Contents 

<TO BE FILLED IN>

July 21, 2023 •1

 Introduction 
In Arcs, you will lead a spacefaring society through an epic saga attemping to survive in the harsh
and dangerous Reach. A game of Arcs lasts until someone has at least 27 Power (4 players),
30 Power (3 players), or 33 Power (2 players), and the player with the most Power wins.
You gain Power by completing ambitions, which are objectives that you declare during play.
These are scored at the end of the hand, when everyone runs out of action cards. The game lasts a
varying number of hands, usually three to five.
Your first game of Arcs will take about 45 minutes per player. After playing a couple games, they
should take about 30 minutes per player.

What's in the Box? 

Map

The map of the Reach is where the action happens. You can move your ships around it, battle
Rivals for control over its systems, and tax resources from the cities you build on its planets.

Player Pieces
Each player has the following pieces. The box contains pieces for 4 players.

PLAYER BOARD STARPORTS (5) CITIES (5)

This board holds resources, your Starports are built on planets Cities are built on planets and can be
fate card, and Rival pieces you take and are used to build ships. used to tax resource tokens, gaining
as Captives and Trophies in play. them onto your player board.

SHIPS (15) AGENTS (10) POWER MARKER

Ships can move around the Agents are placed on cards in the This marker tracks your current
map and battle Rivals. Court, a row of cards next to the Power on the bottom map edge.
map, in order to take them later.

2•
Cards

ACTION (<X>) FATE (<X>) SETUP (<X>)

These cards are played to take These cards give special powers (<x> each for 2–4 players)
actions and declare ambitions. and show a player's starting These cards show where players set up
With 2 or 3 players, all of the “1” pieces and resources. on the map and which parts of the map
and “7” action cards are removed. are out of play, covered by a wormholes.

GUILD (<X>) LORE (<X>) VOX (<X>)

These cards represent the support These cards represent long-lost These cards represent crises and
of guildmasters and task forces. They technologies. They are gained movements in the Reach that you can
are gained from the Court, often from the Court, often give passive turn to your own ends. They are gained
give new actions, and can be stolen. powers, and cannot be stolen. from the Court and resolve immediately.

Other Pieces

RESOURCE TOKENS (25) BATTLE DICE (18) HAND MARKER

(5 each of Material, Fuel, (6 each of Assault, This marker tracks the current
Weapons, Psionic, Relics) Skirmish, Raid) hand of the game.
Resources represent both assets These dice are used to
and the people skilled in using resolve battle.
them. They add to ambitions and
can be spent for special actions.

AMBITION MARKERS (3) DECLARATION MARKER INITIATIVE MARKER

(double-sided) This marker covers the lead card’s This marker shows which player will
These markers are used to initiative number, making it 0, take the first turn of a round.
mark declared ambitions. when an ambition is declared.

WORMHOLE MARKERS (2) MERCHANT BOARD AID SHEETS (4)

These cover some clusters of In games with 2 players, the These sheets give a summary of how to
the map, putting them out Merchant collects resources play and what actions you can take.
of play and linking together and competes on ambitions.
the clusters next to them.

•3
 A B

×6 each ×5 each

G 3 players - Mix

F out
of
play

out
of
play

L H

Setup 
After your first play, try out Fate Mode (page
21) if you want a wilder game! This mode
simply changes setup steps E and M. E. Shuffle all the Vox and Guild cards to
make the court deck. Draw 3 court
1. Set Up Table cards (2 players) or 4 court cards (3–4
A. Place the map on the table and collect players) to make the starting Court row.
the 18 battle dice, declaration F. Place the hand marker on the “1” space
marker, and 25 resource tokens. of the Hand track on the map.
B. Give the initiative marker on its G. Shuffle the setup deck for your player
Unseized side to a random player. count and draw a setup card.
C. With 4 players, add the 8 action cards H. Place wormhole markers to cover the
marked “1” and “7” into the action clusters marked Out of Play on the
deck. Otherwise, return them to the setup card (2 with 2–3 players, 1 with
box. Shuffle the action deck. 4 players).
D. Place the 3 ambition markers on their I. With 2 players, place the Merchant
blue, lower-numbered sides in the board near the Court row, and place 6
Ambitions section of the map. resource tokens matching the 6 planets
covered by the wormhole markers on it.
4• •4•
 C

