Lost Ruins of Arnak Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components
Player Setup
Gameplay
Your Turn
- Main Actions
- Your Hand
Dig at a Site
Discover a New Site
- To Discover a New Site
Overcome a Guardian
Buy a Card
Play a Card
- To Play a Card
  - Exile
  - Playing Artifact Cards
Research
- The Lost Temple
  - Exploring the Lost Temple
- Assistants
Passing
Setup for Next Round
End of Round V
Final Scoring
The Snake Temple Side
Solo Variant
Appendix

Components

main board, Bird Temple side (Snake Temple on other side)
1 double-sided supply board
4 basic cards in each color
19 Fear cards
40 item cards
35 artifact cards
4 double-sided player boards
15 guardian tiles
10 level I site tiles
6 level II site tiles
12 assistant tiles
1 moon staff
1 starting player marker
1 pad of scoring sheets
27 coin tokens
27 compass tokens
16 idol tiles
24 temple tiles
1 notebook token and
1 magnifying glass token in each color
16 tablet tokens
12 arrowhead tokens
9 jewel tokens
5 blocking tiles
2 archaeologist figures in each color
18 research bonus tiles
10 reserve tiles
15 rival action tiles used in solo variant

Player Setup

Each player should choose a color and take the player board, research tokens, 2 archaeologist figures, and 4 basic cards in that color.

Player Board

Keep your player board in front of you and set the archaeologist figures on it.

Thematically, your archaeologists are in the tents and your resource tokens are in the supply crates, but you can organize this space however you want.

Research Tokens

Your research tokens go on a starting space below the research track. The first time you research, you will use your magnifying glass, so place it atop the notebook.

Your Starting Deck

Each player has their own deck, and all decks start the same. Your deck should have the 4 basic cards in your color, plus 2 Fear cards:

2 Funding cards
2 Fear cards
2 Exploration cards

Shuffle your deck and place it face down on your player board.

Play Order

The starting player is the one who most recently traveled to a place they had never visited before. Give this player the starting player marker. Play will proceed clockwise.

Starting Resources

Starting resources depend on play order, as shown.

Player 1: 2 Coins

Player 2: 1 Coin, 1 Compass

Player 3: 2 Coins, 1 Compass

Player 4: 1 Coin, 2 Compasses

Gameplay

Goal of the Game

Your task is to lead an expedition to explore the uncharted island of Arnak and discover the secrets of a vanished civilization.

You will equip your expedition with useful items, search the jungles for mysterious artifacts and intriguing archaeological sites, struggle to overcome the guardians of those sites, and – perhaps most importantly – piece together the fragments of Arnak’s ruins into a coherent body of research that could lead to the discovery of the Lost Temple.

Your expedition’s various accomplishments are worth points which will be added up at the end of the game to determine which player has led the most successful expedition.

Game Overview

The game is played over 5 rounds.

Players take turns choosing various actions that help them uncover the secrets of the island. Over the course of the game, more of the island will be explored and more actions will become available. Actions can earn you resources, opportunities, and points.

Each round proceeds as follows:

Draw. All players draw from their decks until they have a hand of 5 cards.
Take turns. The player with the starting player marker starts. Players take turns clockwise around the table. You are limited to one main action on your turn, plus an unlimited number of free actions.
Pass. On your turn, you may pass to indicate you are done playing for the remainder of the round. The other players continue taking turns until all players have passed.
Set up for the next round. All cards in your play area are shuffled and returned to the bottom of your deck. The board is set up for the next round. The starting player marker is passed to the left.
Move the moon staff. At the end of each round, move the moon staff to mark the passage of time. As the moon waxes, the expeditions explore the island, acquire useful items and artifacts, and research the legends of Arnak. After 5 rounds, the moon is full and it is time to see who led the most successful expedition.

Resources

Coins represent funding for your expedition. They are used to buy items.
Compasses represent time and energy spent exploring the island. Thus, they are used to discover artifacts and new archaeological sites.
Tablets represent ancient texts you can decipher. These texts might teach you how to use the artifacts you find.
Arrowheads represent remnants of weapons you discover. They are often necessary for overcoming the guardians of the island.
Jewels are mysterious talismans of the bird god Ara-Anu. They are hard to find, but often essential for completing your research into the mysteries of Arnak.

Your Turn

On your turn, you have several options. Your choices will depend on the cards in your hand and the situation on the game board.

Main Actions

Choose one of these actions as the main action for your turn:

Dig at a Site
Discover a New Site
Overcome a Guardian
Buy a Card
Play a Card
Research
Pass

You always perform exactly one main action per turn. You may also be able to perform one or more free actions, as explained below.

