Nemesis Retaliation

What is the room effect of the Drilling Station?

Conclusion: The Drilling Room's room effect is described in the rulebook as only one thing—it allows you to drill out new corridors. It is one of the fixed rooms in Section A (the entrance area).

Information That Can Be Confirmed
- The Drilling Room is a fixed room in Section A; it exists from the start and is not a random "?" room.
- The room effect is resolved by using the room: using the room is a basic action that costs 2 action cards, and its effect is carried out during resolution.
- The text of the room effect is printed directly on the room tile, labeled as "Effect / Brief description of the effect when using the room."
- General restriction: If there is a Malfunction marker on the room, the room's room action is unavailable and cannot be performed in any way—though this does not affect the item icons inside the room.
- The room can accommodate standard markers such as fireproof markers; these are general room rules, not specific to the Drilling Room.

Content Not Found in the Rulebook Text
- The specific procedure for drilling new corridors (which direction to drill, whether dice are rolled, what prerequisites are required).
- The cost of drilling (whether it requires additional action cards, items, ammunition, or advancing the time track).
- The limitations and exceptions to drilling (e.g., whether you can drill beyond facility boundaries, connect to existing rooms, or drill when there are alien/fire/Malfunction markers present).
- Whether the Drilling Room has special icon descriptions like "cannot place safety markers" or "cannot place Malfunction markers"—these are not mentioned in the rulebook.

The rulebook states that detailed effects for all rooms are listed on the accompanying "Rooms Help sheet," but this help sheet is not included in the currently available rule text. Therefore, the complete, item-by-item description of the Drilling Room's effects cannot be found in the rulebook itself, and we can only confirm the single sentence outlined above.

This information is for reference only; in case of any conflicts, please refer to the official manual and consult experienced players.

Detailed explanation of the rules for fighting against the opposite sex?

General Rules: What Exactly Is the Battle to the End?

Characters can fight Xenos in three ways: Shooting (targeting Xenos in the same room), Burst Fire (attacking groups of Xenos in adjacent corridors), and as a last resort, Melee Attack. Regardless of the method used, the outcome of combat is always "assigning Hits to the Xenos."

How these Hits take effect depends on whether the Xenos is in a corridor or in a room:

• Adult Xenos in a corridor: Each Hit directly kills 1 Xenos (removing it from the map and returning it to the Xenos pool).
• Adult Xenos in a room: Each Hit simply adds 1 "Wound" — placing 1 generic marker next to that Xenos' model base. A Xenos in a room must accumulate enough Hits before it dies.

Weapon Rules: Almost all combat in the game is conducted using weapons. Once you choose a weapon for an action, all its effects and modifiers must be applied (unless otherwise specified); any additional effects triggered by specific outcomes are listed on the weapon card and resolved separately after standard scoring.

Weapons Are Heavy Items: Ranged weapons must be placed in the Hand slot to perform Shooting or Burst Fire; Melee Attacks can use either ranged or melee weapons, and you can even perform them without a weapon at all (though melee weapons are far more effective).

Impact of Fault Markers: Once a heavy item carries a Fault Marker, it becomes completely unusable—it cannot be used for actions, nor can it be used for Shooting or Burst Fire—and is treated as having no text effects or icons (though tactical equipment markers on it remain usable).

Important Limitation: Characters cannot directly attack other characters (human implants prevent such violence). However, collateral effects during actions may still impact others.

I. Shooting (Fire a Shot in a Room)

Conditions: You may only shoot Xenos in the same room as the character, and you must have a usable, fully loaded ranged weapon.

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What is the purpose of the noise marker?

Introduction to the Basic Rules of "Nemesis Retaliation"

Game Overview

This game is a semi-cooperative game, but not a cooperative one: each character ultimately fights for their own goals. The facility is divided into three sections—A, B, and C—each connected by rooms and adjacent corridors. Characters can only be placed in rooms, while intruders (which are synonymous with Primebloods in this game) can move freely in both rooms and corridors. The facility also features various systems, including life-support systems, self-destruct protocols, anti-aircraft defenses, cryo-sleep chambers, and escape shuttles.

