Expeditions Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview and Goal
• Components
• Setup
  • Player Components
  • Shared Components
• Gameplay Overview
• Actions
  • Move
  • Play
  • Solve
  • Vanquish
  • Gather
  • Glory Categories
  • Refresh
  • End of Turn
  • Mech Abilities
• End of Game
• Icon Reference
• Additional Notes

Overview and Goal

Expeditions is a competitive, card-driven, engine-building game of exploration for 1–5 players (60–90 minutes, ages 14+). Play cards to gain power, guile, and unique worker abilities; move your mech to mysterious locations; use workers, items, meteorites, and quests to enhance your mech; and use power and guile to vanquish corruption from the land. Collect glory and riches to complete the most lucrative expedition in this sequel to Scythe!

Components

• 1 Basecamp board
• 5 mech mats
• 5 mech miniatures
• 5 base snaps
• 50 worker meeples (ten each of purple, green, red, yellow, blue)
• 5 action tokens
• 5 power tokens
• 5 guile tokens
• 12 starting cards (six characters and six companions)
• 25 item cards
• 25 meteorite cards
• 40 quest cards
• 20 location tiles (hexagonal)
• 24 map tokens
• 37 corruption tokens (six of each color and one 20-value token)
• 20 glory tokens (stars; four per player)
• 1 corruption bag
• 80 cardboard coins
• 10 player aids
• 1 achievement sheet

The solo mode components are listed in the Automa rulebook.

Setup

Player Components

Each player gains the following. Return any unused components from each step to the box.

• Mech mat & miniature: At random, gain a mech mat and the corresponding mech miniature. Choose a base snap to select your player color and attach the base snap to your mech.
• Starting cards (characters and companions): Gain a character card at random, then gain its matching companion card (e.g., if you have the character with II in the upper right, gain the companion also marked II). Place these in your hand of cards, kept face up to the left of your mech mat.
• Tokens: Place the following on your mech mat:
  • the 4 glory tokens (stars) of your player color,
  • the action token of your player color on the Refresh spot, and
  • a power token and guile token on the 0 spot of the track.
• Player aids: Gain 2 player aids, 1 of each type.

Shared Components

• Basecamp board: Place the Basecamp board on the table, then place each player's mech next to it.
• Location tiles: Separate the location tiles into three groups by their region (South, Central, and North). Shuffle the 6 South location tiles. Referring to the layout diagram at the top right of the Basecamp board, place the South locations face up in their marked spots. Repeat this process for the 7 Central and then the 7 North locations, but place them all face down instead.
• Map tokens: Place 1 map token on each of the face-down locations (Central and North only).
• Cards: Shuffle the meteorite, item, and quest cards into a single deck. Place a card face up in each of the 5 spots marked on the Basecamp's layout diagram and place the deck face down to the side.
• Workers, coins, and extra map tokens: Place these within reach in a general supply.
• Corruption bag: Fill the bag with all corruption tokens except the 20-value corruption (when location 20 is revealed during the game, the 20-value corruption will be placed on it).
• First player: Randomly determine the first player.

Red workers represent soldiers, blue are engineers, green are explorers, yellow are merchants, and purple are possessed.

While playing Expeditions, you have the ability to improve your mech by tucking partially-exposed cards under your mech mat. To make tucking easier, 4 riser stickers are included for the 4 corners of the back of your mech mat. This is a permanent change, so it's recommended to first play a game without the risers to see how tucking works and if it's cumbersome for your playing surface.

Gameplay Overview

A turn in Expeditions begins with shifting your action token at the upper right of your mech mat. Then you must either (a) take actions or (b) Refresh. If you take actions, you must perform all exposed actions that you are able to (some combination of Move, Play, Gather).

Most turns in Expeditions involve shifting your action token to cover Move, Play, or Gather, then taking the two exposed actions in the rectangular box (in any order). Your action token must stay in the rectangular box containing the Move, Play, and Gather actions until you take a Refresh turn (when the token will shift to the Refresh spot).

• Move: Move your mech to another unoccupied location within range (1–3 locations).
• Play: Play 1 card from your hand to gain the core value at the upper left of the card; you may place a specific worker on the bottom left to activate the card's special ability.
• Gather: Gain the exposed benefits at your mech's location.
• Refresh: Return all workers placed on active cards to your mech mat; then return all active cards to your hand. You may take a Refresh turn only if your action token was covering Move, Play, or Gather at the beginning of your turn.

