Terraforming Mars

Can Terraforming Mars expansions be combined in any way?

Yes — every expansion can be played on its own or combined with any of the others, and the base game needs none of them.

Can I use corporations and cards from Colonies or Turmoil without playing the rest of that expansion?

Yes, as long as the card doesn't depend on that expansion's components. Leave out anything that refers to delegates, parties or global events when you aren't playing Turmoil, and colony effects when you aren't playing Colonies.

Must I tell other players how many cards are in my hand?

Yes — the number of cards in your hand is open information, and you should answer promptly when asked, since players need it for things like the Planner milestone. Which cards you hold stays secret.

Is table talk allowed, like lobbying another player about who an Asteroid should target?

Yes, the rules don't forbid it — how much is fine is up to your group. The designer says he enjoys keeping negotiation over attack targets in his own games.

What are the art cards on top of the card stacks?

They are cover cards the factory uses to keep different language editions apart. They are not part of the game.

Is the Moon expansion in the online version official?

No — the Moon expansion found in the online implementation is fan-made, not a FryxGames product.

Do I gain 1 TR for every step a global parameter is raised, whatever raised it?

Yes — each step of temperature, oxygen or ocean you raise gives you 1 TR, whether it comes from a card, a blue-card action, a standard project or a track bonus. Lava Flows' 2 temperature steps give 2 TR, which is part of why it costs so much.

Can I play a card or take an action that raises a global parameter that is already maxed?

Yes — raising a maxed parameter is one of the exceptions that doesn't block a card. You skip that part, gain no TR for it, and still get every other effect. The same exceptions apply to standard projects and blue-card actions, so Artificial Lake is playable with all 9 oceans out.

If a card raises a parameter 2 steps but only 1 step is left, can I play it?

Yes — you raise it the one remaining step and gain 1 TR, and the rest of the card works normally. For Lava Flows you still need a legal volcanic area for the tile.

Do I gain TR for placing a greenery once oxygen is maxed?

No — the TR comes from raising oxygen, not from the tile. You can still convert 8 plants or play cards to place greeneries after oxygen is maxed; they give placement bonuses, score 1 VP each and count for adjacent cities.

Once the temperature is maxed, can I still spend 8 heat, and is heat good for anything?

You may still spend 8 heat on the conversion action (for example to stall), but it raises nothing and gives no TR. Leftover heat only matters for specific cards and corporations, such as Helion paying with heat, cards that cost heat, or the Thermalist award.

If a card shows both a TR increase and a parameter raise, like Nitrogen-Rich Asteroid, do I get both?

Yes — follow the icons. A separate TR icon is extra TR on top of the TR from raising the parameter, and you get it even if the parameter is already maxed. Nitrogen-Rich Asteroid gives 3 TR in total (2 + 1 for temperature) when temperature can still rise.

When a card says 'place a greenery tile and raise oxygen 1 step', do I raise oxygen twice?

No — that text is just a reminder that a greenery raises oxygen. Only a separate oxygen or TR icon gives an additional increase, so compare a card like Plantation with Nitrogen-Rich Asteroid.

What do the bonus steps on the temperature and oxygen tracks give?

The two early bonus steps on the temperature track each give 1 heat production (production, not heat), reaching 0 °C lets you place an ocean tile, and reaching 8% oxygen raises the temperature 1 step. Each extra raise gives its own TR, and they can chain: an oxygen raise to 8% can push temperature to 0 °C and place an ocean, all without spending another action.

Who gets a track bonus, or the TR, when a parameter is raised?

Only the player whose action raised the parameter. Other players get neither the TR nor the bonus.

Do I get a track bonus if my raise jumps past the bonus step instead of stopping on it?

Yes — each step is resolved one at a time, so passing a bonus space still gives you its bonus.

If all 9 oceans are placed, does raising the temperature to 0 °C still give a bonus?

No — the bonus is an ocean placement, and with no oceans left it is simply lost; you gain only the TR for the temperature step. Likewise, reaching 8% oxygen gives no extra temperature step once temperature is maxed. Don't set an ocean aside for the bonus.

If Lake Marineris's first ocean is the last one available, what happens to the second?

The first ocean is placed normally, with its TR, placement bonuses and triggers (such as Arctic Algae). The second can't be placed, so it is skipped: no tile, no TR, nothing triggers, and the card is still legal to play.

Is one temperature step 1 or 2 degrees?

Two degrees — the track runs from -30 °C to +8 °C in steps of 2 °C, and each raise moves one step for 1 TR. A requirement modifier of ±2 steps therefore means ±4 °C.

Must the temperature reach 0 °C before ocean tiles can be placed?

No — oceans can be placed at any temperature by the Aquifer standard project or by cards, unless a card has its own requirement. The ocean at 0 °C is just a bonus.

Do I gain TR for placing a city or a special tile?

No — TR comes only from raising global parameters (temperature, oxygen, oceans, and Venus if used) or from effects that raise TR directly. City and special tiles give no TR.

How can oxygen be raised besides placing greenery?

Only by cards that explicitly raise it — for example Ironworks, Steelworks, Ore Processor, Strip Mine and Water Splitting Plant. Otherwise it rises when a greenery tile is placed, whether by plants, the standard project or a card.

Can other tiles be placed on ocean areas or on the reserved city areas?

No — the 12 blue areas take only ocean tiles and the 3 named city areas (Noctis City, Phobos Space Haven, Ganymede Colony) take only the city from the card of that name, unless a card explicitly says otherwise. Only Mohole Area, Mangrove and Protected Valley put other tiles on ocean areas. Ocean areas stay reserved even after all 9 oceans are placed.

Why are there only 9 ocean tiles for 12 ocean areas, and can the ocean areas run out?

Nine is correct: you choose which of the 12 areas get filled, and the spare 3 exist because three cards (Mohole Area, Mangrove, Protected Valley) put other tiles on ocean areas. Since played cards never return, there is always room for all 9 oceans; running out means a tile was placed illegally.

Which areas are volcanic areas for Lava Flows and Lava Tube Settlement?

The areas whose names are printed in bold on the map. On Tharsis these are Tharsis Tholus, Ascraeus Mons, Pavonis Mons and Arsia Mons, the same four listed on Lava Flows. Elysium's are Hecates Tholus, Elysium Mons, Olympus Mons and Arsia Mons; Hellas has none.

Are the bold-named volcanic areas reserved for Lava Flows?

No — any tile may be placed on them following the normal rules. They only matter for cards that require a volcanic area, and once they are all covered, Lava Flows and Lava Tube Settlement can no longer be played.

On a map without volcanic areas or a Noctis City area, where do tiles that need them go?

Place them anywhere they could legally go. Volcanic, Noctis City and other map-specific restrictions apply only on maps that have those areas; likewise ignore placement bonuses for expansions you aren't using.

Can any other tile, such as Capital or a corporation's starting city, go on the Noctis City area?

No — only the city placed by the Noctis City card may ever go there. Not Capital, not Tharsis Republic's city, not a greenery or special tile. Capital uses the white tile; Noctis City uses an ordinary city tile.

Can a city be placed next to the Noctis City area before Noctis City is played, and does that block it?

Yes, it's legal — the empty area holds no city. It doesn't block Noctis City either: that card always goes on its reserved area even if a city is already next to it. Once Noctis City is built, it is an ordinary city and no new city may be placed next to it.

Do Phobos Space Haven, Ganymede Colony and Stanford Torus count as cities?

Yes — they are city tiles, so they count for anything that counts cities or city tiles in play, such as Mayor, Landlord, Immigration Shuttles, Pets and Tharsis Republic's 3 M€ bonus. They are not on Mars, so effects marked ON MARS with an asterisked city icon (Zeppelins, Martian Rails, Tharsis Republic's production effect) ignore them, and no greenery can ever be adjacent to them.

Which areas count as reserved for Land Claim's 'non-reserved area'?

The ocean areas and the three named city areas (Noctis City, Ganymede Colony, Phobos Space Haven). An area already claimed with Land Claim also counts as reserved, for its owner. Volcanic areas are not reserved.

What is the generation marker for in a multiplayer game?

Mostly theme and a sense of game length. In practice it tells you which way to pass in the Draft variant (clockwise in even generations, counter-clockwise in odd) and helps track the first player; it only affects the outcome in solo, which ends after generation 14.

Do the bonuses printed on map areas give resources or production?

Resources — they have no brown production box. Each leaf is 1 plant (two leaves = 2 plants, not a greenery); steel and titanium icons give cubes. A card icon draws that many cards into your hand for free, though you must still pay the card's cost to play it.

On a map area that costs 4 M€ and raises the temperature, can I take the bonuses before paying the 4 M€?

Yes, most players agree — the area's effects are all placement bonuses, resolved in any order you choose, so you can raise the temperature, place the bonus ocean, collect its money and pay the 4 M€ last. The tile you placed is already down, though, so it gets no ocean-adjacency money from that bonus ocean.

Can the newer maps be played with only the base game?

Mostly yes — ignore placement bonuses for Colonies or Turmoil if you don't use them. A milestone or award that needs an expansion you aren't playing (such as one requiring colonies) has to be replaced.

What if I run out of player markers, tiles or resource cubes?

Use substitutes — none of the components are meant to be a limit. If you run short of player markers, use an unused color for your production tracks and used actions and keep your own color for tiles and TR; avoid copper-colored cubes, which look like resources.

What are the bronze, silver and gold cubes worth?

Bronze is 1, silver 5 and gold 10, and they count as whichever resource box they sit in — 42 M€ is four gold and two bronze, for example.

Where must I place a greenery tile?

Next to any tile you own if possible — a city, another greenery or a special tile with your marker; it doesn't have to touch a city. Oceans belong to nobody and don't count. Only if no area next to your tiles is available, or you have no tiles at all, may you place it on any legal area.

If the only area next to my tiles has a cost I can't pay or is otherwise blocked for me, may I place a greenery anywhere?

No — an area is unavailable only if it is reserved, already has a tile, or doesn't exist. Being unable to pay an area's cost (such as a placement fee on some maps) doesn't free you to place elsewhere; you have to wait until you can pay or until the area is taken.

If my only tile is a special tile like Nuclear Zone, must my greenery go next to it?

Yes — a special tile carries your player marker, so it is your tile, and greeneries must be placed next to it if possible. That is the main reason special tiles get a marker; it can also open new areas for your greeneries.

Does a Land Claim marker count as my tile for greenery placement or ocean bonuses?

No — Land Claim puts a marker on an empty area, not a tile. The area still counts as empty, and it isn't a tile you own for greenery adjacency.

Can a tile be placed on top of another tile or replace it?

No — tiles never stack, and an area with a tile on it is no longer available. That is why Lava Flows can't use a volcanic area that already has a tile.

Can I play a card if its tile can't legally be placed?

No — a tile a card places must be placed, so if no legal area exists the card can't be played (for example Lava Flows with every volcanic area covered). The only exception is an ocean when all 9 are already out. The first-edition rulebook says an unplaceable tile doesn't stop the card; the designer issued errata removing that sentence.

Does a greenery placed by a card raise oxygen even if the card doesn't mention it?

Yes — placing any greenery raises oxygen 1 step (and your TR) if oxygen isn't maxed, however it was placed. The greenery itself gives no separate TR; the one TR comes from the oxygen step. The neutral greeneries in solo setup are the explicit exception.

Can a city be placed next to another city, even from a card?

No — no city tile may be placed next to another city, including cities placed by cards, unless a card specifically says otherwise. Noctis City on its reserved area is the built-in exception. Placing a city next to an opponent's greeneries is fine.

Do cities and special tiles have to be placed next to my own tiles?

No — only greeneries must go next to your own tiles. Cities just can't be next to another city, oceans go only on ocean areas, and special tiles follow whatever placement restriction their card states.