Game Objective

Each player must achieve one of their two starting objectives while staying alive and eventually finding a safe haven—for example, escaping the facility or entering cryo-sleep.

Core Rules

Rounds and Phases: The game consists of a series of rounds, each divided into four fixed phases: Player Phase → Intruder Phase → Event Phase → Cleanup Phase.

Actions During Your Turn: On your turn, you may perform two actions. Choose from the list on your character board and pay the corresponding cost by discarding the required number of action cards (0, 1, or 2). You can repeat the same action multiple times within a single turn. If you cannot perform any other actions, you must choose "Pass"—note that "Pass" itself counts as an action, and having an empty hand does not automatically trigger a pass. Most actions can be performed even in rooms occupied by intruders, but actions marked "Not In Combat" can only be used outside combat situations (a character is considered in combat if they share a room with at least one intruder).

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Are there any recommended actions and gameplay strategies?

Conclusion first: The Nemesis Retaliation rulebook does not include a dedicated "Strategy/Playstyle" section, so there is no official "recommended action checklist." The only explicit recommendations in the rulebook are two; all other content related to "approaches" can only be inferred from the rules themselves—below, I'll separate these two categories, and for anything not explicitly stated in the original text, I'll provide direct clarification.

I. Explicit Recommendations in the Rulebook

1. Choose Tactical Equipment on First Play: When selecting 4 tactical equipment tokens, the rulebook advises, "On your first game, take one of each type."
2. Difficulty Settings: The rulebook suggests, "Start with the standard setup," and if you wish to adjust the difficulty, you can increase or decrease the number of Mission Task cards during the setup phase. Note: If the required number of resource markers exceeds the starting number of players, you may only receive resources up to the number of players.

These are the only explicit "recommendations" found in the rulebook.

II. Rules-Based Decision Points (Based on the Text but Without Direct Strategy Advice)

Each of the following points has corresponding provisions in the rulebook, yet the rulebook itself does not specify "how you should play"—you must make your own judgments:

On Timing of Objective Selection
- Each player may select only one objective per round—either a private objective or a mission objective—and once chosen, that card cannot be changed and must be completed before the end of the game.
- Selecting an objective advances your position on the "objective selection track": the first player draws 3 action cards, the second and third draw 2, and the fourth and fifth draw only 1. In other words, the earlier you choose, the greater the benefit from action cards—but the sooner your objective becomes locked.
- Choosing an objective does not count as an action; it can occur before or after your two actions, but it cannot be inserted mid‑action.

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What's the difference between shooting and rapid fire?

Conclusion: In "Nemesis Retaliation," Shooting and Bursting are two distinct combat actions—they target different locations, resolve hits differently, and consume ammunition in different ways. Shooting targets the same room, results in a single hit, and typically does not consume ammunition; Bursting targets adjacent corridors, always consumes 1 round of ammunition, but can deliver multiple hits in a single turn.

Shooting
- Target Location: You may only shoot aliens within the same room as yourself.
- Prerequisite: You must hold a ranged weapon that is free of malfunction markers and loaded with at least 1 round of ammunition (it does not have to be fully loaded).
- Resolution Sequence:
1. Deal 1 hit to the targeted alien (placing 1 generic marker next to its base);
2. Roll the Shooting die to determine if it dies:
- Critical Hit: The alien dies and is returned to the Alien Pool;
- Normal Hit (2/3/4/5): If the rolled number is less than or equal to the alien's current hit count, it dies; otherwise, damage continues to accumulate;
- "You Wasted Too Many Bullets" side: Spend 1 round of ammunition.
- Ammunition: Aside from this dice roll, Shooting does not consume ammunition, effectively treating advanced equipment and negligible single-shot losses as irrelevant.

