When your adventurer triggers an exploration of a hex, you draw a delve card, connecting the tile shown and populating it with enemies and caches. Delve cards and delve tiles combine to create unique situations in every delve, often affecting how many chips are placed, a tile’s positioning, or how adventurers interact with a tile. When drawing a delve card, follow these steps:

1. Draw Tile: Draw a tile matching the shape shown on the delve card. If no tile of this shape is available to draw, place this card facedown with other skyshard cards you have gained for this encounter and treat it as a skyshard icon that you have acquired toward completing this delve. This exploration ends; do not draw another delve card or resolve any text on the drawn delve card. The hex remains explorable, but you must trigger another exploration to draw another card.

Note: If you triggered this exploration by moving into this hex, you must move out and back in to trigger another exploration on it this turn.

2. Trigger Effects: Read the delve card’s text and trigger any When Revealed or other immediate effects as instructed.

3. Connect Tile: Align the revealed tile’s hex edges so that 1 of its hexes is adjacent to the hex being explored. When placed, the revealed tile cannot overlap other tiles. Further placement rules are as follows:

► Both hexes must touch along a common edge. You can shift or rotate the revealed tile to an orientation of your choice, but both icons’ hexes must touch. As long as this requirement is met, the tile can be placed so it is adjacent to other previously connected tiles.

► A tile must be connected so that at least 1 of its hexes remains explorable, if able. The first delve tile placed must be connected to the entrance tile so only 1 of its hexes is adjacent to both of the entrance’s hexes (which share a single icon).

► If the revealed tile cannot be connected without overlapping other tiles, discard its card, and return the tile to the bottom of its unexplored tiles stack. This exploration ends, but the hex remains explorable if not all skyshards have been drawn for the encounter.

Note: If you triggered this exploration by moving into this hex, you must move out and back in to trigger another exploration on it this turn.

After the tile is placed, it is now considered connected to each other tile with which it shares an adjacent hex, regardless of whether those hexes have icons.

4. Place Caches: Place as many of the cache chips shown on the delve card as you can. Place chips (if any) before chips. Start placing cache chips in the hex farthest from the hex that was explored to reveal this tile. Place each additional cache in the next closest hex; if 2 hexes are of equal distance, you may choose the hex. If there are more caches on the delve card than the tile has hexes, the remaining caches are not placed.

5. Deploy Enemies: Draw and deploy as many enemy chips as you can based on the EP for the revealed tile, the challenge scale, and the icons on the revealed tile. Start deploying enemies to the hex farthest from the hex that was explored to reveal this tile. Deploy each additional enemy to the next farthest hex; if 2 hexes are of equal distance, you may choose the hex. Stop deploying enemies when the EP is entirely used, all enemies shown on the delve card are deployed, or no unoccupied hexes remain on the revealed tile (even if the EP still has points remaining). When deploying enemies, use the challenge scale as follows:

► The left side of each row shows an icon with the number of adventurers in the party.

► Each space to the right of the adventurers icon with a numeric value is an enemy that must be drawn, if able, and that enemy’s maximum level. If the printed level is greater than the remaining EP, draw the highest level enemy possible without exceeding the EP.

► Each enemy chip is drawn from left to right along the appropriate row. Each enemy’s level is subtracted from the EP. Then, that enemy is deployed to 1 of the tile’s hexes.

► If there are more enemies in the challenge scale than there are hexes, the remaining enemies on the challenge scale are not deployed. If the EP is used up, no more enemies are deployed even if there are still enemies on the challenge scale.

6. Place Card: If the card has a skyshard icon, environment effect, or trap that applies to the revealed tile, place the card faceup next to its tile. Otherwise, discard it.