Altera Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• The Guilds
• The High Council
• Before You Begin: Core Concepts
• Components
• Setup
  • Board Setup
  • Guild Card Setup
  • Player Setup
• Round Structure Overview
• Dice Overview
  • Dice Tiers
• Phase 1: Draw
• Phase 2: Deploy Emissaries
  • Emissaries
  • Villa Board
  • Action Spaces
  • Action Space Types
  • Deployments
    • Guild Action Space Reputation
    • Blocking
    • Passing
• Phase 3: Reveal & Resolve
  • Resolving a Die
• Phase 4: Recruitment
  • Spending Influence
  • Recruiting and Upgrading Dice
  • Resetting Influence
• Phase 5: Guild Clashes
  • Resolving Clashes
• Phase 6: Reset
• End of Game
  • Objective Cards
• Resources and Core Icons
  • Prestige
  • Reputation
  • Influence
  • Favors
  • Coins
  • Shards
• Artifacts
  • Crafting Artifacts
  • Upgrading Artifacts
  • Trashing Artifacts
• Faction Cards
  • Artifact and Faction Abilities
• Objective Cards
• Benefactor Tokens
• Upgrading Dice
• Basic Action Spaces
  • Basic Action Space 1
  • Basic Action Space 2
  • Basic Action Space 3
• Priority Order
• Variant Rules - 2 Player
  • Setup additions
  • During the first Deployment of the Deploy Emissaries Phase each round
  • During Reset
  • Ghost Faction Rules
• 5-6 Player Rules
  • Setup
  • At the end of each Deployment
• Variant Rules - Solo Mode
  • Rivals
  • Rival Setup
  • Using the Rival Bag
  • Deploy Emissaries Phase
  • Rival Reputation and Track Rewards
  • Reveal & Resolve Phase
  • Guild Clash Phase
  • End of the Game (Solo)
  • Declaring the Winner
  • Difficulty Options
• Actions Reference
• Faction Reference
• Artifact Reference
• Frequently Asked Questions

The Guilds

There are three Guilds in Altera, each with its own dice, action spaces, and Reputation track.

• The Artisan Guild (red): A cutthroat and prestigious Guild of strength, culture, athleticism, and craftsmanship. Their dice most commonly show Artisanry and Influence.
• The Merchant Guild (orange): A savvy and adaptable Guild of trade, economy, and politics. Although their lack of Artisanry and Magic makes it difficult to impress the High Council, their dice are the most flexible, most commonly showing Coins and Favors.
• The Alchemist Guild (blue): A creative and curious Guild of magic, technology, and mental acuity. They are most attuned to Altera's ancient Artifacts, with dice that most commonly show Magic and Shards.

The High Council

The High Council is the ruling authority of Altera and has its own Reputation track separate from the three Guilds. High Council Reputation is earned primarily by resolving Artisanry and Magic icons on your dice during the Reveal & Resolve Phase, as well as through certain Artifact and Faction abilities.

Before You Begin: Core Concepts

• Dice are at the heart of your strategy. You'll draw them from your bag, roll them, and use them to take actions or gain resources. They come in four tiers of escalating power, and are either Basic (white) dice, or tied to one of three Guilds: the Artisans, the Merchants, or the Alchemists. Over the course of the game, you'll build your collection of dice into a personalized engine (bag). You can recruit (gain) new dice, upgrade existing dice, and trash dice you no longer want to thin your bag and increase the odds of drawing what you need.
• Emissaries are your workers. You'll slot dice to deploy them to Guild action spaces to earn rewards and build your Reputation with the Guilds.
• Reputation is your standing with each Guild and the High Council. All 3 Guilds and the High Council will give rewards at the end of each round to the player with the most Reputation.
• Influence is a temporary currency you'll earn from your dice each round and spend to recruit new dice.
• Prestige is victory points. The player with the most Prestige at the end of the game wins.

Components

• 1 game board
• 4 guide cards
• 60 Guild cards
• 80 Artifact cards
• 12 Faction cards
• 40 objective cards
• 4 Villa Boards
• 4 Villa shields
• 4 Villa Bags
• 16 emissaries
• 20 Faction markers (1 of each with +25)
• 4 influence markers
• 12 benefactor tokens
• 16 Favor tokens
• 28 shard tokens
• 28 Coins
• 20 tier 0 dice (Basic - White)
• 21 tier 1 dice (Black symbols in Red, Orange, and Blue)
• 21 tier 2 dice (White symbols in Red, Orange, and Blue)
• 21 tier 3 dice (Purple symbols in Red, Orange, and Blue)

Setup

Board Setup

1. Place the main game board in the center of the play area.
2. Shuffle all Faction cards and set them near the board.
3. Shuffle all Objective cards and place them in a face down deck to the left of the board.
4. Sort all dice by Guild (background color) and tier (icon color) and place them next to the board, accessible to all players.
5. Gather all Coin, Favor, and Shard tokens and create a supply for each next to the board.
6. Place one Faction marker of each player's color on the starting space of the following tracks on the main board: Prestige track (A), High Council track (B), and one on each Guild Reputation track (C).
   • Use the Faction marker with +25 on one side for the Prestige track.
7. Stack one Benefactor token per player into each of the marked Benefactor token spaces on the board.
8. Place one Influence marker of each player's color on the starting space of the Influence track, with the Influence side face up.
9. Gather a single copy of each of the 20 Artifact cards with an Artifact marker. Shuffle and reveal 6 to use this game. For each of these selected Artifacts, make a face up stack of 1 Artifact card per player (for example, 3 of each of the 6 Artifacts in a 3-player game), and place the stacks in the Artifact display to the right of the board. Return the rest of the Artifact cards to the box.

