Objective of the Game

Welcome, brave investigators, to the chilling world of Eldritch Horror! Get ready to face cosmic dread and ancient evils. Your ultimate goal? To prevent a terrifying Ancient One from awakening and devouring our reality! You and your fellow investigators must work together to solve three of the Ancient One's mysteries. If you succeed before the Ancient One fully awakens, you win! However, if the Ancient One does stir from its slumber, you'll then need to solve a final mystery to save the world. Fail to do so, or if all investigators are eliminated, or if the world is simply overwhelmed by doom, and humanity is doomed!

Preparation (Setup)

Alright, gather 'round, folks, let's get this cosmic horror show on the road! Setting up Eldritch Horror is a crucial first step to saving the world. Here’s how you get started:

1. First, shuffle the 9 gate tokens face down and form a gate stack.
2. Next, shuffle the clue tokens face down to create a clue pool.
3. Sort all other tokens – health, sanity, improvement, travel ticket, eldritch, mystery, and rumor – into separate piles.
4. Choose a lead investigator (randomly or by agreement). This player takes the lead investigator token.
5. Starting with the lead investigator and going clockwise, each player chooses an investigator. Take your investigator sheet, place your corresponding investigator token on the board space listed on the back of your sheet, and grab your starting possessions, assets, and spells. Don't forget your maximum health and sanity tokens!
6. As a group, choose an Ancient One sheet. Place it face up near the board (doom value in the top-left corner) and resolve any setup effects it has.
7. Place all non-epic monster tokens into an opaque container (the monster cup) and randomize them. Epic monsters are those red tokens with a cut corner – set them aside for now.
8. Any research encounter cards, special encounter cards, and mystery cards that don't match your chosen Ancient One are returned to the box.
9. Shuffle the Mythos cards into three face-down piles: green, yellow, and blue. Build the Mythos deck by taking random cards of the colors and quantities listed on the Ancient One sheet for Stage I, shuffle them, then place Stage II cards underneath, followed by Stage III cards. Do NOT shuffle the final Mythos deck. Place it near the Ancient One sheet and return any remaining Mythos cards to the box unseen.
10. Shuffle all expedition encounter cards into a single deck.
11. Shuffle the spell cards and condition cards into two separate decks and place them face up, showing the top card's name and art.
12. Shuffle all other cards into decks by their card back.
13. Place the reference card that matches your player count near the Mythos deck.
14. Place the doom token on the space of the doom track listed in the top-left corner of the Ancient One sheet.
15. Place the omen token on the green (comet) space of the omen track.
16. Place the top 4 asset cards face up in the 4 reserve spaces (bottom-left of the board).
17. Generate the number of gates indicated on the reference card. To do this, take the top gate token from the stack, place it face up on the indicated space, then draw 1 random monster token and place it on the same space.
18. Place the active expedition token on the space matching the illustration on the back of the top expedition encounter card.
19. Generate the number of clues indicated on the reference card. To do this, take 1 random clue token from the pool and place it face down on the indicated space.
20. Draw 1 mystery card and place it near the Ancient One sheet. Resolve any "When this card enters play" effects on it.

Phew! That's a lot, but now you're ready to dive into the action!

The Game Turn

A round in Eldritch Horror is a tense dance between action, encounters, and the ever-looming Mythos. Here’s how it unfolds:

1. Action Phase

Starting with the lead investigator and moving clockwise, each investigator gets to perform up to two *different* actions. You can only do each action once per round, so choose wisely!

• Travel: Move to any adjacent space. Want to go further? Spend travel tickets – one ticket for one extra space. Remember, train tickets are for train tracks, and ship tickets are for ship tracks!
• Rest: If no monster is on your space, recover 1 health and 1 sanity. You can also spend resource tokens to recover additional health or sanity!
• Focus: Gain 1 focus token (max 2). These are super handy for re-rolling dice during tests!
• Gather Resources: Gain 1 resource token (max 2).
• Trade: Swap possessions (assets, artifacts, clues, spells, travel tickets, and resources) with another investigator on your space, if you both agree. No trading conditions, health, sanity, or improvement tokens, and no trading with defeated investigators!
• Prepare for Travel: If you're in a city space, gain 1 travel ticket of your choice. Just make sure there's a corresponding path (train or ship) connected to your space. If you end up with more than 2 tickets, pick 2 to keep and discard the rest.
• Acquire Assets: If you're in a city space and no monster is present, test your influence. You can gain asset cards from the reserve whose total value is less than or equal to your number of successes. No successes? You can discard one asset from the reserve. After this, replace any assets that left the reserve. Need a boost? Use the "Bank Loan" asset to add 2 successes to your test, but you'll gain a Debt Condition card! (Can't take another loan if you're already in debt, though!) You can also spend resource tokens to add 1 success per token spent.
• Component Actions: Perform an action (marked with 'Action') listed on one of your own components. You can also perform a 'Local Action' on a component held by another investigator in your space.

