How to Play

Tiny Epic Dungeons

1-4 players 30-60 min 7.5 Board Game Geek Rating

Teams of 1-4 heroes cooperatively explore randomly generated dungeons, racing against a diminishing torch timer. Players battle through rooms filled with enemies and traps, collecting legendary clan-based loot sets. Victory requires weakening the unique dungeon boss by luring it to ritual rooms, then delivering the killing blow before darkness consumes everyone.

Published 2021

Tiny Epic Dungeons

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

1
Separate dungeon cards
Sort cards into Entrance, Rooms, Minion Encounters, and Lair Door piles, then shuffle each deck
2
Create Deck A
Draw room cards based on hero count: 9 cards for 2 heroes, 3 cards for 3 heroes, 7 cards for 4 heroes, 5 cards for 4 heroes
3
Create Deck B
Draw 1 Minion Encounter card per hero and 3 cards per hero from Room deck, combining without revealing
4
Create Deck C
Draw 3 cards from the Lair Door deck to form a 4-card stack
5
Stack the dungeon deck
Place Deck C on bottom, Deck B in middle, and Deck A on top
6
Place the entrance
Put the Entrance card face-up in the center of the table
7
Draw initial rooms
Draw 4 cards from the Dungeon Deck and place face-down on all 4 sides of the entrance
8
Place entrance altar marker
Put 1 altar marker on its corresponding symbol on the entrance card
9
Reserve additional altars
Set aside altar markers equal to the number of heroes
10
Position torch mat
Place the torch mat with Act 1 side up, leaving space for Goblin and Minion card slots
11
Set torch marker
Place the torch marker on the space matching your hero count (space 4 for 4 heroes)
12
Shuffle enemy decks
Shuffle Goblin and Minion cards into separate face-down decks near the torch mat
13
Place goblin tokens
Put the 4 Goblin tokens on their matching numbers on the Torch Mat
14
Prepare minion health markers
Set aside enemy health markers equal to hero count near the Minion deck
15
Select the boss
Shuffle boss mats, choose one without revealing, and place Act 1 side up outside the grid
16
Place boss token
Put the Boss token on the boss mat showing its current location
17
Distribute hero mats
Give each player a Hero Mat (chosen or randomly assigned)
18
Place hero miniatures
Each player places their miniature on the entrance card
19
Set health and focus
Each player takes 1 Health token and 1 Focus token, placing them on the highest spaces of their hero mat tracks
20
Distribute disarm markers
Place all 7 trap disarm markers within reach of all players
21
Assign dice
Give the 3 Hero Dice and 1 Enemy Die to the youngest player who takes the first turn
22
Create loot and spell areas
Shuffle Loot and Spell card decks, placing them face-down with space for discard rows

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

1
Move through the dungeon
Spend 1 movement per room entered based on your Speed stat, following pathways between connected rooms
2
Reveal new rooms
Spend 1 Focus to flip a face-down dungeon card adjacent to your room, rotating it to create a pathway connection
3
Continue exploring
After revealing, check for open pathways to empty spaces and draw new face-down cards to fill them
4
Check for danger
When entering a room with icons for the first time, resolve encounters or traps immediately
5
Perform a heroic action
Complete one action marked with a blue icon on your hero mat, requiring a skill check
6
Rest to recover
Gain 3 Health and 5 Focus immediately by choosing the rest action
7
Search a room
Perform skill checks or pay costs to interact with special room features like chests or levers
8
Disarm traps
After passing the evasion check, attempt the disarm skill check to permanently disable a trap and gain a reward
9
Cast a spell
Target enemies within the spell's range, perform the required skill check, and apply damage ignoring enemy defense
10
Attack with melee
Target an enemy in your same room, roll Hero Dice against your Strength, compare result to enemy Defense
11
Attack with missile
Target an enemy in line-of-sight within range, roll Hero Dice against your Agility, compare to enemy Defense
12
Resolve skill checks
Roll dice equal to your skill rating (1-3 dice), select one result, and compare to the target number
13
Calculate attack damage
If your skill check exceeds enemy Defense, deal damage equal to the difference
14
Trigger enemy counterattack
If the attacked enemy survives and is in your room or line-of-sight, roll the Enemy Die
15
Perform free actions
Use abilities marked with orange icons at any time during your turn without ending movement
16
Collect loot and spells
When discovering items, draw from the appropriate deck or take from the discard row
17
Equip items
Place equipment cards on or around your hero mat when resolving discovery or pickup effects
18
End your turn
Move the torch marker down one space on the torch mat, resolving any effects
19
Add goblins on torch spaces
When the torch lands on or passes marked spaces, place the lowest-numbered Goblin token on the entrance and draw a Goblin card
20
Trigger enemy actions
All enemies in the dungeon perform their listed actions in order, attacking all heroes in range
21
Handle enemy movement
Enemies target the nearest conscious hero and follow the shortest path at their Speed value
22
Defeat enemies for rewards
When an enemy reaches 0 health, collect the reward shown on their card and remove them from play

Winning

How to claim victory.

1
Reveal the lair door
Once all Minions are defeated (1 per hero), the Lair Door card on the dungeon deck is unlocked
2
Enter the boss lair
Spend 1 Focus to move from the Lair Door to the Boss Mat entrance space after defeating all Minions
3
Begin Act 2
Flip the torch mat to Act 2 side, reset torch marker based on hero count, reveal the Boss, and place altar markers on Minion Encounter cards
4
Destroy boss altars
Force the Boss to move onto altar locations in the dungeon to remove protective barriers from its health track
5
Attack the boss
Stand in Hero Spaces on the Boss Mat to attack, noting that different spaces apply modifiers to skill checks
6
Damage the boss
The boss has multiple independent health markers; distribute damage among them as you choose
7
Reduce all boss health to zero
Move all of the boss's health markers to zero to win the game
8
Lose if torch expires
If the torch reaches the skull space at the bottom of the track in either Act, the heroes lose
9
Lose if fifth goblin appears
If a fifth Goblin must be placed when all four slots are full, the game ends in defeat
10
Lose if exploration blocked
If no open pathways exist and the Lair Door hasn't been revealed, the heroes lose
11
Survive boss counterattacks
The boss has different modifiers for melee, missile, and spell attacks; check the boss mat for special torch effects

watch & Learn

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FULL rules

Looking for the full details? Grab the complete rulebook as a downloadable PDF.

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