Stellar Drift: Pull & Write Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Components
• Setup
  • Game Setup
  • Captain Skill & Tech Tracks Setup
• Gameplay: Rounds
  • Phase 1: Income Phase
  • Phase 2: Repair Phase
  • Phase 3: Cleanup Phase
• Gameplay: End of Game
  • Tie Breakers
• Gameplay: Concepts
  • Increasing Income
  • Cubes
  • Energy
  • The Ship Grid and Repairing Your Ship
  • Symbols and Tracks
  • Abilities
  • Tech Tracks
  • Ship Sections
  • Captain Skills
  • Special Ship Spaces
  • Ship Difficulty Indicator
• Ability Reference
  • Captain Skills
  • Tech Upgrades (listed bottom to top)
  • Repaired Sections Bonus Abilities
• Solo Variant
• FAQ

Game Components

• 3 pads of sheets (Ship Sheets, Tracker Sheets, Tech Sheets)
• 5 player "Energy" sideboards
• 5 white discs
• 5 "Ready" tokens (red 'hourglass' on one side and green 'checkmark' on the other)
• 48 resource cubes (12 yellow, 12 red, 12 green, 12 blue)
• 1 cube bag

Setup

Game Setup

• Each player takes a Ship Sheet, a Tracker Sheet, and a Tech Sheet from the sheet pads.

  • NOTE: There are five different ship layouts. Players may use the same or different layouts. For first time players we recommend you use the Aaraka Glider layout.

• Each player takes an Energy Sideboard and a white disc. This sideboard is placed next to any of your sheets, and the white disc is placed on the '0' space of the vertical white energy circles track on the sideboard.

• Each player takes a Ready Token. Place these near your board but where other players can see them. Ready Tokens start with the red (hourglass) side face up.

• Place Cubes into the Cube Bag based on the number of players.

  • 1 player = 5 of each color
  • 2 players = 6 of each color
  • 3 players = 8 of each color
  • 4 players = 10 of each color
  • 5 players = 12 of each color

  Return any remaining Cubes to the box, they will not be used.

Captain Skill & Tech Tracks Setup

Each player pulls two Cubes at random out of the Cube Bag. If you draw two Cubes of the same color you must redraw one until you have two different Cubes. These Cubes are used as follows:

Captain Skill

Captain Skills are special player abilities you can activate once per round. Select your Captain Skill for this game by choosing one of your two Cubes and checking off the box in the Captain Skill Section of your Tracker Sheet matching the color of the Cube you selected. Once you have chosen your skill, return the selected Cube to the bag.

Example: This player chose to use their red Cube to unlock the red Captain Skill.

Tech Tracks

The Tech Upgrade Tracker contains three vertical Tech Tracks that unlock various single-use abilities as you progress upwards on them. Using your remaining Cube, check off the bottom two boxes of the track corresponding to that Cube's color. If you selected a blue Cube, you instead check off the one bottom box on all three tracks. Once you have obtained your starting Tech Upgrades, return that Cube to the bag.

Example: The player then uses their remaining Yellow Cube to check off the bottom two boxes of the yellow Tech Track.

Gameplay: Rounds

The game is played over seven rounds. Each round is divided up into three phases:

• Income Phase
• Repair Phase
• Cleanup Phase

All players perform the actions of each phase simultaneously.

NOTE: Your progress through the game is tracked on the Round Tracker section of your Tech Sheet — check off each phase when you complete it.

Phase 1: Income Phase

In this phase players will gain Energy, Cubes, and a Tech Point.

Energy Income

Each player gains the amount of Energy indicated in the Income Upgrades section of their Tech Sheet. This amount starts at 3 Energy and is increased by gaining Energy Income Symbols.

Cube Income

Each player gains the amount of Cubes indicated in the Income Upgrades section of their Tech Sheet. This amount starts at 3 Cubes and is increased by gaining Cube Income Symbols.

Tech Point

All players gain one Tech Point, and must immediately apply that Tech Point to one of their three Tech Upgrade Tracks.

