Griphold Tower

Rulebook

Designer & Graphic Design: Joe Klipfel

Art: Combination of paid and free stock art from Shutterstock.com and Pixabay.com.
Play time: 20-30 min.

Introduction
It’s your final stand. The rest of your adventuring party has gotten lost (or worse) and you find yourself
alone in the wilderness preparing for the fight of your life. The monsters are not far behind, and after
hours of running you decide your only choice is to turn and fight. It’s then that you look up. There in the
bright moonlight you see Griphold Tower, the legendary structure where dozens of heroes in ages past
have fought bravely to the end. It’s as good a place as any to make your stand. Perhaps your story will
be added to the legends.

In Griphold Tower, you play as a lone adventurer in the top room of an ancient tower. You will use your
character’s strength and unique abilities to defeat 5 waves of monsters coming through the room’s only
door. At the end of the final wave you’ll face a final boss that presents a distinct challenge requiring
every ounce of your strength and creativity to defeat.

Choose between 8 unique adventurers and 2 challenging bosses. Pick a character that fits your play style.
Play with more complicated characters and a more difficult boss as your skills improve.

Griphold Tower is played without a table. The entire game is played in your hand.

Components
Griphold Tower is composed of 18 cards. No other components are required.
 12 monster cards for 24 total monsters
 4 adventurer cards for 8 total adventurers
 2 boss cards

Setup
Choose an adventurer to play and choose which boss you want to face. Also randomly select an unused
adventurer card. This will be your dummy card that does not affect gameplay but will help the game
work more smoothly.

Shuffle the 12 monster cards. Be sure to randomly rotate some monsters 180 degrees as you shuffle.
Hold the stack of monster cards in your left hand with the monster side facing you. With your right hand,
rotate the back 3 monster cards 90 degrees to the right so that they stick out to the right side of the
monster deck. Slide the second and third of these three cards out to the right far enough so you can see
the number values on the top of the cards.
Now, put the boss card at the back of the deck, just in front of the first card that is rotated 90 degrees.
Put the boss side of the card face down and orient the card so the “1” is on the top left of the card. Next,
put the dummy card behind the boss card, but leave it sticking out the top a few millimeters. Finally,
slide your character card just in front of the dummy card and behind the boss card. Note that your
character card is oriented horizontally, unlike the other cards in the game. Slide the character card down
far enough just so the name on the bottom of the card is covered up. Don’t cover up any of their
abilities.

Now you are ready to play!

Completed setup (hard difficulty).

A. Character card. Positioned behind last monster and in front of the dummy card.
B. Second monster. Stack of remaining monsters behind it.
C. Your starting strength cards.
D. Front monster. Taken off the top of the monster stack and held in right hand.

Difficulty setting

Normal difficulty: Start each wave with 4 strength cards.

Hard difficulty: Start each wave with 3 strength cards.

Gameplay

How to win
You win by defeating 5 waves of monsters, along with a final boss at the end of the fifth wave. The three
cards rotated 90 degrees during setup are your starting strength cards. You’ll use these along with your
adventurer’s abilities to defeat monsters one at a time until every monster is defeated.

Visibility
The line of monsters is coming at you through a narrow doorway, so your visibility at what’s coming is
limited. The first two monsters in line are always visible. At the start of and throughout the wave, you
take the front monster into your right hand so that the front monster and the second monster are both
visible.

Some character abilities allow you to peek at the third monster in line. This just means to look at the
third monster in line. Slide the second monster out of the way to see the third monster, using either
your left thumb or the fingers of your right hand. Once you have seen what the third monster is, you can
put the second monster back into place. Once you have peeked at the third monster, they are
considered visible. Monster or character abilities that affect visible monsters must now take the third
monster into account.

Attacking monsters

Strength attacks

The 3 cards rotated 90 degrees at setup are your

starting strength cards. The number in front of the
heart icon is the card’s strength value. The primary
way to defeat a monster is to attack them with one or
more strength cards. The sum of the value of the
strength cards you attack with must be equal to or
greater than the monster’s health. Monsters use the
number with the heart icon behind it as their health.