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What action should you take when moving a regular unit to an unknown room?

Conclusion

When a regular move ("Make a Move," costing 1 action card) takes you through an Unexplored Corridor into an unfound room, instead of the usual "move to a discovered room + roll the noise die" sequence, you must instead resolve the Exploration Sequence. Any character traversing an unexplored corridor is required to resolve the Exploration Sequence.

The first two steps of the movement sequence proceed as normal: first, choose a direction (select an adjacent corridor), then resolve any opportunistic attacks (if there are aliens in the same room and/or along that corridor, resolve alien attacks one by one starting with the largest, up to a maximum of three). At the "resolve movement effects" step, since this involves entering an unexplored corridor, you switch to resolving the Exploration Sequence.

Specific steps of the Exploration Sequence:

1. Draw an exploration card and orient it: Draw 1 exploration card and place it in the empty room space at the end of the unexplored corridor. The card must align with the map's orientation—note that the North icon on the card corresponds to the top-left corner of the map. The room depicted on the card may not necessarily be the corridor the character just passed through; its purpose is to indicate where the new corridor will be placed.

2. Set up the room: Look at the room type listed at the top of the card ("A," "B," "C," or "?"), randomly draw a room of that type, and place it face-up in the empty space at the exit of the corridor you just traversed. If rooms of that type have already been used up, instead randomly place a "?" room.

3. Set up the corridor: Around the newly placed room, randomly add one corridor to each position indicated on the card (face-up). Do not place corridors in locations where corridors already exist. When a corridor has a door slot, orient the slot toward the newly explored room. Two exceptions:
   - Corridors cannot extend beyond the facility boundary—do not place corridors leading outside the boundary.
   - Corridors cannot connect to rooms that have already been placed—do not place corridors leading to occupied rooms.

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But did someone, after the reactor was shut down and the hibernation pods remained inactive, somehow reactivate the hibernation pods via Life Support System C and then escape?

Conclusion: The gameplay you encountered actually hinges on a gray area in the rulebook—according to the text itself, only three things are explicitly shut down when the reactor is powered off; the cryo-chamber isn't on that list. And whether "Life Support Control C can still be used to open the cryo-chamber after power is cut" remains unclear in the rules.

Let's first clarify what's explicitly stated in the original text. The effects of a complete reactor shutdown are clearly listed as follows:

1. Shut down all life support control systems and prevent them from being restarted;
2. Shut down the self-destruct sequence and prevent it from being reactivated;
3. Shut down the anti-aircraft defense system and prevent it from being reactivated.

Meanwhile, the cryo-chamber is set up as an independent marker placed separately from the three life support system markers, with its own Active side once activated. In other words, the cryo-chamber isn't part of the "life support control systems" category and therefore wasn't included in the shutdown list.

Now consider how to activate the cryo-chamber: the text specifies that it can be opened in the Life Support Control "C" room. What gets shut down by the power cut is the "life support control system," while "C" refers to a "room"—two distinct terms in the original text. The rulebook contains no statement indicating that the "C room" can no longer be used to open the cryo-chamber after the power is cut.

So here's an honest answer:

• If we interpret "the power cut has sealed off all functions of Room C," then indeed the cryo-chamber cannot be opened afterward—but this is an inference, not explicitly stated in the rules.
• If, instead, we understand that the power cut only disables the three items—life support, self-destruction, and anti-aircraft defense—then the text doesn't explicitly forbid using Room C to open the cryo-chamber. Thus, that player's action, at the level of the original text, is neither explicitly permitted nor explicitly prohibited.

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When will the weapon malfunction?

Conclusion

Shooting and rolling dice themselves do not cause weapon malfunctions. According to the rulebook, the explicit sources for placing a malfunction marker on a weapon are "player choice" and "game effects," not the natural consequence of a successful shot.

