Into the Machine Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Gameplay Overview
• Components
• Game Setup
• How To Play
  • Turn Overview
  • Terminal Actions
    • Terminal Card Actions
    • Stacks
    • Terminal Take Home Action
    • Terminal Junction Actions
  • The Machine
  • Upgrades
  • The Hex Box
  • Terminal Card Actions
    • Circle-Bot Level Terminal Actions
  • Triangle-Bot Level Terminal Actions
  • Square-Bot Level Terminal Actions
  • Terminal Junction Actions
• Power Cards
• Game End
  • 2 Hex-Bot Win
  • 3 Hex-Bot Win
  • Optional Place Tie Breakers
• Quick Teach Guide

Gameplay Overview

2 Ways to Win

Red wins with 2 hex-bots on the Leader Podium before anyone else.

Or green wins with 3 hex-bots on the Leader Podium.

Components

• 1 Game Board (double sided 4/5 player)
• 1 Machine Board (double sided 2/3 player, overlay)
• 10 Player Reference Cards
• 1 Rulebook
• 4 Circle Terminal Cards
• 6 Triangle Terminal Cards
• 5 Square Terminal Cards
• 27 Power Cards
• 60 Circle-Bots (12 in each player color)
• 30 Square-Bots (6 in each player color)
• 40 Triangle-Bots (8 in each player color)
• 15 Hex-Bots (3 in each player color)
• 5 Inactive Supply Boxes (1 in each player color)

There are 5 two-piece storage boxes for the cards and bot-tokens. The 5 bottom pieces are used as inactive supply boxes as shown above!

Game Setup

1. Place the game board in the center of the table with either the 5 player side or 4 player side face up. If playing 2-3 players, use the game board side for 4 players, then unfold the 2-3 player machine board and put it covering the machine on the correct side up for the number of players.

2. Shuffle the 4 Circle terminal cards and deal them face up to the 4 Circle terminal spots.

3. Shuffle the 6 Triangle terminal cards and deal them face up to the 6 Triangle terminal spots.

4. Shuffle the 5 Square terminal cards and deal them face up to the 5 Square terminal spots.

5. Each player takes an inactive supply box of their chosen color and puts all the bot tokens of that color into their box. Each player pulls:

   • 5 Circle-bots
   • 2 Triangle-bots (or 3 for 5 players)
   • 1 Square-bot

   ...from their box to become their active supply of pit crew bots. In a 5 player game, everyone gets 3 triangle-bots instead.

6. For your first game, whoever is teaching the rules is the first player. Choose randomly for games played later.

7. The first player takes a circle-bot from their inactive supply and places it on spot 1 into the machine. In clockwise order, the rest of the players place one circle-bot on the rest of the numbered spots.

8. Shuffle the Power card deck and place it on the Power card spot, or to the side of the game board if playing with 5 players.

9. Each player draws a number of Power cards to their hand according to their turn order:

   • 1st & 2nd players each draw 1 card.

How To Play

Turn Overview

• Terminal action - You must take one of the following board actions on your turn: a Terminal card action, a Terminal Junction, or use the Terminal Take Home action.
• Power card - You may play 1 power card from your hand, before or after your Terminal action.
• Pass the turn - Say, "ding, ding!" to let the next player know it's their turn.

Terminal Actions

During each players turn, they must take one of the following three Terminal actions:

• Terminal card action
• Terminal Take Home action
• Terminal Junction action

Terminal Card Actions

Every Terminal card action on the board is open to be taken if you have the right bot, or stack of bots to take it. The rules for each different Terminal card action begin on page 10.

Terminal card action levels: There are 3 levels of terminal cards on the board and they can be taken by bots from your active supply.

• Circle-bot level actions can be taken by circle-bots, triangle-bots, and square-bots.
• Triangle-bot level may be taken by both triangle-bots and square-bots.
• Square-bot level actions may only be taken by square-bots.

Circle-bot level actions are the bare-bones basic actions. Triangle-bot level actions are more powerful and most useful actions on the game board. Square-bot level actions are sometimes lesser used, more situational actions that can be anywhere from good to flat out amazing depending on the state of bots in the machine.

