Expedition Zetta Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Component List
• Introduction
• General Notes
• Basic Game
  • Sequence of Play
  • Setup
  • Preparation
  • Planetary System Generation
  • Exploration
  • Movement
  • Action
  • Making Discoveries
  • Clean Up: Preparing for the Next Warp
  • Scoring
• Advanced Game
  • Modules
  • Equipment Module (1 - 2)
    • Setup (Equipment)
    • Preparation (Equipment)
    • Exploration (Equipment)
  • Alien Civilization Module (3)
    • Exploration (Alien Civilization)
    • Warp (Alien Civilization)
  • Warp Travel Module (4 - 5)
    • Setup (Warp Travel)
    • Exploration (Warp Travel)
• Solo Rules: "The Lone Star"
  • Setup (Lone Star)
  • Preparation (Lone Star)
  • System Generation (Lone Star)
  • Exploration (Lone Star)
  • Warp (Lone Star)
  • Cleanup (Lone Star)
  • Scoring (Lone Star)
• Co-op Challenge
• Bot Rules (Solo, Co-op and Multiplayer)
  • Setup (Bots)
  • Preparation (Bots)
  • System Generation (Bots)
  • Exploration (Bots)
  • Warp (Bots)
• Reference: Game Concepts
• Reference: Astronomical Concepts

Component List

General items

• 1 Box
• 2 Component Trays
• 1 Rulebook
• 30 Knowledge Tokens (2 each of romance, borrow, priority rule, life, substance, exo products, gaseous, repair, star pilot; 5 security tokens; 7 warp tokens)
• 1 Knowledge Bag
• 100 Small Substance Tokens
• 1 Substance bag
• 14 Large Substance Tokens (4 clear, 3 black, 3 red, 2 blue and 2 purple)
• 1 Mothership with 5 connecting pins (for docking player spaceships)
• 7 Player Spaceship
• 11 12-sided Zetta PSG Dice
• 200 Card Sleeves

Cards

• 20 Bot Cards
• 15 Player Aid Cards
• 13 Country Cards
• 54 Crew Cards
• 30 Equipment Cards
• 36 Exo Product Cards
• 50 Life Cards
• 30 Quick Zetta Cards
• 18 Quick Preparation Cards
• 7 Spaceship Cards
• 22 Xenoarchaeology Cards
• 66 Zetta PSG Cards (11 types, 6 double-sided cards of each type)

Boards

• 5 Control Boards
• 1 Planetary System Board
• 1 Discovery Value Display

Punch-out boards

• 195 Country Flag Markers
• 3 Goldilocks Zone Markers
• 9 Star Markers
• 78 Planet Markers
• 21 Trojan Markers
• 1 Turn Marker
• 1 Warp Marker
• 102 Preparation/Energy Tokens
• 21 Damage Tokens

Introduction

Gather your friends and family to explore the universe. Warp to distant planetary systems and search for life and exotic materials.

General Notes

Initial preparation: Before you start playing the game for the first time, place the Crew cards, Equipment cards, Life cards and Exo-Product cards in the sleeves included in the game box.

The terminology used in these rules includes a number of words which are names of pieces or concepts in the game. These words are written in bold italics when important to the context.

The basic game, without any advanced modules, is a good start if you are new to the game, and for whenever you want to play a shorter or less complex version of the game. The Spaceship cards, Country cards and Exo-Product cards should always be on the BASIC/USED side when you play with the basic rules.

The advanced rules describe a number of modules which modify the rules and add complexity and, in most cases, playtime to the game. The game can be played with one, some or all of these modules, in any combination you like.

The quick modes provide faster ways to play the Preparation and the Planetary System Generation. Apart from making the game play faster, the quick modes also make these parts of the game less complex to play.

Trade is allowed during Exploration. When players are at the same location (on the Mothership or on a planet) they can trade the following items: energy tokens, substances, anything on the current discoveries space and anything on the equipment track.

Solo play has a separate rule set where the overall goal of gaining the most fame still applies, but there will also be a risk of not returning home. You will struggle for survival which will be a goal in itself.

The Bot rules are a second way to play the game solo. They also add a way to play the game co-operatively and can complement a multiplayer game with more players if you want.

The Golden Rule is valid in these rules. This means that if any information on a card tells you something different than what is written in the rules, the card's information applies.

Supply of tokens: The energy tokens, damage tokens and 4 different types of substance tokens are not limited. The included components should be enough but, if you run out of a certain kind of token, you can use replacements or something that can count as several tokens of that type.

Basic Game

The year is 1962. You are in an alternate history where warp drive technology was invented in 1950 by Dr. K. Borg in Stockholm, Sweden. He was an unknown scientist. Very little seems to be known about his past. His invention led to a joint international effort to build a ship that can cruise the universe. Each player represents a country that takes part in the maiden voyage of this first spaceship ever to use the warp drive.

Expedition Zetta is a game for 1-5 players, 10 years and up. Play time: 15-45 minutes per player.

Sequence of Play

Expedition Zetta, using the basic rules, is played in the following steps:

• Preparation: Play with a ready made Crew by using the quick preparation cards OR form your own crew by playing the preparation stage using the preparation grid where you buy crew cards with your preparation tokens. If you use the preparation grid: During each turn each player does as follows (in player order):
  1. Invest in a card (that has no flag on it).
  2. Take any cards that has your flag on them from the bottom row and move the remaining cards in the grid sideways and downwards until all gaps are as high up as possible.
  3. Draw new cards and place them in the gaps.
• Planetary System Generation: You travel to 4 systems. Use the Quick Zetta to see which planetary system you warp to, what the discovery values are and what planets you'll find there. One card for all players.
• Exploration: Move between the orbits in the planetary system and perform actions to search for life, substances and exo products. Making these three types of discoveries is your main source of fame. The number of turns you stay in a system is determined by the star. During each turn, each player does the following (in player order):
  1. Move up to 5 steps/orbits (may be more if you use some of the advanced rules).
  2. Perform an action: Life/substance/exo-product discovery, scavenge trojans or research. The discovery actions depend on the discovery values. Scavenge trojans and research always succeed. Other players at the same location as you may help you. (The advanced rules may unlock more actions.)
  3. If you succeed, take the rewards depending on the action. If you succeed in a discovery action, also move the level marker on your control board. If you failed a discovery action, instead take a knowledge token.
• Scoring: The player with the most fame wins.

You start by playing the Preparation once. Then you play Planetary System Generation and Exploration consecutively 4 times, representing 4 warp jumps, before determining the winner.

Setup

If you are going to use the Quick preparation cards, then separate them face down into three shuffled piles, 2-crew, 3-crew and 4-crew cards.

If you are NOT going to use the Quick preparation cards, then shuffle the Crew cards into 1 pile. Draw 9 cards and place them on the 3 x 3 grid on the back of the Planetary system board. Put the pile next to the grid. The top card is visible so that you know what will be drawn into the grid next.

(Image caption: The 3 x 3 Preparation Grid. Place the shuffled crew deck on the dark grey space to the left on the Preparation Grid and draw 1 card for each of the 9 spaces. The cost is indicated below each space (2-5 preparation tokens).)

Randomly draw 8 exo-product cards (basic side up) and set the rest aside. The player who finished last the previous time you played Expedition Zetta is the starting player and takes the starting player marker and the warp marker. (If any of the players are playing the game for the first time, randomize who starts, using one of the dice).

Each player takes the following (see next page for images of the components):

• 1 Control Board on which you place your components.
• 1 Country Card (random) with its Flag Markers. (WAL on the country cards stands for Warp Agency Leader). Place 1 Flag Marker on 0 at the crew level meter on your control board's right side.
• 1 Spaceship Card (random) with its Spaceship Figurine. The perk text is not used in a basic game.
• 12 Preparation Tokens (later reused as Energy Tokens).

Place all Large Substance Tokens in the Substance Bag. (You will use this to randomize what type of substances you will find. The actual substances are represented by the smaller tokens.)

Place the following in the plastic trays, in shuffled, face-down piles if they are cards:

• The Quick Zetta Cards.
• The Knowledge Bag, with the tokens marked in it (no other tokens).
• All Small Substance Tokens along with the Substance bag (with 14 big Substance Tokens in it).
• The Star Markers.
• The Life Cards. With all alien civilization life cards REMOVED (they are marked with the icon).
• The Discovery Wheels.
• The Planet Markers (sorted according to their 12 different types). If you want to play using a variant which lets you discover a planet's content as you land (see Planetary System Generation section), make sure that the planet markers are shuffled and face down.

Beside the planetary system board:

• The 8 randomly drawn Exo-Product Cards.
• Place the Mothership Figurine and the Goldilocks Zone Markers next to the Planetary System Board. There are plastic pins that you can use to dock the Player Ships with the Mothership if you like.

This concludes the setup. The rest of the components will not be used in the basic game.

(Image caption, setup page: Space Ship Figurine, Ship Card, Control Board, Flag markers, Preparation / Energy Tokens, Country Card, Quick Zetta Card, Knowledge Bag with Tokens, Substance Bag, Discovery Wheels, Star Marker, Life Cards, Planet Markers, Trojans.)

(Image caption, planetary system page: Goldilocks Zone, The Mothership, Planetary System Board.)

