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Infinity Gauntlet Game Rules

In Infinity Gauntlet: A Love Letter Game, 1 player is the Mad Titan Thanos, attempting to gather the 6 Infinity Stones and use them to gain ultimate power. Meanwhile, 1-5 other players assemble heroes to fight back against Thanos, thwart his plans, and save the universe!


Components

  • 16 Hero Cards
  • 3 Thanos Cards
  • 1 Life-tracker Card
  • 6 Reference Cards
  • 9 Power Tokens
  • 2 Sliders
  • Instructions

Setup

  1. Choose 1 player to be Thanos. The others are heroes players.

  2. Give each player a reference card and return any extra reference cards to the bag.

  3. Shuffle the 16 hero cards and place them as a facedown deck near the hero players. Each hero player draws 1 card from the deck as their starting hand.

  4. Shuffle the 13 Thanos cards and place them as a facedown deck near Thanos. Thanos draws 2 cards from the deck as their starting hand.

  5. Place the power tokens in a pile in everyone's reach.

  6. Take the life-tracker card and place 1 slider on the top space of the hero track. Then place the other slider on the space of the Thanos track matching the player count (including Thanos).

    Place the life-tracker card in the middle of the table in everyone's view.



Game Play

Players play cards representing heroes, villains, and the Infinity Stones to battle for the fate of the universe. There are 2 teams: Thanos is a team of 1, and all other players are on the other team.

The game ends when either team has no life left or when Thanos collects all 6 Infinity Stones and snaps.


Player Turn

Thanos takes the first turn, and then play continues in clockwise order.

On your turn, draw 1 card from your deck; Thanos always draws from the Thanos deck, and the hero players draw from the hero deck. After drawing, choose and play 1 card from your hand, using the effect written on that card.

The played card stays faceup in front of you, and you keep the cards you did not play in your hand. (Thanos keeps 2 unplayed cards in hand; the hero players keep 1 card).


Defeating Cards & Losing Life

Some effects cause a card to be defeated. When 1 of your cards is defeated, your team loses 1 life; move the slider down 1 space on your team's track. Then discard the defeated card faceup in front of you and redraw a new card from your deck.



Note: Unlike original Love Letter, no players are ever "out of the round" in this game.

Thanos Redraw & Card Shuffle

Some cards in Thanos's deck instruct you to shuffle them back into the deck if they are defeated. You must redraw before shuffling the defeated card back in; this way you will never immediately redraw a defeated card.



Fighting

Some card effects allow you to fight an opponent to try to defeat 1 of their cards.

To fight an opponent, you and that player secretly compare cards from your hands (without showing the other players) to see whose card is lower.

  • The hero player always uses the card in their hand to fight with.

  • If Thanos starts a fight, Thanos chooses 1 of the cards in their hand to fight with.

  • If a hero player starts a fight, they randomly choose 1 of the cards in Thanos's hand to fight against.


The card with the lower number in the top-left corner is defeated (the player loses 1 life, discards the card, and redraws).

The player who "wins" the fight keeps the card they fought with. If the fight is a tie, neither card is defeated; both players keep the cards they fought with without revealing them to the other players, and play continues.

Randomly Chasing a Card

To randomly choose a card, Thanos shuffles their hand, then the hero player points to the card of their choice. After the card's effect is complete, Thanos is free to rearrange their hand.


Power Tokens

Some card effects give players 1 or more power tokens, which improve their ability to fight. Keep your power tokens in front of you and in everyone's view.

When you are involved in a fight, if you have a power token, you must spend it. When you do, you get +2 for that fight. For example, if your card is a "5" and you spend a power token, the number counts as 7 for that fight. Return spent power tokens to the pile.

You can spend only 1 power token per fight. If you have more than 1 power token, you keep the others for future fights.

If you need to take a power token and there are not enough, use any small object as a substitute.


Deck Runs out

As soon as the hero deck runs out of cards, shuffle together all faceup cards in front of all hero players to create a new facedown hero deck.

It is rare but possible for Thanos's deck to run out before they win the game. If Thanos needs to draw a card from an empty deck, they skip drawing the card and continue playing with 1 fewer card in hand.


Knowledge and Communication

Over the course of the game, players learn things and often know different information. Players cannot communicate about cards they have seen or direct other players' choices.

They can make observations based on public information, such as how many Infinity Stones have been played or how many cards are left in a deck.

It is important that everyone knows which cards have already been played and which cards are left in the decks, so cards in front of players must always be in everyone's view. When the hero deck runs out, let Thanos look at the faceup hero cards before they are reshuffled.


Card Effects

This section contains the complete rules for each card. There is also a brief summary of each effect on the reference cards.

A set of icons in the bottom-right corner of each card shows how many cards with that number are in the deck.

On Thanos cards, the icon for the Infinity Stone of that number is shown in color.

