Bios: Megafauna (Second Edition) Rulebook

Table of Contents

The Bios Trilogy
A. Sequence of Play (4 phases per turn)
B. Game Components
C. Setup
D. Events
E. Actions
F. Mothers & Dispersals
G. Herbivore Habitability & Contests
H. Carnivore Prey Suitability & Contests
I. Burials & Fossil Awards
J. Traits
K. Mars Solitaire Game (Achterbahn game)
L. Venus Multiplayer Variants (Achterbahn game)
- L1. Venus Plant Vs. Animal Game
- L2. Venus Animal Game
M. Example Turn: 2-Player (Achterbahn game, by Adam Gastonguay)
N. Flowing Bios:Megafauna into Origins: How We Became Human
Glossary and Index
- Rosetta Stone (icon quick-reference)
Credits

The Bios Trilogy

This edition of Bios:Megafauna is an evolutionary descendant of "American Megafauna" (see Wikipedia), but as a part of the Bios series of games it is linked to the game Bios:Genesis. It plays well independently but if you have both games you can start this game with the macroorganisms you created in a game of Bios:Genesis (see C2). A successor game, called Bios:Origins (which would be a descendant of "Origins"), is planned to cover the events of the Pleistocene epoch (Era IV) including the rise of ideas and technology.

Terms being defined are listed in bold, or italicized if defined elsewhere. Capitalized terms are defined in the glossary. Achterbahn game rules are marked in a different style below (denoted "Achterbahn" throughout this transcription — in the original they are printed in blue font).

a. Variants. The tooth and claw game ignores rules marked Achterbahn. The Achterbahn game includes all rules. There is a solo campaign game for the Bios Trilogy (C3), a Martian solitaire game (Part K), and a Venusian multiplayer variant (Part L).
b. The Golden Rule. If the text on a card contradicts these rules, the card has preference.
c. Colorblind Braille. As an aid for colorblind players, the red organ icons have a small white dot to distinguish them, and the red emotion (anger) preview icon has angry eyes.

A. Sequence of Play (4 phases per turn)

A1. Phase 1: Events (Part D)

These phases are listed on your fossil cards.

a. Reveal the next Event from the ET Event Deck. For the first turn, skip all events (C1p). For the tooth & claw game, ignore all Events except for mutagen (D7), radiation (D8), and crowd disease (D9).
b. Stable Biosphere. Events are either ET (extraterrestrial) or biosphere (too hot, goldilocks, or too cold). The stable biosphere icon on the ET event card means that no biosphere event card is drawn for this turn.
c. Draw Biosphere. Unless the biosphere is stable, draw 1 biosphere event card from the current biosphere deck (either too hot, goldilocks, or too cold, as indicated by the Atmosphere from last turn). Lay the 2 event cards side-by-side. If the biosphere deck runs out, reshuffle all 12 of its cards for a new deck.
d. Impacted Craton. The collision/drift-by (D3), latitudinal drift (D1), and crater (D2) events only impact a single Craton, called the impacted craton. Each Craton has a unique icon. For the collision/drift-by event this is the Craton indicated by the icon on the ET Event card, but occurs only if this Craton contains a Latitude Dice. For latitudinal drift and crater events this is the Craton specified by the icon in the upper left corner of the turn's biosphere card. In the case of latitudinal drift, if the impacted craton has no Latitude Dice, the event is canceled.
e. Event Resolution Order. Resolve each event row by row, beginning with the top row and reading left to right; resolving all ET card events before Biosphere card events. Resolve each Event per D1-D14.
f. End Of Era. If the ET Event drawn is the 5th and last ET Event, set the era card to the next era, and reshuffle all 15 ET Event cards and place 5 of them facedown half on the era card. Remember to award fossils (I4b) at the end of the turn.
g. Reset Latitude. If the Atmosphere changed, be sure to check and, if necessary, change the Latitude Strip to be correct for the current climate, see setup diagram (C1).

A2. Phase 2: Actions (Part E), in Player Order (A5)

a. Action Maximum. All players receive (tooth & claw game) 2 actions, or (Achterbahn game) a maximum number of actions indicated by the current Oxygen Level (from 1 to 4).
b. Green Exception. In the Achterbahn game, Player Green gets a maximum number of actions as indicated by the current greenhouse level of the Atmosphere.
c. Action Sequence. In player order (A5), each player performs all his actions. The actions are:
- E1 Mutate. Select a Mutation from the Display and play it into the Tableau of one of your Species. The combined Costs of all the selections a Species makes cannot exceed the number of its Unborn.
- E2 Promote. Promote a Mutation (flip it, choose 1 of its orientations and gain its Plus Organs).
- E3 Speciate. This is a promote to a new Creeple Shape. This creates a new Genotype with Inheritance (E3b). Replace one Creeple of the old Shape (mother) with a Creeple of the new Shape.
- E4 Populate. Move some of your Unborn Creeples to your Newborn Card. They will be dispersed in the next phase (A3).
- E5 Neoteny. Discard up to 1 Basal Organ from each Genotype.
- E6 Resize. Resize each Genotype by up to 1 step.
- E7 Resurrect. If Lazarus, restore your Archetype.
- E8 Claim Medea. Requires all your actions. Take the Medea card.
d. After all your selections, refresh the Display per E1e. It is suggested to perform all mutate actions before making other types of actions.

A3. Phase 3: Mothers & Dispersal (Part F), in Player Order (A5)

a. Action Sequence. In player order (A5), each player chooses a mother for each Creeple on his Newborn Card (E4), and then disperses it (F2), until all his Newborns are dispersed. Then go to the next player.
b. Inhabiting A Biome. Upon entering the Biome the Newborn is to inhabit, it immediately makes a Trophic Choice (F6). If this choice is contested, then immediately perform an herbivore contest (Part G) or a carnivore contest (Part H) to determine the winner.

A4. Phase 4: Burials & Fossil Awards (Part I)

a. Disperse Endotherms. In player order (A5), each player disperses all his endangered endotherms into uninhabited Trophic Levels and stands them upright per I1.
b. Bury Endangered. Convert all Endangered Creeples into Unborn Creeples (I2).
c. Fossil Awards or Final Scoring. If you drew the last ET Event of the Era during phase 1, then award fossils per I4b. If it's the final era (A6), instead conduct final scoring per A7.

A5. Player Order

In the upper middle of each ET event card is a row of three colored icons. The leftmost icon indicates the color of the first player, and then the second color in the row shows the second player, etc. If the first player is a color who is not in the game, the second color is the first player, etc. The first player is the first to perform his actions in phases A2, A3, and A4a. He is also the first to choose Atrophies or deaths in certain events (D7g, D8d, D9).

A6. Game Length

The game lasts 10 event cards, ending at the end of Era II (Mesozoic). The game can also end due to runaway greenhouse (D10h) or language (J6f). The game continues even if all players have become Lazarus. When the game ends, do final scoring (A7) to determine the winner.

a. Long Game. The Apocalyptic Chicxulub Game continues into Era III (Cenozoic). However, the card "Chicxulub Class Comet" is shuffled into the ET event deck for Era III as one of the 5 cards. When this Event is drawn, the game ends suddenly at the end of the Event Phase. Therefore, this game is from 11 to 15 Events long. The long game can be flowed into a solo campaign game (C3) or a Bios:Origins game (Part N).

A7. Final Scoring

In the final era, instead of the Fossil Awards (I4b) count victory points as follows:

a. Fossil Record. 1 VP for each Fossil (cards or tokens with the fossil icon).
b. Population. 1 VP for each Living Creeple of your color on the map.
c. Tableau. 1 VP for each card in your Tableau with the Fossil icon (includes Tools, Medea, and Genotypes).
d. Mutualism. 1 VP for each Host Creeple (J2) on your mutualism cards.
e. Emotions. 1 VP for each Emotion, and 3 VP if you have Language (J6f).

The winner is the player with the most VP. If 2 or more players have an equal amount VP, they share the position they end up on.

A8. The Tooth & Claw Game

I recommend that you play the tooth & claw game first, which ignores all game rules restricted to the Achterbahn game. This game is best for beginners, and is also preferred by competitive players who prefer pure infighting. The full game includes all the rules, and is known as the Achterbahn game because it adds the chaos of surviving in a roller-coaster climate engine. The tooth & claw game features the following:

a. The Creeples are always at size one, so the resize action and the size dice are not used. Dispersal Points (DP) for a Species is therefore always one plus the number of blue organs.
b. Only the ET Event cards are used, so the biosphere event cards are not used. On the ET cards, only the mutagen, radiation, and crowd disease events are used. If a mutagen event occurs, make a mutagen roll using a number of dice equal to 1 plus the Era number (C1m). Then remove all the dice except the highest face number. The highest number is the dark heart limit to the number of Organs, see D7b.
c. The climate is not tracked, so the Reservoirs and Latitude Strips are not used. Each player gets two actions per turn.
d. The Cratons do not move, so the collision/drift-by, latitudinal drift, and rift events on the ET cards are ignored, and Latitude Dice are not used.
e. No disks are needed, since there are no mountains, ice, forests, or climate.
f. In Herbivore contests, the humidity niche (G5) is always green (since the climate is permanently humid, see D5a).
g. Medea supervillain, Venom and Monsters are not used.
h. Player Green is treated as an ordinary Species.

B. Game Components

B1. Cards

92 Mutation cards (4 colors: nervous [red], circulatory [yellow], digestive [green], reproductive [blue]). Each unpromoted Mutation card shows a max size, a head emoticon, and its plus organ(s); each promoted card shows the promotion preview, a new genotype shape, a fear emoticon, and an alternate orientation.
51 Event cards (ET, Too Hot, Too Cold, Goldilocks). ET event cards show the first player order, reservoir events, crater location and event, and conflagration/"gun" reservoir events; biosphere event cards show their own anatomy of icons.
4 Archetype cards, 1 of each player color
1 era card
4 Newborn Cards
1 Medea Card
4 tool cards
3 Player Aid cards

B2. Placards

4 Craton punchboards. 8 Craton Placards. These are assembled to form 4 Cratons, with terrestrial on one side, and ET on the other. Each Craton has a unique icon. Each Craton placard shows a roadrunner arrow, a craton icon, a predator triangle, and the Swamp, Sea, and Weeds biome areas, along with a latitude dice slot, setup archetype location, and direction dice.

If you wish, they can be optionally glued into this configuration, with Earth on one side, and Mars or Venus on the other (it doesn't matter which Earth goes with which Mars/Venus Craton). If you do so YOU MUST GLUE THEM SO THAT THEY FORM 3 SHELVES, AS SHOWN IN THE DIAGRAM. If you glue them correctly, each side will have 3 white shelves. If you glue them incorrectly, you will have to tear them apart.
1 Latitude Strip punchboard. 3 Latitude Strips. Use for the 6 Greenhouse Levels.
1 Reservoir placard. Use for the 3 Reservoirs.
16 Fossil Tokens (part of the Reservoir punchboards, 4 per punchboard).
16 Monster Tiles (part of the Reservoir punchboards, 4 per punchboard).

B3. Wooden Creeples

28 Archetype: 7 green, 7 orange, 7 black, 7 white
28 Armored: 7 green, 7 orange, 7 black, 7 white
28 Swimmer: 7 green, 7 orange, 7 black, 7 white
28 Flyer: 7 green, 7 orange, 7 black, 7 white
28 Burrower: 7 green, 7 orange, 7 black, 7 white

B4. Wooden Cubes

110 Organ cubes (25 each of yellow, red, green, blue; 10 of white)

B5. Disks

12 black disks (climate disks that represent carbon cycle and mountains).
12 white disks (climate disks that represent water cycle and ice).
18 green transparent disks (climate disks that represent oxygen cycle, forests, and upwellings).

B6. 6-sided Dice

24 dice: 5 green, 5 orange, 5 black, 5 white, and 4 brown.

B7. Component Limits

All components except for dice are limited to what is supplied.

Cube Genetic Drift. If the pool has no more cubes of the color you need for a Mutation, promotion, you may take the required cubes from any other Species, including those of opponents. This simulates genetic drift. You must steal Plus Cubes if any are available anywhere, then monster tokens (with size reduction), then (as involuntary neoteny) Basal Cubes.
Disks. The number of disks in the game is fixed, so they should not run out.