4 players only
EACH PLAYER...
D E

N
M

Up

J
×15 ×5 ×10

[Link] Up Players The player with initiative does the following:

J. Each player chooses a color and takes 1. Places 3 ships and 1 city in the system
the matching player board, 15 ships, marked 1A on the setup card.
10 agents, and 5 starports, and places
2. Places 3 ships and 1 starport in the
their 5 cities on the 5 triangle slots
system marked 1B.
along the bottom of their player board.
K. Each player draws 6 action cards. (You 3. Places 2 ships in the system marked 1C.
may look at them, but others cannot.) With 2 players, do this in both systems
With 2 players, the player without marked 1C.
initiative may discard all 6 action cards 4. They gain the 2 resource tokens
in their hand and draw 6 new ones. matching the planets in their A and B
L. Place each player’s power marker on systems, putting them in their leftmost
the “0” space of the Power track. and next leftmost resource slots on
M. Players simultaneously place starting their player board, respectively.
pieces and gain resources as follows. Clockwise from the player with initiative, the
2nd, 3rd, and 4th players set up in the same
way in 2A–C, 3A–C, and 4A–C, respectively.

•5
 The Arc of Play 
In a game of Arcs, you will play through a number of hands of
action cards. In each hand, you will play through several rounds.
Broadly, in a round, each player will take one turn by playing
an action card to do various actions. After everyone takes
a turn, players check who will take the first turn of the next
round. You’ll learn more in Playing a Round (page 8)!
You’ll keep playing rounds until everyone runs out of action
cards in their hand. At this point, the hand ends, players gain
Power from ambitions they fulfilled, and everyone draws a new
hand of cards. You’ll learn more in Ending a Hand (page 20)!

Core Concepts 
Power & Ambitions
The main way to gain Power is by fulfilling ambitions. The
player with the initiative marker may choose to declare the
ambition shown on the action card they play on their turn,
marking the matching ambition box on the right map edge.
At the end of the hand, players will gain Power from declared
ambitions that they fulfilled best, even if another player
Declaring
declared them.
Ambition
The Map
The map is composed of 6 clusters. Each cluster has 4
Planet
systems—3 planets and 1 gate. (The gate lists the cluster's
number, which is used in expansions.)
In setup, some clusters are covered by wormhole markers to
remove them from play.
A gate is adjacent to all 3 planets in its cluster and to the 2
gates connected to it by a path. Planets are adjacent to other
planets that share a border. Adjacency is important when you
move (page 13).
Gate
Each planet has a planet type, along with 1 or 2 building
slots where you can build cities and starports. (Each planet Path
also has an ID icon, which is used in expansions.)

Planet Types

Building Slot

6•
 Resources & Cities
There are 5 types of resources matching the 5 planet types.
Usually, you gain them by taxing cities (page 12) and raiding
Resources Rivals in battle (page 16).
Resources can be spent for various actions (page 18), and
some of them add to the Tycoon, Keeper, and Empath
ambitions (page 20).
You’ll hold resource tokens in the resource slots on your
Opening Resource Slots
player board. As you build more cities, you’ll open resource
slots and bonus Power for winning ambitions.

Agents & The Court

Your agents are the bureaucrats and diplomats that administer
your cities and influence powerful interests in the Reach.
Through play, you can place agents on cards in the Court, a
row of cards along the edge of the map (Influence, page 13).
If you have the most agents on a card in the Court, you can
Influencing the Court take it (Secure, page 13).

Damage, Control, & Blockade

Pieces start off fresh—ships are fresh when standing upright,
and buildings are fresh on their fully colored side.
As you battle each other, fresh pieces can become damaged,
shown by flipping or tipping it over. If a damaged piece is
damaged again, it is destroyed, removing it from the map.
Tip ship or flip building to damage
You control a system and its contents if you have more fresh
ships there than each Rival (other player). On a tie, no one
controls the system.
Controlling a system blockades all Rivals there—you may tax
VS
their cities and capture their pieces, restrict how their ships
move, and damage pieces they build. (See pages 12–13.)
Red has control
Trophies & Captives
If you destroy a Rival's pieces, they go in your Trophies box
and add to the Warlord ambition.
If you capture the agents of your Rivals, they go in your
Captives box and add to the Tyrant ambition. Actions such
as Tax (page 12) and Secure (page 13) let you capture Rival
agents.

