Beast - How to Play

hello everyone and welcome to this how to play video my name is aaron mithal and i am the artist as well as one of the lead designers behind our hidden movement game beast now beast is a game for two to four players in which one of you plays as one of the six titler beasts of the game moving about the map in complete secret the rest of you form a team of hunters highly specialized and the only one the only humans capable of even finding and hurting the beast the beast player wins this game the v

ery moment has managed to kill enough settlers or nobles and these are the humans who of dire need has settled and built towns homes and cities in the beast's ancient homelands the hunters on the other hand as you might have guessed wins the very moment the beast is killed as we've already established this is a hidden movement game first and all meaning that the beast player will be moving around the map in secret outsmarting and out hiding the hunters who are always just a few steps behind this

game is so much more than just a hidden movement game on top of that is a highly strategic one versus many kind of gameplay where every single action matters as well as a huge array of different beasts and hunters to discover and master and finally this is also a game that features card drafting meaning that you will be competing and passing the most important cards and actions in the game between both your friends and your enemies trying to greatly improve your side while trying to damage and

minimize the good cards you pause to your enemy i won't really get into the lore or backstory in this video but i suspect many of you are wondering why are the humans and the beasts fighting why can't they just be friends well pal do i have bad news for you the humans fled to the northern expanse the map we're gonna be playing on in search of a new home as their old one was dying but as they expanded their settlements they discovered that they were not alone great beasts almost god-like compared

to the tiny humans emerged from the forests lakes and caverns and as it turns out this was their home all along the beasts wants to protect their lands from the invading humans but the humans desperately need a place to live to put it simply both sides want to survive and the only question that remains is which side will you join as with almost all games ever made the first thing we need to do is set up all the components first of all place the map at the center of your regularly sized dinner o

r gaming table next we're gonna arrange the supply place all watchtowers grudges ancient powers upgrade tokens and wound tokens in a place that's easy to reach for all players after that we're gonna choose a contract and contracts determine how you win or lose the game as well as which map you'll be playing on i've picked the attack on the northern settlements contract which means that we'll be playing on the northstar expanse map this contract also states that we won't be using the south easter

n zone of the map if we are two to three players so we won't be placing any animals settlers or nobles in that zone and next we're gonna place all animals settlers and nobles to the corresponding markers on the map fasting forward done then we're gonna shuffle the beastly talons deck and place it next to the map place three cards face up next to the deck we're gonna do the same for the item deck so shuffle and place three cards face up and then shuffle the action cards and place them next to the

map as well now you're getting to the juicy part it's time to decide who gets to play as the beast that player should be seated so that he or she faces the map in such a way that north it's up and south is down that player then picks any of the six beasts in the game and places it in front of him or her in this instance the beast player shows bolgen bringer of the black marsh the rest of you pick a hunter each and then place that hunter in front of you you can pick hunters in any order you want

and as you get more experience with the game you might want to experiment and think hard about your team composition in our make-believe teaching game the first hunter picks vaya the commander and the second hunter picks assad the scout give each player all ability cards corresponding to the chosen character they have the same back as your character art so they shouldn't be too hard to spot also give the beast its summons indicated by the beast brick which are then placed next to said brick alm

ost done now you're gonna deal grudges to each player according to your contract in this case only the beast gets one grudge then place the trail tokens next to the beast player place the movement cards next to the beast player as well and that's it you're ready to go and now i'll actually get to teach you the game beast is a game that features a whole lot of different card types we have the action cards which could be described as the main cards of the game used by both hunter and beast alike w

e have ability cards unique for each character in the game with beast talents and hunter item cards and while most of these cards work the same way we're gonna focus on the action cards and ability cards for now on your turn in beast you almost always do the same thing you play up to one card with a red symbol and up to one card with a blue symbol and these symbols are located among all the different cards in the game and please note that you don't have to play both red one and a blue one becaus

e of that everything in this game is done by playing cards from your hand that means that if you want to move if you want to search if you want attack you have to play a card from your hand that says that you can do that before we move on let's explain the action cards just a little bit more now these cards comes with two different sides two different boxes the top box is the card played by the hunter well the bottom one is the one played by beast the reason that these are on the same card is th

