Learn Darwin's Journey
Learn the game in 5 short steps. Everything links to the full rules.
Welcome aboard the Beagle
1835: the HMS Beagle reaches the Galápagos. You lead a crew of young scientists who explore the islands, sail the coast, write to the scientific world and train at the Academy.
The most 
victory points after 5 rounds wins. The biggest single score comes at the
end: your 
Theory of Evolution books × the Museum multiplier.
1–4 players (solo against Alfred), 80–120 minutes. Ready to set up? Open the setup checklist — it adapts to your player count and to Fireland.
The main board and yours
- Diaries at the top left: the action spaces your workers visit — Exploration, Navigation, Correspondence, Academy, the Special Actions and the Small Diary for unlocking.
- The Museum in the middle, the Academy Scrolls with Wax Seals for sale, the Envelopes and the Objectives.
- The map below: Island tracks for your Explorers, the Ocean track for your Ship and the HMS Beagle.
Your personal board holds your workers and their seals, your Objective rows, the 16 specimens, your Tents and your Stamps. The boards in detail.
Workers and Wax Seals
On your turn you place one worker and do that space’s actions. A worker can only go where its
own row has the 
seals the
space asks for; 
Temporary Knowledge stands in for a missing one.
A Diary section that already holds a worker costs 3 Coins at two players, 2 at three or
four. Buy more seals at the 
Academy: at 4 seals a worker gets the silver
distinction, at 6 the golden one. Worker placement.
Explore, research, deliver
Explorers walk the islands and 
your Ship sails the coast. Stop on
a specimen to research it, on a campsite to pitch a 
Tent.
Deliver a researched specimen nobody has delivered yet: each empty Museum
space in its row and column pays a Coin, each filled one moves your Evolution marker. Early
deliveries fund your game; late ones build your score. Board actions.
Rounds and scoring
After every round the Envelopes pay their Stamp majorities and everyone scores the Beagle Goal
under the HMS Beagle — minus 
lagging penalties if their Ship is behind.
At the end: Theory of Evolution books × (2 + full Museum rows), your Objective spaces, trained workers, Tents, Coins and Temporary Knowledge. Ways to score.