•7
 Playing a Round 
The round is the core part of play. In a round, each player takes
one turn, starting with the player with the initiative marker.
Broadly, on your turn, you must play 1 action card, which lets
you take one or more actions. At the end of the round, the
initiative marker might change hands based on which cards
were played.
Players will keep playing rounds until everyone runs out of
action cards. At this point the hand ends (page 20).

Step 1: Player with Initiative

Takes Turn
As the player with initiative, you must play one action card face
up as the lead card. You may take one action (pages 12–16)
for each action pip on the lead card based on its suit:
• Administration pips can tax, repair, or influence.
• Aggression pips can battle, move, or secure.
• Construction pips can build or repair.
• Mobilization pips can move or influence.
Place the card in the "Lead" card slot on the map, so that
everyone can reference it as you play through the round.

Suit
4 Mikah is the lead player.
She plays a Construction
card, which lets her
Build or Restore
CONSTRUCTION

build or repair.
This card has 3 action pips.
She spends one to build,
one to repair, and chooses
not to take a third action.
Action Pips

Passing Initiative
If you cannot or choose not to play the lead card, you pass
the initiative. Give the initiative marker to the next clockwise
player who has any cards in their hand, then immediately end
the round. They will start the new round by playing the lead
card.
If everyone with cards in their hand passes consecutively,
discard all action cards and end the hand (page 20).

8•
 Declaring an Ambition
If you have the initiative, you may declare the ambition
shown on your lead card before taking any actions:
• The “1” cards have no ambition. (Four players only.)
• The “2” through 6” cards let you declare the matching
ambition.
• The “7” cards let you declare any ambition.
(Four players only.)
An ambition Take the highest-number ambition marker that isn’t placed
box can hold yet, and place it in the ambition box of the declared
multiple markers. ambition on the right map edge.
Place the declaration marker onto the lead card to cover the
initiative number in its top-left corner—it is now 0.
You cannot declare an ambition if all 3 ambitions markers are
already placed.

Mikah declares the Warlord Initiative

ambition on her card. Number
She places the highest
available ambition marker
worth the most Power
in the Warlord ambition
box on the map.
Then she covers the
card’s initiative number
with the declaration
marker, setting it to 0.

•9
Step 2: Other Players
Take Turns
After the player with initiative takes their turn, each other
player in clockwise order will take a turn. Players with no action
cards skip their turn.
When it is your turn, you must play an action card in one of
these ways:
• Surpass: Play an action card face up that matches the lead Surpassing only needs a
card’s suit and has a higher number than the lead card. card higher than the lead
You may take actions up to the number of action pips on card, not all played cards!
your card.
• Copy: Play any action card face down. You may take only
one action of the lead card.
• Pivot: Play any action card face up that does not match the Pivoting does not
lead card’s suit. You may take only one action on your card. change the lead suit.

Place the card in the "Surpass, Copy, or Pivot" card slot on the
map, so everyone can reference it through the round.

After Mikah played her

Construction card to lead the
round, Dane takes his turn.
He plays an Aggression card to
Pivot and chooses to move.

Lotus takes the next turn. They

play a “5” Construction card
to Surpass and build twice.

Seizing the Initiative

When you play a card and do not have initiative marker, you
may seize the initiative—take the initiative marker and flip it
to its Seized side. You can do this in two ways:
• Discard an action card. Place it face down beside the card
you played as a reminder. You do not get actions from it.
• Surpass with a “7” action card. You still get to take its
actions. (Only four-player games have “7” cards.)
Once the initiative is seized, it cannot be seized again during
the same round.