Does a city placed by a card give +1 M€ production like the City standard project?

No — the M€ production is part of the City standard project, not of placing a city. A card that places a city gives only the production printed on it.

How does the 2 M€ ocean adjacency bonus work — does it apply to oceans and to tiles already on the board?

Whenever you place a tile, you gain 2 M€ once for each ocean tile already next to it. That includes placing an ocean next to other oceans. It only goes to the player placing the new tile: placing an ocean next to existing cities or greeneries pays nobody, and it never changes production.

Can I use the ocean adjacency money to pay for the card or project that places the tile?

No — you pay the full cost first, and the placement bonus only arrives once the tile is down.

Do special tiles like Mohole Area or Ecological Zone count as cities or greeneries, and do they score?

No — a special tile is neither a city (except Capital) nor a greenery; it raises no parameter and gives no VP or TR by itself, only what its card says. You do own it (it gets your marker), so it counts for Landlord and tile-counting effects and anchors your greenery placement.

Do I get placement bonuses and ocean money when placing a special tile?

Yes — every tile collects the printed bonus of its area and 2 M€ for each adjacent ocean, whatever kind of tile it is. Mining Rights, for example, gives the bonus and then its production increase.

Can special tiles, or cards that bend placement rules like Urbanized Area or Ecological Zone, use ocean areas?

No — a card overrides only the rule it names. Urbanized Area waives city spacing and Ecological Zone adds an adjacency condition, but neither opens up ocean areas. Only cards that explicitly say to place on an area reserved for ocean (Mohole Area, Mangrove, Protected Valley) can.

Do Protected Valley's and Mangrove's greeneries have to be placed next to my own tiles?

No — they go on any free ocean area and ignore the usual greenery adjacency rule, as the cards say. Afterwards that greenery is your tile like any other, so later greeneries may be placed next to it.

Where can Nuclear Zone be placed?

On any legal area — not on ocean areas or the reserved city areas. It needs no adjacency to your tiles.

Where can the Mining Area and Mining Rights tiles go?

On any land area with a steel or titanium bonus, including one that also shows plants, but never on an ocean area. Mining Area must additionally be next to one of your tiles, so it can't be played if you have none; Mining Rights has no adjacency requirement.

Does the Capital tile count as a city?

Yes — Capital is a city in every respect. It gets your marker, can't be placed next to another city, counts for Mayor and Landlord and city effects, and scores 1 VP per adjacent greenery plus 1 VP per adjacent ocean.

Which tile do Noctis City, Phobos Space Haven and Ganymede Colony use?

Ordinary city tiles, so you can build all of them. The single white city tile is only for the Capital card, to remind you that it also scores adjacent oceans.

Does the Capital tile also count as a special tile?

Probably yes, but there is no official ruling. The base game's component list counts 11 special tiles while there are only 10 brown ones, which suggests Capital is included; it certainly also counts as a city.

How do greeneries score when they touch more than one city?

Each city is scored separately, so one greenery gives 1 VP to every city it touches, whoever owns the greenery. Every city tile scores this way, Urbanized Area and Capital included.

When a card places two oceans, are they placed one at a time?

Yes — place and resolve them one at a time. You collect the first ocean's placement bonuses before choosing where the second goes, and the second can earn adjacency money from the first.

Can Lava Tube Settlement go on a volcanic area next to a city?

Yes — the card places its city regardless of adjacent cities. If all volcanic areas are covered on a map that has them, the card can't be played; only on Hellas, which has none, can it go anywhere.

Is production limited to 10, or to the end of the player board track?

No — production has no upper limit. When a track goes past 10, leave a marker on 10 and start another one, as many as you need (two markers on 10 plus one on 2 means 22). A cap at the board's maximum is only a house rule.

Can I play a card that lowers my production below what I have, such as losing 2 energy production when I have 1?

No — you must be able to perform the decrease in full, so production can't go below 0. M€ production is the only one that can go negative, and never lower than -5; a card that would push it past -5 can't be played.

How does negative M€ production work, and why does the track show negative numbers?

The track records M€ production, which can drop to -5; your M€ supply itself can never go negative. In the production phase your income is TR plus M€ production, so negative production simply reduces what your TR earns, and since TR is added to it, your total income won't be negative.

Can I mix steel or titanium with M€, and do I get change if I overpay?

Yes, you can mix freely — steel (2 M€ each) on cards with a building tag and titanium (3 M€ each) on cards with a space tag, with M€ covering the rest. Overpaying with steel or titanium is allowed but gives no change. M€ and other resource cubes are just counters, so you can always make exact change with those.

Can I convert steel, titanium or other resources into M€, or pay for plant or power cards with plants or energy?

No — there is no general exchange. Steel and titanium only pay for building and space cards (and any action that explicitly allows them), and plants, energy and heat can't pay for cards at all, unless a specific card or corporation such as Helion says so.

What are 'standard resources' on cards like Philares?

The six resources kept on your player board: M€, steel, titanium, plants, energy and heat. Resources stored on cards, like animals or microbes, are not standard resources.

What are the player-colored cubes for, compared to the bronze, silver and gold cubes?

Player-colored markers track your TR, production levels, owned tiles, claimed milestones and funded awards, and used blue-card actions. Amounts of resources — on your board or on cards — are always counted with the bronze, silver and gold resource cubes.

Is a requirement like '4% oxygen' or '3 oceans' exact, or a minimum?

A minimum — any requirement not marked 'max' is met at that value or higher, so '3 oceans' means at least 3 oceans in play. Requirements marked max (in a red box) mean that value or lower. There are no exact requirements; temperature cards say 'or warmer' only because the numbers are negative.

Can I keep using a card's action or effect after a global parameter passes its requirement, like Arctic Algae or Extreme-Cold Fungus?

Yes — requirements are checked only when you play the card from your hand. Once it is in play, its actions and effects keep working for the rest of the game.

Can I play a card if I can't carry out all of its effects?

Only within three exceptions. You must be able to do every effect except: raising a global parameter that is already maxed, removing another player's resources (optional anyway), and adding resources when you have no card to hold them. Production decreases, removing your own resources and placing tiles are not exceptions. The same rule applies to blue-card actions and standard projects.

In what order do I pay for a card and resolve its effects, and can its own effects help pay for it?

Check requirements, pay the full cost, and then the card counts as played; its effects and everything they trigger are resolved in any order you choose, though a triggered effect can't come before what triggered it. Resources a card gives you can't pay its own cost (Media Group's 3 M€ arrives too late), but they can cover a later effect of the same card, like Moss's plant loss.

Can I resolve a card's effects in any order, such as drawing before placing the ocean?

Yes — you choose the order of a card's immediate effects and of anything they trigger. For example, playing Research with Mars University in play, you can draw Research's cards first and then pick which card to discard to Mars University.

When my card triggers another player's effect, like Giant Ice Asteroid placing oceans next to their Arctic Algae, who decides the order?

The player taking the action chooses the order of all simultaneous effects, including other players' triggers. So Giant Ice Asteroid can place its oceans first, giving the Arctic Algae owner plants, and then remove those very plants.

Can I play Immigrant City when my M€ production is already at -4?

Yes — order the effects so the city goes down first. Immigrant City's own effect gives +1 M€ production for that city, and then the -2 takes you to -5, which is legal. Its own city always triggers it, so the card is a net -1 M€ production.

With Viral Enhancers in play, can I play Moss when I have no plants?

Yes — losing the plant is an effect, not a requirement. Take the plant from Viral Enhancers' trigger first, then lose it to Moss; Nitrophilic Moss works the same way.

Do cost discounts stack, and what happens if they exceed a card's cost?

They stack — two discount cards reduce a card by their combined amount. A cost never goes below 0, though, so excess discount is simply lost; Teractor playing a 1 M€ Earth card gets nothing back.

Does a tag discount apply twice to a card with two matching tags?

Yes — tag discounts and tag triggers work per tag, so Valley Trust takes 4 M€ off Research, and Research's two science tags trigger Mars University twice.

Does a discount card like Space Station or Anti-Gravity Technology discount itself?

No — you pay for a card before it is in play, so its discount only applies to cards played after it, unless it says 'including this'.

Do card discounts like Thorgate, Earth Catapult or Space Station reduce the cost of a blue-card action?

No — discounts apply only when you play a card from your hand. Using an action on a card already in play isn't playing a card, so Space Mirrors' action still costs 7 M€ and Water Import From Europa's 12 M€ gets no space discount.

Can I pay for a blue-card action with steel or titanium?

Only if the card says so. Water Import From Europa accepts titanium and Aquifer Pumping accepts steel, at their normal (or boosted) values; Industrial Center's action takes M€ only, even though the card itself has a building tag.

Can I pay for an event card with steel or titanium?

Yes — any card with a building tag can be paid with steel and any card with a space tag with titanium, events included.

Do I pay 3 M€ to keep cards drawn from a card effect or a placement bonus?

No — cards you draw or take into hand go there for free. You pay 3 M€ per card only for your starting hand, in the research phase, and when an effect explicitly says 'buy', like Business Network or Inventors' Guild. You still pay a card's printed cost when you play it.

With Business Network or Inventors' Guild, do I play the card I buy?

No — buying a card means paying 3 M€ to put it in your hand (or discarding it). You play it later by paying its printed cost.

What happens when the project deck runs out?

Shuffle the discard pile into a new deck as soon as a card needs to be drawn, even in the middle of an action. When dealing the last cards, deal one at a time in player order, reshuffle and continue; if both piles are empty, just stop drawing — the designer has never seen it happen.

When a card's icons and text seem to disagree, which one wins?

The icons, unless there is an asterisk. The text only explains the icons and may be shortened; an asterisk marks an effect the icons can't express, and then the text rules. The designer recommends reading both, since a reading that contradicts either is probably wrong. Translations can be wrong too, but icons are the same in every language.

With Mars University, must I discard before drawing, and is it optional?

You discard first, then draw. The designer said in September 2025 that a player could technically draw first because the card lacked an asterisk, but shortly after the official FAQ added the asterisk, so discarding first is the rule.

Does Mining Expedition force me to remove exactly 2 plants?

No — its older wording lacks 'up to', but like every red-bordered removal of another player's resources it means up to 2, so you may remove fewer or none.

When does Media Group's 3 M€ arrive, and can it pay for the event that triggers it?

It triggers once you have paid for the event, so it can't help pay that event's cost. After that it joins the event's own effects and can be resolved before them; the older 'after you play' wording means the same as 'when'.

Are triggered effects mandatory, and can a forgotten bonus be claimed later?

Triggers are meant to happen, and any player may invoke anyone's trigger, but forgetting one isn't a rules violation. The designer would let a forgotten bonus be applied later, since anyone could have pointed it out, while takebacks of actual choices are a different matter. Optional effects such as Mars University say 'may'.

Are other players' played cards and events open information?

Yes — everything a player has played, face-down events and covered cards included, is open information, and you may ask what has been played and how many events someone has. Cards are stacked only to reduce analysis paralysis, so don't keep leafing through opponents' piles. Cards in hand and discards stay hidden.

On a card with an OR choice, may I pick an option that does nothing, like raising a maxed parameter?

Yes, as long as that option is playable. An option that achieves nothing only because of the allowed exceptions — a maxed parameter, resources you can't place, resources removed from nobody — is a legal choice.

When a card tells me to reveal cards from the deck, does everyone see them?

Yes — revealing means turning the cards face up for all players, mostly so they can check the result. Cards found by a search are revealed too, and the others are discarded, not shuffled back.

Can I steal less than a card says, or steal from a player who has too little?

No — stealing is a package deal: you remove the stated amount from one player and gain exactly what you removed, and the optional-removal exception doesn't apply. Hired Raiders is the exception, since its 'up to' lets you choose a smaller amount. Protection against removal, such as Protected Habitats, also blocks stealing.

