Ark: Awakening Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Basic Concepts
  • Intro
  • How to Read This Rulebook
  • Benefits and Control
  • Biodome (Player Board)
  • Factories and Resources
  • Transport Gates
  • Outer Power Generators
  • Special Rooms
  • Room Anatomy
• Game Setup
  • Common Playing Area Setup
  • Player Setup
• Game Flow
  • Action Phase
    • Military Development Section
    • Mobility Control Section
    • Power Generator Section
    • Production and Exploitation Section
    • Conversions
    • Unit Stasis and Sickbay Section
    • Engineering Section
    • Artifact Research Section
    • The "Before" is Important
  • Free Actions
    • Exploring a Room

Components

• 4 x double-sided player boards for 4 playable factions (320x160mm)
• 6 x double-sided achievement cards (44x68mm)
• 56 x room cards (80x80mm)
• 45 x unique mission cards (63x88mm)
• 70 x target cards (44x68mm)
• 70 x artifact cards (63x88mm)
• 4+4 x border tiles (200x120mm and 160x40mm)
• 4 x action markers, 6 x military arsenal markers (disk shaped)
• Hara (green): 9 meeples (24x24x10mm, wooden), 10 power cylinders (9x9x14mm, wooden), 30 integration cubes (9x9x9mm, acrylic)
• Pajak (red): 6 meeples, 10 power cylinders, 30 integration cubes
• Gimpli (blue): 6 meeples, 10 power cylinders, 30 integration cubes
• Oruni (yellow): 6 meeples, 15 power cylinders, 30 integration cubes
• 4 x Robot meeples (black) and 4 x Species 683 meeples (violet) (24x24x10mm, wooden)
• 10+6+10 cylinders for the outer power generators (violet, black, turquoise) (9x9x14mm, wooden)

Basic Concepts

Intro

You awake from cryogenic sleep in a strange biodome that resembles your home planet. You have no memory of how and why you are there. You start exploring and find out that your biodome is just one of infinitely many rooms on a traveling semi-automated alien spaceship - the Ark. Each room is the size of a city and the Ark is the size of a planet. You explore the Ark, opening and enabling parts of the ship. You power up rooms, integrate the Ark's technology with your own in order to advance your faction, exploit resources needed to awaken the rest of your species, collect alien artifacts and investigate the reason why your faction is on the Ark.

"Ark: Awakening" is a hybrid worker boost placement and area control game with engine building mechanics. It features a modular board that is constructed during gameplay by placing tiles (rooms) next to each other. Each room is a unique part of the Ark, with different function and use. Each game you play with only half the available rooms, returning the rest to the box.

The goal of the game is to unravel the reason why your alien faction is on the Ark - this is represented by a secret mission card unique per player. The first player that unlocks their mission card and then accomplishes what their mission card says, wins the game.

How to Read This Rulebook

Important information and reference information is highlighted in red boxes or by red text.

Examples are highlighted in green boxes or by green text.

Newly introduced terms are marked (in the original, with a special typeface).

References to other parts of this rulebook are underlined.

CAPITAL LETTERS are used for actions performed by players. Example: The player performs the MOVE action.

Blue boxes or blue text are used for the First Mission game mode. This is a tutorial where you will learn about the basic game concepts. First Mission is not meant to be played as a competitive game. On your first play, setup and play the First Mission game mode.

Rules for different game variants are highlighted in purple boxes or purple text. Ignore these unless you are playing the specific game variant.

Benefits and Control

When you start exploring the Ark, you will be revealing square tiles. These represent various parts and modules of the Ark, and are referred to as rooms.

(A) The top-left corner symbol depicts the benefit that is provided by the room. The benefit modifier (B) is the first visible number - it shows how powerful the benefit is. For a complete guide of all the benefits that rooms can give, see the reference sheet.

Rooms might have (C) square and (D) circular placeholders for other game components - integration cubes and power cylinders.

During various actions, players will place integration cubes and power cylinders on the rooms thereby changing the visible number and thus the benefit modifier.

A unit is a highly skilled engineering specialist and soldier, represented by meeples. Units are used to perform various actions throughout the Ark. Rooms that have one or more units of a player in them are said to be occupied by that player.

Each player has their own power cylinders (cylinders), distinguishable by color. The power cylinder is a marker that shows energy being routed from a power generator into the room where it is placed. Power cylinders are placed in a room by performing the ROUTE POWER action (explained later in Power Generator Section, page 12).

Power cylinders are placed top to bottom, each on the next circular placeholder (D). When the circular placeholders are covered by a cylinder, the first visible number changes and thus the room's benefit modifier. Thematically explained, the room is powered and a more powered up room provides bigger benefits.

Example. No power cylinder placed in this room, so it provides 2 movement benefit, as 2 is the first visible modifier.

Example. YellowPlayer and GreenPlayer have added power cylinders in the room. The first visible modifier is now 10 and the room provides 10 movement benefit.

Each player has their own integration cubes (cubes) distinguishable by color. Integration cubes are placed on the room's square placeholders (C) by performing the ENGINEER action (explained later in Engineering Section, page 14). Integration cubes denote that a room has been integrated to be used by your faction and prevents the room from being used by other factions.

A critical concept to understand is room control - which player controls a room:

• If there are no cylinders or units in a room, then no player controls that room and no player gets the room benefits.
• If there are units and/or power cylinders in a room, then each player with at least one unit or power cylinder in that room inclusively controls the room. Inclusive control means that all involved players gain the room's benefits.
• If a player places an integration cube in a room, then that room is locked to be used by that player exclusively - only that player gains the room's benefit. We say that the player has exclusive control.
• Multiple players can have integration cubes in a room. The player with the most integration cubes in a room has exclusive control of the room. If multiple players have the same number of integration cubes in a room, they each inclusively control the room.

Explaining the mechanics of "Control" in Ark: Awakening: the rulebook is enough to understand the concept of control, but if you prefer a visual explanation, see this video: https://skyportgames.com/ark/mechanics-of-control

Throughout this rulebook, the phrase "controlled room", will be used to mean any room controlled by players, whether exclusive or inclusive.