Guild Card Setup

10. Sort all Guild cards by their color and Stage number. For each Guild, build a deck as follows:
    • A. Shuffle the Stage 1 cards and place 1 of them face down.
    • B. Shuffle the Stage 2 cards and stack 3 of them face down on top of the deck.
    • C. Shuffle the Stage 3 cards and stack 3 of them face down on top of the deck.
    • D. Flip the deck so that the Stage 1 card is showing face up on top.
11. Place each Guild deck on its marked space on the board, with the Stage 1 card visible on top.
12. Return the unused Guild cards to the box.

Player Setup

1. Each player takes a Guide Card, chooses a color and takes all components of that color: Villa shield, Villa Board, Villa Bag, 4 Emissaries.
2. Stand up your Villa shield and place your Villa Board behind it.
3. Place 2 Emissaries next to your Villa shield. These are your starting available Emissaries. Place the remaining 2 behind your Villa shield; these are reserve Emissaries and cannot be deployed.
4. Deal 2 Faction cards to each player. Each player chooses 1 to keep, places it face up next to their Villa shield, and returns the other to the deck. Once all players have chosen their Faction, return the deck to the box.
   • Each player gains the starting dice listed on the top right of their Faction card, and places them in their Villa Bag. These will consist of Tier 0 dice (white) and Tier 1 dice (in various colors).
   • If a Faction has starting resources listed below their dice on the Faction card, players will take them now and place them in front of their Villa shield to form a personal resource supply. These may include Coins, Shards, or Favors.
5. Deal 2 Objective cards to each player. Each player chooses 1 to keep, places it face down next to their Villa shield, and returns the other to the bottom of the deck.
6. Additional setup for 1, 2, or 5-6 player games can be found in the variant sections below.

Objective cards provide Prestige at the end of the game if their conditions are met. These cards remain private.

Round Structure Overview

Altera is played over 7 rounds, each representing one week of the Ascension Festival. Every round follows these six phases in order:

1. Draw: Players draw and roll dice to form their active pool.
2. Deploy Emissaries: Players deploy Emissaries to action spaces by slotting dice.
3. Reveal & Resolve: Players collect resources from unused dice.
4. Recruitment: Players spend Influence to add or upgrade dice.
5. Guild Clashes: Players with the highest Reputation gain rewards from Guilds.
6. Reset: The board is reset for the next round.

Dice Overview

During play, your dice will be in multiple different locations. Your dice start in your Villa Bag. When instructed to Draw a die, take a die from your Villa Bag, and roll it into your active pool, which is the area to the left of your Villa Board, hidden behind your Villa shield. Dice from your active pool can be slotted onto your Villa Board during the Deploy Emissaries Phase. After the Reveal and Resolve phase, they will be discarded to your discard area which is to the right of your Villa Board.

Dice Tiers

There are 4 tiers of dice: Tier 0, 1, 2, and 3. Tier 0 dice have a white background color, and are not associated with any Guild. Tier 1-3 are associated with one of the three Guilds, as denoted by their background color. Tier 1 dice icons are black, Tier 2 dice icons are white, and Tier 3 dice icons are purple.

When you roll a die, it will show icons that you'll use to deploy Emissaries or to gain rewards in the Reveal & Resolve Phase. For info on each icon, see the Actions Reference.

Phase 1: Draw

To begin the round, each player draws 5 dice from their Villa Bag and rolls them behind their Villa shield to form their active dice pool for the round. If you run out of dice while drawing, refill your Villa Bag with all dice from your discard area, then continue drawing until you have 5 dice.

Phase 2: Deploy Emissaries

All players simultaneously place a die onto an empty slot on their Villa Board behind their Villa shield. Once all players have a die slotted, all players reveal their Villa Boards at the same time (keeping dice in their active pools hidden). Each player sends an available Emissary to the action space corresponding to the die they just placed. Repeat this process until all players have deployed all of their available Emissaries.

Emissaries

At the beginning of the game you have two available Emissaries, which are kept in front of your Villa shield, and two reserve Emissaries which are kept behind your Villa shield. To make your reserve Emissaries available:

• You can temporarily unlock one reserve Emissary for the current round by deploying an available Emissary to the top Basic action space on the board (see Basic Action Spaces).
• You can permanently unlock one reserve Emissary by purchasing the Merchant Benefactor token (see Benefactor Tokens).

Villa Board

Your Villa Board has 12 slots that correspond directly to all action spaces where your Emissaries can be deployed on the main board (3 Basic action spaces, and 9 Guild action spaces).

Action Spaces

During this phase you will deploy your available Emissaries to action spaces. There are 3 Basic action spaces on the main board, and 3 Guild action spaces on each face up Guild Card.

Each Guild card shows a Clash Reward, a Guild Icon, a Stage Number, and the Action Spaces with their icon and Guild requirements.

Each action space has:

1. Dice Requirements — Action spaces have two types of dice requirements: Guild requirements and icon requirements. An action space can have one or both. In order to slot a die to deploy an Emissary, it must meet all requirements.

