Alkemia

Alkemia Rulebook

Table of Contents

Game Contents and Layout

20 Foraging Field tiles
6 Alchemist Character sheets
6 Alchemist pawns
1 Field Action tracker pawn
160 Reagent cards
64 Item cards
6 Aspiration Item cards
6 Artifact cards
6 Sprout of Endless Possibilities cards
30 SEED cubes
2 Grasping Glue tokens
2 Flickering Idol tokens
2 Dryad's Powder tokens
2 Charming Perfume tokens
8 Death's Breath tokens
2 Journeyman's Lantern tokens
1 Helpful Homunculus token
1 Crest of Creation Ingredient bag
40 Crest of Creation Ingredient tiles
1 D3 die
1 First Player token
1 Seedbourne Beast pawn
Alkemia rule book
Item power book

Layout key

The layout diagram on the contents page is keyed as follows:

A: First Player token
B: Field Action tracker
C: Character sheet
D: Seed Forge
E: Artifact
F: Player inventory
G: Aspiration Item
H: Reagent draw & Discard piles
I: Foraging Field
J: Character pieces
K: Item Trading Post decks
L: Sprout of Endless Possibilities cards
M: Crest Ingredient tiles and bag
N: SEED blocks
O: Item tokens
P: D3 die

Game Setup

The following setup instructions are the suggested way of laying out the game. Depending on the game table, some adjustments may be needed.

Foraging Field Setup

Separate the Reagent cards into 5 decks, organized by element (color). Shuffle each deck and place them to one side of the table.
Set the Phasing Glade tile aside, and then place the City tile in the center of the table with extra room around it. This area will be known as the Foraging Field.
Separate the Item cards into 4 decks, separated by type. Shuffle each deck and place them, recipe side up, on the other side of the Foraging Field (opposite the Reagent cards).
Put all of the square and circle tokens with the star icon into the draw bag and set it aside.
Set the remaining tokens with colored art aside. Also, put the black wooden cubes and the pile of Sprout of Endless Possibilities cards to the side.
Players will build a customized Foraging Field by passing around the remaining set of Field tiles facedown, drawing one on their turn and placing it on the Field. When placing the tile, a movement arrow on the new tile must be touching the movement arrow of a pre-existing tile. However, not all movement arrows must touch others; only one set is necessary. This ensures that it is possible to get everywhere on the map, but some paths may only be one way. This is a common occurrence.
- The printed page illustrates GOOD and BAD placements. The GOOD examples are captioned "Good. Only 1 set of arrows touching required."
The player who draws the Temple of Greater Elemental Spirits will take the First Player token and go first when the game starts.
Place the Beast marker on the Swamp tile when it appears. The marker should start on its side.
Playing a 2-player game? We recommend removing the following Items before gameplay for the best experience:
- Collapsing Capsule (Concoction)
- Charming Perfume (Concoction)
- Distracting Gem (Material)
- Hungering Dagger (Relic)

New to Alkemia? We recommend building a Field that has many paths and has no holes. Fields that are more linear, contain more holes, or have many "2" movement arrows facing each other are considered advanced Field layouts.

Alchemist Setup

Each player will choose an Alchemist to play as (either randomly or by choice).
Place your Alchemist character sheet in front of you and place 2 SEED cubes in your Forge area.
Place your Alchemist's character pawn on the City tile in the Foraging Field.
Place the Aspiration Item card belonging to your Alchemist next to your character sheet in your inventory. The colors on the character sheets, pawns, and Aspiration Items will match:
- Kinn – Ring of the Unseen
- Anarette – Alteration Formula
- Ambers – Bounding Boots
- Reena – Helpful Homunculus
- Phyrmeia – Phantom Eye Staff
- Sophantes – Syphoning Pot
Next, players will acquire their Artifacts. Each player randomly gets one Artifact and must not look at it. Place them face down on the Artifact space of your character sheet.
Lastly, each player begins the game with a starting hand of 5 cards, one from each elemental Reagent deck.

The Alchemists

Character Sheet Breakdown

The character sheet is labelled as follows:

A: Character name
B: Character portrait
C: Character ability
D: SEED Forge
E: Base Crest ingredients
F: Artifact
G: Final Crest ingredients
H: Field Action tracker

The Forge and SEED

Spiritually Enriched Elemental Deposits (SEEDs) are a major part of the life blood of Alkemia. These crystalline resources can be found naturally in elementally dense areas or extracted from natural sources. These crystals serve as a type of currency in their physical form, or they can be broken down in an Alchemist's Forge to perform various functions.

