Beyond the Sun Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview and Components
• Turn Overview
• 1. Action Phase
• 2. Production Phase
• 3. Achievement Phase
• The Actions
  • Research a Technology
  • Automate Food or Ore Production
  • Build / Upgrade a Spaceship
  • Hyperspace Jump
  • Colonize a System
• Game End and Scoring

Overview and Components

A shared Technology board holds a tech tree of four levels (columns). Technologies are represented by 46 Technology cards of four types — Scientific, Economic, Military, and Commercial — plus hybrids. Each technology grants new Action spaces and/or immediate bonuses; the first faction to research an undiscovered slot chooses which card goes there, so the tree differs every game. At the start, only Levels I and II are researchable; Event cards cover undiscovered Level II/III slots and resolve when first researched.

A two-sided Exploration board maps the galaxy: Sol, habitable and shipyard Systems (controllable via Outpost discs), and Deep Space, connected by hyperspace-jump routes. System cards (Decks A and B) describe colonizable systems with a minimum military power to colonize and a Victory Point value. Each faction has a mat with Population/Ore production tracks, Supply Columns, and an Automation track. Achievement cards grant Victory Points and trigger the game's end.

Turn Overview

Players take turns clockwise until the end is triggered. A turn has three phases:

1. Action phase — move your Action pawn to a new Action space and take its Action.
2. Production phase — choose Population growth, Ore production, or Resource trade.
3. Achievement phase — claim up to one Achievement.

1. Action Phase

Move your Action pawn to an Action space and take the Action printed there, subject to:

• The space cannot be occupied by another faction's pawn.
• The pawn must move (it may move to another open space on the same card, or repeat an Action if a second space exists; the last space in the Basic Spacefaring Technology box may always be repeated).
• You must have already researched the Technology the space is on (shown by your Population cube to its left). Spaces printed on the board need no research.
• You may not take an Action you cannot fully pay for or perform.

An Action has the form [cost:] effect. Two Basic Spacefaring spaces require paying an extra Ore.

2. Production Phase

Choose one (not an Action; no pawn used). Quantities must be taken in full if possible:

• Population growth: for each uncovered symbol on your Population growth track (those not covered by removed Food production discs, including the leftmost), take a Supply cube from the matching lettered Supply Column, flip it to its Population side, and place it on your mat.
• Ore production: gain Ore equal to the uncovered symbols on your Ore production track.
• Resource trade: make any number of trades (generates no new resources): 3 Ore → 1 Population (from the leftmost non-empty Supply Column, ignoring Food discs); 1 Ore → decommission a Spaceship into a Population cube; 1 Population → 1 Ore (return the cube to the rightmost Supply Column with space).

3. Achievement Phase

You may claim one Achievement per turn whose condition you satisfy, placing an Achievement disc on the leftmost open slot (higher Victory Points). Each Achievement can be claimed by each faction only once, only on your own turn, and once placed the disc stays even if the condition later fails. You must claim an Achievement if you qualify (you may choose which if several qualify); you cannot skip to delay the game.

The Actions

Research a Technology

1. Choose a Technology slot on the researched level where you haven't researched it and you have the prerequisites (all technologies connected to its left by blue lines; Level I has none; some Level IIII need only 2 of 3 prerequisites; an "eye" symbol restricts you to already-discovered slots).
2. Place your Population cube to the left of the slot (this cube is never returned — raising future Food demand).
3. Trigger the Event if this is an undiscovered Level II/III slot (reveal, resolve, discard).
4. Choose a Technology card if undiscovered: determine the type from the prerequisites (you choose if two types are available), reveal cards of that type/level until two match, place one, and return the rest to the bottom of the deck.
5. Gain the immediate bonus in the card's "IMMEDIATE" box (every faction that researches it gets this; other effects are new Action spaces or permanent powers).

Technology types: Scientific (Ore automation, research, Ore bonuses), Economic (Food automation, Population/Ore collection), Military (shipbuilding, movement, upgrades), Commercial (colonization, ship movement, flexibility).

Automate Food or Ore Production

Take the leftmost production disc from the corresponding track and place it on your Automation track (left to right); use an Achievement-shaped disc as a placeholder if none remain. Some Automation levels grant Victory Points; each level beyond 7 is worth 1 VP. Automation discs can never be removed.

Build / Upgrade a Spaceship

Build: rotate a resource cube to its Spaceship side of the indicated level (1–4), placed on Sol or any Shipyard System you control (marked with a shipyard icon). Upgrade: rotate one of your own Spaceship cubes to a higher level (max 4).

Hyperspace Jump

1. Move: spend the Jump's movement points; each moves one Spaceship one line segment (allocate freely; movements are simultaneous; unused points are lost).
2. Check System control and build outposts: a faction's power at a location is the sum of its Spaceships' levels there (not their count; outposts add none). Moving into an empty System and leaving a ship gains control; taking control from another faction requires strictly higher power. Gaining control builds an outpost (place the leftmost matching production disc — or a placeholder — on the location); losing control returns the disc to your track. Control updates any time the board changes, even out of turn.
3. Check System bonuses: gaining control of a System with a "gain control" bonus grants it immediately (even out of turn; not repeated when colonized).

Each Outpost disc on the Exploration board is worth 1 VP at game end.

Colonize a System

Only System cards (with a colonize symbol) can be colonized. Steps:

1. Eligibility: you must control the System (your outpost on it) and have at least the minimum military power printed in its colonize symbol (opponents' ships don't matter).
2. Settle Spaceships: return your Spaceships totaling the required power or more to the empty Supply Column slots (right to left); no change is given for excess. (This refills Supply Columns for future Population.)
3. Exile other Spaceships (all remaining, including yours) to Deep Space.
4. Take the System card and outpost to your mat, then draw and reveal a replacement System card.
5. Place an additional production disc on the card (stack of 2; choose the type for multi-specialty systems; placeholder if none).
6. Gain the colonization bonus at the bottom of the card.

A colonized System scores the Victory Points printed on its card at game end and no longer counts as "controlled."

Game End and Scoring

The final round is triggered when 4 total Achievement discs (3 in a 2–3 player game) have been placed. Finish the current round (ending with the player right of the start player), then play one full final round (Achievements may still be claimed). Then score each faction:

1. 1 VP per Level I Technology.
2. 2 VP per Level II Technology.
3. 3 VP per Level III Technology.
4. Private Technologies: 2 or 3 VP (Level II or III).
5. Victory Points specified on Level IIII Technologies.
6. Victory Points on your Automation track (all showing up to the level reached; each level beyond 7 is 1 VP).
7. Victory Points for each colonized System (bottom of the card).
8. 1 VP per uncolonized Outpost disc (on System cards or Shipyard Systems), plus any VP from Events/cards.

The player with the most Victory Points wins.