Relic Run is a cooperative fantasy deck-builder card game for 1–4 players. Players control heroes who fight together against groups of enemies. Each hero has a personal starting deck of 10 cards, equipment, health (HP), four attributes (Stamina, Instinct, Arcana, Grit — each mapped to a die color), an Aether pool, and their own pool of Action Points (AP) to play cards.

The game is played in battles (scenarios). Between battles, heroes upgrade their decks, attributes, or equipment using XP earned from enemy kills and zone discoveries. The core loop is the battle system described below.

Key Design Pillars

Each hero has HP (varies per hero), Aether (resource for spark conversion, weapon powers, and card abilities), four Attributes (Stamina, Instinct, Arcana, Grit — one per die color), a deck of 10 cards, Equipment slots (Left Hand, Right Hand, Armor, Trinket[s]), and a hand of up to 5 cards drawn each round.

Attributes

Every hero has four attribute scores, each tied to a die color. Values are preset on pre-built heroes or chosen at custom creation. Attributes feed the future Attribute Test system (events, skill checks, scenario challenges, between-battle content — currently any attribute check auto-fails until the test system is wired in).

Shared Activation Deck

All enemy types share a single activation deck. At round start, 1 card is drawn per living enemy type (not per individual). When the deck is empty, shuffle the discard and redraw — no cards burn. These are revealed to all players.

Future Death Trigger Types

The engine supports additional death trigger types not yet assigned to any enemy:

• Wound to Killer — Places a Wound card into the killing hero's discard pile on death.

The battlefield has 6 zones arranged vertically — 3 per side:

The Flank Bridge

Player Flank and Enemy Flank are connected by a shortcut — they are only 1 boundary apart for reach/distance purposes. This creates an alternate, shorter attack path.

Zone Effects (Tutorial Scenario)

Effect types:

• Armor (+2 Armor): Granted to each hero in the zone at round start. Resets each round.
• Bulwark (+1 Bulwark): Added to every enemy in that zone. Permanent, not consumed.
• Incoming damage (+1 Damage from enemies): Every enemy attack vs. targets in that zone deals +1.
• Outgoing damage (+1 Damage per attack): Every hero attack from that zone deals +1 per hit.
• Reach (+1 Reach): Added to every entity in that zone.

Zone Rarity

Distance is measured in zone boundaries crossed. The battlefield has two paths: the linear chain and the Flank Bridge. Distance uses the shorter of the two.

Base Distance Table

Empty Zone Rule

Zone Reach Bonuses

Zone reach bonuses (like Enemy Backline +1 Reach) are added to the entity's base weapon reach, calculated at attack time based on the entity's current zone.

Doom Track Reach Bonus

Card Anatomy

Every card has a Name, an AP Cost (0–2), a Play Effect (triggered when played from hand), and a Discard Effect (triggered when discarded via the DISCARD action). A card never triggers both effects.

Card Zones (Per Hero)

When the deck is empty and a draw is needed, shuffle the discard pile into a new deck. The Burn Pile holds permanently destroyed cards — never retrieved. Cards enter the burn pile from burn-after-play effects (Devastating Blow, Rampage, Druwhnish Aim).

The Wound Supply is a shared pool of 10 wound cards. When a Wound is triggered on draw, it is destroyed (returned to the supply, NOT burned). If empty, no new wounds can be placed. The Curse Supply is a parallel shared pool of 10 curse cards (specific trigger effects TBD).

Zone-Locked Cards

Every card has required zones — it can only be played when the hero is in one of its listed zones. If the hero is not in a required zone, the card is greyed out. Moving to a different zone changes which cards are playable.

AP is a per-hero resource. Each hero generates and spends their own AP independently. Heroes cannot share AP.

AP Generation

AP Spending

Cards have variable costs: 0 AP (free setup/combo cards), 1 AP (standard), or 2 AP (power plays). Fortune Dice cost 1 AP each (adds a White Die to the next attack roll). Moving does NOT cost AP (sacrifices cards instead). Discarding does NOT cost AP. Unspent AP carries over to the next round (added to whatever is banked via discards).

