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Everbrink

Gameplay

In Everbrink, you take one turn after another to bring down the enemy stronghold and clear one phase, the battle for a single island. Then you join the next island, clear phase after phase, and carry one run forward. This page first covers how to read the board and introduces your leader, then explains what you can do in a turn, in a phase, and over a run, along with what tends to confuse first-time players.

The Basics

Reading the board

The game board in a development build: a floating island with the leader, units, structures, and an enemy stronghold, and the hand of cards below
Game board (development build)
  1. 1

    Your handUnit, structure, spell, and other cards. As long as you have the resources, you can play as many as you like each turn.

  2. 2

    Four colors of resourcesWhat you spend to play cards, with your stock of each color shown: red, green, blue, and yellow.

  3. 3

    Top of the draw pileThe next card you'll draw. It stays face up.

  4. 4

    Collapse warning ▲A red ▲ lights up a turn ahead on the tiles that will fall next.

  5. 5

    Enemy strongholdThe island's objective. Bring it down, and the next island joins.

Leader

Alethea the Paladin

Alethea is one of the leaders who stand on the board, the linchpin who leads your forces. You can summon units and structures right next to her, and of course she can step forward and fight herself. If your leader is struck down or caught in the Collapse, the run comes to an end.

Read Alethea's story
Game Cycle — 1

One turn

Play your cards and move your units

Play as many cards as your resources allow, move your units, and end your turn. Then the enemy moves, and at the start of the next turn the ground crumbles.

  • As long as you have the resources, you can play as many unit, structure, spell, and other cards as you like in a turn.

  • You can summon units and build structures next to your Territory.

  • Playing cards takes resources in four colors, and moving a unit onto resource tiles such as forests and seas, or building a harvesting structure on them, adds to your income every turn.

  • From the turn after they're summoned, units can move or attack. Attacks never miss, and before you strike, you see the damage you'll deal and whether it will take the target down.

  • You can play a unit card straight onto an enemy, and if it takes the enemy down in one hit, the unit is deployed there.

  • When you end your turn, the enemies move and attack just as their intents showed.

One turn

Play cards from your hand

Cards include ones that summon units, ones that build structures, and spells with all sorts of effects, and every one of them costs resources to play. As long as you can pay, there's no limit on how many you play in a turn. At the start of each turn you draw from your draw pile. The top card of the pile stays face up, while the order of the cards beneath it is kept hidden.

One turn

Summon units next to your forces

A unit can't move on the turn it's summoned. As your Territory advances, the places you can summon advance with it, which means pushing your units forward is, in itself, building footholds for your next summons. You can't summon onto mountain tiles, but you can summon a unit onto a tile with one of your structures (a garrison; see “Build structures”).

One turn

Gather four colors of resources

There are four colors of resources: basalt tiles produce red, forest tiles green, sea tiles blue, and wheat tiles yellow. On top of what your leader brings in each turn, moving a unit onto a resource tile or building a harvesting structure on it adds to your income of that color. Each color has a limit, and anything over it can't be stored. When you join the next island, your stock resets to its starting amount.

One turn

Move and attack

From the turn after they're summoned, units on the board can move or attack. An attack wears down the target's shield first, and whatever is left is dealt to its HP as damage. There's no luck in hitting or dodging, and before each attack you see the damage you'll deal and whether it will take the target down, so you can choose your move with that in mind.

One turn

Strike from your hand with a Direct Assault

The same unit card summons when you place it on an empty tile, and makes a Direct Assault when you play it onto an enemy bordering your Territory. If the Direct Assault takes the enemy down, the unit is deployed on the board.

One turn

End your turn, and the enemy moves

On the enemy turn, enemies move and attack just as their intents showed. Reinforcements may also pour in from marked spots.
Game Cycle — 2

One phase

Head for the enemy stronghold on a crumbling island

Build structures, use the terrain, and make the most of Events, then bring down the enemy stronghold and join the next island before the Collapse catches up with you.

  • At the start of every turn, the ground crumbles away from the edge.

  • Structures do things like increase your resource income or strengthen nearby allies.

  • The Gnome's attack goes up the more basalt there is in your Territory.

  • Tiles such as Cairns, Altars, Ruins, and Traders let you trigger an Event when one of your units enters them.

  • Bring down the enemy stronghold at the far side of the island to clear the phase, and you're offered a choice of islands.

