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Tips daybreak

2025-06-06T00:55:21Z

Kitty4777: /* Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards) */ added fan created google sheet list of cards

=== Symbol Terminology: ===
Refer to the '''Symbol Terminology''' section later in the guide for a list of terms and symbol explanations (tags, resilience, etc.). Use '''CTRL+F''' to search for unfamiliar terms.

=== Finding Card Information: ===
You can look up card details in two ways:<ol style="
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<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">Click the "?" in the bottom left corner of any card to open its dedicated page on https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards, which provides an in-depth breakdown. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">Hover over a card for a quick description. ''Tip: You can view "buried/tucked" cards this way, useful when discarding the top layer of a stack..''</li><li style="list-style-type:decimal;">List of all cards (Fan created) - [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vcwCeUuMxzXbT3QUkF4Tk0rTmTtf2SNeACxVuStc0yU/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vcwCeUuMxzXbT3QUkF4Tk0rTmTtf2SNeACxVuStc0yU]</li>
</ol>

===Game End===
Winning Conditions
<ul class="bulletlist" style="
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<li>Reduce '''Net Carbon''' to '''-1''' (visible under the world map).</li>
<li>Survive a '''final crisis round.'''</li>
</ul>

Optional Challenge Cards
<ul class="bulletlist" style="
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<li>If '''Global or Local Challenge Cards''' are active, their conditions must be met for the game to end.</li>
<li>If you want a more extended game, consider adding challenge cards (hard or variable).</li>
</ul>

=== General Tips ===

<li>Use the '''chat''' to '''communicate''' so your teammates are on the same page:
</li>

<li></li>

===Understanding Cards===
Card Mechanics

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<li>The 5 starting local projects cards are fixed based on the country you play as. </li>
<li>Discarded global project cards are reshuffled once the deck is depleted. Discarding good cards allows them to be '''redrawn''' later by a player when the deck is reshuffled. </li> </ul>Frequency of Use & Card Retention<ul class="bulletlist" style="
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<li>'''"Once per round"''' effects can be triggered both at the '''end''' of a round and the '''beginning''' of the next.</li>
<li>You can '''keep cards in your hand between rounds''', potentially activating them twice before covering them. </li>
<li>Cards '''without''' "once per round" may be used multiple times, or '''as many times as resource availability allows.''' </li>
<li>Before ending your round, '''maximize card effects'''-limited-use cards display '''X/X''', in the bottom right corner to track usage. </li>
<li>Avoid holding onto cards that can't be utilized immediately or in the short-term - they may be better '''tucked''' into a stack or '''discarded''' to activate a stack.. </li>
</ul>

===Understanding Stacks===
Stack Mechanics

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<li>There are '''5 "Local Projects" stacks''' (an "easy" challenge card allows for a '''6th''' stack).</li>
<li>The '''top card''' in each stack is '''active''', utilizing '''all tags''' within the stack.</li>
<li>Adding a new '''top card tucks''' the '''previous card''', making only its '''tags''' available.</li></ul>Stack Optimization<ul class="bulletlist" style="
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<li>Assign each stack a '''dedicated function''' (e.g., '''Power Generation''', '''Dirty Energy Removal''', '''Card Draw 1, Card Draw 2, Emission Removal''')</li>
<li>The '''top card''' in each stack is '''active''', utilizing '''all tags''' within the stack.</li>
<li>Adding a new '''top card tucks''' the '''previous card''', making only its '''tags''' available.</li>
<li>Keep similar card '''tags''' together '''enhances synergies.''' </li>
<li>Avoid scattering '''energy-related cards -''' as some require '''matching tags''' within the stack for activation. </li>
<li>Depending on your strategy, you may '''keep the same card on a stack''' the entire game, e.g., Persistent Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per round, or a card that one that produces trees every round.</li></ul>Advanced Engine Tucking Strategies<ul class="bulletlist" style="
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<li>Most stacks only need to be 2 deep for efficient engine optimization. (e.g., 2 energy per discard, 2 energy removal per discard) </li>
<li>Cards '''can''' be tucked '''under''' a stack to utilize its '''tags''' for immediate benefits. </li>
<li>'''Global Projects''' with tag-triggered benefits '''only activate''' when played as the '''top card'''. </li><li>If covering a top card, '''use its benefits''' before replacing it.
</li>
</ul>Adapting Strategies<ul class="bulletlist" style="
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<li>It is OK to '''change plans''' if covering a card '''helps activate a new card'''. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.</li></ul>

=== Crises ===
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<li>The fast game strategy typically ignores Crises and does not spend cards to mitigate or stop crises from happening. </li>
<li>'''Not all crises are negative'''; Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects </li>
<li>Crises to look out for:
<li>Crises that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" - Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Relevant crisis cards: ⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens. </li>
<li>Late Game: There are crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have </li>
<li> There are Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).
</li> </li></ul>

.

===Fast Game Strategy===

==== Aggressively Cut Emissions, Winning by Turn 3 ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="
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<li>'''Early Emission Cuts are Critical:''' Reduce '''2-3 emissions in turn 1''' - more is better. In this strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans and trees generation, and managing Communities in Crisis tokens take a '''backseat to rapid emission reduction.'''.</li>
<li>'''Global Card Selection''' - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. </li>
<li>'''Total Emissions to Remove:''' Aim to '''cut 14 emissions''' quickly to win before crisis escalation ('''20+ emissions needed if delayed).''' </li>
<li>'''Dirty Electricity Phase-Out Engine''': Prioritize phase out immediately, '''especially for China / Minority World''' (starting with '''8+ dirty emissions'''). This helps mitigate situations where key cards don't appear early to help with non-energy emissions reductions. </li>
<li>'''Clean Energy Generation''': Target 3-4 energy per discard - exceeding this is likely wasteful. </li>
<li>'''Balance Energy Use:''' If energy '''goes negative''', make sure it’s '''intentional'''—only take the hit if it leads to a major emissions cut.</li>
<li>'''Optimized Stack Use (1 Power Generation, 1 Dirty Energy Phase-Out, 2 Card Draw Engines, 1 Non-Dirty Emissions Removal)'''</li>
<li>'''CIC's Are a Currency:''' Don't waste resources stopping Communities in Crisis - think of them as '''expendable resource''' for the greater goal, where the team is trying to slow down Communities in Crisis instead of eliminating them entirely.</li>
<li>'''Card Use Optimization:''' Most card's aren't strong on their own - '''tuck weak cars''' behind '''high-impact engines''' or use them as discards for better combos. </li>
<li>'''Resilience is Low Priority Early''': Delay resilience-building until '''turn 3 or later''' (only 2-3 total needed, as you are not stopping the accrual of CIC's. </li>
<li>'''Play to your country's strengths''' - The US / Europe generate less emissions and can focus on building card engines/energy engines to help provide energy generation or extra cards for China / Minority World. </li></ul>

==== Fast Game Strategy Risks ====
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<li>'''Crisis Snowballing:''' Prioritizing emissions reduction over resilience means crisis rounds can escalate quickly. If resilience is too low, '''a bad dice roll could generate enough Communities in Crisis (CICs) to end the game.'''</li>
<li>'''Energy Deficits:''' Overcommitting to emissions cuts may lead to '''negative energy balance,''' which results in additional CICs—this can backfire if unchecked.</li>
<li>'''Thermometer Mismanagement:''' If the temperature rises too fast before you win, additional emission reductions per turn are required just to '''break even,''' increasing the total emissions needed.</li>
<li>'''Weak Late-Game Scaling:''' If you don't win by '''round 3,''' crisis events and emissions accumulation can quickly spiral out of control, requiring more cuts than planned.</li>
<li>'''Limited Flexibility:''' The strategy relies on aggressive execution—if key cards don’t appear early, you may struggle to maintain progress.</li></ul>

==== Fast Game - Local Project Cards to Look for - (⭐Best / 🥈Good) ====

==== 1.Search the Deck for Cards Engine → Controlled card selection is key. ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Starting Card - [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1213 US], [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1203 Solo (Draw 5)], 3 Copies in Deck - [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 1] [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1118 2] [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1119 3]) (Energy, Innovation tags) - Discard 1, draw 3, keep 1.
<li>Tip: Stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top).</li></li>
</ul>

==== 2. Draw Cards - Emissions Focused ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>🥈'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions Technology R+D]''' (China ''Starting Card'' - Incentive tag) – Draw 2 per Incentive tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Use until you find a better card to replace it in the stack.</li>
<li>🥈'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 Luxury Consumption Tax]''' (Regulation tag) – Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards.</li>
</ul>
==== 3. Generate Clean Energy (No Discard) Engines ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) – '''+2 Clean Energy''' tokens for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 Integrated Planning Solar]''' (Solar & Energy tags) – +1 Clean Energy token or each Solar tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack. (Once per round</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1022 Small Scale Onshore Wind]''' (Wind & Energy tags) – +1 Clean Energy token for each Wind tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack. (Once per round)</li>
<li>🥈'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or '''🥈[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) – Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: +1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), +1 Clean Energy & +1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), +2 Clean Energy & +1 Infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation) in the stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
</ul>'''4. Generate Energy (Discard 1) Engines'''<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1026 Major Solar Program]''' (Solar, Grid, Energy tags) - Discard 1, +2 Clean Energy tokens for each Solar tag in this card's stack. Requirements: At least 3 Grid tags in this card's stack to take this action.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1028 Major Nuclear Program]''' (Nuclear, Grid, Energy tags) - Discard, +2 Clean Energy tokens for each Nuclear tag in this card's stack. Requirements: At least 2 Regulation tags and 1 Society tag in this card's stack to take this action.</li></ul>

==== 5. Reduce Dirty Energy Engines ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>🥈'''Starting Card -''' '''Dirty Electricity Phaseout''' ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1221 '''Majority World'''] - Energy, [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1216 Europe] / [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1211 US] - Incentive, or [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1206 China] / [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1201 Solo] - Regulation tag) - Discard 1, remove 1 Dirty Energy per Energy/Incentive/Regulation tag</li><li>⭐[https://Www.daybreakgame.org/card/1045 '''Drilling & Mining Bans'''] or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1044 Fossil Fuel Nationalization] ('''Regulation & Society or Ecology & Regulation tags) - Discard 1, Remove 2 Dirty Energy per Regulatory Tag</li><li>🥈'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1043 2 copies]) (Regulation tag) – Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token. (Will trigger multiple times per round.)</li>
</ul>'''6. Reduce Emissions''' <ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) – Remove Emissions (of any kind) & add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), or remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) and decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). (Once per round)
</li>
</ul>'''7. Local Projects to Plant Trees & Oceans''' → Low impact unless desperate for last emissions cuts<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>🥈'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' or 🥈'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' (Ecology tag) – Gain 1 Tree. (Once per round)</li>
<li>🥈'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (Ecology & Infrastructure tags) – Gain 1 Ocean. (Once per round)</li>
</ul>

==== Fast Game - Local Project Cards Types to Avoid ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>🚫Gain Resilience→ Not needed - Resilience-building should be delayed in this strategy.</li><li>🚫Remove Communities In Crisis Tokens → Not avoiding CIC's - utilized as a resource to manage.</li><li>🚫Reduce Damage → Not needed unless the game drags on.</li><li>🚫'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 Green Investment Bank]''' (Innovation tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack. '''Issue: Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 Clean Energy R+D] for use of Innovation tags;''' if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.</li>
</ul>

=== Longer Game Strategy ===

==== Resilience-Based Approach, Win After Turn 3 ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="
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<li>'''Slow & Steady Progression''': Build '''energy generation''', maintaining '''positive energy balance.''' </li>
<li>'''Leveraging Card Draw''': More '''cards in play''' strengthen late-game synergies. </li>
<li>'''Survivability Focus:''' Resilience-building ensures '''long-term crisis management.''' </li>
<li>'''Reduce some Emissions Early:''' Even in this strategy, cutting at least '''1-2 emissions in turn 1''' is equivalent to having cut 5-10 emissions in turn 5, thereby preventing thermometer escalation. </li>
<li>'''Optimize Crisis Management:''' Avoid '''wasting cards''' solely on resilience - use '''only necessary resilience''' while keeping emissions reduction in mind. </li></ul>

==== Longer Game Strategy Risks ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="
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<li>'''Slow Start:''' Since this approach delays '''aggressive emissions cuts,''' the thermometer may rise early, increasing the total emissions needed to win. </li>
<li>'''Energy Maintenance vs Overbuilding:''' Don’t '''over-prioritize energy generation''' at the cost of missing emissions cuts.</li>
<li>'''Wasted Cards:''' Over-investing in '''crisis mitigation''' may use cards that could have been spent cutting emissions directly, making victory harder. </li>
<li>'''Energy Efficiency Trade-offs:''' While maintaining '''positive energy balances''' is useful, sacrificing too many plays for resilience can slow down emissions reduction. </li>
<li>'''Crisis Overconfidence:''' While resilience '''helps mitigate''' crisis effects, it doesn’t directly contribute to winning—focusing too much on it can lead to '''endgame stalls''' where CIC accumulation limits options.</li>
<li>'''Look Ahead:''' If crisis events start piling up, check for '''opportunities to flip back to emissions reduction mode''' rather than playing too defensively.</li></ul>

==== Longer Game Best Local Project Cards to Look For ====

===== 1.Search the Deck for Cards Engine → Controlled card selection is key. =====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Starting Card - [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1213 US], [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1203 Solo (Draw 5)], 3 Copies in Deck - [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 1] [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1118 2] [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1119 3]) (Energy, Innovation tags) - Discard 1, draw 3, keep 1.
<li>Tip: Stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top).</li></li>
</ul>

==== 2. Local Projects to Draw Cards → ''Sustained card advantage helps adaptation'' ====
Draw Tag Specific Cards – Once per round, draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all cards of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) – Draw 7 – Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) – Draw 9 – Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 Solar R+D]''' (Solar & Energy tags) – Draw 8 – Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 Wind R+D]''' (Wind & Energy tags) – Draw 8 – Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 Geoengineering R+D]''' (Geoengineering tag) – Draw 8 – Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) – Draw 8 – Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
</ul>
Draw One, Two or Three Cards – Based on Tag Requirements in the Stack – Once per round.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban]''' (Regulation tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 Clean Energy Investments]''' (Energy tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy).</li></ul>

==== 3. Generate Clean Energy (No Discard) Engines → ''Consistent scaling is key''. ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) – Add 2 Clean Energy tokens for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 Integrated Planning Solar]''' (Solar & Energy tags) – +1 Clean Energy token for each Solar tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1022 Small Scale Onshore Wind]''' (Wind & Energy tags) – +1 Clean Energy token for each Wind tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) – Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation) in the stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
</ul>

==== 4. Local Projects that Reduce Emissions / Dirty Energy / Energy Demand → ''Needed but gradual''. ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) – Remove Emissions (of any kind) & add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), or remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) and decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). (Once per round)</li>
</ul>
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) – Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round.)</li>
</ul>
==== 5. Local Projects to Gain Resilience → ''Vital for long-term survival.'' ====
Plus 2 Resilience – Once per round – no requirements.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) – Add 2 Social Resilience tokens. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) – Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) – Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens. (Once per round)</li>
</ul>
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 Special Drawing Rights]''' (Regulation tags) – Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) – +1 Ecological Resilience token per Ecology tag in the stack.</li>
</ul>
Gain Energy + Resilience
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) – Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation) in the stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
</ul>

==== 6. Local Projects to Remove Communities In Crisis Tokens → Vital for game longevity. ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 Scale Up Recovery Support]''' (Society tag) – Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), or Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). (Once per round)</li>
</ul>

==== 7. Local Projects to Plant Trees & Oceans → ''Supports long-term emissions control'' ====
Gain Trees/Oceans based on number of tags in a stack
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' (Ecology & Regulation/Society Tags) – Add Trees if you meet the following requirements: 1 Tree Token (3-4 Ecology), or Add 2 Trees (5+ Ecology) in the stack. (Once per Round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (Incentive & Ecology Tags) – Add Oceans if you meet the following requirements: 1 Ocean (3-4 Ecology), or Add 2 Oceans (5+ Ecology) in the stack. (Once per Round)</li>
</ul>
Gain 1 Tree/Ocean – Once per round – no requirements
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' (Ecology tag) – Gain 1 Tree. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (Ecology & Infrastructure tags) – Gain 1 Ocean. (Once per round)</li>
</ul>

==== 8. Local Projects to Reduce Damage → ''Viable for mid to late game temperature mitigation - (Always confirm with team before using).'' ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - (Geoengineering tag) - Roll the Geoengineering die and +1 to the result for each Geoengineering tag in this card's stack. The following occur based on the sum of the Geoengineering tags in the stack + the roll of the geoengineering die: remove 1 Temperature Band and draw 2 additional unknown Crisis cards.(2-4 sum total), remove 1 Temperature Bands and draw 1 additional unknown Crisis card. (5-6 sum total), If the sum is 7 or more, remove 2 Temperature Bands. Important! This is a temporary effect. Return the Temperature Bands to the Thermometer at the end of the round (after increasing Energy Demand). (Once Per Round) . '''Risks:''' With minimal resilience, having additional unknown crisis cards picked can tank the game. </li>
</ul>

=== Hybrid Strategy ===

==== Balanced Adaptability- Cut Emissions while Producing Clean Energy & Boosting Resilience in Key Moments ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''Adaptability Is Key:''' The ideal strategy '''adjusts based on available cards.''' </li>
<li>'''Balance Emissions & Resilience Proactively - Emissions Reduction First, Then Resilience:''' Reducing emissions early prevents crisis snowballing - resilience matters '''only once emissions are controlled.''' Begin with aggressive emissions reduction, then gradually pivot into resilience after turn 2-3.</li>
<li>'''Stacking Strategy Matters:''' Ensure '''key stacks''' (power generation, draw engines, dirty phase-out) '''are well-built early''' so resilience doesn’t take away critical card slots.</li>
<li>'''Keep a Thermometer Check''': If rising temperature is forcing extra emission reductions, '''speed up the game or pivot''' to resilience strategies. </li>
<li>'''Plan for Turn 3-5:''' If winning '''by turn 3''' isn't realistic, have a backup plan for emissions cuts in '''rounds 4-5''' without losing too much momentum. </li>
<li>'''Strategic Card Selection: Card draw accelerates better choices ('''use '''Clean Energy R&D''' for quick deck cycling). </li>
<li>When '''no direct emission-reduction cards''' are available, '''invest in resilience, trees, or ocean tokens.''' </li>
<li>'''Avoid Split Strategies Between Players:''' Having one player rush emissions and another focus on resilience '''creates imbalances. Coordinate an adaptable approach.''' </li>
<li>'''Monitor Thermometer Trends:''' If temperature is '''rising too fast,''' shift gears earlier—don’t assume '''it’ll''' '''stabilize naturally.'''</li></ul>

==== Hybrid Strategy Risks ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''Balance Challenges''': Striking a balance between emissions reduction and resilience-building '''requires constant adaptation'''—misallocating resources to one area can weaken the other.</li>
<li>'''Stacking & Synergy Issues:''' If stacks are '''not optimized''', cards may '''spread thin''', reducing the effectiveness of key engines.</li>
<li>'''Team Coordination Struggles:''' If one player leans heavily into Fast Game while another plays Longer Game, their strategies may conflict, leading to '''suboptimal synergies'''.</li>
<li>'''Late-Game Instability:''' This method relies on '''adjustment mid-game,''' and if adaptation isn't handled correctly, the '''wrong strategy might be pursued for too long''' before realizing the need for change.</li></ul>

=== When Cards Shine (or Don’t): ===
*The usefulness of a card often depends on the context. Some cards, for instance, reduce emissions but increase energy demand. These can be very effective if you already have strong energy generation or can easily meet the demand—but without that infrastructure or synergy, they may end up hurting more than helping.
*'''Cards that let you draw additional cards are generally valuable'''. They help build synergy, give you more options, and can often be reused in future rounds. Even spending an extra card to bump a stack from 3 to 4 can be worth it. While these cards are almost always helpful, they’re more supportive than game-changing on their own.
*Then there are the cards that tend to perform well in almost any game. These usually work well even without combos and are often strong enough to keep in play for the entire game. When building a stack around a single card, these are typically the best foundation.

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness.====
<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">

<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Social:''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per round too. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per round, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that</li> don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every round to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Geoengineering:''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.</li>
</ol>

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next round (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per round)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> global projects

<nowiki>*</nowiki> same number of points for what you would gain next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per extra draw next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next round ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this round thanks to the new card and 0.5 next round)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every round. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better round later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next round. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the round. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next round, as you draw 5 extra cards each round.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second round.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the round.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the round. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first round.

If you only gain 1 house per round, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second round and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each round.

===Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

====Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards)====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+Pictures of all tag symbols can be found here: https://www.daybreakgame.org/tag-descriptions
!'''Card Tag Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''# Unique Cards in Deck'''
!'''# Cards in Deck'''
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|☨- Power Grid
|10
|
|-
|Energy
|Green
|🔌- Outlet Plug
|27
|
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|⚛️ - Atom
|5
|
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|🌀 - Pinwheel
|8
|
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|🟨⠿⠿ - Grid of Yellow Dots (Solar Panel)
|8
|
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|📄 Piece of Paper
|23
|
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
| 🤝 - Two hands gripping
|25
|
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|🌱 - Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|🌉 - Suspension Bridge
|17
|
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|🥞💰 - Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
| 💡 - Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|☁️🔧 - Wrench in the middle of a cloud
|7
|
|}

====Resilience Symbols====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.

{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+Pictures of resilience symbols can be found here: https://www.daybreakgame.org/resilience
!'''Resilience Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Shield Description'''
|-
|Social
|Purple
|🛡️ ✊ - Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|🛡️ 🌿 - Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|🛡️❌- Shield with two roads crisscrossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|🛡️ ☀︎- Shield with an Asterisk
|}

====Emissions Tokens / Energy====
The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]
!'''Emission Token / Energy Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
|-
|'''Transportation'''
|Gray
|[🚘] - Car
|-
|'''Industry'''
|Gray
|🏭] - Building with Smokestack
|-
|'''Agriculture'''
| Gray
|🐮 - Cow Head
|-
|'''Buildings'''
| Gray
|🏢 - Office Buildings
|-
|'''Fuel Extraction'''
| Gray
|🗼- Oil Rig
|-
|'''Waste'''
|Gray
|🗑️- Trash Can
|-
|'''Any Type / Wild Emission'''
|Gray
| [☀︎] - Rectangle with Asterisk
|-
|'''Dirty Energy'''
|Gray
| [⚡] - Gray Lightning bolt
|-
|'''Clean Energy'''
|Green
| [⚡] - Green Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols====
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible style=" border="2" width:auto;" "
|+
!'''Common Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''Information'''
|-
|'''Energy Demand'''
| Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|🏠 - House (with +/- number)
| Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that round.
|-
|'''Communities in Crisis / CIC Token'''
|Multicolored
|✿ 🧑‍🤝‍🧑👬🧍 - 5 people holding hands in a pentagon shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of round or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|'''Direct Air Capture'''
| Gray
|⚙️ - Fan symbol
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|'''Tree Token'''
|Green
|🌲 - Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Ocean Token'''
|Blue
|🌊 - Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Carbon'''
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|🧊 - Grey/Black Cube
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Tips daybreak

2025-06-06T00:22:13Z

Kitty4777: unbolded some section headings.

=== Symbol Terminology: ===
Refer to the '''Symbol Terminology''' section later in the guide for a list of terms and symbol explanations (tags, resilience, etc.). Use '''CTRL+F''' to search for unfamiliar terms.

=== Finding Card Information: ===
You can look up card details in two ways:<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">Click the "?" in the bottom left corner of any card to open its dedicated page on https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards, which provides an in-depth breakdown. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">Hover over a card for a quick description. ''Tip: You can view "buried/tucked" cards this way, useful when discarding the top layer of a stack..''</li>
</ol>

===Game End===
Winning Conditions
<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Reduce '''Net Carbon''' to '''-1''' (visible under the world map).</li>
<li>Survive a '''final crisis round.'''</li>
</ul>

Optional Challenge Cards
<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>If '''Global or Local Challenge Cards''' are active, their conditions must be met for the game to end.</li>
<li>If you want a more extended game, consider adding challenge cards (hard or variable).</li>
</ul>

=== General Tips ===

<li>Use the '''chat''' to '''communicate''' so your teammates are on the same page:
</li>

<li></li>

===Understanding Cards===
Card Mechanics

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>The 5 starting local projects cards are fixed based on the country you play as. </li>
<li>Discarded global project cards are reshuffled once the deck is depleted. Discarding good cards allows them to be '''redrawn''' later by a player when the deck is reshuffled. </li> </ul>Frequency of Use & Card Retention<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''"Once per round"''' effects can be triggered both at the '''end''' of a round and the '''beginning''' of the next.</li>
<li>You can '''keep cards in your hand between rounds''', potentially activating them twice before covering them. </li>
<li>Cards '''without''' "once per round" may be used multiple times, or '''as many times as resource availability allows.''' </li>
<li>Before ending your round, '''maximize card effects'''-limited-use cards display '''X/X''', in the bottom right corner to track usage. </li>
<li>Avoid holding onto cards that can't be utilized immediately or in the short-term - they may be better '''tucked''' into a stack or '''discarded''' to activate a stack.. </li>
</ul>

===Understanding Stacks===
Stack Mechanics

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>There are '''5 "Local Projects" stacks''' (an "easy" challenge card allows for a '''6th''' stack).</li>
<li>The '''top card''' in each stack is '''active''', utilizing '''all tags''' within the stack.</li>
<li>Adding a new '''top card tucks''' the '''previous card''', making only its '''tags''' available.</li></ul>Stack Optimization<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Assign each stack a '''dedicated function''' (e.g., '''Power Generation''', '''Dirty Energy Removal''', '''Card Draw 1, Card Draw 2, Emission Removal''')</li>
<li>The '''top card''' in each stack is '''active''', utilizing '''all tags''' within the stack.</li>
<li>Adding a new '''top card tucks''' the '''previous card''', making only its '''tags''' available.</li>
<li>Keep similar card '''tags''' together '''enhances synergies.''' </li>
<li>Avoid scattering '''energy-related cards -''' as some require '''matching tags''' within the stack for activation. </li>
<li>Depending on your strategy, you may '''keep the same card on a stack''' the entire game, e.g., Persistent Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per round, or a card that one that produces trees every round.</li></ul>Advanced Engine Tucking Strategies<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Most stacks only need to be 2 deep for efficient engine optimization. (e.g., 2 energy per discard, 2 energy removal per discard) </li>
<li>Cards '''can''' be tucked '''under''' a stack to utilize its '''tags''' for immediate benefits. </li>
<li>'''Global Projects''' with tag-triggered benefits '''only activate''' when played as the '''top card'''. </li><li>If covering a top card, '''use its benefits''' before replacing it.
</li>
</ul>Adapting Strategies<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>It is OK to '''change plans''' if covering a card '''helps activate a new card'''. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.</li></ul>

=== Crises ===
<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>The fast game strategy typically ignores Crises and does not spend cards to mitigate or stop crises from happening. </li>
<li>'''Not all crises are negative'''; Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects </li>
<li>Crises to look out for:
<li>Crises that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" - Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Relevant crisis cards: ⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens. </li>
<li>Late Game: There are crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have </li>
<li> There are Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).
</li> </li></ul>

.

===Fast Game Strategy===

==== Aggressively Cut Emissions, Winning by Turn 3 ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''Early Emission Cuts are Critical:''' Reduce '''2-3 emissions in turn 1''' - more is better. In this strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans and trees generation, and managing Communities in Crisis tokens take a '''backseat to rapid emission reduction.'''.</li>
<li>'''Global Card Selection''' - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. </li>
<li>'''Total Emissions to Remove:''' Aim to '''cut 14 emissions''' quickly to win before crisis escalation ('''20+ emissions needed if delayed).''' </li>
<li>'''Dirty Electricity Phase-Out Engine''': Prioritize phase out immediately, '''especially for China / Minority World''' (starting with '''8+ dirty emissions'''). This helps mitigate situations where key cards don't appear early to help with non-energy emissions reductions. </li>
<li>'''Clean Energy Generation''': Target 3-4 energy per discard - exceeding this is likely wasteful. </li>
<li>'''Balance Energy Use:''' If energy '''goes negative''', make sure it’s '''intentional'''—only take the hit if it leads to a major emissions cut.</li>
<li>'''Optimized Stack Use (1 Power Generation, 1 Dirty Energy Phase-Out, 2 Card Draw Engines, 1 Non-Dirty Emissions Removal)'''</li>
<li>'''CIC's Are a Currency:''' Don't waste resources stopping Communities in Crisis - think of them as '''expendable resource''' for the greater goal, where the team is trying to slow down Communities in Crisis instead of eliminating them entirely.</li>
<li>'''Card Use Optimization:''' Most card's aren't strong on their own - '''tuck weak cars''' behind '''high-impact engines''' or use them as discards for better combos. </li>
<li>'''Resilience is Low Priority Early''': Delay resilience-building until '''turn 3 or later''' (only 2-3 total needed, as you are not stopping the accrual of CIC's. </li>
<li>'''Play to your country's strengths''' - The US / Europe generate less emissions and can focus on building card engines/energy engines to help provide energy generation or extra cards for China / Minority World. </li></ul>

==== Fast Game Strategy Risks ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''Crisis Snowballing:''' Prioritizing emissions reduction over resilience means crisis rounds can escalate quickly. If resilience is too low, '''a bad dice roll could generate enough Communities in Crisis (CICs) to end the game.'''</li>
<li>'''Energy Deficits:''' Overcommitting to emissions cuts may lead to '''negative energy balance,''' which results in additional CICs—this can backfire if unchecked.</li>
<li>'''Thermometer Mismanagement:''' If the temperature rises too fast before you win, additional emission reductions per turn are required just to '''break even,''' increasing the total emissions needed.</li>
<li>'''Weak Late-Game Scaling:''' If you don't win by '''round 3,''' crisis events and emissions accumulation can quickly spiral out of control, requiring more cuts than planned.</li>
<li>'''Limited Flexibility:''' The strategy relies on aggressive execution—if key cards don’t appear early, you may struggle to maintain progress.</li></ul>

==== Fast Game - Local Project Cards to Look for - (⭐Best / 🥈Good) ====

==== 1.Search the Deck for Cards Engine → Controlled card selection is key. ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Starting Card - [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1213 US], [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1203 Solo (Draw 5)], 3 Copies in Deck - [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 1] [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1118 2] [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1119 3]) (Energy, Innovation tags) - Discard 1, draw 3, keep 1.
<li>Tip: Stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top).</li></li>
</ul>

==== 2. Draw Cards - Emissions Focused ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>🥈'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions Technology R+D]''' (China ''Starting Card'' - Incentive tag) – Draw 2 per Incentive tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Use until you find a better card to replace it in the stack.</li>
<li>🥈'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 Luxury Consumption Tax]''' (Regulation tag) – Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards.</li>
</ul>
==== 3. Generate Clean Energy (No Discard) Engines ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) – '''+2 Clean Energy''' tokens for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 Integrated Planning Solar]''' (Solar & Energy tags) – +1 Clean Energy token or each Solar tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack. (Once per round</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1022 Small Scale Onshore Wind]''' (Wind & Energy tags) – +1 Clean Energy token for each Wind tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack. (Once per round)</li>
<li>🥈'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or '''🥈[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) – Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: +1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), +1 Clean Energy & +1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), +2 Clean Energy & +1 Infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation) in the stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
</ul>'''4. Generate Energy (Discard 1) Engines'''<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1026 Major Solar Program]''' (Solar, Grid, Energy tags) - Discard 1, +2 Clean Energy tokens for each Solar tag in this card's stack. Requirements: At least 3 Grid tags in this card's stack to take this action.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1028 Major Nuclear Program]''' (Nuclear, Grid, Energy tags) - Discard, +2 Clean Energy tokens for each Nuclear tag in this card's stack. Requirements: At least 2 Regulation tags and 1 Society tag in this card's stack to take this action.</li></ul>

==== 5. Reduce Dirty Energy Engines ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>🥈'''Starting Card -''' '''Dirty Electricity Phaseout''' ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1221 '''Majority World'''] - Energy, [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1216 Europe] / [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1211 US] - Incentive, or [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1206 China] / [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1201 Solo] - Regulation tag) - Discard 1, remove 1 Dirty Energy per Energy/Incentive/Regulation tag</li><li>⭐[https://Www.daybreakgame.org/card/1045 '''Drilling & Mining Bans'''] or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1044 Fossil Fuel Nationalization] ('''Regulation & Society or Ecology & Regulation tags) - Discard 1, Remove 2 Dirty Energy per Regulatory Tag</li><li>🥈'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1043 2 copies]) (Regulation tag) – Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token. (Will trigger multiple times per round.)</li>
</ul>'''6. Reduce Emissions''' <ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) – Remove Emissions (of any kind) & add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), or remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) and decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). (Once per round)
</li>
</ul>'''7. Local Projects to Plant Trees & Oceans''' → Low impact unless desperate for last emissions cuts<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>🥈'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' or 🥈'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' (Ecology tag) – Gain 1 Tree. (Once per round)</li>
<li>🥈'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (Ecology & Infrastructure tags) – Gain 1 Ocean. (Once per round)</li>
</ul>

==== Fast Game - Local Project Cards Types to Avoid ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>🚫Gain Resilience→ Not needed - Resilience-building should be delayed in this strategy.</li><li>🚫Remove Communities In Crisis Tokens → Not avoiding CIC's - utilized as a resource to manage.</li><li>🚫Reduce Damage → Not needed unless the game drags on.</li><li>🚫'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 Green Investment Bank]''' (Innovation tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack. '''Issue: Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 Clean Energy R+D] for use of Innovation tags;''' if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.</li>
</ul>

=== Longer Game Strategy ===

==== Resilience-Based Approach, Win After Turn 3 ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''Slow & Steady Progression''': Build '''energy generation''', maintaining '''positive energy balance.''' </li>
<li>'''Leveraging Card Draw''': More '''cards in play''' strengthen late-game synergies. </li>
<li>'''Survivability Focus:''' Resilience-building ensures '''long-term crisis management.''' </li>
<li>'''Reduce some Emissions Early:''' Even in this strategy, cutting at least '''1-2 emissions in turn 1''' is equivalent to having cut 5-10 emissions in turn 5, thereby preventing thermometer escalation. </li>
<li>'''Optimize Crisis Management:''' Avoid '''wasting cards''' solely on resilience - use '''only necessary resilience''' while keeping emissions reduction in mind. </li></ul>

==== Longer Game Strategy Risks ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''Slow Start:''' Since this approach delays '''aggressive emissions cuts,''' the thermometer may rise early, increasing the total emissions needed to win. </li>
<li>'''Energy Maintenance vs Overbuilding:''' Don’t '''over-prioritize energy generation''' at the cost of missing emissions cuts.</li>
<li>'''Wasted Cards:''' Over-investing in '''crisis mitigation''' may use cards that could have been spent cutting emissions directly, making victory harder. </li>
<li>'''Energy Efficiency Trade-offs:''' While maintaining '''positive energy balances''' is useful, sacrificing too many plays for resilience can slow down emissions reduction. </li>
<li>'''Crisis Overconfidence:''' While resilience '''helps mitigate''' crisis effects, it doesn’t directly contribute to winning—focusing too much on it can lead to '''endgame stalls''' where CIC accumulation limits options.</li>
<li>'''Look Ahead:''' If crisis events start piling up, check for '''opportunities to flip back to emissions reduction mode''' rather than playing too defensively.</li></ul>

==== Longer Game Best Local Project Cards to Look For ====

===== 1.Search the Deck for Cards Engine → Controlled card selection is key. =====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Starting Card - [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1213 US], [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1203 Solo (Draw 5)], 3 Copies in Deck - [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 1] [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1118 2] [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1119 3]) (Energy, Innovation tags) - Discard 1, draw 3, keep 1.
<li>Tip: Stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top).</li></li>
</ul>

==== 2. Local Projects to Draw Cards → ''Sustained card advantage helps adaptation'' ====
Draw Tag Specific Cards – Once per round, draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all cards of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) – Draw 7 – Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) – Draw 9 – Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 Solar R+D]''' (Solar & Energy tags) – Draw 8 – Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 Wind R+D]''' (Wind & Energy tags) – Draw 8 – Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 Geoengineering R+D]''' (Geoengineering tag) – Draw 8 – Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) – Draw 8 – Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
</ul>
Draw One, Two or Three Cards – Based on Tag Requirements in the Stack – Once per round.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban]''' (Regulation tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 Clean Energy Investments]''' (Energy tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy).</li></ul>

==== 3. Generate Clean Energy (No Discard) Engines → ''Consistent scaling is key''. ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) – Add 2 Clean Energy tokens for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 Integrated Planning Solar]''' (Solar & Energy tags) – +1 Clean Energy token for each Solar tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1022 Small Scale Onshore Wind]''' (Wind & Energy tags) – +1 Clean Energy token for each Wind tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) – Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation) in the stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
</ul>

==== 4. Local Projects that Reduce Emissions / Dirty Energy / Energy Demand → ''Needed but gradual''. ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) – Remove Emissions (of any kind) & add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), or remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) and decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). (Once per round)</li>
</ul>
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) – Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round.)</li>
</ul>
==== 5. Local Projects to Gain Resilience → ''Vital for long-term survival.'' ====
Plus 2 Resilience – Once per round – no requirements.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) – Add 2 Social Resilience tokens. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) – Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) – Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens. (Once per round)</li>
</ul>
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 Special Drawing Rights]''' (Regulation tags) – Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) – +1 Ecological Resilience token per Ecology tag in the stack.</li>
</ul>
Gain Energy + Resilience
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) – Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation) in the stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
</ul>

==== 6. Local Projects to Remove Communities In Crisis Tokens → Vital for game longevity. ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 Scale Up Recovery Support]''' (Society tag) – Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), or Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). (Once per round)</li>
</ul>

==== 7. Local Projects to Plant Trees & Oceans → ''Supports long-term emissions control'' ====
Gain Trees/Oceans based on number of tags in a stack
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' (Ecology & Regulation/Society Tags) – Add Trees if you meet the following requirements: 1 Tree Token (3-4 Ecology), or Add 2 Trees (5+ Ecology) in the stack. (Once per Round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (Incentive & Ecology Tags) – Add Oceans if you meet the following requirements: 1 Ocean (3-4 Ecology), or Add 2 Oceans (5+ Ecology) in the stack. (Once per Round)</li>
</ul>
Gain 1 Tree/Ocean – Once per round – no requirements
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' (Ecology tag) – Gain 1 Tree. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (Ecology & Infrastructure tags) – Gain 1 Ocean. (Once per round)</li>
</ul>

==== 8. Local Projects to Reduce Damage → ''Viable for mid to late game temperature mitigation - (Always confirm with team before using).'' ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - (Geoengineering tag) - Roll the Geoengineering die and +1 to the result for each Geoengineering tag in this card's stack. The following occur based on the sum of the Geoengineering tags in the stack + the roll of the geoengineering die: remove 1 Temperature Band and draw 2 additional unknown Crisis cards.(2-4 sum total), remove 1 Temperature Bands and draw 1 additional unknown Crisis card. (5-6 sum total), If the sum is 7 or more, remove 2 Temperature Bands. Important! This is a temporary effect. Return the Temperature Bands to the Thermometer at the end of the round (after increasing Energy Demand). (Once Per Round) . '''Risks:''' With minimal resilience, having additional unknown crisis cards picked can tank the game. </li>
</ul>

=== Hybrid Strategy ===

==== Balanced Adaptability- Cut Emissions while Producing Clean Energy & Boosting Resilience in Key Moments ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''Adaptability Is Key:''' The ideal strategy '''adjusts based on available cards.''' </li>
<li>'''Balance Emissions & Resilience Proactively - Emissions Reduction First, Then Resilience:''' Reducing emissions early prevents crisis snowballing - resilience matters '''only once emissions are controlled.''' Begin with aggressive emissions reduction, then gradually pivot into resilience after turn 2-3.</li>
<li>'''Stacking Strategy Matters:''' Ensure '''key stacks''' (power generation, draw engines, dirty phase-out) '''are well-built early''' so resilience doesn’t take away critical card slots.</li>
<li>'''Keep a Thermometer Check''': If rising temperature is forcing extra emission reductions, '''speed up the game or pivot''' to resilience strategies. </li>
<li>'''Plan for Turn 3-5:''' If winning '''by turn 3''' isn't realistic, have a backup plan for emissions cuts in '''rounds 4-5''' without losing too much momentum. </li>
<li>'''Strategic Card Selection: Card draw accelerates better choices ('''use '''Clean Energy R&D''' for quick deck cycling). </li>
<li>When '''no direct emission-reduction cards''' are available, '''invest in resilience, trees, or ocean tokens.''' </li>
<li>'''Avoid Split Strategies Between Players:''' Having one player rush emissions and another focus on resilience '''creates imbalances. Coordinate an adaptable approach.''' </li>
<li>'''Monitor Thermometer Trends:''' If temperature is '''rising too fast,''' shift gears earlier—don’t assume '''it’ll''' '''stabilize naturally.'''</li></ul>

==== Hybrid Strategy Risks ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''Balance Challenges''': Striking a balance between emissions reduction and resilience-building '''requires constant adaptation'''—misallocating resources to one area can weaken the other.</li>
<li>'''Stacking & Synergy Issues:''' If stacks are '''not optimized''', cards may '''spread thin''', reducing the effectiveness of key engines.</li>
<li>'''Team Coordination Struggles:''' If one player leans heavily into Fast Game while another plays Longer Game, their strategies may conflict, leading to '''suboptimal synergies'''.</li>
<li>'''Late-Game Instability:''' This method relies on '''adjustment mid-game,''' and if adaptation isn't handled correctly, the '''wrong strategy might be pursued for too long''' before realizing the need for change.</li></ul>

=== When Cards Shine (or Don’t): ===
*The usefulness of a card often depends on the context. Some cards, for instance, reduce emissions but increase energy demand. These can be very effective if you already have strong energy generation or can easily meet the demand—but without that infrastructure or synergy, they may end up hurting more than helping.
*'''Cards that let you draw additional cards are generally valuable'''. They help build synergy, give you more options, and can often be reused in future rounds. Even spending an extra card to bump a stack from 3 to 4 can be worth it. While these cards are almost always helpful, they’re more supportive than game-changing on their own.
*Then there are the cards that tend to perform well in almost any game. These usually work well even without combos and are often strong enough to keep in play for the entire game. When building a stack around a single card, these are typically the best foundation.

