How to Save a World Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• How to Win
• Components
  • Game Board
  • Progress Board
  • Asteroid Marker
  • 4 Player Mats
  • Cards
  • Other Components
• General Setup
  • Long Table Layout
• Player Setup (Each Player Does This)
• Gameplay
  • On Your Turn
  • Use the Express Shuttle
  • Play an Action Card
  • Place a Lander
    • Worlds, Sites, and Locations
    • Location Rules
    • Tag-Powered Actions
    • Shuttle, Stay, and Accelerated Locations
• The Actions
  • Gain a Resource
  • Spending Resources
  • Raise Baseline
  • Gain a Tag Token
  • Spending Tags (From Tokens and/or Cards)
  • Gain VP
  • Claim the Start Badge
  • Work on a Project
  • Research
  • Gain Upgrade
  • Buy a Card
  • Trash a Card
  • Boosts
• The Progress Phase
• Round Start
• The Arrival
• Final Scoring
• Credits

How to Win

While it is true that we are all striving to save Alarria, there is still an element of competition: at the end of the game, the player with the most star Victory Points (VP) will win. There are various ways to earn small (but potentially significant) amounts of VP during the game, but the majority of scoring typically occurs in two categories resolved at the end:

1. The three Projects provide the biggest scoring opportunities. VP are awarded at the end of the game to whoever advanced furthest on each Project track, with the most VP going to the pivotal project.

   The pivotal project is determined at endgame: the Laser fires first; if successful, it is the pivotal project. If not, the Shield attempts to deflect the asteroid (perhaps weakened by the laser). If it succeeds, it is the pivotal project. If not, Alarria will sadly be destroyed... the Evac automatically becomes the pivotal project, having rescued as many species as possible while the other plans failed to protect the whole planet.

2. Each Species card provides its owner with personal endgame scoring criteria. If you focus on species that mesh well with your other accomplishments, you might earn enough VP to make a difference even if the projects don't go your way.

Components

Game Board

The game board shows the Score track (marked 1 through the maximum) with Leader Bonus spaces, and the three Project tracks — Laser track, Shield track, and Evac track — each ending in a stack of face-up Reward slots.

Below the tracks are the Planet (Alarria) and its sites, and the Moon (Fortuna) and its sites. A site is a gray box containing one or more locations. Locations within a site may show:

• A Location rule (a boxed modifier to that location's action).
• An Unlimited location (any number of landers may occupy it at once).
• An Accelerated location (there is only one in the game; see Shuttle/Stay/Accelerated locations below).

Each world has a ready zone — the Planet's ready zone and the Moon's ready zone — where landers wait before being placed. A location's border color indicates whether it is a Shuttle location, a Stay location, or the game's single Accelerated location.

The board also shows the Express Shuttle cost (the Energy cost to shuttle a lander between worlds, with a dotted path connecting the two ready zones), the Threat token slot, and the Asteroid path — a curving row of circles along which the Asteroid marker advances, numbered down toward the worlds. On the Moon side, empty Facility slots await Facility tiles.

Progress Board

The Progress board sits beside the game board and shows three Progress meters — Laser progress meter, Shield progress meter, and Evac progress meter — each running from the start toward an Impact point, with a Fracture spot partway along. Beneath the meters are the Pivotal Project final scoring track and the Other Project final scoring track, each showing the VP awarded per step reached.

Asteroid Marker

A single large marker representing the asteroid Leviathan; it advances along the Asteroid path on the game board.

4 Player Mats

Each player mat has five Resource tracks (numbered 1–10), a Tech Lab area named "The Preserve" showing the player's tech-upgrade options, and rows of Tag token slots for Planet, Science, and Moon tags.

Cards

• 34 Action cards, including 6 Starter cards (marked with a reset icon). Each card shows its Tags (top left), its Energy cost, and its Effect. The back is orange.
• 28 Boost cards, including 4 Starter cards (marked with a reset icon). Each card shows its Tags, its Play conditions (a boxed condition for when the card may be played), and its Effect. The back is teal/blue.
• 27 Species cards. Each card shows its Tags and its Endgame scoring criteria (a boxed VP-per-condition rule). The back is green.

