SolForge Fusion Rulebook

Overview
In SolForge Fusion, players take on the role of Forgeborn. The Forgeborn are mighty heroes
that can wield the magic and power of the SolForge by summoning creatures and casting spells
that level up when they are played.

SolForge Fusion is a lane-based combat game. Each player has five lanes into which they can
place at most one creature each. Creatures opposing one another will clash in battle. If a
creature is unopposed in a lane, it will attack the opposing Forgeborn directly, reducing their
health. The first player to reduce the opposing Forgeborn’s health to zero wins the game.

Creatures, spells, and Forgeborn come in unique, algorithmically-generated faction decks.

While you can’t change the cards in a faction deck, you will fuse two faction decks together to
construct the perfect deck. Since you only play a small fraction of your cards each time through
your deck and those cards level up to new versions, which cards you choose to play will
dramatically affect your deck’s behavior each game.

Winning and Losing

When a player’s Health is reduced to zero or below, if they aren’t tied with their opponent, they
lose the game. At the end of the Fourth Deck Cycle (Turn 12), if either player has a higher
Health total, that player wins.

If both players' Health totals are equal AND at zero or below, OR the game enters the Fifth Deck
Cycle (Turn 13), follow the Sudden Death rules.

Sudden Death

At any time during Sudden Death, if there is a change in relative player Health totals, the player
with the higher Health total wins. If at the end of the Fifth Deck Cycle (Turn 15), there have been
no changes to relative player Health totals, then the player with the Forge wins the game.

Components
Faction Decks

Each faction deck consists of 10 sets of three matching Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 cards and
a Forgeborn card (which lists the 10 card names on its back). Physical copies come with a
promotional 32nd card that is not part of the deck. If it is a Minion card, set it aside with your
other Minion cards.

Each player selects two faction decks from different factions at the beginning of the game and
shuffles their Level 1 cards together to form a 20-card fused deck and sets the Level 2 and
Level 3 cards to the side. During the game they will replace the cards in the deck. The players
also choose one of their two Forgeborn cards to use during the game.

Forgeborn

Each Forgeborn has three single-use abilities. The icon beside an ability indicates the deck
cycle in which they are available. Note that the exact set of abilities and their order varies on
Forgeborn cards with the same name and many abilities are stronger when they appear at later
levels.

Minion Cards

Each faction has two types of Minion cards. Set them aside, organized by faction and level.
Most Minion cards are two-sided with different levels on each side. Minions never go in decks,
but otherwise, behave as creatures (see Creature Cards pg 3).

Forge Token Card

During the game, one player will have the Forge (showing the colorful side of the token) and the
other player will not. This affects whether you have an aggressive or defensive posture for the
turn. Ownership of the Forge will change each turn.

Health and Attack Trackers

Each Starter Kit comes with 25 tracker cards. These cards can be used to help keep track of
Health and Attack total changes on your creatures. Dice are a great alternative to the tracker
cards if preferred.

Game Board

The Game board will help all players know which of the five lanes your creatures are placed in.
It also outlines places for players to keep their deck, discard pile, upgrade piles, Forgeborn
cards, and Forge Tokens.

Lanes

There are five lanes that will contain creature cards. Each player takes one side of the lanes
and their sides have front (red) and back (blue) rows. When creatures enter play, they do so in
the front row on the Forge player’s side of the board and the back row on the non-Forge player’s
side of the board. Players can only have one creature in their half of a lane, but they can replace
previously-placed creatures.

At the end of each turn, there is a Combat Phase that triggers fighting in each lane that has at
least one front-row creature. If both players have creatures in such a lane then the creatures
deal damage to each other. If only one player has a creature in a lane and it is in the front row
then it deals damage to the opposing player.
Card Types
Creature Cards

As mentioned above, creatures are played into lanes. When they leave play, creatures are
banished -- they do not go into player discard piles. For Minions, that means they go back to
supply. Other creatures go into their owner’s banish pile.