Attack Resolution (Player → Enemy)

1. Player drags an Attack card onto an enemy target.
2. Reach check: Is the target within weapon reach (including zone/card bonuses and the Hunters doom bonus)?
3. Roll dice: The hero's weapon defines a dice pool (Barbarian: 1 Red; Archer: 1 Blue). Any Fortune Dice and card bonus dice are added. A 3D dice overlay appears with a damage preview.
4. Interact with the overlay (before accepting): convert Sparks to Skulls (1 Aether each), activate Weapon Bolt Powers, activate Weapon Aether Powers (e.g., reroll), activate the Hero Bolt Power.
5. Accept Roll.
6. Calculate damage per hit: rolled skulls + card bonuses + zone bonuses + bolt/aether power bonuses.
7. Apply Bulwark: Reduce each hit's normal damage by target's effective Bulwark (min 0). Crit bypasses Bulwark.
8. Resolve against HP: Remaining damage + all Crit damage go directly to HP.
9. Check death / phase transition.
10. Retaliate: If the enemy has Retaliate N and the attack dealt damage, enemy deals N back to attacker (Armor first, then HP). Per hit, triggers even if enemy dies.
11. Nervous shift: If the enemy is nervous, it Shifts 1 zone when attacked.

Dice System

Each weapon/ability defines a dice pool — a set of colored dice rolled on every attack. Damage is determined by counting skull (💀) icons.

Dice Icon Effects

Bolt Powers

Bolt icons rolled in an attack can activate two tiers of Bolt Powers:

• Weapon Bolt Powers — defined on the weapon (e.g., Barbarian Broadsword: +1 DMG / Cleave 1 · Archer Composite Bow: Pierce 1 / +1 DMG). Multiple powers may be available from one roll.
• Hero Bolt Power — one per hero, usually costing 2 Bolts (Barbarian Blood Rage · Archer Find the Gap).

Priority resolution: Each named bolt power fires at most once per roll. When multiple powers could activate, the player chooses which to trigger (pay Bolts one power at a time) before accepting the roll.

Weapon Aether Powers

Some weapons have Aether Powers that spend Aether for bonus effects during the dice overlay. Unlike Bolt Powers, they don't require specific die icons — they just cost Aether. Both starting weapons offer Reroll 1 die (1 Aether).

Fortune Dice

Bulwark

Block Resolution

Drag a Block card onto yourself or a same-zone ally. Armor equipment value × number of blocks is added to the target's Armor pool (or a flat amount for cards like Dodge). Armor pools from multiple sources stack (zone armor + card armor + item-ability armor).

Enemy Attack Resolution

1. Activation determines the ability.
2. Apply targeting priority (including Bodyguard override).
3. Shred: If Shred N (or a Bolt Effect triggers Shred), deplete up to N Armor from the target before damage or Guard. Shred does not return at round end.
4. Roll dice: The enemy rolls its ability's dice pool.
5. Calculate damage: rolled skulls + phase bonus + temp buff damage + zone damage bonus + active Doom bonuses (Frenzied +1 DMG, Predatory +1 Crit).
6. Crit damage (ability crit and Predatory crit) is added separately and bypasses all armor — always HP.
7. Guard check: If target is in Player Frontline or Backline, any different living Frontline hero with Armor may guard (optional). Flank targets cannot be guarded.
8. Remaining normal damage → target's own Armor → HP.
9. Check death.
10. Wounds: If woundOnDamage: N and HP damage was dealt, place N Wound cards into target's discard.
11. Stun N: Deplete up to N AP from target's banked apForNextRound.
12. Bleed: Inflict Bleed if target survived. If target already has Bleed, deal 1 HP direct damage instead (binary — no stacking).
13. Knockback: If target is in Frontline and survived, push to Backline (forced Shift).
14. Hook: If target is in Backline, pull to Frontline.
15. Bloodsucker: If the attack dealt any damage, the attacker heals 1 HP (capped).
16. Curse cards: curseOnDamage: N places N Curses into target's discard.
17. Corruption: Forces an attribute test; on failure, N Curses are placed. (Auto-fails until tests are wired in.)
18. Debuff / Buff tokens: debuffTarget adds Black Dice to the target's attack rolls; buffAlly gives a random alive ally White Dice.

