
- BGG rank
- BGG #7,785
- BGG rating
- 7.4
Carcassonne Labyrinth
- 1–4 players
- 30 min
- Complexity 1.8/5
- 2026

2022
Rules assistance for Mechanical Beast
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.
For 1 player

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Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
Mechanical Beast is a board game released in 2022 for 1–4 players, 20–40 minutes per game, and ages 10 and up. It was designed by Ben Morayta and its main mechanics are Tile Placement, Cooperative Game, and Network and Route Building.
[Deep Into and Back Out of the Belly of a Huge] Mechanical Beast is a tile laying/manipulation puzzle, where you play as an exploration party of engineers who, together with your android helper, must explore the belly of a giant robot to find its control room and deactivate it. During the first part of the game, the maze will grow as you explore, until you find the off switch. The rest of the game the rooms are collapsing around you, and you must quickly make your way to the exit before the robot locks down, trapping you forever inside its bowels. You can change the layout of the rooms using the gears you find within, to help you find an exit. You win by getting everyone, including the people you find trapped within and your trusted android, out of the beast. The game can be played solo, co-op, or competitively with up to 4 players. —description from the designer The creature was all humanity hoped for: a sentient robot, with the capacity to self-improve by building itself new modules to solve the needs of the population, big and small. It was an endless source of admiration and improvement of people’s lives. That is, until it started to go out of control. At this point no human had a detailed plan on how to fix it, or even shut it off. Due to the organic growth it had had, the original blueprints were useless, and nobody had thought of keeping logs outside of the machine’s system. There was no guide whatsoever on how it was structured now. Your team, as designers of the core system, must dive into the bowels of the beast, find its control room, activate the off switch, and then escape before it collapses entirely around you while self-disassembling. To aid in your quest you can send your reliable android to tinker with the gears and rooms, should you get stuck, or you can activate the gears yourself to create a path amongst the chaos. —description from the rulebook
Mechanical Beast supports 1–4 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.
The listed playing time for Mechanical Beast is 20–40 minutes. This is the publisher’s estimate for a full game. The actual duration depends on the group, the player count and familiarity with the rules: first sessions usually run longer, while experienced groups often finish faster. Setup and teaching time are not included in this estimate.
The catalogue lists Mechanical Beast for ages 10 and up. This is the publisher’s recommendation and reflects reading demands, rule complexity and small components rather than theme alone. Younger players can often join with help from an adult, so check the age guidance on your edition and consider your group’s experience with board games.
Mechanical Beast has a complexity rating of 2.3 out of 5 from BoardGameGeek players, which makes it a medium-light game. The rating reflects how much rules knowledge, planning and decision-making a typical game demands. Expect a longer first teach for heavier games, and use a preparation guide before game night.
Mechanical Beast belongs to these categories: Print & Play, Puzzle, and Maze. Its main mechanics are Tile Placement, Cooperative Game, and Network and Route Building. Categories describe the theme and setting of a game, while mechanics describe what players actually do on their turns. Each mechanic links to a catalogue hub with similar games, which helps when you want something comparable.
The credited designers of Mechanical Beast are: Ben Morayta. These credits come from the published game data and name the people responsible for the game’s design, not its illustrators or publishers. Designer pages on MeepleRules collect other titles by the same designers, which helps when you enjoy a game and want to find similar ones.
The catalogue lists Mechanical Beast as a base game. It can be played on its own with the components in the box and does not require any other title. Expansions, if any exist, add new content or rules on top of it and are listed separately in the catalogue with a link back to this base game.