Example. YellowPlayer, GreenPlayer and BluePlayer inclusively control the room and each gains 10 MOVE benefit. The benefit that the room gives is the same for all players, no matter who provides the power.

Example. RedPlayer has exclusive control of the room and receives 10 benefit. The cylinders placed by YellowPlayer and GreenPlayer improve the benefit given, but as RedPlayer has the most cubes, only RedPlayer gains the benefit. BluePlayer's unit has no influence in the room.

Example. RedPlayer has the most integration cubes, so RedPlayer has exclusive control of the room and gains 10 benefit. No other player gains benefit from the room.

Example. RedPlayer and YellowPlayer have the same number of integration cubes, so both inclusively control the room and gain 10 benefit. GreenPlayer and BluePlayer gain no benefit, as they have no control over the room.

There are some rooms that have no placeholders for power cylinders, only placeholders for integration cubes. In this case, cubes have a dual function - they are used to both claim control of the room and to increase the room's benefit. As with rooms with cylinders, the first visible number is the benefit modifier.

Example. Red Player has exclusive control of the room and receives 8 benefit. The integration cubes placed by BluePlayer and YellowPlayer improve the benefit given, but as RedPlayer has the most cubes, only RedPlayer gains the benefit.

Biodome (Player Board)

The player board represents your faction's biodome - the place where your faction wakes up from cryogenic sleep.

This is your base of operations and it is always considered controlled and occupied by the owning player. The biodome is considered as a room.

All rooms that are not biodomes are referred to as the Ark's outer rooms. The outer rooms are subdivided into factories, transport gates, outer power generators and special rooms.

Factories and Resources

There are 4 types of factory rooms (factories) which provide as benefit 4 different resource types. When a factory is powered by placing a power cylinder, it produces more of the resource. The produced resources are represented by resource tokens.

• Dilitium (Di) - orange
• Osvite (Os) - brick red
• Biotics (Bt) - swamp green
• Titanium (Ti) - royal blue

The fifth resource token, Metamorphite (Mt) - black, is a wild/joker resource that can be used in place of any of the other resources.

Transport Gates

Players can use the transport gates to easily traverse the Ark. Units can move from one transport gate to another as if they were adjacent. The transport gates are double sided - one side with and one side without circular and square placeholders. Unless specified explicitly, do not use the side with circular and square placeholders.

Outer Power Generators

Players can use the outer power generators to power up other rooms and increase the benefits provided. This is an outer room and should not be confused with the power generator that is located in each player's biodome.

Special Rooms

The special rooms depict various unique parts of the Ark and provide different benefits. They are recognizable by the room symbol inside a target ring (G). Each room has a unique room symbol.

In total there are 32 special rooms divided equally by groups of 4 into 8 special room groups. Rooms in the same group have the same group symbol (H). Each game you will choose and only use a selection of those groups to increase game replayability.

Room Anatomy

• (A) Benefit the room gives - movement in this example.
• (B) Modifiers to the benefit. The first visible one applies - 2 in this example.
• (C) Placeholders for integration cubes.
• (D) Placeholders for power cylinders.
• (E) Resources needed to integrate 1 cube - 3 Osvite (Os) in this example.
• (F) A chain you receive after you activate the room.
• (G) Unique room symbol used to easily identify the room on the mission card.
• (H) Group affiliation. Used during game setup.
• (I) Room Title.

Game Setup

Each player: Choose an alien faction and take the corresponding player board.

For your first game, Ark: Awakening has a short tutorial mission to familiarize players with the gameplay. It is indicated as "First Mission". Use the steps marked "If you are playing First Mission" to setup for this tutorial.

Common Playing Area Setup

1. Use the border tiles and the player boards to construct a rectangular border that surrounds a grid of the size as indicated in the examples. All the room tiles will be placed inside the borders. Note that the border tiles should fit perfectly and any gaps shown in the examples is for illustration purposes only.
2. Take one of each type of the factory rooms and place them face up in the positions shown in the setup images. Randomize which factory type goes at what position.
3. Take the outer power generator rooms and transport gates and place them as shown on the setup images. There are two outer power generator rooms - violet and turquoise which are identical except for their color and it does not matter which one you choose. Note that for 4-5 player game, both outer power generators are used and there is no transport gate. Place 2 violet/turquoise power cylinders onto the violet/turquoise outer power generators.
4. Stack the remaining transport gates face up showing the side without circular and square placeholders.

Setup layouts (shown as diagrams in the original):

• First Mission setup: requires 96x80cm table space for 3-4 players or 72x80cm table space for 1-2 players. For less than 4 players ignore the unused player boards.
• 1-2 player setup: requires 72x80cm table space. For 1-player setup ignore the unused player board.
• 3-player setup: requires 96x80cm table space.
• 4-player recommended setup: requires 96x96cm table space.
• 4-player alternative setup (if you do not have a wide table): requires 104x80cm table space.
• 5-player recommended setup: requires 96x104cm table space. There are not enough border tiles for this size, so take unused rooms and use them as borders.
• 5-player alternative setup (if you do not have a wide table): requires 120x80cm table space.
• 2-Player Game Setup (diagram).

5. Construct the room deck from factories and special rooms.

   If you are playing First Mission:

   • 5.1. Take 2 of each factory type. There are 4 factory types, so that totals 8.
   • 5.2. Take only the special rooms titled: "Observatory and Long Range Sensors", "Central Knowledgebase" and "Medical Labs". Return the rest to the box.

   Otherwise:

   • 5.1. For a 1-2 / 3-4 / 5-player game take 1 / 2 / 3 of each factory type. Return the rest to the box.
   • 5.2. For a 1-3 / 4-5 player game choose 3 / 4 groups of special rooms you will be playing with. Take all special rooms belonging to the chosen groups. Return the rest to the box.

   You can choose any combination of groups, with one exception: you cannot choose both of the 2 groups recognizable by having a violet instead of a purple target ring in a 1-3 player game, as there will be not enough mission cards for each player.

