Star Realms: Frontiers

Goal and scope: Frontiers is a standalone deck-building game for 1–4 players. In standard combat, reduce an opponent's Authority to zero to win; multiplayer formats follow their own team and targeting rules. In solo or cooperative play, use a Challenge card to fight a Boss and satisfy its stated objective. The box contains 152 cards: an 80-card Trade Deck, 8 oversized Challenge cards, starting decks, Explorers, and scorecards. Other expansions and Command Decks are outside this base setup.

Standard setup: Each player takes a 10-card starter deck of 8 Scouts and 2 Vipers and starts at 50 Authority. Place the 16 Explorers in a separate public pile, shuffle the Trade Deck, and leave space for the shared Scrap Heap, separate from each personal Discard Pile. Reveal five cards to form the Trade Row. In a two-player game, randomly choose who goes first; the first player draws three cards for the first turn and the second player draws five. Later turns normally draw five. Set Challenge cards aside unless choosing a solo or cooperative game.

Turn sequence: Players alternate turns. Each turn has a Main Phase, Discard Phase, and Draw Phase. During the Main Phase, play cards, use Primary abilities of Bases in play, use Ally or Scrap abilities of Ships and Bases, acquire cards with Trade, and attack with Combat in any order. These actions may be repeated as often as permitted. During Discard, lose unused Trade and Combat, discard Ships from play and remaining hand cards; during Draw, draw five new cards.

Cards, abilities and factions: A Ship’s Primary ability resolves when played. Choose when to use a Base’s Primary ability during your own Main Phase; each ability is usable once per turn, not repeatedly. Bases remain across turns. Two same-faction cards in play trigger the relevant Ally abilities regardless of play order; Double Ally needs two other cards, making three in total. Triggering and using are separate: while the ability’s card remains in play, a triggered Ally ability may be used later in that Main Phase. Hand, discard and teammate cards do not supply your faction count. Authority can exceed its starting fifty.

Buying and deck cycling: Spend Trade during the Main Phase to acquire a card from the Trade Row or an Explorer. Put the new card in your Discard Pile; acquiring it is not playing it, so buying alone does not resolve its abilities. When a card is acquired or scrapped from the Trade Row, immediately reveal a replacement to keep five cards available. If you need to draw five but your deck is short, draw the remaining cards, shuffle your Discard Pile into a new deck, and draw the rest. A later draw effect in this same turn can shuffle and draw a newly bought card, which can then be played normally; there is no blanket prohibition until a future turn. Scrapped cards go to the Scrap Heap and do not return to your deck.

Combat, Bases, and defense: Combat can be spent on any number of attacks during your Main Phase. Attacking a player reduces their Authority by the amount spent. Destroying a Base requires spending at least its Defense in one turn; the Base is then destroyed and placed in its owner's Discard Pile. Partial damage is removed at the end of the turn. An Outpost protects its owner from direct attacks and protects their non-Outpost Bases from attack or targeting until every Outpost is destroyed.

Scrapping and cleanup: A Ship or Base with a Scrap icon may be removed from play during the Main Phase to its Scrap Heap for its Scrap ability. If another effect scraps a card, that card does not gain its own Scrap ability. At the end of the Main Phase, unused Trade and Combat are lost. Ships and leftover hand cards go to the Discard Pile, while Bases stay in play. Authority gained from card effects increases the score; damage reduces it. At zero or lower Authority, a player is eliminated or the game ends according to the selected format.

Multiplayer with one box: Free-for-All and Hunter support three or four with the supplied decks; opening hands are three/four/five by seat. Free-for-All permits any targets and last survivor wins. Hunter attacks only the player to the left and Bases to either side; after elimination the next left player becomes the target. Four-player Two-Headed Hydra has 75 shared Authority per team and simultaneous team phases. Each player keeps a separate play area, but Trade and Combat can transfer within the team; Ally counts remain individual. Raid has one human Boss against the Raiders, unlike automated challenges. Six-player Emperor or Three-Headed Hydra require extra starting cards beyond this box.

Solo and co-op: Select a challenge and read both sides of its oversized card plus the matching manual section before setting players, Authority, decks and team rules. Most allow 1–4 players, but Defy the Empire allows only 1–3. Common difficulty gives players three/two/one turns before the Boss, or lets the Boss start; a challenge’s own difficulty table overrides this. Once per entire challenge, one player may scrap the whole Trade Row during a Main Phase and refill it; this is not once per player. Follow the Boss script. Normal Boss attacks prioritize a legal lethal hit on the highest-Authority defeatable player, then destroyable Outposts and other Bases, then the lowest-Authority player, always respecting Outpost protection. Victory objectives vary. Among destroyable Bases choose the highest Defense, then highest cost, then randomly if tied. Spend only the minimum Combat needed for each lethal hit or destruction.