Preparation

If you want to play a faster game, skip the preparation grid. Instead each player, in player order, draws 1 card from either of the 2-crew, 3-crew and 4-crew piles of quick preparation cards and takes the crew members written there. It is not necessary for all players to draw from the same pile. It is up to the player to choose whether to go for a 2-, 3- or 4-person crew.

Ignore the equipment information unless you are playing with the equipment module. If you are assigned a card that has already been taken, choose a different one containing the same ability symbols. If there are none left with the same symbols, you may choose any available card as replacement. Then continue to the "Planetary System Generation" section of the rules.

If you don't want to use the quick preparation cards, then use the preparation grid.

How to use the Preparation Grid:

The crew members have different abilities. Their abilities are to find life, substances, exo products and to be a star pilot, which means that you can fly longer for each energy spent.

(Icons on the crew cards, in order: Life, Substances, Exo products, Star pilot.)

A good tactic, especially if you are new to the game, is to try to get at least one of each of the discovery ability icons represented among your crew cards.

There are also other icons on the crew cards but you can ignore them in the basic game. They are used in some of the advanced rules.

Take turns (starting player first, then clockwise) to invest in a crew for your spaceship. Continue until all players have 1 or 0 preparation tokens left. The cost is shown under the positions in the grid, with 2-5 dots (cost 2-5 preparation tokens). It is where the card is when you invest that counts. The costs are:

• Top row: 5 - 4 - 5 preparation tokens
• Middle row: 4 - 3 - 4 preparation tokens
• Bottom row: 3 - 2 - 3 preparation tokens

When it is your turn:

1. Invest in a card that has NO flag token on it. You do so by paying preparation tokens according to its cost, which is determined by its current position in the grid, and placing one of your flag tokens on the card. You are only allowed to pass if you can't afford to buy a card.
2. Take all cards in the bottom row that have your flag token on them (if any). Place them on any of the crew spaces on your control board. Move cards downward or sideways in the preparation grid (not upwards or diagonally) until all gaps are as high up in the grid as possible. If cards with your flag on it end up in the bottom row during this, you take them too and continue moving cards.
3. Draw new cards and place them in the gaps as you please.

Remember to keep enough preparation tokens to be able to move cards you invest in, in the top row, all the way to the bottom row so you won't miss out on it. Usually 6 tokens will be enough to be certain. Having fewer than 6 tokens left after investing in the top row is a risky action.

At the end of preparation:

Any cards marked with your flag that are still in the preparation grid and that didn't make it to the bottom row, are now lost. (This can happen when you run out of tokens. You need to have enough tokens left to bring your marked cards down to the bottom row).

Remove all remaining cards in the preparation grid and flip the board to the planetary system side. You can bring a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 4 crew members. If you have more, some of them have to be left on Earth. Choose which one(s) now.

Finally, take 20 energy tokens each (they are the same tokens as the preparation tokens).

Planetary System Generation

The warp drive is really only a prototype, powerful but hard to steer and, until now, untested. This makes you, brave players, both test pilots and explorers on your journey into the unknown. The warp drive can make one warp jump per year. A jump takes 3 months. Then you spend about 9 months in each planetary system, separated into 2-5 turns, depending on what kind of star you've arrived at.

Draw a quick Zetta card to see the planetary system in which you will arrive. Its name is to the left.

Set the discovery wheels to the numbers shown on the card. There are 3 wheels, one for each discovery type. Rotate them so that the value shown on the quick Zetta card matches the values on its discovery wheel. Keep the discovery wheels visible for all players. You can use one of the slots at the back of the component tray if you wish.

Place the star marker of the "TYPE" written on the card in the middle of the planetary system board (ignore the ENERGY value, it is for the solo rules). On the star marker 3 orbits are indicated. Put the Goldilocks zone markers across these orbits anywhere on the planetary system board.

The distance to the star is also written on the card, in light years (LY). As with the name this is fluff (accurate fluff). Take planet markers and place them on the orbits according to the card. The orbits are labeled A-J. Planets can be placed anywhere on their designated orbits.

(Note on the image: the GGI planet is a gaseous planet, and the one to the far right is a Trojan marker.)

The numbers in the square field tell you how many dice you add to, or subtract from, any discovery attempt made on this planet. For life check the left number (green) and for substance the right (red).

The colored icon in the middle shows which substance you will find on this planet.

If there is a gaseous planet icon below the discovery values, place a Trojan marker on that planet's orbit. If there are no gaseous planets in the system, place a Trojan marker next to the outermost planet.

Exploration variant: If you want to play the game with a few more discovery elements, you can have the planets stacked facing down and then place them face down so that you don't know what can be found there. It's not until someone lands on the planet that it gets flipped face up for everyone to see.

Planet abbreviations:

• CBN Carbon Planet
• DES Desert Planet
• GDW Gas Dwarf
• GGI Gas Giant
• ICE Ice Planet
• IGI Ice Giant
• IRN Iron Planet
• LVA Lava Planet
• OCN Ocean Planet
• PTR Planetar (always possible to find life)
• SSB SPSB (Small Planetary System Body)
• TER Terrestrial Planet

The Planetar (PTR): A planetar is a big gas giant that almost has become a star. Because of this, it's a bit warm and provides a Goldilocks zone for the moons around it. You can find life on (the moons of) any planetar no matter where in the planetary system they are.

Finally, the starting player looks at the star, takes note of how many turns you all will spend in this system, and decides in which orbit the Mothership will appear when it comes out of warp space and into this system. Place the Mothership figurine on that orbit.

Exploration

The planetary systems are where discoveries are made! You leave the Mothership and travel individually in smaller spaceships within the planetary system. Your main focus is to land on the unknown planets so that your crew can explore them in order to make discoveries. On the planets, you look for life or substances, and you can either do this yourself or get a little help from other players. If you collaborate and manage to find something valuable, the one helping will benefit too and get some fame points. You can also build things with the substances you find, using blueprints of so-called exo products. These are made in space since zero gravity is essential when making exo products.

Exploration takes place over 2-5 turns (indicated by the star). Begin with the starting player and then continue clockwise. On each turn you may do two things, FIRST movement, THEN 1 action.

Knowledge tokens may be revealed and placed on a crew card during the exploration. The symbol on the knowledge token now counts as if it were on the card. This temporary addition lasts 1 turn and the knowledge token is then returned to the knowledge bag.

The substance bag tells you what kind of substance you've found on the Trojans or when you are the first to land on a planet (and if you choose the bag. You can also choose the substance indicated by the planet). The bag has larger versions of the substance tokens in it. Each time you draw from the substance bag, take a small substance token of the same color as the big one you got from the bag and put the big one back in the bag.

If you are to draw several substance tokens, you should take them one by one and put them back in the bag before you draw the next.

If you draw a purple token, take 1 substance of any color, put the purple back, AND draw again.

The dice used during discovery attempts are the 12-sided dice (d12). Their color does not matter.

Movement

You can make 1 movement per turn. Without modifications or advanced rules, 1 movement means that you pay 1 energy (token) and move 0 to 5 orbits. Ignore the lines and trajectories in the basic game. Just move between orbits. You may land on or interact with all objects on the orbit you move to, but if you leave a planet or Trojan while remaining on the orbit the movement still costs 1 token.

Movement is optional if you start your turn in space, at Trojans or in the Mothership. But if you start your turn at a planet, you have to move.

Due to the treaty between the participating countries you may only remain for a maximum of 1 turn on a planet. You may return to the planet at a later turn. You may not travel in a circle and return to the same planet you just left.

Additional movement cost:

• To land on a planet costs 1 extra energy. There is no landing cost on Trojans, since they have very low gravity. Lift-off is included. NOTE: The movement next turn still costs 1 energy.
• 1 radioactive substance (token) can be traded for 4 energy tokens at any time.

At the end of the last turn you are moved to the Mothership for 1 energy (unless you are at the Mothership already). If you don't have any energy left but have a radioactive substance token, you have to trade it for 4 energy and then pay 1 to go to the Mothership.

If you have no energy and no radioactive tokens left, you are saved by the others, which means that all the other players get to (in player order) take 1 substance token each from you. If you run out of substance tokens the turn order decides who gets tokens from you and who doesn't.

Special cases of movement:

• If all members of your crew are leveled (= your level marker is on "9 STEPS"), then your normal movement is 9 orbits.
• If you have a crew member with the star pilot symbol (or use a knowledge token with the star pilot symbol) you can move anywhere in the system for 1 energy. (Landing on a planet still costs 1 extra energy.)
• If the Mothership is at the same place as a planet or a Trojan, the movement cost between that object and the Mothership is zero. (As with star pilot movement, landing on this planet still costs 1 energy token.)

Landing: Place your ship figurine just beside the planet. If you are the first to land on this planet, mark it with your country's flag. For this you get to take 1 substance token for free. Choose between taking 1 substance noted on the planet OR draw 1 time from the substance bag.

Action

Choose 1 of the following actions:

• Research (always succeeds, don't move the level marker): Can be done anywhere, including on planets. Take 2 tokens from the knowledge bag. Choose 1, put the other one back in the bag. Your knowledge cap is 3, which means that you are not allowed to have more than 3 knowledge tokens on your control board. If you draw a 4th, choose one of the 4 you have and return it to the knowledge bag. Keep them face down on your control board until used.
• Scavenge Trojans (always succeeds, don't move the level marker): Can only be done at Trojans. Draw 2 times from the substance bag.
• Life discovery: (Follow the "MAKING DISCOVERIES" instructions below.) Life discovery can ONLY be done on planets WITHIN the Goldilocks zone.
• Substance discovery: (Follow the "MAKING DISCOVERIES" instructions below.) Substance discovery can ONLY be done on planets (any planet, not at Trojans).
• Exo products discovery: (Follow the "MAKING DISCOVERIES" instructions below.) Exo product discovery can ONLY be made in space (= zero gravity), including at Trojans or on the Mothership. It requires you to have enough substance tokens to pay for any of the available exo product cards. NOTE: The card's top left icon is not used in the basic game.