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness.====
<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">

<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Social:''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per round too. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per round, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that</li> don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every round to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Geoengineering:''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.</li>
</ol>

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next round (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per round)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> global projects

<nowiki>*</nowiki> same number of points for what you would gain next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per extra draw next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next round ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this round thanks to the new card and 0.5 next round)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every round. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better round later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next round. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the round. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next round, as you draw 5 extra cards each round.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second round.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the round.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the round. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first round.

If you only gain 1 house per round, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second round and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each round.

===Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

====Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards)====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+Pictures of all tag symbols can be found here: https://www.daybreakgame.org/tag-descriptions
!'''Card Tag Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''# in Deck'''
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|☨- Power Grid
|10
|-
|Energy
|Green
|🔌- Outlet Plug
|27
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|⚛️ - Atom
|5
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|🌀 - Pinwheel
|8
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|🟨⠿⠿ - Grid of Yellow Dots (Solar Panel)
|8
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|📄 Piece of Paper
|23
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
| 🤝 - Two hands gripping
|25
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|🌱 - Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|🌉 - Suspension Bridge
|17
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|🥞💰 - Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
| 💡 - Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|☁️🔧 - Wrench in the middle of a cloud
|7
|}

====Resilience Symbols====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.

{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+Pictures of resilience symbols can be found here: https://www.daybreakgame.org/resilience
!'''Resilience Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Shield Description'''
|-
|Social
|Purple
|🛡️ ✊ - Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|🛡️ 🌿 - Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|🛡️❌- Shield with two roads crisscrossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|🛡️ ☀︎- Shield with an Asterisk
|}

====Emissions Tokens / Energy====
The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]
!'''Emission Token / Energy Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
|-
|'''Transportation'''
|Gray
|[🚘] - Car
|-
|'''Industry'''
|Gray
|🏭] - Building with Smokestack
|-
|'''Agriculture'''
| Gray
|🐮 - Cow Head
|-
|'''Buildings'''
| Gray
|🏢 - Office Buildings
|-
|'''Fuel Extraction'''
| Gray
|🗼- Oil Rig
|-
|'''Waste'''
|Gray
|🗑️- Trash Can
|-
|'''Any Type / Wild Emission'''
|Gray
| [☀︎] - Rectangle with Asterisk
|-
|'''Dirty Energy'''
|Gray
| [⚡] - Gray Lightning bolt
|-
|'''Clean Energy'''
|Green
| [⚡] - Green Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols====
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible style=" border="2" width:auto;" "
|+
!'''Common Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''Information'''
|-
|'''Energy Demand'''
| Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|🏠 - House (with +/- number)
| Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that round.
|-
|'''Communities in Crisis / CIC Token'''
|Multicolored
|✿ 🧑‍🤝‍🧑👬🧍 - 5 people holding hands in a pentagon shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of round or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|'''Direct Air Capture'''
| Gray
|⚙️ - Fan symbol
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|'''Tree Token'''
|Green
|🌲 - Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Ocean Token'''
|Blue
|🌊 - Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Carbon'''
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|🧊 - Grey/Black Cube
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Tips daybreak

2025-06-06T00:19:43Z

Kitty4777: Large updates throughout.

=== Symbol Terminology: ===
Refer to the '''Symbol Terminology''' section later in the guide for a list of terms and symbol explanations (tags, resilience, etc.). Use '''CTRL+F''' to search for unfamiliar terms.

=== Finding Card Information: ===
You can look up card details in two ways:<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">Click the "?" in the bottom left corner of any card to open its dedicated page on https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards, which provides an in-depth breakdown. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">Hover over a card for a quick description. ''Tip: You can view "buried/tucked" cards this way, useful when discarding the top layer of a stack..''</li>
</ol>

===Game End===
Winning Conditions
<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Reduce '''Net Carbon''' to '''-1''' (visible under the world map).</li>
<li>Survive a '''final crisis round.'''</li>
</ul>

Optional Challenge Cards
<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>If '''Global or Local Challenge Cards''' are active, their conditions must be met for the game to end.</li>
<li>If you want a more extended game, consider adding challenge cards (hard or variable).</li>
</ul>

=== General Tips ===

<li>Use the '''chat''' to '''communicate''' so your teammates are on the same page:
</li>

<li></li>

===Understanding Cards===
Card Mechanics

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>The 5 starting local projects cards are fixed based on the country you play as. </li>
<li>Discarded global project cards are reshuffled once the deck is depleted. Discarding good cards allows them to be '''redrawn''' later by a player when the deck is reshuffled. </li> </ul>Frequency of Use & Card Retention<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''"Once per round"''' effects can be triggered both at the '''end''' of a round and the '''beginning''' of the next.</li>
<li>You can '''keep cards in your hand between rounds''', potentially activating them twice before covering them. </li>
<li>Cards '''without''' "once per round" may be used multiple times, or '''as many times as resource availability allows.''' </li>
<li>Before ending your round, '''maximize card effects'''-limited-use cards display '''X/X''', in the bottom right corner to track usage. </li>
<li>Avoid holding onto cards that can't be utilized immediately or in the short-term - they may be better '''tucked''' into a stack or '''discarded''' to activate a stack.. </li>
</ul>

===Understanding Stacks===
Stack Mechanics

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>There are '''5 "Local Projects" stacks''' (an "easy" challenge card allows for a '''6th''' stack).</li>
<li>The '''top card''' in each stack is '''active''', utilizing '''all tags''' within the stack.</li>
<li>Adding a new '''top card tucks''' the '''previous card''', making only its '''tags''' available.</li></ul>Stack Optimization<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Assign each stack a '''dedicated function''' (e.g., '''Power Generation''', '''Dirty Energy Removal''', '''Card Draw 1, Card Draw 2, Emission Removal''')</li>
<li>The '''top card''' in each stack is '''active''', utilizing '''all tags''' within the stack.</li>
<li>Adding a new '''top card tucks''' the '''previous card''', making only its '''tags''' available.</li>
<li>Keep similar card '''tags''' together '''enhances synergies.''' </li>
<li>Avoid scattering '''energy-related cards -''' as some require '''matching tags''' within the stack for activation. </li>
<li>Depending on your strategy, you may '''keep the same card on a stack''' the entire game, e.g., Persistent Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per round, or a card that one that produces trees every round.</li></ul>Advanced Engine Tucking Strategies<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Most stacks only need to be 2 deep for efficient engine optimization. (e.g., 2 energy per discard, 2 energy removal per discard) </li>
<li>Cards '''can''' be tucked '''under''' a stack to utilize its '''tags''' for immediate benefits. </li>
<li>'''Global Projects''' with tag-triggered benefits '''only activate''' when played as the '''top card'''. </li><li>If covering a top card, '''use its benefits''' before replacing it.
</li>
</ul>Adapting Strategies<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>It is OK to '''change plans''' if covering a card '''helps activate a new card'''. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.</li></ul>

=== Crises ===
<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>The fast game strategy typically ignores Crises and does not spend cards to mitigate or stop crises from happening. </li>
<li>'''Not all crises are negative'''; Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects </li>
<li>Crises to look out for:
<li>Crises that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" - Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Relevant crisis cards: ⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens. </li>
<li>Late Game: There are crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have </li>
<li> There are Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).
</li> </li></ul>

.

===Fast Game Strategy===

==== Aggressively Cut Emissions, Winning by Turn 3 ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''Early Emission Cuts are Critical:''' Reduce '''2-3 emissions in turn 1''' - more is better. In this strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans and trees generation, and managing Communities in Crisis tokens take a '''backseat to rapid emission reduction.'''.</li>
<li>'''Global Card Selection''' - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. </li>
<li>'''Total Emissions to Remove:''' Aim to '''cut 14 emissions''' quickly to win before crisis escalation ('''20+ emissions needed if delayed).''' </li>
<li>'''Dirty Electricity Phase-Out Engine''': Prioritize phase out immediately, '''especially for China / Minority World''' (starting with '''8+ dirty emissions'''). This helps mitigate situations where key cards don't appear early to help with non-energy emissions reductions. </li>
<li>'''Clean Energy Generation''': Target 3-4 energy per discard - exceeding this is likely wasteful. </li>
<li>'''Balance Energy Use:''' If energy '''goes negative''', make sure it’s '''intentional'''—only take the hit if it leads to a major emissions cut.</li>
<li>'''Optimized Stack Use (1 Power Generation, 1 Dirty Energy Phase-Out, 2 Card Draw Engines, 1 Non-Dirty Emissions Removal)'''</li>
<li>'''CIC's Are a Currency:''' Don't waste resources stopping Communities in Crisis - think of them as '''expendable resource''' for the greater goal, where the team is trying to slow down Communities in Crisis instead of eliminating them entirely.</li>
<li>'''Card Use Optimization:''' Most card's aren't strong on their own - '''tuck weak cars''' behind '''high-impact engines''' or use them as discards for better combos. </li>
<li>'''Resilience is Low Priority Early''': Delay resilience-building until '''turn 3 or later''' (only 2-3 total needed, as you are not stopping the accrual of CIC's. </li>
<li>'''Play to your country's strengths''' - The US / Europe generate less emissions and can focus on building card engines/energy engines to help provide energy generation or extra cards for China / Minority World. </li></ul>

==== '''Fast Game Strategy Risks''' ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''Crisis Snowballing:''' Prioritizing emissions reduction over resilience means crisis rounds can escalate quickly. If resilience is too low, '''a bad dice roll could generate enough Communities in Crisis (CICs) to end the game.'''</li>
<li>'''Energy Deficits:''' Overcommitting to emissions cuts may lead to '''negative energy balance,''' which results in additional CICs—this can backfire if unchecked.</li>
<li>'''Thermometer Mismanagement:''' If the temperature rises too fast before you win, additional emission reductions per turn are required just to '''break even,''' increasing the total emissions needed.</li>
<li>'''Weak Late-Game Scaling:''' If you don't win by '''round 3,''' crisis events and emissions accumulation can quickly spiral out of control, requiring more cuts than planned.</li>
<li>'''Limited Flexibility:''' The strategy relies on aggressive execution—if key cards don’t appear early, you may struggle to maintain progress.</li></ul>

==== '''Fast Game - Local Project Cards to Look for - (⭐Best / 🥈Good)''' ====

==== 1.Search the Deck for Cards Engine → Controlled card selection is key. ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Starting Card - [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1213 US], [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1203 Solo (Draw 5)], 3 Copies in Deck - [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 1] [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1118 2] [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1119 3]) (Energy, Innovation tags) - Discard 1, draw 3, keep 1.
<li>Tip: Stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top).</li></li>
</ul>

==== 2. Draw Cards - Emissions Focused ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>🥈'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions Technology R+D]''' (China ''Starting Card'' - Incentive tag) – Draw 2 per Incentive tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Use until you find a better card to replace it in the stack.</li>
<li>🥈'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 Luxury Consumption Tax]''' (Regulation tag) – Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards.</li>
</ul>
==== 3. Generate Clean Energy (No Discard) Engines ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) – '''+2 Clean Energy''' tokens for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 Integrated Planning Solar]''' (Solar & Energy tags) – +1 Clean Energy token or each Solar tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack. (Once per round</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1022 Small Scale Onshore Wind]''' (Wind & Energy tags) – +1 Clean Energy token for each Wind tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack. (Once per round)</li>
<li>🥈'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or '''🥈[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) – Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: +1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), +1 Clean Energy & +1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), +2 Clean Energy & +1 Infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation) in the stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
</ul>'''4. Generate Energy (Discard 1) Engines'''<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1026 Major Solar Program]''' (Solar, Grid, Energy tags) - Discard 1, +2 Clean Energy tokens for each Solar tag in this card's stack. Requirements: At least 3 Grid tags in this card's stack to take this action.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1028 Major Nuclear Program]''' (Nuclear, Grid, Energy tags) - Discard, +2 Clean Energy tokens for each Nuclear tag in this card's stack. Requirements: At least 2 Regulation tags and 1 Society tag in this card's stack to take this action.</li></ul>

==== 5. Reduce Dirty Energy Engines ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>🥈'''Starting Card -''' '''Dirty Electricity Phaseout''' ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1221 '''Majority World'''] - Energy, [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1216 Europe] / [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1211 US] - Incentive, or [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1206 China] / [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1201 Solo] - Regulation tag) - Discard 1, remove 1 Dirty Energy per Energy/Incentive/Regulation tag</li><li>⭐[https://Www.daybreakgame.org/card/1045 '''Drilling & Mining Bans'''] or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1044 Fossil Fuel Nationalization] ('''Regulation & Society or Ecology & Regulation tags) - Discard 1, Remove 2 Dirty Energy per Regulatory Tag</li><li>🥈'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1043 2 copies]) (Regulation tag) – Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token. (Will trigger multiple times per round.)</li>
</ul>'''6. Reduce Emissions''' <ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) – Remove Emissions (of any kind) & add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), or remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) and decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). (Once per round)
</li>
</ul>'''7. Local Projects to Plant Trees & Oceans''' → Low impact unless desperate for last emissions cuts<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>🥈'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' or 🥈'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' (Ecology tag) – Gain 1 Tree. (Once per round)</li>
<li>🥈'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (Ecology & Infrastructure tags) – Gain 1 Ocean. (Once per round)</li>
</ul>

==== '''Fast Game - Local Project Cards Types to Avoid''' ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>🚫Gain Resilience→ Not needed - Resilience-building should be delayed in this strategy.</li><li>🚫Remove Communities In Crisis Tokens → Not avoiding CIC's - utilized as a resource to manage.</li><li>🚫Reduce Damage → Not needed unless the game drags on.</li><li>🚫'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 Green Investment Bank]''' (Innovation tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack. '''Issue: Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 Clean Energy R+D] for use of Innovation tags;''' if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.</li>
</ul>

=== Longer Game Strategy ===

==== '''Resilience-Based Approach, Win After Turn 3''' ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''Slow & Steady Progression''': Build '''energy generation''', maintaining '''positive energy balance.''' </li>
<li>'''Leveraging Card Draw''': More '''cards in play''' strengthen late-game synergies. </li>
<li>'''Survivability Focus:''' Resilience-building ensures '''long-term crisis management.''' </li>
<li>'''Reduce some Emissions Early:''' Even in this strategy, cutting at least '''1-2 emissions in turn 1''' is equivalent to having cut 5-10 emissions in turn 5, thereby preventing thermometer escalation. </li>
<li>'''Optimize Crisis Management:''' Avoid '''wasting cards''' solely on resilience - use '''only necessary resilience''' while keeping emissions reduction in mind. </li></ul>

==== '''Longer Game Strategy Risks''' ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''Slow Start:''' Since this approach delays '''aggressive emissions cuts,''' the thermometer may rise early, increasing the total emissions needed to win. </li>
<li>'''Energy Maintenance vs Overbuilding:''' Don’t '''over-prioritize energy generation''' at the cost of missing emissions cuts.</li>
<li>'''Wasted Cards:''' Over-investing in '''crisis mitigation''' may use cards that could have been spent cutting emissions directly, making victory harder. </li>
<li>'''Energy Efficiency Trade-offs:''' While maintaining '''positive energy balances''' is useful, sacrificing too many plays for resilience can slow down emissions reduction. </li>
<li>'''Crisis Overconfidence:''' While resilience '''helps mitigate''' crisis effects, it doesn’t directly contribute to winning—focusing too much on it can lead to '''endgame stalls''' where CIC accumulation limits options.</li>
<li>'''Look Ahead:''' If crisis events start piling up, check for '''opportunities to flip back to emissions reduction mode''' rather than playing too defensively.</li></ul>

==== Longer Game Best Local Project Cards to Look For ====

===== 1.Search the Deck for Cards Engine → Controlled card selection is key. =====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Starting Card - [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1213 US], [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1203 Solo (Draw 5)], 3 Copies in Deck - [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 1] [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1118 2] [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1119 3]) (Energy, Innovation tags) - Discard 1, draw 3, keep 1.
<li>Tip: Stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top).</li></li>
</ul>

==== 2. Local Projects to Draw Cards → ''Sustained card advantage helps adaptation'' ====
Draw Tag Specific Cards – Once per round, draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all cards of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) – Draw 7 – Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) – Draw 9 – Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 Solar R+D]''' (Solar & Energy tags) – Draw 8 – Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 Wind R+D]''' (Wind & Energy tags) – Draw 8 – Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 Geoengineering R+D]''' (Geoengineering tag) – Draw 8 – Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) – Draw 8 – Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
</ul>
Draw One, Two or Three Cards – Based on Tag Requirements in the Stack – Once per round.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban]''' (Regulation tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 Clean Energy Investments]''' (Energy tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy).</li></ul>

==== 3. Generate Clean Energy (No Discard) Engines → ''Consistent scaling is key''. ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) – Add 2 Clean Energy tokens for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 Integrated Planning Solar]''' (Solar & Energy tags) – +1 Clean Energy token for each Solar tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1022 Small Scale Onshore Wind]''' (Wind & Energy tags) – +1 Clean Energy token for each Wind tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) – Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation) in the stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
</ul>

==== 4. Local Projects that Reduce Emissions / Dirty Energy / Energy Demand → ''Needed but gradual''. ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) – Remove Emissions (of any kind) & add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), or remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) and decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). (Once per round)</li>
</ul>
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) – Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round.)</li>
</ul>
==== 5. Local Projects to Gain Resilience → ''Vital for long-term survival.'' ====
Plus 2 Resilience – Once per round – no requirements.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) – Add 2 Social Resilience tokens. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) – Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) – Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens. (Once per round)</li>
</ul>
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 Special Drawing Rights]''' (Regulation tags) – Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) – +1 Ecological Resilience token per Ecology tag in the stack.</li>
</ul>
Gain Energy + Resilience
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) – Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation) in the stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
</ul>

==== 6. Local Projects to Remove Communities In Crisis Tokens → Vital for game longevity. ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 Scale Up Recovery Support]''' (Society tag) – Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), or Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). (Once per round)</li>
</ul>

==== 7. Local Projects to Plant Trees & Oceans → ''Supports long-term emissions control'' ====
Gain Trees/Oceans based on number of tags in a stack
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' (Ecology & Regulation/Society Tags) – Add Trees if you meet the following requirements: 1 Tree Token (3-4 Ecology), or Add 2 Trees (5+ Ecology) in the stack. (Once per Round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (Incentive & Ecology Tags) – Add Oceans if you meet the following requirements: 1 Ocean (3-4 Ecology), or Add 2 Oceans (5+ Ecology) in the stack. (Once per Round)</li>
</ul>
Gain 1 Tree/Ocean – Once per round – no requirements
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' (Ecology tag) – Gain 1 Tree. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (Ecology & Infrastructure tags) – Gain 1 Ocean. (Once per round)</li>
</ul>

==== 8. Local Projects to Reduce Damage → ''Viable for mid to late game temperature mitigation - (Always confirm with team before using).'' ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - (Geoengineering tag) - Roll the Geoengineering die and +1 to the result for each Geoengineering tag in this card's stack. The following occur based on the sum of the Geoengineering tags in the stack + the roll of the geoengineering die: remove 1 Temperature Band and draw 2 additional unknown Crisis cards.(2-4 sum total), remove 1 Temperature Bands and draw 1 additional unknown Crisis card. (5-6 sum total), If the sum is 7 or more, remove 2 Temperature Bands. Important! This is a temporary effect. Return the Temperature Bands to the Thermometer at the end of the round (after increasing Energy Demand). (Once Per Round) . '''Risks:''' With minimal resilience, having additional unknown crisis cards picked can tank the game. </li>
</ul>

=== Hybrid Strategy ===

==== Balanced Adaptability- Cut Emissions while Producing Clean Energy & Boosting Resilience in Key Moments ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''Adaptability Is Key:''' The ideal strategy '''adjusts based on available cards.''' </li>
<li>'''Balance Emissions & Resilience Proactively - Emissions Reduction First, Then Resilience:''' Reducing emissions early prevents crisis snowballing - resilience matters '''only once emissions are controlled.''' Begin with aggressive emissions reduction, then gradually pivot into resilience after turn 2-3.</li>
<li>'''Stacking Strategy Matters:''' Ensure '''key stacks''' (power generation, draw engines, dirty phase-out) '''are well-built early''' so resilience doesn’t take away critical card slots.</li>
<li>'''Keep a Thermometer Check''': If rising temperature is forcing extra emission reductions, '''speed up the game or pivot''' to resilience strategies. </li>
<li>'''Plan for Turn 3-5:''' If winning '''by turn 3''' isn't realistic, have a backup plan for emissions cuts in '''rounds 4-5''' without losing too much momentum. </li>
<li>'''Strategic Card Selection: Card draw accelerates better choices ('''use '''Clean Energy R&D''' for quick deck cycling). </li>
<li>When '''no direct emission-reduction cards''' are available, '''invest in resilience, trees, or ocean tokens.''' </li>
<li>'''Avoid Split Strategies Between Players:''' Having one player rush emissions and another focus on resilience '''creates imbalances. Coordinate an adaptable approach.''' </li>
<li>'''Monitor Thermometer Trends:''' If temperature is '''rising too fast,''' shift gears earlier—don’t assume '''it’ll''' '''stabilize naturally.'''</li></ul>

==== Hybrid Strategy Risks ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''Balance Challenges''': Striking a balance between emissions reduction and resilience-building '''requires constant adaptation'''—misallocating resources to one area can weaken the other.</li>
<li>'''Stacking & Synergy Issues:''' If stacks are '''not optimized''', cards may '''spread thin''', reducing the effectiveness of key engines.</li>
<li>'''Team Coordination Struggles:''' If one player leans heavily into Fast Game while another plays Longer Game, their strategies may conflict, leading to '''suboptimal synergies'''.</li>
<li>'''Late-Game Instability:''' This method relies on '''adjustment mid-game,''' and if adaptation isn't handled correctly, the '''wrong strategy might be pursued for too long''' before realizing the need for change.</li></ul>

=== When Cards Shine (or Don’t): ===
*The usefulness of a card often depends on the context. Some cards, for instance, reduce emissions but increase energy demand. These can be very effective if you already have strong energy generation or can easily meet the demand—but without that infrastructure or synergy, they may end up hurting more than helping.
*'''Cards that let you draw additional cards are generally valuable'''. They help build synergy, give you more options, and can often be reused in future rounds. Even spending an extra card to bump a stack from 3 to 4 can be worth it. While these cards are almost always helpful, they’re more supportive than game-changing on their own.
*Then there are the cards that tend to perform well in almost any game. These usually work well even without combos and are often strong enough to keep in play for the entire game. When building a stack around a single card, these are typically the best foundation.

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness.====
<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">

<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Social:''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per round too. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per round, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that</li> don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every round to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Geoengineering:''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.</li>
</ol>

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next round (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per round)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> global projects

<nowiki>*</nowiki> same number of points for what you would gain next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per extra draw next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next round ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this round thanks to the new card and 0.5 next round)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every round. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better round later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next round. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the round. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next round, as you draw 5 extra cards each round.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second round.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the round.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the round. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first round.

If you only gain 1 house per round, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second round and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each round.

===Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

====Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards)====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+Pictures of all tag symbols can be found here: https://www.daybreakgame.org/tag-descriptions
!'''Card Tag Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''# in Deck'''
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|☨- Power Grid
|10
|-
|Energy
|Green
|🔌- Outlet Plug
|27
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|⚛️ - Atom
|5
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|🌀 - Pinwheel
|8
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|🟨⠿⠿ - Grid of Yellow Dots (Solar Panel)
|8
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|📄 Piece of Paper
|23
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
| 🤝 - Two hands gripping
|25
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|🌱 - Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|🌉 - Suspension Bridge
|17
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|🥞💰 - Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
| 💡 - Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|☁️🔧 - Wrench in the middle of a cloud
|7
|}

====Resilience Symbols====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.

{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+Pictures of resilience symbols can be found here: https://www.daybreakgame.org/resilience
!'''Resilience Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Shield Description'''
|-
|Social
|Purple
|🛡️ ✊ - Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|🛡️ 🌿 - Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|🛡️❌- Shield with two roads crisscrossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|🛡️ ☀︎- Shield with an Asterisk
|}

====Emissions Tokens / Energy====
The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]
!'''Emission Token / Energy Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
|-
|'''Transportation'''
|Gray
|[🚘] - Car
|-
|'''Industry'''
|Gray
|🏭] - Building with Smokestack
|-
|'''Agriculture'''
| Gray
|🐮 - Cow Head
|-
|'''Buildings'''
| Gray
|🏢 - Office Buildings
|-
|'''Fuel Extraction'''
| Gray
|🗼- Oil Rig
|-
|'''Waste'''
|Gray
|🗑️- Trash Can
|-
|'''Any Type / Wild Emission'''
|Gray
| [☀︎] - Rectangle with Asterisk
|-
|'''Dirty Energy'''
|Gray
| [⚡] - Gray Lightning bolt
|-
|'''Clean Energy'''
|Green
| [⚡] - Green Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols====
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible style=" border="2" width:auto;" "
|+
!'''Common Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''Information'''
|-
|'''Energy Demand'''
| Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|🏠 - House (with +/- number)
| Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that round.
|-
|'''Communities in Crisis / CIC Token'''
|Multicolored
|✿ 🧑‍🤝‍🧑👬🧍 - 5 people holding hands in a pentagon shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of round or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|'''Direct Air Capture'''
| Gray
|⚙️ - Fan symbol
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|'''Tree Token'''
|Green
|🌲 - Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Ocean Token'''
|Blue
|🌊 - Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Carbon'''
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|🧊 - Grey/Black Cube
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Tips daybreak

2025-06-02T16:05:10Z

Kitty4777: /* Game End */ Updated bullets; updated for clarity and conciseness

=== Symbol Terminology: ===
Refer to the '''Symbol Terminology''' section later in the guide for a list of terms and symbol explanations (tags, resilience, etc.). Use '''CTRL+F''' to search for unfamiliar terms.

=== Finding Card Information: ===
You can look up card details in two ways:<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">Click the "?" in the bottom left corner of any card to open its dedicated page on https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards, which provides an in-depth breakdown. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">Hover over a card for a quick description. ''Tip: You can view "buried/tucked" cards this way, useful when discarding the top layer of a stack..''</li>
</ol>

===Game End===
Winning Conditions
<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (visible under the world map).</li>
<li>Survive a final crisis round.</li>
</ul>

Optional Challenge Cards
<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>If Global or Local Challenge Cards are active, their conditions must be met for the game to end.</li>
<li>If you want a more extended game, consider harder or variable challenges per player.</li>
</ul>

===Understanding Cards===
Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''Starting Cards:''' </li>
<li>"Once per round" effects can be used at the end of a round AND at the start of the next round.</li>
<li>You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it. </li>
<li>Cards that do not say "once per round" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.</li>
<li>Before ending your round, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, '''showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.''' </li>
<li>Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more helpful as a tucked card. </li>
</ul>

===Understanding Stacks===
There are 5 available stacks of "Local Projects" normal game. Cards are played onto one of each of the 5 stacks. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).

The top card on each stack is active and it's effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the tags of the full stack when activating the card.

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only it's tags are visible (and usable).</li>
<li>Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.</li>
<li>*Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain tag will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.</li>
<li>If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.
</li>
</ul>

Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose. i.e. Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different tags across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require tags within your stack to activate.

Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, i.e., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per round, or a card that one that produces one tree per round.

It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.

===Overall Game Strategies===
This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, '''use the chat feature to communicate''' so your teammates are on the same page:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible -''' This is a "Fast Game" strategy -- If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in round 2 or 3. Global Cards - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards, which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this Strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans / trees generation, and community's in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Communities in Crisis can be thought of as a currency, instead of a goal to keep at 0 across all players. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis diminishes card draw per round. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).</li>
<li>'''Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards,''' This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (taking care to be nearly always above your energy demand) Take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.</li>
<li>'''Mix of Both Strategies:''' Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (Discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., For the fast strategy - getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another one who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to not make the game snowball on you while producing clean energy. Then, increase your resilience to survive the crisis. </li>
</ul>
=== Best Local Project Cards to Look for ===

==== 1. Local Projects to Draw Cards ====
Draw Tag Specific Cards – Once per round, draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all cards of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) – Draw 7 – Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) – Draw 9 – Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 Solar R+D]''' (Solar & Energy tags) – Draw 8 – Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 Wind R+D]''' (Wind & Energy tags) – Draw 8 – Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 Geoengineering R+D]''' (Geoengineering tag) – Draw 8 – Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) – Draw 8 – Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
</ul>
Draw Emissions Tag Cards – Once per round, draw cards from the deck based on how many tags you have in a stack. Keep all cards showing a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions R+D]''' (Incentive (Money) tag) – Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 Luxury Consumption Tax]''' (Regulation tag) – Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards.</li>
</ul>
Draw One, Two or Three Cards – Based on Tag Requirements in the Stack – Once per round.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban]''' (Regulation tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 Clean Energy Investments]''' (Energy tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy).</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 Green Investment Bank]''' (Innovation tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack. Competes with '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 Clean Energy R+D]''' for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.</li>
</ul>

==== 2. Local Projects to Search the Deck for Cards ====
Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards (Tag Agnostic) – This is exchanging one of your current cards for one of three new cards. Unlike other "discard" actions, you maintain the same number of cards in your hand.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 Clean Energy R+D]''' (Innovation & Energy tags) – Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. '''Tip:''' There are 5 copies of this card in the deck – it is good to stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top). Competes with '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 Green Investment Bank]''' for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.</li>
</ul>

==== 3. Local Projects that Generate Energy ====
Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) – Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 Integrated Planning Solar]''' (Solar & Energy tags) – Add 1 Clean Energy token to your player board for each Solar tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1022 Small Scale Onshore Wind]''' (Wind & Energy tags) – Add 1 Clean Energy token to your player board for each Wind tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) – Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation) in the stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
</ul>

==== 4. Local Projects that Reduce Emissions / Dirty Energy / Energy Demand ====
Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce energy
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) – Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens to your player board, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token from your player board. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round.)</li>
</ul>
Remove Emissions / Reduce Energy Demand – Without Discarding
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) – Remove Emissions (of any kind) & add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), or remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) and decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). (Once per round)</li>
</ul>
Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand – Good when you have extra energy beyond demand.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>Various cards</li>
</ul>

==== 5. Local Projects to Gain Resilience ====
Plus 2 Resilience – Once per round – no requirements.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) – Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) – Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) – Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens to your player board. (Once per round)</li>
</ul>
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 Special Drawing Rights]''' (Regulation tags) – Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) – Add 1 Ecological Resilience token to your player board per Ecology tag in the stack.</li>
</ul>
Gain Energy + Resilience
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) – Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation) in the stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
</ul>

==== 6. Local Projects to Remove Communities In Crisis Tokens Without Discarding ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 Scale Up Recovery Support]''' (Society tag) – Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), or Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). (Once per round)</li>
</ul>

==== 7. Local Projects to Plant Trees & Oceans ====
Gain Trees/Oceans based on number of tags in a stack
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' (Ecology & Regulation/Society Tags) – Add Trees if you meet the following requirements: 1 Tree Token (3-4 Ecology), or Add 2 Trees (5+ Ecology) in the stack. (Once per Round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (Incentive & Ecology Tags) – Add Oceans if you meet the following requirements: 1 Ocean (3-4 Ecology), or Add 2 Oceans (5+ Ecology) in the stack. (Once per Round)</li>
</ul>
Gain 1 Tree/Ocean – Once per round – no requirements
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' (Ecology tag) – Gain 1 Tree. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (Ecology & Infrastructure tags) – Gain 1 Ocean. (Once per round)</li>
</ul>

==== 8. Local Projects to Reduce Damage/ Need Experience ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - (Geoengineering tag) - Roll the Geoengineering die and add 1 to the result for each Geoengineering tag in this card's stack. The following occur based on the sum of the Geoengineering tags in the stack + the roll of the geoengineering die: remove 1 Temperature Band and draw 2 additional unknown Crisis cards.(2-4 sum total), remove 1 Temperature Bands and draw 1 additional unknown Crisis card. (5-6 sum total), If the sum is 7 or more, remove 2 Temperature Bands. Important! This is a temporary effect. Return the Temperature Bands to the Thermometer at the end of the round (after increasing Energy Demand). You may take this action once per round. - There are two copies of this card in the deck. Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing, but it shines mainly in rounds 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crises is not a big deal. (Different opinions on whether or not this is a valuable card depending on the group you are playing with and the strategy you pick! With minimal resilience, having additional unknown crisis cards picked can tank the game). Additionally, this is only a temporary effect instead of a lasting option like removing emissions/reducing energy/reducing dirty energy. </li>
</ul>

====Additional Card Tips / Usefulness:====
*Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove some emissions but add more energy demand. If you have good energy generation, then it has the potential to be a good card, but if you don't have synergy, energy, or the type of emission, then it's bad.
*Other cards can make you draw cards; these are all good because they can help you build synergies, and they can be used again next round; sometimes using one extra card to make that stack go from 3 to 4 cards is really good. They are really good, but I do not consider them to be great.
*The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

===Crises===
While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Crises that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" - Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Relevant crisis cards: ⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens. </li>
<li>Late Game: There are crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have </li>
<li> There are Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).
</li>

</ul>

Tip: Not all crises are negative; Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects.

===General===

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness.====
<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">

<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Social:''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per round too. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per round, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that</li> don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every round to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Geoengineering:''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.</li>
</ol>

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next round (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per round)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> global projects

<nowiki>*</nowiki> same number of points for what you would gain next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per extra draw next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next round ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this round thanks to the new card and 0.5 next round)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every round. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better round later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next round. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the round. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next round, as you draw 5 extra cards each round.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second round.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the round.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the round. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first round.

If you only gain 1 house per round, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second round and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each round.

===Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

====Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards)====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.

Pictures of all tags & viewing all cards with a certain tag can be found at https://www.daybreakgame.org/tag-descriptions.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Card Tag Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''# in Deck'''
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|Power Grid
|10
|-
|Energy
|Green
|Outlet Plug
|27
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|Atom
|5
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|Pinwheel
|8
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|Grid of Dots / Solar Panel
|8
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|Piece of Paper
|23
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
| Two hands gripping
|25
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Suspension Bridge
|17
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
| Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|Wrench
|7
|}

====Resilience Symbols====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.

Pictures of resilience symbols can be found here: https://www.daybreakgame.org/resilience
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Resilience Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Shield Description'''
|-
|Social
|Purple
|Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Shield with two roads crisscrossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|Shield with an Asterisk *
|}

====Emissions Tokens / Energy====
Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]

The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+'''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''
!'''Emission Token / Energy Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Rectangle Contents Description'''
|-
|'''Transportation'''
|Gray
|Car
|-
|'''Industry'''
|Gray
|Building with Smokestack
|-
|'''Agriculture'''
| Gray
|Cow / Bull Head
|-
|'''Buildings'''
| Gray
|Two buildings next to each other
|-
|'''Fuel Extraction'''
| Gray
|Oil Rig
|-
|'''Waste'''
|Gray
|Trash Can
|-
|'''Any Type / Wild Emission'''
|Gray
| Rectangle with Asterisk*
|-
|'''Dirty Energy'''
|Gray
| Lightning bolt
|-
|'''Clean Energy'''
|Green
| Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols====
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible style=" border="2" width:auto;" "
|+
!'''Common Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''Information'''
|-
|'''Energy Demand'''
| Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|House (with +/- #)
| Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that round.
|-
|'''Communities in Crisis / CIC Token'''
|Multicolored
|5 people in a pentagon / star shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of round or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|'''Direct Air Capture'''
| Gray
|Fan symbol (circle)
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|'''Tree Token'''
|Green
|Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Ocean Token'''
|Blue
|Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Carbon'''
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|Cube shape of gray with black outlines
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Tips daybreak

2025-06-02T16:01:26Z

Kitty4777: /* Using this Guide & Card Help */ updated to split into symbols & finding cards sections & updated language for clarity, consistency & conciseness

=== Symbol Terminology: ===
Refer to the '''Symbol Terminology''' section later in the guide for a list of terms and symbol explanations (tags, resilience, etc.). Use '''CTRL+F''' to search for unfamiliar terms.

=== Finding Card Information: ===
You can look up card details in two ways:<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">Click the "?" in the bottom left corner of any card to open its dedicated page on https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards, which provides an in-depth breakdown. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">Hover over a card for a quick description. ''Tip: You can view "buried/tucked" cards this way, useful when discarding the top layer of a stack..''</li>
</ol>

===Game End===
To win - Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (this number is located under the world map). Then survive a final crisis round.

Optional: If you have Global or Local "Challenge Cards" Active, their conditions must be met before the game will end. If you always wish that you could "go that extra round", look into harder or variable global or local challenges per person.

===Understanding Cards===
Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''Starting Cards:''' </li>
<li>"Once per round" effects can be used at the end of a round AND at the start of the next round.</li>
<li>You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it. </li>
<li>Cards that do not say "once per round" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.</li>
<li>Before ending your round, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, '''showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.''' </li>
<li>Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more helpful as a tucked card. </li>
</ul>

===Understanding Stacks===
There are 5 available stacks of "Local Projects" normal game. Cards are played onto one of each of the 5 stacks. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).

The top card on each stack is active and it's effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the tags of the full stack when activating the card.

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only it's tags are visible (and usable).</li>
<li>Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.</li>
<li>*Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain tag will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.</li>
<li>If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.
</li>
</ul>

Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose. i.e. Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different tags across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require tags within your stack to activate.

Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, i.e., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per round, or a card that one that produces one tree per round.

It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.