Stacks

Stacks are a way for anyone to take a Terminal card action, even if that Terminal is already occupied.

• If a Terminal card action has no bots on it, it is open to be taken by one bot of the right level or higher.
• If a Terminal card action is already occupied by bots, you can still take that action by placing a stack of bots that is exactly one bot higher than the current highest stack already there.
• Your stack can be a mix of any shaped-bots as long as each bot in the stack meets the requirement level of the Terminal Card action.
• It doesn't matter how many stacks are on the Terminal, only the highest stack present matters.
• You may place a stack on a terminal where you already have one or more bots/stacks. You don't block yourself out from taking a Terminal card action multiple times over multiple turns. If you have the highest stack, you must still place a larger one.
• You cannot place more bots in a stack than what is needed.
• A single bot on a Terminal is considered a stack of one bot.

Stack Examples

The highest stack at this terminal is 3 blue bots high, therefore the Yellow player must place a stack of 4 bots to take this action.

The stack Yellow places may be mixed, as long as all bots in the stack meet the level requirement. They can even place a stack where they already have a stack in their color.

Even though there is only 1 stack of 3 Green bots on this terminal, it is still the stack to beat in height. Also, just because it has two powerful square-bots in it, blue only needs to beat the stack in height, so 4 triangle-bots will do.

Square-bots are the most powerful Pit Crew bots as they can go anywhere and be part of any mixed-stack. Triangle-bots are the second most powerful, as they can be used only for the circle-bot and triangle-bot levels. Circle-bots are less powerful as Pit Crew bots, but more plentiful for use in stacks and can be placed into the Machine as racers!

Terminal Take Home Action

This action does not require the placement of any bots to be taken, and you can take it on any turn regardless of how many bots you have left in your active supply. This action also adds 1 circle-bot from your inactive supply box to your active supply.

To take this action, simply announce that you are taking your bots home and collect all your bots from the game board Terminals.

• You cannot leave any bots behind on Terminals.
• You cannot collect any of your bots that are currently in the Machine (the track at the top of the board. See page 8).
• You must add 1 circle-bot from your inactive supply to your active supply, if able. You may still take this action, even if you have no more circle-bots in your inactive supply box to add.
• This action counts as your Terminal action for the turn, and you may not place any bots on a Terminal to take its action in addition to taking this one.
• You may still play 1 Power card from your hand before or after you take this action.

Terminal Junction Actions

These actions are stationed between Terminal card actions. When unlocked they allow you to take both of the Terminal card actions they are pointing at in one turn. These are unlocked and used a little differently than Terminal card actions. They are covered in full detail on page 19.

The Machine

At the top of the game board is a conveyor belt looking track where circle-bots and hex-bots race in opposite directions. Circle-bots always move right, and hex-bots always move left. Terminal card actions and Power cards are the only way to move and manipulate your own bots in the Machine. When circle-bots race off the right side of the track, they may be upgraded into a hex-bot who will then race in the opposite direction. When a hex-bot races off the left side of the track they claim a spot on the Leader Podium:

Starting spots - Each player begins the game with 1 circle-bot already placed in the Machine when the game is setup.

Entry spots - Circle-bots may enter the Machine as racers at two spots, one is colored silver and the other is gold. If these spots are occupied by other bots when you go to place your own circle-bot into them, your bot will take the next open space on the track to the left of the entry spot, at the back of the line (see C2 example on page 11).

Power card upgrade - When a circle-bot is upgraded from these spots, it will go back into your inactive supply and you will draw one Power card.

The Leader Podium - When a hex-bot moves off the left side of the Machine track, it is placed on the Leader Podium.

When your first hex-bot is placed here choose an open bottom hexagon. Everyone, including you, draws a card.

Your second and third hex-bots that enter the podium always go in the spaces above your first hex-bot.

See page 2 for How to Win.

Triangle-bot upgrade - Circle-bots upgraded from these spots will turn into triangle-bots, which join your active supply.

Triangle-bot + Power card upgrade - Circle bots upgraded from these spots will gain you one triangle-bot to your active supply and one Power card drawn from the deck.

