Oceanos
Oceanos Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview and Goal of the Game
During the game, each player represents the progression of the expedition by playing Exploration cards in front of himself side-by-side, in three stacked rows (one row per round). Each turn, an Expedition Captain deals Exploration cards to the other players who choose to keep one and add it to their expedition, before giving the rest to the Captain. Exploration cards have many symbols on them which allow you to gain points or upgrade your submarine.
At the end of the game, the player with the most victory points (star) wins.
Game Elements
Submarines
Submarines represent your mode of navigation while exploring the depths of the oceans. Each submarine is made of 5 detachable pieces, each with three upgrade levels: one crystal, two crystals, and three crystals.
Each piece of your submarine has an ability that is upgraded according to the level it has.
Propeller
- One crystal: no effect
- Two crystals: gives 2 stars at the end of the round
- Three crystals: gives 5 stars at the end of the round
Motor
- One crystal: makes one Fuel token per round
- Two crystals: makes two Fuel tokens per round
- Three crystals: makes three Fuel tokens per round
Cockpit
- One crystal: has one Periscope
- Two crystals: has two Periscopes
- Three crystals: has three Periscopes
Aquarium
- One crystal: can hold three different Animals
- Two crystals: can hold five different Animals
- Three crystals: can hold eight different Animals
Airlock
- One crystal: holds one Scuba Diver token
- Two crystals: holds two Scuba Diver tokens
- Three crystals: holds three Scuba Diver tokens
Exploration Cards
Exploration cards represent the things you discovered in the ocean depths during your expedition. Each Exploration card has different elements separated in three categories:
1. Positive elements (outlined in white)
- Animals: at the end of a round, gain 2 stars per different Animal in your collection. Pay attention to the level of your Aquarium and its corresponding ability.
- Corals: at the end of the game, gain 1 star per Coral in your biggest Coral Reef, that is to say, in your biggest run of Exploration cards with Coral.
- Treasures: at the end of the game, gain as many stars as indicated on the Treasure tokens you collected. Each Treasure can have 2 to 4 stars.
2. Negative elements (outlined in red)
- Eyes of the Kraken: the players who collected the most eyes during a round lose stars. The number of stars lost is determined by Kraken tokens, which come in three different sizes and can show 0, -1, -2, -3, or -4.
3. Upgrade elements (outlined in white)
- Bases: you can upgrade your submarine if you have already played Exploration cards with a Crystal.
- Crystals: determine the upgrade you can perform on your submarine.
Animal Clarifications
There are eight Animals of two different sizes:
Small Animals are common and regularly appear on Exploration cards. They are: the crab, the turtle, the seahorse, and the goldfish.
Big Animals are rare and appear less often on Exploration cards. They are: the hammerhead shark, the whale, the dolphin, and the octopus.
Player Aid
The Player Aid is a two-sided tile: the front side is used for the first and second rounds and the back side is used for the third round. The Player Aid is used as a Base and follows the same rules. It also shows the elements to pay attention to during scoring at the end of each round and at the final scoring.
Set Up
- Each player chooses a color and takes all the pieces of their submarine, as well as their Scuba Diver and Fuel tokens.
- Assemble your submarine with all of the one-crystal pieces and leave the other pieces aside.
- Place a Scuba Diver token and a Fuel token on their respective places on your submarine. Leave the other tokens aside.
- Randomly draw one Kraken token of each of the three sizes, without looking, and put them in the center of the table, with the smallest on top and the biggest on the bottom. The remaining Kraken tokens will not be used for this game.
- Separate the Exploration cards into three piles, one for each round. Shuffle them before putting them in the center of the table.
- Put all of the Treasure tokens in the opaque bag and put it aside.
The last player to visit an aquarium becomes the next Expedition Captain (see next page).
Gameplay
A game plays over 3 rounds of 5 turns:
1st Round — Explore the ocean under the surface 2nd Round — Explore the ocean a little bit deeper 3rd Round — Explore the deepest depths of the ocean
Note: if you lose track of how many turns have been played, just count the cards without Fuel tokens.