===Overall Game Strategies===
This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, '''use the chat feature to communicate''' so your teammates are on the same page:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible -''' This is a "Fast Game" strategy -- If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in round 2 or 3. Global Cards - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards, which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this Strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans / trees generation, and community's in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Communities in Crisis can be thought of as a currency, instead of a goal to keep at 0 across all players. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis diminishes card draw per round. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).</li>
<li>'''Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards,''' This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (taking care to be nearly always above your energy demand) Take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.</li>
<li>'''Mix of Both Strategies:''' Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (Discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., For the fast strategy - getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another one who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to not make the game snowball on you while producing clean energy. Then, increase your resilience to survive the crisis. </li>
</ul>
=== Best Local Project Cards to Look for ===

==== 1. Local Projects to Draw Cards ====
Draw Tag Specific Cards – Once per round, draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all cards of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) – Draw 7 – Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) – Draw 9 – Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 Solar R+D]''' (Solar & Energy tags) – Draw 8 – Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 Wind R+D]''' (Wind & Energy tags) – Draw 8 – Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 Geoengineering R+D]''' (Geoengineering tag) – Draw 8 – Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) – Draw 8 – Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
</ul>
Draw Emissions Tag Cards – Once per round, draw cards from the deck based on how many tags you have in a stack. Keep all cards showing a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions R+D]''' (Incentive (Money) tag) – Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 Luxury Consumption Tax]''' (Regulation tag) – Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards.</li>
</ul>
Draw One, Two or Three Cards – Based on Tag Requirements in the Stack – Once per round.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban]''' (Regulation tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 Clean Energy Investments]''' (Energy tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy).</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 Green Investment Bank]''' (Innovation tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack. Competes with '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 Clean Energy R+D]''' for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.</li>
</ul>

==== 2. Local Projects to Search the Deck for Cards ====
Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards (Tag Agnostic) – This is exchanging one of your current cards for one of three new cards. Unlike other "discard" actions, you maintain the same number of cards in your hand.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 Clean Energy R+D]''' (Innovation & Energy tags) – Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. '''Tip:''' There are 5 copies of this card in the deck – it is good to stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top). Competes with '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 Green Investment Bank]''' for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.</li>
</ul>

==== 3. Local Projects that Generate Energy ====
Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) – Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 Integrated Planning Solar]''' (Solar & Energy tags) – Add 1 Clean Energy token to your player board for each Solar tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1022 Small Scale Onshore Wind]''' (Wind & Energy tags) – Add 1 Clean Energy token to your player board for each Wind tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) – Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation) in the stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
</ul>

==== 4. Local Projects that Reduce Emissions / Dirty Energy / Energy Demand ====
Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce energy
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) – Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens to your player board, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token from your player board. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round.)</li>
</ul>
Remove Emissions / Reduce Energy Demand – Without Discarding
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) – Remove Emissions (of any kind) & add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), or remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) and decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). (Once per round)</li>
</ul>
Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand – Good when you have extra energy beyond demand.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>Various cards</li>
</ul>

==== 5. Local Projects to Gain Resilience ====
Plus 2 Resilience – Once per round – no requirements.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) – Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) – Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) – Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens to your player board. (Once per round)</li>
</ul>
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 Special Drawing Rights]''' (Regulation tags) – Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) – Add 1 Ecological Resilience token to your player board per Ecology tag in the stack.</li>
</ul>
Gain Energy + Resilience
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) – Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation) in the stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
</ul>

==== 6. Local Projects to Remove Communities In Crisis Tokens Without Discarding ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 Scale Up Recovery Support]''' (Society tag) – Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), or Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). (Once per round)</li>
</ul>

==== 7. Local Projects to Plant Trees & Oceans ====
Gain Trees/Oceans based on number of tags in a stack
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' (Ecology & Regulation/Society Tags) – Add Trees if you meet the following requirements: 1 Tree Token (3-4 Ecology), or Add 2 Trees (5+ Ecology) in the stack. (Once per Round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (Incentive & Ecology Tags) – Add Oceans if you meet the following requirements: 1 Ocean (3-4 Ecology), or Add 2 Oceans (5+ Ecology) in the stack. (Once per Round)</li>
</ul>
Gain 1 Tree/Ocean – Once per round – no requirements
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' (Ecology tag) – Gain 1 Tree. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (Ecology & Infrastructure tags) – Gain 1 Ocean. (Once per round)</li>
</ul>

==== 8. Local Projects to Reduce Damage/ Need Experience ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - (Geoengineering tag) - Roll the Geoengineering die and add 1 to the result for each Geoengineering tag in this card's stack. The following occur based on the sum of the Geoengineering tags in the stack + the roll of the geoengineering die: remove 1 Temperature Band and draw 2 additional unknown Crisis cards.(2-4 sum total), remove 1 Temperature Bands and draw 1 additional unknown Crisis card. (5-6 sum total), If the sum is 7 or more, remove 2 Temperature Bands. Important! This is a temporary effect. Return the Temperature Bands to the Thermometer at the end of the round (after increasing Energy Demand). You may take this action once per round. - There are two copies of this card in the deck. Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing, but it shines mainly in rounds 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crises is not a big deal. (Different opinions on whether or not this is a valuable card depending on the group you are playing with and the strategy you pick! With minimal resilience, having additional unknown crisis cards picked can tank the game). Additionally, this is only a temporary effect instead of a lasting option like removing emissions/reducing energy/reducing dirty energy. </li>
</ul>

====Additional Card Tips / Usefulness:====
*Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove some emissions but add more energy demand. If you have good energy generation, then it has the potential to be a good card, but if you don't have synergy, energy, or the type of emission, then it's bad.
*Other cards can make you draw cards; these are all good because they can help you build synergies, and they can be used again next round; sometimes using one extra card to make that stack go from 3 to 4 cards is really good. They are really good, but I do not consider them to be great.
*The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

===Crises===
While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Crises that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" - Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Relevant crisis cards: ⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens. </li>
<li>Late Game: There are crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have </li>
<li> There are Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).
</li>

</ul>

Tip: Not all crises are negative; Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects.

===General===

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness.====
<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">

<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Social:''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per round too. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per round, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that</li> don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every round to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Geoengineering:''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.</li>
</ol>

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next round (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per round)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> global projects

<nowiki>*</nowiki> same number of points for what you would gain next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per extra draw next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next round ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this round thanks to the new card and 0.5 next round)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every round. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better round later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next round. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the round. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next round, as you draw 5 extra cards each round.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second round.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the round.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the round. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first round.

If you only gain 1 house per round, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second round and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each round.

===Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

====Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards)====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.

Pictures of all tags & viewing all cards with a certain tag can be found at https://www.daybreakgame.org/tag-descriptions.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Card Tag Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''# in Deck'''
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|Power Grid
|10
|-
|Energy
|Green
|Outlet Plug
|27
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|Atom
|5
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|Pinwheel
|8
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|Grid of Dots / Solar Panel
|8
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|Piece of Paper
|23
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
| Two hands gripping
|25
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Suspension Bridge
|17
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
| Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|Wrench
|7
|}

====Resilience Symbols====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.

Pictures of resilience symbols can be found here: https://www.daybreakgame.org/resilience
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Resilience Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Shield Description'''
|-
|Social
|Purple
|Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Shield with two roads crisscrossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|Shield with an Asterisk *
|}

====Emissions Tokens / Energy====
Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]

The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+'''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''
!'''Emission Token / Energy Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Rectangle Contents Description'''
|-
|'''Transportation'''
|Gray
|Car
|-
|'''Industry'''
|Gray
|Building with Smokestack
|-
|'''Agriculture'''
| Gray
|Cow / Bull Head
|-
|'''Buildings'''
| Gray
|Two buildings next to each other
|-
|'''Fuel Extraction'''
| Gray
|Oil Rig
|-
|'''Waste'''
|Gray
|Trash Can
|-
|'''Any Type / Wild Emission'''
|Gray
| Rectangle with Asterisk*
|-
|'''Dirty Energy'''
|Gray
| Lightning bolt
|-
|'''Clean Energy'''
|Green
| Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols====
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible style=" border="2" width:auto;" "
|+
!'''Common Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''Information'''
|-
|'''Energy Demand'''
| Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|House (with +/- #)
| Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that round.
|-
|'''Communities in Crisis / CIC Token'''
|Multicolored
|5 people in a pentagon / star shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of round or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|'''Direct Air Capture'''
| Gray
|Fan symbol (circle)
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|'''Tree Token'''
|Green
|Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Ocean Token'''
|Blue
|Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Carbon'''
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|Cube shape of gray with black outlines
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Tips daybreak

2025-06-02T15:57:22Z

Kitty4777: /* Understanding Cards */ updating to numbered list

=== Using this Guide & Card Help ===
Symbol Terminology: Later in this guide is a list of terms & explanation of symbols (tags/resilience's/etc.). Use CTRL+F to search for a term you don't recognize.

Find information about a card in one of the following two ways:

<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">Clicking on the "?" in the bottom left hand corner of any card will open the website for the game, for the specific card you are curious about. Each page on daybreakgame.org has intricate breakdown of each card, along with real-world applications/explanations. Full list of cards: https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">Hover over a card for a quick explanation. ''Tip: Cards that are "buried/tucked" in a stack can be viewed this way (helpful when you are discarding the top layer of a stack).''</li>
</ol>

===Game End===
To win - Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (this number is located under the world map). Then survive a final crisis round.

Optional: If you have Global or Local "Challenge Cards" Active, their conditions must be met before the game will end. If you always wish that you could "go that extra round", look into harder or variable global or local challenges per person.

===Understanding Cards===
Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''Starting Cards:''' </li>
<li>"Once per round" effects can be used at the end of a round AND at the start of the next round.</li>
<li>You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it. </li>
<li>Cards that do not say "once per round" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.</li>
<li>Before ending your round, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, '''showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.''' </li>
<li>Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more helpful as a tucked card. </li>
</ul>

===Understanding Stacks===
There are 5 available stacks of "Local Projects" normal game. Cards are played onto one of each of the 5 stacks. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).

The top card on each stack is active and it's effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the tags of the full stack when activating the card.

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only it's tags are visible (and usable).</li>
<li>Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.</li>
<li>*Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain tag will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.</li>
<li>If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.
</li>
</ul>

Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose. i.e. Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different tags across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require tags within your stack to activate.

Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, i.e., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per round, or a card that one that produces one tree per round.

It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.

===Overall Game Strategies===
This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, '''use the chat feature to communicate''' so your teammates are on the same page:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible -''' This is a "Fast Game" strategy -- If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in round 2 or 3. Global Cards - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards, which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this Strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans / trees generation, and community's in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Communities in Crisis can be thought of as a currency, instead of a goal to keep at 0 across all players. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis diminishes card draw per round. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).</li>
<li>'''Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards,''' This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (taking care to be nearly always above your energy demand) Take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.</li>
<li>'''Mix of Both Strategies:''' Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (Discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., For the fast strategy - getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another one who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to not make the game snowball on you while producing clean energy. Then, increase your resilience to survive the crisis. </li>
</ul>
=== Best Local Project Cards to Look for ===

==== 1. Local Projects to Draw Cards ====
Draw Tag Specific Cards – Once per round, draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all cards of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) – Draw 7 – Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) – Draw 9 – Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 Solar R+D]''' (Solar & Energy tags) – Draw 8 – Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 Wind R+D]''' (Wind & Energy tags) – Draw 8 – Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 Geoengineering R+D]''' (Geoengineering tag) – Draw 8 – Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) – Draw 8 – Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
</ul>
Draw Emissions Tag Cards – Once per round, draw cards from the deck based on how many tags you have in a stack. Keep all cards showing a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions R+D]''' (Incentive (Money) tag) – Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 Luxury Consumption Tax]''' (Regulation tag) – Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards.</li>
</ul>
Draw One, Two or Three Cards – Based on Tag Requirements in the Stack – Once per round.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban]''' (Regulation tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 Clean Energy Investments]''' (Energy tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy).</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 Green Investment Bank]''' (Innovation tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack. Competes with '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 Clean Energy R+D]''' for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.</li>
</ul>

==== 2. Local Projects to Search the Deck for Cards ====
Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards (Tag Agnostic) – This is exchanging one of your current cards for one of three new cards. Unlike other "discard" actions, you maintain the same number of cards in your hand.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 Clean Energy R+D]''' (Innovation & Energy tags) – Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. '''Tip:''' There are 5 copies of this card in the deck – it is good to stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top). Competes with '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 Green Investment Bank]''' for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.</li>
</ul>

==== 3. Local Projects that Generate Energy ====
Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) – Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 Integrated Planning Solar]''' (Solar & Energy tags) – Add 1 Clean Energy token to your player board for each Solar tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1022 Small Scale Onshore Wind]''' (Wind & Energy tags) – Add 1 Clean Energy token to your player board for each Wind tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) – Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation) in the stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
</ul>

==== 4. Local Projects that Reduce Emissions / Dirty Energy / Energy Demand ====
Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce energy
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) – Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens to your player board, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token from your player board. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round.)</li>
</ul>
Remove Emissions / Reduce Energy Demand – Without Discarding
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) – Remove Emissions (of any kind) & add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), or remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) and decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). (Once per round)</li>
</ul>
Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand – Good when you have extra energy beyond demand.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>Various cards</li>
</ul>

==== 5. Local Projects to Gain Resilience ====
Plus 2 Resilience – Once per round – no requirements.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) – Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) – Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) – Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens to your player board. (Once per round)</li>
</ul>
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 Special Drawing Rights]''' (Regulation tags) – Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) – Add 1 Ecological Resilience token to your player board per Ecology tag in the stack.</li>
</ul>
Gain Energy + Resilience
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) – Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation) in the stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
</ul>

==== 6. Local Projects to Remove Communities In Crisis Tokens Without Discarding ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 Scale Up Recovery Support]''' (Society tag) – Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), or Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). (Once per round)</li>
</ul>

==== 7. Local Projects to Plant Trees & Oceans ====
Gain Trees/Oceans based on number of tags in a stack
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' (Ecology & Regulation/Society Tags) – Add Trees if you meet the following requirements: 1 Tree Token (3-4 Ecology), or Add 2 Trees (5+ Ecology) in the stack. (Once per Round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (Incentive & Ecology Tags) – Add Oceans if you meet the following requirements: 1 Ocean (3-4 Ecology), or Add 2 Oceans (5+ Ecology) in the stack. (Once per Round)</li>
</ul>
Gain 1 Tree/Ocean – Once per round – no requirements
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' (Ecology tag) – Gain 1 Tree. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (Ecology & Infrastructure tags) – Gain 1 Ocean. (Once per round)</li>
</ul>

==== 8. Local Projects to Reduce Damage/ Need Experience ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - (Geoengineering tag) - Roll the Geoengineering die and add 1 to the result for each Geoengineering tag in this card's stack. The following occur based on the sum of the Geoengineering tags in the stack + the roll of the geoengineering die: remove 1 Temperature Band and draw 2 additional unknown Crisis cards.(2-4 sum total), remove 1 Temperature Bands and draw 1 additional unknown Crisis card. (5-6 sum total), If the sum is 7 or more, remove 2 Temperature Bands. Important! This is a temporary effect. Return the Temperature Bands to the Thermometer at the end of the round (after increasing Energy Demand). You may take this action once per round. - There are two copies of this card in the deck. Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing, but it shines mainly in rounds 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crises is not a big deal. (Different opinions on whether or not this is a valuable card depending on the group you are playing with and the strategy you pick! With minimal resilience, having additional unknown crisis cards picked can tank the game). Additionally, this is only a temporary effect instead of a lasting option like removing emissions/reducing energy/reducing dirty energy. </li>
</ul>

====Additional Card Tips / Usefulness:====
*Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove some emissions but add more energy demand. If you have good energy generation, then it has the potential to be a good card, but if you don't have synergy, energy, or the type of emission, then it's bad.
*Other cards can make you draw cards; these are all good because they can help you build synergies, and they can be used again next round; sometimes using one extra card to make that stack go from 3 to 4 cards is really good. They are really good, but I do not consider them to be great.
*The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

===Crises===
While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Crises that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" - Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Relevant crisis cards: ⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens. </li>
<li>Late Game: There are crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have </li>
<li> There are Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).
</li>

</ul>

Tip: Not all crises are negative; Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects.

===General===

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness.====
<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">

<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Social:''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per round too. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per round, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that</li> don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every round to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Geoengineering:''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.</li>
</ol>

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next round (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per round)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> global projects

<nowiki>*</nowiki> same number of points for what you would gain next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per extra draw next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next round ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this round thanks to the new card and 0.5 next round)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every round. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better round later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next round. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the round. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next round, as you draw 5 extra cards each round.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second round.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the round.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the round. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first round.

If you only gain 1 house per round, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second round and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each round.

===Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

====Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards)====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.

Pictures of all tags & viewing all cards with a certain tag can be found at https://www.daybreakgame.org/tag-descriptions.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Card Tag Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''# in Deck'''
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|Power Grid
|10
|-
|Energy
|Green
|Outlet Plug
|27
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|Atom
|5
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|Pinwheel
|8
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|Grid of Dots / Solar Panel
|8
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|Piece of Paper
|23
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
| Two hands gripping
|25
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Suspension Bridge
|17
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
| Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|Wrench
|7
|}

====Resilience Symbols====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.

Pictures of resilience symbols can be found here: https://www.daybreakgame.org/resilience
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Resilience Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Shield Description'''
|-
|Social
|Purple
|Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Shield with two roads crisscrossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|Shield with an Asterisk *
|}

====Emissions Tokens / Energy====
Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]

The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+'''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''
!'''Emission Token / Energy Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Rectangle Contents Description'''
|-
|'''Transportation'''
|Gray
|Car
|-
|'''Industry'''
|Gray
|Building with Smokestack
|-
|'''Agriculture'''
| Gray
|Cow / Bull Head
|-
|'''Buildings'''
| Gray
|Two buildings next to each other
|-
|'''Fuel Extraction'''
| Gray
|Oil Rig
|-
|'''Waste'''
|Gray
|Trash Can
|-
|'''Any Type / Wild Emission'''
|Gray
| Rectangle with Asterisk*
|-
|'''Dirty Energy'''
|Gray
| Lightning bolt
|-
|'''Clean Energy'''
|Green
| Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols====
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible style=" border="2" width:auto;" "
|+
!'''Common Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''Information'''
|-
|'''Energy Demand'''
| Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|House (with +/- #)
| Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that round.
|-
|'''Communities in Crisis / CIC Token'''
|Multicolored
|5 people in a pentagon / star shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of round or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|'''Direct Air Capture'''
| Gray
|Fan symbol (circle)
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|'''Tree Token'''
|Green
|Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Ocean Token'''
|Blue
|Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Carbon'''
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|Cube shape of gray with black outlines
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Tips daybreak

2025-06-02T15:47:40Z

Kitty4777: updating formatting - reverting to previous version

=== Using this Guide & Card Help ===
Symbol Terminology: Later in this guide is a list of terms & explanation of symbols (tags/resilience's/etc.). Use CTRL+F to search for a term you don't recognize.

Find information about a card in one of the following two ways:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Clicking on the "?" in the bottom left hand corner of any card will open the website for the game, for the specific card you are curious about. Each page on daybreakgame.org has intricate breakdown of each card, along with real-world applications/explanations. Full list of cards: https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards</li>
<li>Hover over a card for a quick explanation. ''Tip: Cards that are "buried/tucked" in a stack can be viewed this way (helpful when you are discarding the top layer of a stack).''</li>
</ul>

===Game End===
To win - Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (this number is located under the world map). Then survive a final crisis round.

Optional: If you have Global or Local "Challenge Cards" Active, their conditions must be met before the game will end. If you always wish that you could "go that extra round", look into harder or variable global or local challenges per person.

===Understanding Cards===
Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>"Once per round" effects can be used at the end of a round AND at the start of the next round.</li>
<li>You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it. </li>
<li>Cards that do not say "once per round" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.</li>
<li>Before ending your round, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, '''showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.''' </li>
<li>Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more helpful as a tucked card. </li>
</ul>

===Understanding Stacks===
There are 5 available stacks of "Local Projects" normal game. Cards are played onto one of each of the 5 stacks. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).

The top card on each stack is active and it's effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the tags of the full stack when activating the card.

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only it's tags are visible (and usable).</li>
<li>Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.</li>
<li>*Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain tag will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.</li>
<li>If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.
</li>
</ul>

Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose. i.e. Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different tags across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require tags within your stack to activate.

Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, i.e., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per round, or a card that one that produces one tree per round.

It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.

===Overall Game Strategies===
This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, '''use the chat feature to communicate''' so your teammates are on the same page:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible -''' This is a "Fast Game" strategy -- If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in round 2 or 3. Global Cards - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards, which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this Strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans / trees generation, and community's in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Communities in Crisis can be thought of as a currency, instead of a goal to keep at 0 across all players. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis diminishes card draw per round. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).</li>
<li>'''Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards,''' This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (taking care to be nearly always above your energy demand) Take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.</li>
<li>'''Mix of Both Strategies:''' Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (Discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., For the fast strategy - getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another one who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to not make the game snowball on you while producing clean energy. Then, increase your resilience to survive the crisis. </li>
</ul>
=== Best Local Project Cards to Look for ===

==== 1. Local Projects to Draw Cards ====
Draw Tag Specific Cards – Once per round, draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all cards of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) – Draw 7 – Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) – Draw 9 – Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 Solar R+D]''' (Solar & Energy tags) – Draw 8 – Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 Wind R+D]''' (Wind & Energy tags) – Draw 8 – Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 Geoengineering R+D]''' (Geoengineering tag) – Draw 8 – Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) – Draw 8 – Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
</ul>
Draw Emissions Tag Cards – Once per round, draw cards from the deck based on how many tags you have in a stack. Keep all cards showing a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions R+D]''' (Incentive (Money) tag) – Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 Luxury Consumption Tax]''' (Regulation tag) – Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards.</li>
</ul>
Draw One, Two or Three Cards – Based on Tag Requirements in the Stack – Once per round.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban]''' (Regulation tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 Clean Energy Investments]''' (Energy tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy).</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 Green Investment Bank]''' (Innovation tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack. Competes with '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 Clean Energy R+D]''' for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.</li>
</ul>

==== 2. Local Projects to Search the Deck for Cards ====
Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards (Tag Agnostic) – This is exchanging one of your current cards for one of three new cards. Unlike other "discard" actions, you maintain the same number of cards in your hand.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 Clean Energy R+D]''' (Innovation & Energy tags) – Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. '''Tip:''' There are 5 copies of this card in the deck – it is good to stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top). Competes with '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 Green Investment Bank]''' for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.</li>
</ul>

==== 3. Local Projects that Generate Energy ====
Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) – Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 Integrated Planning Solar]''' (Solar & Energy tags) – Add 1 Clean Energy token to your player board for each Solar tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1022 Small Scale Onshore Wind]''' (Wind & Energy tags) – Add 1 Clean Energy token to your player board for each Wind tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) – Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation) in the stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
</ul>

==== 4. Local Projects that Reduce Emissions / Dirty Energy / Energy Demand ====
Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce energy
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) – Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens to your player board, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token from your player board. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round.)</li>
</ul>
Remove Emissions / Reduce Energy Demand – Without Discarding
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) – Remove Emissions (of any kind) & add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), or remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) and decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). (Once per round)</li>
</ul>
Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand – Good when you have extra energy beyond demand.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>Various cards</li>
</ul>

==== 5. Local Projects to Gain Resilience ====
Plus 2 Resilience – Once per round – no requirements.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) – Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) – Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) – Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens to your player board. (Once per round)</li>
</ul>
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 Special Drawing Rights]''' (Regulation tags) – Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) – Add 1 Ecological Resilience token to your player board per Ecology tag in the stack.</li>
</ul>
Gain Energy + Resilience
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) – Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation) in the stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
</ul>

==== 6. Local Projects to Remove Communities In Crisis Tokens Without Discarding ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 Scale Up Recovery Support]''' (Society tag) – Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), or Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). (Once per round)</li>
</ul>

==== 7. Local Projects to Plant Trees & Oceans ====
Gain Trees/Oceans based on number of tags in a stack
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' (Ecology & Regulation/Society Tags) – Add Trees if you meet the following requirements: 1 Tree Token (3-4 Ecology), or Add 2 Trees (5+ Ecology) in the stack. (Once per Round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (Incentive & Ecology Tags) – Add Oceans if you meet the following requirements: 1 Ocean (3-4 Ecology), or Add 2 Oceans (5+ Ecology) in the stack. (Once per Round)</li>
</ul>
Gain 1 Tree/Ocean – Once per round – no requirements
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' (Ecology tag) – Gain 1 Tree. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (Ecology & Infrastructure tags) – Gain 1 Ocean. (Once per round)</li>
</ul>

==== 8. Local Projects to Reduce Damage/ Need Experience ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - (Geoengineering tag) - Roll the Geoengineering die and add 1 to the result for each Geoengineering tag in this card's stack. The following occur based on the sum of the Geoengineering tags in the stack + the roll of the geoengineering die: remove 1 Temperature Band and draw 2 additional unknown Crisis cards.(2-4 sum total), remove 1 Temperature Bands and draw 1 additional unknown Crisis card. (5-6 sum total), If the sum is 7 or more, remove 2 Temperature Bands. Important! This is a temporary effect. Return the Temperature Bands to the Thermometer at the end of the round (after increasing Energy Demand). You may take this action once per round. - There are two copies of this card in the deck. Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing, but it shines mainly in rounds 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crises is not a big deal. (Different opinions on whether or not this is a valuable card depending on the group you are playing with and the strategy you pick! With minimal resilience, having additional unknown crisis cards picked can tank the game). Additionally, this is only a temporary effect instead of a lasting option like removing emissions/reducing energy/reducing dirty energy. </li>
</ul>

====Additional Card Tips / Usefulness:====
*Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove some emissions but add more energy demand. If you have good energy generation, then it has the potential to be a good card, but if you don't have synergy, energy, or the type of emission, then it's bad.
*Other cards can make you draw cards; these are all good because they can help you build synergies, and they can be used again next round; sometimes using one extra card to make that stack go from 3 to 4 cards is really good. They are really good, but I do not consider them to be great.
*The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

===Crises===
While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Crises that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" - Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Relevant crisis cards: ⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens. </li>
<li>Late Game: There are crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have </li>
<li> There are Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).
</li>

</ul>

Tip: Not all crises are negative; Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects.

===General===

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness.====
<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">

<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Social:''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per round too. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per round, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that</li> don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every round to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Geoengineering:''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.</li>
</ol>

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next round (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per round)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> global projects

<nowiki>*</nowiki> same number of points for what you would gain next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per extra draw next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next round ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this round thanks to the new card and 0.5 next round)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every round. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better round later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next round. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the round. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next round, as you draw 5 extra cards each round.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second round.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the round.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the round. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first round.

If you only gain 1 house per round, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second round and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each round.

===Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

====Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards)====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.

Pictures of all tags & viewing all cards with a certain tag can be found at https://www.daybreakgame.org/tag-descriptions.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Card Tag Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''# in Deck'''
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|Power Grid
|10
|-
|Energy
|Green
|Outlet Plug
|27
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|Atom
|5
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|Pinwheel
|8
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|Grid of Dots / Solar Panel
|8
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|Piece of Paper
|23
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
| Two hands gripping
|25
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Suspension Bridge
|17
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
| Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|Wrench
|7
|}

====Resilience Symbols====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.

Pictures of resilience symbols can be found here: https://www.daybreakgame.org/resilience
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Resilience Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Shield Description'''
|-
|Social
|Purple
|Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Shield with two roads crisscrossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|Shield with an Asterisk *
|}

====Emissions Tokens / Energy====
Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]

The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+'''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''
!'''Emission Token / Energy Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Rectangle Contents Description'''
|-
|'''Transportation'''
|Gray
|Car
|-
|'''Industry'''
|Gray
|Building with Smokestack
|-
|'''Agriculture'''
| Gray
|Cow / Bull Head
|-
|'''Buildings'''
| Gray
|Two buildings next to each other
|-
|'''Fuel Extraction'''
| Gray
|Oil Rig
|-
|'''Waste'''
|Gray
|Trash Can
|-
|'''Any Type / Wild Emission'''
|Gray
| Rectangle with Asterisk*
|-
|'''Dirty Energy'''
|Gray
| Lightning bolt
|-
|'''Clean Energy'''
|Green
| Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols====
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible style=" border="2" width:auto;" "
|+
!'''Common Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''Information'''
|-
|'''Energy Demand'''
| Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|House (with +/- #)
| Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that round.
|-
|'''Communities in Crisis / CIC Token'''
|Multicolored
|5 people in a pentagon / star shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of round or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|'''Direct Air Capture'''
| Gray
|Fan symbol (circle)
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|'''Tree Token'''
|Green
|Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Ocean Token'''
|Blue
|Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Carbon'''
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|Cube shape of gray with black outlines
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Tips daybreak

2025-06-02T15:43:28Z

Kitty4777: updated to modify editing - removed "general"

=== Using this Guide & Card Help ===
Symbol Terminology: Later in this guide is a list of terms & explanation of symbols (tags/resilience's/etc.). Use CTRL+F to search for a term you don't recognize.
Find information about a card in one of the following two ways:
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>Clicking on the "?" in the bottom left-hand corner of any card will open the website for the game, for the specific card you are curious about. Each page on daybreakgame.org has intricate breakdowns of each card, along with real-world applications/explanations. Full list of cards: https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards</li>
<li>Hover over a card for a quick explanation. ''Tip: Cards that are "buried/tucked" in a stack can be viewed this way (helpful when you are discarding the top layer of a stack).''</li>
</ul>

=== Game End ===
To win - Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (this number is located under the world map). Then survive a final crisis round.
Optional: If you have Global or Local "Challenge Cards" Active, their conditions must be met before the game will end. If you always wish that you could "go that extra round", look into harder or variable global or local challenges per person.

=== Understanding Cards ===
Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds:
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>"Once per round" effects can be used at the end of a round AND at the start of the next round.</li>
<li>You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it.</li>
<li>Cards that do not say "once per round" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.</li>
<li>Before ending your round, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, '''showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.'''</li>
<li>Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more useful as a tucked card.</li>
</ul>

=== Understanding Stacks ===
There are 5 available stacks of "Local Projects" in the normal game. Cards are played onto one of each of the 5 stacks. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).
The top card on each stack is active and its effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the tags of the full stack when activating the card.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only its tags are visible (and usable).</li>
<li>Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.</li>
<li>*Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain tag will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.</li>
<li>If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.</li>
</ul>
Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose, e.g., Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different tags across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require tags within your stack to activate.
Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, e.g., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per round, or a card that produces one tree per round.
It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.

=== Overall Game Strategies ===
This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, '''use the chat feature to communicate''' so your teammates are on the same page:
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>'''All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible -''' This is a "Fast Game" strategy. If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in round 2 or 3. Global Cards – Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this strategy, stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans/trees generation, and communities in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis diminishes card draw per round. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).</li>
<li>'''Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards,''' This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (ensuring you're nearly always above your energy demand) and take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly. Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.</li>
<li>'''Mix of Both Strategies:''' Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., for the fast strategy – getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks; while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to avoid the game snowballing while still producing clean energy, and then increase your resilience to survive the crisis.</li>
</ul>

=== Best Local Project Cards to Look for ===

==== 1. Local Projects to Draw Cards ====
Draw Tag Specific Cards – Once per round, draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all cards of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) – Draw 7 – Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) – Draw 9 – Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 Solar R+D]''' (Solar & Energy tags) – Draw 8 – Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 Wind R+D]''' (Wind & Energy tags) – Draw 8 – Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 Geoengineering R+D]''' (Geoengineering tag) – Draw 8 – Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) – Draw 8 – Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.</li>
</ul>
Draw Emissions Tag Cards – Once per round, draw cards from the deck based on how many tags you have in a stack. Keep all cards showing a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions R+D]''' (Incentive (Money) tag) – Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 Luxury Consumption Tax]''' (Regulation tag) – Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards.</li>
</ul>
Draw One, Two or Three Cards – Based on Tag Requirements in the Stack – Once per round.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban]''' (Regulation tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 Clean Energy Investments]''' (Energy tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy).</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 Green Investment Bank]''' (Innovation tag) – Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack. Competes with '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 Clean Energy R+D]''' for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.</li>
</ul>

==== 2. Local Projects to Search the Deck for Cards ====
Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards (Tag Agnostic) – This is exchanging one of your current cards for one of three new cards. Unlike other "discard" actions, you maintain the same number of cards in your hand.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 Clean Energy R+D]''' (Innovation & Energy tags) – Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. '''Tip:''' There are 5 copies of this card in the deck – it is good to stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top). Competes with '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 Green Investment Bank]''' for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.</li>
</ul>

==== 3. Local Projects that Generate Energy ====
Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) – Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 Integrated Planning Solar]''' (Solar & Energy tags) – Add 1 Clean Energy token to your player board for each Solar tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1022 Small Scale Onshore Wind]''' (Wind & Energy tags) – Add 1 Clean Energy token to your player board for each Wind tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) – Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation) in the stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
</ul>

==== 4. Local Projects that Reduce Emissions / Dirty Energy / Energy Demand ====
Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce energy
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) – Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens to your player board, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token from your player board. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round.)</li>
</ul>
Remove Emissions / Reduce Energy Demand – Without Discarding
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) – Remove Emissions (of any kind) & add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), or remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) and decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). (Once per round)</li>
</ul>
Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand – Good when you have extra energy beyond demand.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>Various cards</li>
</ul>

==== 5. Local Projects to Gain Resilience ====
Plus 2 Resilience – Once per round – no requirements.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) – Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) – Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) – Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens to your player board. (Once per round)</li>
</ul>
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 Special Drawing Rights]''' (Regulation tags) – Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) – Add 1 Ecological Resilience token to your player board per Ecology tag in the stack.</li>
</ul>
Gain Energy + Resilience
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) – Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation) in the stack. (Once Per Round)</li>
</ul>

==== 6. Local Projects to Remove Communities In Crisis Tokens Without Discarding ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 Scale Up Recovery Support]''' (Society tag) – Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), or Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). (Once per round)</li>
</ul>

==== 7. Local Projects to Plant Trees & Oceans ====
Gain Trees/Oceans based on number of tags in a stack
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' (Ecology & Regulation/Society Tags) – Add Trees if you meet the following requirements: 1 Tree Token (3-4 Ecology), or Add 2 Trees (5+ Ecology) in the stack. (Once per Round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (Incentive & Ecology Tags) – Add Oceans if you meet the following requirements: 1 Ocean (3-4 Ecology), or Add 2 Oceans (5+ Ecology) in the stack. (Once per Round)</li>
</ul>
Gain 1 Tree/Ocean – Once per round – no requirements
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' (Ecology tag) – Gain 1 Tree. (Once per round)</li>
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (Ecology & Infrastructure tags) – Gain 1 Ocean. (Once per round)</li>
</ul>

==== 8. Local Projects to Reduce Damage/ Need Experience ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' (Geoengineering tag) – Roll the Geoengineering die and add 1 to the result for each Geoengineering tag in this card's stack. Based on the sum of the Geoengineering tags plus the die roll:
 - If the sum is between 2–4: Remove 1 Temperature Band and draw 2 additional unknown Crisis cards.
 - If the sum is between 5–6: Remove 1 Temperature Band and draw 1 additional unknown Crisis card.
 - If the sum is 7 or more: Remove 2 Temperature Bands.
 Important: This is a temporary effect. Return the Temperature Bands to the Thermometer at the end of the round (after increasing Energy Demand). You may take this action once per round. Note: There are two copies of this card in the deck. Stratospheric Sulfur shines mainly in rounds 2 & 3. (Opinions on its value vary depending on group strategy.)</li>
</ul>

==== Additional Card Tips / Usefulness: ====
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove emissions but add more energy demand. If you have good energy generation, then such a card can be beneficial; if you lack synergy, energy, or the specific emission type, then it may be less effective.</li>
<li>Other cards can make you draw additional cards, which is generally useful because they help build synergies and can be used again in subsequent rounds. However, while these cards are good, they may not be considered great.</li>
<li>The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack throughout the game is usually a strong strategy.</li>
</ul>

=== Crises ===
While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:
<ul class="bulletlist" style="margin:1em 0; padding-inline-start:40px;">
<li>Crises that penalize players who have one or more "cows" – Consider removing cows when removing emissions! Relevant crisis cards: ⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] (and also [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) – Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens.</li>
<li>Late Game: Crises that remove one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have.</li>
<li>Crises that remove two Dirty Energy tokens and trigger the CIC penalty on energy again (for example, if you are at -2 energy, you first gain 2 CIC, then up to 4 CIC, which is significant).</li>
</ul>
Tip: Not all crises are negative; crises that allow you to discard cards from the play area can be beneficial if you have buried a card to leverage another card's effects.

=== Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology ===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at Daybreak's website (also on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book).

==== Card Tag Symbols – (Colorful Circles on the Cards) ====
Symbols that appear on cards, used as part of stacks, are referred to as "tags" by the game.
Pictures of all tags & viewing all cards with a certain tag can be found at [https://www.daybreakgame.org/tag-descriptions].
{class="wikitable" style="width:auto;" border="2"}
! '''Card Tag Term''' !! '''Color''' !! '''Symbol Description''' !! '''# in Deck'''
|-
| Grid || Blue || Power Grid || 10
|-
| Energy || Green || Outlet Plug || 27
|-
| Nuclear || Dark Blue || Atom || 5
|-
| Wind || Light Blue || Pinwheel || 8
|-
| Solar || Yellow || Grid of Dots / Solar Panel || 8
|-
| Regulation || Pink || Piece of Paper || 23
|-
| Society || Light Purple || Two hands gripping || 25
|-
| Ecology || Green || Plant / Sprout with Leaves || 18
|-
| Infrastructure || Brown / Brick Red || Suspension Bridge || 17
|-
| Incentive || Gold || Money / Stack of Coins with $ || 20
|-
| Innovation || Orange || Lightbulb with light emitting || 11
|-
| Geoengineering || Gray || Wrench || 7

==== Resilience Symbols ====
Symbols in the shape of a shield are known as resiliences. They are collected per person and are used in local projects and crisis mitigation.
Pictures of resilience symbols can be found at [https://www.daybreakgame.org/resilience].
{class="wikitable" style="width:auto;" border="2"}
! '''Resilience Symbol Term''' !! '''Color''' !! '''Shield Description'''
|-
| Social || Purple || Shield with a fist
|-
| Ecological || Green || Shield with a leaf
|-
| Infrastructure || Brown / Brick Red || Shield with two roads crisscrossed
|-
| Any Type / Wild || Light Blue || Shield with an Asterisk *

==== Emissions Tokens / Energy ====
Pictures of emissions & Dirty Energy can be found at [https://www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources].
The following tokens are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{class="wikitable" style="width:auto;" border="2"}
! '''Emission Token / Energy Term''' !! '''Color''' !! '''Rectangle Contents Description'''
|-
| '''Transportation''' || Gray || Car
|-
| '''Industry''' || Gray || Building with Smokestack
|-
| '''Agriculture''' || Gray || Cow / Bull Head
|-
| '''Buildings''' || Gray || Two buildings next to each other
|-
| '''Fuel Extraction''' || Gray || Oil Rig
|-
| '''Waste''' || Gray || Trash Can
|-
| '''Any Type / Wild Emission''' || Gray || Rectangle with Asterisk*
|-
| '''Dirty Energy''' || Gray || Lightning bolt
|-
| '''Clean Energy''' || Green || Lightning bolt

==== Other Common Symbols ====
{class="wikitable" style="width:auto;" border="2"}
! '''Common Symbol Term''' !! '''Color''' !! '''Symbol Description''' !! '''Information'''
|-
| '''Energy Demand''' || Blue (or Blue with Yellow windows) || House (with +/- #) || Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that round.
|-
| '''Communities in Crisis / CIC Token''' || Multicolored || 5 people in a pentagon/star shape (each person a different color) || Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at the beginning of a round or by a crisis card. 4–7 CIC's: draw 1 fewer card per round; 8–11 CIC's: draw 2 fewer cards; more CIC's and you lose the game. Cards are available to remove CIC tokens.
|-
| '''Direct Air Capture''' || Gray || Fan symbol (circle) || Sequesters emissions to avoid being added to net carbon. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; appears next to Trees/Oceans.
|-
| '''Tree Token''' || Green || Pine Tree || Sequesters emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
| '''Ocean Token''' || Blue || Wave of Water || Sequesters emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
| '''Carbon''' || Grey/Black Outlines || Cube shape of gray with black outlines || Represents Carbon to be added to net carbon.

Tips daybreak

2025-05-29T05:24:03Z

Kitty4777: /* Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards) */

=== Using this Guide & Card Help ===
Symbol Terminology: Later in this guide is a list of terms & explanation of symbols (tags/resilience's/etc.). Use CTRL+F to search for a term you don't recognize.

Find information about a card in one of the following two ways:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Clicking on the "?" in the bottom left hand corner of any card will open the website for the game, for the specific card you are curious about. Each page on daybreakgame.org has intricate breakdown of each card, along with real-world applications/explanations. Full list of cards: https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards</li>
<li>Hover over a card for a quick explanation. ''Tip: Cards that are "buried/tucked" in a stack can be viewed this way (helpful when you are discarding the top layer of a stack).''</li>
</ul>

===Game End===
To win - Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (this number is located under the world map). Then survive a final crisis round.

Optional: If you have Global or Local "Challenge Cards" Active, their conditions must be met before the game will end. If you always wish that you could "go that extra round", look into harder or variable global or local challenges per person.

===Understanding Cards===
Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>"Once per round" effects can be used at the end of a round AND at the start of the next round.</li>
<li>You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it. </li>
<li>Cards that do not say "once per round" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.</li>
<li>Before ending your round, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, '''showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.''' </li>
<li>Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more helpful as a tucked card. </li>
</ul>

===Understanding Stacks===
There are 5 available stacks of "Local Projects" normal game. Cards are played onto one of each of the 5 stacks. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).

The top card on each stack is active and it's effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the tags of the full stack when activating the card.

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only it's tags are visible (and usable).</li>
<li>Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.</li>
<li>*Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain tag will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.</li>
<li>If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.
</li>
</ul>

Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose. i.e. Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different tags across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require tags within your stack to activate.

Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, i.e., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per round, or a card that one that produces one tree per round.

It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.