   • A. Guild Requirement — A requirement with a red, orange, or blue background means you must slot a die with a matching Guild background color. A requirement with a white background means any die may be placed there.
   • B. Icon Requirement — The die slotted must have at least one icon that matches this space's icon.

   Favors can be spent to help your dice meet these requirements, for more information on Favors, see Favors below.

2. Rewards — When you activate an action space, gain all listed resources and actions in any order. Some actions may require a cost in order to gain the rewards. See the Actions Reference for more information on all reward types.

   • A. Paid Rewards: An arrow on an action space reward means you must pay the resource or perform the action shown on the left of the arrow to gain the reward shown on the right. The reward is optional and may only be used once. You may choose not to pay and gain nothing from that portion of the action space reward.
   • B. Scaling Rewards (per): Some action space rewards scale based on what icons are showing on the die used to deploy an Emissary to the action space.
     • One form: gain the linked reward once for each icon visible on the die, regardless of type.
     • One form: gain the linked reward once for each icon of the indicated type visible on the die.
     • One form: gain the linked reward once for each icon visible on the die that is not the indicated type.

Action Space Types

There are two types of action spaces: Guild action spaces, and Basic action spaces.

Guild action spaces are found on each of the three active Guild cards on the board. Each has three Guild action spaces. The "1" action space of each Guild card has an icon requirement. The "2" action space has a Guild requirement. The "3" action space has both a Guild requirement and an icon requirement.

Basic action spaces are found on the board and are available every round. These three spaces have no dice requirements, meaning you can deploy an Emissary to a Basic action space with any die, regardless of its Guild or icon. (See Basic Action Spaces.)

Deployments

The Deploy Emissaries Phase is broken into a series of individual deployments that continues until all players have deployed all available Emissaries or passed.

Each Deployment:

1. All players who have at least one available Emissary simultaneously slot a die into an empty slot on their Villa Board behind their Villa shield. Once you have slotted a die, announce that you are ready to reveal by flipping your Faction card face down.
   • You may not place a die in a slot that corresponds to an action space that already has an Emissary on it.
   • You may choose to pass and not place a die. If you choose not to, you take no further deployments this round. (see Passing, below)
   • Before slotting a die, you may spend one or more Favors to change that die's face and / or Guild (color) to match requirements. More info on Favors can be found below.
2. Once ready, all players simultaneously reveal the slotted dice on their Villa Boards without revealing the dice in their active pool. Each player then deploys an available Emissary to the action space corresponding to the die they just revealed.
   • If two or more players reveal dice slotted for the same action space, they do not block each other. All Emissaries are deployed as normal.
3. All players first gain Guild action space Reputation (see below), then gain the rewards of the action space they deployed to. Each player may gain their rewards in any order they choose.
   • Rewards are gained simultaneously. If order matters (such as multiple players gaining Wild Guild Reputation) resolve them in priority order, starting with the player with the lowest priority number on their Faction card (See Priority Order).
   • Rewards can be a mix of resources and actions. For more info on specific reward icons, see the Actions Reference.

Guild Action Space Reputation

Whenever you deploy an Emissary to a Guild action space, immediately gain 1 Reputation with that Guild by advancing your marker on its Reputation track, in addition to any rewards listed on the action space. If your marker reaches a reward icon on the Reputation track, gain that reward immediately.

Blocking

More than one Emissary may be deployed to the same space by different players during a single deployment, but once an Emissary is on an action space, that space is blocked, and no further Emissaries may be placed there this round.

Note: This may be overridden by some Artifact cards (see Artifact Reference).

Passing

During a Deployment, you may choose to pass instead of slotting a die, even if you have available Emissaries remaining. If you pass, you cannot deploy again for the remainder of this round. Repeat the Deployment process until all players have either deployed all their available Emissaries or passed.

Example: The yellow player deploys their Emissary to the 1st Guild action space and immediately moves their Faction marker up once on the Reputation Track. They choose to gain a Craft Artifact action or 2 as a track reward.

Phase 3: Reveal & Resolve

Once the Deploy Emissaries Phase has completed, begin the Reveal & Resolve Phase by removing your Villa shield and revealing all dice remaining in your active pool. Then, resolve all dice in your pool (see below). The dice on your Villa Board and in your discard area are not resolved.

Before revealing, you may spend one Favor to rotate a die in your active pool to any face. You may do this any number of times, spending one Favor each time. Once the die is revealed it cannot be changed. More info on Favors can be found below.

Resolving a Die

1. If the die is Tier 1, 2, or 3, gain one Influence by moving your marker up the Influence track one space.
2. Gain the following for each icon showing on the die:
   • Coin — Gain 1 Coin from the main supply into your personal resource supply
   • Shard — Gain 1 Shard from the main supply into your personal resource supply
   • Favor — Gain 1 Favor from the main supply into your personal resource supply
   • Influence — Gain 1 Influence (move your marker up the Influence track one space)
   • Artisanry — Gain 1 High Council Reputation (move your marker up the High Council track one space)
   • Magic — Gain 1 High Council Reputation (move your marker up the High Council track one space)
   • Wild — Gain 1 of any of the above rewards
   • When a player's token reaches track reward icons shown at the bottom of High Council spaces, they immediately gain those rewards.

All dice remaining in your active pool as well as those on your Villa Board are moved to your discard area.

All resources in your personal resource supply are public information and are not limited by the supply. In the unlikely scenario that you run out, find another means to track these resources.