C. Setup

C1. Setup

a. Tooth & Claw or Full? Players decide if they wish to play the tooth & claw (A8) or the Achterbahn game. The rules restricted to the Achterbahn game only apply if you choose that game! If you choose Tooth & Claw, then you do not need disks, reservoirs, or biosphere cards, and need only 3 dice. If you want to play with experimental apomorphies (J8), decide this now.
b. Sort Cards. Remove the 4 Archetype cards, 4 Newborn Cards, and the 1 Medea card, which are assigned in the next step. Remove the 4 tool cards and form a public deck. Remove the era card (it will be setup during C1m). Separate the remaining cards into 6 decks: yellow & red (Metabolic Mutations), green and blue (Darwin Mutations), ET Events, too hot events (reddish), goldilock events (green), and too cold events (blue). Unless playing the Achterbahn game, the last 3 decks are not used.
c. Player Color. Each player is randomly assigned a color, and receives his color's 35 Creeples, 5 dice, Archetype card, and Newborn Card. Each player places his Archetype card on the table in front of him, with the continental icon (upper left corner) faceup. He places his 7 Archetype creeples (domes) on this card.
d. Medea. The player with the lowest Skeletal Number (shown in upper center of the Archetype card) receives the Medea card.
e. Starting Size. Each player places 1 dice of his color, set to 1 pip, in the square marked "size".
f. Craton Row. For each player in the game, find his starting Craton placard. It has an icon of the starting Creeple in the player's color. Other Cratons will not be used. Set these placards in a row, with a space between. The order is random (if you wish to use the historical setup, it is left to right: Laurentia, Baltica, Siberia and Gondwana).
g. Achterbahn Cratons. In the Achterbahn game, all 4 Cratons are used, even if some are unoccupied. Place a brown six-sided dice in the square in the center of each Craton with 4 pips faceup, indicating each Craton starts equatorial.
h. Offshore Disks. For each of the 4 Cratons, place one adjacent black disk in the northernmost slot and another in the southernmost. These are on the east coast, see Diagram (C). These 8 disks are offshore carbon deposits. On top of each of the 4 southernmost black disks, place a green disk (this is called a bloom and indicates upwellings where plankton flourishes).
i. Continental Disks. On Laurentia, Baltica, and Gondwana, place a white disk in the center hex. In Siberia, place a black disk there.
j. Latitude Strip. Place the "GOLDILOCKS: EDEN" Latitude Strip faceup to the left of the map so that each Craton is in line with Latitude 4. Set aside the other 2 Latitude Strips for later.
k. Clouds, Oxygen, & Atmosphere. Starting in the bottommost spot, place one disk in each spot indicated by a disk icon for the 3 Reservoirs. On the Oxygen, place 14 green disks so that it reads 7% oxygen. On the Clouds, place 6 white disks so that it reads albedo = 0.4. On the Atmosphere, place 3 black disks then 3 white disks, so that it reads "Warm".

Note: Load the atmosphere disks from the bottom empty spot on up, and it does not matter in what order the black and white disks are in. If say, a black disk is removed from the Atmosphere, it can be removed from any position, but the remaining disks slide downward to fill in the gap.
l. Starting Creeple. Each player places one of his Archetype Creeples (these are domes) as an Herbivore (i.e. below the predator triangle) into the map hex shown with his Archetype color.
m. ET Event Deck. Shuffle the ET Event cards and place 5 of the cards facedown to form the first era. Place the era card half underneath the ET Events so that the part saying "ERA I PALEOZOIC" is shown.
n. Three Biosphere Decks. Shuffle the too hot biosphere cards and form a facedown deck. Do the same with the goldilocks and too cold cards so that there are three biosphere decks in all.
o. Draw Decks & Display. Shuffle the metabolic Mutations (red and yellow cards) into a draw deck. From this deck deal 4 cards into the top Display row, with promoted side down. Do the same with the Darwinian Mutations (green and blue cards), in a bottom Display row just beneath the top Display row. The draw decks are placed just to the right of each row, see Diagram (C). The Display will now have 2 rows of 5 cards each, counting the card on top of the draw decks.
p. Boring Ordovician. Perform the first turn. The first event card has no effect other than determining the player order, so skip the first event phase and begin with the Action Phase per A2.

C2. Setup (If continuing from Bios: Genesis)

If you ended a game of Bios:Genesis (that did not end in Armageddon) with a surviving Macroorganism, and continue to a game of Bios: Megafauna, you are assigned a color as follows (instead of C1c):

a. Mosses, Mushrooms (plants & fungi): Terrestrial Player Green (cytoskeletal); Dickinsonia, Seaweed: Marine Player Green.
b. Snails, Earthworms (mollusks & annelids): Terrestrial Player Orange (hydroskeletal); Lamp Shells, Flatworms: Marine Player Orange.
c. Eurypterids, Insects (arthropods): Terrestrial Player Black (exoskeletal); Trilobites, Arrow Worms: Marine Player Black.
d. Amphibians (tetrapods): Terrestrial Player White (endoskeletal); Sea Stars: Marine Player White.
e. Velvet Worms: Either Player Orange or Player Black (your choice); Marine if Opabinia.
f. Terrestrial Macroorganisms start with as many Basal Organs as Organ cubes on your Genesis Macroorganism. The Organs should match in color as well. For each Biont on your Genesis Macroorganism, including the Trophic Biont, deal one random unpromoted Mutation of the matching color into the Archetype's tableau and place one Plus Cube on it. Your creature starts as an Archetype Creeple on your starting hex. Your Macroorganism card from Genesis counts as a fossil, so store it in your Fossil Record.
g. Marine Macroorganisms start with the marine side of the Archetype card faceup, and with no starting organs. The starting Creeple is a swimmer instead of an Archetype Creeple, and it starts in any sea hex of your choice. The first resize on this Species generates an Archetype kiwi (E6b).
h. If two players are qualified for the same player color, the player with the higher Genesis score chooses first, and the loser takes another color per C2f or C2g above.
i. Organs inherited from your Genesis Macroorganism may be converted into white Basal Organs. Every two organs of a single color may be converted into one white organ, limited to one conversion per color.
j. Players without Macroorganisms and players who did not play Bios: Genesis assign themselves Archetypes normally after players with surviving Macroorganisms. However, they can only select zero-cost cards for the first turn.
k. Endosymbionts. If your macroorganism had endosymbiont bionts owned by another player who is part of this Megafauna game, your starting Archetype or swimmer is a mutualist host (J2). Give each endosymbiont player one of your starting Creeples to put on their starting Archetype card. Their starting Archetype card is also treated as a mutualism mutation for the purposes of the mutualism rules.

C3. Solo Campaign

You can string your solitaire games together in an epic campaign, trying to stay alive from protolife to language-based consciousness (in Bios: Origins).

a. Solo win. If you win a solitaire game of Bios: Genesis, proceed in your setup using the rules C2 and then use the solitaire rules (Part K) for Earth. If you won as a plant, then see K0e.
b. Solo fail. If you didn't win, start with just a base Archetype as if playing a regular game of Megafauna, but enact the Events of the Boring Ordovician instead of skipping them. This simulates the longer time for Macroorganisms to form due to your mismanagement. Will you be able to get them to thrive under this handicap?

D. Events

During the event phase (A1), the Events are resolved in the order set by A1e.

D1. Latitudinal Drift (ET Event)

If the impacted craton (A1d) is a landmass (i.e. either a Craton or a Continent) with a Latitude Dice, the landmass moves either north or south by one or two Latitudes (single or double arrow icon). However, the Latitude Dice cannot be set any farther north than 1, or farther south than 6.

a. Latitude Dice. The face of the Latitude Dice of a Craton or Continent indicates its Latitude, from 1 to 6. Decrease the Latitude Dice if moving north or increase it if moving south.

D2. Crater (ET Event)

If a crater event occurs, one of the Biomes in the impacted craton (A1d) will suffer a crater, indicated by Degassing a black disk. This is a Disk of Damocles. To determine the crater location, roll a single die. The biome displaying the number matching the die result is the target.

D3. Collision or Drift-by (ET Event)

This Event moves a landmass (i.e. either a Craton or a Continent) to either the east or west as indicated, towards a neighboring landmass. This Event can have 3 outcomes: (1) the impacted craton (A1d) is not a Craton with a Latitude Dice, whereupon the Event does not occur, (2) the impacted craton has Biomes or adjoined Biomes that are in the same Latitude as another landmass, whereupon the two collide per the bullets below, or (3) the impacted craton has no Biomes or adjoined Biomes that are in the same Latitude as any other landmass. In this case, it will drift-by, swapping the positions of the moving landmass with one neighbor, so the one that was to the west is now to the east of the other.

a. Colliding. If there is a collision, line up the 2 landmasses correctly, then move the moving landmass in the direction indicated until one of its hexes touches a Coast hex in the same Latitude of the "smashed" landmass. Note that it may drift-by 1 or 2 Cratons to make this collision.
b. Collisional Wrap-Around. The world is spherical, so that the westernmost moving landmass drifting west may smash the east Coast of the easternmost landmass.
c. Collisional Orogeny. Degas a black "Disk of Damocles" to each Biome in the smashed landmass that is adjacent to a biome in the moving landmass. No mountains are formed in the moving landmass.
d. Collisional Subducted Offshore Disks. In a collision, the hemispherical shelves of one landmass interlock with the half-moon bays of the other landmass. Any disks that were on these shelves are Liberated and any swimmers are killed to Unborn.
e. Loss Of Latitude Dice. The collision forms a Continent (two or more adjoining Cratons). The Latitude Dice (D1a) is lost by the smashed landmass and retained by the moving landmass.

Example: During the C.A.M.P. Event, the Craton of Laurentia drifts east, towards Siberia. Its center is at Latitude 4, and its northern coast (at Latitude 3) strikes the southern coast of Siberia. As the smashed craton, Siberia loses its Latitude Dice. Two mountains are degassed in Siberia where they contacted the eastern shoreline of Laurentia. Two Offshore disks were subducted in the collision: a black disk Liberated into the Atmosphere, and a green disk Liberated into the Oxygen. The mountain formation Liberates a forest and Endangers a creeple.

D4. Pangea Rift (ET Event)

Any Continent that has 3 or more Cratons joined together is called Pangea. If a "Pangea Rift" Event occurs, Pangea breaks up so that each of its Cratons separate from each other. However, if its Latitude is less than 1 or greater than 6, its Latitude becomes 1 or 6 respectively. The Cratons end up in a left to right order preserving their relative positions before the break-up.

D5. Climax (ET Event)

Each climax icon has one, two, or three dice faces, representing the up to three individual Latitude(s) in which empty weeds become either forests or ice on all Biomes in all Cratons in this Latitude(s). Swamps, seas, and Offshores are not affected by this Event.

a. Forested Humid Latitudes. The current Latitude Strip has 8 dice icons, one for each Latitude. If the Latitude is a green dice icon, first Liberate all continental white disks in weed biomes. Then Degas a green disk on each weed hex (that has no disks). These disks, representing forests, do not disturb any Creeples present.
b. Arid Latitudes. If a Latitude is a white dice icon, first Liberate all continental green disks in weed biomes. Then Degas a white disk on each hex that has no disks (weeds, seas, swamps). These disks represent ice caps or deserts.

Example: Siberia experiences a 1-6 climax during a Warm greenhouse. Siberia is far north, with a weed and a swamp biome at Latitude 0, one mountain, forest, and weed biome at Latitude 1, and two sea biomes at Latitude 2. Latitude one is green dice, so the one weeds in Latitude 1 becomes forested.

D6. Deluge (ET Event)

a. Rising Sea Levels. If a deluge occurs during too hot or goldilocks, Liberate all disks (black or green) on seas (but not Offshores).
b. Falling Sea Levels. If a deluge occurs during too cold, all seas (but not Offshores) become land, either forested or ice (because the oceans are being sequestered into icecaps). On each sea biome, first Liberate any disks present, and then Degas a white disk in arid (white dice) latitudes, and a green disk in humid (green dice) latitudes (D5a). Each degassed white disk is a Disk of Damocles. A sea biome is treated as land for as long as it retains its green disk.

D7. Mutagen (ET or Biosphere Event)

This Event causes the 8 Display cards not on top of the draw decks to be discarded from the game, and replaced with new ones from the draw decks. It also causes each Species to suffer Mutation Atrophy (see glossary) if it has too many Organs. If this causes the loss of a Basal Organ, it goes extinct (I3) with its Creeples killed outright (i.e. not becoming Endangered).

a. Tooth & Claw Game. Make a mutagen roll (A8b) to determine the dark heart limit for all players.

Example: During Era I, the mutagen roll is 1 and 2. Therefore, the dark heart is 2. Player Black has two Species: his Archetype with two basal cubes and 3 cubes on Mutations, plus a daughter species with 5 basal cubes. The Archetype loses all its Mutations, and the daughter goes extinct. If the mutagen roll had been snake eyes, Player Black would have gone Lazarus.
b. Dark Heart Limit. For Players Black, White, and Orange, the dark heart icon on the Oxygen sets the maximum number of Organs each Species can have if a mutagen event occurs.

