To survive in Invokyr, move carefully, listen for monster cues, use the right dice against each threat, and return idols to the game board before taking unnecessary risks. Keep healing or resurrection options available, avoid sprinting and loud movement when required, and remember that reaching the board’s center starts the final escape with the Game Master’s Soul.
Core survival loop
- Roll the movement die in the game room.
- Read the rhyme to identify the new monster, trap, or challenge.
- Explore the rearranged manor, collect the required idols, and survive the event.
- Return to the game room and place the idols on the board to unlock the next movement die.
- Repeat until the token reaches the center of the board.
- Carry the Game Master’s Soul back to the board, seal it, and say
Invokyrinto the microphone.
Use dice to stay alive
Most dice have a 5-in-6 chance of producing their intended effect and a 1-in-6 chance of causing a bad roll. Unless a die has a special bad-roll effect, expect general chaos such as an explosion, lightning strike, fireworks, or a minor monster spawn.
| Die | Useful survival effect | Bad-roll warning |
|---|---|---|
| Heal | Creates an area that heals living players for 50 HP or resurrects players inside it with 10 HP. | General chaos. |
| Resurrect | Revives one random player who has died. If carried when its owner dies, it is consumed and revives that player immediately. | Spawns a Player Mimic instead of reviving someone. |
| Fire | Ignites the landing area after a delay and can damage some monsters. | Ignites immediately; this can sometimes be useful. |
| Storm | Calls down a damaging lightning strike after a delay and may ignite the ground. | Strikes immediately; this can sometimes be useful. |
| Freeze | Immobilizes the entity it hits for several seconds. | Ignites the ground where it lands. |
| Cocoon | Wraps nearby entities in a cocoon for several seconds. A player can struggle to escape. | Triggers immediately rather than after a delay. |
| Teleport | Teleports the thrower to the die’s landing location, helping bypass obstacles or reach difficult areas. | Spawns a minor monster at the landing point. |
| Rally | Teleports all players to the die’s landing location. | General chaos unless otherwise specified. |
| Scanner | Reveals idols, players, and monsters through walls and doors with a radar pulse. | General chaos. |
| Thread | Creates a ball of thread that rolls toward the game room, marking a route back through the manor. | General chaos. |
| Antigravity | Reduces gravity in a large area, helping players carry idols across gaps. | General chaos. |
| Lantern | Creates a portable light that can also be left as a marker. Its color can be changed with the scroll wheel. | General chaos. |
Monster survival tactics
| Threat | How to survive |
|---|---|
| Alligator | Use Cocoon or explosive dice such as Boom dice against it. It is fast and highly aggressive. |
| Carnivorous Plant | Do not sprint near it, or it may wake. Fire and Boom dice are effective. |
| Dress Mannequin | Keep it in sight. If alone, back away until it is far enough away that you can no longer see it, which should deactivate it. In a group, one player can watch it while the others move. Fire, Boom, and Cocoon dice help. |
| Huntsman | Move quietly; even crouch-walking nearby can alert it. Fire, Boom, and Cocoon dice are effective. |
| Knights | Only one knight hunts at a time while the other rests. They cannot be damaged, but Freeze and Cocoon dice can immobilize them. |
| Mimic Door | Listen for heavy breathing before opening a suspicious door. |
| Money Man | Keep your distance and hide idols from him. He immediately pursues players carrying idols. Fire, Boom, and Cocoon dice are effective. |
| Mummy | Avoid its line of sight and do not step on its trailing bandage. Standing on a table or box protects you from its attack. Fire, Boom, and Cocoon dice are effective. |
| Penguin | Keep away once its fuse activates. Penguins can be picked up and thrown into pits or at enemies; a thrown penguin knocks targets down briefly. |
| Player Mimic | Stay alert for a duplicate player that repeats recorded voice lines and throws dice. |
| Sandworm | Do not run or make loud noises. Ground rumbles warn that it is about to lunge. |
| Shadow Man | Turn off the active static television to despawn it temporarily. |
| Snowmen | Harmless copies can be destroyed by throwing any object through them or running through them at close range. The aggressive copy requires normal attacks; Fire, Boom, and Cocoon dice are effective. |
| Spider | Look at the ceiling and avoid walking directly beneath one, or it can cocoon you. |
| Yeti | Expect a fast, aggressive chase. Fire, Boom, and Cocoon dice are effective. |
Survive curses
A cursed movement die has a purple curse face. Its effect lasts until the next token movement phase and may affect some or all players.
- Flashlight Disabled: affected players cannot use their flashlights.
- Reduced Maximum Health: affected players have their maximum health capped at 20.
- Shared Damage and Healing: damage or healing received by one player is applied to every player.
Handle dangerous events
- Ballerina: move through the room while the ballerina moves. Moving when she stops causes floor spikes to rise.
- Chessboard: cross the giant chessboard while avoiding pieces that move across and crush players.
- Dice Spawn: treat every ejected die as already rolled; its effect happens immediately, whether helpful or harmful.
- Fire Pillar: avoid the rotating pillar and its sweeping jets of flame until it retracts.
- Flash Freeze: the game-room floor remains icy and slippery for the rest of the game.
- Mannequin Attic: watch the mannequins closely while searching the attic for idols.
- Rolling Boulder: picking up the idol starts the chase. Run back to the game room; if the player dies, the boulder does not respawn when the idol is collected again.
- Shell Game: track the card showing the idol and use the door beneath it. The other doors are Mimic Doors.
- The Floor Is Lava: stack 10 boxes in a 1-2-3-4 formation to reach the second floor and balcony. Later lava surges can cover the game-room floor; stand on a box or table when you hear and see the warning effects.
- Trapdoor Game: watch the wheel to identify the safe symbol for each round. Unsafe tiles become trapdoors, and the challenge lasts three rounds.
Prevent and recover from death
- Use a Heal die on a downed player to resurrect them with 10 HP, or on a living player to restore 50 HP.
- Use a Resurrect die to revive one previously dead player, even if that player’s body is in an earlier manor arrangement.
- Save a Resurrect die in a player’s inventory when possible; it revives its carrier instantly upon death.
- Before danger, save your image in a manor mirror. A mirror is single-use and brings the player back to that mirror after death, then breaks.
- Dead players can communicate through the game-room portraits. They can also use a chargeable meter to whisper privately to a player they are spectating.
Survive the final event
When the token reaches the center, all players are teleported to the deepest part of the manor and dead players are revived. One player must carry the Game Master’s Soul through the house and return it to the game board. Use the Thread die to help locate the game room, and use Teleport, Rally, healing, and crowd-control dice to deal with blocked routes and monsters. Seal the idol in the board, then say Invokyr into the microphone to finish the run.