Tips daybreak

List of cards: https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards

You want first to do something with all your 5 stacks. One per turn effects can be used at the end of a turn and at the start of the next turn: per example, having one stack with one tree per turn can be keeped the whole game if you don't need that stack.

Oten play cards above your stacks. Synergies are great, but playing a card under a stack lost is immediate value.

This game is pretty well balanced. You got many differents main options:

- going for a very fast game, it mean that all players try to reduce emissions pretty fast, resilience and energy generation doesn't matter, and in turn 2 or 3, you should try to win, with at most 2 temparature bar

- going for a slow game, you want to increase your resilience to be able to take some big hit, have a good energy generation and be nearly always above it, and potentially use some card draw. More the game advance, and more you should have cards in play, which mean you would be able to get powerful synergie later on. Even if it seem you are going no where, the end game should go pretty smoothly

But most of the time it will be a middle between those two. But you really need to adapt. If you see you can get lots of resilience early on, sharing it on chat make everyone know what is your plan. Having one player which goes for a fast game and another one for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, it's not great.

At best, you want to reduce emmissions to not make the game snowball on you and produce energy. Then increase your resilience to survive to the crisis. Then reduce your emmissions to -1.

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the turn. It's not good, but you could get more options with them next turn. You are still drawing 5 extra cards each turn.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personnally 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.

Most crisis are similar. The two you wanna look in late game are the one which remove one social resilience by 2 stars you have, and the one which remove two dirty energy and trigger again the malus of star on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it trigger on you, you first gain 2 stars, and then gain up to 4 stars, which is a lot).

You have sometimes the option to goes for a big malus 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 make 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 worst case, 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 gots lots of others cards which let you produce energy or removing houses. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card which could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gain +2 or +3 houses each turn.

Color & Cards specificity:

Many cards can be good but they require you to have a specific situation. Per example some cards can remove some emissions but add more houses. If you got a 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.

Others cards can make you draw cards at the start of the turn, they are not good, but they let you be neutral in cards if you have them in an empty card. And they can let you have more options next turn which is fine.

The great cards shown are those you should be looking for in many games and nearly all of them work well solo (or close to solo) on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

1) Grid (blue): every nation start with a card which let 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 grid to produce 2 energy per discard is pretty good. You have some cards which add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards which require 3 power grid.

Great cards: Energy Infrastructure R+D

2) Energy (green): the worst color in my opinion. You got one good card which let you remove first building, then car, then factories but it require some social (blue/purple). I would recommand to mostly ignore it.

3) Nuclear (blue): most of the nuclear cards are an alternative to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear to be good, so they are more situationnal. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does.

Great cards: Nuclear R+D (draw), Fourth Generation Nuclear (energy)

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 discard, but in the right circonstance, you are not forced to have those to get a good energy generation. Cards which produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to use one discard to generate energy.

Great cards: Solar R+D & Wind R+D (draws)

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 synergise really well with that color.

Great cards: Green Energy Transition (x2), Luxury Consumption Tax, Circular Economy (-1 emission)

6) Social (blue/purple): the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it got lots of supports which is pretty nice, many nations start with that symbol. The communities cards let you slowly gain the number of instracture resilence you waint in most game while giving you one energy per turn too.

Great cards: Systemic Risk Planning (+2resilience), Community Solar & Community Windken (3: +1energy & +1resilence)

7) Ecology (green): the primary focus for environment resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per turn, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many others colors, it's some minus emissions without touching to your emissions. That mean by using them, you don't make others cards less impacitful. 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 which are situationnal.

Great cards: Distributed Energy Storage (resilience)

9) Incentive (gray): USA start with a stack which can draw depending of your coin which isn't bad to play around. Outside of it, many cards are pretty cheap and require from 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circonstance, it can be pretty good.

10) Innovation (orange): the orange stack is focus on two differents things: managing the crisis, and getting to see new cards. I would not advise it to beginners, but as you became more good, having a stack to see 6 or 9 extra cards every turn to take what you need is really powerful. The crisis one 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 shine mainly during turns 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crisis is not a big deal. Cloud Brightening is nice solo on a stack. Ocean Fertilization require ecological resilience or a stack of cloud going on. 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)