How to Play

Pick four cards per room. Survive the 44-card dungeon.

AlphScoundrel is a dungeon run played with cards. Monsters hurt you, weapons protect you, potions heal you, and every room can become a poker hand that boosts your score.

HealthStart with 24 HP

RoomsChoose 4 of 5 cards

Prize PoolPaid runs must beat the score

Quick Start

Start a Practice or Paid Entry run. Practice is free. Paid Entry signs an ALPH entry and can compete for the pot.
Each room shows five cards. Pick four cards. The fifth card is left behind.
Use weapons and potions to stay alive. Keep HP above zero while collecting gold and moving deeper through the deck.
Make strong room hands. Pairs, flushes, full houses, and straight flushes multiply the points earned in that room.
Submit after a paid run. The server verifies the transcript, then your wallet submits the score or prize result.

Card Types

Monsters

Black cards are monsters. Fight them for gold, or evade to take half damage, rounded up, and earn no gold.

Weapons

Diamonds are weapons. A fresh weapon can hit any monster. After it hits, the next weapon attack must target a monster with a lower value than the previous monster you fought.

Potions

Hearts are potions. Bank them in your potion bag, then arm one before a monster pick to heal during that fight.

Gold

Gold is the main value you earn from monsters. More gold means more base score.

Weapons and Potions

Weapon Degradation

A fresh weapon can hit any monster. After it hits, it degrades: the next weapon attack must be against a monster with a lower value than the previous monster you fought.

Equip a new weapon to reset that limit.

Evade

Evade when fighting would hurt too much or block your weapon plan. You take half the monster damage, rounded up, but you earn no gold.

Potion Bag

Taking a potion stores it in your bag. Arm one stored potion before a monster pick to heal during that fight.

Only one potion can be used per room.

Unused Potions

Unused banked potions cash in for score when the run ends. Used potions and unpicked potions do not count.

Poker Hand Bonuses

Each room checks all shown cards for poker-style patterns. Points earned in that room are multiplied immediately.

Common Hands

Pair: 2x
Two Pair: 3x
Three of a Kind: 4x

Bigger Hands

Straight: 5x
Flush: 6x
Full House: 8x

Huge Hands

Four of a Kind: 12x
Straight Flush: 20x

Rough Start

Rough Start can only happen in the first room. It means the room starts without a weapon or potion, and it adds a 5x multiplier.

Rough Start alone is 5x; Rough Start with Pair is 10x.

In the final room, only Pair, Two Pair, and Three of a Kind bonuses apply.

Scoring Snapshot

Your score comes from dungeon points, room poker bonuses, deck depth, saved potions, and round pressure bonuses.

Your base score is multiplied by how deep you get into the 44-card deck. If you survive and clear the entire deck, your final score is doubled (2x).

Final score = floor((base score + room hand bonuses) x deck-depth multiplier) + saved potion score + old-round pressure

For the full ELI5 and ELI12 scoring breakdown, open Detailed Scoring Rules.

Pressure Potions

Base Rule

Unused potions in your bag convert to bonus points when the run ends.

Paid Run Bonus

In competitive paid runs, those potion points can multiply up to 10x based on how long the current high score has been standing.

For the exact pressure math, open Detailed Scoring Rules.

Paid Entry and Prizes

Paid runs are prize eligible, but clearing the dungeon is not enough by itself. Your final score must beat the current score to beat.

Guest Practice is free and local.
Paid Entry signs a wallet run and can compete for the prize pool.
Submit after the run to record the verified result.
If your paid score beats the score to beat, the prize result is still provisional until the submit transaction confirms.
If you clear the dungeon but do not beat the score to beat, the run is recorded, but there is no prize.
If you die but your final score still beats the score to beat, you can still win.

Prize payouts are score-based. Stronger winning runs claim a larger share of the pot, up to the 70% max.

Quick Tips

Grab a weapon early if the room offers one.
Do not fight every monster bare-handed.
More cards played improves the deck-depth multiplier; clearing all 44 cards doubles the multiplied score.
Use Tutorial Runs for visual examples.