Overview

In Spyrium, each player leads an industrial conglomerate. Players will score victory points by constructing buildings, employing their workers in them, patenting techniques, and by calling on special characters. The player with the most points at the end of 6 turns is the winner.

Spyrium takes place across 6 rounds (which are referred to in this game and for the remainder of these rules as "turns"), which are split into 3 periods. Period A takes place across turns 1, 2, and 3, Period B takes place across turns 4 and 5, and Period C takes place during turn 6. Each period has a unique deck of cards, and 9 cards from that turn's period are dealt out into a 3x3 tableau to form the market at the start of each turn.

Each player begins the game with 3 workers, 2 Spyrium crystals, and £8. Each player also begins with a token on the 2 space of the Residence track in the middle of the game board.

Start of Turn

At the beginning of each turn, each player earns income based on their token's position on the Residence track, so at the beginning of turn 1, each player will gain £2. The top card of the event deck is also placed onto the Current Event space (bottom right) of the game board, revealing the event underneath as the Future Event (bottom left) that will become active next turn.

Starting with the start player, each player will perform one action, continuing in turn order until all players have passed, at which point the turn will end. There are 2 phases to each turn: Placement (Phase I) and Activation (Phase II). The phase that a player is in determines which actions they are permitted to take. The phase that a player is in is independent of that of any other player; some players may be in Phase I while others may be in Phase II. A player may choose to move to Phase II during their action, but may not return to Phase I at any point during that turn.

Phase I Actions

• Place a worker: The player places one of their unused workers between any two cards in the market, or between a card and an empty card space. They may not place a worker on the outside border of the board. There is no limit to the number of workers that a space between cards may hold.

• Activate the event: The player places their event token on the Current Event card, and carries out the action listed on that card. If there are multiple options on the card, the player chooses only one to follow. Each player may only activate the Current Event once per turn.

• Move to Phase II: The player moves their token to Phase II and immediately performs a Phase II action.

Phase II Actions

• Gain money: The player removes one of their workers from the market and chooses a card adjacent to the space where that worker was. For each remaining worker next to that card, the player gains £1 from the bank.

• Activate a card: The player removes one of their workers from the market and chooses a card adjacent to the space where that worker was, to activate the card. The player must pay an activation cost of £1 to the bank for each remaining worker next to that card, in addition to any other activation costs for the card. If the card is:
  • A character (tan background) - Gain the benefit, or pay the cost to acquire the benefit listed on that card. The player does not acquire the card.
  • A technique (green background) - Pay £6 to acquire the technique card. These cards provide an ongoing benefit during the game, as well as an opportunity to score bonus points at the end of the game.
  • A building (blue background) - Pay the cost listed in the top right corner of the card to acquire the card. The building card must be placed into a building space in the player's personal area. The cost to purchase a building space is equal to the number of buildings that the player has already built. Thus, the first building space is free, the second one is £1, the third one is £2, etc. A player may, instead, discard an existing building to place the newly-acquired building in its building space without having to pay for the space. Furthermore, if the building being discarded has an icon at the top that matches an icon on the newly-acquired building, the cost of the newly-acquired building is discounted by £3.

• Use a building - The player may use the ability of one of the buildings that they have acquired, paying the Spyrium and/or using the unused workers pictured in order to gain the benefit. If there are multiple options on the card, the player must choose one. Each building may only be used once per turn. A building may be used in the same turn which it is acquired.

• Activate the event: As described in Phase I. Remember that the Current Event can only be activated once per turn.

• Pass: A player may do this once they have retrieved all of their workers from the market, in order to pass for the rest of the turn.

Tokens

Some market cards and events have a token symbol on them, represented by a blue circle. When these cards are dealt out, tokens with a random value between 1 and 3 are placed on them. For event and building cards, one token is placed. For character cards, the number of tokens placed is equal to the number of players, minus one.

The value on the token is substituted for whatever is shown on the blue circle on the card. For character cards, the player chooses which token on the card to use as a substitute for the value. That token is then discarded when the character is activated. If all tokens from a character card with the token symbol are discarded, that character can no longer be activated (but the card remains in place).

