playing a shot bot to destroy it, etc etc.

 

Toggles

Change the gameplay with these options; try one at a time or a combination!

Stak depth:

Set up with either more or fewer cards face-down for each player, to make the game longer or shorter respectively. (If the supply pile runs out, shuffle the scrapheap and turn it face-down to become the new supply pile).

Reactive play:

When you are attacked you may protect yourself by playing a card onto the defending Stak before the attack takes effect. If you do, the attack is cancelled. The attacker can choose a different attacking card if they haven’t already completed an attack. Entry effects trigger as normal.

Recycling:

If a player scraps their top card at the same time as discarding a card from their hand, they may draw a card into their hand from the top of the supply pile (and then turn over their new top card if it is face-down).

Setup entry effects trigger:

Choose who plays first before turning over the top cards during setup. Any of these top cards with entry effects trigger at the start of the first player’s turn (before drawing a card). If there is more than one due to trigger, the priority follows the clockwise order of play while the other cards wait (remember that any new entry effects will take place before these waiting ones).

Borderless play:

You may play your cards onto other players’ Staks to support them (or hinder them!) If an entry effect triggers on their Stak, they choose the outcome. For a team game, you could limit this to just playing cards onto your team’s Staks.

Attack Tally: 

Instead of having one attack per Stak, you can specify a total number of attacking cards that each player is allowed on a turn. 

Floating Stak: 

Deal an extra Stak; it belongs to whoever’s turn it is. At the end of turn, it belongs to the next player. They can attack with it instead of one of their other Staks. Each player can scrap cards from it when it is their turn, but only one per turn. 

Feeding the scrapheap:

See what happens if you change the number of cards that have to be fed to the scrapheap each turn.

Impatience:

All drawn cards are played straight onto your Stak (apart from your starting hand). This makes for a fast game and some forced decisions you wouldn’t normally encounter.

Top Draw:

You may draw the top card of your Stak instead of drawing the top supply card at the start of your turn. Reuse those entry effects!.

Swapsies:

At the start of each turn, swap your top card(s) for your opponent’s (before drawing cards or entry effects). For multiple players, the top cards of each player move to the left. 

Feel free to experiment with your own ways to play and share them with others to try out!

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Variations

Quickfire Mode (instruction video link – opens in new window)

(suitable for younger players)

Age: 7+ up to adult

Players: 2 + 

Playing time: 5 mins or longer with more players or Staks

A very fast-paced game. Good for new players, young players or lots of players! Or for when you don’t want to think too much. Suitable as a casual or party game.

Although you don’t draw each turn, you can always replace your top card with the supply card, so you’re never out of options.

Battle Mode!

(suitable for younger players)

Game difference summary:
There is only one attack at the end of your turn.
Damage doesn’t add up, so the cards heal as soon as they are damaged. This means that you have to defeat a card in one hit (so you cannot use an attack together with a Shot Bot to destroy a card). You can however play several shot bots together at the same time and add their damage together.

Setup:

Take out the Stomp Bot cards; they don’t work for this mode.

You can also take out the Leader Bots, Tranq Bots, Trip Bots and Sidekick Bots to start with to make the game simpler. You can add them back in later when you’re more familiar with the game.

Deal 6 cards face-down to each player to make their Stak pile and deal 2 cards face-down to each player for their hand.

Decide who is going to go first.

Turn over the top card of each Stak. Follow the instructions for any cards that have entry effects > . If there is more than one card, the player whose turn it is goes first. If any more entry effects appear, follow the instructions for these too.

The first player then starts their turn.

Battle Mode! Turn Structure

1. Draw a card (unless you already have 3 or more cards in your hand)

2. Play a card from your hand or scrap a card from the top of your Stak

Play cards on top of your Stak without fully covering the card below, so that you can see the name of the card underneath it. If it has an entry effect, follow the instructions on the card now. If you play more than one Shot Bot card at the same time then you can add their damage together.

Scrap the top card of your Stak if you want to, to get to the card below: put it face-up into the discard pile. If necessary, turn the next card to face-up.

You can do step 2 as many times as you want. You can also just battle immediately without playing or scrapping any cards. A good time to go to step 3 is when you have a stronger card on the top of your Stak than the person you are playing against.

3. BATTLE!!! Attack another player’s top card with your top card; they damage each other at the same time, equal to their green power number. The higher number will destroy the lower numbered card, or both will be scrapped if they are the same number (unless they are both power 0, in which case nothing happens). Remember that some cards have abilities like Bash and Spike and Fatal which happen when they battle. If you are playing more than one opponent, choose which of them to attack.

4. Your turn ends. Let the player on your left know it is their turn now.

When you have destroyed all of the other player’s cards in their Stak, you have won the game!!!

Blitz game

The rules are the same as normal with one exception – you do not draw a card at the start of your turn, but instead you have the option to place your top card face-up at the bottom of its Stak (you can only do this once at the start of your turn. Remember to feed the scrapheap. If you are playing Multi-Stak, choose only one top card to drop). This is the quickest and simplest way to play and is also good if you are starting out, as it limits the number of cards and choices you have to deal with at any one time. Try playing with no starting hand at first, then build up when you are more experienced. A large hand with reactive play can be interesting!

