In Dungeon Busters, you group together and fight a deadly foe…
…but do it while doing as little as possible.
To trust is good, not to trust is better.
Five weary warriors, on a journey for a mysterious dungeon rumoured to be filled with precious gemstones. But there is hitch: ferocious monsters are guarding the gems! If the warriors join forces they can defeat them. But the coward who, blinded by his greed, will not fight seriously might get his companions punished by the monsters! The warrior who will remain loyal and will betray at the right time is the genuine hero of this game.
Each player has a matching deck of cards in their colour and with their own cute fantasy adventurer. Kitty Cleric is particularly adorable but the Purple Thief is clearly my personal favourite 🙂
Don’t let the Dungeon Busters cuteness fool you though, this game is EVIL!
These cards and numbered 1-7 and you play with either 1-6 or 2-7 depending on the player count.
Dungeons
There are 3 dungeons numbered 1 to 3 and you take the 5 cards for Dungeon and put 1 randomly back in the box. Then the ‘Hero’, the current First Player who has a certificate saying they are the only one strong enough to flip over the top card of the monster deck, flips over the top card of the monster deck.
Then you see a monster.
That’s one, a Mimic… They’re cute too, but they must die!
Negotiation and Combat
Then you negotiate a bit… Basically, the monster has 10 HP so you need each player to play cards that total 10 or more but you reveal at the same time so you never really know what people are going to pick… got it?
Except… If two or more players play the same number, those cards are removed from the total… ALL OF THEM!
Also, the player who plays the lowest card will get the biggest reward… if they win. Lose, and the lowest value player pays the biggest price.
This game is all about Gems. Defeat the monster pictured above and the player with the lowest value card gets one of each colour Gem, second lowest gets a Blue one and a Blue one only.
BUT! Lose… and the player that played the lowest value card must return all the gems of the colour they have the most of. Why should that matter…
Well, 3 levels of Dungeons and 16 battles later you score. You get 1 point per Gem PLUS 3 points per set of 3 of a different colour.
Dungeon Busters Summary
So, you need lots of Gems and lots of diversity in the colours.
I bought Dungeon Busters to replace both Dungeon Guilds (cute, backstabby dungeon crawl) and Boom: Runaway (play low, but not too low card game) and while it does what Dungeon Guilds does but better… Boom: Runaway does its thing better itself.
Its cuteness, ease of play, light-hearted meanness and small box size mean this one is staying on my shelf.
Update: Try Dungeon Raiders
Jesta ThaRogue