Darwinauts Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Objective
• Set-Up
• Gameplay Overview
• On Your Turn
• Actions
  • Place an Explorer
  • Place a Tile
  • Remove All Your Explorers and Draw 2 Tiles
  • Discover a Species
  • Record a Species
• Bonus Actions
  • Rotate a Tile
  • Move an Outside Tile
  • Discover a Species
  • Discard Face Up Species
  • Take Any One Resource
• The Rift
• End of Game
• Scoring

Components

• 4 Player Boards
• 36 Terrain Tiles (includes 2 Rift tiles)
• 64 Species Cards (discard double-sided "Species Cards")
• 12 Explorer Tokens in 4 colors
• 120 Resource Tokens in 4 Colors

Objective

At the end of the game, the player who accumulates the most victory points by recording alien species wins!

Set-Up

• Each player takes 1 player board and 3 Explorers of the same color and places them in front of them.
• Shuffle the Species cards and place them to the side of the play area. Then, reveal 3 cards face up next to the deck. Deal 1 card from the top of the deck to each player to place face up next to their player board in their personal supply.
• Set the Rift Tile aside and prepare the terrain tiles according to the number of players in the game:
  • 2 players: 25 tiles
  • 3 players: 29 tiles
  • 4 players: 33 tiles
• Place unused tiles back in the box. Shuffle the tiles thoroughly and place them in a stack near the play area to create the general supply. Next, shuffle the Rift Tile in with the bottom 6 tiles of the stack then place these 7 tiles back on the bottom of the general supply.
• Deal 2 tiles facedown to each player.
• Open the portal by revealing the top 5 tiles and place them face up in the center of the table in a "+" configuration.
• Place the Resource Tokens to the side of the play area.
• Choose a starting player and give them the extra Rift Tile to use as a Start Player Token.
• Players are now ready to explore a new dimension.

Gameplay Overview

A player takes 2 actions on their turn, selecting them from the 5 possible actions detailed on their player aid. Whenever a player records a species they immediately take one of the 5 possible bonus actions listed on their player aid. Players continue to take turns until The Rift Tile is revealed, triggering The Rift. Once The Rift is complete, the game ends and players add the points listed on their recorded species, points earned from sets, and the points earned for unused resources. The player with the most points wins!

On Your Turn

Each player's turn consists of taking 2 actions from the 5 possible actions detailed below. If a player chooses, they may use both of their actions to take the same action twice.

FREE ACTION: At any point on your turn you may exchange 3 of any resource in their personal supply (does not need to be matching) for 1 of any other resource in the general supply.

Actions

Place an Explorer

Place 1 explorer onto one half of a tile. The explorer may be placed on any tile so long as there is not already an explorer in that connected color region.

Place a Tile

Place a tile from from your personal supply adjacent to at least one previously placed tile. A tile may be rotated and placed in any adjacent orientation. The tile's colors do not have to match adjacent tiles. Tiles may be placed in such a way to connect a color region with multiple previously placed explorers.

Remove All Your Explorers and Draw 2 Tiles

To take this action you may not have any tiles in your personal supply (player must have already placed your 2 tiles.) Take this action with any number of workers present on the board (0, 1, 2, or 3.)

Remove all of your explorers from the board, collecting the depicted resources in each connected color region occupied by their explorer then draw 2 tiles from the general supply. Be sure to look at your tiles right away to determine whether the Rift tile has been drawn.

Discover a Species

Select one of the 3 face up species cards or the top face down card from the species supply and place it in your personal supply (face up next to your player board). This species may be recorded later for end game points. Other players may not record a species that are reserved in a player's personal supply.

Record a Species

Return the resources shown at the bottom of a species card (either in the species supply or a personal supply) to the resource pool to record a species. Take the recorded species and place it face down in your collection.

IMPORTANT: Whenever you record a species, you immediately must take 1 bonus action.

Bonus Actions

Rotate a Tile

Rotate any tile not currently occupied by an explorer. You may rotate the tile as many times as you wish. Place the tile back in the same space it came from. You may connect colored regions currently occupied by multiple explorers.

Move an Outside Tile

Select a tile with at least 1 side free from connecting tiles and no explorers. You may rotate and move the tile to a different available space. You may not move a tile that would cause tiles to be disconnected from each other.

Discover a Species

Select one of the 3 face up species cards or the top face down card from the species supply and place it in your personal supply (face up next to your player board).

Discard Face Up Species

Take the 3 face up species and place them in the species discard pile, deal 3 new species cards from the top of the species supply deck then Discover a Species.

Take Any One Resource

Take 1 of any resource available in the resource supply pool.

The Rift

When The Rift tile is revealed from the tile supply immediately discard any remaining tiles in the general supply. This will mean the person drawing the tile is not able to refill their hand to 2 tiles. Play continues as normal.

The next player will start The Rift.

At the beginning of the next player's turn (and all subsequent turns), the active player removes 3 outside tiles that do not contain any explorers and do not break the terrain into two separate areas, placing them back in the box.

NOTE: Once a player has placed all of their tiles, the Replenish Tiles and Remove Explorers action is now always available to them since there are no more tiles available. They will simply remove their explorers, gaining the indicated resources as normal.

End of Game

After the Rift occurs, when a player cannot remove 3 tiles, each player takes 1 more action and then the game ends.

Scoring

All players reveal their recorded species, adding the point total for their collections of species. Unrecorded species left in a players personal supply at the end of the game are not worth any points and should be discarded.

1. Players earn points depicted on each individual species card.
2. For each set of 3 species of the same type (color) players earn 5 points. For each set of 4 different types (color) of species players earn 5 points. Each species card made only be used in one set.
3. Players earn 1 point for every 2 resources left in their supply.

The player with the most points wins.

In the event of a tie, the player with the most resources wins. If there is still a tie, the player with the most recorded species wins. If there is still a tie, all tied players should find a quiet spot to lay down and go to sleep. The player who naps the longest wins.