Phase 4: Recruitment

During the Recruitment phase, players spend the Influence they accumulated this round to recruit or upgrade dice. Players will take turns recruiting or upgrading dice, starting with the player who has the most influence at the beginning of the Recruitment Phase, followed by the player with the second most, then third and so on. If two or more players have the same amount of influence, Faction priority breaks the tie (For more information on Faction priority, see Priority Order). The Influence track will be reset for every player during the Reset Phase, so any Influence not spent is lost.

Spending Influence

Spend Influence to recruit or upgrade dice:

• 2 Influence — Recruit one Tier 1 die from any Guild.
• 4 Influence — Recruit one Tier 2 die from any Guild.
• 8 Influence — Recruit one Tier 3 die from any Guild.
• 10 Influence — Upgrade one of your dice and gain 1 Prestige.

You may recruit or upgrade as many dice as you can afford. All recruited or upgraded dice go into your discard area.

Recruiting and Upgrading Dice

To recruit a die, take a die from the supply and add it to your discard area. For details on upgrading dice, see Upgrading Dice.

Resetting Influence

After all players have finished spending their Influence, each player's Influence is reset to 0. Move all Influence markers back to the start of the track.

When there are a lot of dice in the supply it may not actually matter in what order players recruit dice. In these instances, players may agree to recruit dice simultaneously to save time.

Phase 5: Guild Clashes

At the end of each round, each Guild rewards the Faction that impressed them most.

Resolving Clashes

Resolve each clash in this order: Artisan Guild, Merchant Guild, Alchemist Guild, then High Council.

For each Guild Clash:

1. Identify the player(s) whose marker is highest on that Guild's Reputation track. In the diagram:
   • Yellow is highest on the Artisans track.
   • Pink is highest on the Merchants track.
   • Yellow and Pink are tied on the Alchemists track.
2. Those players earn the Guild Clash reward shown at the top of the current corresponding Guild card in any order they choose.
   • Yellow may upgrade any 1 of their red dice, draws 1 Objective card (Artisan reward) and gains 1 Prestige (Alchemist reward).
   • Pink draws 1 Objective card and collects 2 Coins (Merchant reward) and they also gain 1 Prestige (Alchemist reward).
3. All players who earned the Guild Clash reward then reset their Reputation for that Guild to 0 by moving their marker back to the starting space on the track. In the diagram:
   • Yellow would set their Reputation on the Artisan and Alchemist tracks to 0.
   • Pink would set their Reputation on the Merchant and Alchemist tracks to 0.

To resolve the High Council Clash:

4. Identify the player(s) whose marker is on the space farthest to the right on the High Council Reputation track. Those players gain the corresponding High Council reward.
   • The High Council track is divided into sections, each with a reward shown above it. The winner(s) of the clash gain the reward above the section their marker occupies.
   • Yellow is farthest on the track, gaining 1 Prestige.
5. Reset High Council Reputation of the winner(s) to 0 by moving their marker(s) back to the starting space on the track.
   • Yellow would set their Reputation on the High Council track to 0.

When resolving clashes, ties are friendly. If two or more players are tied for the highest position on a Reputation track, each of them receives the reward and moves their marker back to the starting space on the track.

Phase 6: Reset

Prepare the board for the next round.

1. Retrieve Emissaries — Players take all their Deployed Emissaries back from the board and return them to their available Emissary supply next to their Villa shield.
   • An Emissary at the 1st Basic Action space is instead returned to your reserve behind your Villa shield.
2. Advance the Guild Decks — Discard the top card from each Guild deck back to the box, revealing the next one in the stack.
3. Ready Artifacts and Faction cards — All players rotate any exhausted Artifact cards as well as their Faction card back to their upright position, ready to be used again next round (For more information on Artifacts and Faction cards, see below).
4. Proceed to the next round, beginning with the Draw phase. If all Guild decks are now empty (at the end of Round 7), proceed to the end of game.

End of Game

When the Guild decks are empty after Round 7, the game ends.

Objective Cards

Players reveal all Objective cards they've collected over the course of the game, assigning resources to each card. Players gain 1 Prestige for each objective card fully completed. Resources, Artifacts, and dice cannot be used across multiple objective cards.

Example: Either objective can be completed, but not both. A 4th Coin would be required (to complete both).

The player with the most Prestige is granted a permanent seat on the Altera High Council, and wins the game!

In the case of a player going over 25 Prestige, place that player's token at the beginning of the track and switch it to its +25 side to continue tracking Prestige. In the event of a tie, all tied players share the council seats and the victory.

Resources and Core Icons

Prestige

Prestige is the primary scoring metric in Altera and is tracked on the Prestige track at the top of the board. Any time you gain Prestige, move your marker up the track. Unlike Reputation and Influence, Prestige is never lost or reset. Prestige is earned through clashes, Artifact abilities and upgrades, Objective Cards, and Reputation track bonuses.

Reputation

Each Guild and the High Council has its own Reputation track on the board. Any time you gain Reputation with a Guild or the High Council, move your marker up that track. Rewards shown on the track are gained immediately when your marker reaches them.

If you gain multiple Reputation with a single action you still gain each Reputation one by one in order, along with any rewards for spaces you land on as you go up the track.

At the end of each round, players who won the clash for a Guild or the High Council reset their Reputation on that track to 0 by moving their marker to the starting space on the track.

