Aquatica: Duellum Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
  • Common components
  • Player components
• Game Setup
  • Common setup
  • Player setup
• Goal of the Game
• Cards and Boards Anatomy
  • Location cards and mercenary cards
  • Leadership board
  • Player boards and vortex board
• How to Play
  • Main actions
  • Additional actions
  • Gaining and spending resources
  • Helper animals
• Effects
• Effects (in depth)
  • Buy or Conquer a location
  • Conquer or buy the loyalty of a mercenary
  • Raise a location
  • Fully raise a location
  • Rotate the vortex
  • Refill the vortex
  • Move the manta leader
  • Copy the effect of the last action card played by the opponent
  • Score a location
  • Flip helper animals to their active side
  • Flip your opponent's helper animals to their tired side
• Additional actions not represented by effects
  • Activate helper animals
  • Activate a location
  • Playing a mercenary
  • Achieving goals
  • Moving on the crown track
• End Game Triggers
• Prosperity Points Count
• Solo Game Mode
• Appendix
  • Mercenaries

Components

Common components

1. Leadership board
2. Vortex board
3. 40 location cards
4. 16 mercenary cards
5. 4 double-sided goal tokens
6. 12 wild manta minis
7. Manta Leader standee
8. First player token

Player components

9. 2 player boards: Turtles and Squids
10. 16 action cards (2 sets of 8 cards each)
11. 8 first achievement tokens (2 sets of 4 tokens each)
12. 8 second achievement tokens (2 sets of 4 tokens each)
13. 4 turtle miniatures
14. 4 squid miniatures
15. 2 leader standees (1 for each player)

Game Setup

Common setup

1. Set up and place the vortex board in the center of the table.
2. Place the leadership board next to it.
3. In the special slots along the top edge of the leadership board, place all 4 Goal tokens with a random side up. For your first game, we recommend using the sides of the goal tokens marked with a swirl symbol.
4. Place the Manta Leader standee in the central area of the Aquatica world map on the leadership board.
5. Turn the wild mantas face down and shuffle them thoroughly. Then, randomly place them on the manta spots on the world map and flip them on their ready side (belly-side up).
6. Combine the location and mercenary cards into one deck and shuffle it thoroughly. Then, randomly place 6 cards from this deck into the slots of the vortex board, and place the deck anywhere on the table where it is convenient for any player to draw cards from.
7. Decide who will play as which faction — the Bronectorate of Turtles and Sereníssima Republic of Calmaria. You can do this randomly or by agreement among the players.
8. Take the personal player board corresponding to your faction and place it in front of you.

Player setup

9. Place 8 first and second achievement tokens next to your player board.
10. Place 4 helper animals — turtles or squids — next to your player board belly side up.
11. Place your leader standee on the starting point of the crown track on the leadership board (this point is marked with the symbol of your faction).
12. Take all 8 action cards of your faction into your hand.

Now, toss the first player token. The upper side will determine the first player. You're ready to begin the game!

Goal of the Game

Your goal is to convince the peoples of Aquatica to join your alliance and bring peace, justice and unity to the fragmented world. This can be achieved in three ways:

1. Attract the Manta Leader to your kingdom. If the Manta Leader standee reaches the rightmost/leftmost territory on the map, you win instantly.
2. Obtain "Support of 9 Crowns". Instant victory.
3. Have the most prosperity points by the time a player completes 4 Sacred goals.

Cards and Boards Anatomy

Location cards and mercenary cards

On the vortex board, you will encounter two types of cards: locations and mercenaries. During the course of the game, you can conquer or buy any of those.

As you can see, both locations and mercenaries have types. There are five types of locations and four types of mercenaries.

Card anatomy (labelled illustration): a mercenary card shows its mercenary cost, mercenary type, prosperity points, effect, and (on some) a crown. A location card shows its location cost, location type, depths (with their effects), prosperity points, and (on some) a crown.

