How to Play Ark Nova: The Definitive Guide

So you've cracked open Ark Nova, the card-driven zoo-builder where you compete to build the most appealing — and most conservation-minded — zoo on the planet. Sounds simple? Buckle up. There's a lot of beautiful engine-building packed into those cards, and by the end of this guide you'll know exactly how to wrangle every mechanic the game throws at you.

Objective of the Game

Ark Nova is played over four rounds. Each round you'll take turns building enclosures, playing animals, funding sponsors, and carrying out conservation projects. Your goal is to finish the game with the highest combined total of appeal and conservation points.

Appeal comes from the animals you have in your zoo. Conservation points come from animals you've conserved — more on that later. If two players tie on total points, the player with the most appeal wins. If it's still a tie, the player with the most cards in their zoo wins. If you're still deadlocked, well… best of luck, because you're playing another game.

Preparation (Setup)

Let's get the table ready. Follow these steps in order:

1. Give each player an action card. Rotate it so the sponsorvation action is upright and the card is on the blue side. Place it in front of you.
2. Find the six starter animal cards. They have a yellow lightning bolt icon near the top left. Shuffle them and deal two face down to each player.
3. Shuffle the remaining 10 animal cards and deal two face down to each player.
4. Complete the starting draft. Each player now holds four cards. Choose one to keep; pass the other three to the other player. They choose one to keep and pass the rest back. Keep passing until each player has three cards in hand.
5. Shuffle the two undrafted cards back into the deck along with any remaining animal cards. This forms the draw deck.
6. Rotate the deck so the Roman numeral I (1) is facing up — that indicates Round 1. Place it within reach of all players.
7. The player with the best zoo or wildest animal story goes first.

That's it — you're ready to play.

What's on the Table?

• Your action card (blue side, sponsorvation action on top)
• Your hand of up to three cards (you'll manage this at the end of each turn)
• The draw deck showing Round 1
• Your zoo — an invisible 3×3 grid where enclosures and animals live

The Game Turn

Ark Nova is played in a series of turns. You and your opponent (or the ARMIN bot in solo mode) alternate, each completing one action per turn.

Here's the flow of a single turn:

1. Take one action. This can be any action on your action card (Cards, Build, Animals, or Sponsorvation), the Pass action, or simply discarding cards from your hand.
2. Return cards from your hand until you have a maximum of three cards. If you have more, choose which ones to return (place them on the bottom of the deck).
3. Your turn ends. Play passes to the next player.

That last step — capping your hand at three cards — is easy to forget but critical. Don't let it slide.

Action Strength

Every action on your action card has a strength value that changes depending on which edge of the card is pointing left. The strength values are:

• Top position: strength 4
• Right-side position: strength 3
• Bottom position: strength 2
• Left-side position: strength 1

After you resolve an action, rotate your action card so the action you just took moves to the left-hand position. This shifts the next action into the stronger slot — so your choices each turn affect what you can do next.

You can also boost an action's strength by spending strength ("X") tokens. Spend tokens by discarding cards that have the strength token icon or by flipping your action card from the purple side back to the blue side. Each token adds +1 to the action's strength.

The Display and Discard Piles

When you discard cards, they go into the display — which is really just the two face-up discard piles sitting next to the deck. At the start of each round there are no cards in the display because nobody has discarded yet.

If you need to discard and there's no discard pile, start one. If there's one pile, start the second. Once both piles exist, you choose which pile (or piles) to discard into. If one pile is empty, you must discard into the empty one.

When a card effect refers to "the display," it means the top card of each pile. When it says "the discard," it means all cards in both piles.

Card States: Ready, Spent, Conserved

Animal cards in your zoo can be in one of three states:

• Ready (tilted right): The card is available. You can spend it for money or use it for certain actions.
• Spent (vertical): The card has been used for money and is no longer tilted. It can't be spent again until it's readied.
• Conserved (tilted left): The card is set aside for scoring. It provides its conservation value at the end of the game.

Animals with a coffee cup icon on their money value ready themselves automatically during every break — so you can spend them for money and know they'll be ready again next round.

