How to Play Clank!: Catacombs – Lairs and Lost Chambers

Game Objective

In CLANK! Catacombs: Lairs and Lost Chambers, players venture into the catacombs to explore the lairs of the enigmatic Sphinx, the petrifying Medusa, or the formidable Living Statues. The objective is to discover lost chambers, each with a unique power, and collect trophies during adventures to grow your legend. The victory condition is not explicitly detailed in the context, but the game involves collecting trophies and exploring the dungeon.

Setup

To set up the game, follow these steps:

1. Shuffle the 12 new square tiles (10 Depths and 2 safe) with your existing CLANK! Catacombs tiles.
2. You will use all Depths tiles in every game.
3. Place only four of the “safe” tiles (randomly selected) on top of the shuffled stack of Depths tiles. Additional “safe” tiles should be returned to the box without being looked at.
4. Place the five monster tokens in the Bank: three Living Statues, one Medusa, and one Sphinx.
5. Shuffle the 50 new cards into the Dungeon Deck.
6. Deal cards to form the Dungeon Row as usual.
7. Otherwise, setup is the same as CLANK! Catacombs.

For the first game, you can shuffle the new tiles and cards into the top half of the stacks to ensure the new expansion appears frequently.

Gameplay Flow

Refer to the manual for details on this section.

Actions and How to Play

In CLANK! Catacombs: Lairs and Lost Chambers, players can perform various actions and interact with new elements:

Trophies

• You can collect monster tokens and some cards as “trophies.”
• When you Fight a Monster or Use a Device with TROPHY text, take that card and place it face up in your personal supply. It is not in your play area, and you will never put it in your discard pile. The TROPHY text will apply to you while it is there.
• The five monster tokens from this expansion are also gained as trophies when you defeat them.
• Even if some Devices in this set only have TROPHY text (and not the usual USE text), you are still “using” them when you take them as a trophy.

New Tile Attributes

• Entrance Tunnels: When discovering a tile with entrance tunnels (marked in a distinct color) during a move, you must place it so that you can complete your move to it using one of the entrance tunnels. From then on, entrance tunnels no longer have any special meaning.
• Pit Traps: The first time each turn you enter a Pit Trap room, you must either:
  • Fall: Suffer 1 damage and cannot spend any more Boots for the rest of the turn (you can still move using a teleport); or
  • Evade the Trap: Trash a non-Stumble card from your hand. If you cannot Evade the Trap, you must Fall.
  You can enter more than one Pit Trap room during a single turn, and you must Fall or Evade the Trap once for each such room. You cannot voluntarily suffer damage if there are no cubes in your supply or if doing so would completely fill your Health Track. In these situations, if you cannot Evade the Trap, you cannot voluntarily enter a Pit Trap room.
• Magic Barriers: When a tunnel is marked with a magic barrier, you cannot pass through it using Boots if you have an artifact. However, you can teleport through the tunnel even if you have an artifact.
• Interconnected One-Way Tunnels: When moving through them, the direction you enter determines which of the two tunnels you use. If you have the great secret Catacombs Map, you can choose to use either tunnel.

Clarification on “Acquire”

Some cards (such as Cave Lurker, Hoarding Rat, and Acrobatics) allow you to acquire cards without spending any skill. These cards cannot be used on monsters (which are defeated, not acquired) or devices (which are used, not acquired).

Lost Chambers

Many new tiles feature a “lost chamber,” which are unique rooms with special rules. Most lost chambers have one or more spaces where players can place a cube from their personal supply during their turn, following rules similar to Passage Shrines.

• Altar of Protection: If you have a cube in this chamber, when a Ghost would deal you damage, you can return that cube to your personal supply to prevent that damage.
• Altar of the Haunted: There is only one space to place a cube. To do so, you must trash a trophy from your personal supply. Then, you take 2 Gold from the Bank. You can also take an artifact from any room in the dungeon (you can still only carry one artifact unless you have a Backpack).
• Bizarre Bazaar: Each of the four spaces is a unique “stall” that offers a specific “purchase” when you place your cube there. To do so, you must spend 3 Gold (returning it to the Bank) or trash a trophy from your personal supply. The offers are:
  • Mystic Stew: Heal 3 damage.
  • Magic Ointment: Trash a card in your play area or discard pile. Also, draw a card.
  • Showcase: From the Dungeon Row, acquire a card, use a device, or defeat a monster (without paying Skill or Swords).
  • Stolen Goods: Take an item from the Market Board (without paying additional Gold).
• Temple of Gold: To place a cube on one of the adjacent pillars, you must be in a Passage Shrine (this tile's or any other in the dungeon). To place that cube, you must make a “donation” of a certain amount of Gold from your personal supply (returning it to the Bank). Then, you receive the indicated reward. You can only donate to the Temple of Gold once. The donations and rewards are:
  • : Heal 1 damage and take a Lockpick from the Bank.
  • : Heal 2 damage.
  • : Heal 1 damage and take a random Great Secret from the Bank.
  • : Heal 1 damage. You can also take an artifact from any room in the dungeon (you can still only carry one artifact unless you have a Backpack).
  If a donation provides more than one reward, you do not need to be able to take all of them.
• Umbrok Vessna's Treasure: Upon entering this chamber, you take 5 Gold from the Bank and make +2 Clank! When you take the artifact or open the chest in this chamber, choose one of the other two rooms on this tile and immediately teleport there. No cube is placed in this chamber.

Lairs

In each lair, you will find a special type of monster. When first placing a tile with a lair, place the corresponding monster token(s) from the Bank into that lair.

• Lair of the Living Statues: The three Living Statue tokens are placed in the three marked spaces of this lair. While you are in the lair, you may fight a Living Statue there. You must teleport after defeating a Living Statue (if there is another lair or lost chamber in the dungeon to teleport to).
• Medusa's Lair: Upon entering this lair, you must choose between immediately fighting the Medusa or turning to stone (suffer 2 damage). You will not suffer additional damage if you remain in the lair, but you can choose to fight on the same turn or a later turn. You cannot voluntarily suffer damage if there are no cubes in your supply or if doing so would completely fill your Health Track. In these situations, you cannot enter Medusa's Lair. While you have the Medusa as a trophy, you ignore tunnel monsters (besides the point she grants at the end of the game).
• Sphinx's Lair: While you are in this Lair, you will have two different ways to defeat the Sphinx: use 4 Swords to fight her or pay 7 Skill to decipher her riddle.

End of Game and Scoring

Refer to the manual for details on this section.

Tips for Winning

• When discovering new tiles during your turn, consider the order in which you play your cards, especially if there are Pit Traps. If you have no cards in hand to Evade the Trap, you will be forced to Fall and suffer damage.
• If you have the Catacombs Map, use it to choose the best path through the Interconnected One-Way Tunnels, optimizing your movement and avoiding dangers or reaching objectives faster.
• Plan your visits to the Lost Chambers and Lairs. For example, the Altar of Protection can be crucial against Ghosts, while the Bizarre Bazaar offers various advantages that may be more useful at specific times in the game.