Each creature card has Attack (red swords icon) and Health (green plus icon) values printed at
the top of the card. During the game, these values will change and the changes persist between
turns. Use dice or tokens to indicate the current values. The Attack value cannot go below 0. If
Health is reduced to 0 or lower, the creature is destroyed and is banished. Abilities may still be
triggering that care about the creature’s lane and attack value, so you may wish to temporarily
put the creature beneath its lane until the abilities are done resolving.

Creatures have a small box that describes them beside their level icon. For example, the
Scorchmane Dragon says ‘Creature - Dragon’ so other cards that refer to level 2 cards,
creatures, and Dragons can all refer to Scorchmane Dragon. The larger box gives abilities if the
creature has any. Scorchmane Dragon’s abilities are 'Mobility' and 'Deploy' (see Glossary pg
7-8).

Creatures can be either Ready (upright) or Exhausted (sideways). Creatures enter play ready.
The only difference between an Exhausted creature and a Ready one is that it cannot use
abilities that require Exhausting it to activate.

Creatures can also be in the Front Row or Back Row. Creatures enter play in the Front Row
when you play them while you have the Forge. Otherwise, they enter play in the Back Row.
Creatures in the Front Row will initiate combat at the end of each turn (see Combat Phase pg
5).

Spell Cards

Spells are the other type of card in decks. Unlike creatures, spells are not played into a lane.
Immediately resolve the abilities in a spell’s text box and then banish the spell.

Game Structure
Start of the Game

Players each select two faction decks and one of their faction decks’ Forgeborn, then shuffle
their Level I cards together face-down to form their starting deck. Set aside any Level II and
Level III cards for later use. Players start the game at 50 Health. Randomly choose a player to
start the game with the Forge, then begin the first turn.
Turns
1. Draw Phase
● Resolve “at the start of the turn” abilities
● Players Draw 5 Cards
2. Action Phases
● Forge player’s first Action Phase
● Non-Forge player’s first Action Phase
● Forge player’s second Action Phase
● Non-Forge player’s second Action Phase
3. Combat Phase
● Resolve “at the start of combat” abilities
● Players resolve combat damage
4. End of Turn Phase
● Resolve “end of turn” abilities
● Remove “this turn” abilities
● Players discard their hands
5. End of Deck Cycle Phase (once every 3 turns)
● Ready Exhausted Forgeborn
● Players each shuffle their draw and discard piles together to make new decks
● Level Up Forgeborn
● After four deck-cycles, the game enters Sudden Death
6. Maintenance Phase
● Armor is restored to its printed value
● Ready Exhausted creatures
● Put back-row creatures in the front row
● Pass the Forge to the player without it

Draw Phases

Each player draws 5 cards. If they have less than five cards in their deck to draw, they draw all
remaining cards in their deck.

Action Phases

Each Action Phase has an active player. That player must either play or banish one card from
their hand with a level less than or equal to their Forgeborn. (If you banish a card this way, level
it up as if you had played it; see Playing Cards pg 5.) In addition, they may take any number of
free actions both before and after playing or banishing a card:

1. Play a card with an ability that allows you to play it for Free
2. Exhaust one of your Ready cards to use an ability:
• Forgeborn ability for the current deck cycle (starting with the second deck cycle)
 • A creature’s Activate: ability
• A creature’s Mobility (X) ability (see Glossary pg 7-8)

While most action phases will consist of a single card play, players should indicate that they are
done taking free actions.

Combat Phase

Lanes engage in combat simultaneously but ignore lanes that don’t have a creature in a front
row. In lanes where both players have creatures with at least one in the front row, they deal
combat damage to each other equal to their respective Attack values. Otherwise, if a creature in
a front row is unopposed then it will deal combat damage equal to its Attack value to the
opposing player instead.

