Sidereal Confluence: Bifurcation — Rules Manual

This galaxy holds wonders. The aliens are puerile, yet brilliantly striking against the eternal Fading: each People is a wonder in itself. Thirty million years we have survived, yet nothing we have made ourselves has outdone the ideas of the aliens. The galaxy holds wonders that we could never have created. No longer shall we treat any People as a monolith. We invite them all to the Confluence, not only those at the fore. The aliens’ civilizations are full of divisions of ideals and objectives, of methodologies and philosophies. They are not just so different from us, but also different within themselves: a riotous profusion of ideas. We must give power to the powerless, a voice to the voiceless. We must bring all of their divisions together for the Confluence to succeed. We will send shocks through the alien societies, but with those shocks will come something great: together, we shall create something never seen before in the galaxy.
Overview
This expansion consists of variations on each of the nine original species. These variants represent different aspects or factions within their societies. Experienced players will find that the new rules and starting cards dramatically change the play style of each of the nine species. The alternate versions may be freely intermixed with the originals, but both versions of a species may not be used in the same game.
AN EXPANSION BY TAUCETI DEICHMANN

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Components
18 Grand Fleet Factory Tokens
3 Charity Syndicate Cross
Colonization Tokens
14 Faderan Society of
Falling Light Regret Tokens
17 Eni Et Service
Tokens
18 Kt’Zr’Kt’Rtl
Colony Upgrade Tokens
18 Kt’Zr’Kt’Rtl Era I
Upgrade Tokens
9 Kt’Zr’Kt’Rtl Era II
Upgrade Tokens
9 Kt’Zr’Kt’Rtl
Retrocontinuity Tokens
2 Deep Unity Tiles
3 Deep Unity Dice
10 Species Boards
1 3-player Colony Bid Track Board
1 Zeth Undesirable
Reference
1 Kt’Zr’Kt’Rtl
Technology
Reference
1 Kjasjavikalimm Donations Board
9 Player Screens
33 SMALL CARDS:
✧19 Caylion Projects
✧14 Yengii Jii Constraints
79 FULL SIZED CARDS:
✧6 Caylion
✧6 Eni Et
✧6 Faderan
✧9 Im’dril
✧9 Kjas
✧20 Kit
✧11 Unity
✧6 Yengii
✧6 Zeth
23 “x3” Resource
tokens
(brown, white, green,
black, blue, yellow,
Ultratech)

Tokens 17 Eni Et Service Tokens 18 Kt Zr Kt Rtl Colony Upgrade Tokens 18 Kt Zr Kt Rtl Era I Upgrade Tokens 9 Kt Zr Kt Rtl Era II Upgrade Tokens 9 Kt Zr Kt Rtl Retrocontinuity Tokens 2 Deep Unity Tiles 3 Deep Unity Dice 10 Species Boards 1 3 player Colony Bid Track Board 1 Zeth Undesirable Reference 1 Kt Zr Kt Rtl Technology Reference 1 Kjasjavikalimm Donations Board 9 Player Screens 33 SMALL CARDS 19 Caylion Projects 14 Yengii Jii Constraints 79 FULL SIZED CARDS 6 Caylion 6 Eni Et 6 Faderan 9 Im dril 9 Kjas 20 Kit 11 Unity 6 Yengii 6 Zeth 23 x3 Resource tokens brown white green black blue yellow Ultratech

17 Voting Tokens
(1 Caylion, 2 for
each other species)
CARD INDEX
1-6 Caylion
7-12 Eni Et
13-18 Faderan
19-27 Im’dril
28-36 Kjasjavikalimm
37-56 Kt’Zr’Kt’Rtl
57-67 Unity
68-73 Yengii
74-79 Zeth
½½
These are the summaries of the new factions, so you can find one whose play style matches your own. They are listed below, from
easiest to most difficult to play.
DEEP UNITY have a
constantly changing
economy dictated by die
rolls. Recommended for
players who want clear
short-term objectives
and to trade in the
moment. Experienced
players will find that
the Deep Unity reward the ability to hold
multiple possible economies in your mind,
but you don’t need to go in that direction.
