Factions of Sol

Factions of Sol Rulebook

Table of Contents

Game Overview

Years ago, Mark Megacore created MegaCore Inc, Earth's one-stop shop for everything from groceries to rocket fuel. Since then, humanity has taken to the stars and transformed the solar system into a vibrant landscape of innovation, exploration, and domination. Now Mark Megacore is on his deathbed – and looking to pass his fortune to whomever he deems fit.

In Factions of Sol, each player controls one of eight asymmetric factions competing to impress Mark Megacore and inherit both his fortune and political power. During the game, you will build machines, explore new exoplanets, and demonstrate your faction's prowess through secret objectives. But be warned– as you move your ship through the solar system, movement becomes increasingly difficult. Will you end up stranded in space, or will you emerge victorious as the new ruler of Sol?

Components

Gameboard (the solar system, with concentric orbit rings and a central sun)
Mercury Deck (8 cards)
Venus Deck (30 cards)
Earth Deck (16 cards)
Jupiter Deck (40 cards)
Saturn Deck (36 cards)
Uranus Deck (8 cards)
Neptune Deck (24 cards)
Solo Cards (38 cards)
Planet tokens: Mercury Token, Venus Token, Earth Token, Mars Token, Jupiter Token, Saturn Token, Uranus Token, Neptune Token
Leader Token (1)
Wormhole Tokens (2)
Asteroid Tokens (12)
Resource Tokens (60)
Upgrade Tokens (100)
Energy Cubes (60 each, 4 colours)
Energy Crystals (20 each, 4 colours)
Rescue Tokens (4)
Faction Playmats (8)
Faction Ships (4)
Cheat Sheets (4)

Gameboard

Prime Axis: the unbroken line leading from the Sun to the edge of the gameboard.
Orbital Rings: each planet has an orbital ring on the gameboard highlighted by a specific colour (Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Earth, Venus, Mercury).
Nodes: along the orbital rings are circular nodes. Planets are placed on these nodes. A step is the distance from one node on an orbital ring to the next.
Sectors: the spaces in between orbital rings. A sector is adjacent to a planet if it touches the node the planet is currently on. The space on the outside of the board is called the Kuiper Belt, and it is not a sector.
Asteroid Belt: asteroid tiles are placed in the sectors of the Asteroid Belt between the orbital rings of Mars and Jupiter.
Kuiper Belt: in 4-player games, there are also asteroid tiles in the Kuiper Belt, located in the four quadrants of the gameboard beyond Neptune's orbital ring. Players may not move into these quadrants.
Inner and Outer Rings: the gameboard is divided into two sections, the Inner Ring and the Outer Ring. The Inner Ring refers to all sectors from the Sun to Mars' orbital ring, and the Outer Ring refers to all sectors from Mars' orbital ring to Neptune's orbital ring.

Set Up

For solo play, see page 21 (Factions of Solo).

First Time Players: the rulebook suggests the following for a first game.

Play without the Neptune or Uranus planets and decks. Ignore any mention of Neptune or Uranus in the rules.
Play without the Earth Deck. Ignore any mention of Stellar Events in the rules. Do not move Earth in step 2 of "Set Up."
Play with the following factions: Zealots of Sol, Standard Ordinary People, MegaCore Inc., Daughters of Einstein, and Quantum Tunnelers.

Each player takes a ship and the corresponding energy cubes of that colour.
To randomize the positions of the planets, first set up each planet on its respective node along the Prime Axis. Then shuffle and draw a card from each of the planet decks. Each card will have a number in the bottom right corner. Move the corresponding planet that many steps counter-clockwise. For Mars, flip a random asteroid tile. Shuffle the cards back into the decks and the asteroid tile back into the asteroid tiles.

Example: set up for the position of Saturn. Draw the Saturn card; it shows the number 2, so move Saturn 2 steps.
For a 1-2 player game, look through the Saturn Deck and remove the cards with stars in the top right corner.
Shuffle each of the 7 planet decks separately and place them by the gameboard. Some planets require additional setup:
- Earth: randomly select one Phase I Stellar Event and one Phase II Stellar Event. Place the Phase II card face-down and the Phase I card face-up on top of it. Return the rest of the deck to the box.
- Jupiter: flip 3 cards face-up from the Jupiter deck to form the Exoplanet Market.
- Neptune: flip 3 cards face-up from the Neptune deck to form the Research Market.
Give the Leader Token to the player who is most likely to be abducted by aliens. Starting with the player to the right of the Leader and proceeding counter-clockwise, each player selects which faction they will play from the remaining faction sheets.

