00:07The exploration side of Dark Souls the board game features a fast setup, long reveal mechanic.
00:12The game gets you into the action faster and builds the locations out as you explore.
00:16The setup is minimal, mainly just building a couple of decks of cards and laying the first tile down.
00:21There's a couple of ways to play Dark Souls the board game, but the standard way is to choose the
00:25main boss you want to take on,
00:26and then select a mini boss from those you have available.
00:30For the sake of this demo, we have selected the Dancer and the Titanite Demon.
00:33The decks you'll pull together are a Boss Behaviour deck per boss, an Encounter deck per boss, and a single
00:39Treasure deck.
00:40The Boss Behaviour deck dictates what moves and abilities the boss can perform during an encounter with it,
00:46which is covered in our boss gameplay video.
00:48Each boss has a number of unique Boss Behaviour cards.
00:51To build a deck, simply deal face down a number of cards as determined by the difficulty level of the
00:57game session.
00:58For a standard game, you'll face a mini boss and a main boss.
01:02If you have a Mega Boss add-on, you can extend your game even further to include this as an
01:06extra challenge, or you can just make this the main boss.
01:10The Treasure deck is pretty straightforward.
01:11It includes a number of standard treasure cards, a number of rare cards such as armour sets and weapons, and
01:17any boss specific treasures.
01:19Shuffle this deck and place face down.
01:21The Encounter deck is as easy to put together.
01:24You will need an Encounter deck for each boss you are facing, so in our example there will be a
01:29deck for the Titanite Demon and the Dancer.
01:31Each deck is made up of the Boss Card and 5 Encounter cards.
01:35Each deck is shuffled before being ready to go.
01:38Note that there are two types of Encounter card.
01:40The easier Encounters are used in the mini Boss Encounter deck, while the harder Encounters are used for the main
01:45Boss Encounter deck.
01:47This means the game scales in difficulty, so the further you progress, the harder it gets.
01:51The final step is to gather the Location tiles for the area you want to explore.
01:56Place the Bonfire tile down on the table and shuffle the rest.
02:00You are now ready to play.
02:02To explore, choose an unexplored exit from the current tile you are on and flip a Location tile from the
02:07pile.
02:07Place this tile exit to exit with the current tile and move your models onto the first node.
02:13Now flip the top card from the relevant Encounter deck.
02:16So in our example this will be the Encounter deck for the Titanite Demon mini Boss.
02:20The description fills some flavour into the world and conjures images in your mind of the dark and dangerous locations
02:26you are exploring.
02:27Enemy details what enemies are spawned in this location.
02:30Event describes any special circumstances for this location such as an area littered with barrels or traps.
02:35Finally, the reward describes what the players receive should they defeat the enemies and survive.
02:40Rewards will allow players to draw from the treasure deck, while defeated enemies will also release souls to collect.
02:45Movement during exploration is tile based.
02:48When you meet an enemy you switch to combat based movement which uses the nodes shown on the tiles.
02:53Players can return to the bonfire at any time while they are not in combat.
02:57Here they can spend their souls to level up and purchase equipment.
03:00Of course, doing so will reset the encounters you have discovered so far, so be careful how often you do
03:06this.
03:06Continue to explore tiles, lay them out and build the location as you search for the mini boss.
03:12Eventually you will discover the layer of the Titanite Demon.
03:15At which point you take the mini boss tile and place it down exit to exit and the door slams
03:20shut behind you.
03:21If you have explored carefully and have levelled up and equipped yourself wisely, with skill you should be able to
03:28defeat the mini boss.
03:29At this point the exit from the mini boss area opens up.
03:32Place the bonfire tile down exit to exit with the mini boss tile.
03:36Now gather all the tiles currently laid out.
03:39Shuffle them and then flip them over.
03:41Now you are ready to find the main boss.
03:44Don't forget, the encounters are now much more dangerous, but the rewards are far greater.
03:49Continue exploring as before.
03:51Gather resources, find armour and weapons, before facing the dancer in a fight to the death.
03:56There are plenty of other nuances that add details to the game that you will find in the main rulebook.
04:01For example, gravestones will allow you to reveal a boss behaviour card to give you a forewarning of
04:07what the boss is capable of, which will allow you to prepare accordingly.
04:12And, well, there are the invaders.
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