2. Encounter Phase

Still starting with the lead investigator and moving clockwise, each investigator resolves one encounter.

• No Monsters? You get to choose! You can resolve a location encounter (drawing a card matching your space or from the general deck) or a token encounter.
  • Clue: Draw a research encounter card.
  • Gate: Draw an other world encounter card.
  • Active Expedition: Draw an expedition encounter card.
  • Rumor: Resolve the encounter on the rumor Mythos card.
  • Defeated Investigator: Resolve the Crippled (if a health token is present) or Insane (if a sanity token is present) encounter on the back of their sheet.
• Monsters Present? Time for a fight! You *must* resolve a combat encounter against each monster in your space, one at a time, in an order of your choosing (non-epic before epic).
  1. Check Monster Effects: Flip the monster token to its back to see its stats.
  2. Resolve Will Test: Test your will against the monster's horror. If the horror is higher than your successes, you lose sanity equal to the difference.
  3. Resolve Strength Test: Test your strength against the monster's damage. If the damage is higher than your successes, you lose health equal to the difference. The monster also takes damage equal to your successes. If a monster loses health equal to or greater than its toughness, it's defeated!
  If you defeat all monsters in your space, you can then resolve another encounter of your choice!

3. Mythos Phase

The lead investigator draws the top card of the Mythos deck and resolves its effects from left to right, top to bottom. This is where things can get wild!

• Advance Omen: Move the omen token one space clockwise. Then, advance the doom token by 1 for each gate on the board that matches the omen token's current space.
• Resolve Reckoning Effects: Resolve all in-play effects in this order: monsters, Ancient One sheet, Ongoing Mythos cards, and investigator possessions and conditions.
• Spawn Gates: Spawn the number of gates shown on the reference card. Each time a gate spawns, a monster spawns on the same space! If you run out of gate tokens, doom advances by 1 instead.
• Monster Surge: At each gate matching the omen token's space, spawn more monsters as shown on the reference card. If no matching gates, spawn 1 gate instead.
• Spawn Clues: Spawn the number of clues shown on the reference card.
• Place Rumor Token: Place a rumor token on the specified space.
• Place Eldritch Tokens: Place the listed number of eldritch tokens.
• Resolve Effect: If the card is an "Event," resolve its effect and discard it. If it's "Ongoing," it stays in play near the Ancient One sheet until discarded by another effect.

At the end of the Mythos phase, the lead investigator can pass the lead investigator token to another player.

End Game and Scoring

Eldritch Horror isn't about points, it's about survival and saving the world!

Winning the Game

You and your fellow investigators win if you successfully solve 3 of the Ancient One's mysteries. If the Ancient One awakens before you solve them, you'll need to solve a final mystery to secure victory.

Losing the Game

The world succumbs to cosmic horror if:

• The doom token reaches the 0 space on the doom track, awakening the Ancient One, and you fail to meet its specific loss conditions.
• All investigators are eliminated from the game (either defeated or devoured).
• A card effect explicitly states that investigators lose the game.
• If the Mythos deck runs out of cards during the Mythos phase and you haven't won yet.

Tips for Winning

Saving the world from an Elder God is no easy feat, but here are a few pointers to help you on your way:

1. Communicate and Coordinate: Eldritch Horror is a cooperative game, and teamwork is your greatest weapon. Discuss your actions, share resources (especially clues for re-rolls!), and plan your moves to tackle gates and mysteries efficiently. Don't let anyone go it alone into a monster-infested space if you can help it!
2. Manage Your Health and Sanity: These are your lifeblood! Don't be afraid to take a "Rest" action, especially if you're low. Being defeated or, worse, devoured, advances doom and makes the game harder for everyone. Sometimes retreating to heal is the best offense.
3. Prioritize Mysteries (and Gates!): While exploring is fun, your main goal is to solve mysteries. Focus on gathering the clues and completing the encounters necessary for the active mystery. However, don't ignore open gates! They spawn monsters and advance doom, so closing them is often a critical step to keep the board manageable.