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Darwin’s Journey rules summary

Object: Players recall Charles Darwin’s adventures through the Galapagos
Islands by placing workers for a variety of actions. Each worker’s abilities can
progress during the game. After five rounds, the player with the most Victory
Points (VPs) wins.

Setup:
1. Use the board side corresponding to the number of players (1-3 or 4).
2. Shuffle the 12 large, rectangular Special Action tiles.
Randomly place one tile in each of the six boxes on the Diary on the left
side of the board and return the rest to the game box.
Place the two Neutral Lens tokens on their spots on the top two tiles.
3. Shuffle the eight rectangular Correspondence tiles, randomly place three on
their spots to the right of the Special Action tiles, and return the rest to the
game box.
4. Place the 12 purple Special Wax Seals in a face up pile on the silver plate
on the right side of the board.
5. Return 2/1/0 Regular Wax Seals of each color to the game box based on
2/3/4 players. Shuffle the remaining seals in a face down pile.
6. Randomly place one Regular Wax Seal face up on each of the 12 spots on
the four scrolls in the top right of the board.
7. Shuffle the four silver and four gold Starting Objective tiles (each with a
frame in each corner, not just in two) into separate face down stacks and
place them to the side of the board.
8. Shuffle the silver and golden Objective tiles into separate stacks (10 each)
and place the stacks face down on their spots on the top right of the board
(below the Reserve Turn Order track).
Draw two of each tile type and place them face up below the stacks.
9. Place the 16 brown, square Museum tiles to the right of the board, in the
same arrangement depicted on the Museum Display on the board.
10. Place one Coin to the right of each row in the Museum Display.
11. Each player chooses a color and takes the matching three Explorers, five
Tents, one Ship, five Workers, 12 Stamps, four Cubes, and six Personal
Lens Tokens, plus a Personal Board and a copy of the Player Aid (if made).
12. Each player places a Cube on the red book at the start of the VP track in the
upper left of the board.

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13. Each player places a Cube on the gray book at the start of the Theory of
Evolution track (in the center of the board).
14. Randomly place a Cube from each player on the Turn Order track in the
upper right of the board.
15. Shuffle the 12 rectangular Beagle Goal tiles, randomly place five face up
on their spots at the bottom of the map, and return the rest to the game box.
16. Shuffle the 16 brown, round Specimen tokens and randomly place one face
up on each matching location with a flag on the Island and Ocean tracks.
Do not place tokens on locations marked for more players than are
currently in the game. There will be 6/3/0 tokens remaining based on 2/3/4
players. For each remaining token, find the matching Museum tile from
Step 9 and place that tile on the matching location on the Museum Display.
Return the remaining Specimen tokens to the game box.
17. Place the Coins, purple Temporary Knowledge tokens, and clear Research
tokens (beads) nearby as a supply.
18. Each player places an Explorer on the starting location (gray meeple) of the
left-most island.
19. Each player places his Ship on the left-most position on the Ocean track
(blue ship meeple).
20. Place the HMS Beagle token on the left-most Beagle location on the Ocean
track (to the right of the player Ships).
21. If only two players, place the round 1-2 player Turn Order Action token on
the board, covering the +2 Coin reward in the upper right of the board.
22. Each player places four Workers onto their spots on the bottom left of his
Personal Board. Your fifth Worker enters play if you achieve your left-
most golden Objective.
23. Each player places their five Tents onto their spots on the bottom right of
their Personal Board.
24. Each player places a stack of four Stamps on each of the three spots on the
bottom right of their Personal Board.
25. Give each player four Coins from the supply.
26. Give each player one purple Temporary Knowledge token.
27. Shuffle the deck of 16 Crew cards and deal four to each player. Each
player drafts one card face down in front of them and passes the rest to his
left. This continues until each player has three cards face down.
Return the unselected cards and the rest of the deck to the game box.

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Each player reveals their cards and places them face up to the left of their
Personal Board.
28. Each player takes the Regular Wax Seals shown on the top right corner of
each Crew card.
The stack of Regular Wax Seals is then reshuffled face down.
29. Each player places his three Regular Wax Seals onto the left-most empty
Wax Seal spots in the bottom left of his Personal Board so that each worker
has one Seal.
30. Reveal a row of Starting Objectives from the silver stack equal to the
number of players. Reveal a row of Starting Objectives from the gold
stack equal to the number of players. Arrange pairs of these silver and gold
tiles. In reverse player order, each player takes a pair of tiles and places
them to the right of his Personal Board next to the Objective rows.

