Ark Nova rules refresher

Read the refresher

You win by having the most victory points, which come from adding your appeal to the conservation value your conservation counter has reached. You get there by building enclosures, filling them with animals for appeal, and supporting conservation projects for conservation points, with the two tracks running towards each other from opposite ends of the board.

For setup, the Break token starts on the space matching your player count. Shuffle the nine Bonus tiles and place four face up on the four blank yellow bonus spaces of the board, not the two yellow spaces that already show icons, and return the rest to the box. Make a face-down Zoo card deck and deal six cards to the display, revealed only at the end of setup. On the Association board, put out one partner zoo of each continent and one university of each kind. Shuffle the Base Conservation Project cards and lay out four face up below the board in a four player game, otherwise three. In a two player game, six tokens of an unused colour block one level on each of those three cards and the three spaces in the left column of the donation area. Each player takes a zoo map, twenty five money, seven player tokens on the bonus spaces at the left edge, one association worker active on the notepad and three below it, and the five Action cards on side one: Animals in the leftmost slot, the other four distributed randomly. Counters for appeal, conservation and reputation start at the beginning of their tracks, with appeal staggered by turn order: nothing for the start player, then one, two and three. On map A, place an empty three-space enclosure on the marked spaces. Everyone draws two Final Scoring cards, keeps both hidden, then draws eight Zoo cards, keeps four and discards the rest.

There are no rounds. Players simply take one turn each in clockwise order until the end is triggered, with breaks interrupting play whenever the Break token reaches the end of its track. On your turn you take exactly one action. You pick one of your five Action cards, note the number of the slot it sits in, perform that action at that strength, then move that card into slot one and slide every card that was to its left one slot to the right. So the card you just used becomes weak and everything else creeps towards the powerful right-hand slots.

You may spend X-tokens before performing, each adding one to the strength, and you can never hold more than five. You cannot choose an action and then do nothing with it. If you cannot or do not want to take any of the five actions, you may take the X-token action instead: choose any Action card, move it to slot one as normal, and take one X-token. The slot number does not matter for that, and you cannot do it if you already hold five tokens. Card upgrades flip an Action card to side two in place. There are only four upgrades available across the whole game, so you cannot have them all.

The Cards action first advances the Break token two spaces, then either draws cards from the deck according to the table on the card, up to three, possibly forcing you to discard a card afterwards, or, at strength five or more, lets you snap exactly one card from the display regardless of your reputation. Upgraded, you may draw from the display within your reputation range as well as the deck, and you may snap from strength three. Your reputation range covers the card on the folder your reputation counter sits on and everything on lower folders. Reputation above nine requires the upgraded Cards action, and once at fifteen, further reputation becomes one appeal per step. The display is only refilled after your whole turn is finished: cards slide down towards folder one and the gaps are filled from the deck.

The Build action lets you build exactly one building of size up to your strength, paying two money per space. Available are kiosks, pavilions, standard enclosures of sizes one to five, and the Petting Zoo. Buildings must be adjacent to one of your existing buildings, edge to edge, except your very first, which must touch a border space of your map. No building over water, rock, another building, or over the spaces marked with the upgrade icon until your Build action is upgraded. Kiosks must be at least three spaces apart, meaning two spaces between them. Enclosures go down empty side up. Each pavilion gives one appeal immediately. Upgraded, you may build several different buildings in one action as long as their total size fits your strength, and the Reptile House and Large Bird Aviary become available; when you build either of those, and only then, you may move qualifying animals into it from standard enclosures. Covering a placement bonus gives you that bonus at once. Cover every space of your map, apart from water and rock, and you gain seven appeal.

The Animals action plays up to the number of Animal cards shown on the table for your strength. For each animal: check the conditions on the left of the card, pay the cost reduced by three money per continent icon if you have a matching partner zoo, then fill an empty enclosure of at least the required size that also meets any water or rock requirements. Flip the enclosure to its occupied side, or, for a special enclosure, mark the indicated number of spaces with your player tokens. Petting Zoo animals can only go in a Petting Zoo. Then gain the appeal shown and resolve the card's effect, saving anything that says after finishing until the whole action, including moving your Action card, is complete. Upgraded, you may also play animals from the display within reputation range, paying extra money equal to the folder number, and at strength five or more you may raise your reputation by one at the very start of the action.