When you attack and defeat a monster with one or

more strength cards, you discard the strength card(s)
you used to the defeated monsters area. The defeated
monsters area is behind all the other cards, at the very
back. Do this by using your right hand to remove the
strength card(s) and placing them in the back. Then, the A) Monster’s damage value.
monster you just defeated is slotted as a strength card. B) Monster’s health.
Slotting a monster means rotating it 90 degrees and C) Strength card’s armor value.
sliding it in with your other strength cards. That monster D) Strength card’s strength value.
is now a strength card and you can use that card to attack
monsters.

Note: You can only attack one monster at a time. You cannot apply surplus strength to other monsters.
Any excess strength applied to a monster is essentially wasted.
Please see the “Slot Abilities” section below for more specifics on when to slot and when not to slot
defeated monsters. Typically using an ability to defeat a monster does not allow you to slot the monster,
but there are exceptions.

Character abilities
Your adventurer’s abilities give you other options for defeating monsters, as well as offering ways to
control the fight, such as manipulating the order of the line of monsters or preventing monster abilities.
Character abilities also function as your character’s health. If you must take damage from monsters, it
means the same thing as exhausting that many abilities.

There are two ways to activate and use your abilities. The first way is to sacrifice a strength card. Any
strength card can activate any ability, regardless of the strength card’s value. Discard the strength card
to the defeated monsters area and do the action denoted by the ability’s text. You can only activate
each ability once per wave with this method.

The second way to activate abilities is to exhaust them. You exhaust an ability by sliding your character
card downwards to cover up the ability with the cards in front of it. There are six abilities on your
character card (three rows with two abilities on each row).
You do not have to exhaust both abilities on a given row at
the same time; you can rotate your character card slightly
in order to only cover up one ability on the row. You can
even exhaust up to two abilities on one side of the card by
rotating your character card even further.

For example, you can exhaust the bottom left ability to

activate the ability by sliding your character card to just
cover up that one ability. Then if you want to exhaust the
middle left ability, you can do that by sliding your card to
cover up both the bottom left and middle left abilities and
leaving all others open. However, you cannot exhaust all
three abilities on the left side without exhausting any on
the right side.
A character with the bottom-left ability
You can, if you choose, activate an ability that is not one of exhausted.
the next abilities on your card. That is, it is not a bottom-
row ability or the next ability up from an already exhausted
ability. You can activate non-adjacent abilities by exhausting them, but you must cover up (and
therefore exhaust) any abilities along the way.

For example, In the image on the right, your character already has the bottom-left ability exhausted. You
could, if you wanted, exhaust (cover up) your Armor Piercing or you Maneuver abilities to activate them
and use them. But let’s say you actually want to use your Long Range ability (middle right). Well, one
option would be to apply a strength card to it by discarding the strength card and activating it that way
(if you haven’t already done so this round). But let’s say you don’t want to apply a strength card to
activate it. You decide to activate Long Range by exhausting it. So you cover up and exhaust BOTH
Maneuver and Long Range. This is because you have to cover up Long Range to activate it by exhausting
it, but Maneuver happens to be in the way, and to get to Long Range you have to exhaust Maneuver to
get there.
Once you exhaust an ability, you cannot use it for the rest of the wave. You can use an ability twice in
the same wave if you want by activating with a strength card the first time, and then exhausting it to use
a second time. You cannot activate an ability through any means once it has been exhausted.
Remember, your abilities also function as your health! Exhausting an ability voluntarily to activate the
ability may be necessary, but be careful—doing this too many times is risky because it also reduces your
health.

Some abilities have the word stock in bolded text in the ability description. Stock abilities are essentially
free to use. You do not have to sacrifice a strength card or exhaust the ability to activate it. Some stock
abilities have ongoing effects that are in play as long as the ability is not exhausted. Other stock abilities
have one-time effects. You can only use these effects for free once per wave. You can, however, use a
one-time stock ability a second time by exhausting it.