   • 5.3. Take the tile labeled "Bottom Tile".
   • 5.4. Shuffle together the rooms from steps 5.1 and 5.2 and place them face down on top of the Bottom Tile. You have just constructed the room deck. Place the room deck in an accessible place next to the playing area.

6. Place the achievement cards blue side up.

7. If you are playing First Mission: You will not be using artifact cards, so skip this setup step.

   Otherwise: Find the 6 artifact cards titled "Alien's Pen" and the 4 titled "Beginner's Help" - they are the only ones with 0 Power (A) or with no power symbol (B). Set aside 1 Alien's Pen artifact card for each player and return the rest to the box. Shuffle the remaining artifact cards into a face down artifact deck.

8. If you are playing First Mission: find all mission cards titled "First Mission" and give each player a random one. In this game mode, you start with a revealed mission card, otherwise the mission card has to be earned during the game. Return the remaining mission cards to the box.

Player Setup

Each player:

1. Make sure that your biodome (player board) is faced correctly: the A-side is identical for all factions, whereas the B-side provides asymmetric gameplay. For First Mission mode and your first 4 games, use the A-side.
2. Take 1 Alien's Pen artifact card from the ones set aside earlier.
3. Take an action marker, military arsenal marker, 6 units, 10 power cylinders and all 30 integration cubes matching the color of your biodome. These will make up your private supply. If there are no components matching the color of your biodome, simply choose from the remaining colors.
   • 3.1. Depending on the color, you may find some extra components. If using the A-side, return these to the box. If using the B-side, add them to your private supply.
4. On your biodome:
   • (A) Place 2 units on "Unit Stasis and Sickbay" section.
   • (B) Place 2 power cylinders on the biodome's power generator - also referred to as "Power Generator" section.
   • (C) Place your military arsenal marker at position 0.
   • (D) Take 2 Metamorphite (Mt) resource tokens and add them to your private supply.
   • (E) Place your action marker nearby.

Game Flow

Choose a first player by any means. Players take turns clockwise. Each player turn consists of one or more action phases and potentially a combat phase. At game start, players can perform only one action phase during their turn, but can increase this after unlocking some benefits. After the action phases, if your units occupy the same room as an opponent's units, a combat phase starts. Otherwise, the combat phase is skipped and then it is the next player's turn. Players continue to take turns going around and around the table, until one player wins.

Action Phase

In the action phase, players perform 1 out of 7 basic actions: move units, integrate cubes, route power to power up rooms, exploit resources, awake or heal units, militarize or research artifacts. The biodome is divided into 7 sections and each section is associated with one of these basic actions. The sections have the same layout of elements as the outer rooms (square and circular placeholders, benefit, etc.), and they work in the same way.

Action phase: Place your action marker (A) on one biodome section and perform all actions of one horizontal line (C).

Each section has a section sign (B). Next to the section sign are the action signs (C) that symbolize the actions that you may perform. Most sections have more than one action sign. The action signs are arranged in one or more horizontal lines, and if there are more, you must choose one during each action phase.

You can take the actions of one horizontal line in any order and you can mix - performing partially one action and then another and then finishing the first.

Sections also have placeholders for integration cubes (D) and if covered, the corresponding action is boosted in the same way as placing cubes into outer rooms does. Potentially, the action is also boosted by any outer room you control. After your turn is complete, your action marker must remain where it was placed. When it is your turn again, you must place your action marker on a different section.

Each action can become more powerful - the total power of an action is the sum of all the modifiers from the relevant section of your biodome and the outer rooms you currently control.

Military Development Section

Use the MILITARIZE action to gather weapons and increase your military arsenal, by moving your military arsenal marker up along the military arsenal track.

The range of the military arsenal is 0 to 24 and the military arsenal marker cannot be moved outside this range.

Example. The biodome section "Military Development" provides to YellowPlayer 6 militarize benefit. YellowPlayer also controls room "Tactical and Ship's Defenses" that provides him 5 additional militarize benefit. When performing the MILITARIZE action, YellowPlayer can move up his military arsenal marker by a total of 11.

Mobility Control Section

The "Mobility Control" section permits you to move your units across the Ark. There are the MOVE and TELEPORT actions.

MOVE. Use to move any number of your units from one room to an adjacent room. This action can be upgraded by placing integration cubes here (A).

TELEPORT. Move any number of your units from one room to any transport gate or into your biodome. This action is only available if you control an outer room that provides the TELEPORT benefit.

Example. Let's assume YellowPlayer has 2 move benefit, hence he can perform 2 moves. YellowPlayer's goal is to move units from RoomA into both RoomB and RoomC. He uses 1 move to move UnitA and UnitB from RoomA into the upper adjacent RoomB and then 1 move to move only UnitA into the left adjacent RoomC. As you can see, the number of units moved does not matter. You can move any number of units between adjacent rooms - and it will count as 1 move.

Transport gates permit fast travel within the Ark. Units can move between the transport gates as if they are adjacent to each other. Costs 1 move to move from an adjacent room into a transport gate, 1 move from a transport gate to any other transport gate and 1 move out of a transport gate into an adjacent room.

Adjacency:

• Diagonal rooms are not adjacent.
• All transport gates are considered adjacent to each other.
• Your biodome is adjacent to the 2 rooms placed above it.

Moving into and through rooms:

• Your units can move through rooms occupied by an opponent's units, without initializing combat. Combat phase starts only if your units occupy the same room as an opponent's units at the end of your turn.
• You can move your units out and into your biodome. Neutral units and units from other players cannot be moved into your biodome.

The MOVE and TELEPORT actions are in the same horizontal line, so by placing your action marker in this section, you can perform both MOVE and TELEPORT in one action phase. As with any actions on the same horizontal line, you can mix up the actions, you do not need to execute one and then the other.

Example. Let's assume that YellowPlayer has acquired 5 move and 2 teleport benefits. YellowPlayer moves his action marker in the "Mobility Control" section and can perform both MOVE and TELEPORT. He uses 1 move to move UnitA and UnitB from RoomA into transport gate RoomB; then 1 move to move both UnitA and UnitB into RoomC; and then 1 move to move UnitC from RoomA into RoomD. YellowPlayer chooses not to use the further moves he has.