Square-bot + Power card upgrade - Circle bots upgraded from these spots will gain you one Square-bot and one Power card.

Hex Box - When a circle-bot moves off the right side of the Machine track, it is placed into your inactive box and can be upgraded into your choice of either a hex-bot or 3 Power cards drawn from the deck.

Conveyor Belt Queue - When a circle-bot enters the Machine, if all the spots to the left of the entry spot are full, they are placed on the left-most open spot on the Conveyor Belt Queue. When the first spot on the track opens up, the first circle-bot on the Conveyor Belt Queue will move onto the track and any bots behind it will move up in the queue (see Entering the Conveyor Belt Queue on pages 14 & 15). This is the only place bots move automatically during the game.

Upgrades

Circle-bots may be pulled out of the Machine with an Upgrade action that turns them into something else.

• Hex-bots are never pulled out of the Machine, and can never be upgraded with any action.
• When an action upgrades a circle-bot, that bot is always placed back into your inactive supply box, and upgraded into the item shown above the spot it was pulled out of the Machine.
• Triangle-bots and square-bots gained from these upgrades will always join your active supply of pit crew to be used for future Terminal actions and never enter the Machine.
• You may use triangle-bots and square-bots to take Terminal actions on your next turn, they are ready to go!

Ways to Upgrade

• C3 - Circle Terminal. See page 11.
• T6 - Triangle Terminal. See page 16.
• S2 - Square Terminal. See page 16.
• Power card. See page 22.

The Hex Box

When a circle-bot races off the right side of the Machine track, it is upgraded into either a hex-bot or 3 Power cards. When this happens, you put the circle-bot into your inactive supply box and choose what it upgrades into.

• If you choose to upgrade the circle-bot into a hex-bot, take 1 hex-bot from your inactive supply and put it into the Hex Box.
• Any move action that moves a hex-bot can be used to move the hex-bot out of the Hex Box and onto the track (always moving left).
• If you choose to upgrade the circle-bot into 3 Power cards, simply draw 3 Power cards.
• If you haven't played a Power card this turn, you may play one that you drew.
• If you have already upgraded all 3 hex-bots from your inactive supply, you can only choose to draw 3 Power cards.
• Upgrading into a hex-bot cannot be done using upgrade Terminal card actions or upgrade Power card actions.
• When a circle-bot is upgraded into a hex-bot, it is considered a different bot (see the Different bot loophole and Example on page 14).
• Bots in the Hex Box are not considered on the track, and you cannot use the Catch Up action to "catch up" to them (see example S5 on pages 17 & 18).
• There is no limit to how many hex-bots can be stacked in the Hex Box. Any number of players can have any number of hex-bots there. Simply stack all the hex-bots there, or set them off to the side of the board. You can have any number of your own hex-bots in the Hex Box.
• Strategy tip - Most of the time, you will want to upgrade your circle-bots that race off the right side of the track into hex-bots, and only choose the draw 3 Power cards option when all your hex-bots are out of your inactive box—but there could be strategic reasons for drawing 3 Power cards instead in the early and mid-game!

Terminal Card Actions

You may only take a Terminal card or junction action if you are able to complete everything within that action. You may never place a bot or stack in a location and not take or complete all parts of that action. Information on rare exceptions and loopholes can be found in the descriptions of the individual Terminal cards.

Circle-Bot Level Terminal Actions

C1 - Add 2 circle-bots from your inactive supply box to your active supply.

• You may take this action only if you have 1 or more circle-bots in your inactive supply box (This is an exception that allows you to take this action with only 1 circle-bot in your supply instead of requiring 2).
• If you do not have any more circle-bots in your inactive supply box, you cannot take this action.

C2 - Place 1 circle-bot into the Machine at the silver entry point from your active supply.

• If the silver entry point is occupied by another bot, your circle-bot will move to the back of the line and take the next unoccupied space to the left of the silver entry point.
• You must have at least one circle-bot in your active supply ready to go into the Machine to take this action. If after placing your bot or stack on this space, you do not have any circle-bots left in your active supply, you may not take this action.

C2 - Into the Machine Examples

The Yellow player takes the C2 Terminal action and places 1 circle-bot into the Machine at the silver entry point.

