Everywhere is darkness...

...the air full of smoke rising from the ruins of what once used to be the city.
Bits of broken glass cover the ground, tracing a path through the doomed neighborhood.
You come across other survivors, screaming and running away from an unimaginable horror.
There’s no time to take a deep breath. Deep red footprints mark the pavement.
Blood flows into the gutters, fresh evidence of a nearby massacre and ongoing terror.
Finally you discover the house you’ve been looking for so desperately, the last fortress in a barren land of
death. You recognize the front from the faded photograph in your hands. Dr. Mortimer’s laboratory
supposedly lies in this house and within those walls awaits a dose of the antidote against the lethal epidemic
turning humans into zombies. This house is your last hope to escape from this apocalyptic nightmare –
but if you’re not quick, that hope might burn away in the flames now spreading around the house...
Do you dare delve into the darkness to bring the light of salvation to the world?

Components

5 Survivor boards 5 Survivor miniatures 5 Entrap tokens 40 Ammo cubes 1 Multitracker board

4 Survivor dice

20 Skill tokens 35 Marker cubes (7 in 48 Equipment

each of the 5 colors) cards
6 Creature dice
1 Security board
+ 21 Code tokens
1 Terror die

23 Spawn tokens
D6 7 Starting
and D4 50 Cubes (gray) equipment cards

32 Zombie miniatures
2 Nemesis
miniatures 11 Virus tokens
3 Creature miniatures
3 Creature and 2 1 Antidote
Nemesis boards token
41 Code chips
27 Room tiles
8 Camera tokens 1 Fire token
+ 20 Burn markers

An overview of the game

Dark, Darker, Darkest is a cooperative survival-horror game. A team of 2 to 5 survivors must explore the
heavily guarded house of Dr. Mortimer, find and unlock his laboratory in time, and get hold of the antidote.
This is the only way to stop the zombie apocalypse.

To override the security system, the team must search the house for equipment and use it to unlock doors.
The codes collected from the doors will allow the team to eventually unlock the lab … only to find that the
raging hordes of zombies, rabid creatures and out of control fires that have been encountered so far are
about to be joined by a nemesis who must be destroyed in a dramatic final showdown.

Each round is played over two phases. In the upkeep phase, new zombies enter play, fire possibly breaks out
or spreads, and darkness (i.e. the game clock) may advance. In the action phase that follows, each group of
heroes who share a room form a temporary team. In turn, each team performs all of its
actions (in whatever order they like), and each team’s turn is followed by nearby zombies and creatures
closing in, as well as fire spreading. The round ends when all teams have completed their turns. Can you fight
the darkness?
1
 Set-up
Building the house You may choose a set of tiles at
The game board is made from 20 tiles in a 4 x 5 grid. The room tiles are random to create the house, or
marked on their back side with symbols listed below, indicating the section of you may pick out a specific set
the house for which they can be used. First, select the four corner rooms and of tiles. You decide how deadly
place them at the corners. Place the entrance hall at the center space of the the house will be to explore.
bottom edge, and then choose and place nine outer rooms along the
remaining edge spaces (i.e. between the corner rooms).
Ensure that the windows of the outer rooms face outside.
Fill the center of the house with six inner rooms.
When laying out the game board, no passage or doorway may be blocked LABORATORY
by the wall of an adjoining room. Turn the tiles or exchange them, if This key location needs to be unlocked
necessary, until this requirement is met. by the team in order to get hold of
the antidote and win the game.

CORNERS
These rooms make up the 4
corners of the house.

OUTER ROOMS
These form the border of the
house (except for the corners).
When laid on the table, the
windows should point outward.

INNER ROOMS
These make up the heart of
the house. There are always
6 in play.

ENTRANCE HALL
This is the room were the team enters
Mortimer’s house.

Several rooms show a camera icon. Place a camera token inside these rooms directly on each icon
and orientate each camera token in a way that it can see into as many rooms as possible.
A camera sees only orthogonally and its view is blocked by walls and locked doors (that is, a door with
a code chip positioned on the lock symbol). A camera always covers the room it is positioned in.
In case there are two directions allowing a camera to see into the same maximum number of rooms,
players may choose the direction that the camera faces.

In this example, the camera can see the tile it is in, and all the tiles to its left, until its view is blocked by the wall of the
leftmost tile.

Terminology A “locked room” is a room with a code chip

Each room tile has two sides: positioned on the lock symbol in each
a normal side depicting the room and doorway of the room.
its icon(s), and a destroyed side A room with two doorways and
depicting a sea of flames. During the only one code chip is not locked.
the game, rooms can be destroyed by Place code chips on the
fires. As a result, the tile is turned to board face-down, that is,
its destroyed side and stays this showing the number that
way for the remainder of the game. indicates whether the chip has
Such a room is referred to as a 2 or 3 icons.
“destroyed room”.
2
Preparing the rest of the game
Place the virus tokens in a pile.
Remove the starting equipment card for each character, then shuffle the remaining equipment cards
and place them as a face-down deck near the game board.
Shuffle the zombie spawn tokens face-down (zombie face visible), then stack them next to the game board.
Shuffle the creature boards and place them face-down in a pile next to the board.

Setting the security board

Set up the Security board, which has 3 difficulty modes,
as listed below:

1) Dark mode
This mode is ideal for rookie players as it ensures that a
perfect match exists amongst the code chips for the
code sequence needed to unlock Mortimer’s lab. Use
the 7 code side of the security panel for this mode.

Draw 3 code chips: one 3-icon chip and two 2-icon chips.
The 7 code icons found on the back of the chips will be
used to form the security sequence for the lab.
For each icon found on these code chips, find one
matching code token. Then place these 7 code tokens on the
7 slots on the top of the security board, one per slot (the order
doesn’t matter).

Take a number of code chips equal to the number of lock symbols found on
the board, less 3. Add the 3 code chips you used to form the sequence
and mix the pool of chips face down (numbers showing) and place the
chips on the lock symbols until every symbol is covered with a chip. In this illustration the 7 code side is shown
The corner rooms should always have 3-icon chips (showing a “3”). of the security panel.

2) Darker mode
Players who want a more challenging game can use the 8 code side of the security board.
Pick the 8th code at random from the pool of code tokens.

3) Darkest mode
If players feel confident playing with uncertainty, they can opt for this set-up.
There’s no guarantee that the code will be solvable with a perfectly matching set of code chips found in the house.

Instead of forming the code based on the information found on 3 code chips picked beforehand, players simply form
a random code sequence by blindly picking code tokens and placing them on the Security board.
For an optimal code, make sure no color appears in the sequence more than twice.

Note: In a 4- or 5-player game, make sure the number of 3-icon and 2-icon code chips is nearly identical.
In a 2- or 3-player game, having a few more 2-icon chips than 3-icon code chips is advisable.

The Survivors
Each player chooses one survivor and takes that survivor board, the corresponding survivor figure and seven marker
cubes of his color. Depending on the number of players, use the appropriate side of the survivor board for 2 or 3 play-
ers (4 action points on the energy track) or for 4 or 5 players (3 action points on the energy track).

Each player picks his specified weapon (as listed in the icon guide) from the starting equipment cards and places it to
the right of his survivor board. Next, he takes the individual skill tokens of his survivor, matching those found on the
survivor board, and placing them beside his survivor board.

Each player places one of his cubes on the leftmost space of the energy track. He places a second cube on
space 0 of the experience track.

Each player puts another one of their cubes on the first space of the team section of the multitracker (see page 5).
Additionally, the players place three (in a 4- or 5-player game) or four (in a 2- or 3-player game) cubes in the left slot of
the action box of his survivor board.

Start the game with all player figures on the entrance hall tile.

3
The Survivor board in detail
Action box
These two slots at the top of the survivor board help players to track how many actions they have spent during a round. At
the start of each round, a player positions a number of action point cubes in his player color equal to his current energy
level in the left slot. With each action performed he moves the appropriate number of cubes to the right slot. When all the
cubes are positioned in the right slot, the character cannot perform any more actions during the current round.

Energy Track
This track shows how many
action points (AP) the
character can spend each
round.

Every time the character is

wounded, move the marker
1 space further towards the
skull.
When wounds cause the
marker to enter the green
zone, the character will start
the next round with only
3 AP, and so on.

When the marker reaches the

skull, your character is dead.