Every round follows the same rules and scores stars at the end. At the end of the third round, an additional star scoring takes place considering different elements.
Round Overview
Each round plays over five turns described as following:
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The Expedition Captain deals out the Exploration cards of the current round to all players except himself. Each player receives one Exploration card per Periscope that he has on his submarine + one Exploration card.
Example: If your submarine has a Cockpit, you have one Periscope. You therefore receive two Exploration cards (one for your Periscope + one card). If your Cockpit is upgraded to three crystals, you have three Periscopes and therefore receive four Exploration cards (three for your Periscopes + one card).
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Each player secretly chooses the Exploration card that he wants to keep from the ones he received and puts it face-down in front of himself. The remaining Exploration cards are given to the Expedition Captain.
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All players simultaneously reveal their Exploration card and place it in front of themselves following the placement rules:
- Exploration cards are placed from left to right: the order of the Exploration cards played in front of you cannot be changed during the game.
- Each round makes a new row of Exploration cards: cards from the 1st round are placed on top, cards from the 2nd round are placed in the middle, and finally, those from the 3rd round are placed at the bottom.
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The Expedition Captain chooses one Exploration card amongst those the other players gave him, following the same placement rules. He discards the other cards face-up.
If, as the Expedition Captain, you receive fewer cards than your Cockpit level allows you, complete your hand from the deck, until you reach the number of your Periscopes + one card.
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The player to the left of the current Expedition Captain becomes the Expedition Captain for the next turn.
Additional Actions
Each turn, you can do the following additional actions:
Use a Fuel Token
You can consume a Fuel token to keep an extra card in front of yourself face-down (during phase 2 of the round). Reveal as usual during phase 3 of the round. Put a Fuel token on the extra card when you play it.
If you're able to, you can use multiple Fuel tokens during the same turn to keep one more Exploration card per Fuel token consumed. You can choose the order in which you place them in front of you, but once played, you cannot rearrange them.
The number of Fuel tokens you can use during a round is determined by the upgrade level of your submarine's Motor. A one-crystal Motor gives you 1 Fuel, two-crystal gives two Fuel, and three-crystal gives three Fuel to use per round.
If you use your available Fuel tokens and you upgrade your Motor, you only gain one additional Fuel token that you place on the corresponding area of your submarine.
Example: Your one-crystal Motor allows you to use one Fuel token. You use it to keep an extra Exploration card and put the token on this card. Then, you upgrade your Motor to two crystals. You can therefore use two Fuel tokens in a round. Because you have already used one during this round, you only gain one extra Fuel token to place on your submarine.
Play a Scuba Diver Token
You can only play a Scuba Diver token on an Exploration card that has a Treasure, and only when you play this card in front of yourself.
At the end of the game, the Scuba Diver token allows you to collect the Treasure it's on, as well as all of the Treasures it comes across when returning to the surface.
Example: You play an Exploration card with a Treasure during the third round and decide to play a Scuba Diver token on it. At the end of the game, your Scuba Diver returns to the surface and collects two Treasures.
Upgrade Your Submarine
When you play an Exploration card with a Base on it, if you have already played one or several Crystals, you can upgrade a piece of your submarine.
Note: when a player upgrades his Motor or Airlock, he receives a Fuel token or a Scuba Diver token, respectively. This new token cannot be used until the next turn.
Example: You didn't play a Crystal before the Base, so you cannot upgrade your submarine. / You played a green Crystal before the Base, so you can upgrade your submarine.
The level of upgrade you can do is determined by the Crystals played before the Base.
One color only (green OR yellow): upgrade a one-crystal piece of your submarine to a two-crystal piece, however many crystals there are in this color.
Two different colors (green AND yellow): upgrade a two-crystal piece of your submarine to a three-crystal piece if you can. If not, you can still upgrade a one-crystal piece to a two-crystal piece.
