# Euphoria Essential Edition ## General Info - **Year Published**: 2026 - **BGG Rating**: 7.7 - **BGG Rank**: — - **Players**: 1-6 (Best with: 4) - **Duration**: 60-75 min - **Weight**: 2.90 / 5 - **Designers**: David J. Studley, Jamey Stegmaier, Morten Monrad Pedersen - **Artists**: Jacqui Davis - **Publishers**: Stonemaier Games - **Categories**: Science Fiction - **Mechanics**: Race, Worker Placement with Dice Workers ## Verdict If you enjoy a worker placement with a unique twist and a thought-provoking dystopian theme, Euphoria Essential Edition is for you! This edition combines the base game with its expansion, offering a more complete and refined experience.Unique dice workersEngaging dystopian themeBase + expansion comboStrategic race elementRules can be denseModerate language dependencyHIGHLY RECOMMENDED ## Description Get ready to dive into a dystopian future with Euphoria Essential Edition! This souped-up version combines the base game with its expansion, giving a facelift to the visuals and rules, especially the board layout. In Euphoria, you don't have ordinary workers, but dice representing their knowledge. The more you send these guys exploring the city and the more workers you recruit, the more they uncover the secrets of this bizarre society. Be careful not to overload them with information, or they might just desert you! Your mission is to lead your team, generate resources, dig tunnels for infiltration, and build markets that tighten the freedom of others. Oh, and there are elite recruits: one loyal and another who needs convincing. You can inspire the latter by reaching milestones or, perhaps, let other players do the dirty work unknowingly. Collecting rare artifacts from the old world also earns points with the elite. The game ends when someone places 9 authority tokens, and whoever has the most at the end claims the dominator's crown. It's a race against time and opponents to build your empire in this grim world, where every decision counts and knowledge is power... or danger! ## How to Play Game Objective In Euphoria Essential Edition, you take on the role of a low-level manager in a dystopian city, seeking to use your workers to seize control. The theme involves building structures, strengthening alliances, and expanding your empire by making strategic choices. The dice represent your workers, and the number on each die is their knowledge. The more you send your workers around the city and the more workers you add, the more they discover about their twisted society. If they learn too much, they might desert your cause. Your goal is to pave your way to victory with the sweat of your workers, the strength of your alliances, and the tunnels you dig to infiltrate other world territories. This is achieved by building markets that impose personal freedom restrictions on other players, changing the face of the game and opening new paths to victory. You can also focus on collecting artifacts from the old world, rare leisure objects in this utilitarian society, which the dystopian elite covet, especially identical pairs, and are willing to give you land in exchange. The victory condition is to be the player who has placed the most of their authority tokens. The game ends when a player places their 9th authority token. Setup Game Board: Place the game board in the center of the table. Resources and Commodities: Place the containers for the commodity tokens (energy, food, water, and bliss) and the resource tokens (gold, clay, and stone) on opposite sides of the table. There is no limit to these tokens. Worker Dice: Each player starts the game with 2 worker dice in their color. Group all additional dice next to the board to form a pile of recruitable workers. Recruit Cards: Shuffle the recruit cards and deal 4 to each player. Each player chooses 2 cards and discards the others face down. One of the chosen cards is placed face up in front of them as an active recruit (revealed simultaneously with other players), and the other face down as a hidden recruit (do not choose a factionless recruit as a hidden recruit, as there is no way to reveal them). The discarded cards and the rest of the recruit deck are returned to the box. Artifact Cards: Shuffle the artifact deck, place it on the board, and reveal 4 cards to fill the bazaar. Construction Sites: Shuffle the market tiles and place 6 of them face down on the construction sites on the board, within the square frame guidelines. The Icarites (the green faction with zeppelins in the sky) already have pre-built markets and do not need market tiles. The remaining market tiles are returned face down to the box. Progress Tokens and Miner Meeples: Place the progress tokens at the starting position of each loyalty track. Place one miner meeple on each tunnel at the number corresponding to the number of players. Exclusive Action Spaces: Cover the action at the end of each tunnel with an unavailable action space marker. Player Boards: Each player takes a player board of their preferred color, then places 1 heart-shaped morale token on the far left of the morale track on their player board and 1 face-shaped knowledge token on the '+' of