This icon shows the

character’s entrap rate.
Experience and skills track
Throughout the game, use the marker to keep track of Experience points (XP) your
It represents the number character earns for completing certain tasks. The character uses these points to activate
of dice a character will skills that are listed at the bottom of the survivor board.
contribute to a dice roll These vary in cost, getting more powerful and expensive from left to right.
during attempts to free When a player spends XP to activate a skill, he takes the appropriate skill token and
himself or a team member places it on top of the matching symbol to mark it as activated.
from entrapment (more on Once 10 Experience points are gained, the character cannot gain any additional points
entrapment on pages 13 and must spend points on skills before gaining new points. Using an active skill does
and 19). not cost any AP. These gained skills are considered to be permanent and the character
can use these skills when performing actions. (See also ‘Survivors’ on page 16.)

This symbol represents the starting skill of the character. Unlike skills gained through the Experience points,
it is active from the start and can never be lost.

The Multitracker
This board forms the heart of the game system, pushing the adventure forward and tracking all the various
key elements ranging from the passing of time to the formation of small groups of characters within certain areas
of the house. It also serves as a handy flowchart for a round of the game.

4
 Team section
The top 5 boxes are used to show which characters
are grouped together on the board each round.
During game rounds, players who have finished
their actions move their cubes down to the
lower box to show that they are done.
During the first turn of the game all the player
cubes should be positioned in the leftmost box on
the top row, since all characters start the game in
the same location: the entrance hall.

Event track
Place a gray cube as the event marker at the
bottom position of the event track (clock symbol).
The marker moves once each upkeep phase to
the next spot in the cycle, triggering that spot’s
event.

Darkness track
Place a gray cube as the darkness marker on the first spot of the darkness
track. During the game, Darkness advances and the marker moves along
the track.
If the team fails to unlock the lab by the end of the round in which the
marker reaches 5, darkness falls, and the players lose the game as a team.

Playing the game

Each game round consists of two phases: the upkeep phase comes first, followed by the action phase.

The Upkeep phase

During the upkeep phase, perform the following steps in order (the multitracker lists them as a handy reference):
1. Event resolution
2. Survivors regroup
3. Camera check
4. Zombies spawn
5. Zombification

1. Event resolution
First, move the event marker to its next position. This movement forms a cycle: If the gray marker is on the zombie
space move it to the fire space; if it’s on the fire space move it to the darkness grows space; if it is positioned on the
darkness grows space, move it back to the zombie space, restarting the cycle. (This is what you will do on the first turn
of the game.) Then, execute the event triggered by the event marker’s position as follows.

Zombie spawning
Use the four-sided and the six-sided dice to determine a room in which a zombie spawn token will be
placed. Roll both dice simultaneously: The 4-sided die corresponds to the rows (top row being 1, bottom
row, which has the entrance hall, being 4); the 6-sided die indicates the column (1 is the leftmost column, 5
the rightmost column). Place a randomly drawn zombie spawn token face-down (zombie face visible) into
the matching room.

The following situations are possible:

1) If the room indicated by the roll is in line of sight (see page 6) of at least one survivor, place as many
zombies into that room as indicated on the back of the token, then remove the token from the game.

2) If the room indicated by the roll is not in line of sight, the spawn token stays face-down, unseen.
3) If the chosen room is completely locked or destroyed, place the listed amount of zombies on the token in
any non-burning room adjacent to a room holding at least one survivor, in line of sight of that
survivor, then remove the token from the game. Players choose whichever eligible room they prefer.
If there’s no eligible room adjacent to a survivor (for example: all adjacent rooms are burning), choose any
non-burning room to place the zombies.
4) If the rolled die was a 6, follow the procedure outlined in point 3.

5
Line of sight
Line of sight determines whether a survivor can attack or see a specific element on the board.
Without line of sight, interaction with elements in the house is impossible. Line of sight is crucial in combat
and also determines whether a zombie spawn token must be converted to a horde or remain as a token.
To check whether line of sight is established between two elements:
• Line of sight can only exist on tiles in a straight, orthogonal line – not tiles, that are diagonally in
line with one another.
• Line of sight is blocked by walls, destroyed rooms, and locked doors.

This example shows how different elements/conditions can influence line of sight and determine
whether it can be established or not. Lucy (yellow) has line of sight only towards zombie spawn token 1.
Token 2 is inside a locked room, so line of sight is blocked towards this token.
Bruce (blue) cannot establish line of sight towards a zombie spawn token. The destroyed room blocks
sight towards token 3, and token 4 is blocked by both the destroyed room and a wall.
Token 1 is diagonally positioned towards Bruce so again no line of sight can be established.

Leo (purple) has entered the hallway and can establish line of sight towards both token 3 and 4.
He risks being surrounded by the undead.

This example shows the line of sight of a camera seeing into 4 tiles: the tile it is positioned on, the passageway
on the tile to its left (the enclosed storage room is not in line of sight as it doesn’t have an open door in its right
hand wall), the next tile to the left, and the corner room (because it does have an open door in the camera’s line
of sight).

6
 The Fire spreads
If there is fire in the house, it spreads. Determine the
direction in which the fire spreads by rolling the 4-sided
die and consulting the direction key on the entrance hall
tile. Move the fire token from its current tile to the
adjacent tile in the direction indicated. Place a burn
marker on the tile the fire token lands on. The fire moves
through walls and locked doors, but not into the
lab, not into a destroyed room, and not outside the
house. If the fire token is not able to move in the direction
rolled, add a burn marker to the tile the fire token is in.
A tile split into 2 separate rooms has no effect on a fire:
the whole tile is considered burning, regardless of where
the burn markers are positioned. When a third burn
marker is added to a room, it is destroyed; remove the
burn markers, turn the tile to its destroyed side, then
place the fire token on this tile.

The Darkness grows

When the event marker reaches the bottom space of the track (the red clock), move the darkness marker
one space to the right.

The Darkness track

This track indicates how much time remains for the heroes. When the marker reaches the final space, that signals that
the game is about to end.

Outbreak of a fire
If the darkness marker lands on the space showing the fire icon and there’s no fire token in the house, a fire
breaks out immediately. Determine the room in which the fire starts by rolling the 4-sided and 6-sided dice.
(Reroll the 6-sided die in the event of a 6.)

Darkness progressing
Before the final showdown starts, move the darkness marker forward one space each time a player is elimi-
nated, a room is destroyed, or a code token is removed from the security panel without using a code chip.

The End
If the darkness marker reaches the final space on the darkness track, the final round starts.
If the players fail to enter the lab during this round, the game ends and all players lose.

2. Survivors regroup
If needed, regroup the survivors on the team
section of the multitracker to reflect the
current situation in the house.

Place all the cubes of those survivors who are

in the same room on one team space of the
multitracker. Repeat this process for all groups
of players or individual players in different
rooms.

The players can place these groups of

cubes and single cubes in any order they like.
Note: During the action phase all players with
their cubes on team space 1 of the multitracker
take their action first, thus the order of the cubes is very
important. The players should discuss this thoroughly.

7
3. Camera check
For each room that contains at least one survivor in line of sight of a camera, roll a number of survivor dice equal to
the number of survivors in that room (up to a maximum of 4 dice) together with the terror die. For each such room, if
one or more failures (see page 10) were rolled, resolve the event shown on the terror die (see page 19). If a survivor
or a group of survivors is in a room that is in line of sight of more than one camera, the camera check must be made
for each of these cameras.

Note: Players fully resolve each room in turn, including resolving its event, before going on and rolling for the
next room. The order in which the rooms are resolved can be freely chosen by the players.

4. Zombies spawn
Now zombies spawn in the house, regardless of whether zombies spawned previously this round due to an event.
Determine the room in which the zombie spawn token appears as described earlier, replacing the token with the
appropriate number of zombies, if needed (see page 5).

5. Zombification
During the final step of the upkeep phase, the decay of the survivors progresses. This step applies only to those
survivors who have 2 virus tokens. If such a survivor already has a gray cube on his skill track, move it one slot to the
left; otherwise, place one gray cube on the rightmost skill slot on his survivor board.
If a skill being marked this way has been previously activated, remove the skill token as the survivor loses this skill.

Lucy has gained the third skill

of her skill track. As a result the
appropriate skill token was placed
on the inactive (blue) icon.
However, due to two bites, Lucy
has become infected. A gray cube
is placed on the rightmost skill slot.
In the next round, the gray cube
will move one position to the left. When the cube lands on the activated skill it will be lost.