10 •
 Step 3: Check Initiative
After everyone has taken a turn, check whether the initiative
marker changes hands.
If no one seized the initiative this round, give the initiative to
the player who Surpassed with the highest initiative number.
If no one Surpassed, the initiative stays with its holder.
If someone seized the initiative this round, that player keeps
the initiative and flips the initiative to Unseized.

Lotus played the highest

Construction card to

>
Surpass this round.
Nobody seized the
initiative, so Lotus takes
the initiative marker.

Step 4: Discard Cards &

Check for New Round
Discard all played cards, and any card used to seize the
initiative, into the shared action discard pile face down.
If any players have any action cards left in their hand, start the
next round. Otherwise, end the hand (page 14).

• 11
 Standard Actions 
Tax (administration) Loyal pieces have your
Choose a Loyal city or choose a Rival city you control. color. Rival pieces have
other players' colors.
Gain 1 resource of the city’s planet type from the supply.
Control means you have the
If you tax a Rival city, also capture 1 agent of that Rival from most fresh ships in the system.
their supply.
You'll often put resources you
Tax Limit: You cannot tax a city more than once per turn. gain in empty resource slots
on your player board, but
Captives: Place captured agents in the Captives box on your you can do other things with
player board. They add to your Tyrant ambition (page 14.) it—see Resources (page 17).

Mikah taxes twice—one

Material city of her own
and one of Dane’s Psionic
cities, which she controls.

She gains 1 Material and 1 Psionic.

Because she taxed Dane’s city,
she places 1 agent from Dane's
supply in her Captives box.

Build (construction)

You may build a building or a ship:

• Building: Place 1 starport or city in an empty building slot
in a system with a Loyal piece. When building a city, use
the leftmost city on your player board.
• Ship: Place 1 ship at a Loyal starport. Each starport can only
build one ship per turn.
Blockade: When you build anything in a system controlled Damaged ships are tipped over,
by a Rival, place the piece damaged. and damaged buildings are
flipped to their darker side.

Dane builds twice. First, he

builds a starport at a planet
where he has a ship.
Then he builds a ship. He can
place the ship at any of his
starports, so he places it at
the starport he just built.

12 •
 Move (Mobilization & Aggression)

Move any number of Loyal ships from one system to an

adjacent system.
Blockade means a Rival Starport Catapult: When moving from a system with any
controls the system. Loyal starports, you may keep moving the ships as much as
Check for blockade on
you want, dropping them off as you want, until they move
a Catapult move before into any planet or into a blockaded gate.
moving in, not after. Wormholes: Treat the two paths leading into a wormhole as a
single contiguous path. (So if cluster 4 is awormhole, a ship in
the cluster 3 gate could move directly to the cluster 5 gate.)

Lotus moves 2 Loyal ships

from a Loyal starport, so
they gain Catapult moves.

First they move from the

planet into the "4" gate.
Second, they move through
the path to the "5" gate, but
it is blockaded by Mikah, so
they stop moving. Lotus will
have to take another Move
action to keep moving them.

OR
Repair (Construction & Administration)

Stand up 1 damaged Loyal ship, or flip over 1 damaged

Loyal building. (This can be anywhere on the map!)

Influence (Mobilization & Administration)

Place 1 agent on any card in the Court. (The Court is the card
row along the map edge.)

Secure (Aggression)

Take 1 card from the Court if you have more Loyal agents on it
than each Rival.
Return all Loyal agents on it to your supply, and capture all
Rival agents on the secured card.
Resolve the card’s When Secured action if any, and then draw a
card from the court deck and place it in the Court.
Captives: Put agents you capture in the Captives box on your
player board. They add to your Tyrant ambition (page 14).

