The LOOP
The LOOP is a quirky, cooperative, time-traveling strategy game where 1 to 4 players become temporal agents working together to thwart the evil Dr. Faux, a mad scientist creating chaos across the space-time continuum. Using quirky yet powerful Artifact cards, players must complete missions, destroy clones, and manage time-rending vortexes before it's too late.
Each game unfolds across 7 Eras of Spacetime, with players activating special powers, chaining combos through the signature LOOP mechanic, and using energy to perform additional actions. Dr. Faux’s randomized movements and his cube-dropping 3D Machine introduce constant unpredictability and mounting tension, requiring teamwork and smart tactical choices.
Players can choose from several game modes. Victory comes by completing missions (and sometimes additional tasks, depending on the mode). Defeat is always looming, whether through too many vortexes, failed missions, or running out of time.
With its retro sci-fi aesthetic, satirical humor, and satisfying puzzle-like gameplay, The LOOP offers high replayability, inventive combo play, and a delightfully chaotic journey through time.
Number of players: 2 - 4
Game duration: 52 mn
Complexity: 0 / 5
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Play The LOOP and 1327 other games online.
No download necessary - play directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Rules summary
The LOOP
The LOOP is a quirky, cooperative, time-traveling strategy game where 1 to 4 players become temporal agents working together to thwart the evil Dr. Faux, a mad scientist creating chaos across the space-time continuum. Using quirky yet powerful Artifact cards, players must complete missions, destroy clones, and manage time-rending vortexes before it's too late.
Rules of Procedure
These rules cover S.A.B.O.T.A.G.E., which is the basic scenario. Three more scenarios which build on these are available; in addition, each scenario can be played at three different difficulty levels. See below for details.
Objective
Victory: Complete four missions to destroy Dr. Foo's Machine and save spacetime!
Defeat: The agents lose immediately if any of the following occurs:
- A second vortex is placed in any single Era.
- A fourth vortex is placed anywhere on the board.
- Dr. Foo completes his third cycle (after 21 turns).
Concepts
Spacetime board
The board shows the 7 Great Eras of Spacetime, which are naturally arranged in a loop: Dawn of Time → Medieval Era → Renaissance Era → Industrial Era → Globalization Era → Age of Robots → End of Times (which connects back to Dawn of Time). Each Era is associated with a color. The next Era is the one clockwise, and the previous Era is the one counter-clockwise. Both of these are considered adjacent Eras.
In the middle of the board is Dr. Foo's machine. It rotates as Dr. Foo travels through spacetime; the Era that it's centered on is Dr. Foo's Era.
Missions
Around the edge of the spacetime board are mission tiles (one per Era). Two missions are active at a time. Once a mission has enough progress cubes on it, it will be completed as soon as an agent ends their turn in its Era. A mission can also be failed if a vortex is created in its Era.
When a mission is completed, each agent gets an Attendance Reward (even if they didn't do anything to help complete the mission)!
HQ board
The HQ board shows
- A scenario reference card.
- The Huge Deck of Artifacts. You can click on the deck to see what's in it (though not what order they're in).
- The pile of destroyed Artifacts. If the Huge Deck ever runs out, these are reshuffled.
- How many times Dr. Foo has cycled through spacetime.
- Which Eras Dr. Foo has already visited on this current cycle through spacetime (as icons below the board).
Agents
Each of the five agents has a unique special ability and a deck of six unique starting Artifacts. Each game is played with between two and four agents. In solo mode, or if the multi-handed option is enabled on a table, one player can play as multiple agents.
Each agent has a hand of three Artifacts, which is discarded at the end of their return. (Then, they and all other agents will draw back up to three cards.)
Cards in hand are either ready (normal orientation) or exhausted (turned sideways after use). Exhausted cards can be readied again if the agent does a LOOP!
Dimensions
Each Artifact belongs to one of four Dimensions. Spiral, star, and stripe are Elementary Dimensions; the fourth, the Black Hole dimension is different from the others because it's impossible to do a LOOP in it (which means that those cards can't be readied again once exhausted).
Clones
Dr. Foo will create clones of himself. Each clone comes from a particular Era (its Paradox Era) and will be immediately destroyed if moved back to that Era. The more clones there are in play, the more rift cubes Dr. Foo's machine will create each turn, and that can be a problem!
Clones are drawn from a bag of 28 clones (four from each Era); if the bag is ever empty, clones won't be spawned.
Clones can be pushed (moved from their current Era to an adjacent Era), pulled (moved to a target Era from their current, adjacent Era), and carried (moved along with an agent) by Artifact effects.
Energy cubes
Green energy cubes can be used to power moves and LOOPs. There's no limit on how many energy cubes can be present in an Era.
Rift cubes
Dr. Foo's machine creates red rift cubes as it tears through spacetime. Each Era can safely hold three rift cubes, but a fourth will create a vortex! If a vortex would be created in an Era that already has one, the agents lose.
Vortexes
When too many rift cubes accumulate in an Era, a vortex is created. All rift cubes are removed from the Era (even if there were more than four).
