Replicants!

How to play:

Contents & Rules

Each copy of Replicants! comes with a total of 196 cards and a cute box, that is a replicant who's purpose is storing the contents of the game.

• 4 double sided reference/rules cards

• 16 Field Resource Cards (all 4 resources on the back, and a single resource on the front, 4 of each resource)

• 92 double sided Resource cards (23 of each of the 4 resources)

• 24 Drone cards (4 drones for each of the 6 Hives, or players)

• 60 Replicants

This card is the back of the Field Resource Deck Cards it shows all 4 Resources used in Replicants.

Pink = Nanites

Yellow = Power

Green = Hardware

Blue = Software

The front of each Field Resource Deck Card has one of the corresponding resources on it. There are a total of 4 of each to make up the 16 card deck that will be dealt out each round to produce the Resource Field.

There are also 23 of each double sided resource cards which simply have one of these 4 resources on both sides. These will be collected when you place your drones during the Drone Phase, spent to upgrade Replicants during the Build phase or to just discard during the Discard phase if you did not end up spending them.

These are the 6 Drones, each player will pick 1 and take the 4 drones with that image. (Click on any of them to go to their lore section and read the story of that Hive.)

Game Setup

To start the game each player takes the 4 Drone cards that correspond to the hive they will be playing (all 4 drones will look exactly the same, and the specific Hive you play has no in game effect. They are just different images that allow the players to differentiate which cards are theirs.)

Divide the 92 double sided resource cards into 4 separate piles so that each pile only has one type of resource in it.

Each player is then dealt 5 Replicant cards. They will choose one to put into play at L4, 1 to discard and the remaining 3 will go into play at L1.

Place the discarded Replicants at the bottom of the Replicant Deck and set the Replicant Deck aside (New Replicants will be drawn from the top of this deck each time a Replicant reaches L3. Some will also draw from this deck at L4. The back of a Replicant card looks like the card below. Cards in the Replicant deck will be face down and not revealed until someone draws the next one.

Play Order

Each turn of the game consists of 6 Phases.

• Determine 1st Player

• Replenish Resources

• Place Drones

• Build

• Discard

• End of Turn

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Most Replicants will have L4 abilities that happen before, on or after one of these phases.

Determine 1st Player

On the first turn, randomly decide who goes first. Every subsequent turn first player will be whoever has the fewest total points. In the case of a tie, first player will be the first member of the tie to the left of last turn's first player. Ex: If you were 2 spots to the left of me and I was first player last turn, but this turn you and I are both tied for last, you would end up first player this turn.

Replenish Phase

During the Replenish Phase shuffle the Field Resource Deck, and deal out cards on an x and y axis that corresponds with this image. Example: in a 4 player game you would deal out 4 cards on the x axis and 4 cards on the y axis.

Note: If any given resource is not out after dealing these cards, then replace the last placed, most populous resource with a new card from the top of the Field Resource deck. If there are still any resources not represented, again replace the last placed, most populous resource with a new card. Repeat until there are at least 1 of each of the 4 resources out.

Example: There are 4 Nanites, 1 Power, and 3 Hardware out but no Software. You would then discard the last dealt card that was a Nanite and deal another resource. If the new card is a Software then this phase is now complete. If it was any of the other 3, lets say a Power, then you would, in this case, discard the last Nanite or Hardware placed, and deal another Resource. Once all 4 Resources are represented, the phase is over. This happens very rarely in games of 4 or more players, but usually happens at least once a game in 2-3 player games, as the field is smaller.

Drone Phase

During the Drone Phase, the first player will place their drone on the Resource Field, like in the image above. They will then take the corresponding resources from there respective resource piles. In this case the player would take one Software and one Hardware. Each player will take turns placing a drone and collecting the corresponding resources until all players have placed all 4 of their Drones. The Drone Phase is complete after the last Drone has been placed and the corresponding Resources collected.

