Oceans: Solo Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Solo Components
  • Oceanic Boards
  • Oceanic Tokens
  • Incoming Tokens Board
• Oceans Solo Setup
  • Preparation
  • Oceanic Setup
  • Additional Steps
• Playing the Game
  • Gene Pool
  • Scenario Cards
• Oceanic's Turn
  • 1. Evolving
  • 2. Refilling
  • Cambrian Explosion
  • 3. Feeding
  • 4. Aging
• Game End
  • The Final Turn
  • Scoring
• Difficulty Levels
  • Scenario Cards
  • Group A
  • Group B
  • Group C
• Using Legends Cards
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Score Log

Solo Components

Oceanic Boards

2 Oceanic Boards. Oceanic uses a Shark board and a Whale board. These boards are treated as species. Each board has a large space on the top for population, and several spaces on the bottom for tokens.

• There is no limit to the number of population that can be placed on these boards.
• The Shark and the Whale cannot overpopulate or go extinct.
• One side of each board is for the expert difficulty level.

Oceanic Tokens

74 Oceanic Tokens. Oceanic uses tokens instead of cards to evolve. These tokens are considered traits.

Parasitic and Gains are not considered traits. Parasitic and Gains tokens are placed on your species rather than an Oceanic board. When one of these tokens is drawn, place it on the species that has the greatest population. If there is a tie, place it on the leftmost of your tied species. A species may be targeted by any amount of these tokens. If a species goes extinct with tokens on it, return the tokens back to the correct bag.

Attack. The Shark's attack value is equal to the sum of its Attack tokens plus the preprinted attack value on the Shark board.

Forage. The Whale's forage value is equal to the sum of its Forage tokens plus the preprinted forage value on the Whale board.

Shell (Defensive trait). Each Shell token on an Oceanic board reduces the number of population taken by the printed amount when that board is attacked.

Electroreception (Deep trait). When the Shark board has an Electroreception token, it ignores the single most effective defensive trait on any species it attacks (including the Whale). Take this effect into account when determining which species the Shark attacks.

Transparency (Surface & Defensive trait). When an Oceanic board has a Transparency token, that board can't be attacked or leeched if the Reef has at least 1 population in it.

Fast Metabolism (Deep trait). When an Oceanic board has a Fast Metabolism token, it ages on Oceanic's turn as normal, and again when you age your species.

Tentacled (Surface trait). When the Shark board has a Tentacled token, it attacks twice.

Parasitic. The Shark board leeches 2 population for each Parasitic token, just like the Surface card Parasitic. This occurs one time for each Parasitic token on the species and can be prevented by traits such as Transparency.

Gains. The Whale board gains population equal to the population of the targeted species. This occurs once for each Gains token targeting that species. It gains population from the nearest Ocean zone as normal. If that Ocean zone runs out of population, take the remaining amount from the next Ocean zone.

ex: Your targeted species has 3 population and 2 Gains tokens on it. The Whale board gains 3 population and 3 population again for a total of 6 population.

Incoming Tokens Board

This board allows you to see which tokens Oceanic will get during its turn. You use the top row before the Cambrian Explosion and both rows after the Cambrian Explosion.

Oceans Solo Setup

Preparation

Set aside Scenario and Deep cards that have a Promo symbol as well as the following Deep cards: Flight, Vestigial Limb, and Transparent. Oceans Solo is not played with these cards.

Oceanic Setup

The setup for Oceans Solo is similar to the setup for 2-player Oceans with a few changes:

• Step 1: No changes.
• Step 2: No changes.
• Step 3: To play the Introductory game, use Prosperity and Long Haul Migration as the two Scenario cards. If you're familiar with Oceans, see page 10 to determine which Scenario cards to use. Return other scenarios to the box.
• Step 4: Do not deal Surface cards to Oceanic.
• Step 5: Use three random Deep cards to create the Gene Pool.
• Step 6: No changes.
• Step 7: Use 100 population tokens from the 2-player game.
• Step 8: Place 30 population in the Reef, 10 population in the 1st Ocean zone, 30 population in the 2nd Ocean zone, and 30 population in the 3rd Ocean zone.
• Step 9: Skip this step.
• Step 10: Skip this step.
• Step 11: You are the 1st player. Do not use Bonus Tokens.

Additional Steps

• Step 12: Place the Shark board to the left of the Whale board. Level 1-3 uses the normal sides of these boards. Level 4 uses the "Expert" sides.
• Step 13: Place the Token Bags and the Incoming Tokens Board near the Shark and Whale boards.
• Step 14: To play the Intro game, pull 4 random tokens from the Level 1 Token Bag and place them on the top four slots of the Incoming Token Board. If this is not your first game, see page 10 to determine which level of Token Bag to start with.

Playing the Game

You alternate between taking your turn and Oceanic's turn. The Shark board is to the left of your leftmost species and the Whale board is to the right of your rightmost species.

Gene Pool

When you draw from the Deep deck, draw four cards instead of three, choose one for your hand, and cover the old Gene Pool cards with the remaining three.

Scenario Cards

Scenario cards do not affect Oceanic in any way.

Oceanic's Turn

1. Evolving

Before the Cambrian Explosion, place the rightmost token from the top row of the Incoming Tokens board into the appropriate place. After the Cambrian Explosion, place the rightmost tokens from both the top and bottom row.

Attack and Defense tokens with a red outline are placed on the Shark board. Forage and Defense tokens with a green outline are placed on the Whale board.