===Overall Game Strategies===
This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, '''use the chat feature to communicate''' so your teammates are on the same page:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible -''' This is a "Fast Game" strategy -- If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in round 2 or 3. Global Cards - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards, which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this Strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans / trees generation, and community's in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Communities in Crisis can be thought of as a currency, instead of a goal to keep at 0 across all players. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis diminishes card draw per round. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).</li>
<li>'''Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards,''' This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (taking care to be nearly always above your energy demand) Take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.</li>
<li>'''Mix of Both Strategies:''' Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (Discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., For the fast strategy - getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another one who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to not make the game snowball on you while producing clean energy. Then, increase your resilience to survive the crisis. </li>
</ul>
===Best Local Project Cards to Look for===

====1. Local Projects to Draw Cards====
Draw Tag Specific Cards - Once per round draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) - Draw 7 - Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Draw 9 - Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 '''Solar R+D'''] (Solar & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 '''Wind R+D'''] (Wind & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 '''Geoengineering R+D'''] (Geoengineering tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
Draw Emissions tag Cards - Once per round draw cards from the deck based on how many tags you have in a stack. Keep all cards showing a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions R+D]''' (Incentive (Money) tag) - Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 '''Luxury Consumption Tax'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
Draw One, Two or Three Cards - Based on tag requirements in the stack. Once per round.

* ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 '''Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 '''Clean Energy Investments'''] (Energy tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy)

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] (Innovation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack.; Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] cards.

====2. Local Projects to Search the Deck for Cards====
Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards (Tag agnostic) - This is exchanging one of your current cards for one of three new cards. Unlike other "discard" a card, you maintain the same # of cards in your hand.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Innovation & Energy tags) - Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. '''Tip:''' There are 5 copies of this card in the deck - it is good to stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top) - Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.

====3. Local Projects that Generating Energy====
Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Once Per Round. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack to take this action.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 '''Integrated Planning Solar'''] (Solar & Energy tags ) - Add 1 Clean Energy token to your player board for each Solar tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack to take this action. Once per round.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1022 '''Small Scale Onshore Wind'''] (Wind & Energy tags) - Add 1 Clean Energy token to your player board for each Wind tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack to take this action. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.

====4. Local Projects that reduce Emissions / Dirty Energy / Energy Demand ====
Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce energy

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) - Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens to your player board, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token from your player board. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round).

Remove Emissions / Reduce Energy Demand - Without Discarding

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) - Remove Emissions (of any kind) & Add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), Remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) AND decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). Once per round.

Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand - good when you have extra energy more than demand.

*Various cards

====5. Local Projects to Gain Resilience====
Plus 2 Resilience - Once per round - no requirements.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) - Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) - Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 '''Special Drawing Rights'''] (Regulation tags) - Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 1 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board per Ecology tags in stack.
Gain Energy + Resilience

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.

====6. Local Projects to remove Communities In Crisis Tokens without discarding====

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 '''Scale Up Recovery Support'''] (Society tag) - Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). Once per round.

====7. Local Projects to Plant Trees & Oceans====
Gain Trees/Oceans based on number of tags in a stack
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms] or ⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' (Ecology & Regulation/Society Tags) - Add Trees if you meet the following requirements: 1 Tree Token (3-4 Ecology), Add 2 Trees (5+ Ecology), tags in the stack. Once Per Round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (Incentive & Ecology Tags) - Add Oceans if you meet the following requirements: 1 Ocean (3-4 Ecology), Add 2 Oceans (5+ Ecology), tags in the stack. Once Per Round.
Gain 1 Tree/Ocean - Once per round - no requirements
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' (Ecology tag) - Gain 1 Tree - once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (Ecology & Infrastructure tags) - Gain 1 Ocean - once per round.

====8. Local Projects to Reduce Damage/ Need Experience====

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - (Geoengineering tag) - Roll the Geoengineering die and add 1 to the result for each Geoengineering tag in this card's stack. The following occur based on the sum of the Geoengineering tags in the stack + the roll of the geoengineering die: remove 1 Temperature Band and draw 2 additional unknown Crisis cards.(2-4 sum total), remove 1 Temperature Bands and draw 1 additional unknown Crisis card. (5-6 sum total), If the sum is 7 or more, remove 2 Temperature Bands. Important! This is a temporary effect. Return the Temperature Bands to the Thermometer at the end of the round (after increasing Energy Demand). You may take this action once per round. - There are two copies of this card in the deck. Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing, but it shines mainly in rounds 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crises is not a big deal. (Different opinions on whether or not this is a valuable card depending on the group you are playing with and the strategy you pick! With minimal resilience, having additional unknown crisis cards picked can tank the game). Additionally, this is only a temporary effect instead of a lasting option like removing emissions/reducing energy/reducing dirty energy.

====Additional Card Tips / Usefulness:====
*Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove some emissions but add more energy demand. If you have good energy generation, then it has the potential to be a good card, but if you don't have synergy, energy, or the type of emission, then it's bad.
*Other cards can make you draw cards; these are all good because they can help you build synergies, and they can be used again next round; sometimes using one extra card to make that stack go from 3 to 4 cards is really good. They are really good, but I do not consider them to be great.
*The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

===Crises===
While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Crises that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" - Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Relevant crisis cards: ⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens. </li>
<li>Late Game: There are crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have </li>
<li> There are Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).
</li>

</ul>

Tip: Not all crises are negative; Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects.

===General===

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness.====
<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">

<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Social:''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per round too. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per round, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that</li> don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every round to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Geoengineering:''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.</li>
</ol>

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next round (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per round)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> global projects

<nowiki>*</nowiki> same number of points for what you would gain next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per extra draw next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next round ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this round thanks to the new card and 0.5 next round)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every round. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better round later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next round. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the round. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next round, as you draw 5 extra cards each round.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second round.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the round.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the round. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first round.

If you only gain 1 house per round, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second round and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each round.

===Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

====Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards)====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.

Pictures of all tags & viewing all cards with a certain tag can be found at https://www.daybreakgame.org/tag-descriptions.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Card Tag Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''# in Deck'''
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|Power Grid
|10
|-
|Energy
|Green
|Outlet Plug
|27
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|Atom
|5
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|Pinwheel
|8
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|Grid of Dots / Solar Panel
|8
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|Piece of Paper
|23
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
| Two hands gripping
|25
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Suspension Bridge
|17
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
| Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|Wrench
|7
|}

====Resilience Symbols====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.

Pictures of resilience symbols can be found here: https://www.daybreakgame.org/resilience
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Resilience Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Shield Description'''
|-
|Social
|Purple
|Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Shield with two roads crisscrossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|Shield with an Asterisk *
|}

====Emissions Tokens / Energy====
Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]

The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+'''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''
!'''Emission Token / Energy Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Rectangle Contents Description'''
|-
|'''Transportation'''
|Gray
|Car
|-
|'''Industry'''
|Gray
|Building with Smokestack
|-
|'''Agriculture'''
| Gray
|Cow / Bull Head
|-
|'''Buildings'''
| Gray
|Two buildings next to each other
|-
|'''Fuel Extraction'''
| Gray
|Oil Rig
|-
|'''Waste'''
|Gray
|Trash Can
|-
|'''Any Type / Wild Emission'''
|Gray
| Rectangle with Asterisk*
|-
|'''Dirty Energy'''
|Gray
| Lightning bolt
|-
|'''Clean Energy'''
|Green
| Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols====
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible style=" border="2" width:auto;" "
|+
!'''Common Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''Information'''
|-
|'''Energy Demand'''
| Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|House (with +/- #)
| Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that round.
|-
|'''Communities in Crisis / CIC Token'''
|Multicolored
|5 people in a pentagon / star shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of round or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|'''Direct Air Capture'''
| Gray
|Fan symbol (circle)
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|'''Tree Token'''
|Green
|Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Ocean Token'''
|Blue
|Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Carbon'''
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|Cube shape of gray with black outlines
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Tips daybreak

2025-05-29T05:22:44Z

Kitty4777: /* Resilience Symbols */ added link

=== Using this Guide & Card Help ===
Symbol Terminology: Later in this guide is a list of terms & explanation of symbols (tags/resilience's/etc.). Use CTRL+F to search for a term you don't recognize.

Find information about a card in one of the following two ways:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Clicking on the "?" in the bottom left hand corner of any card will open the website for the game, for the specific card you are curious about. Each page on daybreakgame.org has intricate breakdown of each card, along with real-world applications/explanations. Full list of cards: https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards</li>
<li>Hover over a card for a quick explanation. ''Tip: Cards that are "buried/tucked" in a stack can be viewed this way (helpful when you are discarding the top layer of a stack).''</li>
</ul>

===Game End===
To win - Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (this number is located under the world map). Then survive a final crisis round.

Optional: If you have Global or Local "Challenge Cards" Active, their conditions must be met before the game will end. If you always wish that you could "go that extra round", look into harder or variable global or local challenges per person.

===Understanding Cards===
Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>"Once per round" effects can be used at the end of a round AND at the start of the next round.</li>
<li>You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it. </li>
<li>Cards that do not say "once per round" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.</li>
<li>Before ending your round, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, '''showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.''' </li>
<li>Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more helpful as a tucked card. </li>
</ul>

===Understanding Stacks===
There are 5 available stacks of "Local Projects" normal game. Cards are played onto one of each of the 5 stacks. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).

The top card on each stack is active and it's effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the tags of the full stack when activating the card.

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only it's tags are visible (and usable).</li>
<li>Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.</li>
<li>*Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain tag will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.</li>
<li>If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.
</li>
</ul>

Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose. i.e. Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different tags across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require tags within your stack to activate.

Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, i.e., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per round, or a card that one that produces one tree per round.

It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.

===Overall Game Strategies===
This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, '''use the chat feature to communicate''' so your teammates are on the same page:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible -''' This is a "Fast Game" strategy -- If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in round 2 or 3. Global Cards - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards, which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this Strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans / trees generation, and community's in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Communities in Crisis can be thought of as a currency, instead of a goal to keep at 0 across all players. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis diminishes card draw per round. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).</li>
<li>'''Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards,''' This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (taking care to be nearly always above your energy demand) Take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.</li>
<li>'''Mix of Both Strategies:''' Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (Discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., For the fast strategy - getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another one who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to not make the game snowball on you while producing clean energy. Then, increase your resilience to survive the crisis. </li>
</ul>
===Best Local Project Cards to Look for===

====1. Local Projects to Draw Cards====
Draw Tag Specific Cards - Once per round draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) - Draw 7 - Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Draw 9 - Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 '''Solar R+D'''] (Solar & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 '''Wind R+D'''] (Wind & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 '''Geoengineering R+D'''] (Geoengineering tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
Draw Emissions tag Cards - Once per round draw cards from the deck based on how many tags you have in a stack. Keep all cards showing a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions R+D]''' (Incentive (Money) tag) - Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 '''Luxury Consumption Tax'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
Draw One, Two or Three Cards - Based on tag requirements in the stack. Once per round.

* ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 '''Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 '''Clean Energy Investments'''] (Energy tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy)

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] (Innovation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack.; Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] cards.

====2. Local Projects to Search the Deck for Cards====
Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards (Tag agnostic) - This is exchanging one of your current cards for one of three new cards. Unlike other "discard" a card, you maintain the same # of cards in your hand.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Innovation & Energy tags) - Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. '''Tip:''' There are 5 copies of this card in the deck - it is good to stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top) - Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.

====3. Local Projects that Generating Energy====
Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Once Per Round. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack to take this action.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 '''Integrated Planning Solar'''] (Solar & Energy tags ) - Add 1 Clean Energy token to your player board for each Solar tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack to take this action. Once per round.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1022 '''Small Scale Onshore Wind'''] (Wind & Energy tags) - Add 1 Clean Energy token to your player board for each Wind tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack to take this action. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.

====4. Local Projects that reduce Emissions / Dirty Energy / Energy Demand ====
Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce energy

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) - Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens to your player board, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token from your player board. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round).

Remove Emissions / Reduce Energy Demand - Without Discarding

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) - Remove Emissions (of any kind) & Add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), Remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) AND decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). Once per round.

Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand - good when you have extra energy more than demand.

*Various cards

====5. Local Projects to Gain Resilience====
Plus 2 Resilience - Once per round - no requirements.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) - Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) - Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 '''Special Drawing Rights'''] (Regulation tags) - Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 1 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board per Ecology tags in stack.
Gain Energy + Resilience

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.

====6. Local Projects to remove Communities In Crisis Tokens without discarding====

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 '''Scale Up Recovery Support'''] (Society tag) - Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). Once per round.

====7. Local Projects to Plant Trees & Oceans====
Gain Trees/Oceans based on number of tags in a stack
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms] or ⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' (Ecology & Regulation/Society Tags) - Add Trees if you meet the following requirements: 1 Tree Token (3-4 Ecology), Add 2 Trees (5+ Ecology), tags in the stack. Once Per Round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (Incentive & Ecology Tags) - Add Oceans if you meet the following requirements: 1 Ocean (3-4 Ecology), Add 2 Oceans (5+ Ecology), tags in the stack. Once Per Round.
Gain 1 Tree/Ocean - Once per round - no requirements
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' (Ecology tag) - Gain 1 Tree - once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (Ecology & Infrastructure tags) - Gain 1 Ocean - once per round.

====8. Local Projects to Reduce Damage/ Need Experience====

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - (Geoengineering tag) - Roll the Geoengineering die and add 1 to the result for each Geoengineering tag in this card's stack. The following occur based on the sum of the Geoengineering tags in the stack + the roll of the geoengineering die: remove 1 Temperature Band and draw 2 additional unknown Crisis cards.(2-4 sum total), remove 1 Temperature Bands and draw 1 additional unknown Crisis card. (5-6 sum total), If the sum is 7 or more, remove 2 Temperature Bands. Important! This is a temporary effect. Return the Temperature Bands to the Thermometer at the end of the round (after increasing Energy Demand). You may take this action once per round. - There are two copies of this card in the deck. Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing, but it shines mainly in rounds 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crises is not a big deal. (Different opinions on whether or not this is a valuable card depending on the group you are playing with and the strategy you pick! With minimal resilience, having additional unknown crisis cards picked can tank the game). Additionally, this is only a temporary effect instead of a lasting option like removing emissions/reducing energy/reducing dirty energy.

====Additional Card Tips / Usefulness:====
*Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove some emissions but add more energy demand. If you have good energy generation, then it has the potential to be a good card, but if you don't have synergy, energy, or the type of emission, then it's bad.
*Other cards can make you draw cards; these are all good because they can help you build synergies, and they can be used again next round; sometimes using one extra card to make that stack go from 3 to 4 cards is really good. They are really good, but I do not consider them to be great.
*The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

===Crises===
While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Crises that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" - Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Relevant crisis cards: ⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens. </li>
<li>Late Game: There are crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have </li>
<li> There are Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).
</li>

</ul>

Tip: Not all crises are negative; Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects.

===General===

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness.====
<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">

<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Social:''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per round too. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per round, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that</li> don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every round to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Geoengineering:''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.</li>
</ol>

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next round (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per round)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> global projects

<nowiki>*</nowiki> same number of points for what you would gain next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per extra draw next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next round ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this round thanks to the new card and 0.5 next round)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every round. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better round later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next round. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the round. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next round, as you draw 5 extra cards each round.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second round.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the round.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the round. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first round.

If you only gain 1 house per round, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second round and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each round.

===Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

====Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards)====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.

Pictures of all tags & viewing all cards with a certain tag can be found at https://www.daybreakgame.org/tag-descriptions.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Card Tag Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''% of Deck'''
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|Power Grid
|10
|-
|Energy
|Green
|Outlet Plug
|27
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|Atom
|5
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|Pinwheel
|8
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|Grid of Dots / Solar Panel
|8
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|Piece of Paper
|23
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
| Two hands gripping
|25
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Suspension Bridge
|17
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
| Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|Wrench
|7
|}

====Resilience Symbols====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.

Pictures of resilience symbols can be found here: https://www.daybreakgame.org/resilience
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Resilience Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Shield Description'''
|-
|Social
|Purple
|Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Shield with two roads crisscrossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|Shield with an Asterisk *
|}

====Emissions Tokens / Energy====
Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]

The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+'''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''
!'''Emission Token / Energy Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Rectangle Contents Description'''
|-
|'''Transportation'''
|Gray
|Car
|-
|'''Industry'''
|Gray
|Building with Smokestack
|-
|'''Agriculture'''
| Gray
|Cow / Bull Head
|-
|'''Buildings'''
| Gray
|Two buildings next to each other
|-
|'''Fuel Extraction'''
| Gray
|Oil Rig
|-
|'''Waste'''
|Gray
|Trash Can
|-
|'''Any Type / Wild Emission'''
|Gray
| Rectangle with Asterisk*
|-
|'''Dirty Energy'''
|Gray
| Lightning bolt
|-
|'''Clean Energy'''
|Green
| Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols====
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible style=" border="2" width:auto;" "
|+
!'''Common Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''Information'''
|-
|'''Energy Demand'''
| Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|House (with +/- #)
| Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that round.
|-
|'''Communities in Crisis / CIC Token'''
|Multicolored
|5 people in a pentagon / star shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of round or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|'''Direct Air Capture'''
| Gray
|Fan symbol (circle)
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|'''Tree Token'''
|Green
|Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Ocean Token'''
|Blue
|Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Carbon'''
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|Cube shape of gray with black outlines
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Tips daybreak

2025-05-29T05:19:53Z

Kitty4777: added small scale onshore wind

=== Using this Guide & Card Help ===
Symbol Terminology: Later in this guide is a list of terms & explanation of symbols (tags/resilience's/etc.). Use CTRL+F to search for a term you don't recognize.

Find information about a card in one of the following two ways:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Clicking on the "?" in the bottom left hand corner of any card will open the website for the game, for the specific card you are curious about. Each page on daybreakgame.org has intricate breakdown of each card, along with real-world applications/explanations. Full list of cards: https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards</li>
<li>Hover over a card for a quick explanation. ''Tip: Cards that are "buried/tucked" in a stack can be viewed this way (helpful when you are discarding the top layer of a stack).''</li>
</ul>

===Game End===
To win - Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (this number is located under the world map). Then survive a final crisis round.

Optional: If you have Global or Local "Challenge Cards" Active, their conditions must be met before the game will end. If you always wish that you could "go that extra round", look into harder or variable global or local challenges per person.

===Understanding Cards===
Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>"Once per round" effects can be used at the end of a round AND at the start of the next round.</li>
<li>You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it. </li>
<li>Cards that do not say "once per round" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.</li>
<li>Before ending your round, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, '''showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.''' </li>
<li>Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more helpful as a tucked card. </li>
</ul>

===Understanding Stacks===
There are 5 available stacks of "Local Projects" normal game. Cards are played onto one of each of the 5 stacks. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).

The top card on each stack is active and it's effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the tags of the full stack when activating the card.

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only it's tags are visible (and usable).</li>
<li>Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.</li>
<li>*Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain tag will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.</li>
<li>If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.
</li>
</ul>

Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose. i.e. Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different tags across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require tags within your stack to activate.

Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, i.e., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per round, or a card that one that produces one tree per round.

It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.

===Overall Game Strategies===
This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, '''use the chat feature to communicate''' so your teammates are on the same page:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible -''' This is a "Fast Game" strategy -- If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in round 2 or 3. Global Cards - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards, which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this Strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans / trees generation, and community's in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Communities in Crisis can be thought of as a currency, instead of a goal to keep at 0 across all players. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis diminishes card draw per round. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).</li>
<li>'''Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards,''' This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (taking care to be nearly always above your energy demand) Take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.</li>
<li>'''Mix of Both Strategies:''' Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (Discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., For the fast strategy - getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another one who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to not make the game snowball on you while producing clean energy. Then, increase your resilience to survive the crisis. </li>
</ul>
===Best Local Project Cards to Look for===

====1. Local Projects to Draw Cards====
Draw Tag Specific Cards - Once per round draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) - Draw 7 - Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Draw 9 - Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 '''Solar R+D'''] (Solar & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 '''Wind R+D'''] (Wind & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 '''Geoengineering R+D'''] (Geoengineering tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
Draw Emissions tag Cards - Once per round draw cards from the deck based on how many tags you have in a stack. Keep all cards showing a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions R+D]''' (Incentive (Money) tag) - Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 '''Luxury Consumption Tax'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
Draw One, Two or Three Cards - Based on tag requirements in the stack. Once per round.

* ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 '''Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 '''Clean Energy Investments'''] (Energy tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy)

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] (Innovation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack.; Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] cards.

====2. Local Projects to Search the Deck for Cards====
Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards (Tag agnostic) - This is exchanging one of your current cards for one of three new cards. Unlike other "discard" a card, you maintain the same # of cards in your hand.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Innovation & Energy tags) - Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. '''Tip:''' There are 5 copies of this card in the deck - it is good to stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top) - Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.

====3. Local Projects that Generating Energy====
Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Once Per Round. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack to take this action.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 '''Integrated Planning Solar'''] (Solar & Energy tags ) - Add 1 Clean Energy token to your player board for each Solar tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack to take this action. Once per round.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1022 '''Small Scale Onshore Wind'''] (Wind & Energy tags) - Add 1 Clean Energy token to your player board for each Wind tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack to take this action. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.

====4. Local Projects that reduce Emissions / Dirty Energy / Energy Demand ====
Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce energy

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) - Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens to your player board, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token from your player board. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round).

Remove Emissions / Reduce Energy Demand - Without Discarding

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) - Remove Emissions (of any kind) & Add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), Remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) AND decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). Once per round.

Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand - good when you have extra energy more than demand.

*Various cards

====5. Local Projects to Gain Resilience====
Plus 2 Resilience - Once per round - no requirements.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) - Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) - Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 '''Special Drawing Rights'''] (Regulation tags) - Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 1 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board per Ecology tags in stack.
Gain Energy + Resilience

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.

====6. Local Projects to remove Communities In Crisis Tokens without discarding====

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 '''Scale Up Recovery Support'''] (Society tag) - Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). Once per round.

====7. Local Projects to Plant Trees & Oceans====
Gain Trees/Oceans based on number of tags in a stack
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms] or ⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' (Ecology & Regulation/Society Tags) - Add Trees if you meet the following requirements: 1 Tree Token (3-4 Ecology), Add 2 Trees (5+ Ecology), tags in the stack. Once Per Round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (Incentive & Ecology Tags) - Add Oceans if you meet the following requirements: 1 Ocean (3-4 Ecology), Add 2 Oceans (5+ Ecology), tags in the stack. Once Per Round.
Gain 1 Tree/Ocean - Once per round - no requirements
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' (Ecology tag) - Gain 1 Tree - once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (Ecology & Infrastructure tags) - Gain 1 Ocean - once per round.

====8. Local Projects to Reduce Damage/ Need Experience====

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - (Geoengineering tag) - Roll the Geoengineering die and add 1 to the result for each Geoengineering tag in this card's stack. The following occur based on the sum of the Geoengineering tags in the stack + the roll of the geoengineering die: remove 1 Temperature Band and draw 2 additional unknown Crisis cards.(2-4 sum total), remove 1 Temperature Bands and draw 1 additional unknown Crisis card. (5-6 sum total), If the sum is 7 or more, remove 2 Temperature Bands. Important! This is a temporary effect. Return the Temperature Bands to the Thermometer at the end of the round (after increasing Energy Demand). You may take this action once per round. - There are two copies of this card in the deck. Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing, but it shines mainly in rounds 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crises is not a big deal. (Different opinions on whether or not this is a valuable card depending on the group you are playing with and the strategy you pick! With minimal resilience, having additional unknown crisis cards picked can tank the game). Additionally, this is only a temporary effect instead of a lasting option like removing emissions/reducing energy/reducing dirty energy.

====Additional Card Tips / Usefulness:====
*Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove some emissions but add more energy demand. If you have good energy generation, then it has the potential to be a good card, but if you don't have synergy, energy, or the type of emission, then it's bad.
*Other cards can make you draw cards; these are all good because they can help you build synergies, and they can be used again next round; sometimes using one extra card to make that stack go from 3 to 4 cards is really good. They are really good, but I do not consider them to be great.
*The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

===Crises===
While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Crises that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" - Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Relevant crisis cards: ⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens. </li>
<li>Late Game: There are crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have </li>
<li> There are Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).
</li>

</ul>

Tip: Not all crises are negative; Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects.

===General===

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness.====
<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">

<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Social:''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per round too. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per round, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that</li> don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every round to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Geoengineering:''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.</li>
</ol>

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next round (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per round)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> global projects

<nowiki>*</nowiki> same number of points for what you would gain next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per extra draw next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next round ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this round thanks to the new card and 0.5 next round)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every round. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better round later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next round. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the round. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next round, as you draw 5 extra cards each round.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second round.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the round.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the round. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first round.

If you only gain 1 house per round, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second round and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each round.

===Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

====Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards)====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.

Pictures of all tags & viewing all cards with a certain tag can be found at https://www.daybreakgame.org/tag-descriptions.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Card Tag Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''% of Deck'''
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|Power Grid
|10
|-
|Energy
|Green
|Outlet Plug
|27
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|Atom
|5
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|Pinwheel
|8
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|Grid of Dots / Solar Panel
|8
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|Piece of Paper
|23
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
| Two hands gripping
|25
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Suspension Bridge
|17
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
| Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|Wrench
|7
|}

====Resilience Symbols====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Resilience Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Shield Description'''
|-
|Social
|Purple
|Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Shield with two roads crisscrossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|Shield with an Asterisk *
|}

====Emissions Tokens / Energy====
Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]

The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+'''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''
!'''Emission Token / Energy Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Rectangle Contents Description'''
|-
|'''Transportation'''
|Gray
|Car
|-
|'''Industry'''
|Gray
|Building with Smokestack
|-
|'''Agriculture'''
| Gray
|Cow / Bull Head
|-
|'''Buildings'''
| Gray
|Two buildings next to each other
|-
|'''Fuel Extraction'''
| Gray
|Oil Rig
|-
|'''Waste'''
|Gray
|Trash Can
|-
|'''Any Type / Wild Emission'''
|Gray
| Rectangle with Asterisk*
|-
|'''Dirty Energy'''
|Gray
| Lightning bolt
|-
|'''Clean Energy'''
|Green
| Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols====
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible style=" border="2" width:auto;" "
|+
!'''Common Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''Information'''
|-
|'''Energy Demand'''
| Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|House (with +/- #)
| Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that round.
|-
|'''Communities in Crisis / CIC Token'''
|Multicolored
|5 people in a pentagon / star shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of round or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|'''Direct Air Capture'''
| Gray
|Fan symbol (circle)
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|'''Tree Token'''
|Green
|Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Ocean Token'''
|Blue
|Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Carbon'''
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|Cube shape of gray with black outlines
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Tips daybreak

2025-05-29T05:09:02Z

Kitty4777: /* Other common symbols */

=== Using this Guide & Card Help ===
Symbol Terminology: Later in this guide is a list of terms & explanation of symbols (tags/resilience's/etc.). Use CTRL+F to search for a term you don't recognize.

Find information about a card in one of the following two ways:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Clicking on the "?" in the bottom left hand corner of any card will open the website for the game, for the specific card you are curious about. Each page on daybreakgame.org has intricate breakdown of each card, along with real-world applications/explanations. Full list of cards: https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards</li>
<li>Hover over a card for a quick explanation. ''Tip: Cards that are "buried/tucked" in a stack can be viewed this way (helpful when you are discarding the top layer of a stack).''</li>
</ul>

===Game End===
To win - Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (this number is located under the world map). Then survive a final crisis round.

Optional: If you have Global or Local "Challenge Cards" Active, their conditions must be met before the game will end. If you always wish that you could "go that extra round", look into harder or variable global or local challenges per person.

===Understanding Cards===
Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>"Once per round" effects can be used at the end of a round AND at the start of the next round.</li>
<li>You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it. </li>
<li>Cards that do not say "once per round" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.</li>
<li>Before ending your round, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, '''showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.''' </li>
<li>Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more helpful as a tucked card. </li>
</ul>

===Understanding Stacks===
There are 5 available stacks of "Local Projects" normal game. Cards are played onto one of each of the 5 stacks. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).

The top card on each stack is active and it's effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the tags of the full stack when activating the card.

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only it's tags are visible (and usable).</li>
<li>Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.</li>
<li>*Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain tag will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.</li>
<li>If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.
</li>
</ul>

Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose. i.e. Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different tags across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require tags within your stack to activate.

Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, i.e., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per round, or a card that one that produces one tree per round.

It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.

===Overall Game Strategies===
This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, '''use the chat feature to communicate''' so your teammates are on the same page:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible -''' This is a "Fast Game" strategy -- If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in round 2 or 3. Global Cards - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards, which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this Strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans / trees generation, and community's in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Communities in Crisis can be thought of as a currency, instead of a goal to keep at 0 across all players. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis diminishes card draw per round. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).</li>
<li>'''Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards,''' This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (taking care to be nearly always above your energy demand) Take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.</li>
<li>'''Mix of Both Strategies:''' Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (Discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., For the fast strategy - getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another one who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to not make the game snowball on you while producing clean energy. Then, increase your resilience to survive the crisis. </li>
</ul>
===Best Local Project Cards to Look for===

====1. Local Projects to Draw Cards====
Draw Tag Specific Cards - Once per round draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) - Draw 7 - Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Draw 9 - Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 '''Solar R+D'''] (Solar & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 '''Wind R+D'''] (Wind & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 '''Geoengineering R+D'''] (Geoengineering tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
Draw Emissions tag Cards - Once per round draw cards from the deck based on how many tags you have in a stack. Keep all cards showing a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions R+D]''' (Incentive (Money) tag) - Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 '''Luxury Consumption Tax'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
Draw One, Two or Three Cards - Based on tag requirements in the stack. Once per round.

* ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 '''Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 '''Clean Energy Investments'''] (Energy tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy)

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] (Innovation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack.; Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] cards.

====2. Local Projects to Search the Deck for Cards====
Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards (Tag agnostic) - This is exchanging one of your current cards for one of three new cards. Unlike other "discard" a card, you maintain the same # of cards in your hand.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Innovation & Energy tags) - Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. '''Tip:''' There are 5 copies of this card in the deck - it is good to stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top) - Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.

====3. Local Projects that Generating Energy====
Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Once Per Round. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack to take this action.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 '''Integrated Planning Solar'''] (Energy & Solar tags ) - Add 1 Clean Energy token to your player board for each Solar tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack to take this action. Once per round.

====4. Local Projects that reduce Emissions / Dirty Energy / Energy Demand ====
Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce energy

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) - Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens to your player board, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token from your player board. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round).

Remove Emissions / Reduce Energy Demand - Without Discarding

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) - Remove Emissions (of any kind) & Add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), Remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) AND decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). Once per round.

Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand - good when you have extra energy more than demand.

*Various cards

====5. Local Projects to Gain Resilience====
Plus 2 Resilience - Once per round - no requirements.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) - Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) - Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 '''Special Drawing Rights'''] (Regulation tags) - Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 1 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board per Ecology tags in stack.
Gain Energy + Resilience

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.

====6. Local Projects to remove Communities In Crisis Tokens without discarding====

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 '''Scale Up Recovery Support'''] (Society tag) - Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). Once per round.

====7. Local Projects to Plant Trees & Oceans====
Gain Trees/Oceans based on number of tags in a stack
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms] or ⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' (Ecology & Regulation/Society Tags) - Add Trees if you meet the following requirements: 1 Tree Token (3-4 Ecology), Add 2 Trees (5+ Ecology), tags in the stack. Once Per Round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (Incentive & Ecology Tags) - Add Oceans if you meet the following requirements: 1 Ocean (3-4 Ecology), Add 2 Oceans (5+ Ecology), tags in the stack. Once Per Round.
Gain 1 Tree/Ocean - Once per round - no requirements
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' (Ecology tag) - Gain 1 Tree - once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (Ecology & Infrastructure tags) - Gain 1 Ocean - once per round.

====8. Local Projects to Reduce Damage/ Need Experience====

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - (Geoengineering tag) - Roll the Geoengineering die and add 1 to the result for each Geoengineering tag in this card's stack. The following occur based on the sum of the Geoengineering tags in the stack + the roll of the geoengineering die: remove 1 Temperature Band and draw 2 additional unknown Crisis cards.(2-4 sum total), remove 1 Temperature Bands and draw 1 additional unknown Crisis card. (5-6 sum total), If the sum is 7 or more, remove 2 Temperature Bands. Important! This is a temporary effect. Return the Temperature Bands to the Thermometer at the end of the round (after increasing Energy Demand). You may take this action once per round. - There are two copies of this card in the deck. Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing, but it shines mainly in rounds 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crises is not a big deal. (Different opinions on whether or not this is a valuable card depending on the group you are playing with and the strategy you pick! With minimal resilience, having additional unknown crisis cards picked can tank the game). Additionally, this is only a temporary effect instead of a lasting option like removing emissions/reducing energy/reducing dirty energy.

====Additional Card Tips / Usefulness:====
*Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove some emissions but add more energy demand. If you have good energy generation, then it has the potential to be a good card, but if you don't have synergy, energy, or the type of emission, then it's bad.
*Other cards can make you draw cards; these are all good because they can help you build synergies, and they can be used again next round; sometimes using one extra card to make that stack go from 3 to 4 cards is really good. They are really good, but I do not consider them to be great.
*The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

===Crises===
While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Crises that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" - Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Relevant crisis cards: ⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens. </li>
<li>Late Game: There are crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have </li>
<li> There are Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).
</li>

</ul>

Tip: Not all crises are negative; Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects.

===General===

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness.====
<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">

<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Social:''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per round too. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per round, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that</li> don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every round to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Geoengineering:''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.</li>
</ol>

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next round (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per round)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> global projects

<nowiki>*</nowiki> same number of points for what you would gain next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per extra draw next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next round ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this round thanks to the new card and 0.5 next round)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every round. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better round later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next round. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the round. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next round, as you draw 5 extra cards each round.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second round.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the round.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the round. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first round.

If you only gain 1 house per round, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second round and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each round.

===Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

====Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards)====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Card Tag Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''% of Deck'''
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|Power Grid
|10
|-
|Energy
|Green
|Outlet Plug
|27
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|Atom
|5
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|Pinwheel
|8
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|Grid of Dots / Solar Panel
|8
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|Piece of Paper
|23
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
| Two hands gripping
|25
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Suspension Bridge
|17
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
| Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|Wrench
|7
|}

====Resilience Symbols====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Resilience Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Shield Description'''
|-
|Social
|Purple
|Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Shield with two roads crisscrossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|Shield with an Asterisk *
|}

====Emissions Tokens / Energy====
Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]

The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+'''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''
!'''Emission Token / Energy Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Rectangle Contents Description'''
|-
|'''Transportation'''
|Gray
|Car
|-
|'''Industry'''
|Gray
|Building with Smokestack
|-
|'''Agriculture'''
| Gray
|Cow / Bull Head
|-
|'''Buildings'''
| Gray
|Two buildings next to each other
|-
|'''Fuel Extraction'''
| Gray
|Oil Rig
|-
|'''Waste'''
|Gray
|Trash Can
|-
|'''Any Type / Wild Emission'''
|Gray
| Rectangle with Asterisk*
|-
|'''Dirty Energy'''
|Gray
| Lightning bolt
|-
|'''Clean Energy'''
|Green
| Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols====
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible style=" border="2" width:auto;" "
|+
!'''Common Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''Information'''
|-
|'''Energy Demand'''
| Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|House (with +/- #)
| Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that round.
|-
|'''Communities in Crisis / CIC Token'''
|Multicolored
|5 people in a pentagon / star shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of round or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|'''Direct Air Capture'''
| Gray
|Fan symbol (circle)
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|'''Tree Token'''
|Green
|Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Ocean Token'''
|Blue
|Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Carbon'''
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|Cube shape of gray with black outlines
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Tips daybreak

2025-05-29T05:07:39Z

Kitty4777: /* Crises */

=== Using this Guide & Card Help ===
Symbol Terminology: Later in this guide is a list of terms & explanation of symbols (tags/resilience's/etc.). Use CTRL+F to search for a term you don't recognize.

Find information about a card in one of the following two ways:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Clicking on the "?" in the bottom left hand corner of any card will open the website for the game, for the specific card you are curious about. Each page on daybreakgame.org has intricate breakdown of each card, along with real-world applications/explanations. Full list of cards: https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards</li>
<li>Hover over a card for a quick explanation. ''Tip: Cards that are "buried/tucked" in a stack can be viewed this way (helpful when you are discarding the top layer of a stack).''</li>
</ul>

===Game End===
To win - Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (this number is located under the world map). Then survive a final crisis round.

Optional: If you have Global or Local "Challenge Cards" Active, their conditions must be met before the game will end. If you always wish that you could "go that extra round", look into harder or variable global or local challenges per person.

===Understanding Cards===
Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>"Once per round" effects can be used at the end of a round AND at the start of the next round.</li>
<li>You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it. </li>
<li>Cards that do not say "once per round" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.</li>
<li>Before ending your round, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, '''showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.''' </li>
<li>Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more helpful as a tucked card. </li>
</ul>

===Understanding Stacks===
There are 5 available stacks of "Local Projects" normal game. Cards are played onto one of each of the 5 stacks. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).

The top card on each stack is active and it's effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the tags of the full stack when activating the card.

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only it's tags are visible (and usable).</li>
<li>Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.</li>
<li>*Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain tag will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.</li>
<li>If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.
</li>
</ul>

Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose. i.e. Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different tags across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require tags within your stack to activate.

Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, i.e., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per round, or a card that one that produces one tree per round.

It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.

===Overall Game Strategies===
This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, '''use the chat feature to communicate''' so your teammates are on the same page:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible -''' This is a "Fast Game" strategy -- If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in round 2 or 3. Global Cards - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards, which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this Strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans / trees generation, and community's in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Communities in Crisis can be thought of as a currency, instead of a goal to keep at 0 across all players. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis diminishes card draw per round. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).</li>
<li>'''Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards,''' This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (taking care to be nearly always above your energy demand) Take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.</li>
<li>'''Mix of Both Strategies:''' Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (Discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., For the fast strategy - getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another one who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to not make the game snowball on you while producing clean energy. Then, increase your resilience to survive the crisis. </li>
</ul>
===Best Local Project Cards to Look for===

====1. Local Projects to Draw Cards====
Draw Tag Specific Cards - Once per round draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) - Draw 7 - Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Draw 9 - Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 '''Solar R+D'''] (Solar & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 '''Wind R+D'''] (Wind & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 '''Geoengineering R+D'''] (Geoengineering tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
Draw Emissions tag Cards - Once per round draw cards from the deck based on how many tags you have in a stack. Keep all cards showing a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions R+D]''' (Incentive (Money) tag) - Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 '''Luxury Consumption Tax'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
Draw One, Two or Three Cards - Based on tag requirements in the stack. Once per round.

* ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 '''Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 '''Clean Energy Investments'''] (Energy tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy)

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] (Innovation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack.; Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] cards.

====2. Local Projects to Search the Deck for Cards====
Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards (Tag agnostic) - This is exchanging one of your current cards for one of three new cards. Unlike other "discard" a card, you maintain the same # of cards in your hand.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Innovation & Energy tags) - Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. '''Tip:''' There are 5 copies of this card in the deck - it is good to stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top) - Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.

====3. Local Projects that Generating Energy====
Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Once Per Round. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack to take this action.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 '''Integrated Planning Solar'''] (Energy & Solar tags ) - Add 1 Clean Energy token to your player board for each Solar tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack to take this action. Once per round.

====4. Local Projects that reduce Emissions / Dirty Energy / Energy Demand ====
Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce energy

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) - Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens to your player board, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token from your player board. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round).

Remove Emissions / Reduce Energy Demand - Without Discarding

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) - Remove Emissions (of any kind) & Add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), Remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) AND decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). Once per round.

Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand - good when you have extra energy more than demand.

*Various cards

====5. Local Projects to Gain Resilience====
Plus 2 Resilience - Once per round - no requirements.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) - Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) - Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 '''Special Drawing Rights'''] (Regulation tags) - Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 1 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board per Ecology tags in stack.
Gain Energy + Resilience

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.

====6. Local Projects to remove Communities In Crisis Tokens without discarding====

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 '''Scale Up Recovery Support'''] (Society tag) - Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). Once per round.

====7. Local Projects to Plant Trees & Oceans====
Gain Trees/Oceans based on number of tags in a stack
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms] or ⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' (Ecology & Regulation/Society Tags) - Add Trees if you meet the following requirements: 1 Tree Token (3-4 Ecology), Add 2 Trees (5+ Ecology), tags in the stack. Once Per Round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (Incentive & Ecology Tags) - Add Oceans if you meet the following requirements: 1 Ocean (3-4 Ecology), Add 2 Oceans (5+ Ecology), tags in the stack. Once Per Round.
Gain 1 Tree/Ocean - Once per round - no requirements
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' (Ecology tag) - Gain 1 Tree - once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (Ecology & Infrastructure tags) - Gain 1 Ocean - once per round.

