Hunt Phase

The hunt phase is one of the main gameplay phases in Kingdom Death: Monster. During the hunt phase, players will:

• Choose a quarry
• Set up the hunt board
• Hunt the quarry along the hunt board until a showdown begins or the hunt fails.

Table Setup

Place the hunt board (the opposite side of the settlement board on the table. Place the gear grids, and survivor record sheets of the survivors that compose the hunt team on the table.

Choose Your Quarry

Before departing on a hunt, choose a quarry from the list of available monsters on the Quarry list of the settlement record sheet. Some monsters cannot be hunted, and only appear as a result of story events, encounters, or nemesis encounters on the timeline.

If the survivors are fighting a nemesis monster this lantern year, skip the hunt phase and move directly to the showdown.

Choose the Monster Level

Decide the level of the monster (usuaully 1, 2, or 3). The higher the level, the more difficult the monster will be to hunt and defeat.

Set Up the Hunt

The hunt is the survivor's journey to find their quarry. Survivors travel along the hunt board, facing perils along the way.

Hunt Board

The hunt board has 13 spaces, including a Start space, an Overwhelming Darkness space, and a Starvation space.

Hunt Event Cards

Main Article: Hunt Events
There are several types of hunt event cards; basic hunt event cards, monster hunt event cards, special hunt event cards, encounter hunt event cards, scout hunt event cards, and arc survivor hunt event cards.

• Basic hunt event cards describe events survivors may encounter out in the darkness.
• Monster hunt event cards describe events that occur while tracking a specific monster.
• Special hunt event cards (Mineral Gathering, Herb Gathering, and Sky Fishing) are story events that may be triggered during the hunt by adding their unique hunt event cards to the hunt board.
• Encounter hunt event cards are introduced to the hunt event deck when the story event for an encounter monster has been triggered. From this moment on, the threat of an encounter looms on every hunt. When an encounter hunt event card is added to the hunt event deck a random basic hunt event card is removed.
• Scout hunt events are only added to the hunt event deck when the hunting party contains a scout. When this card is revealed, the survivors will confront hunt events found in the Scout Hunt Event table. When the scout hunt event card is added to the hunt event deck a random basic hunt event card is removed.
• Arc survivor hunt events are only added to the hunt event deck when a campaign features arc survivors. When this card is revealed, the survivors will confront hunt events found the in Arc Survivor Hunt Event table. When the arc survivor hunt event card is added to the hunt event deck a random basic hunt event card is removed.

The basic hunt event cards found in the Kingdom Death: Monster Core Game are all identical and direct the event revealer to roll on the hunt event table to determine what happens next. The hunt event table lists 100 possible events the survivors may encounter. The event revealer rolls 1d100 to randomly determine the event. To roll 1d100, take two 2d10 and nominate one die to be tens and one die to be ones. Roll them together for a result between 1 and 100.

Example: If the tens die result is a "3" and the ones die result is a "5", the event number is "35". If the tens die result is a "10" and the ones die result is a "10", the event number is "100". If the tens die result is a 10, and the ones die result is a "1", the event number is "01".

Hunt Events

Often hunt events will require players to roll on a table to determine the outcome of an event. Each event will specify who should roll (event revealer, random survivor, or survivors meeting certain criteria). If no survivor is specified, the event revealer rolls. The event revealer is also responsible for making any randomized choices (picking random survivors, gear, etc.). The event revealer can roll dice, names in a hat, or whatever they prefer. Some events will have requirements for survivors to participate. For instance, some events require survivors to have high levels of courage or understanding to participate in the event.

Hunt Board Diagram

Each monster's showdown story event has a diagram of the hunt board showing where to place monster hunt events and the monster miniature.

1. Shuffle the monster's hunt event cards. Place on monster hunt event card from the deck facedown on all the spaces indicated with an "E" on the hunt board diagram.
2. Shuffle the basic hunt event cards. Place one basic hunt event card in every open space on the hunt board except those occupied by a monster hunt event card, the Start space, Overwhelming Darkness, and Starvation.
3. Place any special hunt events triggered by gear in your gear grid (e.g., sickles, pickaxes, and the Sun Lure and Hook).
4. Place The Forest Gate over Overwhelming Darkness if the monster's hunt board setup calls for it (e.g., Flower Knight and Spidicules).
5. Place the monster's miniature on the hunt board according to its level, in the space indicated on the hunt board diagram.
6. Place the departing survivors miniatures on the Start space of the hunt event board. Some monster's level determines the survivors' starting space on the hunt board. When these monster's are chosen as a quarry, the survivors start at the space with the icon matching the level of the monster being hunted.

Hunt Your Quarry

Survivors take turns as the event revealer. The event revealer draws the top hunt event card in the survivor's current space, reads it aloud to the other players, and follows the rules on the card. When an event is complete, the card is archived and the next survivor becomes the event revealer. If no cards remain in the survivor's space, the survivors move on space towards the monster and the event revealer draws the top event card in the new space and follows the rules on the card.

Hunt events are resolved one at a time, from top to bottom. Unless compelled to move by an event, the survivors must resolve all hunt events in their currently occupied space before moving. If there are no hunt event cards on a hunt board space when the survivors move into the space, the event revealer makes one roll on the hunt event table before the survivors can move to the next hunt board space (unless directed to skip spaces).