Red arrows: Only when you start your turn with your action token on the Refresh spot (i.e., on your first turn and after your Refresh turns), shift your action token to the blank spot and take all three actions—Move, Play, and Gather—in any order. On the turn after that, you must shift your action token to cover Move, Gather, or Play.

Expeditions is played in consecutive clockwise turns. The end of the game is triggered when a player places their 4th glory token with the Boast ability (see Boast and End of Game).

Actions

Move

When you take a Move action or use a Move ability, move your mech to another unoccupied location (a location without another mech) within range.

• Basecamp: Basecamp (where your mech begins the game) is adjacent to 3 locations. After moving off Basecamp, your mech will always be on a location—you may not move back to Basecamp (it is not a location).
• Range: Unless stated otherwise, movement always has a range of 1–3 locations. Your mech must end on a different location than where it began.
• While moving, your mech may travel through occupied locations (locations with other mechs). Occupied and unoccupied locations count the same against your movement range. Your mech may not move through or end on any of the face-up cards among the locations.
• In the rare instance that you cannot move your mech to a valid destination, don't move (you may still take the Move action if it's available; you just forfeit the action).

Face-down locations: If your mech moves to a face-down location, its movement ends. Proceed to:

1. Gain the map token from the location. They are only useful for a glory category and specific cards, where they are simply called "maps".
2. Flip the location face up.
3. Draw corruption tokens from the bag one by one, stacking them face up on top of the square at the bottom of the location until the sum of the corruption is greater than or equal to the location's corruption level (small number to the right of the square). Example: If the corruption level is 5+ and the first corruption placed there has a value of 4, you must draw another corruption and place it on top of the 4.

• Exception: When location 20 is revealed, place the 20-value corruption on it instead of using the corruption bag.
• Empty bag: If the corruption bag is empty at any time during this process, stop drawing corruption and leave the location as is.

Play

When you take a Play action, choose 1 card in your hand (the left of your mech mat) and play it to your active row (the right of your mech mat). If you already have active cards, place the new card to their right.

In any order, (a) you may gain the card's core value (in the upper left) and (b) you may place a worker on the card to activate its ability (at the bottom).

• Core value: The upper-left corner of the card indicates the card's core value (power and/or guile). When you gain power or guile, adjust the token on your mech mat's track.
  • Conditions: Some cards grant additional core values if you have at least a minimum amount of glory or melded meteorites.
  • Maximum: You cannot have more than 10 power or 10 guile. Example: If you have 9 power and you use an ability that would grant you 2 power, gain only 1 power instead.
• Ability: Each card has an ability that is activated by placing an available worker on it; the worker must be of the type shown on the ability. Any ability that refers to a token, card, worker, or mech applies only to components in your possession unless specifically stated otherwise.
  • Conditions: Some abilities grant additional benefits if you have at least a minimum amount of melded meteorites. Ignore that text unless you meet the condition.
  • Colors: If an ability refers to a card's color (blue, red, green, yellow, or purple), it refers to the color of the worker printed in the lower left corner on that card.
  • Worker limit: Each card can hold at most 1 worker.
  • Previous: This refers to the card to the immediate left in the active row.
  • Face-up: This refers to the 5 face-up cards found among the locations. Some abilities refer specifically to "adjacent" face-up cards; they are referring to cards next to your mech's location.

Cards you control: Cards you control are always face up and may exist in one of two places: in your hand to the left of your mech mat or in your active row to the right of your mat. Whenever a card is placed in the active row (when played, gained, or discarded), it is always placed to the right of any existing active cards. You may arrange your hand however you wish, but active cards (i.e., cards in your active row) are always kept in the order they were placed. Special benefits (Solve, Upgrade, and Meld) allow you to tuck cards under your mech mat; they are no longer in your hand or your active row and thus are not considered "cards you control."

Items (instant & ongoing): The abilities on item cards provide 2 different types of benefits, gained in either order if a worker is placed on the card.