Your Hand

You can play a card either for its travel value or its effect but not both.

Travel Value

You can use this travel value to pay for certain actions – like the Dig at a Site action on the facing page.

Effect

You can play the card for its effect.

Free Actions

An effect with this icon does not count as the main action of your turn.

On your turn, you can play as many free actions as you like. They can be played before, after, and even during your main action.

Fear

A Fear card has no effect. However, it can be used for its travel value.

Your Play Area

When you use a card, it goes face up on the table in front of you, next to your player board. This space is called your play area.

Your play area is basically a spread-out discard pile. Cards accumulate from turn to turn. They are not recycled into your deck until the end of the round.

Dig at a Site

As your main action for your turn, you can send one of your archaeologists to dig at any of the 5 Tent sites. You will also be able to dig at I and II sites after they have been discovered.

To Dig at a Site

Pay the travel cost depicted on the space to which you want to send your archaeologist. The space must be unoccupied. (That is, it must have no archaeologist figure on it, and in a 2- or 3-player game, it must have no blocking tile.)
Move your archaeologist from your player board to that space.
Resolve the effect depicted at the site.

Note: If both your archaeologists are already on sites, you cannot take this action.

Example: Red spends a card with a Boot to send her archaeologist to the site illustrated here. She places her figure on the Boot space and takes two tokens. The next player to use the site this round will need to cover a cost of 2 Boots. Even Red could do this, on a later turn, despite having one archaeologist already there. If both spaces are occupied, no one else can be sent to dig there this round.

Paying Travel Costs

As you would expect, you can pay a cost of Boot by spending a card with the Boot icon – take the card from your hand, and put it face up into your play area, ignoring its effect. You can also pay with higher travel values, as shown in the Travel Hierarchy.

You can use the Boot on your Fear card to pay a travel cost of Boot.

Two Icons

If a cost requires two icons, you can cover it with travel values from two sources.

It’s also possible that you have a card that gives you two icons all by itself. Such a card can also cover a one-icon cost, but in that case, the extra icon will probably be wasted. It does not carry over to your next turn.

Hiring a Pilot

You can always spend two coins to generate a plane which can be used to pay for any travel icon, as shown in the Travel Hierarchy below.

Travel Hierarchy

You can always pay a cost by spending a higher travel value. This travel hierarchy is also on your quick reference sheet.

Plane - pays for anything.

Car cannot pay for Boat and vice versa.

Any travel value pays for Boot.

Discover a New Site

At the beginning of the game, only 5 sites are available for digging. But during play, you can find new ones. You can discover any I or II site that does not yet have a site tile.

To Discover a New Site

Traverse the wilderness. Decide whether you want to discover a I site or a II site. Check the board, and pay the depicted Compass cost. Then choose an undiscovered site in that region and pay the travel cost to move your archaeologist from your board to that site’s space.
Take the idol. Immediately resolve the idol’s effect. If the site has two idols, you take them both, but use only the effect of the face-up one. Keep your idols on your player board face down on the illustrated supply crates.
Discover the site. Take the top tile from the stack that matches the site – I or II. Place it on the board face up. The site has now been discovered and you immediately resolve its effect.
Awaken the guardian. Draw the top tile from the guardian stack and place it face up on the site tile.

The guardian does not affect you immediately. However, at the end of the round you will gain a Fear card when you take your archaeologist back from a site that has a guardian on it.

To avoid this, you may try to overcome the guardian as an action on a later turn. Or you might be able to escape the guardian with the help of certain cards that allow you to move your archaeologist or the guardian.

Once your archaeologist is gone (for example, in a later round) the discovered site is another place archaeologists can be sent to dig. The Compass cost printed on the board applies only when you discover these sites, not when you dig. You can send an archaeologist to dig at a site that still has a guardian; returning from such a site at the end of the round gives you a Fear card, even if you were not the one who awoke the guardian.

Overcome a Guardian

Guardians

Mysterious creatures guard the ruins on the island. A guardian appears whenever a player discovers a new site. The guardian has no immediate effect. However, at the end of the round, you gain a Fear card for each archaeologist returning from a site that still has a guardian.

Guardians remain on the board until they are overcome. They do not prevent archaeologists from digging at their sites.

To Overcome a Guardian

As your turn’s main action, you may overcome a guardian. You must have an archaeologist on the guardian’s site.

Pay the cost depicted at the bottom of the guardian tile.
Remove the guardian from the board and keep it by your player board.