at we're gonna be drafting these cards between all the players in the game meaning that you as the hunter have to look out what you pause to the beast and the beast has to figure out what cards not to give to the hunters but we'll get to the drafting part just a bit later when the beast player moves he or she does so in secrets this means that when the beast moves the marker would stay at the same place instead let's say that bulgin the beast over here plays the action card rush rush lets the be

ast move three steps without leaving the zone the beast instead of moving the marker picks up a deck of movement cards these cards indicate directions such as north west south and east as we said before rush moves three steps the beast picks up the deck and places three cards in the active movement section of the map the beast knows that it's over there at that sheep but all the hunters know is that the beast has moved three steps when a hunter moves let's say that asla over here plays the actio

n card dash he or she does so by moving its marker one step at a time dash lets us move two steps however whenever a hunter moves over a location which matches one of the active movement cards the beast is forced to place a trail on that location this trail is the most important information the hunter can receive asa then follows the steps and moves one step north guessing that the beast has ventured to the taste that tasty sheep over there and he was right and the beast places a new trail on th

at location so we have a moment now where we can see a trail token three steps away from the last known location the beast marker assad then plays the card hunt from its hand and hunt is an ability that all the hunters in this game have hunt lets the hunter both search his location and attack when you search your location you force the beast to either reveal itself if you were right or simply tell you no i'm not on that location in this case elsa was right the beast picks up his marker and moves

it to the location where it was found it discards any trails on the map and then places the movement cards face up so the hunters can double check the movement before discarding them as well and then finally because the hunt says that you attack the beast also takes one damage and all attacks in beast deals 1 damage by default before we move on you should probably know that the beast can be even more sneaky even more tricky with its movements when the beast moves it has the option to pick not j

ust north west east and south but also a no movement card faking its movements to the hunters making them believe that you've moved one step forward while in reality you're still on the same location however you could only ever pick this card if you're not on the same location as a settler or a hunter also whenever the beast would move over a hunter a settler or a noble on the map the beast would place a trail on that location think of it like every human in this game is always on the lookout fo

r the beast the beast is also gonna reveal itself by its own morgan several times during the game whenever the beast attacks whether it's a settler a noble an animal or one of the hunters the beast is forced to reveal remember how yui said that you win by killing etc's nobles well both settlers and nobles are quite tanky they can take two and even three damage and each attack only deals one this means that in order to kill the settlers the beast needs to grow stronger first and it does so by kil

ling the smaller animals or the boars early on in the game each animal in this game have a certain set of attributes they have a health an amount of damage they can take and an amount of grudges the beast is rewarded when it kills them grudges are the main resource of the game the beast can use them later on to unlock powerful upgrades such as a damage increase or just other upgrades that make it easier to kill the settlers and nobles beast is played over a set of rounds and each round is divide

d into three phases dawn day and night and so before you begin your first dawn phase you get to place your characters on the map and first out is the beast the beast player places his marker at the center of the map and once you've done that you get to move two steps you get to place two movement cards of your choice face down in the active movement session of the game board once you've done that the hunters get to place their characters in any of the different settlements on the map provided th

ose settlements are part of the active zones due to your contracts and hunters they can choose to place themselves in the same settlement or they can spread out to try and cover more ground you've placed your characters on the map the beast has moved its two initial steps and you're ready for the first dawn phase of the game and during the dawn phase you're gonna be dealt a new hand of action cards or rather you're gonna be dealt action cards that you'll be drafting passing between the different

players of the game and this drafting step works a bit differently depending on your player count so to start off let's explain how it works when you're three players deal four action cards to each player each player then picks one card and sends the remaining three to the player to the left pick one card from those three and send the remaining to the left pick one of those two and send the final card left the last card is simply added to your hand which by now should consist of four action car

ds and three ability cards if you're a hunter and four action cards and 4 ability cards if you're the beast when you draft with 4 players you deal 3 cards to each player's hand but before you even begin the draft deal one extra card to the beast the beast may look at the scarf during the draft but it's not part of the draft instead after you've picked your cards done the drafting you add that card to the beast's hand [Music] when you draft with only two players in this game you deal six cards to

each player the hunter player picks two cards while the beast only picks one and the reason is that the hunter will be controlling two separate hunters at once once the draft is complete the beast will have four action cards in his or her hand while the hunter will have eight the hunter then divides his eight cards between the two separate hunters during the day phase of the game you play your cards from your hand up to one red and up to one blue this is the most exciting part of the game the h