The SEED's main purpose in the game is to activate Curious Sites - special tiles found on the Foraging Field. Unless otherwise noted, spending 1 SEED allows a player to activate the special effect of the Curious Site that they are standing on (see Curious Sites pg.12). SEED can also be traded during bartering with other players or used with a depleted Item to satisfy an Item ingredient on the Crest recipe (see Crest of Creation Recipe pg.22).

Be careful when spending SEED, as it is an exhaustible resource. You can replenish your SEED at the end of each week during the Crest Phase, but you can never have more SEED than the number of slots in your Forge.

Aspiration Item

Each Alchemist is on this journey for their own reason, but they all aspire to create something special. Aspiration Items are unique wonders that each alchemist learns to make in the game and can be very helpful.

Aspiration Items behave like normal Items in the game: they require satisfying a recipe to make, reveal a piece of the Crest of Creation recipe when made, have powerful effects which can be used during specific phases, become depleted after use until the next week, and can be sacrificed to the Crest recipe (see Alchemy Phase pg.16). Making your character's Aspiration Item is not mandatory, however the earlier a player can create their Aspiration Item, the more useful their character ability and the Item's effect will be.

Character Abilities

Each Alchemist has a character ability that powers up their Aspiration Item. The character ability is activated when an Alchemist is standing on a tile that matches their element while using their Aspiration Item. Character Abilities can be found on each character sheet. Each Alchemist also has a passive ability that is used to negate the effects of the Seedbourne Beast when standing on a tile that matches their element (see Curious Sites pg.12).

Example from the printed page: Frank is playing as Kinn who is Fire affiliated. He has the "Ring of the Unseen" Aspiration item. If Kinn uses the Ring of the Unseen while on a Fire tile, its power is upgraded. Frank is also immune to the Seedbourne Beast while Kinn is on a Fire tile.

Inventory

Your inventory is the empty area around your character sheet in front of you. There is no specific layout or space denoting this, so set it up as the game progresses to exactly what fits your playstyle and table. The inventory will hold all of the recipes and Items you obtain throughout the game, as well as your Aspiration Item and the occasional special Reagent. The inventory can hold up to six cards. If your inventory is maxed out and you wish to add something new to it, you must sacrifice or discard something in the inventory to make room for it.

Hand Size

All Reagents collected from the Foraging Field are held in your hand. During your turn there is no hand size limit; however by the end of the CREST Phase, you can have no more than ten cards in your hand. Like the inventory, you can discard down to ten cards if needed, but it's always best to try to find a use for the Reagents before doing so.

Alkemia Gameplay in a Nutshell

The player's ultimate goal is to create the Crest of Creation. In order to create the Crest, a player must reveal and satisfy their Crest of Creation recipe and have unlocked their Artifact -- which happens automatically as the game progresses. A piece of the Crest recipe is revealed whenever the player successfully synthesizes an Item. Items are created from recipes and Reagents, which are obtained by moving across the Foraging Field and interacting with the Trading Post and Fertile Patch tiles.

The game is over once someone has revealed all 6 of their Crest recipe ingredients and satisfied them.

Week Structure

The funnel diagram on the printed page shows the order of a week, from top to bottom: Foraging and Alchemy, then Reveal & Satisfy Base Crest Ingredients, then Unseal Artifact, then Reveal & Satisfy Final Crest Ingredients, and finally the Crest of Creation.

Game time is measured in weeks. Each week consists of three phases: the Field Phase, the Alchemy Phase, and the Crest Phase.

The Field Phase is played in turn order, starting with the player with the First Player token. Going around the table once, each player will spend their Field Actions to move their player piece and gather Reagents, as well as interact with Curious Site tiles. Once a player's turn is over, they must pass the Field Action tracker piece to the next player.

Once control returns to the First Player, the Alchemy Phase begins. In this phase, all players will synthesize any Items they want to create by satisfying those recipes in their inventory with Reagents in their hand. The Alchemy Phase is performed all at once and is over when everyone is finished making Items.

Lastly, the week comes to a close with the CREST Phase. All at once, players will perform steps together to finalize their choices for the week and prepare for the following week. Once the CREST Phase is completed, the First Player token is passed to the left of its last owner and a new week begins.