Game Concepts: The game is played over five rounds with four phases in each
round.
Each time you activate an action icon, perform the action immediately.
You are allowed to use anything gained from an action to pay the costs of
subsequent actions within the same turn.
Coin with a Red Number – whenever you perform an action with this icon or
cover up this icon, you must pay that number of Coins to the supply.
Diaries – there are four: two Main on the top of the board, one Special Action
below them, and one Small below that.
On the 4-player side of the game board, the Main and Special Action Diaries
are each divided into two sections.
Worker Placement Penalties – if a Diary section (not location) already has one
or more workers of any color (including your own), you must pay a penalty
of three Coins in a 2-player game or two Coins in a 3-4 player game to place
a worker on that Diary section.
Worker Placement Locations – there are three types:
• Circular Magnifying Glass – any number of workers may be placed here.
• Unlocked Lenses – only one worker may be placed here.
If you place a worker on a Lens token of an opponent’s color, that
opponent gains one Coin from the supply.
• Square or Rectangular Magnifying Glass – any number of workers may
be placed here.

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Wax Seal Requirements – most placement locations on Diaries have Wax Seal
requirements that must be met by the worker to place it there. A circled
number means multiple seals of that specific color are required.
Special Wax Seals (purple) are treated as if they were any color.
Temporary Knowledge tokens may be spent to act as any color as well.
If a placement location has multiple action icons, you may perform them in any
order. You are not required to complete all of the actions.
The Player Aid details the Special Action tiles, Beagle Goal tiles,
Correspondence tiles, and Crew cards by the small number on each.
The flip side of the Player Aid details the icons for Distinctions, Objective
Actions, Objectives, and other icons.

Action Phase: On each player’s turn, they must place a single worker from
their Personal Board or pass if they have no more workers. Once they pass,
they take no more turns in this phase. Turns are taken as per the Turn Order
track.
Gain VPs (red book icon) – gain the indicated number of VPs.
For every 50 VPs gained, use the remaining Cube of your color on the
corresponding book in the upper right of the board.
Gain Coins – a Coin symbol with a “+” is the number of Coins to gain from the
supply.
Theory of Evolution Track Advancement (gray book icon) – move your
Evolution marker forward a number of spaces as the number on this icon.
Unlock Lens Location (lens icon) – place a Personal Lens token onto a locked
location on any Main or Special Action Diary after paying the indicated
Coin penalty.
This action is usually done by placing a worker on the Small Diary.
As an unlocking bonus, you may immediately perform all associated actions
with this location without placing a worker and ignoring all Wax Seal
requirements.
The location is now unlocked for the rest of the game for any player to use.
On each page of the Main Action Diaries, all locations must be unlocked in
order from top to bottom.
Locations in the Special Action Diary can be unlocked in any order.
Academy (scroll icon) – purchase one Wax Seal from any Scroll, paying any
Coins if required. Place the Wax Seal on the left-most empty spot on any
worker’s row on your Personal Board, paying any Coins if required.

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An Academy action discount can be applied to the cost of placing the Wax
Seal on your Personal Board.
Wax Seals are never removed once they are placed on a worker row.
Navigation (ship icon) – move your Ship along the Ocean track a number of
spaces up to the value on this icon (but at least one).
Any number of Ships, including the Beagle, can be on the same space.
If there is an icon where the Ship stopped, you may perform that action.
When your Ship crosses a silver banner, place an Explorer on the new island
with the matching icon.
The first player to place their Ship on the final Ocean track space gains three
extra VPs.
Exploration (boot icon) – move one of your Explorers a number of spaces up to
the value on this icon (but at least one). Any space occupied by an
opponent’s Explorer is skipped and does not count towards the total
movement amount.
Only one Explorer can be on each space except for the starting and final
spaces.
After moving your Explorer, perform the action on its space.
The first player to move their Explorer over any golden ribbon on an Island
track gains VPs shown on the ribbon’s icon.
The first player to place their Explorer on a final Island track space gains
three extra VPs.
Establish Campsite (tent icon) – move the top-most Tent from your Personal
Board onto an empty Tent location next to the action icon, paying any Coins
if required. You can only place one Tent per location.
Perform any additional actions indicated on the icons in that location.
Then perform any action next to where the Tent was removed on your
Personal Board. An action with a slash means you can only choose one
option. The bottom 5 VP icon (with a right arrow) is not counted until Final
Scoring.
Correspondence (envelope icon) – the action’s icon indicates the number of
stamps that you may move from any combination of the stacks on your
Personal Board to a single Envelope on the main board. If there are not
enough Stamps on your Personal Board, take your Stamps from the used
Stamps tray.
Then perform any actions from any newly depleted stacks on your Personal
Board.