Page 6 of the rulebook shows an "Example 4-Player Game" diagram: each faction's playmat and energy/resource pieces around the edge, the planets placed on their nodes, and the ships placed in sectors adjacent to their starting planets (steps 1-8 are marked on the diagram).

Objective

As a faction competing for Mark Megacore's fortune, your goal is to earn more Victory Points than every other faction by the end of the game. You can earn Victory Points by building machines, exploring exoplanets, completing secret objectives, and amassing resources.

Rounds & Phases

Gameplay in Factions of Sol is broken into three rounds. Each round has two phases: the Main Phase and the Upkeep Phase.

Main Phase

Starting with the Leader and moving clockwise, players take turns consisting of three parts in the following order:

Trading (see Trading, page 8)
Movement (see Movement, page 8)
Action (see Actions, page 9)

Players must take at least a Movement or an Action during their turn (usually both).

When a player is unable or unwilling to take neither a Movement nor an Action, they must pass. Once a player has passed, they must continue to pass each turn until each player has passed.
Each time a player would take a turn after passing, they gain 2 energy.
When there is only one player who has not passed, they may take a maximum of 6 more turns. After 6 turns, they must pass.

Once all players have passed, the Main Phase ends.

Upkeep Phase

Once the Main Phase is complete, move onto the Upkeep Phase and do the following:

Players may complete any secret objectives that have the "end of round" timing.
The current Stellar Event resolves for the next round.
Players gain energy and resources produced by their explored exoplanets.

If this is the third round of the game, stop here and score points.
Remove all energy cubes from the board.
Starting with the innermost planet then moving outwards, move each planet counter-clockwise one step along their orbital ring.
Remove all asteroid tiles, shuffle them together, and then replace them on the board face-down (see asteroid placement in "Set Up" page 5).
If the Leader token has not been claimed, pass it clockwise to the next player.
Upkeep the decks.
- Jupiter: discard any face-up exoplanet cards from last round. Draw 3 exoplanet cards to replenish the Exoplanet Market.
- Neptune: discard any face-up cards. Draw 3 research cards to replenish the Research Market.

For an example of a turn, see page 10.

Trading

You may trade explorer cards, exoplanets, incomplete secret objectives, tech, resources, energy, and upgrades with any other player at the beginning of your turn.

When trading upgrades, they must remain in the same machine. For example, you cannot gain a Battery upgrade from a trade and then place it as a Solar Sails upgrade.

Movement

Energy

Each player starts the game with 16 energy and an energy capacity of 16. This number can increase as you upgrade your Batteries on Mars. Energy is placed on the energy section of your faction sheet.

At any time, you may burn one resource to gain one energy.

Tip: an intuitive way to think of Movement is that players leave behind space trash in sectors they move through. Moving into a sector with trash costs more energy because you have to avoid it, and moving into the Outer Ring costs more at first because the distances are so vast!

Movement Rules

Players use energy to move around the gameboard. To move into a sector, you must place energy into the sector equal to the energy currently there plus one. You can only move into/through adjacent sectors. Diagonal sectors are not considered adjacent.

Empty sectors in the Outer Ring (the sectors on the outside of Mars' orbital ring), cost two energy to move into, rather than one. Once there is energy in an Outer Ring sector, Movement rules apply as normal.

You may not move into the same sector more than once in the same Movement.

Example (page 8): in a single Movement, Emma moves three sectors, as shown above. She places 1 energy in the first sector since it previously had 0 energy, 4 energy in the second sector since it previously had 3 energy, and 2 energy in the third sector because it is in the Outer Ring and previously had 0 energy. She then moves her ship.

Orbiting

When a planet moves, any player adjacent to it may immediately move to a sector adjacent to its new position without spending energy. If a planet teleports, players may not orbit with it.

Example (page 9): Jupiter orbits one step.

Rescuing

At any point during your turn, you may choose to teleport to a sector adjacent to Mercury. If you do so, you have been rescued and lose 20 Victory Points. Take a rescue token as a reminder.

