Encounter

An Encounter is any instance of an Intruder appearing on board in a Room where a Character is present (after drawing an Intruder to -ken from the Intruder bag).

An Encounter may also be triggered by the effects of some Event cards (like Hatching) or some of the Intruder Attack cards.

Note: An Intruder moving from one Room to another Room containing a Character does not count as an Encounter.

To resolve an Encounter, follow the steps listed below:

1. Discard all Noise markers from all the Corridors connected to this Room (including Technical Corridors, if there is a Technical Corridors Entrance).

2. Draw 1 Intruder token from the Intruder bag.

   Each Intruder token has an Intruder Symbol on one side, and a number on the opposite side.

3. Place an Intruder miniature in the Room. The Intruder type must correspond to the Intruder Symbol shown on the token. For a description of each Intruder symbol, see the Intruder board.

4. Compare the number on the Intruder token with the number of cards in the player's hand (Action and Contamination cards are counted).

   If the number of Action cards in the player's hand is lower than the number in the Intruder token, a Surprise Attack occurs. If the number of Action cards is equal to or higher, nothing happens.

   Put the drawn Intruder token aside - it may return to the bag if an Intruder of that type hides (by entering the Technical Corridors during the Intruder Movement).

Surprise Attack:

The Surprise Attack is an Intruder Attack which only occurs during an Encounter. If the player has fewer cards in their hand than the the number printed on the drawn Intruder token, a Surprise Attack takes place.

Blank Token

If a player draws the Blank token, place a Noise marker in each Corridor connected to the Room in which this Encounter took place.

If the Blank token was the last token in the Intruder bag: Add 1 Adult Intruder token to the Intruder bag. If there are no Adult Intruder tokens available, nothing happens. Return the Blank token to the Intruder bag. This Encounter ends.

Entering a room with an Intruder

Each time a Character enters a Room occupied by an Intruder, do not resolve an Encounter. The Intruder and the Character are immediately considered to be in Combat.

Encounter Example:

Our Scout is moving from the Hibernatorium to the neighboring Room. There are 2 Noise markers in the Corridors connected to that Room.

As always when entering an empty Room, the Scout's player must perform a Noise roll. The result is 2 and, since there is already a Noise marker, an Encounter takes place.

The player removes all the Noise markers from the Corridors connected to that Room and draws an Intruder token from the Intruder bag.

It is an Adult Intruder token showing the number "4" on its back side. This number is compared with number of cards in the player's hand (including any Contamination cards) - only three cards in this case.

As the player does not have enough cards, a Surprise Attack takes place and an Intruder Attack card is drawn and resolved.

Combat

Whenever both a Character and an Intruder are in the same Room, they are considered to be in Combat.

In Combat, a Character may attack an Intruder or Escape during their Action round. Intruders attack Characters during the Event Phase.

Character Attacks Intruder

The Character may attack an Intruder in the same Room using a Shoot Action or a Melee Attack Action during their round.

Shoot Action

if a Character is in a Room with an Intruder and has a Weapon with at least 1 Ammo, they may perform a Shoot Basic Action against that Intruder:

1. Choose a Weapon and 1 Intruder you want to shoot.
2. Discard 1 Ammo from that Weapon's card.
3. Roll the Combat die.

Combat die results:

You miss your target.

If your target is a Larva or Creeper, deal 1 Injury to your target. If not, you miss.

If your target is a Larva, Creeper or Adult Intruder, deal 1 Injury to your target. If not, you miss.

Deal 1 Injury to your target (regardless of the Intruder's type).

Deal 2 Injuries to your target (regardless of the Intruder's type)

Important: some Weapons have special rules that may modify the Shooting Action.

Melee Attack Action

If a Character is in a Room with an Intruder, they may perform a Basic Melee Attack Action against that Intruder:

1. Draw 1 Contamination card and add it to your Action discard pile.
2. Choose 1 Intruder you want to attack.
3. Roll the Combat die.

Combat die results:

You miss your target and your Character suffers 1 Serious Wound.

If your target is a Larva or Creeper, deal 1 Injury to your target. If not, you miss and your Character suffers 1 Serious Wound.

If your target is a Larva, Creeper or Adult Intruder, deal 1 Injury to your target. If not, you miss and your Character suffers 1 Serious Wound.

Deal 1 Injury to your target (regardless of the Intruder's type).

Deal 1 Injury (yes, only 1!) to your target (regardless of the Intruder's type).

Combat Example:

Here, our Scout tries to shoot an Intruder with her Scientist 's Pistol . After spending 1 Action card, she also discards 1 Ammo from the Weapon card and rolls the Attack die.

The result is 2 Hits, but the Scientist's Pistol card states that rolls of 2 Hits are treated as 1 Hit. Only 1 Injury marker is placed on the Intruder miniature.

After placing the Injury marker, the Injury effect is checked (representing the Intruder 's endurance ). 1 Intruder card is drawn and only the number in the "blood" icon is considered and com - pared to the number of Injury markers on the Intruder. As it is higher, the Intruder is fine.