The Field Phase

The Field Phase is when players will gather Reagents and Item recipes. In turn order, each player will use their Field Actions and SEED to interact with the Foraging Field. Players can spend their Field Actions to move around the Field, gather Reagents, and spend SEED to activate the special abilities of the Curious Site tiles. Many Item powers, both beneficial and menacing, can be activated during this phase.

Field Actions

Movement and gathering Reagents on the Foraging Field are limited to the number of Field Actions a player has available. All players will start with 5 Field Actions at the beginning of their turn. Before each turn, the current player must roll the D3 die for their Foraging bonus. The die result is added to the player's Field Actions for this turn -- place the Field Action tracker on the appropriate space on your character sheet. This tracker will be used throughout your turn to denote how many Field Actions you have remaining.

Your turn is over once you run out of Field Actions and can no longer do anything else. You do not need to use all of your Field Actions in your turn. Once your turn is over, pass the tracker to the next player.

Note: Once the Seedbourne Beast is active, the die result for each player's Foraging bonus will affect him as well (See The Seedbourne Beast pg. 15).

Foraging Field

The Field is where players will move around and collect cards, known as Reagents. Reagents are naturally occurring alchemical components found throughout Alkemia. Reagents can be used to satisfy recipes to create powerful Items, provide more options when interacting with a Trading Post tile, or for bartering and stealing. Some Reagents even have their own special abilities.

Field Actions are primarily used to move your character piece around the Foraging Field in order to gather Reagents, while SEED is used to activate Curious Site tiles.

Reagent Discard Piles

The Reagent discard piles are found next to (or nearby) the draw decks separated by element. Cards in these piles are placed face up. Players may look through these piles at any point during the game, unless some effect forbids it. These decks will continue to fill throughout the game and can only be emptied by activating the Temple of Greater Elemental Spirits Curious Site (see Curious Sites pg. 12).

Movement

When moving your character piece around the Foraging Field, you must remember to pay attention to each movement cost: this is the value on the arrow that points towards the tile you are moving onto. This value represents how many Field Actions you must spend in order to move from your current tile to the desired tile. If you do not have enough Field Actions, you cannot move onto that tile. If your current tile does not have an arrow pointing to the desired tile, you will need to find another way to the desired tile.

Example from the printed page: There is an arrow with a value of "1" pointing to a Water tile on Frank's current Fire tile. During his turn, Frank moves from the Fire tile to the Water tile for the cost of 1 Field Action. Now Frank wants to move to an adjacent Air tile but he cannot -- there are no arrows on the Water tile that point to the Air tile. Frank will have to find an alternate route.

The diagram on the printed page is captioned "OK move. Spend 1 Field Action." for the Fire-to-Water move, and "Can't move here. No arrow to Air tile." for the Water-to-Air move.

Gathering

When you are on a fertile patch tile, also called elemental tiles, you may spend Field Actions to draw cards from the matching Foraging deck. Fertile patches can be identified by their elemental colors and symbols. Each Field Action allows one card to be drawn into the player's hand. You must have 10 cards (or less) in your hand by the end of the current week, but you can carry many cards in your hand until that time.

Some Reagents have special abilities that players may choose to use. These cards use the same icons as Items to represent when they can be used: either during the Field Phase, the Alchemy Phase, or both. Unless the card says otherwise, once the Reagent's ability has been used, the card must be discarded.

Players can only draw up to three cards, in a single turn, on a particular fertile patch. Once a player has gathered three times, that particular fertile patch becomes exhausted and the player must move elsewhere to continue gathering. Any power that allows for extra gathering does not count toward a player's draw limit. Other players are not affected by any exhausted tiles that you may cause. Tiles that you exhaust during your turn are refreshed and are available to you on your next Field Phase.

Example from the printed page: Frank is on a Fire tile and draws 3 Fire cards from the Fire draw deck (costing 3 Field Actions). Though he may have a few actions left, he cannot draw from this specific Fire tile anymore because it is exhausted for him. He must move to another tile to gather more. If Frank had an Item that allowed him to draw more cards, this would not count toward the fertile patch draw limit.

