How to Play Clank! Catacombs

Last Updated on August 4, 2025 by The Official Game Rules Team

Clank! Catacombs is a deck-building adventure game where players explore shifting underground tunnels in search of treasure while avoiding the dragon’s wrath. Unlike previous Clank! games, the modular board changes with every play-through, adding new twists and strategies. With hidden secrets, dangerous monsters, and endless replayability, Clank! Catacombs offers an exciting challenge for treasure hunters. In this guide, we’ll explain the rules and share tips to help you escape with the most loot!

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How to Play Clank! Catacombs

Objective

In Clank! Catacombs, players take on the roles of daring adventurers exploring a dangerous catacomb to steal valuable artifacts. The goal is to escape the dungeon alive with the most valuable loot, while avoiding the attention of the dragon and the risk of being knocked out.

Components

CLANK! Board and Tiles

1 double-sided starting tile
28 square tiles total: 22 “Depths” tiles and 6 “Safe” tiles
Dragon marker and Dragon bag
24 black Dragon cubes
120 Clank! cubes in four colors (30 cubes per player)
5 white Ghost cubes

Cards and Decks

Reserve cards include: 15 Mercenary, 15 Explore, 12 Secret Tome, and 1 Goblin
Four individual 10-card starting decks for players, each containing:
- 6 Burgle cards
- 2 Stumble cards
- 1 Sidestep card
- 1 Scramble card
Dungeon deck with 100 cards
Token reference sheet and supplemental rule booklet

Market Board and Tokens

Market board with tokens:
- 2 Backpacks
- 2 Blood Amulets
- 3 Burglar’s Kits
- 3 Crowns
- 7 Artifacts
- 11 Major Secrets
- 20 Minor Secrets
- 20 Prisoners
- 3 Monkey Idols
- 4 Mastery tokens
- Various amounts of Gold and 24 Lockpicks

To enhance gameplay, the Dire Wolf Fan Game Room companion app is available for PC, smartphones, and tablets, offering fun variants for CLANK! games.

Entering the Catacombs

CLANK! Catacombs is a standalone deck-building adventure inspired by the original CLANK! gameplay. Each player begins with an identical basic deck, but as the game progresses, players add unique cards, shaping distinct decks and strategies. Mastering deck development is crucial to success.

Players aim to:

Secure an Artifact token and escape by returning to the starting Crypt above the dungeon.
Gather enough points from their Artifact and loot to outscore rivals and claim the title of Greatest Thief in the Realm.

Setup

A. Board and Markers
Place the CLANK! board off to one side. Position the Dragon marker on the Rage Track square matching the number of players.

B. Tile Preparation
Sort the 28 square tiles by back design into two piles. Shuffle the 22 Depths tiles and place them face down as the Bank stack next to the board. Shuffle the 6 remaining tiles; randomly remove two without looking and set aside (these won’t be used). Place the other four on top of the Depths stack.

C. Bank Contents
Add the Gold tokens (in denominations of 1, 5, and 10) and Lockpicks to the Bank (unlimited; substitute as needed). Place the five white Ghost cubes there as well. Put the 24 black Dragon cubes inside the Dragon bag. Arrange the seven Artifacts face-up by ascending value, with the lowest-value Artifact on top. Shuffle the Major Secrets, Minor Secrets, and Prisoners tokens separately and place face-down in the Bank. Place the Market board in the Bank and stack these tokens on it: 2 Backpacks, 2 Blood Amulets, 3 Burglar’s Kits, and 3 Crowns sorted by value (highest on top).

D. Starting Tile and Tokens
Put the starting tile in the center of the play area with either side facing up. Leave space around it for new tiles. Position the 3 Monkey Idols on the Monkey Shrine room. Place one Mastery token per player near the Crypt, returning extras to the box.

E. Cards
Set aside the Reserve cards: Goblin, Mercenary stack, Explore stack, and Secret Tome stack. Shuffle the Dungeon Deck and deal 6 cards face-up to form the Dungeon Row. Replace any cards with a Dragon Attack symbol on their right edge until no such cards remain face-up in the row. Place the remaining Dungeon Deck next to the Dungeon Row, leaving room for a discard pile.

F. Player Setup
Each player selects a color and takes 30 Clank! cubes of that color into a personal supply. Place the pawn of that color on the Crypt space of the starting tile (outside the dungeon).