Do green cards like Satellites, Medical Lab or Media Archives keep counting tags or events played later?

No — automated (green) cards resolve once, counting what exists when you play them (including their own tags), and then only their tags and VP remain. Satellites, Medical Lab, Power Grid, Energy Saving and Media Archives never update afterwards.

Is production gained from an event card permanent?

Yes — production increases from events, like Import of Advanced GHG, are permanent. The game has no temporary effects, only one-time, ongoing and triggered ones.

Are blue-card effects limited to once per generation like actions?

No — only actions (marked with a red arrow) are limited to once per generation and marked with a player marker. Effects trigger every time their condition happens: Pets, Advanced Alloys and Helion's heat payment, for example, work as often as triggered.

Do I pay a blue card's cost again each time I use its action?

No — you pay the card's cost once to play it. Afterwards you pay only what the action itself shows before its arrow, once per generation; you can't pay that cost several times in one use for multiple rewards.

Must I pay a blue-card action's cost in full and do its whole effect?

Yes — whatever is left of the arrow must be paid first, and then the effect is performed like a played card: fully, apart from the three standard exceptions. You can't do only part of an action, and an 'X' cost must be at least 1, so Power Infrastructure can't spend 0 energy to stall.

Does the effect in a blue card's bottom section happen again later?

No — the bottom section is an immediate effect resolved once when you play the card (Nitrite Reducing Bacteria's 3 starting microbes, Herbivores' plant production decrease). Only the top panel's action or effect continues, and you needn't be able to use an action at the moment you play its card.

Can I use a blue card's action in the same generation I play it?

Yes — once the card is in play its action is available, even later that same turn. Nitrite Reducing Bacteria, for example, can remove its 3 starting microbes for TR right away.

Do tags on played event cards count afterwards, for requirements, milestones, awards or tag counts?

No — an event's tags count only while it is being played: they let you pay with steel or titanium, qualify for discounts and trigger 'when you play a tag' effects like Mars University or Olympus Conference. Then the event goes face down and its tags never count again — not for tag requirements or end-game scoring such as the Scientist award.

Do victory points printed on event cards still count at the end?

Yes — a played event keeps its VP (positive or negative), and you include your face-down event pile in final scoring.

Why are played events kept in a personal pile instead of being discarded?

Some events score VP, some cards count them (such as Media Archives), and every project is meant to happen only once, so they must not be reshuffled into the deck.

Does a card's own tag count for its own effect, like Decomposers, Ecological Zone or Interplanetary Trade?

Yes — every card triggers off its own tags, so they count for its own effects and trigger its own blue effect. Decomposers gets a microbe from its own microbe tag, and Interplanetary Trade counts its own space tag.

Does a card's own tag count toward its tag requirement?

No — requirements are checked before the card is played, so a card needing 3 science tags needs 3 science tags already in play, even if it has one itself.

Whose tags count for a tag requirement, and do cards in hand count?

Only your own tags in play — your corporation, Preludes and face-up green and blue cards. Cards in hand, face-down events and other players' cards don't count unless the icon has a red border.

Do the tags on my corporation card count for requirements, milestones and awards?

Yes — a corporation's tags count exactly like tags on your played cards, for requirements, Builder or Scientist, and cards that count tags. Prelude tags count too.

Does a card with several matching tags trigger effects once per tag, like Advanced Ecosystems with Decomposers?

Yes — tag-triggered effects fire once for each matching tag. Advanced Ecosystems (plant, microbe, animal) gives Decomposers 3 microbes, Research's two science tags trigger Mars University and Olympus Conference twice, and every card with its own trigger resolves separately in the order you choose.

Does using a blue card's action trigger tag effects like Viral Enhancers, Mars University or Splice?

No — tags are played only when you play a card from your hand (events included). Using an action on a card already in play, such as Livestock or AI Central, plays no tags, and gaining an animal or microbe resource isn't gaining a tag.

Can I pay for plant or power cards with plants or energy, or do tags I own reduce costs?

No — tags have no rules of their own. Only steel (for building tags) and titanium (for space tags) help pay for cards, and tags you already own give no discount unless a card such as Earth Office says so.

When does a wild tag (Research Coordination) count, and as what?

It counts as one tag of your choice each time you take an action — playing a card, using an action, claiming a milestone, funding an award — and you may choose differently each time. It is not chosen when its card is played, so it doesn't trigger Media Group, and outside your actions it is no tag, so it doesn't help awards or VP-per-tag at final scoring.

Can a wild tag count as an event tag or a Venus tag?

Yes — under the designer's 2024 ruling a wild tag can be any tag that appears on another card in your game, including the event tag and the Venus tag when Venus Next is used, so it counts for Interplanetary Trade. This reverses his 2020 ruling that a wild tag couldn't be an event.

Can one wild tag fill two missing tag requirements, or count as an extra tag type?

No — a wild tag stands in for just one tag per action. It can't cover two missing tags for Advanced Ecosystems, and it isn't a separate tag type for cards that reward each different tag you have.

Do cards without tags count as a tag type for Diversifier or Aridor?

No — having no tag isn't a tag, so tagless cards add nothing to tag-type counts.

Can I play a per-tag card like Insects or Miranda Resort when it would give me nothing?

Yes — a 'per tag' formula may come to zero; you can still play the card for its tags or VP. Insects counts only plant tags in play, not cards in hand.

Do 'per 2 tags' effects like Worms round up or down?

Down — you get one for each complete set, so 3 microbe tags give Worms 1 plant production.

Which cards can hold animals, microbes or other card resources?

Only cards that use that resource, in an action or for VP, and each such card holds just one type. A microbe or animal tag alone isn't enough, so Viral Enhancers or Symbiotic Fungus can't collect microbes. Plants are a standard resource and always go on your player board.

Can I add animals or microbes to an opponent's card, for example when I have no card to hold them?

No — an icon without a red border affects only you, so 'any card' or 'another card' means one of your own cards that collects that resource. You can never give resources to another player, even if you want to.

Can I play a card that gives animals or microbes if I have no card to put them on?

Yes — adding resources you can't collect is one of the three exceptions, so you play the card and simply lose that part. This covers, for example, Eos Chasma National Park with no animal card, and CEO's Favorite Project with no resource on any of your cards.

If I have a card that can hold them, must I add the resources a card gives me?

Yes — you must perform all effects, so adding microbes from Imported Nitrogen isn't optional when you have a valid card. The same goes for blue effects like Decomposers or Ecological Zone.

Can I split the resources from one effect across several cards?

No — all resources of one type from a single effect go on one card. Imported Nitrogen puts its microbes on one microbe card and its animals on one animal card, and Virus removes its animals from a single card. Separate effects, such as a colony bonus and trade income, may target different cards.

Where do microbes and animals added to cards come from?

From the general supply of resource cubes, not from your player board or another card — unless the card says to take them from somewhere, as Predators and Ants do. Player-colored markers only show that an action was used.

Can I move microbes or animals from one card to another?

No — resources stay on the card where they were placed. Only cards that explicitly move or remove them, like Ants or Predators, change that.

When a card's action removes resources, like Nitrite Reducing Bacteria's 3 microbes, must they come from that card?

Yes — unless an icon has a red border or the text names another card, resources are added to and removed from the card itself. Nitrite Reducing Bacteria and GHG Producing Bacteria can't use microbes from Decomposers.

Can effects that add resources to 'any card' target a corporation like Celestic, Recyclon or Arklight?

Yes — corporations are cards, so a corporation that collects a resource can receive it from other effects. A card that says 'any card' can also add to itself if it holds that resource, as Comet Aiming and Directed Impactors do.

Can Predators or Ants take resources from opponents, from my own cards, or from other Predators and Ants?

Yes — their red-bordered icon lets them take from any player's card, yours included, though the card is stronger when you take from opponents.

What does Protected Habitats protect against?

Opponents removing your plants and the animals and microbes on your cards — which also stops their Predators and plant-stealing cards. It does not protect production, so Birds or Herbivores can still lower your plant production, and you may still remove your own resources. Asteroid Deflection System likewise protects plant resources only.

Do science resources on cards count as science tags?

No — a resource on a card is not a tag, so science resources on Olympus Conference or Search for Life don't count toward science requirements or the Scientist award.

Can I use Predators' or Ants' action without removing a resource, or remove from Predators itself?

You must remove one — the removal sits left of the arrow, so it is a cost that has to be paid in full even though its icon is red-bordered; the optional-removal rule covers effects, not costs. It may come from any card, your own included, and Predators can even eat from Predators. With nothing to remove, you can't take the action.

How do the ±2 requirement modifiers on Adaptation Technology, Inventrix and Special Design work?

They let you treat a card's global requirements (temperature, oxygen, oceans) as up to 2 steps looser in whichever direction helps: a minimum can be met 2 steps early and a maximum exceeded by 2. For temperature that is 4 °C. They never move a track or give TR, and they don't affect tag requirements.

Do Adaptation Technology, Inventrix and Special Design stack?

Yes — requirement modifiers are cumulative, so all three together loosen a global requirement by 6 steps; Kelp Farming becomes playable with no oceans.

What does Special Design affect?

Only the global requirement of the next card you play, loosened by 2 steps either way. It doesn't change what that card does, such as how far it raises a parameter.

How does Advanced Alloys work?

It is a permanent effect: each steel is worth 1 M€ more when paying for building cards and each titanium 1 M€ more for space cards, every time you spend them, including on actions that accept them. It gives no income for metal you're holding, and it stacks with Phobolog.

Can I play Artificial Lake when all oceans are placed, or when no land area is free?

With all 9 oceans out, yes — you skip the ocean and TR and keep the VP. But if oceans remain and there is no legal land area for one, you can't play it, because a card's tile must be placed whenever the ocean parameter isn't maxed.

Do Asteroid Mining Consortium and Great Escarpment Consortium require my own production?

Yes — they require that you have titanium (or steel) production yourself. Then you lower any one player's production by 1 and raise your own by 1.

Does Caretaker Contract raise the temperature?

No — its action spends 8 heat to raise your TR directly, without moving the temperature. That is useful after temperature is maxed, or to gain TR without bringing the game end closer.

How does CEO's Favorite Project work?

Add 1 resource of the matching kind to one of your cards that already holds at least one resource — animals, microbes, science, floaters and so on. If you have no such card, you can still play it and lose that part.

When can I use Conscription's 16 M€ discount?

On the next card you play in the same generation, whether as your second action that turn or on a later turn. It is a discount, not a kickback, and it is lost if you play no other card that generation.

What does Ecological Zone require, and how many animals does it start with?

You must own a greenery tile to play it (the requirement has no red border), but its tile can go next to any greenery, an opponent's included. It starts with 2 animals, one for each of its own plant and animal tags, and from then on gains one per plant or animal tag you play.

Does Equatorial Magnetizer's action raise or lower energy production?

It lowers it: you give up 1 energy production to raise your TR 1 step. Anything left of the arrow is a cost; the text is correct and the icon simply lacks its minus sign.

Who does Herbivores' plant production decrease hit, and how often?

Any one player you choose, yourself included if nobody else has plant production. It happens once, when you play Herbivores, and it is mandatory; the animals it gains later don't reduce anything.

Does Heat Trappers reduce my own heat production or any player's?

Any player's — the English card lowers any one player's heat production by 2; translations that say 'your' are wrong. The decrease is mandatory, so someone must have 2 heat production.

How does Land Claim work, and must I build on the claimed area?

Put your marker on a non-reserved area (never an ocean area); from then on only you may place a tile there, following the normal placement rules. You never have to build there — blocking the area is a legitimate use — and the marker isn't a tile, so it gives no bonuses and doesn't count for Landlord.

How does Martian Rails' action work?

