FAQ
59 answered questions46 official
Rules questions from the BoardGameGeek forum. Answers marked Official were confirmed by Czech Games Edition or the designers.
Common mistakes
- Choosing the tech before rotating the solar system — the rotation always comes first. Ruling · Rule
- Taking free actions between turns or on someone else’s turn — only on your own turn. Ruling · Rule
- Covering two triggerable mission circles with one action — one trigger, one circle. Ruling · Rule
- Counting the sector-win marker as a signal for card conditions. Ruling · Rule
- Placing both neutral markers at once — a neutral milestone places one marker per player reaching it. Ruling · Rule
- Counting the starting income card’s printed income on the income gold tiles. Ruling · Rule
- Paying an action’s base cost on top of the card that grants it. Ruling · Rule
Showing 59 of 59
Are effects mandatory? Can I choose to ignore a bonus? Official
You must resolve effects, but some offer a choice: you may decline to tuck a card for income, or move a probe 0 spaces. Rotating the solar system, marking signals, taking a tech, gaining resources or points, marking a trace (an overflow space is always available), a main action a card tells you to take, and reached milestones cannot be skipped. An effect you can’t carry out (no card to tuck, no probe to move) is simply skipped.
Source: BGG thread
Do I resolve a card’s or action’s effects from left to right? Official
Yes, that is the intended order; effects without a choice come first. The order that always matters: rotate the solar system before taking a tech.
Source: BGG thread
When exactly can I play free actions? Can they interrupt a main action? Official
Only on your own turn — before, after or in the middle of your main action. A free action can interrupt a main action (for example place the data from a scan, gain publicity, then spend it on the Mercury telescope tech in the same scan), but one free action can’t interrupt another: resolve each completely first.
Source: BGG thread
Can I weave free actions between the steps of my main action? Official
Yes, that is what free actions are for. A tech, though, always rotates the solar system before you take it, so you can’t move a freshly launched probe before that rotation.
Source: BGG thread
Pass action: several times? Official
No. Passing means you are done for the round: one pass, one end-of-round card, then you watch the others finish.
Source: BGG thread
Do players choose their starting income tuck simultaneously? Official
Yes, the intent is simultaneous. Card income always draws random cards from the top of the deck, never from the row.
Source: BGG thread
Do you increase income at the start of every round?
No. At the start of each round you collect the income you have; you increase it only when an effect gives :icon[income] and you tuck a card — which also pays its resource at once.
Source: BGG thread
Can I play a card from the card row instead of my hand?
No. You can only play cards from your hand; take a row card first (3 publicity, or a resource exchange), then play it.
Source: BGG thread
Can I exchange two different resources, say a card and an energy, for one credit? Official
No, only two of the same kind. Alien cards in your hand are cards, so a card and an alien card make a pair — Exertian cards can’t be discarded.
Source: BGG thread
How does ignoring the limit of probes in space work? Official
A card whose launch ignores the limit ignores it for that launch only; later launches respect the limit again.
Source: BGG thread
Can I split the moves from one effect between my probes? Official
Yes. Probes move orthogonally and never into or through the Sun. Visiting the same planet twice in one turn gives publicity twice.
Source: BGG thread
How should a probe behave when it is pushed by the solar rotation while in a gap?
It is pushed into the next space as if the gap weren’t there.
Source: BGG thread
Do I get publicity if the rotation pushes my probe onto a comet? Official
Yes. A probe always earns publicity when it visits such a space, even on someone else’s turn.
Source: BGG thread
Can I discard a card for its move corner without a probe in space? Official
Yes. You don’t need a probe to gain a move effect, and you may always move 0 spaces — handy for missions that trigger on discarding.
Source: BGG thread
Can I land with an orbiter? Official
No. An orbiter stays in orbit for the rest of the game; it can’t return to the solar system board or land.
Source: BGG thread
Do I get the landing discount for an opponent’s orbiter? Official
Yes — any orbiter at that planet makes landing cheaper. Moons count as their planet for discounts, including the landing tech.
Source: BGG thread
Are orbiters and landers still probes for card effects? Official
No. Only figures on the solar system board are probes. To “visit” a planet you must move a probe onto its space; already standing there when you play the card doesn’t count.
Source: BGG thread
Does the marker used to mark the sector’s win count as a signal? Official
No. It only records your win (and covers a better first-win reward). Cards and gold tiles may count your wins, never as signals.
Source: BGG thread
Is marking a signal mandatory, even in a full sector? Official
Yes, and it is always possible: in a full slot you add an excess marker without data.
Source: BGG thread
When do I refill the card row during a scan? Official
After the whole scan. Cards that discard two or three row cards for signals discard them all first, then the row is refilled.
Source: BGG thread
Who wins a sector in case of a tie? Official
The tied player whose marker was placed later.
Source: BGG thread
How do I reset a sector that is won several times?
Each time it completes, the second-placed player leaves one marker on the first space and every other marker returns — so at most one marker stays.
Source: BGG thread
If one player has all the markers in a completed sector, does anyone stay as second?
No. With no second place, the slot refills completely.
Source: BGG thread
Question about Kepler Space Telescope card: can I split its two signals between probes? Official
No. Choose one probe; both signals go in its sector.
Source: BGG thread
James Webb Space Telescope card: one signal or three? Official
Three: one in the sector with your probe and one in each neighbouring sector of that same probe.
Source: BGG thread
When can I use the Analyze data action? Official
When the 6 round top-row spaces are full (and the upper spaces of any computer techs). Lower tech spaces may be empty, and nothing goes on the hexagonal Analyze icon. Analyzing clears every computer space but not your data pool.
Source: BGG thread
Can I put more than one data in my computer per turn?
