User Manual

THE FINAL BATTLE
When the Ancient One awakens, any investigators that
are lost in time and space are immediately devoured
and eliminated from the game. The surviving investiga-
tors must face the Ancient One in the final battle!
Before the final battle begins, discard any active
Environment or Rumor cards. Additionally, once the
final battle begins, investigators should no longer collect
money or roll for Retainers or Bank Loans.
Combat with the Ancient One is divided into rounds.
During a round, players first have an opportunity to
adjust their investigators. Then, each player attacks the
Ancient One. Finally, the Ancient One attacks the inves-
tigators. Once these steps have been resolved, a new
round begins. The structure of each round in a battle
with an Ancient One is as follows:
1. Investigators Refresh
At the beginning of a round of combat with an Ancient
One, the investigators may refresh their cards, use any
character abilities, and adjust their skill sliders as though
it were the Upkeep Phase. Next, the first player marker
should be passed to the left. Finally, they may trade
items among themselves as if they were in the same
location (see “Trading Equipment” later in these rules).
2. Investigators Attack
Next, starting with the first player and continuing clock-
wise around the table, every player whose investigator is
still participating in the battle may make a Combat
check against the Ancient One using its combat rating as
the modifier.
Unlike a normal battle, the Ancient One cannot be
defeated in a single attack. Instead, keep track of every
success an investigator scores against the Ancient One
(see “Skill Checks,” page 13). These successes are
cumulative, and each successive player adds to them
with his own attack. When the players accumulate a
total number of successes equal to the number of players
(including any players that were eliminated from the
game), remove one doom token from the Ancient One’s
doom track and reset their cumulative successes to zero.
If the last doom token is removed from the Ancient One,
the investigators have defeated it! See “Ending the
Game” on page 12.
3. Ancient One Attacks
After all of the players (except eliminated players) have
made one Combat check against the Ancient One, the
Ancient One unleashes its attack on each of the investi-
gators. This attack varies by Ancient One, but they are
all extremely deadly. For example, Hastur forces all the
investigators to make an increasingly difficult Will
check or lose Sanity.
Any investigator reduced to 0 Sanity or Stamina by the
Ancient One’s attack is devoured. If an investigator is
devoured during the final battle with the Ancient One,
that player is eliminated from the game (i.e., the player
does not draw a new character). If all investigators are
devoured, the Ancient One is unleashed on the world
and the players lose the game.
After the Ancient One’s attack is resolved for each
investigator, a new round begins. This continues until
either the investigators defeat the Ancient One or all
have been devoured.
The following are some additional rules topics that
should help to clarify play of Arkham Horror.
DISCARDING CARDS
When you discard a card, return it face down to the bot-
tom of the appropriate deck. Players only shuffle most
decks when they draw a card that instructs them to do
so. Location decks, however, are shuffled before a play-
er draws from them. A player who draws multiple cards
from a Location deck draws them all, one after the other,
without shuffling between draws.
LOCATION SPECIAL ABILITIES
Some locations on the board have special abilities.
When an investigator enters such a location, the player
may resolve the special ability of the location instead of
having an encounter there. If there is an open gate at the
location, investigators cannot use the location’s special
ability.
Example: The Science Building has the Dissection abili-
ty. This ability allows an investigator to spend monster
trophies or gate trophies in exchange for Clue tokens.
An investigator at the Science Building may use this
ability instead of having an encounter there, and investi-
gators cannot use the ability if there is an open gate in
the location.
MONSTERS IN ENCOUNTERS
Many location and Other World encounters indicate that
a monster appears. To resolve such an encounter, the
player must draw a monster from the monster cup and
resolve the encounter as normal (i.e., the investigator
may attempt to evade the monster or fight it). No matter
how the encounter is resolved, the monster is never left
on the board. The monster is returned to the monster
cup, regardless of whether the investigator evades or
defeats the monster, or is knocked unconscious or driven
insane by it.
Many encounters state that “A gate and a monster
appear!” For these encounters, both the monster and the
gate stay on the board. However, many other encounters
state that just a monster appears. For example, one of
the Black Cave encounters states “A monster appears!”
and one of the Hibb’s Roadhouse encounters states “A
horrible monster appears!” When a monster but not a
gate appears in an encounter, the monster does not stay
on the board. If such a monster is defeated, players may
take it as a trophy (unless its special ability says other-
wise). If the monster is not defeated, it is returned to the
monster cup, regardless of whether the investigator
evades the monster or is knocked unconscious or driven
insane by it.
Miscellany
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