Tips arknova

General Strategy Tips

Ark Nova is a sprint, not a marathon. It all boils down to gaining appeal points and conservation points faster than anyone else. A beginning player is often distracted by the many options and animals. "Burst out" your available options as quickly as you can, establish a superior position on points, then work to end the game as quickly as you can.

The pace of the game is: cheap animals -> medium animals -> expensive animals. Run away from small animals like the plague. Small animals won't net you big points and your opponent will outpace you. Your goal for any break is to exhaust your money on animals, draw your next animals, build enclosures for animals, do an Association action once or twice, and play a synergistic sponsor.

The key to winning is synergy. Between your starting hand, the base conservation projects, and the display, draw and play cards that have some unifying synergy.

The biggest enemy of good is great. Don't try to optimize everything. You won't have time. Play good animals/break/repeat.

If you aren't sure what action card to upgrade first, Animals and Sponsors are safe bets. Both give you the option to play cards on the display. Next best might be Cards. Most people don't favor upgrading Association.

Money

• At the beginning of the game, play low-cost animals to increase your Appeal.
• Play Sponsor cards that increase appeal or money: Explorer, Science Museum, Expert in Big Animals, Expert in Small Animals, -ologists, ones that let you build specialized structures for free
• Partner Zoos reduce the cost of animals by 3 for each continent icon (meaning two Europe icons reduce the cost by six).
• Building costs 2 money per hex, so don't build needlessly.
• The more Appeal you have, the more money you earn during Breaks.
• If you have no money or Association workers, your best bet is to advance the Break counter.
• Kiosks earn 1 money per adjacent building/occupied space. Place your Kiosks next to as many different constructions as possible, not tucked away in a corner. You don't need 4-5 kiosks, just 1-2 well-placed ones.
• Money is only earned during Breaks, except for "bonus icons" gained from:
  • Building a structure on the appropriate hex space
  • Conservation project cards that match the player token space with a money bonus
  • Advance the Break icon with the Sponsors action (if upgraded, money earned is doubled)

Conservation Projects

Conservation points are the key to big points and they're weighted heavily in the early game by providing a lot of bonuses. Being the first one to the bonus spaces is always better than second or third, as bonuses are eliminated once selected by someone (excluding the 5 money). If possible, try to be as aggressive as you can be with scoring conservation points early.

At the beginning of the game, there are three available Conservation Projects to support. If your hand can't support them, be on the lookout for releases/animals to release. A wolf, secretary bird, white stork, bison, or any iconic animal should be a top-priority release. When you release, you also get the enclosure back.

Conservation points also increase earnings, as every used cube from your "income space" provides those resources during a Break.

Focus on supporting the bottom tier of multiple Conservation Projects. Supporting the top tier is more difficult, especially across multiple.

Early game conservation points can upgrade your draw cards action, thereby letting you access higher reputation rewards, gaining even more bonuses.

Support Conservation Projects related to the countries (Europe, Asia, etc.) at 2 or 5. The 4 slot only gives 3 Conservation Points. Support the rest of the projects at either 2 early or at 4 or 5 later. If no 5th icon is in sight, support at 4 and move on.

When you release an animal, you lose appeal, but gain conservation points, so consider what animal to release. 1 CP is roughly equivalent to 3 appeal. So if you release Greater Flamingo, you lose 7 appeal and gain 4 CP for a net gain of 5. If you release Eurasian Lynx you lose 2 appeal and gain 4 CP, for a net gain of 10. Iconic animals are the most profitable to release. Cheap animals with low appeal are also useful because the appeal gain cancels out the appeal loss. For example, paying 4 money for a Slow Worm or 9 for a European Pond Turtle gives the same net gain of 3 CP, but at different costs.

Cards

Don't hoard cards. Drawing a large volume of cards takes up time. You won't be able to play everything you gain. An unexpected Break can decimate a large hand.

Don't focus too heavily on future cards that may never show up. One trap that new players can fall into is waiting to draw certain cards with certain icons. Often this boils down to holding onto that Eurasian Brown Bear (which requires another bear tag to be in play), hoping beyond hope that you see, can draw, then play another bear tag.

Other Tips

Be the first to take a university or partner zoo. If you're unsure of which partner zoo to choose, Asia is a good overall choice.

You can keep 4 cards at the start, but expect to snap one, be it either animal, sponsor, or release.

X tokens are a great way to speed up your actions. Using a stage 5 action followed by a boosted stage 5 action can create powerful surges in points and resources.

In general, sponsors, extra cards, and extra builds are all optional, depending on what your opponent is doing. If your optional actions are better than your opponents', do them. If not, break and repeat. If your opponent is playing many good end-game sponsors, it's because you let them.

