Goal

Every player gets their own anchor seat in each slot. You control a slot only when your live XenodeX anchor is active there and no rival has a live anchor in the same slot. If two or more players have live anchors in one slot, it is contested: every side present can earn income, but no one has clean control.

Convergence: win immediately at Results by cleanly controlling every slot on the board at once while no rival holds an active anchor anywhere. The board scales with the player count (see Setup), so the number of slots you must hold scales with it.

Key Terms

XenodeX / XDX: an anchor card. It plugs into your side of a slot, emits CDX while active, can be upgraded, can be damaged, and can be captured if left unsupported.

Character: a fighting unit with STR, BP, and abilities. Characters do not control slots by themselves; they defend anchors, attack rival forces, and capture unsupported rival anchors.

CDX: your resource. Spend it to buy characters and XenodeX, upgrade anchors, and heal. Abilities and transmissions are free. Active anchors are your income.

Clean Control: your active XDX is in the slot and no rival has a live anchor there.

Contested: two or more players have active XDX anchors in the same slot. Each emits at half value and no one proves or cleanly controls that slot.

Proven: a cleanly controlled slot you held from the start of the cycle through Results. Proven slots matter for cycle-limit scoring and some effects.

Unsupported: an anchor with no living friendly character defending it in that battle slot. Unsupported rival anchors can be captured.

Setup

Choose a mode — Solo (vs CPU), Hot Seat (pass-and-play on one screen), or Online — and a count of 2, 3, or 4 players. Then pick your deck; the preview shows its full roster, its transmissions, and its lore. Each player starts with 200 CDX, a 20-character deck, and a pool of XenodeX anchors. At 2–3 players the board is five shared slots, S1–S5; at 4 players it tightens to three, S2–S4. Units wait in your staging rows until you commit them during Summon & Deploy.

Seats & Turn Order

Seats are numbered P1–P4 and each carries a name (e.g. P2 · Blorptenna) so you always know who is who. One seat is the cycle's lead; the lead rotates by one seat each cycle. Turn order runs clockwise from the lead — both when committing and in battle — so who moves first shifts every cycle.

The Cycle — What To Do, In Order

Income & Emission

Every player receives +12 base CDX each cycle, plus emission from their active anchors. Climbing anchor levels is the main way to accelerate your economy.

Anchor Level	Solo Emission	Contested Emission	BP / DEF
Lv0	+6	+3	25 / 4
Lv1	+10	+5	35 / 5
Lv2	+14	+7	50 / 6
Lv3	+18	+9	65 / 7
Lv4	+22	+11	80 / 8

Summon

During Summon, spend CDX to buy units into your staging rows. Characters provide combat power and defense. XenodeX anchors provide economy and slot control. Buying anchors without defenders leaves your network easy to capture; buying only characters gives you force but no lasting control.

Deploy

During Deploy, assign staged units to CodeX slots. An escorted XDX can plug into your anchor seat even if a rival already has an active anchor there. When two or more anchors share a slot it becomes contested and every side present emits at half value.

A slot cannot be controlled by characters alone. To control a slot, your active XDX must be connected there and no rival may have a live anchor in it.

XenodeX Anchors & Upgrades

A fresh anchor costs 10 CDX. Upgrading is cheap and powerful — it raises BP, DEF, and emission and unlocks a slot-wide aura that buffs your defenders in that slot (auras stack as you climb, and show as icons on the anchor).

Upgrade cost: Lv0→1 6 · 1→2 12 · 2→3 20 · 3→4 30 CDX.

Level	Slot Aura — to your defenders
Lv1	🛡 Bulwark — +2 DEF
Lv2	💚 Regen — +4 BP every cycle
Lv3	⚔ Overcharge — +3 STR
Lv4	👥 Aegis — attackers take 3 back

Healing & Sustain

There is no free healing — damage carries from cycle to cycle. To keep a unit alive you either spend CDX to mend it in Recovery, or station it behind a Rare (Lv2+) anchor, whose 💚 Regen aura heals your slot defenders every cycle. Upgrading an anchor is therefore a real defensive investment, not just economy.

Capture

If a rival's anchor has no living friendly character defending it, it is unsupported. A character may spend its action to capture an unsupported rival anchor. Capturing destroys that XDX; it does not join your side and does not return to its owner's pool.

Capture removes only that anchor. If your own live XDX remains in the slot (and no other rival holds one), you now have clean control. If you do not have your own XDX there, the seat is cleared but the slot is not yours.

Battle

A single slot can be contested by up to four sides at once. Turns run clockwise from the lead; on your turn, select one of your available characters, choose any rival's unit as a target, and strike. Damage is based on STR plus the combat roll, with abilities and TX effects modifying the result. Each character normally strikes once per cycle in each battle.

You can target any rival's characters or their vulnerable anchors. Battles are not just about clearing bodies: you may attack an anchor to break its level, disable its income, or set up a capture. A slot resolves when only one side still has forces there; if two or more sides remain after all available strikes are spent, it becomes a siege and continues next cycle.

Abilities

Characters have abilities that create tactical choices beyond rolling damage. Abilities can heal, deny attacks, force targeting, strike multiple units, protect anchors, move units, or manipulate battle timing. In general, abilities are limited by cycle or battle timing; the button state in battle shows what is currently available.

Transmissions (TX)

Transmissions are your signal warfare, and they are free to play. Each cycle you draw two, play one, discard one. Every deck broadcasts its own transmissions — a shared core (heal, income, buffs) plus faction signatures: the Synth hack and starve economies, the Greys command combat, the Others build and sustain.

A targeted transmission that hits a single rival lets you pick which one; a slot-wide transmission hits every rival present in the chosen slot at once. Your own units are never caught in it unless a card explicitly says so.

Incoming — the Echoes: the shared broadcast at the top of each cycle is the Echoes meddling in the signal. It hits every player (an emission surge, a field event, a redirect) and is not yours to choose — a red pulse warns you when one fires.

Proving Slots

A slot becomes proven only when you cleanly controlled it at the start of the cycle and still cleanly control it with an active anchor at Results. Contested slots do not prove for anyone.

Winning

Immediate win (Convergence): cleanly control every slot on the board at once while no rival holds an active anchor anywhere — 5 slots at 2–3 players, 3 slots (S2–S4) at 4 players.

Cycle-limit win: if no one reaches convergence by the cycle limit, the player with the most proven slots wins. If it's a tie for the lead, the game is a draw unless you choose to play on.

Ancients

Ancients are optional neutral threats. When enabled, they can appear during the game and interfere with battles. Leave them off for the cleanest competitive test, or turn them on for a more chaotic mode.