Damage and Armor

A creature with Armor first applies damage it takes to its Armor value before its Health is
reduced. If a creature with existing Armor would gain additional Armor, it accumulates. A
creature’s Armor resets during the Maintenance Phase each turn to its printed value or to 0 if it
has no printed value.

For example, if a creature with 2 Armor would be dealt 3 damage, its Health would only be
reduced by 1. Any additional damage taken by that creature in the same turn would further
reduce its Health.

Playing Cards
To play a card:
1. Reveal and announce the card being played from your hand. If that card has a higher
level than your Forgeborn, it can’t be played.
2. Declare whether the card is being played for Free.
Creatures: place them in a lane (see Playing Creatures below).
Spells: resolve their abilities, then banish them (see Playing Spells pg 6).
3. If you played the card from your hand or discard pile, place the next level of the card in
your discard pile (Level 3 cards do not have a higher level version to place in your
discard).
4. Resolve all abilities triggered by playing the card (see Resolving Multiple Triggered
Abilities pg 6)
If an ability on the cards you are playing says that the card can be played for Free and
you wish to do so, you must meet any preconditions (‘If you have gained Health this turn,
this is Free’) and agree to any constraints imposed (‘You may also deal 5 damage to
yourself. If you do, this is Free.’).

Playing Creatures
When you play a creature, first choose a lane. If it contains a friendly creature, banish that
creature: this is called replacing a creature. If you have the Forge, place the creature in the front
row; otherwise, it goes in the back row. The Aggressive and Defender keywords override this
behavior, forcing you to put the creature in the front or back row, respectively. When you replace
or reanimate (see Glossary pg 7-8) a creature, the new creature is placed normally no matter
whether the original one was in the front or back row.

Playing a creature will trigger ‘Deploy:’ abilities. If you replace another creature, it will trigger ‘if
this replaces a creature’ abilities but not ‘when this is destroyed’ abilities.

Playing Spells

Spells can have several abilities, each of which will be separated by a blank line. Some abilities
just modify other abilities, such as ‘If you have a Scientist in play, you may Reanimate up to two
creatures instead’. You must resolve all abilities on a Spell in order before resolving any triggers.
Abilities that make a card Free were discussed above.

Resolving An Ability
When resolving a single ability, resolve each step of the ability in the order written. If a step tells
you to do something more than once then do each thing one at a time (‘Play two Gizmos’ can
replace the first Gizmo with the second).

You must resolve as much of an ability as possible. When a player resolves a part of an ability
that says “You may” that player decides whether they want to perform that action or not.

Resolving Triggered Abilities

Card abilities tell you when to trigger their abilities. For example, Spell Sprite has the ability
‘When you play a spell, give this +2 Attack.' An ability can only trigger if it is in play before the
triggering event starts. If you have a Spell Sprite in play and play a spell with the ability ‘You
may play a Spell Sprite’ then the original Spell Sprite’s ability will trigger but the abilities of the
new Spell Sprite created by the spell will not. If a creature has an ability that triggers when
creatures are destroyed, this ability will trigger even when that creature is destroyed and it will
take into account all creatures that are destroyed at the same time. For example, if a creature
with 'whenever a creature is destroyed, you gain 1 Health' is destroyed along with one other
creature during Combat then you gain 2 Health.

Resolving Multiple Triggered Abilities

Combat or playing a single card can create several events that trigger many abilities before
there is an opportunity to resolve them, creating a batch. After Combat, playing a card, or
resolving an ability that requires you to exhaust a card, there will be an opportunity to resolve
triggered abilities. If part of an action with multiple steps or effects creates a new trigger event,
the new trigger will be completed after each step of the original action is complete. The player
with the Forge resolves all of their accumulated triggered abilities in the order of their choice and
then the player without the Forge resolves theirs. If resolving abilities triggers more abilities,
accumulate the new triggers until after the original batch is completely resolved by both players
and then repeat this process for the new batch of triggered abilities.