Example: A mutagen event strikes when the oxygen level is 4% with a dark heart of 2. Don't forget to first churn the Display. Player Orange has an Archetype with 3 Basal Organs and a flyer with 2 Basal Cubes and 3 Plus Cubes. The Archetype goes extinct, and the flyer loses both Plus Cubes.
c. Green Heart Limit. For Player Green, the green heart icon on the Clouds sets the maximum number of Organs each of his Species can have if a mutagen event occurs.
d. White Organ Shield. For every white organ a Species has, its heart limit (dark or green) is increased by two.
e. Monsters. If a monster token Atrophies during mutagens, the species size is reduced instead. A monster cannot be removed until the Species is at size 1. See J4.
f. Haustorium. During a mutagen event, a Species with a haustorium Skeletal Number of 0 must use the dark heart limit (D7b) and a Species with a haustorium Skeletal Number of 5 must use the green heart limit (D7c). See J5.
g. Order. Atrophy Organs in player order (A5).

Example: The albedo level is 0.2 (green heart = 3) when a mutagen strikes. Don't forget to first churn the display. Player Green has a size 3 Species with 3 basal cubes and one monster token, which counts as 3 Plus Organs. The Species loses 2 organs by shrinking twice to size one and loses a third organ by discarding the monster token along with its mutation card. Another Species has 4 basal cubes, including one white cube, and this Species is unharmed.

D8. Metabolism/Darwinian Radiation (ET Event)

This Event simulates two types of ionizing radiation. Metabolism Radiation (red/yellow) forces each Species to Atrophy one Plus Organ, either red or yellow (owner's choice). Darwinian Radiation (green/blue) forces each Species to Atrophy one Plus Organ, either green or blue (owner's choice).

a. Mutation Loss. Except for Cheshire Cats, remove a Mutation that loses its last Plus Organ.
b. Monsters. If a monster token Atrophies during radiation, the species size is reduced instead, see "Atrophy". A monster cannot be removed until the Species is at size 1. See J4.
c. Immunity. Radiation has no effect on a Species with no Plus Organs of the color specified. Note that cards that gain no Plus Organs when promoted can never be lost.
d. Order. Atrophy Plus Organs in player order (A5).

Example: The hypercapnia event occurs, with a metabolism radiation event. Your Archetype has two blue Basal Organs, which are unaffected by radiation. It also has one yellow Plus Organ, and this being the only choice, must be the one removed, along with its Mutation.

D9. Crowd Disease (ET Event)

The Species with the most Creeples on the map, including Endangered, loses half its Creeples, rounding down. The owner chooses which ones are killed outright (i.e. removed to the Unborns, and not becoming Endangered). If two (or more) Species are tied, all suffer the disease, choosing in player order (A5).

Example: When a crowd disease strikes, your Archetype Creeples are tied for the most populous, with 5 Creeples on the map. You lose 2 of them, and you choose 2 that are being preyed upon by your opponent's birds, so that those 2 carnivores become Endangered. Player Orange has two Species with 5 Creeples, his Archetype and his predatory birds. Both Species lose 2 Creeples, and for the bird losses Player Orange chooses the 2 Endangered ones.

D10. Reservoir (Biosphere Event)

Each of these Events shifts one disk from the Reservoir or map indicated on the left, to the one indicated on the right. The Reservoirs are the Oxygen, Clouds, and Atmosphere, and the map includes all the Biome hexes and Offshore shelves. The color of the disk shifted is indicated by the color of the triangular arrow.

a. Triggerhappy Superpower. If an Event includes the gun icon, the Medea supervillain (E8) can decide that all the disks of that color are moved, not just one. They all come from the indicated reservoir and go to the indicated reservoir. This superpower must be applied globally, e.g. if the Event liberates a Continental green disk, the gun would liberate all Continental green disks.
b. Ricochet Rule. If the Medea triggers a gun, he must immediately surrender the Medea card to another player of his choice. The ricochet rule is only used if Player Green is in the game.
c. Microbe, Conflagration Events. An Event that has the microbe/conflagration icons does NOT occur if oxygen levels specify "no microbes" or "no conflagration" respectively.

Example: The first wetlands eutrophication event has the "requires microbe" icon, so it occurs only if oxygen levels are 14% or lower (since the anaerobic bacteria only function in low oxygen).
d. Precipitation Events. An Event with the precipitation icon occurs unless the cloud level indicates "no precipitation" (because there are no clouds).

Example: During a megamonsoon, the 3 Events bracketed by precipitation occur. However, the Earth's albedo is 0.2 ("no precipitation"), which cancels these Events.
e. Cloud-Covered. An Event marked with the cloud-covered icon only occurs if the cloud level is cloud-covered, as indicated on the Clouds.
f. Continents. If the destination reservoir is on a Continent, the disk is Degassed (see glossary) onto a Biome hex chosen by Medea per (D12). The disks are either green (forests), black (mountains), or white (ice), to a maximum of one disk per Biome.
g. Offshore. If the destination reservoir is Offshore, the disk is Degassed into one of the semicircular shelves on the east coast of a Craton. The disks are either black (stored carbon or methane) or green (plankton bloom). There is a maximum of one black disk per offshore position, and a maximum of one green disk that can sit on top of the black disk (representing upwelling of carbon to the ocean surface). Note: A green disk can only be Degassed onto an Offshore black disk. If the black disk is Liberated, any green disk on it must also be Liberated.
h. Change Greenhouse. If disks were Liberated to or Degassed from the Atmosphere, check to see if the Latitude Strip must be changed. If so, replace it with the new valid Latitude Strip (see glossary). If at the end of events there is a disk in the uppermost slot of the Atmosphere, the game ends at the end of the turn (Phase A4) due to runaway greenhouse (A6).

D11. Windy Event

This Event blows the Wind in all Latitudes and in both directions this turn. This enables rafting in all Latitudes, see F5c.

D12. Biosphere Superpower

If a disk is Degassed to a Continent or Offshore, Medea specifies to which Biome it is added, constrained by D12a. Conversely, if a disk is Liberated from a Continent or Offshore, the Medea specifies which Biome it comes from.

a. Rain-Shadow Constraint. This icon indicates the white disks Degassed to a Continent during a Reservoir Event always go into a rain-shadow biome: either (1) the center hex of any Craton or (2) into a Biome adjacent and downwind of any mountain (black disk). For each mountain, look at the wind indicator on the Latitude Strip for the mountain's Latitude to see the direction of the Wind. If there are several possibilities, Medea decides. If there are no possibilities because all rain-shadows have a Disk of Damocles of a higher hierarchy, the event is canceled.
b. Plankton Die-off. Liberation of a black Offshore disk also Liberates any green Offshore disk present. Removal of a green Offshore disk (bloom) makes any swimmers there Endangered.
c. Brown Plankton. If a green disk is to be Degassed to an Offshore, but there is no Offshore Shelf with a black disk to place it on, the Event is canceled.
d. Damocles Hierarchy. A white or black disk Degassed to the map is a Disk of Damocles (see glossary), so you can't add a new white disk to a biome that has a white or black disk there already.

Example: A CO₂ desert event occurs during an Ice Age, placing a white disk in a rain-shadow. All the center hexes already have white or black disks. There are several mountains, but only two in windy latitudes. Medea chooses to place the white disk over a sea where an opponent's swimmer is living downwind from a mountain. The swimmers become Endangered, presumably because the sea has become supersaline.

D13. Cloud Seed Superpower

If a white disk is Liberated for any reason, Medea decides if it goes into the Clouds or Atmosphere. This choice is indicated by the half clouds/half atmosphere icon on certain Events.

Example: The icon shows a reservoir event liberating a white disk from the continents to either the Atmosphere or the Clouds. Medea, using his cloud seed superpower, decides which reservoir it goes into. Since this is a gun, if Medea pulls the trigger all the white disks on all the continents are Liberated.

D14. Empty Reservoir Superpower

If an Event requires a disk to be taken from a Reservoir, but there is no disk of that color left, Medea may remove the required disk from anywhere. This superpower cannot be used during a gun event.

E. Actions

During the action phase (A2), each player performs a number of actions (E1 - E8) as determined by A2a.

E1. Mutate — select and play a mutation

Use this action to select a card in the Display and immediately add it to the Tableau of one of your Species. There is no hand.

a. Mutation Costs. Each Mutation has a cost as shown by the Table shown on the Newborn Card. The total costs of cards selected for a given Species during this phase cannot exceed the number of Unborn Creeples it has when it starts its purchases.

Example: You have 4 actions this turn. You have 2 Species, one with 2 Unborn, and one with 6 Unborn. For your first Species, you select a Mutation that costs 2. For your second Species, you make 3 selections, for Mutations costing 0, 0, and 6. In both cases, you have spent the maximum allowed for each Species. Note that you have not permanently spent any Unborn, and on your next turn you once again can spend 2 for your first Species and 6 for your second species.
b. Emotional Bonus. The Cost required to select any card is halved if since the beginning of this phase that Species has had one or more emotions (J6) of the card's color. If it had more than one, see J6e.

Example: Your only Species has 4 Living Creeples and thus 3 Unborn Creeples. It has the blue emotion (sexual jealousy). You want to select the second and third cards from the left on the Darwinian (bottom) row, which have a Cost of 2 and 4 respectively. Both Mutations are blue, so your Costs are halved. You have 3 Unborns, enough to select both cards.
c. Plus Organ. After playing a Mutation into your Tableau, put the Organ (sometimes 2 Organs) of the color specified on the Mutation card. Place the cube over the cube icon marked with a "+". This cube is called the Plus Organ.
d. Player Green restriction. Player Green is not allowed to select any Mutation from the upper row (i.e. the metabolism row with yellow and red cards) unless the Mutation has the Horror-plant icon next to the card title.
e. Refresh. After all your selections, refresh the Display so that it once again has 5 cards per row. Do this by moving each card in the Display to the leftmost empty position in its row. Then draw new cards to fill any remaining empty positions so there are again 5 cards in each row. Draw cards from the respective metabolism or Darwinian draw deck to fill the rows from the leftmost empty slot.

E2. Promote a mutation

Use this action to flip one of the Species' unpromoted mutations to its promoted side.

a. Preview. On the top of each unpromoted Mutation is a preview of what the promoted side looks like. It consists of two sets of icons, one for each orientation (next bullet).
b. Orientation. The promoted side has two orientations. Choose one orientation to be upright in your Tableau. You must not be beyond the maximum size specified for the orientation chosen. Important: If you choose an orientation with a new Creeple Shape, this is a speciation, see E3.
c. Plus and Basal Organs. The promoted orientation adds the Plus Organs (E1c) specified, placed on the Mutation card where indicated by the "+" sign. The original Plus Organ (or Organs) from the unpromoted side are transferred to anywhere on the Genotype card, and becomes a Basal Organ.
d. Plus Organ Monsters. If the Plus Organ icon has the monster icon, a monster token of the correct color is placed here instead of a cube. This token is considered to be many Organs, from 1 to 6, depending upon the current species size. This Organ number is used for all purposes.

Example: You have a 2 ton cow (size 5). The single green Plus Organ on its "cud-chewing" mutation is considered to be 5 green cubes, allowing this Monster to dominate the forests and weeds. If hit by radiation, and this is its only Plus Organ, the cow will need to shrink to size 4 to effectively get rid of one green organ (see "Monster" in the glossary).
e. Maximum Size. If the mother is larger than the maximum size (J1) of her daughter, the daughter becomes a kiwi (E6b) using the archetype shape. If this is not possible because the archetype is already in use, then the promotion is not allowed.
f. Mutualism Icon. When you promote to an Orientation with the mutualism ability, and only then, you must choose a host. A host is another Species which shares a Biome with your promoting Species (as predator or prey). Take one Creeple from either the Unborn or Newborn Creeples (your choice) of the host species and put it on your mutualism mutation card. This Creeple is called a Host Creeple. See J2.
g. Venom. A venomous herbivore cannot be eaten by a Carnivore unless the Carnivore is either venomous itself, or larger (F4b). See J3.
h. Personality Formation. Each promotion allows you to rearrange the promoted cards of the Species, including the formation of both halves of an emotion as part of its personality per J6. Organize the Species Tableau so that the uppermost Mutation is part of its personality row.
i. Speciation Promotion. If you promote to an orientation depicting a Creeple shape, this promotion is treated as a speciation (E3) instead. This speciation is disallowed if you already have any Living Creeples of this Shape.

E3. Speciate a mutation into a new species

If you promote a Mutation to spawn a new Species, the Species with the Mutation is called the mother and the new Species is the daughter. Promote this Mutation, moving all its cube(s) (if any) onto the Genotype of the mother as basal cubes (E2c). Then remove the Mutation from the mother's Tableau and use it to create the new Species following these steps:

a. Creating the Genotype. Use the removed Mutation to start a new Tableau for the new daughter species. This card becomes the Genotype of the daughter (i.e. the first card in her Tableau).
b. Daughter's Inherited Basal Organs & Size. Duplicate all the Basal Organs (but not the Plus Organs) of the mother. Note this means the Plus Organ on the promoted card becomes a Basal Organ on both mother and daughter, see Example. Place these new cubes on the daughter's Genotype as Basal Organs. Also duplicate the Size Dice, at the same size as the mother. See "Heritable" in the glossary.