====8. Local Projects to Reduce Damage/ Need Experience====

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - (Geoengineering tag) - Roll the Geoengineering die and add 1 to the result for each Geoengineering tag in this card's stack. The following occur based on the sum of the Geoengineering tags in the stack + the roll of the geoengineering die: remove 1 Temperature Band and draw 2 additional unknown Crisis cards.(2-4 sum total), remove 1 Temperature Bands and draw 1 additional unknown Crisis card. (5-6 sum total), If the sum is 7 or more, remove 2 Temperature Bands. Important! This is a temporary effect. Return the Temperature Bands to the Thermometer at the end of the round (after increasing Energy Demand). You may take this action once per round. - There are two copies of this card in the deck. Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing, but it shines mainly in rounds 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crises is not a big deal. (Different opinions on whether or not this is a valuable card depending on the group you are playing with and the strategy you pick! With minimal resilience, having additional unknown crisis cards picked can tank the game). Additionally, this is only a temporary effect instead of a lasting option like removing emissions/reducing energy/reducing dirty energy.

====Additional Card Tips / Usefulness:====
*Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove some emissions but add more energy demand. If you have good energy generation, then it has the potential to be a good card, but if you don't have synergy, energy, or the type of emission, then it's bad.
*Other cards can make you draw cards; these are all good because they can help you build synergies, and they can be used again next round; sometimes using one extra card to make that stack go from 3 to 4 cards is really good. They are really good, but I do not consider them to be great.
*The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

===Crises===
While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Crises that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" - Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Relevant crisis cards: ⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens. </li>
<li>Late Game: There are crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have </li>
<li> There are Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).
</li>

</ul>

Tip: Not all crises are negative; Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects.

===General===

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness.====
<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">

<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Social:''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per round too. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per round, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that</li> don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every round to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Geoengineering:''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.</li>
</ol>

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next round (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per round)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> global projects

<nowiki>*</nowiki> same number of points for what you would gain next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per extra draw next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next round ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this round thanks to the new card and 0.5 next round)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every round. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better round later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next round. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the round. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next round, as you draw 5 extra cards each round.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second round.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the round.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the round. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first round.

If you only gain 1 house per round, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second round and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each round.

===Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

====Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards)====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Card Tag Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''% of Deck'''
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|Power Grid
|10
|-
|Energy
|Green
|Outlet Plug
|27
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|Atom
|5
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|Pinwheel
|8
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|Grid of Dots / Solar Panel
|8
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|Piece of Paper
|23
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
| Two hands gripping
|25
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Suspension Bridge
|17
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
| Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|Wrench
|7
|}

====Resilience Symbols====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Resilience Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Shield Description'''
|-
|Social
|Purple
|Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Shield with two roads crisscrossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|Shield with an Asterisk *
|}

====Emissions Tokens / Energy====
Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]

The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+'''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''
!'''Emission Token / Energy Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Rectangle Contents Description'''
|-
|'''Transportation'''
|Gray
|Car
|-
|'''Industry'''
|Gray
|Building with Smokestack
|-
|'''Agriculture'''
| Gray
|Cow / Bull Head
|-
|'''Buildings'''
| Gray
|Two buildings next to each other
|-
|'''Fuel Extraction'''
| Gray
|Oil Rig
|-
|'''Waste'''
|Gray
|Trash Can
|-
|'''Any Type / Wild Emission'''
|Gray
| Rectangle with Asterisk*
|-
|'''Dirty Energy'''
|Gray
| Lightning bolt
|-
|'''Clean Energy'''
|Green
| Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols====
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible style=" border="2" width:auto;" "
|+
!'''Common Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''Information'''
|-
|'''Energy Demand'''
| Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|House (with +/- #)
| Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that round.
|-
|'''Communities in Crisis / CIC'''
|Multicolored
|5 people in a pentagon / star shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of round or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|'''Direct Air Capture'''
| Gray
|Fan symbol (circle)
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|'''Trees, Land, Soil'''
|Green
|Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Oceans, wetlands'''
|Blue
|Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Carbon'''
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|Cube shape of gray with black outlines
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Talk:Tips daybreak

2025-05-29T05:06:30Z

Kitty4777: /* Wiki Formatting Issues */ new section

== Wiki Formatting Issues ==

There are known issues with BGA for formatting Wiki's so that it translates correctly to BGA once published.

I've used formatting suggestions from here: https://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Wiki_formatting for table & bullet formatting that will transfer.

Additionally, I've chosen to use star icons (⭐) as bullet points for identifying cards.

Tips daybreak

2025-05-29T05:02:56Z

Kitty4777: /* Using this Guide & Card Help */

=== Using this Guide & Card Help ===
Symbol Terminology: Later in this guide is a list of terms & explanation of symbols (tags/resilience's/etc.). Use CTRL+F to search for a term you don't recognize.

Find information about a card in one of the following two ways:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Clicking on the "?" in the bottom left hand corner of any card will open the website for the game, for the specific card you are curious about. Each page on daybreakgame.org has intricate breakdown of each card, along with real-world applications/explanations. Full list of cards: https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards</li>
<li>Hover over a card for a quick explanation. ''Tip: Cards that are "buried/tucked" in a stack can be viewed this way (helpful when you are discarding the top layer of a stack).''</li>
</ul>

===Game End===
To win - Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (this number is located under the world map). Then survive a final crisis round.

Optional: If you have Global or Local "Challenge Cards" Active, their conditions must be met before the game will end. If you always wish that you could "go that extra round", look into harder or variable global or local challenges per person.

===Understanding Cards===
Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>"Once per round" effects can be used at the end of a round AND at the start of the next round.</li>
<li>You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it. </li>
<li>Cards that do not say "once per round" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.</li>
<li>Before ending your round, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, '''showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.''' </li>
<li>Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more helpful as a tucked card. </li>
</ul>

===Understanding Stacks===
There are 5 available stacks of "Local Projects" normal game. Cards are played onto one of each of the 5 stacks. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).

The top card on each stack is active and it's effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the tags of the full stack when activating the card.

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only it's tags are visible (and usable).</li>
<li>Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.</li>
<li>*Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain tag will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.</li>
<li>If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.
</li>
</ul>

Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose. i.e. Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different tags across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require tags within your stack to activate.

Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, i.e., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per round, or a card that one that produces one tree per round.

It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.

===Overall Game Strategies===
This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, '''use the chat feature to communicate''' so your teammates are on the same page:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible -''' This is a "Fast Game" strategy -- If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in round 2 or 3. Global Cards - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards, which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this Strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans / trees generation, and community's in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Communities in Crisis can be thought of as a currency, instead of a goal to keep at 0 across all players. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis diminishes card draw per round. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).</li>
<li>'''Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards,''' This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (taking care to be nearly always above your energy demand) Take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.</li>
<li>'''Mix of Both Strategies:''' Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (Discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., For the fast strategy - getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another one who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to not make the game snowball on you while producing clean energy. Then, increase your resilience to survive the crisis. </li>
</ul>
===Best Local Project Cards to Look for===

====1. Local Projects to Draw Cards====
Draw Tag Specific Cards - Once per round draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) - Draw 7 - Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Draw 9 - Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 '''Solar R+D'''] (Solar & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 '''Wind R+D'''] (Wind & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 '''Geoengineering R+D'''] (Geoengineering tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
Draw Emissions tag Cards - Once per round draw cards from the deck based on how many tags you have in a stack. Keep all cards showing a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions R+D]''' (Incentive (Money) tag) - Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 '''Luxury Consumption Tax'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
Draw One, Two or Three Cards - Based on tag requirements in the stack. Once per round.

* ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 '''Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 '''Clean Energy Investments'''] (Energy tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy)

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] (Innovation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack.; Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] cards.

====2. Local Projects to Search the Deck for Cards====
Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards (Tag agnostic) - This is exchanging one of your current cards for one of three new cards. Unlike other "discard" a card, you maintain the same # of cards in your hand.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Innovation & Energy tags) - Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. '''Tip:''' There are 5 copies of this card in the deck - it is good to stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top) - Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.

====3. Local Projects that Generating Energy====
Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Once Per Round. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack to take this action.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 '''Integrated Planning Solar'''] (Energy & Solar tags ) - Add 1 Clean Energy token to your player board for each Solar tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack to take this action. Once per round.

====4. Local Projects that reduce Emissions / Dirty Energy / Energy Demand ====
Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce energy

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) - Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens to your player board, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token from your player board. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round).

Remove Emissions / Reduce Energy Demand - Without Discarding

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) - Remove Emissions (of any kind) & Add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), Remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) AND decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). Once per round.

Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand - good when you have extra energy more than demand.

*Various cards

====5. Local Projects to Gain Resilience====
Plus 2 Resilience - Once per round - no requirements.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) - Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) - Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 '''Special Drawing Rights'''] (Regulation tags) - Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 1 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board per Ecology tags in stack.
Gain Energy + Resilience

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.

====6. Local Projects to remove Communities In Crisis Tokens without discarding====

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 '''Scale Up Recovery Support'''] (Society tag) - Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). Once per round.

====7. Local Projects to Plant Trees & Oceans====
Gain Trees/Oceans based on number of tags in a stack
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms] or ⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' (Ecology & Regulation/Society Tags) - Add Trees if you meet the following requirements: 1 Tree Token (3-4 Ecology), Add 2 Trees (5+ Ecology), tags in the stack. Once Per Round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (Incentive & Ecology Tags) - Add Oceans if you meet the following requirements: 1 Ocean (3-4 Ecology), Add 2 Oceans (5+ Ecology), tags in the stack. Once Per Round.
Gain 1 Tree/Ocean - Once per round - no requirements
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' (Ecology tag) - Gain 1 Tree - once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (Ecology & Infrastructure tags) - Gain 1 Ocean - once per round.

====8. Local Projects to Reduce Damage/ Need Experience====

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - (Geoengineering tag) - Roll the Geoengineering die and add 1 to the result for each Geoengineering tag in this card's stack. The following occur based on the sum of the Geoengineering tags in the stack + the roll of the geoengineering die: remove 1 Temperature Band and draw 2 additional unknown Crisis cards.(2-4 sum total), remove 1 Temperature Bands and draw 1 additional unknown Crisis card. (5-6 sum total), If the sum is 7 or more, remove 2 Temperature Bands. Important! This is a temporary effect. Return the Temperature Bands to the Thermometer at the end of the round (after increasing Energy Demand). You may take this action once per round. - There are two copies of this card in the deck. Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing, but it shines mainly in rounds 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crises is not a big deal. (Different opinions on whether or not this is a valuable card depending on the group you are playing with and the strategy you pick! With minimal resilience, having additional unknown crisis cards picked can tank the game). Additionally, this is only a temporary effect instead of a lasting option like removing emissions/reducing energy/reducing dirty energy.

====Additional Card Tips / Usefulness:====
*Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove some emissions but add more energy demand. If you have good energy generation, then it has the potential to be a good card, but if you don't have synergy, energy, or the type of emission, then it's bad.
*Other cards can make you draw cards; these are all good because they can help you build synergies, and they can be used again next round; sometimes using one extra card to make that stack go from 3 to 4 cards is really good. They are really good, but I do not consider them to be great.
*The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

===Crises===
While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Crises that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" - Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Examples: [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) There is a crisis that - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens. </li>
<li>Late Game: There are crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have </li>
<li> There are Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).
</li>

</ul>

Tip: Not all crises are negative; Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects.

===General===

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness.====
<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">

<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Social:''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per round too. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per round, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that</li> don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every round to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Geoengineering:''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.</li>
</ol>

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next round (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per round)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> global projects

<nowiki>*</nowiki> same number of points for what you would gain next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per extra draw next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next round ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this round thanks to the new card and 0.5 next round)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every round. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better round later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next round. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the round. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next round, as you draw 5 extra cards each round.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second round.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the round.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the round. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first round.

If you only gain 1 house per round, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second round and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each round.

===Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

====Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards)====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Card Tag Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''% of Deck'''
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|Power Grid
|10
|-
|Energy
|Green
|Outlet Plug
|27
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|Atom
|5
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|Pinwheel
|8
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|Grid of Dots / Solar Panel
|8
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|Piece of Paper
|23
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
| Two hands gripping
|25
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Suspension Bridge
|17
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
| Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|Wrench
|7
|}

====Resilience Symbols====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Resilience Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Shield Description'''
|-
|Social
|Purple
|Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Shield with two roads crisscrossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|Shield with an Asterisk *
|}

====Emissions Tokens / Energy====
Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]

The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+'''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''
!'''Emission Token / Energy Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Rectangle Contents Description'''
|-
|'''Transportation'''
|Gray
|Car
|-
|'''Industry'''
|Gray
|Building with Smokestack
|-
|'''Agriculture'''
| Gray
|Cow / Bull Head
|-
|'''Buildings'''
| Gray
|Two buildings next to each other
|-
|'''Fuel Extraction'''
| Gray
|Oil Rig
|-
|'''Waste'''
|Gray
|Trash Can
|-
|'''Any Type / Wild Emission'''
|Gray
| Rectangle with Asterisk*
|-
|'''Dirty Energy'''
|Gray
| Lightning bolt
|-
|'''Clean Energy'''
|Green
| Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols====
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible style=" border="2" width:auto;" "
|+
!'''Common Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''Information'''
|-
|'''Energy Demand'''
| Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|House (with +/- #)
| Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that round.
|-
|'''Communities in Crisis / CIC'''
|Multicolored
|5 people in a pentagon / star shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of round or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|'''Direct Air Capture'''
| Gray
|Fan symbol (circle)
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|'''Trees, Land, Soil'''
|Green
|Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Oceans, wetlands'''
|Blue
|Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Carbon'''
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|Cube shape of gray with black outlines
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Tips daybreak

2025-05-29T05:02:33Z

Kitty4777: /* Emissions Tokens / Energy */

=== '''Using this Guide & Card Help''' ===
Symbol Terminology: Later in this guide is a list of terms & explanation of symbols (tags/resilience's/etc.). Use CTRL+F to search for a term you don't recognize.

Find information about a card in one of the following two ways:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Clicking on the "?" in the bottom left hand corner of any card will open the website for the game, for the specific card you are curious about. Each page on daybreakgame.org has intricate breakdown of each card, along with real-world applications/explanations. Full list of cards: https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards</li>
<li>Hover over a card for a quick explanation. ''Tip: Cards that are "buried/tucked" in a stack can be viewed this way (helpful when you are discarding the top layer of a stack).''</li>
</ul>

===Game End===
To win - Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (this number is located under the world map). Then survive a final crisis round.

Optional: If you have Global or Local "Challenge Cards" Active, their conditions must be met before the game will end. If you always wish that you could "go that extra round", look into harder or variable global or local challenges per person.

===Understanding Cards===
Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>"Once per round" effects can be used at the end of a round AND at the start of the next round.</li>
<li>You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it. </li>
<li>Cards that do not say "once per round" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.</li>
<li>Before ending your round, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, '''showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.''' </li>
<li>Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more helpful as a tucked card. </li>
</ul>

===Understanding Stacks===
There are 5 available stacks of "Local Projects" normal game. Cards are played onto one of each of the 5 stacks. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).

The top card on each stack is active and it's effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the tags of the full stack when activating the card.

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only it's tags are visible (and usable).</li>
<li>Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.</li>
<li>*Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain tag will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.</li>
<li>If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.
</li>
</ul>

Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose. i.e. Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different tags across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require tags within your stack to activate.

Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, i.e., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per round, or a card that one that produces one tree per round.

It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.

===Overall Game Strategies===
This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, '''use the chat feature to communicate''' so your teammates are on the same page:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible -''' This is a "Fast Game" strategy -- If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in round 2 or 3. Global Cards - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards, which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this Strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans / trees generation, and community's in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Communities in Crisis can be thought of as a currency, instead of a goal to keep at 0 across all players. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis diminishes card draw per round. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).</li>
<li>'''Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards,''' This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (taking care to be nearly always above your energy demand) Take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.</li>
<li>'''Mix of Both Strategies:''' Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (Discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., For the fast strategy - getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another one who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to not make the game snowball on you while producing clean energy. Then, increase your resilience to survive the crisis. </li>
</ul>
===Best Local Project Cards to Look for===

====1. Local Projects to Draw Cards====
Draw Tag Specific Cards - Once per round draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) - Draw 7 - Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Draw 9 - Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 '''Solar R+D'''] (Solar & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 '''Wind R+D'''] (Wind & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 '''Geoengineering R+D'''] (Geoengineering tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
Draw Emissions tag Cards - Once per round draw cards from the deck based on how many tags you have in a stack. Keep all cards showing a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions R+D]''' (Incentive (Money) tag) - Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 '''Luxury Consumption Tax'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
Draw One, Two or Three Cards - Based on tag requirements in the stack. Once per round.

* ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 '''Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 '''Clean Energy Investments'''] (Energy tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy)

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] (Innovation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack.; Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] cards.

====2. Local Projects to Search the Deck for Cards====
Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards (Tag agnostic) - This is exchanging one of your current cards for one of three new cards. Unlike other "discard" a card, you maintain the same # of cards in your hand.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Innovation & Energy tags) - Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. '''Tip:''' There are 5 copies of this card in the deck - it is good to stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top) - Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.

====3. Local Projects that Generating Energy====
Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Once Per Round. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack to take this action.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 '''Integrated Planning Solar'''] (Energy & Solar tags ) - Add 1 Clean Energy token to your player board for each Solar tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack to take this action. Once per round.

====4. Local Projects that reduce Emissions / Dirty Energy / Energy Demand ====
Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce energy

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) - Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens to your player board, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token from your player board. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round).

Remove Emissions / Reduce Energy Demand - Without Discarding

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) - Remove Emissions (of any kind) & Add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), Remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) AND decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). Once per round.

Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand - good when you have extra energy more than demand.

*Various cards

====5. Local Projects to Gain Resilience====
Plus 2 Resilience - Once per round - no requirements.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) - Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) - Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 '''Special Drawing Rights'''] (Regulation tags) - Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 1 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board per Ecology tags in stack.
Gain Energy + Resilience

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.

====6. Local Projects to remove Communities In Crisis Tokens without discarding====

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 '''Scale Up Recovery Support'''] (Society tag) - Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). Once per round.

====7. Local Projects to Plant Trees & Oceans====
Gain Trees/Oceans based on number of tags in a stack
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms] or ⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' (Ecology & Regulation/Society Tags) - Add Trees if you meet the following requirements: 1 Tree Token (3-4 Ecology), Add 2 Trees (5+ Ecology), tags in the stack. Once Per Round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (Incentive & Ecology Tags) - Add Oceans if you meet the following requirements: 1 Ocean (3-4 Ecology), Add 2 Oceans (5+ Ecology), tags in the stack. Once Per Round.
Gain 1 Tree/Ocean - Once per round - no requirements
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' (Ecology tag) - Gain 1 Tree - once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (Ecology & Infrastructure tags) - Gain 1 Ocean - once per round.

====8. Local Projects to Reduce Damage/ Need Experience====

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - (Geoengineering tag) - Roll the Geoengineering die and add 1 to the result for each Geoengineering tag in this card's stack. The following occur based on the sum of the Geoengineering tags in the stack + the roll of the geoengineering die: remove 1 Temperature Band and draw 2 additional unknown Crisis cards.(2-4 sum total), remove 1 Temperature Bands and draw 1 additional unknown Crisis card. (5-6 sum total), If the sum is 7 or more, remove 2 Temperature Bands. Important! This is a temporary effect. Return the Temperature Bands to the Thermometer at the end of the round (after increasing Energy Demand). You may take this action once per round. - There are two copies of this card in the deck. Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing, but it shines mainly in rounds 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crises is not a big deal. (Different opinions on whether or not this is a valuable card depending on the group you are playing with and the strategy you pick! With minimal resilience, having additional unknown crisis cards picked can tank the game). Additionally, this is only a temporary effect instead of a lasting option like removing emissions/reducing energy/reducing dirty energy.

====Additional Card Tips / Usefulness:====
*Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove some emissions but add more energy demand. If you have good energy generation, then it has the potential to be a good card, but if you don't have synergy, energy, or the type of emission, then it's bad.
*Other cards can make you draw cards; these are all good because they can help you build synergies, and they can be used again next round; sometimes using one extra card to make that stack go from 3 to 4 cards is really good. They are really good, but I do not consider them to be great.
*The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

===Crises===
While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Crises that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" - Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Examples: [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) There is a crisis that - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens. </li>
<li>Late Game: There are crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have </li>
<li> There are Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).
</li>

</ul>

Tip: Not all crises are negative; Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects.

===General===

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness.====
<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">

<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Social:''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per round too. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per round, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that</li> don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every round to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Geoengineering:''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.</li>
</ol>

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next round (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per round)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> global projects

<nowiki>*</nowiki> same number of points for what you would gain next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per extra draw next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next round ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this round thanks to the new card and 0.5 next round)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every round. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better round later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next round. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the round. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next round, as you draw 5 extra cards each round.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second round.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the round.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the round. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first round.

If you only gain 1 house per round, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second round and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each round.

===Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

====Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards)====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Card Tag Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''% of Deck'''
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|Power Grid
|10
|-
|Energy
|Green
|Outlet Plug
|27
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|Atom
|5
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|Pinwheel
|8
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|Grid of Dots / Solar Panel
|8
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|Piece of Paper
|23
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
| Two hands gripping
|25
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Suspension Bridge
|17
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
| Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|Wrench
|7
|}

====Resilience Symbols====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Resilience Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Shield Description'''
|-
|Social
|Purple
|Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Shield with two roads crisscrossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|Shield with an Asterisk *
|}

====Emissions Tokens / Energy====
Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]

The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+'''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''
!'''Emission Token / Energy Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Rectangle Contents Description'''
|-
|'''Transportation'''
|Gray
|Car
|-
|'''Industry'''
|Gray
|Building with Smokestack
|-
|'''Agriculture'''
| Gray
|Cow / Bull Head
|-
|'''Buildings'''
| Gray
|Two buildings next to each other
|-
|'''Fuel Extraction'''
| Gray
|Oil Rig
|-
|'''Waste'''
|Gray
|Trash Can
|-
|'''Any Type / Wild Emission'''
|Gray
| Rectangle with Asterisk*
|-
|'''Dirty Energy'''
|Gray
| Lightning bolt
|-
|'''Clean Energy'''
|Green
| Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols====
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible style=" border="2" width:auto;" "
|+
!'''Common Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''Information'''
|-
|'''Energy Demand'''
| Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|House (with +/- #)
| Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that round.
|-
|'''Communities in Crisis / CIC'''
|Multicolored
|5 people in a pentagon / star shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of round or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|'''Direct Air Capture'''
| Gray
|Fan symbol (circle)
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|'''Trees, Land, Soil'''
|Green
|Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Oceans, wetlands'''
|Blue
|Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Carbon'''
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|Cube shape of gray with black outlines
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Tips daybreak

2025-05-29T04:57:47Z

Kitty4777: /* 8. Local Projects to Reduce Damage/ Need Experience */ Updated Stratospheric sulfur with full rules & additional risk information.

=== '''Using this Guide & Card Help''' ===
Symbol Terminology: Later in this guide is a list of terms & explanation of symbols (tags/resilience's/etc.). Use CTRL+F to search for a term you don't recognize.

Find information about a card in one of the following two ways:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Clicking on the "?" in the bottom left hand corner of any card will open the website for the game, for the specific card you are curious about. Each page on daybreakgame.org has intricate breakdown of each card, along with real-world applications/explanations. Full list of cards: https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards</li>
<li>Hover over a card for a quick explanation. ''Tip: Cards that are "buried/tucked" in a stack can be viewed this way (helpful when you are discarding the top layer of a stack).''</li>
</ul>

===Game End===
To win - Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (this number is located under the world map). Then survive a final crisis round.

Optional: If you have Global or Local "Challenge Cards" Active, their conditions must be met before the game will end. If you always wish that you could "go that extra round", look into harder or variable global or local challenges per person.

===Understanding Cards===
Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>"Once per round" effects can be used at the end of a round AND at the start of the next round.</li>
<li>You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it. </li>
<li>Cards that do not say "once per round" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.</li>
<li>Before ending your round, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, '''showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.''' </li>
<li>Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more helpful as a tucked card. </li>
</ul>

===Understanding Stacks===
There are 5 available stacks of "Local Projects" normal game. Cards are played onto one of each of the 5 stacks. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).

The top card on each stack is active and it's effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the tags of the full stack when activating the card.

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only it's tags are visible (and usable).</li>
<li>Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.</li>
<li>*Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain tag will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.</li>
<li>If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.
</li>
</ul>

Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose. i.e. Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different tags across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require tags within your stack to activate.

Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, i.e., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per round, or a card that one that produces one tree per round.

It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.

===Overall Game Strategies===
This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, '''use the chat feature to communicate''' so your teammates are on the same page:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible -''' This is a "Fast Game" strategy -- If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in round 2 or 3. Global Cards - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards, which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this Strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans / trees generation, and community's in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Communities in Crisis can be thought of as a currency, instead of a goal to keep at 0 across all players. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis diminishes card draw per round. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).</li>
<li>'''Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards,''' This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (taking care to be nearly always above your energy demand) Take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.</li>
<li>'''Mix of Both Strategies:''' Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (Discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., For the fast strategy - getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another one who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to not make the game snowball on you while producing clean energy. Then, increase your resilience to survive the crisis. </li>
</ul>
===Best Local Project Cards to Look for===

====1. Local Projects to Draw Cards====
Draw Tag Specific Cards - Once per round draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) - Draw 7 - Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Draw 9 - Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 '''Solar R+D'''] (Solar & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 '''Wind R+D'''] (Wind & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 '''Geoengineering R+D'''] (Geoengineering tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
Draw Emissions tag Cards - Once per round draw cards from the deck based on how many tags you have in a stack. Keep all cards showing a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions R+D]''' (Incentive (Money) tag) - Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 '''Luxury Consumption Tax'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
Draw One, Two or Three Cards - Based on tag requirements in the stack. Once per round.

* ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 '''Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 '''Clean Energy Investments'''] (Energy tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy)

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] (Innovation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack.; Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] cards.

====2. Local Projects to Search the Deck for Cards====
Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards (Tag agnostic) - This is exchanging one of your current cards for one of three new cards. Unlike other "discard" a card, you maintain the same # of cards in your hand.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Innovation & Energy tags) - Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. '''Tip:''' There are 5 copies of this card in the deck - it is good to stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top) - Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.

====3. Local Projects that Generating Energy====
Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Once Per Round. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack to take this action.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 '''Integrated Planning Solar'''] (Energy & Solar tags ) - Add 1 Clean Energy token to your player board for each Solar tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack to take this action. Once per round.

====4. Local Projects that reduce Emissions / Dirty Energy / Energy Demand ====
Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce energy

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) - Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens to your player board, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token from your player board. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round).

Remove Emissions / Reduce Energy Demand - Without Discarding

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) - Remove Emissions (of any kind) & Add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), Remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) AND decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). Once per round.

Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand - good when you have extra energy more than demand.

*Various cards

====5. Local Projects to Gain Resilience====
Plus 2 Resilience - Once per round - no requirements.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) - Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) - Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 '''Special Drawing Rights'''] (Regulation tags) - Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 1 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board per Ecology tags in stack.
Gain Energy + Resilience

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.

====6. Local Projects to remove Communities In Crisis Tokens without discarding====

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 '''Scale Up Recovery Support'''] (Society tag) - Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). Once per round.

====7. Local Projects to Plant Trees & Oceans====
Gain Trees/Oceans based on number of tags in a stack
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms] or ⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' (Ecology & Regulation/Society Tags) - Add Trees if you meet the following requirements: 1 Tree Token (3-4 Ecology), Add 2 Trees (5+ Ecology), tags in the stack. Once Per Round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (Incentive & Ecology Tags) - Add Oceans if you meet the following requirements: 1 Ocean (3-4 Ecology), Add 2 Oceans (5+ Ecology), tags in the stack. Once Per Round.
Gain 1 Tree/Ocean - Once per round - no requirements
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' (Ecology tag) - Gain 1 Tree - once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (Ecology & Infrastructure tags) - Gain 1 Ocean - once per round.

====8. Local Projects to Reduce Damage/ Need Experience====

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - (Geoengineering tag) - Roll the Geoengineering die and add 1 to the result for each Geoengineering tag in this card's stack. The following occur based on the sum of the Geoengineering tags in the stack + the roll of the geoengineering die: remove 1 Temperature Band and draw 2 additional unknown Crisis cards.(2-4 sum total), remove 1 Temperature Bands and draw 1 additional unknown Crisis card. (5-6 sum total), If the sum is 7 or more, remove 2 Temperature Bands. Important! This is a temporary effect. Return the Temperature Bands to the Thermometer at the end of the round (after increasing Energy Demand). You may take this action once per round. - There are two copies of this card in the deck. Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing, but it shines mainly in rounds 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crises is not a big deal. (Different opinions on whether or not this is a valuable card depending on the group you are playing with and the strategy you pick! With minimal resilience, having additional unknown crisis cards picked can tank the game). Additionally, this is only a temporary effect instead of a lasting option like removing emissions/reducing energy/reducing dirty energy.

====Additional Card Tips / Usefulness:====
*Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove some emissions but add more energy demand. If you have good energy generation, then it has the potential to be a good card, but if you don't have synergy, energy, or the type of emission, then it's bad.
*Other cards can make you draw cards; these are all good because they can help you build synergies, and they can be used again next round; sometimes using one extra card to make that stack go from 3 to 4 cards is really good. They are really good, but I do not consider them to be great.
*The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

===Crises===
While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Crises that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" - Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Examples: [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) There is a crisis that - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens. </li>
<li>Late Game: There are crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have </li>
<li> There are Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).
</li>

</ul>

Tip: Not all crises are negative; Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects.

===General===

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness.====
<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">

<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Social:''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per round too. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per round, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that</li> don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every round to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Geoengineering:''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.</li>
</ol>

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next round (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per round)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> global projects

<nowiki>*</nowiki> same number of points for what you would gain next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per extra draw next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next round ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this round thanks to the new card and 0.5 next round)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every round. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better round later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next round. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the round. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next round, as you draw 5 extra cards each round.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second round.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the round.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the round. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first round.

If you only gain 1 house per round, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second round and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each round.

===Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

====Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards)====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Card Tag Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''% of Deck'''
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|Power Grid
|10
|-
|Energy
|Green
|Outlet Plug
|27
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|Atom
|5
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|Pinwheel
|8
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|Grid of Dots / Solar Panel
|8
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|Piece of Paper
|23
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
| Two hands gripping
|25
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Suspension Bridge
|17
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
| Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|Wrench
|7
|}

====Resilience Symbols====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Resilience Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Shield Description'''
|-
|Social
|Purple
|Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Shield with two roads crisscrossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|Shield with an Asterisk *
|}

===='''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''====
Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]

The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+'''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''
!'''Emission Token / Energy Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Rectangle Contents Description'''
|-
|'''Transportation'''
|Gray
|Car
|-
|'''Industry'''
|Gray
|Building with Smokestack
|-
|'''Agriculture'''
| Gray
|Cow / Bull Head
|-
|'''Buildings'''
| Gray
|Two buildings next to each other
|-
|'''Fuel Extraction'''
| Gray
|Oil Rig
|-
|'''Waste'''
|Gray
|Trash Can
|-
|'''Any Type / Wild Emission'''
|Gray
| Rectangle with Asterisk*
|-
|'''Dirty Energy'''
|Gray
| Lightning bolt
|-
|'''Clean Energy'''
|Green
| Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols====
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible style=" border="2" width:auto;" "
|+
!'''Common Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''Information'''
|-
|'''Energy Demand'''
| Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|House (with +/- #)
| Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that round.
|-
|'''Communities in Crisis / CIC'''
|Multicolored
|5 people in a pentagon / star shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of round or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|'''Direct Air Capture'''
| Gray
|Fan symbol (circle)
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|'''Trees, Land, Soil'''
|Green
|Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Oceans, wetlands'''
|Blue
|Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Carbon'''
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|Cube shape of gray with black outlines
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Tips daybreak

2025-05-29T04:50:29Z

Kitty4777: /* Draw Tag Specific Cards - Once per turn draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round. */ Added more detail to integrated planning solar & stratospheric sulfur.

=== '''Using this Guide & Card Help''' ===
Symbol Terminology: Later in this guide is a list of terms & explanation of symbols (tags/resilience's/etc.). Use CTRL+F to search for a term you don't recognize.

Find information about a card in one of the following two ways:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Clicking on the "?" in the bottom left hand corner of any card will open the website for the game, for the specific card you are curious about. Each page on daybreakgame.org has intricate breakdown of each card, along with real-world applications/explanations. Full list of cards: https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards</li>
<li>Hover over a card for a quick explanation. ''Tip: Cards that are "buried/tucked" in a stack can be viewed this way (helpful when you are discarding the top layer of a stack).''</li>
</ul>

===Game End===
To win - Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (this number is located under the world map). Then survive a final crisis round.

Optional: If you have Global or Local "Challenge Cards" Active, their conditions must be met before the game will end. If you always wish that you could "go that extra round", look into harder or variable global or local challenges per person.

===Understanding Cards===
Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
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">
<li>"Once per round" effects can be used at the end of a round AND at the start of the next round.</li>
<li>You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it. </li>
<li>Cards that do not say "once per round" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.</li>
<li>Before ending your round, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, '''showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.''' </li>
<li>Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more helpful as a tucked card. </li>
</ul>

===Understanding Stacks===
There are 5 available stacks of "Local Projects" normal game. Cards are played onto one of each of the 5 stacks. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).

The top card on each stack is active and it's effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the tags of the full stack when activating the card.

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
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">
<li>When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only it's tags are visible (and usable).</li>
<li>Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.</li>
<li>*Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain tag will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.</li>
<li>If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.
</li>
</ul>

Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose. i.e. Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different tags across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require tags within your stack to activate.

Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, i.e., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per round, or a card that one that produces one tree per round.

It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.

===Overall Game Strategies===
This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, '''use the chat feature to communicate''' so your teammates are on the same page:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
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">
<li>'''All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible -''' This is a "Fast Game" strategy -- If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in round 2 or 3. Global Cards - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards, which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this Strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans / trees generation, and community's in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Communities in Crisis can be thought of as a currency, instead of a goal to keep at 0 across all players. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis diminishes card draw per round. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).</li>
<li>'''Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards,''' This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (taking care to be nearly always above your energy demand) Take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.</li>
<li>'''Mix of Both Strategies:''' Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (Discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., For the fast strategy - getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another one who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to not make the game snowball on you while producing clean energy. Then, increase your resilience to survive the crisis. </li>
</ul>
===Best Local Project Cards to Look for===

====1. Local Projects to Draw Cards====
Draw Tag Specific Cards - Once per round draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) - Draw 7 - Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Draw 9 - Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 '''Solar R+D'''] (Solar & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 '''Wind R+D'''] (Wind & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 '''Geoengineering R+D'''] (Geoengineering tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
Draw Emissions tag Cards - Once per round draw cards from the deck based on how many tags you have in a stack. Keep all cards showing a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions R+D]''' (Incentive (Money) tag) - Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 '''Luxury Consumption Tax'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
Draw One, Two or Three Cards - Based on tag requirements in the stack. Once per round.

* ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 '''Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 '''Clean Energy Investments'''] (Energy tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy)

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] (Innovation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack.; Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] cards.

====2. Local Projects to Search the Deck for Cards====
Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards (Tag agnostic) - This is exchanging one of your current cards for one of three new cards. Unlike other "discard" a card, you maintain the same # of cards in your hand.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Innovation & Energy tags) - Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. '''Tip:''' There are 5 copies of this card in the deck - it is good to stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top) - Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.

====3. Local Projects that Generating Energy====
Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Once Per Round. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack to take this action.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 '''Integrated Planning Solar'''] (Energy & Solar tags ) - Add 1 Clean Energy token to your player board for each Solar tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack to take this action. Once per round.

====4. Local Projects that reduce Emissions / Dirty Energy / Energy Demand ====
Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce energy

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) - Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens to your player board, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token from your player board. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round).

Remove Emissions / Reduce Energy Demand - Without Discarding

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) - Remove Emissions (of any kind) & Add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), Remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) AND decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). Once per round.

Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand - good when you have extra energy more than demand.

*Various cards

====5. Local Projects to Gain Resilience====
Plus 2 Resilience - Once per round - no requirements.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) - Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) - Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 '''Special Drawing Rights'''] (Regulation tags) - Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 1 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board per Ecology tags in stack.
Gain Energy + Resilience

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.

====6. Local Projects to remove Communities In Crisis Tokens without discarding====

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 '''Scale Up Recovery Support'''] (Society tag) - Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). Once per round.

====7. Local Projects to Plant Trees & Oceans====
Gain Trees/Oceans based on number of tags in a stack
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms] or ⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' (Ecology & Regulation/Society Tags) - Add Trees if you meet the following requirements: 1 Tree Token (3-4 Ecology), Add 2 Trees (5+ Ecology), tags in the stack. Once Per Round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (Incentive & Ecology Tags) - Add Oceans if you meet the following requirements: 1 Ocean (3-4 Ecology), Add 2 Oceans (5+ Ecology), tags in the stack. Once Per Round.
Gain 1 Tree/Ocean - Once per round - no requirements
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' (Ecology tag) - Gain 1 Tree - once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (Ecology & Infrastructure tags) - Gain 1 Ocean - once per round.

====8. Local Projects to Reduce Damage/ Need Experience====

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - Requires a minimum of 2 Geoengineering tags in stack. 2 in Deck - Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing, but it shines mainly in rounds 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crises is not a big deal. (Different opinions on whether or not this is a valuable card depending on the group you are playing with and the strategy you pick!)

====Additional Card Tips / Usefulness:====
*Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove some emissions but add more energy demand. If you have good energy generation, then it has the potential to be a good card, but if you don't have synergy, energy, or the type of emission, then it's bad.
*Other cards can make you draw cards; these are all good because they can help you build synergies, and they can be used again next round; sometimes using one extra card to make that stack go from 3 to 4 cards is really good. They are really good, but I do not consider them to be great.
*The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

===Crises===
While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Crises that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" - Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Examples: [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) There is a crisis that - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens. </li>
<li>Late Game: There are crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have </li>
<li> There are Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).
</li>

</ul>

Tip: Not all crises are negative; Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects.

===General===

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness.====
<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">

<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Social:''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per round too. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per round, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that</li> don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every round to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Geoengineering:''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.</li>
</ol>

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next round (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per round)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> global projects

<nowiki>*</nowiki> same number of points for what you would gain next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per extra draw next round

<nowiki>*</nowiki> for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next round ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this round thanks to the new card and 0.5 next round)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every round. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better round later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next round. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the round. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next round, as you draw 5 extra cards each round.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second round.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the round.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the round. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first round.

If you only gain 1 house per round, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second round and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each round.

===Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

====Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards)====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Card Tag Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''% of Deck'''
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|Power Grid
|10
|-
|Energy
|Green
|Outlet Plug
|27
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|Atom
|5
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|Pinwheel
|8
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|Grid of Dots / Solar Panel
|8
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|Piece of Paper
|23
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
| Two hands gripping
|25
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Suspension Bridge
|17
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
| Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|Wrench
|7
|}

====Resilience Symbols====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Resilience Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Shield Description'''
|-
|Social
|Purple
|Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Shield with two roads crisscrossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|Shield with an Asterisk *
|}

===='''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''====
Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]

The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+'''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''
!'''Emission Token / Energy Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Rectangle Contents Description'''
|-
|'''Transportation'''
|Gray
|Car
|-
|'''Industry'''
|Gray
|Building with Smokestack
|-
|'''Agriculture'''
| Gray
|Cow / Bull Head
|-
|'''Buildings'''
| Gray
|Two buildings next to each other
|-
|'''Fuel Extraction'''
| Gray
|Oil Rig
|-
|'''Waste'''
|Gray
|Trash Can
|-
|'''Any Type / Wild Emission'''
|Gray
| Rectangle with Asterisk*
|-
|'''Dirty Energy'''
|Gray
| Lightning bolt
|-
|'''Clean Energy'''
|Green
| Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols====
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible style=" border="2" width:auto;" "
|+
!'''Common Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''Information'''
|-
|'''Energy Demand'''
| Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|House (with +/- #)
| Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that round.
|-
|'''Communities in Crisis / CIC'''
|Multicolored
|5 people in a pentagon / star shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of round or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|'''Direct Air Capture'''
| Gray
|Fan symbol (circle)
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|'''Trees, Land, Soil'''
|Green
|Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Oceans, wetlands'''
|Blue
|Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Carbon'''
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|Cube shape of gray with black outlines
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Tips daybreak

2025-05-29T04:43:12Z

Kitty4777: /* Best Local Project Cards to Look for */

=== '''Using this Guide & Card Help''' ===
Symbol Terminology: Later in this guide is a list of terms & explanation of symbols (tags/resilience's/etc.). Use CTRL+F to search for a term you don't recognize.

Find information about a card in one of the following two ways:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Clicking on the "?" in the bottom left hand corner of any card will open the website for the game, for the specific card you are curious about. Each page on daybreakgame.org has intricate breakdown of each card, along with real-world applications/explanations. Full list of cards: https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards</li>
<li>Hover over a card for a quick explanation. ''Tip: Cards that are "buried/tucked" in a stack can be viewed this way (helpful when you are discarding the top layer of a stack).''</li>
</ul>

===Game End===
To win - Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (this number is located under the world map). Then survive a final crisis round.