Curious Sites

Any tile that is not a fertile patch is considered a special tile, known as a Curious Site. These tiles provide special effects that players may utilize, by spending one SEED while on the Curious Site. Each Curious Site can only be used by a player once per turn. The following are Curious Sites that are available in the base game:

Beast's Swamp: The Seedbourne Beast starts here. Activate to switch places with the Beast on the Foraging Field.
City: All players start the game on the City Tile. Activate to initiate a barter session with other players.
Phasing Glade: This tile only appears when an alchemist summons it for help. If the tile has already been summoned this week, it can't be re-summoned. To summon this tile:
1. Move your character to any tile that has an arrow pointing off of the Field.
2. Spend one SEED to place the Phasing Glade tile so that it connects to any outward pointing arrow on your current tile.
Once summoned, any player who ends their turn on this tile can activate its effect, during the Alchemy Phase, by spending one SEED. This means that the player who summons this tile must spend a second SEED to use its effect. A player can activate this tile once per Alchemy Phase. Once this tile is activated, once per Alchemy Phase, a player may sacrifice two Reagents from their hand to satisfy any single ingredient on the recipe being synthesized. During the Crest Phase, this tile is removed from the Field. All players on it are moved to the adjoining tile.
Temple of Greater Elemental Spirits: Activate to refresh one elemental draw deck. If the chosen element's deck is not completely empty, shuffle the discards into the deck and take the top card before placing it back on the Field. If the chosen element's deck is empty, take any card from the discard pile, shuffle the remaining discards to re-form the draw deck, and place it back on the Field. Note: This tile is the only way to refresh the Reagent draw decks.
Thieves' Den: Activate to perform a steal attempt on any other player. To steal, you choose a target player and roll the die. On a 2 or 3: pick a card from the target's hand without looking at their cards. On a 1: you get nothing.

Bartering

A player may barter with other players for Reagents or SEED by activating the City tile. The player who initiates the barter must follow these steps:

Announce that a barter session is beginning and request one of the following: a. A specific Reagent type b. A specific Reagent element c. Some number of SEED
Ask all players who do not have the requested card or SEED to exit the barter by lowering their hand.
Ask all remaining players who do not want to trade to exit the barter by lowering their hand.
Talk with each remaining player and work out the terms of a trade. If no players are left to trade with, the barter session ends. The player who initiated the barter can only receive one card or the requested SEED amount during this trade. The trading player may receive any number of Reagents and/or SEED.
Once a trade is made, the barter session ends. The initiator is not required to accept a deal. If no deal is made, the barter session ends.

Example from the printed page: Frank activates a barter session and states that he is looking for a Flora type Reagent. Two players do not have that Reagent type so they put down their cards. Frank then asks, "Who has Flora but doesn't want to trade?" One more player puts down their hand. Mertyl and Bertha still have their hands up. Frank talks to each one to see who can offer him the best deal. Bertha asks for too much in return so Frank trades with Mertyl. Frank has acquired a Flora card by giving multiple Reagents to Mertyl. The barter session ends.

The Seedbourne Beast

The Seedbourne Beast is a creature that lives in the wilds of Alkemia. Its home is in a swamp where SEED crystals grow rampant. The Beast was once a docile creature; however, after ingesting too much SEED, the Beast began rampaging through the Fields. Alchemists carrying SEED should be wary of this creature; even its aura has a strange effect on the land around it.

The Beast starts, on its side, on the Beast's Swamp tile. It does not move the first week, but at the start of the second week, its piece stands up and begins moving. The Beast moves at the beginning of each player's turn during the Field Phase. The Beast's movement is based on the die result of each player's Foraging bonus. In addition to gaining extra Field Actions, the player who rolled the die must move the Beast according to the following:

On a roll of 1: move the Beast one tile following any movement arrow with a cost of "1." If a move is available it must be taken.
On a roll of 2: move the Beast one tile following any movement arrow with a cost of "2." If a move is available it must be taken.
On a roll of 3: move the Beast to any adjacent tile (regardless of arrows). The player can choose to not move the Beast in this case.

If the Beast lands on a tile with any players: those players must lose, either, 1 Reagent from their hand or 1 SEED. Remember: players are immune to the Beast's effect when they are standing on a tile that matches their element. Also, players cannot interact with the tile that the Beast is on. This means that players cannot gather from or activate any tile that the Beast is on. Players can move through the Beast's space without penalty.

Examples from the printed page: The Beast must travel along a '2' and so Frank moves him to the Air tile. Ambers is immune to the Beast because he's on an Air tile. Anarette must lose one SEED or one Reagent.