G. Player Supplies and Decks
Each player takes 3 Lockpicks from the Bank and a 10-card deck (6 Burgle, 2 Stumble, 1 Sidestep, 1 Scramble). Shuffle and draw 5 cards to start.

H. Starting Player
Choose the stealthiest player to go first, or select randomly. Turn order proceeds clockwise. Players place Clank! cubes on the board’s Clank! area according to player order: the first player adds 3 cubes, the second adds 2, the third adds 1, and the fourth none.

Taking Your Turn

At the beginning of each turn, you hold five cards. You must play all cards in any order you prefer before ending your turn. Cards played move to a play area visible to you until the turn ends.

Cards generate resources that allow you to take actions:

Skill: Used to acquire cards and activate devices.
Swords: Required for fighting monsters and sometimes for movement.
Boots: Used to move through dungeon tunnels.

You can accumulate these resources by playing multiple cards and spend them across actions freely. Any unused resources vanish at turn’s end.

Cards can also provide:

Gold: Take from the Bank and add to your supply; worth 1 point each at game end.
Clank!: Add cubes to the Clank! area on the board, representing noise made and risk of dragon attacks.
Card Draws: Draw from your own deck, reshuffling your discard pile into a new deck if needed.

Some cards trigger effects based on tokens or other cards in play; these effects activate regardless of the play order.

Once all cards are played and actions taken, end your turn as described below.

Actions

Acquire a Card:
Use Skill points to buy blue-banner cards from the Dungeon Row. Pay the Skill cost (bottom right corner) and add the card to your discard pile. The Dungeon Row does not refill immediately after a purchase.

You may also buy yellow-banner cards from the limited Reserve piles.

Use a Device:
Devices (purple-banner cards) require Skill to activate. Pay the cost, perform the card’s immediate effect, then discard it to the Dungeon discard pile. Do not refill the Dungeon Row after using a device.

Fight a Monster:
Monsters (red-banner cards) are defeated by spending Swords equal to their cost. When defeated, gain the reward and discard the card to the Dungeon discard pile. The Goblin in the Reserve can be fought repeatedly, granting its reward each time.

Movement:
Spend Boots to move through dungeon tunnels. Some tunnels have special conditions:

A single Boot needed for normal tunnels; tunnels with Footprint icons cost 2 Boots.
Monster icons inflict damage unless you spend Swords to negate each icon.
Locked tunnels require a Lockpick to unlock permanently.
One-way tunnels can only be traveled in the arrow’s direction.

Buy From the Market:
In a Market room, spend 7 Gold per item to buy tokens from the Market Board and add them to your supply. You may buy multiple times and multiple copies.

Take an Artifact:
If in a room with an Artifact, pick it up (only one per player). This raises the Dragon’s rage by moving the Dragon Marker forward on the Rage Track. Afterward, plan your escape back to the Crypt.

Pick a Chest, Library, or Prison:
Spend a Lockpick to open locked features in certain rooms, gaining rewards:

Chest: Random major secret.
Library: Secret Tome card into your discard pile.
Prison: Free two Prisoners to add to your supply.

Discovering New Tiles

The dungeon expands as players move beyond existing tiles. Moving through a tunnel at a tile’s edge with no adjacent tile reveals a new tile drawn from the Bank stack and placed adjacent. Tiles must be placed flat, touching full edges of existing tiles, and may be rotated.

Tunnel icons on the new tile affect your movement and must be accounted for. If you lack Boots or Lockpicks for required icons, rotate the tile differently or use cards/actions to gain needed resources.

When all tiles are used, no further discovery is possible.

Tile Features

Artifacts:
When placing a tile with an Artifact room, place the top Artifact from the stack there, or one below the top if the room has plus icons. If the stack runs out, no Artifact is placed.

Crypt:
Your starting location and exit point for escape.

Crystal Cave:
Entering exhausts you for the turn, preventing further Boot spending except via Teleport.

Haunted Tiles:
Four Depths tiles cause a Ghost cube to be added to the Clank! area immediately when revealed.

Locked Features:
Rooms with locked features can be opened with Lockpicks to gain rewards.

Market:
Market rooms allow you to buy Market items.

Portal:
Some tunnels lead through portals that let you instantly move between portal-connected rooms for a single Boot.

