Trismegistus: The Ultimate Formula Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Overview
• Game Components
• Game Setup
  • Introductory Game Setup
  • General Setup
  • Dice Setup
  • Rolling Dice and Filling Bowls
  • Player Setup
• Round Structure and Player Actions
  • Player Turn
  • Draft
    • Drafting Mercury
    • Mercury and Gold
  • Actions
    • Chameleon tokens
  • Free Actions
  • Opponent Reactions
  • Lab Cleanup
• End of the Round
• Further Game Rules
  • Raw and Refined materials
  • Transmutations and Artifact Activation
    • Important Transmutation rules to remember
  • Performing Experiments
    • Mastery Discounts
  • The Philosopher's Stone
    • Unlocking Formulas with Gold
    • Placing Formulas in the Vault
  • Publication Card Hand
  • Timing Rules
• End Game Scoring
  • 1. Experiments
  • 2. Publications
  • 3. Philosopher's Stone
  • 4. Scoring Materials and Essences
  • 5. Mastery tracks
  • 6. Determining the Winner
• Variant module: Achievements
  • Setting up Achievements
  • Unlocking Achievements
• Credits
• Botmegistus, the solo opponent
  • Setup for solo play
  • Gameplay Changes
    • Advanced Planning Variant
  • Draft Phase
  • Action Phase
    • Basic cards
    • Specialization cards
    • Personality cards (1 in play per game)
    • Gaining an Artifact
    • Gaining an Experiment
    • Moving up a Track
    • Completing Experiments
  • Opponent Reactions Phase
  • Lab Clean-up Phase
  • End of Round
  • Final Scoring Changes
  • Adjusting difficulty
    • Increasing Difficulty
    • Decreasing Difficulty
• Easily Forgotten Rules
• Symbols Legend
• Damaged and missing components

Game Overview

Trismegistus: The Ultimate Formula is played over three rounds during each of which you will draft exactly three dice. The potency of your drafted die will allow you to transmute precious materials, collect alchemical essences, acquire and activate artifacts, and perform experiments that will progress you along four mastery tracks. You will also build a secret hand of publication cards which — together with the value of your Experiments, the completed formulas of your Philosopher's Stone and your collected gold — will determine your final score in Victory Points and, perhaps, make you the greatest alchemist, able to rival Hermes Trismegistus himself!

Game Components

• 1 main game board
• 5 double-layered Laboratory boards
• 108 cards, including:
  • 8 Starting Experiments
  • 16 Level 1 Experiments
  • 16 Level 2 Experiments
  • 16 Level 3 Experiments
  • 8 Masterpiece Experiments
  • 24 Publication cards
  • 16 Achievement cards
  • 4 Player Aid cards
• 48 Artifact tiles, including:
  • 8 Starting Artifacts
  • 14 Level 1 Artifacts
  • 14 Level 2 Artifacts
  • 12 Level 3 Artifacts
• 40 wooden Formula tiles (8 for each of the five alchemists)
• Cardboard tokens, including: Dominant Essence tokens, Ethereal die tokens, Reactions tokens, Chameleon tokens, Essence tokens (in three types), and Bonus tokens
• 20 small wooden discs (5 in each of four player colors) — used on the four Mastery tracks (with one spare)
• 12 large wooden discs (3 in each of four player colors) — used as Victory Point marker, Turn Order marker, and player color marker
• 16 custom dice (6 black, 5 white, and 5 red)
• 80 acrylic material cubes
• This rulebook
• Components for solitaire play (Botmegistus solo opponent): 9 Basic cards, 4 Specialization cards, 4 Personality cards, 1 Tracker card, 1 regular six-sided die

Game Setup

To set up a game of Trismegistus, follow the steps below in order.

Introductory Game Setup

If this is your first time playing Trismegistus, we recommend the following Introductory Game Setup.

First, locate the following Laboratory boards: Claude Duval, Isaac Newton, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, and Roger Bacon. Alchemist components can be identified by depictions of their faces, as seen in points 1–4 below.

1. Determine the starting player randomly (or by choosing the most experienced player at the table) and give them the Duval Laboratory board, along with the Starting Experiment card, the Masterpiece Experiment card, the Publication card, and the Starting Artifact below. That player places one of their larger discs on the 1st position of the Current Round Order track.
2. The second player should receive the Newton Laboratory board, as well as the following cards and Artifact. That player places one of their larger discs on the 2nd position of the Current Round Order track and gains 1 Ethereal die token.
3. The third player (if present) should receive the Agrippa Laboratory board, as well as the cards and the Artifact marked below. That player places one of their larger discs on the 3rd position of the Current Round Order track and gains 2 Ethereal die tokens.
4. The fourth player (if present) should receive the Bacon Laboratory board, as well as the cards and the Artifact below. That player places one of their larger discs on the 4th position of the Current Round Order track and gains 2 Ethereal die tokens and an additional material.
5. Each player should now place their Starting Artifact face up in the artifact space located on the right-most space at the bottom of their player boards.

Return any unused Laboratory boards, Starting Experiments, Masterpiece Experiments, and Starting Artifacts to the game box. Proceed with General Setup normally, ignoring any steps related to determining the player order, receiving or returning Experiments, Artifacts, or Publications.

