Solar Sphere: Expansions
Solar Sphere: Expansions Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
Corporation Robots
- 10 Corporation robots (2 in each of 5 player colours)
- 10 Robot cards (2 in each of 5 player colours)
White Dwarf
- 1 Location card
- 1 Board
- 2 survey ships (1 silver, 1 gold)
- 20 drones (cubes)
Solo Mode
- 3 solo cards
5th player
- 1 player set, comprising:
- 1 Command Centre board
- 4 ship dice (3 transparent dice, 1 opaque die)
- 4 Sphere hexes
- 1 morale marker
- 3 morale tokens
- 1 reputation marker
- 1 turn order marker
- 1 score marker
- 1 '50/100' score tile
- 9 resources (3 ore, 3 gold, 3 crystals)
Corporation Robots
Setup
Set up the game as normal. Give each player the 2 Corporation robots and 2 Robot cards matching their player colour. Place these beside your Command Centre.
How to play
There are two additional kickback actions. Each time you take a kickback you may choose one of the regular kickbacks or one of the two robot actions:
- Initialise 1 Corporation robot
- Deploy 1 Corporation robot
Initialising a robot
When you initialise a robot, slide one of your Robot cards underneath the edge of your player board, and place one of your Corporation robots on the card, ready to be deployed.
Deploying a robot
When you deploy a robot, place one of your initialised robots on any Location card, or move one of your robots from one Location to another.
More than one player may deploy robots to the same Location. Ignore robots when considering if you need to exhaust a drone to visit a Location.
Activating a robot
You can activate one of your deployed robots by deploying a ship die to one of your initialised Robot cards (the card becomes a new Location you can visit). You can only visit each initialised Robot card once during each round.
The value of the ship die must still match the requirement of the Location card with your robot. Each time you deploy a ship die to a Robot card you may activate either of your robots.
When you activate one of your robots, take the action of the Location card including the satellite boost (even if you do not have a satellite drone at the Location). If you do have a satellite drone to the Location, there is no additional benefit.
End of the game
Each initialised Robot card gains you one 'wild' silver Faction icon.
White Dwarf
With the construction of Solar Sphere #1 underway, The Corporation has set its sights on the white dwarf in the nearby Mu-Lambda system. You can now choose to survey the white dwarf to gain valuable resources and opportunities.
Setup
Set up the game as normal. Place the White Dwarf Location card beside the Sphere, with the board nearby. Randomly place the survey ships on the board by holding them above the middle and dropping them. Place each one in the space nearest to where it lands. If they land in the same space, redrop both ships.
How to play
You may visit the White Dwarf location by deploying a ship die of any value.
Action
Choose one of the survey ships. You must move it at least 1 space clockwise, but may move it any number of spaces clockwise up to the value of your ship die.
Each space shows a resource (1 ore, 1 gold or 1 crystal) and an action. Either gain the resource or take the action of the space into which you moved the ship.
The two ships cannot pass each other or land on the same space. If the two ships are already in adjacent spaces, you must move the one in front.
Satellite boost
If you have deployed a satellite drone to the White Dwarf location, move both ships, in either order, and gain the resource or take the action of the spaces into which you moved both ships.
Each ship must be moved clockwise at least 1 space up to the value of your ship die. You do not have to move both ships the same number of spaces.
Actions
The printed page shows each action with an icon; the icons are not reproduced here, only the printed text of each action.
- Exhaust 1 drone to gain 1 reputation
- Pay any 1 resource to score 1 point for each Sphere hex you have built
- Fabricate 1 drone
- Deploy 2 active drones to a Resistance ship (do not pay a crystal)
- Pay any 1 resource to score 1 point for each Resistance card you have claimed
- Salvage 2 drones
- Pay 1 morale to gain your auxiliary die (following the usual rules)
- Pay any 1 resource to score 1 point for each of your current and retired crew members
- Gain 1 morale
5th player
Set up and play the game as normal, with the following changes:
- Solar Sphere: When setting up the Sphere, randomly remove 4 of the face-up hexes and add the 4 new 'dual' hexes. Shuffle this stack and then build the Sphere as normal. Each of the dual hexes has space for 2 drones and can be built twice, by different players. A dual hex with a single drone on it is still considered 'built'.
- Resources and morale tokens: Add the extra resources and morale tokens to the supply.
- Resistance ships: Setup the the resistance deck with the following value cards:
| VALUE 2 | VALUE 3 | VALUE 4 | VALUE 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 players | 6 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
- Crew display: When filling and refilling the display, reveal enough cards so that there are 3 Crew cards revealed from each deck instead of two.
- 5th player: The 5th player receives a complete player set and sets it up in their play area as normal.
Solo Mode (with expansions)
Setup
Set up the game as normal.
If playing with the White Dwarf expansion, remove 3 random cards from the DRANDA deck and add the three additional solo cards to the DRANDA deck during setup.
Playing with the Corporation Robots or Launch Crew makes DRANDA easier to beat, play the game as normal.
How to play
White Dwarf
Place DRANDA's ship die on the White Dwarf Location card. DRANDA always moves both ships the maximum number of spaces and takes the following benefits:
- Discard 1 drone to gain 1 reputation (= VP as per difficulty)
- Scores 1 point for each Sphere hex it has built
- Recover 1 drone from the discard area
- Deploy 2 drones to a Resistance ship (following normal solo rules)
- Score 1 point for each Resistance card it has claimed
- Recover 1 drone from the discard area
- -2 VP and follow the reshuffle action to gain the extra die
- Score 1 point for each of its crew members (the printed text reads "for each or each of its crew members"; "or" is read as a typo for "of")
- Gain 1 morale (= VP as per difficulty)