NOTE: Unlike other incomes, this amount never increases.

Phase 2: Repair Phase

During the Repair Phase, players spend their Cubes to repair spaces on their ship. Repairing a ship space gives the player the symbols printed on that space, which generally allows the player to advance on the Ship Tracks. Players can also spend Energy to gain additional Cubes or to allow them to treat Cubes as a different color. Captain Skills can only be activated during this phase.

NOTE: All of this is described in more detail in the Gameplay: Concepts section of this book.

This phase continues until all players are finished. When a player is finished they flip their Ready Token over to its green checkmark side to indicate to other players they are done. When all players are ready, the phase is completed and play proceeds to the Cleanup Phase.

Phase 3: Cleanup Phase

During the Cleanup Phase, three things occur (unless it is the last round of the game):

• Each player may store up to two unspent Cubes (use the Cube Storage section on your Ship Tracker sheet). Excess Cubes are returned to the Cube Bag.
• All Cubes that were spent or discarded during the round are returned to the Cube Bag.
• All players flip their Ready Tokens back to the red hourglass 'repairing' side.

If players have completed 7 rounds, the game ends and players proceed to the end of the game. Otherwise, the next round starts, starting with the Income Phase.

Example: This player has 3 unspent Cubes. They choose to store a blue and a yellow Cube, and then proceed to put the last Cube back in the Cube Bag.

Gameplay: End of Game

At the end of the seventh round, the game is over! Using the End Game Scoring section of your Tracker sheet, tally up your VP (victory points) as follows:

Repaired Sections on Ship: Gain the VP listed for each Ship Section (colored region) on your ship you have completely repaired. Make sure to check your entire Ship Sheet.

Repaired Sections Bonus: For each marked Repaired Sections Bonus Box, gain 3 VP.

Ship Repair Tracks: For each of your five Ship Repair tracks (Power, Life Support, CPU Core, Engines, Fuel), gain the largest VP value based on how far you have progressed on that track. These values are not cumulative — gain the largest VP value you managed to reach for each track.

Tech Upgrades: For each Tech Upgrade track, gain the largest VP value based on how far you have progressed on that track. These are also not cumulative — gain the largest value you reached for each track.

The player with the most victory points wins!

Tie Breakers

In the case of a tie, the player with the most remaining resources wins, where each leftover Energy counts as 1 resource and each leftover Cube counts as 2 resources. If there is still a tie, then players share the win.

Gameplay: Concepts

Increasing Income

Income is increased by gaining Energy Income Symbols and Cube Income Symbols.

Each time you gain one of those symbols place a mark on the leftmost open box of the appropriate track in the Income Upgrades section. Each mark increases that type of income during subsequent rounds.

Cubes

Cube Colors & Symbols

There are four colors of Cubes in the game. Each color also has a symbol associated with it. Treat the color and symbol as the same thing for rules purposes.

• Blue = Circle
• Yellow = Triangle
• Red = Star
• Green = Square

Gaining Cubes

There are multiple ways to gain Cubes:

• You gain Cubes automatically during the Cube Income Phase.
• Any time you cross off a Pull a Cube symbol (bag symbol).
• Using the Energy Exchange action to gain Cubes at a cost of 2 Energy each.

Any time you gain Cubes, reach into the Cube Bag (without looking inside) and randomly take the appropriate number of Cubes.

Color Change

When an effect lets you change the color of a Cube (such as a Tech Ability, doing an Energy Exchange, etc.) simply treat the Cube as if it is any desired color. You do not physically exchange the Cube for a different one.

Cube Sweep

If the Cube Bag is ever empty and a player needs to take a Cube, a Cube Sweep is triggered. When this happens all players get one last chance to activate any abilities they want, and then all Cubes spent by all players are immediately returned to the bag, even though it is not the end of the Repair Phase.

Energy

Your Energy Sideboard has a vertical track consisting of white circles running up the right side — this is your Energy Track. It indicates how much Energy you have at any time. When you gain Energy move the white disc up the track and when you spend Energy move it down the track.

