Ark Nova

What kind of game is this

You run a zoo: you build enclosures, bring in animals, and support species conservation projects. Score comes from two directions. Animals raise your appeal, and supporting conservation projects raises your conservation points. Winning is not about pushing one of them as far as it goes — it is about raising both until your two counters meet.

Components

Setup

1. 1Put the game board in the middle and place the Break token on the starting space for your player count. With three players that is the space marked (3).
2. 2Shuffle the 9 Bonus tiles and place one face up on each of the 4 blank yellow spaces on the board. Do not place any on the two yellow spaces that show icons, and return the remaining 5 tiles to the box.
3. 3Shuffle the Zoo cards into a face-down deck on the board and deal 6 cards face down to the display spaces (you turn them up at the end of setup).
4. 4Put the Association board beside the game board and place 1 partner zoo of each continent and 1 university of each kind on it. Leave room above and below it for conservation projects.
5. 5Shuffle the Base Conservation Project cards into a deck and lay out 4 face up in a 4-player game, otherwise 3, below the Association board.
6. 6Shuffle the Final Scoring cards face down next to the Association board. Determine a start player at random; turn order is clockwise.
7. 7Each player takes a random Map A zoo map with that side up (recommended for a first game). Place a 3-space enclosure, empty side up, on the indicated spaces.
8. 8Each player takes a set of 5 Action cards and lays them side I up in the five slots below their map. The Animals card goes in the leftmost slot (strength 1); distribute the other four at random.
9. 9Each player puts their appeal, conservation, and reputation counters on the first space of each track. Appeal alone starts by turn order: the start player on 0, the second player on 1, the third on 2, and the fourth on 3.
10. 10Each player puts 7 player tokens on the spaces along the left edge of their map, stands 1 association worker on the notepad as the active worker with the other 3 lying down below it, and takes 25 money.
11. 11Each player draws 2 Final Scoring cards and keeps them hidden, then draws 8 Zoo cards, keeping 4 as their hand and discarding 4 to the discard pile. Once everyone has chosen, reveal the 6 cards of the display.

A turn — one Action card goes back to slot 1

Ark Nova has no rounds. Players simply take one turn each in clockwise order, with breaks cutting in along the way. All you do on your turn is choose one Action card and take that action.

1. 1Choose one Action card from the five slots below your map. The number of the slot it sits in is its strength.
2. 2Shift the card down to show it is being used, and perform the action with that strength.
3. 3When the action is done, remove the card from its slot and shift every card to the left of the now-empty slot one slot to the right.
4. 4Place the used card in slot 1. To use that action at strength again, you have to wait for it to be pushed back up the row.

• There is no «do nothing» action. Playing 0 Animal cards or building 0 buildings is not allowed.
• If you cannot or do not want to take any of the 5 actions, take the X-token action: choose any card, move it to slot 1, and take 1 X-token. The slot number contributes nothing here, and you cannot take it at all if you already hold 5.
• Effects that say «after finishing» are resolved only once you have completed the action including moving the Action card to slot 1. If several apply, you choose the order.

The five actions and their upgrades

• Upgrading only flips the card. It stays in the slot it is in, and you use side II from your next action onward.
• Upgrading during an action does not apply to that action. It does, however, count immediately for any requirement check that asks whether the card is upgraded.
• Bonuses gained during an action, on the other hand, can be used within that same action. You may raise your reputation to gain an extra association worker and then use that worker for the next task.

The Cards action — the display and reputation range

The game board holds 6 face-up cards on numbered folders — this is the display. The folder your reputation counter sits on, and every lower-numbered folder, is within your range. The higher your reputation, the more cards you can reach.

• Drawing from the deck: draw as many cards as the table printed on the card allows for your strength, up to 3. Then you may have to discard 1 card from your hand — it may be one you just drew.
• Snapping: at or above the minimum strength shown on the card, instead of drawing several you take exactly 1 card from the display. You may take any card regardless of your reputation.
• Whether you draw or snap, first advance the Break token 2 spaces. You gain no money for that movement.
• Replenish the display only after your turn is completely finished. Slide the higher-numbered cards down without changing their order, then fill the empty folders from the deck.
• You may hold any number of cards after this action. You only reduce to your hand limit (normally 3) during the break.
• When your reputation counter lands on a space with a bonus beside it, take it immediately and only once. Raising reputation to 10 or more requires the upgraded Cards action.
• The Reputation track ends at space 15. If you are on 15 and gain more reputation, each remaining step becomes 1 appeal instead.
• You may not look through the discard pile during the game.

