Themeborne | Escape The Dark Sector | Board Game | 1 - 4 Players | Ages 14+ | 45 Minutes Playing Time

Product Information

When Close Combat begins, all members of the crew choose one action each and then execute them simultaneously. Only one member of the crew may take this action in a single round. - Place your crew die onto the activate drone tactical action card. This action involves popping out of cover to exchange fire with the enemy – you will SHOOT, hoping to inflict wounds and remove chapter dice, and you will be shot at, risking a loss of HP. For a crewmember to take this action, they must have a ranged weapon loaded with at least enough ammo to match the lowest Fire Rate of that weapon (see example below).

Once a combat has begun, it only ends when all enemies involved are defeated, or when a member of the crew is killed. Unlike Ranged Combat, you do not need a Close Combat weapon to take the FIGHT action – you are highly a trained crew and will use your bare hands if necessary! Members of the crew are free to exchange items between chapters, but must ensure that before the next chapter card is turned no member of the crew has more than four slots’ worth of items in their inventory.

Review Summary

The removal of the rest action is both a blessing and a curse. Resting in Dark Castle presented players with an easily exploitable mechanic that caused harder combat encounters to drag on until players either won, or got so bored that they accepted defeat. Removing resting in favour of the medical drone - which can only be used once per chapter and heals a single health point - makes taking damage feel like a more significant threat and forces players to play more carefully and strategically. It also fits in better with the world of Dark Sector as being an incredibly mean and miserable place that gleefully revels in the player characters’ suffering. This adorable and gooey alien will help you, should you come across it in your playthrough. After all player actions are fully resolved, and after resolving return fire from the enemy, if all chapter dice have been removed the enemy has been defeated and combat ends.

Some enemies have a Combat Special, a special ability or effect which is explained in full on the chapter card. These often break the standard rules in a devious way, making for fearsome opponents. Keep Combat Specials in mind while fighting – they are easy to forget in the heat of battle! Ending Combat Escape the Dark Sector is a simple sci-fi adventure game with a focus on atmosphere, storytelling, and player cooperation. It takes about 2 minutes to set up, lasts around 45 minutes, and no two games are ever the same. The new boss is as dangerous as the others and it is always welcome to have another random option to face at the end of the game. Araknochron is a horrifying time travelling spider cyborg who uses the rift die to add random negative effects to your crew members at the start of combat. These are all powerful and potentially deadly effects and the potential to wipe a party at the start of the encounter without any prevention is possible so he is definitely one of the harder bosses to face.

You may take one item from the inventory of one other crewmember. That crewmember may still perform one action this round, so long as the action does not involve use of the item being taken.