The goal of Crafting the Cosmos is to have the most victory points at the end of the game.

The game is played in a series of rounds. Each round consists of each player taking a turn, which is then followed by a shared end phase. A player’s turn consists of 2 phases: energy and craft. Each player will take turns in sequence.

1. The first player takes their turn by moving energy on the main board and gaining resources.

2. They then spend their resources to craft their galaxy. 3. Gameplay proceeds with the next player in clockwise turn order, repeating steps 1 and 2.

Once all players have taken a turn, there is an end phase where all players will score universal goals and prepare for the next round.

Energy Phase

During the energy phase, perform the following 2 steps: shift energy and collect resources.

1. Shift Energy

Move energy tokens around the controls on the main board to gain resources for crafting your cosmos. Each control is a single space that can hold a maximum of 3 energy tokens.

• You must move your energy token at least 1 space. (It does not have to be the first token you move.)

• You may move only your energy token and dark energy tokens.

• You may move energy tokens a combined total of 3 spaces.

• Energy tokens must move clockwise.

• Skip any control that is full (i.e., has 3 energy tokens).

2. Collect Resources

Gain the resources from the 1 active control space with your energy token and then from all 4 of the passive control spaces.

Active vs. Passive Rewards

Active Reward: Indicated on the left side of the control. Receive all of the resources for the control where your energy token is (matching your player color).

Passive Rewards: Indicated on the right side of the control. Gain resources equal to the total number of energy tokens in each control, regardless of whose energy tokens are there (your energy token, your opponent’s energy token, or dark energy tokens). If there are no energy tokens in a control, you do not get any of those resources.

When collecting resources, start with your active rewards, then collect the passive rewards from the control with your energy token. Finally, move clockwise around the control spaces, collecting the rest of your passive rewards. Important: Finish taking all of your resources during the energy phase before beginning the craft phase and placing resources or taking actions.

Nebulae

Surround a nebula with specific types of stars to complete it and score points. Gain: Draw 1 from the size 1, size 2, or size 3 stack and keep it near your player board.

Stars

Required to complete a nebula. Gain: Take the appropriate stars from the reserve and keep them near your player board.

Supernovae

Convert regular stars into powerful wild stars. Gain: Increase your supernova slider once per resource gained.

Time Crystals

Accumulate time crystals to gain extra stars and score points. Gain: Slide a time crystal up your time chamber track. When you reach the sixth space of your time chamber track, take a new time crystal token from the supply, place it on the 0 space of the track, and then continue gaining crystals, if applicable. Take a new time crystal token only when you reach the sixth space of the track. (See page 12 for the discharge time chamber action.)

Energy Cards

Spend energy cards to gain power cards, activate power cards, and score points. Gain: Draw cards from the faceup energy card display or facedown energy card deck. New faceup cards are revealed at the end of each player’s energy phase until there are 4 faceup cards again. (They are not refilled after each card is taken.) There is an energy card hand limit of 10 that is checked during the end phase (see page 16). If the deck becomes depleted, shuffle the energy card discard pile to form a new deck.

Proto Life

Surround a completed nebula with proto life to gain valuable advanced life. Gain: Take life tokens from the supply with the proto life (purple) side faceup and keep them near your player board.

DNA

Convert fragile proto life into robust stable life. Gain: Increase your DNA slider once per resource gained.

Graviton

Spend gravitons to perform move actions with stars or life. Gain: Increase your graviton slider once per resource gained.

Craft phase

Once a player has collected all of their resources (during the energy phase), they spend them during the craft phase in any order to craft their galaxy. They may take placement actions, scoring actions, energy card actions, and resource slider actions in any order. Players must place all of their nebulae, stars, and proto life before the end of their turn or they are lost.

Nebulae

You may place a nebula into any empty nebula space on your player board, element side up. You may look at the element side before choosing where to place it. The larger the nebula the more stars you will need to complete it and the more points it will be worth. (See page 12 for rules on completing nebulae.)

Proto Life

You must place proto life adjacent to existing life on an empty life space of your player board, purple side up. In the rare case that you have no life on your board, place any new life on the starting life space. (See page 13 for rules on creating advanced life.)

Stars

You may place a star on any empty star space of your player board. There are 4 standard types of stars: hydrogen ( ), helium ( ), carbon ( ), and oxygen ( ).

You may perform any of the following 3 actions at any time and in any order during your craft phase if you meet the requirement.

Complete a Nebula

Requirement: The nebula is next to a matching quantity of stars that are rich in the elements the nebula requires.

Reminder: Supernovae are wild. A supernova may count as any single type of star when completing a nebula.

• Gain the points indicated on the nebula tile.
• Discard 1 star touching the nebula to the supply. (You choose the star, and you may choose a supernova.)