General Setup

1. Unfold the main game board and place it in the middle of the table.
2. Divide all cards into separate decks: Starting Experiments, Masterpiece Experiments, Level 1 Experiments, Level 2 Experiments, Level 3 Experiments, and Publications.
3. Remove all cards which are only used with higher player counts. Example: In a 2-player game, remove all "3+" and "4+" cards. In a 3-player game, remove all "4+" cards.
4. Shuffle each deck separately. Place all decks face down near the game board.
5. Place the Level 1 Experiment deck on the current Experiment deck space on the board and fill each of the experiment spaces with one face-up Experiment card.
6. Place the Publications deck on its dedicated space on the board.
7. Divide all Artifact tiles into stacks according to their level: Starting, Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3. Shuffle each stack separately. Place all stacks face down near the board.
8. Place the Level 1 Artifact stack on the current Artifact stack space on the board, and fill each of the six spaces of the Artifact market with one face-up Artifact.
9. (See point 10.)
10. Randomly place 1 Dominant Essence face-up token on each of the top spaces of the Mastery tracks. This step is optional, you can skip this completely and simply use the printed setup on the game board.
11. Shuffle all Bonus Tokens and then randomly place Bonus Tokens on the Bonus Spaces of each Mastery track. Each bonus space should hold one face-up token. Return the unused Bonus Tokens to the game box.
12. Place the Essence tokens, Ethereal die tokens, Chameleon tokens, material cubes, and Reaction markers in their provided spaces on the main game board.

Dice Setup

Based on the number of players, remove the following dice from the game (returning them to the game box):

• With 4 players, do not remove any dice.
• With 3 players, remove 1 black die.
• With 2 players, remove 1 red, and 1 black die.

Place all remaining dice next to the main game board.

Rolling Dice and Filling Bowls

In order to fill in the Alchemical Bowls on the main game board, follow these steps:

13. Roll all the dice (preferably off-board), and place each in the Alchemical Bowl with the corresponding symbol.
14. If any of the bowls contain more than 5 dice, take all of the dice from that bowl and reroll them, assigning dice to new bowls. If multiple bowls have more than 5 dice, select the first in the following order: Salt > Sulfur > Aether > Lead > Copper > Tin.
15. Continue repeating the above step until there are no bowls with more than 5 dice.

Player Setup

16. Each player chooses a color and takes all discs in the chosen color.
17. The player who has last performed an alchemical transmutation (or a player chosen at random) becomes the starting player and places one of their larger discs on the 1st space of the Current Round Order track on the main game board. Skip this step if using the Introductory Game Setup.
18. The other players (in clockwise order) each place one of their larger discs on the leftmost empty space of the Current Round Order track. Skip this step if using the Introductory Game Setup.
19. Starting with the last player and continuing counter-clockwise, each player now chooses 1 Laboratory Board. Skip this step if using the Introductory Game Setup.
20. Each player receives 2 Reaction tokens. Place them on the ready (face-up) side.
21. Additionally, the second player receives an Ethereal Die, the third player (if present) receives two Ethereal Dice, and the fourth player (if present) receives two Ethereal Dice and an additional material. Skip this step if using the Introductory Game Setup.
22. Each player places a small disc on the "0" space of each of the 4 Mastery tracks and one of their larger discs on the "0" space of the Victory Point track. You can keep the last large disc in front of you as a player color marker.
23. Each player places 1 material cube into the raw (round) section of the following materials on their Laboratory board: Lead, Copper, Tin, and Iron. Additionally, each player takes 1 of each essence type (do not take another Mercury).
24. Each player takes all 8 Formula tiles corresponding to the Alchemist printed on the Laboratory Board and randomly places 1 of their Formulas, face up, onto each of the 8 Formula spaces in their Experiment columns (2 per column).
25. Each player receives 2 Starting Experiments, 2 Masterpiece Experiments, 2 Publications, and 2 Starting Artifacts. Each of these should be dealt face down. Skip this step if using the Introductory Game Setup.
26. Each player secretly chooses 1 of each (Starting Experiment, Masterpiece Experiment, Publication, Starting Artifact), and reveals the Artifact, as well as the Starting Experiment. Then, each player places the chosen Artifact in one of the 6 Artifact Slots on their Laboratory board (player's choice which one). The chosen Publication and the Masterpiece Experiment should be kept secret. Return the unselected Masterpieces, Starting Experiments and Starting Artifacts to the game box. Skip this step if using the Introductory Game Setup.
27. Unselected Publications are shuffled face down and placed at the bottom of the publication deck.
28. You are now ready to follow the footsteps of Trismegistus in the search of the Ultimate Formula!

Important: Each player should look at the dice available on the main game board and choose their Starting Experiment, Masterpiece Experiment, Publication, and Artifact at the same time. However, any player may request that (after all players have made their choices) Artifacts are placed on Laboratory boards in player order.

Round Structure and Player Actions

During a round each player will perform a number of actions and react to actions performed by their opponents. After a player performs an action (and allows opponents time to resolve reactions), play passes to the next player.

Player Turn

Each player turn consists of four phases: draft, action, opponent reactions, and lab cleanup. These steps are always resolved in this exact order.

Draft

If your Potency track is empty (you have no die there), you must draft a die. Choose any of the dice on the main game board and resolve the following steps:

1. Count the number of dice in the bowl you have drafted from, including the die you have just taken, and place it on the corresponding position of your Potency track.
2. Optionally spend one Ethereal Die token to move the drafted die one space left on the Potency track. Note that you may not exceed the maximum Potency value of 5.

Important: While drafting a die is mandatory when your Potency track is empty, this step will usually be skipped if you have a die on your Potency track (as you usually want to use all Potency of a die you drafted). However, you are allowed to draft a new die and retire a die from the Potency track to the used dice area of your Laboratory board (effectively wasting any of its remaining Potency), if you want to.

Example: Anna drafts a die from the Mercury bowl of the main game board. The bowl contains 3 dice (including the die Anna drafts), so she places the drafted die in position 3 of the Potency track. Also, she immediately spends 1 Ethereal Die token. This allows her to move the die from position 3 to position 4. Anna still has 1 more Ethereal Die token but she may not spend it now, as only one Ethereal Die can be spent per die drafted.

Drafting Mercury

After you draft a Mercury die, immediately turn it into a different symbol. You still use the number of dice in the Mercury bowl to determine your potency, but for all action and reaction purposes your die will be treated as the symbol you changed it to.

