Chains

Chains represent supernatural bindings that are occasionally placed onto specific Archons by the Architects: sometimes in an effort to better challenge the Archon to grow and overcome greater adversity, and other times to penalize the Archon for breaking a rule or a piece of Crucible etiquette.

A player may gain chains through card abilities during a game. When a player gains chains, that player increases their chain tracker by the number of chains gained.

Each time (including during setup) a player with one or more chains would draw one or more cards to refill their hand, that player draws fewer cards (based on their current chain level, see below) and then sheds one chain by reducing their chain tracker by one.

The more chains a player has, the greater the card penalty becomes. Chains 1–6: draw 1 fewer card. Chains 7–12: draw 2 fewer cards. Chains 13–18: draw 3 fewer cards. Chains 19–24: draw 4 fewer cards.

Example: Tori has been assigned seven chains. During setup, Tori will draw two fewer cards and shed a chain. Then, the next six times Tori refills her hand, she will draw up to five cards and shed another chain. After all of her chains have been shed, Tori will draw to the standard hand size. Number of Chains

I have 2 chains and 7 cards in hand when moving to my draw cards step. Will I shed a chain during this step? No, you will not shed a chain during this draw cards step. Chains are only shed when a player would draw cards during the draw step and the chains prevent them from doing so (see “Chains” on Page 8). Since you already have 7 cards in your hand, you aren’t going to be drawing any cards, and thus don’t lose any of your chains.

I have 2 chains and 5 cards in hand when moving to my draw cards step. Will I shed a chain during this step? Yes, you will shed a chain during this step. Chains are only shed when a player would draw cards during the draw step and the chains prevent them from doing so (see “Chains” on Page 8). You only have 5 cards in hand, and normally you would draw a card to refill your hand. However because of the chains you are prevented from drawing that card. Since you would normally have drawn the card and the chain prevented it, you then shed 1 chain.