Hazard deck

Hazard card back

The hazard deck is a deck of 28 cards introduced in FFG's Cosmic Conflict expansion. This deck is used when playing the Hazard variant, and adds unpredictable effects that change the rules of how encounters are played.

A new hazard deck of 26 cards is included in FFG's Cosmic Odyssey expansion. This deck contains new types of hazards, and can be used by itself or combined with the hazard deck from Cosmic Conflict.

Rules

To play this variant, shuffle the hazard deck and place it face down during setup. During the game, if any destiny card with a hazard warning is drawn for destiny (regardless of whether it was used or redrawn), then the offense must draw a hazard card before allies are invited and the players must follow its instructions. Only a maximum of one hazard card is drawn per encounter, regardless of the number of hazard warnings that were drawn during the encounter.

Types of hazard cards

• Temporary: Takes effect during the encounter and is discarded at the end of the encounter.
• Permanent: Stays in play permanently or until a specified condition is met. These are identified by a red banner that reads "This Card Remains In Play" at the bottom of the card.
• Semi-Permanent: Stays in play until another semi-permanent or permanent hazard is drawn. These are identified by a yellow banner that reads "Semi-Permanent" at the bottom of the card. Introduced in Cosmic Odyssey.
• Alt-Hazard: Provides an alternate action that the offense may choose to perform instead of playing out the encounter normally. These are identified by a label of "Alt-Hazard" instead of "Hazard" at the top of the card. Introduced in Cosmic Odyssey.

Sub-variants

Cosmic Odyssey introduced two optional sub-variants to the hazard deck variant. These replace the rules for determining when to draw a hazard instead of being indicated by hazard warnings on destiny cards:

• Extremely Hazardous: Draw a hazard card for every encounter. (Increases the chaos.)
• Procedural Change: Draw a hazard card only if a player chooses to have a second encounter on their turn. (Increases the amount of control that players have over the hazard deck.)

House rules

Temporal Anomaly

The Temporal Anomaly hazard causes the turn order of the game to reverse (e.g. if play was passing clockwise, it becomes counterclockwise). The Cosmodex mentions that this card is disliked by many players because it could make it so that one or more players simply never get a turn to be the offense before the game is over, especially at higher player counts. Because of this, it suggests a house rule to remove all copies of it from the hazard deck.

Notes

• Early printings of the Cosmic Conflict rulebook state that there are 29 cards in the hazard deck. This is incorrect: there are 28.
• The Cosmic Conflict rules and the 2018 FAQ disagree on when to draw a hazard card if a hazard warning is drawn for destiny. The Cosmic Conflict rules state that a hazard card is drawn before allies are invited (Alliance phase), but the FAQ states that a hazard card is drawn as soon as a destiny card with a hazard warning is drawn (Destiny phase). This is a significant difference for some hazard cards' effects. Cosmic Odyssey designer Jack Reda's stance on this issue is that hazards are supposed to be drawn before allies are invited, but the way he plays it is that a hazard is drawn during the Destiny phase because from his experience it is easier to remember that way; his final ruling is to play it whichever way your group finds best.