TELEPORT ANY. Move any number of your units from one room to any room.

Some rooms provide benefits that are variations of a basic action - they have a little badge on the bottom right corner. You can use them if you have the corresponding basic action in your chosen biodome section.

Example. An action sign that shows a basic action together with its variation means that you may use both benefits.

Power Generator Section

Use the ROUTE POWER action to route energy from your biodome's power generator to different rooms of the Ark. A power cylinder piece is used to mark what rooms you have powered. You do not need to be next to a room to power it - any room can be chosen.

Your biodome's power generator is also referred to as "Power Generator" section.

Perform the ROUTE POWER action by moving your power cylinders from any section/room into any other section/room. You can choose any room - you do not need a unit to place a power cylinder, the room does not need to be adjacent, the room can even be controlled by other players. The only condition is that the target room has at least one empty circular placeholder to receive the power cylinder. You can also move your power cylinders back into your biodome's power generator, meaning that you do not use it to power up any room.

When the game starts, the biodome's power generator is not upgraded with integration cubes, so the starting benefit is 1:2 route power. 1:2 means that you have 2 power cylinders in total and you can move 1 during the ROUTE POWER action. If you want to move both, you would need to perform the ROUTE POWER action again. If later in the game you upgrade to 2:4 by placing an integration cube, immediately take 2 power cylinders of your color from your private supply and place them into your "Power Generator" section showing that you can use them.

Placing:

• You can place a cylinder in any room/section where there is an empty circular placeholder.
• Cylinders are always placed from top to bottom filling the empty spaces.
• If a cylinder is removed by any means, the other cylinders in the room slide up to fill the empty placeholder, thus reducing the benefit the room would give.
• You cannot place your power cylinders in an opponent's biodome.

Removing:

• Your power cylinders are your own, and other players cannot take them, destroy them or block you from moving them from/into a room.
• While executing the ROUTE POWER action, if there are no more empty circular placeholders and you occupy the room, you may replace your opponent's cylinders (returning them to their "Power Generator" section) with your own.

Some rooms provide additional power cylinders as benefit. The violet and turquoise outer power generators provide up to 10 violet/turquoise power cylinders and the "Central Power Network Hub" provides 6 black power cylinders. If you control an outer room that provides additional power cylinders, the ROUTE POWER action will enable you to move the cylinders from that room in addition to the ones from your biodome's power generator. The benefits of these rooms are colored to remind you which cylinders are associated with the room (for example, a violet-colored benefit applies to the violet outer power generator).

Cylinders from an outer room you control are considered equivalent to the power cylinders of your own color. So, by moving a cylinder from an outer power generator into a room, you potentially may gain control of the room, same as placing a power cylinder of your own color would do. If the person controlling the outer room changes, the power cylinders ownership also changes. The power cylinders position does not change until the controlling player performs the ROUTE POWER action and chooses to move them.

Example. With one unit occupying it, YellowPlayer gains control of the violet outer power generator. Taking the ROUTE POWER action, YellowPlayer moves 2 of his yellow power cylinders and 1 of the violet power cylinders. It does not matter where the violet power cylinders currently are placed and who placed them there previously.

Production and Exploitation Section

If you place your action marker in this section, you can either perform the EXPLOIT or the PRODUCE action, as the actions are in different horizontal lines. Both actions enable you to gather resources.

PRODUCE produces Metamorphite (Mt). Take Mt resource tokens from the common supply and add them to your private resource supply. Upgrading - placing more integration cubes in the "Production and Exploitation" section will increase your Mt production. Some outer rooms might also increase your Mt production.

EXPLOIT gathers resources from the factories. Choose up to 4 factory rooms you control. Based on the factories' first visible benefit modifier, take resources from the common supply into your private supply.

Example. FactoryA is controlled by BluePlayer. FactoryB and FactoryD are controlled by YellowPlayer. FactoryC is inclusively controlled by BluePlayer, GreenPlayer and YellowPlayer as they all have game pieces there and no one has an integration cube. If YellowPlayer EXPLOITS, he gathers 2Ti from FactoryB, 7Di from FactoryC and 2Bt from FactoryD. If BluePlayer EXPLOITS, he gathers 4Bt from FactoryA and 7Di from FactoryC. If GreenPlayer EXPLOITS, she gathers 7Di from FactoryC.

Some special rooms will modify the EXPLOIT action by increasing the number of gathered resources. A "+2" exploit benefit will increase exploited resources by 2 in each of your factories. Example: When performing EXPLOIT, a factory that would normally yield 4, will yield 6 now.

Resources are unlimited. In the rare event that you run out, find suitable replacement. Gathered resources stay in your private supply until spent. There is no limit to how many resources you can have in your private supply.

Spending resources is done by taking resources from your private supply and returning them back into the common supply. Some actions accept either of multiple resources, but not a mix. However, Metamorphite (Mt) is a wild/joker resource and can be used as full or partial replacement for any of the other four resources.

Example. 5 Osvite/Dilitium (Os/Di) means that you can spend 5 Osvite (Os) or 5 Dilitium (Di) but you cannot spend 2Di and 3Os. However, you can mix 2Di with 3Mt to spend 5Di.

Example. A cost showing all four resource symbols means that all 4 resource types are accepted, but not a mix.

Tip. For easier counting of resources in your private supply, you may use these options:

• Consider any resource token placed in your "Production and Exploitation" section as worth 5 instead of 1.
• Use your military arsenal track to track your resources. Use a token of a corresponding resource as counter.

Conversions

The equal sign denotes a conversion. The item on the left side is the spent item to get the item on the right side. Conversions can be performed as many times you want, so long as 1) you have the resources on the left side to spend; and 2) the current action phase permits the item on the right side to be performed / received.