Note: Remember that apart from the substance discovery action, you can also obtain substance tokens by performing the action Scavenge Trojans, or by being the first to land on a planet.

Making Discoveries

Each crew member with the corresponding ability takes part in the attempt. Remember that you can use knowledge tokens to give crew members abilities they don't have (for 1 turn).

• Each participating crew member contributes 1 die to the dice throw, unless the crew member is leveled, then they contribute 2 dice.
• Help: If there are other players at the same location, you may let them take part in the attempt to help you. If you do, and they want to, any of their crew members with the ability needed for the discovery you are attempting, may contribute 1 die each to the dice roll, or 2 dice if they are leveled. This will make it easier to succeed, but it will also give that opponent some fame (see below). A maximum of 1 opponent may help in this way on each discovery action.

Determining success or failure:

1. Collect all dice added by participating crew members. You have to roll all you are allowed to.
2. Modify the number of dice with the value shown on the planet, adding dice if it is positive and removing dice if it is negative. If this removes all dice you can't make discoveries. NOTE: The modifications differ depending on if you attempt to discover life or substance.
3. Roll the resulting number of dice. If ANY of them are EQUAL TO OR BELOW the discovery value of the discovery you are attempting to make (check the appropriate discovery wheel), you have SUCCEEDED. The result is not affected if more than 1 dice indicates a success.

After each successful discovery attempt:

Move your level marker 1 step up. If it lands on "LEVEL", move it to "0" and flip 1 unleveled crew on your control board to its leveled side. If all crew on your board is leveled, set it to "9 STEPS". Then for:

• Life: draw 1 life card and place it on "CURRENT" on your control board.
• Substance: take 2 substance tokens of the type noted on the planet and place them on the substance space on your control board.
• Exo products: Choose 1 available exo product card, pay the substance tokens shown on it and place it on "CURRENT" on your control board.

If you have HELPED another player in a successful attempt don't move your level marker. However, for:

• Life or Exo Products: place one of your flag tokens in the sleeve of the found card.
• Substance: Take 1 substance token of the type noted on the planet.

After each failed discovery attempt:

• Draw 1 knowledge token (do not show the other players its symbol). Your knowledge cap is 3, which means you are not allowed to have more than 3 knowledge tokens on your control board. If you draw a 4th, choose one of the 4 you have and return it to the knowledge bag.
• If you have HELPED another player in a failed attempt you get nothing.

Clean Up: Preparing for the Next Warp

During the clean up, all cards on your control board are restored by flipping/rotating them to their normal sides (if you use some of the advanced rules) and all the components on the planetary system board are removed. NOTE: Leveled crew are not flipped back to their unleveled side.

• Give the starting player marker and the warp marker to the player with the most knowledge tokens. In a tie situation, use the previous player order among the tied players to determine the new starting player.
• Move life and exo-product discoveries from "CURRENT" to "STORED" on your control board.
• Move all planet markers to the bottom of their piles and return all flag markers to the players.
• Remove the star marker and the Goldilocks zone marker.

Unless this was your 4th warp, return to system generation and generate a new planetary system. If this was your 4th system, proceed to scoring (below).

Scoring

The player with the most fame points wins. Your total fame is the sum of:

• The fame written on your life and exo product cards.
• Fame from the substance tokens. Gas (uncolored) and metal (black) are worth 1 fame each, gems (red) and radioactive (blue) are worth 2 fame each.
• Add half the fame of life and exo product cards on other player's boards that has your flag token in their sleeve (the other players' fame reward from those cards is unaffected).
• 2 fame for each leveled crew member.
• 9 fame if your level meter is at "9 STEPS".

In case of a tie: the player who has the most valuable life discovery card is the winner. Still tied? Share the victory!

Advanced Game

Modules

If you want to be extra adventurous and experience more details about the journey, you can use the advanced rules. The way the advanced rules are written assumes that you are already familiar with the basic rules of Expedition Zetta.

The advanced version of Expedition Zetta consists of a number of modules that you can choose from and add to the game as you like (unless stated otherwise in the module's rules). When you add them all, you get a truly epic space exploration experience.

How to introduce modules: The modules are listed here in the suggested order they should be introduced into your games. It's a good idea to introduce them 1 at a time and play a full game with the new module before adding the next. If you are an experienced board gamer you could try to introduce them 2 or 3 at a time. An alternative order is to let the winner of the previous game decide which of the modules should be added to your game group's next game of Expedition Zetta.

There are one or two numbers next to each module in the titles. This makes it possible to randomize which module(s) to play with by throwing 1 or several dice, using those shown by the dice.

If you only play with one or some of the modules, you can ignore any rules concerning components or actions involving modules which you are not using.

EXAMPLE: The warp travel module includes rules about equipment and alien passengers. If you are playing a game of Expedition Zetta that does not include the equipment rules or the alien civilizations rules, you can ignore any rules concerning equipment or alien passengers in the warp module.

Setup when using modules: Set the game up as you would for the basic game. Then modify/add based on which modules you choose to include.

Equipment Module (1 - 2)

The Equipment module adds equipment to the game. This means that you need appropriate equipment to be able to make discoveries, to use the star pilot ability and to land on gaseous planets. You need to pay attention to the equipment as it wears down and has to be kept in good condition (there are ways to repair it).

In the Equipment module, Exo Products also work as a contribution to your equipment. The icon on an Exo Product card tells you what the Exo Product will do when used as equipment.

Setup (Equipment)

• Add the knowledge tokens with the gaseous landing icon to the knowledge bag.
• If you use the quick preparation cards, read the side with the equipment information and take both the equipment and crew cards indicated.
• If you play with the preparation grid, remove 20 of the crew cards randomly (without looking at them). Shuffle the remaining equipment and crew cards to form the draw stack.
• Each player takes 20 preparation tokens instead of 12.

Preparation (Equipment)

• Equipment that you place on your control board during setup and preparation should be placed on the leftmost equipment space "FULLY OP.". All equipment starts on the same space.
• It is a good strategy to try to have life, substance and exo products icons represented on both crew and equipment cards. You will need both a crew and an equipment with the relevant symbol to be able to perform a corresponding discovery action.
• The icon for gaseous planet landing means that you need this to land on gaseous planets.
• You are allowed to bring a maximum of 4 equipment (and 4 crew, of course) on the journey.

Exploration (Equipment)

• Each time you use an equipment, you wear it down, i.e. you move it one step to the right on the "Equipment" spaces on your control board.
• Equipment on the "Beyond repair" space is permanently broken and can never be used again.
• Knowledge tokens can be used on equipment cards as well as crew cards.
• You need to wear down 1 equipment with an æther-drive icon if you want a crew member to use its star-pilot ability.
• You need to wear down an equipment with the gaseous landing icon 1 step when you land on a gaseous planet.
• When you make a discovery action you need to wear the equipment in question down 1 step for EACH crew member taking part (including any alien crew members that contribute). Do this before you roll any dice. The same equipment may be used by several crew members during the same turn if you want (but wears down 1 step for each crew member using it).
• There is 1 added action you can perform:
  • Repair (always succeeds, don't move the level marker): Performed by the whole crew. Can be done anywhere, including on planets. Move 1 equipment to "Slightly worn".
• Exo products also work as equipment (see the symbol on the card). When you succeed in making an Exo Product you place it on the "Fully operational" space on your control board. Exo product cards have 1 discovery icon on them. They now work in the same way as an equipment card (but it only has 1 icon instead of 2 or 3 as the equipment cards). It wears down and can be repaired as long as it's not on the "Beyond repair" space.
• If you are playing with the Perks module, the perk is always active except if the card is on the "Beyond repair" space.
• If you help someone in a discovery action, you have to wear down your own equipment: 1 step for each of your participating crew (including any alien crew members that contribute).

Alien Civilization Module (3)

The Alien Civilization Module adds more intelligent life cards. These new cards are potential crew members on your ship. The mechanics are similar to the way exo products are able to function as equipment when you play using the Equipment module.

Exploration (Alien Civilization)

Randomly select and shuffle 11 of the life cards marked with an alien civilization icon into your life cards pile. If you draw one of these, you've found an intelligent alien civilization. An alien passenger can join your crew! The card has a perk text, used when playing with the Perks module.

Your "Current discoveries" space holds one active alien passenger. "Active" means that the alien is considered to be a member of your crew. The alien is also active if it is placed in an empty crew space on your control board. If you already have an intelligent alien on your current discoveries space and no empty crew spaces, it has to be placed on the "Stored" space.

Remember that in this situation, if you are playing using the warp module and one of your crew members has been romanced and is residing on another player's board when you discover the alien, their space on your board is still taken. The romanced crew member needs to have somewhere to go when they eventually break up their relationship and return to your ship.

(Designer note printed on page: The game is balanced to have 11 alien civilization cards in the life deck. But if you want to have a higher or lower chance to find intelligent life, feel free to modify that number, it will not break the game.)