First Time Players: each player may be rescued once per game with no penalty.

Wormholes & Teleporting

Sectors with wormhole tokens are considered adjacent. There are two available wormhole tokens. If an additional token would be placed, first remove one from the board.
When a player teleports, they pick up their ship and place it in any eligible sector.

Actions

Each player may take one Action on their turn. Actions include using a planet, mining an asteroid, and other abilities that state "as an Action". Actions will often include gaining and burning cards, energy, and resources.

Gaining & Burning

Gain: To gain a card, draw it from the respective deck or market. Cards are gained secretly into your hand unless stated otherwise. Whenever you would gain a card from a deck, but there is no card to gain, reshuffle the discard pile to reform the draw pile.

To gain energy or resources, take a cube or token from the supply.

Burn: To burn a card, place it in its respective discard pile face-up.

To burn energy or resources, place the cube or token back in the supply.

You may only burn things that you own, and you may not burn anything unless prompted.

Mining an Asteroid

Rich in precious metals and other rare materials, many venture out to the Asteroid Belt to mine the resources they need for construction & payment.

The Asteroid Belt, located between Mars and Jupiter, is the primary source of resources in the game. Resources are used to build machines, as well as gain explorers and exoplanets.
To mine asteroids, players must end their Movement in a sector containing an asteroid and use their Action to mine it. They then flip the asteroid tile and gain that many resources. The tile is removed from the board.
Players may not exceed their resource capacity.
At any time, you may burn one resource to gain one energy.
In a 4-player game, some asteroids are in the Kuiper Belt (quadrants located beyond Neptune's orbit). Players may not enter the Kuiper Belt, but can mine an asteroid from any adjacent sector.

IMPORTANT: Resources let you use Venus, Mars, and Jupiter, the main ways of scoring Victory Points. So, if you want to win the game, they might be worth looking into.

Turn Example

The turn example on page 10 is shown in four diagrams with notes:

Emma is playing blue and decides to mine an asteroid. For her Movement, she places 1 energy in each sector in the Inner Ring and 2 in the empty sector in the Outer Ring. She then spends her Action mining the asteroid by flipping the asteroid tile and gaining that many resources.
Joe is playing red and wants to mine an asteroid as well, but because Emma has already placed 1 energy in each of the sectors he must pass through, Joe must place 2 in each.
Emma then wishes to use Jupiter, so she moves to the empty space adjacent to it, also in the Outer Ring, placing 2 energy.
Joe wants to use Jupiter as well, so he moves into the adjacent space, placing 3 energy, because the space already contained 2 energy.

Actions Cont.

Using Planets

To use a planet, players must place energy in an adjacent sector during their turn and end their Movement adjacent to the planet. Players may take a different Action at each planet.

Note: You must place energy in a sector adjacent to a planet each turn you want to use that planet.

Planet Actions:

Mercury: Gain Energy
Venus: Gain Explorer Cards
Earth: Vote on Stellar Event
Mars: Gain Upgrades
Jupiter: Gain Exoplanets
Saturn: Gain Secret Objectives
Uranus: Gain Tech
Neptune: Gain Research Cards

For planet cards, see page 19.

Mercury: Charging

Mercury is home to the Zealots of Sol, a powerful cult that venerates the sun. Under their watch, Mercury's solar fields produce the energy that fuels every starship in Sol.

When you use Mercury, gain a card from the Mercury deck. Fill your Battery by the amount of energy matching your current Battery level and then burn the card. You may not exceed your maximum energy capacity.
If you are already adjacent to Mercury, you may forfeit your Movement and Action to use Mercury. This means you can remain at Mercury to recharge your battery for as many turns as you want, at no additional cost. This does not count as passing.

IMPORTANT: Make sure you can return to Mercury to get energy! Otherwise you will be stranded in space, where no one can hear you scream "Oh no! I'm out of energy!"

When the last card of the Mercury deck is drawn, all planets orbit. Starting with the innermost planet then moving outwards, move each planet counter-clockwise one step along their orbital ring.

Venus: Explorers

Settled by scientists obsessed with random evolution, those on Venus mutate organisms in a quest to find the perfect creature to explore the cosmos.