Guardian with Checkmark - This effect allows you to overcome a guardian on a site where you have an archaeologist without paying the cost. (However, the effect itself may have a cost, which you must pay.) Guardians overcome in this way still go beside your player board.

Tip: In some situations, it can be very important to overcome a guardian and avoid its Fear card. In other situations, you can get more points by saving those resources for research. Don’t feel compelled to overcome every guardian you awaken.

Using a Guardian’s Boon

Having overcome the guardian, you have earned its respect, and it can grant you the boon depicted in the upper right corner. The boon can be used once during the game, on any of your turns. After using the boon, turn the guardian face down to show that the boon cannot be used again.

Some boons are travel values that can be used to pay a travel cost, just like spending cards from your hand.

Other boons are free actions, which can be used at any time during any of your turns.

The guardian will be worth 5 points at the end of the game whether you use its boon or not.

Idols

You find idols when you discover new sites. When you get an idol, keep it on the supply crates on your player board. Idols should be face down because the discovery reward is no longer relevant.

Each idol will be worth 3 points at the end of the game.

Idol Slots

The four slots at the top of your board give you access to useful effects. On your turn, you may put an idol in a slot as a free action:

Move the idol from your supply crates to the leftmost unoccupied slot on your player board.
Choose one effect from the five depicted options.

But use the idol’s power wisely! Each of the four slots will be worth a certain number of points if it is still empty at the end of the game.

An idol in a slot cannot be moved, so each slot can be used only once per game. (Unless you find an artifact that allows you to bend this rule.)

Buy a Card

You improve your deck by buying artifacts and items from the card row.

Card Row Overview

The card row is divided into two parts by the moon staff.

Artifacts are on the left; items are on the right. Each round, the moon staff moves one space to the right, so each round has more artifacts and fewer items. As the expeditions explore deeper and deeper into the heart of the island, they discover more artifacts, while diminishing the support they can get from the mainland.

Items

You can buy useful items to equip your expedition. An item you buy goes to the bottom of your deck, which means it will usually show up in your hand at the beginning of the next round.

To Buy an Item

Choose an item in the card row.
Pay the Coin cost depicted at the bottom of the card.
Put the item face down on the bottom of your deck.
Refill the card row.

Artifacts

Artifacts are valuable treasures you find while exploring the island. You pay for them with Compass tokens, representing time spent exploring. We’ll say that you “buy” the card, even though your expedition is actually searching for it by whacking through the jungle and trekking across the rocky plains. Unlike items, an artifact can be used as soon as you take it from the card row.

To Buy an Artifact

Choose an artifact in the card row.
Pay the Compass cost depicted at the bottom of the card.
Move the artifact to your play area. You have the option to immediately resolve its effect, ignoring the Tablet cost in the corner.
Refill the card row.

Note: When you buy an artifact, you get to resolve its effect. That effect might be another action, like sending an archaeologist to dig at a site. All this is considered to be part of your main action for the turn.

Refilling the Card Row

At the end of your turn, if the card row is missing a card, refill the row with a card of the same type:

Slide cards toward the moon staff to make a space on the end.
Deal a new card to that empty space.

If a deck runs out of cards, then for cards of that type, you no longer slide cards and refill the row.

Play a Card

To Play a Card

Play the card from your hand face up into your play area.
Resolve the card’s effect.

The card remains face up in your play area for the remainder of the round (unless you get a chance to exile it, as explained below).

Lightning - An effect with this icon is a free action. That means playing the card does not count as your main action for the turn. Your Funding and Exploration cards have effects that are free actions, and some item effects are free actions, too.

On the other hand, if the effect is not marked as a free action, it is the main action for your turn. All artifact effects are main actions, as are some item effects, like the one on the Parrot.

When you play an artifact, you also have to pay a special Tablet cost. That rule does not apply to items.

Reminder: A card in hand can either be spent for its travel value or played for its effect. Not both.

Exile

Certain rules and effects send cards into exile, which is located at the top of the main board. Items and artifacts have special exile piles near their decks. Fear cards go back to the Fear deck when they are exiled. Funding and Exploration cards should go near the Fear deck when they are exiled. Except for Fear cards, the cards in exile usually don’t come back into play.

Trash - This symbol marks the artifact and item exile piles on the board. If you see this symbol in an effect, it means you may exile a card from your hand or from your play area.

Tip: If possible, it is more efficient to use a card and then exile it from your play area, rather than exiling it from your hand.

Playing Artifact Cards

All artifact effects have a Tablet cost in the corner. When you buy the artifact, this cost is ignored and you perform the effect without paying it. But whenever you play the artifact’s effect from your hand, the Tablet cost must be paid.

