Settlement Phase

One of the main game phases for Kingdom Death: *Monster* alongside the Hunt Phase and the Showdown Phase. During the Settlement Phase, survivors will use endeavors and resources to develop the settlement, discover innovations, determine the settlement
s guiding principles, and craft gear in preparation of fighting the campaign's Finale Monster. Players are encouraged to experiment, implement votes, assign roles, and find new ways to govern their settlement.

## Settlement Phase Steps

### 1. Set Up the Settlement

* Place the Settlement Board on the table.
* Place the gear grids and record sheets of any survivors returning from the showdown on the table.
* Place the Settlement Record Sheet on the table. The settlement record sheet will be updated multiple times throughout a campaign, so be sure to use a pencil (or alternative) for recording changes to the settlement.
* Shuffle all of the Settlement Event cards and place them face down in the play area.
* Placelace any Settlement Locations that the settlement has built in the play area.
* Place any innovations the settlement has innovated, and Principles the settlement has selected in the play area.
* Shuffle the innovation deck and place it face down on its space on the Settlement Board. It should contain all innovations that are consequences of existing innovations in your settlement.

### 2. Survivors Return

All survivors that endured the previous showdown are returning survivors. When these survivors return to the settlement, their injuries are healed. Erase any filled light or heavy injury levels. Remove all tokens from all survivors.

Survival and insanity do not automatically replenish. Their values persist until they are changed by gameplay. Likewise, permanent injuries do not heal on their own, but some innovations and events will enable players to heal them.

Apply any effects for the returning survivors from principles, settlement events, and innovations. This may include bonuses and penalties.

It is possible to have no returning survivors if all survivors perished during the hunt or showdown.

### 3. Gain Endeavors

Endeavors are the generative energy returning survivors accumulate from their experiences. The settlement gains 1  for each returning survivor. Use tokens to track endeavours.

Some innovations and principles may grant additional  tokens when certain gameplay criteria are met.

### 4. Update Timeline

* Fill the next unfilled lantern year on the timeline to advance the current lantern year.
* Draw the top card of the settlement event deck ()) and perform the event. Place the card in the play area face up as a remind of any persistent effects the card may have during the settlement phase. Settlement events may have new ways to spend endeavors, build gear, or impart lasting bonuses or restrictions.
	+ During the campaign, specific settlement events may be added to your timeline. When the timeline is updated, resolve these by drawing them from the settlement event deck and playing them (in addition to your random settlement event). The same settlement event card cannot be played more than once per Settlement Phase.
* Trigger any story events that are listed for the current year on the timeline. If there are multiple story events for that lantern year, resolve them one at a time in the order they are listed. If the current year has a Nemesis Encounter story on the timeline, follow the rules for Nemesis monsters.

### 5. Update the Death Count

If any survivors perished during the previous hunt, showdown, or during the preceding steps of the settlement phase, update the death count on the Settlement Record Sheet to reflect their deaths. If a survivor dies later during the Settlement Phase, update the death count immediately.

### 6. Check Milestones

Milestone story events are conditional events that appear below the timeline. Check the Settlement Record Sheet to see if any milestones have been reached. If you reach more than one milestone at this time, play them in any order. For each milestone, check off its box and trigger the corresponding story event. If a milestone is reached later in the Settlement Phase, check off the box and trigger the event immediately.

If you are using strain milestones, place any unreached strain milestone cards on the settlement board over the Check Milestones step. During this step, check your strain milestones first, and if you have reached a card's Milestone Condition, resolve its Permanent Effect. If the Strain Milestone unlocks a Strain Fighting Art, add the card to the Fighting Art deck. Remove any reached strain milestone cards from your game. **They can never be used again.**

If you are using the Pattern System in your campaign, when a survivor reaches the Insight milestone, the sudden shift in perspective is accompanied by a new idea. Draw a random pattern card from the Pattern deck. Record it on the Settlement Record Sheet. The settlement now has access to the pattern for the remainder of the campaign.