Other Components

• 10 Facility tiles — double-sided (an A side and a B side), each showing one or more Locations and an A/B code disc.
• 60 Tag tokens: 20 Planet, 20 Science, 20 Moon. Each token has an active side (the token's colored icon) and a spent side (a dimmed red version of the same icon).
• 6 Threat tokens, numbered 3 through 8.
• 20 Resource markers (5 per player).
• 48 Tech cubes (12 per player; technically unlimited — use a substitute if you run out).
• 16 Player discs (4 per player).
• 12 Landers (3 per player).
• 20 Baselines (5 per player).
• 6 Dummy discs.
• 1 Guide Sheet.
• 9 Reward tiles: 3 Laser, 3 Shield, 3 Evac (each with a matching-colored back).
• 144 Project cubes: 40 Laser, 40 Shield, 40 Evac, 24 Asteroid.
• 1 Start Badge.
• 1 Draw bag.
• 2 Reminder cards.
• 11 SiMu cards — for Solo mode only; see the Solo rules sheet for details.

General Setup

1. Place the game board in the middle of the table.
2. Prepare each of the three Project tracks as follows:
   • Stack its three Reward tiles face up in the slot at the end, ordered one pip | two pips | three pips from the top down.
   • In a two or three-player game, place a dummy disc in the space marked "2-3."
   • In a two-player game, also place a second dummy disc in the space marked "2."
3. Separate the Facility tiles into A and B stacks, and shuffle the stacks face down. Keep the stacks near the board.
4. Make supply piles of the three types of Tag tokens.
5. Place the Asteroid marker so its leading edge is in the first space of the Asteroid's path.
6. Stack the Threat tokens in their slot, ordered 3-8 from the top down.
7. Set the Starter Boost and Starter Action cards aside, and then shuffle the Action, Boost, and Species decks separately. Beside each deck, reveal a horizontal display of three face-up cards from the deck. Leave room for a separate face down discard pile of each type beside the displays.
8. Place the Progress board beside the game board. Make supply piles of the Project cubes nearby. Keep the Reminder cards nearby so players can reference them.
9. Add Asteroid cubes equal to your player count to the bag, and keep it near the Progress board.

Long Table Layout

The layout in the General Setup diagram works well with a square table. For a longer narrower table, we recommend arranging your game elements like this, to give all players the best access and view: Progress board and supply piles and bag on one side, the game board in the center, card displays on the other side, and a player area at each corner.

Player Setup (Each Player Does This)

A. Take all the player pieces in your colour: 3 Landers, 5 Baselines, 5 Resource markers, 12 Tech cubes, and 4 Player discs.

B. Take a Player mat. Place all five of your Baselines above space 0 on the five Resource tracks, and place your Resource markers in the five marked starting spaces. Keep your Tech cubes nearby.

C. Place two of your landers in the Planet's ready zone, and one in the Moon's ready zone.

D. Place your four discs on the game board: one at the start space of the Score track, and one at the start space of each of the three Project tracks.

E. Take one Starter Boost card and one random Starter Action card. When all players have done this, return any leftovers to the box. From the Species deck, draw two Species cards, choose one to keep, and return the other to the bottom of the Species deck. Your three cards form your starting hand (keep your hand secret from other players).

F. When everyone is done, choose a starting player and give them the Start Badge. Proceeding clockwise:

• Player 2 raises their Knowledge marker by one step.
• Player 3 (if there is one) raises their Knowledge and Mineral markers by one step each.
• Player 4 (if there is one) raises their Knowledge, Mineral, and Organic markers by one step each.

Gameplay

The game will last an uncertain number of rounds. In each round, players will take several turns; player turns cycle continuously clockwise around the table until all players have passed. At the end of each round, there is a Progress phase where the asteroid will move closer to the planet, the Projects have an opportunity to progress, and players will prepare for the next round. If the asteroid or any of the three Project Progress meters reaches their impact point, the game ends; Endgame is resolved, and final scoring is tallied to see who wins!