The Actions

There are four main actions on your action card, plus two special actions:

• Cards action — draw cards or snap
• Build action — build enclosures
• Animals action — play animals into your zoo
• Sponsorvation action — take a sponsor action or a conservation action

And the special actions:

• Pass action — rotate your card (zero, one, or two spaces) and flip it to the purple side. While purple, the card can be flipped back to blue on a future turn to earn a strength token.
• Discard cards — discard any number of cards from your hand. This does not rotate your action card and is typically only used when you want to push the pace of the game.

The Cards Action

When you take the Cards action, choose one of two options, then rotate the action to the left.

• Draw cards: Look at the table in the action space. You draw a number of cards based on the action's strength. For some strength levels, you may also need to return a card (place it on the bottom of the deck). You can return any card in your hand — it doesn't have to be one you just drew.
• Snap: Instead of drawing, choose one card from the display and add it to your hand. (Note: you can only snap when the Cards action is at strength 4.)

The Build Action

When you take the Build action, you build an enclosure with a maximum size of X, where X equals the action's strength. Enclosures cost 2 money per size.

After paying, take the top card of the deck and place it in your zoo as the enclosure. Rotate it to reflect the size you paid for (sizes 1–5 are represented by brown shapes with numbers).

Here are the key placement rules:

• Your first enclosure goes in the bottom-left space of your invisible 3×3 zoo grid.
• Every subsequent enclosure must be orthogonally adjacent to an existing enclosure or animal (not diagonal).
• You can build over existing enclosures, but you must return the enclosure you built over to the bottom of the deck.
• The only other way to remove an enclosure is through certain sponsor action effects.

The Animals Action

This is the action that needs the most attention. The Animals action lets you play animal cards from your hand into your zoo. The number you can play depends on the action's strength — at strength 1 you can't play any; at strength 4 you can play two animals.

To play an animal, you must meet all of the following requirements:

1. Enclosure requirement: The animal must go into an enclosure that is at least as large as its enclosure requirement. Small animals have an enclosure requirement of size 3 or less; large animals require size 4 or more.
2. Icon requirements: If the animal has icon requirements, you must already have those icons in your zoo (provided by animals already placed).
3. Water and rock requirements: Some animals need to be placed in an enclosure adjacent to an animal that provides water or rocks.
4. Money requirement: You must generate enough money to pay the animal's cost.

Generating money comes from two sources:

• Discarding cards from your hand — each card has a money discard value (typically 1).
• Spending ready animals in your zoo — tilt the card upright to generate the money it provides.

Once all requirements are met and you've generated the money, place the animal into an appropriate enclosure. The enclosure is removed and returned to the bottom of the deck. The animal starts in the ready position (tilted right).

After playing, immediately resolve the animal's ability if it has one. Most abilities are one-time effects. Some are ongoing or repeatable. Animals with scoring abilities (marked with a brown circle icon) provide extra appeal points during final scoring based on certain conditions.

Animals can provide various icons: Africa, Europe, North America (continents), Predator, Herbivore, Bird, Bear (animal types), plus Water and Rocks. These icons matter for playing other animals, conservation actions, and sponsor actions.

Some animals have special abilities — for example, the moose can share an existing enclosure with a non-predator animal of size 3 or greater, meaning it doesn't need its own enclosure as long as it's adjacent and meets any water/rock requirements.

The Sponsorvation Action

This is where the magic happens. The Sponsorvation action lets you choose between two options:

• Sponsor action
• Conservation action

Sponsor action: Every animal card has a sponsor action (found in the blue section along the bottom). You can take the sponsor action on any card in your hand. The strength icon next to the action's name shows the required strength. After carrying out the effect, discard the card you used.

Conservation action: You can only take a conservation action if your sponsorvation action is at least strength 4. There are two ways to do this:

• Play a card from your hand for its conservation action. After completing the action, discard the card (rotate it 90 degrees before discarding — this marks it as exhausted for the round).
• Use a card already in your zoo. By default, you must discard that card from your zoo as if you played it from your hand. OR you can pay money equal to the card's money cost and keep the animal in your zoo — but you must first conserve the animal you used the action on. You cannot use this method on an animal that is already conserved.

Every animal card has a green section near the bottom right with three pieces of information:

• Conservation action type (the icon in the middle) — e.g., Africa continent icons, number of different continent icons, number of small animals, etc.
• Number of icons required — the number just above the action type icon.