Altered is a trading card game in which each player uses a deck led by a Hero or Heroine card. Several ready-to-play starter decks are available, but you can customize them or build an entirely new deck.

Game overview

You lead two Expeditions that explore the lands transformed by the Tumult :

• The Hero Expedition, led by your Hero/Heroine and represented by the Hero Expedition marker .
• The Companion Expedition, represented by the Companion Expedition marker .

The Expeditions advance toward each other over the course of the game. Your goal is to reunite them before your opponent does.

The 6 factions

Each Hero/Heroine belongs to one of the game's six factions. Each faction has two Expedition markers : the left marker is the Hero marker, the right one the Companion marker.

Axiom

Bravos

Lyra

Muna

Ordis

Yzmir

2

2

3

4

4

1

5

6

7

1. Set up the two playmats facing each other, leaving space between them for the Adventure card row.
2. Place the Hero starting region card at one end of that space and the Companion starting region card at the other end.
3. Shuffle the three Tumult cards and lay them face-down between the two starting region cards.
4. Each player places their Hero Expedition marker and Companion Expedition marker on the corresponding starting regions.
5. Each player places their Hero or Heroine card in the Hero zone of their playmat.
6. Randomly determine who starts the game, and place the First Player marker on their Hero/Heroine card.
7. Each player shuffles their deck and places it face-down in the Deck zone.
8. Keep the remaining token cards and markers within reach.

Starting hand

Draw 6 cards from your deck, then choose 3 to place in your Mana zone, face-down and ready. The other three cards form your starting hand.

Ready

Exhausted

• Cards in the Mana zone are always face-down and are called Mana Orbs.
• Each Mana Orb gives 1 Mana when it is exhausted.
• Your Mana Orbs are readied at the start of each Day (see §8).
• A face-down card in the Mana zone stays there until the end of the game.

A B C D E F G H I

There are 4 types of cards : Heroes / Heroines, Characters, Spells and Permanents.

On all cards

• A — Name of the card
• B — Type and sub-type(s)
• C — Faction: there are 6 different factions
• D — Hand Cost: the Mana cost when the card is played from your hand
• E — Reserve Cost: the Mana cost when it is played from the Reserve
• F — Abilities: the card's special rules
• G — Support ability: an ability usable from the Reserve, present on some cards

On Character cards only

H — Characters have statistics corresponding to the three terrain types :  Forest Mountain Water

I — Abilities by origin

Cards have various effects depending on where they are played from :

A game of Altered is played over several rounds called Days. Each Day is made up of five phases :

Phase 1

Morning

First player, ready, draw, place a card into Mana.

Phase 2

Noon

Apply “At Noon” effects.

Phase 3

Afternoon

Take turns, play a card or pass.

Phase 4

Dusk

Compare statistics, advance the Expeditions.

Phase 5

Night

Rest, cleanup, check victory.

Phase 1 — Morning

If it is the first Day of the game, go straight to the Noon phase. Otherwise, follow these steps :

1. Pass the First Player marker to the other side.
2. Ready your Mana Orbs and your exhausted cards.
3. Draw two cards from your deck.
4. Starting with the side holding the First Player marker, each player chooses whether to place a card from their hand into their Mana zone.

Phase 2 — Noon

Activate all cards in play with an “At Noon” effect.

Phase 3 — Afternoon

Starting with the holder of the First Player marker, both sides play one after another, one card at a time.

Turn structure

Quick actions

There are two kinds of quick actions :

• Exhaust ability: present on some Permanent or Hero cards. Exhaust the card to activate its effect.
• Support ability: usable if the card is in the Reserve. To activate it, discard the card from your Reserve.

Playing a card

To play a card, you must exhaust the number of Mana Orbs matching its cost.

• Playing a Character: decide which Expedition to place it in (Hero or Companion).





• Playing a Spell: resolve all its effects, then send it immediately to your Reserve.
• Playing a Landmark Permanent: place the card in your Landmarks zone.
• Playing an Expedition Permanent: decide which Expedition to place it in (Hero or Companion).
• Playing a card from the Reserve: see The Reserve.

Don't forget to resolve any , or effects on the Characters and Permanents.

Pass

If you cannot or do not wish to play a card, you may pass. You then can't take any more turns until the next Afternoon phase. When you pass, your opponent can keep playing. Once they have also passed, the Dusk phase begins.

Phase 4 — Dusk

During Dusk, both sides compare the statistics of the Characters in play to determine which Expedition markers can move forward.

Starting with one Expedition (Hero or Companion), carry out the following steps :

A

Check the terrains

Identify the terrain type(s) ( ) of the region where your marker is located.

B

Add up

For each terrain type, add up the matching statistics of the Characters in that Expedition.

C

Compare & advance

If at least one of your totals is strictly higher than your opponent's, your Expedition moves forward one region.

Then proceed the same way for the remaining Expedition. Your opponent does the same for their Expeditions.

Example — Mike vs Ella

Mike Ella

Ella therefore cannot advance via Mountain but can prevent Mike from advancing there.