On Your Turn

There are three ways to take a turn. If you can't (or don't wish to) do any of them, you must pass. Once you pass, you are done for the round and play will skip over your turn.

• Use the Express Shuttle
• Play an Action Card
• Place a Lander

Whichever type of turn you take, you may spend Tags, play Boost cards, and/or use your acquired Tech upgrades whenever they are situationally appropriate. See the relevant sections for details.

Use the Express Shuttle

Spend 1 Energy (displayed as a minus-Energy icon on the board) to move one of your landers that is in either world's ready zone to the ready zone of the other world. This movement consumes your entire turn.

There is a reminder of the Express Shuttle's Energy cost on the game board, along the dotted line that shows the shuttle path from one world's ready zone to the other.

Play an Action Card

Choose an Action card from your hand, and spend 1 Energy to play the card into your personal face-up discard pile. Then resolve the described action(s) or effects.

For example, you could spend the cost of 1 Energy to play this Production Ramping card from your hand into your discard pile, then resolve its effects.

Place a Lander

Choose one of your landers that is in either ready zone, and assign it to an available location on that world. Then resolve the location's action(s).

• In a game with 3 or more players, a location is available if it is unoccupied, or if it is an Unlimited location.
• In a 2-player game, a location is only available if all locations in that site are unoccupied, or if it is an Unlimited location.

Example: In this 3-player game, your lander in the Moon's ready zone has three unoccupied and one Unlimited location where it could potentially be placed.

See the Guide Sheet for detailed explanations of all game board and Facility locations.

Worlds, Sites, and Locations

The Planet (Alarria) and the Moon (Fortuna) are the two separate worlds. The gray boxes on each world (including Facility tiles on the Moon) are distinct sites. Each site houses one or more locations.

Location Rules

Some locations have Location rules boxes, which indicate a modifying effect to the location's common action. The Guide Sheet has detailed descriptions of all Location rules.

Example: This Location rule says that in this location, spending Science tags is equal to spending Knowledge.

Tag-Powered Actions

Some actions specify that you may carry them out once per tag you spend (see Spending Tags on page 9). Any tags gained by the action itself may not then be used to perform the action more times.

Example: At this location you may gain two Organic resources for every Planet tag you spend.

Shuttle, Stay, and Accelerated Locations

In addition to the actions it offers, each location's border indicates what will eventually happen to a lander that is placed there.

• Shuttle locations will move your lander to the ready zone on the other world.
• Stay locations (including Unlimited locations) will move your lander to the ready zone of the world it is already on.
• There is one Accelerated location in the game; after everyone (including you) has passed, you get one final turn. You must use that turn to place the lander from here into any available location on the Moon, activating the location as normal.

The Actions

The common actions in locations and on cards are indicated by icons; some of the more unique cards have text descriptions of their effects.

Gain a Resource

Advance the indicated Resource marker up its track on your player mat one step per icon; each marker indicates how much of that resource you currently own. A marker may advance past its track's baseline. The most you can hold of each resource is 10; any gain beyond that is wasted.

The five basic resources are Energy, Knowledge, Mineral, and Organic, plus "any basic resource" (a wild icon meaning you choose which basic resource to gain). Ingenuity is a sixth, special resource.

Example: This location lets you gain 2 Energy. Placing a lander here would let you advance your Energy marker two steps on its track.

Spending Resources

A resource symbol with a minus symbol in it indicates spending that resource (by moving its marker down on its track). A marker may move past its track's baseline.

The same six icons apply to spending: Spend 1 Energy, Spend 1 Knowledge, Spend 1 Mineral, Spend 1 Organic, Spend 1 of any basic resource, Spend 1 Ingenuity.

Example: Playing this Action card costs 1 Energy. To play it, you must move your Energy marker down one step on its track.