CAYLION COLLABORATIVE
reshape the game
by introducing a new
mechanic— voting
for Caylion projects
to activate each turn.
They always benefit
from these projects
but have limited control
over the outcome. The
Collaborative are easier
to play the more skilled the other players
are. Recommended for new players
who want to be the focus of a game with
experienced players. Recommended for
the most charismatic experienced player
at the table.
ENI ET ENGINEERS are
resource poor but can
make any economy more
efficient. They benefit
from multi-turn deals.
Recommended for
observant players who
can search the table
looking for ideal uses for
their services.
KJASJAVIKALIMM INDEPENDENT NATIONS
desperately need the other
players’ help to do anything
at all. They can’t directly
use what they produce.
Recommended for
experienced players who
can trade quickly and are
comfortable trading at a
loss if it means getting
resources to move.
YENGII JII offer other
players constraints that
limit their abilities but make
them rich in return.
Recommended for
experienced players
who are skilled at seeing
strength in weakness
and showing it to others.
Players who can find
creative ways to help their opponents
overcome their limitations will do well
here.
ALTERNATE IM’DRIL — GRAND FLEET
are rich early game
but quickly lose steam.
Recommended for
experienced players
who can scrounge up
an economy for the late
game.
ALTERNATE ZETH — CHARITY
SYNDICATE need to
purchase their economy
back from the other
players each turn.
Recommended for
experienced players
who are comfortable with
many urgent goals that
may require convoluted
trades to resolve.
KT’ZR’KT’RTL TECHNOPHILES
have many research
teams to offer other
players, which will grant
a variety of abilities.
Recommended for
experienced players who
are skilled at convincing
others to invest in
their technologies and
can identify how those
technologies will be beneficial to the other
players’ strategies.
ALTERNATE FADERAN —
SOCIETY OF FALLING LIGHT
are not really in the
Confluence at all. They don’t
share their technologies
and gain no benefits from
other players inventing. The
society is rich and powerful,
but their main export is
Regret – something no one
wants. Recommended for
very experienced players who enjoy
building an unwieldy economy out of
technologies and making challenging
trades.
variant factions
CAYLION
COLLABORATIVE
ENI ET
ENGINEERS
FADERAN
SOCIETY OF FALLING LIGHT
Bid Tiebreaker: 0
Colony Support: 3
Bid Tiebreaker: 1½
Colony Support: 3
Bid Tiebreaker: -1
Colony Support: 8
Bid Tiebreaker: 0
Colony Support: 3
Bid Tiebreaker: 1½
Colony Support: 3
Bid Tiebreaker: -1
Colony Support: 8
DEEP UNITY
7
1300
22
77
22
DEEP UNITY
7½
13½
22
22
55
3 3 2 2
2 2
2 2
Zeth Undesirables Reference
ACHRONAL
ANALYSIS
HYPERSPACE
MINING
The Uprooted
1
½
4½
CAYLION
Hadopelagic
Exiles
4
8½
3 3
ACHRONAL
ANALYSIS
ENI ET
3 3
ORGANIC
CONSTRUCTION
Zealots
3
6
FADERAN
Disaffected
Artists
3
6½
2 2
UBIQUITOUS
CULTURAL
REPOSITORY
GENETIC
ENGINEERING
IM’DRIL
3 3 3 3
3 3
5 5
Kt’ Technology Reference
5 5
Sharing
BonusSTELLAR HARVESTING
3 3
3 3
Sharing
BonusMETAUNIVERSAL ADAPTER
3 3
3 3
Sharing
Bonus
BIOHACKING
3 3
3 33 3
Sharing
BonusPLANETARY ROTOGYRO
0 0
2 2
3 33 3
Sharing
BonusECOLOGY INVERSION
0 0
2 2
KJAS INDEPENDENT NATIONS
DONATIONS
During the next TRADE phase, you MUST trade these or give them away.
1 2 3
COLONY BID TRACK
3
CAYLION ENI ET FADERAN IM’DRIL KJAS KIT UNITY YENGII ZETH
ENI ET FADERAN IM’DRIL KJAS KIT UNITY YENGII ZETH
22 33

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The remainder of the rulebook clarifies some of the more intricate interactions of the species rules.