At Venus, you can use your Action to burn X resources and gain X explorer cards into your hand. You must declare how many resources you are burning before gaining explorers. These explorer cards are used to explore exoplanets (explained in "Jupiter" page 13).
Each explorer has an explorer number that will help explore exoplanets. For many explorers, this number is modified by the type of exoplanet it is placed on.

Earth: Stellar Events

A desiccated husk of its former glory, Earth remains the political heart of Sol, home to the majority of Sol's population and hidden enclaves of powerful elites.

When you use Earth, you may vote on the round's Stellar Event. To vote, place one of your energy cubes from your supply on the chosen space and gain the corresponding reward. If you gain an exoplanet or research card, gain it from the top of the deck. Only one player each round may claim the Leader token as a reward. Each player may only vote once per round.
The event that has more votes at the end of the round is resolved. In case of a tie, the Leader chooses which event wins.

First Time Players: the first player to visit Earth each round takes the Leader token. You may ignore this section.

Mars: Upgrades

One of Sol's oldest colonies, Mars was unintentionally terraformed by smog from thousands of MegaCore factories. Now millions work to convert metal-rich asteroids into ever more impressive starships.

Machines give players new abilities and Victory Points. When you use Mars, you may burn 2X resources to gain X upgrades. Then place those upgrades on any of the upgrade slots on your playmat.
Once you have filled all upgrade slots in a machine and covered the Victory Point symbol, the machine is complete. You then immediately benefit from the machine's effects.
At the end of the game, you receive one Victory Point for each upgrade, plus additional points for completed machines. You must fill a given machine's steps from left to right, except for Batteries which must be filled from top to bottom.
Each player has a unique faction machine. You must upgrade faction machines like any other machine.

Example (page 12): Emma has three upgrades in Batteries, four in Alcubierre Drive, and one in Von Neumann Probes. She has completed the Beta-level of Batteries, allowing her to hold 20 energy, and she has completed Alcubierre Drive. She can utilize the benefits of Alcubierre Drive and the Beta battery, but must complete the other machines before getting their benefits.

Jupiter: Exoplanets

The starport on Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon, uses gravity assists to fling hundreds of ships to their destinations far across the galaxy.

Another way to earn Victory Points is exploring exoplanets. The more explored exoplanets of the same type you have, the more Victory Points you earn. Explored exoplanets also grant you resources and energy during the Upkeep Phase.

Gaining Exoplanets

When you use Jupiter, burn one resource then choose an exoplanet from the face-up Exoplanet Market. Place it face-up in front of yourself. Immediately choose to resolve one or neither of the listed effects.
If at any point there are no exoplanets remaining in the Market, immediately refresh it by placing three new exoplanets face-up in the Market.
Alternatively, you may use your Action at Jupiter to refresh the Exoplanet Market by discarding all exoplanets in the Market and placing three new exoplanets face-up in the Market. This does not cost a resource.

Exploring

Players gain explorers at Venus, and can place explorers on a planet at any time. Only explored exoplanets are worth Victory Points at the end of the game.
Once enough explorers have been placed on an exoplanet, it is considered explored. Explored exoplanets allow players to gain energy and resources through production during the Upkeep Phase. Once an explorer card has been placed on an exoplanet, it cannot be moved.

Exoplanet card key (page 13):

Needed Explorers: to be considered explored, the total number of explorers placed on an exoplanet must be greater than or equal to this number.
Name: the exoplanet's name.
Type: the more exoplanets of the same type you explore, the more Victory Points you will earn. Some explorer cards are better or worse at exploring specific exoplanet types.
Effect: when you gain an exoplanet, you immediately choose to resolve one or neither of the effects.
Production: during the Upkeep Phase, players gain energy and resources from explored exoplanets they own.

Example (page 14): Harry uses Jupiter on his turn and burns one resource to take Yvaga from the Exoplanet Market. He has these three explorer cards in his hand: Andromada Youth Scuba Diving Club, Swamp Things, and Geriatric Explorers. He explores Yvaga by placing Swamp Things and Geriatric Explorers on it. During the Upkeep Phase, he will gain 4 energy and 0 resources from Yvaga.

Saturn: Secret Objectives

Housed in the rings of Saturn is MegaCore's infamous prison, the Ice Box. The Ice Box is home to the criminal underbelly of Sol and is a hotbed of illicit activity.