Watch the cards in the display religiously. Snap cards from your opponent and use them yourself. Drawing cards randomly (unless you can immediately sunbathe) is a poor strategy.

Your best animals are ones with 9-10 appeal points, animals you can release, eagles, rhinos, and the Sun Bear. If you can't play them, at least you can keep them away from your opponent.

Quick Reference Icons

Icon	Action
	Any action
	Animals action
	Association action
	Build action
	Cards action
	Sponsors action

Icon	Partner Zoo
	Africa
	Americas
	Asia
	Australia
	Europe

Icon	Board
	Immediate effect
	Effect gained on conservation project support and Break
	Income in each Break
	Effect during final scoring
	Immediate one-time effect
	Draw card from deck or reputation range
	Snap (take any card from reputation range)

Icon	Definition
	Money
	Reputation
	Conservation points
	Partner zoo
	Research
	Appeal
	University

Icon	Animal
	Bird
	Herbivore
	Predator
	Primate
	Reptile
	Bear
	Petting Zoo animal

Icon	Condition
	Condition: Icon in zoo
	Condition: Appeal required
	Condition: Research required
	Condition: Partner zoo required
	Condition: Reputation required
	Condition: Upgrade required
	Ignore 1 condition

Icon	Animal Ability
	Constriction
	Hypnosis
	Pilfering
	Venom
	Hunter
	Perception
	Pouch
	Sunbathing

Icon	Build Definition
	Standard enclosure of specific size
	Kiosk
	Pavilion
	Build a 2-space/3-space Enclosure for free
	Specific special Enclosure
	Rock
	Water
	Enclosure requires adjacency to depicted type and quantity of spaces

Icon	Definition
	X-token
	Upgrade a card
	Action strength
	Support of a conservation project
	Move any action card to slot 1
	Perform another action
	New Association worker
	Hand limit
	Appeal limit
	Pay X money to play a Sponsor from your hand
	Multiplier
	Can be affected by interactive effects
	Your zoo
	Any zoo
	Large animal enclosure (4-5 hexes)
	Small animal enclosure (1-3 hexes)

Keywords/Glossary

Adapt X

Draw X final scoring card(s) then discard X final scoring card(s).

Assertion

Add 1 unused conservation project to your hand.

Boost:X

Place X action in slot 1 or 5

Camouflage

If you play 1 other animal this turn, you may ignore 1 of its conditions.

Clever

Place any action card on slot 1 after completing your turn.

Constriction

Place a constriction token on the X rightmost actions of each opposing zoo, where X is the number of appeal and conservation tracks the player is ahead. Actions with a constriction token have -2 strength. Constriction tokens are discarded when the action is taken or at the next break.

Cut Down

Remove 1 empty enclosure from your map and regain its cost.

Digging X

You can do one of the following actions X number of times: Discard a card from the display, then replenish OR discard a card from your hand, then draw.

Dominance

Add the conservation project Primates to your hand (if not already in the game).

Extra Shift

Return 1 Association worker to ready status.

Flock Animal X

This animal may share an enclosure with an herbivore of X+.

Full-throated

Gain 1 Association worker.

Glide X

Discard up to X cards from your hand. For every octopus icon on them, gain either 1 reputation, 2 appeal, or a kiosk.

Helpful

Has no Reef Dweller effect.

Hunter X

Reveal X cards from the deck. Add 1 animal card to your hand and discard the rest.

Hypnosis

Perform an action from slot 1, 2, or 3 from the highest appeal zoo (if it's not yours).

Iconic Animal: X

Gain 1 appeal for each X icon in your zoo.

Inventive

Gain 1/2/3 tokens for 1/3/5 icons in your zoo.

Jumping

something

Mark

something

Monkey Gang

something

Multiplier

something

Pack

Gain 1 appeal for each predator icon in your zoo.

Peacocking

something

Perception

something

Petting Zoo Animal

something

Pilfering X

Take 5 or draw one random card from the hand of the zoo with the highest appeal (and the zoo with the highest conservation points if X=2), if it's not yours.

Posturing

something

Pouch

something

Resistance

something

Scavenging

something

Scuba Dive

something

Sea Animal Magnet:something

Shark Attack

something

Snapping

something

Sponsor Magnet:something

Sprint X

Draw X cards from the deck.

Sunbathing

something

Symbiosis

something

Trade

something

Venom X

All zoos with higher appeal than yours get a venom token on their X leftmost actions. Each turn they do not discard a venom token, they pay 2. Venom tokens are discarded when they take an action with one or at the next break.