How to Play Space Base: The Mysteries of Terra Proxima

Objective of the Game

In Space Base: The Mysteries of Terra Proxima, players are united humankind, exploring new technologies and starships to harness the incredible energy of Shy Plutonium. The U.E.S. Science Corps is working to make faster-than-light travel a reality, with hopes of reaching Alpha Centauri. This is a story-driven expansion, meaning you'll play through a narrative over multiple games, gradually introducing new content, cards, rules, and components. The ultimate goal is to experience the story and achieve victory conditions as defined by the base game of Space Base, which this expansion integrates with.

Preparation (Setup)

Before starting your game of Space Base: The Mysteries of Terra Proxima, you'll set up the base game as normal, including any content from other expansions you wish to include. Then, follow these additional setup steps:

1. Place the story deck face-up on the table. The Warning Card (story card !) should be the only card showing. Do not look through the deck.
2. Discard the Warning Card and read story card 1 out loud to all players, following its directions.
3. Place the Shy Pluto Mining Station board on the table. Randomly place one of the orange Shy Plutonium dice onto each of the spaces on the board with the symbol face of the die face-up.
4. Put the remaining Shy Plutonium dice into the drawstring bag.
5. Give each player one patrol ship token and place the rest in a convenient pile.
6. Attach the sector 13 board with the "Neuromycelia Converter" side face-up to the right of your command console, next to sector 12.
7. Give each player the following:
   • 4 Orange forecast cubes.
   • 1 Shy Plutonium die with the symbol.
   • 1 Sector 13 board ("Neuromycelia Converter" side face-up).
8. Each player places three orange forecast cubes in the buy slots showing a cost listed on their sector 13 board and one cube on any die slot of their choice showing a die result.
9. Shuffle all twelve alien colonies and draw six cards. Use the regular colony cards from the base game for the remaining six sectors. "Fill in the blanks" of missing sector numbers so you have twelve colony cards for sectors 1–12. Return any remaining colony cards to the box.
10. Based on the number of players, place the neuromycelia track (story card 8-10) on the table and place a token on the Start arrow.
    • 2-3 players: story card 8
    • 4-5 players: story card 9
    • 6-7 players: story card 10
11. Players are now ready to play the game beginning with the starting player’s turn!

Integrating Expansions

• You are not required to own any other expansions to play this Saga.
• If you own The Emergence of Shy Pluto, you should play through Saga Expansion 1 before playing through this Saga. When playing through this Saga, use all the content from Saga 1.
• If you own Command Station, this Saga contains the components needed to play with up to seven players.

Flow of the Game

The game proceeds in turns, with additional rules introduced as the story progresses through several games via the story deck. Each turn includes specific phases and global events:

Advancing the Neuromycelia Track

At the start of every turn, including the first turn of the game, advance the token on the neuromycelia track to the next space. If the token moves onto a blank space, nothing happens. If the token moves onto a space listing a ship level (L1, L2, L3), the neuromycelia will overrun a sector (1-12) on each player’s command console. Each player draws a random card off the top of the indicated deck and, without looking at the front side, places it face-down on their command console in any sector of their choice that is not already overrun (has a face-down card) or has a colony. If a ship card was already in that sector on their command console, it becomes deployed above their board as normal. If you do not have any sectors (1-12) without a colony or face-down "neuromycelia" card, then you skip drawing a new card. After advancing the neuromycelia track and resolving any overrun, the turn resumes with the active player rolling the dice.

Patrol Die Roll

At the start of every turn, when the active player makes their standard roll, they also roll the patrol die. If the patrol die ends the roll with a blank side showing, nothing special happens. However, if a patrol ship side is showing face-up, before allocating the blue dice and gaining rewards, the active player takes one patrol ship token from the pile and places it in the shipyard. You do not roll the patrol die with bonus rolls. You cannot use abilities to re-roll, set dice, or modify the patrol die.

Refilling the Shipyard

When there are empty spaces in the shipyard at the end of a player’s turn, first, slide any cards already in the shipyard to the left to fill in any empty spaces, and then fill in each empty space with a new card from the appropriate deck as normal.