Guard Mechanic

Status Effects

• Bleed: Persistent binary status. Ticks 1 HP each round (Phase 3). Re-applying deals 1 HP direct damage instead. Persists until end of combat. Applies to heroes and enemies.
• Stun: Depletes the target's accumulated AP for next round after damage resolves. Does not affect current-round AP.
• Shred: Depletes hero Armor before Guard and damage. Only affects the target's Armor.
• Knockback: Pushes a Frontline target to Backline (forced Shift).
• Hook: Pulls a Backline target to Frontline (opposite of Knockback).
• Pierce N: Reduces effective Bulwark by N. Blocked by Stonekin.
• Bloodsucker: Attacker heals 1 HP if the attack dealt damage.

Wounds & Curses

Wound cards are placed into a hero's discard pile by abilities with woundOnDamage (drawn from a shared supply of 10). When drawn, the hero takes 2 HP damage and the wound is destroyed (returned to the supply, NOT burned). Curse cards are structurally parallel (shared supply of 10, placed via curseOnDamage); specific trigger effects are TBD.

Heroes move between zones during the Player Phase. Movement costs 1 card per zone boundary crossed (not AP):

Sacrificed cards go to the Played Area with no effects — just consumed. Moving does not clear Armor. A hero can move and still play other cards in the same round.

Shift (Card Effects)

Some cards grant Shift as part of their effect — no card sacrifice required. Shift ignores movement restrictions (no card cost, no zone-locking check). Used by cards (Jump Shot, Longshot), their discard effects (Jump Shot: Shift 1 + 1 AP), and forced displacements (Knockback, Hook). Shift is always any direction and does not clear Armor.

Death's Door

Resolution Priority

When an enemy kill and a hero death happen simultaneously, defeat takes priority over victory. Mutual kill = loss. Hero deaths evaluate before enemy deaths.

Targeting Priority

1. Must be in reach — based on enemy's reach (weapon + zone bonus + Hunters doom bonus) and the distance table.
2. Apply priority rule — e.g., lowest-hp, highest-hp, lowest-armor, random, self.
3. Tie-breaker — target the hero with higher weapon damage (bigger threat).
4. Second tie-breaker — random.
5. Fallback — if no valid target, execute fallback.
6. Bodyguard override — if any bodyguard: true enemy is in reach, the player must target a Bodyguard first.

Enemy Ability Types

• Attack — roll dice, apply damage.
• Summon — place a new enemy of the specified type in a zone. Active immediately.
• Heal (activation) — healAlly: N. Heal a target (self or ally) for N HP.
• Inspire (activation) — inspireAlly: N. Grant N Aether to a target. (No gameplay effect for enemies yet.)
• Command — commandAlly: true. Enemy picks a random alive ally and grants it a free attack using that ally's own ability. Fallback if no allies.
• Group activation — an activation flagged groupActivation: true resolves once for the whole type (e.g., Zombie "Rise Again": one summon + heal on every Zombie in one activation).

Fallback Actions

• Zombie fallback: Heal 2 HP (capped at current phase's max HP).
• Skeletal Archer fallback: Gain +1 Damage and +1 Reach for next round only.

Summoning

• New enemies are placed active in their designated zone — targetable and acting normally from the next round.
• Summon cap (per round): Only 1 enemy of a given type is summoned per activation round. A second rolling summon executes its Fallback instead.
• Zone cap: Max 4 alive active enemies per zone. If full, the summoner executes its Fallback.
• "Summon 1 Zombie" summons a specific type; "Summon 1" summons a random type from the scenario pool.

Initiative Order

Enemy Setup

Zone Effects & Rarity

Player Setup

Players choose zone placement for their heroes during the Setup Phase. Recommended starting positions:

• Barbarian → Player Frontline — can hit Enemy Frontline with Reach 1, Guard protects Backline allies.
• Archer → Player Backline — can hit Enemy Frontline with Reach 2, gains +2 Armor, protected by Guard.