Spending Energy

You can only spend Energy during your Repair Phase, and you can spend it in one of two ways:

Energy Exchange: An Energy Exchange allows you to spend two Energy to:

• Draw a random Cube out of the Cube Bag (most common use).
• Perform a Color Change.

Energy Exchanges can be done as often as you wish as long as you have the available resources.

Captain Skill: Most of the Captain Skills cost Energy to use, you must spend the indicated amount of resources (Energy or otherwise) to activate the skill.

Saving Energy

You may keep any amount of Energy between turns and Energy does not go down until you spend it. However, you can never have more than 12 Energy at any time, any excess is immediately lost.

The Ship Grid and Repairing Your Ship

Your Ship Sheet contains a grid representing the spaces on your ship. During the Repair Phase, you'll check off (a.k.a. "Repair") these spaces using Cubes.

Repairing a Space

You may repair any space on your grid as long as it is adjacent (up, down, left, and right — not diagonal) to a space that is already repaired. At the beginning of the game, only your ship's Reactor Core space (the black space in the center of your ship) is treated as 'repaired', so you will start there.

NOTE: You are not limited to repairing from your most recently repaired space.

Example: This player is able to repair any spaces adjacent to the one they already repaired and to the Reactor Core (since it's considered a repaired space).

Walls

Walls are thick black lines between spaces that block adjacency (both for repairing and for other game effects that require adjacency).

Example: The walls in this example are exaggerated to show how they block adjacency.

Repair Cost

There is a cost to repairing spaces. The top half of each space has one or more colored squares which show which Cubes you must spend to repair that space. Each square represents one Cube of its color.

EXAMPLE: If a space has a green (square) and a yellow (triangle) symbol in it, then you must spend a green AND a yellow Cube to repair that space.

Once you spend the indicated Cubes, check off the repaired space.

NOTE: Cubes spent to repair spaces are not immediately returned to the Cube Bag — instead, place them in the Spent Cubes area of your Tech sheet. Those Cubes will be returned to the Cube Bag in the Cleanup Phase.

Each round, you may repair as many spaces as you wish as long as you have the available resources.

Symbols and Tracks

When you repair a space on your ship, you receive the symbols shown on the bottom half of the space. These symbols fall into two categories:

Ship Track Symbols

Ship track symbols give progress on your Ship Tracks, the five horizontal tracks in the Ship Repair Tracker area on your Tracker Sheet. Each symbol allows you to check off the leftmost open box on the corresponding track. When you check off a box, you gain the effect of any symbols in that box.

Example: Repairing this space gives you a CPU Core symbol, which lets you check off one box on the corresponding track.

Tech Point Symbols

Tech Point symbols give you one Tech Point, which you must immediately use to check off the bottommost open box on any of your three Tech Tracks. See Tech Tracks section for more information on how to do this.

Resolving Symbols

When you receive multiple symbols from repairing a ship space and/or marking off boxes on tracks, you may decide the order in which those symbols are resolved. You must fully resolve any gained symbols before you can perform another action.

Abilities

What is an Ability?

An Ability is a single-use action that grants you a special effect. Abilities are indicated by the lines surrounding their Ability Box.

Unlocking Abilities

Abilities are typically unlocked when you check off a box containing a padlock somewhere in the game. Unlocked Abilities:

• Do not have to be used right away. They can used at any point during the Repair Phase.
• Can be used during the round they are unlocked or can be carried over to subsequent rounds.
• Do not require any additional cost to use once they are unlocked.

Using an Ability

Abilities can be used any time during your Repair Phase. When you activate an Ability, check off its Ability Box, then immediately apply the effect. You may use any number of Abilities at a time and their effects can be combined.

NOTE: Once an Ability has been used it can not be used again.

Tech Tracks

The Tech Upgrade Tracker contains three vertical Tech Tracks that unlock various single-use abilities as you progress upwards on them.