Leadership board

The leadership board represents what you need to do to finish the game. You can see:

1. Aquatica world map with a Manta Leader standee in the middle. By moving the Manta Leader towards one of the borders of the map, you are moving towards one of the victory conditions. You can also find Wild Mantas on the map.
2. Two crown tracks (one for each faction), representing the "Support of 9 crowns" victory condition.
3. Four goals on top of the board, representing the Sacred Goals victory condition.

Player boards and vortex board

On your player boards, you will be collecting locations, then sliding them up to exploit them for their resources (see "Activate a location" on page 14).

These locations are bought or conquered from the vortex board, which is a dynamic market.

There are two factions in the game and the rules of how you buy/conquer locations from the vortex are different for each of them:

If you play for Squids, you pay the number of coins shown on the vortex board to buy locations and pay the number of tridents shown on the top-central bubble on a location or mercenary card to conquer the location or mercenary.

If you play for Turtles, you pay the number of tridents shown on the vortex board to conquer locations and pay the number of coins shown on the top-central bubble on a location card to buy the location.

See more on how to buy and conquer locations at page 10.

How to Play

The players take turns until one of the end-game triggers is met. During their turn, players must do 1 main action and may also perform an unlimited amount of additional actions. These actions may be performed in any order you choose, but you can't divide any action to perform other actions in the middle of the first started action. When you have finished all your actions for your turn, it passes to your adversary.

Main actions

Each turn, a player must take a main action — play an action card from their hand and fully or partially resolve its effect according to their choice.

You are not obligated to execute the entire action and can decide how extensively you want to use the card's effects (but at least one of its effects must be performed at least partially; you cannot play the card "in vain").

You can choose to play or skip the effects of the card in the order they are listed on the card. If the card says "in any combination", then you can perform its actions in any sequence.

You can interrupt your main action only by reinforcing it with a resource (coins or tridents) (see page 9) or with a achievement token reinforcement (see page 15).

Nota Bene! If you have played the base Aquatica before, you may have noticed that previously, performing the main action was mandatory (except for scouting) as much as possible. Yes, in Aquatica: Duellum, you have more freedom of action. However, remember that skipping actions is often not very advantageous.

Additional actions

Before or after the mandatory action, you can perform any number of additional actions:

1. Play 1 mercenary card that you obtained at least on the previous turn.
2. Activate any number of effects from your faction helper animals: wild mantas, turtles, or squids.
3. Activate any number of effects from the current top depth level on locations on your player board (you can use more than one action from each location per turn if you can cleverly combine main and additional actions).
4. Declare achieving a goal.
5. Gain a support effect on the crown track when you advance along it.

You can see the description of all actions in the "Additional actions" section on page 14.

Important! The effect of an action card cannot be interrupted by the execution of additional actions. However, using resources to support an action is not considered an additional action.

Important! You cannot split an additional action as well, for example, if you are playing a manta helper that has 2 manta-ready effects you cannot split them with another effect.

Gaining and spending resources

In Aquatica: Duellum, there are only two types of resources: coins and tridents. The former symbolize your ability to buy the locations and mercenaries. The latter represent the ability to compel allies and opponents to follow your will.

You can acquire resources from action cards, location cards, and mantas. Remember the main point: resources are not carried over to the next turn but are used immediately or they are lost.

!Using resources is the only activity you can do in the middle of another action!

Helper animals

Each player begins the game with their own set of 4 animals (squid and turtles respectively to the faction). But there are many mantas you can still encounter in the waters. In fact, there are 12 mantas that you can train during the course of the game.

All the animals are represented by the green diamond sign in the game. If you encounter any icon with a manta, consider it to represent all of the helper animals.

All the animals can bring you resources and let you perform special effects. When an animal is ready to help you, it is flipped belly-side up with the visible effect. To gain resources or perform a special effect, flip the ready animal back up. In other words, flip the animal on its belly. When the animal is turned back up, it is tired. A tired animal is resting and cannot do anything. To make it ready again players need to perform an effect. The most common way to activate your resting animals is to use the Ocean Currents action card.