Unless noted otherwise in the ability text, you do not slot monsters that were defeated using abilities.
Even if a strength card was applied to help defeat a monster, if an ability was also used to help defeat
that monster you do not slot the defeated monster as strength. Only monsters defeated exclusively with
strength attacks are slotted as strength.

Slot Abilities (When to slot; when not to slot)

Not all defeated monsters are slotted as strength. If you used only strength cards to defeat a monster, it
is always slotted. If an ability defeated a monster on its own, or contributed damage to the monster, you
do not slot the monster. However, some abilities are Slot abilities. They are noted with an ‘S’ inside the
shield icon on the left-hand side of the ability. Slot abilities allow an exception: If a Slot ability defeats a
monster or dealt damage that assisted in defeating the monster, you get to slot that defeated monster
as strength.

Range
Characters are either melee or range characters, as noted by either a crossed swords icon (melee) or a
bow and arrow icon (ranged) in the upper right portion of their rest ability on the upper right of their
card. Melee characters can only use strength attacks against the front monster. Ranged characters can
use strength attacks against the front or second monsters.

Unless noted otherwise, abilities can affect any visible monster, regardless of the character’s range.
Range restrictions only apply to strength attacks.

Letting monsters pass

At any time during a wave, you can choose to let the front monster pass. Letting monsters pass means
you are taking some damage from them in order to ignore them for a while. They are then in the room
with you and disoriented, but will face you again at the end of the wave. You let monsters pass if you
cannot or simply don’t want to defeat the monster with a strength attack or ability. You cannot allow
any but the front monster to pass (no letting the second monster pass). If you do not have enough
strength or relevant abilities to defeat the front monster, you must let the monster pass. But remember
that you can also do so voluntarily if letting a monster pass benefits your strategy.
Initial damage
When you decide to (or have to!) let a monster
pass, rotate it 180 degrees so it is upside down and
place it at the back of the defeated monsters, but
leave this monster’s stats (their health and damage)
sticking out the bottom. This is called the passed
monsters area. Also immediately take damage
equal to their damage value. Remember that
taking damage means covering up (exhausting) an
ability of your choosing. If a monster’s initial
damage brings your character’s health down to
zero, you lose the game.

Final damage
So you let the monster pass and took initial
damage. But the monster is not out of your hair yet.
At the end of the wave, when all monsters are
either defeated or in the room with you (in the
passed monsters area—upside down, in the back
and sticking out the bottom), it’s time to resolve
final damage. This means taking a second round of
damage from the passed monsters.

Total up the damage values of passed monsters. You

must take damage once again equal to their total
damage values. When resolving final damage,
however, you can mitigate the damage by using
armor. As mentioned earlier, your armor is the
number on the upper left of your strength cards, in
front of the swords/shield icon. So the armor value of
strength cards you have remaining at the end of the
wave can be discarded to negate final damage from
passed monsters.
You can, if you choose, refrain from using a
remaining strength card to negate final damage and
take the damage by exhausting abilities.
You have let the Sorceress pass and she is in
the passed monsters area in the above
image. Note that you would now
immediately have to take initial damage of 3
based on the Sorceress’s damage value.
Then, at the end of the wave, you’d take
another 3 final damage from the Sorceress
to put her in the defeated monsters area,
unless you are able to negate some or all of
that final damage with armor.

This will be further explained in the healing section below, but you can also heal with any leftover armor
at the end of the wave.

Example:
Let’s say that during a wave, you decide you want to let the Lion pass. You first have to take initial
damage, so you exhaust 1 ability and put the Lion in the passed monsters area, rotating it upside down
and putting it at the very back, behind the last defeated monster, but leaving the Lion’s stats sticking out
the bottom. Now you play the rest of the wave, defeating all other monsters. At the end of the wave, you
must resolve the Lion’s final damage. You would have to take one final damage from the Lion, but you
happen to have a strength card left with 1 armor value. So you discard the armor value and discard the
Lion, taking no final damage.