Applying Tech Points

When you gain a Tech Point immediately check off the bottommost open box on any of your three Tech Tracks. You may choose any track regardless if you have started that track or not, but you can't choose a track that is full.

Unlocking Abilities

As you advance on the Tech Track you'll unlock many different Abilities. Whenever you check off any box with a padlock symbol in it, you unlock the Ability in the area next to the padlock box (indicated by a 'colon' symbol).

NOTE: Some Tech Track areas have two Ability Boxes, this means that the unlocked Ability can be used twice, checking off one box for each usage.

Ship Sections

Every ship grid has some spaces with a colored background. Regions composed of multiple adjacent ship spaces that are all the same color are called Ship Sections.

REMINDER: At the end of the game, you gain VP for each Ship Section completely repaired.

Completion Bonuses

The first time you completely repair a Ship Section of a color, you get an additional bonus. To denote this, check off the box in the Repaired Sections Bonus area of your Tracker Sheet corresponding to the color of the section you completed. This has two effects:

• Each checked bonus box is worth 3 VP at the end of the game.
• Each checked bonus box unlocks your choice of one of the four Abilities shown to the right. You do not need to use the Ability right away, and you do not need to choose which Ability is unlocked until you actually use it.

NOTE: This bonus only applies to the first time you repair a Ship Section of a particular color. If you happen to completely repair a second Ship Section of the same color, you do not gain the bonus a second time.

Captain Skills

Your Captain Skill is a special action you can activate once per round, during your Repair Phase. To use your Captain Skill pay the associated cost and immediately apply the effect.

NOTE: You can only use the Captain Skill you chose during Setup. All other Captain Skills are unavailable to you.

After you've used your Captain Skill, check off the Round Indicator number above it (the area with the circles numbered 1-7) that matches the current round number. This indicates the skill has been used and cannot be used again this round.

NOTE: If you do not activate your Captain Skill in a particular round, that usage is lost.

Special Ship Spaces

Some ships have spaces that grant you special rules when repairing the ship.

Ladder Spaces (Terran Starhopper, Xyxzx Hive)

Ladder Spaces are indicated by their ladder symbol and have zero cost, meaning you may repair a Ladder Space for free as soon as you are adjacent to it. In addition, Ladder Spaces with the same letter showing on them are considered to be adjacent — once you repair one, you may also repair the matching one for free.

Loot Spaces (Rhox Hauler)

Loot Spaces are denoted by a bag and a black square. Repairing one of these spaces costs one cube of any color. When you repair a Loot Space, you immediately pull another random cube from the bag.

NOTE: The Cube used to repair a Loot Space is placed in the Spent Cubes area.

Airlock Spaces (Mero Kraken)

Airlock Spaces have an airlock symbol and have zero cost, meaning you may repair an Airlock Space for free as soon as you are adjacent to it. Once an Airlock Space is repaired, you may spend one energy to 'jump' to any other airlock space — repairing that space even if you are not adjacent to it.

Ship Difficulty Indicator

Each ship's difficulty can be found below the ship's name — the more pips the more difficult it is.

Ability Reference

Captain Skills

Blue (Circle): Once per round, you may spend one Cube of any color to gain a Tech Point. This Tech Point must be applied immediately, as normal.

Red (Star): Once per round, you may spend 2 Energy to check off a box on your Ship Repair Track that currently has the fewest marks on it. If there is a tie for which track has the fewest, you may choose among the tied tracks.

Green (Square): Once per round, you may pay 2 Energy to recover a spent Cube. Choose a Cube in the Spent Cubes area of your Tech Sheet and move it back to your available Cubes. This ability has no effect if you currently have no Cubes in your Spent Cubes Section (either because it is the beginning of the round or if the Cube Bag became empty and a Cube Sweep was triggered).

Yellow (Triangle): Once per round, you may pay 1 Energy to gain a Free Repair (your next repaired ship space costs zero cubes). However, unlike a normal Free Repair, you do not gain any of the reward symbols from that ship space.