Conversion examples shown in the original (icons): "2 Os = 1 route power" - only during the ROUTE POWER action, you can additionally route as many power cylinders as you want, as long as you have 2Os to spend for each one you route; and "3 resources of one type = 2 Mt" - the item on the right is a resource, so this conversion can be performed during any action phase.

Example. YellowPlayer has 8Bt and 4Ti. He uses 3Bt + 3Bt + 3Ti to perform the conversion 3 times. YellowPlayer exchanges the resources for 6Mt that he takes from the common supply. The remaining 2Bt and 1Ti cannot be used to convert to 2Mt, as they are different types. However, 1Mt can be always used as partial replacement for a resource, so YellowPlayer uses the remaining 2Bt together with 1Mt (received from the previous conversions) to perform another conversion and get 2Mt.

Unit Stasis and Sickbay Section

Place your action marker in this section to awaken new units from cryogenic sleep and to heal any wounded units. Your units wounded in combat are placed here.

AWAKE and HEAL are in the same horizontal line, so you can perform both actions in one action phase.

AWAKE a unit from cryogenic sleep. Take a unit from your supply and place it into your biodome's "Unit Stasis and Sickbay" section. You cannot perform the action if you have awakened all of your units and have no more units in your private supply.

HEAL. Take a laid down wounded unit from your "Unit Stasis and Sickbay" section and rotate the unit upright.

Example. It costs 5Ti/Bt to awaken 1 unit and 1Bt to heal 1 unit. RedPlayer has 7Ti and 9Bt in her private supply. RedPlayer performs the AWAKE and HEAL actions. She spends 5Ti and 5Bt to awaken 2 units and 1Bt to heal 1 wounded unit. RedPlayer has now 2Ti and 3Bt left. She cannot mix these to awaken another unit.

Wounded units cannot perform any action and do not contribute to anything until they are healed - for example they are not even considered to occupy a room.

Units become wounded after losing combat, see Combat Phase, page 20.

Some outer rooms provide additional units as benefit - these are called neutral units. "The Brig" provides up to 4 violet mercenary units and "Robotics" provides up to 4 black robot units.

When placing cylinders or cubes, simply take the black/violet unit meeples from the common supply and add them to the corresponding outer room. Players who control the room, control the neutral units. The room benefits are colored to remind you which units are associated with that room.

If you control the neutral units, they are considered equivalent to your own units and can be used in the same way as your own units - to MOVE, to ENGINEER, to control a room, etc. It is possible for multiple players to inclusively control a room associated with neutral units. In this case each player controls the units from that room during their turn.

Example. YellowPlayer and RedPlayer both have inclusive control over the Robotics room. During his turn, YellowPlayer performs the MOVE action and moves a robot to a room. Then during her turn, RedPlayer performs the ENGINEER action and uses the robot to place a red cube into that room.

Just like your faction's units, the neutral units can be used in combat, can be wounded after losing combat and can be healed. When wounded, the neutral units are placed in their associated outer room, not in the player's biodome "Unit Stasis and Sickbay" section. When healed, they start from their associated outer room.

By powering up the room "Robotics" (moving power cylinders to the room), robots spawn in the Robotics room. By powering down (moving power cylinders away from the room), robots are removed from the board and returned to the common supply. When powering down, the active player chooses which robot units to remove.

If a player attacks a room where there are only neutral units which are controlled by multiple other players, the attacking player chooses which player is the defender. Neutral units are not used in combat between players who both inclusively control them.

Engineering Section

Your units are skilled engineers that can integrate an Ark's room to be used by your faction. This integration is marked by integration cubes. By placing integration cubes inside rooms and biodome sections, you are upgrading the actions you can perform and are also gaining control of those rooms.

ENGINEER. Take an integration cube from your private supply and place it in the leftmost available placeholder in the room/section you occupy. To place 1 integration cube, it costs 1 engineer benefit and some resources as shown next to the square placeholders. The room must be unoccupied by opponent's units.

Example. YellowPlayer has 2 engineer benefit, so he can integrate 2 cubes in total. He has units in the "Tactical and Ship's Defenses" and "Titanium Ore Mining" rooms. He takes 2 cubes from his private supply, places one cube in the "Tactical and Ship's Defenses" (C) spending 3Ti and places another cube in the "Titanium Ore Mining" room (D) spending no resource.

• (A) When you place the action marker in the Engineering section of your biodome, you can take the ENGINEER action.
• (B) At the beginning of the game players can integrate up to 2 cubes per turn, as 2 is the first visible number.
• (C) The number and resource symbol next to the square placeholders show the amount and resource type needed to integrate 1 cube there.
• (D) Factory rooms have no costs for integrating cubes.
• (B) Notice that the sections in your biodome have square placeholders, where you can integrate cubes and with that upgrade the actions you perform.

Common confusion: To increase the number of cubes you can integrate during the ENGINEER action, you need to perform the ENGINEER action and integrate a cube into your biodome's Engineering section.

Example. YellowPlayer's "Engineering" and "Mobility Control" sections have no integration cubes in them. When YellowPlayer places his action marker in the Engineering section of the biodome (A), he can integrate cubes. YellowPlayer chooses to upgrade his "Engineering" and his "Mobility Control" sections, spending 1Os and 2Di respectively. During his next action phases, YellowPlayer can move 4 and can place up to 3 integration cubes.

If you are playing First Mission: You should focus only on placing integration cubes on your biodome and upgrading your basic actions, instead of focusing on the outer rooms. The upgrades in the outer rooms are more powerful, but also more risky as other players can evict you and build over your hard work. The upgrades in the outer rooms are also more complicated, so until you get a feel for the basics, please just upgrade on your biodome and ignore the outer rooms.

Placing and removing integration cubes:

• Cubes are always placed from left to right filling the empty square placeholders.
• The room must be occupied by your units and unoccupied by opponent's units.
• If you need to place a cube and there are no more empty placeholders, then and only then may you remove any one of the opponents' cubes (returning it to them) and replace it with your own.
• You cannot place a cube in an opponent's biodome.
• You can always integrate cubes into your biodome sections, even if you have no units there. Your biodome is always considered controlled and occupied by you.