Example: Your Archetype has no Basal Organs and 1 red Plus Organ on its electrolocation mutation. It promotes this mutation into an infrared pit sensor, thus speciating into a burrower. The red cube becomes a Basal Cube on the mother, which is inherited by her burrowing daughter.
c. Recession. If the promotion shows the recession icon for a color, then the new Species must discard one of its new Basal cubes of that color (if it has any). This is an involuntary neoteny (E5) and thus does not drive the new Species extinct.
d. Newborn Daughter. Take 1 Unborn Creeple of the new Species and use it to replace one of the mother's creeples. This drives the mother extinct (I3) if it was her last Living Creeple.

E4. Populate a new creeple

Use this action to take 1 Unborn Creeple plus up to one Creeple per reproductive organ (blue cubes currently on the Species) and place on your Newborn Card. They will be moved to the map in the mother phase (Part F).

Example: For your three actions, you choose speciate (placing 1 armored Living Creeple), Populate (creating 2 Archetype Newborns), and Populate (creating 2 more armored Newborns).

E5. Neoteny — discard basal organ from each species

Use this action to discard up to 1 Basal Organ from each of your Species. Removing Basal Organs is useful to avoid extinction from mutagens.

Example: Your swimmer has two blue Basal Organs on its Genotype. With two neoteny actions, you remove both of them, making it safe from extinction.

E6. Resize each of your species (Achterbahn game)

Use this action to change the Size Dice of each of your Species by up to one step (up or down).

a. Mutation Maximum Size. If the Size Dice of a Species goes beyond the maximum listed on any promoted Mutation (J1), the card is Atrophied (see glossary).
b. The Kiwi Rule. If, after a resize or speciate, the size of your Genotype is larger than the maximum size printed on its card, it is replaced by a new Archetype species called a kiwi (so-named because it has lost its ability to fly, swim, etc.). Either way, the Genotype goes into your Fossil Record. However, this replacement is only possible if your Archetype is extinct, otherwise the Genotype simply goes extinct. To create the kiwi, remove the Genotype card and replace it with your Archetype card, preserving all the Organs and Mutations of the former Genotype. Convert all the Genotype's Living and Newborn Creeples into Archetype Creeples.

Example: Your last species is a furry alary muscle flyer, with a maximum size of one. You deliberately resize it to 2, which replaces the alary muscle genotype card with your Archetype card. The fur is retained. There are 3 flyers on the map, and all are replaced with domes.

E7. Resurrect your archetype

This action is only for Lazarus players (see glossary). Use it to reestablish your Archetype card with its Size Dice set at size = 1, just as if in setup. Place any Cheshire Cat emotions to the right of the Archetype.

a. Start Location. Place an Archetype Creeple anywhere on the map that is habitable (F3c).

E8. Medea — claim the supervillain card (Achterbahn game)

This requires spending your entire action phase. You take the Medea card (C1b) from whoever is holding it. The Medea card is not in the Tableau of any of your Species, and is not lost if you become a Lazarus. With this card, you have superpowers per D10a, D12, and D14, and it is worth a VP if held at the end of the game. You are also in charge of keeping the game moving by announcing the phases, using the SOP on the back of this card.

F. Mothers & Dispersals

In the mother & dispersal phase (A3), in player order (A5), each player chooses a mother and disperses all of his Newborn Creeples before going to the next player.

F1. Choosing a Mother

For each Newborn, choose a mother on the map of the same Shape.

a. Daisy-Chain Rule. Each Newborn placed on the map can act as a mother for the next Newborn.
b. Orphan Rule. You can choose a mother even if she is an Endangered Creeple.

Example: On your Newborn Card, you have 2 archetypes and 1 burrower. You choose an archetype on the map to be the first mother, disperse a newborn archetype to the west coast, then from this newborn raft another newborn to a new Continent. The final burrowing newborn disperses from a burrowing mother to become a carnivore on one of the archetypes.

F2. Dispersal (DP = blue organs + size)

Starting from its mother, disperse the Newborn Creeple up to its Dispersal Points, ending up in a Biome as an Herbivore or Carnivore (F6). If you fail to disperse to a habitable place (F3c), return the Newborn to Unborns.

a. Dispersal Points. Each Creeple individually has a number of dispersal points (DP) equal to the number of blue organs plus size of the Species. To disperse a Newborn, move it from hex to hex, costing dispersal points (DP) for each hex entered. See F3a for DP costs to enter each Biome, and F3c and F4 for restrictions on inhabiting a Biome. See F5 for the special rafting maneuver.

Example: On turn one, your Archetype has 1 DP, because of its starting size of 1 (C1e).

Example (Speciation & Dispersal): For your first action, you speciate your archetype, giving birth to a swimming daughter. You choose an archetype dome in a forest to be replaced with a swimmer shape. The swimmer starts endangered, because swimmers can't live in forests. An enemy predator in the forest also becomes endangered, because its prey is endangered. To save the new species, you also perform a populate action. Because your new swimmer has a blue organ, you place 2 swimmer newborns. During dispersal, these two disperse starting from the endangered mom. One disperses as a predator to a nearby swamp, and the second daisy-chains from the swamp to a bloom in the offshore.

F3. Entering & Inhabiting Biomes

The Biome hexes have 3 basic colors: green, brown, or blue. The Biome hex color is superseded if it contains a Biome disk, either green, black, or white.

a. Biome Entry Cost. The number indicates the number of dispersal points (F2a) it costs to enter each hex.
b. Bloom Disks. An Offshore with a green disk is treated as a separate Biome. It may be inhabited exactly like a sea biome, so that both Herbivores and Carnivores can inhabit it if they can swim. It may only be entered (for 1 DP) by a swimmer, and only from the hex it is adjacent to, or from an adjacent Offshore to the north or south. Other than this, an Offshore is ignored for dispersal or rafting.
c. Uninhabitable Biomes. If the table shows an "X", then a Creeple can enter it but not inhabit it.
d. Roadrunner Niche. The upward red or yellow arrows describe the Roadrunner Niche (G4, H3).

F4. Prey Suitability

A Carnivore becomes Endangered if at any time it has no Herbivores to eat that are suitable (H1). A Creeple may not move to inhabit a Biome as a Carnivore unless there is at least one Herbivore Creeple there that is suitable for it to eat:

a. Shape Requirement. The Carnivore must have the same Shape as its prey, except that Archetypes can be eaten by any Shape. For instance, flying can only be eaten by flying.
b. Size Requirement If The Prey Is Venomous. The Carnivore must either be venomous itself, or be larger than its prey if the prey has one or more venom Mutations.
c. No Cannibalism. You cannot move a Creeple into a Biome as an Herbivore where the same Species is already present as a Carnivore, and vice versa. (Note that you can have one Species of your color as a Carnivore on another Species, also of your color.)

F5. Rafting

A Creeple may move from one Coast Biome to another Coast Biome in the same Latitude (including wrap-around, see D3b). Rafting is possible between Continents, stopping at the first encountered Coast, or even between 2 Coasts of the same Continent. The Creeple must follow the Wind (i.e. directly west or east, no turning) and must move from one Coast to another. Rafting costs 1 DP for flyers or swimmers, and 3 DP for others (this is in addition to the cost to enter the hex).

a. Tooth & Claw Game: The wind direction is always blowing from the east to the west (i.e. right to left).
b. Achterbahn game: Wind only blows in Latitudes 1, 3, 4, and 6, and only in the direction shown on the Latitude Strip.
c. Windy Event. If this biosphere event occurs, then for that turn only the Wind blows in all Latitudes and in both directions.
d. Blooms. Rafting to a bloom biome costs the same DP as rafting to the hex holding the bloom disk.
e. You cannot raft over a sea biome within a Craton.

F6. Trophic Decision

The Creeple chooses to inhabit its destination Biome as either an Herbivore or a Carnivore (regardless of whether its mother was a carnivore or herbivore).

a. Enter as Carnivore. To inhabit a Biome as a Carnivore, the Biome must have a prey suitable for the Creeple to eat (F4). If there is already a carnivore present, then there is an immediate carnivore contest (Part H).
b. Enter as Herbivore. To inhabit a Biome as an Herbivore where there is already an herbivore present, then there will be an immediate herbivore contest (Part G).
c. Settling Down. Assuming your Creeple wins its contest (if any), unless it becomes an endotherm (I1) it will never move from that Biome again, until its death. It may only make a trophic shift (G8) from Herbivore to Carnivore.

Example: Your armored newborn invades a forest where your opponent has an Archetype herbivore and a flyer carnivore. Both have more red organs than you, so if you invade as a carnivore, you will lose the carnivore contest because of the roadrunner niche. But if you invade as an herbivore, you win because you are inedible to the flying carnivore.

G. Herbivore Habitability & Contests

G1. Herbivore Habitability

An Herbivore becomes Endangered immediately if the biome it is in is uninhabitable (see F3c). Endangered Creeples are ignored in contests, as if they were not there.

G2. Herbivore Contests

Each Biome can support one Herbivore Creeple. If after a dispersal a Biome has two herbivores, perform an herbivore contest by following steps G3 through G7 below to identify the losers that become Endangered. In case of a tie, go to the next step, until only one Herbivore Creeple is left standing.

G3. Edibility Contest Losers

If (and only if) there is a Carnivore present, both Herbivores check to see if they are inedible (because of Shape or venom, see F4). If only one is edible, it becomes Endangered.

Example: A moose and squirrel (both Archetypes) sit in the weeds. Since a Biome can only support one Herbivore, one must die. Suppose the moose is venomous and a predatory pterodactyl too small to eat the moose is present. Thus the squirrel is the only edible prey and it dies (and the pterodactyl will starve in the carnivore contest, since only the poisonous moose remains as prey). However, suppose a large carnivore was also present, able to eat the moose. Therefore no winner can be declared, and the contest continues with G4.

G4. Roadrunner Niche Losers

Each Biome has a roadrunner niche indicated by the color of the arrow icon on the Biome, either red (ambush) or yellow (pursuit). If (and only if) there is a carnivore present, both Herbivores check to see how many Organs of this color they have. If one Herbivore has more than the other, the one with fewer becomes Endangered. If they are tied, or if there are no carnivores, skip this step.

Example: The moose and squirrel from the previous example are vying for dominance in the weeds, and there is a carnivore that can eat both. This biome has roadrunner yellow, and the squirrel is faster with one yellow Organ. Therefore the moose dies. However, if there were no carnivore, then no winner can be declared, and the contest continues with G5.

G5. Temperature Niche Losers

Each Latitude has a humidity niche indicated by the color of the dice icon on the Latitude Strips, either green (humid) or white (arid). Both Herbivores check to see how many Organs of this color they have. If one Herbivore has more than the other, the one with fewer becomes Endangered. If tied, skip this step.

a. Tooth & Claw Game: Since the climate is always humid (A8f), the humidity niche is always green.

Example: The moose and squirrel from the previous example are vying for dominance in the weeds. The climate is hothouse and the weeds are in a humid latitude. The squirrel has 3 green Organs, and the moose only 2, so the moose dies. But if instead it is an Ice Age with a white dice icon, and neither moose nor squirrel have any white organs, then the contest continues with G6.

G6. Size Matters

If still tied, the smaller Herbivore becomes Endangered.

G7. Tie-Breaker Skeletal Losers

As a final tie-breaker, the Herbivore with the lower Skeletal Number survives and the other becomes Endangered.

a. Same Color Final Tie-breaker. If two Creeples Species of the same color are competing, and are tied in an Herbivore contest, then the owner chooses which Shape wins.

Example: The moose and squirrel from the previous example are tied in the herbivore contest. But the moose is controlled by Player Green (skeletal number = 1), and the squirrel by Player Black (skeletal number = 3). Therefore the squirrel dies.

G8. Trophic Shift Survival

If an Herbivore Creeple loses an Herbivore contest or if the biome is not habitable, it is allowed to shift to becoming a Carnivore instead of becoming Endangered, if it meets prey suitability (F4). If there is already a Carnivore there, they are involved in an immediate Carnivore contest. Note that this shift is only allowed from herbivore to carnivore, and not the other way around.

H. Carnivore Prey Suitability & Contests

H1. Carnivore Prey Suitability

A Carnivore becomes Endangered if at any time it has no Herbivores to eat that are suitable (F4). This could be because the Carnivore is the wrong Shape, or (in the case of venomous prey) the wrong size. Endangered Creeples are ignored in contests, as if they were not there.

H2. Carnivore Contests

Each predator triangle can support one Carnivore. If after a dispersal a Biome has two Carnivores, perform a carnivore contest by applying rules H3 through H6 below to identify the loser. In case of a tie, go to the next rule, until only one Carnivore is left standing. If a Carnivore loses a contest, it becomes Endangered.