Actions and How to Play

Players will perform actions during their turn, including rolling dice, allocating rewards, and buying cards. Several new mechanics and card types are introduced:

Interpreting Story Cards

Italic text on story cards is flavor text explaining the story. Red text on story cards are instructions you should follow. After following instructions, the bottom portion of each story card will instruct you when to move on to the next story card by stating a condition and showing an arrow ( ). When the condition is met, discard the current story card and move to the next one. When you see "Unlock discovery cards 1-16," you will take out the indicated cards from the discovery deck. Once a story card has been discarded, it is not needed again.

Discovery Cards

Discovery cards are numbered and included in the discovery deck in numerical order. When a story card instructs you to unlock a range of discovery cards (e.g., 1-16), you take those cards from the top of the discovery deck without looking at others. Some "STOP" cards in the discovery deck have no gameplay function; they are just breakpoints to prevent revealing future story content.

Unlocking Ship Cards

When cards are unlocked, you will often be instructed to "deal" them to players. Randomly deal the new cards face-up evenly to all players so each player has the same number of cards in their "hand." Any remaining cards are placed face-up on the table and are considered to be in all players’ hands. In a 2-player game, deal out three hands of cards. The third hand, plus any remaining cards, are placed face-up on the table and are considered to be in both players’ hands.

Buying from Your Hand

Ship cards cost 2 less than the printed cost when buying them from your hand (minimum zero). Otherwise, buying a ship from your hand follows all normal rules, including counting towards your limit of buying one card per turn and setting your (yellow) cube to 0. After new ships have been added to the game via the story deck instructions (even if not bought from players’ hands), they will be included in all your future games as regular cards.

Placing a Patrol Ship Token

When placing a patrol ship token into the shipyard, place it on the lowest numbered spot that does not already have a patrol ship token on it. When a player buys or claims a card with a patrol ship token on it, they immediately gain the token.

Buying Shy Plutonium Dice

On your turn, after rolling the dice and claiming rewards, you may buy one or more Shy Plutonium dice (one of the six dice on the Mining Station board). You must spend a number of patrol ship tokens equal to the cost shown above the die (2, 3, or 4). At the end of the turn, after you buy one or more Shy Plutonium, any dice to the right of the bought die slide left to fill in the empty spaces; then random dice are drawn from the bag one at a time and placed on any empty spaces. If the bag of Shy Plutonium dice runs out, any dice to the right of the bought die on the Mining Station board slide left to fill in the empty spaces as normal, but no new dice are drawn.

Using Shy Plutonium Dice

• 2-3 Players: Every turn during the roll phase (on both your turns and opponents’ turns) roll all the Shy Plutonium dice that you have bought and gain as rewards anything they show.
• 4-7 Players: This is the same as 2-3 players except you roll Shy Plutonium dice only on opponents’ turns, not on your own turn.

Patrol Ship Icon

When you gain the patrol ship icon as a reward or from an ability, take one patrol ship token. If you roll the patrol ship icon on the patrol die, one patrol ship token is placed in the shipyard; you do not gain the token. You can spend patrol ship tokens during the same turn that you gain them.

Bonus Rolls

When you gain a bonus roll icon, roll two of the translucent dice included with this expansion. You may allocate the dice and gain rewards for this roll like you would as the active player. However, any effect that would cause you to affect other players, the shipyard, or the unbought colony cards is ignored. You may use re-roll abilities and modify your sector rewards with directional arrow effects as normal. Other players ignore your bonus roll—it does not affect them. You cannot roll your Shy Plutonium dice with bonus rolls. You cannot roll the patrol die with bonus rolls.

Directional Arrows

While cards with these arrows are deployed, they can trigger station rewards, and while in station they can trigger deployed rewards.

• When you gain this reward, you may gain all the red rewards on your deployed cards that are in the sector one space to the right.
• When you gain this reward, you may gain all the red rewards on your deployed cards that are in the arrow’s sector.
• When you gain this reward you gain the blue station rewards of the card one sector to the right. You cannot gain rewards from a colony.
• When you gain this reward, you gain all the blue station rewards of the card that is in the arrow’s sector. You cannot gain rewards from a colony.