End of Wave Summary

Here is a summary of how the end of the wave works. The wave is over when all monsters are either
defeated or passed.

1. Total up your armor from your remaining strength cards.

2. Total the final damage from passed monsters and subtract the total armor from the total final
damage. As mentioned above, you can forego using some or all of your armor to negate final damage if
you want to save that armor for something else, such as paying a rest ability cost.

3. Heal. You get 1 free heal, and can also heal with any leftover armor (see section on Healing below).

4. Consult/activate your rest ability.

5. Shuffle monster cards and repeat setup, setting the wave tracker to the next wave (for round 5, flip
the wave tracker card over to reveal the boss).

6. Start next wave. Remember to give yourself a new set of starting strength cards at setup.

Rest abilities
Characters have six abilities total. Five of these abilities are combat abilities that are used during waves.
The ability on the top right is the character’s rest ability. Rest abilities can only be used in between
waves. After you have defeated the last monster in a wave, consult your character’s rest ability. Some
rest abilities offer a free and instantaneous effect, such as the Paladin’s extra healing. Other rest abilities
affect something at the start of the next wave.

Some rest abilities require a cost of 1 to activate. This means you must use 1 armor that is left at the end
of the wave to activate the rest ability. The armor you use toward activating a rest ability cannot be
from a strength card that was used to prevent final damage from monsters.

Healing
At the end of each wave, after all final damage has been resolved, your character gets to rest, which
means you get 1 free heal. Healing means uncovering exhausted abilities. It’s important to remember
that this healing happens after final monster damage is resolved. If final damage takes your character to
zero health, you are defeated and the game is lost.

You also can use the armor value of remaining strength cards to heal even more. You can heal an
amount equal to the sum of the armor values on remaining strength cards. Armor used to heal or negate
final monster damage cannot be used to pay the cost of rest abilities.

The healing process will look like this:

1) Find the sum of the armor values of remaining strength cards at the end of the wave.
2) Find the sum of the damage values of passed monsters.
3) Subtract the total passed monster damage from the total remaining armor.
4) The difference between those two is how many abilities you get to heal.
5) Don’t forget that you also get 1 free heal after every wave from resting.

Remember that you can choose to forego some healing from armor in order to use that armor to pay
the cost of a rest ability instead.

Monster Abilities

Monster abilities are the effects printed under the monster’s name on their card.

Monster Position
Some character and monster abilities will have effects based on a monster’s position. Typically these will
refer to monsters in front, second or third positions. If an ability says to put a monster to the back, slide
the monster just behind the last monster and in front of the boss card.

Monster Abilities
There are four types of monster abilities.

Normal: These monster abilities don’t have bolded text. They are typically abilities that have ongoing
effects that are in play as long as the monster is visible. If you send a monster to the back of the wave, it
is no longer visible.

Front: These abilities are only triggered or active when the monster reaches front position. If the ability
is an ongoing effect, the ability only applies when the monster is in front position. If, for example, the
Phantom is in front but a character ability moves it to second, the Phantom’s ability no longer applies. If
a front ability has a one-time effect rather than an ongoing effect, the it is only resolved once. For
example, the Samurai’s ability is only resolved the first time it reaches front position.

Second: The only second-position ability is that of the Reaper. It is treated just like front abilities, except
it is only resolved when Reaper reaches second position.

Instant: Instant abilities are one-time effects that are resolved as soon as a monster becomes visible, no
matter whether the monster is in front, second or third position. Remember that if something causes
you to peek at third position, the monster in third is now considered visible. Therefore if you peek at
third position and the third monster has an instant ability, immediately resolve it.

Ability priorities
Griphold Tower relies on monster abilities and position to create a unique puzzle every game and create
virtually infinite replayability. As a result you will often find “chain reactions” or abilities that seem like
they should activate at the same time. Don’t worry--this is all intentional and part of the fun! There is a
method to the madness, and over time you’ll learn to love manipulating the wave of monsters and using
it to your advantage.
Here is the priority order of which abilities should trigger first. If there is ever a true tie, such as an
instant ability from the monster in second position and a front ability from the monster in front both
needing to be resolved at the same time, resolve the ability of the monster that is furthest to the front
first.