The artifact’s effect may have other costs as well. These other costs must be paid every time you use the effect.

Research

A research action moves one of your research tokens up to the next row of the research track:

Decide which research token to move. If your notebook is below your magnifying glass, you may move either token. However, your notebook must never move to a row above your magnifying glass. (This is easy to remember: First you discover something; then you write it down.)
Choose a space to move into. You can only move up into a space that is connected to your current space. Sometimes this leaves you with only one choice. Don’t worry about other research tokens – multiple tokens can share the same space.
Pay the cost and move into the space. The cost is printed on the bridge connecting your old space with your new space.
Gain the results of your research:
- Take a bonus tile? If the space has a face-up research bonus tile, immediately gain the depicted bonus and remove the bonus tile from the game. Only the first player to reach that space gets the bonus.
- You always resolve the row’s effect. The effect depends on whether you moved your magnifying glass or your notebook, as depicted on the end of the row. (Ignore the points for now. Those points will be scored at the end of the game, based on where your tokens end up.)

You are allowed to resolve the row’s effect before using the bonus tile, if you want.

Note: Costs must be paid before any rewards are gained.

The Lost Temple

When your magnifying glass reaches the top row of the research track, you have discovered the Lost Temple! Unlike the other rows, you get more points if you get here earlier. Place your magnifying glass on the remaining empty space worth the most points.

Then take a bonus tile. Look through the stack of face-down tiles and choose one. Return the others. There are just enough for everyone.

Note: It is not possible to move your notebook token to the Lost Temple row.

Exploring the Lost Temple

Once you have found the Lost Temple, you can use later research actions to discover Arnak’s stories!

If you choose to research with your magnifying glass when it is already in the Lost Temple, instead of paying to advance the token, you pay to take 1 temple tile from any one of the stacks.

At the bottom of the temple are three different costs you can pay. Each stack of tiles has a particular combination of costs, as illustrated on the right.

For example, the 6-point stack on the left requires you to pay the two costs on the left. The 6-point stack on the right requires you to pay the two costs on the right. The 11-point stack at the top requires you to pay all three costs.

Tiles in each stack are limited. You can’t buy tiles from a stack that is empty.

Assistants

Assistants are people who have come to join your expedition. Each assistant has two levels – silver and gold. The gold side has the stronger effect. The research track will give you silver assistants when you move your notebook token to certain rows.

Recruiting Assistants

Silver Assistant - When you move your notebook to a row with this symbol, choose one of the assistants available on the supply board. (Usually, there are 3; however, some of the stacks might be empty later in the game.)

Note: Assistants not on top are supposed to be kept hidden so that no one knows what they are until the assistant above them has been taken.

Set the assistant on one of the assistant squares on your player board. The silver side should be face up.

Assistants have various effects. If the effect is a free action, you have the option to use it immediately, or you can save it for later.

Using Assistants

To use your assistant, turn it sideways, as shown. A sideways assistant is exhausted and not available for use.

In general, you can use an assistant’s effect only once per round. At the end of the round, all assistants are refreshed – turned right way up again.

However, certain card effects might refresh an assistant during the round, allowing it to be used again, perhaps even immediately.

Upgrading Assistants

Golden Assistant - When you move your notebook to a row with this symbol, upgrade one of your assistants to the gold level – that is, you flip it over to its gold side. At this time, the assistant is refreshed even if its silver-level effect was used earlier in the round.

Passing

On your turn, you can choose to pass – inform the other players that you will take no more turns this round. Passing counts as your main action for the turn. At this time, you should also use up any free actions you still have available.

If you take no other main action, then you must pass. It is not legal to take a turn with only free actions and no main action.

Once you have passed, you get no more turns for the rest of the round. The flow of play continues clockwise, but it skips over you. And conversely, if you are the only player left who has not yet passed, then you can take multiple turns in a row.

The round ends when all players have passed.

Setup for Next Round

If it is not the end of round V, you end the round by setting up for the next one.

All players simultaneously do the following:

Return both of your archaeologists to your player board. Each time you take back an archaeologist from a site with a guardian, add 1 Fear card to your play area.
Usually your hand will be empty. But if you have cards left, each card can be discarded to your play area or saved for the next round. Tip: Use all your cards during your turn, if you can. Keeping a card in your hand for next round is useful only in rare cases.
Gather all cards in your play area, shuffle them thoroughly, and put them face down on the bottom of your deck. Note: Items you bought during the round will now be above all the cards you just shuffled.
Refresh your assistants. (Turn them right way up again.)

