Quick Start Guide

Basics of your City

Terrus is a game of city building, battle, and politics.

A) First step is to choose a FORMAT:

- Standard CONSTRUCTED play requires a 60-card deck of Terrus cards (without basic structures and basic resources), a chosen Clade card that is placed in the center of your city, 4+ Relic cards, the 4 basic Events, and then a set of the 6 basic structures and plenty of basic resources to contribute to making the market.

- DECK-BUILDING play requires a 12-card starting deck of the six basic structures and one of each of the basic resources, a communal RELIC deck with 4+ cards per player, and the 4 basic Events. Then you must create a WILDS deck, which can be a random or curated collection of cards (100+ recommended).

B) Next you choose a Clade. Clade cards represent your alliance with a particular species and offers special bonuses to those Beasts you rule. The Clade provides a vital resource (upper right-hand corner) that helps you get started. The Clade is the most important location in your city and can be attacked as it also represents your Vitae (printed in the bottom-left corner). If your vitae every reaches zero, you lose the game. Consider each player's city as a grid with an empty row behind the clade card and a row in front. This will help organize your city.

If you don't have a Clade card, you can use the

- Terrus Vitae App -

- See card type CLADE for more info -

Beasts in your City

Beasts are the protagonists to your civilization's development. They have a species, special abilities, a recruit cost (center), a fealty cost (upper right-hand corner) for barter at the Market, a season, and statistics including Attack, Intelligence, and Defense.

Beasts can be placed into your city during your Day phase when you "Recruit" them by paying their recruit cost (1+plant resource on this Capridae Chef) and placing them in any empty space attached vertically or horizontally to a location in your city (Clade or Structure).

- See card type BEASTS for more info -

Beasts can vote, attack, defend, and use abilities. Place Beasts around your city to provide the most efficient protection and look for synergies with other cards.

Structures that Shape your Civilization

Structures help build out your city, providing more defense of your Clade, more space to attach beasts, and their own abilities. Structures can be placed in your city in any empty location during your Day phase when you "build" them by paying their build cost (center). You cannot move a Structure without a special ability so be extra sure where you want to build! Consider whether the structure should be protected behind your clade or other structures, or in the front of your city and vulnerable to attack.

Be sure to keep track of how many structures you rule. One of the win conditions is beginning your turn with 10 or more structures in your city!

- See card type STRUCTURES for more info -

Bartering at the Market and the Wilds

In all play formats there is a Market where you have to "Barter" for cards during your Day phase to add to your deck. The market consists of 2-3 rows with basic resources on the top, basic structures in the second row, and a third row of cards from the Wilds (shown here with the back of terrus cards - these will be face up during play) that are optional in constructed formats.

The Wilds feeds the third row of the market, replacing any empty space with the top card of the Wilds when a card is bartered for. The entire third row is overlayed with cards whenever the ability Activate the Wilds occurs, placing six new face up cards. This can hide cards below it which means you'll have to barter your way through to gain access to them again.

When you barter for a card you must pay a market cost (upper right-hand corner) printed in fealty points. You pay Fealty by using resources that you've generated from your city or by discarding from your hand on a 1-1 basis. When the market cost is paid, that card is added directly to your hand if you are playing CONSTRUCTED format and to the discard pile if you are playing DECK-BUILDING format.

- IMPORTANT RULE - When you barter for a card, you may waive fealty costs in that card's recruit, forge, or build cost if you can play it during the same turn.

Important rules for the Market:

1) You may only Barter for one basic resource and one basic structure per turn, so choose wisely!

2) You may Barter for as many cards as you can afford from the third row which are cards taken from the Wilds.

3) Rules for the Wilds: Whenever you barter for a card in the first or second row (basic resource and basic structure rows), place the top card from the Wilds face-up over the card in the third row in the same column from where you bought - effectively blocking what was there! (in the image example, if you buy a bug, or a hive, put the top card of the Wilds in the space below in the same column).

Forging Items

During your Day phase you may also "Forge" an item from your hand by paying the Forge cost (center of the card). The item must be attached to a Beast in your city. Items can be valuable assets for your Beasts, giving them special abilities, or increasing their statistics.

Items can be transferred from one Beast to another but only once per turn during your Day phase. A Beast can have any number of items unless otherwise noted.

Items do not take up a space in your city.

- See card type ITEMS for more info -

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Battle for Supremacy and Survival!

During your Dusk phase you may choose to attack another ruler's city beginning a Battle sequence. First, choose any number of Beasts you rule to make up your attacking army. Then, assign them to a skirmish at each location in the outermost row of an opponent's city. The defending player then will assign beasts they rule to those locations where there will be an active skirmish with a few restrictions: A beast can only guard locations that are in the same row, or locations that they are directly attached to.