The survivor must locate and inject an antidote before the gray cube reaches the leftmost slot of the row of 4 skills. If
he doesn’t he is zombified. Remove the survivor’s figure from the game board, and replace it with a
zombie figure. This survivor takes no part in the remainder of this round, but he may re-enter the game at the start of
the survivors regroup step in the next round, at which point he moves his survivor figure onto the entrance hall tile,
taking any damage from fire there as a result. The survivor loses all his gained skills and equipment and enters the
house again with only his starting equipment card, but with full energy and no virus tokens.

The injection of an antidote halts the zombification process but doesn’t remove the virus from the
bloodstream of the survivor. Thus, the survivor discards one virus token, while keeping one in position in his
inventory.
If the survivor is bitten again, thereby gaining a second virus token once more, the zombification process picks up
where it left off and the gray marker will again start moving towards the leftmost skill icon.
A player can never have more than 2 virus tokens at one time. Additional bites that cannot be allocated to another
survivor in an attacked team are ignored.

The Action phase

During the action phase the survivors perform their actions. Starting with the leftmost team space and progressing
rightwards, for each team space that has player cubes in it, the following steps occur.

1. All players whose cubes are on the current team space take their actions.
These players may take their actions in any order of their choosing, alternating between players as
desired. Once these players have finished their actions, move the player cubes to the lower team space
to indicate that this team has finished.

2. Zombies and creatures react, and fire spreads (see page 14).

This sequence continues until all the groups or single survivors positioned in separate team spaces have moved their
cubes to the lower box and the reaction was resolved. The round ends after the last team space with player cubes in it
has completed its two steps.

During each game round, each player has as many action points at his disposal as indicated by the marker on his
energy track. At the start of the game each player has 3 or 4 action points at his disposal, depending on the number of
survivors. The more energy he loses, the fewer actions he can perform.
Survivors may perform different actions or the same action more than once in any order they like.
Players are allowed to pass on spending an action.
8
These are the actions the players can perform:

Move
A survivor may spend one 1 action point to move orthogonally (never diagonally) to an adjacent room.
If a tile has two separate rooms on it, moving from one room to the other counts as moving to an adjacent room.
Survivors cannot move out of a room containing creatures or zombies; in this situation, they may leave only during
combat by using the retreat icon.
Walls and locked rooms naturally block movement.
If entering a room establishes line of sight towards a spawn token, convert it to a horde.
Survivors may enter burning rooms and destroyed rooms, but it comes at a cost (see page 16).

Search
A survivor may spend 1 action point to search a non-destroyed room if it hasn’t been successfully searched before
(i.e. marked by a gray cube). When searching a room, the player rolls as many survivor dice as the number of
survivors in that room, up to a maximum of 4 dice, together with the terror die. For each success icon (see next page)
rolled, the player takes the top equipment card from the deck. If the active player gains more than one card, the player
selects one of those cards to keep, then gives the remaining cards to the other survivors in that room, giving each
player at most one card; distributing cards costs no action points. If at least one equipment card was found, place a
gray cube in this room. This room cannot be searched again. If any icon except the success icon, appears twice
or more, the event on the terror die (see page 19) is triggered.
Note: Larger groups have a better chance of discovering equipment cards.
On the other hand, the risk of triggering an unwelcome event increases.

In this situation, 3 team members conduct a search: 3 survivor dice

are rolled. One success icon (the first shown) results in the survivors
finding 1 item. However, the double aim result triggers the event
shown on the terror die: a special creature will be spawned.

Pass or receive equipment

A survivor may spend 1 action point to pass an equipment card to another survivor in the same room or to receive
an equipment card from that survivor.
A code chip can be passed like an equipment card at the cost of 1 action point.

Note: Survivors are allowed to drop equipment, but it’s removed from the game.
Each survivor can carry a maximum of 5 equipment / virus tokens.

Unlocking a door
When a survivor is positioned in a room with an adjoining door containing a code chip, he can flip the code chip to
reveal the icons on it at no AP cost. If the player’s equipment cards (without regard for the equipment held by others
in the same room) show all the icons that are on the code chip, he may spend 1 action point to unlock this door. He
removes the code chip from the board, placing it next to his survivor board. (He keeps his used equipment cards.) All
players can now pass through this door.
A player can open a locked door even without having the matching equipment cards – but to do this, he must move
the darkness marker one space to the right for each icon he can’t match using his equipment cards.

Extinguish a fire
A survivor may spend 2 action points to remove one burn marker from the tile he occupies.
If this tile holds the fire token, and the tile now has no burn markers on it, remove the fire token at no AP cost.

Use corner room function

In a round each corner room can be used only once for one of two functions. Survivors must spend 2 AP to use one of
the functions of a corner room:

1. Use a room-specific function (see page 21 for more information), or

2. Enter a code chip into the security system.

In a round, the survivors are allowed to spend AP on a function once in each corner room (meaning there’s a
maximum of 4 corner room functions at a total possible cost of 8AP allowed per round).

Combat
A survivor may spend 1 action point to attack creatures and zombies in his room - and/or if he has ranged weapons,
he can attack creatures and zombies up to several rooms away as long as he has line of sight to them.
When attacking, the player rolls as many survivor dice as indicated by the equipment card of the weapon used.
Other equipment cards might modify the number of dice rolled, but that number can never exceed 4.
If the player has no usable weapon, he rolls only 1 die, fighting with his bare fists.
For each attack, the player rolls the survivor dice first, then assigns any hits to the opponents.
Multiple hits may be assigned to multiple opponents within range.

9
The survivor die in combat
Each survivor die shows the following icons:

SUCCESS (X2)
Each success icon rolled during combat inflicts one hit with the weapon used. With non-combat actions
(such as search or defend) this icon has different effects. Zombies are eliminated by a single hit, whereas
creatures are tougher. Combat against creatures is explained in more detail on page 12.

AIM
For each aim icon allocated to a success icon, your weapon’s range is increased by 1 when applying that
success icon. Aims rolled in an attack that didn’t use a ranged weapon can’t be used.
If more than one aim icon is combined with a single success icon, the range can be increased even further.

KNOCKBACK
This icon pushes an opponent away from the attacking survivor in a straight line, pushing it out of the
survivor’s room to an adjacent accessible room.
If knocked back into or through a burning/destroyed room, a zombie is eliminated (and you gain XP) and a
non-fire resistant creature takes damage immediately.
If more than one knockback icon is applied to the same opponent, that opponent is knocked back that many
rooms, provided the player can keep a line of sight to that opponent.
Note: An entrapped survivor (see page 19) is freed when the last zombie and creature is knocked back into
another room.

RETREAT
This icon may be used during combat by the survivor (or by some other survivor in that room) after the hits
have been assigned. The survivor using this icon may move to an adjoining room. If more than one retreat
icon has been rolled, they may be assigned to several survivors in that room. Outside combat, this icon is
useless.

Note: It is not until the next round’s “Survivors Regroup” step that any new groupings of separated
survivor(s) will be represented on the multitracker. The new positioning of a separated survivor (be it by
retreat or any other means) has no effect this round on the order in which groups and individual survivors
perform actions. As such, any retreated survivor(s) are still considered part of the group they share a team
space with on the multitracker.

An entrapped survivor (see Page 19) cannot leave the room by using the retreat icon.

FAILURE
During combat, each rolled failure icon cancels one other icon.
It is up to the player which icon is cancelled. During a camera check, a failure icon triggers a bad event.

10
Combat roll examples
A roll of 2 dice yields 1 hit and 1 fail. As a result, the attack fails.

A roll of 3 dice produces 2 hits and 1 fail. Therefore 1 hit is scored,

enough to kill a zombie.

Here, the first failure is used to cancel the second failure, resulting
in 1 hit.

The player may choose to apply both aims to the same success
(extending the range of that hit by 2 rooms), or apply each aim to
a different success result.

Combat line of sight example

In this situation, 3 team
members are battling it
out with opponents in the
same or adjacent rooms.

Lucy (yellow) is standing

in the hallway room of her
tile and can see the
undead bird to her right
and the zombie below
because of the open
passages.

Bruce (blue) can only

target the zombies in his
own room because these
are the only opponents he
can see.

Leo (purple) can see the

zombies to the left
because the door is open,
but he could not target the
bird since the locked door
blocks his line of sight.

11
Combat against creatures
When attacking creatures, the same rules apply as when attacking zombies. However, creatures are considerably
stronger. Creatures must suffer more hits to be eliminated. Additionally, they can use a special attack, which is
triggered by the “reinforcement” icon on a creature die.
Record any hits against a creature by placing gray markers on hit locations of your choice found on the creature
board. Each creature board has different hit locations on it, and if covered by the indicated number of markers, that
creature ability becomes less effective.