The card row should be adjusted as follows:

Exile the two cards on either side of the moon staff. (This gets rid of 1 artifact and 1 item.)
Move the moon staff to the right to indicate the number of the next round.
Refill the card row.

The starting player marker moves one place to the left – there will be a new starting player in the new round.

Start the new round by drawing until you have a full hand of 5 cards. If your deck does not have enough cards to make a full hand, just draw them all.

End of Round V

At the end of round V, all players take back their archaeologists and gain Fear from guardians. Skip all the other steps and proceed to final scoring.

Final Scoring

At the end of the game, record everyone’s points on the scoring sheet and add them up. Points can come from the following sources:

Each of your research tokens scores points based on its row. Magnifying glasses in the Lost Temple row will score points based on the order in which they reached the Lost Temple.
Each of your temple tiles scores the amount shown on the tile.
Each of your idols scores 3 points, even if it is in a slot. Also add in the points shown in empty idol slots.
Each guardian you overcame is worth 5 points, whether you used the boon or not.
Each item and artifact card scores the amount of points shown in the lower right corner.
Fear cards score -1 point each. If you have fear tiles, they score -2 points each.

Whoever has the most points wins.

Break ties in favor of the player who reached the Lost Temple first. If no one reached the Lost Temple, break ties in favor of the player with the highest research score. After that, players who are still tied remain tied.

The Snake Temple Side

The first expedition to Arnak went rather poorly. No one has heard from them in quite some time. While you explore the island, keep your eye out for any survivors.

Different board

The Snake Temple side has sites with different travel costs and a different research track.

Assistant Rescue

This space in the middle of the research track has survivors from the first expedition. You might be able to rescue one of them if you explore the island’s ruins.

During setup, deal 1 assistant per player to this space. These assistants should be selected randomly. The assistant on top of the stack is public knowledge, but the identities of those underneath should be unknown to players who have not yet reached that row.

The supply board will get three stacks of assistants, as usual. Two of the stacks will have three assistants, and the third stack will have all remaining assistants.

To advance a research token across this bridge, you must pay 1 idol. The idol must come from your supply crates – it can’t be one of those in a slot. Remove the idol tile from the game.

This magnifying glass effect lets you rescue 1 assistant from those on the research track. Look through the stack secretly and take one. Keep the remaining assistants in the same order and return the stack to the research track.

Unlike assistants from the supply board, the assistant you rescue is exhausted. You won’t be able to use it this round unless an effect refreshes it.

This effect allows you to upgrade an assistant from silver to gold. (On the other side of the board, you could do this only when moving your notebook.) If you have two silver assistants, you can upgrade either one – you don’t have to keep track of which assistant is the one you rescued.

As usual, an exhausted assistant is refreshed when it is upgraded.

Dreadful Tales!

This magnifying glass effect means you gain a Fear card! Place it face up in your play area, ignoring its travel value.

During setup, you dealt 2 or 3 bonus tiles to this row of the research track. When you move a research token there – magnifying glass or notebook – you choose one of the tiles. Only the tile you choose is removed.

Solo Variant

This solo variant allows you to enjoy the thrill of discovering the lost ruins even without another player to compete against.

Setup

Set up the board as you do for a 2-player game. Whenever a stack is supposed to have a number of tiles equal to the number of players, give it 2 tiles.

Set up your own board as usual. You play second, so start with 1 Coin and 1 Compass.

Rival Setup

Choose another player board to represent the rival expedition. Use the side with the gray tents. Give it all 6 archaeologist figures not in your color.

Your rival uses only one research token. Put your rival’s magnifying glass on a starting space next to your research tokens.

Rival Action Stack

Build your rival’s action stack with 10 action tiles.

Use all 5 archaeologist action tiles.

Use 5 red or green action tiles.

The action tiles come in pairs. The red action is a more aggressive version of the green action. All 5 actions need to be in the stack, so you need one tile from each pair. The set of 5 unused tiles should be returned to the box.

The number of red tiles is your difficulty level, from 0 to 5. Decide how many red tiles to use, choose that many red tiles randomly, look at them, and add the appropriate green tiles to complete the set.

Shuffle the rival action stack face down, and you are ready to play.

Gameplay

Always one step ahead, your rival is the starting player in all 5 rounds. Your rival’s turn works like this:

Turn up your rival’s top action tile and place it beside the action stack.
Resolve the indicated action. If the situation makes the action impossible, your rival does nothing on that turn.

During the round, your rival and you alternate turns, as you would in a two-player game. Your rival does not pass until they have played all 10 action tiles, even if you have already passed.

Rival Actions

Each rival action is like a player action, but the game focuses on the impacts that these actions have on you. The rival expedition does not gain or spend resource tokens. They never get Fear cards. However, they do collect points.