Ability priorities:

1) Character abilities that say to “prevent” or “ignore” monster abilities are resolved first. These can
be used before the relevant monster abilities trigger. Note that Stock character abilities, or ongoing
character abilities, are always in play and therefore their effects will precede monster abilities.

2) Monster abilities are resolved next. You must resolve monster abilities before attacking the monster
with strength or using your character abilities against it. The exception is the above “prevent” or
“ignore” type character abilities.

3) Character abilities that do not say to “prevent” or “ignore” monster abilities. A good example for
this is if you want to use a character ability to, say, send a monster to the back of the wave, unless that
character ability says to “prevent” or “ignore” the monster’s ability, you must resolve the monster’s
ability before sending them to the back.

Boss Fights
After you have defeated the last monster in the fifth
wave, you immediately go into the boss fight. Don’t
resolve final monster damage or use a rest action
before the boss fight.

Bosses are defeated just like regular monsters,

except you cannot use character abilities against
bosses. You may only use strength cards to defeat
the boss. You must attack the boss with strength
equal to or greater than the boss’s health to defeat
them. If you cannot do this, you lose the game.

You must play the game well prior to reaching the

boss in order to come into the boss fight with as
much strength remaining as possible.

Critical Hits
Bosses are extremely challenging because they have
a lot of health to overcome. Luckily, you can use
critical hits to amplify your strength attacks against
the boss. Each boss has three options for critical hits. A) Body Blow’s character damage.
You can use any combination of critical hits against the B) Body Blow’s boss damage.
boss (none or up to all three), but you can only use each C) Body Blow’s strength requirement.
critical hit once. D) Death’s Bane’s special boss rule.

Each critical hit has a letter associated with it for easy

reference (A, B or C). Critical hits also have a name and 3 stats in the red circles that tell you how to
interact with the critical hit. The middle stat with the skull icon is how much damage the critical hit does
to the boss. This is called the boss damage stat. To the right of the boss damage stat is the strength
requirement for that critical hit (with the heart icon behind it). The strength requirement stat tells you
how much strength you must apply to that critical hit to activate it. And finally, to the left of the damage
stat is the character damage stat. This is how much damage your character must take to activate the
critical hit.

As mentioned, critical hits allow you to amplify your remaining strength cards. But to get close enough
to the boss for a critical hit is risky. You have to use your strength as well as be prepared to take some
damage. To activate a critical hit, discard one or more strength cards in order to meet or exceed the
critical hit’s strength requirement. You must also apply damage to your character equal to the critical
hit’s character damage. Once those two requirements are met, you can apply damage to the boss equal
to the critical hit’s boss damage.

There is no order requirement for using critical hits. Use any combination of critical hits and normal
strength card attacks in any order to find a way to do enough attack to meet or exceed the monster’s
total health.

Special Boss Rules

Below the monster’s name and above the critical hits, boss cards have a special boss rule that is printed
in italicized text. Death Bane’s boss rule is optional. It is like a critical hit in that you are not required to
do it but you must pay the cost if you want to use it. Azazel’s special boss rule is not optional. It is an
effect that is triggered by using critical hits.

FAQ’s
Q: If the Lich comes up at the end of the line, or I send him there with an ability, do I have to exhaust
an ability for every single monster I defeat before him?

A: Nope, monster abilities are only active when visible, so once Lich is sent to the back or you somehow
find out he is there, no need to worry about his ability.

Q: If Forest Dragon’s ability causes me to defeat a creature and this action reveals another creature,
do I also defeat the newly-visible creature? An on and on into infinity?

A: No, Forest Dragon’s ability is an instant, which means it happens right away and only happens once. It
only affects creatures that are visible in the moment that he becomes visible himself.

Q: If there are no monsters behind the Spirit Fighters in line, what happens?