Building — attach it, and keep kiosks apart

• A building costs its size × 2. A 3-space enclosure costs 6, a 5-space one costs 10. Pay before you place it.
• A new building must touch an existing one along at least one edge. Only your first building is different: at least one of its spaces has to sit on a border space of your map.
• Build on empty spaces only. Buildings may not run off the map, overlap another building, or cover water or rock spaces.
• A kiosk pays income every break. A pavilion raises your appeal by 1 immediately, once.
• Place a standard enclosure with its empty side (yellow edge) up. You flip it when an animal moves in.
• Covering a placement bonus (+) pays it immediately and once. When you build several buildings you build them one at a time and take each bonus as it comes, so money you just gained can pay for the next building.
• With the upgrade you build several buildings per action, but never two identical ones — each must be different and their total size must not exceed your strength.
• The upgrade also opens the ! spaces. Covering every space except water and rock immediately gains you 7 appeal.

The Animals action — enclosure first, animal second

1. 1Check conditions — you can only play the card if you meet every condition down its left side (a particular partner zoo, an animal category, continent icons, and so on).
2. 2Pay the cost — the figure in the card's upper-left corner. A partner zoo on that animal's continent cuts it by 3 per continent icon on the card. Even if a card pays you for playing the animal, you must be able to pay the full cost first.
3. 3Fill an empty enclosure — the number in the hexagon is the minimum enclosure size. Put the animal in an empty standard enclosure of that size or larger and flip the enclosure over. Any water or rock adjacency requirement has to be met too.
4. 4Place the card — put the Animal card beside your map. You may overlap your cards, since everything you still need is printed along the top.
5. 5Execute effects — advance your appeal by the amount on the card. Some animals also grant conservation points or reputation. Anything not marked «after finishing» resolves immediately.

• There are 7 animal categories: bird, herbivore, predator, primate, reptile, bear, and Petting Zoo animal. Bear and Petting Zoo animal are special cases, so their icons are black on white.
• Whenever a rule asks for animal categories, that includes bears and Petting Zoo animals. If they are meant to be left out, the card says so explicitly.
• The three special enclosures are the Petting Zoo, Reptile House, and Large Bird Aviary, and your zoo may hold only one of each. You never flip a special enclosure; you mark how many of its spaces are used with your player tokens.
• Petting Zoo animals can never go in a standard enclosure. All reptiles and some birds, by contrast, may go in either a standard or a special enclosure.
• Water and rock adjacency requirements apply to special enclosures just the same.
• When you build a Reptile House or Large Bird Aviary, you may move animals already in your zoo into it on the spot. This chance comes only at that moment, and if several animals qualify you decide about each one separately.
• For each animal moved, flip back the smallest occupied standard enclosure that meets all of that animal's requirements, water and rock included. In the rare case there is none, flip the smallest occupied enclosure that at least meets the size requirement; if there is no such enclosure either, flip none.
• Water or rock depicted on a unique building or a printed enclosure does not satisfy a water or rock requirement.

The Association action — four tasks and a donation

To carry out an association task you need at least 1 active association worker on your notepad. Send it to the matching task on the Association board. If one of your workers is already there you must send 2, and if three of yours are there you cannot take that task at all for now. Workers in other colors do not matter.

• From your third partner zoo onward, your Association action must be upgraded. That requirement is printed on the zoo map rather than the card, so it applies no matter how you obtain the zoo — via a Bonus tile or Sponsor card included. The same goes for Build: without that upgrade, a building gained from a Sponsor card or Bonus tile still cannot go on a ! space.
• A partner zoo cuts the cost of animals from its continent by 3 per continent icon, and grants 1 icon of that continent. The rare animal with two continent icons is therefore 6 cheaper. The conditions down the left side of a card never count as icons.
• Universities raise your reputation and grant research icons, and are the only way to raise your hand limit to 5.
• To support a conservation project you must meet a condition that has no player token on it yet. Each player may support a given project only once.
• When you support one, take a player token from the left edge of your map and place it on that condition. The bonus under the token you lifted activates at once, and some of them pay out again every break.
• Playing a new Conservation Project card puts it on the leftmost space above the Association board, sliding the others right. If that exceeds your player count's limit (2, 3, or 4), discard the rightmost card. The base projects below the board never move and are never added to.
• A project that releases an animal into the wild works differently: instead of collecting icons you discard 1 animal with the named icon that requires the named standard enclosure size. Move your appeal counter back by that animal's appeal, then take the conservation points — you lose appeal first and gain conservation second.