Influence

Influence is a temporary resource used to recruit and upgrade dice. Any time you gain or spend Influence, move your Influence marker up or down the Influence track. Your Influence marker is double-sided. If you gain Influence while on the 10 space, flip your marker to the +10 side and move it to the 1 space on the track. The maximum Influence you can have in a round is 20.

Gaining Influence

1. You can earn Influence during the Deploy Emissaries Phase by activating action spaces showing the Influence icon.
2. During the Reveal & Resolve Phase:
   • You earn one Influence for each red, blue, or orange die in your active pool.
   • You earn one Influence for each Influence symbol showing on your resolved Dice.

Spending Influence

You spend Influence during the Recruitment Phase to recruit and upgrade your dice. All unspent Influence resets to 0 at the end of each Recruitment Phase. See Phase 4: Recruitment.

Favors

Favors are a flexible resource that can be spent to modify the face or Guild (color) of a die. Multiple Favors can be used on the same die. When you gain a Favor, take a Favor token from the main supply and place it in your personal resource supply in front of your Villa shield. When you spend a Favor token, return it to the supply.

Using Favor tokens:

• A. Spend 1 Favor during the Deploy Emissaries Phase to turn a die in your active pool to any face you choose. This is often helpful to meet the icon requirement necessary to slot a die. You can use Favors at the end of the Deploy Emissaries Phase to turn dice in your active pool and change the icon rewards you will receive when the die resolves during the Reveal & Resolve Phase.
• B. Spend 1 Favor when Deploying an Emissary to ignore the Guild requirement on an action space. (If the action space also shows an icon requirement, you still must meet that requirement.)
• C. Some Faction and Artifact abilities require Favors.
• D. Some action space rewards allow you to spend Favors to gain other actions or resources.

Coins

Coins are a resource that can be spent in a number of different ways. When you gain a Coin, take a Coin from the main supply and place it in your personal resource supply in front of your Villa shield. When you spend a Coin, return it to the supply.

You can spend Coins to:

• A. Purchase Benefactor tokens.
• B. Gain additional actions or resources on certain action space rewards.
• C. Craft and upgrade Artifacts when using the Purchase Artifact action.
• D. Activate some Faction abilities.

Coins come in denominations of 1 and 3.

Shards

Shards are a resource that can be spent in a number of different ways. When you gain a Shard, take a Shard token from the main supply and place it in your personal resource supply in front of your Villa shield. When you spend a Shard token, return it to the supply.

You can spend Shards to:

• A. Craft or upgrade Artifacts when using the Craft Artifact action.
• B. Gain additional actions or resources on certain action space rewards.
• C. Activate some Faction and Artifact abilities.

Shards come in denominations of 1 and 3.

Artifacts

An Artifact card shows: Artifact Marker, Artifact Name, Craft Cost, Craft Reward, Upgrade Cost, Upgrade Reward, Artifact Ability, and an Upgraded Ability Preview.

Artifacts are powerful tools you craft with Shards and use throughout the game. (See the Artifact Reference for a full list.) When resolving the Craft Artifact action you may either craft an Artifact or upgrade an available Artifact you already own.

Out of each Artifact card set, there is a unique Artifact Marker on one of the cards. This can be used to randomly pick your starting Artifacts.

Crafting Artifacts

You can Craft an Artifact by resolving the Craft Artifact action on action space rewards, Guild track rewards, Artifact abilities, and Faction abilities.

To resolve a Craft Artifact action, pay the Shard cost shown at the top right of one of the 6 available Artifact cards. Then take the top card from the supply and place it face up in front of your Villa shield and gain any listed craft rewards immediately. Artifact abilities may be used during the turn you gain them. See Abilities section below.

You may only craft one copy of each Artifact per game. Even if an Artifact is later trashed, you may not craft another copy of it.

Upgrading Artifacts

You can upgrade a crafted Artifact by resolving the Craft Artifact action again and paying the upgrade cost at the bottom left of its card. Immediately gain its upgrade reward, flip it to its upgraded side. If the Artifact had already been used this round, ready its ability again for use this round. For more on abilities and readying, see the Abilities section.

Trashing Artifacts

Some Upgraded Artifacts require a player to trash it after using its ability. Trashed Artifacts are placed under your Villa Board. Trashed Artifacts can still be used to complete Artifact requirements on Objective cards.

Faction Cards

Your Faction card defines your unique ability, priority number, and starting dice and resources:

• Unique Ability — Each Faction has a unique ability. See Abilities section below.
• Priority Number — When the order of resolving effects matters, players resolve in priority order (lowest number goes first). This could be for gaining new dice with or for choosing which Guilds to gain Reputation with.
• Starting Dice & Resources — Your Faction card also details which dice and resources you'll take at the beginning of the game. See Setup section for more info.

Artifact and Faction Abilities

Artifacts and Faction cards have one of two ability types:

1. Once Per Round

Use this ability once during a round. After using the card's ability, exhaust the card by turning it sideways. During the Reset Phase, ready all exhausted Artifacts and Faction cards by turning them upright again.

Example: "Once Per Round: Spend 4 Coins to Upgrade a Die."

Once Per Round — Ability Timing: Abilities on Artifacts and Faction cards may be used at any time with the following exceptions:

• While resolving an Emissary deployment
• While recruiting dice in the Recruitment Phase (unless specified by the card)
• While resolving Guild Clashes (unless specified by the card)

After using a Once Per Round ability, rotate the card to mark it as exhausted. It cannot be used again this round. All exhausted abilities will be refreshed during the Reset Phase. Note that you may use abilities at the beginning of the Reset Phase before abilities are refreshed for the next round.