Character Escape

A Character may also try to Escape from Combat by performing a Movement Action to go to a neighboring Room (explored or unexplored).

Before you move your miniature, resolve an Intruder Attack.

If there is more than 1 Intruder in the Room you are trying to Escape from, resolve a separate Intruder Attack for each Intruder.

If your Character survives, you end your Movement in the neighboring Room.

If there is no one in that Room, perform a Noise roll. If it was an unexplored Room, Explore it according to the standard rules.

If you die, your Character Corpse stays in the Room you tried to Escape from.

Important: Some Actions, other than the Basic Movement Action, allow a Character to Escape, but additionally modify this rule - for example uppressive Fire, Covering Fire (see the Action cards).

Note: If the Character Escapes to a Room without any other Characters or Intruders, perform a Noise roll just like after a standard move.

Escape Example

After dealing an Injury to the Intruder, the Scout decides to Es- cape. The player spends an Action card (Movement Cost ), and decides to move to the Hibernatorium.

As Intruders attack any Character trying to Escape, an Intruder Attack card is drawn. It is a Bite card, with the Adult Intruder symbol: the attack hits the Scout, dealing her a Serious Wound. Bitten and seriously wounded, the Scout moves to the Hibernatorium.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. A metal pipe, a heavy tool, a rifle butt, anything can become an improvised weapon in a hopeless situation. Close combat works like shooting, but the risks are far greater.

If the attack fails to hit, then the character immediately suffers a Serious Wound, in addition of the risk of being contaminated.

Intruder Injuries and Death

When any Intruder suffers Injuries (for example as a result of a successful Character attack or from Fire), place the cor- responding number of Injury markers on its base.

Then, check the Injury Effect:

• Larva and Egg - 1 Injury is enough to kill them. Remove their miniature from the board.

• Creeper or Adult Intruder - draw 1 Intruder Attack card, ignore everything on this card except the "blood" icon in the upper left corner of the card.

If the number in the "blood" icon of the card is equal to or lower than the current number of Injury markers on this Intruder, it is killed - remove its miniature and place 1 Intruder Carcass token in the Room where it was slain (indicating from now on an Intruder Carcass Object).

If the number in the "blood" icon is higher, the Intruder is still alive. Breeder or Queen - draw 2 Intruder Attack cards, add the value of their "blood" icons, and compare the total to the current number of Injury markers of this Intruder.

Resolve the result using the same method as above for the Creeper and the Adult Intruder.

Note: The "blood" icon represents the current "endurance" of the Intruder. This value may vary for a given individual, depending on the cards drawn after each successful attack.

There are also two "Five Injuries" tokens provided, which may help you with tracking Injuries on bigger Intruders - such as Queen or Breeders.

Intruder Retreat

Intruders might seem savage, but they are not mindless. They can run away if they suffer too many wounds, or if someone is lucky enough to damage one of their vulnerable parts.

During the Injury Effect check, if there is a Retreat arrow in the "blood" icon of any of the drawn Intruder Attack cards, then this Intruder flees:

Draw an Event card and move the Intruder through the Corridor whose number appears in the Intruder movement section of the card. Then, discard that Event card.

The Queen and the Breeders will retreat if any of the 2 Intruder Attack cards drawn displays the Retreat symbol.

Intruder Attack

Intruder Attacks happen in three cases:

,Surprise Attack

• Intruder Attack step in the Event Phase

• Character's Escape

Each Intruder Attack follows the steps below:

1. Choose the Character who is the target of this Intruder Attack . The Intruder may only attack a Character in the same Room.

   If there is more than one Character in the Room, Intruders al- ways attack the Character whose player has the fewest Action cards in their hand. In the event of a draw, the Character with the First Player token (or the next player in turn order) is attacked.

   In case of a Surprise Attack, the Character targeted is the one who triggered the Encounter.

   In case of an Escape, the Character targeted is the one who is performing the Escape Action.

2. Draw and resolve 1 Intruder Attack card:

   • If the card displays an Intruder Symbol corresponding to the attacking Intruder, resolve the effect described on the card.

   • If not, the attack misses.

   Important: During an Intruder Attack, ignore the "blood" icon in the up -per left corner of the Intruder Attack card.

   After resolving an Intruder Attack card, it is placed in the Intruder discard pile.

If you run out of cards in the Intruder Attack deck, take its discard pile and reshuffle it. It becomes the new Intruder Attack deck.

Example of an Intruder Attack Card:

1. Intruder endurance - Only used when checking if an Intruder dies after receiving one or more Injury tokens.

2. Intruder symbols - They show all different types of Intrud- ers that can use this Attack. When a card is drawn during any Intruder Attack (either during an Encounter or the Event Phase), if one of its symbols matches the attacking Intruder type, then the Attack Effect of the card is resolved.

3. Intruder Attack Effect - In this example , the targeted Charac- ter gets a Slime marker and 1 Contamination card.

Infest

If the Intruder Attack is performed by a Larva, do not draw any Intruder Attack cards. Apply the following instead:

• remove the Larva miniature from the board and place it on the Character board of the target of this attack, on the miniature picture

• the targeted player gets 1 Contamination Card.

