Utópolis Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Objective
• Game Variants
• Contents
• Cycles
• Board
• City
• Buildings
• Family Mode
  • Initial Setup
• Cycle
  • 1 Place
  • 2 Take a Card
  • 3 Resolve
  • 4 Build / Trade
    • Build
    • Trade
  • 5 Score
  • Cycle Reset
  • End of the Game
• Metropolis Mode
  • Initial Setup
  • 4 Build / Trade
    • Upgrade
  • Bonuses
    • Basic Services Bonus
    • Well-being Bonus
  • 5 Score
  • Cycle Reset
  • End of the Game
• Solo Mode
  • Objective
  • Initial Setup
  • Well-being Bonus
• Tie-break Rules
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Rules Update Leaflet: Frequently Asked Questions
• Metropolis Mode Summary

Objective

Build the city that generates the most population (green workers), the most production (red goods), with the best basic services, admirable and full of well-being for its people. Whoever makes the most Well-being Points wins the game!

Game Variants

It is recommended to start by playing the Family Mode (p. 4) to learn, get to know the buildings and the flow of the game, and then try the Metropolis Mode (p. 9), which adds several changes. The Solo Mode (p. 12) presents a challenge and is perfect for training and improving your handling of the buildings.

Contents

• 1 Board
• 1 First Player token
• 6 Player tokens
• 24 Electricity cubes
• 24 Water cubes
• 95 Building cards
• 1 Cycles token
• 4 Help cards
• 32 Worker cylinders
• 32 Goods cylinders

Cycles

UTÓPOLIS is played in rounds called Cycles. Each one is made up of 5 phases:

1. Place
2. Take a Card
3. Resolve
4. Build / Trade
5. Score

The Cycles token moves around the board through the spaces that represent and indicate what must be done in each phase.

Except for 2 Take a Card, each phase is played simultaneously: this means there are no turns, but until all players announce that they have finished a phase, the next one cannot begin.

Board

The Player tokens (white, green, blue, red, black, yellow) are moved along the score track, starting from Start (Inicio).

The board has: the Main Deck, the Trash Deck, the phase spaces for the Cycles token, the score track (numbered 1 to 40), and marks for Solo Mode.

City

Each player's play area is their City. Cubes and cylinders are used on the Building cards, and those not in use are kept in reserve.

Buildings

A Building card shows:

• Value: how many cards must be paid to build it.
• Title.
• Input: the resources and/or workers it requires to be activated (left side of the card).
• Production: what is received after activating this building (right side of the card).
• Passive Effects: the icons under the title give points or allow combos for scoring: Well-being Points, Environment Points, Pollution.

Type	Produces
Power Plants (yellow)	Electricity
Water Treatment (blue)	Water
Basic Services (light green)	Workers and Goods
Environment (green)	Environment Points
Industry (red)	Goods
Commerce (orange)	Cards
Well-being (pink)	Well-being Points

Electricity and Water are Non-Renewable: they are lost after being used (p. 6).

(A QR code on the page links to a video on how to play.)

Family Mode

This variant is designed to introduce new players to UTÓPOLIS, and is recommended as the first game to learn the cards and the dynamics of play.

Initial Setup

1. Separate all the Reserve / Recycling Plant / Carbon Capturer / Pendulum Factory / Crema del Cielo Inc. / Hat Factory cards (the green and red cards marked for removal) and leave them in the box.
2. Open the board and shuffle the rest of the Building cards.
3. Each person chooses a colour of Player token and places it on Start. Put the remaining ones back in the box.
4. Deal face down to each person:
   • 10 Building cards
   • One cube and one cylinder of each colour (Electricity cube, Water cube, Worker cylinder, Goods cylinder)
5. Put the Cycles token on the 1 Place position on the Board; the remaining cards go face down as the Main Deck.
6. Each player chooses 5 cards of the 10 received, keeps them in hand and discards the rest face down to the bottom of the Main Deck. (Rules update: ignore this step 6 and instead start the game with all 10 cards in hand, which speeds up the first Cycles. In Family and Solo Modes it is nevertheless recommended to keep using the rule of dealing 10 and choosing 5 cards.)
7. The youngest person at the table gets the First Player marker.

(Rules update, Cards in hand: at all times during the game, the maximum hand size is 10 cards. If you would draw new cards while already holding 10, you may discard some of your choice, or not take the new ones.)

Cycle

1 Place

Simultaneously, each person may put, move or remove workers and/or resources they have in their possession, on the left side of the buildings they have already built. In this phase it is possible to relocate and reorganize cards, resources and workers in whatever way is desired within one's own city.

