How to Play Shards of Infinity: Relics of the Future

Game Objective

In Shards of Infinity: Relics of the Future, you are a leader among humanity's descendants, bound to a powerful shard of the shattered Infinity Engine. Through distorted visions of the future, your shard shows you paths to wield it as a weapon or as a tool to rebuild civilization. The objective is to master the shards of infinity to control unimaginable power and lead your people to victory.

In the standard game mode (not detailed in context, but inferred as the base), players compete to be the last one standing. In variants like the Single Player Nemesis Challenge, you win by reducing the Nemesis's Health to zero. In the 3 Player Bloodbath mode, the last player standing is the winner.

Setup

To play Shards of Infinity: Relics of the Future, follow these steps:

1. Take the 24 black-bordered Center Deck cards and shuffle them into the central Shards of Infinity deck.
2. Each player chooses which Character they will play. This can be done randomly or by using the Health Auction game variant.
3. Each player separates the two Relic cards specific to their assigned Character. The Relics available for each Character are:
   • Decima: Praetorian - 01, Praetorian - 02
   • Ko Syn Wu: The Heart of Nothing, The World Piercer
   • Tetra: Datic Robes, Terminal Crescents
   • Volos: Entropic Talons, Panconscious Crown
4. The game proceeds normally, according to the rules of Shards of Infinity.

Setup Variants:

• Single Player Nemesis Challenge:
  • Choose one Character card for yourself and another for the Nemesis.
  • At the start of the game, depending on your Character, you add an 11th card to your starting deck:
    • Decima: Limiter Drones
    • Ko Syn Wu: Pall Shades
    • Tetra: Cloud Oracles
    • Volos: Arach Devotees
• Health Auction:
  • After the center row is laid out, randomly determine a player to start the auction.
  • Starting with that player and proceeding clockwise, each player may bid any amount of Health. The bid must be at least 1 Health and greater than the current bid.
  • Players who do not bid or cannot bid are out. The auction continues until one player remains.
  • The winner of the auction loses Health equal to their bid, chooses their Character, and will be the first player.
  • The player to the left of the winner starts a new auction process. This continues until all but one player has bid and chosen their Character.
  • The last player may choose the Character of their preference and starts the game with 50 Health.
• Relic Draft:
  • After the center row is dealt, randomly deal two face-up Relics to each player.
  • Randomly determine which player will start the Relic Draft. That player takes one of the available Relics and places it in front of them.
  • Clockwise, subsequent players choose a Relic from the center of the table. This continues until everyone has one card.
  • Once each player has one Relic, the player who took their first card last chooses a second Relic.
  • Then, counter-clockwise, each player chooses a second Relic.
  • Finally, when everyone has two cards, the player who made the last draft in the first round will take the first turn of the game.
• Mystery Relics:
  • Instead of receiving the Relics assigned to your Character, the Relics are shuffled and randomly dealt among the players.
  • Players must keep these Relics secret until they reach 10 Mastery and recruit one of them.

Gameplay Flow

Refer to the manual for details on this section.

Gameplay Flow - Single Player Nemesis Challenge

In solo mode, you play your turns following the normal rules, using Gems to acquire new cards, Power to deal damage to the Nemesis, and gaining Mastery as usual. After your turn, the Nemesis plays their turn.

Nemesis's Turn

1. Reveal Card: The first thing to do is reveal the top card of the center deck. If the card matches the Nemesis's faction color, the Nemesis gains 3 Mastery.
2. Play Revealed Card: The Nemesis plays the revealed card from the center deck, gaining any Power, Mastery, and Health provided by Allies and placing any Champions directly into play.
3. Play Center Row Cards: The Nemesis plays each card in the center row that matches the faction of the revealed card from the top of the center deck. Any decisions that would need to be made by the Nemesis are made by you.
4. Activate Exhaust Powers: After all Allies of the chosen faction have been played from the center row, activate each of the Nemesis's Champions' exhaust powers, one at a time.
5. Nemesis Power Assignment:
   • The Nemesis prioritizes dealing damage to the player first if it means reducing the player to zero Health.
   • Otherwise, it prioritizes destroying your Champions, starting from the highest cost to the lowest cost, destroying any it has enough Power to destroy. In case of a tie, you make the decision.
   • Any remaining Power will be used to deal damage to you.
6. Nemesis Card Effects:
   • If the Nemesis would gain Gems, instead, it Banishes that many cards from the top of the center deck.
   • If the Nemesis would draw card(s), instead, it gains 1 Mastery for each card it would have drawn.
   • Champions are placed directly into play under the Nemesis's control. If you destroy a Nemesis Champion, it is Banished instead of discarded.
   • The Nemesis cannot gain cards, therefore it also cannot Banish its own cards or interact with a discard pile, so ignore any text it cannot perform.
   • When the Nemesis has less than 15 Mastery, it ignores all Dominion, Echo, Inspire, and Unify effects on cards it plays from the center deck and center row. However, while the Nemesis has 15 or more Mastery, treat these texts as active.
7. End of Nemesis's Turn: At the end of the Nemesis's turn, banish all Allies played by the Nemesis this turn from the center row, then replenish the center row and begin your next turn.

Actions and How to Play

Refer to the manual for details on this section.

Recruiting Relics

Relics are a new and powerful card type, specific to each of the four Shards of Infinity Characters. Unlike other Allies and Champions, Relics are not shuffled into the center deck at the start of the game. Instead, each player will have two Relics specific to their Character separated at the start of the game, when Characters are chosen.

Players can recruit one of their two Relics for free after they have gained 10 Mastery. When recruiting your Relic, place it in your discard pile in the same way you would recruit a card from the center row. You do not need to spend any Gems () or Mastery () to recruit your Relic.

Choose your Relic carefully! You can only recruit one Relic per game!

Specific Terms and Abilities

• Banish: When a card is Banished, it is removed from the game.
• Destroy: Destroy means to place a card from play into the discard pile. It generally refers to Champions.
• Exhaust: An Exhaust ability can be used once during your turn at any time of your choosing. It is recommended to turn your card from vertical to horizontal to help track when you use a card's Exhaust ability. Using an Exhaust ability does not count as playing a card from your hand.
• Mercenary: When you pay the cost of a Mercenary, you can recruit it to your discard pile or fast-play it. If you fast-play a Mercenary, play the card and gain its effect immediately. It goes to the bottom of the center deck at the end of your turn.

End of Game and Scoring

Refer to the manual for details on this section.

End of Game and Scoring - Single Player Nemesis Challenge

You win by reducing the Nemesis's Health to zero.

The Nemesis wins in one of three ways:

• Your Health is reduced to 0.
• The Nemesis's Mastery reaches 30.
• You need to replenish the center row, but there are not enough cards to do so.

End of Game and Scoring - 3 Player Bloodbath

The last player standing is the winner.

Tips for Winning

• Choose your Relic wisely: You can only recruit one Relic per game. Consider which of your Character's two Relics best aligns with your strategy or the current game situation before recruiting one of them after reaching 10 Mastery.
• In solo mode, manage the Nemesis's Power: The Nemesis prioritizes reducing your Health to zero. If not possible, it destroys your Champions from most expensive to least expensive. Use this information to decide which Champions to put into play and when, and be prepared for direct damage.
• Take advantage of the Nemesis's card drawing rules: The Nemesis does not draw cards, and instead of gaining Gems, it Banishes cards from the top of the center deck. Instead of drawing cards, it gains 1 Mastery for each card it would have drawn. This can influence your decisions about which cards to leave in the center row or which factions to prioritize, especially if you want to control the pace of its Mastery.