• With each orange hit location covered, the players can ignore one of the creature’s rolled bite icons each
combat.

• With each blue hit location covered, the creature loses one movement point.

• With each red hit location covered, the creature rolls one die less during combat (but never less than one
die).

• With each white hit location covered, the players can ignore one of the creature’s rolled reinforcement icons
each combat.

Creature board in detail

This icon indicates that the monster is unaffected by fire:

the monster may pass through burning tiles and destroyed
rooms unharmed.

Hit locations
These target icons represent the monster’s different body
parts. Players place a gray hit cube for each success
they roll during a combat roll on one of these hit
locations in an attempt to modify the attached ability of
the creature. The number inside the icon represents the
number of successful hits/cubes needed to destroy the
anatomical location of the creature, and thus modify its
performance. When all the hit locations have received a
sufficient amount of cubes equal to the listed number, the
creature is eliminated and its miniature is put aside.
Place the board at the bottom of the pile of creature
boards.

Statistics
The blue value is the monster’s movement rate, determining
how far it moves during a reaction. The creature’s attack
power is shown in red, and indicates the number of creature
dice it uses for attacks. The icons on the right indicate that
the creature has a Power attack and can bite.

Power attack
The bottom of the board describes the unique power attack the monster carries out when the reinforcement icon
is rolled during attacks performed by the creature. For a complete listing, look in the seperate icon reference guide
that contains explanations of all the iconography on the cards/boards.

12
Zombie and creature reactions
After all players of a group have moved their cube to the lower space of the team section of the
multitracker, the zombies and creatures react and any active fire spreads. The reactions
represent the creatures detecting the presence of the team members and moving towards the
victims based on sound produced by the team members while performing their actions - and as
time passes, the fire continues to spread across the house.

1. Zombies and creatures attack

Zombies and creatures in the same room with at least one survivor attack immediately.
If there are several confrontations in different rooms, the players decide the order in which these
take place. For such an attack the players use the creature dice.
Multiple zombies always attack in a group, which means that one die is rolled for each attacking
zombie up to a maximum of 6 dice. The number of dice for a creature’s attack is shown on that
creature’s board. Each creature die shows the following icons:

DAMAGE
Each damage icon rolled means that one survivor in this room must reduce his energy by 1.
If more than one survivor is in the room, the players can allocate the damage among those survivors as they
choose.

HEAVY DAMAGE
Each heavy damage icon rolled means that one survivor in this room must reduce his energy by 2.
If more than one survivor is in the room, the players can allogate the heavy damage among those survivors
as they choose. Any given heavy damage icon cannot have its damage split among two
survivors.

REINFORCEMENT
Each reinforcement icon rolled by a zombie attack alerts one horde of zombies in an orthogonally or diago-
nally adjacent room of the players’ choice and moves them into the contested room. A zombie horde that is
orthogonally adjacent can be chosen only if there’s line of sight from their room into the contested room, and
the contested room is not burning. Zombies that are diagonally adjacent can be chosen only if both the
zombies’ room and the contested room have line of sight into a room adjoining both, and neither of these
rooms are burning. Any zombie spawn token chosen to move is first replaced with the indicated number of
zombies. Ignore any rolled icons that cannot be allocated to an eligible zombie horde.

In an attack by a creature, each rolled icon triggers that creature’s power attack (see page 12).

ENTRAP
Each entrap icon rolled causes a survivor to become entrapped. An entrap token is placed under the
miniature base to mark this. Entrapped survivors cannot leave their room until all zombies and creatures in-
side this room are eliminated or until they can free themselves or are freed. Place an entrapped token under
each affected survivor. It is up to the players to decide which survivor(s) will be affected.
Entrapment is explained in more detail on page 19.

BITE
For each rolled bite icon, assign one virus token to one player in the room, who places it on the left side next
to his player board. A player who has two virus tokens is infected. Infection is explained in more detail on
page 19. It is up to the players to decide which survivor(s) will be affected.

Note: Players should any means that they can to avoid an infection!

FEAR
Each fear icon rolled forces one survivor to move to an adjoining, accessible room.
The players decide which survivor(s) will be affected. Only one result may be allocated per survivor.
Note: If possible, the players should select a player who still has sufficient action points left in order to
join the group again. Entrapped survivors cannot be selected.

Note: Remember, it is not until the next round’s “Survivors Regroup” step that any new groupings of sepa-
rated survivor(s) will be represented on the multitracker. As such, any survivor(s) affected by fear are still
considered part of the group they share a team space with on the multitracker.

13
DEFENSE ROLLS
After the zombies/creatures have rolled, the players get a chance to defend themselves before the effects
of the creature attack are resolved.

Roll one survivor die for each survivor in the room, up to a maximum of 4 dice. Each rolled success icon can-
cels one creature die. (All other icons on the survivor dice have no effect.) Subsequently the players
decide together which survivors will be affected by which icon. Of course, all affected survivors must be
inside the contested room. The order in which the icons are assigned is up to the players.

2. Zombies and creatures move and attack

Any zombies lingering in a room that is orthogonally or diagonally adjacent to one of the active survivors try to reach
the survivor’s room. They have two movement points and cannot move through walls, burning/destroyed rooms,
locked doors or walls. They always move in the direction of the target room, never away from it, and towards the
closest survivor(s). If two locations with survivors should be at an equal distance, players choose the room that will
be the target for the zombie(s).

In case they would have to move away because of dead ends, burning/destroyed rooms, locked doors or walls,
they do not move. While moving, if they enter a room with at least one survivor inside, they stay in that room and
attack the survivor(s) present in that room.
A Creature present in the house, unlike zombies, will be triggered regardless of its current position to the triggering
survivors, but the route for the creature must be “open”, meaning the route eventually leads to the survivors and not
through walls or into dead ends due to locked rooms or walls.
It will move through burning rooms if the creature is fire resistant (see page 12).
The route must also bring it closer to the triggering tile (meaning it now takes fewer steps to get there), or it will not
move.

Zombie reaction examples

In this example, a group of 2 characters has just ended its action phase in
the same room, which now becomes the triggering tile. Players check for
adjacent monsters and find several.

Zombie 1 and the 2 zombies together (Zombies 2 and 3) react.

Zombie 4 is outside of range, but if a creature were in this
location, it also would have reacted and moved as creatures
are triggered regardless of their distance from characters who
just took actions.

Z4

In this second example we see a similar situation on the board with one cru- C3 Z5
cial difference: the group consists of 3 characters, and while they share the
same space in the team section of the multitracker, on the board Character
3 is positioned in a different room, as he moved away from the main group
during the turn.
Z1
As a result, the areas of activation for the reaction of the zombies has a
wider reach. Zombies 2 and 3 will still choose Characters 1 and 2 as their
victims, but Zombies 1, 4 and 5 will move towards Character 3 as this
survivor is closest to the position of the zombies, taking only one step to C1
reach the victim.
C2
The players must keep in mind that moving away from a group can cause a
very aggressive activation of surrounding zombies.
Positioning is therefore a crucial part of the tactical decision tree of a
group of survivors sharing a team space on the multitracker. Z3
Z2

14
 Creature reaction example

Bruce (blue) and Lucy (yellow) ended their activation together, so they are now on the triggering tile.
A room in the house contains a zombie dog. The righthand route is blocked by a wall, and the path downward is
blocked by a locked door.

The only open route is up and to the right, as shown.

However, the dog would ultimately get blocked by a locked door and would not be able to reach the team in the next
reaction phase(s). Therefore it will not move.
If the route were open – that is, if both code chips in the central tile were removed – the dog would move as far as it
could (based on its movement rate) as it would end up closer to the targeted team members.

3. Fire spreads
After the reactions of the zombies and creatures are completed, players roll the 4-sided die and the active fire
(if present) spreads in the indicated direction (see page 7 for more details).

If the fire token doesn’t move in this situation, add a burn marker to the room with the fire token.
Each time you move the fire token, add a burn marker to its new room.

15
 More rules…
The Survivors
The survivors start the game with certain skills and can develop even more skills during the course of the game
by spending experience points (XPs) to obtain new skills. This can be done at any point during a round.
The survivors gain experience points for the following achievements:

Eliminate 1 zombie in combat using success / knockback icons 1 XP

Open a locked door 2 XPs
Eliminate a creature in combat using success / knockback icons 2 XPs (for each survivor)

Mark experience points on the experience track of the survivor boards. The skills of the different survivors are
explained in the icon reference guide. There is no fixed order for obtaining further skills.
The players decide for themselves which new skill they want to obtain. By spending the required number of XPs,
a survivor develops that skill and places the skill token on top of the identical icon on the board. A player can gain up to
10 experience points. If he has 10, he must spend some of these experience points before he can gain more.

