Darwin's Journey

Use the board side for your player count and prepare Special Actions, Correspondence, and 5 Beagle goals. Each player starts with 4 available workers, 3 Crew cards, one silver and one golden starting Objective, 4 Coins, and 1 Temporary Knowledge token. Unlock the fifth worker through its golden Objective reward.

Play 5 rounds, each with Action, Turn Order, Reward, and Cleanup phases. In turn order, place one worker on a legal main-board location and perform its actions; players without workers pass. Multiple action icons can usually be resolved in your chosen order, using earlier benefits to pay for later actions.

The particular worker placed must meet the location’s wax-seal colors and quantities. Purple seals are wild; spend Temporary Knowledge to cover placement requirements, but keep ordinary seals. Academy actions buy seals, paying both Scroll and personal-board costs. A worker’s fourth and sixth seals grant silver and golden distinctions.

Entering a Diary Section already containing any worker normally costs 3 Coins with two players or 2 with three or four, regardless of how many workers are there. Circular magnifying glasses accept several workers, unlocked Lens spaces only one; square and rectangular areas accept several without this placement penalty.

An unlock action pays the cost to place a personal Lens and immediately performs that location’s actions without another worker or its seal requirements. Everyone may subsequently use it. When another player later places a worker on your Lens, take 1 Coin from the supply; that opponent does not pay you an extra Coin.

Navigation moves your Ship, adding an Explorer to a new island when you cross its silver banner. Exploration moves one Explorer, skipping intermediate spaces occupied by opponents. A specimen action places a Research token on your board. Ordinary delivery requires a researched specimen absent from the Museum; its row and column’s empty and filled spaces determine benefits.

Correspondence moves the indicated Stamps from your board to a single Envelope; emptying stacks activates their rewards. At round end, score Envelopes top to bottom. First and second place take their actions; ties grant full rewards and tied first place does not cancel second. Players who actually perform a majority-reward action remove half their Stamps there, rounded up.

Objectives require meeting conditions without spending the listed assets, though their personal-board slots can cost Coins. Complete a Crew card with seals in a single worker’s row, at most one Crew card per worker. Purple seals count for Crew, not Objectives or regular-color Beagle goals; Temporary Knowledge counts for neither Crew nor Objectives.

Score the current Beagle goal each round, subtracting lagging penalties for ships behind the Beagle, to a minimum of zero. After rounds 1–4, retrieve workers, advance the Beagle, and refresh tiles. After round 5 add personal-board Objective, seal, and campsite points, one point per 5 Coins and per Temporary Knowledge, and Evolution books multiplied by 2 plus completed Museum rows. Highest score wins; multiplayer ties compare Evolution position, then Coins, then share victory.