When you use Saturn, gain two secret objectives from the deck. Keep one in your hand and burn the other.
You may never end your turn with more than three secret objectives in your hand. If you would, you must burn secret objectives until you have three.
Each secret objective has a "Timing" showing when it can be completed. Once a secret objective is complete, reveal it and place it face-up on the table. Completed secret objectives do not count as part of your hand.

Uranus: Tech

Originally a shipyard colony, an ill-fated uprising resulted in the death of most on the planet. Now, MegaCore scrappers uncover technologies once thought to be lost.

When you use Uranus, look through the tech deck and gain a tech of your choice. Place this tech face-up near your playmat.
Each player may only hold one tech. If you would ever gain a tech and already hold one, choose one to return to the Uranus deck.

First Time Players: you may ignore this section.

Neptune: Research Cards

Neptune is home to a far-off research colony where exiled scientists pursue their research with impunity, selling it to any who brave the journey.

When you use Neptune, gain a card from the Research Market. Research cards have a variety of benefits for players, including gaining energy, resources, upgrades, exoplanets, tech, or explorers. These cards are immediately used, unless they are an explorer, exoplanet, or tech card, in which case they are taken into your hand. All burned Research cards are placed in the Neptune discard.

First Time Players: you may ignore this section.

Passing

During the Action Phase, when you are unable or unwilling to take neither a Movement nor an Action, you must pass. After you have passed, when you would take a turn, gain 2 energy. However, you may no longer take Movements or Actions until the next round.

Victory Points & End

After the Upkeep Phase of the third round, the game ends and Victory Points are tallied. Players earn Victory Points for the following:

1 Victory Point for every 2 resources in your cargo hold at the end of the game.
1 Victory Point for every upgrade (in both complete and incomplete machines).
For completed machines equal to the number shown in the Victory Point symbol.
For completed secret objectives equal to the number shown in the Victory Point symbol.
For explored exoplanets of the same type, according to the table below:

Explored exoplanets of the same type	1	2	3	4	5	6+
Victory Points earned	1	3	7	12	18	25

The player with the most Victory Points wins the game. In the case of a tie, the player with the most energy wins. In case of a continued tie, the player with the most completed secret objectives wins. If there is still a tie, the tied players must immediately play again (or share the victory if they are cowards).

Reference

Machine List

Each faction playmat has the following machines. Each machine's upgrade slots are numbered on the playmat (see the example playmat, page 16).

Batteries

Each player begins with an Alpha Battery with an energy capacity of 16 energy.
Beta Batteries give the player an energy capacity of 20 energy.
Gamma Batteries give the player an energy capacity of 24 energy.
Delta Batteries give the player an energy capacity of 32 energy.
Battery stages must be completed in this order.

Cargo Holds

Each player begins with a resource capacity of 4 resources. Each upgrade in a player's Cargo Holds increases their resource capacity by 1.

Alcubierre Drive

At the beginning of your Movement, you may teleport to any sector in the same orbital ring. You may not use this machine in the Asteroid Belt.

Solar Sails

Movement into all empty sectors costs 1 energy.

Von Neumann Probes

When you end your Movement in a sector where you could mine an asteroid tile, you may mine it immediately without using an Action.

Faction Machine

Faction machines are detailed in the Factions section on page 17.

Example Faction Playmat (page 16): the Quantum Tunnelers playmat, with the Energy (Alpha 16) and Resources (Resource Capacity 4) panels, the Batteries and Cargo Holds machines, Dark Energy Extractor, Solar Sails, Alcubierre Drive, and Von Neumann Probes.

Factions

MegaCore, Inc. — "MegaCore Means More"

Primary Ability: you may mine asteroids in adjacent sectors. You may not mine more than one asteroid per turn. You start with +1 resource capacity (included on your playmat).
Faction Machine: NanoExcavators. When you mine an asteroid, gain 2 additional resources.
Starting Planet: Mercury.

The Zealots of Sol — "The Light of Sol is our only salvation. Join us in the Cycle of Fire."

Primary Ability: when you use Mercury, do not gain a card. Instead, gain any amount of energy.
Faction Machine: Artificial Photosynthesis. Once per round, gain any amount of energy as an Action.
Starting Planet: Mercury.