Optional: If you have Global or Local "Challenge Cards" Active, their conditions must be met before the game will end. If you always wish that you could "go that extra turn", look into harder or variable global or local challenges per person.

===Understanding Cards===
Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>"Once per turn" effects can be used at the end of a turn AND at the start of the next round.</li>
<li>You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it. </li>
<li>Cards that do not say "once per turn" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.</li>
<li>Before ending your turn, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, '''showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.''' </li>
<li>Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more helpful as a tucked card. </li>
</ul>

===Understanding Stacks===
There are 5 available stacks of "Local Projects" normal game. Cards are played onto one of each of the 5 stacks. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).

The top card on each stack is active and it's effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the tags of the full stack when activating the card.

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only it's tags are visible (and usable).</li>
<li>Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.</li>
<li>*Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain tag will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.</li>
<li>If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.
</li>
</ul>

Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose. i.e. Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different tags across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require tags within your stack to activate.

Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, i.e., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per turn, or a card that one that produces one tree per turn.

It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.

===Overall Game Strategies===
This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, '''use the chat feature to communicate''' so your teammates are on the same page:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible -''' This is a "Fast Game" strategy -- If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in turn 2 or 3. Global Cards - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards, which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this Strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans / trees generation, and community's in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Communities in Crisis can be thought of as a currency, instead of a goal to keep at 0 across all players. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis diminishes card draw per turn. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).</li>
<li>'''Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards,''' This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (taking care to be nearly always above your energy demand) Take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.</li>
<li>'''Mix of Both Strategies:''' Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (Discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., For the fast strategy - getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another one who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to not make the game snowball on you while producing clean energy. Then, increase your resilience to survive the crisis. </li>
</ul>
===Best Local Project Cards to Look for===

====1. Local Projects to Draw Cards====

====== Draw Tag Specific Cards - Once per turn draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round. ======
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) - Draw 7 - Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Draw 9 - Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 '''Solar R+D'''] (Solar & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 '''Wind R+D'''] (Wind & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 '''Geoengineering R+D'''] (Geoengineering tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.

====== Draw Emissions tag Cards - Once per turn draw cards from the deck based on how many tags you have in a stack. Keep all cards showing a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round. ======
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions R+D]''' (Incentive (Money) tag) - Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 '''Luxury Consumption Tax'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
Draw One, Two or Three Cards - Based on tag requirements in the stack. Once per round.

* ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 '''Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 '''Clean Energy Investments'''] (Energy tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy)

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] (Innovation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack.; Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] cards.

====2. Local Projects to Search the Deck for Cards====
Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards (Tag agnostic) - This is exchanging one of your current cards for one of three new cards. Unlike other "discard" a card, you maintain the same # of cards in your hand.

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Innovation & Energy tags) - Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. '''Tip:''' There are 5 copies of this card in the deck - it is good to stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top) - Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.

====3. Local Projects that Generating Energy====
Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Once Per Round. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack to take this action.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 '''Integrated Planning Solar'''] (Energy & Solar tags ) - Once per turn.

====4. Local Projects that reduce Emissions / Dirty Energy / Energy Demand ====
Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce energy

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) - Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens to your player board, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token from your player board. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round).

Remove Emissions / Reduce Energy Demand - Without Discarding

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) - Remove Emissions (of any kind) & Add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), Remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) AND decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). Once per round.

Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand - good when you have extra energy more than demand.

*Various cards

====5. Local Projects to Gain Resilience====
Plus 2 Resilience - Once per round - no requirements.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) - Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) - Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 '''Special Drawing Rights'''] (Regulation tags) - Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 1 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board per Ecology tags in stack.
Gain Energy + Resilience

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.

====6. Local Projects to remove Communities In Crisis Tokens without discarding====

*⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 '''Scale Up Recovery Support'''] (Society tag) - Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). Once per round.

====7. Local Projects to Plant Trees & Oceans====
Gain Trees/Oceans based on number of tags in a stack
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms] or ⭐[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' (Ecology & Regulation/Society Tags) - Add Trees if you meet the following requirements: 1 Tree Token (3-4 Ecology), Add 2 Trees (5+ Ecology), tags in the stack. Once Per Round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (Incentive & Ecology Tags) - Add Oceans if you meet the following requirements: 1 Ocean (3-4 Ecology), Add 2 Oceans (5+ Ecology), tags in the stack. Once Per Round.
Gain 1 Tree/Ocean - Once per round - no requirements
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' or ⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' (Ecology tag) - Gain 1 Tree - once per round.
*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (Ecology & Infrastructure tags) - Gain 1 Ocean - once per round.

====8. Local Projects to Reduce Damage/ Need Experience====

*⭐'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - 2 in Deck - Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing, but it shines mainly in turns 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crises is not a big deal. (Different opinions on whether or not this is a valuable card depending on the group you are playing with and the strategy you pick!)

====Additional Card Tips / Usefulness:====
*Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove some emissions but add more energy demand. If you have good energy generation, then it has the potential to be a good card, but if you don't have synergy, energy, or the type of emission, then it's bad.
*Other cards can make you draw cards; these are all good because they can help you build synergies, and they can be used again next turn; sometimes using one extra card to make that stack go from 3 to 4 cards is really good. They are really good, but I do not consider them to be great.
*The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

===Crises===
While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Crises that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" - Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Examples: [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) There is a crisis that - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens. </li>
<li>Late Game: There are crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have </li>
<li> There are Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).
</li>

</ul>

Tip: Not all crises are negative; Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects.

===General===

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness.====

<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">

<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Social:''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per turn too. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per turn, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that</li> don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every turn to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Geoengineering:''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.</li>
</ol>

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next turn (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per turn)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> global projects

<nowiki>*</nowiki> same number of points for what you would gain next turn

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per extra draw next turn

<nowiki>*</nowiki> for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next turn ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this turn thanks to the new card and 0.5 next turn)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every turn. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better turn later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next turn. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the turn. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next turn, as you draw 5 extra cards each turn.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second turn.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the turn.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the turn. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first turn.

If you only gain 1 house per turn, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second turn and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each turn.

===Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

====Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards)====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.

{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Card Tag Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''% of Deck'''
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|Power Grid
|10
|-
|Energy
|Green
|Outlet Plug
|27
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|Atom
|5
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|Pinwheel
|8
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|Grid of Dots / Solar Panel
|8
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|Piece of Paper
|23
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
| Two hands gripping
|25
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Suspension Bridge
|17
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
| Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|Wrench
|7
|}

====Resilience Symbols====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Resilience Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Shield Description'''
|-
|Social
|Purple
|Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Shield with two roads crisscrossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|Shield with an Asterisk *
|}

===='''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''====
Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]

The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+'''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''
!'''Emission Token / Energy Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Rectangle Contents Description'''
|-
|'''Transportation'''
|Gray
|Car
|-
|'''Industry'''
|Gray
|Building with Smokestack
|-
|'''Agriculture'''
| Gray
|Cow / Bull Head
|-
|'''Buildings'''
| Gray
|Two buildings next to each other
|-
|'''Fuel Extraction'''
| Gray
|Oil Rig
|-
|'''Waste'''
|Gray
|Trash Can
|-
|'''Any Type / Wild Emission'''
|Gray
| Rectangle with Asterisk*
|-
|'''Dirty Energy'''
|Gray
| Lightning bolt
|-
|'''Clean Energy'''
|Green
| Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols====
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible style=" border="2" width:auto;" "
|+
!'''Common Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''Information'''
|-
|'''Energy Demand'''
| Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|House (with +/- #)
| Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that turn.
|-
|'''Communities in Crisis / CIC'''
|Multicolored
|5 people in a pentagon / star shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of turn or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|'''Direct Air Capture'''
| Gray
|Fan symbol (circle)
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|'''Trees, Land, Soil'''
|Green
|Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Oceans, wetlands'''
|Blue
|Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Carbon'''
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|Cube shape of gray with black outlines
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Tips daybreak

2025-05-29T04:28:26Z

Kitty4777: /* Drawing Cards */

=== '''Using this Guide & Card Help''' ===
Symbol Terminology: Later in this guide is a list of terms & explanation of symbols (tags/resilience's/etc.). Use CTRL+F to search for a term you don't recognize.

Find information about a card in one of the following two ways:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Clicking on the "?" in the bottom left hand corner of any card will open the website for the game, for the specific card you are curious about. Each page on daybreakgame.org has intricate breakdown of each card, along with real-world applications/explanations. Full list of cards: https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards</li>
<li>Hover over a card for a quick explanation. ''Tip: Cards that are "buried/tucked" in a stack can be viewed this way (helpful when you are discarding the top layer of a stack).''</li>
</ul>

===Game End===
To win - Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (this number is located under the world map). Then survive a final crisis round.

Optional: If you have Global or Local "Challenge Cards" Active, their conditions must be met before the game will end. If you always wish that you could "go that extra turn", look into harder or variable global or local challenges per person.

===Understanding Cards===
Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>"Once per turn" effects can be used at the end of a turn AND at the start of the next round.</li>
<li>You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it. </li>
<li>Cards that do not say "once per turn" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.</li>
<li>Before ending your turn, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, '''showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.''' </li>
<li>Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more helpful as a tucked card. </li>
</ul>

===Understanding Stacks===
There are 5 available stacks of "Local Projects" normal game. Cards are played onto one of each of the 5 stacks. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).

The top card on each stack is active and it's effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the tags of the full stack when activating the card.

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only it's tags are visible (and usable).</li>
<li>Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.</li>
<li>*Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain tag will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.</li>
<li>If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.
</li>
</ul>

Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose. i.e. Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different tags across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require tags within your stack to activate.

Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, i.e., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per turn, or a card that one that produces one tree per turn.

It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.

===Overall Game Strategies===
This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, '''use the chat feature to communicate''' so your teammates are on the same page:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible -''' This is a "Fast Game" strategy -- If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in turn 2 or 3. Global Cards - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards, which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this Strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans / trees generation, and community's in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Communities in Crisis can be thought of as a currency, instead of a goal to keep at 0 across all players. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis diminishes card draw per turn. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).</li>
<li>'''Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards,''' This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (taking care to be nearly always above your energy demand) Take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.</li>
<li>'''Mix of Both Strategies:''' Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (Discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., For the fast strategy - getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another one who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to not make the game snowball on you while producing clean energy. Then, increase your resilience to survive the crisis. </li>
</ul>
===Best Local Project Cards to Look for===

====Local Projects to Draw Cards====
Draw Tag Specific Cards - Once per turn draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.

*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) - Draw 7 - Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Draw 9 - Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 '''Solar R+D'''] (Solar & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 '''Wind R+D'''] (Wind & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 '''Geoengineering R+D'''] (Geoengineering tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.

Draw Emissions tag Cards - Once per turn draw cards from the deck based on how many tags you have in a stack. Keep all cards showing a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.

*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions R+D]''' (Incentive (Money) tag) - Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
*[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 '''Luxury Consumption Tax'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.

Draw One, Two or Three Cards - Based on tag requirements in the stack. Once per round.

*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

*[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 '''Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

*[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 '''Clean Energy Investments'''] (Energy tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy)

*[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] (Innovation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack.; Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] cards.

====Search the Deck Cards====
Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards (Tag agnostic) - This is exchanging one of your current cards for one of three new cards. Unlike other "discard" a card, you maintain the same # of cards in your hand.

*[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Innovation & Energy tags) - Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. '''Tip:''' There are 5 copies of this card in the deck - it is good to stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top) - Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.

====Generating Energy====
Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.

*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Once Per Round. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack to take this action.
*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.
*[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 '''Integrated Planning Solar'''] (Energy & Solar tags ) - Once per turn.

====Emission / Dirty Energy Removal / Energy Demand Reduction====
Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce energy

*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) - Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens to your player board, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token from your player board. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round).

Remove Emissions / Reduce Energy Demand - Without Discarding

*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) - Remove Emissions (of any kind) & Add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), Remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) AND decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). Once per round.

Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand - good when you have extra energy more than demand.

*Various cards

====Gain Resilience====
Plus 2 Resilience - Once per round - no requirements.

*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) - Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.

*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) - Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
*[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 '''Special Drawing Rights'''] (Regulation tags) - Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.
*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 1 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board per Ecology tags in stack.
Gain Energy + Resilience

*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.

====Removing Communities In Crisis Tokens without discarding====

*[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 '''Scale Up Recovery Support'''] (Society tag) - Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). Once per round.

====Gaining Trees & Oceans====

*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms]'''
*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (+1/2 trees/oceans)
*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (+1tree/ocean),

====Reduce Damage/ Need Experience====

*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - 2 in Deck - Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing, but it shines mainly in turns 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crises is not a big deal. (Different opinions on whether or not this is a valuable card depending on the group you are playing with and the strategy you pick!)

====Additional Card Tips / Usefulness:====
*Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove some emissions but add more energy demand. If you have good energy generation, then it has the potential to be a good card, but if you don't have synergy, energy, or the type of emission, then it's bad.
*Other cards can make you draw cards; these are all good because they can help you build synergies, and they can be used again next turn; sometimes using one extra card to make that stack go from 3 to 4 cards is really good. They are really good, but I do not consider them to be great.
*The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

===Crises===
While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Crises that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" - Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Examples: [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) There is a crisis that - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens. </li>
<li>Late Game: There are crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have </li>
<li> There are Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).
</li>

</ul>

Tip: Not all crises are negative; Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects.

===General===

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness.====

<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">

<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Social:''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per turn too. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per turn, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that</li> don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every turn to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Geoengineering:''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.</li>
</ol>

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next turn (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per turn)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> global projects

<nowiki>*</nowiki> same number of points for what you would gain next turn

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per extra draw next turn

<nowiki>*</nowiki> for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next turn ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this turn thanks to the new card and 0.5 next turn)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every turn. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better turn later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next turn. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the turn. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next turn, as you draw 5 extra cards each turn.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second turn.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the turn.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the turn. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first turn.

If you only gain 1 house per turn, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second turn and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each turn.

===Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

====Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards)====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.

{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Card Tag Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''% of Deck'''
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|Power Grid
|10
|-
|Energy
|Green
|Outlet Plug
|27
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|Atom
|5
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|Pinwheel
|8
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|Grid of Dots / Solar Panel
|8
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|Piece of Paper
|23
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
| Two hands gripping
|25
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Suspension Bridge
|17
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
| Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|Wrench
|7
|}

====Resilience Symbols====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Resilience Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Shield Description'''
|-
|Social
|Purple
|Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Shield with two roads crisscrossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|Shield with an Asterisk *
|}

===='''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''====
Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]

The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+'''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''
!'''Emission Token / Energy Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Rectangle Contents Description'''
|-
|'''Transportation'''
|Gray
|Car
|-
|'''Industry'''
|Gray
|Building with Smokestack
|-
|'''Agriculture'''
| Gray
|Cow / Bull Head
|-
|'''Buildings'''
| Gray
|Two buildings next to each other
|-
|'''Fuel Extraction'''
| Gray
|Oil Rig
|-
|'''Waste'''
|Gray
|Trash Can
|-
|'''Any Type / Wild Emission'''
|Gray
| Rectangle with Asterisk*
|-
|'''Dirty Energy'''
|Gray
| Lightning bolt
|-
|'''Clean Energy'''
|Green
| Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols====
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible style=" border="2" width:auto;" "
|+
!'''Common Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''Information'''
|-
|'''Energy Demand'''
| Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|House (with +/- #)
| Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that turn.
|-
|'''Communities in Crisis / CIC'''
|Multicolored
|5 people in a pentagon / star shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of turn or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|'''Direct Air Capture'''
| Gray
|Fan symbol (circle)
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|'''Trees, Land, Soil'''
|Green
|Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Oceans, wetlands'''
|Blue
|Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Carbon'''
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|Cube shape of gray with black outlines
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Tips daybreak

2025-05-29T04:27:06Z

Kitty4777: /* Overall Game Strategies */

=== '''Using this Guide & Card Help''' ===
Symbol Terminology: Later in this guide is a list of terms & explanation of symbols (tags/resilience's/etc.). Use CTRL+F to search for a term you don't recognize.

Find information about a card in one of the following two ways:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Clicking on the "?" in the bottom left hand corner of any card will open the website for the game, for the specific card you are curious about. Each page on daybreakgame.org has intricate breakdown of each card, along with real-world applications/explanations. Full list of cards: https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards</li>
<li>Hover over a card for a quick explanation. ''Tip: Cards that are "buried/tucked" in a stack can be viewed this way (helpful when you are discarding the top layer of a stack).''</li>
</ul>

===Game End===
To win - Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (this number is located under the world map). Then survive a final crisis round.

Optional: If you have Global or Local "Challenge Cards" Active, their conditions must be met before the game will end. If you always wish that you could "go that extra turn", look into harder or variable global or local challenges per person.

===Understanding Cards===
Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>"Once per turn" effects can be used at the end of a turn AND at the start of the next round.</li>
<li>You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it. </li>
<li>Cards that do not say "once per turn" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.</li>
<li>Before ending your turn, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, '''showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.''' </li>
<li>Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more helpful as a tucked card. </li>
</ul>

===Understanding Stacks===
There are 5 available stacks of "Local Projects" normal game. Cards are played onto one of each of the 5 stacks. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).

The top card on each stack is active and it's effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the tags of the full stack when activating the card.

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only it's tags are visible (and usable).</li>
<li>Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.</li>
<li>*Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain tag will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.</li>
<li>If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.
</li>
</ul>

Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose. i.e. Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different tags across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require tags within your stack to activate.

Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, i.e., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per turn, or a card that one that produces one tree per turn.

It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.

===Overall Game Strategies===
This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, '''use the chat feature to communicate''' so your teammates are on the same page:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible -''' This is a "Fast Game" strategy -- If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in turn 2 or 3. Global Cards - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards, which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this Strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans / trees generation, and community's in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Communities in Crisis can be thought of as a currency, instead of a goal to keep at 0 across all players. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis diminishes card draw per turn. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).</li>
<li>'''Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards,''' This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (taking care to be nearly always above your energy demand) Take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.</li>
<li>'''Mix of Both Strategies:''' Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (Discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., For the fast strategy - getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another one who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to not make the game snowball on you while producing clean energy. Then, increase your resilience to survive the crisis. </li>
</ul>
===Best Local Project Cards to Look for===

====Drawing Cards====
Draw Tag Specific Cards - Once per turn draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.

*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) - Draw 7 - Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Draw 9 - Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 '''Solar R+D'''] (Solar & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 '''Wind R+D'''] (Wind & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 '''Geoengineering R+D'''] (Geoengineering tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.

Draw Emissions tag Cards - Once per turn draw cards from the deck based on how many tags you have in a stack. Keep all cards showing a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.

*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions R+D]''' (Incentive (Money) tag) - Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
*[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 '''Luxury Consumption Tax'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.

Draw One, Two or Three Cards - Based on tag requirements in the stack. Once per round.

*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

*[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 '''Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

*[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 '''Clean Energy Investments'''] (Energy tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy)

*[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] (Innovation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack.; Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] cards.

====Search the Deck Cards====
Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards (Tag agnostic) - This is exchanging one of your current cards for one of three new cards. Unlike other "discard" a card, you maintain the same # of cards in your hand.

*[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Innovation & Energy tags) - Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. '''Tip:''' There are 5 copies of this card in the deck - it is good to stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top) - Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.

====Generating Energy====
Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.

*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Once Per Round. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack to take this action.
*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.
*[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 '''Integrated Planning Solar'''] (Energy & Solar tags ) - Once per turn.

====Emission / Dirty Energy Removal / Energy Demand Reduction====
Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce energy

*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) - Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens to your player board, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token from your player board. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round).

Remove Emissions / Reduce Energy Demand - Without Discarding

*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) - Remove Emissions (of any kind) & Add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), Remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) AND decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). Once per round.

Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand - good when you have extra energy more than demand.

*Various cards

====Gain Resilience====
Plus 2 Resilience - Once per round - no requirements.

*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) - Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.

*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) - Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
*[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 '''Special Drawing Rights'''] (Regulation tags) - Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.
*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 1 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board per Ecology tags in stack.
Gain Energy + Resilience

*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.

====Removing Communities In Crisis Tokens without discarding====

*[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 '''Scale Up Recovery Support'''] (Society tag) - Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). Once per round.

====Gaining Trees & Oceans====

*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms]'''
*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (+1/2 trees/oceans)
*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (+1tree/ocean),

====Reduce Damage/ Need Experience====

*'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - 2 in Deck - Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing, but it shines mainly in turns 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crises is not a big deal. (Different opinions on whether or not this is a valuable card depending on the group you are playing with and the strategy you pick!)

====Additional Card Tips / Usefulness:====
*Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove some emissions but add more energy demand. If you have good energy generation, then it has the potential to be a good card, but if you don't have synergy, energy, or the type of emission, then it's bad.
*Other cards can make you draw cards; these are all good because they can help you build synergies, and they can be used again next turn; sometimes using one extra card to make that stack go from 3 to 4 cards is really good. They are really good, but I do not consider them to be great.
*The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

===Crises===
While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Crises that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" - Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Examples: [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) There is a crisis that - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens. </li>
<li>Late Game: There are crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have </li>
<li> There are Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).
</li>

</ul>

Tip: Not all crises are negative; Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects.

===General===

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness.====

<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">

<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Social:''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per turn too. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per turn, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that</li> don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every turn to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion. </li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Geoengineering:''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.</li>
</ol>

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next turn (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per turn)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> global projects

<nowiki>*</nowiki> same number of points for what you would gain next turn

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per extra draw next turn

<nowiki>*</nowiki> for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next turn ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this turn thanks to the new card and 0.5 next turn)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every turn. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better turn later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next turn. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the turn. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next turn, as you draw 5 extra cards each turn.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second turn.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the turn.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the turn. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first turn.

If you only gain 1 house per turn, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second turn and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each turn.

===Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

====Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards)====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.

{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Card Tag Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''% of Deck'''
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|Power Grid
|10
|-
|Energy
|Green
|Outlet Plug
|27
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|Atom
|5
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|Pinwheel
|8
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|Grid of Dots / Solar Panel
|8
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|Piece of Paper
|23
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
| Two hands gripping
|25
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Suspension Bridge
|17
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
| Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|Wrench
|7
|}

====Resilience Symbols====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Resilience Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Shield Description'''
|-
|Social
|Purple
|Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Shield with two roads crisscrossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|Shield with an Asterisk *
|}

===='''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''====
Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]

The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+'''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''
!'''Emission Token / Energy Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Rectangle Contents Description'''
|-
|'''Transportation'''
|Gray
|Car
|-
|'''Industry'''
|Gray
|Building with Smokestack
|-
|'''Agriculture'''
| Gray
|Cow / Bull Head
|-
|'''Buildings'''
| Gray
|Two buildings next to each other
|-
|'''Fuel Extraction'''
| Gray
|Oil Rig
|-
|'''Waste'''
|Gray
|Trash Can
|-
|'''Any Type / Wild Emission'''
|Gray
| Rectangle with Asterisk*
|-
|'''Dirty Energy'''
|Gray
| Lightning bolt
|-
|'''Clean Energy'''
|Green
| Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols====
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible style=" border="2" width:auto;" "
|+
!'''Common Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''Information'''
|-
|'''Energy Demand'''
| Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|House (with +/- #)
| Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that turn.
|-
|'''Communities in Crisis / CIC'''
|Multicolored
|5 people in a pentagon / star shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of turn or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|'''Direct Air Capture'''
| Gray
|Fan symbol (circle)
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|'''Trees, Land, Soil'''
|Green
|Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Oceans, wetlands'''
|Blue
|Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Carbon'''
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|Cube shape of gray with black outlines
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Tips daybreak

2025-05-29T04:25:07Z

Kitty4777: /* Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness. */

=== '''Using this Guide & Card Help''' ===
Symbol Terminology: Later in this guide is a list of terms & explanation of symbols (tags/resilience's/etc.). Use CTRL+F to search for a term you don't recognize.

Finding information about a card in one of the following two ways:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Clicking on the "?" in the bottom left hand corner of any card will open the website for the game, for the specific card you are curious about. Each page on daybreakgame.org has intricate breakdown of each card, along with real-world applications/explanations. Full list of cards: https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards</li>
<li>Hover over a card for a quick explanation. ''Tip: Cards that are "buried/tucked" in a stack can be viewed this way (helpful when you are discarding the top layer of a stack).''</li>
</ul>

=== Game End ===
To win - Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (this number is located under the world map). Then survive a final crisis round.

Optional: If you have Global or Local "Challenge Cards" Active, their conditions must be met before the game will end. If you always wish that you could "go that extra turn", look into harder or variable global or local challenges per person.

=== Understanding Cards ===
Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>"Once per turn" effects can be used at the end of a turn AND at the start of the next round.</li>
<li>You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it.</li>
<li>Cards that do not say "once per turn" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.</li>
<li>Before ending your turn, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, '''showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.''' </li>
<li>Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more helpful as a tucked card. </li>
</ul>

=== Understanding Stacks ===
There are 5 available stacks of "Local Projects" normal game. Cards are played onto one of each of the 5 stacks. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).

The top card on each stack is active and it's effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the tags of the full stack when activating the card.

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only it's tags are visible (and usable).</li>
<li>Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.</li>
<li>*Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain tag will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.</li>
<li>If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.
</li>
</ul>

Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose. i.e. Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different tags across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require tags within your stack to activate.

Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, i.e., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per turn, or a card that one that produces one tree per turn.

It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.

=== Overall Game Strategies ===
This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, use the chat feature to communicate so people are on the same page:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible -''' This is a "Fast Game" strategy -- If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in turn 2 or 3. Global Cards - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards, which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this Strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans / trees generation, and community's in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Communities in Crisis can be thought of as a currency, instead of a goal to keep at 0 across all players. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis diminishes card draw per turn. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).</li>
<li>'''Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards,''' This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (taking care to be nearly always above your energy demand) Take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.</li>
<li>'''Mix of Both Strategies:''' Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (Discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., For the fast strategy - getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another one who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to not make the game snowball on you while producing clean energy. Then, increase your resilience to survive the crisis. </li>
</ul>

=== Best Local Project Cards to Look for ===

==== Drawing Cards ====
Draw Tag Specific Cards - Once per turn draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) - Draw 7 - Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Draw 9 - Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 '''Solar R+D'''] (Solar & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 '''Wind R+D'''] (Wind & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 '''Geoengineering R+D'''] (Geoengineering tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.

Draw Emissions tag Cards - Once per turn draw cards from the deck based on how many tags you have in a stack. Keep all cards showing a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions R+D]''' (Incentive (Money) tag) - Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 '''Luxury Consumption Tax'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.

Draw One, Two or Three Cards - Based on tag requirements in the stack. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 '''Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 '''Clean Energy Investments'''] (Energy tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy)

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] (Innovation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack.; Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] cards.

==== Search the Deck Cards ====
Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards (Tag agnostic) - This is exchanging one of your current cards for one of three new cards. Unlike other "discard" a card, you maintain the same # of cards in your hand.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Innovation & Energy tags) - Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. '''Tip:''' There are 5 copies of this card in the deck - it is good to stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top) - Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.

==== Generating Energy ====
Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Once Per Round. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack to take this action.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 '''Integrated Planning Solar'''] (Energy & Solar tags ) - Once per turn.

==== Emission / Dirty Energy Removal / Energy Demand Reduction ====
Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce energy

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) - Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens to your player board, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token from your player board. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round).

Remove Emissions / Reduce Energy Demand - Without Discarding

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) - Remove Emissions (of any kind) & Add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), Remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) AND decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). Once per round.

Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand - good when you have extra energy more than demand.

* Various cards

==== Gain Resilience ====
Plus 2 Resilience - Once per round - no requirements.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) - Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) - Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 '''Special Drawing Rights'''] (Regulation tags) - Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 1 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board per Ecology tags in stack.
Gain Energy + Resilience

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.

==== Removing Communities In Crisis Tokens without discarding ====

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 '''Scale Up Recovery Support'''] (Society tag) - Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). Once per round.

==== Gaining Trees & Oceans ====

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms]'''
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (+1/2 trees/oceans)
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (+1tree/ocean),

==== Reduce Damage/ Need Experience ====

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - 2 in Deck - Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing, but it shines mainly in turns 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crises is not a big deal. (Different opinions on whether or not this is a valuable card depending on the group you are playing with and the strategy you pick!)

==== Additional Card Tips / Usefulness: ====
* Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove some emissions but add more energy demand. If you have good energy generation, then it has the potential to be a good card, but if you don't have synergy, energy, or the type of emission, then it's bad.
* Other cards can make you draw cards; these are all good because they can help you build synergies, and they can be used again next turn; sometimes using one extra card to make that stack go from 3 to 4 cards is really good. They are really good, but I do not consider them to be great.
* The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

=== Crises ===
While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Crises that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" - Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Examples: [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) There is a crisis that - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens.</li>
<li>Late Game: There are crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have</li>
<li>There are Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).
</li>

</ul>

Tip: Not all crises are negative; Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects.

=== General ===

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness. ====

<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">

<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Social:''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per turn too.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per turn, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that</li> don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every turn to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Geoengineering:''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.</li>
</ol>

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next turn (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per turn)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> global projects

<nowiki>*</nowiki> same number of points for what you would gain next turn

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per extra draw next turn

<nowiki>*</nowiki> for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next turn ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this turn thanks to the new card and 0.5 next turn)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every turn. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better turn later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next turn. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the turn. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next turn, as you draw 5 extra cards each turn.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second turn.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the turn.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the turn. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first turn.

If you only gain 1 house per turn, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second turn and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each turn.

=== Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology ===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

==== Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards) ====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.

{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Card Tag Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''% of Deck'''
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|Power Grid
|10
|-
|Energy
|Green
|Outlet Plug
|27
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|Atom
|5
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|Pinwheel
|8
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|Grid of Dots / Solar Panel
|8
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|Piece of Paper
|23
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
|Two hands gripping
|25
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Suspension Bridge
|17
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
|Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|Wrench
|7
|}

==== Resilience Symbols ====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Resilience Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Shield Description'''
|-
|Social
|Purple
|Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Shield with two roads crisscrossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|Shield with an Asterisk *
|}

==== '''Emissions Tokens / Energy''' ====
Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]

The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+'''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''
!'''Emission Token / Energy Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Rectangle Contents Description'''
|-
|'''Transportation'''
|Gray
|Car
|-
|'''Industry'''
|Gray
|Building with Smokestack
|-
|'''Agriculture'''
|Gray
|Cow / Bull Head
|-
|'''Buildings'''
|Gray
|Two buildings next to each other
|-
|'''Fuel Extraction'''
|Gray
|Oil Rig
|-
|'''Waste'''
|Gray
|Trash Can
|-
|'''Any Type / Wild Emission'''
|Gray
|Rectangle with Asterisk*
|-
|'''Dirty Energy'''
|Gray
|Lightning bolt
|-
|'''Clean Energy'''
|Green
|Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols ====
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible style="width:auto;" border="2""
|+
!'''Common Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''Information'''
|-
|'''Energy Demand'''
|Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|House (with +/- #)
|Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that turn.
|-
|'''Communities in Crisis / CIC'''
|Multicolored
|5 people in a pentagon / star shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of turn or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|'''Direct Air Capture'''
|Gray
|Fan symbol (circle)
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|'''Trees, Land, Soil'''
|Green
|Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Oceans, wetlands'''
|Blue
|Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Carbon'''
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|Cube shape of gray with black outlines
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Tips daybreak

2025-05-29T04:24:44Z

Kitty4777: /* Crises */ moved around order

=== '''Using this Guide & Card Help''' ===
Symbol Terminology: Later in this guide is a list of terms & explanation of symbols (tags/resilience's/etc.). Use CTRL+F to search for a term you don't recognize.

Finding information about a card in one of the following two ways:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Clicking on the "?" in the bottom left hand corner of any card will open the website for the game, for the specific card you are curious about. Each page on daybreakgame.org has intricate breakdown of each card, along with real-world applications/explanations. Full list of cards: https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards</li>
<li>Hover over a card for a quick explanation. ''Tip: Cards that are "buried/tucked" in a stack can be viewed this way (helpful when you are discarding the top layer of a stack).''</li>
</ul>

=== Game End ===
To win - Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (this number is located under the world map). Then survive a final crisis round.

Optional: If you have Global or Local "Challenge Cards" Active, their conditions must be met before the game will end. If you always wish that you could "go that extra turn", look into harder or variable global or local challenges per person.

=== Understanding Cards ===
Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>"Once per turn" effects can be used at the end of a turn AND at the start of the next round.</li>
<li>You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it.</li>
<li>Cards that do not say "once per turn" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.</li>
<li>Before ending your turn, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, '''showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.''' </li>
<li>Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more helpful as a tucked card. </li>
</ul>

=== Understanding Stacks ===
There are 5 available stacks of "Local Projects" normal game. Cards are played onto one of each of the 5 stacks. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).

The top card on each stack is active and it's effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the tags of the full stack when activating the card.

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only it's tags are visible (and usable).</li>
<li>Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.</li>
<li>*Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain tag will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.</li>
<li>If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.
</li>
</ul>

Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose. i.e. Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different tags across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require tags within your stack to activate.

Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, i.e., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per turn, or a card that one that produces one tree per turn.

It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.

=== Overall Game Strategies ===
This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, use the chat feature to communicate so people are on the same page:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible -''' This is a "Fast Game" strategy -- If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in turn 2 or 3. Global Cards - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards, which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this Strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans / trees generation, and community's in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Communities in Crisis can be thought of as a currency, instead of a goal to keep at 0 across all players. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis diminishes card draw per turn. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).</li>
<li>'''Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards,''' This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (taking care to be nearly always above your energy demand) Take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.</li>
<li>'''Mix of Both Strategies:''' Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (Discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., For the fast strategy - getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another one who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to not make the game snowball on you while producing clean energy. Then, increase your resilience to survive the crisis. </li>
</ul>

=== Best Local Project Cards to Look for ===

==== Drawing Cards ====
Draw Tag Specific Cards - Once per turn draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) - Draw 7 - Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Draw 9 - Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 '''Solar R+D'''] (Solar & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 '''Wind R+D'''] (Wind & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 '''Geoengineering R+D'''] (Geoengineering tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.

Draw Emissions tag Cards - Once per turn draw cards from the deck based on how many tags you have in a stack. Keep all cards showing a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions R+D]''' (Incentive (Money) tag) - Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 '''Luxury Consumption Tax'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.

Draw One, Two or Three Cards - Based on tag requirements in the stack. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 '''Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 '''Clean Energy Investments'''] (Energy tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy)

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] (Innovation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack.; Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] cards.

==== Search the Deck Cards ====
Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards (Tag agnostic) - This is exchanging one of your current cards for one of three new cards. Unlike other "discard" a card, you maintain the same # of cards in your hand.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Innovation & Energy tags) - Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. '''Tip:''' There are 5 copies of this card in the deck - it is good to stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top) - Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.

==== Generating Energy ====
Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Once Per Round. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack to take this action.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 '''Integrated Planning Solar'''] (Energy & Solar tags ) - Once per turn.

==== Emission / Dirty Energy Removal / Energy Demand Reduction ====
Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce energy

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) - Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens to your player board, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token from your player board. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round).

Remove Emissions / Reduce Energy Demand - Without Discarding

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) - Remove Emissions (of any kind) & Add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), Remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) AND decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). Once per round.

Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand - good when you have extra energy more than demand.

* Various cards

==== Gain Resilience ====
Plus 2 Resilience - Once per round - no requirements.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) - Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) - Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 '''Special Drawing Rights'''] (Regulation tags) - Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 1 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board per Ecology tags in stack.
Gain Energy + Resilience

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.

==== Removing Communities In Crisis Tokens without discarding ====

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 '''Scale Up Recovery Support'''] (Society tag) - Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). Once per round.

==== Gaining Trees & Oceans ====

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms]'''
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (+1/2 trees/oceans)
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (+1tree/ocean),

==== Reduce Damage/ Need Experience ====

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - 2 in Deck - Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing, but it shines mainly in turns 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crises is not a big deal. (Different opinions on whether or not this is a valuable card depending on the group you are playing with and the strategy you pick!)

==== Additional Card Tips / Usefulness: ====
* Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove some emissions but add more energy demand. If you have good energy generation, then it has the potential to be a good card, but if you don't have synergy, energy, or the type of emission, then it's bad.
* Other cards can make you draw cards; these are all good because they can help you build synergies, and they can be used again next turn; sometimes using one extra card to make that stack go from 3 to 4 cards is really good. They are really good, but I do not consider them to be great.
* The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

=== Crises ===
While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Crises that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" - Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Examples: [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) There is a crisis that - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens.</li>
<li>Late Game: There are crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have</li>
<li>There are Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).
</li>

</ul>

Tip: Not all crises are negative; Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects.

=== General ===

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness. ====

<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">

<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Social::''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per turn too.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per turn, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that</li> don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every turn to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Geoengineering:''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.</li>
</ol>

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next turn (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per turn)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> global projects

<nowiki>*</nowiki> same number of points for what you would gain next turn

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per extra draw next turn

<nowiki>*</nowiki> for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next turn ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this turn thanks to the new card and 0.5 next turn)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every turn. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better turn later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next turn. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the turn. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next turn, as you draw 5 extra cards each turn.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second turn.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the turn.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the turn. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first turn.

If you only gain 1 house per turn, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second turn and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each turn.

=== Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology ===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

==== Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards) ====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.

{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Card Tag Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''% of Deck'''
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|Power Grid
|10
|-
|Energy
|Green
|Outlet Plug
|27
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|Atom
|5
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|Pinwheel
|8
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|Grid of Dots / Solar Panel
|8
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|Piece of Paper
|23
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
|Two hands gripping
|25
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Suspension Bridge
|17
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
|Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|Wrench
|7
|}

==== Resilience Symbols ====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Resilience Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Shield Description'''
|-
|Social
|Purple
|Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Shield with two roads crisscrossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|Shield with an Asterisk *
|}

==== '''Emissions Tokens / Energy''' ====
Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]

The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+'''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''
!'''Emission Token / Energy Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Rectangle Contents Description'''
|-
|'''Transportation'''
|Gray
|Car
|-
|'''Industry'''
|Gray
|Building with Smokestack
|-
|'''Agriculture'''
|Gray
|Cow / Bull Head
|-
|'''Buildings'''
|Gray
|Two buildings next to each other
|-
|'''Fuel Extraction'''
|Gray
|Oil Rig
|-
|'''Waste'''
|Gray
|Trash Can
|-
|'''Any Type / Wild Emission'''
|Gray
|Rectangle with Asterisk*
|-
|'''Dirty Energy'''
|Gray
|Lightning bolt
|-
|'''Clean Energy'''
|Green
|Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols ====
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible style="width:auto;" border="2""
|+
!'''Common Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''Information'''
|-
|'''Energy Demand'''
|Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|House (with +/- #)
|Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that turn.
|-
|'''Communities in Crisis / CIC'''
|Multicolored
|5 people in a pentagon / star shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of turn or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|'''Direct Air Capture'''
|Gray
|Fan symbol (circle)
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|'''Trees, Land, Soil'''
|Green
|Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Oceans, wetlands'''
|Blue
|Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Carbon'''
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|Cube shape of gray with black outlines
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Tips daybreak

2025-05-29T04:21:40Z

Kitty4777: /* Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness. */ updating formatting

=== '''Using this Guide & Card Help''' ===
Symbol Terminology: Later in this guide is a list of terms & explanation of symbols (tags/resilience's/etc.). Use CTRL+F to search for a term you don't recognize.

Finding information about a card in one of the following two ways:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Clicking on the "?" in the bottom left hand corner of any card will open the website for the game, for the specific card you are curious about. Each page on daybreakgame.org has intricate breakdown of each card, along with real-world applications/explanations. Full list of cards: https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards</li>
<li>Hover over a card for a quick explanation. ''Tip: Cards that are "buried/tucked" in a stack can be viewed this way (helpful when you are discarding the top layer of a stack).''</li>
</ul>

=== Game End ===
To win - Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (this number is located under the world map). Then survive a final crisis round.

Optional: If you have Global or Local "Challenge Cards" Active, their conditions must be met before the game will end. If you always wish that you could "go that extra turn", look into harder or variable global or local challenges per person.

=== Understanding Cards ===
Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>"Once per turn" effects can be used at the end of a turn AND at the start of the next round.</li>
<li>You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it.</li>
<li>Cards that do not say "once per turn" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.</li>
<li>Before ending your turn, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, '''showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.''' </li>
<li>Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more helpful as a tucked card. </li>
</ul>

=== Understanding Stacks ===
There are 5 available stacks of "Local Projects" normal game. Cards are played onto one of each of the 5 stacks. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).

The top card on each stack is active and it's effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the tags of the full stack when activating the card.

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only it's tags are visible (and usable).</li>
<li>Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.</li>
<li>*Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain tag will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.</li>
<li>If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.
</li>
</ul>

Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose. i.e. Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different tags across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require tags within your stack to activate.

Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, i.e., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per turn, or a card that one that produces one tree per turn.

It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.