Ingenuity is a special wild resource; you may spend it for any purpose in place of any basic resource.

Raise Baseline

Advance the indicated baseline up its track on your player mat one step per icon; each baseline indicates the minimum amount of that resource that you will begin future rounds with. The highest that any baseline can go is 10; any advancement beyond that is wasted.

The icons are: Raise Energy Baseline, Raise Knowledge Baseline, Raise Mineral Baseline, Raise Organic Baseline, Raise Any Basic Resource's Baseline, Raise Ingenuity Baseline.

Example: This Action card grants two instances of raising a basic resource baseline. You could raise two different baselines, or the same one twice. You decide to raise your Knowledge baseline twice, increasing it from zero to two.

Gain a Tag Token

Take the indicated Tag token from the supply, and place it in an empty matching slot on your player mat, active side up. You may own a maximum of five of each type of Tag token; if you don't have an empty slot of the correct type, you must discard the gained token.

The icons are: Gain 1 Planet Tag, Gain 1 Science Tag, Gain 1 Moon Tag, Gain 1 Planet or Moon Tag, Gain 1 Tag of any type.

Example: Let's say that you chose a Moon tag as a reward for working on the Laser Project. You take a Moon tag token from the supply, and place it active side up on your player mat.

Spending Tags (From Tokens and/or Cards)

A tag symbol with a minus symbol on it indicates spending a tag of that type. Spend a tag by either flipping an active token on your mat to its spent side, or by discarding any card from your hand featuring that tag into your discard pile.

The icons are: Spend 1 Planet Tag, Spend 1 Science Tag, Spend 1 Moon Tag, Spend 1 Planet or Moon Tag, Spend 1 Tag of any type.

Example: At this location you may perform the Shield Project action once per Moon tag you spend. If you flip your one Moon token to its spent side and discard these two cards from your hand, that totals four spent Moon tokens; you could perform the Shield Project action up to four times!

• When you have the opportunity to spend multiple tags, they can come from any combination of tokens and cards.
• Action cards usually have no tags, Boost cards usually have pairs of tags, and Species cards have one of each tag.
• When you discard an Action or Boost card to spend its tags, you do not also get to take advantage of the card's main effect; the reverse is also true when you play a card for its main effect.

Gain VP

Advance your disc on the Score track to reflect the earned VP.

The icons are: Gain 1 VP, Gain 3 VP.

Note: The Score track ends at 50; if your score ever exceeds 50, wrap around to the beginning of the track and continue, remembering that your score is 50 higher than it shows.

Example: You (yellow) gained 2VP as the result of a Tech upgrade you purchased. You move your scoring disc two steps on the Score track to reflect the gain.

Claim the Start Badge

Take the Start badge from the player who has it (or keep it, if you already have it). You will be the starting player in the next round.

Example: The Take the Lead location on the Moon allows you to claim the Start Badge (among other benefits). You take the Badge from the player who currently has it.

Work on a Project

Working on any of the three Projects involves the same series of steps, which you must follow in order.

The icons are: Work on the Laser Once, Work on the Shield Once, Work on the Evac Once, Work on a Project of Your Choice Once.

1. Advance your disc on the appropriate Project track; the number of steps you advance is equal to the number of times you are working on the project. You may only work on a project multiple times if the location or card you are activating specifically permits you to.

   If you move into a space with any other discs in it, your disc goes on top of them. Ties on tracks are broken in favour of the lower disc in the stack, so it's advantageous to advance first!

2. Pay for the advancement. The track's cost meter displays the required resource type, and indicates how much of that resource each step costs to advance into (if you can't afford it, you may not advance).

   Each project costs a specific resource type: the Laser track costs Energy, the Shield track costs Mineral, and the Evac track costs Organic.

   The cost meter below each track shows that the first three steps cost 1 resource each, the next three cost 2 resources each, the next three cost 3 resources each, and the remaining steps cost 4/5/6/7 resources.

3. Add one Project cube from the supply (matching the Project you are working on) to the bag for each step you advanced. (Laser cubes, Shield cubes, Evac cubes.)