Parasitic and Gains tokens are placed on your species with the most population. If there is a tie, place it on the leftmost of the tied species.

2. Refilling

Do the following if there are no tokens on the Incoming Tokens board:

• Set aside the current token bag, even though it still has tokens in it, and grab the token bag of the next level. Skip this step if you are already using the highest level token bag (Level 5).
• Refill the Incoming Tokens board with tokens from the new bag.
  • Before the Cambrian Explosion, fill the top 4 slots with random tokens.
  • After the Cambrian Explosion, fill all 8 slots with random tokens.

Cambrian Explosion

When the Cambrian Explosion becomes activated, look at the Incoming Token board. Add a random token from the current bag to the bottom row underneath each token that is on the top row.

3. Feeding

Feed the Shark

1. The Shark leeches 2 population for each Parasitic token. Place them on the Shark board.
2. The Shark attacks one of your species if possible. It will attack the species that gives it the most population. If there is a tie, the Shark attacks your leftmost tied species. If the Shark cannot attack any of your species, it will attack the Whale, and if it cannot attack the Whale, it will not feed this turn.

Feed the Whale

1. The Whale gains population for each Gains token in play. The gains are equal to the population of that species it's on.
2. If there is no population in the Reef, migrate population equal to the Migrate number on the face-up card in the Surface discard pile. Migrate from the closest Ocean zone with population. If you need more population than what is in the chosen Oceans zone, take the remaining fish from the next Oceans zone.
3. The Whale forages from the Reef.

4. Aging

Before the Cambrian Explosion, Oceanic scores 1 population from each of its boards.

After the Cambrian Explosion, Oceanic scores 2 population from each of its boards.

Oceanic boards do not go extinct if they cannot age the full amount. Remember that each Oceanic board with a Fast Metabolism token ages again during the player's turn. Oceanic's score is not hidden.

Game End

The Final Turn

If there is no population in the ocean, immediately empty the "reserve" population into the 3rd Ocean zone. You are currently in the final turn of the game, regardless of whether this is your turn or Oceanic's turn. Finish that turn and do not play another turn.

Scoring

• You score 1 point for each population in your score pile and on your surviving species.
• Oceanic scores 1 point for each population in its score pile and on the Oceanic boards.

You win if you score more points than Oceanic!

Win By	Title
1-10 points	Clownfish
11-20 points	Octopus
21-30 points	Giant Squid
31-40 points	Great White Shark
41-50 points	Killer Whale
51+ points	Leviathan

Write your score in the Score Log and try to beat your high score next time you play. When you're ready for a greater challenge, move up to the next level of difficulty. Even if you're not ready for a greater challenge, if you score Killer Whale or Leviathan—for heaven's sake—move up to the next level of difficulty!

Difficulty Levels

Oceans Solo has 4 major levels of difficulty. Start the game by drawing tokens from the Token Bag of the difficulty level you'd like to play.

• Level 1 - Easy
• Level 2 - Intermediate
• Level 3 - Hard
• Level 4 - Expert

If you're new to Oceans, play on Level 1 with Long Haul Migration and Prosperity as the Scenario cards. This is the Introductory game for Oceans Solo.

Use the expert level side of the Shark and Whale boards when you play on Level 4.

Scenario Cards

Each level of difficulty has five ranks based upon the Scenario cards that get used. The Introductory game is Level 1.1 because it starts with the Level 1 Token Bag and uses the Scenario cards of Rank 1. The hardest game is Level 4.5 because it starts with the Level 4 Token Bag and uses the Scenario cards of Rank 5.

Rank	Scenario 1	Scenario 2
1	Group A	Group A
2	Group A	Group B
3	Group B	Group B
4	Group B	Group C
5	Group C	Group C

Group A

Abundance, Biodiverse Reef, Fertile, Genetic Diversity, Large Predators, Long Haul Migration, Pathogenic Immunity, Prosperity, Protective Growth, Protective Shells, Thermal Currents

Group B

Contagious Outbreak, Degenerative Virus, Food Surge, Inhospitable Environment +1, Inhospitable Environment +2, Population Explosion, Solar Radiation

Group C

Asteroid Impact, Detritus, Contagious Proximity, Epizootic, Paradigm Shift, Shallow Gene Pool

Using Legends Cards

Create Oceanic's deck of Legends cards containing: Ahuizotl, Coral Nymphs, Grandmother Seolmundae, Iku-Turso, Muldjewangk, Turtlefolk, Umibozu, and Yacumama.

1. Shuffle Oceanic's deck and place it face-up on the Table.
2. Put the top card into play for Oceanic.
3. Shuffle the remaining Legend cards for your deck.
4. Draw 2 cards from your deck and choose one. Do this 4 times to get your 4 Legend cards.

You play Legends of the Deep as normal except you pay the costs directly to Oceanic's score pile.

Every time Oceanic refills the Incoming Token board, discard their Legend card and put the top face-up card into play.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens if there is no room on the Oceanic board for the next token?

Remove the lowest value of that token type from the board to make room for the new token.

Score Log

Record each game in the Score Log. The log has the columns Date, Name, Level, Scenario 1, Scenario 2, Score, and Difference. The manual prints this example entry:

Date	Name	Level	Scenario 1	Scenario 2	Score	Difference
11/2022	Marcy	3.2	Fertile	Prosperity	64 - 37	+27