Player note. Unlike in the base game, in Duel Aquatica, you do not automatically gain mantas from special locations. You can attract them only if, during your turn, you bring the Manta Leader to their nesting territory on the Aquatica world map.

Remember! If you use an animal with a 2 manta-ready effect, you can't split the said effect. You can do the next additional action only after finishing the first one.

Effects

These are the effects you can find both on action cards or on other components like locations, mercenaries, mantas and crown support tracks.

• Conquer a location / loyalty of a mercenary
• Buy a location / loyalty of a mercenary
• Raise a location
• Fully raise a location
• Rotate the vortex
• Refill the vortex
• Move the Manta Leader
• Copy the effect of the last action card played by the opponent (top card in their discard pile).
• Score a location
• Flip helper animals to their active side
• Flip helper animals of your opponent to their tired side
• Return an action card of your choice to your hand

Effects (in depth)

Buy or Conquer a location

To buy a location, follow these steps:

1. Choose 1 location from the vortex board.
2. Play an Action card that will allow you to buy a Location (it needs to have that effect).
3. If you play for Squids, pay the number of coins shown on the vortex board. If you play for Turtles, pay the price (in coins) on the top of the location card.
4. Insert the location into an empty slot of your player board so that the top depth appears in the circle.

If you don't want to buy a location, you can conquer it. This requires a certain amount of power:

1. Choose 1 location from the vortex board.
2. Play an Action card that will allow you to conquer a Location (it needs to have that effect).
3. If you play for Turtles, pay the number of tridents shown on the vortex board. If you play for Squids, pay the price (in tridents) on the top of the location card.
4. Insert the location into an empty slot of your player board so that the top depth appears in the circle.

If you don't have empty slots you cannot buy or conquer a location.

Remember! If you lack the required amount of coins or power, you can always use one or more of the animals to help or you might need to check the achievement token placed on the goal (if you've already managed to do so).

Remember! You don't refill the vortex board after finishing this effect. To do this, you need to use a "refill the vortex" effect.

Remember! The cost of conquering and buying varies between different factions!

Conquer or buy the loyalty of a mercenary

Acquiring the loyalty of a mercenary using coins or power is performed similarly to conquering or buying a location.

However, you do not place the mercenary on your player board; instead, you place it face down below your player board, next to any location placement slot (whether it's empty or already has a location). Therefore, you cannot have more than 4 locations on your player board and 4 mercenaries ready to execute orders. While the mercenary card is face down (i.e., immediately after acquisition), you cannot use it. At the beginning of your next turn, flip the mercenary face up — now it is ready to assist you.

Remember! The cost of conquering and buying varies between different factions!

Raise a location

As a king or a queen, you are trying to bring prosperity to your realm by exploiting locations you have discovered.

When you exploit a location, you raise resources from it to your Kingdom. By raising locations, you can score them more quickly or move past empty depths that are blocking your progress. However, if the depth is not empty, you will lose any resources or effects on the depths that you raise. In other words, you must ignore all the depth icons that you cover with this action. When you raise a location, choose any location on your player board and move it up the number of depths indicated by the effect icon on the card, helper animal, or a different location card from the one you are raising.

Example 1. You're using an animal to raise a location:

1. As one of your additional actions, you are using a ready helper animal with the raise effect. It lets you raise 1 depth.
2. Choose 1 Location that you want to raise and simply slide it 1 depth up (covering the next depth icon).
3. Since you are covering an empty depth, you will not lose any depth bonus.

Example 2. You're using an action card to raise a location:

1. If you play the Raising the Flag as your main action, it lets you raise a total of 3 depths. This means that you can raise 1 single location 3 depths.
2. If you chose to use the effect on 2 different Locations, you could raise Location "A" once and Location "B" twice.
3. Slide Location "A" up once and slide Location "B" up twice.