Mercury and Gold

Two materials have special properties.

• Mercury is both a material and an essence. When you receive it as an essence, treat it the same way as if you received it as a raw material, and you may spend it as either material or essence. See the rules governing Transmutations for further consequences of this rule.
• Gold is a wildcard. It can be spent as any other material, for every purpose. That includes spending it as an essence, substituting a Mercury. For other special properties of Gold, see "Unlocking Formulas with Gold".

Actions

Spend Potency of your die (by moving it closer to 0 on your Potency track) to perform exactly one of the following actions:

• Spend 1 or more Potency to harvest materials. For every 1 Potency spent, gain 1 material from the supply and add it to the raw material holding space on your Laboratory board corresponding to the symbol on your die.
• Spend 1 or more Potency to perform transmutations. For every 1 Potency spent, you may transmute 1 raw or refined material along 1 transmutation arrow matching the color of the die. All transmutations performed as part of a single action must be resolved along the same transmutation arrow on your Laboratory board. Please refer to the Transmutation and Artifact Activation section of the rules for the additional cost of this action and more details.
• Spend 1 or more Potency to acquire alchemical essences. For every 1 Potency spent, gain 1 essence from the supply and add it to your supply. The type of essence you would gain is shown next to the bowl corresponding to the symbol on your die. Note: if you use a Mercury to take this action, you may choose any essence, but if you acquire multiple essences as one action (by spending more than 1 Potency) all acquired essences must be of the same type.
• Spend exactly 3 Potency to acquire an Artifact from the Artifact Market. You may choose any 1 of the 2 Artifacts displayed in the spaces corresponding to the color of your die. Place the acquired Artifact in any Artifact slot on your Laboratory board (if it is occupied, remove the old Artifact from the game), and resolve its ability immediately (the Artifact does not exhaust). Refill the empty space of the Artifact Market by drawing from the current Artifact stack.
• Spend exactly 1 Potency to recharge any one of your Artifacts (by flipping it face up). You may not recharge other players' Artifacts.
• Spend exactly 1 Potency to acquire an Experiment card from the main game board section corresponding to the symbol on your die. Place the acquired Experiment next to your Laboratory board face up. If you already have 2 Experiments (not including your Masterpiece), you may not perform this action. If the Experiment purchased came from the current Experiment deck, replenish it immediately. Otherwise, do not replenish the Experiment card on the main game board. (For example, in the second round, replenish any level 2 Experiment taken, but don't replenish when taking a level 1 Experiment.)

Chameleon tokens

Certain effects in the game (Formulas, Bonus tokens) will grant you a chameleon token. You may discard a chameleon token immediately before your action to resolve your action as if you had a different die: you may change both the icon and the color of the die for that single action (which can involve spending multiple potencies as explained above). Do not change the die itself, as the chameleon token does not affect future actions of the same die or the reactions of other players (all players will thus react using the symbol and/or color of the die you drafted, ignoring the Chameleon token).

For example, discarding a Chameleon token would allow you to transmute over a red arrow using potency from a black die, including multiple times during the same action.

Free Actions

As part of your turn you are also allowed to perform any of these free actions (in any order and as many times as you wish, immediately before or after your main action, but not interrupting it):

• Purchase a Formula from your Laboratory board and place it in your Vault. Please refer to the Philosopher's Stone section of the rules for more details.
• Sample a face up Formula in your Vault (by flipping it face down) in order to use its special ability.
• Perform an Experiment placed next to your Laboratory board or your Masterpiece Experiment by paying its material cost. Please refer to the Performing Experiments section of the rules for more details.

Opponent Reactions

After you have performed your Action (and any desired Free Actions), each other player may flip one of their face up Reaction tokens in order to perform exactly 1 of the following reactions:

• Gain 1 material from the supply and add it to the raw material holding space on their Laboratory board corresponding to the symbol on your die.
• Gain 1 essence from the supply and add it to their supply. The type of essence they would gain is shown next to the bowl corresponding to the symbol on your die.
• Transmute 1 raw or refined material using a Transmutation arrow of the color corresponding to the color of your die (spending essence as normal).
• Recharge any single exhausted Artifact on their Laboratory board.

Note: the reacting player's dice has no bearing on reactions, and it does not cost them potency to perform these reactions.

Important: Reactions are designed to mostly remain contained within players' Laboratory boards without influencing the state of the main game board. This means that reactions can be performed simultaneously by all reacting players. However, a player may request these be performed in order. In such a case, players should resolve reactions starting from the player sitting on active player's immediate left and continuing clockwise until each player had a chance to react or pass on the reaction.

Lab Cleanup

After you have performed your action and allowed your opponents to react:

1. Check the position of the die on your Potency track. If it is on 0, move it to the used dice box on your Laboratory Board.
2. If your used dice box now contains 3 dice, move your Turn Order marker to the first open position on the New Round Order track. You do not draft any more dice or take your turns this round, but you are allowed to react to opponent actions normally (using face-up Reaction tokens as usual, if you have any left). Note that since you will not take more turns this round, you may not perform any more free actions until the next round.
3. If any player markers are now on or above Bonus tokens on any Mastery tracks, remove those Bonus tokens — they will not be available any more.

Important: All players that reach a Bonus token on the same player turn (via reactions) are allowed to benefit from its ability. Only when the turn is over will used Bonus tokens be removed from the Mastery tracks.

After performing this step, play passes to the player whose Turn Order marker is next on the Current Round Order track. If no such player remains, the round ends.

End of the Round

Once the round has ended, perform the following steps in order to set up the next round of play.