Important (circle of life): Herbivore Creeples represent thousands of individuals and are never endangered by being eaten by Carnivores. They can be endangered by competing Herbivores. See "Scale" in the glossary, or look up the Lotka–Volterra equations on predator-prey population dynamics.

H3. Roadrunner Niche Losers

Each Biome has a roadrunner niche indicated by the color of the arrow icon on the Biome, either red (ambush) or yellow (pursuit). Both Carnivores check to see how many Organs of this color they have. If one Carnivore has more than the other, the one with fewer becomes Endangered. If they are tied, skip this step.

Example: On an offshore green disk, a dolphin and a crocodile are both trying to be the carnivore. The roadrunner in the sea is always yellow therefore, if the dolphin only has one yellow organ and the croc has two, the dolphin dies.

H4. Prey Size Losers

A Carnivore that has a size difference with its prey loses to one who has a lesser size difference to the prey. Losers become Endangered. If tied, skip this step.

H5. Size Matters

If still tied, the smaller Carnivore becomes Endangered.

H6. Tie-Breaker Skeletal Losers

As a final tie-breaker, the carnivore with the higher Skeletal Number survives and the other becomes Endangered.

a. Same Color Final Tie-breaker. If two Creeples species of the same color are competing, and are tied in a carnivore contest, then the owner chooses which Shape wins.

I. Burials & Fossil Awards

I1. Dispersal of Endotherms

An endotherm is a Species with at least one white organ or is size 6. In player order (A5), each player may move his Endangered Endotherm Creeples to uninhabited habitable Biomes or Trophic Levels, using its dispersal points and moving per F3, F4, F5, & F6. He buries any endotherms that cannot find any spot to live, and stands the survivors upright.

Example: An event drops ice on your flyer creeples, making all of them endangered. During your actions, you promote a flyer mutation to gain a white cube. This allows all your endangered flyers to flee to safety during Phase A4.

I2. Burial of Endangered

If a Creeple is Endangered (i.e. lying on its side), stand it upright if it is in an uncontested habitable Trophic Level. Otherwise, bury all Endangered Creeples by placing them onto their Genotype card as Unborns. Also bury any Creeples in an uninhabitable biome.

Trophic Shift. An Endangered Creeple is not buried if it can survive by performing a trophic shift (G8).

I3. Extinctions

Your Species becomes extinct if it loses its Genotype card, any Basal Organs, or all its Living Creeples. Discard its Mutations, and return its dice, cubes, disks, and tools to the general pool. All its Creeples go to your pool.

a. Extinct Archetype. If your Archetype goes extinct, the Archetype card goes into your Fossil Record. It can be reused by becoming a kiwi (E6b) or Lazarus.
b. Fossils. If any card in the Tableau of the extinct species has a fossil icon in the upper right corner, including its Genotype Card and tools, put the card in your Fossil Record. Each will be a victory point at the game's end (A7c). Do not put it into your Fossil Record if the fossil icon is upside-down.
c. Lazarus Exception. If this is your last Species, so that you have no more Living Creeples of any Species, then you become a Lazarus. This allows you to use the resurrection action (E7).

I4. Fossil Awards

If the last ET Event of an Era has been drawn, at the end of that turn (phase A4) each player counts his population and receives fossil awards. If it's the final era (A6), instead score as per A7.

a. Population Count. Each player counts his Living Creeples (i.e. all those of his color on the map, counting all Species). Also count as your population any Host Creeples (J2) that are on mutualism cards in your Tableau.
b. Fossil Awards. For each player that has fewer Creeples than you, take one fossil token from the public pool and put it into your personal Fossil Record as a permanent record of your earned VP.

Example: The first era ends in a 3-player game. At the end of the turn, Players White and Orange have 3 Creeples each, and Player Green has only 2. Players White and Orange each get 1 fossil token, but Player Green gets no fossils.

J. Traits

Traits are non-heritable adaptations depicted by an icon on a Mutation.

J1. Maximum Size

The dice depicted in the upper right corner of all promotions indicates its maximum size. If a Genotype grows to a size beyond the maximum size shown on one of its Mutations, you must discard the Mutation and all its cubes. If it is a Cheshire Cat (J6g), it loses its cubes but is not discarded. If a Genotype grows beyond the maximum size listed on its card, it either goes extinct or becomes a kiwi (E6b).

J2. Mutualism

When you promote to an Orientation with the mutualism ability, and only then, you must choose a host. A host is another Species which shares a Biome with your promoting Species (as predator or prey). Take one Creeple from either the Unborn or Newborn Creeples (your choice) of the host species and put it on your mutualism mutation card. This Creeple is called a Host Creeple.

a. Limit. You may not choose a Species as a host which has no Unborn or Newborn Creeples to steal. With 2 mutualism cards, you may mutualize the same species twice, etc. If you promote with no suitable host, then no Host Creeple is placed.
b. Population Bonus. Each Host Creeple on your mutualism card counts as 1 population during fossil awards (I4b) and gives you 1VP at the end of the game (A7d).
c. Magic Mushroom Rule. Player Green can choose any Species with an unpromoted Mutation with the Horror-plant icon as a host, even if not co-located.
d. Loss of Mutualism. If the host goes extinct, return the Creeple from the card to the Unborn of its color.

J3. Venom

Venom is a Trait conferred to a Species by the black widow icon on one of its Mutations. A venomous herbivore cannot be eaten by a Carnivore unless the Carnivore is either venomous itself, or larger (F4b).

J4. Monster

A monster is a Trait that places a monster token on the Mutation. This token is a Plus Organ considered to be multiple cubes, as many cubes as the Size Dice of the Species. This monster token, of the specified color, is placed during promotion (E2d) to a monster. If a monster token Atrophies, e.g. during radiation or mutagens, the species size is reduced instead, see "Atrophy". A monster cannot be removed until the Species is at size 1. The monsters are Godzilla, Kong, Kraken, Dragon, and Yeti, with apologies to the monsters too many to mention.

J5. Haustorium

If a Species has a promoted haustorium mutation (card 56), this Species has a specific Skeletal Number (either 0 or 5) that overrides the player's normal skeletal number for this Species only. Thus in contests (G7, H6), this Species always has the lowest number (if parasitic plant), or the highest (if parasitic fungus).

a. Mutagen. During a mutagen event, a Species with a haustorium Skeletal Number of 5 must use the dark heart limit (D7b) and a Species with a haustorium Skeletal Number of 0 must use the green heart limit (D7c).

J6. Emotions

Many promoted cards depict one or two "half-emoticons". Each right-left match establishes an Emotion, either anger (red), fear (yellow), happiness (green), jealousy (blue), or curiosity (purple).

a. Heads, Tails, Brains. There are 3 kinds of cards in a Personality: heads, tails, and brains. Heads have their half-emoticon to the right edge of the card, while tails have it on the left edge. Brains have half-emoticons on both edges.
b. Personality Formation. A Personality is a row of 2 or more cards forming emotions arranged in a row including the top Mutation of a Species. Each adjacent card in the Personality must have established at least one Emotion, by providing for the right or left half of its emoticon. During each promotion of a Mutation (E2g), examine the Species repertoire of promoted cards to see if you have both halves of one color of Emotion. If so, you may use them (with their Organs) to form a Personality to the right of the Tableau column. Note that upside-down emoticons are not in play.

Example: You have a Tableau with 3 Mutations and 5 Organs. For one action, you promote your air sacs into a bronchoalveolar lung. During this same action, you combine this lung with the olfactory antenna, also in your Tableau, to form the "fear" emoticon. You imagine this strange beast using its antenna to sense danger, and its lungs to timidly flee from danger. With another action, you could promote your aggregation pheromones into a mobbing behavior, and insert it as a "brain" between the antennae head and the lunged tail. This duplicated emotion gives it an additional bonus for purchasing yellow cards and increases the number of cards you have with Cheshire Cat immunity and endgame VP value.
c. Multiple Personalities Forbidden. Each Species is allowed one Personality (remember, each Personality can have multiple Emotions), which can contain only one head and one tail. Allowed configurations include head-tail, head-brain-tail, brain-brain-tail, etc.

Example: Your bird species has two promoted cards with head emoticons, and one limbic system brain that accepts an angry head and a fear tail. You form a Personality for it by joining an anger horned head to the brain, making it an angry bird. Now that it has a head in its Personality, its other head cannot be added. But if it promotes adrenal glands brain, which accepts a fear head, this could be added to the limbic system to form a Personality with one head and two brains.
d. Personality Insertion. New cards can be added to the Personality to form new emotions. However, cards can never be ejected from the Personality to make room for new ones.
e. Reduced Cost. Once a Species has one of the anger (red), fear (yellow), happiness (green), or jealousy (blue) Emotions, halve the cost (E1a) when acquiring that color of card for the Species. If it has two or more Emotions of a color, all cards except for the leftmost (free) card have a cost of 1.

Example: When acquiring red Mutations for your angry bird of the previous example (and not for your other Species), the Cost (E1a) is halved.
f. Language. If one of your Species gets 3 total Emotions consisting of two or more colors, you acquire language and end the game per A6.
g. Cheshire Cat. Personalities can lose their Organs during Atrophy, but they cannot be demoted or discarded unless the Species goes extinct.

J7. Tools

For every purple (curiosity) Emotion acquired, you may immediately choose one of the tool public cards (C1b). Each tool is a predator weapon allowing it to hunt the Shape shown on the card. It can also be used by Herbivores per J7c. Choose one side of the card to play into the Tableau of the tool-using creature.

a. Fossil Tools. A tool goes into your Fossil Record if the Species using it goes extinct.
b. Diving Bells. The diving bell tool allows you to inhabit as a Carnivore any Biome with swimming prey. This allows the Carnivore to inhabit normally uninhabitable (F3c) seas and Offshores. However, the Diving Bell does not allow an Herbivore to inhabit seas or Offshores.
c. Tool-using Herbivores. An Herbivore with a tool cannot be preyed upon by Carnivores of that Shape, unless the Carnivore has a tool allowing it to hunt the Herbivore's Shape. As soon as your Species gets a tool, perform a prey suitability check (F4) on any Carnivores preying on them to see if they become Endangered.
d. Antivenom. All tools allow your Carnivore to ignore venom.

Example: A swimmer moves from a swamp and over a forest, in order to inhabit a sea as an Herbivore. This requires 3 DP. A burrower also moves from the swamp to the sea, but as a carnivore. Normally a burrower cannot inhabit a sea, but since he has a diving bell and is able to eat the swimmer, this is allowed. Note that the diving bell does not allow it to survive as an Herbivore in the sea.

J8. Experimental Apomorphies

These rules are optional and experimental. They can be used, for instance, to help a newbie player, or one that is "sandwiched" (i.e. an intermediate Skeletal Number that is neither the highest nor the lowest in the game).

a. Player Orange Radiation Immunity. Due to the reduced nervous system needed for hydraulics, Player Orange (hydroskeletal) is immune to Darwinian Radiation (green/blue icon, see D8).
b. Players White and Green Growth. Due to their ever-growth, Players White (vertebrate) and Green (plant-fungi) can perform one free resize (E6) once per their action phase. If they resize an Herbivore however, any of its predators also get one free optional resize, at the same time.
c. Player Black Metamorphosis. Due to the proven ability of insects to shrug off mass extinctions, Player Black (exoskeletal) can perform one Neoteny (E5) per game turn without expending an action. This can be at any time, even to avoid extinction during a mutagen event. However, he must always surrender one fossil to do so.

K. Mars Solitaire Game (Achterbahn game)

Both Venus and Mars seem to have started out like Earth, with oceans and a CO₂ atmosphere, but then plate tectonics and thus continent formation stalled, and their oceans were somehow lost. If organisms had gotten started, they would have to cope with sluggish Cratons and dwindling super-salty oceans. In the one-player game, you play both an animal and a semi-automated plant (Player Green) on Mars (optionally Venus or Earth). The goal for your animals is to gain VP while keeping the oceans from drying up. You will need the plant to stay alive, but it could turn on you as a horror plant.

a. The Plant. Player Green, hereafter known as the plant, follows all the Horror Plant rules: action maximum (A2b), green heart limit (D7c), cannot select metabolic cards without the horror plant icon (E1d), and magic mushroom (J2c).
b. The Animal. You start as any other color you wish, and will be hereafter referred to as the animal.
c. Game Ends in Era III per A6a. It also ends on phase I of any turn if either the seas are gone or if there is a moist greenhouse runaway (K5e).
d. Victory. Win by surviving and keeping the seas from evaporating away (K5a, K5c). To decisively win, you must obtain 15 VP (J6f).
e. Plant Protagonist Variant. You may alternatively play as the plant, while controlling one animal player (as sort of a parasite). This could be useful for campaign games in which you ended the Genesis game as a plant. Since the plant is a player, skip the semi-automated plant rules (K8). To decisively win, you must obtain 15 VP.

