ANTgravity Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Components
  • Arsenal Card Anatomy
  • Board
• Game Setup
• Game Overview
  • Player Turn Overview
  • Returning Your Ants from the Hospital
  • Activating the First Ant or Drawing a Card
  • Activating the Second Ant or Drawing a Card
• Gravity
• Ant Movement
• Playing a Card
  • Line of Fire
• Additional Actions
  • Flag Pickup
  • Flag Pass
  • Flag Touchdown
• Drawing a Card
• Ant Elimination
  • Falling Off the Play Area
  • Splat
  • Collision
  • Card Effect
  • Bonus for Ant Elimination
• Asteroids
• Mines
• Energy
• End of Round
  • Doom Token Effects
• End of Game & Final Scoring
• Quick Reference
  • Symbols
  • Player Turn Overview
  • Ant Activation
  • Additional Actions
  • Gravity
  • Effects of Weapon and Equipment Cards

Game Components

• 1 game board
• 45 double-sided Asteroid tokens
• 8 Doom tokens
• 5 double-sided Neutral Bases
• 4 double-sided Ant Bases (one in each of four player colors)
• 25 Flags (9 neutral and 16 in player colors)
• 8 Ant tokens (two in each of four player colors)
• 58 Arsenal cards:
  • 12 Legendary cards
  • 23 basic Weapon cards
  • 23 basic Equipment cards
• 4 Starting cards - Wings
• 30 Energy tokens
• 9 Mine tokens
• 1 First Player marker
• 1 Round marker

Arsenal Card Anatomy

Each card shows a card type symbol (BAM! = Weapon, ZAP! = Equipment), the card name, a Legendary / basic card symbol, and an effect description.

Board

The board has the Doom track, the Hospital area, the play area (a grid of hexagonal spaces), spaces for discard piles, and spaces for the Arsenal stacks (Weapon / Equipment / Legendary cards).

Game Setup

1. Place the board in the center of the table.

2. Shuffle the Asteroid tokens face down. Then randomly place one token (face down, no peeking!) on each space marked with an Asteroid symbol on the board. Place the remaining Asteroid tokens next to the board - they form the Asteroid pool.

3. Place a supply of Mine and Energy tokens next to the board.

4. Place the Round marker on the space on the Doom track corresponding to the number of players.

5. Shuffle all Doom tokens face down. Then place one face down token on each space to the right of the Round marker. Return any remaining Doom tokens to the box.

6. Randomly choose the first player - that player gets the First Player marker and places it on the table in front of themselves.

7. Each player selects a color and takes 2 Ant tokens, an Ant Base token and Flag tokens in that color. Return Ant tokens, Ant Bases and Flag tokens in the unused colors to the box.

8. Depending on the number of players, place the Neutral Bases and Flags (white) as well as the Ant Bases and Flags in the player colors on the board (see the setup examples for 2, 3 and 4 players on pages 5 and 6 of the rulebook). In the examples, player colors are pre-assigned. If you want to use different player colors, simply replace the Base tokens and their matching Flags with components with the same symbol in the chosen color.

9. Each player takes a starting Wings card to hand. Return the unused Wings cards to the box.

10. Take all cards marked with the Legendary symbol (in the card's upper right corner) out of the Arsenal deck. These are Legendary cards. Shuffle them, form a face-down stack, and place it near the board, next to the red-green area marked with the Legendary symbol.

Game Overview

The game is played over a set number of rounds, depending on the number of players. In each round, players take turns, starting from the first player and continuing in the clockwise order. After the final round, players count their Victory Points from collected Flags to determine the winner.

Player Turn Overview

1. Return your Ants from the Hospital and place them next to your Base.
2. Activate your first Ant.
3. Activate your second Ant.

Returning Your Ants from the Hospital

At the start of your turn, all your ants that are currently in the Hospital return to the game: move them from the Hospital area and place them on any empty spaces adjacent to your Base. Remember, the gravity arrow must be pointing toward your Base!

Activating the First Ant or Drawing a Card

Choose one of your Ants and activate it. During activation, you can, in any order:

• move the Ant
• play a card

You can also perform any number of additional actions:

• Flag pickup
• Flag pass
• Flag touchdown

Instead of activating your Ant, you may choose to draw an Arsenal card (see Drawing a Card).