1. All players flip all their Artifacts and Reaction tokens face-up.
2. If this was the third round, skip the remainder of this section and proceed to End Game Scoring immediately.
3. Remove all the face-up Artifacts from the Artifact Market (but not from the Laboratory boards).
4. Replace the current Artifact stack with a stack of Artifacts of level equal to the number of the next round.
5. Draw 6 new Artifacts from the current Artifact stack to fill the market.
6. Remove all face-up Experiments of level one lower than the number of the current round from the main game board (but do not remove any finished or unfinished Experiments belonging to players). This means that at the end of round 1 you do not remove any Experiments and at the end of round 2 you remove all level 1 Experiments, if there are still any on the main game board.
7. Replace the current Experiment deck with the experiment deck of level equal to the number of the next round.
8. Add 1 new Experiment drawn from the current Experiment deck to each Experiment space on the main game board.
9. Without changing their order, slide all Turn Order markers on the Next Round Order track to the same spots on the Current Round Order track.
10. Collect all the dice in play (from all bowls and Laboratories) and roll them following the procedure described in the Rolling Dice and Filling Bowls section.

Further Game Rules

The following section provides details on some of the most important concepts of Trismegistus: Transmutations, Experiments and the proper use of the Philosopher's Stone.

Raw and Refined materials

• Any material in the round material space is a raw material. Raw materials are marked in the game as circles: Lead, Copper, Tin, Mercury, Iron.
• "Any raw material" is a symbol for any raw material.
• Any material in the square material space is a refined material. Refined materials are marked in the game as squares.
• "Any refined material" is a symbol for any refined material.
• Lead is always a raw material.
• Silver and Gold are always refined materials. An ability allowing you to gain any raw material does NOT allow you to gain Silver or Gold.
• Gold is a wild material and can stand in for any material in the game for any reason.
• A refined material can always be used in place of its raw counterpart, but not vice versa.

Transmutations and Artifact Activation

A Transmutation is the act of moving a material from one of the spaces on a Laboratory board along a Transmutation arrow to another space, thus changing one material into another and upgrading it from a raw state to a refined state.

When performing a Transmutation as an action, each individual Transmutation costs 1 Potency. Transmutations performed as actions (via potency) or reactions (via flipping a Reaction token) are limited by the color of the die used to perform them. However, certain Experiments, Artifacts, Formulas may grant wild Transmutations, which do not cost Potency, but still include all of the following steps:

1. Choose 1 raw or refined material on your Laboratory board (with the exception of Lead).
2. Pay 1 Essence token or 1 Mercury, by returning it to the stock.
3. Move the material cube along the Transmutation arrow (clockwise) to the next material refined space (Copper becomes Tin, Tin becomes Mercury, Mercury becomes Iron, etc.).
4. The color of the Transmutation arrow must match the color of the die on your Potency track (if you are transmuting as an Action) or the color of die on the active player's Potency track (if you are transmuting as a Reaction). If performing a wild Transmutation, skip this check.
5. Move your player marker up 1 space on the Mastery track marked with the same Essence symbol. Note: If this Mastery track is already at the top and you should move your marker, receive 1 Victory Point instead (only 1 Victory Point, regardless of the number of spaces the marker would have moved).
6. If your marker enters a space with a Bonus Token, perform its effect immediately, by either moving 1 space up on any Mastery Track, or by taking a Chameleon token or an Ethereal die (as shown on the Bonus Token).
7. If the Transmutation arrow you used passes over an active (face-up) Artifact, you may use the Artifact's ability now. If you do, flip the Artifact face down.

Important Transmutation rules to remember

• You may Transmute both raw and refined materials.
• Mercury can be used as an Essence.
• Gold can be used as any material, so it can be discarded in place of Mercury.
• If you cannot pay an Essence or Mercury, you may not perform a transmutation.
• You may perform multiple Transmutations as part of a single Action (by paying 1 Potency for each), but they must all be performed along the exact same Transmutation arrow (but can come from raw and refined spaces of the transmuted material type — in any combination — and may use different Essences).
• Transmutations are performed along transmutation arrows only. You may not simply upgrade a raw material into its refined version.
• When you perform a Transmutation as a reaction, you use the color of the die on the active player's Potency track, and not on your Potency track.
• If a special ability grants you multiple wild Transmutations, they do not have to be performed along the exact same Transmutation arrow.

Important: Each Mastery track corresponds to one elemental symbol and one Essence. The elemental symbol is shown on the 12th step of the track, while the essence is shown on the Dominant Essence token above it. The Essence is relevant during Transmutation (as seen above), while the elemental is relevant for Experiment requirements and certain effects advancing you on a particular track (like Vault or Experiment rewards).

Performing Experiments

As a Free Action during your turn you may perform an Experiment placed next to your board, or the Masterpiece Experiment kept in your hand. To perform an Experiment:

1. Check the Experiment's Mastery track requirement. If the position of your player marker on the track indicated is equal to or higher, you may perform the Experiment (see Mastery Discounts).
2. Pay the Experiment's material cost by discarding the proper materials from your Laboratory board. Remember that you can always use Gold as any material.
3. Receive any bonuses printed on the Experiment in any order. All immediate effects (like wild Transmutations or track movements) must be either used immediately or ignored. Some of these effects score you victory points based on certain conditions: score these immediately. Do not score the victory points shown in the bottom-right corner, as they will be counted at the end of the game.
4. Slide the Experiment card into the proper completed Experiment column. If this is the first Experiment in the column, receive 1 Formula tile from that column, and place it in your Vault (for more details on placing Formula tiles in your Vault see the Philosopher's Stone section below).

Mastery Discounts

There are two discounts you may receive every time you perform an Experiment:

• You may lower an Experiment's Mastery track requirement by spending Silver: for each Silver you spend you may lower the Mastery track requirement by 1. Note: this does not increase your actual position on the Mastery track.
• Ignore any one material cost of the experiment OR lower the mastery track requirement by one, for each Formula unlocked in the corresponding elemental column.