Note: The symbols on the action tiles are not exactly like the effects described on the back of this rulebook. They are simply reminders of the rules detailed in this section.

VX - This symbol means that the rival does nothing in round V.

Dig at a Site

Your rival wants to keep you from getting the depicted resource. Look for a site offering that resource and put a rival archaeologist on the space there. (If all such spaces are occupied, your rival does nothing.)

If there are multiple such spaces, your rival chooses one with the following priorities:

A site in a higher row is preferred over a site in a lower row.
Between sites in the same row, your rival prefers the site farther on the left or the right, as determined by the decision arrow.

The Decision Arrow

When the rival expedition has to choose between two or more things, it always chooses the leftmost or the rightmost, depending on whether the arrow on the rival action stack is pointing left or right. If you need a tiebreaker for the final action tile, when the stack is empty, use the arrow on the tile at the bottom of the used tiles pile.

Keep all the rival action tiles oriented with the dark edge at the bottom so you will have the same number of left and right arrows.

Discover a New Site

Your rival discovers a I or II site, depending on the round. If there are multiple undiscovered sites:

First narrow the choices down to one row. Among sites, give preference to the bottom row.
Then use the decision arrow to choose left or right.

Put a rival archaeologist on the chosen space. Move the idol token(s) to your rival’s board. If the face-up idol is one they don’t have yet, it goes face up on the corresponding space. If it is a duplicate, place it face down on the space on the right labeled -1. Multiple idols can stack on the -1 space. If your rival gets a facedown idol, put it on the -1 space, ignoring its other side.

The newly discovered site gets a site tile, as you would expect. The site gets a guardian only in certain rounds, as indicated on the action tile.

Research

Advance the rival’s magnifying glass to the next row. If you need to choose a space, use the decision arrow.

If there is a research bonus tile there, remove it from the game. If it’s the Lost Temple space, remove the top tile from the bonus stack.

If your rival cannot advance because they have already reached the Lost Temple, give them a 6-point tile instead. Use the decision arrow to choose the left or right stack, if both still have tiles.

Take the topmost assistant from the highest stack on the supply board. If stacks are tied, use the decision arrow. Remove the assistant from the game.

Snake Temple board: When your rival’s token reaches the assistant rescue space, they take the topmost assistant on that space. This is in addition to the assistant they take from the supply board.

Overcome a Guardian

If there is a guardian on a site occupied by your rival, move it to your rival’s board. Use the same tiebreakers as those for Dig at a Site: prefer the higher row, use the decision arrow if necessary.

If your rival has no archaeologist on a site with a guardian, your rival Researches instead, but does not take an assistant from the supply board. (However, on the Snake Temple side, they will rescue an assistant if they reach that space.)

Buy an Item

In the green version of this action, your rival takes the item with the lowest point value. In the red version, your rival takes the highest. Break ties with the decision arrow. Put the card on your rival’s board. Finish the action by refilling the card row.

Buy an Artifact

As you may have guessed, this is just like buying an item.

End of Round

At the end of the round, return all rival archaeologists to their board. Your rival does not gain Fear cards. Shuffle the action stack face down, and your rival is ready to go again. Your rival will be the starting player in every round, so the starting player marker is not needed.

Scoring

The rival expedition scores points for the position of their magnifying glass, for temple tiles, for guardians overcome, and for cards purchased, as you would expect.

They score 3 points for each unique, face-up idol. The idols in the -1 stack give them only 2 points each.

You score your points as usual. Compare your points with your rival’s. Whoever has more points wins.

Solo Campaign

The Search for Professor Kutil

Find out what happened to professor Kutil and his team in this free, four-chapter solo campaign for Lost Ruins of Arnak.

Progress through the four chapters, each with a unique set of rules and goals.
Discover the story of the lost expedition.
Play with a companion web app or use the print-and-play files.

Try out the free solo campaign now: https://arnak.game

Appendix

Notes on Selected Cards

Army Knife

You choose two of the four benefits depicted. You are not allowed to choose only one and take it twice.

Bear Trap

You can use the trap on a site with or without your archaeologist. The restriction is that no one else can be there. (It’s a safety precaution.)

Bow and Arrows

Your maximum possible gain is 3 Compasses.

Brush

All idols on your player board count, whether they are in slots or not. Your maximum possible gain is 3 Compasses.

Fishing Rod

Precision Compass

Unlike a normal card-buying action, you can do this even if you can’t afford any card in the card row. Reveal the top card of the relevant deck. It is one of the cards you can buy. You can also decide to buy no card and turn it face down again. If you choose to buy a different card, the top card goes into the row when you refill it, as usual.