unters get to feel the shades of the bees getting closer cooperating and forming strategies to try and find it and the beast plays cards to attack the settlers the animals and grow ever nearer its victory but your machines to do something else than used to play cards you can choose to do action called flea when you flee you cannot play any cards instead you pick one card from your hand discard it and move your character one step this is a desperate but often times quite useful actions for the hu

nters you can get rid of an unwanted card from your hand to move your character one step closer to the beast and for the beast this might be very much needed the hunters are on your tail and you're desperate you just get one step away and hide from the hunters again the last thing you may do on your turn is to pause and if you pause you cannot take any other action such as playing cards or fleeing you only pass if you choose to pass your turn you simply skip this turn until it's your turn again

where you get to play cards or flee or pause again as you wish passing can be quite good as everything in this game is determined by the cards in your hand if you're the beast for example and you kind of have this sensation that the hunters don't know where you are you may choose to pause your turn to try and get them to spend their movement cards waste their actions trying to find you however you can ever only pass if there are no other players in the game who have fewer action cards in hand th

an you have once every player has passed in a consecutive order the day ends and night begins during the night phase you perform several important steps first of all you check contract rewards these contracts they determine the setup and sort of side quests for the game but we'll explain those later for step number two you discard any remaining action cards in left in hand and you reset beastly titans and items but those we haven't explained yet either and then you return any discarded ability b

ack to your hand step number four you remove all wounds from settlers and animals on the map and any hunter who might have died from the beast is revived at any settlement on the map when a hunter dies the beast picks one action card from the hunter's hand at random and removes his or her unique ability card from the game forever the beast would also if it is the beast that kills the hunter gain one grudge and finally both beast hunter get to upgrade their characters first out to upgrade is the

beast and each beast in this game comes with a smorgasbord of different upgrades and possibilities the most notable of these is that your attack deals 2 damage for 5 grudges you may upgrade your character to always deal 2 damage instead of 1. this is immensely powerful but five grudges is a lot and the other upgrades unique for each beast provides other options and other alternative routes for the game you can experiment quite a lot with the same beast and master several different strategies onc

e the beast is finished upgrading the hunters also get to unlock upgrades of their own each hunter comes with two different upgrades per hunter they may also choose to spend their grudges but they get their grudges mostly from playing cards to unlock any of the two upgrades or both if they want hunters may upgrade in any order they want meaning they don't have to follow the player order as long as the beast has upgraded before them some upgrades are marked with a jello grudge symbol and some are

marked with red this doesn't mean much just that the yellow ones happen immediately as a one-time effect while the red ones are passive effects that linger for the rest of the game there are yet some rules and components left to explain and the most notable of these are the contracts and these contracts they state the map you'll be playing on which zones of that map will be active they state they set up how many grudges and so forth to begin with as well as the end how you win while we have qui

ckly glanced over the contracts earlier in the video let's take a moment to explain them a bit more thoroughly first off map make sure you're playing on the right map beast comes with two different maps after all that you can explore next setup each contract comes with different setup conditions as previously stated we are not using the south eastern zone as we're currently three imaginary friends playing this game also the beast starts with one grudge next end of contract the beast wins when fr

ee settlers and or nobles are dead while the hunters of course win when the beast is dead or when the final night is reached in which case the bees would be weak and starved and no longer provide a real threat to the humans that's pretty much the basics of the different contracts in the game but each contract also comes with requirements and rewards to unlock for each knife of the game for the first night if the beast by that point has managed to kill either two sheep or one bore he or she gets

one ancient power when a player with an ancient power attacks he or she can choose to discard it in order to temporarily increase that attack's damage by one ancient powers are kept next to your game board until it's used but safe to say the beast really really really wants to acquire this power and so the beast player usually has two sheeps or one boar as its first victims and goals of the game as for the hunters they can each gain one grudge and get to move one step if they have managed to dea

l one damage to the beast for the second knight if the beast has killed either a boar or a settler that beast would gain two beastly talents and do note that if you kill a boar for the first round that still carries over for the second round as for the hunters if they have managed to deal two damage to the beast they would each gain one grudge and a hunter a hunter your shoes gets to place a watchtower on its location and what are those you might ask and that's a fair question watchtowers are ac