### 7. Develop

During this step players will decide, as a group, how to spend the settlement's resources. Players can craft gear, endeavor, innovate, and build.

**Crafting Gear**
Players may spend resources to craft weapons, armor and items at locations their settlement has built. Each settlement location lists the resource cost for each gear that can be built at that location. When you spend resources to craft gear, archive the resources, and get the gear card you crafted from the game box. It is up to the players to decide whether or not they pool their resources and craft gear as a group or split their resources and craft gear as individuals.

Note that some gear cards have a gear recipe printed on the back of the card, and are not crafted at a specific settlement location (e.g. Gusk Knife, Xmaxe, Tabard). Archive the resources listed in the gears recipe and follow any innovation requirements before gaining the gear.

If you are using the Pattern System in your campaign, any patterns gained by the settlement during the Check Milestones step may be crafted during this step. Spend the resources in the pattern cards crafting recipe and ensure that all requirements for the crafting process are present (sometimes this may require survivors to have experienced certain gameplay criteria, survivor characteristics, or innovations rather than a resource card), then gain the card. Some pattern cards have a crafting limit that limits the number of copies of that gear that may be crafted.

**Endeavor**
Survivors can spend endeavors to innovate, build new settlement locations, or perform unique activities in the settlement. Whenever a rule on an Innovation, Settlement Location or Settlement event is proceeded by , it indicates that any listed rules or effects cost an endeavor to use them.

To spend an endeavor, select a survivor to perform the endeavor, reduce the settlement's total endeavors by 1, and follow the rules for the action the endeavor was spent on. Unless stated otherwise, any of the rules effects apply only to the selected survivor.

**Innovate**
To innovate, select a survivor to spend an endeavor and the required resources at the campaigns starting settlement location (e.g. Lantern Hoard, The Sun, The Throne). Follow the rules for innovating on the settlement location.

**Build**
When a new location is built, place that settlement location in the play area and add the new location to your settlement record sheet. This is a permanent addition to your settlement.

### 8. Prepare Departing Survivors

At this point players should decide if they plan to press on to the next hunt phase, or end their play session. If they decide to continue, players must choose 4 eligible departing survivors. If the population is less than 4, choose as many as possible. If there are fewer than 4 players, players must control multiple survivors. Remove the returning survivors' gear and add gear to the departing survivors' gear grids. Record armor points and attribute modifiers imparted from the gear. Be sure to apply any bonuses from innovations, endeavors, or events that affect departing survivors.

### 9. Special Showdown

If there are any special showdowns listed for the current lantern year on the Settlement Record Sheet, the departing survivors immediately begin a showdown with the named monster. If there are multiple special showdowns on the timeline, do them in the order the are listed.

After the showdown, win or lose, return to the Update Death Count step of the current lantern year. Heal survivors and remove their tokens, but they are not considered returning survivors. Do not repeat any preceding settlement phase steps (do not gain , draw , or advance a lantern year).

### 10. Record & Archive Resources

Record unspent resources in the settlement storage, and archive the corresponding cards. This is an important step to ensure that the full range of possible resources is available in each deck, ready to be drawn again.

Resources in the settlement storage may be spent at anytime during the Settlement Phase. When a resource is spent, erase its entry from the storage list.

### 11. End Settlement Phase

After all preceding steps have been completed, the players should:

* Discard any unspent endeavors
* Store settlement innovations
* Store unused gear
* Clean up

Any unspent endeavors are lost, they do not carry over to the next settlement phase.

Store your settlement's innovation deck in the alloted space in the game box. Store your settlement's current innovations, principles, and masteries together in the space provided. Place any unused gear in the alloted space in the game box. Retrieve these cards in the future settlement phases (players can keep a written gear list). Finish cleaning the play area by returning the settlement's locations, event cards, and unused survivor record sheets to the game box. Proceed to the Hunt Phase.