Gameplay

The players will take turns during the game, going clockwise, until one of the game end conditions is met (see “Game End,” page 19).

TURN OPTIONS

On a player’s turn, they must do one of the following two things: A. Use a Ship action. B. Take the Income action.

Use a Ship action

General Rules:

• A player can only use a ship action if they can complete at least one part of its action.
• A player can use any unused ship on the table: their own, another player’s, or a neutral ship. An unused ship has no ​ on it.

After the active player takes an action using a ship depicted on the Diplomacy board, any player who has advanced on the corresponding track on the Diplomacy board gains a bonus. This bonus is collected after that entire action has been completed.

Dismantle Ship/Action

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When a player uses a Dismantle ship to perform a dismantle action, they must select an unused ship (i.e., one with no ​ on it) from their own fleet to dismantle. They permanently remove this ship from the game, returning it to the box. In exchange, they receive ​ from the supply equal to the number shown on the ship (plus any bonuses that may apply).

The Dismantle ship cannot dismantle itself: it is not an unused ship! If a player wants to dismantle a Dismantle ship, they can use another Dismantle ship to do so.

Level-2 and Level-3 Dismantle ships may provide additional metal when used to perform this action.

Construction Ship/Action

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When a player uses a Construction ship to perform a construction action, they pay ​ to the supply to select a Sector from the supply and add it to their space station. They must use the amount of ​ indicated in the upper-right corner of the Sector. Once they pay the required to the supply, they take the Sector from the supply and add it to a wing of their station. Level-2 and Level-3 Construction ships allow players to build Sectors for 1 or 2 ​ less.

Terran Expedition Ship/Action

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When a player uses a Terran Expedition ship to perform an expedition action, they collect resources and/or Humans from Earth, as determined by rolling dice. To do this, they roll a number of dice equal to the expedition duration indicated on the ship, then select dice—up to the ship’s capacity from those rolled and collect the results.

Every Terran Expedition die is identical and has the following faces: 2 ​, 2 ​, 1 ​, 1 Human (​).

EXPEDITION DIE ROLL RULES

• The active player rolls the number of dice indicated by the duration icon on the Terran Expedition ship being used to perform the

action. The player chooses which dice to collect, up to the number indicated by the ship’s capacity.

• The active player may collect the items in any order, which can allow them to use rolled resources to pay to gain Human allies (see below).
• Each die the active player chooses takes up 1 capacity ( ), no matter whether it is a resource or a Human.
• Each rolled resource collected comes from the supply.
• For each die depicting a Human selected, there are two options, but either option takes capacity:

Observe Humanity: The player gains 1 point (​).

Why does observing take up space? Just look at all the scientific equipment (and souvenirs!).

Gain a Human Ally: The player pays 1 ​, 1 ​, and 1 ​ to the supply, then takes a Human and places it in the leftmost empty living quarters in any Sector of any wing of their station.

The player can only gain a Human if they have living quarters available!

Dice used to gain a Human ally (or to observe humanity) still take up capacity.

Food and water, I understand, but why metal? For the environmental suit, of course!

Transport Ship/Action

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When a player uses a Transport ship to perform a transport action, they may make any number of transactions less than or equal to the number shown on that Transport ship. However, they must make at least one in order to use the ship at all. The active player may perform transactions in any order they choose, which can allow them to trade for or buy resources that they might use to gain Aliens. Players may choose the same transaction multiple times.

Transport Transactions Available

A. Gain aerobic (teal, pink, brown) Alien: The player pays 1 ​ and 1 ​ to the supply to take 1 teal, pink, or brown Alien and place it in the leftmost empty living quarters in any same-color Sector of their station. The player can only gain an aerobic Alien if they have appropriate living quarters available!

B. Gain anaerobic (gold) Alien: The player pays 1 ​, 1 ​, and 1 ​ to the supply to take 1 gold Alien and place it in the leftmost empty living quarters in any Sector of any wing of their station. The player can only gain a gold Alien if they have living quarters available!