Alchemy Phase

The Alchemy Phase is when players will synthesize Items using the recipes in their inventory and the Reagents from their hand. There is no turn order in the Alchemy Phase, so players will be making their Items all at once. Players should announce when they're finished so that everyone knows when to end the Alchemy Phase.

Alchemy Session

Every time players choose a recipe to synthesize, they are beginning an alchemy session. During an alchemy session, players will discard Reagents with types and elements matching the ingredients shown on the recipe. Each Reagent used contributes either one of its types or its element, but not both. Once the used Reagents are discarded, the recipe can be flipped over to its Item side. Item powers are available immediately. Each alchemy session lasts until the chosen Item has been made and the used Reagents are discarded. Players can perform as many alchemy sessions as they want during the Alchemy Phase, so long as they have the necessary Reagents to make their recipes.

After each successful alchemy session, players will draw a tile from the Crest of Creation ingredient bag and place it on their character sheet. Each tile represents one piece of their Crest recipe that they must satisfy in order to win the game. There are two tile types in the ingredient bag: square Reagent tiles and circle Item tiles. Players must draw their tiles in the order shown on their character sheet, redrawing until the right type is pulled. Note: the exception here is when a player has revealed their first 3 Crest Ingredients, but hasn't unsealed their Artifact yet. Until the Artifact is unsealed, no additional tiles can be drawn.

Example from the printed page: Frank wants to make an Item from a recipe in his inventory. The recipe requires 2 "Water" element cards, 1 "Flora" Reagent type, and 1 "Consumable" Reagent type. Frank starts his alchemy session and puts down the Reagent cards he is using to make the Item. He then discards all of those Reagents and flips the Item card over to its "Item" side in his inventory. Frank now has immediate access to the new Item's effect and can draw one Crest recipe tile from the ingredient bag (if able).

Item Tokens

Some Items come with tokens to mark their areas of effect. Since there are two copies of each Item, the game contains 2x the number of tokens per Item. When you create an Item with a token, take one of the tokens. In the case of Death's Breath, take four of the tokens, making sure you grab four with matching borders. The colored borders are to help the player remember which token is theirs in case another player is using the same Item.

Reagent and Item Breakdown

The printed page labels the parts of each card as follows.

Reagents (front):

A: Card Name
B: Descriptive Text
C: Card Type
D: Card Image
E: Element
F: Card Effect
G: Field Phase Usage Icon
H: Alchemy Phase Usage Icon

Reagents (back): the back shows the Alkemia logo and the element symbol (E).

Items (front):

A: Card Name
B: Descriptive Text
C: Card Type
D: Card Image
F: Card Effect
G: Field Phase Usage Icon
H: Alchemy Phase Usage Icon

Items (back):

A: Card Name
C: Card Type
I: Item Recipe
J: Item Power Keywords

The printed page's example Reagent is a "Water Spirit" with the effect "Ripple Invocation: Place this Spirit in your inventory. While in play, all of your Water costs for recipes are reduced by one. Only one Spirit can be in play at a time. Spend 1 SEED to return this Spirit to your hand." The example Item is the "Enrichment Elixir" with the effect "Enhance Elements: Roll the die. Discard that many reagents from your hand and gain that many SEED." Its back shows the recipe and the power keywords "Recover" and "SEED".

Card Types and Elements

Reagent Types: Consumable, Fauna, Flora, Liquid, Mineral, Mystical, Sand, Shell, Stone, Wood.

Reagent Elements: Air, Earth, Ether, Fire, Water.

Item Types: Concoction, Gear, Material, Relic.

The printed page also gives a Reagent Type Distribution chart showing, for each Reagent type, the split of cards among the five elements (Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Ether).

Item Power Keywords

During the game, players are not allowed to look through the Trading Post decks or reveal upcoming recipes without using an Item power. The only information available to everyone is the recipe side of the Item on top of each deck. Since players will not be able to read the powers of the available Items, every recipe includes two power keywords on the bottom of the card (in the red ribbons). These keywords serve as hints as to what kind of power an Item has. If players want to know an Item's power, before buying it, you can view the full Item description in the Item Power Booklet. Once you acquire a recipe, and add it to your inventory, you can look at the Item side.

There are two groups of keywords and each Item has one word from each group. The Actions group expresses what kind of effect the Item has and the Targets group expresses what is affected by the Item's effect. The keywords are:

Action keywords:

Hinder: Affects other players in a negative way
Manipulate: Affects game mechanics and allows players to alter them
Recover: Restores something to the player
Simplify: Makes something easier for the player to do

Target keywords: Actions, alchemy, barter, gathering, items, movement, reagents, SEED, tiles.

