Playing spectrum of Machina Arcana — Machina Arcana
Machina Arcana
Technical guide

Playing spectrum of Machina Arcana

Let’s journey through the spectrum of understanding the game, using one inconspicuous item — the Circular saw — as our example. The same humble card, read at ten levels of mastery.

Rules clarification · ~6 min read

The spectrum

Take this inconspicuous Circular saw. Each level below is the new realization that level of understanding unlocks — the same card, read ever more deeply.

The Circular saw item card
Circular saw — one card, ten levels of play.
  1. Spend 2 stamina to attack a melee target with 2 high attack dice.
  2. After that attack is resolved, whether it hits or misses, reduce the target’s armor by 1 until the start of the next Explorer phase.
  3. To track that lasting effect, place an explorer marker on top of the card.
  4. While the card has its marker, you can remove it: this ends the armor reduction, but lets you attack any adjacent unit.
  5. You can spend essence — on either the first or the second ability — to increase that attack roll.
  6. With 6 stamina you can technically make six attacks: 2 stamina for the first ability, remove the marker to attack, and repeat the cycle three times in total.
  7. The second ability needs no stamina, so you can use it outside your turn — remove the marker the moment a monster moves adjacent, and strike before it hits you.
  8. You can even use it on an ethereal monster, since you aren’t technically targeting a unit.
  9. If only an ethereal monster is present, attack yourself, a barrel, or another explorer just to get the marker onto the card.
  10. You can even attack any adjacent map space, passable or not: you won’t hit anything, but the marker is still placed. If you use the second ability on another explorer’s turn, both you and that explorer can spend essence to increase the roll: you because it is your attack roll, and they because it happened on their turn.

FAQ

Common mistake

The “Reduce armor by 1…” lasting effect applies to the target after the attack is resolved — so that same attack gets no immediate benefit from it. A later attack in the same round does benefit, since the lasting effect is active by then.

Note

If you remove the marker to use the second ability, the target’s armor is no longer weakened.

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