Variants and Corrections

Dominant Species: Marine optional rules — 2-player two-animal option, random earth setup, game length, alternate animal displays, Superheroes — and GMT's official rulebook corrections.

Each variant may be used alone or with any other. Where a variant conflicts with the basic rules, the variant wins.

2-player option

For experienced players: each of the two players runs two animals, so all four are in play.

• Each animal uses its own colour, gets 4 basic pawns (as in a 4-player game) and keeps its own VP total.
• While one of your animals acts, your other animal counts as an opponent in every way — “your animal” on a card means only the acting one.
• At the end, your score is your lower-scoring animal; the other is ignored.

Alternate random earth setup

Animals start unevenly, with starting VPs to compensate. Changes to the normal setup:

1. Tiles — the four starting Land spaces at the top stay Land (geyser Vent on the topmost) and the four Ocean spaces at the bottom stay Ocean (smoker Vent on the bottommost). Shuffle the other large tiles and fill the seven central spaces at random; the rest form the three stacks.
2. Elements — draw 6 random elements for the six starting corners. If any animal matches none of them, put them back and draw again until every animal matches at least one.
3. Species — instead of 3 each on the central tile, each animal places 1 species there per matching disk pair: for every element on the central tile, one species for each disk of that type on its display.
4. Starting VPs — add the central tile’s scoring values together; every VP marker starts on that sum, then each animal loses the VPs it would score if the central tile were scored now.

Game length

Change only how many evolution cards leave the game unseen at setup:

In long and epic games don’t empty your Gene Pool too early; in a short game you can spend it faster.

Alternate animal displays

Use the reverse of each display (six grey spaces). Before the starting elements go on the board, each player draws 3 random elements onto the three “?” spaces. Those disks are not printed elements, so Regression can strip them: protect them, or the next Extinction hurts.

Superheroes

Each player keeps 2 of their 3 trait cards; both work at once. The designers advise leaving Exaptation out of this variant.

Rulebook corrections

GMT’s correction sheet (it applies to the first and second printing) changes these points. This guide already follows them.