Fire
As soon as a fire breaks out (whether triggered by the terror die or the darkness track) the players roll both the 4-sided
and the 6-sided dice to determine the room where the fire breaks out. (Reroll the 6-sided die in the event of a 6.)
Place the fire token and a burn token in this room.

The fire token indicates the location from where the fire will spread to adjoining rooms. During fire checks in the
event phase, move only the fire token. It moves through walls and locked doors, but not into the lab, not into a
destroyed room, and not outside the house.
If the fire token doesn’t move in this situation, add a burn marker in the room with the fire token.

Each time you move the fire token to a new room, add a burn marker to this room.
A room with three burn markers is destroyed: Move the darkness marker one space to the right.
Remove any markers (camera, locks, zombie spawn tokens) inside the destroyed room from the game.
Turn the tile face down to its destroyed side. The fire marker remains in this room and moves when the fire spreads
again, but no burn markers are added to destroyed rooms.

After fire spreads, on each burning tile and each destroyed room:

- Remove a number of zombies equal to the number of burn markers on the tile (3 for a destroyed room),
if able. Players don’t earn XP for these eliminated zombies.

- Creatures that are not fire-resistant suffer one point of damage per burn marker on the tile (3 for a
destroyed room). Players decide how these damage markers should be placed on the creature card.

- Each survivor must reduce his energy by 1 for each burn marker on the tile (3 for a destroyed room).

When a survivor moves onto a burning tile or a destroyed room, he must reduce his energy by the number of
burn markers on the tile (3 for a destroyed room).

When a non-fire-resistant creature moves onto a burning tile or a destroyed room, allocate it one point of damage per
burn marker on the tile (3 for a destroyed room). Players decide how these damage markers should be placed on the
creature card. Fire resistant creatures receive no damage from fire.

Note: A zombie horde will never move into a burning room. There can be only one active fire in the house at any point
in the game.

16
Equipment
The equipment cards have two functions:
They provide players with better abilities and tools, and they can be used to open locked doors and get the lab’s
security code.

Each survivor can carry up to 5 items and can use up to 2 of these items simultaneously.
Place these equipment cards to the right of the survivor board. This side of the board represents what the character
is holding in his hands.
This side of the board may hold a total of 2 hand symbols, as found at the top of equipment cards, and may never
exceed this limit. Some heavier items that need two hands to use them list 2 of these icons and therefore the
survivor can put only one such card on the right side of the board and nothing more.

Leave all other equipment cards next to the survivor board’s left side.
This side of the survivor board represents the equipment you are not currently using but carry with you.

Note: Any items improving the survivor’s skills must be placed to the right of the player board in order to actually
improve that skill. If such a card is placed to the left of the survivor board, it is not used and does not improve the skill.

If a survivor has the maximum allowed equipment cards and receives another one, he must remove a card from a
position next to the survivor board without using it and return it to the game box.
Some items (e.g., ammunition) can be used only once.
Remove these equipment cards from the game after use.

Ammunition cards indicate the weapon for which this ammunition is suitable. When such a card is used, reload that
weapon by placing ammo cubes on the weapon card. A weapon may have a maximum of 8 ammo cubes. Of course,
the survivor with the ammunition must own this weapon in order to do this.
Each time a weapon is used during combat by performing an attack roll, remove one ammo cube from the
weapon card. A weapon without ammo cubes cannot be used during combat as it’s not loaded.

A player may switch equipment cards from the left to the right side of his survivor board at any point in a round.

This example shows a typical inventory. Leo is equipped with his starting weapon
- the fire axe - and a fire helmet. They are both positioned at the right side of his
survivor board. Each of these items list one hand icon, so both are perfectly within
the 2-hand limit. The left side holds 2 items Leo is carrying with him.

In an attempt to open a door, the code of the lock is revealed.

Luckily for Leo the code sequence is present in his inventory, so he is able to
unlock the door. The code chip is removed from the board and is placed next to
the survivor board.

17
 The number of hand symbols indicates whether a tool requi-
res one or two hands to hold it. As a result, the right side of
the character board may hold only two of these symbols
and never exceed this limit.

Weapon card in detail

Range is the distance the weapon can shoot.

In this example, the range of 2 means the automatic can
hit targets up to 2 rooms away in a straight line.

Attack represents the number of attack dice rolled

when the weapon is fired.

When an ammo card is used, discard the card and place

the listed number of black ammo cubes on the appropriate Most weapons have a
weapon card. special function listed here.
In this example 4 black ammo cubes. These are listed in the last
A weapon can be reloaded up to a maximum of 8 black pages of these rules.
ammo cubes, any excess cubes over 8 are lost.

Ammo card in detail

This icon shows players that the item can be used
only once. As soon as the player has used the
special function of the item, he must discard the
card and remove it from the inventory, freeing up
a slot.

This value represents the number of ammo rounds

the weapon comes loaded with (see weapon card
explanation).

When an ammo card is used, the card is

discarded and the listed amount of black ammo
cubes are placed on the appropriate weapon card.
Remember a weapon can only hold 8 ammo
cubes. Any excess cubes are lost.

This icon is a visual

representation of the weapon
that uses this ammo.

Darkness track progression

The marker on the darkness track must be advanced 1 position each time any of the following events occur:

A tile is destroyed before the final showdown.

A survivor is eliminated before the final showdown.
A code icon on the security panel is unlocked without using a code chip.
One Icon of a code chip is unlocked without a matching equipment card.

18
Entrapment
An entrapped survivor cannot leave the room he is in until either the last zombie/creature has
left the room, he manages to free himself, or other survivors free him.

An entrapped survivor has only 1 action point available for the round, and he must use this to
attempt to rescue himself. Other survivors in the same room who are not entrapped may
support the rescue effort. Each survivor who so chooses spends 1 action point and adds a
number of dice equal to his entrap rate, as listed on his survivor board. A maximum of 4 dice
can be used for each rescue effort. If at least one of the dice shows a retreat icon, the hero
moves to an adjacent accessible room and the entrap token is removed from under the miniature.
The freed survivor regains all of his AP for the round, less the 1 spent to free himself.

If the attempt to free the survivor fails, the team members sharing the room with the entrapped survivor can
continue spending AP in an attempt to rescue the victim, or alternatively eliminate all zombies and a possible
creature from the room to free the entrapped team member.

If several players are entrapped in the same room, a number of retreat icons must be rolled equal to the number of
entrapped players in order for any of them to leave that room. If they manage to do this, they retreat together to the
same room.

Infection and Zombification

A survivor who is bitten during combat receives one virus token.
He must keep this token like an equipment card: either placed on the left or right side of
the survivor board, taking up a potential space for an equipment card. If necessary, he
must discard one of his equipment cards in order to make room for the virus token.
Virus tokens can never be passed on to another survivor.

As soon as a survivor receives a second virus token, a process is started which will end
with the survivor being mutated into a zombie and removed from the game for the
remainder of the round.

This happens during the upkeep phase and slowly decays that survivor’s skills.
The decay of the survivor can only be halted; it cannot be revoked. In order to halt it, the survivor must use an
“Antidote” equipment card or the Virus Cabinet in order to remove his second virus token.
A survivor can never remove his first virus token.

Note: A survivor may never redevelop any skills lost due to zombification, that is, those skills underneath or to the right
of the zombification gray cube.
A survivor can hold a maximum of 2 virus tokens next to his survivor board. Additional bites when holding this limit
must be allocated to different survivors of the attacked team. If that’s not possible, those bites are ignored.

Icons of the terror die

ZOMBIE HORDE APPEARS NEARBY (X2)
Players must place a zombie spawn token in a room orthogonally or diagonally adjacent to a
room where the triggering team members are positioned, if possible.
If the survivors have line of sight to the token, immediately replace the token with the appro-
priate number of zombies. Placing the token in a locked room is not allowed.

CREATURE REACTION (X2)

If a creature is active, move it closer to the triggering tile, up to its maximum movement al-
lowance. Otherwise, if possible, move 2 zombie hordes (one at a time) one room closer to a
survivor in the current team. If a creature or a zombie horde enters a room with a survivor(s),
it stops there and resolves an attack.

