In Clank! A Deck-Building Adventure, players build a personal deck of cards to help them make their way through the passages below Dragon Keep. Once below, each player must retrieve an artifact and make it out alive. Along the way, you make “clank” as you stumble through the deep and encounter various monsters.
Gameplay Overview
Clank! is a deck-building and board game hybrid. Each player begins the game with an identical starting hand of cards. Players take turns individually, in a clockwise rotation. During their turn, each player plays a hand of five cards from their personal deck and performs the actions associated with their cards:
- Boots allow a player to move their meeple around the board.
- Swords allow a player to fight monsters or avoid damage from monsters in tunnels as they move.
- Skill points allow a player to acquire new cards from the dungeon row.
- Card effects on each card must be followed each time the card is in hand.
Fill any empty card spots from the dungeon row at the end of each player’s turn. If any of the new cards reveal a dragon, the dragon will attack. When the dragon attacks, add all the cubes from the clank area to the bag and pull a specified number of cubes. Add any cubes that match a player’s color to their health meter. After a player’s health meter is full, they no longer get to take any turns.
The goal of the game is to go into the depths (below the green line on the board), retrieve an artifact, and get out of the dungeon before being knocked out by the dragon. Once a player retrieves an artifact and makes their way back above the green line, they can be rescued by the local villagers and still gain victory points. Players who are knocked out below the green line… sadly, no victory points for them!
At the end of the game, calculate the victory points, and the player with the most emerges victorious!
The Dad Review
Man, Clank changed the deck building world in a good way, and became my daughter’s number one game ever. Which made it my favorite game for a while.
Our Clank Backstory
When Maci was born Ang and I were really beginning to get into games, which actually means I was becoming obsessed and Ang was along for the ride. After playing a lot of games we got from Marbles Brain Store which at the time was the only place I knew to check for games, I saw a game pop up called Dominion. Then, I found the holy grail called Board Game Geek and read a review on it and saw videos. I was hooked.
We purchased the Dominion base game and played while Maci slept. It was a quiet game and it was quick. I thought it was the greatest game ever and purchased far too many expansions.
Now, fast forward to the present. While Dominion is still a fun great game in my opinion, it’s all about Clank! And of course Clank’s many expansions.
Playing Clank
In Clank, you build a deck to explore the dungeon, get some treasure and get out before you’re eaten by a dragon or rescued by some very nice villagers. This is definitely a push your luck game but not crazy intense. The creators were very wise to put in a bonus for escaping all the way, but if you don’t make it you still get your points.
When we first started playing, Maci would press her luck and it led to a lot of bummed out, frustrating moments. These were often followed by the good old, “Well, maybe you should think about escaping,” comments that Maci didn’t appreciate at the time.
Now as we play, Maci has this game down and is always thinking ahead. It’s great to see, except when she takes the treasure I’ve been trying to get this whole time. Then she screws up my whole game and then I have to go deeper into the dungeon. And then Maci sees that and starts heading up to escape, all this time leaving her poor dad in the depths with no movement points. Sorry, I guess this game has affected me more than I thought.
This game is an awesome family game. It evokes emotion, makes you think about your next move, has just the right amount of luck. I have to say there will be moments where a player will be stuck down in the depths and someone else “ahem… me” may begin just buying cards from the dungeon row to get the dragon to come more quickly. That may feel frustrating to anyone not in the position to get out, creating a small ‘take that’ situation. However, it’s not a table flipping feeling. It’s more like, “Come on man, knock it off! We know that you’re buying cards just to buy them and knock me out of the game.”
In closing, this is a no-brainer 10/10 game for us, it hits the table a lot and if your family likes deck building games or exploring dungeons, this game is for you. It’s also not a bad price these days, we always find it cheap at our local Gaming Goat, but Amazon often carries it as well.
The Mom Review
I really enjoy playing Clank! It has just the right mix of deck building and board game to keep me entertained. The games last about an hour, but don’t feel overwhelmingly long. It is rare for someone to have to think long and hard about their turn which is great for those with short attention spans.
The rule book for Clank is not only easy to understand, it is entertaining. Clearly, the designers of Clank have a great sense of humor. This is evident both in the rules and the fun, flavor text on the cards.
Setup for Clank does take some time. The base cards need to be distributed. The dungeon row needs to be established . There are a variety of tokens that need to be placed around the board. The setup process goes much more quickly with help, so if you are the person who usually sets up games in your family, have everyone take a task to get it ready more quickly.
Scoring for Clank is made even easier if you download the free app by Renegade Games.
Overall, I truly enjoy playing Clank and will readily play it anytime. I give Clank a 10/10
The Kid Review
Clank is my favorite game in the whole wide world! I love it for a lot of reasons. My first reason is I love deck building games and I love the cards. I also like the sayings on the bottom of the cards. When I am waiting for my mom and dad to take their turns I like reading the sayings. Next, I like going and getting an artifact, monkey idols, and secrets. Then, I like trying to escape in time and to get the most victory points.
In conclusion, I will give this game 12/10. I also think this is a little bit harder for other kids. I will give this creator so many props.
Overall Impressions
As a family, we LOVE playing Clank.
- Overall Family Rating – 10/10
- Ease of Understanding the Rules – Medium
- Ease of Setup – Medium