You are allowed to place an alien directly into "Stored" if you want, even if you have empty spaces for it. You are not allowed to move an active alien who is part of your crew from a crew space or any other space, to your "Stored" space. Once they are part of your crew, they remain part of your crew. An alien crew member on the "Current" space does NOT move to the "Stored" space at the end of the exploration (or warp if you are using the warp module). The alien remains on the current space for the rest of the game.

NOTE: Alien crew members can not be traded.

You still earn the points if an alien is in the stored space (you found life but since there was no room for the extra passenger, the alien stayed on its planet). You are not able to use the alien as a part of your crew, its perk can not be active and you cannot make it active later on if a space becomes empty.

• Alien crew members can take part in discovery attempts of any kind (life, substance and exo products).
• They can never perform discovery attempts by themselves. They must always perform the attempt with a human crew member.
• They wear down equipment in the same way as human crew members do.
• They can help other players in their discovery actions in the same way as human crew members.
• An alien crew member cannot level up, they always contribute 1 die to an attempt (in the perks module there are ways to contribute more if they take part in an attempt). The "9 steps" bonus kicks in when all crew members from Earth on your control board are leveled. It is not applicable to Alien crew members.

Warp (Alien Civilization)

• Alien crew members normally don't have any talents but they can perform talent actions if they use knowledge tokens.
• Alien crew members are humanoids, which means they can be romanced and, by using knowledge tokens, they can romance others.

Warp Travel Module (4 - 5)

This module offers more ways to interact with the other players' crew aboard the Mothership. You can try to persuade them to lend you their equipment, convince them that YOUR initial research played an important role in one of their discoveries, or maybe romance other player's crew members and have them come to live on your ship while you explore the next planetary system.

The Warp Travel Module adds another stage to the game, called the Warp Stage. This is played at the end of your 1st, 2nd and 3rd exploration but NOT after your 4th and final exploration, which signals the end of the game when scores are tallied. Clean Up for the next system generation is done at the end of the Warp Stage instead of at the end of the Exploration Stage.

Setup (Warp Travel)

Add the knowledge tokens for romance, borrow, priority ruler, security and (depending on if you use other modules) the repair and warp tokens to the knowledge bag (see below for icons).

Exploration (Warp Travel)

Your knowledge cap is 5 instead of 3, which means you are not allowed to have more than 5 knowledge tokens on your control board. If you draw a 6th, choose one of the 6 you have and return it to the knowledge bag.

Warp (Warp Travel)

During the warp you can use your crew talents (top left icons on your crew cards).

The talents are: Borrow, Priorityruler, Repair, Romance, Security (and Abilities).

• The warp starts with everyone picking up their crew cards. Make sure that you do not rotate or flip them in any way. You will use them as if they were playing cards. Don't pick up injured.
• Take turns, in player order, and play your crew cards one by one. When you play a card, you may perform the talent on that card. Crew with damage tokens can't act (are not picked up).
• You are allowed to pass but only if any other player has more cards on hand than you.
• As with discovery actions, a knowledge token can temporarily add a talent to a crew card.

Romance and Borrow: You take 1 card from an opponent's control board. Romance lets you take a crew card and Borrow lets you take an equipment card. Before taking the card, make sure that it has the original owner's flag token in its sleeve so you know where to return it. Some cards are protected:

• Cards held in a player's hand
• Crew members already in a relationship (sharing space with another crew member)
• Heartbroken crew members
• Equipment under observation or under repair
• Your very last crew and very last equipment card (wherever it is)

You are allowed to romance an alien passenger or borrow an exo product.

NOTE: If the card has a flag token of a player other than the owner, from help or from priorityrule, you have to remember which of the two flag tokens indicate the original owner when you return it.

Whenever cards are moved back or forth between different control boards, they always keep their leveled status (crew) or worn status (equipment). The romanced crew cards are placed together with the crew member who romanced them in the same crew space. The maximum of 4 crew/equipment per control board is only used during preparation and exploration. During the journey this may be exceeded.

In the next planetary system you may use the borrowed/romanced card during one turn, after which you have to return it. Returned cards are placed rotated 180 degrees to indicate that they are heartbroken (crew) or under observation (equipment).

NOTE: Crew members from other players can become leveled on your board. Leveling is not optional when it occurs. You are allowed to wear down a borrowed equipment card several steps if it's used by several crew members during the same turn. However, you are NEVER allowed to move a borrowed equipment card the last step down to "Beyond repair."

Priorityrule: You take a substance token from an opponent OR place one of your flag markers in the sleeve of an opponent's life or exo product card, claiming you had something to do with the discovery. Cards that have a flag other than the owner's in their sleeve already (from previous priorityrule or help), as well as cards on the "Stored" space are protected. The flag markers from the owner of the card does not protect them. You will get half the fame noted on these cards. The original owner will still get their fame in full.

Repair: Move 1 card from any equipment space except "Beyond Repair" to "Fully Operational". Flip it to the "Under Repair" side. Equipment showing "Under Repair" is protected and cannot be borrowed.

Security: Prevents another player's warp action. This is played outside of your turn. You play the card as a reaction to someone else's played card and can be used for protecting your discoveries, crew and equipment as well as for interrupting other players' actions.

Clean Up (Warp Travel)

When all crew cards have been played, add this to your Clean Up:

• Flip Equipment cards that are under repair back to their normal side.
• Turn heartbroken crew and equipment under observation to normal orientation.

Unless this was your 4th warp, generate a new planetary system.

Trajectory Module (6 - 7)

The Trajectory Module makes the movement on the planetary system board matter in 2-dimensions and changes the way you move your spaceships. It also adds movement of the planets in between each turn.

System Generation (Trajectory)

Since it will make a difference where on the planetary system board a planet is located, the planets are placed as follows:

For each planet, roll a die to see where on the orbit the planet is located. Planets are placed ON THE LABELS on the planetary system board. NOTE: Some labels span several numbers.

Example: A planet is to be placed on orbit C. The dice throw shows 5. The planet is placed on top of the label "C 4-6".

If it is a gaseous planet, place Trojan markers on the labels on its orbit 1 step before AND 1 step behind the planet. As before, if there are no gaseous planets in the system, place a Trojan at the outermost planet, but now both before AND after the outermost planet. If there are no planets in the system, place 1 SSB planet in orbit E (including Trojans on each side, since it is the outermost planet).

When you place the Mothership, roll a die and place it on a label in the same way as the planets.

Exploration (Trajectory)

Instead of just moving between orbits, you now move on the white dots. The lines connecting the dots between the orbits are called trajectories. Counterclockwise movement on orbits costs extra.

(Example, printed with a diagram: Let's say you are at position A1-3 and you want to move to C1-3. The shortest way would be to follow the blue line in the image, 4 steps. But this is going counterclockwise along an orbit and will cost you 2 extra energy. If you instead "slingshot" around the star and follow the green line you manage the journey within your standard 7 steps limit, without the extra cost. If you then want to move from C1-3 to G1 there is no way to reach it in 7 steps without going counterclockwise along an orbit (along the pink line). Note: The only step along the pink line that counts as counterclockwise is the first step (triggering 2 extra energy).)

• The normal movement is now 7 steps for 1 energy token.
• Move on the white dots and follow the lines. Orbit lines (the circular lines) and the trajectory lines (the more irregular lines) can both be followed.
• When you land, move to or from a planet as if it was a dot, counts as 1 step. The ship is placed just beside the planet. NOTE: Planets that you do not land on and orbit labels (marked D1-3, F7 etc.) with no planets on them do NOT count as a step, just pass them.
• If any of your steps are counterclockwise following an orbit (not the trajectories), your movement this turn will cost 2 extra energy tokens. The step you take when you land on, or start from, a planet also needs to be clockwise to avoid this extra energy cost.

Example: You move 6 steps and land on a planet. 1 of your steps is counterclockwise along an orbit. The energy cost will be 4 (1 for the movement, 1 for landing and 2 for the counterclockwise movement). You have to pay 4 energy to be able to perform this movement.

• If the Mothership is at the same place as a planet or a Trojan, the movement cost between that object and the Mothership is zero. Landing still costs 1 energy.
• During Clean Up (at the end of the turn) move all planets and Trojans 1 step clockwise to the next label on the orbit. All players who have landed on planets or Trojans follow the planet or Trojan with their ship as it moves. Ships in space and the Mothership never move.

Zetta PSG Module (8A)

The advanced rules of Expedition Zetta feature a unique planetary system generator, called the Zetta PSG (PSG is short for Planetary System Generator). The Zetta PSG is based on scientific facts about the universe and lets you randomize a planetary system that may exist somewhere in the universe.

In its full version, it uses a combination of sixty-six double-sided cards and eleven 12-sided dice (11d12), and has a capacity to generate as many possible combinations as the estimated number of stars in the known universe - 6x10^23! And it also gives all these stars unique names.

The Zetta PSG can be used in a 1-dice version explained here in module 8A (it's a bit simpler to use) or an 11-dice version (= the full 6x10^23 potential systems version, explained in 8B).

In the basic rules you draw a card that has fixed values, representing actual stars fairly near to us in the Milky Way. When using the Zetta PSG you instead randomly generate a planetary system anywhere in the universe.

Setup (Zetta PSG 8A)

Set all three dials on the discovery value board to 3, which is their starting value.