Example: Anna wants to perform a Level II Experiment. Her marker is on the 4th position of the Mastery track. She is 1 step too low on the Mastery Track, and she is missing a single material. However, since her Experiment Column already has one of the Formulas unlocked, she can ignore the missing material, and then she can also spend an extra Silver to temporarily lower the Mastery requirement by 1 (bringing it down to 4). Anna now has everything needed to perform the Experiment.

The Philosopher's Stone

The grid in the middle of each Laboratory board is the Vault, where the players build their Philosopher's Stone. Each alchemist in the game comes with their own Vault and a set of their own Formulas. Each of those Formulas is socketed in one of the 8 Formula spaces on the top of Laboratory board at setup. They cannot be used until they are unlocked:

• You unlock 1 of the Formulas available in an Experiment column after you complete its first Experiment.
• On your turn, as a Free Action, you may unlock 1 or more Formulas by paying a number of Gold, as explained below.

Unlocking Formulas with Gold

Depending on how many Formulas you have unlocked with Gold, you pay:

• 1 Gold for the first Formula,
• 2 Gold for the second Formula,
• 3 Gold for the third Formula,
• 4 Gold for the fourth Formula.

Whenever you unlock a Formula with Gold, place 1 material cube next to the vacated Formula space (avoid covering the discount icon), to mark that it has been bought with Gold, and not released by performing an Experiment. The material cubes also track the price you have to pay for unlocking the next Formula with Gold.

Important: You may unlock at most 1 Formula from each column using any of the above methods. You may never pay to unlock a Formula from a column if one of its Formula sockets is marked with a material cube. Performing further Experiments (after the first) will never unlock a second Formula from the same column. It can only be bought with Gold.

Placing Formulas in the Vault

Once unlocked, a Formula must be placed immediately in an empty space of the player's Vault, where it will contribute towards completing the Philosopher's Stone. After placing, check for completed rows and/or columns (thematically: parts of the Stone):

• If you completed a row, immediately receive all the bonuses from the left and right side of the row.
• If you completed a column, immediately receive all the bonuses from the top and bottom of the column.
• If you completed both a row and a column with one Formula, resolve both of the above.

Important: All bonuses are resolved immediately upon completing a row and/or column. If you are unable to make use of some or all of them, you will not be able to use them later. However, a Formula bonus (the one printed on the tile itself) can be used at a later time. You do not have to expend them immediately upon placing the formula tile.

Publication Card Hand

Publications are a special kind of card acquired during the game, held secret in hand and played from hand in order to score at the end of the game (see the End Game Scoring section for more details). Whenever any game ability allows you to draw publications (via this symbol):

• Draw 2 Publication cards and add them to your hand.
• Return any 1 publication card from your hand to the bottom of the Publications Deck.
• If there is just 1 Publication in the deck, simply add it to your hand without returning any cards.
• In the unlikely event of the Publication deck being empty, simply ignore this ability for the rest of the game.

Important: Publications are never removed from the game, and there is no limit on how many publications you are allowed to have in your hand at any time.

Timing Rules

Many effects in Trismegistus may happen at seemingly the same time. Below follows a short list of resolving some timing conflicts in the game:

• No effects can be used between moving a material cube along a Transmutation arrow and activating the Artifact. Even if you receive a Bonus Token's effect due to performing Mastery track movement, you are only allowed to use it after the Transmutation is completed, and an Artifact's ability is completely resolved.
• When performing multiple Transmutations as part of a single Action you are allowed to use any gains from any of those Transmutations in subsequent Transmutations. If the first Transmutation generates Essence tokens, they can be used for subsequent Transmutations resolved as part of the same Action.
• No effects gained from Bonus Tokens and Formulas can ever interrupt a single Transmutation procedure.
• Formulas and Chameleon tokens can only be used, and Experiments can only be performed during your own turn. However Artifacts can be triggered during other players' turn if using a reaction to perform a Transmutation.

End Game Scoring

Once the third round has concluded, the game ends. Any points scored now are added to the Victory Points accrued during the game. Mark the points by moving your Victory Point marker on the Victory Point track.

1. Experiments

Add all the Victory Points printed on the bottom-right corner of your completed Experiments. Experiments reserved and placed next to your Laboratory board, or an incomplete Masterpiece Experiment score you no points.

2. Publications

Each player should now reveal their hand of Publication cards. In order to score a publication, it first needs to be completed with elemental symbols from the Laboratory board.

An elemental printed on an Artifact or a completed Experiment can be used only towards the completion of one Publication. (But an Artifact with two elementals printed on it can contribute one each to 2 Publications, or both towards 1.) Additionally if a player reached the top (step 12) of one or more Mastery track, they also consider having one extra elemental of the shown type. Once each player has completed some (or possibly all) of their Publications, they receive Victory Points only from the cards they completed. Publications completed by other players will not score points for you.

3. Philosopher's Stone

The Formulas locked in your Vault contribute towards the completion of your Philosopher's stone. Depending on the number of these Formulas, you receive a number of points:

Formulas placed	0–1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Victory Points	0	1	4	9	16	25	36

4. Scoring Materials and Essences

Each Gold and each Ethereal Die token remaining on your Laboratory board is worth 1 Victory Point. Any other materials, Artifacts, Essences and Chameleon Tokens are not worth any Victory Points.

5. Mastery tracks

Players on the top 3 rows of each Mastery track (level 10, 11, and 12) receive 2/4/7 Victory Points, respectively.

6. Determining the Winner

The player with the most Victory Points is the best Alchemist, and the winner of the game. In the case of a tie, the tied player with the most completed Experiments is the winner. In case of a further tie, the tied players share the victory and publish a stunning tome together.

Variant module: Achievements

If you are looking for a more competitive game, you may include Achievement cards, which allow you to race against other players for extra points. Note: the Achievements are not supported in solo mode.

Setting up Achievements

During the General Setup shuffle Achievement cards, and draw 4 at random. Place them next to the main game board face up. Place any unused Achievements back in the box, they will not be used during the game.