When upgrading an Artifact, ready its ability immediately — it can be used again this round even if it was exhausted before being upgraded.

2. Passive

This ability is always active. No exhausting required.

Example: "Passive: Gain a Favor when Resolving a Tier 3 Die."

Objective Cards

Each player begins the game with 1 Objective card. Additional Objective cards can be gained through certain action spaces and track bonuses. When gaining Objective cards, players draw 2, keep 1, then discard the other. If the supply of Objective cards run out, shuffle the discard pile to make a new supply.

Objective cards are kept hidden from other players. However, the number of Objective cards you have is public information.

At the end of the game, players reveal all Objective cards they've collected over the course of the game, assigning resources to each card. Players gain 1 Prestige for each Objective card fully completed. Resources, Artifacts, and dice cannot be used across multiple Objective cards.

Benefactor Tokens

Each Guild has a Benefactor token available at the top of its Reputation track. You can purchase a Guild's Benefactor token at any time, as long as you are currently far enough up that Guild's Reputation track and have the required Coins. The price varies based on your marker's current placement on the Guild's Reputation track— the higher you are, the cheaper the token. (The Coin price is printed alongside the track on the board.)

Each player may only have one of each Guild's Benefactor token. Once purchased, the token's benefit applies immediately and at the start of every subsequent round.

• Artisan Benefactor Token: When purchased gain 2 Influence immediately. On each following round gain 2 Influence.
• Alchemist Benefactor Token: When purchased draw and roll 1 die immediately. On each following round, draw 1 extra die during the Draw Phase.
• Merchant Benefactor Token: When purchased unlock your 3rd Emissary immediately, turning one of your reserve Emissaries into an active one. You will have your 3rd Emissary for the remainder of the game.

Example: Yellow may spend 2 Coins to gain the Alchemist Benefactor token. Pink must spend 4 Coins for the same effect. Teal may not spend Coins for the token.

Upgrading Dice

When you Upgrade a die:

1. Choose a die from your Villa Board, active pool, or discard area.
   • You cannot upgrade a die that's inside your bag.
2. Return the chosen die to the supply and take a die that's one Tier higher from the same Guild, placing it in the spot where the chosen die was.
   • If it's entering your pool, roll it immediately.

Tier 0 (white) dice can be upgraded to any eligible tier 1 dice. Eligibility depends on the action being taken to upgrade the dice.

• The "Upgrade Any Die" icon can upgrade any color die.
• The "Upgrade Tier 0 or 1" icon can upgrade any Tier zero or Tier one die.
• The Guild-colored upgrade icons can upgrade a white die to a tier one die or upgrade a die of the same color.

Dice supplies are limited. Follow priority order if more than one player is attempting to take the same remaining die.

Basic Action Spaces

Basic action spaces have no dice requirements and no Guild (color) requirement, and can be activated with any die, even if there is no icon present.

Basic Action Space 1

• One of your reserve Emissaries becomes available for this round. Move it from behind your shield to your available supply. At the end of the round, during the Reset Phase, the Emissary used to activate this space will go back to your reserve instead of into your supply of available Emissaries.
• Draw a die from your Villa Bag and roll it into your active pool.
• Reroll any number of your dice once (this can include the die you just drew).

Rewards from action spaces can be gained in any order.

Basic Action Space 2

• Gain one Reputation in any of the three Guilds or the High Council.
• Resolve the die used to deploy your Emissary to this space as you would during the Reveal & Resolve Phase.

When resolving a Tier 1, 2, or 3 die you always gain one Influence.

Basic Action Space 3

• Gain one Reputation in any of the three Guilds or the High Council.
  • This is executed twice and does not require the same Reputation gain.

Priority Order

When multiple players are making decisions at the same time, the order of resolving actions can matter (for example, when a reward involves a choice of different Reputation gains, or you are Recruiting with limited available dice left in the supply). In these situations, resolve in priority order: the player whose Faction card shows the lowest priority number goes first, then the next lowest, and so on.

Variant Rules - 2 Player

When playing with 2 players, add a third "ghost" Faction to the game that both players jointly control. This ghost Faction blocks action spaces and competes for Guild Reputation, but earns no rewards and can never win.

Setup additions

1. Choose an unused player color and take 2 Emissaries and 5 Track Markers from it. Give each player 1 of the ghost Emissaries and 1 ghost Track Marker.
2. Place the remaining ghost Track Markers at the bottom of each Guild Reputation track.

During the first Deployment of the Deploy Emissaries Phase each round

1. Each player secretly places their ghost Track Marker (instead of a die) on any action space on their Villa Board where they have not slotted their own die.
2. When boards are revealed, both players deploy their ghost Emissary to the action space indicated by the ghost Track Marker.

Each ghost Emissary deployed this way gives the ghost Faction Reputation in that Guild equal to the Guild card's stage number (1, 2, or 3) shown in the top right of the current Guild card.

During Reset

Each player retrieves their ghost Emissary from the board and removes the ghost Track Marker from their Villa Board, to be used again next round.

Ghost Faction Rules

1. The ghost can win Guild Clashes. When it does, its Reputation in that Guild resets to 0 but it earns no rewards.
2. The ghost never earns rewards from action spaces or Reputation tracks.
3. The ghost never gains Prestige and has no presence on the High Council track.
4. Ghost Emissaries block placement like any other Emissary.