tually pretty cool as long as a hunter is on the same location as a watchtower they would automatically discover any nearby trails for the third knight if the beast has managed to kill two settlers the beast would gain one grudge for each killed sheep in total during the game and a beastly talent for each killed poor while the hunters if they have dealt free damage to the beast they would each gain one grudge and item when you reach the final night the game is over and the hunters win now the si

x different beasts in the game really have their own personality and play styles not only coming from their unique abilities and upgrades but also from what we like to call preferred habitats bolgen the bringer of the black marsh likes swamps due to being a big fat frog as well as raga oracle of the abyss fangr the wolfpack queen likes forests as well does hogbud the warchief of the great stampede maga the sovereign of the endless knights likes caves as well as the sixth and final beast of the g

ame which will be revealed once the game is funded on kickstarter the reason why the preferred habitats are so important is that some of the ability cards the most powerful ability cards for each beast are hard locked to those locations meaning that if bolgen wants to play either leap and gorge or bezel tongue bolgen needs to stand on a swamp its actual location has to be a swamp this gives each beast a unique playstyle as well as giving the hunters some clues as how to find the beast even thoug

h the ability cards we just mentioned are hard locked to use swamps the beast can actually alter the map change the different locations to its own preferred habitat by playing cards with the effect transform in this instance the beast just play the action card called haste which lets the beast both move two steps and transform each knee up location the beast starts by moving two steps and then from its actual location it transforms each nearby location the other reason why transforming the map i

s such a powerful thing to do it's because of these these small little summons as we call them and when you play a card with the summon symbol this little hand icon you get to do one of two things you can place a new summon on the map and if you do so you simply place it on a location with the preferred habitat up to two spaces away from your actual location if you don't place a new summon you may instead do an action with every single summon already placed on the map and these sermons can do on

e of three different things they can move one step they can attack for one damage or they can do a special action indicated by your beast brick these polyps they are quite aggressive and they use the action called burst burst means that the polyp moves one step and then polish kills itself and deals one damage to each hunter settler and animal on that location that location then transforms into a swamp so these deadly walking self-exploding bombs can be a useful tool for the beast in the game do

note that if the summon managed to kill something the beast doesn't gain any grudges in order for the beast the game grudges the victim has to end up in the belly of the beast also if you choose to take an action with every summon on the map these summons can do different actions or they can do the same it's really your choice there are yet two different kinds of cards which we have yet to explain we've alluded to them earlier in the video and i'm of course talking about the hunter items and th

e beastly talents these are already at the start of the game during the setup of the game placed next to the map and during each night of the game you're gonna place three cards from each deck face up next to that deck among these cards you're gonna find two symbols not found anywhere else in the game and these are reactions this red exclamation mark and traps reactions are carved not played on your turn but on another player's turn instead smoke bomb the hunter item can be played when the beast

attacks a nearby location in which case this card will prevent 2 damage to any unsuspecting target most items and beastly talents cost grudges however indicated by this little symbol hunter items also contain trap cards indicated by the blue symbol with a question mark and this counts as playing a blue card from your hand however they work differently from any other card in the game when a hunter plays a trap first of all he usually pays the cost in grudges and then the hunter picks a habitat t

oken without the beast looking places it in one of the trap zones on the map with the trap face down over that token for whatever reason whenever the beast would be revealed in that zone on that location type the trap could be activated if the hunter's no shoes and the beast in this case would take one damage that's it for this video and thank you so much for watching i hope you've gotten a better understanding on how to play our game and maybe you're even ready to jump into your own first game

as either beast or hunter whichever side you think you'll have the most fun with the kickstarter goes live september the 28th and we'd be super grateful if you would go into the kickstarter page and pressing the tiny little notify me on launch button or for that matter just follow us on any of our official social media platforms and by the way do you know that you can play this game for free right now this very moment if you have tabletop simulator with a free version of the game live with scrip

ting that you can try out featuring every single character card contract and map in the game the whole game for free so you can try it out play a couple of rounds or just check it out before you decide to back or to buy it yourself once again thank you so much for watching this video and i sincerely hope you'll enjoy our game