Placing is not mandatory if you do not wish to: you may activate or not activate the buildings you like, depending on your strategy.

A building will only be considered activated if it has all the resources and/or workers that the left side of the card asks for!

(Example: Energy and a worker in the player's possession are placed on the left side of the card "Inodoro" ... the building then has all its inputs.)

2 Take a Card

As many cards from the Main Deck as the number of players plus two are laid face up around the board. The person with the First Player marker is the first to choose a card, which they take into their hand. Then, clockwise, everyone else does the same. The leftover cards go face down on top of the Trash Deck.

Example with 3 players: 5 cards are laid out around the board; they are chosen in order starting from the person with the First Player marker. The remaining cards go to the Trash Deck.

3 Resolve

Many buildings produce if they were activated in phase 1 Place with what they ask for on the left side. In this phase the Non-Renewable resources are lost and the production is taken.

It is resolved as follows on the left side:

• Electricity and Water (Non-Renewable): go to the reserve.
• Workers and Goods: stay on the card.

(Example: Water and a Goods cylinder are on the card, so it is activated. The Water goes to the reserve because it is Non-Renewable; the Goods cylinder stays on the card.)

The resources, workers, cards or Well-being Points indicated on the right side are obtained:

• Electricity (from the reserve) goes to the City.
• A card (the "take a card" icon) means drawing a card from the top of the Main Deck into your hand.
• If the card produces Well-being Points, they are added on the track on the Board.

To make this phase easier it is recommended to:

• Resolve in turns, publicly, in order starting from the person with the First Player marker, especially in Family Mode or with people who are learning.
• Add up the Non-Renewable resources spent, and then subtract the ones produced.
• Organize the buildings in production lines. For example (a picture shows a chain of cards: a Power Plant feeding a Water Treatment, an Industry building and a Well-being building).

4 Build / Trade

Building and Trading are simultaneous and can be done in any order.

Build

To build, the value of the building is paid using cards from the hand. There is no limit to the number of buildings to build per Cycle, but there is a maximum of 8 buildings per city, and repeated buildings may be owned. The cards used to pay go face down onto the Trash Deck; their value does not matter. The building is placed in your own city and is available at the start of the next Cycle.

(Example: to build the School (value 3), it must be paid with 3 other cards held in hand. These go face down onto the Trash Deck. Their value does not matter!)

If a building has Well-being Points under the title, these are added only once, at the moment of building. (Example: building the Palacio Nyborg, with 3 Well-being Points, advances the player's token 3 spaces on the score track.)

During this phase it is also possible to demolish previously built buildings: the building is simply thrown onto the Trash Deck. No cost is paid and nothing is obtained from this action, and the resources and workers that were on the demolished card go back to the city.

• It is recommended that all players announce out loud whether they are going to build or prefer to pass, so as not to prolong the time of this phase.
• In Family Mode the Environment Points and Pollution icons have no effect (except for tie-breaks).
• When demolishing, the Well-being Points the building gave are not lost.

Trade

Trade is free between players: workers, resources and cards can be exchanged among them, without restrictions. It is possible to use resources that you have on your buildings, but already-built buildings and already-earned Well-being Points cannot be exchanged.

(Examples of exchanges: two Electricity, Electricity + Water, two Water, for a card.)

With the reserve, you are limited to a single exchange per Cycle per person:

• Two Non-Renewable resources from the City → One card from the Main Deck.
• One card from hand (it goes to the Trash Deck) → 2 Non-Renewable resources of your choice.

5 Score

Up to 5 cylinders per person per Cycle can be exchanged with the reserve for Well-being Points, as follows:

• Each worker, or each goods cylinder, for one Well-being Point.

(Example: Nico has a worker and two goods cylinders to score: he gets 3 Well-being Points, moving his token 3 spaces on the track.)

Cycle Reset

Move the Cycles token to 1 Place and pass the First Player marker to the person on the left to begin a new Cycle.

End of the Game

When someone reaches or exceeds 20 Well-being Points, the Cycle being played is completed, and whoever finishes with the most points wins the game. See the Tie-break Rules (p. 13).

Metropolis Mode

This variant of the game adds new rules and raises the challenge, ideal for those who already have experience with UTÓPOLIS! These are the changes:

Initial Setup

• All the cards will be included in the Main Deck.
• Optional: before the first Cycle, it is possible to build, paying as indicated in Build (p. 7). This early construction phase allows producing from the start.

4 Build / Trade

In this mode you may build up to 10 buildings per City; in addition, in this phase it will be possible to Upgrade, and the Basic Services Bonus and the Well-being Bonus appear.