Contamination Cards

In addition to Wounds, Characters may get Contamination cards (for example as the result of some Intruder Attacks).

When a Character gets a Contamination card (regardless of the source), draw it from the Contamination deck and place it on top of their Action discard pile.

Contamination cards are a disadvantage for the player, because they are kept in hand like a normal Action card, but they do not provide any additional Actions and you cannot spend them to pay the Costs of the other Actions.

Each Contamination card contains hidden information: the Character may be INFECTED or not. This information is hidden by colorful patterns in the text field. Unless the card is "Scanned", this information remains unknown to the player until the end of the game.

If the Character does not Scan their Contamination cards before the end of the game, then at the end of the game, they may lose the game because of these cards.

Note: Some Event cards may force the player to Scan their Contamination cards.

Scanning and Removing contamination cards

A Character may try to get rid of their Contamination cards through several different ways (like the Rest Action card, a Canteen , Showeror Surgery Room Action and the Antidote Item Action).

Each card/Room description details the procedure to follow. Whatever the procedure, it requires a Scan of the Contamination cards. A Scan is performed in the following way:

Take the Scanner and place its red foil part over the coded field of the Contamination card you're Scanning . In one of the lines of text, the word INFECTED may appear. If not, the card is NOT INFECTED.

Note: Look closely at the cards, because some of the coded words may be seemingly similar to INFECTED.

In both of these cases, any additional Scanning effect is explained in the description of the given Action card, Room Action or Item Action.

If you're INFECTED, place a Larva miniature on your Character board (and do not remove this Contamination card!).

If there is already a Larva on yourr Character board, your Character dies - additionally, place 1 Creeper in the Room where you died.

If any rule asks you to remove a Contamination card, remove this card from the game.

Scanning Contamination Cards Example:

The Captain decides to perform a Rest Action, which requires him to Scan his Contamination card.

He places the Scanner on his Contamination card and discov -ers that he is INFECTED!

He takes the Contamination card back into his hand, and a Larva miniature is placed on his Character board, indicating that the Captain has been infected by an Intruder at some point during the game.

The Captain 's player must quickly find a way to get rid of this parasite . The best ways would be a Surgery Room Action or an Antidote Item.

As the old saying goes, if it bleeds, we can kill it. But what if we can't be sure whether the fluid coming out of the alien wretch is, in fact, blood? Either way, it's helpful to know that shooting the Intruders hurts them.

The problem is, you can never be sure how bad their condition is and if you can kill them before ammo runs out...

The crew has no past experience with Intruders, and so players cannot be sure how much damage is needed to kill one!

Character Wounds and Death

During the game, Characters may suffer two types of Wounds: Light and Serious.

Light Wounds

When a Character suffers a Light Wound, place a Wound marker in the upper space of the Light Wound Track on their Character board.

If a Wound marker is already there, move it to the lower space . A marker on the lower space of the Light Wounds Track means 2 Light Wounds.

If there is already a Wound marker on the low- er space, discard it from the Light Wound Track and the Character suffers a Serious Wound.

Serious Wound

When a Character suffers a Serious Wound, draw 1 Serious Wound card and place it next to the Character board . From now on, the player is affected by the effect described on that card.

Each type of Serious Wound has a different e fect, described on its card.

When a Character with 3 Serious Wounds suffers any additional Wound (Light or Serious), they are instantly killed.

When a Character dies, remove their miniature from the board and place a Character Corpse token in the Room where they died - from now on, it is considered as a Character Corpse Object.

When a Character dies, they drop all their Heavy Objects in the Room they died in.

Important: If a Character has several copies of identical Serious Wounds cards, their effects are not cumulative. It will be more difficult to get rid of their effects, though.

Dressing and Healing Wounds

During the game, a player may Dress and Heal their Wounds in many ways (using Clothes, Bandages, Medkit Item cards or the Emergency Room Action).

Each relevant Item card or Room Action details the Wound treatment. It can be either Dress or Heal.

Dress Serious Wound

Flip a Serious Wound card affecting the Character on its backside. From now on, its effect is ignored, but it still counts against the limit of 3 Serious Wounds.

Heal

Either remove (in case of a Light Wound) or discard (in case of a Dressed Serious Wound card) the Wound mentioned in the Action effect.

Intruder Weakness Cards

During game setup , you placed 3 random Weakness cards (face down) on the 3 Intruder Weakness slots on the Intruder board. During the game you will have the possibility to discover these 3 Weaknesses. They represent the crew gaining gradual knowledge on the lifeform that infests the ship.

Each of the 3 Weakness cards is placed in a space corresponding to a different Object:

1. Character Corpse
2. Intruder Egg
3. Intruder Carcass.

To discover a given Weakness card, any Character must research the corresponding Object in the Laboratory Room.

Object tokens:

After researching an Object, reveal the corresponding Weakness card - flip it face up and leave it on the Intruder board.

Discovered Weakness cards modify the basic rules of the Intruders, giving all players a small advantage against them.

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