Using Your Items

In order to reach your full potential as an Alchemist, you will need to create a variety of Items. Beside being necessary to progress in the game, each Item also grants the use of unique effects. Many types of effects exist. Some allow easier movement on the Field, some remove recipe requirements, and some hinder opponents. Finding synergy between Items marks the talent of a true Alchemist. In all cases, Item powers override game rules when used.

In order to use an Item effect, you must have a created Item in your inventory and you must be in the correct phase to activate it. Items will have one or both of the following icons on them: the Field Phase icon symbolizes that the card can be used during the Field Phase, and the Alchemy Phase icon symbolizes that the card can be used during the Alchemy Phase. Then, state you're activating the effect and follow the instructions on the Item's card. It does not cost anything to activate an Item effect, unless the Item specifically says so. Turn the used Item card on its side to represent it has been used and is now depleted. Depleted Items cannot be used again that week. You can use any number of non-depleted Items during a given week.

Be careful about depleting all of your Items every week. Depleted Items require additional cost to sacrifice them for the Crest recipe. Items are refreshed at the end of the week during the CREST Phase.

Using Your Items on the Seedbourne Beast

In general, the Beast can be affected by card effects, if applicable. The following Reagents and Items are all capable of affecting the Beast: Grasping Glue, Journeyman's Lantern, Shelled Mirror, Rider's Gloves, Mandrake Root, and Soul Thread.

Example from the printed page: Frank wanted to use the "Shelled Mirror" in order to switch places with a player on the Foraging Field. Since the Beast can move and holds a place on the Field, just like a player, there is no reason why the power wouldn't affect the Beast.

Example from the printed page: Mertyl wants to use the "Hungering Dagger," which removes SEED from another player and allows her to draw 2 free cards. Since the Beast does not carry SEED, like the players, this power would not work on the Beast.

CREST Phase

When the Alchemy Phase is finished, players enter the CREST Phase. The CREST Phase is a cleanup and preparation phase. Simultaneously, all players will perform the steps of the CREST Phase in order. Once the CREST Phase is over, the next week begins.

It is recommended that new players move through the CREST phase together in order to better learn the steps. More familiar players may decide to perform the CREST phase steps on their own, without waiting for other players to finish their Alchemy Phase. That is allowed, as long as those players wait for everyone to finish the CREST Phase before moving on to the next week.

The steps of the CREST Phase must be performed in order. If a particular step is unavailable to a player, they must skip it and move on to the next step.

C: Crest: Sacrifice any Reagents or Items required by the Crest Recipe to satisfy those ingredients. A player may choose to sacrifice nothing during this step.
R: Reap: Flip over the Sprout of Endless Possibilities card if you have one. It is now available for use.
E: Evoke: Unseal and flip over your Artifact card if you have satisfied all of your Base Crest Ingredients.
S: SEED: Discard Reagent cards to add SEED to your Forge. For each discarded Reagent, a player restores one SEED.
T: Turn: Turn depleted Items upright, marking them non-depleted.

Crest of Creation Recipe

Throughout the game, players will be working to reveal and satisfy their unique Crest of Creation recipe. This recipe is located on each Alchemist's character sheet. The first three ingredients are known as the Base Crest Ingredients and the last three are known as the Final Crest Ingredients. Each time a player creates an Item, they draw 1 ingredient tile from the Crest of Creation ingredient bag. Ingredient tiles represent the Reagents and Items that you must collect in order to satisfy your recipe and win the game.

There are two kinds of ingredient tiles: Reagent ingredients (marked with a star on a square tile) and Item ingredients (marked with a star on a circle tile).

Reagent ingredients correspond with the 10 different Reagent types and Item ingredients correspond with the 4 different Item types. Each player's recipe consists of 3 Reagent ingredients and 3 Item ingredients. When drawing tiles, players must draw them in the order that they appear on the character sheets. If you draw the wrong type of tile, you must continue to draw until you find the tile that you need. Put the other tiles back in the bag and place the drawn tile on the next empty ingredient slot on your character sheet -- the type icon should be face up.

