Mini Moons Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Objective
• Contents
• Setup Example
• Game Setup
• Moon System Setup (A)
• Moon System Setup (B)
• Game Flow (A)
• Game Flow (B)
  • Always available Actions
• Exploration Cards
  • Immidiate Exploration Cards
  • Cat Cave Cards
• Mining (A)
• Mining (B)
• Mining (C)
• Spaceship (A)
• Spaceship (B)
• End Game Scoring
• Hard Mode
• Achievements

Objective

You want to get to your home planet, rescuing as many cats as possible along the way.

Using your spaceship, you'll fly through three Moon Systems, exploring them on foot while balancing resources to stay alive, save cats, and fuel your ship to progress.

Contents

• 16 Exploration Cards (Exploration icon)
• 16 Mineral Cards (Mineral icon)
• 10 Technology Cards (Technology icon)
• 5 Cat Cards (Cat icon)
• 4 Tracking Cards
• 2 Player aid Cards
• 4 Cubes for tracking
• 2 Yellow Dice
• 2 White Cubes
• 1 Black Die
• 1 Map Card
• 1 Meeple
• 1 Cat treat

Setup Example

The setup example shows the following areas: the Deck Area (Cat deck, Technology deck and Exploration deck with the Mineral deck beside them), a Map area, a Conversion aid, four Tracking cards (for Oxygen, Energy, Fuel and Minerals), two Moon System areas, and the Player Area holding the Starting Technology card.

Game Setup

1. Arrange Tracking Cards in the top left corner.

2. Place cubes on 19 Oxygen, 11 Energy, 2 Fuel and 0 Minerals.

3. Place the Map Card in the top center space. Place your Spaceship (1 white cube) on the leftmost space of the card.

4. Shuffle the Technology Deck and Cat Deck, then place all 4 decks (along with the Exploration Deck and Mineral Deck) in the top right.

5. Draw a starting Technology Card and place it to your left, in the player area. This area holds all future Technology and Cat Cards too! Take a moment to read your starting Technology card.

6. Follow the moon system setup.

Moon System Setup (A)

To prepare each moon system for exploration, set it up as follows:

1. Shuffle together the 16-card Exploration Deck.

2. Check the Map Card to determine the sizes of the two moons in your current system. (The starting Moon System only has 2 small moons.)

3. For each small moon place 6 face-down Exploration Cards such that the back images resemble a full moon.

4. For each large moon, place 8 face-down Exploration Cards such that the back images resemble a full moon.

Moon System Setup (B)

5. Shuffle the Mineral Deck, including any previously-used cards. Place 5 face-down cards inside each small moon, and 7 face-down cards inside each large moon.

6. The moon system is ready to be explored! Choose any Exploration Card in the Moon System and flip it over to Reveal your starting point. Place your meeple (you) and the second white cube (your spaceship) on the card to mark your landing site. You can now begin the game - treat the landing site as any other card in the moon system.

You will repeat these steps when setting up each one of the three moon systems.

Game Flow (A)

The game progresses by landing in a Moon System and traveling accross each Moon by foot or in the spaceship while gathering resources. Marking gathered resources (Oxygen / Energy / Fuel / Minerals) is done by adding it to or subtracting it from the right tracker. Resources cannot go above the maximum number marked on the trackers or below zero.

When a cat is found, it can be lured in using a Cat Treat, which can be acquired at the ship using the Mineral Conversion action (pg. 12). The Cat Treat component should be placed on the tracker when acquired, and removed when used. A player can only have one Cat Treat at a time!

When the player is ready to move on to their next goal (next Moon, next Moon System or home), they must get back to their ship and pay the appropriate Fuel cost to move on. (costs described in pg. 12)

Game Flow (B)

During the game you will be able to take different actions. If no action can be taken, you have been lost in space, and the game is over. (Note: you can perform actions while Oxygen is at 0 as long as they don't drop below that)

Always available Actions

These are the actions availible to you when on a moon surface:

Explore the Unknown: Reduce Oxygen by 2 on the tracker. Reveal an adjacent face-down Exploration Card and move to it.