»
• 13
Battle (Aggression)

1. Choose Battle System: Choose 1 system that has any

Loyal ships. This is the battle system. These are your
attacking ships.
2. Choose Defender: Choose 1 Rival whose pieces are in the
battle system. These are their defending pieces.
Assault
3. Collect Dice: For each attacking ship, you may collect
1 assault, skirmish, or raid die.
• Assault Dice damage the defender quickly at some cost Skirmish
to you.
• Skirmish Dice damage them slowly but keep you safe.
Raid
• Raid Dice steal stuff from them and might damage them
but are risky.
Raid Dice Limit: You can only collect raid dice if there are You may collect fewer dice
defending buildings. If the defender has no Loyal buildings than the maximum, and
in any systems on the map, you can instead collect up to you may mix types, but you
1 raid die per defending ship. cannot collect more than
6 dice of a type.
4. Roll and Resolve Dice: Roll the collected dice. You must
resolve all rolled faces in this order:

1. Hit any of your attacking ships once per . Hit Your Ships
2. If you rolled any number of , you are
Intercept
intercepted—hit any of your attacking ships once
per fresh defending ship.
Your Ships

3. Hit any of their defending ships once per . Once

Hit, Ships First
no defending ships remain, hit any of their defending
buildings instead.
Hit, Buildings
4. Hit any of their defending buildings once per .

5. Raid their resources and cards by spending , if Raid

you have any attacking ships left (Raiding, page 16).
If you hit a fresh piece, it becomes damaged—tip it or flip it.
If you hit a damaged piece, it is destroyed—remove it. The To be clear, the attacker
attacker takes destroyed defending pieces as Trophies. The rolls and resolves all the
defender takes destroyed attacking pieces as Trophies. dice. The defender doesn't
usually make choices.
Trophies: Place pieces taken as Trophies in the Trophies box
on the respective player board. These add to the Warlord
ambition.

»
14 •
Mikah is battling Lotus. Mikah
has 4 fresh ships. Lotus has
1 fresh ship, 2 damaged
ships, and 1 damaged city.
vs
2 damaged

Mikah can collect up to 4

dice. She collects 2 assault
dice and 2 raid dice.
She rolls the dice and gets
.

First, Mikah must take damage.

Mikah takes 2 damage—1
from the since Lotus
has 1 fresh ship, and 1 from
the . Mikah chooses to
damage two of her ships.

Next, Mikah deals hits.

With the , Mikah

chooses to damage
Lotus's last fresh ship.

With the , Mikah

must damage Lotus's city,
destroying it. It goes in
Mikah’s Trophies box.
Destroying Cities
If you destroy a defending city, do the following:
1. Ransack the Court. Secure a card from the Court that
has any number of the defender’s agents. Take all
Rival agents on the card as Trophies, not Captives.
2. Provoke Outrage. Discard all resources you have of
that city’s type and bury all Guild cards you have of If you have no Loyal agents,
that city’s type, putting them on the bottom of the use a placeholder piece until
court deck. Place a Loyal agent to cover the resource an agent becomes available.
icon of that city’s type on your player board—it is now
Outraged­(see below).
You can still tax Outraged
Outrage: You cannot spend Outraged resources for their resources and count them
action (page 18). toward ambitions.

+ Because she destroyed a

city, Mikah takes a card
from the Court where
Lotus has agents, putting
all Rival agents there
in her Trophies box.
For destroying the Relic
city, Mikah discards all
her Relics and Relic Guild
cards, then covers her
Relic icon with an agent.

Raiding
If any attacking ships remain after taking hits, you may spend
you rolled to take resources and cards from the defender,
one at a time, spending the number of shown below the
resource on the player board or at the card bottom.

Mikah spends
to steal a Relic. She could
have instead stolen the
Material and Weapon,
each worth .

16 •
 Resources 
Your Prelude begins when In your turn's Prelude (page 18) , you may spend any number
you play an action card and and mix of your resources to optionally use their actions:
ends when you spend any
action pips from the card. Material: Take a Build or Repair action.

Fuel: Take a Move action.

Placing the Weapon near Weapon: This turn, you may spend any action
your action card can help pips from your played card to take Battle actions.
remind you of its ability. Relic: Take a Secure action.

Psionic: Take an action shown on the lead card.