Example 3. You're using another location's effect as an additional action:

1. As an additional action, you want to use the raise effect shown on the top depth of location "A".
2. Since you are activating location "A's" effect, you must slide it up, covering the effect you are using.
3. Now you perform the raise effect: raise any number of cards so that you perform as many raise actions as indicated by the icon. In this example, you are raising 2 depths. You can raise the same location 2 depths or raise 2 locations 1 depth each.

Note that you can't raise the same Location that you are using the effect from: If you are activating Location "A," you can't use its effect to raise Location "A" itself. Remember that you ignore all bonuses shown on the Depths you just raised!

You can encounter the raise effect on other components, for example on your action card, mantas, locations and mercenaries.

Fully raise a location

Sometimes you can raise a location to the end (skipping all its effects and empty depths). Remember, that by raising a location to the end you don't score it. To score it you need to use the scoring action.

Rotate the vortex

This effect is found on action cards, as well as on mantas, locations, and mercenaries. By performing this effect, you can rotate the vortex the specified number of divisions, either clockwise or counterclockwise.

This changes the cost of purchasing and conquering locations and mercenaries for both you and your opponent. Try to use this action to gain maximum advantage for yourself and to trap your opponent. Rotating the vortex is an important part of the game strategy!

Refill the vortex

This action is special because it's the only one you must perform entirely or not at all.

When playing the refill the vortex action, place one card at a time into each empty slot of the vortex, starting with the empty slot with the lowest vortex cost for your faction and then increasing. You cannot choose where to place the newly revealed card in the vortex.

For example, a player who is playing Turtles, will have to check the power (trident) price on the vortex and place the card in a slot with the lowest cost (1), then with the cost of 2, and then with the cost of 4.

Move the manta leader

When performing this action, you can move the manta leader one or several steps. Each time, move it from one territory on the Aquatica map to an adjacent territory (only territories sharing a border are considered adjacent).

If there is a wild manta on the territory you move the manta leader to, you immediately claim it for yourself, active side up. It doesn't matter how close it is to whose capital. If a player has already taken a wild manta from it's nest, and there's a visible manta-ready symbol on the board, then a player might move the manta leader there to flip any of his helper animals on the ready side.

Moving the manta leader to a territory with a faction's capital means an immediate victory for that faction in the game. See End Game Triggers on page 16.

Copy the effect of the last action card played by the opponent

You can copy the effect of the action card that is on the top of your opponent's discard pile. This is why the cards in this pile must be face up.

Score a location

If you have a fully explored Location on your player board (that is, a Location with no visible depth markers remaining), you can use this action to transfer that location to your prosperity points deck — signifying that you have thoroughly explored this underwater territory and incorporated it into your kingdom.

The prosperity points deck is placed face up next to your player board. You can view all the cards in this deck at any time, but your opponent can't see anything except the information depicted on the topmost location in the deck.

Flip helper animals to their active side

This action allows you to flip the specified number of helper animals to their active side. It doesn't matter if they are your faction's starting helpers (turtles or squids) or wild mantas that joined you due to the movement of the Manta Leader on the Aquatica map.

The Ocean Currents action card allows you, and only you, to flip all your helper animals to their active side.

Flip your opponent's helper animals to their tired side

This action allows you to flip the specified number of your opponent's helper animals to their tired side. It doesn't matter if they are their's faction's starting helpers (turtles or squids) or wild mantas that joined them due to the movement of the Manta Leader on the Aquatica map. In this case, it's your opponent who chooses the animal they want to flip.

Return your action cards to your hand

This action allows you to return one of your action cards of your choice to your hand. Ocean Currents card lets you return all your action cards to your hand.

Additional actions not represented by effects

You will not encounter these actions on cards, but can do them freely only before or after your main action. These additional actions are the main way to create combos. During your turn, you can perform as many additional actions as you wish. However, there is one exception: typically, you can only play one mercenary per turn (just like you can only play one action card per turn).

Activate helper animals

Your helper animals can bring you lots of effects. To use them, the animal needs to be on its active side (belly up). After you use the effect, flip the animal: it's now tired and can't help you again until it rests. Remember that you can use resources (coins and tridents) from the animal together with the main action. Other effects are used before or after the main action.