The defending player may then resolve each skirmish one at time, although if there is a skirmish at their Clade, that must be the last skirmish resolved in a battle. Each skirmish begins with the defending player having priority to first play a Dusk effect or action. Actions that say "Battle: " can only be played during these skirmishes. Abilities that say "Battle: " can only be activated if the Beast or Structure is in the current skirmish. Priority to play actions and abilities is passed back and forth from defender to attacker.

Once all desired effects and actions are taken (priority is passed by both players), the attacking Army will distribute wounds equal to the total Attack (ATK) of their beasts in the skirmish to the guarding beasts, which will be buried in the ravine if they take wounds equal to or exceeding their Defense (DEF) during the resolution. Any extra wounds that exceed the total Defense (DEF) of those guarding beasts can be applied to the location. If the location is a structure and the wounds are equal to or more than its Defense (DEF), that structure is buried at the resolution. If the location is the player's Clade, that player loses vitae equal to those wounds at the resolution.

The defending player may then counter-attack by adding the total ATK of their guarding beasts and distributing wounds to the attacking beasts in the same way. Once all the wounds are distributed, the skirmish is resolved and the surviving attacking beasts are fatigued. The defending player then chooses the next active skirmish to begin. Once all skirmishes are resolved, the battle ends.

Voting Mechanics

The pen can be just as mighty as the sword! In Terrus there is a Voting mechanic that allows those Beasts of higher intelligence to dominate the game play.

Voting actions and abilities (called Conclave Votes) can be found on Beasts, Structures, and Actions, but there is also the Dominion Vote that can be called without any special ability or action. Most votes have an inherent risk to failure, although some are more forgiving than others!

All Voting operates in the same way. At Dusk, a Vote is called by the player whose turn it is, choosing between either a Conclave vote or a Dominion vote. Then opponents have their turns to increase the total Intelligence (INT) in their cities. At the next Dawn of the player who called vote, add up the INT of all Beasts in their city and compare it to the total INT of Beasts in each Opponent's city. If the player that called the vote has the highest, they Win. Win and Loss consequences are then triggered before moving on with the next step of the Dawn phase. If there is a tie, then the vote is nullified and there is no effect.

The Dominion Vote can be initiated by any player during their Dusk phase as long as they have at least one Beast in their city. If the player that called the Dominion vote wins, they draw 1. If the player that called the Dominion vote loses, they discard 1. If a player calls and wins a Dominion Vote and has a total of 15 or more INT in their city, they immediately win the game!

Duels

A Duel is a contest of strength, wits, and/or fortitude between two Beasts. A normal Duel has three rounds based first on ATK, then on INT, then on DEF. The winner must win best two out of three. In the case of a tie, the duel is nullified and all effects are cancelled.

Each round of a duel, both players will place a face-down card from their hand on the table, then both players count to three together and either reveal (fight) or keep face-down (flight) their card. Fight means they commit the card, Flight means returning the card to their hand. Revealed cards add their market cost Fealty value to their relevant statistic for that round. Whichever player's has the highest added value wins that round. The round is considered a tie if the statistics add up to the same number. The committed cards are then placed in their player's discard pile. Once the duel ends, the consequences are triggered. Normally a losing beast of a Duel is buried, although there can be different consequences detailed on the card that initiated the duel.

There are also special Duels that only include one round associated with a particular statistic. This will be designated as a ATKDuel, an INTDuel, or a DEFDuel.

The Path to Victory!

There are numerous ways to win the game, and new conditions will be added as new narratives and mechanics emerge with new sets.

1) METROPOLIS VICTORY - Begin your turn with at least 10 structures in your city.

2) MILITARY VICTORY - Destroy another player's clade by reducing their vitae to zero.

3) POLITICAL VICTORY - Win a dominion vote with a total INT of 15 or more.

4) RELIC VICTORY - Begin your turn with 4 relics in your exhibition.

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Play Sequence

Each player takes a turn with a sequence of phases. Each activity can only be done once unless otherwise noted.

Dawn

Day

Each effect happens in the following order:

Empty your cart and refresh all your abilities.
Resolve an event or remove a time counter from the current event.
Resolve a Vote by counting the total INT of Beasts in your city versus the total INT in each opponent's city.
Move 1 Beast from one location in your city to another and/or move 1 Item from one Beast in your city to another.
Return all fatigued Beasts to locations in your city.
Draw 2.
Dawn Abilities of Structures, Beasts, Items, Resources, and Actions.