You cannot spend resources if you skip your turn, such as if

you pass the initiative or have no action cards.
When you gain a resource, do one of the following:
• Place it in an empty resource slot on your player board.
• Place it in a resource slot filled with a resource, and put
that resource in an empty resource slot.
• Discard the resource you gained back to the supply.
If a city covers a resource on your player board, place the
resource in an empty resource slot or discard it.
Some cards can hold resources. They work just like resources
in resource slots except for the ways that the card states.
Gaining a Resource

Guild Cards 
Guild Icon
You can gain Guild cards by influencing them in the Court and
then securing them. Guild cards have three parts: their guild
icon, rules, and raid cost.
Guild Icon: Material and Fuel cards add to the Tycoon
ambition, Relic cards add to the Keeper ambition, and Psionic
cards add to the Empath ambition. Weapon cards do not add
to ambitions.
Rules: Guild cards give you various new actions and modifiers
to standard actions.

Raid Cost: This shows how many must be spent in battle

in order to steal the card.

Raid Cost
• 17
 Ending a Hand 
The hand ends when everyone has run out of action cards.
At the end of a hand, players gain Power from ambitions they
fulfilled, check if the game ends, and draw cards.

Step 1: Score Ambitions

Score each ambition that has any number of ambition markers
in its ambition box on the map:
2: Tycoon. Have the most total Fuel and Material icons
from resources and Guild cards.
3: Tyrant. Have the most Captives on your player board Ambition Box
(gained from Tax and Secure). for Tycoon

4: Warlord. Have the most Trophies on your player board

(gained from Battle).
5: Keeper. Have the most Relic icons from resources and
Guild cards.
6: Empath. Have the most Psionic icons from resources
and Guild cards. First Place
The player in first place for the ambition gains the higher
Power shown on all its ambition markers.
The player in second place for it gains the lower Power
shown on all its ambition markers. Second Place or
Tied for First
On a tie for first place, tied players gain the Power for second
place. On a tie for second place, tied players gain no Power.
You cannot gain Power from an ambition if you have none of
the thing it is counting. (For example, if Warlord is declared
and nobody has Trophies, nobody gains Power.)
Bonus City Power: Each time you get first place in an
ambition (not tied), gain 2 extra Power if the “+2 to won
ambitions” slot on your player board is uncovered, or gain
5 extra if both the “+2 to won ambitions” and “+3 to won
ambitions” slots on your player board are uncovered.

Tycoon is worth 7 Power. Mikah

has 1 Fuel and 1 Material Guild,

X and Dane has 2 Material. They

tie and each gain 3 Power.
vs Mikah could have gained 2 more
Power from her +2 to Won
Ambitions slot, but does not
because she tied for first.

18 •
 Step 2: Clean Up Ambitions
Return all ambition markers to the Unplaced Ambitions
spaces on the map.
Flip over the ambition marker with the lowest Power that
Starports and ships return hasn’t been flipped yet to its side with more Power.
to their players’ supplies. If Warlord was scored, return all Trophies. If Tyrant was
Cities return to the rightmost scored, return all Captives.
empty city slot on their
original player boards.
Step 3: End Game or
Advance Hand
The game ends if any player has at least 27 Power (4 players),
30 Power (3 players), or 33 Power (2 players), or if the hand
marker is currently on Hand 5.
If the game ends, the player with the most Power is the
winner. On a tie, the tied player earliest in turn order is the
winner.
If the game does not end, advance the hand marker to the
next space.

Step 4: Draw Cards

Shuffle all of the action cards. Each player draws a hand of
6 action cards.
Two-Player Mulligan: If you have 2 players, the player
without initiative may discard their whole hand to draw a
Six Cards! new hand of 6 action cards. They must accept this hand.
Put any remaining action cards that players did not draw to
make the starting action discard pile.
The player with initiative starts the next hand!

• 19
 Other Actions 
Prelude Actions
The resources and many cards in Arcs give Prelude actions—
for example, you can spend Relics in your Prelude to take the
Secure action.
The Prelude step begins once you play an action card and ends
once you spend the first action pip from the card you played.
You can use as many Prelude actions as you want, even ones
that you gained from other Prelude actions. For example, you
could use a Relic to secure a Court card that has a Prelude
action on it, and then use that card's Prelude action.

Modifiers
Some cards in Arcs modify standard actions you take by
putting them in bold—for example, "In battle, collect 1 extra
die." Other cards will modify specific parts of play, such as
declare an ambition or scoring.