Most Replicant L4 Abilities happen after Drone Phase. These will say "After Drone" In pink lettering. It should be noted that Produced Resources are the Resources you gain during the Drone Phase. Gained Resources are Resources you gain in other ways, like from Replicant Abilities. This means that you can not count the resources gained from one Replicant to get the bonus for another Replicant. This will be discussed further in the Build Phase below.

Build Phase

During the build phase you will spend the Resources you have collected during the round to level up any Replicants you can. Any given Replicant may be leveled up 1 time per turn, and gaining a new Replicant counts as it gaining its first level.

Using the Replicant below, you will see in the top right corner is L1, this is its current level. In the center top it says Enlightenment by Eden Inc. Those are the Replicant's name and the original inventor (these are just flavor text.) Below that there is a line and below that are 2 resource icons. Those are the 2 resources you need to spend in order to level up this Replicant. All Replicants require 2 resources in order to be raised from level 1 to 2. When you level up this Replicant to level 2 you will discard 1 Power and 1 Hardware that you collected this turn, placing them back in their respective resource piles.

Once you have done that you will rotate it counter clockwise so that the L2 is in the top right corner. You will note that there is now a red 1VP in the top left corner. This Replicant is now worth 1 point towards your end goal. You will also note that below the line are now 4 resource icons. This means you now need to collect 2 power and 2 Hardware in a single turn to level up this specific Replicant.

Each time a Replicant reaches level 3, that player gets to draw another Replicant from the Replicant Deck. All Level 3 Repliacnts are worth 3VP towards their end goal (they do not stack with their lower levels, as the point totals have already been added together. Ultimately the point total on a Replicant equals half the total number of Resources spent to reach the current level.) And now, in order to level up a replicant one last time you will need a total of 6 specific resources gathered in a single round. In this example you need 1 Nanite, 2 Power, 2 Hardware and 1 Software.

Upon reaching Level 4 a Replicant is now worth 6VP and gains a power. If the text is only white (like the Gain a Replicant of L3) then the ability happens immediately upon leveling and only once. Usually the first line will be in pink. In this example it says After Drone. This indicates that every turn, After the Drone Phase, do as it says. Here it says if you Produced at least 1 Power, Gain a Hardware. Meaning that if one of your Drones produced at least one Power you get to collect an extra Hardware. It is important to note that Pink abilities may only be used once each turn. So you do not get to gain more than one Hardware if you produce more than one Power. But if you have 2 abilities that have the same trigger (Example: this and another Replicant that says if you Produced at least 1 Power gain 1 Software), then they both trigger even if you only produced 1 Power.

Discard

Discard all remaining Resources to their respective Resource piles

End Turn

At the End of the turn, everyone gathers their Drones, someone picks up the Resource Field cards and shuffles them back into the Resource Field Deck. Everyone then does a count on their current VP totals. If someone has 36 or more points, the game is over. If not, start the next turn by determining first player.

End Game

The Game is over at the end of a round in which at least one player's total VP is 36 or higher. In the case multiple people end up with more than 36, then the game goes to the player with the highest score. If they are tied, then it goes to the person with the most L4 Replicants. If still a tie, most L3, then L2, then total Replicants. If it is still a tie at that point, then accept the tie... Or duel to the death*

*Don't kill your friends, or even non friends that you are gaming with. You need them for further play throughs of this game and others.

USC Info:

In the U.S.C. Expansion you will pick your favorite hive and join the effort to make the system a better place for all Replicants.

Game play, for the most part, is similar to the core game (which is required to play the expansion.)

Like in the core game, you will deal out a resource grid each round, and place your drones to collect resources. But between those two phases, you now have a Station phase. During the Station phase, you will get to move your two personnel around the station to access the functions of the different rooms. Room functions consist of things like: build new rooms, resource discounts when leveling up new replicants, buying points, and more.

After the Drone phase, you still spend the resources you produced or gained to level up your Replicants. However, instead of discarding any unused resources from your hand at the end of the round, you now send them off to your locker on the space station. Once resources are in your locker, you may not use them for leveling up your replicants, but they can be used for activating any functions on the station.