Find the Quarry

If the survivors move into the same space as the monster on their hunt turn, the hunt phase is over, and the showdown phase begins immediately. Do not resolve any hunt events (except Starvation) on the hunt board space occupied by the monster.

Encounters

Main Article: Encounters
When an encounter hunt event card is revealed, if the current lantern year is the same or later than the lantern year on the card, the encounter monsters challenge the survivors and the encounter showdown begins. If the lantern year on the card is in the settlement's future, the monsters are disinterested; roll a random hunt event instead.

Reaching Overwhelming Darkness

The first time in a hunt the survivors move into the Overwhelming Darkness space, they trigger Overwhelming Darkness. The survivors cannot skip Overwhelming Darkness. If they move through the space for any reason, instead stop hunt board movement and resolve Overwhelming Darkness (before any other events or effects on this space). Resolve any other events on this space then continue to the next space on the hunt board. If for some reason the survivors move through Overwhelming Darkness more than once in a single hunt phase, treat it as a blank space (roll a random hunt event on the hunt event table).

Reaching the Forest Gate

Some monster's hunt board setup places the Forest Gate special hunt event card over the Overwhelming Darkness space. When the survivors encounter this space, trigger The Forest Wants What It Wants instead of the Overwhelming Darkness story event. The space retains all of its normal rules, and cannot be skipped or ignored.

Elgnirk, the Chaos Elf

Main Article: Happy Holidays!
The Elgnirk. the Chaos Elf white box expansion introduced a special "holiday hunt chaos card" that is only added to the hunt phase of campaigns during the holiday season. At the start of the hunt phase, the players place Elgnirk on the last space of the hunt board. Whenever a random hunt event result is a double (11, 22, 33, etc.), move Elgnirk one space on the hunt board towards the survivors. If Elgnirk or the survivors move into each other's space, open the holiday card and resolve the event enclosed before anything else. Limit once per campaign.

Gaining Gear on the Hunt

Main Article: Gear
If a survivor gains gear during the hunt phase, they may add it to their gear grid immediately. If their gear grid is full, they must either archive the acquired gear (unless it is cursed) or another piece of gear from the gear grid to make room for the new gear. A gear grid may not be rearranged when this occurs, and the item cannot be added to another survivors' gear grid.

Event Damage

Survivors may suffer damage during the hunt. This is event damage and is non-lethal. Typically, this damage cannot be dodged or blocked. Event damage will still reduce armor points and insanity, cause light and heavy injuries, but will not cause severe injuries or brain trauma. Any damage accrued on the hunt persists into the showdown phase.

Any tokens gained on the hunt remain through the Aftermath of the showdown, or the beginning of the next settlement phase, whichever comes first.

Severe Injuries & Brain Trauma

In special cases, survivors may suffer severe injuries or brain traumas during the hunt. These cases will be clearly indicated on an event. Apply any attribute modifiers. impairments, and restrictions from injuries and brain traumas suffered on the hunt to the showdown that follows it (including bleeding tokens). If you must skip the next hunt as a result of an injury, this refers to the next hunt, not the remainer of the current one.

Retire on the Hunt

If a survivor retires during the hunt, they participate in the coming showdown and return with any victorious survivors. When they return, they retire, never to hunt again.

Death on the Hunt

If survivors perish during the hunt phase, all of their gear (except any gear with the irreplaceable rule) returns to the settlement storage unless the event states otherwise. It may not be used by the remaining survivors on the hunt.

Ambush

If the monster moves into the survivor's hunt board space, the survivors are ambushed. End any current hunt events and start the showdown immediately. If the survivors are ambushed by the monster, they must skip their first turn. In most cases, this means that the monster will take two turns. Some hunt events allow the survivors to ambush the monster. When the monster is ambushed, the survivors may choose to go first in the showdown. Do not follow the setup rules for terrain on the monster's story event. Instead, place the listed showdown terrain, the monster, and survivors as the players decide (setup rules on terrain cards must still be followed).

Compulsory Movement

Some hunt events or effects may move the survivors. When this happens, move the group the indicated number of spaces forward or backwards. The survivors cannot move past the Start or Starvation spaces.

Monster Movement

Monsters cannot move off of the hunt board. If a hunt event, effect, or rule would move a monster backwards or forwards enough spaces to leave the board, they stop on the first or last space of the hunt board.

Starvation

If you fight a monster on the Starvation space, the hunting team takes too long to bring food back home. Apply the rules of the Starvation space of the hunt board: Remove 1d5 resources from settlement storage.

The Hunt Fails

If the survivors perish on the hunt, the hunt phase ends and the quarry is lost. Apply the rules on the Starvation space of the hunt board. The lantern year is over, and a new settlement phase begins.

Run Away

If the settlement has innovated Pictographs, survivors may attempt to flee. After a hunt event is resolved, you may nominate any number of survivors and trigger Run Away. Each nominated survivor rolls individually on the story event.

Notes

In the Kingdom Death: Monster 1.3 rulebook it was possible for a monster to move off of the hunt board during the hunt phase. If this happened, the hunt would fail, and the settlement would suffer Starvation. This effect is still referenced on the 1.6 version of the Manhunter Expansion's War Room innovation that has a clause that prevents quarry monsters from moving off of the board.

Additionally, the 1.3 version of the Core Game allowed survivors to perform Run Away at any point during the hunt phase, instead of having to wait for a triggered hunt event to resolve.