ENI ET ASCENDENCY
The Eni Et Ascendency interest converters from the base game are minimally impacted by the special rules of other factions. Particular interactions are noted below.
UNITY WILD RESOURCES
This interaction is unchanged from the base game but is repeated for clarity.
Interest converters always produce precisely the same number of wild resources as are input – the extra outputs (e.g. the interest) must all be normal resources, must all be the same color, and if non-wild resources were input, then the interest must be that color.
YENGII JII CONSTRAINTS
If the Eni Et accept a constraint, it does not limit what colors can be run into their interest converters.
If another player has accepted a constraint, that player may not use the constrained resource as input for an interest converter, nor may it be produced as an output, even if all of the inputs are Unity wild resources.
KT’ZR’KT’RTL TECHNOPHILE
RETROCONTINUITY
Retrocontinuity tokens may not be applied to Eni Et Ascendency interest converters.
KJASJAVIKALIMM
INDEPENDENT NATIONS
Donations other than resources do not go on the Incoming Donations board.
For example, donation ships, victory points, and Zeth Anocracy envoy tokens do not go on Incoming Donations (although the resources that come with the envoy token do).
The Independent Nations may remove resources from the Incoming Donations board at any time. If they do so for any purpose other than running a converter that takes donation goods as an input, those resources lose their status as incoming donations.
This rule is intended to make record keeping simpler, not as a “gotcha” – if the Independent Nations removes a resource and later changes their mind, they can put it back on the Incoming Donations board.
YENGII JII
ZETH ANOCRACY STEALING
Not an exception.
Yengii Jii constraints prevent the use of a color of resource as input to any converter, regardless of the color of arrow.
This includes the red-arrowed Zeth stealing converters.
KT’ZR’KT’RTL TECHNOPHILES
RESEARCH TEAMS
Not an exception.
Kt’Zr’Kt’Rtl Technophile technologies do not have the Kit background.
If the Kt’Zr’Kt’Rtl accept a constraint, they may not use that color of resource to invent one of their own technologies, but other players can.
CAYLION COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS
Project cards may be run using resources that the Caylion Collaborative are constrained against, despite having the Caylion background.
This is an exception to the normal rules.
If the player running the card has constraints, those do apply (even if that player is the Caylion).
rules clarifications
Starting with the least experienced player, each player selects a species or its variant to play. Once chosen, the other version of the species is unavailable.
Variant starting cards are marked with a moon where the original species were marked with a star.
If the CHARITY SYNDICATE are in play, each other player will receive a matching Undesirable, whether they are playing an original species or variant. These cards are marked with both the star and moon icons.
Variants have their own cards indicating what resources, cards, colonies, and research teams they start with.
THE SOCIETY OF FALLING LIGHT start with 3 random colonies — 1 jungle, 1 ocean, and 1 desert. Prior to giving colonies to the other players, shuffle the colony deck and draw until you find 1 of each of those colonies. Give them to the Society. Then, shuffle the remaining cards and proceed with setup dealing random colonies to other players who start with them.
KJASJAVIKALIMM INDEPENDENT NATIONS start with a specific research team —Linguistic Analysts, which invents Universal Translator. Give them this team before you start assembling the technology deck.
Place Linguistic Analysts on their Donation Board: they will have to trade it away during the first Trade Phase.
THE CAYLION COLLABORATIVE start with a random era II research team. Give them this before you finish assembling the technology deck.
The original 21 species cards associated with each technology are used with the matching variants.
Unless otherwise noted, variants do not share any special rules with their original species. The two exceptions are the Deep Unity, which share the wild inputs and outputs of the original Unity, and the Grand Fleet which shares most of their fleet rules with the Im’dril Nomads.
BID TRACK
The CHARITY SYNDICATE decreases the player count for the colony bid track. If someone is playing the Charity Syndicate, use the Colony Bid track for -1 player, which is why a 3 player Colony Bid Track is provided in a game with 4 players.
The Charity Syndicate does not affect the length of the Research Team Bid track.
