Hack Back Rules

Get one of your Heroes to 0 VC or lower while keeping at least one Hero in play. Heroes reaching 40 VC or higher are eliminated.

Hack Back supports two or more individual players.

Choose one deck format:

- Individual decks: Each player uses a separate deck of 20–40 cards.

- Shared deck: All players use one deck of 35–70 cards.

There is no hand-size limit. Discard piles are never reshuffled into a deck.

1. Shuffle the applicable decks.

2. Each player draws five cards. With a shared deck, deal one card per player in rotation until everyone has five.

3. Each player privately chooses one card from their hand and places it face down as their Hero.

4. Reveal all Heroes together. Newly placed Heroes start at their printed VC.

5. The player whose Hero has the lowest printed VC goes first. Play then proceeds clockwise.

If the lowest printed VC is tied: Only the tied players remove their selected Heroes from play and privately choose replacements from their remaining hands. Reveal the replacements and compare all opening Heroes again. Untied players keep their Heroes.

Repeat until there is a sole lowest-VC Hero. If a player exhausts their hand through tied selections, they draw up to five cards from the applicable deck and continue. If fewer than five remain, draw what is available.

A player who cannot supply a Hero loses. If nobody can supply a Hero, everyone loses. Heroes removed during opening ties remain removed from play.

Take two actions, resolving the first completely before choosing the second. Choose from:

Action: Draw; What happens: Take the top card from your individual deck or the shared deck into your hand. Unavailable when that deck is empty.

Action: Play; What happens: Choose a card from your hand, reveal it, resolve its instructions, then discard it. Unavailable when your hand is empty.

Action: Activate Hero; What happens: Choose one Hero you control, resolve its activation instructions, then increase its VC by 2.

Actions may repeat. You may activate the same Hero twice unless its card text forbids it.

Activating one Hero uses one action, regardless of how many Heroes you control. Either action may activate any Hero you currently control, including one placed during your first action.

Resolve all mandatory instructions on played cards and activated Heroes. A played card is not a Hero and cannot be targeted.

Only Heroes in play are available as targets, subject to card instructions.

- Attack: May target any Hero, including your own.

- Defend: Must target a friendly Hero.

- Defend Ally: Must target a friendly Hero other than the activating Hero. Another Hero you control is eligible.

- When a card played from hand uses Defend Ally, any friendly Hero is eligible because the played card is not a Hero.

In individual play, your friendly Heroes are the Heroes you control.

An instruction without a legal target has no effect. Continue resolving the remaining instructions.

When a Hero’s activation grants you a Victory Point, you may instead place one card from your hand into play as an additional Hero.

Newly placed Heroes start at their printed VC. If you decline the replacement or have no card to place, the Victory Point has no effect.

Controlling additional Heroes carries no penalty and does not increase your two-action allowance.

Heroes remain in play between turns. Their VC changes, counters, and status effects persist unless card text ends an effect.

After both actions fully resolve, including the +2 VC for each Hero activation:

1. Eliminate Heroes: Discard every Hero at 40 VC or higher.

2. Eliminate players: A player with no Heroes remaining loses. Skip eliminated players in turn order.

3. Check for a VC winner: Among surviving Heroes at 0 VC or lower, the controller of the lowest-VC Hero wins. If opposing players share that lowest VC, the game is a tie.

4. Check for the last player: If only one player remains, that player wins.

Crossing a threshold during the first action does not end the game or eliminate a Hero. The second action can change the outcome.

For example:

- Heroes at 40 and 0: Discard the 40-VC Hero; the remaining 0-VC Hero can win.

- Heroes at 40 and 10: Discard the 40-VC Hero; continue playing with the 10-VC Hero.

- Opposing Heroes at −3 and −1: The controller of the −3-VC Hero wins.

- Opposing Heroes both at −3: The game is a tie.