Each of the following can be done once in ANY order, ANY number of times:

RECRUIT a Beast from your hand and attach it to a location in your city with a free space.
BUILD a structure from your hand and place it in an empty location in your city.
BARTER to acquire a card from the Market. (To hand in CONSTRUCTED formats, to your discard in DECK-BUILDING format)
FORGE an Item from your hand and attach it to a Beast you control.
Day Abilities of Structures, Beasts, Items, Resources, and Actions.

Dusk

Each of the following can be done in ANY order:

Attack another player and begin the Battle sequence once per turn.
VOTE (choose CONCLAVE or DOMINION vote.) once per turn.
Dusk Abilities of Structures, Beasts, Items, Resources, and Actions.

Night

Each effect happens in the following order:

Night Abilities of Structures, Beasts, Items, Resources, and Actions.
Discard down to your hand limit of six.

Actions and Abilities

As seen in the sequence description, each player has a specific set of Actions and Abilities that can be taken during each turn. Action cards and Beasts, Structures, Items, and Clades with Abilities all have the symbols of the different times of day (Dawn, Day, Dusk, Night), which means they can be played during that phase of any player's turn unless otherwise noted.

The player who's turn it is has priority to play the first action or ability, then passing in a clockwise direction after their Action or Ability is resolved. Each action or ability resolves completely before the next one is played unless the ability has a reaction or cancel effect. These effects are often have a special phase symbol, the Anytime, featured on "Legal Objection" or have a triggered ability that has an "When" or "If" clause.

Action cards are placed in their ruler's discard after their effect resolves. Some actions have effects that last until a certain phase, until end of turn, or even until end of season. Abilities with phase symbols are exhausted once they are resolved and cannot be activated again until they are refreshed at the beginning of their ruler's next turn. Abilities on Beasts, Structures, and Items can be used the turn those cards enter your city. Fatigued beasts cannot use their activated abilities.

- See card type ACTION for more info -

Resources and Resource cards

Resources come in a variety of forms in Terrus. There are fealty points (brown coin with a wreath and number) that are generic value, food resources (plant, bug, meat) and material resources (Wood, Stone, and Crystal). These are represented by the symbols shown here and are found on cards in their market costs, in recruit, build, and forge costs and in costs to play actions or activate abilities. When paying a cost, a ruler may discard a card from their hand to add 1 fealty.

Food and Material resources as well as fealty points all are added to a pool called the Cart, and stay there until used on a cost, or until the beginning of that player's next turn when it empties. It helps to use tokens to keep track of which resources are currently in a player's cart.

Resource cards are a specific card type, the most common of which are basic resources (Plant shown here). Resource cards can be played at any phase of a turn and are buried in the ravine when they resolve. To play a resource card you must have priority unless it is a basic resource.

- See card type RESOURCE for more info -

Events and Seasons

Events are special cards that can dramatically alter the game play with new mechanics, rewards for completing objectives, and collective punishment. At the beginning of the first player's turn, the first event from the top of the event deck is revealed. When an event is revealed, place a number of time counters on it as indicated by the number in the upper right-hand corner. Thereafter, at the beginning of each player's dawn phase, remove one time counter. When the last time counter is removed, resolve the event and then replace it with the next event from the event deck.

Relics

Relics are rewards gained from events or other effects and abilities.

- See Relics for more information -

Each player begins the game with their own deck of at least 4 face-down and shuffled relics. When a relic is gained, it goes immediately into play face-up in an area called the Exhibition, on the left side of a player's game space.

Relics have different abilities so the best strategies curate their relic decks to work in synergy with their deck strategy. Having 4 Relics in play at the beginning of a ruler's dawn phase is a win condition.

The Ravine

The ravine is where all cards go when they are buried. It is a communal space used by all players and can be accessed or interacted with using different abilities.

There is a Ravine card (see image) that just serves as a place holder for the Ravine, which can be played opposite the market in the game space.

Certain species are more adept at interacting with the ravine so look out for unique strategies that have an effect on buried cards!

Seasons are an important part of Event game play with some specific rules to keep in mind:

1) All events have seasons (spring, summer, fall, winter) in the upper left hand corner. Seasons are also on all Beast cards. If you discard a Beast to pay a fealty cost during its season, it counts as 2 fealty points. The term used here is that a card is "seasonal". There are other effects or abilities in the game that have different effects during different seasons as well.

2) When an event changes and there is a different season, you must activate the Wilds if it is in play. This can change the market dramatically by filling each space with a new card to barter for!

3) Many effects and abilities say, "until end of season." This means that they last until the season changes. Sometimes an event will end and the next event is the same season, meaning that there is no change and the "until end of season" effect continues.

- See Events page for specific details -