K1. Sequence Of Play — Special for Solitaire Game

a. Events. Ignore climax events (D5). Ignore events (such as craters) that strike Cratons not in the game. Ignore deluge events (D6), unless it's too hot, then Liberate a white disk (K5c). If a Reservoir Event marked with the rain-shadow icon occurs, then Liberate a white disk (K5a). Ignore events that transfer green disks, except for gun events that liberate green disks (K5d). With the Raindance superpower (K6), you can expend one plant action to make it rain during the end of the event phase.
b. Actions. On the plant's turn, first check to see if it can select any horror plant mutations in the metabolism row (K8a). Then check to see if it can promote any cards to venom or mutualism. Then you are free to choose any remaining actions.
c. Mother. On the plant's turn, first check to see if any of its Newborns can successfully disperse as Herbivores (K8d).
d. Burial. Skip the scoring rounds in the solitaire game.

K2. Trophic Levels — Solitaire Game

There are three Trophic Levels in the game: Plant, Herbivore, and Carnivore. The plant can be a Plant or an Herbivore, never a Carnivore. An animal can be an Herbivore or a Carnivore, never a plant. Creeples in a hex at these 3 Trophic Levels are lined up as follows (from bottom to top): first plants, then herbivores, then carnivores at the top.

a. Herbivore Contests are changed to be the same as Carnivore Contests (Part H). Therefore, an Herbivore needs to be the same Shape as the plant to eat it. See K7b.
b. Cactus Eaters. As a special rule, an Herbivore with at least 2 green organs can eat armored plants (cactus).

K3. Setup — Solitaire Game

Setup is as per a terrestrial Achterbahn game (C1) with the following exceptions:

a. Starting Disks. If starting on Mars, there are only 6 black, 6 white, and 0 green disks in the game. If starting on Venus or Earth, there are 12 black, 12 white, and 0 green disks.
b. Cratons & Seas. For Mars, use the Tharsis and Arabia Cratons. For Venus, use the Aphrodite and Ishtar Cratons. For Earth, use the standard 4 Cratons. Set the Cratons in any order and separated at Latitude 4. Place a white disk into each basin or sea hex. Place a black disk into the 6 available Offshores on Mars or Venus, but on Earth place only one black Offshore per Craton. Because climax events and wind latitudes are not used, Latitude strips are unnecessary, and the humidity niche (G5) is always green.
c. Reservoirs. Place remaining black disks into the Atmosphere, and remaining white disks split evenly between Clouds and Atmosphere. For Mars, you should end up with one white disk in the Clouds and another in the Atmosphere.
d. Plant Starting Creeples. Starts with only 20 Creeples: 5 Archetypes, 5 burrowers, 5 swimmers, and 5 armored. For variants where the plant is player-controlled (L1), it starts out with 17 Creeples: 5 Archetypes, 4 burrowers, 4 swimmers, and 4 armored. The extra Creeples including all the green flyers are put aside and will not be used. The plant cannot speciate into flyers.
e. Plant Creeple Setup. The plant places 2 Archetype Creeples onto the map, into any hex that is adjacent to a sea (hex with a white disk).
f. Animal Setup. The animal starts as a Lazarus, so no setup required.
g. Green Disks are not used in the solitaire game! Place all the Unborn green Creeples on the Oxygen, as if they were green disks. This yields 3% Oxygen.

K4. Oxygen Management

Green Creeples take the place of green disks for all purposes! Unborn Creeples reside on the Oxygen to indicate the animal action maximum. Place dead green Creeples into the Oxygen as if they were green disks, i.e., one Creeple per slot, loaded from the bottom up.

a. Birth. Remove green Creeples for Newborns from the Oxygen.
b. Offshore Seaweed. A green swimmer can inhabit a black offshore disk, becoming a bloom. If there is a green swimmer in an Offshore, the hex it is adjacent to is considered to be a habitat (K7b) that is 1 hex from water.
c. Breathtaking Rule. On an animal's turn, the oxygen level at that instant tells how many actions it has.

K5. Event Phase

The Events are modified as follows:

a. Rain-shadow Sublimation. If a Reservoir Event with the rain-shadow icon occurs, do not perform the specified action. Instead simply Liberate one white disk.
b. Anticlimactic. Always ignore climax events.
c. Deluge Evaporation. Ignore a deluge event (D6), unless the Latitude Strip is too hot. If so, then Liberate one white disk.
d. No Greening Events & Plant Extinction. Ignore all Events that would transfer green disks, except a gun event that Liberates green will always destroy one Species of plant (the owner's choice). Place dead green Creeples into the Oxygen. The plant populations are ignored in crowd diseases (D9).
e. Moist Greenhouse Runaway. A runaway greenhouse (D10h) cannot occur on Mars, and only occurs on Earth or Venus if the Clouds and Atmosphere contain all 24 white and black disks.
f. Radiation. Mars and Venus have no protective magnetic field, so radiation events, instead of being either red or yellow, or blue or green, are instead red and yellow, or blue and green.
g. Olympus Mons. The black disk in the northernmost Offshore of Tharsis cannot be removed except by a collision that subducts it. Exceptionally for an Offshore, it is uninhabitable by Creeples or plankton. All volcanic craters on Mars automatically occur on the hex adjacent to Olympus Mons.
h. Snail Tectonics. Mars and Venus Cratons move extremely slowly, so that no rifts, collisions, drift-bys, or Latitude moves occur when the event card is resolved. Instead, the "biosphere stable" icon additionally indicates that if the previous turn had a rift, collision drift-by, or latitudinal drift, it is performed now. Note that the first card of each era, even if it does have a "biosphere stable" icon, does not generate snail tectonics.
i. Valles Marineris. A Pangea rift event will always split the two Cratons if they are joined.

K6. Event Phase — Raindance Superpower

Medea enjoys this superpower only if its population (I4a) is greater than its heart limit, either dark (D7b) or green (D7c) as appropriate. If so, you can make it rain during the end of an event phase by degassing one white disk from the Clouds to any sea hex. You may additionally choose to move one mountain from any Continent to any Offshore, which represents erosion. This can be done only once per event phase. If you choose this action, the plant has one less action during the following action phase.

a. Medea controls the superpowers. In the solo game, this is always the solo player.

K7. Mother Phase — Biome Entry

The Biomes are either highlands or basins. Both are wastelands, costing 1 DP to enter (2 DP for swimmers). Nothing grows there until they are occupied by a green Creeple. You may only enter a Biome as an Herbivore if there is a plant there (i.e., a green Creeple). As usual, you may only enter a Biome as a Carnivore if there is an Herbivore to eat.

a. Land and Sea are the only two habitable Biomes. If the Biome has no white disk, it is land. If it has a white disk, or if it is Offshore, it is sea (F3). (If it has a black disk, it is a mountain.)
b. Alien Plants. The green Creeples are plants, each with its own habitat and roadrunner niche: the Swamp Plant lives 1 hex from water; Seaweed lives in water or a carbon offshore; the Tuber lives 1 hex from water; the Cactus lives 1 or 2 hexes from water.
c. Wilt Rule. A plant that is not in its proper habitat will die and be removed during the burial phase (I2). Note if the seas lose all their white disks (water), the planet dies and everyone loses.
d. Winds. On Mars, the Winds are Earth normal. On Venus, the Winds are easterlies, always blowing from right to left in all Latitudes.

Example: A seaweed lives on a white disk. During a rain-shadow, the white disk disappears. During the action phase, the seaweed populates, and during the mother phase its daughter moves to a remaining white disk. The wilted mother then dies and is buried in Phase A4.

K8. Semi-Automated Plant Rules — Solitaire Game

a. Event Phase. During radiation or mutagen events, you may choose horror plant mutations only if there are no other cards to legally take losses from.
b. Action Phase. On the plant turn, you may perform actions as you wish, except:
- If there is a card available with the horror plant icon, the plant must select it if it can, starting with the cheapest (leftmost). You choose the acquiring Species.
- If it has an unpromoted card with venom or mutualism in its Tableau, the plant must promote it to that trait.
- You can only resize up, not down with a plant. Furthermore, you can only pass with a plant action if all its Species are at the maximum size for its mutations.
c. Extinction is Forever. No resurrection is allowed in the solitaire game.
d. Mother Phase - Plant Dispersal. On the plant turn, you may disperse them as you wish, except that all dispersing plants (including new plant species) must become Herbivores if it is possible to do so, including competition with your own Creeples if this would be successful.

L. Venus Multiplayer Variants (Achterbahn game)

Special rules for Venus: Setup disks (K3a), Cratons (K3b), Winds (K7d).

L1. Venus Plant Vs. Animal Game

This is a 2-player game, with one player being the plant, and the other player his choice of orange, black, or white. Use all the Solitaire Game rules (K1 - K7), but skipping K8, since the plant is not-automated.

a. Superpowers. The plant always holds the Medea card, but the animal always controls the cloud-seed superpower (D13). If the animal goes extinct, no more black disks can enter the atmosphere (because the animals which exhale carbon are dead).
b. Scoring Rounds. Each animal creeple counts as 2 population when awarding fossils, but only 1 population in the end scoring (A7).
c. Victory. Win if by the end of the game you have the most VP and if the seas are not lost (i.e., there are still white disks remaining on the map). However, neither player wins if one is extinct at the end of the game.

L2. Venus Animal Game

This variant is the same as the plant vs. animal game (L1), except it plays with two or three players, who are all animals. Therefore, the plant is semi-automated, using rule K8.

a. Start Color. All players randomly select their colors and start as Lazarus.
b. Claim Medea. Although the lowest skeletal initially hold the Medea card, it can be claimed per E8. Medea controls the plant as well as the superpowers.
c. Victory. Win if by the end of the game you have the most VP and if the seas are not lost.

M. Example Turn: 2-Player (Achterbahn game, by Adam Gastonguay)

Brenda is content because she won the previous scoring round and holds the bonus fossil token (I4b). Being east of Gary on Siberia at latitudes 3 and 4, she is able to raft her creeples over to invade as she wishes. Gary is happy because the planet has been heating up, resulting in more humid rainforests. Most of his lifeforms have more red cubes than Brenda, which give him an edge under their canopy. A few attacks have been going back and forth on Baltica, but it is now turn 9, and Brenda needs to finish Gary off now to ensure the earlier Fossil token wasn't for naught.

M1. Events

Gary turns over the next event card revealing flood basalt traps (7). This is not a stable biosphere, so Brenda checks the Atmosphere. It's Eden, so she flips a goldilocks biosphere card, placing silicate weathering (33) beside the basalt traps. Reading the card from top to bottom, we see:

a. Basalt Traps explode somewhere in Siberia. A roll of the d6 shows a crater location in hex 6, and the 1 black disk in the Atmosphere is degassed there. The 2 creeples in hex 6, a Black archetype and its Black burrowing predator, are inverted to show their new, endangered status.
b. Gondwana shifts West, smashing the newly damaged Siberia in the north. A Siberian mountain grows in hex 1, inverting another Black Archetype.
c. Climax spawns some more forests. A boon for Brenda as it raises her black heart limit to six!
d. A mountain (chosen by Gary, who holds the Medea card) is liberated into the Atmosphere. This replenishes disks degassed in the previous Event.
e. Biosphere Event. Gary uses Medea to his advantage with the silicate weathering card, removing a mountain between himself and Brenda, allowing for greater attack potential. He also adds a carbon and a plankton bloom disk on an offshore near his swimmers so they can expand there. It's good to be the Medea.

M2. Actions Phase

Looking at the top of Flood Basalt Traps again, we see Gary is set to go first (A5).

Gary has 2 actions in the Eden climate. He uses the first to populate his armored, adding two armored newborns (two because of the inherited blue basal cube). His plan is to attack Brenda's flyers preying upon his archetypes on Baltica hexes 4 & 5. He uses his other action to resize his armored plants to size 3, so that he won't be poisoned should he have to increase his own archetype's size later for mobility or defense purposes.

Brenda is worried now. She just took a big hit, losing 3 Creeples. Right now all she can think of doing is getting as much population on the board as possible to regain her footing. Looking at the display, she sees that yolky eggs (74) is available and she has enough unborn to select it. She grabs the card and adds two blue cubes to her burrowers. Next she populates them, but limits the newborns to 2 so she retains enough unborns to possibly buy sparring dimorphism (92) next turn, which is coming down the line. At 12% oxygen, she has one last action this turn, which she uses to populate her flyers. She only gets one, but they are the most agile of shapes, so she'll be able to disperse them somewhere.