Rewards

Entering certain rooms grants one-time per turn bonuses such as Minor Secrets, Monkey Idols, Gold, or healing.

Wayshrine:
Mark a Wayshrine during your turn by placing a cube from your supply on it. Each marked Wayshrine earns increasing Gold rewards. Cubes placed on Wayshrines are not used for Clank!.

Card Effects

Acquire: Card effect triggers once when bought, not when played later.
Arrive: Effect triggers immediately when card appears in Dungeon Row.
Danger: Increases cubes drawn during Dragon Attacks.
Discard: Cards may be discarded from your hand to avoid effects or gain bonuses.
Teleport: Allows movement ignoring tunnel restrictions and icons, moving between connected rooms instantly.
Trash: Permanently removes a card from your deck.

Ending Your Turn and Dragon Attacks

At turn’s end:

Move played cards to your discard pile and draw 5 new cards.
Refill the Dungeon Row to 6 cards if needed. If not enough cards remain, the game ends with all players knocked out.
If any newly revealed Dungeon Row cards have Dragon Attack symbols, perform a Dragon Attack:

Move all Clank! cubes from the board to the Dragon bag.
Draw cubes equal to the Dragon Marker’s rage level.
Black cubes are discarded; colored cubes cause damage to respective players.
Ghost cubes cause all players to take damage and return to the Clank! area.

If the Dragon bag empties, the game ends immediately.

Health and Damage

Track damage on your health meter using cubes. Damage from Dragon Attacks uses cubes drawn; other damage uses cubes from your supply.

Healing returns cubes from your meter to your supply. If your health meter fills, you are knocked out.

Game End and Scoring

The game ends when all players have escaped or are knocked out.

Escape: Return to Crypt with an Artifact to escape, claim a Mastery token (+20 points), and end your turns.
Knockout: Health meter full results in knockout.

Players without an Artifact or stuck in the Depths score zero.

Scores are calculated by adding Artifact value, Gold, tokens, mastery bonuses, and card points. The highest scorer wins; ties are broken by Artifact value.

Depths

The initial four discovered tiles are safe; the remaining 22 are the Depths, as is part of the starting tile.

Players who have escaped or been knocked out do not take normal turns or suffer further damage but contribute their Clank! cubes to the Dragon bag each turn, triggering forced draws and damage.

Party in the Catacombs (5-6 Player Variant)

To play with 5 or 6 players, integrate four Adventuring Party Artifacts (10, 15, 20, 25 points), excluding the 30-point one, into the Bank stack. Do not add Master Keys but include other Market items.

Use the Adventuring Party components, including extra minor secrets, mastery tokens, Gold, and cards. A side board tracks Dragon rage and additional player health.

Multiple Artifacts may appear in a single room if the tile has plus icons, but players still cannot carry more than one Artifact from the same room unless equipped with a Backpack.

Token Reference Guide

Prisoners

Adventurer: Advances Dragon rage +1; worth 3 points
Barbarian: Gain 2 Swords immediately; worth 2 points
Cleric: Heal 1 damage immediately; worth 2 points
Discount Coupon: One-time 5 Gold discount in Market (not a Prisoner)
Golden Monkey Bot: Counts as Monkey Idol, worth 3 points
Haunted Prisoner: Adds Ghost cube to Clank! area; worth 3 points
Mayor: Worth 5 points with mastery token
Monk: Worth 1 point per marked Wayshrine
Peasant: Worth 2 points
Primatologist: Worth 5 points if you have any Monkey Idol
Prince/Princess: Worth 5 points if you have a Crown
Sorceress: Worth 5 points if you have two or more Secret Tomes
Warrior: Worth 1 point per Prisoner freed, including self

Major Secrets

Catacombs Map: Allows moving backward through one-way tunnels; worth 5 points
Chalice: Worth 7 points (not an Artifact)
Greater Skill Boost: Gain 5 Skill immediately
Greater Treasure: Counts as 5 Gold
Potion of Greater Healing: Heal 2 damage during your turn

Market Items

Backpack: Allows carrying an extra Artifact; worth 5 points
Blood Amulet: Requires 5 damage to buy; heals 2 damage on purchase; worth 7 points
Burglar’s Kit: Grants 2 Lockpicks immediately; worth 2 points
Crown: Worth value shown; take highest available

Minor Secrets