The Association action performs one association task using an active worker. Tasks have values you must at least match with your strength: two to gain two reputation, three to take a partner zoo, four to take a university, five for conservation project work. Placing a second worker on a task you already occupy costs two workers, and a task with three of your workers is closed to you. A third or fourth partner zoo needs the upgraded Association action, and four is the maximum. Conservation project work means supporting a project already in play, or playing one from your hand and supporting it immediately, placing new project cards on the leftmost space above the board and pushing the others right, discarding the rightmost if there are too many for your player count. To support a project you must meet a condition that has no token on it, and you may only support each project once. Take one of the player tokens from the left edge of your map, which gains you the uncovered bonus, place it on the condition, and advance your conservation counter as shown. Upgraded, you may perform several different tasks in one action as long as their values total no more than your strength, you may play a project card from the display within reputation range for extra money equal to the folder number, and you may make exactly one donation, paying the smallest visible amount in the donation area for one conservation point, but only if you performed at least one task that action.

The Sponsors action plays exactly one Sponsor card from your hand whose level is no higher than your strength, meeting its conditions. Alternatively, advance the Break token a number of steps equal to your strength and take that much money, even if the token did not need all the steps. Upgraded, you may play several Sponsor cards whose levels total no more than your strength plus one, you may play them from the display within reputation range for extra money equal to the folder number, and the break alternative pays you double the money.

When the Break token reaches the last space, whoever pushed it there gains one X-token, finishes their turn, and then everyone discards down to a hand limit of three, or five with the relevant university, returns Multiplier, Venom and Constriction tokens, recalls all association workers, refills the partner zoo and university supply to one of each, discards the two bottom display cards and refills the display, and then takes income: money from your appeal track space, one money per unique building, special enclosure, occupied standard enclosure or pavilion adjacent to each kiosk, and any recurring income icons you have. Empty standard enclosures pay nothing, empty special enclosures do pay. Then the Break token goes back to its starting space. Along the conservation track, reaching two lets you upgrade an Action card or activate an extra worker, five and eight each give five money or a Bonus token, and the first time any player reaches ten, everyone discards one of their two Final Scoring cards.

The game ends when, at the end of your turn or during a break, your conservation counter and appeal counter are in the same scoring area or have passed each other. If that happens at the end of your turn, every other player takes one more turn and then you go to scoring. If it happens during a break, everyone including you takes one more turn. If nobody ever reached ten conservation points, all players discard one Final Scoring card now. Then score your remaining Final Scoring card and every card with an end-of-game icon. Your total is the white number in the space your conservation counter occupies plus your appeal value. Highest total wins. Ties go to the tied player who supported the most conservation projects, counted by the player tokens removed from the left side of the zoo map, and if still tied, they share the victory.

A turn, played out

It is mid-game and your turn. Your Action cards, left to right, are Sponsors in slot 1, Build in slot 2, Cards in slot 3, Association in slot 4 and Animals in slot 5, all still on side one. You hold 2 X-tokens and 20 money. Your conservation counter is on 7, and nobody has reached 10 yet. Below the board sits a conservation project. You meet its middle condition, it has no token on it, and it shows 3 conservation points. You want that support now, before the player to your left takes it. Project work is a value 5 task, but Association sits in slot 4, so its strength is only 4. You spend 1 X-token, which brings it to 5 and leaves you with 1 token. You have 2 active workers. One is already on the partner zoo task. Adding a second partner zoo would cost you 2 workers, but that would not get you the project anyway. Project work is empty, so 1 worker goes there. You take the leftmost player token from the left edge of your zoo map and gain the bonus it uncovers straight away. That token goes onto the middle condition. Your conservation counter climbs 3 spaces, from 7 to 10. On the way it passes 8. You choose 5 money over a Bonus token, bringing you to 25. Landing on 10 matters too. You are the first player to reach it, so everyone, you included, now discards one of their two Final Scoring cards. You keep the one that rewards the animals already in your zoo. Your Association card is still on side one, so there is no donation to add. It moves into slot 1. Sponsors, Build and Cards each slide one slot right, and Animals stays in slot 5. Your row now reads Association, Sponsors, Build, Cards, Animals. Next turn your strongest choices are Animals at 5 and Cards at 4. Association is back to strength 1. Play passes to the player on your left.