CREATURE APPEARS
If a creature is active, remove 3 hit cubes (or as many as possible if fewer than 3 are present)
from its board. If no creature is in the house, make a location roll, then draw the top board
from the creature pile and place that creature on the rolled location.
If the rolled location is a locked room, roll again until a non-locked room is chosen by the
die.

FIRE SPREADS
If a fire is already active in the house, then the fire spreads. If not, make a location roll (re-roll
if the lab or a destroyed room is chosen, or a 6 is rolled) and place the fire token and a burn
marker in the chosen room.

19
Icons found in corner rooms
The following room functions are found only in the corner rooms.

Sprinkler Control Virus Cabinet

A character in this room may remove all A character in this room may
burn markers in 1 room at the cost of remove his second virus token at the
2AP. This function has no effect on cost of 2AP.
destroyed rooms.

Ammo Reserve
Medic Bay A character in this room may reload
A character in this room may heal up to one of his weapons with 4 ammo
two wounds at the cost of 2AP by rounds (4 black cubes) at the cost of
moving the marker on the energy track 2AP.
up to two positions towards the start of
the track. Remember that a weapon card can
hold a maximum of 8 black ammo
Terminals cubes.
A character in this room may place one code chip onto
the lab security panel at the cost of 2AP.

Note that the team can enter multiple code chips in a round
if each player uses a separate terminal.

The Laboratory
Players can enter the laboratory in any round in which they can access it. If the darkness marker reaches the final
space on that track, the players have the current round in which to breach the laboratory. Otherwise the team loses.

Players can enter the laboratory only if they manage to override its security system; to do this, they need to use the
code chips they collect when opening locked doors.
Players can place up to three code chips on the security system board, but only inside a room that contains a
terminal. Terminals are located in the corner rooms of the house.

When a player places a chip onto the security board, he has two options:
1) Remove 1 matching code token from the security panel for each color listed on the code chip.
2) Remove one code token of the team’s choice.

The players can remove one code token from the security panel that
hasn’t been removed by code chips by advancing the darkness track
one position to the right. Players can advance the darkness marker
as many times as they wish, but they can’t move the marker past
the final space on the darkness track.

Code chips can never be removed from or replaced on the security

board, so choose carefully. Some chips will be more efficient than
others. Remember, a code chip can be passed to another survivor at a
cost of 1AP.

A player has just entered the first chip on the panel by standing at a
terminal location and spending 2AP. Now, the player can start breaking
the code by removing matching code tokens on the security panel.
Luckily, the player has chosen wisely, and all 3 colors on the chip can
be found in and removed from the sequence. Only 4 remain!

When the last code token is removed from the security panel, the lab
automatically opens. Now the team must choose one survivor who
will enter the lab to get the antidote. This survivor is considered the
keeper of this cure, and must survive the final showdown
that now starts.
20
 Final showdown
The survivors have two goals during the final showdown: Eliminate the nemesis and survive.
The following incidents happen the instant a survivor enters the lab:

1. The survivor who entered the lab takes the antidote token. He will keep it until the end of the game
and must stay alive if the team wants to succeed in the mission. If this survivor is eliminated, the
game ends and all players lose.

2. Open all locked doors, removing the appropriate code chips from the game.
Remove all camera markers and place them back in the box. No more camera checks take place for
the remainder of the game.

3. Replace all zombie spawn tokens with the corresponding number of zombies.

4. If there is no active fire, make a location roll (re-roll if a destroyed room is chosen, or a 6 is rolled) and
place the fire token and a burn marker in the chosen room. Survivors can no longer use actions to
remove burn markers!

5. One member of the Mortimer family has hidden himself in the lab and springs into action now. Take
one random nemesis board, and reveal and place that figure inside the lab. Place a number of gray
markers on the nemesis board equal to the sum of the number of action points available to each
survivor currently in the game (according to their energy tracks) plus one extra for each survivor cur-
rently in the game; distribute these cubes on the different zones of the nemesis board as evenly as
possible.

6. Flip the multitracker to its reverse side and place a gray cube on the first space of the event track and
another on the first space of the darkness track.

The players must try to eliminate the nemesis before the darkness marker has reached its final space.
The nemesis is eliminated only after all markers have been removed from the nemesis board.

The survivors cannot search rooms anymore during the final showdown.
All survivors who are removed from the game at any time after the final showdown begins, are permanently
removed and do not return.

The sequence of play is changed now: Each survivor takes a number of markers of his player color equal to the
number of his current action points. These markers are called action markers from now on.

Players can now take actions in the order of their choice, no matter where they are positioned inside the house.
For each action a player performs, he places one of his action markers on the leftmost box of the multitracker.
When a sixth marker is placed in this box (or possibly sooner) the cubes in all 3 boxes shift to the right.
As a result, the markers in the first box will land in the center box, triggering a nemesis reaction.
If the right space holds markers, return them to the appropriate players.

If a player loses one of his action points due to a loss of energy, he must remove one of his action markers from the
game; he can remove an action marker from any space on the multitracker or from his hand. If a player gains an
action point due to an increase in his energy track, he takes an action marker from the supply.

Note: The players can choose to shift the cube groups to the right and trigger a reaction from the nemesis even if
fewer than six markers are on the left space of the multitracker. This might be helpful if the players can reclaim action
markers from the right space by doing so.
A survivor has just finished an action, resulting
in an action cube being placed in the leftmost
box. The box now holds 6 cubes, so a shift
is automatically triggered, with all the cube
groups shifting one position to the right.

This releases the 3 yellow and 2 green cubes

back to the players. However, since new cubes
enter the center box, the four steps of the
nemesis reaction are resolved.

21
Perform the following steps in this order during the reaction of the nemesis:

1. Move the event marker to the next space and trigger the indicated event.
2. The fire spreads, applying the rules as explained on page 8.
3. The decay and zombification of infected survivors progresses (see page 9).
4. The nemesis, the zombies and the creatures move and attack, if applicable.

The nemesis wants to demolish the house by destroying the 3 corner rooms outside the lab.
Thus the nemesis moves directly to the next corner room during phase 4, using the shortest path possible (players
choose in case of a tie).
The number of its movement points is indicated on the nemesis board.
If the nemesis enters a room with survivors inside, the nemesis attacks the survivors, then resumes its
movement. When reaching a corner room, the nemesis ends its movement.
During the next reaction phase, the nemesis destroys the room instead of moving.
Any survivors and creatures inside this room suffer 3 damage each! Any zombies inside this room are eliminated.
Survivors inside the room will also be attacked by the nemesis.

After the nemesis moves, all zombies and creatures move. They each move in the direction of the closest survivor, but
not through burning rooms (unless they’re a fire-resistant creature). When they enter a room with at least one survivor
inside, they attack.

The survivors have a slight advantage: They know the ways inside Mortimer’s house very well and can move up to two
rooms for only 1 action point during the final showdown.

The players win the game if they manage to eliminate the nemesis before he is able to destroy 3 corner rooms.
If he manages to complete his destructive mission, the team loses.

Good luck and...try not to die

Advanced rules
Additional room elements
Some rooms show icons that are used only in a game for advanced players. Players
should agree before they start playing whether they want to use these effects:

Gas leak Defense room

The instant the fire token reaches a room Survivors may always roll 4 dice when
with a gas leak, the gas ignites and the fire defending in this room.
spreads to two adjoining non-destroyed
rooms. The players decide which rooms are
affected and place burn markers there.

Lurking Creature
If no creature is active in the house when a survivor enters the room, he rolls as many dice as the
number of survivors in this room. If at least one “fail” result is rolled, a creature becomes active. Draw
the top board from the creature pile and use the 4-sided and 6-sided dice to determine the room
where the creature enters the game (re-rolling if a locked room or a 6 was rolled).
If a non-fire-resistant creature appears in a burning or destroyed room, it takes damage from the fire
as normal (see page 16).

Remember that only one creature can be in the house at any point during the game.

A group of 3 survivors attempts to sneak past a lurking creature.

They roll 3 survivor dice. Sadly one of the faces shows a fail result, so the
players are forced to take the top board from the creature pile and
perform a spawn roll to place the creature in the location pointed out by the roll.

22
 Tweaking the Challenge
On top of the 3 modes described in set-up, the following options can be used to adjust difficulty:

• Players can freely tweak the spawn pool containing the Zombie spawn tokens. By removing
(partly) the extreme sides of its spectrum (values 1-2 and 5-6) players can respectively increase
or decrease the challenge.

• In a 2-3 player game, players can opt to play with the 4-5 player side (only 3 actions per charac-
ter) to increase the challenge.