Spend 1 energy in total to gain 1 M€ for every city tile on Mars, whoever owns it. Cities off Mars, like Phobos Space Haven or Ganymede Colony, don't count.

What do Mining Rights and Mining Area give when placed?

The area's placement bonus as usual, plus 1 step of production of the same metal the area gave — steel or titanium, not your choice.

How does Nitrite Reducing Bacteria work?

It enters play with 3 microbes from the supply. Its action, once per generation, is either add 1 microbe or remove 3 microbes from this card to raise your TR 1 step — you choose one, and microbes on other cards can't be used.

How does Olympus Conference work with several science tags?

Each science tag you play (including its own when played) triggers it once: either add a science resource, or remove one to draw a card. A card with two science tags triggers it twice, so you can add one and spend it, add two, or spend two. You may let resources pile up.

What triggers Optimal Aerobraking, and what does it give?

Every space event you play, whatever other tags it has, gives 3 M€ and 3 heat — a print showing 2 heat is a misprint. It doesn't trigger on itself, because it isn't an event.

How does Pets gain animals?

It gains an animal every time any city tile is placed after Pets is in play — by anyone, anywhere, including off Mars — as an effect that triggers immediately. Other cards can add animals to it too.

What exactly does Robotic Workforce copy?

Only the brown production box in the bottom section of one of your own cards with a building tag, decreases included, applied again as if just played. It copies no tiles, resources, TR or oxygen, and never a production box inside a blue card's action or effect (Underground Detonations). The target is chosen when you play it and can't change.

Can I play Robotic Workforce without a building card whose production box I can copy?

No — its effect can't be carried out without a valid target, so you can't play it just for its tag. Events never qualify, since none has a building tag.

Can Robotic Workforce copy a production box whose decreases I can't afford, like Strip Mine with 1 energy production?

No — the whole copied box must be performed, decreases included, and lowering production isn't one of the three exceptions.

When Robotic Workforce copies Mining Rights or Mining Area, which production do I get?

The same metal that card's tile earned: its production box refers to the placement bonus under the tile it placed, so a titanium area gives titanium production again. You place no new tile; if both mining tiles are out, use the one placed by the card you are copying.

Does Robotic Workforce recalculate a copied box like Medical Lab's with my current tags?

Yes — the copied box is resolved as if played now, so Medical Lab counts your current building tags. That makes it a strong combination; Cartel can't be copied, since it has no building tag.

Can Robotic Workforce copy Research Network's production box?

Yes, according to the designer — a building card is any card with a building tag, and while you play Robotic Workforce the wild tag on Research Network can count as one. He noted the case was likely overlooked and rarely useful.

What happens to the card Search for Life reveals?

It is discarded whether or not it has a microbe tag — the errata makes the action read 'reveal and discard'. It never goes back on the deck or into your hand.

How many VP can Search for Life give?

3 VP if it holds at least one science resource, otherwise none — extra resources add nothing. You may keep using its action afterwards, for example to stall.

Can I play Sponsored Academies as the last card in my hand?

No — discarding a card is part of its required effect, so you need another card in hand. Mars University is different because its discard is an optional trigger.

What does Toll Station count?

The space tags of all your opponents combined, on cards in play when you play it — not events and never your own tags, so it gives nothing in solo.

How is Urbanized Area placed?

Its city must touch at least two existing cities, whoever owns them — typically in the gap between two cities one area apart. If no such area exists you can't play it.

How does Viral Enhancers work?

For each plant, microbe or animal tag you play — its own included — gain 1 plant or add 1 resource to the card you just played, if that card can hold one. Decomposers played with it in play can get 2 microbes, or 1 microbe and a plant. It never stores resources itself, and using card actions doesn't trigger it.

Is there an errata for the Small Asteroid promo?

Yes — its plant icons should have a minus sign in front of them. The text, which removes plants, is correct.

Are the cathedral cubes from St. Joseph of Cupertino Mission resources?

No — they are a new kind of marker placed on city tiles, not resources, because resources are kept only on player boards or cards.

Is Ecoline's 7-plant greenery limited to once per generation?

No — it is an effect, not an action. It changes the plant conversion on your player board to cost 7 plants, so it applies every time you convert, as often as you can pay, including the final greenery placement after the last production phase.

Can Inventrix or Tharsis Republic delay their mandatory first action by passing?

Technically yes — passing isn't an action, so the forced first action would simply become your first action in generation 2. It is almost never a good idea. It happens only once per game, not every generation.

Does Tharsis Republic's first-action city cost 25 M€, and does it trigger the corporation?

It's free — it isn't the City standard project — and it does trigger Tharsis Republic: +1 M€ production for a city on Mars and the 3 M€ for placing your own city, plus the area's placement bonus. You don't get the standard project's +1 M€ production for it.

Which cities give Tharsis Republic its bonuses, and does the City standard project stack?

The +1 M€ production triggers whenever any player places a city on Mars; the 3 M€ triggers on any city you place yourself, on or off Mars. Building with the City standard project stacks with it: +1 from the project and +1 from Tharsis, plus the 3 M€.

Does Phobolog's titanium bonus apply to every titanium, or once per generation?

To every titanium you spend: each one is worth 4 M€ toward space cards, all the time. It is a continuous effect and stacks with Advanced Alloys.

How does Helion's heat-as-M€ ability work?

Whenever you pay for something yourself, you may spend heat cubes as if they were M€, as often as you like — including M€ costs on your own Preludes such as Business Empire. It doesn't convert heat into money, so opponents' Hired Raiders can only take real M€, and global events can't take heat.

Does Credicor's 4 M€ refund use a card's printed cost or its discounted cost?

The printed cost — a card printed at 20 M€ or more triggers it even if discounts bring it lower. The 4 M€ comes back after you pay, so it isn't a discount.

Does Saturn Systems count its own Jovian tag and opponents' Jovian tags?

Yes to both — its own Jovian tag counts when it enters play, so it effectively starts with +1 M€ production, and it gains 1 more whenever any player plays a Jovian tag.

What does United Nations Mars Initiative's action require?

That your TR has already gone up this generation — TR, not VP. Then you may pay 3 M€ for 1 more TR, once per generation like any action.

How does Mining Guild's steel production effect work?

Whenever you place any tile (city, greenery, ocean or special) on an area with a steel or titanium placement bonus, gain 1 steel production — only 1, even on an area with two cubes. Resources from cards or Preludes don't trigger it. Its two building tags count twice for Builder or Medical Lab but don't change steel's value.

What does Thorgate's discount apply to?

Playing cards with a power tag and the Power Plant standard project. It doesn't discount blue-card actions such as Space Mirrors, and a discount larger than the cost just brings it to 0.

When a corporation or card searches the deck for a tag (Factorum, Splice, Celestic), what happens to the other cards?

Reveal cards one at a time, discarding each that lacks the tag, until you find what you need, then take that card into hand; everything is shown to all players, the found card included. If no such card exists in the deck or discard pile, the action fails — the designer suggests a house rule of stopping when the deck runs out.

When can Factorum use its energy production action?

Only when you have no energy resources, and like every action it can't be taken for no effect — you must be able to perform it in full.

Do I see my 10 starting project cards before choosing my corporation?

Yes — you are dealt your 2 corporations and 10 project cards (plus Prelude cards, if used) together, look at all of them, and then decide on your corporation and which cards to keep in one go. The only exception is a Beginner Corporation, which you must commit to before any cards are dealt.

Do players see each other's corporation and Prelude choices before making their own?

No — everyone makes their corporation, Prelude and starting-card choices privately and at the same time. Only afterwards are corporations revealed, in player order, and kept cards paid for.

In what order are corporations revealed, starting cards paid for and Preludes played?

After everyone has chosen, players go in player order: reveal the corporation, take its starting resources and production, then pay 3 M€ for each kept project card. Prelude cards are played only after all corporations are revealed, again in player order, and then the first action phase begins.

Can an experienced player choose a Beginner Corporation?

It is meant only for players new to the game. The designer describes it as a teaching aid to drop after about the first game, not for tournaments, and leaves it to the group to refuse it to an experienced player; the rulebook simply offers it to new players.

Can I take the Beginner Corporation after seeing the corporations and cards I was dealt?

No — the Beginner Corporation replaces the normal deal of 2 corporations and 10 cards, so a player must ask for it before anything is dealt. The designer called the digital version's option to switch to it after seeing your hand an unfair advantage.

Does a Beginner Corporation player pay 3 M€ for each of the 10 starting cards?

No — a Beginner Corporation keeps all 10 project cards for free; that is part of its value. From the second generation on, research works normally and costs 3 M€ per card bought.

Can one player use a Beginner Corporation while the others pick regular corporations?

Yes — a new player can take a Beginner Corporation while everyone else chooses from their 2 dealt corporations, and the two kinds are meant to be balanced against each other. With Prelude, the Beginner Corporation player still picks 2 of 4 Prelude cards like everyone else.

Do I start with 1 production of each resource, and is my corporation's production added to it?

It depends on whether you play with Corporate Era cards, not on which corporation you take. In the standard game (no Corporate Era cards) every track starts at 1 and the corporation's production is added on top, so Thorgate starts at 2 energy production. With Corporate Era every track starts at 0 and only the corporation's production applies, Beginner Corporation included.

In the standard game, does M€ production also start at 1?

Yes — the setup puts a marker on 1 on all six production tracks, M€ included. You don't collect any of that production during setup, though; your starting money is just what your corporation lists.

In a Corporate Era game, does M€ production start at -5?

No — every production track, M€ included, starts at 0 in Corporate Era. The -5 is only the lowest M€ production can ever be pushed to.

What production do I start with in the solo game?

Only what your corporation gives — the solo game is always played with Corporate Era, so the standard game's extra 1 production per track is not used, even with a Beginner Corporation.

Do I collect my starting production as resources before the first generation?

No — setup only sets your production tracks; resources from production first arrive in the production phase at the end of generation 1. At the start you have only your corporation's starting M€ and resources.

Is there a research phase in the first generation?

No — generation 1 skips both the player order phase and the research phase, because choosing your starting hand during setup takes their place. The first player goes straight into the action phase.

Is setup part of the first generation?

Yes — setup always counts as part of generation 1, with or without Prelude, so anything that happens during setup happens 'this generation'. The rulebook describes it separately only to explain why generation 1 begins with the action phase.

Does a corporation's first action, like Inventrix drawing 3 cards or Tharsis Republic's city, replace the normal opening or cost an action?

Neither replaces the normal opening — you still get 10 cards and buy what you want at 3 M€ each. The printed first action is taken as your first action on your first turn, so it is one of that turn's 1–2 actions, and it costs no M€.

Who should start the game, and is choosing the first player randomly fine?

Yes — pick the first player any way you like. Giving it to the most recent winner is only a suggestion, and the designer notes there is almost no first-player advantage.

How many corporations does each player choose from when playing with expansions?

Two — shuffle together the corporations of every expansion in play and deal 2 to each player. Dealing one base and one expansion corporation (the Focus variant) or choosing from 3 corporations and 6 Preludes (an optional Prelude 2 rule) are variants, not the default.

Do tags on a corporation revealed at setup trigger other players' corporations, such as a Jovian tag triggering Saturn Systems?

Yes, but only corporations already in play react. Corporations are revealed in strict player order, so Saturn Systems or Splice only trigger on corporations revealed after them. Prelude cards are played after every corporation is out, so they can trigger any corporation.

What do I remove for the standard game, and where do the Corporate Era corporations go?

For the standard game, take out every project card and corporation marked with the red-and-white Corporate Era icon. When you do play Corporate Era, its 2 corporations go into the corporation deck, not the project deck. Using only some Corporate Era cards is a house rule.

Where do the 9 ocean tiles go at setup when the map has 12 ocean areas?

