Mechanical Beast

About this board game

Mechanical Beast is a tile-laying and manipulation puzzle for 1–4 players that plays in about 40 minutes. As an exploration party of engineers, you must enter a giant robot, locate its control room, deactivate it, and escape before the machine locks down.

The sentient robot was created to improve itself by building new modules, but its organic growth eventually made it impossible to understand. With the original blueprints useless and no external logs available, your team must navigate the beast’s unknown internal structure and find a way to shut it off.

During the first part of the game, the maze grows as you explore. Rooms are revealed and the path ahead takes shape until you discover the off switch. Gears found within the robot can change the layout of the rooms, helping you create a route through the chaos.

• Explore: Expand the maze while searching for the control room.
• Manipulate: Use gears to alter rooms and help open a path.
• Escape: Once the robot is deactivated, hurry out as its rooms collapse.
• Rescue: Get everyone to safety, including trapped people and your trusted android.

After the off switch is found, the challenge changes. The robot begins self-disassembling, the rooms collapse around you, and you must reach the exit before you are trapped forever inside its bowels. You can activate gears yourself or send your android helper to tinker with the machinery when the route becomes difficult.

Mechanical Beast supports solo, cooperative, and competitive play for up to four players. Whether working together or competing, victory depends on getting the entire group—including the android—out of the beast.