Tech Upgrades (listed bottom to top)

Yellow

• 1st: Gain 2 Energy.
• 2nd: Gain your choice of 1 Energy Income OR 1 Energy.
• 3rd: Gain 2 marks on your Reactor (yellow) Ship Track.
• 4th: Gain 2 Energy and 1 Energy Income.
• 5th: Gain 2 Energy, then Free Repair (your next repaired ship space costs zero cubes).

Green

• 1st: Gain a Color Change (treat one of your Cubes as if it is a different color). This Ability may be used twice, once for each Ability Box.
• 2nd: Use this Ability in place of one cube of any color in any cost. (Alternately, you can think of this as reducing any cost by one Cube of any color).
• 3rd: Either gain 1 Cube Income OR pull 1 Cube from the Cube Bag.
• 4th: Do this effect twice — you may choose the other option for the second time. Either recover a Cube (choose a cube in the Spent Cubes area of your Tech Sheet and move it back to your available cubes), OR pull one Cube from the Cube Bag.
• 5th: Free Repair (your next repaired ship space costs zero Cubes).

Red

• 1st: For your next repair, you may skip up to 3 spaces. (For example, if you skip over 3 spaces, you 'land' on the 4th space and repair that, paying the cost as normal.) Skipped spaces must be adjacent. You can't go diagonally or through walls, though you may turn and go around corners. This Ability may be used twice, once for each box.
• 2nd: Gain one mark on any Ship Track of your choice.
• 3rd: Pull 2 Cubes from the Cube Bag.
• 4th: Gain double the normal amount of reward symbols from your next repaired ship space.
• 5th: Free Repair (your next repaired ship space costs zero cubes). You are not limited by adjacency for this repair, you may repair any space on your ship. NOTE: This space is now considered repaired as normal and you may repair adjacent spaces to it.

Repaired Sections Bonus Abilities

• Top left: Gain 1 Tech Point.
• Top right: Gain a Color Change (treat one of your cubes as if it is a different color).
• Bottom left: For your next repair, you may skip over one space.
• Bottom right: Gain one mark on your Fuel Ship Track.

Solo Variant

The Solo Variant is played exactly the same as the rules for a 2–5 player game.

The only difference is instead of comparing scores to other players, compare your score to the chart below to see how well you did repairing your ship.

• 0 - 29: Space bacon
• 30 - 39: Still alive, somehow
• 40 - 49: At least it still flies
• 50 - 59: Only lost a few parts
• 60 - 69: Made it in one piece
• 70+: Good as new... almost

FAQ

Q: "Can I use ability X and ability Y together? Can I use ability X twice at the same time?"

A: Yes! As a general rule, multiple abilities can always be used at the same time and their effects always combine. While some combinations might not be useful (e.g. 'free repair anywhere' + 'jump over 3 spaces on your next repair'), any combination is allowed. This includes two uses of the same ability ('jump over 3' twice becomes 'jump over 6', 'color change a cube' twice becomes 'color change two cubes', etc.).

Q: "Do I have to pay the cost again to move back to a space I've already repaired? How do I keep track of where I am on the board?"

A: When you repair a space, you are allowed to repair adjacent to any space that is already repaired. You are never considered to be "at" any particular space, nor do you need to pay to move back to a previously repaired space. This also applies to repaired spaces that are not adjacent: if you have used the 'jump over' or 'free repair anywhere' abilities, you can always repair from those spaces as well, even if they don't connect back to your Reactor Core space.

Q: "I just checked off a lightning bolt or bag symbol. That means I get one income of that resource type, right?"

A: No. Crossing off a box containing a lightning bolt gives you one energy immediately, and crossing off a box with a bag symbol gives you one free cube draw from the central bag immediately. The only way to gain more resource income is to cross off one of the income 'plus' symbols. No other effect in the game increases your income.

Q: "Multiple players are insisting on pulling cubes first or last. Who goes first?"

A: "In the event of a deadlock over pulling cubes, the player who completed their turn first on the previous round (or random, if it's the first round) designates who must act first, with priority going clockwise around the table from there."