Game Objective

In Celestia, you take on the role of an adventurer exploring the mysterious world of Celestia. The goal is to travel through celestial cities to discover and collect incredible treasures. The player who manages to form the most valuable collection of Treasures wins the game.

Setup

1. Place the 9 City tiles on the table in ascending order (from the smallest, 1, to the largest, 25).
2. For each City, shuffle the numbered Treasure cards and place them in a face-down pile next to the respective tile.
3. Position the airship at the first City.
4. Each player chooses an “Adventurer” marker (which stays in front of them) and places the “Adventurer” pawn of the same color inside the airship.
5. Shuffle all Equipment cards, Power cards, and Turbo cards into a single deck.
6. Deal the starting hand:
   • 8 cards for 2 or 3 players.
   • 6 cards for 4 or more players.
7. Place the remaining deck face-down near the players.
8. Choose the first Captain of the airship.

Game Flow

The game consists of several voyages. In each voyage, the adventurers travel from city to city toward Meiji, the City of Lights (25). Players alternate between the roles of Captain (who leads the airship and faces the challenges) and Passengers (who decide whether to continue the journey or disembark).

Each stage of a voyage strictly follows these five phases:

1. Determining Challenges: The Captain rolls the number of “Event” dice indicated on the next City tile.
2. Passengers' Decision: Starting with the player to the Captain's left, each Passenger declares if they "stay" (keep their pawn in the airship) or "leave" (remove their pawn, place it on their “Adventurer” marker, and draw the Treasure card from the top of the current city's pile).
3. Facing the Challenge: The Captain plays the necessary Equipment cards to overcome the events shown on the dice.
4. Movement: If the challenges are overcome, the Captain moves the airship to the next City.
5. Change of Command: Control of the airship passes to the next player (seated to the Captain's left).

New Voyage: When a new voyage begins, the airship returns to the first available City, all “Adventurer” pawns return to the airship, and each player draws one card from the Equipment deck.

Actions and How to Play

Overcoming Challenges

The Captain must discard one Equipment card for each event die rolled. If multiple dice show the same challenge, the corresponding number of cards must be played. The white die requires no cards. If the Captain cannot overcome all challenges, the airship crashes and everyone on board loses the chance to get a Treasure on this voyage.

Equipment Matches:

• Mist $\rightarrow$ Compass (blue).
• Lightning $\rightarrow$ Lightning Rod (yellow).
• Damok Birds $\rightarrow$ Trumpet (red).
• Lockhars Pirates $\rightarrow$ Cannon (black).
• “Turbo” Cards $\rightarrow$ Overcome any challenge (the result of one die). The use of these cards is optional.

Power and Special Cards

Power cards can be played after the passengers' decision and before the Captain plays their equipment:

• Disembark: Forces another player (except the Captain) to leave the airship and take a Treasure from the current city.
• Jetpack: Played only when the airship is about to crash. The player descends safely and takes the Treasure from the farthest city reached during the voyage.
• Alternative Route: Allows the Captain to reroll any dice they wish.
• Strong Gust: Any player (even those who have already left) can force the Captain to reroll all white dice (calm).
• Magic Spyglass: (Present only in the first 4 cities). Played when the Captain announces they cannot overcome the challenges; all challenges are ignored and the voyage continues. Worth 2 points at the end of the game.

End of Game and Scoring

The game ends immediately before the start of a new voyage if any player has reached 50 points. The player with the highest score is the winner.

Note: There is a variant for "Beginner Adventurers" where the game ends when a player possesses 5 different types of Treasures, but the final score still determines the winner.

Consult the manual for details on the specific scoring of each Treasure card.

Tips for Winning

• Influence the decision: The manual mentions that the game is more fun when players try to influence others' decisions on whether to stay or leave the airship.
• Calculated Risk: If the Captain is alone in the airship, they may choose to disembark and take a Treasure without needing to roll the dice.
• Turbo Management: Remember that, unlike common equipment, you are not required to play Turbo cards, allowing you to save them for more critical moments.