The Yellow player takes the C2 action again on a later turn and places 1 circle-bot to the back of the line in the next open space to the left of the silver entry point.

C3 - Upgrade 1 circle-bot. Choose one of your circle-bots in the Machine, remove it, and place it into your inactive supply box to upgrade it into what is shown above the space it was removed from (see the Machine on page 8-9).

• You must have at least 1 circle-bot in the Machine to take this action.

C3 - Upgrade Example

The Purple player uses the C3 Upgrade Terminal action, and chooses a circle-bot in the Machine at a spot that upgrades it into a triangle-bot and a Power card.

They put the removed circle-bot into their inactive supply box and take a triangle-bot from there to add to their active supply, and they draw 1 Power card from the deck to their hand. If they haven't played a Power card yet this turn, they may choose to play one now (even the one they just drew), or pass the turn.

Spot vs. Spaces

• Spot - The Machine track is made up of Spots which bots can occupy. Spots can be occupied by a bot, or not be occupied.
• Space - Specifically an unoccupied spot on the Machine track.

Rules may need to refer to spots and/or spaces on the Machine track, depending on the context. For example, when a bot is directed to move 2 spaces, it will only count the unoccupied spots for that 2 movement, skipping over spots that are occupied by other bots.

C4 - Move 1 bot 1 space. Choose one of your circle-bots or one of your hex-bots in the Machine and move it one space in the direction it travels.

• You must have at least 1 bot in the machine to take this Terminal action.

"Or" options - a red \ between two action icons always means a choice of doing one of them, never both.

C4 - Move Examples

With these moves, circle-bots will always move right and hex-bots will always move left.

Green has taken the Move 1 bot 1 space action and they have 3 optional bots in the machine to choose from, A, B, or C.

If they choose the circle-bot A, it will move 1 space to the right.

However, if they choose the circle-bot B, it will move to the next unoccupied space, leaping over all of the bots in front of it.

The third option is to move the hex-bot C instead, which will move left to the next unoccupied space, leaping over the two bots to the left of it.

Triangle-Bot Level Terminal Actions

T1 - Move 1 bot 2 spaces. Choose one of your circle-bots or one of your hex-bots in the Machine and move it two spaces in the direction it travels.

• You must have at least 1 bot in the machine to take this Terminal action.
• You must complete the bot's move 2 spaces as one movement, you cannot break up the movement with any action or Power card in between.

T1 - Move Example

The Green player is going to move their hex-bot, A, 2 spaces. Many of the spots to the left are occupied, so the hex-bot moves to the first unoccupied space, and then to the second unoccupied space.

Move 2 Spaces off the track - When a bot is on the edge of the track, and only needs to move 1 space to race off the end, you may use a move 2 action to move them off, but that 2nd space move is lost. (the Different bot loophole has an example of this on page 14.)

T2 - Move 2 bots 1 space each.

• You must be able to move two different bots 1 space each to take this action—you can never move the same bot twice (see different-bot loophole on page 14.)
• You may choose whichever bot you want to move first no matter its position in the Machine.

T2 - Move Examples

The Machine currently looks like this, and Green has taken the Move 2 bots 1 space each action. They have many options:

Option 1 of moving B then A is the simplest move, but may not be the most advantageous.

Option 2 of moving A then B instead, they both move further than they did in option 1.

Option 3 of moving circle-bot C then hex-bot D gives the hex-bot a larger set of bots to skip over.

Many options: - You could even move hex-bot D first then circle-bot C to get the circle-bot farther along. There are many options when moving 2 bots!

T3 - Move 1 circle-bot 2 spaces and 1 hex-bot 1 space.

• You must be able to move both types of bots in the Machine to take this action (see different-bot loophole below).
• You can choose to move the two bots in any order you want—for example you could move the hex-bot first, then the circle-bot.
• You cannot break up the circle-bot's 2 space move—it has to move both spaces before or after the hex-bot's move.

Different-bot loophole - T2, T3, and Power cards with similar multi-bot moves, require you to move 2 different bots to be able to take them, but there is a loophole!