• Flip over the nebula tile to its completed side. You may complete each nebula once.

Note: You do not need any life present to complete a nebula. (See page 13 for scoring advanced life.)

Discharge Time Chamber

Requirement: Have a time crystal token on the 6 spot of your time chamber track.

• Gain 1 star token ( , , , or ) and place it on any open star space.
• Move the time crystal token to the rightmost scoring space.
• Gain victory points based on the number on the scoring space (1: 3 points; 2: 6 points; 3: 10

points; 4: 15 points; 5: 21 points). After you have filled your time chamber 5 times, future discharge time chamber actions will earn you a star but not score additional points.

Example: At the start of the round, the cyan player has 4 time crystals. A This turn, they gain 3 more time crystals. They slide their time crystal token up 2 spaces to the top of the time chamber track and then B grab a new crystal from the supply and place it on the 0 space of the time chamber. C They then slide it up 1 more space to gain their third crystal. D At any point during their craft phase, they can slide the crystal at the top of their time chamber over to the 6-point space to gain 6 points on their score track and gain a star.

Create Advanced Life

Requirement: Have 6 life tokens (any combination of proto and stable) surrounding a completed nebula tile without an advanced life token already on it.

• Discard all of the proto life tokens surrounding this nebula. (The stable life tokens all stay.)

• Draw 1 advanced life token from the top of the advanced life stack and place it facedown on the nebula.

Example: The player has 6 life tokens surrounding a completed nebula tile and decides to form advanced life. They discard all of the proto life tokens (3) around the nebula. Finally, they draw 1 advanced life token and place it facedown on the nebula

Energy Cards

Players can spend energy cards in 3 ways during the craft phase. After you spend energy cards, place them in a central discard pile near the draw deck. You do not need to use all of your energy cards each round. You may keep up to 10 energy cards. (See page 16 regarding hand limit.)

1. Players can discard matching sets of energy cards to add power cards to their galaxy. (See sidebar.)

2. Players can also discard energy cards to activate many power cards based on their costs. (Some power cards have costs in addition to energy cards.) You can activate power cards during the craft phase only. You may use a power card as often as you can afford to.

3. Players can discard 5 matching energy cards to gain 6 points. You can perform this action multiple times if you have enough matching energy cards.

Example: The magenta player decides to fill their second power card slot. A They discard 3 matching energy cards (3 light energy cards). B They draw 3 cards from the matching power card deck (light) and choose 1. They choose “Relativity Δ.” C They place it in their second power card slot. Next, they take their power token from the slot and place it in the light control on the main board.

GAINING POWER CARDS

The cost to gain a power card is indicated by the slots on your player board. The first power card costs 2 matching energy cards. The second costs 3, the third also costs 3, and the fourth costs 4 matching energy cards.

To gain a power card, you will draw a number of power cards equal to the number of matching energy cards you spent. Always draw from the power card deck matching the type of energy cards used. Next, keep 1 power card and place the others in any order on the bottom of the matching power card deck. When you gain a power card, place the power token from that power card slot on the main board as a reminder for future energy phases (i.e., if you gain a time power card, place the marker in the time control of the main board as a reminder to gain an additional resource each energy phase). You still gain resources if no energy tokens are in the control.

You can fill your power card slots in any order. You can gain multiple power cards in a single turn if you have enough energy cards. If you have no open slots, you cannot gain a new power card with this action.

UNIVERSAL GOALS

Points are awarded to the players who have the most of the resources specified by the universal goal card: 1st place scores 6 points, and 2nd place scores 3 points. If players are tied for 1st place, they each score 6 points, and no player scores 2nd place points. If players are tied for 2nd place, they each score 3 points. Then discard the universal goal card.

You must have at least 1 of the contested resource to be able to score from a universal goal. If no players are able to score the goal, the goal is still discarded.

For the purposes of universal goals, supernovae count as stars but count only as their own type. They cannot be counted as any other type of star (i.e., they could count for your continuous stream of stars but not as a carbon star). (See pages 18–19 for a complete reference of universal goal cards.)

Game End

The game ends after the end phase if the time crystal tokens in the supply are depleted or if the last universal goal card is scored. Each player flips over their advanced life tokens and adds those victory points to their score track. Whoever has the most points wins. In the case of a tie, whoever has the most energy cards left in hand is the winner. If there is still a tie, the tied players share the victory.

Example: It is the end phase and time to award points for the universal goal, which is for the most proto life. The magenta player and the cyan player each have 7 proto life tokens. The violet player has 3 proto life tokens. Magenta and cyan each score 6 points, and violet scores 0

LINK https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/292899/crafting-the-cosmos-rulebook