Room/section integration limit: During one action phase, you may not integrate more than one cube in the same outer room or in the same biodome section. Note that this limit is per section, hence you can integrate more than one cube into your biodome, but only one cube per section.

Fully integrated outer room or biodome section is one that has all square placeholders filled with integration cubes. The cubes do not have to belong to the same player.

If you place the last integration cube in any outer room or in a section of your biodome and hence the room/section becomes fully integrated, as reward you immediately draw and keep 1 artifact card. It does not matter which player controls the room or which players have placed the previous integration cubes. Replacing the last cube with a new one does not get you an artifact card, as the room has already been fully integrated.

Integration cubes are unlimited. If you run out: either use suitable replacement or alternatively you can move the cube right and leave empty square placeholders left from it, remembering that an empty square placeholder is "filled" with the cube on the square placeholder right of it. (An example in the original shows equivalent placements of integration cubes.)

Variations of the ENGINEER action.

• ENGINEER REMOTE. Integrate 1 cube into any room unoccupied by opponent. You do not need to occupy the room with your units.
• ENGINEER FREE. Integrate 1 cube in any room/section without spending the resources for it. You may not combine engineer remote and engineer free to remote engineer a cube for free.
• ENGINEER FREE BIODOME. Integrate 1 cube in your biodome without spending the resources for it. You may use it as ordinary engineer benefit to integrate a cube outside your biodome, but to spend resources for it.

Artifact Research Section

If you are playing First Mission: skip this section as you will not be playing with artifact cards.

When placing your action marker in this section, you can choose between discovering new artifacts or using artifacts from your hand. Artifacts can be used in combat, to upgrade your biodome or be discarded for their special one-time power.

Use the DISCOVER ARTIFACT action to draw artifact cards (F).

Example. If the modifier is 1:3, you draw 3 artifact cards and keep 1 of them in your hand. Discard the other 2 artifact cards to the artifact discard pile face down.

Keep your artifact cards secret from other players. There is hand limit of 15 artifact cards. In case the artifact deck runs out, shuffle and form a new deck from the discarded artifact cards. You may never discard the artifact card Alien's Pen that you get at the start of the game.

Artifact card anatomy:

• (A) Artifact power, used in combat. May have a critical mass symbol inside the circular gauge.
• (B) One-time use when playing the card.
• (C) Text describing the one-time use.
• (D) Artifact name.
• (E) Benefit provided by the biodome section.

USE ARTIFACT. Play any 1 artifact card from your hand and then discard it to the artifact discard pile. Each artifact card has a one-time use depicted with an icon in the top-right corner (B) and explained with text (C). See the reference sheets for a complete guide to symbols. Some noteworthy uses are:

• ARCHITECT. Using an artifact card with this symbol allows you to swap places of any 2 outer rooms (except transport gates). Game components inside the rooms (units, cylinders, cubes, etc) are also moved together with the swapped rooms. If you are playing Complexity 2: sealed doors are not technically in the room, so they are not moved.
• Using an artifact card with the "perform actions" symbol allows you to perform the actions on one horizontal line from any 1 biodome section, as if you have placed the action marker there. Your action marker stays on the biodome section that allowed you to play the artifact card.

(G) You start the game with 1 use artifact - ability to use 1 artifact card when performing the USE ARTIFACT action. During the game, you may acquire benefits that increase use artifact - in this case, you may use more than one artifact card, but you may use the "perform actions" artifact only once. You must fully resolve an artifact card before you use the next.

Example. RedPlayer has 3 use artifact. When performing the USE ARTIFACT action, she may use 3 artifact cards from her hand, but only up to 1 artifact card with the "perform actions" symbol.

Variations of the DISCOVER ARTIFACT action

DISCOVER ARTIFACT per unit.

Example. YellowPlayer has 5 units of which 2 are neutral and 3 are his faction's awakened units. From his units, 1 is wounded and hence does not contribute in any way until healed. YellowPlayer has a biodome section with modifier 1:3 (draw 3 and keep 1 artifact card); and controls a room with modifier 2:2 (draw and keep 2 artifact cards per unit). 2:2 is applied 4 times as YellowPlayer has 2 + 3 - 1 = 4 available units. The sum of all these benefits is 1:3 + (2:2 x 4) = 1:3 + 8:8 = 9:11. When performing the DISCOVER ARTIFACT action, Yellow Player draws 11 artifact cards, looks at them all and then decides which 9 to keep.

The "Before" is Important

As mentioned previously, each action can be made more powerful based on the outer rooms you control and the sections of your biodome that you have upgraded. At the start of your next action phase, before you perform any action, look for rooms that have a benefit that matches the action sign. Then, calculate the total benefit modifier by summing all the modifiers from your biodome and the outer rooms you control. During your action phase, the state on the board may well change and some benefits lost or gained. Until the end of that action phase, the calculated benefits remain. At the start of your next action phase, recalculate the benefits again.

Example. YellowPlayer has a unit occupying the "Communication Array" outer room. In his action phase, YellowPlayer decides to MOVE by putting his action marker in the "Mobility Control" section. In total he has 4 move benefit (2 from his biodome section and 2 from his unit occupying the "Communication Array" room). First, he moves his unit out from "Communication Array". He has 3 move left to spend. Only at the start of YellowPlayer's next action phase, will the control effects and benefits be recalculated and YellowPlayer will have a total 2 move to spend instead of 4.

Q: Why does it say here "next action phase" and not "next turn"? A: You start the game where in each turn you have one action phase, so the "next action phase" corresponds to your next turn. But after unlocking some benefits, you could have multiple action phases during your turn, in which case "next action phase" would be during your current turn.

Free Actions

There are free actions that you can take anytime during your turn.

Exploring a Room

"Ark: Awakening" features a modular board constructed as you play. In this section we look at the rules for exploring new room tiles and placing them correctly in order to construct the game board.

2x2 constraint: You may not place a room that would form a 2x2 square.