If the first move you take would move your circle-bot off the right side of the Machine track and upgrade it into a hex-bot, that hex-bot in the Hex Box is now a different bot and can take the second move.

Example - The yellow player only has 1 circle-bot (A) in the Machine:

Normally a player with only 1 bot in the Machine can't take the T2 or T3 Terminal action because they don't have 2 different bots to move, but any move in this situation will upgrade the yellow circle-bot into a hex-bot, which can be used to complete the action:

They use T3 to move circle-bot A two spaces, and it moves off the track. It is upgraded into hex-bot B, which is a different bot, and can now complete the T3 action, moving 1 space left out of the Hex Box and onto the track!

T4 - Draw 1 Power card. When you take this Terminal action, simply draw one card from the Power deck to your hand.

• If you haven't played a Power card yet this turn, you may play the one you just drew or one you already had in hand.
• If the Power card deck has run out of cards, shuffle the discard pile into a new deck (see Power cards on page 21).

T5 - Place 1 circle-bot into the Machine at gold from your inactive supply box at the gold entry point.

• As with the silver entry point, if the gold entry point is occupied by another bot, your circle-bot will move to the back of the line and take the next unoccupied space to the left of the gold entry point.
• You must have at least 1 circle-bot in your inactive supply ready to go into the Machine to take this action.

The Conveyor Belt Queue - When a circle-bot enters the Machine, if all the spots are full to the left of the entry spot, they are placed on the left-most open spot on the Conveyor Belt Queue.

There is no limit to how many bots can be in the Conveyor Belt Queue, if there are no conveyor spots left, just keep lining up bots in a queue that will keep the order obvious.

Example - Players have been quite busy adding circle-bots to the Machine, and it's very full on the left side of the track. Purple has taken the T5 Terminal action, and their circle-bot attempts to enter at the gold entry point.

All three spaces to the left of the entry point are full, and there are even two bots in the Conveyor Belt Queue, so the purple circle-bot enters that queue at the next open space.

Move & Auto-Move out of the Queue - Bots will wait in the Queue until they are moved by their player taking any move action, or the left-most space on the Machine Track becomes unoccupied.

Move Example - The Red player uses the Terminal action to move their circle bot A one space.

The circle-bot moves to the next open space on the Machine track.

All bots left in the Queue behind will move left to fill in the empty spaces of the queue automatically, so the Purple circle-bot B automatically moves up.

Auto-Move Example - Leftmost space of the Machine track becomes unoccupied:

The Green player moves their hex-bot A one space with the Terminal Action and the hex-bot moves off the Machine track. The leftmost space becomes unoccupied.

All bots in the Conveyor Belt Queue move left with the yellow circle-bot entering the Machine.

Note: This only happens when the leftmost spot of the Machine track becomes unoccupied. The Red player moving their circle-bot B from the second leftmost spot would not cause any bots in the Conveyor Belt Queue to move.

T6 - Place 1 circle-bot into the Machine & upgrade 1 circle-bot.

• They cannot be the same bot, so you cannot upgrade the circle-bot you place with this action.
• You can do these two actions in whichever order you wish.
• You must have both a circle-bot in your active supply to put into the Machine and another circle-bot in the Machine to upgrade to take this action.
• The circle-bot you put into the machine at the gold entry point must be from your active supply.

Square-Bot Level Terminal Actions

S1 - Place 1 circle-bot into the Machine & move it 1 space.

• You must have a circle-bot in your active supply to take this action.
• You can only move the circle-bot you placed into the Machine with this action.
• If the silver entry point is occupied by another bot, your circle-bot will move to the back of the line and take the next unoccupied space to the left of the silver entry point and then move right 1 space.

S2 - Move 1 circle-bot 1 space and upgrade it.

• You must have a circle-bot in the Machine to take this action.
• You can only upgrade the circle-bot you choose to move with this action.
• If the circle-bot moves off the right side of the Machine track with the move part of this action, it will upgrade into a hex-bot or 3 powers cards (your choice) as normal.

S3 - Move 1 circle-bot 1 space and 1 hex-bot 2 spaces.