They are stacked on their own spot on the board beside the map, not on Mars. Ocean areas on the map are filled during play, and only 9 of the 12 will ever be used.

Can I gain a second corporation or more Prelude cards after setup?

Not in the base game or the original Prelude — your corporation and Preludes are fixed at setup. Some newer expansion and promo cards can be exceptions.

Can promo corporations and cards be used with any combination of expansions?

Check the expansion symbols printed beside the promo symbol: a card marked with an expansion's icon needs that expansion. If it shows several, use it only if its text still works with what you have in play.

Do I only get two actions per generation?

No — you take 1 or 2 actions per turn, and turns keep going around the table until everyone has passed, so a generation has no action limit. You are out only once you pass, by taking no action on your turn. The two actions in a turn can be the same or different.

Once everyone else has passed, can the last player keep taking actions?

Yes — the action phase ends only when every player has passed, so the remaining player keeps taking turns of 1–2 actions for as long as they want and can pay, the final generation included. Each blue-card action is still once per generation.

Can I pass without taking any actions in a generation?

Yes — passing is always allowed, even as your first turn, for example to save money for an expensive card. Once you pass you are out until the next generation, so you can't play cards like Law Suit afterwards.

Is a player who has passed protected from attack cards?

No — passing only stops you from taking actions. Other players can still remove your resources or lower your production, and your own effects, like Arctic Algae, keep triggering.

Who decides the order when several effects trigger at the same time?

The active player, even for other players' triggered effects. Outside the action phase (for example during production or the final greenery round), the first player decides.

Can I use steel, titanium or other resources to buy cards in the research phase?

No — buying a card into your hand always costs 3 M€. Steel, titanium and card resources like Psychrophiles' microbes only help when you play a card with the matching tag.

Is the research phase played simultaneously, and do I keep my old hand?

Yes to both — everyone draws and decides at the same time, and the cards you buy are added to the hand you already have; there is no hand limit.

How much M€ do I get in the production phase?

Your TR plus your M€ production, which may be negative — so with 0 M€ production you still collect your TR. Raising TR gives no money immediately; it raises every later income, and it isn't scored as VP until the end.

Does leftover energy always turn into heat, and can I save energy for a later generation?

Yes, all of it — at the start of each production phase every energy cube moves to your heat box, and only then is new energy produced, so energy can't be saved past one generation. Your production levels don't change, and you can't convert energy to heat yourself during the action phase. An action costing 4 energy needs 4 energy from one generation's production or other sources.

With Venus Next, Colonies and Turmoil, what order does the solar phase run in?

After production comes the solar phase, which starts with the game-end check and then runs the expansions in release order: Venus Next's World Government Terraforming, then Colonies (colony production and fleet reset), then the Turmoil steps. Drawing new cards happens at the start of the next generation.

How often can I use a blue card's action, and can I use both options on a card with two?

Once per generation per card — mark it with a player marker until the production phase. If a card lists two actions you pick one of them. Corporation and Prelude actions, like UNMI's, follow the same rule, and having several action cards means you can use each of them once.

Is playing a blue card and using its action two separate actions?

Yes — playing the card is one action and using its red-arrow action is another. You can do both on the same turn (play it first, use it second), or use the action later, or never. Effects marked without an arrow are active as soon as the card is played and cost no action.

Which actions can I take just to stall, without them doing anything?

Only ones where the part that does nothing falls under the three exceptions: spending 8 heat with temperature maxed, Symbiotic Fungus with no microbe card, or an ocean placement when all oceans are out. You can also sell a single card. You can't stall with UNMI without having raised TR, or with an X of 0.

Can I use United Nations Mars Initiative's action if my TR hasn't gone up this generation?

No — having raised your TR this generation is a condition of the action, and you must also pay 3 M€ and gain the TR, so it can't be used as an empty stalling action. TR gained earlier in the generation counts, including setup and Preludes in generation 1.

Can X be 0 on 'spend any number' actions, Insulation, or Sell Patents?

No — X is always at least 1, and 'pay' and 'spend' mean the same thing. Power Infrastructure must spend energy, Insulation must lower heat production by at least 1, and Sell Patents must discard at least one card.

Can I use a single-resource action several times at once, like Equatorial Magnetizer for 5 TR?

No — an action is done exactly as printed, once per generation. Only actions showing an X, such as Power Infrastructure, let you choose the amount.

Can I use Inventors' Guild's action if I can't afford to buy the card?

Yes — looking at the card and discarding it costs nothing, so the action is legal; you just can't buy the card.

Can I take an action if a mandatory effect it triggers can't be carried out?

No — mandatory triggered effects are part of the action, so they must all be possible (for example, you can only place a tile on an area with a cost if you can pay it). Optional triggers, such as Mars University's 'may', can simply be skipped.

Do standard projects and other actions resolve like playing a card?

Yes — every action works the same way: meet the requirements and pay the cost, then resolve its effects and everything they trigger in the order you choose, causes before effects. That includes standard projects, conversions, milestones and blue-card actions.

Can I use the same standard project or conversion more than once in a generation, or do two at once?

Each use is one action, but there is no limit per generation — you can even use the same one with both actions of a turn. Two greeneries from 16 plants, two temperature steps from 16 heat, or two Aquifers always take two actions.

Can I pay for a standard project with steel or titanium?

No — standard projects have no tags, so they are paid in M€ only. Helion may still use heat as if it were M€.

Can I use the City standard project just for the M€ production if there's no legal city area?

No — the project places a city, and placing a tile isn't one of the exceptions, so with no legal area you can't take it or its production.

How does Sell Patents work?

Discard any number of cards from your hand for 1 M€ each, whatever their cost, as one action. You can use it again later, and played cards can't be sold.

When placing a greenery, can I raise oxygen first and place the tile later to use the bonuses the oxygen step triggers?

Most players say no — placing the greenery is what raises oxygen, so the tile goes down first and anything the oxygen step triggers (such as a temperature raise and its ocean) comes after. Some point to the order of the rulebook's example, but the better-supported reading is tile first.

Do Credicor or Standard Technology rebates apply to converting plants into a greenery?

No — converting plants or heat is its own action, not a standard project, and it has no M€ cost to rebate.

Does Standard Technology give its 3 M€ rebate for a standard project whose parameter is already maxed?

Yes — you may still take a project like Asteroid when temperature is maxed, and the rebate triggers because you used a standard project, whatever it achieved.

Can I use the action on another player's blue card?

No — a blue card's action can be used only by the player who played it.

Do I get a milestone automatically when I qualify, and can someone else claim it if I qualified first?

No — you must take an action and pay 8 M€ to claim it, and only one player can have each milestone, with at most 3 claimed per game. Being first to meet the condition doesn't matter; whoever claims it first gets it.

Can one player claim several milestones or fund several awards, even in one turn?

Yes — each is one action, and one player could take all three milestones and fund all three awards.

Does the Planner milestone count cards in hand or cards played?

Cards in your hand — you need at least 16 of them when you claim it. Played cards don't count.

When I fund an award, do I pick which one, and can only I win it?

You choose any unfunded award, and then every player competes for it — 5 VP to the leader and 2 VP to second at the end, whoever paid. Funding is a bet that you'll come out on top.

Are unfunded awards scored at the end?

No — only the awards someone funded are checked. If nobody funds any award, nobody gets award points.

How are ties for an award scored?

Ties are friendly: everyone tied for first gets 5 VP and then no second place is given; if one player wins and several tie for second, each of them gets 2 VP.

Is second place in an award scored in a 2-player game?

No — with two players only first place scores (5 VP). Tied players both get the 5 VP.

Can a player with zero of the counted thing still take first or second place in an award?

Yes — there is no minimum, so players tied at 0 share the place; if one player leads and everyone else has 0, they all get second-place points. Requiring at least 1 is a house rule.

Does the Banker award count TR as part of M€ production?

No — Banker compares only the M€ production marker on your player board; TR and M€ held don't count, even though TR adds to income.

Do Miner and Thermalist count resources or production, and does Miner add steel and titanium?

They count resources you hold at the end, not production. Miner adds steel and titanium together, so you can win it with just one of them; Banker is the award that looks at production.

What counts for the Landlord award?

Every tile you own: cities (including off-Mars cities), greeneries and special tiles. Oceans are owned by nobody, and Land Claim markers aren't tiles.

Are milestones and awards used in a 2-player game?

Yes — only the original solo mode leaves them out. With two players each one is a big swing, since it gains you 5 VP and denies them to your opponent.

Does the game end as soon as the last global parameter is maxed?

No — the current generation is played out until everyone passes, then a normal production phase, then the final greenery conversion, then scoring. There is no generation limit in multiplayer, and running out of cards doesn't end the game either; the players decide how fast to finish terraforming.

How does the final greenery conversion after the last production phase work?

In player order, with the same first player as the last generation, each player converts as many sets of plants into greeneries as they want before the next player goes. Tiles are paid and placed one at a time, so plants from a greenery's placement bonus can fund another. It isn't split into 1–2 action turns.

Do placement bonuses and card effects still work during the final greenery placement?

Yes — final greeneries are placed like any other: placement rules apply, you collect placement bonuses and ocean money, and effects like Herbivores trigger. No other actions are allowed then — no standard projects, cards or blue-card actions.

Is converting plants into greenery at the end optional?

Yes — it is a chance, not a duty, so you may skip it, for example when the only legal area would help an opponent's cities more.

How is a tie broken at the end, and what if players are still tied?

Most M€ left over wins — counting only actual M€, after the final production and greenery bonuses. If that is tied too, the players share the victory; there is no further tiebreaker.

Does Helion's heat count as M€ for the tiebreaker?

No — Helion can spend heat as if it were M€, but nothing is paid in a tiebreak, so the heat is still just heat and doesn't count.

When are VP on cards like Immigration Shuttles or per-Jovian cards counted?

Only in final scoring, using what exists then (all cities in play, all your Jovian tags). Cards still in your hand score nothing, while played events do count.

Why are Jovian VP counted separately, and do several 'VP per Jovian tag' cards each count all my tags?

The separate count is just a convenience for cards worth 1 VP per Jovian tag. Each such card counts all your Jovian tags in play, including its own, so tags are never used up: two such cards with three Jovian tags give 6 VP.

Does a card worth 1 VP per 2 animals score for a leftover odd animal, and do fractions add up across cards?

No — only complete sets score, card by card: with 1 VP per 2 animals, 1 animal gives 0 VP and 3 give 1 VP.

Which way of playing did the designer intend: standard game or Corporate Era, with or without drafting?

The designer considers Corporate Era without drafting the main game. The standard game, with its extra production and no Corporate Era cards, is a shorter introductory version, and drafting is an optional variant — the rulebook leaves it out for beginners.

Why does Corporate Era make the game longer?

Everyone starts with 0 production instead of 1, and the added cards build economies and score VP rather than raise global parameters, so terraforming takes more generations.

Can Beginner Corporations and drafting be used with Corporate Era?

Yes — neither is tied to a game mode. New players may take a Beginner Corporation in either the standard or the Corporate Era game, and the draft works with both; solo uses neither.

In the Draft variant, do we draft the 10 starting cards?

No — the official draft covers only the 4 cards of each research phase from generation 2 on. The designers left the opening hand undrafted on purpose, so you can hunt for combos in a full hand; drafting it is a house or tournament rule.

In the draft, which way do we pass, and can we always pass the same way?

Pass clockwise in even generations and counter-clockwise in odd ones. The designers advise against always passing one way, because alternating stops one player from always blocking the same neighbour.

How does the draft work, for example with two players?

Each player gets 4 cards, keeps one and passes the rest, then keeps one of the 3 received, and so on until everyone has set aside 4. Cards you have kept are never passed on. Then you decide which of your 4 to buy at 3 M€ each.

Can the World Government Terraforming (solar phase) variant be used without Venus Next?

