Now or Never

Now or Never

• 1-4 players

Note: These instructions are for the standard game only.

• Light side of game board.
  • Shuffle then deal 1 random location tile to squares that have a scroll in the top left corner.
  • Order tokens shuffled, placed face down on the Tower of Miners location.
  • Place enemies on board with matching numbers as on the board. One monster per player at each space, except for the #9 monster. For #9 deal 1 monster if 1 or 2 players, otherwise 2 monsters. Unused goes back to the box.
  • Deal search tokens face down to spaces with a letter on the bottom left corner. Return unused to the box. Don't cover the mountain icons.
• Place the season board, flame side down
  • Place the season marker (round red token) on the 1 space.
  • Organize gear into blue and red types. Place 3 random ones from each color in the Gear Store. Place the others face down above them.
  • Deal 6 random villagers onto their spaces on the board.
  • Place the non-starting specialists face down in a draw pile and flip 4 of them face up, next to the seasons board.
• Each player grabs a hero of their choice and a town board (light side up)
  • Place 1 of these tokens on the 0 space on the town board: Tool, Shell, Bottled Demon, Book, and Crystal Marker
  • Place a heart on the highest health space on the board.
  • Place a mana token on each of the mana spaces.
  • Place 3 hero action tokens on spots on the top right of the hero board.
  • Place 3 blue and 3 red hero abilities that match your hero's name.
  • Grab a four-sided die.
  • Grab all starting specialists (symbol on back). Each player gets 1 random builder and 1 random healer and places them on their hero board. Remaining starting specialists go back to the box.
• Each player grabs the 20 building tiles of their color and deals them face up in a 4×5 grid next to their town board.
• Shuffle the quest cards by type and each player draws 6 basic, 1 artifact, and 1 advanced quest. They then choose to keep 4 of those cards. Discard the others into discard piles next to the face down quest cards of their type.
• Each player gets 17 coins. 2nd and 3rd player gets 1 extra coin. 4th player gets 2 extra coins.
• Each player places their standee on The Monument space.
• One of the players gets the First Player token.

Choose 1 of either Specialist Action or Hero Action

• Specialist Action (yours and/or other players specialists)
  • Use a Specialist ability
    • Pay the cost of the upper number to the supply.
      • If you use an opponents specialist, they receive the smaller, lower number as a tax.
    • Do the action on the right.
  • Recruit a new specialist
    • Pay double the cost of the upper number.
    • Add it to your hero board.
    • Use their ability right away.
    • Flip the specialist face-down.
  • Rest a specialist (not opponents)
    • Flip the specialist face-down.
    • Either gain 2 hearts or get 1 coin.

• Hero Action (only your hero)
  • Can only be chosen if you have 1 or more hearts.
  • You must follow the 3:
    • Move
      • Select 1 of the 3 hero action slots, sliding the token to cover the number, and move up to that number of spaces (plus gear), orthogonally only.
      • You cannot stay on the same space.
      • If you want to move farther it costs 1 heart per space.
      • If you arrive on a mountain symbol, it costs 1 heart.
      • If you arrive on a space with an enemy and don't want to fight, it costs 1 heart.
    • After moving you may play a quest card that matches the name of the space you are on, paying the cost at the top right.
    • Choose 1:
      • Visit location
        • Pay cost listed on the board and gain the reward.
      • Search (needs search token on board)
        • Roll die, take that much damage
        • Flip over search token and take reward.
        • Place token face down near your board. It gives you 1 coin per production phase.
      • Fight enemy - See below

• Building a Building (Specialist Action)
  • Pay the building cost on the bottom right. If you build on the coin spaces, you must pay additional coins to build on those spaces.
  • You must start by picking a building on the outside of the 4×5 grid.
  • On next turns, only buildings adjacent to the used blank spaces can be chosen.
  • You start by placing it on the bottom left space, gaining whatever it says on the board.
  • On next turns, you place the builds adjacent to buildings already built.

• Fight enemy (simultaneous damage)
  • Roll a die, and attack the enemy.
  • The enemy deals damage at the same time (on their token). You may block damage with items.
  • After, you can choose to retreat, stay on the same space but receive no reward.
  • Otherwise perform another round of combat.
  • If you die, monster stays and gets all it's health back. But you get 1 experience token.
  • If you win, the monster is removed from the board and you gain the reward.

• Anytime actions
  • Purchase 1 of your hero abilities by paying the experience token cost. You must have a level 1 before you get a level 2, etc.
  • Sell goods for coins in the Market.
  • Place one of your villagers a town board row.
    • Each building houses 1 villager and each bed icon houses an additional villager.
    • Spend 2 experience tokens to refill the villagers on the seasons board.
  • Complete an order
    • Pay the cost and receive the rewards

• Production Phase
  • Refresh mana and hero tokens
  • Refresh specialists
  • Gain goods on buildings, villagers, and/or search tokens.
  • Move season marker up 1