Unlocking Achievements

On your turn (not during Reactions) you may unlock an Achievement as a free action. In order to unlock an Achievement, you must be able to show that you currently possess all the required components on your Laboratory board. These may include a number of completed Experiments of a given type (a Masterpiece, after being completed, is treated as any other Experiment), a number of Artifacts, specific positions on Mastery tracks and more (see the appendix for detailed descriptions of all cards).

If you managed to unlock an Achievement, immediately place it face-down next to your Laboratory board. Some Achievements show immediate bonuses on their bottom-left corner. Perform these bonuses immediately upon unlocking the Achievement (or lose them). Its Victory Point value will be added to your total during the final scoring. Achievements are not replenished after being unlocked. Other players may no longer unlock this Achievement.

Important: In order to unlock an Achievement you do not spend any of its requirements. It is enough to just demonstrate possession of all required components. Once you unlock the Achievement, no further action is required. You will score Victory Points for it the same way you would score points for Experiments.

Credits

• Game Design: Daniele Tascini & Federico Pierlorenzi
• Solo Mode: Dávid Turczi & Nick Shaw
• Game Development: Andrei Novac, Błażej Kubacki, Dávid Turczi, Rainer Åhlfors, Małgorzata Mitura
• Art Direction: Kuba Polkowski
• Illustrations: Paulina Wach
• Graphic Design: Zbigniew Umgelter, Paulina Wach
• Rulebook: Błażej Kubacki, Dávid Turczi, Rainer Åhlfors

Botmegistus, the solo opponent

Botmegistus is a virtual opponent that allows a player to play Trismegistus solo, playing against the virtual opponent. "You" refers to the lone human player throughout these rules.

Setup for solo play

• Set up the main game board, and your components, for a 2-player game, with you being first player;
• Put the 4 specialization cards aside for now, they will be needed later;
• Give Botmegistus its tracker card (place it nearby the board somewhere);
• Shuffle the Automa basic cards into a draw deck, and place it face-down near its tracker card;
• Give Botmegistus 1 Ethereal Die token and 2 Gold (kept on its tracker card until used);
• Do not give it a player mat, Formula tokens, starting Essences or starting materials (other than the Gold noted above and per the difficulty level);
• Do not give it a starting selection of Artifacts, Publications or Experiments;
• After you have selected your starting Artifact from your starting hand of two, give Botmegistus the starting Artifact you reject. Then, find the Automa personality card matching the symbol on its starting Artifact and shuffle it into the Automa draw deck. Return the other three personality cards to the box as they will not be used this game; Note: for your first game against Botmegistus, you might want to skip this step and play without the Automa personality cards. See Adjusting Difficulty for further details.
• Roll one of the unused dice twice and advance on the tracks rolled: If it rolls Salt/Sulfur/Aether or an elemental, advance up the respective Earth/Fire/Water/Air Mastery track (matching the Essence on the rolled symbol's bowl). If it rolls Lead or Mercury, it goes up its lowest track (see Moving up a Track for details).

Gameplay Changes

You play as normal. On Botmegistus' turn, flip the next card from the Automa deck face-up, to determine what it does this turn. If the draw deck ever runs out, shuffle all the used Automa cards together to form a new draw deck.

Advanced Planning Variant

Once you played against Botmegistus a few times, and wish to have greater predictability in your opponent's behavior apply this variant. At the beginning of the game reveal 2 cards from the Automa deck and place them side by side. On Botmegistus' turn, roll the regular six-sided die. On a roll of 1, 2, or 3 use the left card to determine what it does this turn. On a roll of 4, 5, or 6 use the right card to determine what it does this turn. Then discard the used card and replace it from the deck. All other rules apply unchanged.

General note: Botmegistus only ever gains Experiments, Artifacts and Gold, and occasionally Ethereal Die Tokens. Any other resources, it ignores.

Draft Phase

If Botmegistus does not have a die on its tracker card, it drafts one now, based on the color/symbols shown on the active Automa card, but also following the priority list below:

• Take one of the following, whichever has the highest potency:
  • A die with a Mercury symbol of the same color; Botmegistus will set it to the symbol (left-most if multiple) shown on the card.
  • A die with the symbol (left-most if multiple) on the card of the same color.
  • (If there are two symbols on the card): A die with the right symbol on the card of the same color.
• If none of the above exist, take whichever has the highest potency (die color priority: black > white > red):
  • A die with a Mercury symbol of a different color; Botmegistus will set it to the symbol (left-most if multiple) shown on the card.
  • A die with the symbol (left-most if multiple) on the card of a different color.
  • (If there are two symbols on the card): A die with the right symbol on the card of a different color.
• If none of the above exist, take the die with the highest potency, of the same color. If tied, use the symbol priority: Salt > Sulfur > Aether > Lead > Mercury.

Cards that show "max" instead of a die symbol instruct Botmegistus to take the die of that color with the highest potency. If that happens to be Mercury, Botmegistus will set it to a chosen symbol. If no dice of that color exist, use a different color using the above color priority.

Place the drafted die on the appropriate spot on the potency track. If Botmegistus has any Ethereal Die tokens left, and it drafted a die with potency less than 5, it spends 1 Ethereal Die token now to increase the potency of the drafted die by 1.

Action Phase

Spending potency: Botmegistus spends as much potency as shown on its card (which will be 1, 2, or 3). If it does not have enough potency to match the amount shown on the card, it just spends all it has (it still performs its action even if it could not spend the full potency amount).

Performing its action: Botmegistus now performs the action indicated on its card, which will be one of the following:

Basic cards

• It gains an Artifact.
• It moves up on the indicated track(s), either the specified tracks, or the Mastery track it is currently the lowest on.
• It takes an experiment (or 1 gold if it already has 2 incomplete experiments).
• It gains 1 gold (place 1 material on its tracker).