The quantity is also shown in parentheses on the reference cards.


Hero Deck

The hero deck contains multiple cards of each number 1-6. All cards of the same number have the same effect.

  • Nebula / Spider-man / Star-Lord

    Guess a number. If Thanos is holding a card of that number, defeat it.

    If both cards in Thanos's hand are the guessed number, Thanos chooses 1 of them to be defeated without revealing that they were holding both cards.

  • Black Widow/ Gamora / Ant-man & Wasp

    Choose another hero player. That player randomly chooses 1 card in Thanos's hand and secretly looks at it (without showing the card to other players).

    In a 2-player game, you look at the card since there is no other hero player to choose.

  • Captain America / Hulk / Thor

    You may fight Thanos. If you decide not to fight, your turn ends, and play continues clockwise.

  • Black Panther / Falcon / Doctor Strange

    Choose yourself or another hero player. That player takes 1 power token from the pile.

  • Scarlet Witch / Vision

    Look at the top 3 cards of the hero deck, then put them back in any order.

    If there are fewer than 3 cards in the deck, take what's left, reshuffle the deck as if it had run out (including the card you played), then take more cards until you have 3.

    Look at those 3 cards and put them back in any order.

  • Captain Marvel / Iron Man

    Choose yourself or another hero player. That player may fight Thanos. If the chosen player decides not to fight, your turn ends, and play continues clockwise.


Thanos Deck

The Thanos deck contains 13 cards, 6 of which are Infinity Stones of different numbers.

  • Outrider (2)

    Choose an opponent and guess a number. If that player is holding a card of the guessed number, defeat that card.

  • Mind Stone

    Guess a number. If any opponents are holding cards of that number, defeat all those cards. If this effect defeats multiple cards, the hero team loses 1 life for each card defeated. The hero players redraw their cards in play order.

    If this card is defeated, first redraw, then shuffle this card into the Thanos deck.

  • Corvus Glaive

    Choose an opponent. If that player is holding a card numbered 3 or lower, defeat that card.

  • Soul Stone

    Choose an opponent. If that player is holding a card numbered 3 or higher, defeat that card.

    If this card is defeated, first redraw, then shuffle this card into the Thanos deck.

  • Black Dwarf

    You may choose an opponent and fight them. If you decide not to fight, your turn ends, and play continues clockwise.

  • Space Stone

    You may choose an opponent and fight them. Then you may choose a different opponent and fight them. Complete the first fight before doing the second fight.

    If this card is defeated, first redraw, then shuffle this card into the Thanos deck.

    In a 2-player game, you can choose to fight your single opponent twice. If a card is defeated in the first fight, the player redraws before the second fight.

  • Proxima Midnight

    Take 1 power token from the pile.

  • Power Stone

    Take 3 power tokens from the pile.

    If this card is defeated, first redraw, then shuffle this card into the Thanos deck.

  • Ebony Maw

    Draw 1 card, then place 1 of the 3 cards from your hand on the bottom of your deck.

    If there are no cards in your deck, do not draw or place any cards.

    If you draw your 6th Infinity Stone during this effect, you must complete the effect (place a card on the bottom of the deck) before you can snap.

  • Reality Stone

    Draw 2 cards, then place 2 of the 4 cards from your hand on the bottom of your deck in any order.

    If there are fewer than 2 cards in your deck, draw what's left and place the same number on the bottom.

    If you draw your 6th Infinity Stone during this effect, you must complete the effect (place cards on the bottom of the deck) before you can snap.

    If this card is defeated, first redraw, then shuffle this card into the Thanos deck.

  • Time Stone

    Copy the effect of another Thanos card in front of you.

    If this card is defeated, first redraw, then shuffle this card into the Thanos deck.

  • Thanos

    This card cannot be played. If this card is defeated, first redraw, then shuffle this card into the Thanos deck.


End of the Game

The game can end in 3 ways:

Heroes Win

Life: When Thanos runs out of life (the slider on the Thanos track reaches the bottom space), the hero players immediately win.



Thanos Wins

Life: When the hero team runs out of life, Thanos immediately wins.

Snap: During Thanos's turn, if all 6 Infinity Stones are faceup in front of Thanos and/or in Thanos's hand, Thanos can reveal their hand, snap their fingers, and immediately win the game.

2-player Game

In a 2-player game, set up the game as normal. After each of Thanos's turns, the hero player takes 2 turns in a row instead of 1. The hero player still has a single hand of cards.

Additionally, some card effects change slightly to account for there being only 1 hero player in the game. For more details, see the specific card descriptions for the hero "2" cards and the Space Stone card.


Rule Mistakes

Accidental or not, there are many ways in which a player could make a rule mistake, such as dishonesty when chosen for a 1's effect.

Players should make sure they understand the game rules and always double-check their cards; mistakes like these can disrupt the play experience.


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