Sort the Zetta PSG cards in 10 stacks, according to the orbit letter in the bottom right corner. NOTE: Some cards have their orbit letter to the bottom left. They are placed as the 11th stack. Place stacks A-J alphabetically from left to right in their compartments at the front part of the component tray. Then place the 11th stack after stack J.

Each player takes 1 warp token. Place the remaining warp tokens in the knowledge bag.

Planetary System Generation (Zetta PSG 8A)

The Zetta PSG cards will tell you which star you arrive at, which planets are orbiting the star, the orbits of the planets and the discovery values.

In the footer of the card you will find an icon showing which discovery value it affects: Exo products, Substance, Life.

(Example: If we would have rolled a "9", this card would have provided +1 to the exo-product discovery value and a Desert Planet (DES) on orbit B. Rotate the exo-product discovery wheel 1 step up, draw a desert planet and place it on orbit B. Roll a die to see on which label on the orbit to place it. The text in the footer is fluff but contains actual characteristics of stars. The values on the card have been chosen in correspondence with the star characteristics.)

• The footer contains information about the orbit of a planet found on this card and flavor text about the star of the system. (Full explanations of the flavor texts can be found in the Reference section at the end of the rules.)
• Randomize the planetary system by rolling 1 die (1 twelve-sided die = 1d12). This result is used on all 11 cards. Read the top card of each deck, from left to right starting with orbit A.
• For each of the 11 decks, before you read the card, flip the top card and put it at the bottom of its stack. Read the revealed card.
• The footer of the card on the orbit A-deck has information about the star type. Take the star marker for the type noted there and place it in the middle of the planetary system board, along with Goldilocks-zone markers.
• Note which discovery value the card affects (in the footer: life, substance or exo product icon), then read the black number in the white rectangle next to the dice number you just rolled and adjust the appropriate discovery wheel accordingly.
• The wheels are capped at 1 and A (A=12=Automatic success). The wheel stays on 1 or A even if you get modification values that tell you to move it further. This is indicated by the X.
• If there is a three-letter abbreviation beside the black number, take a planet of that type and place it on the orbit shown in the footer of the card. Add Trojans if it is a gaseous planet.
• The Zetta PSG cards with the orbit letter to the right are the Mothership cards. These are in the 11th stack. The abbreviation MSH is shown instead of that of a planet (MSH = Mothership). It also says "Mothership" in the footer. Place the Mothership on the orbit shown in the footer of the card.

Warp Tokens (Zetta PSG 8A)

The warp tokens represent knowledge about warp space. As the cards are being read during system generation, any player may use the warp tokens they have to alter values.

If you think the values on a Zetta PSG card are unfavourable, you can pay 1 warp token to replace that card, directly after it has been read. Flip the card and put it at the bottom and read the new revealed card instead. You may NOT look at potential planets as you decide this.

It's OK for the same player (or different players) to use several warp tokens in a row to replace several cards in the same deck.

When no one wants to use any more warp tokens to change the card on the deck being read, modify the discovery wheel according to the card and continue with the next deck.

NOTE: As soon as a Zetta PSG card has been revealed, the cards on top of the decks that have already been read, cannot be changed any more.

The number that has an "E" after in the fluff text on the H-orbit cards is only used in the solo rules.

After all 11 cards have been read and handled, the discovery values for this planetary system can be seen on the discovery wheels.

Closing line printed on the card page: Welcome to a new and (most likely) unexplored planetary system! The chances are almost infinitely small that any previously generated planetary systems will be generated again.

11-Dice Zetta PSG Module (8B)

If you want, you can choose to play using the full 11-dice Zetta PSG version of this module which uses eleven 12-sided dice to generate the star system. This means that the number of possible combinations equals the number of stars in the known universe: 6x10^23. Use all the 1-dice planet system generation module [8A] rules and add the following:

Planetary System Generation (Zetta PSG 8B)

Throw the 11d12 and place them in the tray in their holders in front of the Zetta PSG cards, so that the color of each die matches the color of the pentagon-shaped fields showing the dice results on the cards. Read the results as described in the 1-dice planet system generation module rules, but instead of using the same dice result for all cards, you now have individual results for each card.

Planetary system names: The light grey letter found in each white rectangle gives every single possible combination of the Zetta PSG a unique name. Upper/lower case matters and some of them are numbers, exotic letters or punctuation symbols (including "character space", see result 2 on card EZZ7 for example). Together they form an 11-letter name for each planetary system possible to create by the Zetta PSG. The name of a planetary system can be used as a way of charting the universe of Expedition Zetta. You can also use these to set the Zetta PSG to any name of your choosing, to see what that system looks like. What planetary system will your name or phone number generate?

Charting the Universe Module (9)

There is a downloadable, continuously updated Charting Pad for the game. You can find it at: https://www.sierra-madre-games.com/downloads/ It can be used in 3 ways:

• Scoreboard: At the end of the game, the charting pad can be used as a scoreboard (and to keep track of scores from previous games).
• Record your journey: If you are using the Zetta PSG module, you can record the planetary systems you have encountered by writing the 11-letter name it generates using the grey letters in the white rectangles on the Zetta PSG card. The difference between upper and lower case should be observed. You can write them down to be able to return to the same system in the future, or share with others where you have been. In addition to a field for the name, there are fields for planets and star.
• Achievements: There is a list of achievements included, made as a personal chart. Mark completed achievements on your list. Try to complete them all (it is hard and will take many games).

Perks Module (10)

The Perks module addresses all advantages written on the exo product, ship, country and life cards. This addition to the rules is very easy to explain but adds a considerable amount of depth to the game. This text is called a perk. Follow the instructions in the perk text whenever you use it.

• If a perk affects something which is part of a rules module that you have not included in your game, just don't apply it. If you want, you can agree on removing all cards that has such text from the game before you start playing.
• Perks are NOT cumulative, meaning that if something is affected by several perks you have to select 1 of those perks. The others do not count.

Example: Let's say you play using the equipment module, the perks module and the alien civilizations module. You have an all leveled crew (base movement 9 steps) and have succeeded in making "Helium 3" (an exo product). This exo-product card gives you 1 more step during movement for each energy spent. In your crew you have a "Large Thin Humanoid" (a life card), that gives you 3 more steps during movement, for each energy spent. In this case you are best off choosing to use the Large Thin Humanoid's perk, which will give you a total movement of 9+3=12 steps per energy spent.

Setup (Perks)

Your ship and country cards start with their perk side up.

Exploration (Perks)

Country perks: At any time when your country card has its perk side up, you may use the country's perk by flipping the country card to its used side. While on the used side, the perk is unavailable.

Exo product perks: As long as an exo product is on your equipment track and not on the "Beyond repair" space, the perk is active.

Life perks: If there is an alien civilization icon on a life card, it has a perk. If you play with the Alien Civilization module, life cards with perks on them can become active members of your crew. All perks on life cards that are alien crew members on your control board are active. But if the perk concerns something that involves a discovery action the alien crew member has to have taken part in the discovery in order for the perk to count. NOTE: This includes cards that you may have romanced from someone else. NOTE: If you have put the alien on the "Stored" space, the perk is not active, and never will be.

Ship perks: At any time when your ship card has its perk side up, you may use the ship's perk by flipping the ship card to its used side. While on the used side, the perk is unavailable.

Clean Up (Perks)

In addition to other Clean Up activities, make sure that all cards with "once per exploration" or "once per warp" perks are set to their unused sides.

Damage Module (11)

When you use this module, your crew members can suffer damage. A damage token is placed on top of an ability (expertise or talent) NOT on top of the empty ability spaces on the card. Until the damage token is removed it counts as if the crew member does not have the covered-up ability. A damage token can be placed on talent actions even if you are not playing with the warp module, but as long as a crew has 1 or more damage tokens, NO knowledge tokens may be used by them.

Since the damage tokens are placed on the abilities, different crew members can sustain different amounts of damage, between 2 and 4. Aliens are fragile in the human setting. If you are playing with the Alien Civilization Module, alien crew members are considered to have 1 ability for damage token purposes. So they can sustain only 1 damage token. If they have a damage token on them, they cannot take part in discovery actions and, if you play with the perks module, their perk is NOT active.

Once placed you are not allowed to move the damage token between abilities on your crew member, only remove it through healing. Pay extra attention to this if you use the Warp module.

When you have to place a damage token and none of your crew members have any ability icons left to place it on, your crew members are in critical condition. As soon as this occurs, the Mothership immediately comes to rescue you. But for this favour you have to:

• Pay EACH of the other players (in player order) 2 energy tokens (if you run out of energy tokens you must trade any radioactive substances you have for energy (4 energy for each)).
• If you still don't have enough energy, the players who didn't receive enough energy get to (in player order) take 1 substance from you for each energy token they did not receive.
• If you are out of substances too, each player that did not receive ANY substance tokens gets to take 1 discovery card from anywhere on your control board (except from the stored space).
• If you don't have any discovery cards you don't have to pay anything more. But you are probably positioned last in the game anyway :)

Move the Mothership to the rescued player's location.

Exploration (Damage)

The most important thing first: Healing! The Damage module introduces a new general action: Healing. If your entire crew does nothing else 1 turn, you get to remove 2 damage tokens from anywhere on your control board. These can be taken from hazardous life cards (see below).

Also, when you are performing a discovery action (other than xenoarchaeology) you can let crew members work on healing themselves if they are not taking part in the discovery attempt. Remove 1 damage token from a crew member that works on healing this way.