Yes — the variants are modular, and World Government Terraforming can be added to any setup to shorten the game. Leaving out Corporate Era or adding Prelude also shortens play.

Is there an official team mode?

Not in the base game — existing 2-vs-2 rules are fan-made. The designer has said an official team mode is coming with the Legacy of Mars campaign.

What setup rules apply to the solo game?

Solo always uses Corporate Era: add all its cards and corporations and start with 0 production plus your corporation's. Your TR starts at 14, there is no draft, milestones and awards aren't used, and 2 neutral cities with greeneries are placed at random. A Beginner Corporation is allowed but not recommended; every corporation ability and starting bonus works as usual.

How do I win the solo game, and does it end early if I finish terraforming?

You must complete terraforming by the end of generation 14 (12 with Prelude); the game always runs the full length, so finishing early just gives you more time to score. Only games you win are scored, after the last plant-to-greenery conversion.

In solo, can a greenery placed after the generation 14 production phase raise oxygen to win?

No — terraforming must be finished before that last conversion. The final greeneries are placed without raising oxygen, so if oxygen isn't maxed by then, you lose.

In solo, how do cards that steal, remove or reduce another player's resources or production work?

You target the neutral opponent, which is treated as having unlimited resources and production of every kind. Reductions simply happen, steals give you the full amount from the supply, and red-bordered production decreases are always playable. Predators and Ants can take from it too.

Do the neutral solo tiles raise oxygen, and do they count for my cards?

They don't raise oxygen (it starts at 0%) and they aren't yours, so they don't anchor your greeneries — with no tiles of your own, your first greenery can go anywhere. They do count as cities and greeneries for other effects: Tharsis Republic gets production for the neutral cities, and Industrial Center or Energy Saving can use them.

How are the neutral cities and greeneries placed in solo setup?

Once, at setup only. Reveal and discard 4 cards: the first cost counts areas like reading from the top left for city 1, the second counts backwards from the bottom right for city 2, and the other two place each greenery by stepping clockwise around its city from the top left. Count only legal areas, skipping reserved areas such as ocean areas.

In solo setup, what if the card cost is 0 or counts past the end of the map?

It hardly matters — the neutral tiles only add variety. The designers simply draw another card; treating 0 as the first legal area or wrapping around is also fine. If a neutral greenery has no legal area, it isn't placed.

In solo, am I limited to two actions per generation?

No — you take 1–2 actions per turn, but the turn comes straight back to you, so you keep acting until you pass. Each blue-card action is still once per generation.

What does a red border around an icon mean?

It means the effect can target any player, yourself included. It doesn't make the effect optional and doesn't require an opponent as the target: red-bordered resource removal is optional, while a red-bordered production decrease must still be done.

Can an effect without a red border, like 'add 1 animal to ANY animal card', use another player's cards or resources?

No — only red-bordered icons reach other players. 'Any card' just means any of your own cards, not necessarily this one. If you have no eligible card, skip that part and play the card anyway. Teslaract's energy production decrease, with no red border, is your own.

Do blue-card effects trigger on other players' actions?

Only when the trigger icon has a red border. Rover Construction, for example, pays you 2 M€ whenever any player places a city, because its city icon is red-bordered. The benefit always goes to the card's owner.

Is removing a red-bordered resource optional, and can I split it among several players?

It's optional — you may remove up to the amount shown, or fewer, or none, so Asteroid doesn't force you to remove your own plants. Whatever you remove must come from a single player; you can't split it.

Is a red-bordered production decrease, like on Birds or Heat Trappers, mandatory, and can I split it?

It's mandatory and must be done in full to one player, who may be you. If no opponent has enough of that production you must lower your own; if nobody, you included, has enough, you can't play the card. Splitting the decrease between players isn't allowed.

When I remove another player's resources, do I get them?

No — removed resources go back to the supply. You only receive them when the card says 'steal', as Hired Raiders does.

What does a brown box behind a resource icon mean?

Production: move your production marker. An icon without the brown box means the resources themselves, so Imported GHG's 'gain 3 heat' puts 3 heat cubes in your heat box on top of its 1 heat production. Map bonuses have no brown box and give resources, while the temperature track's heat bonus is production.

What does an asterisk on a card's icons mean?

The card doesn't follow the standard iconography, so read its text in parentheses for exactly what it does.

When a card counts red-bordered city icons, like Greenhouses, Energy Saving or Immigration Shuttles, do I count every city?

Yes — a red-bordered tile icon covers all players' tiles, so these cards count every city in play, opponents' included. A red-framed requirement works the same way: Rad-Suits needs any two cities in play.

How does the Hellas south pole area that costs 6 M€ and gives an ocean work?

Placing any tile on that one area means losing 6 M€ on top of the tile's normal cost, and then you place an ocean (with its TR) as a bonus. The 6 M€ loss is a placement effect, not an up-front cost, so money gained in the same action, such as ocean adjacency from the bonus ocean, can cover it. With all oceans placed you still pay the 6 M€ but get no ocean.

Where does Noctis City go on Hellas or Elysium?

Those maps have no Noctis City area, so it is placed like an ordinary city: on any legal land area, never next to another city — the card's exemption doesn't apply. Phobos Space Haven and Ganymede Colony still use their off-map areas.

Where do Lava Flows and Lava Tube Settlement go on Hellas and Elysium?

Elysium has four volcanic areas of its own, marked with bold names like on the base map, and these cards must use one of them. Hellas has none, so there Lava Flows can go on any legal land area, with no need to be next to your tiles, and Lava Tube Settlement follows the normal city placement rules.

What does the Generalist milestone require?

When you claim it, every one of your six productions must be at least one step above the starting level: 2 in each in the standard game, 1 in each with Corporate Era. Production from your corporation and Prelude cards counts, but a production that has fallen back to the start doesn't.

Does Elysium's Ecologist milestone need 4 or 6 tags, and does it count tags or cards?

4 plant, animal or microbe tags in play — tags, not cards, so a card with two such tags counts twice. If a translated rulebook says otherwise, trust the board's icons.

Does the Legend milestone count events played by all players?

No — only events in your own event pile. Law Suit goes into the other player's pile when played, so it counts for them, not for you.

Does Specialist need 10 production in one resource, and does M€ production count?

One production track at 10 or more, and M€ production counts — the milestone's art includes it.

What counts for the Tactician milestone?

Your cards in play with anything in their requirement box — global minimums or maximums, tags, production, or Turmoil party requirements. A card's cost isn't a requirement, and played events don't count.

Do events count for the Celebrity or Space Baron awards?

No — played events aren't in play, so neither their cost nor their tags count. Celebrity counts each green or blue card with a printed cost of 20 M€ or more.

What counts for the Excentric award?

Every resource sitting on your cards in play — microbes, animals, science, floaters, fighters and so on, corporations included — but not the resources on your player board. Cards held by Self-Replicating Robots aren't in play, so their resources don't count.

When is the Benefactor award scored?

First of all, before any other award or milestone points are moved along the TR track, so it compares players' actual TR rather than running scores.

Does Estate Dealer count a tile once, or once per adjacent ocean?

Once — each of your tiles next to at least one ocean counts as one, however many oceans it touches.

Does the Magnate award count green cards or green-colored tags?

Green-framed automated project cards you have in play, not plant, microbe or animal tags.

How can I have energy at the end for the Industrialist award?

Leftover energy turns into heat at the start of production, but new energy is produced right after, so you end the game holding the energy from the last production. Industrialist adds that energy to your steel.

Do we use the Hellas or Elysium board alongside the base board, and can they be played solo?

Each one replaces the Tharsis board — you play on one Mars map only, with Venus Next's board added beside it if used. Both maps work for 1–5 players; their milestones and awards aren't used in solo.

Is Venus a global parameter — does it give TR, and do requirement modifiers apply to it?

Yes — every Venus step you raise gives 1 TR, however you raise it, and the maxed-parameter rules apply to it. Adaptation Technology, Inventrix and Special Design also shift Venus requirements by 2 steps of the track (Morning Star Inc. affects only Venus requirements). In multiplayer, Venus doesn't count toward ending the game.

Is World Government Terraforming mandatory?

The solar phase itself is always played, because it contains the game-end check, but World Government Terraforming is an optional rule in multiplayer. If you use it, it happens every generation. In solo with Venus Next it is required.

When the World Government raises a parameter onto a bonus step, what happens?

The bonus step still resolves — an oxygen step to 8% raises temperature, and reaching 0 °C places an ocean, with the first player choosing where — but the World Government receives the benefits, so nobody gains TR, heat production, placement bonuses or cards. Other players' triggered effects, like Arctic Algae, still fire.

If World Government Terraforming maxes the last parameter, does the game end, and what may the first player choose?

Another generation is played — the game-end check comes before World Government Terraforming in the solar phase. The first player must pick a parameter that isn't maxed, Venus included; if only one remains, that one rises.

In a solo game with Venus Next, must Venus be completed, and does the game end early?

Yes, Venus must be maxed along with the three Mars parameters to win (unless you play the 63 TR variant). The game always lasts 14 generations, or 12 with Prelude, and World Government Terraforming isn't done in the last generation because the game ends first. All base, Corporate Era and Venus Next cards are used.

How does Viron's action work?

Once per generation, as one action, it lets you use an action on one of your own blue cards that you already used this generation — never an opponent's card. You may pick either option of an either/or card, whatever you chose the first time, but not both.

Can Sulphur-Eating Bacteria turn microbes into M€ without playing a card?

Yes — its action spends microbes from the card for 3 M€ each, which you simply keep. It isn't a payment aid like Dirigibles' floaters.

Can Predators eat Venus animals, and can base-game cards add microbes to Venus cards?

Yes — Predators and Ants can target any card holding the right resource, Venus cards included, and base-game cards that add microbes to any card can put them on Thermophiles or other Venus microbe cards. Venus cards that add resources to 'a Venus card' can likewise add microbes.

What does the small Venus icon mean on cards that add resources, and what is a 'Venus card'?

It works like an asterisk, limiting the target to Venus cards — cards with a Venus tag, not every card from the Venus Next deck. The target must also be able to hold that resource and be yours. 'Any' versus 'another' only reflects whether the card can hold the resource itself.

Can Hydrogen to Venus or Air-Scrapping Expedition split their floaters across several cards?

No — all the floaters from one effect go onto a single Venus card that collects floaters.

Which cards count as floater cards for Celestic?

Any card showing a floater icon anywhere — as a resource, a cost or a requirement — so Stratospheric Birds and Aerosport Tournament qualify. Celestic looks only for the icon.

With Atmoscoop, can I choose the temperature option when temperature is maxed?

Yes — you choose either option freely, and the maxed-parameter exception lets you do as much of it as possible.

How does Manutech work?

Whenever your production rises, you also gain that many resources of the same kind — one per step, M€ included. Its own starting steel production gives it 1 steel. You can even order effects so Manutech's plants pay for Nitrophilic Moss's plant loss.

Does Stratospheric Birds need a floater every time it adds an animal?

No — removing one floater from one of your own cards is part of playing it, along with the 12% Venus requirement. Its action afterwards adds an animal each generation for free. Removing that floater gives you nothing from the card it came from.

Are floaters ordinary card resources?

Yes — floaters work like microbes and animals: track them with resource cubes, add them only to cards that use them (a Venus tag alone isn't enough), and play floater-giving cards even with nowhere to put them. A card that collects floaters, like Atmo Collectors or Stratopolis, can add them to itself; 'spend a floater here' means from that card.

How do Dirigibles' floaters pay for Venus cards?

Like titanium, but only for cards with a Venus tag: spend as many floaters as you have, each worth 3 M€. Its action adds a floater; floaters are never moved between cards.

Where is the reserved area for Stratopolis?

On the Venus board, not on the Mars map.