New Actions
Some cards in Arcs give you a new action followed by the
name of a standard action in parentheses—for example, a
card might give the new action Assassinate (Battle).
When you would take the standard action, you may instead
take the new action. Following the previous example, you
could take the Assassinate action instead of taking a Battle
action. Notably, any modifiers of your Battle action would not
modify your Assassinate action!

The Merchant 
In games with 2 players, add the Merchant board. It is not in
the Court, and it cannot be removed for any reason.
Influencing: When taking the Influence action, you may
place an agent on the Merchant instead of a card in the Court.
Trading: By taking the Secure action, you may Trade with the
Merchant. Each player with Loyal agents on the Merchant, in
order from most to least, may swap 1 resource they have with a Agents on the Merchant
resource on the Merchant for each Loyal agent on it. Return all cannot be captured, and
agents on the Merchant to their players’ supplies. destroying a city cannot
Scoring: When scoring ambitions, treat the Merchant as a be used to trade with the
player, counting its Weapons as both Trophies and Captives. Merchant.

20 •
 Fate mode 
Once you have played a game or two of Arcs, you are ready
to play Fate Mode! This mode drastically increases the
number and wildness of unique powers available to players.
All of the core rules are the same, with two additions.

Lore Cards
No Guild Icon! The Court starts with both court cards and lore cards.
Step E: Making the Court. After dealing the starting Court,
shuffle the lore deck and deal 3 lore cards (2 players) or 4
lore cards (3–4 players), placing one lore card above each
card in the Court. Return the remaining lore deck to the box.
These lore card are attached to the court cards below them.
When you secure a court card, you also secure its attached
lore card.
Lore cards have no guild icon or raid cost, so they do not
Cannot Be Stolen! add to ambitions and cannot be stolen.

Fate Cards
Each player starts with a fate card, which give them unique
powers, starting piece groups, and starting resources.
At the start of player setup, each player draws 2 fate cards
and chooses 1 fate card secretly. Everyone reveals their
chosen fate and places it on their player board.
Step M: Placing Starting Pieces. Instead of placing fixed
groups of starting pieces, players place the starting pieces
shown in the A, B, and C boxes shown on their own fate
card. Pips under a ship icon show how many ships to place.
Step N: Gaining Resources. Instead of gaining resources
for planets they start at, players gain the 2 resource tokens
shown on their fate card, placing them in their 2 leftmost
Starting Resources
and Piece Groups resource slots in the same order.

The Pirate starts with a Weapon

and a Relic.
They have initiative, so they place
3 ships each in the 1A, 1B, and
1C systems on the setup card.

• 21
 Fine Print 
This section covers some technical parts of Arcs.

Tiebreakers & Rules Hierarchy

Choice Order This rulebook supersedes the aid sheets and player
Whenever you have a tie in Arcs, break the boards.
tie in turn order unless a different tiebreaker is Cards supersede this rulebook, but any rule that
given. Likewise, if players must make a decision uses the term cannot is absolute—it cannot be
in an unclear order, resolve it in turn order. superseded unless explicitly named using the term
(Turn order starts with the player with initiative ignore. (For example, “You may spend Psionic,
and goes clockwise.) ignoring Outrage.”)
If multiple things happen at the same time but Sidebars as well as text written in italics and
must be resolved in order, the player taking parentheses (like this) are clarifications and
their turn chooses their order. If no one is reminders, which are superseded by the core rules
taking a turn, the player with initiative chooses. they reference.