Activating the Second Ant or Drawing a Card

Proceed in the same way as when activating the first Ant. After you have activated both of your Ants, your turn ends, and the next player to your left begins their turn.

Gravity

As you might've guessed, what plays a huge role in ANTgravity is... gravity. It constantly affects all Ants on the board. During the gameplay, whenever an Ant moves through space, it must act according to its gravity - meaning it will fall in the direction indicated by the arrow on its token ("down") until it encounters an obstacle (an Asteroid, a Base or another Ant) where it can safely land or... it entirely falls off the play area (grid of hexagonal spaces on the board). Gravity is an effect of most actions in the game. It is resolved only by the active player, separately for each Ant and in any order they choose.

Gravity is checked:

• whenever the board state changes (after a move, playing a card, etc.);
• anytime an Asteroid is removed from the board;
• for each Ant individually. When this happens, the Ant falls in the direction indicated by its arrow and continues until it either lands on an obstacle (a Base, an Asteroid, or another Ant) or falls off the play area, which results in its elimination (it is moved to the Hospital area).

Ant Movement

An Ant's movement can consist of a jump and a turn.

A jump means moving an Ant to any adjacent empty space, i.e., a space where there is no other Ant, Base, or Asteroid token.

A turn involves rotating the Ant token and setting its gravity in the chosen direction.

When activating an Ant, you always perform a jump first, followed by a turn. You may skip the jump phase and only perform the turn.

At the end of the movement, you must resolve the effect of gravity.

Example A (jump and turn): Kam is resolving the movement action for his green Ant. First, he performs a jump, moving the Ant token to an adjacent empty space. Then, he performs a turn, setting the direction of the Ant's gravity. Finally, he resolves the Ant's gravity - it falls and lands on the first obstacle encountered, which in this case is the Base.

Example B (turn only): John performs a movement action and decides to skip the jump, only performing a turn. Then, he resolves the Ant's gravity. As a result, the Ant lands on an Asteroid.

Playing a Card

Play a card from your hand and apply its effect. After resolving the card, discard it to the appropriate discard pile. All Legendary cards are discarded to the same discard pile, while basic cards have separate discard piles for Weapon and Equipment cards. Wings cards are always removed from the game after use.

Weapons are used to attack opponents' Ants and destroy Asteroids. When using a Weapon, you must first define the line of fire (see below). A missile fired in the chosen direction hits the first obstacle encountered (an Ant, a Base, or an Asteroid - unless the card says otherwise) and triggers the effect described on the card. If the missile does not hit any obstacles along its way, it flies off the play area.

Equipment is used to perform an additional movement with your active Ant, draw cards, or move Asteroids. When using Equipment, there is no need to define the line of fire - its effect covers the entire play area (unless the card specifies otherwise).

For more details about cards and their effects, see Effects of Weapon and Equipment Cards below.

Line of Fire

It is determined along the line of spaces from any edge of the starting space.

Note! The line of fire may be different from the direction indicated by the gravity arrow.

Example: The blue Ant will now define the line of fire. If a line is set towards A, B, or C, it will hit an Asteroid. If line D is chosen, the missile will hit an Asteroid located 3 spaces away. If the blue Ant chooses direction E, the yellow Ant will be in the line of fire. In direction F, the yellow player's Base will be in the line of fire. In all cases, the green Ant will not be in the line of fire.

Additional Actions

Flag pickup, pass and touchdown are additional actions. When activating an Ant, you can perform any number of additional actions in any order, independent of moving or playing a card. You may alternate between main actions and additional ones. However, remember that you cannot interrupt a main action (movement or playing a card) to perform an additional action!

Flag Pickup

The active Ant may pick up a Flag from a Base if it is adjacent to one of the Base's edges and the gravity arrow is pointing towards that Base. You can pick up either a neutral (white) Flag or a Flag of your own color (but not in the other players' colors). Once the Flag is picked up, the Ant moves along with it. To indicate this, place the Flag on the Ant token.

Example: The blue Ant performed a movement and is standing on a neutral Base. It takes an additional action to pick up the Flag - from now on, the Ant will move together with the Flag. The green and yellow Ants cannot pick up a Flag from this Base, as they are adjacent to it but not standing on it.