=== Overall Game Strategies ===
This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, use the chat feature to communicate so people are on the same page:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible -''' This is a "Fast Game" strategy -- If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in turn 2 or 3. Global Cards - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards, which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this Strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans / trees generation, and community's in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Communities in Crisis can be thought of as a currency, instead of a goal to keep at 0 across all players. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis diminishes card draw per turn. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).</li>
<li>'''Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards,''' This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (taking care to be nearly always above your energy demand) Take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.</li>
<li>'''Mix of Both Strategies:''' Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (Discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., For the fast strategy - getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another one who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to not make the game snowball on you while producing clean energy. Then, increase your resilience to survive the crisis. </li>
</ul>

=== Best Local Project Cards to Look for ===

==== Drawing Cards ====
Draw Tag Specific Cards - Once per turn draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) - Draw 7 - Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Draw 9 - Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 '''Solar R+D'''] (Solar & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 '''Wind R+D'''] (Wind & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 '''Geoengineering R+D'''] (Geoengineering tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.

Draw Emissions tag Cards - Once per turn draw cards from the deck based on how many tags you have in a stack. Keep all cards showing a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions R+D]''' (Incentive (Money) tag) - Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 '''Luxury Consumption Tax'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.

Draw One, Two or Three Cards - Based on tag requirements in the stack. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 '''Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 '''Clean Energy Investments'''] (Energy tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy)

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] (Innovation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack.; Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] cards.

==== Search the Deck Cards ====
Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards (Tag agnostic) - This is exchanging one of your current cards for one of three new cards. Unlike other "discard" a card, you maintain the same # of cards in your hand.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Innovation & Energy tags) - Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. '''Tip:''' There are 5 copies of this card in the deck - it is good to stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top) - Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.

==== Generating Energy ====
Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Once Per Round. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack to take this action.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 '''Integrated Planning Solar'''] (Energy & Solar tags ) - Once per turn.

==== Emission / Dirty Energy Removal / Energy Demand Reduction ====
Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce energy

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) - Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens to your player board, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token from your player board. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round).

Remove Emissions / Reduce Energy Demand - Without Discarding

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) - Remove Emissions (of any kind) & Add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), Remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) AND decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). Once per round.

Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand - good when you have extra energy more than demand.

* Various cards

==== Gain Resilience ====
Plus 2 Resilience - Once per round - no requirements.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) - Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) - Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 '''Special Drawing Rights'''] (Regulation tags) - Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 1 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board per Ecology tags in stack.
Gain Energy + Resilience

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.

==== Removing Communities In Crisis Tokens without discarding ====

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 '''Scale Up Recovery Support'''] (Society tag) - Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). Once per round.

==== Gaining Trees & Oceans ====

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms]'''
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (+1/2 trees/oceans)
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (+1tree/ocean),

==== Reduce Damage/ Need Experience ====

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - 2 in Deck - Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing, but it shines mainly in turns 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crises is not a big deal. (Different opinions on whether or not this is a valuable card depending on the group you are playing with and the strategy you pick!)

==== Additional Card Tips / Usefulness: ====
* Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove some emissions but add more energy demand. If you have good energy generation, then it has the potential to be a good card, but if you don't have synergy, energy, or the type of emission, then it's bad.
* Other cards can make you draw cards; these are all good because they can help you build synergies, and they can be used again next turn; sometimes using one extra card to make that stack go from 3 to 4 cards is really good. They are really good, but I do not consider them to be great.
* The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

=== Crises ===
While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects.
</li>
<li>[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) There is a crisis that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" (agriculture) per player. Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens.</li>
<li>Late Game: A crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have</li>
<li>Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).
</li>

</ul>

=== General ===

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness. ====

<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">

<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Social::''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per turn too.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per turn, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that</li> don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every turn to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''Geoengineering:''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.</li>
</ol>

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next turn (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per turn)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> global projects

<nowiki>*</nowiki> same number of points for what you would gain next turn

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per extra draw next turn

<nowiki>*</nowiki> for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next turn ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this turn thanks to the new card and 0.5 next turn)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every turn. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better turn later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next turn. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the turn. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next turn, as you draw 5 extra cards each turn.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second turn.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the turn.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the turn. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first turn.

If you only gain 1 house per turn, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second turn and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each turn.

=== Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology ===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

==== Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards) ====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.

{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Card Tag Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''% of Deck'''
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|Power Grid
|10
|-
|Energy
|Green
|Outlet Plug
|27
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|Atom
|5
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|Pinwheel
|8
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|Grid of Dots / Solar Panel
|8
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|Piece of Paper
|23
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
|Two hands gripping
|25
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Suspension Bridge
|17
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
|Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|Wrench
|7
|}

==== Resilience Symbols ====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Resilience Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Shield Description'''
|-
|Social
|Purple
|Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Shield with two roads crisscrossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|Shield with an Asterisk *
|}

==== '''Emissions Tokens / Energy''' ====
Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]

The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+'''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''
!'''Emission Token / Energy Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Rectangle Contents Description'''
|-
|'''Transportation'''
|Gray
|Car
|-
|'''Industry'''
|Gray
|Building with Smokestack
|-
|'''Agriculture'''
|Gray
|Cow / Bull Head
|-
|'''Buildings'''
|Gray
|Two buildings next to each other
|-
|'''Fuel Extraction'''
|Gray
|Oil Rig
|-
|'''Waste'''
|Gray
|Trash Can
|-
|'''Any Type / Wild Emission'''
|Gray
|Rectangle with Asterisk*
|-
|'''Dirty Energy'''
|Gray
|Lightning bolt
|-
|'''Clean Energy'''
|Green
|Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols ====
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible style="width:auto;" border="2""
|+
!'''Common Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''Information'''
|-
|'''Energy Demand'''
|Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|House (with +/- #)
|Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that turn.
|-
|'''Communities in Crisis / CIC'''
|Multicolored
|5 people in a pentagon / star shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of turn or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|'''Direct Air Capture'''
|Gray
|Fan symbol (circle)
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|'''Trees, Land, Soil'''
|Green
|Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Oceans, wetlands'''
|Blue
|Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Carbon'''
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|Cube shape of gray with black outlines
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Tips daybreak

2025-05-29T04:20:07Z

Kitty4777: /* Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology */ - updating css

=== '''Using this Guide & Card Help''' ===
Symbol Terminology: Later in this guide is a list of terms & explanation of symbols (tags/resilience's/etc.). Use CTRL+F to search for a term you don't recognize.

Finding information about a card in one of the following two ways:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Clicking on the "?" in the bottom left hand corner of any card will open the website for the game, for the specific card you are curious about. Each page on daybreakgame.org has intricate breakdown of each card, along with real-world applications/explanations. Full list of cards: https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards</li>
<li>Hover over a card for a quick explanation. ''Tip: Cards that are "buried/tucked" in a stack can be viewed this way (helpful when you are discarding the top layer of a stack).''</li>
</ul>

=== Game End ===
To win - Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (this number is located under the world map). Then survive a final crisis round.

Optional: If you have Global or Local "Challenge Cards" Active, their conditions must be met before the game will end. If you always wish that you could "go that extra turn", look into harder or variable global or local challenges per person.

=== Understanding Cards ===
Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>"Once per turn" effects can be used at the end of a turn AND at the start of the next round.</li>
<li>You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it.</li>
<li>Cards that do not say "once per turn" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.</li>
<li>Before ending your turn, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, '''showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.''' </li>
<li>Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more helpful as a tucked card. </li>
</ul>

=== Understanding Stacks ===
There are 5 available stacks of "Local Projects" normal game. Cards are played onto one of each of the 5 stacks. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).

The top card on each stack is active and it's effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the tags of the full stack when activating the card.

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only it's tags are visible (and usable).</li>
<li>Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.</li>
<li>*Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain tag will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.</li>
<li>If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.
</li>
</ul>

Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose. i.e. Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different tags across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require tags within your stack to activate.

Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, i.e., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per turn, or a card that one that produces one tree per turn.

It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.

=== Overall Game Strategies ===
This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, use the chat feature to communicate so people are on the same page:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible -''' This is a "Fast Game" strategy -- If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in turn 2 or 3. Global Cards - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards, which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this Strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans / trees generation, and community's in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Communities in Crisis can be thought of as a currency, instead of a goal to keep at 0 across all players. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis diminishes card draw per turn. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).</li>
<li>'''Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards,''' This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (taking care to be nearly always above your energy demand) Take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.</li>
<li>'''Mix of Both Strategies:''' Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (Discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., For the fast strategy - getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another one who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to not make the game snowball on you while producing clean energy. Then, increase your resilience to survive the crisis. </li>
</ul>

=== Best Local Project Cards to Look for ===

==== Drawing Cards ====
Draw Tag Specific Cards - Once per turn draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) - Draw 7 - Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Draw 9 - Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 '''Solar R+D'''] (Solar & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 '''Wind R+D'''] (Wind & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 '''Geoengineering R+D'''] (Geoengineering tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.

Draw Emissions tag Cards - Once per turn draw cards from the deck based on how many tags you have in a stack. Keep all cards showing a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions R+D]''' (Incentive (Money) tag) - Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 '''Luxury Consumption Tax'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.

Draw One, Two or Three Cards - Based on tag requirements in the stack. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 '''Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 '''Clean Energy Investments'''] (Energy tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy)

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] (Innovation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack.; Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] cards.

==== Search the Deck Cards ====
Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards (Tag agnostic) - This is exchanging one of your current cards for one of three new cards. Unlike other "discard" a card, you maintain the same # of cards in your hand.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Innovation & Energy tags) - Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. '''Tip:''' There are 5 copies of this card in the deck - it is good to stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top) - Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.

==== Generating Energy ====
Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Once Per Round. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack to take this action.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 '''Integrated Planning Solar'''] (Energy & Solar tags ) - Once per turn.

==== Emission / Dirty Energy Removal / Energy Demand Reduction ====
Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce energy

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) - Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens to your player board, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token from your player board. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round).

Remove Emissions / Reduce Energy Demand - Without Discarding

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) - Remove Emissions (of any kind) & Add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), Remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) AND decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). Once per round.

Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand - good when you have extra energy more than demand.

* Various cards

==== Gain Resilience ====
Plus 2 Resilience - Once per round - no requirements.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) - Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) - Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 '''Special Drawing Rights'''] (Regulation tags) - Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 1 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board per Ecology tags in stack.
Gain Energy + Resilience

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.

==== Removing Communities In Crisis Tokens without discarding ====

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 '''Scale Up Recovery Support'''] (Society tag) - Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). Once per round.

==== Gaining Trees & Oceans ====

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms]'''
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (+1/2 trees/oceans)
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (+1tree/ocean),

==== Reduce Damage/ Need Experience ====

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - 2 in Deck - Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing, but it shines mainly in turns 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crises is not a big deal. (Different opinions on whether or not this is a valuable card depending on the group you are playing with and the strategy you pick!)

==== Additional Card Tips / Usefulness: ====
* Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove some emissions but add more energy demand. If you have good energy generation, then it has the potential to be a good card, but if you don't have synergy, energy, or the type of emission, then it's bad.
* Other cards can make you draw cards; these are all good because they can help you build synergies, and they can be used again next turn; sometimes using one extra card to make that stack go from 3 to 4 cards is really good. They are really good, but I do not consider them to be great.
* The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

=== Crises ===
While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects.
</li>
<li>[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) There is a crisis that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" (agriculture) per player. Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens.</li>
<li>Late Game: A crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have</li>
<li>Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).
</li>

</ul>

=== General ===

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness. ====

<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">

<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Social::''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per turn too.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per turn, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that</li> don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every turn to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Geoengineering:''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.</li>
</ol>

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next turn (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per turn)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> global projects

<nowiki>*</nowiki> same number of points for what you would gain next turn

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per extra draw next turn

<nowiki>*</nowiki> for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next turn ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this turn thanks to the new card and 0.5 next turn)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every turn. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better turn later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next turn. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the turn. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next turn, as you draw 5 extra cards each turn.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second turn.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the turn.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the turn. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first turn.

If you only gain 1 house per turn, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second turn and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each turn.

=== Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology ===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

==== Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards) ====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.

{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Card Tag Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''% of Deck'''
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|Power Grid
|10
|-
|Energy
|Green
|Outlet Plug
|27
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|Atom
|5
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|Pinwheel
|8
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|Grid of Dots / Solar Panel
|8
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|Piece of Paper
|23
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
|Two hands gripping
|25
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Suspension Bridge
|17
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
|Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|Wrench
|7
|}

==== Resilience Symbols ====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Resilience Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Shield Description'''
|-
|Social
|Purple
|Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Shield with two roads crisscrossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|Shield with an Asterisk *
|}

==== '''Emissions Tokens / Energy''' ====
Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]

The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+'''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''
!'''Emission Token / Energy Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Rectangle Contents Description'''
|-
|'''Transportation'''
|Gray
|Car
|-
|'''Industry'''
|Gray
|Building with Smokestack
|-
|'''Agriculture'''
|Gray
|Cow / Bull Head
|-
|'''Buildings'''
|Gray
|Two buildings next to each other
|-
|'''Fuel Extraction'''
|Gray
|Oil Rig
|-
|'''Waste'''
|Gray
|Trash Can
|-
|'''Any Type / Wild Emission'''
|Gray
|Rectangle with Asterisk*
|-
|'''Dirty Energy'''
|Gray
|Lightning bolt
|-
|'''Clean Energy'''
|Green
|Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols ====
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible style="width:auto;" border="2""
|+
!'''Common Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''Information'''
|-
|'''Energy Demand'''
|Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|House (with +/- #)
|Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that turn.
|-
|'''Communities in Crisis / CIC'''
|Multicolored
|5 people in a pentagon / star shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of turn or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|'''Direct Air Capture'''
|Gray
|Fan symbol (circle)
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|'''Trees, Land, Soil'''
|Green
|Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Oceans, wetlands'''
|Blue
|Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Carbon'''
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|Cube shape of gray with black outlines
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Talk:Wiki formatting

2025-05-29T00:26:54Z

Kitty4777: Adding sign-off for thank you

Thank you! This has been incredibly helpful! ( [[User:Kitty4777|Kitty4777]] ([[User talk:Kitty4777|talk]]) 02:26, 29 May 2025 (CEST) )

== Amount of time it takes BGA to update? ==

I made a large edit earlier today then realized that the formatting was "off". I've made a few edits since then and none of them have been promoted (after that initial one). Any idea what the frequency of updates to the site is? This is for https://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Tips_daybreak / https://boardgamearena.com/9/daybreak ( [[User:Kitty4777|Kitty4777]] ([[User talk:Kitty4777|talk]]) 02:26, 29 May 2025 (CEST) )

Talk:Wiki formatting

2025-05-29T00:26:38Z

Kitty4777: /* Amount of time it takes BGA to update? */ new section

Thank you! This has been incredibly helpful!

== Amount of time it takes BGA to update? ==

I made a large edit earlier today then realized that the formatting was "off". I've made a few edits since then and none of them have been promoted (after that initial one). Any idea what the frequency of updates to the site is? This is for https://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Tips_daybreak / https://boardgamearena.com/9/daybreak ( [[User:Kitty4777|Kitty4777]] ([[User talk:Kitty4777|talk]]) 02:26, 29 May 2025 (CEST) )

Talk:Wiki formatting

2025-05-29T00:23:39Z

Kitty4777: Created page with "Thank you! This has been incredibly helpful!"

Thank you! This has been incredibly helpful!

Tips daybreak

2025-05-29T00:22:04Z

Kitty4777: Adding in bulleted lists & numbering in HTML/CSS

=== '''Using this Guide & Card Help''' ===
Symbol Terminology: Later in this guide is a list of terms & explanation of symbols (tags/resilience's/etc.). Use CTRL+F to search for a term you don't recognize.

Finding information about a card in one of the following two ways:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Clicking on the "?" in the bottom left hand corner of any card will open the website for the game, for the specific card you are curious about. Each page on daybreakgame.org has intricate breakdown of each card, along with real-world applications/explanations. Full list of cards: https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards</li>
<li>Hover over a card for a quick explanation. ''Tip: Cards that are "buried/tucked" in a stack can be viewed this way (helpful when you are discarding the top layer of a stack).''</li>
</ul>

=== Game End ===
To win - Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (this number is located under the world map). Then survive a final crisis round.

Optional: If you have Global or Local "Challenge Cards" Active, their conditions must be met before the game will end. If you always wish that you could "go that extra turn", look into harder or variable global or local challenges per person.

=== Understanding Cards ===
Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>"Once per turn" effects can be used at the end of a turn AND at the start of the next round.</li>
<li>You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it.</li>
<li>Cards that do not say "once per turn" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.</li>
<li>Before ending your turn, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, '''showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.''' </li>
<li>Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more helpful as a tucked card. </li>
</ul>

=== Understanding Stacks ===
There are 5 available stacks of "Local Projects" normal game. Cards are played onto one of each of the 5 stacks. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).

The top card on each stack is active and it's effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the tags of the full stack when activating the card.

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only it's tags are visible (and usable).</li>
<li>Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.</li>
<li>*Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain tag will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.</li>
<li>If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.
</li>
</ul>

Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose. i.e. Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different tags across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require tags within your stack to activate.

Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, i.e., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per turn, or a card that one that produces one tree per turn.

It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.

=== Overall Game Strategies ===
This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, use the chat feature to communicate so people are on the same page:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>'''All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible -''' This is a "Fast Game" strategy -- If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in turn 2 or 3. Global Cards - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards, which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this Strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans / trees generation, and community's in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Communities in Crisis can be thought of as a currency, instead of a goal to keep at 0 across all players. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis diminishes card draw per turn. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).</li>
<li>'''Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards,''' This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (taking care to be nearly always above your energy demand) Take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.</li>
<li>'''Mix of Both Strategies:''' Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (Discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., For the fast strategy - getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another one who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to not make the game snowball on you while producing clean energy. Then, increase your resilience to survive the crisis. </li>
</ul>

=== Best Local Project Cards to Look for ===

==== Drawing Cards ====
Draw Tag Specific Cards - Once per turn draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) - Draw 7 - Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Draw 9 - Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 '''Solar R+D'''] (Solar & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 '''Wind R+D'''] (Wind & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 '''Geoengineering R+D'''] (Geoengineering tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.

Draw Emissions tag Cards - Once per turn draw cards from the deck based on how many tags you have in a stack. Keep all cards showing a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions R+D]''' (Incentive (Money) tag) - Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 '''Luxury Consumption Tax'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.

Draw One, Two or Three Cards - Based on tag requirements in the stack. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 '''Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 '''Clean Energy Investments'''] (Energy tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy)

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] (Innovation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack.; Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] cards.

==== Search the Deck Cards ====
Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards (Tag agnostic) - This is exchanging one of your current cards for one of three new cards. Unlike other "discard" a card, you maintain the same # of cards in your hand.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Innovation & Energy tags) - Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. '''Tip:''' There are 5 copies of this card in the deck - it is good to stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top) - Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.

==== Generating Energy ====
Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Once Per Round. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack to take this action.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 '''Integrated Planning Solar'''] (Energy & Solar tags ) - Once per turn.

==== Emission / Dirty Energy Removal / Energy Demand Reduction ====
Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce energy

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) - Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens to your player board, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token from your player board. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round).

Remove Emissions / Reduce Energy Demand - Without Discarding

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) - Remove Emissions (of any kind) & Add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), Remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) AND decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). Once per round.

Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand - good when you have extra energy more than demand.

* Various cards

==== Gain Resilience ====
Plus 2 Resilience - Once per round - no requirements.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) - Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) - Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 '''Special Drawing Rights'''] (Regulation tags) - Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 1 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board per Ecology tags in stack.
Gain Energy + Resilience

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.

==== Removing Communities In Crisis Tokens without discarding ====

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 '''Scale Up Recovery Support'''] (Society tag) - Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). Once per round.

==== Gaining Trees & Oceans ====

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms]'''
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (+1/2 trees/oceans)
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (+1tree/ocean),

==== Reduce Damage/ Need Experience ====

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - 2 in Deck - Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing, but it shines mainly in turns 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crises is not a big deal. (Different opinions on whether or not this is a valuable card depending on the group you are playing with and the strategy you pick!)

==== Additional Card Tips / Usefulness: ====
* Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove some emissions but add more energy demand. If you have good energy generation, then it has the potential to be a good card, but if you don't have synergy, energy, or the type of emission, then it's bad.
* Other cards can make you draw cards; these are all good because they can help you build synergies, and they can be used again next turn; sometimes using one extra card to make that stack go from 3 to 4 cards is really good. They are really good, but I do not consider them to be great.
* The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

=== Crises ===
While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:

<ul class="bulletlist" style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">
<li>Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects.
</li>
<li>[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) There is a crisis that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" (agriculture) per player. Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens.</li>
<li>Late Game: A crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have</li>
<li>Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).
</li>

</ul>

=== General ===

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness. ====

<ol style="
margin:1em 0;
padding-inline-start:40px;
">

<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Social::''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per turn too.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per turn, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that</li> don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every turn to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion.</li>
<li style="list-style-type:decimal;">'''*Geoengineering:''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.</li>
</ol>

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next turn (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per turn)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> global projects

<nowiki>*</nowiki> same number of points for what you would gain next turn

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per extra draw next turn

<nowiki>*</nowiki> for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next turn ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this turn thanks to the new card and 0.5 next turn)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every turn. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better turn later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next turn. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the turn. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next turn, as you draw 5 extra cards each turn.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second turn.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the turn.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the turn. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first turn.

If you only gain 1 house per turn, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second turn and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each turn.

=== Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology ===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

==== Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards) ====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.

{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Card Tag Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''% of Deck'''
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|Power Grid
|10
|-
|Energy
|Green
|Outlet Plug
|27
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|Atom
|5
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|Pinwheel
|8
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|Grid of Dots / Solar Panel
|8
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|Piece of Paper
|23
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
|Two hands gripping
|25
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Suspension Bridge
|17
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
|Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|Wrench
|7
|}

==== Resilience Symbols ====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.
{| class="wikitable style="width:auto;" border="2" sortable mw-collapsible"
|+
!'''Resilience Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Shield Description'''
|-
|Social
|Purple
|Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Shield with two roads crisscrossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|Shield with an Asterisk *
|}

==== '''Emissions Tokens / Energy''' ====
Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]

The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible style="width:auto;" border="2""
|+'''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''
!'''Emission Token / Energy Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Rectangle Contents Description'''
|-
|'''Transportation'''
|Gray
|Car
|-
|'''Industry'''
|Gray
|Building with Smokestack
|-
|'''Agriculture'''
|Gray
|Cow / Bull Head
|-
|'''Buildings'''
|Gray
|Two buildings next to each other
|-
|'''Fuel Extraction'''
|Gray
|Oil Rig
|-
|'''Waste'''
|Gray
|Trash Can
|-
|'''Any Type / Wild Emission'''
|Gray
|Rectangle with Asterisk*
|-
|'''Dirty Energy'''
|Gray
|Lightning bolt
|-
|'''Clean Energy'''
|Green
|Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols ====
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible style="width:auto;" border="2""
|+
!'''Common Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''Information'''
|-
|'''Energy Demand'''
|Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|House (with +/- #)
|Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that turn.
|-
|'''Communities in Crisis / CIC'''
|Multicolored
|5 people in a pentagon / star shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of turn or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|'''Direct Air Capture'''
|Gray
|Fan symbol (circle)
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|'''Trees, Land, Soil'''
|Green
|Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Oceans, wetlands'''
|Blue
|Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Carbon'''
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|Cube shape of gray with black outlines
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Tips daybreak

2025-05-29T00:03:45Z

Kitty4777: Fixing tables based on suggestions in this wiki page for BGA formatting: https://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Wiki_formatting?_gl=1*1pdd55r*_ga*MTk2MzkyNDI1Ny4xNzQ2MjM1NjE4*_ga_DWXD9R5L7D*czE3NDg0NzQ1MzUkbzY3JGcxJHQxNzQ4NDc2NDgzJGoyNSRsMCRoMA..

=== '''Using this Guide & Card Help''' ===
Symbol Terminology: Later in this guide is a list of terms & explanation of symbols (tags/resilience's/etc.). Use CTRL+F to search for a term you don't recognize.

Finding information about a card in one of the following two ways:

* 1. Clicking on the "?" in the bottom left hand corner of any card will open the website for the game, for the specific card you are curious about. Each page on daybreakgame.org has intricate breakdown of each card, along with real-world applications/explanations. Full list of cards: https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards
* 2. Hover over a card for a quick explanation. ''Tip: Cards that are "buried/tucked" in a stack can be viewed this way (helpful when you are discarding the top layer of a stack).''
=== Game End ===
To win - Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (this number is located under the world map). Then survive a final crisis round.

Optional: If you have Global or Local "Challenge Cards" Active, their conditions must be met before the game will end. If you always wish that you could "go that extra turn", look into harder or variable global or local challenges per person.

=== Understanding Cards ===
Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds

* - "Once per turn" effects can be used at the end of a turn AND at the start of the next round.
* - You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it.
* - Cards that do not say "once per turn" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.
* - Before ending your turn, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, '''showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.'''
* - Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more helpful as a tucked card.

=== Understanding Stacks ===
There are 5 available stacks of "Local Projects" normal game. Cards are played onto one of each of the 5 stacks. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).

The top card on each stack is active and it's effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the tags of the full stack when activating the card.

* - When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only it's tags are visible (and usable).
* - *Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.
** -- **Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain tag will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.
* - *If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.

Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose. i.e. Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different tags across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require tags within your stack to activate.

Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, i.e., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per turn, or a card that one that produces one tree per turn.

It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.

=== Overall Game Strategies ===
This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, use the chat feature to communicate so people are on the same page:

* '''*All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible -''' This is a "Fast Game" strategy -- If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in turn 2 or 3. Global Cards - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards, which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this Strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans / trees generation, and community's in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Communities in Crisis can be thought of as a currency, instead of a goal to keep at 0 across all players. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis diminishes card draw per turn. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).
* '''*Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards,''' This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (taking care to be nearly always above your energy demand) Take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.

* '''*Mix of Both Strategies:''' Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (Discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., For the fast strategy - getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another one who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to not make the game snowball on you while producing clean energy. Then, increase your resilience to survive the crisis.

=== Best Local Project Cards to Look for ===

==== Drawing Cards ====
Draw Tag Specific Cards - Once per turn draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) - Draw 7 - Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Draw 9 - Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 '''Solar R+D'''] (Solar & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 '''Wind R+D'''] (Wind & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 '''Geoengineering R+D'''] (Geoengineering tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.

Draw Emissions tag Cards - Once per turn draw cards from the deck based on how many tags you have in a stack. Keep all cards showing a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions R+D]''' (Incentive (Money) tag) - Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 '''Luxury Consumption Tax'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.

Draw One, Two or Three Cards - Based on tag requirements in the stack. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 '''Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 '''Clean Energy Investments'''] (Energy tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy)

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] (Innovation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack.; Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] cards.

==== Search the Deck Cards ====
Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards (Tag agnostic) - This is exchanging one of your current cards for one of three new cards. Unlike other "discard" a card, you maintain the same # of cards in your hand.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Innovation & Energy tags) - Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. '''Tip:''' There are 5 copies of this card in the deck - it is good to stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top) - Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.

==== Generating Energy ====
Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Once Per Round. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack to take this action.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 '''Integrated Planning Solar'''] (Energy & Solar tags ) - Once per turn.

==== Emission / Dirty Energy Removal / Energy Demand Reduction ====
Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce energy

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) - Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens to your player board, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token from your player board. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round).

Remove Emissions / Reduce Energy Demand - Without Discarding

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) - Remove Emissions (of any kind) & Add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), Remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) AND decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). Once per round.

Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand - good when you have extra energy more than demand.

* Various cards

==== Gain Resilience ====
Plus 2 Resilience - Once per round - no requirements.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) - Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) - Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 '''Special Drawing Rights'''] (Regulation tags) - Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 1 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board per Ecology tags in stack.
Gain Energy + Resilience

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.

==== Removing Communities In Crisis Tokens without discarding ====

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 '''Scale Up Recovery Support'''] (Society tag) - Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). Once per round.

==== Gaining Trees & Oceans ====

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms]'''
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (+1/2 trees/oceans)
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (+1tree/ocean),

==== Reduce Damage/ Need Experience ====

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - 2 in Deck - Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing, but it shines mainly in turns 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crises is not a big deal. (Different opinions on whether or not this is a valuable card depending on the group you are playing with and the strategy you pick!)

==== Additional Card Tips / Usefulness: ====
* *Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove some emissions but add more energy demand. If you have good energy generation, then it has the potential to be a good card, but if you don't have synergy, energy, or the type of emission, then it's bad.
* *Other cards can make you draw cards; these are all good because they can help you build synergies, and they can be used again next turn; sometimes using one extra card to make that stack go from 3 to 4 cards is really good. They are really good, but I do not consider them to be great.
* *The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

=== Crises ===
While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:

* *Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects.

* *[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) There is a crisis that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" (agriculture) per player. Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens.
* *Late Game: A crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have
* *Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).

=== General ===

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness. ====

# '''*Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids.
# '''*Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it.
# '''*Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does.
# '''*Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy.
# '''*Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color.
# '''*Social::''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per turn too.
# '''*Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per turn, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
# '''*Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions.
# '''*Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good.
# '''*Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every turn to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion.
# '''*Geoengineering:''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next turn (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per turn)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> global projects

<nowiki>*</nowiki> same number of points for what you would gain next turn

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per extra draw next turn

<nowiki>*</nowiki> for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next turn ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this turn thanks to the new card and 0.5 next turn)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every turn. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better turn later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next turn. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the turn. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next turn, as you draw 5 extra cards each turn.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second turn.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the turn.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the turn. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first turn.

If you only gain 1 house per turn, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second turn and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each turn.

=== Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology ===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

==== Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards) ====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.

{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+
!'''Card Tag Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''% of Deck'''
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|Power Grid
|10
|-
|Energy
|Green
|Outlet Plug
|27
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|Atom
|5
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|Pinwheel
|8
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|Grid of Dots / Solar Panel
|8
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|Piece of Paper
|23
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
|Two hands gripping
|25
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Suspension Bridge
|17
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
|Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|Wrench
|7
|}

==== Resilience Symbols ====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.
{| class="wikitable style="width:auto;" border="2" sortable mw-collapsible"
|+
!'''Resilience Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Shield Description'''
|-
|Social
|Purple
|Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Shield with two roads crisscrossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|Shield with an Asterisk *
|}

==== '''Emissions Tokens / Energy''' ====
Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]

The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible style="width:auto;" border="2""
|+'''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''
!'''Emission Token / Energy Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Rectangle Contents Description'''
|-
|'''Transportation'''
|Gray
|Car
|-
|'''Industry'''
|Gray
|Building with Smokestack
|-
|'''Agriculture'''
|Gray
|Cow / Bull Head
|-
|'''Buildings'''
|Gray
|Two buildings next to each other
|-
|'''Fuel Extraction'''
|Gray
|Oil Rig
|-
|'''Waste'''
|Gray
|Trash Can
|-
|'''Any Type / Wild Emission'''
|Gray
|Rectangle with Asterisk*
|-
|'''Dirty Energy'''
|Gray
|Lightning bolt
|-
|'''Clean Energy'''
|Green
|Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols ====
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible style="width:auto;" border="2""
|+
!'''Common Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''Information'''
|-
|'''Energy Demand'''
|Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|House (with +/- #)
|Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that turn.
|-
|'''Communities in Crisis / CIC'''
|Multicolored
|5 people in a pentagon / star shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of turn or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|'''Direct Air Capture'''
|Gray
|Fan symbol (circle)
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|'''Trees, Land, Soil'''
|Green
|Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Oceans, wetlands'''
|Blue
|Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Carbon'''
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|Cube shape of gray with black outlines
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Tips daybreak

2025-05-28T23:52:06Z

Kitty4777:

=== '''Using this Guide & Card Help''' ===
Symbol Terminology: Later in this guide is a list of terms & explanation of symbols (tags/resilience's/etc.). Use CTRL+F to search for a term you don't recognize.

Finding information about a card in one of the following two ways:

* 1. Clicking on the "?" in the bottom left hand corner of any card will open the website for the game, for the specific card you are curious about. Each page on daybreakgame.org has intricate breakdown of each card, along with real-world applications/explanations. Full list of cards: https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards
* 2. Hover over a card for a quick explanation. ''Tip: Cards that are "buried/tucked" in a stack can be viewed this way (helpful when you are discarding the top layer of a stack).''
=== Game End ===
To win - Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (this number is located under the world map). Then survive a final crisis round.

Optional: If you have Global or Local "Challenge Cards" Active, their conditions must be met before the game will end. If you always wish that you could "go that extra turn", look into harder or variable global or local challenges per person.

=== Understanding Cards ===
Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds

* - "Once per turn" effects can be used at the end of a turn AND at the start of the next round.
* - You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it.
* - Cards that do not say "once per turn" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.
* - Before ending your turn, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, '''showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.'''
* - Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more helpful as a tucked card.

=== Understanding Stacks ===
There are 5 available stacks of "Local Projects" normal game. Cards are played onto one of each of the 5 stacks. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).

The top card on each stack is active and it's effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the tags of the full stack when activating the card.

* - When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only it's tags are visible (and usable).
* - *Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.
** -- **Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain tag will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.
* - *If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.

Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose. i.e. Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different tags across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require tags within your stack to activate.

Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, i.e., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per turn, or a card that one that produces one tree per turn.

It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.

=== Overall Game Strategies ===
This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, use the chat feature to communicate so people are on the same page:

* '''*All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible -''' This is a "Fast Game" strategy -- If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in turn 2 or 3. Global Cards - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards, which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this Strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans / trees generation, and community's in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Communities in Crisis can be thought of as a currency, instead of a goal to keep at 0 across all players. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis diminishes card draw per turn. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).
* '''*Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards,''' This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (taking care to be nearly always above your energy demand) Take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.

* '''*Mix of Both Strategies:''' Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (Discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., For the fast strategy - getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another one who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to not make the game snowball on you while producing clean energy. Then, increase your resilience to survive the crisis.

=== Best Local Project Cards to Look for ===

==== Drawing Cards ====
Draw Tag Specific Cards - Once per turn draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) - Draw 7 - Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Draw 9 - Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 '''Solar R+D'''] (Solar & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 '''Wind R+D'''] (Wind & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 '''Geoengineering R+D'''] (Geoengineering tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.

Draw Emissions tag Cards - Once per turn draw cards from the deck based on how many tags you have in a stack. Keep all cards showing a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions R+D]''' (Incentive (Money) tag) - Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 '''Luxury Consumption Tax'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.

Draw One, Two or Three Cards - Based on tag requirements in the stack. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 '''Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 '''Clean Energy Investments'''] (Energy tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy)

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] (Innovation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack.; Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] cards.

==== Search the Deck Cards ====
Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards (Tag agnostic) - This is exchanging one of your current cards for one of three new cards. Unlike other "discard" a card, you maintain the same # of cards in your hand.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Innovation & Energy tags) - Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. '''Tip:''' There are 5 copies of this card in the deck - it is good to stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top) - Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.

==== Generating Energy ====
Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Once Per Round. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack to take this action.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 '''Integrated Planning Solar'''] (Energy & Solar tags ) - Once per turn.

==== Emission / Dirty Energy Removal / Energy Demand Reduction ====
Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce energy

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) - Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens to your player board, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token from your player board. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round).

Remove Emissions / Reduce Energy Demand - Without Discarding

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) - Remove Emissions (of any kind) & Add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), Remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) AND decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). Once per round.

Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand - good when you have extra energy more than demand.

* Various cards

==== Gain Resilience ====
Plus 2 Resilience - Once per round - no requirements.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) - Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) - Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 '''Special Drawing Rights'''] (Regulation tags) - Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 1 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board per Ecology tags in stack.
Gain Energy + Resilience

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.

==== Removing Communities In Crisis Tokens without discarding ====

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 '''Scale Up Recovery Support'''] (Society tag) - Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). Once per round.

==== Gaining Trees & Oceans ====

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms]'''
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (+1/2 trees/oceans)
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (+1tree/ocean),

==== Reduce Damage/ Need Experience ====

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - 2 in Deck - Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing, but it shines mainly in turns 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crises is not a big deal. (Different opinions on whether or not this is a valuable card depending on the group you are playing with and the strategy you pick!)

==== Additional Card Tips / Usefulness: ====
* *Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove some emissions but add more energy demand. If you have good energy generation, then it has the potential to be a good card, but if you don't have synergy, energy, or the type of emission, then it's bad.
* *Other cards can make you draw cards; these are all good because they can help you build synergies, and they can be used again next turn; sometimes using one extra card to make that stack go from 3 to 4 cards is really good. They are really good, but I do not consider them to be great.
* *The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

=== Crises ===
While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:

* *Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects.

* *[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) There is a crisis that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" (agriculture) per player. Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens.
* *Late Game: A crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have
* *Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).

=== General ===

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness. ====

# '''*Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids.
# '''*Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it.
# '''*Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does.
# '''*Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy.
# '''*Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color.
# '''*Social::''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per turn too.
# '''*Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per turn, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
# '''*Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions.
# '''*Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good.
# '''*Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every turn to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion.
# '''*Geoengineering:''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next turn (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per turn)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> global projects

<nowiki>*</nowiki> same number of points for what you would gain next turn

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per extra draw next turn

<nowiki>*</nowiki> for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next turn ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this turn thanks to the new card and 0.5 next turn)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every turn. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better turn later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next turn. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the turn. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next turn, as you draw 5 extra cards each turn.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second turn.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the turn.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the turn. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first turn.

If you only gain 1 house per turn, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second turn and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each turn.

=== Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology ===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

==== Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards) ====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+
!'''Card Tag Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''% of Deck'''
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|Power Grid
|10
|-
|Energy
|Green
|Outlet Plug
|27
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|Atom
|5
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|Pinwheel
|8
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|Grid of Dots / Solar Panel
|8
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|Piece of Paper
|23
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
|Two hands gripping
|25
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Suspension Bridge
|17
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
|Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|Wrench
|7
|}

==== Resilience Symbols ====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+
!'''Resiliance Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Shield Description'''
|-
|Social
|Purple
|Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Shield with two roads criss-crossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|Shield with an Asterisk *
|}

==== '''Emissions Tokens / Energy''' ====
Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]

The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+'''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''
!'''Emission Token / Energy Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Rectangle Contents Description'''
|-
|'''Transportation'''
|Gray
|Car
|-
|'''Industry'''
|Gray
|Building with Smokestack
|-
|'''Agriculture'''
|Gray
|Cow / Bull Head
|-
|'''Buildings'''
|Gray
|Two buildings next to each other
|-
|'''Fuel Extraction'''
|Gray
|Oil Rig
|-
|'''Waste'''
|Gray
|Trash Can
|-
|'''Any Type / Wild Emission'''
|Gray
|Rectangle with Asterisk*
|-
|'''Dirty Energy'''
|Gray
|Lightning bolt
|-
|'''Clean Energy'''
|Green
|Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols ====
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+
!'''Common Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''Information'''
|-
|'''Energy Demand'''
|Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|House (with +/- #)
|Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that turn.
|-
|'''Communities in Crisis / CIC'''
|Multicolored
|5 people in a pentagon / star shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of turn or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|'''Direct Air Capture'''
|Gray
|Fan symbol (circle)
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|'''Trees, Land, Soil'''
|Green
|Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Oceans, wetlands'''
|Blue
|Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Carbon'''
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|Cube shape of gray with black outlines
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Tips daybreak

2025-05-28T23:44:05Z

Kitty4777: Minor edit to improve readability on BGA

=== '''Using this Guide & Card Help''' ===
Symbol Terminology: Later in this guide is a list of terms & explanation of symbols (tags/resilience's/etc.). Use CTRL+F to search for a term you don't recognize.

Finding information about a card in one of the following two ways:

* 1. Clicking on the "?" in the bottom left hand corner of any card will open the website for the game, for the specific card you are curious about. Each page on daybreakgame.org has intricate breakdown of each card, along with real-world applications/explanations. Full list of cards: https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards
* 2. Hover over a card for a quick explanation. ''Tip: Cards that are "buried/tucked" in a stack can be viewed this way (helpful when you are discarding the top layer of a stack).''
=== Game End ===
To win - Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (this number is located under the world map). Then survive a final crisis round.

Optional: If you have Global or Local "Challenge Cards" Active, their conditions must be met before the game will end. If you always wish that you could "go that extra turn", look into harder or variable global or local challenges per person.

=== Understanding Cards ===
Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds

* *"Once per turn" effects can be used at the end of a turn AND at the start of the next round.
* *You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it.
* *Cards that do not say "once per turn" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.
* *Before ending your turn, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, '''showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.'''
* *Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more helpful as a tucked card.

=== Understanding Stacks ===
There are 5 available stacks of "Local Projects" normal game. Cards are played onto one of each of the 5 stacks. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).

The top card on each stack is active and it's effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the tags of the full stack when activating the card.

* *When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only it's tags are visible (and usable).
* *Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.
** **Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain tag will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.
* *If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.

Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose. i.e. Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different tags across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require tags within your stack to activate.

Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, i.e., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per turn, or a card that one that produces one tree per turn.

It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.

=== Overall Game Strategies ===
This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, use the chat feature to communicate so people are on the same page:

* '''*All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible -''' This is a "Fast Game" strategy -- If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in turn 2 or 3. Global Cards - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards, which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this Strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans / trees generation, and community's in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Communities in Crisis can be thought of as a currency, instead of a goal to keep at 0 across all players. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis diminishes card draw per turn. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).
* '''*Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards,''' This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (taking care to be nearly always above your energy demand) Take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.

* '''*Mix of Both Strategies:''' Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (Discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., For the fast strategy - getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another one who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to not make the game snowball on you while producing clean energy. Then, increase your resilience to survive the crisis.

=== Best Local Project Cards to Look for ===

==== Drawing Cards ====
Draw Tag Specific Cards - Once per turn draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) - Draw 7 - Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Draw 9 - Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 '''Solar R+D'''] (Solar & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 '''Wind R+D'''] (Wind & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 '''Geoengineering R+D'''] (Geoengineering tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.

Draw Emissions tag Cards - Once per turn draw cards from the deck based on how many tags you have in a stack. Keep all cards showing a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions R+D]''' (Incentive (Money) tag) - Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 '''Luxury Consumption Tax'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.

Draw One, Two or Three Cards - Based on tag requirements in the stack. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 '''Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 '''Clean Energy Investments'''] (Energy tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy)

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] (Innovation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack.; Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] cards.

==== Search the Deck Cards ====
Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards (Tag agnostic) - This is exchanging one of your current cards for one of three new cards. Unlike other "discard" a card, you maintain the same # of cards in your hand.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Innovation & Energy tags) - Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. '''Tip:''' There are 5 copies of this card in the deck - it is good to stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top) - Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.

==== Generating Energy ====
Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Once Per Round. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack to take this action.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 '''Integrated Planning Solar'''] (Energy & Solar tags ) - Once per turn.

==== Emission / Dirty Energy Removal / Energy Demand Reduction ====
Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce energy

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) - Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens to your player board, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token from your player board. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round).

Remove Emissions / Reduce Energy Demand - Without Discarding

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) - Remove Emissions (of any kind) & Add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), Remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) AND decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). Once per round.

Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand - good when you have extra energy more than demand.

* Various cards

==== Gain Resilience ====
Plus 2 Resilience - Once per round - no requirements.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) - Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) - Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 '''Special Drawing Rights'''] (Regulation tags) - Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 1 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board per Ecology tags in stack.
Gain Energy + Resilience

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.

==== Removing Communities In Crisis Tokens without discarding ====

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 '''Scale Up Recovery Support'''] (Society tag) - Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). Once per round.

==== Gaining Trees & Oceans ====

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms]'''
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (+1/2 trees/oceans)
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (+1tree/ocean),

==== Reduce Damage/ Need Experience ====

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - 2 in Deck - Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing, but it shines mainly in turns 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crises is not a big deal. (Different opinions on whether or not this is a valuable card depending on the group you are playing with and the strategy you pick!)

==== Additional Card Tips / Usefulness: ====
* *Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove some emissions but add more energy demand. If you have good energy generation, then it has the potential to be a good card, but if you don't have synergy, energy, or the type of emission, then it's bad.
* *Other cards can make you draw cards; these are all good because they can help you build synergies, and they can be used again next turn; sometimes using one extra card to make that stack go from 3 to 4 cards is really good. They are really good, but I do not consider them to be great.
* *The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

=== Crises ===
While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:

* *Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects.

* *[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) There is a crisis that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" (agriculture) per player. Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens.
* *Late Game: A crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have
* *Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).

=== General ===

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness. ====

# '''*Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids.
# '''*Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it.
# '''*Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does.
# '''*Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy.
# '''*Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color.
# '''*Social::''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per turn too.
# '''*Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per turn, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
# '''*Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions.
# '''*Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good.
# '''*Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every turn to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion.
# '''*Geoengineering:''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next turn (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per turn)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> global projects

<nowiki>*</nowiki> same number of points for what you would gain next turn

<nowiki>*</nowiki> +0.5 per extra draw next turn

<nowiki>*</nowiki> for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next turn ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this turn thanks to the new card and 0.5 next turn)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every turn. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better turn later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next turn. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the turn. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next turn, as you draw 5 extra cards each turn.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second turn.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the turn.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the turn. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first turn.

If you only gain 1 house per turn, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second turn and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each turn.

=== Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology ===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

==== Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards) ====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+
!'''Card Tag Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''% of Deck'''
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|Power Grid
|10
|-
|Energy
|Green
|Outlet Plug
|27
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|Atom
|5
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|Pinwheel
|8
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|Grid of Dots / Solar Panel
|8
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|Piece of Paper
|23
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
|Two hands gripping
|25
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Suspension Bridge
|17
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
|Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|Wrench
|7
|}

==== Resilience Symbols ====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+
!'''Resiliance Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Shield Description'''
|-
|Social
|Purple
|Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Shield with two roads criss-crossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|Shield with an Asterisk *
|}

==== '''Emissions Tokens / Energy''' ====
Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]

The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+'''Emissions Tokens / Energy'''
!'''Emission Token / Energy Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Rectangle Contents Description'''
|-
|'''Transportation'''
|Gray
|Car
|-
|'''Industry'''
|Gray
|Building with Smokestack
|-
|'''Agriculture'''
|Gray
|Cow / Bull Head
|-
|'''Buildings'''
|Gray
|Two buildings next to each other
|-
|'''Fuel Extraction'''
|Gray
|Oil Rig
|-
|'''Waste'''
|Gray
|Trash Can
|-
|'''Any Type / Wild Emission'''
|Gray
|Rectangle with Asterisk*
|-
|'''Dirty Energy'''
|Gray
|Lightning bolt
|-
|'''Clean Energy'''
|Green
|Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols ====
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+
!'''Common Symbol Term'''
!'''Color'''
!'''Symbol Description'''
!'''Information'''
|-
|'''Energy Demand'''
|Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|House (with +/- #)
|Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that turn.
|-
|'''Communities in Crisis / CIC'''
|Multicolored
|5 people in a pentagon / star shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of turn or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|'''Direct Air Capture'''
|Gray
|Fan symbol (circle)
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|'''Trees, Land, Soil'''
|Green
|Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Oceans, wetlands'''
|Blue
|Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|'''Carbon'''
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|Cube shape of gray with black outlines
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Tips daybreak

2025-05-28T23:09:14Z

Kitty4777: Updated to put cards into their own section (mostly pulled out of the section where they go through their thoughts on each tag). Added a note that Stratospheric Sulfur isn't always considered great depending on your group. There should be more cleanup and potentially fill in gaps where cards with similar effects weren't mentioned and therefore not added.

=== Game End ===
To win - Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (this number is located under the world map). Then survive a final crisis round.

Optional: If you have Global or Local "Challenge Cards" Active, their conditions must be met before the game will end. If you always wish that you could "go that extra turn", look into harder or variable global or local challenges per person.

=== Understanding Cards ===
Symbol Terminology: Later in this guide is a list of terms & explanation of symbols (tags/resilience's/etc.). Use CTRL+F to search for a term you don't recognize.

Finding information about a card:

* Clicking on the "?" in the bottom left hand corner of any card will open the website for the game, for the specific card you are curious about. Each page on daybreakgame.org has intricate breakdown of each card, along with real-world applications/explanations. Full list of cards: https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards
* Hover over a card for a quick explanation. Cards that are "buried/tucked" in a stack can be viewed this way (helpful when you are discarding the top layer of a stack).

Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds

* "Once per turn" effects can be used at the end of a turn AND at the start of the next round.
* You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it.
* Cards that do not say "once per turn" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.
* Before ending your turn, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, '''showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.'''

Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more helpful as a tucked card.

=== Understanding Stacks ===
There are 5 available stacks of "Local Projects" normal game. Cards are played onto one of each of the 5 stacks. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).

The top card on each stack is active and it's effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the tags of the full stack when activating the card.

* When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only it's tags are visible (and usable).
* Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.
** Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain tag will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.
* If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.

Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose. i.e. Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different tags across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require tags within your stack to activate.

Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, i.e., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per turn, or a card that one that produces one tree per turn.

It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.

=== Overall Game Strategies ===
This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, use the chat feature to communicate so people are on the same page:

* '''All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible -''' This is a "Fast Game" strategy -- If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in turn 2 or 3. Global Cards - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards, which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this Strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans / trees generation, and community's in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Communities in Crisis can be thought of as a currency, instead of a goal to keep at 0 across all players. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis diminishes card draw per turn. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).
* '''Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards,''' This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (taking care to be nearly always above your energy demand) Take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.

* '''Mix of Both Strategies:''' Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (Discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., For the fast strategy - getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another one who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to not make the game snowball on you while producing clean energy. Then, increase your resilience to survive the crisis.

=== Best Local Project Cards to Look for ===

==== Drawing Cards ====
Draw Tag Specific Cards - Once per turn draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy tags) - Draw 7 - Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Draw 9 - Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 '''Solar R+D'''] (Solar & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 '''Wind R+D'''] (Wind & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 '''Geoengineering R+D'''] (Geoengineering tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1116 Soil Education]''' (Ecology tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.

Draw Emissions tag Cards - Once per turn draw cards from the deck based on how many tags you have in a stack. Keep all cards showing a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions R+D]''' (Incentive (Money) tag) - Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 '''Luxury Consumption Tax'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.

Draw One, Two or Three Cards - Based on tag requirements in the stack. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1008 Green Quantitative Easing]''' (Incentive tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1007 '''Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban'''] (Regulation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1204 '''Clean Energy Investments'''] (Energy tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy)

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] (Innovation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack.; Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] cards.

==== Search the Deck Cards ====
Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards (Tag agnostic) - This is exchanging one of your current cards for one of three new cards. Unlike other "discard" a card, you maintain the same # of cards in your hand.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Innovation & Energy tags) - Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. '''Tip:''' There are 5 copies of this card in the deck - it is good to stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top) - Competes with [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1009 '''Green Investment Bank'''] for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.

==== Generating Energy ====
Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each '''Nuclear tag''' in this card's stack. Once Per Round. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack to take this action.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1019 '''Integrated Planning Solar'''] (Energy & Solar tags ) - Once per turn.

==== Emission / Dirty Energy Removal / Energy Demand Reduction ====
Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce X

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1048 Green Energy Transition]''' (Regulation tag) - Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens to your player board, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token from your player board. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round).

Remove Emissions / Reduce Energy Demand - Without Discarding

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1053 Circular Economy]''' (Regulation & Society tags) - Remove Emissions (of any kind) & Add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), Remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) AND decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). Once per round.

Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand - good when you have extra energy more than demand.

* Various cards

==== Gain Resilience ====
Plus 2 Resilience - Once per round - no requirements.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1081 Systemic Risk Planning]''' (Society tag) - Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1082 Pollution Reduction]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1083 Distributed Energy Storage]''' (Infrastructure tag) - Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1219 '''Special Drawing Rights'''] (Regulation tags) - Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1086 Wilderness Protection]''' (Ecology tag) - Add 1 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board per Ecology tags in stack.
Gain Energy + Resilience

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1132 Community Wind]''' or '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1131 Community Solar]-''' (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.

==== Removing Communities In Crisis Tokens without discarding ====

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1107 '''Scale Up Recovery Support'''] (Society tag) - Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). Once per round.

==== Gaining Trees & Oceans ====

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1035 Tree Farms]'''
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1036 Indigenous People's Tenure]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1040 Wetland Restoration]''' (+1/2 trees/oceans)
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1037 Forest Restoration]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1038 Peatland Rewetting]''' & '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1041 Mangrove Restoration]''' (+1tree/ocean),

==== Reduce Damage/ Need Experience ====
'''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1126 Stratospheric Sulfur]''' - 2 in Deck - Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing, but it shines mainly in turns 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crises is not a big deal. (Different opinions on whether or not this is a valuable card depending on the group you are playing with and the strategy you pick!)

=== Crises ===
While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:

* Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) There is a crisis that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" (agriculture) per player. Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens.
* Late Game: A crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have
* Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).

=== General ===

==== Thoughts on cards usefulness ====

* Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove some emissions but add more energy demand. If you have good energy generation, then it has the potential to be a good card, but if you don't have synergy, energy, or the type of emission, then it's bad.
* Other cards can make you draw cards; these are all good because they can help you build synergies, and they can be used again next turn; sometimes using one extra card to make that stack go from 3 to 4 cards is really good. They are really good, but I do not consider them to be great.
* The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

==== Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness. ====

# '''Grid:''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids.

# '''Energy:''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it.
# '''Nuclear:''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does.
# '''Wind/Solar''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy.
# '''Regulation:''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color.
# '''Social::''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per turn too.
# '''Ecology:''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per turn, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
# '''Infrastructure::''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions.
# '''Incentive:''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good.
# '''Innovation:''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every turn to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion.
# '''Geoengineering (white):''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

- +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

- +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next turn (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per turn)

- +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

- global projects

- same number of points for what you would gain next turn

- +0.5 per extra draw next turn

- for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next turn ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this turn thanks to the new card and 0.5 next turn)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every turn. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better turn later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next turn. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the turn. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next turn, as you draw 5 extra cards each turn.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second turn.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the turn.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the turn. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first turn.

If you only gain 1 house per turn, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second turn and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each turn.

=== Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology ===
To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

==== Tags ====
Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Tag Term
!Color
!Symbol Description
!% of Deck
|-
|Grid
|Blue
|Power Grid
|10
|-
|Energy
|Green
|Outlet Plug
|27
|-
|Nuclear
|Dark Blue
|Atom
|5
|-
|Wind
|Light Blue
|Pinwheel
|8
|-
|Solar
|Yellow
|Grid of Dots / Solar Panel
|8
|-
|Regulation
|Pink
|Piece of Paper
|23
|-
|Society
|Light Purple
|Two hands gripping
|25
|-
|Ecology
|Green
|Plant / Sprout with Leaves
|18
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Suspension Bridge
|17
|-
|Incentive
|Gold
|Money / Stack of Coins with $
|20
|-
|Innovation
|Orange
|Lightbulb with light emitting
|11
|-
|Geoengineering
|Gray
|Wrench
|7
|}

==== Resili'''ence''' ====
Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Resiliance Term
!Color
!Shield Description
|-
|Social
|Purple
|Shield with a fist
|-
|Ecological
|Green
|Shield with a leaf
|-
|Infrastructure
|Brown / Brick Red
|Shield with two roads criss-crossed
|-
|Any Type / Wild
|Light Blue
|Shield with an Asterisk *
|}

==== '''Emissions Tokens / Energy''' ====
Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions Emissions sources]

All of these are in rectangles and are all gray, except for clean energy, which is green.
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Emission Token / Energy Term
!Color
!Rectangle Contents Description
|-
|Transportation
|Gray
|Car
|-
|Industry
|Gray
|Building with Smokestack
|-
|Agriculture
|Gray
|Cow / Bull Head
|-
|Buildings
|Gray
|Two buildings next to each other
|-
|Fuel Extraction
|Gray
|Oil Rig
|-
|Waste
|Gray
|Trash Can
|-
|Any Type / Wild Emission
|Gray
|Rectangle with Asterisk*
|-
|Dirty Energy
|Gray
|Lightning bolt
|-
|Clean Energy
|Green
|Lightning bolt
|}

==== Other common symbols ====
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Term
!Color
!Symbol Description
!Information
|-
|Energy Demand
|Blue / or Blue with Yellow windows
|House (with +/- #)
|Number of energy needed to cover demand; cards will indicate if they are increasing or decreasing energy demand. A decrease means you need less energy that turn.
|-
|Communities in Crisis / CIC
|Multicolored
|5 people in a pentagon / star shape. Each person is a different color.
|Bad to have. Obtained by failing to meet energy demand at beginning of turn or by a crisis card.
If you have 4-7 communities in crisis, you will draw 1 fewer card each round. If you have 8-11 communities in crisis you will draw 2 fewer cards.
If you obtain more CIC's, you lose and the game ends.
There are cards that remove CIC tokens.
|-
|Direct Air Capture
|Gray
|Fan symbol (circle)
|Similar to Trees and Oceans, Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.. Only visible on BGA if added by a player through a card; will appear next to trees / oceans.
|-
|Trees, Land, Soil
|Green
|Pine Tree
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|Oceans, wetlands
|Blue
|Wave of Water
|Captures (sequesters) emissions to avoid being added to net carbon.
|-
|Carbon
|Grey/ Black Outlines
|Cube shape of gray with black outlines
|Carbon (to add to net carbon).
|}

Tips daybreak

2025-05-28T20:28:02Z

Kitty4777: updating to add links & sections. Added some information, but left existing information intact (but potentially in a different location). In-Progress, but didn't want to lose my work.

=== Game End ===
To win - Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (this number is located under the world map). Then survive a final crisis round.

Optional: If you have Global or Local "Challenge Cards" Active, their conditions must be met before the game will end.

=== Understanding Cards ===
Finding information about a card:

* Clicking on the "?" in the bottom left hand corner of any card will open the website for the game, for the specific card you are curious about. Each page on daybreakgame.org has intricate breakdown of each card, along with real-world applications/explanations. Full list of cards: https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards
* Hover over a card for a quick explanation. Cards that are "buried/tucked" in a stack can be viewed this way (helpful when you are discarding the top layer of a stack).

Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds

* "Once per turn" effects can be used at the end of a turn AND at the start of the next round.
* You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it.
* Cards that do not say "once per turn" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.
* Before ending your turn, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, '''showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.'''

Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more helpful as a tucked card.

=== Understanding Stacks ===
There are 5 stacks in a normal game. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).

The top card on each stack is active and it's effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the symbols of the full stack when activating the card.

* When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only it's symbols are visible (and usable).
* Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.
** Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain symbol will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.
* If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.

Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose. i.e. Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different symbols across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require symbols within your stack to activate.

Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, i.e., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per turn, or a card that one that produces one tree per turn.

It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the symbols to activate a new card you've received.

=== Overall Game Strategies ===
This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, use the chat feature to communicate so people are on the same page:

* '''All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible'''This is a "Fast Game" -- If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in turn 2 or 3. Global Cards - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards, which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this Strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans / trees generation, and community's in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Communities in Crisis can be thought of as a currency, instead of a goal to keep at 0 across all players. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis(CIC's) diminishes card draw per turn. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).
* '''Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards,''' This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (taking care to be nearly always above your energy demand) Take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.

* '''Mix of Both Strategies:''' Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (Discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., For the fast strategy - getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another one who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to not make the game snowball on you while producing clean energy. Then, increase your resilience to survive the crisis.

=== Best Local Project Cards to Look for ===
Draw Energy Specific Cards - Once per turn draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all of a certain symbol. Discard the others. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1115 Energy Infrastructure R+D]''' (Grid & Energy Plug symbols) - Draw 7 - Add all Grid and/or Innovation (orange light bulb) to your hand.
* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1112 Nuclear R+D]''' (Nuclear & Energy Plug symbols) - Draw 9 - Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation (orange light bulb) to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1113 '''Solar R+D'''] (Solar & Energy Plug symbols) - Draw 8 - Add all Solar and/or Innovation (orange light bulb) to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1114 '''Wind R+D'''] (Wind & Energy Plug symbols) - Draw 8 - Add all Wind and/or Innovation (orange light bulb) to your hand.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1125 '''Geoengineering R+D'''] (Geoengineering Symbol) - Draw 8 - Add all Geoengineering (Wrench) and/or Innovation (orange light bulb) to your hand.

Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1117 '''Clean Energy R+D'''] (Innovation & Energy Plug symbols) - Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. Good to stack Clean Energy R+D on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top)

Draw Emissions Cards - Once per turn draw cards from the deck based on how many symbols you have, Keep all of a certain symbol. Discard the others. Once per round.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1208 Emissions R+D]''' (Incentive (Money) symbol) - Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) symbol in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1054 '''Luxury Consumption Tax'''] (Regulation symbol) - Draw 2 per Regulation (Pink Paper) symbol in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or [https://Www.daybreakgame.org/emissions other Emissions sources] to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.

Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.

* '''[https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1025 Fourth Generation Nuclear]''' (Nuclear & Energy Plug symbols) - Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each Nuclear tag in this card's stack. You may take this action once per round. Requires: At least 1 Regulation (pink paper) tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack to take this action.
*

Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove some emissions but add more houses. If you have good energy generation, then it has the potential to be a good card, but if you don't have synergy, energy, or the type of emission, then it's bad.

Other cards can make you draw cards; these are all good because they can help you build synergies, and they can be used again next turn; sometimes using one extra card to make that stack go from 3 to 4 cards is really good. They are really good, but I do not consider them to be great.

The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

'''1) Grid (blue):''' every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids.

'''2) Energy (green):''' the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it.

'''3) Nuclear (blue):''' most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does.

'''4) Wind/Solar (light blue/yellow):''' the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy.

'''5) Regulation (pink):''' best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color.

Great cards: '''Green Energy Transition''' (x2) (-1emission when you produce 2 energy), '''Luxury Consumption Tax''' (draw), '''Circular Economy''' (-1 emission)

'''6) Social (blue/purple):''' the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that symbol. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per turn too.

Great cards: '''Systemic Risk Planning''' (+2resilience), '''Community Solar''' & '''Community Wind''' (3: +1energy & +1resilience)

'''7) Ecology (green):''' the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per turn, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.

Great cards: '''Tree Farms''' & '''Indigenous People's Tenure''' & '''Wetland Restoration''' (+1/2 trees/seas), '''Forest Restoration''' & '''Peatland Rewetting''' & '''Mangrove Restoration''' (+1tree/sea), '''Pollution Reduction''' & '''Wilderness Protection''' (resilience), '''Soil Education''' (draw)

'''8) Infrastructure (brown):''' the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions.

Great cards: '''Distributed Energy Storage''' (resilience)

'''9) Incentive (gray):''' USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good.

'''10) Innovation (orange):''' the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every turn to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion.

Great cards: '''Clean Energy R+D''' (x5) (dig / need experience)

'''11) Geoengeering (white):''' Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing, but it shines mainly in turns 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crises is not a big deal. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.

Great cards: '''Stratospheric Sulfur''' (x2) (reduce damage / need experience), '''Geoengeering R+D''' (draw)

=== Crises ===
While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:

* Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects.

* [https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1428 Deforestation] ([https://www.daybreakgame.org/card/1429 Also this card]) There is a crisis that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" (agriculture) per player. Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens.
* Late Game: A crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have
* Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).

'''Example Hand / Round'''

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

- +1 point per energy produced I need ''(0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)''

- +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next turn (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per turn)

- +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

- global projects

- same number of points for what you would gain next turn

- +0.5 per extra draw next turn

- for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next turn ''(note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this turn thanks to the new card and 0.5 next turn)''

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every turn. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better turn later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next turn. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the turn. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next turn, as you draw 5 extra cards each turn.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second turn.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the turn.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the turn. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first turn.

If you only gain 1 house per turn, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second turn and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove houses. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 houses each turn.

Tips faraway

2025-05-07T05:53:53Z

Kitty4777: This is a general cleanup of the original strategies to convert them from paragraphs into sections that are easier to scan.

'''Strategy for Picking a Starting Hand - 5 Cards (Advanced Variant):'''

Note: A normal game is played with a 3 card starting hand that is automatically picked for the player. In the advanced variant the player gets five cards and discards down to three.

Picking wisely is important, as cards in your hand will dictate the direction the player heads to, for the remainder of the game

Clues Importance

When looking at your first three cards, or your first card to grab after that, getting a card with a clue is pretty important. However, you won't need more than a couple to strategically acquire in the game.

Fame Card Strategy

<nowiki>*</nowiki>Fame Cards - A solid strategy is to choose 2 high fame cards into their starting 3. There are a variety of fame cards, e.g., rewards 17 straight fame, rewards fame for certain wonders (symbols) - such as 4 fame per clue symbol, or give the player 10 points per each set of 4 different regions collected. All this being said there are still ways to winning that don't require high fame cards in your starting three.

<nowiki>*</nowiki>Your third card should be lower than your other two in terms of duration and should have a clue symbol.

Same Symbol Strategy

Another approach the player can take is to try and get two or even all three cards to go after the same symbol. So for example the player may get one cards that gives 4 fame per stone, another that gives 2 per stone, and another that gives 3 per stone. Going with those three cards means you'd get 9 fame per stone played after those cards. But again, here the player have to look at their duration value as well as what symbols they provide to determine their order.

'''Collecting symbols (for pre-requisites)'''

Having cards that have a diverse range of pre-requisites is OK - At first the player might think that the player should only keep one of them since that is a lot of symbols and might be hard to get them all, but that's most likely not true. For example, the player may get one card that gives the player 15 fame but requires two chimera and a thistle, and another card that gives 12 fame but requires a thistle and two stones.

There are two ways the player can get the symbols the player need, cards played that give the player symbols and sanctuaries (see below). '''NOTE: Stone is the most common, Thistle is the least common.'''

Symbols on sanctuaries apply to every card. Most of the symbols the player will need to fulfill each cards requirements should come from sanctuaries. Try to get between 6-7 per game.

'''Choosing cards to play:'''

Now that the player have your starting three cards the player now have to decide which one to play first. Look at duration value and symbols provided to determine order played.

Playing your cards in order of shortest to longest (determined by the exploration number at the top left) gives the player more time to search for sanctuaries which are crucial for obtaining victory.

<nowiki>*</nowiki>Play cards with clues early on - With how important sanctuaries are the player are going to want to have a lot of options to choose from when the player get the chance. Having clues played allow the player to have a better chance of getting a sanctuary, as they get to choose.

The player ideally wants to play a clue card with a low duration first to maximize the chances of getting a sanctuary.

A rookie mistake is to focus too much on playing cards that gives the symbol to collect past requirements and forgo grabbing the high scoring cards - even though, by end of the game sanctuaries provide thee symbols needed. If the player chooses the high scoring card, chances are they will be able to succeed in fulfilling that card's requirements as well. To gain sanctuaries, the player must play cards sequentially higher in number to explore. '''That means that the player can only afford to play a card lower in duration than the previous card once or twice.'''

Playing high fame cards early on allows the player to place 5-7 other cards in front of it that will most likely have some or all of the requirements that card needs, however this is not always the best choice strategically. Consider if the high fame card has a symbol that could be used for one of your other cards. This is especially true for symbols that can be acquired via sanctuaries.

You'll gain more fame the longer your exploration takes so all the higher exploration duration cards provide the most points. Chances are at least one of your three cards has a high duration.

Play your cards carefully. Looking back on your starting three cards I often play them in order from shortest to longest duration unless one card will greatly benefit from being played earlier, take a card that scores based on all four regions being played for example. If that is the case, then I will often play that card first and then the other two lower cards I may play a few cards later depending on their duration value. It may be a risk that I won't get all the necessary required symbols if I play them too late, but hopefully sanctuaries and future cards will be enough.

'''Clues:'''

Clues help the player find the right sanctuary, which helps the player fulfil requirements. With how important sanctuaries are the player are going to want to have a lot of options to choose from when the player get the chance. Having clues played allow the player to have a better chance of getting a sanctuary.

Having just one clue early on is going to be a massive help. Being able to have two sanctuaries to choose from is far better than getting one randomly. Once the player has a clue or two that can sometimes be enough to help the player get all the sanctuaries the player need but obviously the more clues the player gets the better.

Typically you can focus on getting only one or two clues. Chances are the player will naturally get a few more from either cards or sanctuaries but not focusing on them after the beginning of the game enables the player to get more higher fame cards However, if the player doesn't get a card with a clue in your first three and the choice from the next three then the player needs to prioritize getting one as soon as possible. Unless the player have all of the required symbols the player need for your high fame cards early in the game, don't worry too much about it, but again, sanctuaries can still help the player score quite a bit on your last played cards. So the player are still going to benefit a lot from having 5-6 sanctuaries to choose from. Many times I have been on my 8th card that granted me a sanctuary and I was able to grab the perfect one I needed to get a ton of points because I had 6 cards to choose from.

Rookie mistake: For the longest time I undervalued the importance of clues. I have been in games where I basically didn't get any clues the entire game and I lost pretty bad.

There are Sanctuaries and point cards that score for having played clues so it doesn't hurt having a few clues for that reason as well.

'''Sanctuaries:'''

Sanctuaries are crucial for success. Try to get between 6-7 per game.

Symbols on sanctuaries apply to every card which can be especially helpful for cards that are played 7th and 8th. Many cards require symbols in order to score and the last thing the player want is to get to your 8th card and realize that your 15 fame card isn't going to score because the player didn't manage to get that thistle the player needed which costed the player the game. I have seen some games where a card worth a lot of fame was played last but it managed to score, because the sanctuaries provided the required symbols.

Sanctuary Color

There are both sanctuaries and cards which score a significant amount of points for having one of each of the four regions. When looking at which sanctuary to choose and the player have a few good options if the one that is colored vs being grey isn't quite as good as your other choice I would go with that one. '''Having all four regions in your sanctuaries means that even if the last card the player play is a card that scores for a full set of regions, the player get 10 points.'''

Sanctuaries allow the player to pick up additional high scoring cards later in the game while providing the player with the confidence that the player have or will most likely fulfil its requirements.

Now of course the player can win with few sanctuaries and the player should if it's the difference between playing a perfect card or not; this game is very situational. But as a general rule, the player want a lot of sanctuaries.

Gamehelpkmakici

2022-02-03T05:27:05Z

Kitty4777: making it a major edit to push changes to the page.

= '''ABOUT''' =

:"Kmakici Family's Greatest teatime"(くまきちファミリーの最高のティータイム) is a card game from Japan featuring a family of soft toys lead by a bear,　Kmakici.
:It includes a dolphin, a squid and a rock band of rabbits. The family are created by an artist Raityo Tsume (雷鳥つめ) and are popular in Japan in SNS messaging apps.
:[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en2bKRJnkHU|a music video on Youtube]]
:[[https://twitter.com/kmakici account on twitter]]

==Game Contents==

:58 Friend(s) Card.
:21 Chip.
*details
[[File:Summary.png]]

='''GAMEPLAY'''=
==''QUICK OVERVIEW - ITS EASY TO PLAY''==
:The various characters in the Kmakici family are on the cards in different combinations.
:Players draw and play cards to the table from a hand of three, trying to build sets of five :different characters. If a player places a card which completes a set of five, they draw a token :from the end of a line.

:The tokens show a grilled steak initially, but on the hidden side are sweets, cakes and teatime treats.
:Players are trying to get four different treats to win the game outright.

:However, if a player cannot or will not play a card, they draw a steak, which, being unsuitable for a tea party, counts as negative points.
:If all the tokens are claimed without a direct winner, then the player with fewest steaks wins.

*"Let's start a great teatime with our friends."*

=='''GAME SETUP'''==
:1. Prepare the chips.
::When playing with 2 or 3 players, do not use the chips shown in the figure on the down.
::When playing with 4 or 5 players, use all the chips.
[[File:Kmakici 1 en.png]]
:2. Arrange the chips so that they form a random path with the steak side facing up.
::Place the chips in a random order. (This is called the "sweets path.")　You can arrange the chips
::in any way you like, but The last one must be "3 steak" chip.
[[File:Kmakici 2.png|600px]]
:3. Shuffle the cards well and deal 3 cards to each player, and put the rest face down in a deck.
::The first player is the player who most recently enjoyed teatime.(This feature is not implemented yet🙄.)

=='''Gameplay - What to do on your turn'''==

The player whose turn it is to take turns does the following (1) to (3) in order.

===(1) Draw a Friend card===
:First, take a Friend card from the deck and add it to your hand.

===(2) Play the Friend card===
:Then, Play a friend card from your hand that has a character on it that is not already on the table.
:The table is common to all players.
*'''''You can play one to three cards at a time.'''''

*If you do not have any cards in your hand that you can play, or if you do not want to play any cards, you can "pass".
*If you pass, you must receive a steak chip.

===(3) The end of your turn===
After the friend card is played, 5 different characters(Kmakici, Kintaro, Ka-pa, Sakana and Usagi) are all on the table, It is "Complete!"
If the game does not end in "Complete!" or "Pass", the turn is passed to the next player (to the left).

[[File:Kmakici 3 en.png]]

===='''About Complete! or Pass! (Resolving the End of a Round)'''====

*Complete!
:When the fifth friend is revealed and complete, the player takes the first chip from the sweets path and turns it over.
:On the back of the chip, there is a choice of 4 kinds of Sweets or a Kmakici.
:If a player has 4 different sweets, the player "wins" the game (congratulations!).
:The Kmakici chip is a wild chip that can become any of the sweets.
*Pass!
:When you pass, you receive the first chip from the treat path, with the steak on the front.
:Do not check the back of the chip at this time.

※When you pass or Complete, all the cards on the table are moved to the discard pile.
The last player to take their turn starts a new turn as the starting player.

*The first card
:The starting player who takes their first turn after a Complete or Pass cannot pass.
:They must play at least one friend card.
:If all cards in your hand are UFOs,
:including the Friend card you drew from your deck, you pass.
:(and take chip,draw card,next first player)

== '''Important Game play notes''' ==

===About Multiple Character Friend Cards===
If a card has two or more characters on it, the friends card cannot be played if any of the characters are already on the table. Note: Usagi has an exception, see rules below.

For example: A card with Kintaro and Sakana visible cannot be played if either Sakana or Kintaro is already on the table.

Click "remain characters" to get a list of characters who are still eligible to be played on the table.

===About the "Usagi" friend Card===

The "Usagi" friend card is special, as multiple colors of Usagi can be played on the table at the same time, as long as the usagi card is a different color. There are three colors of "Usagi" cards, Pink, Blue, and Yellow. (The table newsfeed shows UsagiA - Yellow, UsagiB - Pink, UsagiC - Blue)

However, no matter how many colors of Usagi are on the table, only one type of character is counted.

For example, 3 colors of Usagi and Kmakici/Kintarou count as three types of characters, not 5.

===About the "UFO" friend card===
You can remove a friend card by placing a UFO on top of the target friend card on the table. Both the UFO card and the target friend card are discarded.

Playing a UFO card in this way will count as playing a card.

After using the UFO to remove a friend card, you can subsequently play a friend card depicting that character who was discarded by the UFO on the same turn. NOTE: The "Abducted" friend is not available to be played.

A UFO card cannot be played onto an empty table. To play the UFO, select the UFO, then select the friend card, then confirm.

[[File:Kmakici 4 en.png|800px]]

=== '''The GAME END''' ===

*The game ends when someone has collected 4 kinds of sweets,
:or when all the chips in the sweets path have been taken.

*If someone collects 4 types of sweets, the player wins!

*When all the chips have been taken,
:the player with the least number of steaks in their hand wins!

When the number of steaks is the same, the player with the most treats wins.
If the number of steaks is the same, the player with the most snacks wins, and if it's still not decided,
the player with the least number of cards in their hand at the end wins!

If you s till can't decide, congratulations to ......! Both of you win!

= '''More about the Kmakici Family''' =
[[File:Kmakici character en.png]]

Gamehelpkmakici

2022-02-03T05:19:09Z

Kitty4777: Modified the layout & some of the titles for clarity; no content changes

Gamehelpkmakici

2022-02-03T05:01:15Z

Kitty4777: The image for the Game play notes section was broken for me, so I typed in the notes. I also added BGA specific helpful tips

=== '''Overview''' ===

:"Kmakici Family's Greatest teatime"(くまきちファミリーの最高のティータイム) is a card game from Japan featuring a family of soft toys lead by a bear,　Kmakici.
:It includes a dolphin, a squid and a rock band of rabbits. The family are created by an artist Raityo Tsume (雷鳥つめ) and are popular in Japan in SNS messaging apps.
:[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en2bKRJnkHU|a music video on Youtube]]
:[[https://twitter.com/kmakici account on twitter]]

''ITS EASY TO PLAY!!''

:The various characters in the Kmakici family are on the cards in different combinations.
:Players draw and play cards to the table from a hand of three, trying to build sets of five :different characters. If a player places a card which completes a set of five, they draw a token :from the end of a line.

:The tokens show a grilled steak initially, but on the hidden side are sweets, cakes and teatime treats.
:Players are trying to get four different treats to win the game outright.

:However, if a player cannot or will not play a card, they draw a steak, which, being unsuitable for a tea party, counts as negative points.
:If all the tokens are claimed without a direct winner, then the player with fewest steaks wins.

*"Let's start a great teatime with our friends."*

=== '''COMPONENTS''' ===

:58 Friend(s) Card.
:21 Chip.
*details
[[File:Summary.png]]

=== '''GAME SETUPS''' ===

:1. Prepare the chips.
::When playing with 2 or 3 players, do not use the chips shown in the figure on the down.
::When playing with 4 or 5 players, use all the chips.
[[File:Kmakici 1 en.png]]
:2. Arrange the chips so that they form a random path with the steak side facing up.
::Place the chips in a random order. (This is called the "sweets path.")　You can arrange the chips
::in any way you like, but The last one must be "3 steak" chip.
[[File:Kmakici 2.png|600px]]
:3. Shuffle the cards well and deal 3 cards to each player, and put the rest face down in a deck.
::The first player is the player who most recently enjoyed teatime.(This feature is not implemented yet🙄.)

=== '''What to do on your turn''' ===

The player whose turn it is to take turns does the following (1) to (3) in order.

(1)Draw a Friend card.
:First, take a Friend card from the deck and add it to your hand.

(2) Play the Friend card.
:Then, Play a friend card from your hand that has a character on it that is not already on the table.
:The table is common to all players.
*'''''You can play one to three cards at a time.'''''

*If you do not have any cards in your hand that you can play, or if you do not want to play any cards, you can "pass".
*If you pass, you must receive a steak chip.

(3)The end of your turn.
After the friend card is played, 5 different characters(Kmakici, Kintaro, Ka-pa, Sakana and Usagi) are all on the table, It is "Complete!"
If the game does not end in "Complete!" or "Pass", the turn is passed to the next player (to the left).

[[File:Kmakici 3 en.png]]

=== '''About Complete! or Pass!''' ===

*Complete!
:When the fifth friend is revealed and complete, the player takes the first chip from the sweets path and turns it over.
:On the back of the chip, there is a choice of 4 kinds of Sweets or a Kmakici.
:If a player has 4 different sweets, the player "wins" the game (congratulations!).
:The Kmakici chip is a wild chip that can become any of the sweets.
*Pass!
:When you pass, you receive the first chip from the treat path, with the steak on the front.
:Do not check the back of the chip at this time.

※When you pass or Complete, all the cards on the table are moved to the discard pile.
The last player to take their turn starts a new turn as the starting player.

*The first card
:The starting player who takes their first turn after a Complete or Pass cannot pass.
:They must play at least one friend card.
:If all cards in your hand are UFOs,
:including the Friend card you drew from your deck, you pass.
:(and take chip,draw card,next first player)

=== '''Game play notes''' ===

==About Multiple Character Friend Cards==
If a card has two or more characters on it, the friends card cannot be played if any of the characters are already on the table. Note: Usagi has an exception, see rules below.

For example: A card with Kintaro and Sakana visible cannot be played if either Sakana or Kintaro is already on the table.

Click "remain characters" to get a list of characters who are still eligible to be played on the table.

==About the "Usagi" friend Card==

The "Usagi" friend card is special, as multiple colors of Usagi can be played on the table at the same time, as long as the usagi card is a different color. There are three colors of "Usagi" cards, Pink, Blue, and Yellow. (The table newsfeed shows UsagiA - Yellow, UsagiB - Pink, UsagiC - Blue)

However, no matter how many colors of Usagi are on the table, only one type of character is counted.

For example, 3 colors of Usagi and Kmakici/Kintarou count as three types of characters, not 5.

==About the "UFO" friend card==
You can remove a friend card by placing a UFO on top of the target friend card on the table. Both the UFO card and the target friend card are discarded.

Playing a UFO card in this way will count as playing a card.

After using the UFO to remove a friend card, you can subsequently play a friend card depicting that character who was discarded by the UFO on the same turn. NOTE: The "Abducted" friend is not available to be played.

A UFO card cannot be played onto an empty table. To play the UFO, select the UFO, then select the friend card, then confirm.

[[File:Kmakici 4 en.png|800px]]

=== '''The GAME END''' ===

*The game ends when someone has collected 4 kinds of sweets,
:or when all the chips in the sweets path have been taken.

*If someone collects 4 types of sweets, the player wins!

*When all the chips have been taken,
:the player with the least number of steaks in their hand wins!

When the number of steaks is the same, the player with the most treats wins.
If the number of steaks is the same, the player with the most snacks wins, and if it's still not decided,
the player with the least number of cards in their hand at the end wins!

If you s till can't decide, congratulations to ......! Both of you win!

=== '''Introduce Kmakici Family''' ===
[[File:Kmakici character en.png]]