Elimination & Negotiations

Concession Players may make deals and promises, but they are
Rarely, a player will be eliminated. At the end not binding. Players cannot give each other pieces
of a player’s turn, if they have no starports or unless a rule allows it.
ships on the map, they may place 3 fresh ships
in any gate. Private Information
Sometimes, usually in games with 2 players, it Players cannot show the action cards in their hand or
may become clear that a player has won. Feel facedown cards in their play area to anyone else.
free to concede!
Split Discard Piles
Piece Limits Normally, all action cards are discarded face down,
Pieces in Arcs are limited by the contents of even ones played face up. This favors players with
the box with one exception: if you need an good memory, but it speeds up play.
agent to place on an Outrage slot but none are If you’re running a tournament or want a more
available, use a placeholder piece until an agent strategic but slower game, you can split the action
becomes available, then place the agent. discard into two piles—one for cards played face
down, and one for cards played face up.
Placing & Removing
If you’re ever prompted to draw from the action
Pieces discard pile, draw from the facedown pile. In the
If a rule prompts you to place pieces, this refers rare circumstance that it does not have enough
to Loyal pieces by default. Placed and removed cards, shuffle the two piles together first.
pieces come from and return to their original
supply by default. (The notable exceptions are
that destroyed pieces are taken as Trophies,
and taxed and secured pieces are often taken as
Captives.)
If you are prompted to place or remove
more pieces than possible, do the maximum
possible.

22 •
 Glossary 
Adjacent: Shares a border or is connected by a Hit: Tip over a fresh piece on the map, or
path. remove a damaged piece from the map.
Attach: Place above a card in the Court that Loyal: Pieces of your player color.
does not have a card attached. When a card
Piece: Any component in the game.
in the Court is secured, buried, discarded,
or scrapped, the same thing happens to its Prelude: See Prelude Actions (page 18).
attached card. Return: Place in the piece's original supply. If
Blockaded: Controlled by anyone or anything it's a city, place it in the rightmost empty slot
other than you. of its original track (page 17).
Building: Cities and starports. Rival: Another player.
Bury: Place the card on the bottom of the court Round: The time in which each player takes
deck. a turn.
Capture: Place the prompted piece in the Scrap: Remove the piece from play
Captives box on your player board. permanently. (This is used in expansions.)
Clear: Return all pieces from the prompted Seize the Initiative: Take the initiative
area. marker if it is Unseized and flip it to Seized.
You cannot do this if you already have the
Control: You control a system and its contents if
initiative marker.
you have more fresh ships there than each Rival.
On a tie, no one controls the system. Steal: Take from a Rival. You cannot steal
something with no <KEY> value. (Everything
Damaged: Not fresh—a tipped ship or a
taken with raiding is stolen.)
building on its darker side.
Supply: The general supply holds resources
Destroy: Remove a fresh or damaged piece from
and other shared pieces, and players’
the map.
supplies hold their own ships and agents.
Empty: Has no pieces in or on it.
Swap: Remove a piece and put another piece
Fresh: Not damaged—an upright ship or a in its place. If the old piece was damaged,
building on its lighter side. the new piece is placed damaged. (Notably,
Free: Swap a city or starport with a Free city or swapping a piece does not destroy it.)
starport. (This is used in expansions.) Turn: The time in which a player plays an
Hand: The time in which players play rounds action card and may take actions.
until they all run out of action cards.

Credits 
Need a replacement part?
[Link]/replacements
More questions? Want to learn more?
[Link]/arcs

• 23
 Index 
Actions Dealing and taking, 12
And the Prelude step, <X> Repairing, 11
Battle, 12 Deals, 16
Build, 10 Initiative, 9
Influence, 11 Hits, 12-13
Move, 11 How-to-play video, 6
Repair, 11 Merchant, 16
Secure, 11 Negotiations, 17
Tax, 10 Pieces
Action cards, 8-9 Building, 10 (Build)
Adjacency, 7 Damaging, 7, 13
Ambitions Destroying, 13
Declaring, 8 Limits on, 17
List of, 14 Types of, 2-3
Scoring, 14 Power
Box organization, 3 Gaining, 14
Blockades, Planets, 7
And control, 7 Prelude actions, <X>
And building, 10 Raiding, 13
And moving, 11 Dice collection limits of, 12
And taxing, 10 Resources, 15
Cannot, 17 covering icons of, 13 (Outrage)
Cities Seizing initiative, 9
Gaining Power from, 14 starports
Taxing resources from, 10 (Tax) Building ships with, 10 (Build)
Control, 7 Extra moves from, 11 (Move)
Court, 7 Simultaneous Timing, 17
Placing agents on, 11 (Influence) Systems, 7
Securing cards from, 11 (Secure) Adjacency of, 7
Damage Moving between, 11 (Move)
And control, 7 Wormholes, 7

24 •