The objective of the game is to defeat the opposing Mechanic by dealing more Wounds to them than they deal to you. You will achieve this goal by collecting a pile of scrap (your deck), building Scrapbots, and generating Energy to power your Scrapbot attacks.
Each player starts with an initial personal deck consisting of 4 Spare Parts and 4 Circuitry. Put the 20 Brain Damage (Wound) cards face-up in a stack near the play area. All remaining cards are shuffled and become the main deck. A row of 3 empty spaces in front of each player represent the Lanes which Scrapbots will be built in. Deal 5 cards from the main deck face-up as the Market. Each player draws a starting hand, the player going first may only draw three cards for the starting hand. The player going second draws five. Players will take turns, with control passing to the other player after each draw phase.
Each turn, the following phases occur:
Main Phase
- take actions or choose to pass
Discard Phase
- discard any cards remaining in your hand
Cleanup Phase
- unused Scrap and Energy is removed from your pool
- Ready (turn vertical) any Exhausted Scrapbots in your Lanes
Draw Phase
- draw a hand of 5 cards. If at any point in the game you need to draw a card but are unable to because your deck is empty, shuffle your discard pile and it becomes your deck.
- if you have any Wounds in your hand, discard all of them. Draw 2 cards for each Wound discarded this way. This effect may only occur once per turn.
You may perform the following actions any number of times during your Main Phase:
- Buy from the Market
- Play a Component
- Play a Resource
- Play a Scrapbot
- Attack with a Scrapbot
Buy from the Market
Remove Scrap from your pool equal to the Scrap value of a card in the Market and add that card to your discard pile. Whenever a card is removed from the Market, deal a new card to the Market from the main deck.
Play a Component
Play a Component card from your hand. Choose its effect then place it in your discard pile.
You may choose one of the following effects:
- Add its Scrap value to your pool
- Add its Energy value to your pool
- Activate the Component
Activate: Choose one of your Ready (turned vertical) Scrapbots to Activate the Component. Follow the card text then put the Component into your discard pile.
You may not Activate a component if you do not have a Ready (turned vertical) Scrapbot in play. Activating a Component does NOT cause the Scrapbot to become Exhausted.
Play a Resource
Play a Resource card from your hand. Choose its effect then place it in your discard pile:
You may choose one of the following effects:
- Add its Scrap value to your pool
- Add its Energy value to your pool
You may resolve the card text.
Play a Scrapbot
Play a Scrapbot card from your hand. Choose its effect:
- Discard to add its Scrap value to your pool
- Build
Build: Place a Scrapbot card from your hand into an empty Lane. Scrapbots cannot be moved or replaced from their Lane once they have been built. Scrapbots remain in play until destroyed. Scrapbots enter play Exhausted (turned sideways). There are only 3 Lanes to build in so you cannot have more than 3 Scrapbots in play at once.
Attack with a Scrapbot
Only Scrapbots that are Ready (turned vertical) may attack.
Choose a Scrapbot. Spend Energy from your pool to power a Scrapbot attack. Exhaust (turn sideways) that Scrapbot to indicate that it has used an attack.
You must choose to use a Scrapbot attack that has an Energy cost less than or equal to the amount of Energy currently in your pool.
Add a damage counter to the opposing Scrapbot for each 10 points of damage dealt.
Dealing Splash Damage Splash damage is dealt to Lanes that are adjacent to the source of damage. E.g. If a Scrapbot deals 10 splash damage when attacking from the center lane, then both the left and right lane would each receive 10 damage. However, if a Scrapbot were to deal 10 splash damage when attacking from the left (or right) lane, it would only deal 10 damage to the adjacent (center) lane.
Destroying Scrapbots If the damage dealt after an attack would equal or exceed the amount of Health that the opposing Scrapbot has, that Scrapbot is destroyed. Place the destroyed Scrapbot in its owner's discard pile.
Excess damage is ignored (i.e. does not carry over to damage the opposing player).
Dealing Wounds If there is no Scrapbot in a Lane that is dealt damage then the opposing player is dealt a Wound for each 10 points of undefended damage. Wounds are placed in your opponents discard pile.
The game ends when the last Wound has been dealt. Each player adds up all Wounds in their hand, deck, and discard pile. The player with the least Wounds is the winner!