Pulsar 2849 FAQ
69 questions players ask · Updated Nov 10, 2026 · Full rulebook
Setup and Player Count
Dice Phase
- Can you take a die that moves your token left when it is already at the far left of its track?
- What happens when every die you could take would move your track token off the right end of a track?
- In a three- or four-player game, is the second die taken in reverse order?
- Can you use the same track marker for both dice you take, or must you use different tracks?
Action Phase
Flying Your Survey Ship
- Do you draw the dead-end exploration bonus if your ship only flies through a dead-end system?
- Can you have more than one research station in the same planetary system?
- When your ship only flies through a system, where must you place your station, and do you get a bonus?
- If your flight passes through a system and then ends in that same system, do you get the exploration bonus?
- Do you get the exploration bonus when your flight ends in a system that is already revealed, if a blue planet is still free?
- Does moving into a dead end cost extra movement, and can you go back out the way you came?
- Can two survey ships occupy the same planetary system or jump gate?
- When must you commit to a die modifier or the green-gate technology on a flight?
- Can your survey ship move past, end on, or pass through another player's ship or pulsar?
- Can a teleport effect place your ship on an unrevealed planetary system?
- Can you teleport your ship to an isolated pulsar?
- What is the farthest a single die can fly your survey ship?
- With the green-gate technology, where can a flight end, and do extra green gates add more movement?
Developing Pulsars
Building an Energy Transmission Megastructure Array
- When do you get the red die from linked transmitters, and when must you decide to link a transmitter?
- Can a transmitter be placed upside down or in reverse, and when can you rotate it?
- Can a flipped transmitter be linked to one that is not yet flipped?
- Can you link more than two transmitters in one chain, and can you link transmitters bought in earlier rounds?
- Can a transmitter tile with no link symbols be connected to another?
- Are transmitter tiles replaced after a player takes one from the market?
- Do you get a transmitter's production or one-time rewards while still constructing it?
- Do you score the transmitter patent point every time you spend a die on a transmitter?
- Does a technology worth 4 points per transmitter going online still score when that transmitter has another bonus too?
Headquarters
- Does a gate run that revisits the same jump gates score each gate again?
- Is a gate run also a normal flight where you can claim planets, pulsars and explore?
- Does a technology that scores per completed and used gate run also pay for completing one?
- Can you combine two gate-run bonuses on a single gate run?
Patenting Technologies
- Do the Tech D exploration-bonus techs (DI-3 and DII-2) pay out when your survey ship only flies through a system?
- Do Tech D1T1 ('cannot gain an exploration bonus') and D2T5 ('do not gain the bonus') differ in meaning?
- If a technology gives you a silver die and a red die, do you lose the die you drafted, and how many actions can you take in one turn?
- Can you take a technology that gives a red die after you have already used a red die this turn?
- Can the green-gate technology shorten a flight so that it no longer visits any green gate?
- Can the green-gate technology add a step to reach a green gate that your flight would not otherwise reach?
- Can one player patent the same technology twice, and how many times can a technology be patented?
- Is a one-die technology's owner token moved at the end of the turn or the end of the round?
- Can you use a die-doubling patent after your red bonus die is already spent this turn?
- Can you patent a technology that nobody has patented in earlier rounds?
Bonus Die and Die Modifiers
- How do you set the red die you take by spending engineering cubes, and do you pay cubes for red dice from other sources?
- Can you use more than one red die in a turn if you gain several, and is the limit per turn or per round?
- Is the red bonus die single use, and is it lost if you do not use it?
- What is the red die for if you could just take a bonus action?
- When can you use a bonus die during your turn?
- Can you copy the remaining die to move your initiative or engineering counter?
- When you spend four cubes to copy a die, do you get a third die or change one of your dice?
- Can you combine two die modifier tokens on one die?
- Can a technology's die modifier be combined with a modifier token, such as when buying or flipping a gyrodyne?
- Can a red bonus die be modified with a token, and can you use one from a patent if you already have a bonus die this turn?
- Is the red die used in a two-player game?
Production Phase
Scoring and Goal Tiles
- Do the +1 station exploration tiles add a station to each planet, or only to the total?
- Does the +1 station exploration tile count for a technology that scores points per station?
- Can a technology that scores a goal as if its condition were met let you score a goal you already met, or the same tile twice?
- Can pulsars used to score a technology also be counted for a goal tile?
- Do transmitters counted for an end-game goal need to be linked together?
- Are there hidden goals in Pulsar 2849?
- Does a technology's plus-2 bonus for each goal apply to other players' goal tiles, or only to your own?