Flag Pass

The active Ant may pass the Flag it is carrying to the other Ant from the same team. To do this, both Ants must be on adjacent spaces, with the gravity arrow of the active Ant pointing toward the other Ant. In the same way, the active Ant may take the Flag from another Ant from the same team.

Flag Touchdown

When the active ant is carrying a Flag and is on its Base, it may deliver the Flag to the Base. The captured Flag becomes your trophy! Place it next to your available Energy tokens.

Remember:

• an Ant can only carry one Flag at a time;
• if the Ant carrying a Flag is eliminated, the Flag must be placed back on the Base from which it was picked up (marked with the same symbol).

Example: John finished activating Ant A. He wasn't able to deliver the Flag to his Base, so he moves on to activating Ant B. First, he plays the Jetpack card, which allows the active Ant to perform a movement action - Ant B lands on Ant A. Then, B takes the Flag from A and performs a movement action (only choosing to turn), landing on its Base. Finally, a touchdown is performed - the Flag is added to John's trophy collection!

Drawing a Card

Instead of activating your Ant, you may choose to draw an Arsenal card (Weapon or Equipment).

Note! If you choose to draw a card, the Ant cannot perform any additional actions!

Ant Elimination

As a result of movement or a card effect, an Ant may be eliminated in one of four ways:

Falling Off the Play Area

It happens if, while falling in the direction of its gravity arrow, an Ant does not encounter any obstacle to land on.

Note! You are not allowed to perform a movement action in such a way that the active Ant would fall off the play area as a direct result of that movement! However, you may destroy an Asteroid your Ant is on - as a result, it will fall off the play area, but it is not treated as movement.

Example: The Asteroid gets destroyed. You must immediately resolve gravity for the Ant. Since there are no obstacles in its way, the Ant falls off the play area and gets eliminated.

Splat

It is a situation in which, as a result of an effect of a Weapon card, an Ant is pushed onto a space already occupied by an obstacle (an Asteroid, Base, or another Ant). If this happens, the pushed Ant is eliminated.

Example: Magdalene activates her yellow Ant and plays a Beam Rifle card (Shoot 2 separate missiles. Push each hit Ant by 1 space). A missile is fired, pushing the hit green Ant one space in the direction of the line of fire. The space that the Ant was pushed to is occupied, so a splat happens and the Ant is eliminated.

Collision

It occurs when two Ants, during gravity resolution, would land on the same space with their gravity arrows pointing at each other. Both are eliminated.

Card Effect

Some cards also let you eliminate another player's Ant.

Bonus for Ant Elimination

Whenever an opponent's Ant is eliminated during your turn, gain 1 Energy token.

The eliminated Ant is placed in the Hospital area and will return to the game at the start of its owner's next turn, deployed next to their Base.

The player whose Ant was eliminated by an opponent draws 1 Legendary card as compensation. This is the only way to gain Legendary cards during the game.

Asteroids

If you hit an Asteroid with a missile as a result of playing a card (or another effect), immediately flip its token and apply the revealed effect.

Asteroid effects:

• Damaged - the Asteroid is damaged and stays in its place (with the damage symbol face-up). You immediately gain 1 Energy OR draw 1 basic Arsenal card (you choose the type). If a damaged Asteroid is hit again, it is immediately destroyed - return it to the Asteroid pool.
• Destroyed - the Asteroid is destroyed. Return its token to the Asteroid pool.

Only the active player receives the bonus for destroying an Asteroid!

Note! Ant Bases and Neutral Bases are indestructible. Do not flip them if they're hit!

Example: John wants to shoot at the red Ant, but an Asteroid blocks the line of fire. He plays a Shotgun card, hits the Asteroid and flips its token - luckily, it gets destroyed and removed from the board. Now John resolves gravity: he starts with the blue Ant, which moves toward the Asteroid and lands on it. This ends the application of the effect of the Shotgun card.

Mines

Some cards and Doom tokens allow players to place Mine tokens on Asteroids. If any Ant lands on an Asteroid with a Mine token, the Mine is immediately detonated - remove the Mine token and apply the Asteroid's effect. All Ants on that Asteroid are eliminated. If a mined Asteroid is moved (e.g. by using the Magnet card), the Mine token moves with it.

Energy

Energy is gained as a bonus for damaging Asteroids or eliminating enemy Ants.