• You must be able to move both types of bots in the Machine to take this action (see different-bot loophole on page 14).
• You can choose to move the two bots in any order you want—for example you could move the hex-bot 2 spaces first, then the circle-bot 1 space.
• You cannot break up the hex-bot's 2 space move—it has to move both spaces before or after the circle-bot's move.

S4 - Hop 1 bot to the 3rd spot. This is different from moving bots a number of spaces (remember: spaces are empty spots). You will choose 1 circle-bot to hop right or 1 hex-bot to hop left in the Machine.

• They will hop over two spots, ignoring whether they are occupied or not and land on the 3rd spot.
• If that 3rd spot is occupied your bot will slide in its direction of movement to the next unoccupied space.
• As always, you must have a bot in the Machine to take this action.

S4 - Hop to the 3rd Spot Examples

Green has taken the hop 1 bot to the third spot action, and chooses to hop their circle-bot A.

The circle bot hops over the two spots to its right and lands on the 3rd spot which was unoccupied.

However, if the third spot is occupied by a red bot B: then the circle-bot will attempt to hop onto it, and then slide to the next unoccupied space.

If the Hex-bot C is chosen instead, it will follow those same rules, just hopping left instead of right: Hex-bot C hopping to an unoccupied third spot. Hex-bot C hopping to an occupied third spot, then sliding to the next open space.

S5 - Catch Up. This action will slide a bot across unoccupied spaces towards the closest bot ahead of it on the track.

• You must have a bot in the Machine and it must have a bot in front of it in the Machine to catch up to, to take this action.
• The bot you choose must be able to move at least 1 space to take this action.
• Circle-bots will look for a bot to their right and hex-bots will look for bots to their left as being in front of them respectively.
• You must choose 1 circle-bot or 1 hex-bot to move—never both.
• The catchup action will never move a bot over any other bots, it only slides them across unoccupied spaces.
• The bot your bot catches up to can be any bot, yours or your opponents and a circle-bot or hex-bot.
• Hex-bots in the Hex Box are not on the track, and cannot be caught up to by circle-bots on the track.
• Bots in the Hex Box may be moved out of the Hex Box with a catch up action as long as there is a bot on the track to catch up to.
• Hex-bots on the Leader podium are not on the track and cannot be caught up to.

S5 - Catch Up Examples

Red has taken the catch up action and has two options—they can choose either their circle-bot A or their hex-bot B as the both qualify to be moved.

Option 1 - They choose their circle-bot A and it slides over the empty spaces to catch up to the purple circle-bot in front of it. (It doesn't matter what type of bot, or whose bot is in front of it, as long as there is a bot to catch up to!)

Option 2 - They choose their hex-bot B and it slides over the empty spaces to catch up to the yellow circle-bot.

Catch up and the Hex Box - Red has taken the catch up action, and has 1 circle-bot A in the Machine and 1 hex-bot B in the Hex Box:

They cannot choose circle-bot A because there is no bot in front of it that is in the Machine. The two hex-bots in the Hex Box are not in the Machine yet! But, Red could choose to move their hex-bot B with catch up because circle-bot A is in front of it in the Machine.

Catch up and the Leader Podium - Red only has one option with this setup if they take the catch up action. They cannot choose their hex-bot A, because there is no bot in front of it in the Machine as the green hex-bot on the Leader Podium is no longer in the Machine.

But they can move their circle-bot B with the catch up action.

Nothing to Catch up to - With only these 3 bots in the Machine, Red cannot take the catch up action as none of these bots would move at least one space as a result.

Terminal Junction Actions

Between all of the Terminal cards on the Game board, there are special Terminal Junctions that are locked from being used until a player has bots on both Terminal cards connected to the Junction. Once you have a Junction unlocked, you can place a single worker there, of the correct shape level or higher, to activate both Terminal card actions connected to it as your Terminal action for your turn.

The Terminal Junction actions do not follow the same rules for bot placement as the Terminal card actions (you never use Stacks here, for example).