Unlike Item recipes, whose ingredients must be satisfied all at once, the Crest ingredients can be satisfied individually. Once an ingredient is known, that ingredient may be satisfied during the CREST Phase by sacrificing the appropriate card. Whenever you satisfy an ingredient, flip over the corresponding ingredient tile to keep track of your progress. Once all 6 ingredients have been satisfied, the recipe is considered fully satisfied and the game is over. You may sacrifice any number of Crest ingredients during the CREST Phase, and they may be satisfied in any order.

Note: Since the Sprout of Endless Possibilities can represent any Reagent type, it can be used to satisfy Reagent ingredients in the Crest recipe.

Satisfying Crest Ingredients

During the 'C' step of a CREST phase, the printed page shows Frank satisfying Base Crest Ingredients by discarding matching cards. Satisfy any number of Crest Ingredients per Crest phase by discarding cards with the matching types.

Reagents and non-depleted Items may be sacrificed by simply discarding them. Depleted Items can be sacrificed as well; however, players must spend one SEED in order to do so. Players can only sacrifice one depleted Item per CREST Phase. Sacrificed Reagents are discarded into their appropriate discard pile and sacrificed Items are placed at the bottom of their corresponding Trading Post deck.

Non-depleted and depleted Items are discarded when used to satisfy Crest ingredients, but depleted Items require spending one SEED as well. Non-depleted: DISCARD. Depleted: DISCARD + 1 SEED.

The Crest recipes are considered to be as powerful as the Crest of Creation itself. Therefore, no card effects can be used on the Crest recipe in any way, except for the Sprout of Endless Possibilities. All six chosen ingredients must be found and satisfied as they are.

Evoking Artifacts

While working toward the Crest of Creation recipe, players will encounter legendary items, known as Artifacts. Each player receives one Artifact during game setup, which is placed face down on the character sheets. While face down, Artifacts remain sealed and block a player's progress; as a result, the player will be unable to draw any of the Final Crest Ingredients until the seal is broken. Therefore, any Items that are made after a player reveals all of their Base Crest Ingredients, but before their Artifact seal is broken, will not yield any new ingredient tiles.

The only way to progress, once all Base Crest Ingredients are revealed, is to unseal the Artifact. To unseal an Artifact, a player must satisfy their three Base Crest Ingredients. Once completed, on the next CREST Phase, the player will be able to break the seal on their Artifact -- during the Evoke step. After a player's Artifact has been unsealed, the Artifact card is turned over and the player gains immediate access to its power. The player also draws their 4th Ingredient tile from the bag. Now players can resume drawing Ingredient tiles in order to reveal their Final Crest Ingredients. Note: If any Items were synthesized before the Artifact seal was broken, players do not get to draw tiles for those Items once the seal is broken. You must create new Items in order to draw more tiles.

The printed page shows Frank's example: Over multiple weeks, the Base Crest Ingredients will be satisfied. With all Base Ingredients satisfied, during the 'E' step of the CREST phase, he unseals and reveals the Artifact and draws the first Final Crest Ingredient from the bag. No fourth Ingredient can be drawn until the Artifact is unsealed.

Example from the printed page: Frank has made 3 Items so far and has drawn all 3 of his Base Crest Ingredients. Frank is free to obtain more recipes and synthesize more Items; however, he will not receive any more tiles until his Artifact is unsealed. Once Frank satisfies all of the Base Crest Ingredients, during the CREST Phase, Frank will unseal his Artifact and gain access to its power. Frank will then draw his 4th tile from the bag and continue on. He will have to make 2 more Items in order to draw his final 2 ingredients.

Artifact Breakdown

Artifacts are unique and very useful. It does not cost anything to use an Artifact (unless the card says otherwise) and they do not take up room in your inventory. These cards use the same icons as Items to represent when they can be used: either during the Field Phase, the Alchemy Phase, or both.

The printed page labels the Artifact card as follows: A: Artifact Name; B: Artifact Description; C: Artifact Type; D: Artifact Image; E: Artifact Effect; F: Artifact Seal Description; G: Field Phase Usage Icon; H: Alchemy Phase Usage Icon.

The example Artifact shown is the "Seeker's Amulet", with the effect "Flawless Finder: Pick any reagent from any Foraging discard pile once during your turn."

The back of an Artifact shows its seal, here:

Supreme Seal: Final Crest ingredients cannot be revealed.
Break the Seal: Satisfy the Base Crest ingredients to unseal this Artifact. Reveal one Final Crest ingredient when unsealed.