4. Gain the current Reward for that Project track (only once, even if you advanced more than one step), as displayed on its Reward tile at the end of the track.

5. If you reached or passed a step on the track displaying a Leader bonus (a star icon) and you are the first player (not counting any Dummy discs) to do so, gain the displayed VP immediately.

6. If you reached or passed a step with a "remove reward tile" symbol and you are the first player (not counting any Dummy discs) to do so, remove the top Reward tile of the track's stack from the game, revealing the next one. Note that the tile is only changed after you receive your Reward for this turn's action.

Example: You place your lander here and spend three Moon tags, so you may perform the Laser action three times.

1. You advance your disc on the Laser track three steps.
2. This will cost you a total of five Energy... one for the first step, and two each for the second and third steps, as indicated by the cost meter beneath the track. You only have 3 Energy, but luckily you also have 2 Ingenuity, (which can be spent as anything). You spend those five resources.
3. You add three Laser Project cubes to the bag; one for each step.
4. You gain the current Laser reward; the tile shows that you gain one Science tag token.
5. You were the first to pass this Leader bonus; you gain the indicated 3VP by advancing your scoring disc three steps.
6. You were the first to pass this symbol; you remove the current Laser Reward tile from the game, revealing the next one down.

Research

For each Research action, you may buy one upgrade of your choice in your own Tech Lab that you can afford. To buy an upgrade, spend Knowledge in the amount displayed by the upgrade.

The icons are: One Research Action, Three Research Actions.

Your Tech Lab is divided into three areas: Simple upgrades, Tech 1 upgrades, and Tech 2 upgrades.

Simple Upgrades. Simple upgrades are all baseline increases or Tag token gains. Pay the cost and immediately gain the benefit. Simple upgrades may be bought repeatedly (each purchase requires its own Research action).

Tech 1 Upgrades. Tech 1 upgrades all enhance your capabilites. Pay the cost and then place a Tech cube in the Tech's cube slot to indicate that the upgrade is now active for you for the rest of the game. Each cube slot may be filled once, at most. If you run out of Tech cubes, use a substitute.

Tech 2 Upgrades. Tech 2 upgrades open up in-game scoring opportunities for you. Buy them following the same process as Tech 1 upgrades.

See the Guide Sheet for detailed explanations of all upgrades.

Example: Playing this Action card lets you take two Research actions. You have 6 Knowledge to spend, which you could split up however you like between your two actions.

With your first Research action you spend 1 Knowledge on the Simple upgrade that increases both your Mineral and Organic baselines by one each.

With your second Research action you spend 5 Knowledge on the Tech 2 upgrade that will earn you 1VP every time you perform the Laser Project action at least once on your turn. You place a Tech cube in the cube slot to mark it as purchased.

Gain Upgrade

This action is the same as buying any level of upgrade using a Research action, except that there is no Knowledge cost.

The icons are: Gain a Simple Upgrade, Gain a Tech 1 Upgrade, Gain a Tech 2 Upgrade.

Example: Let's say you gained a Tech 1 upgrade as a reward for working on the Shield Project.

You already own a Tech 1 upgrade from earlier in the game that allows you to Express Shuttle with any resource. You decide to now gain the upgrade that lets you act immediately after you Express Shuttle, since it feels like those two might work well together (see the Guide Sheet for details).

Buy a Card

Choose a card from the display. Spend the particular resource needed for that card type; the amount you must pay is equal to the total number of cards you currently own (in your hand and discard pile combined). Add the new card to your hand. Notice that the back of each card type reminds you what resource must be spent to buy a card of that type.

• If you buy multiple cards on your turn, the price increases by one for each, since you own more cards at the moment of each purchase.
• You may not play any card (for its main effect or for its tags) on the same turn that you buy it.

When you have finished buying all of the cards you intend to for the turn, refresh the display: slide any remaining cards as far right as they will go, and draw replacements from the decks to fill the gaps.

