Tips daybreak

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:

• 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
• 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 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:

• "Once per round" effects can be used at the end of a round 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 round" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.
• 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.
• 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.

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.

• 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).
• 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, 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:

• 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!).
• 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.
• 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.

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.

• ⭐Energy Infrastructure R+D (Grid & Energy tags) – Draw 7 – Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
• ⭐Nuclear R+D (Nuclear & Energy tags) – Draw 9 – Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
• ⭐Solar R+D (Solar & Energy tags) – Draw 8 – Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
• ⭐Wind R+D (Wind & Energy tags) – Draw 8 – Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
• ⭐Geoengineering R+D (Geoengineering tag) – Draw 8 – Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
• ⭐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.

• ⭐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 other Emissions sources to your hand. Discard the other cards.
• ⭐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 other Emissions sources to your hand. Discard the other cards.

Draw One, Two or Three Cards – Based on Tag Requirements in the Stack – Once per round.

• ⭐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.
• ⭐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.
• ⭐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).
• ⭐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 Clean Energy R+D for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between 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" actions, you maintain the same number of cards in your hand.

• ⭐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 Green Investment Bank for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.

3. Local Projects that Generate Energy

Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.

• ⭐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)
• ⭐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)
• ⭐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)
• ⭐Community Wind or ⭐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)

4. Local Projects that Reduce Emissions / Dirty Energy / Energy Demand

Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce energy

• ⭐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

• ⭐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)

Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand – Good when you have extra energy beyond demand.

• Various cards

5. Local Projects to Gain Resilience

Plus 2 Resilience – Once per round – no requirements.

• ⭐Systemic Risk Planning (Society tag) – Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. (Once per round)
• ⭐Pollution Reduction (Ecology tag) – Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. (Once per round)
• ⭐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.

• ⭐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.
• ⭐Wilderness Protection (Ecology tag) – Add 1 Ecological Resilience token to your player board per Ecology tag in the stack.

Gain Energy + Resilience

• ⭐Community Wind or ⭐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)

6. Local Projects to Remove Communities In Crisis Tokens Without Discarding

• ⭐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)

7. Local Projects to Plant Trees & Oceans

Gain Trees/Oceans based on number of tags in a stack

• ⭐Tree Farms or ⭐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)
• ⭐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)

Gain 1 Tree/Ocean – Once per round – no requirements

• ⭐Forest Restoration or ⭐Peatland Rewetting (Ecology tag) – Gain 1 Tree. (Once per round)
• ⭐Mangrove Restoration (Ecology & Infrastructure tags) – Gain 1 Ocean. (Once per round)

8. Local Projects to Reduce Damage/ Need Experience

• ⭐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.)

Additional Card Tips / Usefulness:

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

Crises

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

• Crises that penalize players who have one or more "cows" – Consider removing cows when removing emissions! Relevant crisis cards: ⭐Deforestation (and also Also this card) – Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens.
• Late Game: Crises that remove one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have.
• 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).

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 [1]. {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 [2]. {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 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.