Standard Ordinary People — "There's no place like home... And by home we mean Earth... Which is where we are from."

Primary Ability: you may produce with unexplored exoplanets.
Faction Machine: Galactic Mapping. As an Action, you may use an effect from each of your explored exoplanets.
Starting Planet: Venus.

Quantum Tunnelers — "Here and there are closer than you suspect."

Primary Ability: at the start of the game, place 2 wormhole tokens in any 2 sectors. At the beginning of your Movement, you may burn 1 resource or 4 energy to move a wormhole token to any sector.
Faction Machine: Dark Energy Extractor. Once per round, at the beginning of your Movement, you may remove all energy from each sector containing a wormhole to gain an equal amount.
Starting Planet: Mercury.

Daughters of Einstein — "The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."

Primary Ability: each time you use a planet, you may move it counter-clockwise one step.
Faction Machine: Spacetime Inverter. Once per round, you may switch two planet's positions. You may not switch Mercury's position.
Starting Planet: Earth.

Deep State — "What you don't know is our greatest strength."

Primary Ability: at the start of the game, gain a tech from the Uranus deck. You may hold up to 2 techs and 4 secret objectives. At the start of each round, gain an explorer card.
Faction Machine: Advanced Spectroscopy. You may secretly look at any asteroid tile at any time.
Starting Planet: Venus.

Interplanetary Council — "Our shared humanity will pull us into the future."

Primary Ability: when you vote on a stellar event, gain your chosen reward twice. Once per round, you may use Earth as any other planet.
Faction Machine: Space Elevators. When you use a planet, you may use it as though it were the planet on one orbital ring closer to or further from the sun.
Starting Planet: Earth.

Android Resistance — (flavour line printed in binary)

Primary Ability: at the beginning of your Movement, if you have two ships on the board, take one ship off. When you move your remaining ship, leave a copy of your ship in its original location.
Faction Machine: Quantum Ascendancy. Once per round, you may use a planet immediately after another player uses that planet.
Starting Planet: Earth.

Card Reference

Mercury: Charging

The Mercury card shows the battery energy levels and the amount of energy each one fills:

Alpha: 12 energy
Beta: 15 energy
Gamma: 18 energy
Delta: 24 energy

Venus: Explorers

Each explorer card shows its number of explorers, its explorer attribute, and its name. For example, Geriatric Explorers shows 2 explorers, "+2 if placed on a BOUNTIFUL EXOPLANET", and "Hips of steel, heart of gold".

Earth: Stellar Events

Each Stellar Event card shows an event name, event details (one or two options separated by "OR"), and the reward for each vote. Place an energy cube from your supply to vote and gain a reward. For example, the card "SPACE TAX!" has two options: "For the remainder of the game, each asteroid gives 1 fewer resource" or "For the remainder of the game, each time a player uses Mercury they gain 4 less energy."

Saturn: Secret Objectives

Each secret objective shows its Victory Points, its title and description, and when it resolves (its Timing). For example, the MOVEMENT objective is worth 7 Victory Points, reads "Have 8 or fewer energy in the outer ring", and has the timing "END OF ROUND".

Uranus: Tech

Each tech shows its name and a description. For example, the tech "Temporal Field Manipulator" reads "You need 2 fewer explorers to explore each exoplanet."

F.A.Q.

It feels like I never have enough energy when I leave Mercury! Remember that you can forfeit your Movement and Action when you are adjacent to Mercury to charge again. Alternatively, try upgrading your batteries to hold more energy.

If I begin my turn in a sector with an asteroid, can I mine it? Yes, but only if you end your Movement there. Asteroids may only be mined as an Action or immediately after Movement if you have completed Von Neumann Probes.

What happens to explorer cards on a burned exoplanet? The explorer cards are also burned.

Are finished levels of Cargo Holds and Battery considered completed machines? A level of Cargo Holds or Batteries is complete when the VP reward is covered.

What happens if a planet leaves its orbital ring? Orbital rings are the same regardless of where the planets are. If Mars leaves its orbital ring, the Inner and Outer rings remain the same. Any cards that refer to a planet affect the planet, not the planet on that orbital ring.