Modify Die (+/-)

This ability can only be used during phase 3 ("allocate dice") of the turn and only if you chose to allocate the dice separately. You cannot use this ability if you allocate the sum of the dice. It can be used on either your turn or your opponent’s turn because it is a green ability. You may modify one die by either increasing (+) or decreasing (-) the result by one (e.g., turning a 3 into either a 4 or a 2). If you decrease a die with a 1 result, it turns into a 6 result. If you increase a die with a 6 result, it turns into a 1 result. Modifying dice does not affect the dice results for the other players. You can modify your bonus rolls. You can modify the same die multiple times during the same turn with multiple uses of this effect. You gain a charge icon every time you allocate dice to a card with the "Modify Die" ability, regardless of whether or not you are able to charge the ability. If all of the card’s squares already have charge icons placed on them, you still gain a charge icon from the card. You do not gain a charge icon when you use a charge icon on the card.

Alien Colonies

The new alien colonies follow the same rules as regular colony cards from the base game except that they feature rewards in addition to gaining victory points.

Immediate Rewards (Yellow Background)

When a card with a yellow background is bought, its effect resolves immediately and then has no other effect for the rest of the game. Immediate rewards are not optional unless specifically stated otherwise. They cannot be gained using directional arrows and dice-arrows activation abilities, nor doubled by other abilities.

Ongoing Rewards (Orange Background)

Once a card with an orange background has been bought, its effect applies for the rest of the game as described on the card. Ongoing rewards are not optional unless specifically stated otherwise. They cannot be gained using directional arrows and dice-arrows activation abilities, nor doubled by other abilities.

Charged Ongoing Rewards

Ongoing rewards with charge squares follow the same rules as other ongoing rewards, but they must be charged first. As long as an ongoing reward is fully charged, it remains active for the rest of the game. It does not need to be recharged after each use. If the card is deployed, any charge icons remain on the card and move to the red charge squares on the deployed side.

Place One Charge Anywhere

When you use an ability with this icon, you may place one charge icon on an empty charge square on any of your other cards.

Shift Sector

These abilities can only be used during phase 3 ("allocate dice") of the turn and only if you chose to allocate the sum of the dice. It may be used on either your turn or on your opponent’s turn because it is a green ability. You may use any number of Shy Plutonium dice from your command console to shift sectors.

• The sector you gain rewards from this turn is shifted one sector to the right. For example, if a 9 is rolled, you would gain rewards for your sector 10 instead of your sector 9.
• The sector you gain rewards from this turn is shifted one sector to the left or right. For example, if a 9 is rolled, you would gain rewards for your sector 8 or 10 instead of your sector 9.

New Plutonium (Green Dice)

The ten green dice are a new type of Shy Plutonium. When you roll a symbol on a green die, place the die on your command console. You may use the ability from a Shy Plutonium die on your command console during the turn you placed it there or on a future turn. When you choose to use the ability, remove the die from your command console and place it with your other Shy Plutonium dice that you will roll next turn.

Overrun Sectors

Face-down ship cards represent sectors that have been overrun with neuromycelia. When you are the active player, you do not gain any rewards from overrun sectors. During opponents’ turns, you gain red rewards from deployed cards as normal. You cannot buy ship or colony cards for overrun sectors. If an effect would let you place a ship in an overrun sector, you must immediately deploy the ship instead.

Cure Neuromycelia

Players can cure neuromycelia when they forecast successfully (see below). When you cure neuromycelia, turn over one face-down ship card on your command console and check its sector number. You may choose to either place it as a station card or as a deployed card in its sector. You must place it in the sector shown on the card, not the sector that you took the card from when you cured neuromycelia. Players can only cure neuromycelia during phase 4 ("gain rewards"). Players can cure neuromycelia and gain rewards in any order.

Forecast Successfully - Forecast Cubes

Every time both of the dice that the active player rolls match the die slot number or numbers that you have forecast cubes on, you forecast successfully. When you forecast successfully, you may gain rewards from sector 13 upgrades, which in this game is either 3 victory points or cure neuromycelia. This