Upgrade

During the build phase buildings can be upgraded, replacing one card with another provided they are of the same type (colour) and the difference in value between them is paid. The cards used to pay go to the Trash Deck (their value does not matter), as does the previous card, and if there were resources on the upgraded card, they go back to the city of whoever is upgrading.

(Example: to upgrade the Central de Carbón [Coal Plant, value 1] to a Central Solar [Solar Plant, value 4], it is necessary to pay 3 cards from your own hand. The Central Solar replaces the Coal one, which goes to the Trash Deck.)

• It is only possible to upgrade a building of the same type (colour) and of lower value. It is not possible to upgrade to one of equal value.
• When upgrading or demolishing, the Well-being Points the building gave are not lost, both from Passive Effect and from Bonuses.
• When upgrading a building, only the difference in passive Well-being Points between the old and the new one is added. (Example: upgrading Estadio to Museo Ubre adds only 3 Well-being Points.)

Bonuses

When someone builds light blue (Basic Services) or pink (Well-being) buildings, the following happens:

Basic Services Bonus

Every time someone builds a Basic Services building (cards with light blue side panels), they advance 1 Well-being Point for each building of the same type they previously had built.

(Example: Emi builds Bomberos [Fire Station] and advances 3 Well-being Points: one for Municipalidad, one for Biblioteca and one for Escuela, already built in her city.)

• When upgrading Basic Services buildings, no Well-being Points are added for this Bonus.
• Light blue buildings are counted at the moment of building the new one.

Well-being Bonus

When someone builds a Well-being building (pink), every person who has at least one of this same type already built in their city adds one Well-being Point. This includes the person who is building, and it does not matter how many buildings of that colour they have; only having one already built beforehand.

It is important to announce that you are going to build, since, the phase being simultaneous, the order in which players build changes how they score.

(Example: Sol builds Torre Otaku. Juli, Alva and Sofi each add 1 Well-being Point, as they each already have a pink building. Sol does not add a point, since she has no other pink building previously built.)

5 Score

A maximum of 5 cylinders per Cycle can be exchanged per person for Well-being Points, but in this mode the amounts change and new forms appear:

• Two identical cylinders are exchanged for one point, or a combination of Environment Points and cylinders.
• All the Environment Points must be added and the Pollution of each city subtracted, to determine the amount of Environment Points available to each person.
• Each Environment Point available can be used only once per Cycle for scoring.
• If someone has negative Environment Points, they can only score two workers or two goods cylinders.

Exchanges:

• 2 workers → 1 Well-being Point
• 2 goods cylinders → 1 Well-being Point
• 1 goods cylinder + 1 Environment Point → 1 Well-being Point
• 1 worker + 1 goods cylinder + 2 Environment Points → 2 Well-being Points

(Rules update, 5 Score: exchanges with the reserve are limited to a maximum of 3 cylinders of each colour per Cycle per person, with these rates: 1 worker → 1 Well-being Point; 1 goods cylinder → 1 Well-being Point; 1 goods cylinder + 1 Environment Point → 2 Well-being Points. Examples from the leaflet: worker + worker + goods → 3 Well-being Points; 3 workers + 3 goods cylinders → 6 Well-being Points; 2 goods cylinders + 2 Environment Points + 1 worker (pictured as goods + Environment + goods + Environment + worker) → 5 Well-being Points. The rule of subtracting Environment Points for Pollution is unchanged, but the option "worker + goods cylinder + 2 Environment Points → 2 Well-being Points" is eliminated. The leaflet does not name the mode; its reference to Environment Points and Pollution means it applies to Metropolis Mode scoring, and it supersedes the older rates above.)

(Example from the rulebook: Germán has a Recycling Plant, a Refinery, a Water Tower and a Wind Park, plus a worker and four goods cylinders. He has only 2 Environment Points available, so the most he can do is worker + goods + 2 Environment Points → 2 points, and goods + goods → 1 point, for 3 Well-being Points, and he is left with one goods cylinder he cannot score.)

Scoring is not mandatory, but do not forget that UTÓPOLIS is a race for points!

Cycle Reset

Move the counter to the first position and pass the First Player marker to the person on the left to begin a new Cycle.

End of the Game

If at any moment someone reaches or exceeds 40 Well-being Points, play continues until the Cycle is completed and the game ends, with whoever has the most points winning. In case of ties, see the Tie-break Rules (p. 13).

Solo Mode

If you want to train your skills in UTÓPOLIS by playing solo, you will compete against a player token (heart) that advances once per Cycle.

Objective

The objective is to reach at least 40 Well-being Points before the automatic heart exceeds 40 Well-being Points. It advances one position at the end of each Cycle, after phase 5 Score. If this heart ends the Cycle exceeding 40 and you have not surpassed it, you have lost the game!