The icons are: Buy 1 Card, Buy 1 Card for Free.

Card costs by type: Actions cost Knowledge, Boosts cost Minerals, Species cost Organics.

Example: This location lets you buy one card per spent Planet tag. You place here and spend two Planet tags, so you may buy two cards this turn.

You own a total of four cards, so your first card purchase will cost four resources. You buy a Boost card, spending 4 Minerals.

Now you own five cards, so your next purchase costs five resources. You spend 3 Organics plus 2 Ingenuity to buy a Species card. All of your card-purchasing is done for the turn, so you refresh the display as required.

Trash a Card

Remove any card you own (from your hand or from your discard pile) from the game. Trashing a card typically entitles you to then perform a follow-up activity; the trash symbol's red arrow points to the action or effect that you may then immediately resolve.

Note: Trashing is a mandatory part of this procedure; you may not benefit from the follow-up activity without first trashing a card.

Example: This location allows you to Trash a card in order to gain one Tech 2 upgrade or two Tech 1 upgrades. You place here, trash a card from your hand, and decide which of the two advantages to want.

Boosts

Each Boost card describes the conditions required to play it (into your discard pile), and what its effect is when played. You may play multiple Boosts successively if their conditions are all met. The effect of a played Boost card may itself create the conditions for another Boost card to then be played.

A Boost card may never be played as a standalone turn; it may only be added to some other action or effect as described.

Non-specific conditions are met by any relevant occurrence. For example, a "gain any basic resource" condition is met if you gained any Basic resource by any means. It does not require you to have done so specifically via a "gain any basic resource" symbol. This principle applies to all non-specific conditions:

• "Gain any basic resource" condition is satisfied if by any means you... gained any Basic resource.
• "Raise any basic baseline" condition is satisfied if by any means you... raised any Basic baseline.
• "Gain any Tag" condition is satisfied if by any means you... gained any Tag token.
• "Work on any Project" condition is satisfied if by any means you... worked on any Project.

Example: Immediately after working on the Laser, you play the Testfire Dynamo Boost to your discard pile, which lets you raise your Energy baseline twice...

...you also have this Rapid Extraction Team Boost in your hand; it says that you can play it when you raise any basic baseline. The baseline increase from playing the first Boost does meet the conditions for playing this one, so you play this card also and immediately gain 2 Energy.

The Progress Phase

After all players have passed, the Progress phase begins. Carry out these steps in order:

1. If there is a lander in the Take the Lead site's Accelerated location, its owner must now take one final turn. The player must use that turn to place that lander in a different available location on the Moon, and then resolve the location as normal.

   • The player may apply Boosts, tags, and Tech to this final turn; it is a normal turn in all respects, with the only limitation being that the player must place that lander in a Moon location.
   • It is the player's final turn, even if they use it to gain the capacity to take another one (for example by buying an Action card).

2. Advance the Asteroid marker one space on its path. If it moves into any space with symbols in it, carry out the effects of those symbols:

   • Add one Asteroid cube per player from the supply to the bag.
   • Place a new Facility tile face up in an empty board slot; the symbol indicates either an A or B facility. Each face-up Facility counts as a site on the Moon, with one or more locations where players may place landers, going forward.
   • Discard the rightmost card from all three rows of the card display (into their discard piles). Then shift all remaining cards to the right, and reveal new cards from the decks into the leftmost space of each row.

3. Shake up the bag, then randomly draw cubes equal to the number on the current Threat token. Then resolve the drawn cubes as follows:

   • First place each Laser, Shield, and Evac cube onto the matching Progress meter, filling the meters from left to right.
   • Then for each Asteroid cube drawn, advance the Asteroid one step on its path, carrying out the effects of any symbols it reaches (as described above). Then return all drawn Asteroid cubes to the bag.

4. Check for game end: If the Asteroid or any of the three Progress meters have reached their impact points, the game is about to end; skip immediately to The Arrival (page 14).

   The impact point on the Asteroid's path and on all three Progress meters looks like a small flame icon.