Activate a location

Each location has a number of depths which you can exploit, shown along the left side of the card. Within the depths of location you can find:

1. Resources (coins and tridents) — You can only gain resources from a depth during your main action (when you are playing a card). You can use use these resources to recruit mercenaries, conquer or buy new locations, or to activate some effects.
2. Effects — You can use these before and / or after your main action.

You can only exploit the top depth that is shown on a location card. To gain a resource or activate an effect, you must slide the location up 1 depth. This will cause the top depth to be covered by your player board, giving you access to new depths! Some depths are empty: they cannot be used for any purpose. Also, you cannot simply move those locations up. You are blocked from exploiting those Locations until you use the raise effect.

Playing a mercenary

You can play a mercenary either before or after your main action, but only one mercenary per turn! Mercenaries provide you with special, powerful, and complex actions, which are executed similarly to the main action from action cards.

Just like with main actions, you cannot interrupt the execution of a mercenary's action before you perform it to the extent you desire and are able. The stack of played mercenaries is placed face up next to your player board and next to your locations discard pile. Played mercenaries will bring you prosperity points at the end of the game. At any time, you can view all the cards in your stack (remember, that all of them have types needed to achieve some of the goals), but your opponent can't see anything except the information on the top card of your mercenaries' stack.

Achieving goals

At any point during their turn (but not interrupting a mercenary or main action), a player can declare the achievement of a goal if they have fulfilled its condition. They can achieve only one goal per turn. If a player fulfills the conditions for more than 1 goal, they must choose one to declare achievement for. They can declare achievement for another goal in their next turn if they still fulfill its conditions. If you are the first player to achieve this goal, take any of your large first achievement tokens and place it on the goal. From this moment on, this token grants you resources to support your main action or mercenary action or enhances your actions. At the end of the game, you will receive 8 prosperity points for this goal (even if your first achievement token ends up covered by your opponent's second achievement token — see below).

If you are the second player to achieve this goal, take any small second achievement token and place it on the goal, covering your opponent's first achievement token. From this moment on, this token grants you resources to support your main action or mercenary action or enhances your actions. As a result, you gain more resources or enhancements, but only 3 prosperity points at the end of the game. Your opponent loses the ability to use resources or enhancement from their large token (you have covered it), but still receives 8 prosperity points at the end of the game for their achievement of the goal.

Here are the full descriptions of the goal tokens (each token is double-sided):

• Have 4 different types of cards (locations and mercenaries) in your prosperity points deck, player board or next to it (in case it's a mercenary card)
• Have 3 mercenaries in your scoring pile
• Have 3 wild mantas
• Have 4 locations in your prosperity points deck
• Have 4 cards of the same type in your prosperity points deck, player board or next to it (in case it's a mercenary card)
• Have 4 Mercenaries next to your player board (not in the prosperity points deck)
• Have 6 of your helper animals on their tired side
• Have 4 locations with different prosperity points reward on your player board

Moving on the crown track

If you have conquered or purchased a location or mercenary with a crown, then after completing your current main or additional action, you immediately advance on the crown track and receive a bonus — an additional action.

The bonuses from the crown track differ for different factions.

Some actions on the crown track can lead to achieving goals or to another advancement on the crown track (if you acquire a new location or mercenary).

You may also choose not to perform this action, or there may be situations where you have to ignore this bonus — for example, because there is currently no mercenary card on the vortex that you can obtain for free.

