In Altered, you lead two Expeditions as they discover and explore the land transformed by the Tumult. One Expedition is led by your Hero, the other by their Companion. Your Expeditions progress toward each other and your goal is to be the first to have them meet.
Shuffle the three Tumult cards and place them face-down in a line between the two players.
Place the Hero starting region card at one end and the Companion starting region card at the other end.
Each player places their Hero Expedition marker and Companion Expedition marker on the corresponding starting regions.
Set up the two playmats facing each other on either side of the Tumult.
Each player places their Hero card in the Hero zone of their playmat.
Randomly determine the First Player and place the First Player marker on their Hero card.
Each player removes token cards from their deck, shuffles the remaining cards, and places them face-down in the Deck zone.
Each player draws 6 cards, chooses 3 to place face-down in their Mana zone as Mana Orbs, and keeps the other 3 as their starting hand.
- Change the owner of the First Player marker.
- Ready your Mana Orbs and exhausted cards.
- Draw 2 cards from your deck.
- Starting with the First Player, each player may place 1 card from their hand into their Mana zone.
- Apply all "At Noon" effects (First Player resolves first).
- Players alternate taking turns. In Altered, 1 turn = 1 card.
- On your turn: take any number of Quick Actions, then play 1 card OR pass.
- Quick Actions: use an Exhaust Ability on a Permanent or Hero card in play (exhaust it), or activate a Support Ability by discarding the card from your Reserve.
- Play a card: exhaust Mana Orbs equal to the card's cost, then resolve its abilities.
- Pass: you cannot play any more cards this Afternoon. Once both players have passed, proceed to Dusk.
- For each Expedition (Hero then Companion), check the terrain(s) of its current region.
- For each terrain, total the matching stats of your Characters in that Expedition.
- If at least one of your totals is strictly higher than your opponent's, your Expedition advances one region.
- Your total must be > 0 to advance. Each Expedition can only advance once per Dusk.
- When an Expedition moves onto a face-down Tumult card, flip it face-up.
- You always compare Hero vs Hero and Companion vs Companion, regardless of their positions.
- Rest: all Characters in Expeditions go to the Reserve.
- Keep up to 2 cards in Reserve; discard the rest.
- Keep up to 2 Landmarks; sacrifice the rest.
- Check victory (see below).
The Reserve is a face-up zone that acts like a second hand. A card played from the Reserve pays its Reserve Cost instead of its Hand Cost, and gains Fleeting — except Landmark Permanents which do not gain Fleeting.
- Character: pay Reserve Cost; joins an Expedition but gains Fleeting (place a Fleeting marker on it).
- Spell: pay Reserve Cost; gains Fleeting (discarded after resolving its effects).
- Permanent (Landmark): pay Reserve Cost; does not gain Fleeting.
The first player to have both Expedition markers meet wins. If both meet on the same Day, the player who moved further than necessary loses the tiebreaker. If still tied, play another Day.
Play a normal Day. At Dusk, for each terrain (Forest, Mountain, Water), total the stats of Characters across both your Expeditions and compare with your opponent's. The player who wins the most terrains wins the game. If still tied, play another Day in the Arena.
Using a Support Ability is a Quick Action. Discard the card from your Reserve to trigger it. The ability does not trigger if the card is discarded for any other reason (e.g. Night cleanup).
If your deck is empty and you must draw, shuffle your discard pile to form a new deck, then finish drawing.
Abilities target cards in play by default (Characters in Expeditions, Permanents in the Landmark zone). Cards in Reserve can only be targeted by abilities that explicitly mention the Reserve.
These abilities trigger at the beginning of the respective phase. The First Player resolves theirs first, in the order of their choice.
Cards use "I" to refer to themselves — e.g. "I gain 2 boosts" means "this card gains 2 boosts".
Place boost counters on a Character to increase all three of its stats by 1 per boost. Remove them when it leaves the Expeditions.
Your deck must contain:
- 40 to 60 cards, all from the same faction.
- Exactly 1 Hero card.
- No more than 3 copies of any card with the same name (regardless of rarity).
- No more than 15 Rare cards.
- No more than 3 Exalted cards.
- No more than 3 Unique cards.