Gamehelppacifica

Overview

Rebuild the underwater city of Pacifica! Each player is entrusted with one half of the city. Compete in eight categories: Treasure, Population, Resources, Architecture, Knowledge, Machines, City Festival and Diversity. Winning a category earns you an idol, a prestigious emblem of achievement. However, your idols are always at risk of being overtaken by your opponent unless secured.

At the start of the game, all cards are placed in individual stacks in a row in the center of the table. During the game, players draw from these stacks and play cards from their hand into the appropriate categories on their own half of the board.

Each card displays one or multiple symbols depending on their specific category. These symbols contribute to building your city and help you progress towards earning idols.

Gameplay

On your turn, you perform 3 actions, which you can carry out in any order, and you may perform the same action more than once. The available actions are:

• Draw 1 card
• Play 1 card
• Activate up to 2 cards

Draw 1 Card

Draw one card from any of the stacks into your hand.

Hand card limit: You may hold a maximum of 3 cards in your hand. If you already have 3 cards and wish to draw another, you must first play a card to reduce your hand size.

Play 1 Card

Choose one card from your hand and place it in your half of the city. It is placed under the corresponding category stack.

Activate up to 2 Cards

Activate up to two cards. To do so, you may need to meet specific requirements.

There are three ways cards can be activated:

• Already activated: The card has already been activated and does not require further conditions.
• Condition for activating: You must fulfill a condition to activate the card.
• Discarding for activation: You must discard specific cards to activate the card.

Already Activated

Cards with a green activation zone and a white checkmark are already activated when played. This means that the symbols on these cards are immediately valid as soon as they are played.

Condition for Activating

Cards with a gray activation zone are inactive. They must be activated through the "Activate up to 2 cards" action. To activate these cards, you need to have the symbols shown in the activation zone on other activated cards within your half of the city.

Discarding for Activation

Cards with a red activation zone are also inactive. They must be activated through the "Activate up to 2 cards" action. To activate these cards, you need not only to have the condition shown in the activation zone but also to discard the corresponding card(s). Discarding means removing the card from your half of the city and placing it under the corresponding stack.

Note: With the "Activate up to 2 cards" action, you activate up to two cards consecutively. It is allowed to activate the first card and immediately use its symbols to activate the second card.

Some of the Machines cards and City Festival cards have special effects. Those special effects become active immediately upon activation. The special effects of MACHINE cards are permanent. On the other hand, CITY FESTIVAL cards have a one-time effect. This effect is triggered at the moment of activation, meaning it cannot be "saved" for later use.

Idols

For each of the 7 categories, there is one idol. You claim the idol from a category when you have the required minimum number of matching symbols in your half of the city. Initially, this minimum is 3 symbols. Once you meet this requirement, you can take the idol for that category.

An idol has four stages: 3, 5, 7, and secured. Each time a player reaches the required number of symbols, the idol is rotated to show the next higher number until it becomes secured.

Gaining and Securing Idols

At the start of the game, idols are easy to claim, as they only require 3 symbols. However, they are not secure at this point. Once your opponent reaches 5 symbols in a category, they can steal the idol from your half of the city, causing the idol to rotate to the next level with a higher number. If you then reach 5 symbols yourself, the idol moves to your city half and is turned to 7. At this point, the idol can only be claimed once more. The player who reaches 7 symbols in the category takes the idol and turns it over to reveal the back. This marks the idol as secured, and it stays in the player’s city half for the remainder of the game.

Idol of Diversity: The Idol of Diversity is not assigned to any of the 7 categories. To claim it, you need at least one symbol from each of the 7 categories. To secure it, you must have two symbols from each category.

IMPORTANT: If you already possess an idol, you can attempt to advance it by one or more stages yourself. This makes it harder for your opponent to gain the idol, as each new level increases the number of symbols required to take it.

Note: If you win an idol but later discard cards with the corresponding symbols, reducing the number of symbols required for the idol, you still keep the idol. You only need to give it up if your opponent steals it from you.

Game End

The game ends immediately once a player has either 5 idols or 3 secured idols in their half of the city. The player who achieves this condition wins the game!