A solo roguelike card game by Zach Gage and Kurt Bieg. Plays in about ten minutes with a standard deck. Read on for the complete rules, with visual examples for the parts that matter most.
Begin with a standard 52-card deck and Jokers. Remove 10 cards and set them aside; they don’t belong in the dungeon. Shuffle the remaining 44 cards and place them face-down: this is your Dungeon. Write down 20 on a scrap of paper. That’s your starting Health.
J♥
J♥
Q♥
Q♥
K♥
K♥
A♥
A♥
J♦
J♦
Q♦
Q♦
K♦
K♦
A♦
A♦
Cards to remove
Both Jokers
All red face cards: J / Q / K of Hearts & Diamonds
Both red Aces (Hearts and Diamonds)
Why? Removing those cards caps healing and prevents game-ending unkillable monsters. The rest is a finely tuned 44-card descent.
02
The Three Card Types
Every card in the dungeon has one of three roles. Knowing them at a glance is half the game.
8♣
8♣
Monsters
×26
Clubs and Spades. Damage equals their value.
7♦
7♦
Weapons
×9
Equip to absorb damage. Each weapon degrades.
9♥
9♥
Health Potions
×9
Restore HP equal to their value (max 20).
Card values
Card
Value
2 to 10
Face value
Jack
11
Queen
12
King
13
Ace
14
03
Forming a Room
On each turn, flip cards from the top of the Dungeon until you have four face-up. These four cards form a Room. You must resolve any three of them, in any order. The fourth stays face-up and joins your next Room.
Forming a Room
Dungeon
8♦
8♦
5♣
5♣
7♥
7♥
J♠
J♠
Flip 4 cards from the dungeon to form a Room.
Resolve any 3 of the 4 cards, in any order.
The 4th card carries over to your next Room.
Each turn you face a four-card Room. Resolve three; the fourth follows you.
1. Resolve
7♦
7♦
2. Resolve
K♠
K♠
3. Resolve
5♥
5♥
Next room
9♣
9♣
Resolve any three cards in any order. The fourth joins the next room.
Avoid the Room
Before resolving any cards, you may scoop up the entire Room and place all four cards at the bottom of the Dungeon. You can avoid as many Rooms as you like, but never two in a row.
04
Fighting Monsters
Every Club and Spade is a Monster. When you face one, you choose how to fight: bare hands, or with the weapon you currently have equipped.
Bare hands vs. weapons
Barehanded
9
J♠
J♠
11→−11 HP
With a Weapon
14
5♦
5♦
J♠
J♠
5♦
5♦
J♠
J♠
11−5=−6 HP
A weapon absorbs damage equal to its value. The rest hits you.
Bare hands
K♠
K♠
13
Damage: 13 · Health: 20 → 7
With a weapon
7♦
7♦
K♠
K♠
13 − 7 = 6
Damage: 6 · Health: 20 → 14
Bare hands
You take the monster’s full value as damage. The monster goes to the discard pile.
With a weapon
Subtract the weapon’s value from the monster’s. Any remainder becomes damage. The monster lands on top of your weapon, staggered so the weapon’s number stays visible.
05
Weapon Degradation
The most important rule in Scoundrel.
Once a weapon has killed a monster, it can only fight monsters with a value strictly less than its last kill. Your weapon stays equipped when it can’t fight — it’s just useless against monsters of equal or greater value. Switch weapons (which dumps the old one and its stack), or fight barehanded.
Weapon Degradation
5♦
5♦
Last killed: 6
Q♠
Q♠
6♣
6♣
Q♠
Q♠
Your 5 of Diamonds — fresh, can fight any monster.
Killed a Queen (12). The 6 is fine — 6 < 12.
Killed the 6. Now last-killed is 6.
Another Queen? 12 > 6 — your weapon refuses.
Fight the Queen barehanded for 12 damage.
The most important rule: each monster a weapon kills must be strictly less than the last.