Specialization cards

• It gains 1 Artifact and 1 Gold.
• It moves up on each of its Mastery tracks by one step.
• It scores 5 Victory Points and gains 1 Gold.
• It takes an Experiment (or 1 Gold if it already has 2 incomplete experiments), then move up its lowest track twice (re-evaluate lowest after the first one is applied).

Personality cards (1 in play per game)

• Earth: If Botmegistus is equal to or lower than you on the Earth Mastery track, it moves up twice on the Earth track. If it is already higher than you on that track, instead it scores 5 Victory Points and gains 3 gold.
• Water: If Botmegistus is equal to or lower than you on the Water Mastery track, it moves up twice on the Water track. If it is already higher than you on that track, instead it scores 5 Victory Points and moves up one on each of the Fire, Earth and Air tracks.
• Fire: If Botmegistus is equal to or lower than you on the Fire Mastery track, it moves up twice on the Fire track. If it is already higher than you on that track, instead it scores 10 Victory Points.
• Air: If Botmegistus is equal to or lower than you on the Air Mastery track, it moves up twice on the Air track. If it is already higher than you on that track, instead it scores 5 Victory Points and gains 1 Artifact.

Gaining an Artifact

When choosing which artifact to take, Botmegistus will pick an artifact matching its current die color. From those, it will pick the one with the most elemental symbols. If tied, roll the regular six-sided die. On a roll of 1, 2, or 3 take the artifact on the left. On a roll of 4, 5, or 6 take the artifact on the right. Place the chosen artifact tile face-up near its tracker card.

Gaining an Experiment

Botmegistus can hold up to 2 incomplete experiments. If it cannot take another experiment, it gains 1 Gold instead (as noted on the cards). When choosing which experiment to take, it acquires from the board section corresponding to its current die's symbol. If there is more than one experiment to choose from that section, choose using this priority list:

• An experiment of a type (Earth/Fire/Water/Air) it does not yet have;
• An experiment it can immediately complete (including spending gold to make up any missing mastery requirement; see Completing Experiments below).
  • If it can complete both experiments, it takes the one worth the most Victory Points;
• The experiment for which Botmegistus is closer to reaching the experiment's mastery requirement;
• The experiment with mastery requirement that you are already exceeding, or the closer to reaching;
• The experiment worth the most Victory Points;
• The left-hand experiment.

Moving up a Track

If wanting to move up on its lowest track and there are multiple tied tracks available, it moves up the track according to this priority:

• Closest to the next bonus space with a bonus token still on it;
• Furthest ahead of you on the same track;
• Closest behind you on the same track;
• Left-most valid track.

If it needs to move up multiple lowest tracks, re-evaluate which is lower after each movement. If Botmegistus reaches a Bonus space with a Bonus token on it before you do, it gains a benefit immediately:

• Gains an Ethereal die token;
• Moves up 1 on a track on which it is closest to one of its incomplete experiment's mastery requirements, or its lowest track if it has no incomplete experiments;
• Scores 5 Victory Points immediately.

If Botmegistus has the Moving up a Track action but is already at the top level of the indicated track, Botmegistus will instead move up a different track according to the earlier priority list.

Completing Experiments

After performing its action, check whether Botmegistus can complete any of its incomplete experiments. To complete an experiment, it ignores all material requirements and instead only has to comply with the Mastery requirements. If it has any gold available, it can spend 1 Gold per requirement level it is short on to make up the difference. Spent Gold is returned to the supply.

It can complete both experiments at once, if possible. If it could potentially complete either experiment, but not both at once (i.e. spending Gold to make up the difference would allow it to complete one, but then it would not have enough to complete the other), it prefers to complete the one with a type (Earth/Fire/Water/Air) it does not yet have, or (if tied) experiment worth the most Victory Points. Botmegistus does not gain any benefits from a completed experiment, other than end-game Victory Points. Tuck any completed experiments partially under its tracker card (so you can still see the experiment type).

Opponent Reactions Phase

You may react to Botmegistus' action, as per normal rules. Botmegistus never reacts to your action.

Lab Clean-up Phase

Once it has performed its action (and possibly completed any experiments), if the die used would move down to 0 potency, move that die into the Used Die section of its tracker card. If it now has 3 dice in the Used Dice section of its tracker card, it passes (move its Turn Order marker to the next available New Turn Order position, as per core rules).

If any player markers (including Botmegistus') are now on or above Bonus tokens on any Mastery tracks, remove those Bonus tokens as they will not be available any more.

End of Round

Do end of round cleanup for you, and the board, as usual.

Ethereal Die Tokens: At the end of round 1, give Botmegistus 2 more Ethereal Die tokens (which it can use in any of the forthcoming rounds). At the end of round 2, give Botmegistus 3 more Ethereal Die tokens.

Adding a Specialization Card: At the end of round 1, check which elemental type it has the most elemental symbols of (symbols are on artifacts, plus each completed experiment counts as one; select randomly amongst tied symbols if any). Shuffle the specialization card of the matching type into the remaining cards in the Automa draw deck (do not shuffle the discards into the deck at this point). At the end of round 2, add a new Specialization card in the same way as above, but ignore the elemental type of the card Botmegistus gained in round 1 (that specialization card stays in the deck).

Final Scoring Changes

You score as usual.

Before final scoring, draw 2 random Masterpiece experiments. If Botmegistus has reached the required mastery level for either of them, it will immediately complete the one with the most Victory Points from those it can complete (the other is discarded). It does not spend gold to reach the requirements.