• You just need one or more bots on each of the two connected Terminal cards to unlock a Terminal Junction.
• Multiple stacks on the connected cards do not unlock a Terminal Junction multiple times.
• You choose the order in which to resolve each Terminal card actions.
• Multiple players can have the same Terminal Junction unlocked.
• Other player's bots do not block you from taking a Terminal Junction action you have unlocked.
• You cannot place a bot on a Terminal Junction action where you already have a bot. You'll need to use the Take Home Terminal action to clear all your bots and start over, if you want to set it up again.
• A Power card can still be played before or after taking a Terminal Junction action, but never between the two Terminal card actions being activated.
• You may unlock multiple Terminal Junctions around a single card with the same bot or stack of bots on that single card—each Terminal Junction does not need a unique set of stacks to be unlocked.
• You must be able to fully take both Terminal card actions to take a Terminal Junction action (see the By the end of all actions loophole on p. 20).
• The arrows on each Terminal Junction point to which Terminal card actions they use.
• You do need a bot of the correct level to take a Terminal Junction action.
  • Circle-bot level junctions can be taken by circle-bots, triangle-bots, and square-bots.
  • Triangle-bot level junctions may be taken by both triangle-bots and square-bots.
  • Square-bot level junctions may only be taken by square-bots.

Terminal Junction Example

Purple has unlocked the Terminal Junction action between Terminal cards A and B, and they choose to place a Square on the Junction to take both Terminal card actions in the order they choose. Purple cannot take the Terminal Junction action again, as long as their square-bot is there.

On the next turn, Green places a stack on Terminal card B and uses its action as normal.

On Purple's turn, they place a stack of one bot on the Terminal card C, unlocking the Terminal Junction between Terminal cards A and C.

On Green's following turn, they place a triangle-bot on the Terminal Junction on top of Purple's square-bot, activating the Terminal actions A and B in the order of their choosing. They also play a Power card after resolving both actions (because they can't play the Power card in between two Terminal actions).

Purple follows up on their turn by placing a circle-bot on the Terminal Junction between A and C and taking the Terminal actions in the order of their choosing.

By the end of all actions loophole - As with the different-bot loophole, you can take actions you wouldn't normally be able to take if they are part of a multiple action move and actions taken first provide what you need to take the next action.

Example - Green wants to take the Terminal Junction action between the A and B Terminal cards, but they don't have a circle-bot in their active supply to use for Terminal card B. This would normally stop them from taking the action, but as long as they choose A first to add 2 circle-bots to their active supply, they may take this Terminal Junction action.

Note - Power cards can only be played before or after your Terminal board action, so Green can't play one in between activating A and B above.

Power Cards

Power cards are a way to move bots and take actions in addition to taking a Terminal board action. Most of the actions on Power cards are the same as actions you can take on Terminal cards. There is one different action that is only on Power cards, which is Ignore stacks this turn.

• You can only play one power card per turn.
• You can play your Power card before or after taking your Terminal board action.
  • You cannot play a Power card in the middle of multiple actions being resolved for a Terminal board action.
• There is no limit to how many Power cards you can have in your hand.
• All Power cards played go to a shared face up discard pile next to the board.
• When the Power card deck runs out of cards, shuffle the discard pile into a new face down deck.
• You may play a Power card you have drawn that turn, as long as you haven't played one yet.

There are five different Power cards in the Power cards deck.

Move 1 bot 2 spaces.

• See T1 on page 12 for complete rules and examples.
• x7 - There are 7 copies of this card in the deck.

Catch up OR Ignore stacks this turn.

• You cannot take both actions on this card, choose one of the following:
  • Catch up - See S5 on page 17 for complete rules and examples.
  • Ignore stacks this turn:
• If you choose this action, you must play this card before you take a Terminal card action.
• This allows you to place 1 single bot of the correct level or higher on any Terminal card action, ignoring all the previously placed stacks of bots on that card as part of your normal Terminal action for your turn.
• This does not give you an extra Terminal action for the turn, it only enhances your existing Terminal action to take a Terminal card action while ignoring stacks.
• There is no benefit to playing this card before a Terminal Junction action, as they do not follow the stacks rule.
• You cannot place more than 1 bot on the Terminal card action, when using Ignore Stacks.
• x3 - There are 3 copies of this card in the deck.