If both the Charity Syndicate and the Kjasjavikalimm Directorate are in the same game, their adjustments to the length of the Colony Bid track cancel each other.
First Games
To minimize the overhead caused by new rules, don’t have your first game with the expansion be all new variants. Most variants introduce new dynamics that will affect everyone’s game. Even if a game has just one new variant with original species, that variant’s effects will transform the gaming experience.
IMPACT
The Bifurcation variants are more interactive than those in the base game. While this lends itself towards more interesting trades and greater potential for creativity, it can also overwhelm new players. Thus, variant species now have an “impact” as well as a difficulty. Where difficulty is a measure of how likely it is for a new player to make mistakes that they won’t know how to recover from, impact is a measure of how much the other players need to incorporate your rules into their planning.
The impact a player “sees” is the total impact of every other player in the game. When choosing species, ensure that new players don’t see more than 1 impact. Players who have played once or twice, but are not yet confident in their abilities, should see no more than 3 impact.
The original Eni Et Ascendency have an impact of 1 and the Zeth Anocracy have an impact of 2.
Setting Up the Game
1 2 3
COLONY BID TRACK3
44 55

likely it is for a new player to make mistakes that they won t know how to recover from impact is a measure of how much the other players need to incorporate your rules into their planning The impact a player sees is the total impact of every other player in the game When choosing species ensure that new players don t see more than 1 impact Players who have played once or twice but are not yet confident in their abilities should see no more than 3 impact The original Eni Et Ascendency have an impact of 1 and the Zeth Anocracy have an impact of 2 Setting Up the Game 1 2 3 COLONY BID TRACK3 44 55

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KT’ZR’KT’RTL TECHNOPHILES
SOCIETY OF FALLING LIGHT AND YENGII SOCIETY
The Society of Falling Light and Yengii Society do not share
technologies normally. Falling Light does not share at all but
can sell the research team to be reinvented by someone
else. The Yengii can license their technologies to individual
players. These abilities apply to Kt’Zr’Kt’Rtl research teams
normally.
In general, the Yengii will have to remember (or write down)
whom they’ve licensed each Kt’Zr’Kt’Rtl technology to, so as
to avoid licensing a technology to the same player twice.
If the Society of Falling Light invent Hybrid FTL or Mindsharing,
use a matching card to indicate that the new bid track space
can only be used by Falling Light. Then, place a Regret token
on the original research team. If it is reinvented, replace the
Falling Light bid space with the one printed on the back of the
research team.
If the Yengii Society invents either of those technologies,
use the other side of the matching card to indicate that only
players who have licensed the technology can take cards
from the bid track space.
This restriction also applies to the Charity Syndicate: they
may not place Cross Colonization tokens on the new bid slot
until they gain access to the technology.
IM’DRIL FLEET SUPPORT AND RETROCONTINUITY
Both versions of the Im’dril require Fleet Support to run their
cards.
A card with a Retrocontinuity token still requires Fleet
Support to run, and that Fleet Support must be maintained
through the Economy Phase (i.e. a single Fleet Support icon
can’t be used to support two different cards in the same
turn).
DEEP UNITY DICE MANIPULATION
AND UPGRADE TOKENS
Kt’Zr’Kt’Rtl Technology Era I upgrade tokens may be spent to
put Deep Unity dice manipulation cards into play.
Era II upgrade tokens may be spent to upgrade Deep Unity
dice manipulation cards.
CAYLION COLLABORATIVE VOTE EXAMPLE
This is an example of how Caylion Collaborative votes are used.
The full rules are on the Caylion Collaborative tile.
In summary, each player receives two votes to spend during
each Trade Phase, except the Collaborative who receive one.
The Collaborative has four projects available, each requiring
a minimum number of votes to activate. Each project is four
to six cards. Once a project has enough votes to activate, the
Caylion may choose to do so. Activating a project consists of
resolving a single multi-way deal to divide the project cards
among the players who supplied votes.
In practice, players will place their votes next to the cards they
are interested in receiving. Players are not obligated to spend
their votes on a project where they dislike the outcome. The
Caylion may return votes to obstinate players to remove them
from the negotiation.
