OBJECTIVE OF ARCADIA QUEST: Complete three quests before any rival guild does, with at least one requiring you to defeat a game-controlled enemy. The guild that wins the final scenario claims Arcadia.
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2 to 4
MATERIALS: 37 hero and monster figures, 185 upgrade and death curse cards, 54 monster and hero cards, 21 quest cards, 300+ tokens, 9 double-sided game tiles, 14 custom dice, 1 campaign book, 1 campaign sheet pad
TYPE OF GAME: Campaign miniatures board game
AUDIENCE: 13+
OVERVIEW OF ARCADIA QUEST
Arcadia Quest was published in 2014 by CMON, designed by Eric M. Lang, Thiago Aranha, Guilherme Goulart, and Fred Perret. The vampire lord Fang has seized control of the city of Arcadia. Each player leads a rival guild of three heroes, competing against the other players and the monsters blocking their path.
This arcadia board game fits a category all its own. Guilds fight each other for quest completion while simultaneously dealing with game-controlled monsters swarming the board. Killing an enemy hero earns your guild coins. So does defeating monsters. That double layer of competition shapes every decision at the table.
No two campaigns follow the same path. Six of eleven available scenarios are played per run. The route your guild takes can change completely with each new campaign.
GUILD SETUP
Choosing your three heroes is the most consequential decision you make before play begins. Four guilds are available: Orange (Lion), Blue (Eagle), Red (Fox), and Green (Panda). Each player picks one, receives the matching guild dashboard, and selects three heroes from the shared pool.
Each Arcadia Quest heroes card lists four traits. Defense tells you how many white dice that hero rolls to block incoming hits. Life is the number of wounds needed to kill them. Natural Ability is a permanent passive effect unique to that hero, always in play.
Those three heroes are locked for the entire campaign. Swapping heroes between scenarios is not allowed. Pick with the full campaign in mind.
Before the first scenario, each guild receives five starting upgrade cards: a Rusty Blade, Parrying Blade, Slingshot, Life Drain, and Nova Bolt. Distribute those across your three heroes however you choose. Each hero holds a maximum of four cards in their personal inventory slot.
Experienced groups can replace free selection with a draft. Shuffle all hero cards and deal them out as evenly as possible. Each player secretly picks one hero before passing the remaining cards left. Repeat until each player has three heroes. This stops anyone taking a known-dominant combination unchallenged.
HOW DOES THE CAMPAIGN WORK?
The Arcadia Quest board game campaign runs through three stages, each gating access to the next.
Outer Circle covers the outer districts of Arcadia. Three of the six available scenarios here must be completed before players can advance inward.
Inner Circle is the protected citadel at the city’s heart. Two of the four inner scenarios must be cleared before the final stage becomes available.
Final Showdown takes place at the Temple of Dawning Twilight. Every campaign ends here regardless of the route taken.
The winner of each scenario chooses which scenario comes next, within the options available at that stage. First-time players are recommended to start with the District of Hammers scenario. The guild that wins the Final Showdown wins the entire campaign.
HOW DOES A TURN WORK?
On your turn, you choose between two options: activate one hero, or rest your entire guild.
Activating a hero lets that hero take both movement and one attack, in either order. All heroes have 3 movement points per activation. Each point lets the hero move one space, use a portal to teleport to a matching portal elsewhere on the board, or open or close a door. Diagonal movement is not permitted. A space occupied by two enemies is blocked entirely and cannot be entered.
Resting your guild skips combat and movement. In return, all exhausted cards refresh, any dead heroes can be resurrected at their guild’s starting area or adjacent to a living ally, and equipment can be redistributed freely among the three heroes. Death Curse cards cannot be moved during a rest.
Turn order runs clockwise. It continues until one guild fulfills its winning conditions for the scenario.
HOW DOES COMBAT WORK IN ARCADIA QUEST?
Heroes attack by selecting one unexhausted card from their personal inventory. Two attack types exist: Melee requires the target to occupy a directly adjacent, non-diagonal space. Ranged can reach any target on the board provided a clear line of sight connects the attacker to the target.
After selecting the card, exhaust it by placing a guild token on top. An exhausted card cannot be reused until the hero rests or a refreshing potion removes the exhaustion.
Roll black attack dice equal to the card’s listed value. The defender rolls white defense dice equal to their defense stat. Each defense success cancels one hit. Remaining hits become wounds, tracked on the hero card or beside the monster figure. A CRIT on any die counts as a success and immediately triggers one extra die roll.