C. Trade resources: The player pays any 2 resources to the supply to take any 1 resource from the supply.

D. Buy resources: The player pays 3 ​ to the supply to take any 1 resource from the supply.

Farm and Ice Collector Ship/Action

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When a player uses a Farm or Ice Collector ship, they take resources from the supply as depicted on the the ship.

Diplomacy Ship/Action

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When a player uses a Diplomacy ship to perform a diplomacy action, they select a Diplomacy track on the Diplomacy board, pay the lobbying cost in ​ shown on the step above the current level of their token on that track, and advance their token 1 space to that new level. Once a token reaches the top space, it cannot advance further. Multiple players’ tokens can be on the same space. This action does not grant any immediate benefit. It improves the player’s options when the selected type of ship is used in the future.

Note: Level-3 Diplomacy ships let players do the above action on 2 different Diplomacy tracks at once; however, they must pay the lobbying cost for both advancements. Players are allowed to use a Level-3 Diplomacy ship to advance only one space on just one track.

Take Income

Instead of taking an action using a ship, a player can take the income action.

A player can only take income if at least one of the following is true:

• The player has 7 or fewer ​ remaining.
• At least 1 of the player’s ships is used (i.e., has ​ on it).

Note: If the player has dismantled all of their ships, this will never be true again; they will need to rely on the other requirements.

• There are no ship actions the player can take, neither with the player’s own ships, other players’ ships, nor neutral ships. This can only happen if everyone has dismantled most of their ships, and even then, it is extremely rare.

There are three steps to the Income action:

1. The player retrieves their Action marker and resets any of their ships that were used since they last took income:

   a. The player returns their Action marker to their Player board.

   b. If the player’s Neutral Ship token is on a neutral ship, they return the token to their Player board. Return the ​ to the supply.

   c. If there are on ​ any of their own ships, they return all ​ to the supply.

2. The player uses their space station:

   a. The player takes income from the supply according to their Station Hub (most Hubs generate 1 per ship) and all of their occupied Sector living quarters with an orange background. The player may take this income in any order.

   b. The player may use special income powers of occupied Sector living quarters or their Station Hub.

   Important: Any living quarters where residents were placed on this turn are not eligible for special powers or bonuses. These only take effect on future turns.

3. Relocate residents (optional): For each resident the player wishes to relocate, the player must pay 1 ​ and must respect the “Placement Rules for Residents.” If moving a resident leaves one or more empty living

quarters to the left of occupied ones in the same Sector, shift the remaining residents to the left to close the gap.

Check for game end

At the end of the player’s turn, they must check to see if at least one of these conditions is true:

• The active player has 40 or more points on the score track.
• The active player has built all nine Sectors of their space station

(It does not matter whether the living quarters are occupied or not.)

• There are 4 or fewer total Aliens remaining in the supply. Humans do not count for this condition.

If the player has triggered the end of the game, then everyone else gets one more turn (but that player does not).

If none of these endgame conditions have been met, the game then continues with the next player clockwise around the table.

Game end scoring

1. Sectors built:
   • Each Level-1 Sector scores 4 points.
   • Each Level-2 Sector scores 6 points.
   • Each Level-3 Sector scores 10 points.

   (The Sectors’ living quarters do not need to be occupied.)

2. Each resident (Alien or Human) on the space station scores 2 points.
3. For each of the five species of resident (teal Aliens, pink Aliens, brown Aliens, gold Aliens, Humans), a player scores 10 points if they have a plurality (more than anyone else); 5 points for second place. If there is a tie for first, the tied players add the rewards for first and second and divide the 15 points among them (round down); nobody else gets any. If there is a tie for second, the tied players must divide the 5 points among them (round down). Players cannot score for first or second place if they have no residents of a given species.
4. Each player scores each endgame bonus on their Station Hub and each occupied endgame bonus in their Level-3 Sectors.
5. Each player scores 1 point for every 20 GEMs the player still has (round down).

   Each player also scores 1 point for every 5 resources (food, water, and metal) the player still has, regardless of their types (round down).

The player with the most points wins.

In the case of a tie, check the following tiebreakers:

• The tied player with the most Aliens wins.
• If it is still a tie, the tied player with the most Humans wins.
• If it is still a tie, the tied players share the victory.