The battle against Apocalypse is a race between survival and apocalypse. The Apocalypse tracker will advance on the track whenever Heroes are KO’d, or even damaged, or there’s an Overflow. Apocalypse himself can’t be damaged, but whenever Heroes would damage him, the Survival tracker will advance on the track instead. If the Survival tracker ever catches up to the Apocalypse tracker, the Heroes win and avert the end of times. If the Apocalypse tracker reaches the end, then… it’s THE END.
Apocalypse is a powerhouse who pummels the Heroes mercilessly, then retreats back to his pyramid where he has extra protection. He even starts the game by kidnapping a Hero and dragging them to his pyramid. Most of his Master Plan cards activate the Four Horsemen in a particular order. The Four Horsemen are a very special kind of Threat. With their game piece placed on the Location, their BAM effects will move each of them around in a specific way (Famine haunt Civilians, War relies on Thugs, Pestilence seeks desolated places, Death just wants a target). They then harm the Heroes accordingly, following their corrupted natures (Famine damages Heroes around Civilians, War incites all Thugs against them, Pestilence infects Heroes, Death deals lots of damage). In order to take out the Horsemen, Heroes need to attack their game pieces directly, similar to as if they were Villains.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cmon/marvel-united-x-men/posts/3160152
If you’ve been following the more recent comic storylines, you may be aware that Apocalypse has actually joined the X-Men as a full-fledged hero! This is a momentous and unexpected development that we thought would be fun to explore in Marvel United, and so we’re turning Apocalypse into an Anti-Hero. The Horsemen of Apocalypse expansion box will be updated to include 12 Apocalypse Hero cards, and his game piece will now be purple (a color that certainly fits him quite well).
As a Hero, Apocalypse is certainly not the best team player around, with cards that turn themselves facedown after being played, which doesn’t help the next Hero one bit. However, as one would expect, he is a legendary powerhouse. Self Molecular Manipulation allows him to straight up draw 2 cards. His Survival of the Fittest attack lays waste all around him. And finally, his Immortality starting card not only grants him an extra card, but makes it so that if he is ever KO’d, the Villain doesn’t get to activate their BAM! (or other effect they may have instead of doing that).
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cmon/marvel-united-x-men/posts/3176455