Equipped weapon
7♦
7♦
1 · K♠ = 13
K♠
K♠
✓ Allowed
2 · 10♣
10♣
10♣
✓ Allowed
3 · 10♠
10♠
10♠
✕ Not allowed
The same 7♦ defeats 13, then 10. Another 10 is not allowed: the next monster must be lower than 10.
Plan your kill order
Every time you use a weapon, its ceiling drops to the value of the monster it just killed. Kill the biggest threats first, while the weapon is still fresh.
Hearts restore Health equal to their face value. Two restrictions you’ll feel immediately: only one potion per Room, and your Health can never exceed 20.
Health Potions
19
5♥
5♥
A Heart restores HP equal to its value (max 20).
Only one potion per Room — extras are discarded.
So drink wisely — and choose which to leave for next room.
One drink per Room. The rest go to the discard pile.
First potion
9♥
9♥
Health: 16 → 20
Second potion in the same room
5♥
5♥
Health: 20 → 20 · No healing
Maximum health: 20
If you face a Room with multiple potions, drink the highest-value one first. The rest go to the discard pile, no effect, no take-backs.
07
A Full Turn, Start to Finish
Putting it all together: a single turn deals four cards, asks you to resolve three, and carries the fourth into the next Room. Follow a complete turn below.
A Full Turn, Start to Finish
17
40 left
6♦
6♦
8♠
8♠
6♥
6♥
4♣
4♣
A new Room: a weapon, a monster, a potion, and another monster.
Equip the weapon — the 6 of Diamonds.
The 4 of Clubs hits for 4 — your weapon absorbs all of it.
Drink the 6 of Hearts. +6 health (capped at 20).
Leave the 8 of Spades for the next Room.
Three new cards. The 8 of Spades is still here.
A complete turn: deal a Room, equip a weapon, fight, heal, and carry one card forward.
1. Equip the weapon
7♦
7♦
Health: 20
2. Fight the king
K♠
K♠
13 − 7 = 6 · Health: 14
3. Drink the potion
5♥
5♥
14 + 5 = 19
4. Keep for the next room
9♣
9♣
Next room
20 health → equip 7♦ → lose 6 health against K♠ → heal 5 with 5♥ → finish at 19. Leave 9♣ for the next room.
08
Winning & Scoring
The game ends in one of two ways. Either you clear the entire Dungeon (congratulations, you’ve survived) or your Health drops to zero, and you’ve been slain.
If you survive
Your score is your remaining Health. A perfect game is 20. Bonus: if your last card was a Health Potion and you’re already at 20, add the potion’s value to your score.
If you die
Find every remaining Monster in the Dungeon and subtract its value from your final (≤ 0) Health. That negative number is your score, and a measure of how much further you had to go.
09
Frequently Asked Questions
44 cards. You remove 10 cards from a standard 52-card deck plus 2 Jokers: the 2 Jokers, the 3 red face cards of each red suit (Jack, Queen, King of Hearts and Diamonds), and the 2 red Aces.
No. You can avoid as many Rooms as you want, but never two Rooms in a row. After avoiding a Room, you must face the next one.
Only if the monster's value is strictly less than the last monster the weapon killed. A fresh weapon can fight anything once. Once used, it degrades and can only target weaker monsters from then on.
No. Each monster you defeat with the same weapon must have a strictly lower value than the last monster it killed. A weapon that just killed a 9 can't fight another 9, but it can fight an 8.
Your old weapon and any monsters stacked on it go straight to the discard pile. Equipping a weapon is mandatory; you can't keep the old one.
You can pick up two, but only the first one heals you. The second is discarded with no effect. Health can never exceed 20.
It stays face-up and becomes part of your next Room. Next turn, you only flip 3 new cards from the Dungeon to bring the Room back to four.
No. The weapon stays equipped; it just can't be used against that particular monster. It can still fight weaker monsters later, and is only discarded when you equip a new one.
A typical game takes about 5 to 15 minutes, depending on how much you deliberate.
Skip the setup
Take the dungeon with you.
The app handles deck removal, weapon stacking, and scoring automatically. Free on iOS, Android, and Mac, with optional paid upgrades. The Steam edition for Windows includes both add-ons. No ads on any platform.