Winning the Game

Once a player has unsealed their Artifact, and has fully satisfied their Crest of Creation recipe, the game is over and that player wins. If multiple players complete their Crest recipe at the same time, they can break the tie by adding up points for the following:

1 point for each Reagent you have (in your hand and inventory).
1 point for each SEED you have in your Forge.
5 points for each Item still left in your inventory (has to be created).
6 points for Aspiration Item left in your inventory (has to be created).

If there is still a tie, players can determine their own house rules to break the tie. We recommend that either those players graciously accept their win together or play Alkemia again to see who the Grand Alchemist truly is.

Helpful Hints

The earlier you make your Aspiration Item, the more useful it will be. If you don't know what you are aiming to do in the beginning of the game, try to collect the ingredients for this Item. However, don't get stuck on this Item if another opportunity presents itself.
Until you are certain about what you need to win, it is a good idea to obtain a variety of different types of Items. This way there is a greater chance that you will have the ingredients necessary to satisfy the tiles that you pull from the bag.
Having a hard time making a particular Item? You probably have what you need to make other Items. Being held up by one Item for too long can set you back in the game.
Acquiring many recipes at once may seem like a good idea, however, it can become overwhelming. Only focusing on a couple choice recipes, at one time, is the most efficient tactic.
There are multiple ways to acquire the cards that you need and make them match your recipe. Try various combinations of Alchemy, Reagents, Items, Artifacts, and Curious Site effects in order to find the best synergy.
This game involves planning and strategy. When it is not your turn, it is helpful to figure out your next move, as well as some back up ideas.
When stealing, a gentlemanly thief may ask their target what cards they don't need and draw from them; however, the backstabbing thief may ask the same, but draw from the cards that the player needs. Be careful what you reveal to your thief.

Glossary

Alchemist: The term "Alchemist" is used to refer to the 6 playable characters of the game.
Alchemy Phase: One of the 3 phases that occurs during gameplay. In this phase, players create Items from recipes using Reagents.
Alchemy Session: This refers to making a single Item through alchemy.
Alkemia: Alkemia is the land in which the game takes place. Alchemy is its life blood, and it is steeped deep into the history and culture of the world.
Artifact: Artifacts are powerful, rare cards that are gained, face down, at the beginning of a game and are unlocked through game progression.
Aspiration Item: These are unique Items that the Alchemist characters strive to make. Each Alchemist starts the game with a particular Aspiration Item.
Bartering: This is an attempt to trade card(s) with another player through the use of the City tile.
Crasis: This is the central city of Alkemia and is what you see on the box. It is also the starting City tile.
Crest of Creation: A fabled object that existed once and held the power of the elements, but it is now gone and needs to be recreated. The player who can create this object becomes the next 'Grand Alchemist' (wins the game). This is also referred to as 'The Crest'.
Crest of Creation Recipe: This refers to 6 shapes (3 circles and 3 squares) that exist on your character sheet. Players will be revealing this recipe as they play through the game and create Items in the Alchemy Phase.

Quick Reference

The printed Quick Reference card (the last page of the instructions) is reproduced below.

Week Summary -- a week is 3 phases:

Field Phase: 5 Field Actions + 1D3 bonus die; completed in turn order; move, gather, and use Curious Sites on the Foraging Field.
Alchemy Phase: All together; discard gathered corresponding Reagents to make acquired recipes.
CREST Phase: All together; satisfy revealed tiles of your Crest recipe and prepare for the next week.

Note: Your Reagent hand limit is 10, and your inventory limit is 6 at the end of this phase.

Curious Site Tiles:

Beast's Swamp: Switch places with the Beast.
City: Player starting position. Activate to start a barter.
Phasing Glade: Summoned with 1 SEED. Changes 2 Reagents into a wild Reagent during an alchemy session.
Temple of Greater Elemental Spirits: Refresh one Reagent draw deck and take a card from the top of the deck after shuffling. Alternatively, take any card if the deck was depleted.
Thieves' Den: Steal a Reagent card from another player (2 or 3 die roll is a success).
Trading Post: Activate to acquire a recipe matching the post's type.
Tree of Endless Possibilities: Acquire the Sprout card: at the start of the next week, it can act as a Reagent wild card.

The Quick Reference also repeats the Reagent Types, Reagent Elements, Item Types, Reagent Type Distribution and CREST step diagrams from the earlier pages, and marks the card-use icons: a Field Phase icon for cards usable during the Field Phase and an Alchemy Phase icon for cards usable during the Alchemy Phase.