Note: it's not possible to upgrade a one-crystal piece of your submarine directly to a three-crystal piece. You must upgrade to two-crystal before going to three-crystal.
A Base only allows one upgrade! It's not possible to upgrade two one-crystal pieces of your submarine to two two-crystal pieces with the same Base, no matter how many Crystals were played before the Base.
Crystals used for an upgrade cannot be used for the next Base. If you have more Crystals necessary to upgrade your submarine, the remaining Crystals are wasted and cannot be used for another Base.
Example: You played your first Base after two Exploration cards each with a green Crystal. You use the green Crystals to do an upgrade of one-crystal to two-crystal. You then play a second Base without playing new Crystals first. Because you already used the green Crystals, you cannot make a new upgrade.
End of a Round
At the end of a round, you return to your base to drop off your treasures and get some rest before descending even further into the depths of the ocean. This happens in three steps:
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Place your Player Aid at the end of the round's row of Exploration cards. If you have any unused Crystals, you can do an upgrade following the normal rules.
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Count your stars won during the round with help from the scorebook. The elements that earn you stars at the end of a round are:
- Animals collected: gain 2 stars per different Animal you collected in your Aquarium. Pay attention to the capacity limit of your Aquarium's level.
- The Propeller of your submarine: gain 0, 2, or 5 stars according to the level of your Propeller.
- Determine the player with the most Kraken Eyes: the player who has the most Kraken Eyes on his Exploration cards of the current round turns over the top Kraken token and loses the number of stars shown on the token. Discard this Kraken token.
In case of a tie, all concerned players lose the same number of stars shown on the Kraken token revealed.
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Once scoring is finished, take back all of your used Fuel tokens and put them back on their space on your submarine.
Your Scuba Diver tokens, however many you have, remain in play until the end of the game. A new round can now begin.
End of the Game and Scoring
The game ends at the end of the third round, after each player has completed their return to the surface. Perform a final scoring of the following elements:
1. Your Biggest Coral Reef
Gain 1 star per Coral in your biggest Coral Reef, that is, your biggest run of Exploration cards with Coral.
A Coral Reef must be orthogonally adjacent (vertical and/or horizontal). A diagonal does not connect Exploration cards.
Example: In your Exploration cards, you have a run of three cards with Coral. You gain 1 star per Coral present in this run, for a total of 3 stars.
2. Treasures Collected by Your Scuba Divers
Starting with the Expedition Captain and in turn, draw as many Treasure tokens from the opaque bag as the number of Treasure Chests collected by your Scuba Divers. Add the number of stars shown on each Treasure token to your final score.
Example: This Scuba Diver, while resurfacing, collected two Treasures. You draw two Treasure tokens from the opaque bag and gain 7 stars to add to your final score.
The player who has the most stars at the end of the game is the winner.
In case of a tie, the player with the most Crystals in submarine upgrades is the winner. If there is still a tie, players share victory.
Variant: Two Players
With two players, set up remains the same and the game plays over three rounds of five turns. Only the gameplay of a turn changes.
Simultaneously play with your opponent as follows:
- Draw cards from the deck until you have as many cards as the number of Periscopes on your submarine + one card.
- Secretly choose the Exploration card you want to keep (or multiple Exploration cards if you consume Fuel tokens) and play it face-down in front of you.
- Reveal your Exploration card and place it face-up in front of you following the normal placement rules.
- If you want, discard one card from your hand that goes under the deck.
- Give the remaining cards in your hand to your opponent.
End-of-round and end-of-game scoring remain unchanged.
Variant: Troubled Waters
This variant is recommended for experienced players and, more specifically, games with 5 players.
- Once each player (except the Expedition Captain) has chosen the card(s) he wants to play, the Expedition Captain randomly takes one, and only one, card from the remaining cards each player has.
- As usual, the Expedition Captain draws cards up to the number of Periscopes on his submarine + one card.
- The remaining cards are put back under the deck.