When wounds reach a character’s life total, that character is killed. A killed monster goes to the spawn tile. A killed hero drops any exploration tokens onto the space they occupied, then sits on their hero card until resurrected.
Kills pay out immediately. Monster kills pay the coin value listed on that monster’s card. Killing an enemy hero earns your guild one coin. When your own hero is killed by a monster, every other guild receives one coin each.
HOW DO MONSTERS BEHAVE?
No monster takes an active turn. They react to hero actions instead. Two separate reactions exist.
Guard Reaction fires when a hero moves away from an adjacent monster, or attacks anyone other than a monster adjacent to them. That monster strikes the active hero before the move executes or after the attack resolves.
Payback Reaction fires when a hero attacks a monster directly. Even if the attack deals zero hits, the targeted monster activates and may move up to its listed movement value before striking back. Dealing wounds equal to or above a monster’s Overkill rating skips the Payback Reaction entirely and removes the monster immediately.
Monsters also scale with the campaign. Each monster card has a level, and the card in use should match the current scenario number. A monster in the third scenario uses its Level 3 card, which carries higher stats than the Level 1 version used at the start.
HOW DO QUESTS AND WINNING WORK?
Two types of quest card appear in every scenario. Player vs. Player quests, shortened to PvP, require killing specific enemy heroes. Player vs. Environment quests, shortened to PvE, cover scenario objectives such as defeating a named monster or completing a map-specific task.
Winning in a three or four-player game requires three completed quests. At least one of those three must be a PvE quest. Two-player games need only two. The first guild to meet the requirement ends the scenario immediately.
The first guild to mark any given quest earns a first-completion bonus of one coin. Later guilds completing the same quest still mark it, but receive no coin. Some quests come with reward cards attached. Completing the quest claims the card, which slots directly into a hero’s inventory.
WHAT HAPPENS IN THE UPGRADE PHASE?
Coins accumulated during a scenario are spent in the upgrade phase, which runs between every scenario. The upgrade draft follows a card-passing structure. Shuffle the level-appropriate upgrade deck and deal six cards to each player. Keep two, then pass the remaining four to the player on your left. Repeat once more. Each player then buys up to three cards from their final six, using guild coins. One unspent coin may carry into the next scenario. Any beyond that return to the supply.
Any hero who died during the scenario may draw Death Curse cards. More deaths mean more cards drawn, but only the card with the highest value is kept. The curse persists through the next scenario, occupying an inventory slot or sitting beside the hero card depending on its specific effect. A Healing Potion token is the only way to clear one before the following upgrade phase.
HOW DO EXPLORATION TOKENS WORK?
Scattered across the board at scenario setup, tokens sit face down or face up as the scenario instructs. Collection is automatic: any hero standing in a token’s space claims it instantly, provided no enemies share that space. The token’s effect activates immediately.
| Token | Effect |
|---|---|
| Healing Potion | Discard to restore full life and remove any Death Curse cards |
| Refreshing Potion | Discard to unexhaust all of that hero’s cards instantly |
| Extra Turn Potion | Discard at end of turn to immediately take a second full turn |
| Treasure Chest | Hold to scenario end; pays its printed coin value to your guild |
| Trap | Inflicts one automatic wound on the collecting hero |
Quest tokens follow the same collection rules but cannot be traded between heroes. A killed hero’s quest tokens can be claimed by the enemy hero who landed the killing blow.
WHAT DOES ARCADIA QUEST RIDERS ADD TO THE GAME?
Arcadia Quest Riders is a campaign expansion compatible with both the base game and Arcadia Quest: Inferno. It adds mounts: large rideable figures that a single hero can board and take into battle.
A mounted hero and their beast count as one combined character for most rules. The pair moves together and absorbs hits together. Each mount has a Natural Ability that triggers when the rider activates. Mounts can also shove other characters out of adjacent spaces. Healing and refreshing potions can be applied to either the hero or the mount.
The expansion includes nine new scenarios forming a fresh linear campaign. Players face a new major villain, Malkhor the Great Hunter, and his Jacklols. Three alternate scenarios connect Riders content with the Beyond the Grave and Pets expansions. Two additional heroes become available for guild recruitment.
- 23 SUPER FUN 4TH OF JULY GAMES - July 2, 2026
- 15 Hilarious 4th of July Drinking Games - July 2, 2026
- 30 Summer Camp Games - July 2, 2026