Clank! Catacombs
Clank! Catacombs
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| 2 to 4 players | 45 to 90 min | 12 years and + |
Clank! Catacombs is a standalone deck-building and exploration game for 2 to 4 players, designed by Paul Dennen and published by Origames. It's the third standalone in the Clank! series, and its major innovation is radical: no more fixed board; instead, there's a dungeon made up of 29 modular tiles revealed as you move. The catacombs of the skeletal dragon Umbrok Vessna are built in real-time, making each game unique and unpredictable. Magic portals, prisoners to free, sacred places to leave offerings, and vengeful ghosts haunting the unwary — Catacombs retains 95% of the original Clank! gameplay and adds enough new features to clearly distinguish itself.
How to play Clank! Catacombs?
Game Setup
- Place the Clank! board(damage track, cube area, and Dragon bag) and the Market boardnext to the play area.
- Place the Starting Tilein the center — this is the only tile visible at the start. The remaining 28 Dungeon Tilesare shuffled face down to form a draw pile.
- Each player receives a starting deck of 10 cards: 6 Burgle, 2 Stumble, 1 Sidestep, and 1 Sneak — identical to the base Clank! game.
- Form the Adventure Rowwith 6 face-up cards from the new 183-card Dungeon Deck. You can also mix in cards from compatible Clank! expansions.
- Place the 24 Dragon Cubesand the 5 Ghost Cubesin the Dragon Bag. Place the Artifact and Treasure tokens on their indicated spaces as tiles are revealed.
Gameplay outline
On your turn, draw 5 cardsand play them all. They generate Skill(to buy cards), Sword(to fight monsters), and Boot(to move). The Clank!(noise) mechanic works exactly as in the original game: your cubes accumulate in the Clank zone and join the bag during Dragon attacks.
New features in Catacombs:
- Modular Board: When you move to a zone without a tile, reveal and place a new Dungeon tile. It can contain tunnels, a special room, monsters, portals, or haunted spaces. You literally explore a labyrinth that builds in real time.
- Magic Portals: By entering a portal room, you can instantly teleportto any other already revealed portal—a major strategic movement tool.
- Ghosts: Some tiles are marked "haunted." Revealing them adds a Ghost cubeto the Clank zone. During a Dragon attack, each Ghost cube drawn inflicts 1 damage to all players—a collective threat that punishes careless explorers.
- Sacred Sites: By placing one of your cubes on a sacred site, you gain increasing gold for each offering present at the time of scoring.
- Lockpicking: Some doors, chests, libraries, and prison cells require lockpicksto be opened. Freeing a prisoner grants you a companion with a valuable bonus.
Win/Loss Condition
Identical to the original Clank!: escape the dungeon with your Artifact and as much treasure as possible before your health points drop to zero. The game ends when a player escapes safely—the others then have a limited number of turns to try to do the same. The final score compares the total value of treasures, artifacts, and points on cards.
Our Tips for Winning
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Master the portals to plan your exit
Portals are the most significant tactical novelty. A well-placed portal can halve your ascent timeto the surface. Before descending deeply, scout out available portals and remember that moving from portal to portal costs no Boots.
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Manage haunted tiles as a collective threat
Ghosts don't just hit you — they hit all players simultaneously. Avoid revealing haunted tiles when your group is already low on health. Conversely, a healthy player can deliberately reveal several to weaken their more fragile opponents.
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Lockpicking is limited—save it for high-priority prisoners and chests
Your lockpicks are a rare and non-renewable resource. Prisoners often offer particularly powerful bonuses that can change the course of a game. Opening a simple chest with your last lockpicks when a prisoner is waiting behind a nearby cell is a classic mistake to avoid.
FAQ – All about Clank! Catacombs
Is Clank! Catacombs a standalone game or do you need the original Clank! ?
It is fully standalone: the box contains everything needed to play without any other Clank! games. The new 183-card Dungeon Deck is designed for Catacombs, but you can also mix in cards from your other Clank! boxes for even more variety.
Are the rules very different from the original Clank! game?
No. The community often summarizes Catacombs as "95% of the original Clank! with 5% of well-integrated new features." The action structures—Move, Fight, Buy, Boon—are identical word-for-word to the base game. The new features (modular board, portals, ghosts, lockpicking, sacred places) integrate naturally without overcomplicating the rules.
Does the modular board add too much randomness?
This is the community's main debate. Yes, it introduces more unpredictability than the original game's fixed board. But that's precisely what creates the unique narrative tension of Catacombs—you tell your games differently, because each exploration is a new story. For players who prefer total control, the original Clank! remains more suitable.
Clank! Catacombs: Is it the best entry point into the series?
Many players and testers recommend it as the best version for discovering the series, precisely because its modular board perpetually renews the experience. For long-time fans of the franchise, the originality of the concept compensates for the fact that the bestiary and some cards are considered less inspired than in the base game.