B Next, add up each Expedition's statistics for each of these terrains :

Terrain	Mike	Ella	Result
Forest	3	1+1 = 2	✓ Mike wins in Forest
Mountain	3	3+1 = 4	✕ Ella blocks Mike
Water	3	3+1 = 4	✓ Ella wins in Water

C Since his Forest total beats Ella's, Mike's marker advances. On her side, since her Water total beats Mike's, Ella's marker also advances. Both players progress on their Hero Expedition this Day.

Phase 5 — Night

Rest

Cleanup

Rest

Send all the Characters from your Expeditions to your Reserve.

• If they are Fleeting, discard them instead.
• Boost markers are removed from the card before it returns to the Reserve.
• Cards carrying an Asleep or Anchored marker do not go to the Reserve : they lose their Asleep/Anchored marker instead and stay in the Expedition.

Send to the Reserve all the Expedition Permanents placed in an Expedition that advanced.

Set aside — not in the Reserve — the token cards from your Expeditions.

Cleanup

• If you have 3 or more cards in your Reserve, discard the excess to keep only 2 cards of your choice.
• Likewise, sacrifice cards from your Landmarks to keep only 2.

Check victory

See Ending the game.

The Reserve is a face-up zone that works like a second hand.

Playing a card from the Reserve

A card in your Reserve can be played as if it were in your hand, with two differences :

• You pay its Reserve Cost instead of its Hand Cost.
• A card played from the Reserve gains Fleeting (unless it is a Landmark Permanent).

Fleeting

If a Fleeting card would normally be sent to the Reserve, discard it instead. For Characters: place a Fleeting marker on the Character as a reminder.

The first player to reunite their Hero Expedition and Companion Expedition wins the game at the end of the Day.

In case of a tie

If both opponents' markers met up on the same Day, first check whether one of them advanced further than necessary. If that's the case for one but not the other, the one who did wins the game.

The Arena — ultimate tiebreaker

Otherwise, play an extra Day in the Arena to break the tie. The Arena is on the back of the Companion starting region card. Place it in the center of the table, put both sides' Expedition markers on it, and remove the other Adventure cards from the game.

Then play a Day normally. At Dusk, for each Arena terrain ( ), add up the statistics of the Characters in both your Expeditions. Compare the three totals with your opponent's: whoever wins in the most terrains wins the game.

If both sides are tied again, start a new Day in the Arena.

Game markers

First Player

Indicates who starts the turn. Switches each Morning.

Boost +1

Increases all three statistics by 1.
Removed when the Character leaves the Expeditions.

Boost +2

Increases all three statistics by 2.
Removed when the Character leaves the Expeditions.

Fleeting

If a Fleeting card would be sent to the Reserve, that card is discarded instead. This applies at Rest or because of a card ability.

Anchored

Marker placed on a Character. At Rest, an Anchored Character does not go to the Reserve but loses its Anchored marker instead.

Asleep

Marker placed on a Character. An Asleep Character is not counted in the Dusk advance phase. At Rest, an Asleep Character does not go to the Reserve but loses its Asleep marker instead.

Card icons

Terrains

Forest

Forest statistic on Characters.

Mountain

Mountain statistic on Characters.

Water

Water statistic on Characters.

• Anchored — During Rest, an Anchored Character is not sent to the Reserve; it loses Anchored instead.
• Ascend — Until Rest, an Ascended Expedition can move forward even with statistics equal to the opposing Expedition on the terrains of its region. It still cannot move forward with statistics of 0.
• Asleep — An Asleep Character's statistics are not counted during Dusk. During Rest, an Asleep Character is not sent to the Reserve; it loses Asleep instead.
• Augment — If the target card has at least one counter (Boost, etc.), it gains one more. Hero cards cannot be targeted.
• Contact — A Character is In Contact if one of the opponent's Expeditions is in this Character's region.
• Cooldown — If the card goes to the Reserve after its effect resolves, exhaust it.
• Defect — A Character that Defects joins the Expedition facing it and changes controller (but not owner).
• Defender — An Expedition containing a Character with Defender cannot move forward during Dusk.
• Eternal — An Eternal Character is not sent to the Reserve during Rest.
• Exhaust — An exhausted (90°-turned) card in the Reserve cannot be played and has no Support abilities.
• Exhausted Resupply — Resupply, then exhaust the resupplied card.
• Fleeting — If a Fleeting card is sent to the Reserve, that card is discarded instead. This applies at Rest or due to an in-game effect. All cards played from the Reserve gain Fleeting, except Landmark Permanents.
• Gift — You make a Gift if, during your turn, an opponent draws a card, Resupplies or receives a token via an effect of a card you control.
• Gigantic — A Gigantic Character is present in both your Expeditions.
• Resupply — Place the top card of your Deck in your Reserve.
• Rush — Immediately play another card.
• Sabotage — Discard a target card from a Reserve.
• Sacrifice — Discard a target card from one of your Expeditions or your Landmark zone.
• Seasoned — A Seasoned Character keeps its boosts when sent to the Reserve from the Expedition zone.
• Scout X — This card can be played from your Hand for X mana with the additional effect Send me to the Reserve.
• Support ability — Written at the bottom of some cards on a coloured background, a Support ability requires the card to be in the Reserve. It may need to be discarded () to trigger its effect, or apply continuously ().
• Tough X — An opponent cannot choose a Tough X object as the target of an effect they control unless they pay X additional mana.