If the game has not ended, begin a new round with the Round Start process (page 14).

Progress Phase example:

1. There is a lander in the Take the Lead location. That player has many options of Moon locations where they could place the lander; they choose a location in the Infra/Con/Structor Facility, and resolve their placement.

2. The Asteroid moves one step, reaching a "+Facility" symbol. It shows a B symbol, so you draw a B Facility from that stack and add it to a B slot. It is the Momentum Converter; its location is now open for lander placement in future rounds.

3. The Threat level is 4, so you draw four cubes from the bag, getting these ones: Evac, Asteroid, Evac, Shield. You place the Evac, Shield, and Evac cubes onto their proper Progress meters.

   The Asteroid cube (which goes back in the bag) advances the Asteroid another step on its path. It encounters the "add Asteroid cube" and "discard rightmost card" symbols, so you add one Asteroid cube from the supply to the bag per player, and then you adjust all three card display rows.

4. No impact point was reached, so a new round begins.

Round Start

1. Move all players' landers to the correct ready zones.

   • Each lander in a Shuttle location moves to the ready zone of the other world.
   • Each lander in a Stay location (including Unlimited locations) moves to the ready zone of its current world.

2. Discard the topmost Threat token from the game.

3. All players reactivate their spent Tag tokens (by flipping them back over to their active side), and retrieve all played cards from their discard pile back into their hand.

4. All players raise all of their Resource markers up to their current baselines. Markers already at or above their baselines do not move.

5. Begin a new round; the player holding the Start Badge goes first.

The Arrival

The asteroid has arrived, the game is ending, and it is time to determine the pivotal project; follow these steps in order:

1. Fire the Laser. Draw 10 cubes from the bag. Place all Laser and Asteroid cubes on the Laser Progress meter. If the meter is full, the Laser is the pivotal project; proceed to Final Scoring. If not, return any drawn Shield and Evac cubes to the bag, and continue to step 2.

2. Raise the Shield. First, if there are cubes in any fracture spots of the Laser Progress meter, move them to the indicated destination spots on Shield Progress meter (the Laser may have failed, but it did chip away at the asteroid). Ignore any "fracture" cube that is supposed to move into a destination which already contains a cube.

   Then draw 10 cubes from the bag. Place all Shield and Asteroid cubes on the Shield Progress meter; ignore other colours. If the meter is full, the Shield is the pivotal project; proceed to Final Scoring. If not, continue to step 3.

3. Complete the Evacuation. Both the Laser and Shield Projects have failed to prevent the asteroid from striking Alarria and it seems like the Evac was the best choice all along. There is no need for any more cubes to be drawn; the Evac is automatically the pivotal project. Proceed to Final Scoring.

Example:

1. First, fire the Laser; looking at the cubes already there, any combination of seven or more Laser/Asteroid cubes will make the Laser the pivotal project. You draw 10 cubes: Shield, Asteroid, Evac, Laser, Asteroid, Evac, Shield, Shield, Laser, Evac.

   Bad news for the Laser! It falls three cubes short of success. All drawn Shield and Evac cubes go back in the bag.

2. Time to raise the Shield. First, account for Laser damage to the Asteroid, by sliding cubes down from the fracture spots of the Laser meter to the Shield meter... now it will take five or more Shield/Asteroid cubes to make the Shield the pivotal project.

   You draw 10 cubes from the bag: Laser, Asteroid, Shield, Shield, Laser, Evac, Laser, Shield, Laser, Asteroid.

   Success! On the very last cube draw, an Asteroid cube fills the Shield meter... the Shield is the pivotal project!

Final Scoring

First score the pivotal project, awarding the indicated VP for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. Places are determined by whoever has advanced furthest on the Project track.

• Dummy discs are taken into account when determining position. In fact, this is the only purpose of the dummy discs. VP won by dummy discs is not recorded on the score track.
• Ties are broken in favour of the lower disc in the stack; a lower disc in a stack is considered to be "ahead of" a higher one.
• You must have advanced at least one step on a Project track to be eligible for any of its scoring.