their knowledge track. Place 9 authority tokens (stars) in the top left corner; place the 10th star on the far right of the player board. Reference Cards: Each player receives 1 reference card. Determine First Player: Each player rolls their 2 worker dice to determine the starting player (the highest sum determines the first player; in case of a tie, the oldest player starts). Keep the dice as they are — the numbers represent the initial knowledge of their workers. Game Flow The game progresses in turns, with player order following clockwise. Player order never changes. After a few turns, the starting player's position becomes irrelevant. Turn Structure Your turn consists of exactly one of the following options (not both, nor can you pass): Place an available worker on the board: You can place exactly one available worker on the board. An available worker is a worker under your control who is not currently placed on the board. When placing a worker, first pay the action's cost (if any), then gain the benefits of that action. Exception: If you start your turn with multiple workers sharing the same number and can place these identical workers in the same turn, you must lose 1 morale for each worker you place beyond the first (place them one at a time). You cannot place an extra worker unless you have to lose 1 morale. Retrieve any/all workers: Instead of placing a worker, you can use your turn to retrieve any number of your workers from the board (minimum 1 worker; you cannot retrieve workers in the "Fugitive Workers" area of the Wastelands). Choose whether to pay the retrieval cost (see below), then roll all retrieved workers at the same time. Gain 2 morale: Pay 1 gold or 1 stone to retrieve any or all workers and gain 2 morale. The cost does not change depending on the number of workers. Lose 1 morale: Pay nothing. Retrieve your workers for free and lose 1 morale. You can do this even if you have 1 morale, in which case your morale remains at 1. Knowledge Check Whenever you roll your worker dice, perform a knowledge check. This occurs in the following situations: Retrieving dice from the board (roll only the retrieved dice). Making a new worker (roll only the new worker). Your worker is "pushed" off the board by another worker (roll only the pushed worker's die). Any dice that were on a construction site when a market is completed (roll only those dice). The knowledge check works as follows: If the sum of the knowledge on all your available workers (workers on your player board that you haven't placed + the newly rolled workers) plus your current level on the knowledge track is greater than or equal to 16, you immediately lose the available worker with the highest knowledge (in case of a tie, lose only 1 worker). Move that worker to the "Fugitive Workers" box in the Wastelands. You can lose a maximum of 1 worker per turn this way. Actions and How to Play There are 3 different types of action spaces, represented by light gray squares/rectangles with rounded corners: Multiple Use: Represented by a large light gray rectangle. These spaces can hold any number of workers (from all players) and therefore workers are not "pushed" from them. Temporary: A dotted light gray square with an arrow to the right. You can place a worker in this type of action space even if another worker is there. When placing your worker in an occupied temporary action space, you "push" the worker back to its owner at no cost to them (you can "push" your own workers). The "pushed" worker is immediately rolled; its player performs a knowledge check. Single Use: A solid light gray square with no arrow and a resource cost inside it. For you to place a worker there, you must pay the cost. Workers cannot be "pushed" from single-use action spaces; they remain until the market is built or if they are retrieved. When using an action space, first pay the cost (in gray squares, if any), then gain the benefit (in white circles). Your worker remains in the action space until "pushed" or you retrieve it. Specific Action Locations Commodity Areas: Where you collect energy (Generator), water (Aquifer), food (Farm), and bliss (Cloud Mine). The number of commodities you collect is determined by the total knowledge of all players' workers in that area after you place your worker. Total Knowledge between 1 and 4: Gain 1 commodity and 1 loyalty. Total Knowledge between 5 and 8: Gain 1 commodity and lose 1 knowledge. Total Knowledge 9 or greater: Gain 2 commodities and gain 1 morale. Worker Activation Tanks: You can increase the number of workers to a total of 4. Pay 3 energy: Gain 1 worker and lose 1 morale. Also gain 1 Euphorian loyalty. Pay 3 water: Gain 1 worker and gain 1 morale. Also gain 1 Underground loyalty. After paying the cost and adjusting your morale or knowledge, immediately roll the new worker. You can use these spaces to decrease knowledge or increase morale (or gain loyalty) even if you have no workers to gain. Lost and Found: To retrieve a fugitive worker (placed in the "Fugitive Workers" box in the Wastelands). Pay 1 clay, then gain the fugitive worker, lose 1 morale, gain 1 knowledge, and gain 1 Wastelander