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Research Galapagos Specimen (specimen icon) – place a Research token on the
matching Specimen on your Personal Board.
Deliver Specimen (crate icon) – you may only do this action if you have a
Research token on a Specimen on your Personal Board and that Specimen’s
matching Museum tile is not already in the Museum Display.
Take the matching Museum tile next to the board and place it on its spot on
the Museum Display.
If this is the first Museum tile in its row (excluding tiles placed during
setup), take the Coin to the right of that row.
If this is the last Museum tile in its row, move your Evolution marker one
space forward on the Theory of Evolution track.
For each empty space in the row and column where the new Museum tile
was placed, gain one Coin.
For each space in the row and column where the new Museum tile was
placed that already has a Museum tile, move your Evolution marker one
space forward on the Theory of Evolution track.
Note that you can Deliver twice during this action, with the second Delivery
costing three Coins.
Research Museum Specimen (microscope icon) – select a Museum tile on the
Museum Display and then place a Research token on the matching Specimen
icon on your Personal Board. This is normally done to meet an Objective’s
requirements.
Reserve Turn Order (insect icon) – place your worker on the left-most empty
spot within the rectangular magnifying glass above the Turn Order track.
Then gain two Coins from the supply (three Coins in a 2-player game).
Gain Objective (camera icon) – you may take one available Objective tile from
the display and place it face up in your reserve (next to your Personal Board
to the right of the Objective rows).
You can have a maximum of two Objective tiles in your reserve. Both tiles
may be the same type (silver or golden).
If there are already two tiles in your reserve, place the new tile on an empty
Objective location of the matching type on your Personal Board, paying any
Coins if required.
Then gain two Coins from the supply
Distinctions – once a worker gains its 4
th
and 6
th
Wax Seals, it gets the silver
and golden Distinctions, respectively. Each Main and Special Action Diary

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section has Distinction bonuses in the upper right when a worker is placed
there.
A worker with both Distinctions gets both bonuses.
Achieving Objectives – achieved when you meet the requirements (i.e., you
don’t have to pay anything depicted on the tile). Flip the tile face down on
its location or move it from your reserve face down on an empty Objective
location of the matching type. Pay any Coins if required. Then gain the
reward at that location [EXC: VPs are gained in Final Scoring].
Achieving Crew Cards – when you have a worker with the Wax Seals shown
across the middle of a crew card (not necessarily in that order but can
include purple Special Wax Seals), perform the actions at the bottom of the
card, flip it over, and place it to the left of your Personal Board so its arrow
points to that worker.
Only one Crew card can be assigned to a specific worker.
Objectives and Crew Cards are achieved at any time during your turn in the
Action Phase or in the Reward Phase.

Modify Turn Order Phase: If there are any workers on the Reserve Turn
Order location, move the Turn Order markers to match the relative positions of
the placed workers.

Reward Phase:
1. Correspondence Majorities – starting at the top and moving down, the
player(s) with the most Stamps on the Envelope may perform the actions in
the first section. This reward is gained in current turn order.
Then the player(s) with the second most Stamps on the Envelope may
perform the actions in the second section. This reward is gained in current
turn order.
Then all players that performed an action must move half of their Stamps
(rounded up) to the gold, used Stamps tray on the main board.
See the FAQ if an action allows you to place additional stamps.
2. Score Beagle Goal Tile – the tile directly below the Beagle’s position on the
Ocean track scores VPs each time each player meets the goal’s condition.
3. Lagging Penalties – if your Ship is behind the Beagle, reduce your Beagle
Goal VPs from step 2 by each marked threshold between your Ship and the
Beagle. This penalty cannot reduce your Beagle Goal VPs below zero.
The flip the Beagle Goal tile face down.

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Cleanup Phase: If it is the fifth round (i.e., the Beagle is in its right-most
location), skip this phase and proceed to Final Scoring.
1. Move the Beagle to the next Beagle Goal position.
2. All players return their workers to their Personal Boards.
3. Remove the remaining Objectives from the main board and draw two new
silver and two new golden Objectives. Place them on their associated
locations.
4. Remove all Wax Seals from the top-most Scroll on the main board and
return them to the game box.
Shift all remaining Wax Seals to the top-most positions they can reach
and draw new Wax Seals to fill the empty slots.
Seals are a limited resource – if they run out, there are no more.

Final Scoring:
1. Personal Board Scoring – each achieved Objective awards endgame VPs. If
you achieved the right-most silver and golden Objectives, you also gain the
4 VPs shown between them.
Each worker with five Wax Seals awards 3 VPs. Each worker with six Wax
Seals awards an additional 7 VPs.
If you have placed all five of your Tents on Campsites, you gain 5 VPs.
2. Theory of Evolution Track Scoring – the Museum modifier = 2 + the
number of Museum Display rows with all four Museum tiles.
Each player multiplies the modifier by the highest x# of books they have
reached or passed on the track and gains that number of VPs.
Note that there is an Objective that adds one book to this calculation.
3. Coins & Temporary Knowledge – each player gains 1 VP per set of five
Coins and 1 VP per Temporary Knowledge token they have left over.
The player with the most VPs wins.
If there is a tie, the tiebreakers are, in order:
1. Farthest on the Theory of Evolution track.
2. Most leftover Coins.
3. Otherwise, the victory is shared.

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