My latest hobby is Dark Souls™: The Board Game from SFG, which is a really good representation of the video game series with simple enough rules. The only rule too complex for beginners is the push rule, that defines what happens if an enemy pushes the player characters…
This rule has multiple outcomes depending wether the enemy pushes the players, pushes the players and damages them, attacks the player with an extra push or leaps on them. Further complicates things if the enemy is a boss or mini-boss.
I’m pretty sure that my team would have survived a few of the boss fights we tried if we understood the rules better. Hopefully next time we go against two Gargoyles back to back the flowcharts I created will help.
Version history
- 18 July 2020 – Version 12
- Updated the Boss push flowchart fixing facing issues
- 03 February 2020 – Added pdf files for download
- 02 February 2020 – Version 11
Card examples
Here are some examples of enemy/behaviour cards that have push effects:
Depending on wether the enemy is a boss or not and the nature of the action it takes (push, attack or leap) choose the proper flowchart below.
A regular enemy starts a push action
A boss or mini-boss starts a push action
A regular enemy starts an attack action with a push
A boss or mini-boss starts an attack action with a push
A boss or mini-boss starts a leap action
Download PDF versions
Credits
A lot of people helped refining the flowcharts. I’m not sure I can list them all, but I’m gonna try:
- Santruic on Discord
- /u/eedden on Reddit
- /u/greema99 on Reddit
- /u/DHZX on Reddit
- /u/Mottis86 on Reddit
- Hugo Sebastián Quinteros Glaves on Facebook
- /u/DamtheMan50 on Reddit
I honestly don’t understand ANY of those ridiculous flow charts. The designers of this game horribly explained the push concept. You need to clearly explain what happens with the number in the shield type of push with movement, and then movement with no number in the shield. Can you fathom just how downright confusing this is???
I agree with you that the push rules were poorly explained in the official rulebook. This is the weakest part of the whole ruleset and it took me 12 iterations to come up with these ridiculous flow charts. I got a lot of input from the community and I’m very thankful for that.
To read the flowcharts, first, you have to read and re-read the official rules a few times. It also helps to watch a few gamplay tutorials on Youtube. After that, decide on which flowchart you need in your gameplay situation based on the attacking enemy (regular/boss) and the push action (push/attack with push/leap).
The number in the shield icon comes into play when the enemy pushes or leaps and the action also has damage. In this case the flowchart asks “Is there damage on the push?”. The number is the amount of damage the enemy deals. You can dodge or decrease the damage with your armour.