Retrace your Steps: Reduce Oxygen by 1 on the tracker and move to an already Revealed adjacent Exploration Card.

Technological Edge: Make use of one of the Technology Cards in your Player Area for its one time effect or discard it for one Mineral.

Exploration Cards

Immidiate Exploration Cards

When an Exploration Card is Revealed, if it has a lightning bolt symbol, you must immidiately resolve the effect of that card. These cards might give several options to choose from (marked by "/"). You must resolve one of the effects if you are able to do so. This can only be done once.

If none of the effects can be resolved, you must resolve one effect to the best of your ability.

Cat Cave Cards

Rescuing a cat: When on an Exploration Card with a cave, you can spend a Cat Treat to get a cat to join you. This can be done once per cave card, up to 5 times per game.

Draw a Cat Card and place it in the Player Area, unlocking the cat's permanent ability! (Note: "Once per Moon System" abilites can be used even before landing on a Moon.)

Mining (A)

Mine Exploration Cards reveal hidden mineral veins beneath the moon's surface. These allow the player gain Minerals, which are the main way to acquire resources.

Mine counter setup: When a mine card is revealed, use the number on the top left to know the max number of Mineral cubes that can be retrieved in this mine. Set the black die to the same number and place it on top of the icon. (If there are less Minerals left at the center of the moon, use that lower number instead.)

[Diagram: Mine Counter (the black die on the top left of the mine card) and Mine Toughness (the numbers on the right of the card).]

Mine Toughness: The numbers on the right of the card represent the toughness of the mine. Use the lower number if the mine is on a small moon and the higher one if it's on a large moon.

Mining (B)

Mine action: Can be executed on a mine card if the mine counter is not depleted. Reduce Energy counter by 1 and roll 2 yellow dice.

• If at least one die is equal to or larger than the toughness of the mine, the mining succeeds:

Lower the black die by one (or remove it from the card if it's already at 1) and take a Mineral cube from the center of the moon. If the taken card contains Minerals, move the Minerals tracker up by the amount shown. If the taken card has a Technology symbol, draw a card from the Technology deck and place it in the Player Area.

Place the Mineral cube back in the Mineral deck.

• If both dice are lower than the Toughness of the mine, the mining fails.

Mining (C)

Revealing a new Mine permanently collapses a previous one. Remove the black die from the previous card and set up the new mine as usual. Only one mine can be active at a time!

Hollow Moon Bonus: If the moon is empty of Mineral Cards, all Move actions cost one less due to lowered gravity.

Spaceship (A)

The following actions can only be performed when the meeple is located on the same card as the spaceship:

Mineral Conversion: Transform Minerals into Oxygen, Energy, Fuel or a Cat Treat using the rates on the Conversion Aid card. Pay the Minerals cost on the left, gain the resources on the right.

Short Flight: Pay 1 Fuel to move the spaceship and meeple to any other Exploration Card within the same Moon System (Note: you can use this action to fly within the same moon). If it had not been revealed, flip it. If the card has rules when revealed, follow them as usual.

Long Flight: Embark on a journey to the next Moon System or your home planet. Pay the Fuel cost indicated on the Map Card between you and your next destination.

Spaceship (B)

Long Flight (cont.): If the next destination is a Moon System, move all the unmined Mineral cubes back to the Mineral Deck and all the Exploration Cards to the Exploration Deck. Move your spaceship tracker on the Map Card and follow Moon System Setup.

If reaching your Home Planet: Congratulations, you've won the game!

End Game Scoring

Each rescued cat boosts your victory rank by 1.

Will you risk leaving some kittens behind for the chance of giving the rest a safe return, or gamble their lives for a Rank 5 triumph with your entire furry crew?

Hard Mode

Looking for a tougher challenge? You can play Mini Moons in Hard Mode!

During Setup, flip the Oxygen Tracking Card, Energy Tracking Card, Minerals Tracking Card and Map Card to the HARD MODE side.

Note: You can incrementally change the difficulty between plays by choosing which cards to flip to HARD MODE.

Achievements

• Rescue five cats.
• Rescue five cats without using any Technology Card.
• Rescue five cats in HARD MODE.