In this example, the Caylion, Eni Et, Kjas, and Faderan each want
different cards. They assign their votes as follows, placing
them next to the cards they are interested in:
There are enough votes on Gamified Research to activate it, so
the Caylion attempt to activate that project. There is a conflict:
both the Caylion and the Eni Et want the first Gamified Research
card. After brief negotiation fails to move one or the other’s
vote to a different card, the Caylion decide to remove the Eni
Et vote from that card. The Eni Et choose to leave their other
vote on the second card. Now, there are only four votes on the
project, so the project fails to activate.
Desperate for the Ultratech, the Faderan talk to the Kjas and
offer them a black cube to move one of their votes from
Oceanic Settlement to the third Gamified Research card. This
results in the following state:
Gamified Research now has its needed five votes, without
conflicts, so the Caylion activate the project and each player
takes the card their votes are next to. Since no-one wanted
the fourth card, the Caylion take it. In fact, the Caylion could
even offer for someone else to take that fourth card in
exchange for something the Caylion wants. This trade could be
made immediately or even later in the same phase.
ENI ET
ENI ET
ENI ET
FADERAN
FADERAN
FADERAN
FADERAN
KJAS
KJAS
KJAS
KJAS
CAYLION
CAYLION
66 77

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DEEP UNITY
BID TIEBREAK
The Deep Unity bid tiebreak is between 3 and 4.
ENI ET ENGINEERS
SERVICE TOKENS
Not an exception.
Service tokens may be assigned to Deep Unity dice converters.
If the card is flipped over, the token is assigned to the converter with the same color input.
If a service token was assigned to an Ultratech converter, there will be no matching converter on the other side.
In this case, the token does nothing but remains attached to the card.
If it is flipped back, the token will return to reducing the cost of the Ultratech converter.
CHARITY SYNDICATE
CROSS COLONIZATION
You may place a second (or third) Cross Colonization token on a world on the bid track, if one remained from a previous round. If that world is taken, you upgrade one card per Cross Colonization token on it. If the world is discarded, you gain the tokens back and one victory point per token.
CAYLION
COLLABORATIVE
AUTOMATION SERVICES
Automation Services grants a violet-arrow converter that consumes a world to have it immediately run twice.
Consume twice as many resources as the input of the world’s converters, then produce twice as much output.
You may choose not to consume all of the needed input resources, but then you won’t get the associated output.
For example, if the world consumes 1 Food/Life Support to produce 1 Ultratech, you can spend 0, 1, or 2 Food/Life Support to produce 0, 1, or 2 Ultratech.
Abilities which increase the production of worlds (such as the Grand Fleet’s factory tokens) apply and are doubled.
KT’ZR’KT’RTL TECHNOPHILE
RETROCONTINUITY
Retrocontinuity tokens may not be applied to Caylion Collaborative project cards.
SOCIETY OF FALLING
LIGHT
RESEARCH BID TIEBREAKS
Not an exception.
Research teams with Regret tokens, held by the Society of Falling Light, do not count against their first research team bid tiebreak. This is a consequence of the more general rule that no invented technologies count against a player’s research team bid tiebreak.
REGRET AND ALIEN TIEBREAK
ABILITIES
No alien abilities avoid the consequences of taking Regret.
For example, the Kt’Zr’Kt’Rtl Adhocracy win tiebreakers for colonies, as if they had fewer than the other players, but they must still go after all players with fewer Regret tokens.
YENGII SOCIETY
The Yengii Society may license technologies to the Society of Falling Light, as per the Yengii rules.
RUNNING OUT OF REGRET
Regret tokens are not intended to be piece limited. If you run out, use Acknowledgements as additional tokens.
Credits
Game Design: TauCeti Deichmann
Graphic Design: Errick Dadisman, Renee Lasater, Alex Williams
Rulebook Layout: Renee Lasater
Art Direction: Daniel Solis
Cover Art: Kwanchai Moriya
Additional Art: Shutterstock
© 2022 WizKids/NECA LLC. WizKids and related marks and logos are trademarks of WizKids. All rights reserved.
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