5-6 Player Rules

Requires the 5-6 Player Expansion.

Setup

Add the extra dice and tokens from the expansion to the communal supply.

At the end of each Deployment

Check if the 5+ Player overflow space is empty (no Emissaries) above each Guild Card. If there are no Emissaries in the overflow space, move all Emissaries from the top action space up to the overflow space.

• This allows the top action space to be used again during the next Deployment.

Variant Rules - Solo Mode

Rivals

In the solo mode you will compete with two Rivals. In order to win you must have more Prestige than both of these Rivals at the end of the game. Collect all of your player components and setup the game as normal. Once completed proceed to Rival setup.

Rival Setup

1. Choose two unused player colors and take the following components in that color along with one Villa Bag: Villa Board, 4 Emissaries, 5 Faction markers. Only one bag from these player colors will also be used; this is called the Rival bag.
2. Setup these components as normal, placing one Faction marker for each color at the start of every track (ignoring the influence track). Make sure to use the +25 marker for the Prestige track.
3. Rivals start with two Emissaries placed in the Draw area next to their Villa Board (to the left of the Rival's Villa Board). Place the other two next to the Discard area.
4. Give each Rival one Objective card, placing it face down in front of their Villa Board. The player does not look at these objectives.
5. Assemble the Rival bag with the following 11 dice, and place all 11 dice into the Rival bag:
   • Two Tier 0 dice
   • One Tier 1 die from each Guild (three total)
   • One Tier 2 die from each Guild (three total)
   • One Tier 3 die from each Guild (three total)

Using the Rival Bag

The dice drawn from the Rival bag are rolled to deploy a Rival's Emissaries to action spaces. Depending on the dice drawn, do the following:

Tier 0 die:

• Draw again until a Tier 1-3 die is drawn.
• Deploy the Rival Emissary to the basic action space matching that die's Tier (1-3), then return all drawn dice to the Rival bag.
• Example: drawn Tier 0, draw again; Tier 2 drawn: place on the 2nd Basic Action Space.

Guild die:

• Tier 1 - Deploy the Rival Emissary to the top space of that Guild's card (matching color).
• Tier 2 - Deploy the Rival Emissary to the middle space of that Guild's card (matching color).
• Tier 3 - Deploy the Rival Emissary to the bottom space of that Guild's card (matching color).
• Example: Tier 3 Blue: place on the 3rd Blue Action Space.

Deploy Emissaries Phase

Example: The player deploys to the 1st Orange Action space. Two dice are drawn from the Rival bag for each Teal Emissary. They are deployed to the 2nd and 3rd Orange Action space. Teal deployed twice to the Stage 2 Orange Guild card. Teal gains 4 Merchant Reputation.

During the first Emissary deployment each round:

1. Deploy your first Emissary as normal and gain any rewards from your placement.
2. Draw a die from the Rival bag for each Emissary that your first Rival has unlocked.
3. Deploy each Emissary based on what is drawn (see Using the Rival Bag). Rival Emissaries ignore blocking when deployed.
4. Gain Reputation in the matching Guild equal to the current stage number (see below).
5. Gain Prestige or Objective card track rewards (see below).
6. Return the dice to Rival bag and repeat steps 2-5 for your second Rival's Emissaries.
7. Deploy your remaining Emissaries you have unlocked one at a time following the normal rules, gaining Reputation and activating actions.

Following these steps, all Rival Emissaries are placed after your first Emissary deployment. Your remaining Emissaries are placed thereafter.

Rival Reputation and Track Rewards

When a Rival Emissary is deployed to a Guild card, they gain matching Guild Reputation equal to the current stage number on that Guild card. If they deployed to a basic action space instead, they gain High Council Reputation equal to the current stage number on the Guild cards.

While gaining Reputation, Rivals ignore all track rewards except Prestige and Objective cards. Prestige rewards are gained as normal, and they are given a single Objective card when receiving that track reward.

Example: Current Guild cards are Stage 3. Reputation gains will be +3 for Rivals. Deployed to the 2nd Basic Action space, Teal gains 3 High Council Reputation. Deployed to the 3rd Blue Action space, Teal gains 3 Alchemist Reputation.

Reveal & Resolve Phase

Once the Deploy Emissaries Phase has completed, resolve all remaining dice in your active pool. Then, for each Rival:

1. Draw a number of dice from the Rival bag equal to the current stage number shown on the Guild cards, then roll them.
2. The first Rival gains 1 High Council Reputation per icon rolled (regardless of what the icon is).
3. Return the dice to the Rival bag.
4. Steps 1-3 are repeated for your second Rival.

Example: Guild cards are currently Stage 2, so 2 dice are drawn from the Rival bag. 5 total icons are shown on the drawn dice; Teal gains 5 High Council Reputation.

Guild Clash Phase

Rivals win Guild Clashes and gain Prestige following the normal rules, with these exceptions:

1. When a Rival wins a clash with an Objective card reward, a single Objective card is placed face down in front of their Villa shield. Their Faction marker on the matching Guild track is also reset.
2. When a Rival wins a clash with a Prestige reward, that Rival gains Prestige following the normal rules (all Prestige listed). Their Faction marker on the matching Guild track is also reset.
3. When a Rival wins a clash with no Objective or Prestige reward, no Rival or player gains the Guild reward this round. The Rival's Faction marker on the matching Guild track is not reset.
   • If you tie with a Rival on such a clash, you gain those Guild rewards and reset your Faction marker. Do not reset the Rival's Faction marker.

