Aeon’s End: Outcasts is the next entry in the co-op deckbuilding card game series

Partner up with an old enemy and delve deep into the void in Aeon’s End: Outcasts, the next entry in the co-op deckbuilding card game series.

The original Aeon’s End is a deckbuilding game that, unlike beginner board game Dominion, is a co-op experience designed to be played between one to four players. In Aeon’s End, players assume the roles of breach mages desperately trying to protect the city of Gravehold from an otherworldly invasion. The players must work together using a variable turn order system - in which player turns are randomly selected - to develop their decks, combine their cards and defeat incoming enemies.

Aeon’s End: Outcasts takes place sometime after last year’s The New Age and follows the story of Z’hana - one of the original breach mages - as she joins forces with the once exiled mage Xaxos on a quest to explore the Void, the realm from which the otherworldly invasion emerged.

On her hunt for the Fountain of Souls, an artefact that supposedly brings dead mages back to life, Z’hana and her fellow mages must protect Xaxos as he guides them through the void.

The game’s previous Gravehold life dial - the marker of how close players were to defeat - is replaced by the character of Xaxos, who despite needing to be protected can nevertheless assist players with some powerful spells of his own. Should Xaxos die before players make it to the Fountain, then they are lost within the void and the game ends.

Also included within Outcasts is a collection of eight new mages for players to choose from as well as breaches, spell cards and mage tokens.

Outcasts is designed by the creator of the original Aeon’s End, Kevin Riley, and is being published by Indie Boards & Cards - the company behind party board game The Resistance - which has released every game in the series to date.

The fourth standalone game in the Aeon’s End series, Outcasts follows last year’s entry The New Age, which introduced an expedition system that enabled players to use any content they owned within a brief campaign format. As well as being a game in its own right, Outcasts can be combined with Aeon’s End as an expansion.

Outcasts is currently on Kickstarter until February 28th, with a pledge of $69 (around £54) getting a copy of the core game plus the Return to Gravehold expansion. The game is planned to arrive with backers sometime in August 2020, followed by a retail release.