Turtles crown track (spaces 1 to 9):

1. Rotate the vortex twice
2. Your opponent flips one of his animals (of his choice) face down
3. Conquer a mercenary for free
4. Your opponent discards one of his action cards (of his choice)
5. Score a location
6. Conquer a location for free
7. Conquer a mercenary / a location for free
8. Your opponent flips all of his animals face down
9. Crown (instant victory)

Squids crown track (spaces 1 to 9):

1. Rotate the vortex twice
2. Flip one of your animals face up
3. Take one of your action cards back to your hand
4. Buy a location for free
5. Score a location
6. Buy a mercenary for free
7. Flip all of your animals face up
8. Buy a mercenary / a location for free
9. Crown (instant victory)

End Game Triggers

Aquatica: Duellum ends when any of the following three conditions are met:

1. A player has advanced to the 9th space on the Crown Track. This means an instant victory!
2. A player brings the Manta Leader into their capital on the Aquatica map — this means an instant victory!
3. A player has achieved all four goals: in this case, play until the turn of the player who started the game and owns the first player token, and then both players take one more full turn. If a player achieves the 4 Sacred Goals, tally up the prosperity points to determine the ultimate winner.

Prosperity Points Count

If the game ends with one player achieving 4 different goals, players will tally victory points based on:

• Points for mercenaries they have played.
• Points for locations in the prosperity stack.
• Points for completed goals: the first achievement token grants 8 prosperity points, and the second achievement token grants 3 victory points. The player with the most prosperity points is declared the ruler of all Aquatica!

In the case of a tie, look at which side of the Aquatica map the Manta Leader is on - this player is the winner. If the Manta Leader is back in the central area, it's declared a tie. The Bronectorate of Turtles and Sereníssima Republic of Calmaria will have to once again come together in a battle to unite the underwater world!

Solo Game Mode

Prepare for the game as usual. Choose the faction you will play as. The action cards of the other faction will be controlled by Shrimpion, who has become regent for the young ruler not participating in this game. Stack these cards next to the player board of that faction and shuffle them. From now on, we will describe the actions of the "bot" as the actions of Regent Shrimpion.

The player takes their turns as usual and wins according to the normal rules. On Regent Shrimpion's turn, draw the top card of the action deck (you will have to help him with this, as shrimps do not have hands to manipulate real paper cards) and perform its action in the order specified on the card, with the following clarifications:

• If the action card instructs to rotate the vortex board, Shrimpion always rotates the vortex clockwise by the indicated number.
• Shrimpion replenishes the vortex as usual. For him, this is a mandatory action.
• If the card instructs to conquer or buy a location or a mercenary, Shrimpion always selects the corresponding card from the slot with the lowest vortex cost for him, regardless of the faction he is playing as.
• Shrimpion always places the acquired location in the leftmost slot of his board, immediately fully raising it. If Shrimpion's board has no free slots for placing locations, simply ignore this action.
• Mercenaries obtained by Shrimpion are immediately placed in the stack of played mercenaries.
• Whenever an action card used by Shrimpion in his turn includes moving the Manta Leader, it moves 2 areas toward Shrimpion's capital. The player must calculate the shortest route for Shrimpion, because, as you guessed, shrimps cannot count. If Shrimpion has several equivalent options for moving the Manta Leader, he always chooses the one where he can pick up a wild manta. If none of the shortest route options to the capital allow picking up a manta, the player chooses which route the Manta Leader will take for Shrimpion. But try not to favor yourself too much!
• Shrimpion ignores the action of raising locations. He is a shrimp and is not interested in research. However, Shrimpion always performs the scoring action to the maximum possible extent. Shrimpion removes up to 3 locations from his board from left to right. If he has fewer than 3 locations on his board, simply skip part of this action—it's no big deal! Subsequently, when conquering or buying new locations, Shrimpion will place them in the emptied slots on his board from left to right as usual.
• If Shrimpion needs to copy the action of your card, he must do so and perform its action according to his own rules (described in this section). If there are no action cards in your played cards pile, Shrimpion simply skips his turn.
• If Shrimpion draws an Ocean Currents card, immediately return all his action cards from the played cards pile above Shrimpion's board, shuffle them, and reform the deck.
• When Shrimpion acquires a territory or mercenary with a crown, he advances on the crown track as usual and receives the bonus indicated there. If the king of crustaceans needs to flip his helper animals to the active side, he simply ignores it, as he never uses helper animals in the game (but he does acquire them on the Aquatica card by moving the Manta Leader).