Botmegistus then scores:

• The Victory Points listed on all its completed Experiments;
• The Victory Points listed for reaching any of the Victory Points spaces on any Mastery tracks;
• 3 Victory Points per elemental symbol on its artifacts;
• 3 Victory Points per remaining unspent Ethereal Die token it has;
• Count how many Formulas it could unlock: Each type (earth, air, fire, water) of completed experiment (including the Masterpiece) counts as 1, plus it can spend 2 gold to increase the Formula count by 1, as many times as it can afford, up to 7. It then scores Formulas as per core rules;

Formulas placed	0–1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Victory Points	0	1	4	9	16	25	36

• If it has any gold left over after spending any to boost the Formula count, it scores 1 Victory Point per remaining gold.

If you beat Botmegistus' score, you win!

Adjusting difficulty

Increasing Difficulty

Use any or all of these options to increase Botmegistus' Victory Point-scoring capabilities:

• Botmegistus starts with an additional Gold at setup.
• Botmegistus starts with a random incomplete starting Experiment.
• Botmegistus starts on level 1 of all Mastery tracks (not level zero, as you do), on top of the additional rolls.
• Roll dice 4 or more times instead of twice at setup to determine starting Mastery track advancements for Botmegistus.
• The Personality cards trigger their scoring ability even if you are equal to Botmegistus' Mastery.
• At the end of the game draw 3 Masterpiece experiments (instead of 2) when choosing a Masterpiece for Botmegistus to try completing.
• Allow Botmegistus to spend gold to complete a Masterpiece experiment.

Use any or all of these options to make your own life harder:

• Make Botmegistus the starting player, but do not gain an Ethereal die to compensate.
• Remove an additional white die at setup (playing with 5 black, 4 white, and 4 red dice).
• Draw only 1 starting publication and/or 1 Masterpiece experiment at setup and play with those.

Decreasing Difficulty

Use any or all of these options to decrease Botmegistus' Victory Point-scoring capabilities:

• Botmegistus starts with one fewer Gold at setup.
• Do not roll dice at setup for starting Mastery track advancements for Botmegistus.
• Do not add a Masterpiece experiment at final scoring to Botmegistus' Laboratory.
• Do not use Specialization cards.
• Do not use Personality cards.

Easily Forgotten Rules

• A refined material can always be used in place of its raw counterpart, but not vice versa.
• When reacting to other players' actions you may only choose to gain 1 material or essence, perform a single transmutation, or recharge an artifact. No other Action (including Free Actions) may be performed.
• When performing a Transmutation, please remember:
  • You may Transmute both raw and refined elements.
  • You must use a die of a color matching the Transmutation arrow you will follow while Transmuting.
  • As a result of a Transmutation, you always receive a refined material.
  • You must always pay 1 Essence for each Transmutation. Afterwards, advance on the Mastery track corresponding to the Essence used.
• All players that reach a Bonus token on the same turn (via reactions) can benefit from its ability. Then, used Bonus tokens are removed from the Mastery tracks.
• After you draft a Mercury die, you must turn it to a different face of your choice.
• If you use a Chameleon to change a die, you do not physically change its face.
• Silver can be used to pay for temporary Mastery increase for the purpose of performing experiments (do not move your markers, simply pay the difference with Silver).
• Gold is a wild resource for all purposes. You may use it as any other resource for any reason. This includes the Silver ability to be spent as temporary Mastery.
• Do not spend any resources when unlocking an Achievement. It is enough to demonstrate possession of all required components.
• When unlocking Formulas, please remember:
  • You may unlock no more than 1 Formula from each Experiment column by performing an experiment in that column.
  • You may unlock no more than 1 Formula from each Experiment column with Gold.
  • When unlocking a Formula with Gold remember about the increasing prices: 1st/2nd/3rd/4th formula costs 1/2/3/4 Gold.
• Each unlocked Formula provides you with a discount of 1 material or 1 mastery level requirement for any Experiments performed in its column.
• With regards to Experiments, please remember:
  • You may have no more than 2 Experiments next to your Laboratory board (ready to be performed).
  • Your Masterpiece Experiment does not count against your Experiment limit.
  • Performing an Experiment is a Free Action and can be completed at any time during your turn (but not when reacting to other players' actions or after you moved your Turn Order marker to the second row).

Symbols Legend

• Raw materials: Lead, Copper, Tin, Mercury (also an Essence), Iron; and "any raw material".
• Refined materials: Copper, Tin, Mercury, Iron, Silver, Gold; and "any refined material".
• Essences: Salt, Sulfur, Aether; and "any Essence".
• Advance your marker 1 space on any Mastery track; on your lowest Mastery track; 2 spaces on any one track; 3 spaces on any one track; 1 space on three different tracks; move 1 space down on any track.
• Fire / Water / Earth / Air symbol (elemental).
• Required level on Fire / Water / Earth / Air Mastery track (for Experiment); required level on one (any) Mastery track.
• Your level on Fire / Water / Earth / Air Mastery track; your lowest level on all Mastery tracks.
• Experiment; Fire / Water / Earth / Air Experiment.
• Exchange 1 raw material for 1 refined material of the same type, twice; exchange 1 raw material for 1 different raw material; exchange any refined material for 1 Gold, three times; exchange 1 Gold into any 5 raw materials.
• Transmutation of black / white / red color; Transmutation of any color.
• Draw 2 Publication cards and add them to your hand, then return any one Publication card from your hand to the bottom of the Publications deck.
• Victory Points; number of Formulas already part of your Philosopher's Stone (face up or face down).
• Reaction token; Gain 1 Reaction token; Used Reaction token; Restore Reaction token.
• Ethereal Die token (used to increase the potency of a die by 1 when drafting).
• Chameleon token (used to change the color and value of a die for the duration of one action).
• Artifact; Fire / Water / Earth / Air Artifact; number of Fire and Air symbols on your Artifacts; gain a random Artifact (pick from current face-down stack).

Damaged and missing components

Missing or damaged components: Although we take a lot of care to make sure that your game is complete, manufacturing mistakes can still leave you with a missing or damaged component. If that happens, please contact us at www.boardanddice.com to receive replacements swiftly, and with our sincere apologies.