The Doom Track is an escalating threat counter. Killing enemies makes the battle harder — every enemy death advances the track and can unlock a new global effect.

Setup

At battle start, 6 slots are rolled from a pool of 12 possible doom effects, weighted by rarity:

Each slot is face-down at the start. The rolled track is fixed for the duration of the battle.

Reveal

An enemy's death trigger can include doomAdvance: N. When an enemy dies, the next N face-down slots are flipped face-up. A revealed slot's effect activates immediately and lasts for the rest of combat (unless it is a one-time effect — see below — or the player deactivates it with Potion of Doom). Both current enemies have doomAdvance: 1 — one slot per kill.

Recurring Effects

While revealed and not deactivated, these apply every round:

One-Time Effects

These fire once when revealed and cannot be deactivated afterwards:

The Bluff

Every revealed doom slot also awards XP to the team based on its rarity — see XP & Progression.

XP is a team-wide resource earned during battle and spent between battles for upgrades (deck, attributes, equipment — between-battle systems TBD).

XP Sources

• Enemy kills — each enemy's deathTrigger.xp value is awarded to the team. Both current enemies grant 2 XP per kill.
• Zone discoveries — the first time a hero enters a rare+ zone in this battle, the team earns XP by zone rarity (common 0, rare 1, epic 2, legendary 3).
• Doom Track reveals — each revealed slot awards XP by its rarity on the same scale.

XP Display

The team's XP total is shown as a badge in the UI and incremented live during combat. At scenario end, the game-over screen breaks down XP by source (kills, zones, doom).

The desktop layout uses a three-column design optimised for landscape screens.

Left Sidebar — Hero Info

• Clickable hero portraits to switch active hero (active hero highlighted)
• Per hero: HP bar (current/max), current Armor, Aether, weapon damage, armor value
• Per-hero AP counter, Team XP badge, and equipment summary

Center — Battlefield

• 6 zones arranged vertically (Enemy Flank at top, Player Flank at bottom)
• Heroes and enemies displayed as cards in their zones, with HP bars and Armor indicators
• Zone labels with effect summaries and visual Battle Line divider

Right Sidebar — Enemy Activation & Doom Track

• Each enemy type listed with their drawn activation card number and action description
• Shared activation deck: cards remaining and discard count (clickable to browse)
• Doom Track HUD — 6 slots (face-down until revealed), with revealed effects described on hover/click

Bottom Dock — Hand & Actions

• DECK (left) — remaining card count, clickable to browse
• Hand — active hero's 5 cards displayed in a row
• DISCARD pile (right) — discard count, clickable to browse
• MOVE button — triggers the movement flow
• DISCARD button — discards all remaining hand cards (triggers discard effects)

Exact pixel layout and styling evolve frequently and are not specified here — dice overlay, Doom Track HUD, enemy info cards, guard decision overlay, deck/discard modals, etc. are implemented in the app.

Playing a Card — Drag & Drop

• Attack cards: Drag from hand onto an enemy card. Only valid targets highlight (based on reach and Bodyguard rules). Drop to play.
• Block cards: Drag onto your own hero or a same-zone ally.
• Buff / Aether-ability cards: Activate the Aether Ability toggle (if any) before dropping.

MOVE Flow

1. Click MOVE on active hero.
2. Destination zones highlight with cost displayed.
3. Click destination zone.
4. Hand cards become selectable — pick cards equal to the cost.
5. Confirm → cards sacrificed, hero moves.

DISCARD Flow

1. Click DISCARD on active hero.
2. All remaining hand cards animate to the discard pile.
3. Discard effects trigger for each card.
4. Hero is marked as done for the round.

Dice Overlay

Guard Decision Overlay

When an enemy attack targets a guard-eligible hero and at least one Frontline ally has Armor, a Guard Decision overlay appears showing a damage preview (including wound placement if woundOnDamage). The player chooses the Armor amount to spend.

Enemy Phase Animation

Auto-plays with animations (one enemy at a time). Player can click to speed up each action.

Deck/Discard Browsing

Click the deck or discard pile to open a modal showing all cards in that pile.