M3. Mother & Dispersal Phase

Gary disperses his two armored creeples on the 2 forest hexes where Brenda's flyers sit. In the ferocious carnivore contest, Gary's armored plants have more red cubes and drive both flyers into endangered status (H3).

Brenda is lucky to be able to place her one Newborn flyer the next hex over, again becoming a Carnivore to Gary's Archetype. She then sends her Burrowers east, away from Gary, realizing that Siberia is ruled by the plants, and she'll have to rethink next turn on how to take it back.

M4. Burial & Fossil Award Phase

Brenda loses 5 Creeples off the map: 2 flyers, 2 Archetypes and a Burrower. She puts them into her Unborn. This is not a scoring round, so the players go to the next turn.

N. Flowing Bios:Megafauna into Origins: How We Became Human

At the end of Era III (A6a), you may decide to enter Era IV and start either a Origins: How We Became Human game (Sierra Madre Games, 2007), or a Bios:Origins game. Note that Era IV in the Bios:Megafauna game is the same as Epoch I (Pleistocene) in either Origins or Bios:Origins. Use one of your Species and its acquired emoticons as your starting hominid in the game.

a. Brainmap Assignment. The winner in Megafauna is awarded first choice of Brainmaps; the runner-up has second choice, etc.
b. Starting Encephalization. All Brainmaps start with the instinct icons uncovered according to the emoticons achieved in Megafauna: red or yellow = alpha, green = natural history, blue = language, purple = manual dexterity. Players without Emoticons start with all instincts covered.
c. Brainmap. Extra cubes needed to cover icons come from population, and excess cubes not needed on the Brainmap go into the innovation track.
d. Greenhouse. The Origins game starts in an Ice Age if the Megafauna Greenhouse ended at "too cold", and in a Tropical Age otherwise.

(The rulebook closes with a designer essay by Phil Eklund, "The Carbon Cycle," discussing the climate science behind the game's design. Following the established convention for this designer's rulebooks, this closing essay is flavor/science commentary rather than game rules and is omitted here.)

Glossary and Index

Definitions of Capitalized game terms:

Archetype (C1c, C1l). It is the original forerunner of your plant or animal dynasty. Both your starting Genotype card and its corresponding dome Creeples are called Archetypes.

Atmosphere (C1j). It is a Reservoir indicating Earth's greenhouse gases: water (white disks) and carbon dioxide (black disks). It sets the Latitude strip and the green action maximum (A2a). If the Atmosphere is full, runaway greenhouse can happen (D10h) and additional Liberated disks (if white) go into the Clouds or (if black) into the Atmosphere, displacing white disks into the Clouds. The lowermost scale, labeled "icehouse", corresponds to about 1500 ppmv H₂O and 175 ppmv CO₂ (ppmv = parts per million volume).

Atrophy (D7). It is the process of removing cards and cubes during mutagen events (D7). It can also occur as a result of radiation (D8) or resize (J1, J4). If the last Organ of a Mutation is lost, then the card is discarded unless it is a Cheshire Cat (see below).

Atrophy Extinction. If a Basal Organ on a Genotype (E2c) is removed, the Species goes extinct.
Atrophy Dwarfism. If an Atrophy is taken from a Monster (E2d), instantly reduce the size of the Species to get rid of the desired number of cubes. This resize is instant and free. For instance, if a mutagen event with a dark heart 4 occurs, a size 6 megafauna with one Monster token and one blue cube can reduce instantly to size 3 to get rid of its excess cubes.
Cheshire Cat Rule (J6g). Cards in your Personality are immune from discarding during Atrophy. If they lose their cubes, the cards remain so as to preserve the Emotion. Personality cards are never lost unless the Species goes extinct. Promoted Mutations that do not have Plus Organs are unaffected by Atrophy.

Basal Organ (E2c) is a cube on a Genotype card. Because it represents a defining phenotypic framework for that Species, if lost that Species goes extinct.

Biome (F3) is a hex on the map whose color represents a vegetation type: green = weeds, brown = swamp, blue = sea. Biologically, biomes are structurally and functionally similar vegetation units, without reference to species composition. Each Biome can support only one Herbivore plus one Carnivore Creeple. If a second arrives, a contest is performed to see who dies. On Venus or Mars, there are only two Biomes, highlands and basins, and each can support one plant, one Herbivore, and one Carnivore.

Craton Biome Disks. A disk on a biome supersedes the hex's color: black = mountain, white = desert or ice, green = forest.
Sea Level Falls. Falling sea levels indicate that ocean water is being stored as ice at the poles. If a sea biome acquires a green disk during a deluge event (D6b), it is a terrestrial forest instead of a sea. Any swimmers become Endangered. If it loses the green disk, it re-floods and all Creeples that can't swim or fly become Endangered.
Offshore Biome Disks. An Offshore green disk (Bloom) is treated the same as a sea hex. It is entered per F3b.

Bloom (D10g). An offshore with an overlying green disk is called a bloom, and is inhabitable by a swimmer. A bloom may only be entered (for 1 DP) by a swimmer, and only from the hex it is adjacent to or from an adjacent offshore on the same Continent to the north or south. See Offshore.

Carnivore (Part H). Any Creeple in the predator's triangle is a carnivore. Sometimes called predator.

Clouds (C1k). It is a Reservoir indicating the planetary albedo. It can hold only Liberated white disks (water). It sets the green heart limit (D7c), limiting how many organs a carbon-breathing Genotype (e.g. Player Green) can support, should there be a mutagen event. Plants are stressed if the albedo is too high (not enough sunlight) or too low (not enough rain).

Coast (F5). It is either the west or east edge of a Craton or Continent, with open ocean or Offshore positions beyond. Seas do not define a coast. You can embark a raft (F5) from a coast. Mountains form in coasts during Craton collisions (D3a).

Continent (D4). Multiple Cratons are collectively called a continent. See Craton.

Craton (B2). A placard representing the core of a drifting block of continental crust. Multiple cratons are collectively called a continent. One craton of a continent will contain the Latitude Dice (D1a).

Creeple (B3). A wooden figure, which represents either an Herbivore or Carnivore depending on its position in the hex. It has a player color, and one of five Shapes: Archetype, burrower (subterranean or nocturnal), flyer, swimmer, or armor. Creeples on the map are called living creeples, and this includes Endangered Creeples (those on their side or upside down). A Creeple on your mutualism card is called a host creeple, which counts toward your population even though it is not your color. The Creeples on your Genotype card are called unborn creeples. The Creeples on your Newborn Card are called newborn creeples.

Degas (D10f). Moves a disk from a Reservoir to the map (either Continental or Offshore). If the disk is black or white, it is a Disk of Damocles. If there is a choice between Clouds and Atmosphere, the Medea supervillain decides (D13). If the Reservoir is empty, the Medea supervillain can take the disk from anywhere (D14). Degas is the opposite of Liberate.

Disk of Damocles (D2, D3c, D6). A black or white disk Degassed to a Craton for any reason. This disk, which could be from a crater, orogeny, or climate change, makes Creeples Endangered and Liberates any disks already there. Note that a Disk of Damocles cannot be Degassed to a Biome that already has a disk of the same color. Note also that these disks have the hierarchy, black beats white, and either beats green. For instance, a black disk can be Degassed to a white disk, which Liberates it, but not the other way around.

Dispersal (F2a). Biologically the vector of gene flow, it is in this game the spread of a Species by taking an Unborn Creeple, choosing its mother on the map, and moving it from the mother to a habitable Biome. This movement in dispersal points (DP) is equal to the number of blue cubes plus size of the Species. For instance, a Species of size = 5 and with 1 blue organ has 6 dispersal points.

Display (C1o). The two rows of 5 cards that you may select cards from (E1). The top row is the Metabolic Row, containing yellow and red Mutations. The bottom row is the Darwin Row, containing green and blue mutations. The Metabolic Row is concerned with achieving a high metabolic rate, while the Darwin Row is concerned with eating and multiplying.

Emotion (J6). The behavioral mode of an animal that causes a sequence of actions and priorities when triggered by a stimulus. A completed emotion is formed from the right and left halves of an emoticon in a Species Personality row. The emotions in the game are anger (red), fear (yellow), happiness (green), jealousy (blue), or curiosity (purple). They are worth VP and give an emotional bonus (E1b) during the mutate action. The most basic emotions are fight or flight, corresponding to anger and fear respectively. The fight emotion couples to an angry weapon like tooth or claw, and the flight modes couple to vigilant but fearful eyes or ears.

Endangered Creeple (I2). Whenever a Creeple is killed, whether by a Disk of Damocles, a contest, or something else, lay it on its side or back to indicate it is endangered. A Creeple is also endangered if its food is lost or endangered. This Creeple is dying, yet still is able to be a mother during Phase A3, assuming it has Newborns. Endangered Creeples are ignored in contests, as if they were not there. Each endangered is converted into an Unborn Creeple during Phase A4, with the exception of endotherms (I1). Note: If a Creeple becomes endangered and it has no Newborns, and its action phase is past so it cannot get any Newborns, then it is dead instead of dying and moved immediately to the Unborns.

ET (A1a). Short for "extraterrestrial". Following Bios:Genesis tradition, this means anything from outside the biosphere of Earth.

Event (Part D). A single unique occurrence which is resolved in its entirety before resolving the next event on the event card. An event is represented by either a single icon or two icons connected by an arrow, and each event is either separated by a vertical dotted line or placed at the start of a new row.

Fossil Record (I3b, I4b). A personal stack of fossils (i.e. tokens and cards with the fossil icon). Fossils include tokens stored during the fossil award phase (A4c), and dead Genotypes, Archetypes, and Tools. Each fossil counts 1 VP at the game's end (A6). Cards can only be stored here if their fossil icon was not upside-down when it was lost.

Genotype (E3a). The lowermost card in the Tableau of each Species. For the Archetype, it is your starting Archetype Card in your player color. For your other Species, it is the promoted Mutation that shows the Shape of the new Species. A Genotype card plus its Mutations, Organs, and Size Dice completely defines the characteristics of a Species on the map.

Haustorium (G7, H6). If a Species has a promoted haustorium mutation (card 56), this Species has a specific skeletal number (either 0 or 5) that overrides the player's normal skeletal number for that Species only. Thus this Species always has the lowest number (if parasitic plant), or the highest (if parasitic fungus). During a mutagen event, a Species with a Haustorium Skeletal Number of 5 must use the dark heart limit (D7b) and a Species with a Haustorium Skeletal Number of 0 must use the green heart limit (D7c).

Herbivore (Part G). Any Creeple sitting on a Biome. Sometimes called prey.

Heritable (E3b). What a new Species inherits from its mother Species. A Species color, Skeletal Number, Size Dice, and Basal Organs are automatically inherited. Shape, Plus Organs, and Traits (Monsters, Venom, etc.) are not heritable.

Horror-plant (E1d). A plant-fungus hybrid that basks green in the sunlight, lazily breathing CO₂ and making sugar like any plant, but at night switches to high metabolism oxygen and supplements its diet with plants or flesh. All Species of Player Green are Horror-plants.

Horrible Green Heart. Horror-plants use a green heart limit instead of a dark heart during a mutagen event (D7c), as shown on the Clouds. This is because a plant suffers if clouds block the sunlight, and also suffers if there are not enough clouds for rainfall.
Horrible Mutation Limits. Since Horror-plants have no aerobic muscles, Player Green is not allowed to select a red or yellow Mutation unless it has the Horror-plant icon in the upper right corner. Other players may select the Horror-plant cards normally.
Horrible Action Maximum. Unlike the other players, the number of actions Player Green has each turn is linked to cloud cover, as shown on the Clouds.
Horrible Mind Control. A Horror Plant has a "magic mushroom" advantage in mutualism (J2c).

Host Creeple. A Creeple on your mutualism card, which counts toward your population even though it is not your color. See Creeple.

Latitude (C1j). The 8 levels on each Latitude Strip, numbered from zero (north pole) to seven (south pole). Every Biome on the map is in one of these latitudes.

Latitude Dice (C1g) sit on a Craton to show which Latitude its center row is in (constrained from 1 to 6). If a Craton is at latitude 4, its northern row is at latitude 3, and its southern row is at latitude 5. Each Continent has one latitude dice.

Latitude Strips (C1j). There are 3 double-sided latitude strips, each defining the 8 latitudes from north to south pole. The latitude colors are reddish (too hot), green (goldilocks), and blue (too cold). Furthermore, each color has two sides: icehouse and Ice Age (blue), cool and Eden (green), and warm and hothouse (reddish). The latitude strip, as set by the Atmosphere, is placed to the left side of the map, so as to define a latitude for every Biome on the map.

Latitude Indicator. The 8 dice faces each indicate a Latitude.
Dice Color. The color of this icon indicates the humidity. A green dice is humid, and a white dice is arid. This sets the climax (D5) and the humidity niche (G5).
Wind. Some latitudes have a Wind direction, see "Wind".