• Instant benefits: These abilities are printed above the worker icon and are gained at the moment you place the worker on the card.
• Ongoing benefits: Often noted by the word "whenever," these refer to anything you do—including gaining the card's instant benefit—while the card is in your active row with a worker on it (including the turn when you place a worker on the card).

Order: If you trigger multiple abilities on a card (e.g., both an instant and an ongoing ability), you may resolve them in any order. If there is a cost (e.g., pay 2 power to gain $2), you must pay the cost before gaining the benefit.

Rescue: Rescue a card from your active row to your hand; if the card has a worker on it (or if an ability specifically directs you to rescue a worker), return the worker to your mech mat.

Gaining and discarding: Gained and discarded cards are placed in the rightmost position of your active row.

• Whether a card is gained or discarded, the player does not gain the core value, and the player does not have the option at that time to activate the card's ability by placing a worker on the card.
• You may only discard cards from your hand.

Or: If a card (e.g., characters and companions) has the word "OR" on it, the clauses before and after that word are completely independent. You may only select one or the other.

Trashing: Trashed tokens or cards are returned to the box (not to the general supply).

Activating: If a card activates another card's ability, do not place another worker; in this way, you may activate an ability whether or not it has a worker on it. If the activated ability includes an ongoing ability, it applies only until the end of this turn.

Solve

When using a Solve ability, your mech must be on a location tile matching a quest card you control (e.g., if the quest card says location 11—which is in the Central region, as noted by the "C"—your mech must be on location 11). Pay the Solve cost (noted on the right side of the quest card; e.g., 2 guile), then you may gain the benefit below the cost. Tuck the quest card above your mech mat—or above previously solved quests—so the top of the card remains visible.

• Character cards and some other cards have abilities that allow you to Solve quests.
• You may not Solve if you already have 4 solved quests.
• If a worker was on the solved quest, return it to your mech mat as an available worker.
• You may use a quest's Solve ability whether or not its location has corruption.
• If you gain a map token as a Solve benefit, gain it from the general supply. If you gain a corruption as a Solve benefit, gain it from the bag.
• Solving quests is a glory category. Additionally, solving quests improves the end-of-game scoring of each glory category.

Vanquish

When using a Vanquish ability, pay the cost shown on the topmost corruption at your mech's location (power for orange or guile for turquoise), then gain that corruption, placing it on your mech mat. You may repeat this process to gain more than one corruption during the same Vanquish ability.

• When you remove the final corruption from a location, a new benefit (Upgrade, Meld, or Boast) is revealed and can be gained with Gather abilities.
• The values and colors on corruption, and the benefits underneath, are public information.
• If corruption is destroyed from a location via an ability that does not result in a player gaining it, return it to the bag.
• Corruption is a glory category. Additionally, each corruption token is worth $2 at end of game.
• Location 20 has a single corruption on it valued at 20 (the sum of 10 power and 10 guile). It is the only corruption that may be Vanquished using a mix of power and guile. It is worth $2 at end of game (the same as other corruption tokens), but it has its own glory category.

Example: You have 10 power and 6 guile, and you activate a Vanquish ability. The location has 3 corruption on it. (A) The topmost corruption is orange and has a value of 3; you pay 3 power to gain it. (B) The next corruption is turquoise and has a value of 3; you pay 3 guile to gain that as well. (C) The last corruption is also turquoise and has a value of 4; you can't afford this, so the Vanquish ability ends.

Gather

When you take a Gather action, gain the exposed benefits at your mech's location.

The benefits are shown at the bottom of the location—each icon is a separate benefit. If there is a / symbol ("or"), choose only the benefits on one side of that symbol.