Journal

This card applies only to your notebook, not your magnifying glass. Don’t forget that your notebook cannot move above your magnifying glass.

Ancient Wine

Coconut Flask

The artifact’s effect counts as your main action for the turn, even if the assistant’s effect is a free action. The assistant is not exhausted after being used on the supply board. If you use this to generate a travel value, that value is wasted unless you use it in a free action before the end of your turn. Note that the effect cannot be applied to an assistant on the assistant rescue space of the Snake Temple research track.

Crystal Earring

First decide how many cards to draw, then draw that many. Of those, keep one in your hand. If you drew more than one, one may be returned to the top of your deck. Any remaining cards that you drew must then be placed in your play area with no effect.

Decorated Horn

If you exchange a silver assistant, your new assistant is also silver. If you exchange a gold assistant, you flip your new assistant to its gold side. The assistant you put on the supply board should be set to its silver side.

Guardian’s Crown

This artifact cannot move a guardian to a site that has not been discovered. An unoccupied site is one with no archaeologists. If any of the spaces on a site is occupied, the entire site is considered occupied.

Guardian’s Ocarina

If both your archaeologists are on your board, you may still play this card to turn all your travel icons into Plane. If a card has 2 travel icons, they are turned into 2 Planes.

Idol of Ara-Anu

Inscribed Blade

This discount can be applied to buying a temple tile.

Ornate Hammer

Take the rightmost item in the card row and put it in the pile for exiled items. Then you may take one item from the pile of exiled items. You do not pay its cost. Put it on the bottom of your deck. At the end of your turn, refill the card row.

Obsidian Earring

First you decide whether to draw 1 or 2 cards, then you draw that many from the bottom of your deck. If you draw 1, it goes to your hand. If you draw 2, look at them, put one in your hand, and put the other into your play area, face up, ignoring its effect and travel value.

Pathfinder’s Sandals

Pathfinder’s Staff

Your archaeologist can be relocated from any site. The effect only restricts the types of sites it can be relocated to.

Don’t Forget!

You can always pay 2 Coins to buy a Plane.
You can’t advance your Notebook token above your Magnifying Glass token.
Every row of the research track has an effect. You resolve the effect regardless of whether you take a bonus tile.
When you upgrade your assistant, you also refresh it.
When you use the Trash effect, you can exile a card from your hand or your play area.
Gain fear, then shuffle. At the end of the round, you take your archaeologists back – and potentially gain Fear cards from guardians – before shuffling the cards in your play area.
Shuffled cards go to the bottom of your deck. And only at the end of the round – you shouldn’t be shuffling cards at any other time.
When you buy an item, it goes to the bottom of your deck. This means it will be above all those cards you shuffle at the end of the round.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I have more than 5 cards in my hand? Yes. The hand limit applies only when drawing cards at the beginning of a round.
Is there a way to buy an item and use it later in the same round? Yes. When you buy an item it goes to the bottom of your deck. Certain card-drawing effects might allow you to draw it. Once it’s in your hand, you can use it on any turn.
Can I shuffle my deck during play? No. You shuffle your deck only at the beginning of the game. At the end of each round, you shuffle all cards in your play area and put them at the bottom of your deck. No other shuffling is allowed.
But what if my deck runs out of cards? If your deck is out of cards, you can’t draw any more. The cards in your play area will not return to your deck until the end of the round. If you buy an item, just put it on the space for your deck – that item is now on the bottom (and the top) of your deck.
What’s the difference between the Archaeologist effect and “relocate”? The two are completely different. The effect follows the rules of an action, either Dig at a Site or Discover a New Site. It requires you to use an archaeologist from your player board, and you must pay the travel cost unless the card says otherwise. By contrast, you can relocate an archaeologist only if it is already on a site, and it can’t go to an undiscovered site. You don’t pay a travel cost to relocate.
Does this card let me move another player’s archaeologist? No. There are no effects in the game that would allow you to affect another player’s cards, figures, or tokens.

Free Actions

During your turn, you may perform any number of free actions before, during, or after your main action. You may have the following free actions available:

All card effects marked with the Lightning symbol are free actions.
Putting an idol in a slot is a free action.
Using a guardian’s boon is a free action.
Using an assistant’s effect is a free action, except for the assistant that lets you buy a card with a discount.

Reserve Tiles

The ×3 multiplier tiles are intended for use if you are close to running out of tokens. Each token on the tile counts as 3. Tokens on the supply board are not intended to be limited.