How can we keep track of how many turns a player has taken after all others pass? At the beginning of each turn after all players but one have passed, place an energy cube on that player's faction sheet. When there are six cubes, that is their last turn!

If I'm playing MegaCore, do I start with 5 resources? No! Each player starts with 4 resources.

Can I move into the sector that I am already in? No! Movement can only be into adjacent sectors.

If I randomly take explorers from a player's hand, does that include explorers from Neptune? No, since the choice would no longer be random, these explorer cards are not included.

Using Space Elevators (Interplanetary Council's faction machine), can you use Venus as though it were Mercury to forfeit your Movement and Action to charge? Yes, you can!

Factions of Solo

Interested in venturing alone? Factions of Sol can also be played with one player. The game rules are generally the same, with changes detailed here.

Additional Setup

Shuffle the AI Planet cards to form the AI deck.
Choose an unchosen faction for the AI Player. Place that faction sheet out for the AI player and shuffle that AI faction card into the AI deck.
Remove all starred secret objectives from the Saturn deck.
When placing the asteroids, include the Kuiper belt.
Decide on Easy, Medium, or Hard mode. Then set that corresponding scoring card aside for reference.

How to Play Solo

The game takes place over 2 rounds.
After each turn you take, the AI takes a turn. Draw a card from the AI deck. Follow the instructions listed on the AI card, then discard the card. If a planet is drawn, orbit the planet one step and place energy as though the AI has moved into all sectors around that planet.
When you pass, the AI will continue taking turns until its deck is empty.
If the AI deck is empty and you have not passed, shuffle the discard pile to reform the AI deck. If you have passed, the round is over.

Rules for AI

If the AI player would gain anything, put it on their faction mat.
The AI can hold any number of resources.
If the AI would ever gain energy, they instead gain one resource for each three energy they would gain.
If the AI would ever "make a choice" the player makes the choice for them instead. (ex. Which asteroid to mine)
The AI can have any number of upgrades, but does not benefit from any machine abilities.
The AI player has no "hand". They can hold any number of explorer cards, secret objectives, and tech cards.
The AI player does not resolve effects from gaining an exoplanet.
The AI player does resolve research cards that they gain.

Scoring

Before scoring the AI player, follow these steps:

Count the number of explorers they have. If they have enough explorers to explore their smallest valued exoplanet, subtract that amount of explorers from their total. That exoplanet is considered explored.
Repeat for each exoplanet until they have no more explorers or no more exoplanets.

The AI player gains VP as listed on the scoring card set aside at the beginning of the game.

First Time Players (Solo)

After you have played the game once, feel free to open the additional pack of cards marked "First Time Players, DO NOT OPEN". These include the Earth, Uranus, and Neptune decks, along with some additional cards for the Saturn and Jupiter decks. If you would like to play the First Time Player version again, simply remove the cards in the Jupiter and Saturn decks that have asterisks (*) in their bottom right corner.

Quick Reference

Symbols: Energy (lightning bolt), Resource (bricks), Tech (atom), Explorer (figure), Exoplanet (striped planet), Research (magnifying glass), Upgrade (wrench), Secret Objective (eye), First Player Token (the Leader token).

Planets

Mercury: Charging. Flip the top card of the Mercury deck. Charge the amount listed from your battery level.
Venus: Explorers. Burn X resources. Gain X explorer cards.
Earth: Stellar Events. Place your vote on the current stellar event card. First time players rules: the first player to visit Earth takes the Leader token.
Mars: Upgrades. Burn 2X resources. Gain X upgrades.
Jupiter: Exoplanets. Burn a resource. Gain an exoplanet from the Exoplanet Market.
Saturn: Secret Objectives. Gain 2 secret objectives. Keep 1, burn the other.
Uranus: Tech. Gain any tech from the deck. Do not use (first time players rules).
Neptune: Research Cards. Gain any card from the Neptune market. Do not use (first time players rules).
Asteroid Belts – Resources. Pick up an asteroid tile to gain that amount of resources.

Upkeep Phase

Complete "end of round" secret objectives.
Resolve the stellar event.
Gain energy and resources from production.
Remove all energy from the board.
Move the planets counter-clockwise.
Shuffle and reset asteroid tiles.
Pass the Leader token if unclaimed.
Refresh the Jupiter and Neptune markets.