Then for the inevitable: Damage! There are several ways to suffer damage during the exploration stage:

• Hazardous discoveries: When you find life or substances there's a risk that they are dangerous, i.e. dangerous bacteria, poisonous/radioactive substances etc. If your attempt was successful, look at the dice you rolled (you have to roll all the dice your attempt allows). For each die that shows a 2, 4, 6 or 8 you receive 1 damage token.
• If you've found Hazardous substance: Distribute the damage tokens you received upon finding these substance tokens between the participating crew members. NOTE: You can only receive as many damage tokens as the number of substance tokens you've found.
• If you've found Hazardous life: Place all the damage tokens you received upon finding this life on the life card itself. At the end of each turn: Count all damage tokens you have on your life cards and distribute as many damage tokens between all crew members (the tokens on the life card(s) remain). To remove damage tokens from life cards you have to use the healing action.
• NOTE: When you are using the Alien Civilization module, an intelligent life card never brings damage tokens to your ship. However, as a crew member it can receive damage tokens from hazardous discoveries including from hazardous life cards at end of turns.
• Staying longer: Normally, you can only stay in a system for as many turns as stated on the star. When you add the damage module, you can stay in a system for more turns than the star indicates, but for each turn you overstay, your crew will suffer injuries. This is similar to the mechanics found in the Lone Star solo version of the rules. Flip the turn marker to its black side (with the damage symbol) and place it on 1 again. This tells players who keep exploring that there will be damage each turn. For every extra turn you stay in a system after the number of turns stated by the star, you must put 1 damage token on EACH Crew member on your control board. If another player chooses to stay extra turns, you can do the same, and receive damage or you can reside in the safe environment of the inner quarters of the Mothership. You cannot perform any actions in this safe environment and receive no damage tokens. Instead, you receive 1 knowledge token each turn you wait there. Once you have chosen to reside in the safe environment, you are not able to switch back and start exploring again.

Warp (Damage)

Crew members with 1 or more damage tokens can't act. They remain on the board (can be targeted).

Scoring (Damage)

Each damage token on your control board gives you -1 fame.

Xenoarchaeology Module (12)

The Xenoarchaeology module adds the possibility to encounter ruins or remains from ancient alien civilizations.

Exploration (Xenoarchaeology)

Another discovery action is added to the game, Xenoarchaeology. Xenoarchaeology actions can be performed on any planet INCLUDING at Trojans.

• To perform the action, you need to have both life and substance abilities among the crew members who are part of the attempt (and corresponding equipment if you use the equipment module). 1 crew member can have both of the abilities or 2 or more crew members can jointly have them.
• No other player is allowed to help in a xenoarchaeology action.
• It can ONLY be done if no one else is currently using the xenoarchaeology cards (due to the safety of the entire mission, only 1 excavation at a time is allowed).
• You need to succeed with both 1 life and 1 substance discovery attempt. Equipment wears down normally. If you succeed shuffle the xenoarchaeology deck and draw a card.
• Crew members cannot heal themselves during xenoarchaeology attempts, which requires their attention, even if they are not part of the life or discovery attempts.

NOTE: Xenoarchaeology actions can be dangerous and can hurt or even kill members of your crew. Choose wisely when using the xenoarchaeology deck.

If the xenoarchaeology card you draw says "Site Found!", you place it in front of you and take the xenoarchaeology deck. Until you put the deck back, no one else can attempt a xenoarchaeology discovery action.

The "Site Found!" card contains a danger number and you can choose to dig further in three directions. Each direction represents how fast you want to work on the excavation. Choose one direction and draw as many xenoarchaeology cards as the number in that direction. Place all drawn cards face up on the side of the "Site Found!" that you chose before proceeding.

Danger roll: Xenoarchaeology can be dangerous. Whenever you have to make a danger roll, first calculate your danger level which is the SUM of the danger values on all face up xenoarchaeology cards. Then roll 1 die for each face-up xenoarchaeology card you have. For each result below or equal to your danger level, place a damage token on one ability on any of your crew members.

• All cards you have drawn become active. Your turn is over once all their effects have been carried out.
• Each time you encounter a "Dangerous Event!" you have to make a danger roll.
• Each time you end the excavation, you have to make a danger roll.
• Damage tokens may be placed on romanced crew members. If you do this, they are considered used and immediately return to their original owner.
• If you are playing with the Alien Civilizations Module: Alien crew members have no ability icons but can receive one damage token. This covers the perk text of the alien. If they have 1 damage token on them, they cannot take part in discovery actions and if you play with the perks module, their perk is NOT active.
• If you are playing with the Damage Module: the substance you've found was not found using a die so it cannot add any extra damage from being a hazardous substance.
• An ability that is covered with a damage token cannot be used until the damage token covering it has been removed.
• If you, during the use of the xenoarchaeology deck, have no more ability icons on a crew member and place another damage on them, that crew member is killed and removed from your control board for the rest of the game. You may do this even if you have available ability icons on other crew members.

If you only have 1 crew member left with no ability icons on them and you have to place more damage, that crew member survives anyway being extra careful (= fleeing the site in panic...). You then have to end the excavation and no other cards you draw that turn have any effect. You do not have to perform a danger roll when ending the excavation this way, but you will receive no rewards from Motherlode or Alien Artefact cards during that turn.

(Card types shown on page: Dangerous Event card, Site Found! card, Motherlode card, Alien Artefact card.)

Check the cards in the following order:

• For each Dangerous Event card: make a danger roll.
• For each Motherlode card: take the number of substance tokens stated on the card.
• For each Alien Artefact card: place this powerful artefact of unknown alien origin on the "FULLY OPERATIONAL" space on your control board. It remains there for the rest of the game. It is not worn down from use and it cannot be priorityruled or borrowed. It may help you during your continued journey. Its effect applies on crew members on your board, including romanced. A lot of energy is required to research it. This means you are not allowed to continue the excavation even if you also found a "Site Found" card. The only way to find more than one alien artefact at the same site is if they are drawn during the same turn.
  • NOTE: Abilities added by artifacts do NOT make crew members able to sustain more damage. Also, a fully damaged crew member is NOT able to be part of attempts even though the artifact adds abilities. However, a not fully damaged crew member CAN use abilities that artifacts provide even with damage on this ability on their card.
• Each "Site Found!" card will let you continue excavating for another turn, unless you found an alien artefact. If you choose to continue during the next turn, you will again choose one direction and draw as many xenoarchaeology cards as the number in that direction and resolve their effects. This is a case when you are allowed to stay on a planet more than 1 turn.
• If you didn't draw any "Site Found!" card, or if you choose not to continue even though you draw one, IMMEDIATELY return the deck. You are not allowed to stay on the planet next turn.

Clean Up (Xenoarchaeology)

Damage tokens remain on the crew members from one system to another.

Scoring (Xenoarchaeology)

Each damage token on your control board gives you -1 fame. Each Alien Artifact gives you 6 fame.

Action Reference

You have reached the end of the basic and advanced rules. Here's an overview [with page reference] over all the effects (and requirements) of all Exploration actions that are available to you in the basic and advanced rules. (All Warp actions are described on page 20.)

• Exo product discovery [p.14]: Take 1 exo product card (in space, you need to pay substances according to the card).
• Substance discovery [p.14]: Find 2 substances according to the planet (on planets).
• Life discovery [p.14]: Find 1 life card (on planets in the Goldilocks zone).
• Scavenge Trojans [p.13]: 2 substance bag draws (on Trojans, whole crew, always succeeds).
• Research [p.13]: 2 knowledge bag draws, keep 1 (anywhere, whole crew, always succeeds).
• Repair [p.17]: 1 equipment to "Slightly Worn" (anywhere, whole crew, always succeeds).
• Healing [p.26]: Remove 2 damage tokens (anywhere, whole crew, always succeeds).
• Xenoarchaeology [p.27]: Use the xenoarchaeology deck (on planets, whole crew, you have to succeed with both life and substance).

Solo Rules: "The Lone Star"

In this version, you play Expedition Zetta as if the Warp drive was invented by a single country. You can add any of the advanced modules to the "Lone Star" too. To add to the thrill of the game, this variant has a more dangerous journey in store for you. You may end up stranded in the universe, unable to get home, with insufficient food and oxygen supplies. Or you may be lost in warp space. If you find yourself in either of these situations, it means you have lost the game and have to restart.

The goal of the game is still to acquire the most fame. However, your main focus will be on survival. To survive you need warp tokens. And your system generation will cost a lot of energy tokens.

In the Lone Star variant, Expedition Zetta ends when you have collected 5 warp tokens and 1 each of life, exo product and the 4 substance tokens (6 categories) and are able to pay the energy needed to generate the next system. So when you have the discoveries, knowledge and energy needed to return to Earth, you have succeeded and the game ends.

So, your focus will, to a much greater extent, be on finding radioactive substances, which you can convert to energy (4 energy for each radioactive substance) and also focusing on the warp tokens among the knowledge tokens (by failing attempts).

Play time 1-2 hours. (45 min - 1½ hours if you use the Quick Zetta Cards.)