Residence Symbol

When activating a card or event with the Residence (house) symbol, the player may either:

• Advance forward one space on the Residence track, or

• Gain victory points equal to their current position on the Residence track

Players may not choose to advance if they are already on the 7th space of the track. As a reminder, players gain money equal to their position on the Residence track at the start of each turn.

Bonus

When a player reaches 8 points (not including points on buildings or technique cards in their personal area), they immediately gain a bonus. They can choose between £5, or an extra worker. When the player reaches 20 points, they gain the bonus that they did not previously choose.

End of Turn

The turn ends when all players have passed. The Current Event is discarded, and the Future Event becomes the new Current Event. All cards remaining in the market are discarded, and 9 new cards are dealt to form a new market. The first player marker passes to the next player in order.

End of Game

At the end of turn 6, the game ends. In addition to any points already earned during the game by the players by activating buildings, events, and characters, players will earn points for any buildings (blue cards) and techniques (green cards) in their personal area. Money and spyrium are not worth any points. In the event of a tie, the players share the victory.

Other notes

• Players may not acquire more than 7 workers.
• Technique cards can each score a maximum of 7 points.
• If a player discards a building with a worker or residence symbol, the player does not lose the benefit that they gained when acquiring that card (although they will no longer score the points listed on the top left corner of that card at the end of the game).
• Remember that each worker can only be used once per turn. If a player places all of their workers in the market during Phase I, they will be unable to use any of those workers to use their building cards in Phase II.
• New workers gained by an event card or building are available for use on future actions the same turn in which they are acquired.

Card List

Period A

Period A takes place across 3 turns and consists of 30 cards. Thus, 3 Period A cards will not be used.

Characters

• Bureaucrat - Discard a token from the card and gain that many victory points.
• 2x Miner - Discard a token from the card and gain that many spyrium.
• 2x Apprentice - Spend 1 spyrium and gain 3 victory points.
• 2x Architect - Discard a token from the card and spend that many £ to act on the Residence Track (see Residence Symbol section above)

Buildings

• 2x Mine - Cost £2 - Mine symbol - Use 1 worker to gain 1 spyrium.
• 3x Mine - Cost £5 - Mine symbol - Use to gain 1 spyrium OR use 1 worker to gain 2 spyrium.
• 3x Workshop - Cost £2 - Worth 2 victory points - Factory symbol - Use 1 worker and spend 1 spyrium to gain 3 victory points.
• 2x Workshop - Cost £4 - Worth 3 victory points - Factory symbol - Use 1 worker and spend 2 spyrium to gain 5 victory points.
• Laboratory - Cost £5 - Worth 1 victory point - Factory and University symbols - Use 1 worker and spend 1 spyrium to gain 4 victory points.
• 3x Working-Class Neighborhood - Cost £5 - Worth 3 victory points - Gain 1 worker when built.
• 2x Residence - Cost £3 - Worth 2 victory points - Act on the Residence Track when built.
• University - Cost £2 - Gain victory points equal to the token on this card when built - Use 1 worker to gain 2 victory points.

Techniques Note: All Techniques cost £6 and are worth a maximum of 7 victory points each

• Commerce - The player keeps all tokens on market cards that they activate instead of discarding them. Once per turn, the player may change the value of a token on a market card that they activate or an event card that they use to a value of their choice (1,2, or 3) (On BoardGameArena, the value is automatically chosen to be the value most beneficial to the player) - Worth 1 victory point per acquired token.
• Lobbying - Once per turn, the player can activate a market card without paying extra for the other workers next to that card - Worth points equal to the player's position on the Residence Track.
• Automation - The player does not use a worker when using their built Mines - Worth 1 victory point per spyrium that the player owns at the end of the game.
• Capitalization - Each time the player takes the Gain Money action, they gain £2 more than they normally would - Worth 1 victory point per £2 that the player owns at the end of the game.
• Engineering - Each time the player uses a building with a Factory symbol, they score 1 more victory point per worker used - Worth points equal to the victory point values of their buildings with a Factory symbol.
• Crane - When building in a new space, that space costs £3 less (minimum £0) - Worth 1 point for each building owned

Period B

Period B takes place across 2 turns and consists of 20 cards. Thus, 2 Period B cards will not be used.