End of the Game (Solo)

At the final Reset Phase (no Guild cards remain), gain 1 Prestige for every Objective card you have completed, as normal. For each Objective a Rival has obtained (roll two Tier 0 dice per Objective obtained):

1. Roll two Tier 0 dice from the supply.
2. If both dice show an icon (not blank), the Rival completes that Objective card and gains 1 Prestige.
3. Discard the Objective card.

Resolve all Objectives for the first Rival, and then repeat this process for the second Rival.

Examples: a blank face shown on either die - the Objective card is discarded. Two icons shown - the Rival gains one Prestige and the Objective card is discarded.

Declaring the Winner

The player with the most Prestige is granted a permanent seat on the Altera High Council, and wins the game! In the event of a tie with the Rival, the player wins.

Difficulty Options

• Easy - Follow the solo mode rules with no changes.
• Normal - Rivals gain their third Emissary at the beginning of round 5 (when the first stage 3 Guild card is revealed).
• Hard - Follow all previous difficulty rules, plus: Rivals always start and are reset one space above the normal starting position for all Reputation tracks.
• Extra Hard - Follow all previous difficulty rules, plus: When Rivals gain Reputation through Emissary deployment, they gain +1 more Reputation.

Actions Reference

The following is a full reference for every action icon that appears on Guild cards, Reputation tracks, Artifact cards, and Faction abilities.

• Coin — Gain 1 Coin from the supply.
• Shard — Gain 1 Shard from the supply.
• Favor — Gain 1 Favor from the supply.
• Influence — Move your marker up 1 space on the Influence track.
• Artisan Guild Reputation — Gain one Reputation with the Artisan Guild. Gain any printed track rewards you land on immediately.
• Merchant Guild Reputation — Gain one Reputation with the Merchant Guild. Gain any printed track rewards you land on immediately.
• Alchemist Guild Reputation — Gain one Reputation with the Alchemist Guild. Gain any printed track rewards you land on immediately.
• High Council Reputation — Gain one Reputation with the High Council. Gain any printed track rewards you land on immediately.
• Wild Reputation — Gain one Reputation on any Guild or the High Council. Gain any printed track rewards you land on immediately.
• Prestige — Move your marker up 1 space on the Prestige track.
• Draw a Die — Draw 1 die from your Villa Bag and roll it into your active pool. If your Villa Bag is empty, move all dice in your discard area into your Villa Bag, shake, and continue drawing.
• Discard a Die — Move 1 die of your choice from your active pool to your discard area. This action is optional, except for when it is a cost associated with an action.

Faction Reference

Starting dice are given as Tier 0 (white) dice plus one Tier 1 die each of red, orange, and blue. All Faction abilities are once per round.

Faction	Priority	Starting Dice	Starting Resources	Special Ability
Ashen Druid	45	5 Tier 0, 1 each red/orange/blue Tier 1	None	Gain 2 Shards when resolving blue dice.
Harbor Baron	25	5 Tier 0, 1 each red/orange/blue Tier 1	None	When you gain 1 Merchant Reputation, you may gain 2 Coins.
Autumn Prefect	60	5 Tier 0, 1 each red/orange/blue Tier 1	1 Favor	Pay 1 Favor then take 1 of these actions: Trash a die or Craft an Artifact with Shards or Coins.
Oceanic Regent	20	4 Tier 0, 1 each red/orange/blue Tier 1	1 Favor	Pay 2 Favors to upgrade any die.
Celestial Savant

Artifact Reference

Costs are in Shards unless noted. Names are as printed on the cards.

Artifact	Craft Cost	Craft Reward	Upgrade Cost	Upgrade Reward	Ability	Upgraded Ability
Arc Golem	3	None	2	1 High Council Reputation	Once per round, spend 1 Shard to gain 1 High Council Reputation.	Trash this card after winning a High Council clash, then gain 1 Prestige.
Rune Chime	3	Gain any Tier 1 die.	4	Gain any Tier 2 die.	The 10 Influence reward costs 9 Influence.	The 10 Influence reward costs 8 Influence.
Divining Rod	6	None	6	1 Prestige	Once per round, draw a die.	Once per round, draw a die.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I gain rewards in any order I want? Yes. Any time you gain multiple rewards simultaneously—whether from activating an action space, moving up a Reputation track, or any other source—you may gain them in whatever order you prefer.

When exactly can I use Once Per Round Artifact and Faction abilities? At any time with the following exceptions:

• While resolving an Emissary deployment
• While recruiting dice in the Recruitment Phase (unless specified by the card)
• While resolving Guild Clashes (unless specified by the card)

What happens if two players gain Guild Reputation at the same time and want to wait to see where each other will place for clashes? Each player's Faction card has a priority number on it for breaking ties. The player with the lower number must go first, choosing their Guild Reputation before players with higher numbers. A player may request this order for any situation where there is a tie.

Don't forget!

• Whenever you deploy an Emissary to a Guild action space, immediately gain 1 Reputation with that Guild.
• During the Reveal & Resolve Phase, only dice in your active pool are resolved. The dice on your villa board and in your discard area are not resolved.
• When resolving a Tier 1, 2, or 3 die, gain 1 Influence.