Just like a regular game, a solo game against Shrimpion ends in 3 cases:

• Any player brings the Manta Leader to their capital.
• Any player reaches level 9 support on the crown track
• Any player completes 4 goals.

In all three cases, follow the usual rules for ending the game, including scoring points when the game ends due to completed goals. Best of luck, and remember - shrimps are more cunning than they seem! You may have thought that we were mocking Shrimpion and underestimating shrimps. But that's not the case!

In rare cases, the game can turn into an epic struggle for power over the underwater world and last until the location and mercenary decks are depleted. If the game ends because the deck is exhausted, calculate the prosperity points as you would for completing 4 goals.

• Difficulty Level 2 — Shrimpion II the Unmatched: Remove the Ocean Currents card from the shrimp's action deck and put it back in the box. Now, when the deck runs out, Shrimpion skips a turn and shuffles all the cards to form a new deck.
• Difficulty Level 3 — Shrimpion III the Swift: The same rules apply, but now Shrimpion does NOT skip a turn when he has to shuffle all the cards into the deck.
• Difficulty Level 4 — Gaius Julius Shrimpar IV the Persistent: All previous rules apply, but if Shrimpion cannot perform any action on the drawn card, he immediately draws and plays a new one.
• Difficulty Level 5 — Shrimpectoria V the Mighty: All previous rules apply + at the beginning of the game, Shrimpion immediately advances 2 steps on the crown track (ignoring rewards) and moves the Mantis Shrimp Leader 2 spaces toward his capital. In case the game ends due to Sacred Goals, Shrimpion receives +10 prosperity points in the final scoring.

Appendix

Mercenaries

Enchanter: Flip up to 3 of your helper animals to their tired side. Move the Manta Leader for each helper you flipped.

Hypnotiser: You may perform the scoring action on fully raised locations (up to 3 times); then move the Manta Leader for each location you placed in the prosperity points deck.

Maestro: You may perform up to 3 raising actions on one or more locations (in any combination). For each raising action you perform, your opponent must also perform a raising action on one of their locations such that the raised depth contains an effect (additional action or resource). If your opponent cannot do this, they must raise a location with an empty depth. If they cannot do that either, they ignore your impact.

Emir-Ritualist: You may perform up to 3 raise location actions on one or more locations (in any combination). For each raise action you perform, you may rotate the vortex 1 time. After this, you may play an action card from your hand, which does not count as your main action for this turn. Simply put, the Emir-Ritualist allows you to play 2 action cards in a turn instead of 1.

Caretaker: First, flip all your mantas to their active side. Then you may play another mercenary.

Echo Maximus: You may replay the effect of any mercenary in your prosperity deck.

Bargain Boss: First, gain +1 coin for each mercenary of the underwater cities type in your prosperity stack (including the Bargain Boss itself). Then, play an action card from your hand, which does not count as your main action for this turn. Simply put, the Bargain Boss allows you to play 2 action cards in a turn instead of 1. Keep in mind that resources in Aquatica do not carry over between turns, so it would likely make sense to play an action card that uses coins in some way (such as Expedition, Engineering, Ritual, Call to Arms).

(The printed rulebook continues directly without a heading:) Shark Commander: Free of charge (without spending tridents), capture the top location card from your opponent's prosperity stack. This action is allowed only if there is no crown on the card. Note that the captured card is placed on your board as usual, or discarded if you have no free slots on your board.

Shark Stalker: Play the effect of the top mercenary card in your opponent's prosperity points deck. Note that you do not take this card for yourself, you just perform its effect. If the effect of this card refers to other cards of a specific type, you check for the presence of these cards in your own prosperity stack, not your opponent's, but including the card whose effect you are copying. For example, if you have 2 mercenaries from the underwater cities type in your prosperity stack, and your opponent's top card is the Bargain Boss, you will gain +3 coins and then be able to play an additional action card.

Shark Bloodhound: Your opponent must flip to the tired side as many of their helper animals as the number of mercenary cards in your prosperity points deck.