Setup (Lone Star)

Set up a basic game and add any modules you want, with the following modifications:

• Remove all knowledge tokens with icons for security, romance, borrow and priority rule. Depending on how difficult you want the game to be, randomly remove 0-8 of the knowledge tokens with the icons for star pilot, life, substance and exo-product discoveries. Removing 0 is the most challenging version and removing 8 is the least challenging.
• You do not get any warp tokens from the start, all 7 should be in the knowledge bag.
• You get preparation and energy tokens according to normal rules. Before drawing the Exo-Product cards, remove all Exo Products that need radioactive components (blue).

Preparation (Lone Star)

Play the Preparation stage similar to the multiplayer variant, but you will use flag tokens from any country (other than your own) to mark unavailable crew. At the start of each turn:

• Discard any cards in the bottom row that have another country's flag on them.
• When you move the cards to fill gaps, cards with other country's flags always have to be moved downward as much as possible.

Promising crew members or space technology equipment can be recruited into another country's space program (and become unavailable for you). Roll 2d12. For each die, on a result of 4-12, place a flag token from one of the countries you are not using on the corresponding card in the grid as follows:

• A dice result of 12, 11, 10: Top Row
• A dice result of 9, 8, 7: Middle Row
• A dice result of 6, 5, 4: Bottom Row

On a result of 1-3, or if a card is already marked by a flag token (yours or another country's) the result does not add any flag token.

System Generation (Lone Star)

Warping burns energy! But the more you know about warp travel, the better you become at saving the energy needed. Draw a quick Zetta card or generate the star system using the Zetta PSG.

• Start by looking at the quick Zetta card's "ENERGY" value. Or, if you are using the Zetta PSG module, flip the top card on the H-orbit deck and look at the value before the letter "E" (energy). The H-orbit deck has this number since its fluff tells the distance to the star.
• Pay energy tokens equal to this value. If you cannot pay, it means you have flown to an unknown corner of the universe or you are trapped in the warp zone of the universe. Wherever that is. You do not know. No one knows. What you do know is that you have lost the game and have to start over.
• If you manage to pay enough energy, have 5 Warp tokens and one of each of the discovery items you are able to return to Earth. You have survived the game and can tally the score.
• If you fail to match this requirement, you generate a new planetary system as usual, but you are not allowed to use any of the Warp tokens to change the Zetta PSG cards.

Exploration (Lone Star)

During the Exploration stage you collect discoveries that will generate fame at the end, and if you fail you get knowledge tokens. These are particularly important in The Lone Star variant of Expedition Zetta. You need to find the 5 warp tokens and 6 discovery items in order to find your way home.

NOTE: In "Lone Star", you do NOT count the warp token when you check your knowledge cap.

Play the Exploration stage as usual with the following adjustments:

• The Staying longer rule from the Damage Module is valid here too. You can stay more turns in a system than the star indicates, but for each additional turn you stay there, you must place a damage token over 1 ability icon on each crew member. They are then unable to perform that ability until they have healed.
• It's OK to place the damage token on talent actions that are not used in the Lone Star variant, but as long as crew members have a damage token on them they are unable to use knowledge tokens. If there are no abilities left when a crew member receives a damage token, the crew member takes that token but dies and is removed from your control board.
• Healing: Works in a similar fashion as in the Damage Module. Your crew can spend 1 turn healing to remove 2 damage tokens or can, when you are performing a discovery action (other than xenoarchaeology), let crew members work on healing themselves if they are not taking part in the discovery. In that case remove 1 damage token from each crew member who choses healing. This can be done later on in the next system.

Warp (Lone Star)

If you are playing using the Warp Travel Module, you can only perform 1 action: repair your equipment using a crew's own talent or a knowledge token.

NOTE: Crew members who have a damage token on them can NOT use knowledge tokens during the Warp stage.

Cleanup (Lone Star)

Do the cleanup as in the multiplayer version of the game, including any modules you may use.

Scoring (Lone Star)

The main challenge of the Lone Star variant is to return home, but if you want to compare your progress to previous attempts, you score in a similar way as you do in the 2-5-player game. Your total fame is the sum of:

• All your Life and Exo-Product cards (even if they are on the "Beyond repair" space)
• All your Substance tokens. Gas and metal are worth 1 fame each, Gems and Radioactive are worth 2 fame each.
• 2 fame for each leveled crew member
• 9 fame if your level meter is at "9 Steps"

If you have returned to Earth, you can, if you want, consider making it more difficult by removing fewer knowledge tokens or try adding any of the challenges listed under Co-op Challenge below.

Co-op Challenge

If you want to play Expedition Zetta co-operatively there is a simple way of doing so that has been appreciated by playtesters. Instead of playing four turns you play until all players together have completed a number of challenges that you get at the start of the game. You collaborate in any way you want to achieve the challenges and you score together. The score is the sum of all players' scores.

As with The Lone Star, getting home is the main goal. Your score can be used to compare the level of success between two different games. You can also add the challenges to the "Lone Star"-variant.

Choose how many challenges you want to complete and roll as many d12s at the start of the Preparation stage to see what your challenges will be. Refer to the table below. If you choose to use several challenges, reroll the dice if needed until no number appears twice. Challenges 1 and 2 need to be combined with at least 1 from 3-12. You may have to visit more than 4 systems in order to succeed and you have to rely on getting energy from finding radioactive substances to keep going.

If you want to make the game more difficult you can add the energy cost to warping (see the "Lone Star" variant above) and/or add more challenges. 1 challenge is rather easy. 1 challenge per player is generally fairly difficult. You can play the co-op challenge with any modules you want. Note that some of the challenges require that you play with certain advanced rules modules.

Roll / Challenge:

1. (Combined) The number of crew and equipment allowed to bring is 1 each instead of 4.
2. (Combined) All players start the game with half the number of energy tokens.
3. (Combined) On returning all players' equipments are "Fully Operational" or "Slightly worn".
4. Return to Earth with all 4 alien artifacts.
5. All players have at least 5 of each of the 4 substance token types when you return to Earth.
6. All players have the maximum amount of allowed knowledge tokens on their control board.
7. Add the warp knowledge token to the bag. Find all 7 before you return to Earth.
8. Build all 8 exo products that were sent along on the journey.
9. Visit all 9 star types. Take notes to keep track.
10. Return to Earth only when all crew members on the journey are leveled.
11. Bring as many (or more) alien crew members as humans back to Earth.
12. Make successful discoveries on all 12 planet types. Keep one of each to keep track.

Bot Rules (Solo, Co-op and Multiplayer)

The bot rules are a set of instructions on how a bot acts during the different stages of the game. These instructions are found on the Bot cards. There are more than 3,000 different combinations of bots that can be generated by these cards. Try to beat them all :)

The bots work with any combination of modules and can be added to the game for three purposes:

• Solo play: As an alternative to the Lone Star variant, you can take on 1-4 bot opponents. The bots will help each other whenever possible. The more bots you take on, the more challenging it will be to win. If you want a real challenge, have the bots collaborate fully AND combine their fame against yours (playing against 3 or even 4 bots this way makes it EXTREMELY hard to win).
• Co-operative play: The bots can be used for co-operative play. In such case, it is real players against the bots. If there are more than 1 bot they collaborate in every way possible. At the end, all players add their score together and so do the bots. If you get a higher score than them, you win.
• Multiplayer bots: If you want, you can also add bots to a multiplayer game. Decide how many bots you want to play with (bots + players = no more than 5). Will a human or a bot be the winner?

Setup (Bots)

There are 4 different types of bot cards. They are connected to different stages of the game.

• Preparation
• Movement
• Action
• Warp (only used if you are playing with the Warp Module)

Each bot that is part of the game consists of 3 cards (4 if you use the Warp Module).

(Example printed with the Action card: The "Movement" card has taken the bot somewhere. Following the "Action" card shown here, the bot will make a substance or exo-product attempt. If this is not possible it will make a life attempt. If that is not possible it will do research and if it's at its knowledge cap it will do a repair action. It will always help another player if it gets a radioactive substance.)

(Example printed with the Preparation card: The "Preparation" card tells you that this bot always goes for the cheapest card. If two are equally cheap it will buy the card that has an ability it does not have yet. Still tied, it buys the leftmost one.)

Draw 1 randomly of each bot card type to form a bot. Also randomly assign each bot a ship and a country. Each bot gets the same amount of energy tokens and a player board as a normal player.

During preparation you follow the bot's preparation card. During exploration start by following the instructions on the bot's movement card then the instructions on the bot's action card. If you play with the Warp Module you follow the bot's warp card during warp.

A ">" means that you should move on to the next statement if there are still two or more possible choices. To keep the bot cards light, some potential cases are not included in the commands.

Golden Bot Rule: If you end up in a situation where you still think it's not clear which option a bot will choose, the first human player in player order chooses the most sane option they would have picked if they were the bot player, (to their benefit, as if they and the bot has a pact). One example of this is if a bot player becomes starting player and is to decide where the Mothership shall stop.

Preparation (Bots)

NOTE: Abilities = only discovery abilities, talents do not count when you follow the bot card.

Follow the instructions on the PREPARATION card. In addition the bots follow these general rules:

• Whenever it can, a bot moves cards it invested in downwards. Otherwise it moves a card with a flag to the cheapest possible place. Ties follow the same rule as the last condition on the preparation card.
• If you are playing with the Equipment Module: In case the bot has as many as it can bring on the ship of one card type (crew/equipment, including perks if you play with the Perks Module) the bot never buys more of that type until the other type has reached its limit too.
• If a bot ends up with more cards than it can bring, it leaves the last ones it bought but doesn't give up cards that have discovery abilities that no other of its cards have.