During your turn, you may spend 3 Energy tokens to draw 1 basic Arsenal card, or 1 Energy token to play an additional card from your hand.

You may draw and play additional cards multiple times during your turn as long as you have enough Energy. Unused Energy tokens remain in your pool for future rounds and may help you break a tie at the end of the game.

End of Round

Once all players have completed their turns, the round ends.

At the end of the round, reveal a new Doom token on the Doom track, resolve its effect and return the token to the game box. Finally, move the Round marker one space to the right.

Doom Token Effects

• Lightning bolt: Each player gains 1 Energy token.
• Mine: Starting from the First Player, each player places 1 Mine token on any Asteroid.
• Green card (Equipment): Starting from the First Player, each player draws an Equipment card.
• Red card (Weapon): Starting from the First Player, each player draws a Weapon card.
• Crossed-out Asteroid: The effects of damaged Asteroids are not resolved next round.
• Magnifying glass: Starting from the First Player, each player may peek at one chosen Asteroid token.
• Crossed-out cards: Players do not draw new cards at the end of the current round.
• Blank: No effect.

If there are no more Doom tokens on the Doom track, the game ends. It's time to determine the winner (see End of Game & Final Scoring).

Otherwise, each player draws 1 basic Arsenal card - either a Weapon or an Equipment card - from the appropriate stack. Then, you reduce your hand to 4 cards (all types of Weapon and Equipment cards count, including Legendary cards and Wings). If you have more, discard the excess to the appropriate discard piles (remember that Legendary cards have their own discard pile!).

Note! During your turn, you can have more than 4 cards in hand - you only adjust the number of cards at the end of the round.

If at any time you are supposed to draw a card, but the stack is empty, reshuffle the corresponding discard pile to create a new draw stack.

The next game round begins.

End of Game & Final Scoring

The game can end in two ways:

• If at any point during the game a player reaches 3 Victory Points (VP), the game immediately ends, and that player is declared the winner.
• If the Round marker should leave space 1 on the Doom track, the game ends and it's time to count the points.

Each flag delivered to your Base grants you:

• a neutral (white) flag - 1 VP
• a flag in your color - 2 VP

Each player counts the number of their VP. The player with the most VP wins the game. If there is a tie, look at the board and check if any tied players' Ants are carrying flags. If so, add Victory Points for these flags to their score (1 VP for a white flag, 2 VP for a flag in your color). If still tied, compare the number of Energy tokens each tied player has. The player with more Energy tokens wins!

Still no winner? Well... time for a rematch!

Quick Reference

Symbols

Gravity, Asteroid, Ant, Mine, Base, Energy, Basic Weapon card, Basic Equipment card, Legendary cards.

Player Turn Overview

1. Return your Ants from the Hospital and place them next to your Base;
2. Activate your first Ant;
3. Activate your second Ant.

Ant Activation

• move the Ant and play 1 card (in any order);

  OR

• draw a card (Weapon or Equipment).

Additional Actions

• Flag pickup (gravity pointing toward the Base);
• Flag pass (gravity pointing toward the ally Ant);
• Flag touchdown (gravity pointing toward your Base).

Gravity

Check it after:

• moving an Ant;
• playing a card;
• removing an Asteroid.

An Ant falls according to its gravity until it lands on an obstacle (Ant, Base, Asteroid) or falls off the play area. The order in which the gravity is resolved is determined by the active player!

Effects of Weapon and Equipment Cards

• Drawing a card - draw the indicated number of Arsenal cards to hand.
• Eliminating an Ant - immediately place this Ant in the Hospital area.
• Moving - move the indicated component to another space in the play area. If you move an Asteroid, ignore all obstacles in the way. If you move an Ant, after making the move, set its gravity in the direction of the effect that enabled the move.
• Obstacle - each component in the play area, including: Ants, Bases and Asteroids.
• Ignoring an obstacle - the missile ignores the first obstacle of the indicated type and hits another obstacle in the line of fire. Note! If a card says that "you may ignore an obstacle", then you choose if you want to ignore it or not.
• Pushing - move the hit Ant by the number of spaces indicated on the card in the direction of the line of fire. If as a result of a push an Ant leaves the play area or a splat occurs - the Ant is eliminated.