How are the Venus Next cards added?

Shuffle the Venus Next project cards into the project deck; whether you also add the Corporate Era cards is up to you, as usual.

How does Self-Replicating Robots work?

Once per generation, its action either puts a space- or building-tag card from your hand onto it with 2 resources, or doubles the resources on one card already there; several cards can sit on it at once, each with its own resources. When you later play one of them as if from hand, its cost drops by 1 M€ per resource on it, and those resources are discarded — leftovers are lost, and each new card starts again at 2.

Are the resources on Self-Replicating Robots steel, titanium or M€?

None of these — they are generic cubes from the supply with no resource type. Each lowers the hosted card's cost by 1 M€ (never below 0, so a surplus is wasted), and you pay the rest with M€ plus steel or titanium as the card's tags allow. Having no type, they don't count for Diversity Support or similar type counts.

Is a card on Self-Replicating Robots in my hand or in play?

Neither — it sits in its own zone. It doesn't count for Planner or hand size, can't be sold or discarded to Mars University, and its resources don't count for Excentric or other 'cards in play' counts. Playing it is a normal play-a-card action, separate from the Robots' own action, and its requirements apply only then.

Can other cards add resources to a card on Self-Replicating Robots?

Yes, if they don't require the target to be in play — for example CEO's Favorite Project, or Corroder Suits on a hosted Venus card. The designer first ruled no in 2017, then updated the official FAQ in 2018 to allow it.

Can a wild-tag card like Research Network be put on Self-Replicating Robots?

No — a wild tag counts only once its card is in play, so in your hand it has no tag and doesn't qualify as a space or building card.

Can I put more than one copy of Self-Replicating Robots in the deck?

No — every card is meant to be unique, so use one copy.

How much does Splice get from its own microbe tag at setup?

4 M€ — Splice's effect has two parts: the player who played the microbe tag gets 2 M€ (or a microbe on that card, which Splice can't hold) and Splice's owner gets 2 M€, and at setup you are both.

Do Splice and Recyclon trigger each other at setup, and does Splice react to Preludes?

It depends on reveal order: a corporation revealed after Splice in player order triggers it, one revealed before doesn't. Microbe-tagged Preludes always trigger it, since Preludes come after all corporations. Every corporation triggers its own ability.

Can Splice's microbe go on a microbe-tag card that can't hold microbes, like Worms?

No — only cards that collect microbes can take it, so for a card like Worms you take the 2 M€ option.

How does Recyclon's effect work?

Each time you play a building tag you choose: add a microbe to Recyclon, or remove two microbes from it to gain 1 plant production. Both options need that building tag; nothing happens automatically when the second microbe arrives, and other cards may also add microbes to it.

How does Arcadian Communities place its community markers?

Only the first marker, placed as the corporation's first action, can go anywhere. Every later marker goes on a non-reserved area next to one of your tiles or markers; ocean areas and Noctis City are reserved, and each marker reserves its area for you. Once you place a tile on a marked area, it behaves like an ordinary occupied area.

Does Arcadian Communities get its 3 M€ when building on its own Land Claim area?

Yes, by the forum consensus — your own Land Claim marker acts like one of your community markers, so you can expand from it and get the 3 M€ when you place a tile there. Another player's Land Claim doesn't count.

What happens if one of my Prelude cards turns out to be unplayable?

Show the other players that it can't be played, discard it, and gain 15 M€ instead. The designer says this rule applies to every Prelude, not just Prelude 2 where it was first printed. A Prelude that requires playing a card from hand when you have none you can play is one example of an unplayable Prelude.

Do Prelude cards follow the normal rules for playing cards?

Yes, apart from how you choose and when you play them. They have no cost, so discounts don't help, but their tags trigger effects (Saturn Systems on a Jovian tag), raising a parameter gives TR, and you must be able to perform every effect — Business Empire needs the 6 M€. Afterwards they stay in play and their tags count, though they aren't project cards for Tycoon or Magnate.

Do Thorgate's or Teractor's discounts reduce the M€ paid on Preludes like Aquifer Turbines or Business Empire?

No — Preludes have no cost, and the M€ they take is part of their effect, which discounts can't touch. It comes from your own M€, and you can resolve other effects first, such as Aquifer Turbines' ocean bonus, to help pay.

Can Robotic Workforce copy the production box of a Prelude or corporation?

Yes — if it has a building tag, a Prelude (such as Dome Farming or Mohole Excavation) or a corporation is a valid target.

In what order are corporations, starting cards and Preludes handled at setup?

Everyone picks a corporation, starting cards and 2 Preludes at the same time and discards the rest. Then, in player order, players reveal corporations and pay for cards; after that, in player order, each plays both Preludes one at a time, in the order they choose. Corporation effects are already active, but Prelude resources come too late to buy starting cards.

Can I keep a Prelude for later, or play one as one of my turn's actions, such as with Head Start?

No — Preludes are played in their own round before the first action phase and can't be saved, and playing a corporation or Prelude is never one of the options when you're allowed an action. (Playing them does use action mechanics, which matters for effects that refer to actions.)

How does Prelude change the solo game?

The solo game lasts 12 generations instead of 14; starting TR stays at 14. Without Prelude cards, play 14 generations as usual.

How does Prelude's 63 TR solo variant work?

Choose it before the game instead of the full-terraforming goal: you must have 63 TR when checked at the start of the solar phase right after the last production, regardless of the global parameters. TR from the final greeneries only adds to your score, not to the win check, and the game still runs its full length.

Can the Buffer Gas standard project be used outside the 63 TR solo variant?

No — Buffer Gas is only for the 63 TR solo game; it isn't available in multiplayer or in the full-terraforming solo game.

Can a wild tag count as two tags at once, or change during an action?

No — during an action you may give the wild tag one type, which it keeps until that action ends; then it has no type again. Next action you may choose differently, but it never counts as two tags in one action.

Does choosing a type for a wild tag trigger 'when you play a tag' effects or Aridor?

No — giving the wild tag a type isn't playing that tag or bringing a new tag into play, so it never triggers Olympus Conference, Arklight, Viral Enhancers or Aridor, and it doesn't earn tag discounts for other cards.

Can other players count my wild tag, for example for Toll Station?

No — only you can assign it, and only during your own action, so for opponents' cards it counts as no tag. If you play Galilean Waystation yourself, you may count it as Jovian.

Does a wild tag work while its own card is played, during Preludes, or on a card revealed from the deck?

It works only once its card is in your tableau, and only during your actions — which, since a 2024 ruling, include playing your corporation and Preludes, though uses there are rare; it never counts in the solar phase or final scoring. It does nothing while its own card is being played or on a card revealed by Search for Life. The rest of the time it counts as no tag, so it does count for Community Services.

Does a wild tag count toward Media Archives or the Legend milestone?

No — those count event cards you have played, not event tags, so a wild tag can't help.

How does Ecology Experts work?

When you play it you must immediately play a card from your hand, paying its cost (discounts and steel or titanium apply) and ignoring only its global requirements — oxygen, temperature, oceans and Venus. Tag, production, placement and party requirements still apply, the card needn't have a global requirement at all, and the effect is used up at once.

How does Eccentric Sponsor work?

When you play it you immediately play one card from your hand 25 M€ cheaper — free if it costs 25 or less, otherwise you pay the rest, with steel, titanium and corporation discounts usable. You still need its requirements and must perform its effects, and you can't keep the discount for later; play your other Prelude first if you need its cards or resources.

Can Ecology Experts and Eccentric Sponsor be combined on one card?

No — each Prelude is resolved fully before the next, so one card can't get both the requirement waiver and the 25 M€ discount.

If I play Decomposers through Ecology Experts, do the Prelude's own tags trigger it?

Yes — a card's tags count as being played for the whole action, so Ecology Experts' plant and microbe tags trigger a Decomposers played in that same action. Requirements, by contrast, must be met before the action starts.

Does Special Design apply to a Prelude played right after it?

Yes, which wastes it — Preludes are played cards, so the next card you play gets the modifier even if it is a Prelude. Play Special Design so that the next card is the project you want it for.

Which cards trigger Vitor, and does it work in solo?

Any card with a VP icon that isn't negative, events and Vitor itself included, and cards whose VP depend on resources even while worth 0. Its free award uses one of the three normal award slots. In solo, awards aren't used, so the award part does nothing but the 3 M€ rebate still works.

What happens with Vitor's free award if all three awards are already funded?

Players report that a 2023 designer ruling lets Vitor fund a fourth award, because the card's text overrides the rulebook, replacing a 2018 ruling that Vitor simply lost it. Some players still play by the older ruling.

How does Valley Trust's extra Prelude work?

Its first action draws 3 Preludes and you play one, after all the normal Preludes. Preludes discarded at setup stay discarded; draw from what remains and reshuffle only if it runs out.

Can Robinson Industries raise M€ production?

Yes — M€ is one of the six productions, so if it is (tied for) your lowest, you may raise it.

With Prelude, do I deal each player one Prelude corporation?

The normal setup shuffles all corporations together and deals 2 at random; dealing one from the new expansion to each player is an optional variant for trying out new corporations.

Can Prelude and Venus Next be used together?

Yes — the expansions are modular. When using Prelude, you may skip World Government Terraforming if you like.

Can I use the Prelude cards but leave out Prelude's corporations and project cards?

Yes — players report no problems using just the Prelude cards with the base game.

Can I trade with a colony tile that has no colonies on it?

Yes — you trade with the tile itself, so no colonies are needed; there are just no colony bonuses to pay out.

Can I trade with or build a colony on Titan, Enceladus or Miranda without a card that holds their resource?

Yes, once the tile is active — trading and colony placement follow the same exceptions as cards, so you simply lose resources you can't hold. The track still resets after a trade, and your colony still raises the track's floor and pays bonuses later when you have a suitable card.

When do Titan, Enceladus and Miranda become active?

When the first card that can hold their resource (floaters, microbes or animals) is played by anyone. Until then their marker isn't placed, nobody can trade or build there, and the track doesn't rise; afterwards they are open to everyone.

How often can I trade?

Once per trade fleet per generation. A fleet that has traded stays on that colony tile until the end of the generation, and no other fleet can trade with a tile that already has one. Cards that grant extra fleets let you trade more.

How do I pay for a trade, and do trade discounts stack?

Pay entirely in one resource — 9 M€, 3 energy or 3 titanium — never a mix. Trade discount cards stack and reduce an M€ payment too. Titan Floating Launch-Pad's floater is part of that card's own action cost.

When trading where I have a colony, do I get both the trade income and my colony bonus, and can resources be split?

Yes, both — they are separate effects. Each effect's resources go on one card: the trade income all on one card, and each colony bonus (one per colony you have there) on a card of its choice, which may be a different one.

Are colony bonuses and trade income optional?

No — like any effect they must be taken if you can hold them, even if a microbe just feeds an opponent's Ants. You skip only resources you have no card for.

How does Pluto's colony bonus work?

Each colony there gives draw a card, then discard a card, resolved one colony at a time. The trading player decides the order of all these effects, their own trade draws first if they like.

Does Jupiter Floating Station cap floaters at 4, and can I add a floater and take M€ in one use?

No to both — it can hold any number of floaters; only its M€ payout is capped at 4. Its action is one choice per generation: add a floater to a Jovian card, or gain 1 M€ per floater here (floaters stay).

Can I play a card that places a colony if there's no legal colony space?

No — a colony isn't a resource and a colony tile isn't a card, so the exception for resources doesn't apply; you must be able to place the colony.

Is Poseidon's first-action colony free, and what if it can't be placed?

It's free (not the standard project) and triggers Poseidon's own effect for +1 M€ production. If no legal placement exists, there's no strict ruling; the designer suggests letting Poseidon use an inactive tile like Miranda rather than losing the colony, but never a 4th colony on a tile.