Example. YellowPlayer has moved his unit to the position shown. There was an explore token there. YellowPlayer collects the reward from the explore token, then draws from the room deck and decides where to place the new room. There are 2 empty adjacent places - right and above YellowPlayer's unit. Above is not a valid placement due to the 2x2 constraint. So, YellowPlayer has no choice and must place the new room right.

Example. There is empty adjacent space left of YellowPlayer's unit. YellowPlayer cannot place a room there, because it would form a 2x2 square with the other rooms.

If you EXPLORE a room with benefits that provide units or power cylinders, check the room's benefit and modifier and place on the room the appropriate number and color of cylinders and neutral units. "Central Power Network Hub", "The Brig" and "Robotics" are such rooms.

You perform the EXPLORE action only if there is an explore token on a room tile.

During game setup, you have placed 1 explore token on each face up outer room. These tokens mark that a room has not been explored and has not been discovered which room connects to it.

Anytime you have a game piece (unit, cylinder or cube) on a room tile with an explore token, you perform the EXPLORE action. The EXPLORE action is a free and a mandatory action:

1. Flip the explore token to see what you found:

   • "Congratulations! You found an artifact." - as a reward immediately draw and keep 1 artifact card.
   • "There was this unused Metamorphite just laying around." - receive 1Mt: take 1Mt resource token and add it to your private supply.
   • You found nothing - you receive nothing.

   Keep the explore token.

2. Take the top room from the room deck and place it on any empty adjacent space, following the 2x2 constraint. You may rotate the newly revealed room as you wish - it has no effect on the gameplay. Take 1 explore token from the supply and place it unseen onto the newly revealed room.

   • 2.1. In case a room tile cannot be placed due to the 2x2 constraint; or there are no empty adjacent spaces; or the room deck is empty: Do not perform step 2. Note that step 1 is still performed and you keep the reward.

But, in the very unlikely event that the room deck is not empty and there are no more room tiles with explore tokens on them, then we must break this rule in order to reveal the rest of the board: You perform the EXPLORE action anytime your game piece (unit, cylinder or cube) is next to an empty adjacent space and placing a room there would not violate the 2x2 constraint. In this case there is no reward.

It is perfectly valid to move your unit to a room, take the EXPLORE action and place the room next to it, then move into the new room and perform the EXPLORE action again.

Placing Transport Gates

"4 rooms between" constraint: You cannot have fewer than 4 rooms between two transport gates.

Example. Placing a transport gate at position A would be invalid, as there would be only 2 rooms between the transport gates. Placing a transport gate at position B would be valid, as there would be 5 rooms between the transport gate.

Example. Placing a transport gate at position A would be invalid, as there would be 1 room between the transport gates. Placing a transport gate at position B would be valid, as there would be no connected rooms between the transport gates.

Once the last room tile has been placed, the "Bottom Tile" is revealed, instructing the players to begin placing transport gates as follows:

1. The active player that explored and placed the last room tile plays out the remainder of their turn. We call this player last-explorer.
2. The game is paused until the transport gates are placed.
3. Each player in clockwise order, starting with last-explorer: Choose any empty space adjacent to a room (you do not need to have a game piece in the room) and place 1 transport gate there, following the 2x2 constraint and the "4 rooms between" constraint. Players take turns performing this until there are no valid places to place a transport gate. It is perfectly fine to place a transport gate at a position that would advance your faction's interests. Most probably not all players will place equal number of transport gates.
4. After placing transport gates to all valid positions, in the very unlikely event that there are still rooms on the board that are unreachable by units (even if the units would use transport gates), then we must break the before mentioned rules in order to connect these rooms to the rest of the board. Last-explorer: place transport gates with the goal to connect the unreachable rooms to the rest of the board. In this case only, you may ignore both the 2x2 and the "4 rooms between" constraints.
5. Play resumes normally, starting with the player next to last-explorer.

Tip. After this step, no new rooms will be placed till game end. Feel free to move some components (like resources from the common supply or the artifact draw deck) in the middle of the playing area in the larger gaps between the rooms in order for the components to be in better reach to all players.

If you prefer a visual explanation for constructing the modular board, see: https://skyportgames.com/ark/constructing-the-board

For any other video tutorials, see: https://skyportgames.com/ark/video-tutorials

Activating a Room and Chains

If you are playing First Mission: skip this section as you will not be activating rooms.

When during your turn you control a fully integrated outer room, then you ACTIVATE the room. Note that you do not need to control the room exclusively. Only the special rooms and the outer power generators can be activated.

When activating a room, take the room's corresponding target card and place it next to your biodome. The room and the target card share the same image, room symbol (A), group symbol (B) and chain (C).

The target card provides a powerful benefit: a chain.

Chains give you the capability to perform multiple action phases as part of your turn. With chains, after you execute actions in one section of your biodome, you can additionally "chain to" another section of your biodome and perform the actions there. The chain symbols (C) depict which sections you may chain to.

Example. RedPlayer has activated the "Observatory and Long Range Sensors" room and receives a target card with the chain "Production and Exploitation" to "Mobility Control". Next turn, she moves her action marker to "Production and Exploitation". After finishing the action phase, she chooses to chain to a new action phase "Mobility Control". Before performing the actions in her second action phase, she recalculates the total benefit modifiers. During RedPlayer's entire turn, the action marker stays on the first selected biodome section - "Production and Exploitation". On her next turn, RedPlayer cannot select "Production and Exploitation" again because her action marker is still there. However, she could move her action marker to "Mobility Control" section and take the actions there.

The target card from an activated room remains in your possession, together with the chain benefit, until the game ends, even if you lose control of the room that got you the target card.

If another player activates the same room, the player takes an identical copy of the appropriate target card (there are 2 copies of each target card in the game box). In case a 3rd/4th/5th player also activate the same room, mark it by placing a cube of that player's color on the target card.

Chaining actions:

• You cannot mix action phases, you must complete one before chaining to a new one.
• Your action marker stays on the section played first.
• Chains work in one direction - you can only chain from left to right.
• You can only chain once during your turn. If you have multiple chains, you can choose which one to use and if to use at all.
• If applicable, you can immediately use a chain in the same turn that it is obtained.