Lazarus (I3c). A player without any Living Creeples. He is assumed to have a cryptic small population of his Archetype, in numbers too small to leave a Fossil Record. Until resurrected, you may perform only the following two actions: Resurrect (E7) and Medea (E8). The name "Lazarus" comes from the Bible, and is applied in biology to species missing from the fossil record for many millions of years before reappearing as if mysteriously "rising from the dead". This is an observational artifact caused by incomplete fossil records.

Liberate (D5). Move a disk from the map (either Continental or Offshore), to a Reservoir. Green disks always liberate to the Oxygen Reservoir and black disks always liberate to the Atmosphere Reservoir. If there is a choice between Clouds and Atmosphere, the Medea supervillain decides (D13). Note that if a black offshore disk is liberated, a green disk on top of it is also liberated (but not the other way around). Liberate is the opposite of Degas.

Living Creeple. Creeples on the map, including Endangered Creeples (those on their side or upside down). See Creeple.

Maximum Size (J1). A dice icon on promoted Mutations which indicates the largest size a Species can attain without sacrificing the Mutation.

Medea (E8). The player holding the Medea card, and enjoying superpowers.

Monster (E2d). A token that represents a special Plus Organ considered to be multiple cubes, as many cubes as the Size Dice of the Species. During Speciation, the daughter inherits a single Monster cube, which becomes a Basal Organ in the daughter. If a Monster Atrophies, e.g. during radiation or mutagens, the species size is reduced instead, see "Atrophy". A Monster cannot be removed until the Species is at size 1. The monsters are Godzilla, Kong, Kraken, Dragon, and Yeti, with apologies to the monsters too many to mention.

Mutation (B1). A card that indicates adaptations, including Organs, Traits, and Emotions. If in the Display, it can be selected per E1. If placed in a Tableau, it adds the Plus Organs indicated to the Mutation card. If promoted, it may add Traits, Emotions, or more Plus Organs.

Mutation Promotion. While in the Tableau, a Mutation can be flipped to its promoted side (E2), whereupon it may confer Traits, Emotions, and Size Limits. All former Organs become Basal Organs, and new Plus Organs (if any) are placed on its card where indicated.

Mutualism (J2). A trait which steals an opponent's Creeple, and stores it on your card with this icon. This Creeple is worth a VP, and represents some sort of mutualistic or parasitic relationship between the two Species.

Newborn Card (E3d, E4). A card where you place Creeples generated as a result of the populate action. Move these Creeples from this card to the map during the mother phase.

Newborn Creeple. The Creeples on your Newborn Card are called newborn creeples. See Creeple.

Niche (G4, G5, H3). A winning Organ color in a contest (Parts G, H). There are two types: Roadrunner and humidity. The first is set by the Biome cube icon, and the second is set by the Latitude Strip dice icon. For instance, if there are carnivores, the Niche for a forest is the red Roadrunner, giving a competitive advantage to those with red Organs. If the forest is carnivore-free, but is very polar, the humidity niche is white, giving a competitive advantage to those with white Organs.

Offshore (D10g). One of the three shelf positions on the east coast of each Craton. Each can contain one black disk or one black disk with a green disk over it. An offshore with an overlying green disk is called a bloom, and is inhabitable by a swimmer. A bloom may only be entered (for 1 DP) by a swimmer, and only from the hex it is adjacent to or from an adjacent offshore on the same Continent to the north or south. Other than this, offshores have no effect on dispersal or rafting.

Organ (E2c). A cube on a Genotype or Mutation. It indicates an adaptation for that Species according to its color: red (nervous system), yellow (circulatory system), green (digestive system), blue (reproductive system), or white (cold adaptations). It can be one of two types: Plus Organ or Basal Organ. Plus organs, representing "derived" traits, are found on the "+" icon on Mutations. Basal Organs are found on Genotype cards.

Oxygen (C1k). A Reservoir for Liberated green disks that indicates how much oxygen is in the Atmosphere (which is today at 21%). The more green disks, the less oxygen there is. Because all macroorganisms burn oxygen for their metabolism, the oxygen level determines how many actions (A2a) Players Orange, Black, and White receive during each action phase. It sets the dark heart limit (D7b), limiting how many organs an oxygen-breathing Genotype can support, should there be a mutagen event. If oxygen is too high, no "microbe" biosphere events occur, and if too low, no "conflagration" events occur (D10b).

Personality (J6). A row of 2 or more promoted cards in the Tableau of a Genotype. Each adjacent card in the personality must have established at least one Emotion, by providing for the right or left half of its emoticon. A personality is allowed only one head and one tail, but can have multiple brains (J6b), representing one bigger brain.

Plus Organ (E2c). Plus organs represent "derived" traits, and are found on Mutations. See Organ.

Radiation. Each Species Atrophies one Plus Organ of any of the colors of the icon.

Reservoir (D10). The placard where disks are stored in the Clouds, Oxygen, and Atmosphere.

Reservoir Disk Management. Disks are stored in Reservoirs starting at the spot just above the one labeled "NO DISKS". The uncovered values immediately above the highest disk indicate the current parameters. For instance, if there is one disk in the Clouds, the albedo is 0.1 and the green heart is 2.
PAL. Stands for "Present Atmospheric Levels", and shows today's climate values. This has no effect on game play.

Roadrunner (G4, H3). A predatory mode as set by the color of the roadrunner icon on each Biome. Roadrunners can either be red (meaning that the prey is ambushed), or yellow (meaning the prey is pursued). Red roadrunners are in biomes where there are many hiding places, such as forests, or swamps. Yellow roadrunners are found in biomes out in the open, such as weeds, seas, or blooms. The name is inspired by the Warner Brothers cartoon.

Scale (B2). Each turn is 30 million years, and the whole game is two Gal-years (1 Gal-year = time it takes Sol to orbit the galaxy, almost 250 million years). Each Biome is 2500 km across, containing 4000 Mt of vegetation. Each Creeple is 60 Mt of animals if herbivorous, or 2 Mt if predatory (Mt = megatonnes, or 10¹² kg). On the map, each black disk is 1000 Gt C (Gt = gigatonnes, or 10¹⁵ kg), and each green disk is 1 Gt of plankton (Despite having a biomass 1000X lower than terrestrial plants, marine phytoplankton produce nearly as much - 55 Gt C/yr. This is because the turnaround time of plankton is days instead of years.) In the atmosphere, each black disk is 700 Gt carbon and each white disk is 12,000 Gt water vapor. Note that 700 Gt is comparable to the total amount of carbon in today's atmosphere, about a third of which can be attributed to humans. This is trifling compared to past "gun" episodes which dumped from 5000 to 13,000 Gt into the atmosphere.

Shape (B3). Each player has 7 Creeples of 5 Shapes: Archetype (dome), armor (snail), flyer (fly), swimmer (ichthyosaur), and burrower (worm). Except for the Archetype, each represents a different Species phenotype adapted to a particular ecological domain. Worms, for instance, are subterranean/nocturnal.

Size Dice. A 1d6 placed on the Genotype of each Species when it is created (E3b) and indicates the size (from 1 to 6) of that Species. A Size Dice can be altered as an action (E6). A size dice icon depicted on a promoted Mutation indicates the maximum size a Species can be, and still retain that Mutation.

Size 1 = 200 grams — rats, largest spiders & extinct insects, living amphibians.
Size 2 = 2 kg — largest land arthropods (coconut crabs, extinct scorpions & millipedes), largest living snails & giant earthworms, largest extinct frogs.
Size 3 = 20 kg — beavers, velociraptors, largest lagomorphs (extinct rabbits), largest living burrowing armadillos, badgers & tortoises, largest flying birds & pterosaurs.
Size 4 = 200 kg — Dimetrodon, largest burrowers (extinct armadillos), largest living ratites (ostriches), deer (reindeer & moose), primates (gorillas), and felines (tigers).
Size 5 = 2 tonnes — largest foregut digesters (giraffe, cattle & extinct deer), largest riverine mammals (hippos), largest carnivora (bears & seals), largest living crocodiles, largest armored turtles, ammonites, glyptodonts, and thyreophorans (stegosaurs & ankylosaurs).
Size 6 = 20 tonnes — largest land carnivores (theropods such as tyrannosaurs), largest marine predators (sperm whales), largest hindgut digesters (straight-tusked elephants, Indricotherium, ornithopods, & typical sauropods).

Skeletal Number (C1d). Listed on the fishbone icon on your Archetype: Player Green = 1, Player Orange = 2, Player Black = 3, and Player White = 4. This number is in effect for all your Species except for a Species with a promoted haustorium mutation (J5). It is used in herbivore (G7) and carnivore (H6) contests. The first Medea player is the one with the lowest Skeletal. The lower skeletal numbers are best for herbivory, and the higher are better for carnivory.

Species. All of the Creeples of a particular color and Shape, plus its corresponding Tableau which defines its Mutations, Size, Organs, and Traits. Each player can have up to 5 species: archetypes, swimmers, flyers, burrowers, and armored. The game scale is such that each "species" is actually more like a phylum of many species.

Tableau. A column of cards that defines all characteristics of a Species. It starts with the Genotype above, and continues with any Mutations staggered behind. Personality cards are part of the Tableau, and are in a row that includes the uppermost Mutation in the column. The Genotype contains Basal Organs, and the size dice. The Mutations contain Plus Organs.

Traits (Part J). Non-heritable adaptations for a Species depicted by an icon on a Mutation. They include maximum size (J1), mutualism (J2), venom (J3), monster (J4), haustorium (J5), emotions (J6), tools (J7), and apomorphies (J8).

Trophic Levels (F6). Describe a nutritional hierarchy of life: with carnivores at the top, feeding on the next lower trophic level - the herbivores. The herbivores in turn consume the lowest trophic level - the energy-producing plants. All Species in the standard game are either carnivores or herbivores, and can easily switch between the two. A single Species can even have both carnivore and herbivore creeples present (this is called omnivory). Alien ecologies have all 3 trophic levels.

Unborn Creeple (E1a). The Creeples on your Genotype card are called unborn creeples. See Creeple.

Venom (J3). A Trait conferred to a Species by the black widow icon on one of its Mutations. A venomous Herbivore cannot be eaten by a Carnivore unless the Carnivore is either venomous itself, or larger (F4). The largest venomous creature known is Megalania, an extinct size 4 version of the venomous Komodo dragon.

Wind. Blows from either the east or west as indicated by the Latitude Strip. Wind only blows in Latitudes 1, 3, 4, and 6. This represents easterly and westerly trade winds and currents. Wind affects rain-shadow (D12a) and rafts (F5).

Rosetta Stone (icon quick-reference)

Events (D): Player order (A5). Biosphere Stable (A1b). Latitudinal Drift (D1). Crater (D2). Collision or Drift-by (D3). Pangea Rift (D4). Climax (D5). Deluge (D6). Mutagen (D7). Metabolism/Darwinian Radiation (D8). Crowd Disease (D9). Atmosphere Reservoir (D10). Cloud Seed Superpower (D13). Cloud Reservoir (D10). Oxygen Reservoir (D10). Offshore Reservoir (D10). Continent Reservoir (D10). Conflagration Event condition (D10). Cloud-covered Event condition (D10). Precipitation Event condition (D10). Triggerhappy superpower (D10). Windy (D11). Rain-Shadow Constraint (D12a).

Mutations Purchase & Promotion (E1 & E2): Plus Organs (E1). Horror-plant (E1d). Maximum Size (J1). Mutualism (J2). Venom (J3). Plus Organ Monsters (J4). Haustorium (J5). Emotions (J6).

Herbivore and Carnivore Contest (G & H): Roadrunner (G4 / H3). Humidity Niche (G5). Edibility / Prey contest (G3 / H1). Skeletal number (G7 / H5). Fossil (I4).

Cratons (D): Laurentia / Aphrodite (Venus). Siberia / Ishtar (Venus). Gondwana / Tharsis (Mars). Baltica / Arabia (Mars). Direction dice. Roadrunner (G4 / G3).

Credits

Game Designer: Phil Eklund, Jon Manker of Ion Game Design, Andrew Doull
Game Developer: Andrew Doull, Neal Sofge of Fat Messiah Games
Rules Editing: Michael Dillenbeck, Samuel Argento, Sebastian Radu, Tina Wolff
Production Manager: Nicole Morper of Sierra Madre Games
Art Director/Iconography: Karim Chakroun of Sierra Madre Games
Illustration Artist: Johanna Pettersson of Ion Games Design
Entomology Advisor: Dr. Brad Metz
Vassal Implementation: Alfonso Velasco Aparicio
Main Playtesters: Adam Gastonguay, Rob McVie, Josh Rea, Ivan Lindberg of Ion Game Design, Pierre Bertinchamps, Nikolaj Brucker, Chris Peters, Dr. John Douglass, Jim Gutt, Raimund Ruppel