Star Realms Academy Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
  • Card List
• General Rules
  • Player Setup
  • Game Board Setup
• Turns
  • Ships
  • Bases
• Abilities
• Ally Abilities
• Buying Cards
• End of Turn
• Winning the Game

Components

• 1 Game Board
• 2 Player Boards
• 30 Health Tokens
• 16 Coin Tokens
• 6 Combat Tokens
• 48 Shop Cards
• 12 Starting Cards (10 Scouts, 2 Vipers)
• 2 Reference Cards

Card List

• 4 Federation Shuttle
• 4 Freighter
• 3 Barter World
• 3 Trade Escort
• 2 Central Office
• 4 Ram
• 4 Trade Pod
• 3 The Hive
• 3 Mothership
• 2 Blob World
• 4 Corvette
• 4 Imperial Frigate
• 3 Recycling Station
• 3 Survey Ship
• 2 Fleet HQ

General Rules

Player Setup

Each player should do all of the following:

1. Place a Player Board and Reference Card in front of you.
2. Place 15 Health Tokens on your Player Board.
3. Start with your own deck of cards containing 5 Scouts and 1 Viper. Shuffle your deck and place it face-down next to your Player Board.
4. Draw a hand of three cards from your deck. You may look at the cards in your hand, but not those in your opponent's hand.
5. The oldest player will take the first turn. The other player places one Coin Token on their Player Board.
6. Make sure there is room in front of you to play cards. This is your "In Play" area.

Game Board Setup

1. Place the Game Board on the table, within reach of both players.
2. Create a supply of Coin and Combat Tokens, within reach of both players.
3. Shuffle the Shop Deck and place it face-down on the game board where indicated.
4. The Shop Row has 5 spaces. Fill each space in the Shop Row with a face-up card drawn from the Shop Deck.

Turns

Players alternate taking turns, starting with the oldest player.

On your turn, you may take the following actions as many times as you are able, and in any order you wish:

• Play cards from your hand. There is no cost to play a card—simply place it in your "In Play" area, face-up on the table in front of you.
• Use your Bases' Primary Abilities.
• Use Ally Abilities.
• Use Coins to purchase new cards from the Shop Row.

There are two types of cards in Star Realms Academy: Ships and Bases.

Ships

When you play a Ship, you must immediately use its Primary Ability.

Played Ships remain face-up in front of you until the end of your turn when they go to your Discard Pile.

Ships are printed vertically. A Ship card shows its Faction (top left), Card Name (top), and Cost to Buy (top right — all cards are free to play). Below the art, it shows its Primary Ability, then its Ally Ability.

Bases are printed horizontally. A Base card shows its Faction (top left), Card Name (top), and Cost to Buy (top right — all cards are free to play). Below the art, it shows its Ally Ability, Primary Ability, and Defense.

Bases

You may have multiple Bases in play, and you may use each Base's Primary Ability once at any time on your turn.

Unlike Ships, Bases are not discarded at the end of your turn; they remain in play until destroyed.

Bases work like shields. As long as you have a Base in play, your Health cannot be attacked. Your Health can only be attacked if you have no Bases in play.

Each Base has a Defense value. This is the number of Combat Tokens it takes to destroy the Base. Destroyed Bases go to their owner's Discard Pile.

If your opponent has one or more Bases in play, place 1 Combat Token on a Base for each point of Combat you have. Take the Tokens from the Supply. You may split up Combat among your opponent's Bases in any way you wish.

Combat Tokens stay on a Base forever, until it is destroyed. A Base is destroyed once it has Combat Tokens equal to its Defense. When this happens, put those Tokens into the supply and put that Base into its owner's discard pile.

Once all your opponent's Bases have been destroyed (or if they do not have any Bases), they remove Health Tokens from their board equal to your remaining Combat (put those Health Tokens into the supply).

Example: Playing Imperial Frigate gives 2 Combat. Your opponent has a 1-Defense Base (The Hive) that must be destroyed before you can lower their Health. So first, 1 Combat is spent to put a Combat Token on The Hive. It now has Combat Tokens equal to its Defense, so it is destroyed and goes to your opponent's discard pile. The remaining 1 Combat is used to attack your opponent, who removes 1 Health from their Player Board.

Abilities

Some abilities provide multiple effects. (For example, Survey Ship's Primary Ability generates 2 Coins and 1 Draw.) When you play this card you get both effects!

Each ability may only be used once per turn.

Abilities include:

• Draw. Draw a card from your deck.
• Health. Regain Health Tokens equal to the number shown. Take them from the Supply and place them on your Player Board. You cannot gain Health above your starting score of 15.
• Coin. Gain Coin Tokens equal to the number shown. Take them from the supply and place them on your Player Board. Coin Tokens stay on your Player Board (turn after turn) until they are spent. You cannot have more than 8 Coin Tokens on your Player Board, so if you have a lot, you may want to spend some before playing a card that would give you more.
• Combat. Combat is used to attack your opponent's Health or their Bases. You cannot attack an opponent's Health if they have a Base in play.

Ally Abilities

An Ally Ability is a bonus ability. It may be used in addition to the card's Primary Ability!

Each card belongs to a Faction. Cards with Ally Abilities "look for" other cards in play that belong to their same Faction. If you have a same-Faction card in play, the Ally Ability is ready to use.

Once an Ally Ability is ready to use, you may use it anytime on your turn.

Each card's Ally Ability may only be used once per turn, even if you have more than one other card of that Faction in play.

Example: On your turn, you play an Imperial Frigate and a Corvette. It does not matter which order you play the cards in. As soon as you have both in play, the Imperial Frigate's Ally ability is ready to use.

Buying Cards

During your turn, you may buy cards from the Shop Row. To buy a card, pay its cost in Coin Tokens (used Coin Tokens go back to the supply). Each card's cost can be found in its upper-right corner.

When you buy a card, place it in your Discard Pile (It does not go into play and you do not get to use its abilities).

You only pay Coins for a card when you buy it from the Shop Row. You never have to pay to play cards from your hand.

The Shop Row always has five cards in it. When a card leaves the Shop Row, immediately replace it with the next card from the Shop Deck.

Example: To buy Ram from the Shop Row, pay 1 Coin from your Player Board to the Supply, then take Ram from the Shop Row and place it in your Discard Pile.

End of Turn

When you are ready to end your turn, do the following steps in order:

1. Put your Ships from play into your Discard Pile, face-up. (Keep any undefeated Bases in play.) You may look through your Discard Pile at any time.
2. Draw three new cards from your deck.
3. Your turn is over. It is now your opponent's turn.

If you ever need to draw a card and your deck is empty, shuffle your Discard Pile and place it face-down as your new deck.

Example: You must draw three cards, but there is only one card left in your deck. Draw that card, then shuffle your Discard Pile to create your new deck and draw two more cards.

Winning the Game

The first player to reduce their opponent's Health to zero wins!