Characters

• Bureaucrat - Discard a token from the card and gain that many victory points.
• Miner - Discard a token from the card and gain that many spyrium.
• Engineer - Spend 1 spyrium and gain 4 victory points.
• Architect - Discard a token from the card and spend that many £ to act on the Residence Track.
• Geologist - Gain 2 spyrium.
• Banker - Discard a token from the card and spend that many £ to gain 4 victory points.

Buildings

• 2x Mine - Cost £7 - Gain spyrium equal to the token on this card when built - Mine symbol - Use to gain 1 spyrium OR use 1 worker to gain 3 spyrium.
• 2x Factory - Cost £6 - Worth 4 victory points - Factory symbol - Use 1 worker and spend 2 spyrium to gain 6 victory points OR use 2 workers and spend 3 spyrium to gain 10 victory points.
• Factory - Cost £8 - Worth 5 victory points - Factory symbol - Use 2 workers and spend 3 spyrium to gain 10 victory points OR use 2 workers and spend 5 spyrium to gain 15 victory points.
• Laboratory - Cost £6 - Worth 2 victory points - Factory and University symbols - Use 1 worker and spend 1 spyrium to gain 5 victory points.
• Laboratory - Cost £7 - Worth 2 victory points - Factory and University symbols - Use 1 worker and spend 2 spyrium to gain 7 victory points.
• 2x Working-Class Neighborhood - Cost £6 - Worth 4 victory points - Gain 2 workers when built.
• Residence - Cost £3 - Worth 2 victory points - Act on the Residence Track when built.
• 2x Residence - Cost £5 - Worth 4 victory points - Act on the Residence Track when built.
• University - Cost £5 - Gain victory points equal to the token on this card when built - Use 1 worker to gain 3 victory points OR use 2 workers to gain 6 victory points.

Techniques Note: All Techniques cost £6 and are worth a maximum of 7 victory points each

• Taylorism - Once per turn, the player may use one of their buildings that they have already used this turn (spending the appropriate worker and/or spyrium costs again) - Worth 1 victory point per worker owned at the end of the game.

Period C

Period C takes place during the final turn and consists of 9 cards. Thus, all Period C cards will be used each game.

Characters

• Engineer - Spend 1 spyrium and gain 4 victory points.
• Adviser - Gain 3 victory points.
• Geologist - Gain 2 spyrium.
• Financier - Discard a token from the card and spend that many £ to gain 5 victory points.

Buildings

• Factory - Cost £8 - Worth 5 victory points - Factory symbol - Use 2 workers and spend 3 spyrium to gain 10 victory points OR use 2 workers and spend 5 spyrium to gain 15 victory points.
• Laboratory - Cost £7 - Worth 2 victory points - Factory and University symbols - Use 1 worker and spend 2 spyrium to gain 7 victory points.
• Luxury Home - Cost £6 - Worth 6 victory points.
• Mansion - Cost £8 - Worth 9 victory points.
• Palace - Cost £10 - Worth 12 victory points.

No Technique cards are available during Period C

Events

1 event card is used each turn. There are 7 event cards in all. Thus, 1 event card will not be used each game.

• Gain your choice of £, spyrium, or victory points equal to the value of the token on the event.
• Spend 1 spyrium to act on the Residence Track.
• Spend £3 to gain 3 victory points OR spend £6 to gain 5 victory points.
• Spend 1 spyrium to gain £3 OR spend 3 spyrium to gain £6.
• Spend £1 to use one of your buildings that you have already used this turn (spending the appropriate worker and/or spyrium costs again).
• Spend £1 per worker that you currently possess to gain a new worker.
• You may place a single available worker into the market during Phase II.