The Sponsors action

• Play exactly 1 Sponsor card from your hand. Your strength must be at least the card's level, and you must meet the conditions on its left side.
• Resolve its instant and recurring effects, then place it beside your map. Some sponsors let you put a unique building into your zoo.
• Alternatively, advance the Break token by your strength and take that much money. You take the full amount even if the token reaches the last space before using all those steps.
• Upgraded, you play several cards: strength + 1 must be at least the sum of their levels. You may play from the display too (within range, paying the folder number extra), and choosing the Break token option pays double.
• What the card colors mean: a yellow background at the lower left is a one-off effect on play, a blue band at the top is a recurring effect, purple means income every break, and a brown background at the lower right is an effect during final scoring.
• When a Sponsor card's effect refers to «an icon», the card's own icon counts. Only the icons in the upper-right corner are counted, with rock and water icons in the upper-left corner as the exception.

The break — six steps

A break happens when the Break token reaches the last space of the Break track. Whoever put it there gains 1 X-token, finishes their current turn, and then everyone goes through the steps below. Any steps past the end of the track are ignored.

1. 1Hand card limit — discard down to your limit. It is normally 3, or 5 if you hold a particular university.
2. 2Tokens on Action cards — return any Multiplier, Venom, and Constriction tokens sitting on your Action cards to the supply. They stop having any effect.
3. 3Association board — all your association workers return to your notepad and become active again. Replenish partner zoos and universities so exactly one of each kind is available again; there is no need to replenish what every player already has.
4. 4Replenish the display — discard the two cards on folders 1 and 2, slide the rest down, and refill from the deck.
5. 5Take income — the three sources below. Usually everyone takes it simultaneously, but when order matters (several players taking a card from the display, say) take it clockwise starting from whoever triggered the break.
6. 6Break track — return the Break token to the starting space for your player count.

Game end and final scoring

If, at the end of your turn or during a break, your conservation counter and appeal counter are in the same scoring area or have passed one another, the end of the game is triggered. A scoring area is one space of the Conservation track together with the adjacent spaces of the Appeal track.

1. 1Trigger — if it happened at the end of your turn, every other player but you takes one more turn. If it happened during a break, everyone including you takes one more turn.
2. 2Score cards — add the appeal and conservation points from your Final Scoring cards and from every card with an end-of-game icon. If no player ever reached 10 conservation points, everyone discards one Final Scoring card first.
3. 3Determine Victory Points — read the little white number in the space your conservation counter occupies and add the value of your appeal counter. That sum is your score.

Strategy that follows straight from the rules

• Pushing one side alone cannot win. Appeal at 113 does nothing if your conservation counter is still far away, and the reverse is just as true. Your score is the conservation space's white number plus your appeal, so both have to grow.
• There are only four upgrades. Since you can never upgrade all five cards, it pays to decide which two or three to grow early, based on your opening hand and your map.
• An Action card dropping back to slot 1 means using an action hard costs you that action for a while. Cycling all five evenly is the baseline rhythm, and X-tokens are how you break it once.
• Enclosures come before animals. Hoarding Animal cards with nowhere to put them is dead weight; building enclosures and never filling them gains no appeal.
• A partner zoo cuts that continent's animals by 3 per icon. If your hand is stacked with one continent, spending strength 3 to get it early pays well.
• A kiosk pays for every building sharing an edge with it. Planting one where the map will later fill in earns interest every break — but kiosks must stay 3 spaces apart.
• Supporting a conservation project at a lower level is often still worth it: lifting a player token from your map can open a bonus that pays out every break, so the earlier you do it the more it returns.
• «Release into the wild» takes appeal away first and gives conservation second. It is a way to draw the two counters together, but a lower appeal also means less income each break.

Choosing maps · solo play · expansions

• With the advanced maps, either take 2 at random and choose 1, or lay out player count + 1 and choose one each in reverse turn order. Unselected maps go back in the box.
• If an experienced player is teaching beginners, Map 0 gives a small head start and Map A a larger one.

Rules people get wrong

History and editions

• It won the 2021 Golden Geek Award for Best Heavy Game and the 2022 Deutscher Spiele Preis, and was up for the 2022 Kennerspiel des Jahres. — wiki cross-check
• Its overall BGG rank rose from 4th in July 2024 to 3rd in December of the same year. — wiki cross-check
• A digital adaptation, «Ark Nova Digital», arrived in 2025. — wiki cross-check