Yes. Placing data is a free action, and free actions are unlimited on your turn.
Source: BGG thread
Can I place a computer tech in a slot that already holds a tech? Official
No — a tech goes only into an empty slot. A slot holding a data token is fine: slide the tech underneath (no 2 points for it).
Source: BGG thread
Paying costs for main actions when triggered by a card white effect?
No. A card that includes an action replaces that action’s normal cost with the card’s own cost.
Source: BGG thread
Can I cover multiple rewards on triggerable missions at once with a single action? Official
No. One trigger covers one circle, on one card, even when a specific trigger and a generic one both match. Trigger again for the next.
Source: BGG thread
Do mission conditions count other players’ pieces? Official
No. Cards refer to your own pieces and actions unless they say otherwise.
Source: BGG thread
Are move effects in triggerable mission cards mandatory? Official
No. You may move a probe 0 spaces and still mark the circle, even with no probe on the board.
Source: BGG thread
Clarification on Project Longshot card: how far is 5 spaces from Earth? Official
As far as a probe moved 5 spaces from Earth would be — 4 spaces in between.
Source: BGG thread
Identifying mission cards: are Centaurian and Exertian cards missions? Official
No, none of them. Mission cards have the grey band; gold-band cards are end-of-game scoring cards.
Source: BGG thread
How many times do I rotate with a card that shows both a rotation and a tech? Official
Once. The rotation icon is only a reminder that taking a tech rotates first.
Source: BGG thread
Does the launch-during-scan telescope tech cost 2 credits too? Official
No, just the 1 energy — and only during a scan. The plain Launch action still costs 2 credits.
Source: BGG thread
Must computer techs fill the slots left to right? Official
No. Leftmost first is usually better, but if those slots already hold data you may prefer the next empty one to keep the 2-point upper space.
Source: BGG thread
Do I place both neutral markers when I reach a neutral milestone? Official
No, one. The next player to reach it places the next. It goes on the leftmost empty discovery space — the left species first — never on overflow or alien boards.
Source: BGG thread
Passing both neutral milestones on the same turn?
Place one marker from each milestone.
Source: BGG thread
What is the exact timing of resolving milestones? Official
At the end of the turn they were reached, with no free actions after; several players resolve in turn order from the active player. This includes alien milestones.
Source: BGG thread
3 types of income: what counts? Official
Only cards tucked under your income card, not the income printed on it. 4 credit, 2 energy and 3 card incomes make 2 sets. Alien income types don’t count.
Source: BGG thread
Sector win + orbiter/lander: how do I count? Official
Count every win marker (several in one sector count) and every orbiter and lander, moons included; score the smaller number. 4 wins, 2 orbiters and 3 landers make 4 sets.
Source: BGG thread
Do I need to fill the spaces on alien boards in order? Official
No. Mark any free space of the trace’s colour: on either alien board, the discovery spaces or the overflow spaces.
Source: BGG thread
Do I get a discovery reward for marked overflow spaces? Official
No, only the three discovery spaces are rewarded. Overflow and discovery markers do count as traces marked for that species.
Source: BGG thread
Mascamites: publicity when capsule spawns on a publicity icon? Official
No — publicity comes only from moving into a space, not from a capsule appearing on Jupiter or Saturn.
Source: BGG thread
Do leftover exofossils score? Official
No, and they can’t be exchanged for resources.
Source: BGG thread
Can a player at the hand limit gain the Anomalies card?
Yes. The 4-card limit applies only at the moment you pass.
Source: BGG thread
Exertians: crossing the milestone a second time?
No new card: each Exertian milestone works once, like every milestone.
Source: BGG thread
Can I look at my own played Exertian cards?
Yes — they are hidden only from the other players.
Source: BGG thread
Does the rival gain income? Official
No. It has no income card and no starting credits, energy or cards; each income increase moves it 4 spaces on the progress track instead.
Source: BGG thread
Can one action mark both an objective task and a triggerable mission? Official
Yes — objectives and missions are separate, so one trigger can mark one of each.
Source: BGG thread
[Agencies] Can we play 5 rounds with organizations? Official
Not recommended: organizations are balanced for 4 rounds, and a 4-round game with them already lasts about as long as the base game.
Source: BGG thread
[Agencies] Can we play 4 rounds with quick start cards but without organizations? Official
You can, using the base starting income card in place of an organization, but you will reach less than intended and balance suffers.
Source: BGG thread
[Agencies] Do Helion Assembly’s and Cosmos Strategy Group’s abilities count as triggerable missions? Official
No. If one trigger fits both such an ability and a triggerable mission, mark both.
Source: BGG thread
[Agencies] How does the Futurespan Institute’s prepared card work? Official
One prepared card at a time; it leaves your hand and can’t be discarded or tucked. Play it free once your score reaches the token. The once-per-round ability works only while the token is on the track; Centaurian cards can’t be prepared.
Source: BGG thread
[Agencies] Pluto and New Assignment: where does the probe go?
No official answer; players suggest any space of the outer ring.
Source: BGG thread
[Pluto] Can I visit Pluto with a probe? Official
No, it has no space on the solar system board. From any outer-ring space you orbit or land on it at normal cost; only you can, and it holds one orbiter and one lander. It counts as a planet for other effects.
Source: BGG thread
[SA-Promo] What does the Space Agencies promo card’s next-game effect do? Official
Next time you play with quick start cards you are dealt one extra to choose from, still keeping 2 — a small, light-hearted bonus to agree on with your group.
Source: BGG thread
[Mars] Gateway to Mars + Perseverance Rover: two triggers?
Players read playing a Mars card and landing on Mars as two separate triggers, so both circles can be marked. Community reading.
Source: BGG thread