Discovering a Mission and Winning the Game

If you are playing First Mission: If you followed the instructions in this rulebook, you already received your mission card at the start of the game - one of the cards titled "First Mission". Your mission card has 3 objectives and you win the game by being the first player to complete all of them. Skip to the next chapter.

If you are not playing First Mission mode, you need to DISCOVER your faction's mission card by completing 2 of the achievements.

• Awaken all units. Maybe the others from your faction will remember the mission. All factions have 6 units to awaken, except Hara who if playing on B-side would need to awaken all 9 units. Wounded or neutral units do not count.
• Integrate 12 cubes. By integrating with the Ark's systems you have access to vast knowledge that will help you piece together what happened.
• Control 8 outer rooms. Spread your influence across the Ark and actively search for clues. Reminder: transport gates are considered outer rooms and you control by occupying them.
• Collect 10 artifact cards in hand. The artifacts can be used to unlock knowledge about the history of the Ark. The "Alien's Pen" card counts towards this achievement.
• Win 1 battle. After taking prisoners, gently coarse them into sharing information with you.
• Achieve 17 or higher on the military arsenal track. Your military prowess will certainly influence the other faction to be generous with the data they have.
• Explore 10 rooms. Being the first to enter and explore a room might provide valuable insight. Count your collected explore tokens to determine the number of rooms you have explored.

You can complete an achievement only during your turn. Mark each completed achievement by placing one of your integration cubes on it. You can never lose a completed achievement, even if the conditions no longer apply. Multiple players can complete the same achievement.

Once you accomplish your 2nd achievement, immediately draw 1 mission card. Congratulations! You have remembered who you are and what your purpose on the Ark is.

To win the game, you must complete the objectives stated on your mission card. You only have one mission card throughout the game. Keep your mission card secret from other players.

Mission cards have 3 objectives. You complete each objective, by ACTIVATING the depicted rooms and taking the appropriate target cards. You are allowed to ACTIVATE and take target cards from rooms that are not part of your mission - this is done in order to throw opponent players off track and also to gain powerful chains. Keep the information to yourself if an activated room was an objective on your mission card.

Once you complete all 3 objectives on your mission card, you declare a game win and the game ends immediately. You read out loud the text on your mission card and point to the activated rooms and your target cards.

You can only declare a game win during your turn. You can complete the objectives in any order, you can also complete all 3 objectives in the same turn. By the time you draw your mission card, it might happen that you have already completed one of its objectives.

Last important thought: It should take around 25 turns per player to finish a game, making this a moderately long game of 20-30 min per player. To minimize player idle time and to reduce the length of the game it is vital for players' turns to partially overlap. Usually you can already start your turn while the player on your right is handling the effects of their action - like collecting resources after an EXPLOIT or choosing which artifact card to keep after an ARTIFACT RESEARCH.

See the Appendixes for game advice, FAQ, game modes and variants.

Combat Phase

After the action phase, if the active player's units occupy the same room as an opponent's units, combat phase starts. Note that a combat phase does not start if a room is occupied by units from different players, but none of them is the active player. Combat can occur in multiple rooms, in which case the active player chooses the order in which combat is resolved.

Combat Steps

The active player is the attacking player, the other is the defending player.

1. Calculate the defensive strength of the defending player. The defensive strength per unit is found on your "Military Development" biodome section. Additionally, some rooms and artifact cards can further increase your defensive strength or defensive strength per unit. The increase can be only up to 20 - this is the maximum value the defensive strength can be.

   Example. BluePlayer has 2 defensive strength per unit from his biodome and he controls outer rooms with benefits of 4 defensive strength and 1 defensive strength per unit. YellowPlayer attacks BluePlayer by moving into the room with one unit. BluePlayer's total defensive strength is (2+1) x 2 + 4 = 10.

   Defensive strength is not calculated for the attacking player as it has no impact in combat.

2. If the attacking player's military arsenal is less than that of the defending player's defensive strength, the attacking player immediately loses. Go to combat resolution. Else, combat continues.

   Continuing the previous example. YellowPlayer needs to have 10 or more military arsenal or he loses the combat automatically. YellowPlayer has 11 military arsenal which is enough to continue the combat.

If you are playing First Mission: you are not using artifact cards so skip step 3 and step 4.

3. Both players: Choose and simultaneously play any 1 artifact card from your hand. Each artifact card has an artifact power value shown in the top left corner (A). The artifact power is used during combat.

4. Critical mass. If both players play an artifact card with this sign, due to the combined power of both artifacts, there is a critical mass explosion in the room and both players lose and are considered defeated. Go to combat resolution. Else, combat continues.

5. Each player: sum your military arsenal with the artifact power to get the total combat strength.

   If you are playing B-side Asymmetric or Complexity 2 variant: Some rooms provide a benefit that increases the combat strength per unit participating in combat or if you have an integration cube in the combat room. Add these also to get the total combat strength.

   Total combat strength = military arsenal + artifact power + additional combat strength per unit or integration cube.

6. The player with higher total combat strength is the victor. If equal, the defender is the victor.

7. Discard the played artifact cards into the artifact discard pile. If you have played the Alien's Pen card (has an artifact power of zero), then this card is not discarded. Alien's Pen has text to remind you of this.

Combat Resolution

Defeated player / players:

• Move all units participating in combat to their Sickbay and lay them down to mark them as wounded.
• Return controlled neutral units to their associated outer rooms, also laid down as wounded.

Victorious player:

• Only if you were the attacking player, reduce your military arsenal by the defender's defensive strength (to a maximum of 20). Your military arsenal can fall to 0, but not below that.
• Note: A victorious defending player does not reduce their military arsenal.

Continuing the previous example. If YellowPlayer is victorious, he moves his military marker from 11 to 1 on the military arsenal track. If BluePlayer is victorious, neither player reduces their military arsenal.

After the current combat is finished, the active player chooses which combat is resolved next, following again all combat steps. After the combat phase, the next player's turn begins.