XenoShyft

Overview

XenoShyft is the PC adaptation of the Kickstarter-backed board game, XenoShyft Onslaught. Up to four players control divisions of the NorTec military, building decks of soliders and equipment to protect NorTec's base against waves of Hive aliens.

XenoShyft also has several DLC packs available based on expansions of the board game.

Gameplay

At the beginning of the game, each player chooses a unique NorTec military division. A player's division affects his or her starting deck, as well as providing abilities and interactions with troop or item cards.

A game of XenoShyft consists of nine rounds. Players first draw cards from their decks (which consist of starting troops and equipment, purchased cards and "Xenosathem" currency cards), then simultaneously purchase from available troop, equipment and item cards. After all players finish purchasing cards, players deploy up to four troop cards, along with any equipment the player chooses, in their lane. In multiplayer games, players may also deploy troop and armor cards in other players' lanes.

Combat begins once all players have finished purchasing and deploying cards. Four random Hive cards are placed face-down and revealed one at a time, one player at a time. (The starting player rotates each round.) Both Hive cards and NorTec solider cards have a Power and a Hit Point value, which determine the outcome of combat. Hive cards have Reveal effects and passive abilities which affect the flow of combat, while players can play item cards and use troop and equipment abilities to respond. Combat finishes for a lane if all Hive cards in that lane are defeated. Any undefeated Hive deal their damage to the player's base once.

After every third round, a new "wave" begins. Players can gain a larger denomination of Xenosathem and are allowed to buy more powerful NorTec soldiers, while Hive cards are drawn from a more powerful deck. The game ends when players survive the ninth round and win or when Hive cards deal the base damage equal to its hit points, causing all players to lose the game.