• Players can opt to play without the special functions of the corner rooms (with the exception of
the terminal function) to increase the difficulty.

• Too much time pressure for your rookie team? Allow players one extra turn on the darkness
track so that they can unlock the lab in the round after position 5 was reached.

• Tweak the set of Code chips during set-up, adding more 3-icon chips for a harder challenge or
more 2-icon chips for an easier challenge.

• The modular build-up of the house offers players a myriad possible configurations to work with.
The positioning of the camera rooms are naturally crucial for determining the action radius of
the security system. Adding lurking creature and gas leak rooms increases the challenge, as
does adding closed areas which make travel more time-consuming for the team. Be creative and
build a death trap for a harder challenge, or nice open routes for an easier challenge. The option
is yours.

Index
Camera check.......................... 8 Passing equipment................. 9
Corner rooms.......................... 9,20 Regroup survivors.................. 7
Creature board........................ 12 Search...................................... 9
Creature combat...................... 13,14,15 Security Board........................ 3,20
Creature dice........................... 13 Survivors................................. 3,16
Darkness track......................... 5 Survivor board........................ 4
Defense rolls............................ 14 Survivor combat..................... 9,10,11,12
Defense room........................... 22 Survivor dice........................... 10
Entrapment............................... 13,19 Terror die................................. 19
Equipment (cards)................... 17 Tweaking difficulty.................. 23
Event phase............................. 6 Unlocking doors..................... 9
Fires.......................................... 7,15,16 Virus tokens............................ 19
Gas leak.................................... 22 Weapon cards......................... 18
Laboratory................................ 20 Zombie / creature reaction.... 13,14,15
Lurking creatures.................... 22 Zombie spawning................... 5, 8
Movement (survivors)............. 9 Zombification.......................... 8,19
Multitracker.............................. 5
Nemesis................................... 21,22

Game design: David Ausloos

Credits
Illustrations and graphic design: David Ausloos
Rules: Patrick Brennan & Queen Games Team

A thank you to all the playtesters who, with great enthusiasm, helped me to further refine the
game system over the years. A special thank you to Lieven Smet, Gunter Troch, Kristof
Bryssinck, Davy Emmaneel, Paul Meyers, Luc Van Roeyen and Thomas De Mayer.
Without your early encouragements this game would not exist.
Also “The Pioniers”: Maarten Lecleir, Tom Luyckx, Maarten Baan, William De Jager,
Koen Daelemans...your critical feedback and suggestions always inspired me.

And last but not least: my wife Ines, for her unlimited patience, allowing me to create
the universe of Dark Darker Darkest.

© Copyright 2013 Queen Games 23 D-53842 Troisdorf, Germany. All rights reserved
LEO FRIEDKIN Downtown Firefighter
Starting weapon: Fire axe
Special ability: Leo can move into burning non-destroyed rooms without taking damage.

Sneak Protection
If Leo is part of the group performing a Leo takes only 1 damage (instead of 3)
camera check, he doesn’t contribute a die when entering a destroyed room.
to the roll.

Medic Firefighter
When Leo uses a healing item on himself or Leo removes an extra burn token when
a team member, he heals an extra wound. spending APs to remove a burn marker.

JACK FULCI Brooklyn Weapons Dealer

Starting weapon: Handgun
Special ability: Jack can attack once per round without spending 1AP.

Deadeye
Backpacker Each aim Jack allocates to a success in an
Jack has an extra inventory slot. attack roll provides an extra hit (as well as
providing extended range).

Handgun expert Ammo reserve

When Jack conducts a search and finds
Jack rolls an extra die when attacking with a
ammo, he may put 2 extra ammo cubes on
handgun.
the card. He can’t exceed the 8-cube limit.

NINA ARGENTO Wisecracking Nurse

Starting weapon: Combat knife
Special ability: Nina can cure other character’s wounds at a cost of 1AP per wound.

Knife expert Eternal bandage

Nina rolls an extra die when attacking with Nina can heal 1 of her own wounds at a
the knife. cost of 2XP (limit once per round).

Shotgun expert Virus Resistance

Nina rolls an extra die when attacking with Nina is immune to the virus.
a shotgun.

BRUCE ROMERO Retired Bodyguard

Starting Weapon: Handgun
Special ability: Bruce may give or take up to 3AP to or from another survivor in his multitracker team
space (limit once per round).

Coordinator Handgun expert

Bruce can pass items to other survivors in Bruce rolls an extra die when attacking with
the same room at no AP cost. a handgun.

Searcher
When at least one success is rolled in a Sharpshooter
search in Bruce’s room, add a success to Bruce gains +1 range on all firearms.
the search roll.
 LUCY CHANG Know-it-all College Geek
Starting Weapon: Baseball bat
Special ability: Lucy can replace an adjacent code chip with one that was removed at the start of the
game at a cost of 4XP. Choose the new code chip randomly from those with the same number of icons,
then place it face-up.

Coordinator Tech wizard

When performing the terminal function,
Lucy can pass items to other survivors in Lucy can place as many code chips on the
the same room at no AP cost. security board as desired at a total cost of 2AP.

Searcher
When at least one success is rolled in a Mighty blow
search in Lucy’s room, add a success to Each knockback Lucy rolls in an attack can
the search roll. push an opponent 2 spaces instead of 1.

CREATURE ABILITIES

UNDEAD BIRD
One survivor in the creature’s room (player’s choice) is entrapped, if possible.
This entrapped survivor can be freed only by destroying the creature.

ZOMBIE DOG
One survivor in the creature’s room (player’s choice) must discard one equipment
card. (A survivor with no equipment cards may be chosen.)

SECURITY GUARD
Knockbacks do not affect this creature. After it moves during creature reaction,
it performs an attack against each survivor in its line of sight that’s within a 2 room
range.

DOCTOR MORTIMER
Spawn a horde of zombies in a room adjacent to a survivor (player’s choice).

LISA MORTIMER
(Mortimer’s pyrokinetic daughter)
Add a burn marker to each non-destroyed room orthogonally adjacent to
Lisa’s room.
 ITEM FUNCTIONS

BASEBALL BAT

FIRE AXE
A knockback with this weapon knocks 1 zombie The survivor can spend 1AP to
down. (Place the figure on its side). If a player remove 1 burn marker from his
manages to score another knockback room.
within the same turn (either in this attack or
another, and with this weapon or another), then
the zombie is killed. Otherwise it will rise again
when it is activated during a creature reaction.

SNIPER RIFLE
The weapon does not work against creatures or
nemesis.
A success roll may still be applied to a downed
zombie, resulting in a kill.

AUTOMATIC
Each aim allocated to a success in an attack roll
provides an extra hit (as well as providing extended
range).

ENERGY DRINK
Each hit automatically becomes 2 hits.

SHOTGUN The survivor receives 2 extra

AP this turn.

Each aim provides an extra hit. (The regular range

modification of an aim roll has no effect on the shotgun, but
will provide extended range when using a shotgun scope.) FIRE EXTINGUISHER/HELMET
When using the

ANTIDOTE
extinguisher, the survivor
may remove 1 burn marker
at a cost of 1AP.
When used, the survivor
removes the second virus card When using both the
from his inventory. extinguisher and the
helmet, the survivor may
remove up to 2 burn
markers at a cost of 1AP.

FLASHLIGHT
The survivor can reveal a
code chip on a locked door

GRENADE/DYNAMITE
that the survivor can reach
using no more than 2AP.
The survivor can
ARMO
generate 2 hits (for a
grenade) or 4 hits (for
dynamite) in an
adjacent room in his
line of sight at a cost of
The survivor may reroll 1AP.
1 defense roll.
 ITEM FUNCTIONS

FIRE ALARM FIRST AID SPRAY/KIT

The survivor may reroll the fire

check direction die.
The survivor heals 1 wound (with the spray) or 2
wounds (with the kit).

FLARE GUN
FLASHBANG

The survivor may reroll one The survivor can remove 1

or both zombie spawn dice. entrapment token from a survivor
in his room (including himself).

GAS MASK
HANDGUN SCOPE/LASER
When using the gas mask, the
survivor can move through SIGHT
burning and destroyed rooms
this turn without taking wounds.

MAP
Increase the range of the listed weapon by one room.

The survivor may reroll the terror die.

