BioEra™ Game Rules

Get ready for a wild adventure! In BioEra™, each player has their own deck of cards[cite: 1]. You’ll take turns to build your own ecosystem [cite: 2], and your goal is to complete it before anyone else does. To slow opponents down, you can even hunt their lifeforms!

Know Your Cards

Lifeforms

Lifeforms are the building blocks of your Ecosystem.

Identify their trophic level by color:

• Apex: purple
  
• Carnivore: red
  
• Omnivore: orange
  
• Herbivore: green
  
• Producer: black
  
• Decomposer: brown
  

Phenomena

Phenomena cards are yellow. They affect the game with special effects! Some phenomena cards have triggers, which means they can only be played when a specific condition exists.

Build an Ecosystem and Win!

Each player builds their own Ecosystem and places their cards in these areas:

• Resources: Your deck.
• Wildlife Area: Every time you play a lifeform or phenomenon card, place it in the Wildlife Area. It remains here until it gets eaten, dies, or its effect is over.
• Compost: Eaten, dead, or discarded lifeform cards go in this pile.
• Decay: Used phenomena cards go in this pile.
• Hand: Drawn cards from your Resources are added to your hand until they can be played.

Start the Game

To start, all players shuffle their deck and roll their dice at the same time. The player with the highest roll decides who goes first. Then, players draw 6 cards and take turns to play.

Turn Steps

Turns have 3 phases:

1. Dawn Phase:

• Draw your Resources’ top card every turn.
• Play cards in any order:
  • Up to 2 lifeforms (LFs). Always follow the feeding requirements.
  • Up to 2 phenomena cards. Add phenomena cards to your Wildlife Area; once the effect is over, move it to the Decay pile.
• Declare victory when you have a winning condition.

2. Hunting Phase:

• If you have a Hunter, you may start 1 Hunting Trip per turn.
• Identify hunters with this symbol:

3. Sunset Phase:

• You cannot play cards in this phase.
• If you didn’t play any LF cards this turn, you can do one of these:
  • Search for 1 Producer in your Resources and add it to your Hand, then shuffle your Resources. OR
  • Draw your Resources’ top card.
• Activate applicable Ecosystem Rules.
• If you have 7 or more cards in your Hand, discard one into the Compost.
• After this check, your turn is over.

Feeding Requirements

To play a lifeform (LF) card, you’ll eat LFs from your Wildlife Area. First, add the new LF to your Wildlife Area, then move eaten LFs to the Compost.

Winning Conditions

To win the game, follow these 3 steps:

1. Declare victory: When you have either 2 healthy Apex Lifeforms (LFs) OR all 6 trophic levels (Apex, Carnivore, Omnivore, Herbivore, Producer, and Decomposer) in your Wildlife Area. “Healthy” means not injured and not ill. [IMAGE PLACEHOLDER]
2. Victory Challenge: Only one player may challenge your victory by starting one single Hunting Trip. This is the only time they can start a Hunting Trip during your turn.
3. Confirm victory: If after the Victory Challenge you still have 2 healthy Apexes or a complete and healthy ecosystem, you did it! You win the game!

Additionally, a player loses if they have no cards left in their deck at the start of their turn.

Hunting Trips

You can do a single Hunting Trip during your turn. Each Hunter lifeform has a limit of 1 successful hunting trip per game. This means, until it kills a prey. If a Hunter leaves your Wildlife Area and later returns, this limit resets.

Hunting Trip Steps

1. Select one of your healthy Hunters, this means uninjured and not ill.
2. Choose a valid prey in another player’s Wildlife Area:

3. Roll your dice at the same time:
   • Identical results: The Hunting Trip ends; nothing happens.
   • Hunter rolls higher:
     • By 1: The prey is injured.
     • By 2 or more: The prey dies.
   • Prey rolls higher:
     • By 5: The Hunter dies.
     • By 4 or less: The Hunter is injured.
4. Place any dead LFs in the Compost.

A healthy Apex will add +1 to its die result whether it is a Hunter or prey.

Injuries and Illnesses

When a lifeform (LF) is injured or ill, its effects are disabled for 2 game turns (Including other players’ turns.) Rotate the card 90^∘ to show it’s disabled. At the end of the second turn, rotate the card back to mark it as healthy.

[IMAGE PLACEHOLDER]

A LF dies if it is injured, and gets injured again.

Ecosystem Rules

During your Sunset Phase, if you have 3 or more lifeforms (LFs) of the same trophic level in your Wildlife Area, you may search your Resources for 1 LF and add it to your Hand as follows:

[IMAGE PLACEHOLDER]

Have fun building your own ecosystem and learning about our nature along the way. It’s a wild adventure!