  • Choose one of the candidates for the next island, and it joins the ground you've held so far to form one larger island.

One phase

The ground crumbles away behind you

The tiles about to fall are marked with a red ▲ warning. Units and structures on a falling tile go down with it, whether yours or the enemy's, and so do Events not yet triggered, and if your leader is caught, the run is over. The Collapse keeps coming. Some Events make the tiles already lit with a warning fall early. If your joined ground grows too wide, it crumbles faster.

One phase

Build structures

Harvesting structures increase your resource income, and some structures strengthen nearby allies. Like units, structures generally go next to your Territory. Summon a unit onto a structure's tile, or build a structure on a tile where one of your units stands, and the two share the tile (a garrison). Attacks on a garrisoned tile hit the structure, but if the structure is destroyed, the excess damage carries over to the unit on it. Structures stay where they are when you join the next island, but any on a tile that crumbles are lost.

One phase

Use the terrain

Some units change in strength depending on the terrain they stand on or the terrain you hold. The Gnome's attack goes up with the number of basalt tiles in your Territory, so the further your forces spread toward basalt-rich ground, the more you can count on the Gnome. There are also units that gain shield when they stand in a forest, and units that gain attack when they enter the sea. Mountains are impassable to your units, and you can't summon onto them either.

One phase

Trigger Events on the board

Walking onto the tile triggers its Event, and so does summoning onto it with a card, but standing next to it doesn't. At a Cairn you pick a card to add to your deck, at an Altar you give up another card to upgrade one of your unit cards, and a Trader sells you items for gold. At Ruins you can also dig by keeping a unit on them; stop partway through and the Ruins are lost. Cards you gain go on top of your draw pile and reach your hand on your next draw, and Events on tiles that crumble are lost without being triggered.

One phase

Bring down the enemy stronghold

Enemy reinforcements appear around the enemy stronghold and enemy camps. The moment you bring down the enemy stronghold, their seat of command, you clear the phase. You pick a reward card, then move on to joining the next island. The last island of a chapter has no stronghold; a boss waits there instead.

One phase

Choose the next island and join it

When you choose an island, you can see its terrain, where its enemy stronghold stands, and whether it holds any Events. Your leader and the structures on the board remain, but your resource stock resets to its starting amount and your units are lost. Building structures ahead of time to get a head start on the next phase is one of the key strategies.
Game Cycle — 3

One run

Join islands and press on through each chapter

From choosing where to land at the start of a chapter to the boss at its end, you join island after island while growing your deck and relics.

  • At the start of each chapter, you must choose an island to land on. The smaller the island, the more boons it tends to carry.

  • Your deck, relics, and gold stay with you across joined islands and changing chapters until the run ends.

  • The run ends if the Collapse catches you or your leader is struck down.

  • The last island of a chapter has no enemy stronghold; defeat the boss waiting there to get through that chapter.

  • With every run

    As you keep taking on runs, new cards and features open up. Every time you play, the world of Everbrink grows a little wider.

  • Into greater difficulty

    Word has it there's a higher difficulty called Depth. If you're after a real challenge, it may be worth a try.

One run

Choose where to land

At the start of each chapter, you choose an island to land on. The smaller the island, the more boons it's likely to carry, such as Events already on it or a powerful card. But a smaller island, you could say, also has less staying power against the Collapse. Whether to start safe or take on the risk for an edge depends on the situation.

One run

What grows over a run

Cards you gain as rewards for bringing down strongholds or from Events on the board are added to your deck and stay there for the rest of the run. Relics, which work for you just by being in your possession, can be dug up at Ruins, bought from Traders, or found through Events and more, and you keep them until the run is over. Gold builds up as you defeat enemies, and you spend it on items from Traders.

One run

The end of a run

If the tile your leader stands on crumbles, or enemy attacks bring your leader's HP to 0, the run ends on the spot. Whatever the outcome, it won't make your next run any harder, so jump in without a second thought.

One run

A boss awaits at the end of a chapter

Defeat the boss, and the chapter is done. When you move on to a new chapter, the structures you built, the units you summoned, and the ground itself are lost, and you start over on a new island. Even so, the more ground you have left at the end of a chapter, the larger the islands you can land on in the next chapter.
Wishlist on Steam

Steam (Windows / macOS) Early Access 2027