Glossary
Ability - Text printed on a card that explains what that card does. Some cards can give abilities
to other cards.

Activate: (ability) - This creature may be Exhausted to resolve the ability.

Adjacent: Creatures are considered to be adjacent if they are controlled by the same player
and in lanes next to each other (they can be in different rows).

Aggressive - Keyword. Put this creature in the front row when played (even if you don’t have
the Forge) or move it to the front row when it gains the keyword.

Armor - (See Damage and Armor pg 5) When a creature with existing Armor gains Armor it is
accumulative. If a creature has 0 Armor, it is not considered a creature with Armor.

Battle - Creatures that Battle deal damage equal to their Attack to each other.

Breakthrough - Keyword. When this creature is in the front row during Combat, any damage
that would be taken by the opposing creature in excess of that creature’s current Health is dealt
to the opponent instead.

Defender - Keyword. Put this creature in the back row when played (even if you have the
Forge) or move it to the back row when it gains the keyword. This creature cannot be put in the
front row as long as it has Defender, even if it also gains Aggressive.

Deploy: (ability) - When this creature is played, including being reanimated, trigger the ability.

Destroy - Destroy an in-play creature by banishing it. A creature whose Health is reduced to 0
or less is considered destroyed, but creatures that are replaced are not.

Discard - Put a card from a player’s hand into their discard pile. The card does not level up.

Enters - A creature enters a lane and row when it is played. Afterwards, it enters a row or lane
when its row or lane changes (usually only one or the other changes at a time).

Exhaust - Rotate an upright card to the sideways position. An Exhausted card behaves as
normal; the only effect is that it cannot be Exhausted to activate abilities.

Free - A card that can be played for Free does not count as the one card that you can play or
banish during one of your action phases.

Level (I,II,III) - Cards have their level (1/2/3) indicated by an icon on their middle-left of the card.
Minion - A creature with Minion in the description. Minions do not go in decks or banish piles.

Mobility (X) - Keyword. This creature may be exhausted to Move it up to X lanes. Intervening
lanes do not need to be empty. When a creature with existing Mobility gains Mobility it is
accumulative.

Move - Change the lane of a creature to another, empty lane. This does not change the
creature’s row position unless explicitly specified (e.g. Ironbeard’s Knockback).

Opposed - Having an enemy in its lane.

Opposing creature - The other creature in the same lane.

Opposing player - The opponent of the player controlling a creature.

Owner (of a card) - The player whose deck the card came from (named at the bottom of the
card).

Ready - Return an Exhausted (sideways) card to the upright position.

Reanimate - Play a card from your banish pile.

Replace (a creature) - Play a creature to an occupied lane, banishing the original creature. The
banished creature is not considered destroyed. When a card effect causes a creature to be
replaced, the player whose creature is being replaced plays the new creature. For example, if
Dendrify is played on an opposing creature, the player using Dendrify chooses which creature
will be replaced, but the player whose creature is being replaced plays the Oakfather. That
creature is put in the front or back row according to who has the Forge, not where the replaced
creature was previously.

Stealth - Keyword. During Combat, treat this creature as unopposed if the opposing creature is
in the back row.

Strike - This creature deals damage equal to its Attack to another creature.

Swap - To swap a creature, there must be another valid target for that creature to swap with.
Move the creatures to each other’s lane without changing their rows.

This - If unqualified, ‘this’ always refers to the card on which it is written.

Unopposed - Not opposed.

Upgrade - Keyword. Upgrading a Level 3 card has no effect, but is considered to have
succeeded. Otherwise, banish the card and replace it with its next level. Subsequent references
to the card that was Upgraded refer to the higher-level version that replaced it instead. ‘When a
card is Upgraded’ only refers to using this keyword, not normal leveling of cards when they are
played.
You - For spells this means the player playing it, but for creatures it is the player whose side of
the lanes the creature was on when the ability was triggered.

Your creatures - Creatures on (or just banished from) your side of the lanes.