Team games

Staggered:

Divide the number of players into teams of equal numbers. The game plays as normal except that as long as anyone on your team is still in the game you are not out, even if your Stak is empty; draw cards and play them as normal until all of your team’s Staks run out. You can try different seating arrangements so you are either all sat opposite your teammate, or seated randomly.

Synchronous:

All members of your team sit together each with their own Stak and all participate in the team’s turn, taking actions between them in any order, eg. one player could attack, then another player on your team attacks, then the first player plays a card. Each team member gets to choose an attacking card from their Stak. This can get complicated so it can be helpful to move a Stak back slightly once it is no longer able to attack to help keep track of things! Each player on your team draws a card on your team’s turn and the minimum amount of cards to feed the scrapheap is equal to the number of players on your team. As with staggered team play, each team member stays in the game until the whole team’s Staks run out.

Multi-Stak games

This plays the same as a synchronous team game except that each player has two (or more) Staks, rather than having a team controlling those Staks. The main difference is that a player can play from their hand onto any of their multiple Staks. Each player draws one card on their turn and must feed at least one card to the scrapheap. You can choose an attacking card from each of your Staks and keep attacking in any order (or as a simpler variation, limit each player to one attacking card per turn).

 

Ranked games

These allow you to have a more balanced game where each player has cards of a roughly equal strength.

To setup: sort the cards into piles based on their rank and divide each rank pile equally between the players to create separate decks (any excess cards per rank are left out of the game). Each player shuffles and deals from their own deck and has their own supply and scrapheap pile to play from, rather than a shared pile. Other than this the game plays as normal. You can alternatively setup by taking turns to choose cards from each rank, thereby building a deck that adjusts to the strengths andweaknesses of the cards your opponents choose.

Single player / Solitaire Drone Mode

Experimental:

Chase-play Mode

For 2+ players. Playing time: 5 mins.

Setup the game

• Take out the Stomp Bot cards when learning.(You can also take out the Leader Bot and Tranq Bot cards to start with to make the game simpler. You can add them back in later when you’re more familiar with the game).
• Shuffle the cards.

• Deal 7 cards face-down to each player. This is their Stak.
• Deal 2 cards face-down to each player. This is their Hand.
• Choose a player to go first.
• Turn over the top card of each Stak so it is face-up (ignore any entry effects on these starting cards).

Note:

– The top card of a Stak is always turned to face-up (unless you are mid swap).

– If it has the > symbol , then an entry effect happens as soon as it first turns to face-up in the Stak or is played from hand; just follow the instructions on the card.

– One entry effect may trigger another one to create a chain.

– Damaged cards heal instantly if they’re not destroyed, so Shot Bots have to destroy in one hit and can’t be used to finish off damaged cards.

Now you are ready to start the game!

On your turn

You may do one of four actions: Attack, Swap, Play or Scrap.

You can do these as many times as you like, until it is not your turn.

– If you attack a player, it becomes their turn after the battle.

– If an entry effect appears at any point it triggers, and the player who it targeted gets to go next after it has taken effect; they may then have an entry effect of their own that they have to trigger and if this targets another player or their Stak then it will become their turn.

Actions

Attack: Your top card battles another player’s top card.

The cards damage each other at the same time, equal to their green power number. The higher number will destroy the lower numbered card, or both will be scrapped if they are the same number (unless they are both power 0, in which case nothing happens).

Note:

– Remember that some cards have abilities like Bash and Spike and Fatal which happen when they battle.

– If an entry effect appears when a card scraps, it becomes that player’s turn and they trigger their effect.

– If two entry effects appear at the same time, then the player who got attacked gets to trigger theirs and the other is ignored.

Swap: Scrap your top card. Replace it with a new card from the draw pile and place it face-up on your Stak.

Follow any entry effect instructions on the card.

 Play: Play a card from your hand onto the top of your Stak. Place it so that you can see the name of the face-up card underneath. Remember entry effects!

 Scrap: Scrap your top card. Turn the next card to face-up if it is face-down and follow any entry effects.

When you have destroyed all of the other player’s cards in their Stak, you have won the game!!!

Stomp Bot

This Bot is tricky to use but fun! Add him back in once you are more familiar with the game.

When he attacks another Stak, he stays attacking it and builds up damage until he is scrapped,  stops being the top card, or is reset (eg by Tranq Bot). This means a 6 power Stomp Bot would be destroyed after it fights a 2 core then a 5 core for example (it would still destroy the 5 core; it always hits at full power, even when damaged).

Entry effects can trigger inbetween and chains happen as normal, but once the chain is finished, Stomp Bot continues his attack on the same Stak.

 Tweaking the game

Easier

To make it even simpler you can play without a hand; remove Bountiful Bot, Begone Bot and Expel Bot and ignore the ‘Play’ action.

Harder

To make it more complicated, you can add more Staks; deal each player an extra Stak of 7 cards.
When it is their turn they can choose which Stak to attack with, play onto, scrap or swap.
Entry effects and attackers can target any Stak.