A: You lucked out! You don’t increase the Spirit Fighters’ health in this case.
Q: Is Hellhound’s health increased by my armor the moment it becomes visible and stays that way? Or
does it change as my armor changes?

A: Hellhound’s health changes as your armor changes.

Q: If a monster’s health is increased or lowered due to an ability or something, does its health stay
that way when I slot it as strength? Or do I go back to the base health for my strength?

A: Use the base health of the monster card when you slot it as strength.

Q: Can I defeat Frost Wyvern if it is not in front if I use an ability instead of strength cards?

A: Nope, nothing can defeat Frost Wyvern unless it is in front position.

Q: Do all monsters behind Ashigaru in line get +2 health? Or just the next one in line?

A: All monsters behind Ashigaru get the extra health.

Q: For front abilities like Pyromancer and Samurai, what happens if they get to front position and then
a monster or character ability sends them backwards in line. Does their ability activate again when
they get to front?

A: No, a given monster’s front ability only triggers once during a wave.

Q: If Myrmidon is in front, can I attack the monster in third position?

A: Nope, no monster behind Myrmidon in line can receive damage from strength or abilities. You could
use an ability to, for example, change a monster’s position, but you could not attack it to inflict damage.

Q: Is the Bone Thief the absolute worst?

A: Yes.

Q: For the Summoner’s ability, which monster is the “last defeated” monster exactly? Would I ever
grab a monster I just slotted as strength?

A: You always take the card from the very back of the game, from the defeated monsters area, for the
Summoner’s ability. You do not take a currently slotted strength card. It may help to think about it this
way: A card is defined by its physical position in the game. The last defeated monster is the very back
monster card in the defeated monsters area (in the very back of the game). Slotted cards are your
strength cards; they are not defeated monsters. But, if you discard a strength card to the back, it is now
considered a defeated monster because it is in the defeated monsters area.

Q: For the Valkyrie’s Take Flight ability, whose abilities do you ignore and for how long?

A: You ignore instant- and front-type abilities of monsters that are visible when you activate Take Flight.

Q: For Valkyrie’s Dive Bomb ability, what does it mean “if played with Take Flight”?

A: If Dive Bomb is activated immediately after Take Flight is activated, you do the second variation of the
ability (8 damage to 2nd and 3rd position monsters). If you do something in between, such as use a
different ability or attack with a strength card, you use the first variation of Dive Bomb (8 damage to
front monster).

Competitive Variant
Griphold Tower is a solo game, but if two people each have their own copy, you can play competitively.
The concept is you are both stuck in the top room of Griphold Tower. There are two entrances into the
room, and monsters are coming in each entrance. You are allies of necessity, and each of you is manning
one of the entrances and dealing with those monsters.

The twist is, though you must deal with the immediate threat of the monsters coming into the room,
you are actually enemies who just want to be fighting each other. So whenever you have an opportunity,
you’ll be directly attacking your opponent rather than monsters.

Setup and gameplay are exactly the same as the solo game. You each set up your own game at the
desired difficulty. You start playing each wave at the same time, but can play at your own pace after that.

There are two changes to the rules for competitive mode, noted below.

1. Special setup rule

After setup of the wave and before players start playing the wave, players total up their starting
strength. Then you compare your total starting strength with your opponent. Whichever player has the
least total starting strength may, if they choose, rotate their lowest strength card before the wave
begins.

2. Attacking your opponent

When you defeat a monster with a strength attack and would be slotting the defeated monster as
strength, you can instead, if you choose, declare out loud that you are attacking your opponent. Your
opponent must stop playing until this attack is resolved. You, the attacker, then apply the damage value
of the monster you just defeated to your opponent (instead of slotting it). Your opponent must exhaust
abilities to take damage equal to that card’s damage value. Your opponent can, however, negate some
or all of that damage by sacrificing their own strength cards. They can use the armor value of one or
more of their strength cards to reduce the amount of damage they sustain. They don’t have to block all
the damage (or any) if they don’t wish to.
Gameplay continues until one player is defeated.