The other side of the tile is a fear tile. If you are supposed to take a Fear card when the Fear deck is empty, you take a fear tile instead. It will be worth -2 points during final scoring. Keep the fear tile in your play area. If you have a chance to exile a card from your play area, you may exile the fear tile instead.

In playtesting, we needed these tiles only in extremely rare situations. Depending on your play style, your group might never need them.

Effects

Many effects simply depict the tokens you gain:

Coins - Gain the indicated tokens.
Tablet, Arrow - Gain the indicated tokens.
Compass, Jewel - Gain the indicated tokens.
Fear, Tablet, Jewel Gain a Fear card and the indicated tokens. You must take a Fear card from the board and put it face up in your play area. (Ignore its travel value.) If no Fear cards are available, take a fear tile.
Compass > Jewel - You may pay the cost on the left to gain the benefit on the right. If you cannot pay the cost or do not wish to, then you do not get the benefit.
Coin > Arrow / Jewel Pay the cost to choose one of the two tokens.
Upgrade - Make one of these two trades: Tablet > Arrow OR Arrow > Jewel
Tablet > - On an artifact card, this is a reminder that the effect costs 1 Tablet. However, this cost applies only when you play it from your hand, not when you buy it.
Card down - You pay this cost by putting one of the cards in your hand face up into your play area, ignoring the card’s travel value and effect. If you have no cards left in your hand, you cannot pay this cost, and thus cannot gain the benefit of the effect.
Card + - You may draw a card. If your deck is empty, then this has no effect.
Card X - You may choose a card in your hand or in your play area and send it to exile.
Card +, Card X - You may draw a card. Then you may exile a card in your hand or in your play area. Note that each part of the effect is optional.
Card +, Card down - You may draw a card. Then you must put a card in your hand face up into your play area, ignoring its travel value and its effect.
Turn assistant - You may refresh one of your assistants.
Lightning This icon denotes that the effect does not count as your main action for the turn. You can play as many free actions as you want before, after, and even during your main action.

Keywords

activate a site: When you activate a site, you use the site’s effect. You do not need an archaeologist there and other players’ archaeologists do not block you from activating the site, unless the card says otherwise. You do not pay any travel cost. You cannot activate a site that has not been discovered yet.

activate a site tile: Two cards allow you to activate the top site tile in one of the stacks. Simply resolve the tile’s effect, as when activating a site.

discount: Resolve the effect as though you had the tokens or travel value depicted in the discount. For example, a discount of 2 Compasses means that a cost of 3 Compasses is reduced to 1 Compass. A discount of Plane means that one icon in a travel cost is covered. (A discount of 2 Boots, however, has no effect on travel costs that don’t have Boot.) Discounts will not reduce a cost below zero and they will not carry over to other actions.

exile: Send the card to exile. Alternatively, an effect might specify that you take a card from exile.

exile this card to: When you play the card for its effect, it goes to exile instead of your play area.

gain item: When you gain an item, it means you do not pay the cost. Unless otherwise stated, this is identical to the Buy a Card action, except you skip the step in which the cost is paid.

occupied by you: You occupy a site if you have an archaeologist figure there.

pass to gain: To gain the benefit, you must pass. You will get no more turns for the remainder of the round.

relocate: Without paying a travel cost, pick up one of your archaeologists that is already on a site and move it to an unoccupied space at a different site that has already been discovered. The effect might specify additional restrictions.

unoccupied site: A site is unoccupied if no one has an archaeologist figure there. (Guardian tiles do not count as occupying a site.) An occupied Tent site might still have an unoccupied space even though the site is considered “occupied”.

Action Effects

The effects below allow you to perform an action. Normally it would be the main action of your turn, but here it is considered simply part of the effect.

Archaeologist - You may immediately take a Dig at a Site or Discover a New Site action, if you have an archaeologist on your player board. The effect may specify special benefits or limitations.

Guardian and Check Mark - You may immediately overcome a guardian without paying the cost depicted on the guardian tile. This effect applies only to a guardian on a site where you have an archaeologist.

Item or Artifact with minus cost - You may immediately buy an artifact or item from the card row. The price is reduced by the amount indicated.

Artifact with crossed out cost - Perform the Buy an Artifact action, skipping the step where you pay its cost, but do resolve its effect.

Item with crossed out cost -Perform the Buy an Item action, skipping the step where you pay its cost.

Starting Resources

Player 1: 2 Coins
Player 2: 1 Coin, 1 Compass
Player 3: 2 Coins, 1 Compass
Player 4: 1 Coin, 2 Compasses

Starting Deck

2 Funding cards
2 Exploration cards
2 Fear cards