Initial Setup

Place a Player token of any colour on one of the positions with stars on the board. The number of stars defines the difficulty:

Stars	Start position	Difficulty
1 star	17	Easy
2 stars	20	Normal
3 stars	23	Hard

Well-being Bonus

In this mode, the Well-being Bonus works exactly like the Basic Services Bonus: when building, for each pink building previously built you gain 1 Well-being Point.

(Example: Elena builds Teatro Morrón and advances 3 Well-being Points: one for Obelixco, one for Edificio Kraken and one for Parque, already built in her city.)

Tie-break Rules

They apply to all game modes. If at the end several people have the same number of points, the winner is whoever has:

1. More Environment Points in their favour (subtracting Pollution)
2. More Well-being buildings (pink) built
3. Greater sum of passive Well-being Points on the visible buildings
4. Greater sum of values of the buildings built

Frequently Asked Questions

These apply to all game modes.

What happens if we run out of cards in the Main Deck? At any moment of the game it may happen that the cards run out; simply shuffle the Trash Deck, form a new Main Deck and move it to its position.

What happens if we run out of a type of resource? Are they limited? Especially in games of 5 or 6 people, it may happen that at some moment a cylinder or cube is missing. Within the game, the idea is that resources are infinite, so we recommend replacing some on an activated building with another one and returning it to the reserve or giving it to the people who need them. For example: Worker cylinders are missing, but there are many Water cubes left, so we replace some on cards that are constantly activated (a card with two workers on it gets two Water cubes instead). The important thing is to warn and remember that these resources are replacing the ones the building normally asks for.

Is it normal for the first games to be long? Yes! The first times it always takes a bit longer, until the players get into the rhythm of the game and get to know the Building cards a bit better. As games go on, they speed up.

Rules Update Leaflet: Frequently Asked Questions

Can I trade built Buildings or Well-being Points? No, but you can exchange everything else: cards in hand, cylinders and cubes of any colour. It is not possible for anyone to lose, subtract or trade Well-being Points.

Do the pink hearts under the title give me points each Cycle? No, those Well-being Points are only scored once, at the moment of building.

What happens to the Cylinders on the cards when resolving? As they stay on the building, they are part of the City and of your stock, so they are available to trade or score, and they can be relocated freely in the next Phase 1 Place of the following Cycle; they are not locked at all.

Is there a limit to building, upgrading or demolishing? No, you can build, upgrade or demolish as many buildings as you want in each Cycle.

Metropolis Mode

Is the Well-being Bonus triggered when someone upgrades a building? No, that bonus is only triggered when a new building is built.

What happens to workers and resources on a building to be demolished? The card goes to the trash; the small cubes and cylinders stay in your city, they are not lost.

Family Mode

What happens with the Environment Point and Pollution icons in Family Mode? During the game there is no need to pay attention to them, but they can serve as a tie-break if two people have the same score at the end.

What do we do with the cards at the start of the game? In this mode, in the first Cycle, you may skip to Phase 2, draw a new card, and then skip to Phase 4 to begin Building and Trading. But it is perfectly fine if you wish to start the game by building; the authorities of Utópolis allow it!

Solo Mode

Can I play solo with the Family Mode rules? Of course! You can play to 20 Well-being Points, putting the enemy heart on Start next to yours. If you want, you may also, at the start of the game, build before the first Cycle.

Metropolis Mode Summary

1. Place: activate buildings of your choice, putting resources and/or workers on them.
2. Take a Card: lay out 2 cards more than the number of players; the First Player marker holder chooses one into their hand, then the following players to the left. The rest go to the Trash Deck.
3. Resolve: take the production of activated buildings. Once used, resources go to: Electricity and Water to the reserve; Workers and Goods stay; the card icon means take a card.
4. Build: the value is paid with cards from hand; maximum 10 buildings per city; Upgrade: pay the difference in value between two buildings of the same type (colour); demolish a built building for free.
   • Basic Services Bonus: when someone builds a light blue building, they advance 1 Well-being Point for each one of this type they have built in their city.
   • Well-being Bonus: when someone builds a pink building, all people who have at least one of this colour built gain 1 Well-being Point.
   • Trade: free between players; with the reserve, once per cycle, one of: two Non-Renewable resources for a card, or a card for two Non-Renewable resources.
5. Score: up to 5 resources per person per cycle (see the Rules update above for the newer rates); each Pollution cancels 1 Environment Point; each Environment Point is used once per Cycle; then pass the First Player marker and the Cycles token to 1 Place.

The game ends when someone reaches 40 Well-being Points.