Gamehelpstarshipmerchants

Overview

Build your Fleet and move clockwise around various sectors in the star system to amass the most wealth in Credits by game's end

Turn

On your turn you have 3 options

Take an action in your current quadrant

Move to the next quadrant and take an action there

Move to the next quadrant and take no action

Shipyard

There are two actions to choose from at this location:

Buy or Lease 1 Starship

Pay off Starship Loans

There are 2 types of Starships: Scouts (more Energy) and Tugs (more Cargo)

You can only purchase starships within the current Mark, at the start it is Mark 1

As the game progresses, older Marks will become obsolete and no longer useable (Mark 1's in Mark 3 era, Mark 2's in Mark 4 era). The available Mark progresses once all ships in the current Mark are bought/loaned.

The number of ships in each mark a player can own is limited to 4 in Mark 1, 4 in Mark 2, 3 in Mark 3, and 2 in Mark 4

Starships cost Credits, shown in the top right

If you cannot afford, or don't want to pay the full credit cost, you can pay half price and take 2 loan markers assigned to that ship

However, each loan marker assigned to a ship costs half its full cost to pay off (i.e. loaning in the long run costs 150% of buying outright)

When entering the Shipyard with Loans, you MUST pay off at LEAST one loan. As paying off a loan is a single action, this would take up your whole turn (so no gaining a new ship through purchasing or loaning). However, you can pay off as many loans as you wish during a pay a loan action to avoid being locked in to this action next visit.

Market

There are 2 actions to choose from in this location, plus a bonus action:

Buy Market Card

Buy Refinery Card

Claim a Mine Token (Bonus)

First off on arrival, you can choose to discard and replace 2 Market cards

There are two types of Market cards: Pilots (Delivery Bonuses) Gear (Ship Bonuses)

Each ship can only have one Pilot and six Gear

Refinery Cards are NOT available on the first visit of the game, but rather become available once any player exits the Dock

Unlike Market Cards, there are no restrictions on the number of Refinery Cards you can own and they apply to ALL your ships

As a bonus to purchasing EITHER a Market or Refinery card, a player can pay 6 credits to flip a Mine Token to claim it

Belt

The only action here is to Run One Starship

When you first arrive in the Belt, move your setup assigned Mine Tokens into your Local Space

First, pick a ship and add its base Energy to any bonuses from cards, then can spend this energy to complete as many of the following actions as you like:

1 Energy Pickup from Local or Known Space

3 Energy Pickup from Opponent's Local Space

2 Energy Exploration

1 Energy Replace Destination Cards

? Energy End the Run

Pickup allows you to move Mine Tokens to the ship's cargo hold (You can NOT pickup an Opponent's claimed tokens) as long as you have capacity for it

Previously loaded Mine Tokens can NOT be dropped off as part of a Pickup

Exploration allows you to draw a mine token from the bag and either place it on the active ship on put it into your Local Space unclaimed

Replace Destination Cards can be done as many times as you wish, at 1 energy each time

End the Run allows you to visit a Destination and gain a bonus however, once this action is taken, no other energy can be spent and is lost. In addition, you do NOT have to use the End the Run action, and can instead spend all energy on picking up Mine Tokens

Once all energy is spent, all desired energy is spent, or a Destination is visited, the action ends

Dock

The only action here is to be paid and unload

First, move all unclaimed Mine Tokens in Local Space to Known Space

The value of the Mine Tokens aboard your ships is added to any Pilot, Gear, Refinery, and Destination bonuses and you receive that amount in Credits

Unload the mine tokens into your Local Space

Discard Destination Cards

Finally, check for any obsolete ships (Marks 1 and 2 during Marks 3 and 4). These still receive payout as outlined above, but after which they are discarded along with all their associated cards/tokens. However, Loan Tokens must now all be paid off in full. After which, one Pilot and 2 Gear may be transferred to a different ship at their original cost. Alternatively, you can set aside some or all of the repurchased Pilot & 2 gear for the next ship you buy/loan from the Shipyard instead of assigning to a current ship.

Game End

After a player finishes everything they need to do in the Dock and has no Loan Markers and at least 100 Credits, they MAY trigger end game. If they have at least 150 Credits, they MUST trigger end game and then immediately pay off all Loan Markers.

Regardless of how game end was triggered, the player who triggered it gains 10 Credits, keeps their Mine tokens on their Ship, and stays in the Dock

Any other players in the Dock when end of game was triggered have an opportunity to advance to Shipyard

All players then continue taking turns until all players are in the Dock

In other words, if you were in the Dock when End Game was triggered by someone else, you do a full circle, if you were in Belt you only advance to Dock

If you're in the Dock on what would be your turn, take 5 Credits instead of any actions

For these End Game turns, there are a few changes:

Mine Tokens remain on ships, so opponents can't use them

Loan Markers MUST be all paid off

Obsolete Ships are not scrapped, so Pilots and Gear stay on them

After all players have made it back to Dock, the player with the most Credits Wins!

Ties are resolved by earliest player into the Dock