NIGHT VISION

(Advanced Rules) When

rolling to determine if a
lurking creature activates,
reroll (once) as many dice
as desired.
This exciting expansion is ideal for experienced players who have a few plays of the base game under their belt and
want to add another threat that will challenge their team to the limit.
By introducing this expansion, survivors will be facing a new deadly opponent: radiation, spreading across the rooms
from a leaking reactor in the center of Mortimer’s house.
Radiation will infect and mutate creatures and put the lives of the team members in serious danger.
Are you ready to enter a new level of darkness?

COMPONENTS

27 Radiation 10 Equipment
1 Reactor room tile markers cards 30 red miniatures

Setup
During setup, one survivor is chosen by the players as the “Hazmat specialist” in charge of battling the radiation
threat. This player receives an additional start equipment card, the “Decontamination kit”. With the help of this kit the
holder will be able to battle the radiation and have better protection against infection.

The remaining 9 cards of the expansion, easily recognized by their red color, will be mixed into the regular deck of
equipment cards that will be used during searches.

Take one radiation markers from the reserve and place it on the darkness track. Players choose either position 2,3,4
or 5 for the placement of the marker. The position chosen represents the point in time when the central reactor will
burst and start to leak radiation. The remaining radiation markers are placed next to the board in easy reach of the
players.

The reactor tile will be used during the setup of the house.
It will be placed before the other inner rooms are placed, based on a roll of the D6, with the upper left position
represent by a roll of 1 and the bottom right position by a roll of 6. As soon as the reactor is placed, the rest of the
inner rooms may be positioned to complete the configuration of the house.

This example shows the placement of the reactor room

after a roll that pointed out position 5 in the inner room
configuration. Naturally, the rules for room placement need
to be followed, so players need to make sure no doorways
are blocked by the walls of the reactor room. To make sure
this will not happen, it is best to place the reactor room first
before placing the remaining inner rooms.

The red versions of the survivor and creature miniatures

are set aside next to the board.
They will come into play as soon as the radiation starts
spreading and takes its first victims.
 The Challenge
The game is played following the basic rules as listed in the original rulebook.
However, when the marker cube on the darkness track reaches the position that holds the radiation marker, players
will immediately place a radiation marker on the reactor tile to mark the leak.
A second radiation marker is placed in a room adjacent from the reactor.

A tile that holds a radiation marker is considered infected. If the tile contains two rooms, both are considered infected.
During the Upkeep phase of each round, as a 6th step right after zombification, the radiation will spread.
The players will place 2 radiation markers. These must be placed in separate rooms, but the chosen rooms need to
be orthogonally adjacent to a room already holding a radiation marker and not yet contain a marker. At no point in the
game may a room hold more than 1 marker.

Each survivor and creature that enters an irradiated location is under influence of this invisible
danger and can become infected.
A survivor entering an irradiated location rolls 3 dice to check if the radiation will infect him.
Such a roll is called a “radiation check”. If one of the dice shows at least 1 “fail” result, the survivor is
considered infected by the radiation and his miniature is immediately replaced by a red version.
On his survivor board a radiation marker is placed to visually mark the infection on his board.
Even when a survivor is infected, he still needs to perform this check when he enters new locations with radiation.
If at least 1 fail is rolled he must take an additional radiation token and place it on his survivor board.
A survivor can have up to 3 radiation tokens, representing the highest radiation level.
When he should enter new rooms with radiation after having reached this level, no additional checks are needed.

A survivor that is infected will slowly weaken: At the start of each new turn the player must adjust the energy level of
his survivor a number of positions equal to the number of radiation markers on his survivor board.

Creatures and zombies that enter a room with radiation or appear in an infected room through a spawning or terror
roll, automatically become infected. Its miniature is replaced by a red version to indicate the infection.
However, unlike survivors, they will not be weakened by the radiation.
Instead they will mutate into a more powerful version of their former selves.
Zombies will become tougher: they will need 2 hits to be eliminated.
They will still avoid entering a room with fire, but they will not necessarily be eliminated when pushed into a burning
room by a knockback result in combat. When they take their first point of damage, lie them on their side to indicate
this. When the zombie takes its second point of damage that turn, it is killed and removed from the board.

If the zombie is not killed during that turn though, it will regenerate. Stand the zombie back up again during the
reaction phase, and it will still require two hits in one turn to kill it.

Creatures will gain a regeneration ability: for each power attack triggered during combat, remove (if present) 1 hit cube
from one of the targets on their board of the player’s choice.
When a zombie or creature enters a room with another uninfected creature or zombie(s), these uninfected beings will
become infected immediately.
This makes infected creatures rather lethal, as they help to spread the radiation even faster!

Survivors entering a location with an infected zombie(s) or creature must perform a radiation check, rolling 2 dice.
This makes it crucial for the team to avoid close combat when dealing with infected creatures, as this invisible enemy
is merciless. Survivors need to roll 1 die for a radiation check when they enter a room with an infected survivor, as
the radiation is less aggressive with humans. The maximum number of dice a player will ever roll for a radiation
check is three, so even if a player enters a room with both a radiation marker and an infected creature, he will
only roll three dice.

Fighting radiation
Radiation can be fought. The hazmat specialist, holding the decontamination kit, can enter an infected room.
At the cost of 2AP this survivor can remove 1 radiation marker.
The kit partly protects the survivor: only 1 die needs to be rolled to check for radiation.
One other survivor can work with this hazmat specialist to battle this invisible threat, but removing a marker costs 3AP
and during radiation checks 2 dice need to be rolled, as this helper is not as efficiently protected by the kit.

Removing all radiation markers spread across the house doesn’t stop the threat however.
In order to put a definitive stop to the radiation, the team must attempt to enter the reactor room that is considered
locked. This room can only be opened when the team (following the rules about “terminals” in the base game) enters 2
code chips when standing next to one of the two locked door of the reactor room.
Both code chips must hold 3 codes.
Only by discarding 2 of these chips survivors can enter the room.
Be aware that the room is still infected, so a radiation check needs to be performed.
A survivor can spend 3AP to close down the reactor and by doing so removes the radiation marker inside the reactor
room. Areas in the house that hold radiation markers are still considered infected, but the radiation will not spread
anymore in the upkeep phase.

As a reward for fixing the leak, each team member may activate one ability of their choice on their survivor board.
However, infected survivors are still considered infected.
The only cure against infection comes from the “Radiation pills” found during searches.
When this item is used by discarding the card, a survivor can remove all radiation markers from his board.
The survivor is now considered clean.
Survivors that fail to find radiation pills and enter the final showdown infected will see their energy level drop at the
start of each survivor action phase.

Amongst the equipment inside the house are also a series of radiation suits that can help the team protect themselves
against the radiation; a survivor that equips himself with a suit by placing it to the right of his survivor board, will only
have to roll 1 die during radiation checks.

Good luck, and try not to die…

Credits
Game design: David Ausloos
Additional development: Keith Blume
Illustrations and graphic design: David Ausloos
Rules: Stefan Stadler & Mark Jenkins
Project manager: Stefan Stadler
 COMPONENTS

40 pions Foyer (4 10 zombies 10 Guts 10 Disco doll 10 Chunk

séries de 10) standards zombies zombies zombies.

This expansion provides players with a set of mini modules, each adding a different species of zombie to the Dark
Darker Darkest universe. Players can freely experiment with adding these new zombie types to the base game and
determine the number of these special zombies they want to add to the spawn pool.
It is not advised to use all the modules at once. Ideally add one complete set of spawn tokens of one of the sets to the
regular spawn pool, or mix a limited amount from several modules.
As the zombies crank up the challenge for the team, use them in limited numbers, gradually building them up as
players get more experienced at surviving in the hostile environment of Mortimer’s house.

Each type of zombie comes with its own set of 10 spawn tokens.
The are blindly mixed in the regular spawn pool during setup.
When such a spawn token is revealed during play, place the revealed type in the room and roll the D4, placing the
indicated number of regular zombies in the location of the special zombie.

These special species modify the entire horde they are part of inside a room.
However, before these type of zombies can be defeated, all other zombies in the room must be eliminated, as the
other zombies in its horde will protect this more powerful species. If there are two or more ‘special’ zombies remaining
with no ordinary zombies, players may decide which order to kill them.

Let us take a look at the behavior of each type of special zombie:

DISCO DOLL ZOMBIE

The Disco doll zombie is an extra agile version of the standard zombie.
This zombie, along with its entire horde, can move three rooms rather than two.

GUTS ZOMBIE
A Guts zombie makes a horde more dangerous.
One bite result as part of its (or its horde’s) attack cannot be dodged by a defense roll.

CHUNK ZOMBIE
Chunk (soldier) zombies and the horde they are part of can only be defeated in close combat.