Pivotal project scoring: 1st place = 18 VP, 2nd place = 10 VP, 3rd place = 5 VP.

Then score both of the other projects in the same fashion, awarding the relatively lower VP for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.

Other project scoring: 1st place = 8 VP, 2nd place = 6 VP, 3rd place = 4 VP.

Finally, each player reveals and calculates the scoring from their own Species cards. Each Species card describes how it awards points.

After everything is tallied, the player with the highest score wins! In the event of a tie, the tie is broken in favour of whoever placed higher in the pivotal project's scoring.

Example Project scoring:

The Shield is the pivotal project. Yellow and Purple tied, but Yellow is lower in the stack so Yellow wins 1st and Purple 2nd. The dummy disc wins 3rd place, so Red doesn't score this track. Yellow scores 18VP, Purple scores 10VP, and the dummy's 5VP (3rd place) is not recorded.

On the Laser project, Red wins 1st, Yellow 2nd, and Purple 3rd. Red scores 8VP, Yellow scores 6VP, and Purple scores 4VP.

On the Evac project, Red wins 1st, the dummy wins 2nd, and Purple wins 3rd. Red scores 8VP, the dummy's 6VP (2nd place) is not recorded, and Purple scores 4VP.

Example Species scoring:

Your Quiblet awards 1VP for each Science Tag token you have... you have 3 of them, so you score 3VP for this card.

Your Ravenous Riverhorse awards 1VP for each baseline of yours that is at step 4 or lower; four of your baselines qualify, so you earn 4VP for this card.

Your Grue Moss awards you VP for the Knowledge that you have left over... you have 6 Knowledge left, so you earn 3VP for this card.

In total, you earn 10VP from your Species cards!

Credits

Game Design & Development: Yuval Grinspun

Illustration: Fahed Alrajil & Tithi Luadthong

Lead Developer & Solo Mode Design: Alara Cameron

Art Direction, Graphic Design & Development: Josh Cappel

Project Management: Helaina Cappel

Communications & Development: Sean Jacquemain

Published by Burnt Island Games, burntislandgames.com. ©2025 All rights reserved.

Some visual elements licensed from: Sebastian Luca, thanawong, khius, liuzishan, Jakub, grandfailure.

Playtesters: Matt Barrett, Katie Cameron, Ben Davis, Chris George, Eli Gingerich, Joshua Grinspun, Noah Grinspun, Zach Groombridge, Renée Haché, Chris Harlow, Matthew Harris, Aaron Hooper, Kadri Hooper, Marc Kopyto, Michelle Nelles, Alex Murison, Dylan Pritchard, Joe Recupero, Matthew Romanada, Aidan Ritchie, Kitty Schofield, Joe Slack, Elana Sone, David St. Georges, Mathew Szeto, Mitch Underhay, Christiaan Vandergrift, Gavin Warren, Cara Wilkie, and Kevin Winn.

Task Force name/logo ideas by: Justin Hollender/Conor Lowman (The Preserve), Marina F./Richard Lalonde (Phoenix Foundation), Laura de Paus/Florian Fedi (Artemis Alliance), Jeremy Rozenhart/Brett MacDonald (Aegis Star).

New Species concepts/name ideas by: Chris Gloschat/Brett MacDonald (Dopplehare), Florian Fedi/LJ Saxton (Hooked Lurefruit), Jordan Smith/LJ Saxton (Flowering Pouchstalker).

Special thanks to: Richard Ham, Monique Macasaet, Alex Radcliffe, Chris George, Beneeta Kaur, Lance Goodwin, Panda8ngel, Zazu Payne, Professor Meg, Board Game Rundown, Chris Strain, Michael Guigliano, Adam Singer, Jeremy Rozenhart for rulebook feedback, Jon Mietling for the amazing videography, and Gabriel Martin for his 3D engineering. And of course a special thank you to all of our Kickstarter backers without whom our games simply would not exist!