loyalty. Immediately roll the new worker. Cannot be used to recruit new workers. Tunnels: Factions (except the Icarites) attempt to tunnel into other territories to access enemy commodities, collecting resources and unearthing artifacts. Tunnel Action: Any player can place a worker in the temporary action space at the start of a tunnel and pay the cost (a specific commodity). Advance the miner meeple if possible, then gain 1 resource or buy 1 artifact card. Activate Hidden Recruits: When the miner meeple advances to a specific space in a tunnel, all players with hidden recruits that match the faction associated with that tunnel will activate (reveal) them. Complete a Tunnel: When the miner meeple reaches the end of the tunnel (the 9th level), a new exclusive action space becomes available. Remove the unavailable action space token. From then on, players with an active recruit of the corresponding loyalty can place workers in that space. Construction Sites: To contribute to the construction of a market, place a worker in an unoccupied single-use action space below that face-down market, after paying the resource cost shown in the space. A market is built when the required number of action spaces below it are simultaneously occupied by workers (2 spaces for 2-3 players, 3 for 4 players, 4 for 5-6 players). Completion: When the required number of action spaces below a market are occupied, the market is complete. Flip the market tile and slide it to reveal the temporary action space it was covering. This "pushes" the workers who helped build it back to their players, who then roll those workers. Each player who contributed at least 1 worker to the construction of the market places exactly 1 authority token on that market. All players who do not have an authority token on a built market incur the penalty indicated on the market tile until they use the new action to place an authority token there. Built Markets: Once a market is built, you can trade various goods for land in that faction's territory. Any player can visit the market. Visiting Markets: To visit a market, place your worker in the temporary action space in the top right corner of the market and pay the cost on the market tile. Then place 1 authority token on the market. Personal Freedoms: All players who do not have 1 authority token on a built market incur the ongoing penalty indicated on the market tile. Artifact Markets: Unlike other markets, artifact markets come pre-built at the start of the game. Each requires you to pay (discard) any 3 artifact cards or 2 identical artifact cards. Gain 1 loyalty and place 1 of your authority tokens on the market. Bazaar: At the top of the board, 4 face-up artifact cards form a row. Whenever you gain an artifact card, take any of the 4 artifacts in the bazaar (you cannot buy from the top of the deck). The rightmost artifact in the bazaar is free, while the others have a cost shown above them. After taking an artifact, slide any artifacts to the left of the empty space to the right, filling the space. Draw the artifact card from the top of the deck and place it face up in the leftmost space (with a cost of 1 gold). Loyalty Track The loyalty tracks show the strength of each faction. Each faction has a loyalty progress token that starts the game in the "Start" space. When any player gains a loyalty, that player moves the progress token of that loyalty forward 1 space on the corresponding row of the track. Only players who have active recruits of that loyalty gain the bonuses from the track. ## FAQ ### Who is Euphoria Essential Edition for? It's ideal for players who enjoy strategy games with worker placement mechanics, dystopian sci-fi themes, and a race element towards victory. It requires some willingness to learn rules and manage resources. ### How long does a game session last? A game session typically takes between 60 and 75 minutes to complete, depending on the number of players and their familiarity with the game. ### What is the game's complexity level? The average weight on BoardGameGeek is 2.9/5, indicating moderate complexity. It's not a super simple game, but it's accessible for those with some experience in strategy board games. ### How many players can participate? The game supports 1 to 6 players. The solo version can be a good option for those who want to test their strategies without company. ### Do I need to understand English to play? The game has a moderate language dependency. While the board and main components can be played with a translated spreadsheet, some cards and rules may require consulting translations for a complete experience. ### What's new in this essential edition? The Essential Edition combines the base game with the expansion, including revised rules and components, with a focus on the board layout, offering a more cohesive and complete experience. ## Price Comparison ### Best International Offers - **BoardGamePrices.com**: $ 65.00 (https://boardgameprices.com/item/go?source=A&storeitemid=7015332&utm_source=boardgamesbot.com) - See all on BoardGamePrices: https://boardgameprices.com/item/show/166463/euphoria-essential-edition?utm_source=boardgamesbot.com