• Gaining a face-up card: Any benefit or ability that refers to "face-up cards" refers to the unclaimed cards among the locations. Some benefits may specify an adjacent face-up card, which refers to cards adjacent to your mech's location. Whenever a face-up card is gained, immediately replace it with the top card of the deck.
• Gaining cards: Add the card to the right of any other cards in your active row. Some benefits allow you to gain the top card of the deck. Others allow you to draw 2 cards from the deck and keep 1, placing the other face up in a sweep pile next to the deck. If the deck is ever empty, shuffle the sweep pile to form a new deck.
• Sweep: Choose any number of the 5 face-up cards among the locations and place them in the sweep pile next to the deck. Replace the chosen cards with new cards dealt face up from the deck.
• Gaining workers: Workers are limited to 10 per color. If you gain a worker and the general supply has one of that color, place it on your mech mat. Workers on your mat are "available."
• Gaining 1 benefit from an adjacent location: Gain only one of the benefits (i.e., one of its icons) at that location, regardless of whether it has a "/" symbol.
• Activating an adjacent card's ability: This uses the face-up cards among the locations; do not place a worker to activate the ability. If this includes an ongoing ability, it applies only until the end of this turn.
• Playing 1 card from hand: This follows all standard rules for playing a card.
• Refresh cards and workers: Return all workers placed on active cards to your mech mat, then return all active cards to your hand. Unlike Refresh turns, do not shift your action token when gaining this benefit.
• Rescue: Rescue a card from your active row to your hand; if the card has a worker on it, return the worker to your mech mat.
• Location 14's map token: Gain a map token from the general supply, if any are available (maps are limited).

Upgrade, Meld, and Boast: All Central and North locations have one of these Gather benefits that is initially covered by 1 or more corruption. The Upgrade, Meld, or Boast benefit only becomes accessible when all corruption is removed from the location.

• Upgrade: Tuck an item card from your hand or active row under the right edge of your mech mat, or under the previous upgrade, so only the ability is visible (cover the worker icon). The ongoing portion of this ability is now activated for the rest of the game.
  • Item cards have instant benefits like "gain 1 guile" that are gained whenever you play the card (and place a worker on it). However, once an item has been upgraded, only their ongoing abilities matter (ignore instant benefits).
  • You may not Upgrade if you already have 4 upgraded items.
  • If a worker was on the upgraded item, return it to your mech mat as an available worker.
  • Upgrading items is a glory category. Additionally, each upgraded item is worth the amount of coins shown in its bottom-right corner at the end of the game.
• Meld: Tuck a meteorite card from your hand or active row sideways under the bottom edge of your mech mat, or under the previous melded meteorite, so only the meld bonus is visible. Immediately gain the meld bonuses of all melded meteorites on your mech (including the newly melded card).
  • You may not Meld if you already have 4 melded meteorites.
  • If a worker was on the melded meteorite, return it to your mech mat as an available worker.
  • Having 1 or 2+ melded meteorites makes each meteorite stronger when played.
  • Melding meteorites is a glory category.
• Boast: Whenever you Boast, choose exactly one glory category on Basecamp for which (a) you have currently reached or exceeded the goal and (b) you don't already have a glory token (ignore your opponents' tokens; they don't block you). Place one of your glory tokens (stars) on the selected category.

If you have 1 or 2 glory tokens on Basecamp, your character and companion grant additional benefits when played. The end of the game is triggered when any player places their 4th glory token.

Glory Categories

• Solve 4 quests
• Meld 4 meteorites
• Upgrade 4 items
• Vanquish the corruption from location 20
• Have at least 7 corruption tokens (this does not include the 20-value corruption)
• Have at least 8 cards in your control (does not count solved, melded, or upgraded cards)
• Have at least 7 workers or at least 5 map tokens (this is a single category on which you can place at most 1 glory, even if you achieve both goals)

The glory track on Basecamp shows the goals and their reward multipliers: quests (x4), meteorites (x4), items (x4), location 20 (x1), corruption (x7), cards (x8), and workers/maps (x7 OR x5).

Refresh

When you take a Refresh turn or gain a Refresh benefit, return all workers placed on active cards to your mech mat, then return all active cards to your hand.

• Refresh turn: Shift your action token from Move, Play, or Gather to cover the Refresh spot. You may take a Refresh turn only if your action token was covering Move, Play, or Gather at the beginning of your turn. On your next turn, shift your action token to the blank spot and take all three actions—Move, Play, and Gather—in any order. On the turn after that, you must shift your action token to cover Move, Gather, or Play.
• Refresh benefit: If a card or location grants you a Refresh benefit, return your cards and workers but do not shift your action token to Refresh.

End of Turn

At the end of your turn, the player directly to your left takes their turn.

Mech Abilities

Each mech has a unique ongoing ability that stays active throughout the game.