Explicitly Stated Sources

1. "Prevention" during an alien counterattack after a melee attack—this is the only source explicitly stated as being placed "on your weapon."
At the final step of resolving a melee attack: if the targeted alien does not die, it will counterattack. At this point, you may choose to place 1 malfunction marker on any one of your weapons to prevent that alien attack; otherwise, the alien attack proceeds as normal. In other words, this is your own decision to "trade weapon damage for avoiding a hit."
Note: If the weapon already has a malfunction marker, adding another one will directly destroy the weapon, forcing you to discard it.

2. Event Card Effects (Event Phase)
Event cards may include effects that allow you to place malfunction markers. If the designated location already contains a similar marker (for example, trying to place one in a room with an existing malfunction marker), that effect is simply ignored, and the rest of the card's content continues to resolve.

3. Various Other Game Effects
The rulebook states that malfunction markers "can be placed on multiple components" and that "various game effects may put malfunction markers on them" (such as robots). These specific cases are determined by the corresponding card or action effects; the rulebook does not provide a complete list, so I cannot enumerate all possible sources for you.

Related Boundaries and Exceptions

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What is the difference between cautious movement and normal movement?

Conclusion: Both are "Moves," and they follow the same movement procedure in full; the only differences are two points—different action card costs, and that a cautious move leaves one Secure token in the room you arrive at.

Similarities

Whether it's a normal move or a cautious move, as a character move, both are resolved according to the same movement process:

1. Choose a Direction—select an adjacent corridor to pass through.
2. Resolve Opportunity Attacks—if there are intruders in the same room and/or in the corridor you're passing through, starting with the largest-sized intruder, resolve one intruder attack for each such intruder (up to a maximum of three).
3. Move and Perform a Noise Check—move into an already explored room; then you must perform a noise check (this is mandatory after moving, even if you enter a room containing characters and/or intruders).
4. If you pass through an unexplored corridor and enter an undiscovered room, switch instead to resolving the Exploration Sequence.

Additionally, both cautious moves and regular moves require paying action cards and consume one of your two actions per round.

Differences

1. Cost
- Regular Move (Make a Move): Discard one action card.
- Cautious Move (Make a Move Cautiously): Discard two action cards.

2. Effect
- Regular Move: Simply moves.
- Cautious Move: While moving, place one Secure token in the room you arrive at. (The "Move & Reinforce Reminder" in the Exploration Sequence is phrased similarly: if you make a cautious move, place one Secure token in that room.)

3. Role of the Secure Token (Additional Benefit of Cautious Moves)
Whenever an intruder enters a room containing at least one character and one Secure token, discard one Secure token to substitute for settling that intruder attack; discarding a Secure token is a consequence of the intruder's movement and cannot be prevented. However, note that Secure tokens cannot block attacks initiated by intruders already present in the room (e.g., during the Intruder Phase).

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How is it achieved when all life-support systems have been shut down or removed?

Direct Conclusion:

According to the rulebook text, there are only two mechanisms that can "turn off" the life support systems:

1. Turning off each zone individually — Each zone has its own Life Support Control Room (one each for A, B, and C), whose function is to activate or deactivate the life support system in that specific zone. Therefore, to shut down all three zones, you would theoretically need to perform the shutdown action separately in Controls A, B, and C.
   - Note the exception of shared functions: Life Support Control "A" can also extinguish fires; Control "B" can view or replace anti-aircraft markers; and Control "C" can activate hibernation pods. These are independent, parallel functions, so deactivating a zone's life support system does not affect these other functions, nor vice versa.

2. Complete power outage across the entire facility — The Reactor room in Zone C will "completely cut off power to the entire facility." According to the listed consequences, this action will both shut down and prevent reactivation of the following three categories:
   - All Life Support Control Systems
   - The Autodestruction System
   - The Anti-Aircraft System

This is also the only way to render all life support systems inoperative in one go and irreversibly; the rulebook further clarifies that the self-destruction sequence can only be disabled when the Reactor room achieves a "complete power cut."

Two points worth noting (due to the wording limitations of the rulebook):

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