Any available artifacts in that Era are destroyed, and if there's a mission tile in that Era (active or not), the mission is failed and the tile is removed from play. No new artifacts can be placed in an Era with a vortex; they're destroyed instead.
Once a vortex is in play, there's no way to repair it. If there are ever four vortexes in play at the same time, the agents lose.
Mega-vortexes
On higher difficulties, mega-vortexes will be created instead. These act just like normal vortexes, but if any agent ends their turn on an Era with a mega-vortex, the agents lose. (V-Girl's special ability lets her
Turn Structure
I. Foo Phase
- Dr. Foo randomly picks an Era of spacetime that he hasn't visited in the current cycle, and uses his machine to travel there. The machine will rotate to point at that Era.
- An Artifact drawn from the top of the Huge Deck becomes available in its Origin Era. (If there's a vortex in that Era, the Artifact is destroyed instead.)
- Dr. Foo creates clones of himself. In the first cycle, he creates one clone per turn; in the second, two; and in the third, three.
- Dr Foo's machine creates two rift cubes, plus an additional rift cube for each clone on the Era his machine visited. These cubes are randomly placed in Dr. Foo's era or one of the adjacent Eras. If an Era winds up with four or more rift cubes, a vortex is created!
II. Action Phase
During an Agent's turn, they can perform any number of actions in any combination or order.
- Free move: Once per turn, an Agent can move to an adjacent Era for free. Your Agent card will flip over to show that you've used your free move for the turn.
- Move: Your Agent moves to an adjacent era. This costs one energy cube the first time you do it, two the second time, and so on.
- Use an Artifact: Use a ready Artifact's ability, then exhaust it. The card is turned sideways to show that it is exhausted.
- Do a LOOP: Like moving, this costs one energy cube the first time you do it, two the second time, and so on. You can do a LOOP on any of the three Elementary Dimensions, so long as you have a card (ready or exhausted) from that Dimension in your hand. All cards from the chosen Dimension are readied again.
- Use a Special Ability: Some agents have special abilities that they can use during the Action Phase.
III. Acquire Artifact
You may take one Artifact card from the Era that you end your turn in. (You don't have to if you don't want to, though.) This Artifact is placed face-down on top of your deck, ready to be drawn.
IV. Complete Mission
If there's an active Mission in the Era that you end your turn in, and it has enough Progress cubes on it, it's completed!
When the Agents complete their fourth Mission, they win!
Whenever a Mission is completed, all players receive an Attendance Reward (even if they didn’t participate it completing it). One Artifact is drawn for each Agent, plus one extra Artifact; the Agents must each pick an Artifact, which is placed face-down on top of their deck. The leftover Artifact is destroyed.
There are always two active Missions on the board (unless there aren't any inactive Missions left). Whenever a Mission is completed or failed, another Mission is activated to replace it.
V. Refresh
- Your Agent card flips back to its charged side (if you used your Free Move).
- Your hand is discarded.
- All players draw from their decks until they have three cards in their hand. If their deck is empty when they need to draw, they reshuffle their discard pile and continue.
Agents
Solo Rules
When starting a solo table, you can choose to play using the official solo rules (which are described here). You can also choose to play multiple hands using the normal multiplayer rules.
You can play using 2, 3, or 4 Agents; their starting cards are shuffled together into a single deck.
Before the Action Phase, draw Artifacts one at a time from this combined deck. If you draw one of an Agent's starting Artifacts, the card is placed in that Agent's hand. Otherwise, you can choose which Agent's hand the card will be placed in.
When an Agent has three cards in their hand, you take a turn as that Agent.
During the Refresh Phase, only the Agent who just took a turn discards their hand.
Scenarios
S.A.B.O.T.A.G.E.
This is the standard scenario described in the Rules of Procedure.
Difficulties
- EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH: Standard rules of procedure, no changes or additions.
- EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR: Draw 1 extra clone at setup. Use Mega Vortexes instead of Vortexes.
- EMPLOYEE OF ETERNITY: Draw 3 extra clones at setup. Use Mega Vortexes instead of Vortexes.
Supa Sayan Clones
Supaclones
Supaclones count as clones for all game rules. Just like normal clones, they're destroyed when they're moved back to their Origin Era.
The Agents need to destroy all of the Supaclones on the board (in addition to completing four Missions) to win.
When a Supaclone is destroyed, a Perpetual Energy cube is placed on the Era. A number of normal Clones are also spawned (one for the first Supaclone destroyed, two for the second, and so on). These Clones are spawned in the Era that the Supaclone was destroyed in, and not the Era that they would normally be spawned in. If that happens to be their Origin Era, they're immediately destroyed and not replaced. (Lucky you!)
Perpetual Energy
Perpetual Energy, represented by blue cubes, works just like normal Energy, except that it's not removed from the board when you use it. The same Perpetual Energy cube can be used multiple times in a single turn.
Difficulties
- EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH: Draw 3 Supaclones at setup.
- EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR: Draw 4 Supaclones at setup. Use Mega Vortexes instead of Vortexes.
- EMPLOYEE OF ETERNITY: Draw 5 Supaclones at setup. Use Mega Vortexes instead of Vortexes.
L.A.S.E.R. Centrifuges
Ultramachina
FAQs
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