Which tags give Aridor M€ production?

Each tag type that is new to your own tableau, from project cards or Preludes, once per type — a card with two new types gives 2, but Research's two science tags give 1. Tags on events never count, a wild tag never counts, and types you had before Aridor was played don't trigger it later.

Is Aridor's extra colony tile random?

No — you choose it, and in solo you may even take one of the tiles set aside at setup.

How do Stormcraft's floaters work as heat?

Stormcraft has a once-per-generation action that adds a floater to any card that collects floaters, and a separate always-on effect letting you spend floaters on Stormcraft as 2 heat each whenever you spend heat. Spent floaters are removed, and they are never heat for Thermalist.

What counts for Community Services?

Your own cards in play with no tags — green and blue cards, corporations and Preludes. Played events never count, and a wild tag that has no type counts as no tag. Opponents' cards don't count.

Playing without Corporate Era but with Colonies or Prelude, do players still start with 1 production?

Yes — expansions don't change the production rule: leave out the Corporate Era cards, add the expansion, and everyone starts with the extra 1 production of each resource.

How does Market Manipulation work?

Raise one colony track and lower a different one. A track can't be lowered onto or below the space just after its last colony, and if you can't do both, you can't play it. It is the only way a trade can happen at a track's lowest values.

When I place a colony, what do I get?

Only the bonus printed in the colony space (such as +1 production on Ceres or an ocean on Europa). The values on the track are trade income, gained only by trading.

How often can I build a colony, and does it trigger standard-project effects?

Building a colony (17 M€) is a standard project unrelated to trade fleets, so you may do it as often as you can pay, and Standard Technology rebates it. Trading is not a standard project. You may have only one colony per tile unless a card says otherwise.

Can I have more than one colony on the same tile?

Only with cards that allow it, such as Research Colony and Space Port Colony; with enough of them you could fill all three spaces. No card ever puts a 4th colony on a tile, and each of your colonies there pays its bonus separately.

How does a colony tile's track marker move?

After a trade it drops back down (all the way left if the tile has no colonies), and it rises one step each generation, staying at the top once there.

When are colony tiles set out?

Before anyone chooses a corporation or cards, so everyone sees them. In solo, you choose the tiles at the same time as your corporation and starting cards.

Do colony requirements and counts mean my colonies or everyone's?

Yours, unless the icon has a red border. A colony requirement without a red border needs a colony of your own, while a card that counts red-bordered colony icons counts all colonies in play.

Can Colonies be played without Venus Next?

Yes — the expansions are independent, and Colonies brings its own floater producers and users.

Does Mining Guild gain steel production from colonies on Ceres or Triton?

No — Mining Guild reacts to tiles placed on the map, and colonies aren't on the map.

Does Topsoil Contract give 1 M€ per microbe or per action?

Per microbe — adding 3 microbes at once gives 3 M€.

Does Galilean Waystation keep counting Jovian tags played later?

No — it raises M€ production once when played, counting all Jovian tags in play across all players at that moment.

Does Polyphemos pay 5 M€ for cards bought through Business Network or Inventors' Guild?

Yes — every card Polyphemos buys costs it 5 M€, however it is bought.

With Reds ruling, can I take an action that raises my TR if I can't pay 3 M€ per step?

No — paying the Reds is a mandatory part of gaining the TR, not one of the exceptions, so if you can't pay you can't take that action at all (a greenery raising oxygen included). You do choose the order of effects, so M€ gained during the same action, such as ocean adjacency money, can cover it; the charge is only owed when you actually gain TR.

Do ruling policies like Reds, Greens or Mars First apply outside the action phase?

No — ruling policies are active only during the action phase. They don't touch TR from the ruling bonus or a new chairman, greeneries from Preludes at setup, or the final greenery conversion.

With Turmoil, can a Prelude let me play a card that requires Greens to be ruling?

Yes — Turmoil setup makes the Greens the ruling party before Preludes are played, so a 'Greens ruling' requirement is met then. Their policy isn't active yet, though, because policies work only in the action phase.

Can the same party rule two generations in a row?

Yes — if it is dominant again in the Turmoil phase it becomes ruling again: its delegates are cleared, its leader becomes the new chairman with 1 TR, and its ruling bonus and policy apply again.

What's the difference between the ruling party and the dominant party?

The dominance marker shows the party with the most delegates right now; the policy tile shows the party in power this generation. When the dominant party takes power, its leader becomes chairman, its other delegates return to reserve, and dominance moves to another party.

When does the dominant party change, and how are ties handled?

Any time another party gets strictly more delegates than the dominant one — during the action phase or the Turmoil phase, as often as it happens — with nothing triggering until the Turmoil phase. A tie leaves the current dominant party in place; resolve several added delegates one at a time. The clockwise tie-break is used only when the dominant party loses delegates or is cleared.

Who becomes party leader when players tie for delegates in a party?

The current leader stays unless someone has strictly more delegates. If a new leader must be chosen among tied players, the designer's preliminary ruling gives it to the tied player closest clockwise from the active player (the active player first), with the neutral player counted last.

Does swapping a delegate with Recruitment briefly change dominance, and can a steal be split around Mons Insurance?

No to both — exchanging a delegate, like stealing, happens in one uninterrupted step, so the party never has fewer delegates in between and there is no moment when the victim has lost but you haven't gained. Recruitment can't swap the chairman, who isn't a non-leader delegate.

Does the chairman count as a delegate in a party?

No — the chairman belongs to no party, so it doesn't count toward dominance or for Septem Tribus, and Banned Delegate can't remove it (it isn't a way to resign).

Is there a limit on delegates per party or per player?

Parties have no size limit — the printed seats are decorative — but each player has only their 7 delegates, and neutral delegates are limited too. When none are available, actions that need one can't be taken and neutral placements are skipped until delegates return.

Does my lobby delegate count as being in my reserve?

Yes — for Recruitment, Vote of No Confidence, Cultural Metropolis, Martian Media Center and any 'from reserve' effect, the lobby is part of your reserve. An unused lobby delegate doesn't stack: the lobby is only refilled if empty.

How is influence counted, and can it go above 3?

Work it out when needed: 1 for being chairman, 1 for leading the dominant party, and 1 for having a non-leader delegate in the dominant party. Cards like Event Analysts add permanent influence on top, so 4 is possible.

Can a global event like Dry Deserts or Snow Cover lower a parameter that's already maxed?

No — once a global parameter reaches its goal it can't be changed again, so that part of the event is skipped. If Dry Deserts removes an ocean, the ocean goes back to the supply and must be placed again before the game can end, and whoever chooses which ocean to remove loses no TR.

If Snow Cover lowers the temperature below a bonus step, is the bonus gained again?

Yes — lowering gives no bonus, but whoever raises the temperature past that step again gets its bonus (heat production or the ocean) once more.

Can I choose the order of a global event's effects, for example to pay Great Dust Storm with heat?

No — global events happen on no one's turn and resolve in the order written, with ties broken by the first player. With Great Dust Storm you lose your heat first; and Helion can't substitute heat for M€ lost to any global event.

How do 'max 5' and influence work on global events?

Count your own qualifying items and cap that count at 5, then add your influence (or subtract it for penalties); the total can exceed 5, and influence counts even with zero items. Events that compare players, like Revolution and Election, have no cap. Generous Funds adds a payout per influence, and Jovian Tax Rights has an errata capping it at 5 colonies.

Do global events count everyone's things together, and do they raise parameters once per player?

Each player counts their own tags, tiles or cities and resolves the player effects individually, but a global parameter change on the event happens just once. Wild tags never count for global events, since they aren't actions.

How are ties scored for Revolution and Election, and does the neutral player compete?

Like awards: everyone tied for first gets the first-place result and then nobody gets second. The neutral player competes too. Election's second place still scores in a 2-player game, and in solo Revolution costs 2 TR only if your total is 4 or more.

When a global event has the first player place an ocean, do they get TR or bonuses?

No — the first player only picks the location and gains no TR or placement bonuses. Effects that trigger on ocean placement, like Arctic Algae, still fire.

If a global event completes the last parameter, does the game end that generation?

No — the game-end check comes first in the solar phase, so another generation is played. In the final generation the Turmoil phase is skipped and you go straight to scoring.

What if I can't pay what a global event takes?

Pay or lose as much as you can; there is no further penalty, and if you have nothing to lose, nothing happens.

Does influence count as extra tags for the Diversity global event?

Yes — each point of influence counts as one more different tag, so 7 tag types plus 2 influence qualifies. Face-down event tags don't count.

Which empty areas next to my tiles count for Red Tourism Wave?

Every empty area next to your tiles, where empty means no tile on it (the designer has described it as hexagons without tiles). Players read this to include an area holding only a Land Claim or Arcadian Communities marker.

Which cards get a resource from Sponsored Projects or Scientific Summit?

Every card that already holds at least one resource, corporations like Celestic or Arklight included, and players also apply it to cards on Self-Replicating Robots. Cards that hold no resources don't qualify.

How do the ruling party bonuses count, and who gets them?

Every player gets the ruling bonus and is bound by the policy, whatever their delegates. Bonuses count tags, not cards — Greens and Unity pay 1 M€ per matching tag — and influence isn't added to them. Wild tags don't count, since the ruling bonus isn't resolved during the action phase.

Are the Kelvinists and Scientists policies actions?

Yes — they are actions you may take in the action phase, while the other policies are ongoing effects. Kelvinists' can be repeated like a standard project; Scientists' is once per generation, marked with a player marker.

Is placing a delegate (lobbying) an action, and is it a standard project?

It's one of your normal 1–2 actions per turn, but not a standard project, so effects that discount or reward standard projects don't apply.

Can Turmoil be played without Venus Next or other expansions?

Yes — it needs no other expansion. You still play the solar phase (game-end check, then Colonies and Turmoil steps if used), skipping World Government Terraforming, which belongs to Venus Next.

How does Mons Insurance pay out?

Whenever any player makes another lose resources (card resources included) or production, Mons pays the victim 3 M€ per occasion — not per step — or as much as it has; if Mons is the one hit, it effectively pays itself. Its own starting production decrease on opponents doesn't trigger it, and Mons may play attacks with no money left.

How does Mons Insurance work in solo?

Production decreases against the neutral player are mandatory, so Mons pays it 3 M€ each time. Removing resources is optional and can be skipped without payout, but a steal still removes resources and must be compensated.

Can Law Suit be played in solo?

No — the neutral opponent never makes you lose resources or production, so Law Suit's condition is never met.

Does raising TR with a Prelude block Pristar's bonus in generation 1?

Yes — setup, including Preludes, is part of generation 1, so TR raised then counts as terraforming that generation.

With Reds ruling and Venus maxed, can I pick Atmoscoop's Venus option to avoid the Reds charge?

Yes — you may choose any legal option, and raising a maxed parameter is legal. If you can't pay Reds for the temperature TR, the Venus option is your only legal choice.

Does the Mars First policy's steel trigger Mining Guild?

No — that steel comes from the policy, not from a placement bonus printed on the map, so Mining Guild doesn't react.

Do delegate-placing cards like Cultural Metropolis or Martian Media Center use my delegates, and are the placements optional?

They use your own delegates, since the icons have no red border, and placing them is mandatory — Cultural Metropolis needs 2 delegates available (lobby or reserve) or it can't be played.

How does Terralabs Research's card cost work?

Each card you buy costs 1 M€ instead of 3, including cards bought with Inventors' Guild or Business Network. Effects that pay a price to draw, like Restricted Area's 2 M€, aren't buying and are unaffected.

When are the two neutral delegates shown on a global event placed?

The top one when the event is first revealed, and the bottom one when the card moves to the current-event space, a generation before it resolves.

When Mons Insurance steals M€ from someone, can it use that money to pay the insurance?