Ignore Stacks Example

The Ignore Stacks action is used by the Red player, and they want to take the Move 2 bots 1 space each action. Even though there are 3 other stacks of bots on the Terminal card action, they only need 1 triangle-bot to take it.

Move 2 bots 1 space each.

• See T2 on page 13 for complete rules and examples.
• x7 - There are 7 copies of this card in the deck.

Hop 1 bot to the 3rd spot.

• See S4 on page 16 for complete rules and examples.
• x7 - There are 7 copies of this card in the deck.

Place 1 circle-bot into the Machine at silver OR Upgrade 1 circle-bot.

• You cannot take both actions on this card, choose one of the following:
  • Place 1 circle-bot into the Machine at silver - See C2 on page 10 for complete rules and examples.
  • Upgrade 1 circle-bot - See C3 on page 11 for complete rules and examples.
• x3 - There are 3 copies of this card in the deck.

Game End

The game ends when one player has won the race, of which there are two ways to win:

2 Hex-Bot Win

If a player gets two of their hex-bots onto the Leader Podium before anyone else, they will win the race. In this Example, Red was the first and only player to get two hex-bots onto the Leader Podium, winning the race.

3 Hex-Bot Win

If any other players have hex-bots on the Leader Podium before you can get two in for the 2 hex-bot win, then you will need to get 3 hex-bots on the Leader Podium to win. In this example, All players had hex-bots on the Leader Podium, so Green could only win with 3 hex-bots.

Optional Place Tie Breakers

Usually, only the winner matters, but if you ever want to know how the other players finished, you can use these tie-breakers for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th:

1. Most Hexes on the Leader Podium.
2. Most Hexes in the Machine and Hex Box.
3. Hex closest to the finish line.
4. Circle closest to the Hex Box.

Place Tie Breakers Example

1st - Green • 2nd - Blue • 3rd - Red 4th - Purple • 5th - Yellow

Reasoning:

• Green has won the race.
• Purple, Blue, and Red all have 1 hex-bot on the Leader Podium, so they all finished before Yellow.
  • Blue has 1 hex-bot in the Hex Box, so takes 2nd place.
  • Red and Purple have no hex-bots in the Machine and move on to the next tie-breaker.
  • Red has a circle-bot closer to the Hex Box and takes 3rd place.
  • That leaves Purple to take 4th.
• Yellow is left in 5th place.
  • Even though they had two hex-bots in the Machine (more than Purple and Red), they didn't have one on the Leader Podium.

Quick Teach Guide

This Quick Teach guide is not a replacement for one player reading or being familiar with the rules, instead it's an outline for them to quickly teach new players how to play in about 10-15 minutes after Game Setup (shown on pages 4 & 5). Point out areas on the board as you refer to them and feel free to setup examples with pieces as you go!

• Introduction: Into the Machine is an after hours race run by robots in a factory. Players will race circle-bots in the Machine to the right off the edge where they tag in hex-bots who will race towards the left right off the edge and claim spots on the Leader Podium. Players move those bots in the Machine by placing Pit Crew bots on Terminal actions on the game board and by playing Power cards.
• 2 Ways to Win (p. 22): Use the gold Player Reference Card (PRC) to show the two ways to win, and the Power card draw icon on the bottom of the Columns.
• Pit Crew bots: Explain the inactive and active supply of bots.
  • The more sides their shape has, the more powerful they are.
  • Terminal actions all have indicators that show what level of bots are required. (p. 6 & 8)
  • Show where Square, Triangle, and Circle bots may go on the board.
• On Your Turn: Use the gold PRC to explain a turn, Terminal Actions and when you can play a Power card (p. 6).
  • Stacks: Explain how Stacks work for Terminal card actions (p. 6).
  • Terminal Junction actions: Explain how to unlock them, how you only need 1 bot, you aren't blocked by other players' bots, but you can't put a second of your bots there (p. 19).
• Moving bots in the Machine: Throw some extra circle and hex-bots in the Machine and give examples of movement (examples on ps. 12, 13, 14).
  • How circle-bots move right and hex-bots move left.
  • How most actions move a bot one or more spaces, and that movement includes leaping over occupied spots.