System Generation (Bots)

Bots spend their warp tokens (in player order) as soon as there is a negative modification for a discovery type that they have the means to discover.

Exploration (Bots)

Follow the instructions on the Bot's MOVEMENT and ACTION cards. In addition to the instructions on the cards, the bots follow these general rules:

• Bots play with their knowledge tokens face up and use them as soon as they can.
• Bots use their perks as soon as they can and exchange radioactive to energy when needed.
• If several planets are within reach, bots always aim for the planet with the highest sum on the modifiers. Randomize ties.
• Bots always take the planet's substance if they get to place their flag on a planet.
• If the discovery value is less than 10, bots use as many crew members as they can for discovery attempts. If it is 10 or more they use only 1 crew member.
• Bots never take equipment to "Beyond Repair".
• Bots always take a turn to repair one equipment when more than half the equipment cards are on the "Worn Out" space.

Warp (Bots)

Follow the instructions on the Bot's WARP cards.

Reference: Game Concepts

Bot Cards: These cards are used if you want to play standard, solo or Co-op with more players than there are in your play group. One of each card controls a simple form of AI which tells you what this bot player will do. Solo: you play against 1 or several bots. Co-op: you collaborate against bots.

Component Tray: The plastic trays are meant to be a place for all the components to keep the play area tidy. They are meant to be used outside the box, when you are playing the game.

Control Board: This is where each player stores all components. It represents the interior of your spaceship and can be placed along the planetary system board. The connection simulates a window through which you view an augmented version of the planetary system.

Country Card: The country you are playing is represented by a country card. If you are using the Perks Module, each country has a unique ability.

Crew Card: You have to bring a crew on your journey. Each member of the crew is represented by a crew card. A crew member's abilities are indicated by the icons on the top of the card. Flip a crew card to its reverse side when this crew member is leveled.

D12: This is the abbreviation for a 12-sided die. 12-sided dice are used in Expedition Zetta for all dice rolls. When you use the Zetta PSG 11-dice variant (8B), pay attention to the dice colors, since the 11 dice colors correspond to the 11 Zetta PSG cards.

Damage Tokens: When a crew member receives a damage token, you place it on one of their talent/ability icons. If a crew member has 2 such icons, they are able to sustain up to 2 damage. If a crew member receives a damage token but has no abilities left to put tokens on, he/she is in critical condition and your ship must be rescued by the Mothership, entailing some compensation to be paid to the other players (see the Damage Module rules). If you are using the Lone Star solo rules, the crew member dies instead. The same goes for the Xenoarchaeology Module in case the damage comes from using the xenoarchaeology deck.

Discovery Value Display: Use this to set the discovery values for exo products, substances and life discoveries in the system you are visiting. If you are playing with the Zetta PSG module, you successively adjust the wheels ending up with the final discovery values once you have read all the cards. Position the display so that everyone can see it. There are slots in the back part of the component tray that you can use.

Energy Tokens: When you leave Earth you get a number of energy tokens. These are used when you move your spaceship during exploration (and when you warp, if you are playing the Lone Star solo game). The only way to get more energy is to find radioactive substance tokens which are worth 4 energy each if you choose to convert them.

Equipment Card: If you are using the Equipment module, you also need equipment on the journey. Equipment cards work in the same way as crew cards. To make discoveries, you need both a crew card and an equipment card with the correct ability for each specific discovery type (life, substances, exo products). Equipment cards don't level up but, if you are using the Warp Module, their reverse side indicates whether or not they are undergoing repair.

Exo Product Cards: Exo means "from outside", in this case, products built outside our solar system. On your journey you bring 8 exo product cards. These are blueprints for inventions not yet built. They are available for all players on a "first come first serve" basis. You build them using the exo product discovery action. When you succeed you need to pay the substance tokens of the types noted on the card in order to take it. The fame they are worth is written in the lower right corner. Depending on the modules used they also have perks and work as equipment.

Goldilocks Zone Marker: These markers are used to help you identify where in a planetary system you can find life. On the star you see where exactly to place the markers (over 2 or 3 specified orbits, depending on how hot the star is). Place the marker across these orbits. The term "Goldilocks zone" is used in astronomy to indicate orbits where it is not too cold and not too warm for life to develop.

Knowledge Token and Bag: Knowledge tokens are kept in the knowledge bag, or kept secret face down on your player board after you have drawn them. They contain icons representing abilities of your crew and equipment. You may place them face up on a crew or equipment card at any time, granting that card the ability indicated by the token during your turn. You discard the token back into the bag when it is the next player's turn.

Life Card: When you succeed with a life discovery, you draw a life card as the reward. The fame they are worth is written in the lower right corner. Some of them contain text, which are perks. These represent potential alien passengers able to join your crew, but only if you have room for them in your crew spaces or your "Current discoveries" space.

Mission Log: This downloadable document also serves as a way of charting the Expedition Zetta universe. You can write the name of the stars you are visiting, even when you use the Zetta PSG module. An 11-character name is formed by the letters next to the result on each card. Apart from fame points from your game, it also provides personal achievement sheets that you can print.

The Mothership: The largest figurine is the Mothership. This is the ship in which you travel between planetary systems. It stays at the same place while you are in a planetary system and serves as the starting point for all players' spaceships. Using the small pins you can attach your player ships to it.

Planetary System Board: The main game board is a representation of the planetary systems you visit. The circular lines represent orbits and the arched white lines are called trajectories. When you create the system, you place planets and the Mothership on the labels. You move your spaceship along the lines on the dots. Each dot represents a step. (If you end your movement on a planet or the Mothership, these too represent steps, but not if you are just passing them.)

Player Aid Cards: The player aid cards (3 per player) contain all the icons and a brief description of the gameplay. One card contains information about basic gameplay, one card contains information about the modules (Advanced game) and one card shows the different icons.

Preparation Tokens: If you play the preparation stage (and don't use the quick preparation cards), you receive a number of preparation tokens which you use to buy crew (and equipment if using the Equipment Module). Keep your used preparation tokens close to your board since they are reused later on in the game as energy tokens.

Quick Preparation Card: If you want a quicker game, you can use the quick preparation cards. They provide you with a ready-formed crew (and equipment if you are using the Equipment Module). You can choose between 2-, 3- and 4-member crews.

Quick Zetta Card: If you are not playing with the Zetta PSG Module, the quick Zetta cards tell you the discovery values as well as the planets' locations. The stars shown in the cards are all based on real stars in our sun's neighborhood.

Spaceship Cards: You have your own spaceship that you use when you travel within each planetary system you visit. If you use the Perks Module each spaceship has a unique ability.

Star Marker: The quick Zetta card (or the Orbit A Zetta PSG card) will tell you which star marker to use. The star marker will indicate how many turns you can stay in the system and where the Goldilocks zone is located. The star markers represent the major star classes in the universe.

Substance Tokens and Substance Bag: The smaller substance tokens are referred to as substance tokens in most parts of the rules. They represent the actual substances that you collect and bring to your ship. There are also larger substance tokens in a substance bag. This is a way to randomize the substances you have found. When you have drawn from the substance bag, you take a small substance token that matches the big one and place it on your control board, and then immediately return the big substance token to the bag.

Trojan Markers: Trojan markers are placed before gaseous planets (and after if you use the Trajectories Module). If there are no gaseous planets, place Trojans before (and after) the outermost planet. Trojans exist in reality and are clouds of asteroids and various other bodies that gather in front of and behind larger planets, due to a gravitational phenomenon.

Turn Marker: The turn marker tells you which turn it is in the current planetary system. It's placed on the numbered spaces (buttons) in the upper left part of the starting player's control board. It's the starting player's task to keep track of the turns. If any player stays longer than the safe number of turns noted on the star, you flip the turn marker to its black side and place it on 1 again, starting to count the turns that will cause damage.

Warp Marker: During a game of Expedition Zetta you visit 4 planetary systems. The starting player keeps track of the systems by moving the warp marker, using the same numbered spaces (on the upper left side of the player board) where the turn marker is used. When you change starting player, move the markers to the new starting player's board.

Xenoarchaeology Card: If you succeed in finding the remains of an alien civilization (= you have to make a successful attempt of both life and substance discoveries), you take the xenoarchaeology deck and use that as you explore the ruins. Only one player at a time is allowed to use the deck, so if it's in use you cannot try to take it.

Zetta PSG Cards: PSG is short for Planetary System Generator. This component in the game consists of 11 decks of cards and 11 d12s. If you play with the Zetta PSG Module, you use it to generate new planetary systems, including planets and discovery values. It is based on actual statistical facts about the universe and can generate, and name, as many different planetary systems as there are believed to be stars in the universe.

Reference: Astronomical Concepts

Editorial note: The printed "Reference: Astronomical Concepts" section (pp. 37-40 of the rulebook) is a set of encyclopedic essays explaining the real-world science behind the planet types, star classes and Zetta PSG orbit cards (for example CBN, DES, GDW, GGI, Goldilocks Zone, ICE, IGI, IRN, LVA, OCN, PTR, TER, SSB, stellar classification, star distance, rotation, spectrum, variability and age, and the 1 ZETTA prefix entry). It carries no rule effect and is omitted from this transcription; the rules text that refers to these concepts is transcribed above.

Omitted: the printed "Special Thank You", Kickstarter backer list, and Credits pages, which contain attribution only.