• Tatanka: You may Solve, Upgrade, and Meld up to 5 times each. (The default maximum for each category is 4.)
• Marsh Strider: Your Move range is 1–4 locations. (The default Move range is 1–3.)
• Odin's Wrath: You may trash a map at any time on your turn to gain 1 power, 1 guile, or $1. (This refers to map tokens in your supply; maps don't otherwise serve a purpose as currency.)
• Lumberjack: Whenever you Vanquish, reduce the cost of the first corruption of each color by 1. (Example: The top corruption at a location is 4-orange, so it only costs 3 power to Vanquish. If the next corruption is 4-turquoise, it costs 3 guile. If it is 4-orange instead, it costs 4 power to gain using the same Vanquish ability. For the 20-value dual-color corruption on location 20, Lumberjack's ability decreases it to 18.)
• Highlander: You may gain cards directly to your hand. (By default, gained cards are placed in the active row.)

End of Game

The game ends after the turn where a player places their 4th glory token on Basecamp. Each player then takes one final turn (i.e., the last turn of the game is taken by the player who first placed their 4th glory).

Each player scores the following:

• Coins: The total value of all coins you gained during the game.
• Glory tokens placed on glory categories: Each glory token scores based on the quantity of quests you solved: $5/$6/$8/$10 for 0/1/2/3+ solved quests (e.g., if you solved 2 quests, each of your placed glory tokens is worth $8).
• Upgraded items: Each upgraded item scores the coin amount printed on the item's bottom right corner.
• Corruption: Each corruption token scores $2; this includes the 20-value corruption. During end-game scoring, ignore the printed values on corruption tokens.

For scoring, it's recommended that each player gathers coins in hand as they score each category. If you run out of coins at any time, use a suitable replacement—there is no coin limit.

The wealthiest player wins! If players tie for first place, the tied player with the greater sum total of all glory categories wins (i.e., each player adds up their quantity of solved quests, melded meteorites, upgraded items, and so on across all categories, including those where they do not have glory). If still tied, they share the victory.

Example: At the end of the game, Jakub has glory for melded meteorites, corruption, and cards. He solved 3 quests and has $11 in coins, $6 worth of upgraded items, and 10 corruption tokens. Therefore, he scores $30 for glory categories ($10 for each of 3 categories), $11 for coins, $6 for upgraded items, and $20 for corruption ($2 for each of 10 corruption). Jakub's final score is $67. If Jakub hadn't solved any quests, he would have scored $15 for glory instead of $30.

Icon Reference

• coin, power, guile, corruption, map: resources tracked on your mech mat and in your supply.
• gain 1 benefit from an adjacent location: gain one benefit icon at an adjacent location.
• play 1 card from your hand: gain its core value; you may place a worker.
• refresh your cards & workers: return active cards to your hand and placed workers to your mat.
• activate an adjacent face-up card's ability (don't place a worker).
• rescue 1 active card (and the worker on it, if any) to your hand.
• any card you control / upgraded item card / any face-up card / a face-up card adjacent to your location.
• top card of deck / draw 2 from deck, keep 1 (place the other in the sweep pile).
• face-up quest card / face-up item card / face-up meteorite card.
• sweep any number of face-up cards to the sweep pile.

Place newly gained cards in your active row. Whenever a face-up card is gained, immediately replace it with the top card of the deck.

Additional Notes

• Scythe variants: Stonemaier is no longer creating new content for the original Scythe game, but anticipates that some creative players will find a way to incorporate these big mechs into Scythe.
• Achievement sheet: Players are invited to record various milestones on the included achievement sheet. This is also available as a downloadable, printable document on the Stonemaier Games website (stonemaiergames.com/games/expeditions).
• Inspirations: Games that inspired designer Jamey Stegmaier during this creative journey include Slay the Spire, Clank!, Lost Ruins of Arnak, Dune: Imperium, The Quest for El Dorado, Shards of Infinity, Nemesis, Yedo, Great Western Trail, Magic the Gathering, Tyrants of the Underdark, Dominion, Ark Nova, Moonrakers, Dwellings of Eldervale, Dead Reckoning, Islebound, Concordia, Century: Spice Road, Inscryption, and, of course, Scythe itself.

Designed by Jamey Stegmaier. Art and worldbuilding by Jakub Rozalski. © 2023 Stonemaier LLC. Expeditions is a trademark of Stonemaier LLC.