How to Play Horrified (2026): Setup, Hero Actions, Monsters & Winning

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How to play Horrified (2026): Horrified: Universal Monsters is a cooperative board game for one to five players. Heroes team up to protect a village from classic movie monsters, rescue villagers and complete a different task to beat each monster. Everyone wins or loses together. This guide follows the official Ravensburger rulebook and covers setup, a hero turn, the monster phase, how to beat each monster and the ways the game can end.

Horrified setup in eight steps

1. Unfold the board and set the terror marker on the first space of the terror track.
2. Choose your monsters. For a first game, the rulebook suggests Dracula and the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
3. Set up each chosen monster as its mat describes, including tokens such as Dracula's coffins.
4. Put the frenzy marker on the mat with the lowest frenzy order number.
5. Deal each player a random hero badge and place each hero at the starting location on its badge.
6. Shuffle the perk cards and give each player one, face up.
7. Shuffle the monster cards into a deck. Put all item tokens in the bag and draw 12 onto the board at the locations printed on them.
8. The player who most recently ate garlic goes first.

A hero turn: actions and perks

Each turn has two phases: the hero phase, then the monster phase. In the hero phase you take up to the number of actions printed on your badge, in any order, repeating actions if you like. Any player may also play perk cards during a hero phase.

The core Horrified actions

• Move: go to an adjacent space along a lit path, bringing any villagers in your space with you.
• Guide: move one villager to or from a space next to you.
• Pick up: take any number of items from your space.
• Share: give items to, or take them from, another hero in your space.
• Advance: work on a monster's task, such as smashing one of Dracula's coffins.
• Defeat: finish off a monster once its task is complete.
• Special action: some heroes, such as the Courier or the Archaeologist, have a unique action on their badge.

When you lead a villager to the safe location shown on their mover, remove them and draw a perk card as a reward. Perks give extra moves, items or ways to slow the monsters.

The monster phase

After your actions, draw the top monster card and resolve its three parts from top to bottom. First, draw the listed number of items from the bag and place them on the board. Second, resolve the event in the middle of the card. Third, perform the monster strike: the monsters shown move toward the nearest hero or villager and roll the listed dice to attack. The frenzied monster acts whenever the frenzy symbol appears.

A hero who is hit can discard one item per hit to ignore it. If a hero is defeated, raise the terror level by one and remove them; on their next turn they return at the Hospital with all their items. A defeated villager also raises terror by one.

Beating the monsters

Monster	Task	Defeat
Dracula	Smash his four coffins using red items with a total strength of 6 or more each	Discard yellow items worth 6 or more in his space
Creature from the Black Lagoon	Find the hidden lair by moving the boat along its track	Discard one red, one blue and one yellow item
Frankenstein and the Bride	Teach both to be human	Bring them together once both are ready
The Mummy	Break his curse	Return him to his tomb
The Invisible Man	Supply evidence to the police	Trap him
The Wolf Man	Discover the cure	Administer it to the Wolf Man

Each monster mat explains its own task in detail, which is why every combination feels like a new puzzle.

How Horrified ends

• Heroes win: defeat every monster you are playing against.
• Terror: if the terror marker reaches the skull, the monsters overrun the village and everyone loses.
• Out of time: if you need to draw a monster card and the deck is empty, everyone loses.

Picking a difficulty

Play with two monsters for a gentler game, three for a standard challenge and four for a tough night. Frankenstein and the Bride count as one choice but bring two figures to the board, so they make any game busier.

Horrified tips for a first game

• Escort villagers early. Each rescue is a perk card and one less target for the monsters.
• Spread items around the team. Heroes with no items have nothing to discard when attacked.
• Plan around the frenzy. The frenzied monster acts more often, so deal with it first when you can.
• Want more co-op tension? Our games like Pandemic list has more team-versus-the-board picks.

Horrified rules questions

How many players can play Horrified?

Horrified: Universal Monsters plays one to five, with solo rules in the rulebook.

Is Horrified scary for kids?

The theme is spooky but not gory, and the box is rated for ages 10 and up.

Are the other Horrified games different?

Horrified: American Monsters and Horrified: Greek Monsters are standalone boxes with new monsters and nearly the same core rules.