Overview

Terra Mystica is a civilization-building game for 2 to 5 players. At the beginning, you'll choose a faction, each of which has a home terrain and special abilities. As the game progresses, you'll terraform the land, build new buildings, and upgrade existing ones to collect income and score points. The player with the most points after six rounds wins!

Note that certain factions contain exceptions and additions that change or inactivate some rules for themselves.

Game Area Components

At any given moment, each player will have the following resources:

• Workers: White cubes. Usually earned from Dwellings and can be spent to build new buildings or terraform hexes.
• Coins: Usually earned from Trading Posts and from taking bonus tiles not chosen by other players. Can be spent to build new buildings.
• Priests: Meeples. These are usually earned from Temples and Sanctuaries. Can be spent to increase position on the cult tracks and to upgrade your terraforming and shipping.
• Power: Purple discs are placed in three bowls, labeled I, II, and III. Power is typically gained from Trading Posts, Strongholds, and from other players building near you.

Players also have the following things in or near their faction boards:

• Buildings: The cost to build each building is given underneath it. When a building is in play, it exposes resources, which can then be earned during the income phase.
• Faction Terrain Cycle: Your faction's home terrain is at the top. All others are in a circle around it, separated by spades. Your buildings can only be placed in your faction's home terrain. On this circle, the closer another terrain is to your home terrain, the fewer spades needed to terraform it into your home terrain.
• Spade Exchange Rate: The higher this is, the fewer workers are needed to terraform a space. (Darklings don't have this.)
• Shipping: The higher this is, the more river spaces you can skip for adjacency. (Dwarves and Fakirs don't have this.)
• Faction Special Ability: Each faction has at least one unique ability. At minimum, you'll have one ability by default, and another when your Stronghold is built.

The board as a whole contains the following features:

• Game Map: Self-explanatory.
• Round Tracker: There are six rounds in the game, each represented by a tile. During each round, building a specific building or taking a specific action awards bonus points. At the end of a round, you will receive an additional bonus based on how far you've advanced on the cult tracks (except during the last round).
• Power Actions: Each provides a bonus when used, and can be claimed by any player for the appropriate power cost. These can each be used once per round.
• Cult Tracks: There are four Cult Tracks: fire, water, earth, and air. Players receive a bonus at the end of each round based on their progress here. At the end of the game, the player who advanced the furthest gets additional points.
• Bonus Tiles: These are worth additional income or bonus points. At any given moment, each player will claim one of them, then exchange them when they pass for the round, so there will be three unclaimed ones to choose from.
• Favor Tiles: These are worth additional income, bonus points, and cult spaces. They are claimed for building a Temple or Sanctuary.
• Town Tiles: These are worth bonus points and some other one-time bonus. They are claimed when a player builds a Town (4+ adjacent buildings with 7+ power).

Setup

Before the game begins, each player does the following:

1. In turn order, each player selects a faction to play as.
2. In turn order, each player places one of their Dwellings on the map on any hex of their home terrain. (Chaos Magicians don't place a dwelling yet.)
3. In reverse turn order, each player places a second Dwelling on the map on any hex of their home terrain. (Nomads will place a third Dwelling. Chaos Magicians place their only Dwelling after all other players.)
4. In reverse turn order, each player claims a Bonus Tile. Any bonus tiles not claimed get a coin placed on them (to incentivize them being picked later).

Gameplay

Rounds

Terra Mystica is played across six rounds. Each round is broken into three phases:

1. Income Phase: Any icon with an open hand under represents income. These will generally be found on spaces under built buildings, your Bonus Tile, and some Favor Tiles.
2. Action Phase: Players take turns taking a single action. This phase ends when all players have passed.
3. Cult Phase: Each player gets a bonus based on their progression on any Cult Track specified by the Round Tracker. For every space advanced on the given Cult Track, players get the specified bonus. If this bonus involves terraforming, this is completed in turn order.

Actions

One turn consists of taking one action (with possible free power conversions before or after). Note that certain actions will be worth points based on the Round Tracker.

• Terraform Land: You may terraform one hex. The space you are terraforming must be adjacent to an existing building. Terraforming costs "spades", one for each "phase" away from your home terrain. The maximum cost to terraform any land is 3 Spades. At the beginning of the game, a space costs 3 workers, but this can be improved later. If this space becomes your faction's home terrain (or was to begin with), you may build a Dwelling by paying the appropriate cost. (Darklings pay Priests to do this instead of Workers. Halflings score 1 point for each terraform performed this way. Dwarves and Fakirs may pay a cost to terraform/build one space further away and gain points.) Cost: Workers
• Upgrade Building: Replace one building type with another. A Dwelling can be upgraded to a Trading Post. If the building is adjacent to another player's building, you pay the lower cost. Otherwise, the higher cost. A Trading Post can be upgraded to either a Stronghold or a Temple. A Temple can be upgraded to a Sanctuary. If you build a Temple or Sanctuary, you also get a Favor Tile (2 if playing as Chaos Magicians). After building your Stronghold, you get an additional special ability unique to your faction. Cost: Workers and Coins
• Improve Spade Exchange Rate: By paying the cost given, move your Spade Exchange Rate up one step. You gain 6 VP and reduce the number of workers needed to gain a Spade. (Darklings have no Spade Exchange Rate. Halflings can upgrade at a reduced cost.) Cost: Workers, Priests, and Coins
• Improve Shipping: By paying the cost given, move your Shipping up one step (starting at 0, ending at 3). The number of shipping steps equals the number of river spaces you can skip when determining adjacency. (Dwarves and Fakirs cannot do this. The Shipping track for Mermaids ranges from 1-5.) Cost: Priests and Coins
• Send a Priest to a Cult Track: Move the specified number of spaces up the track. If you pass by any gates containing Power, gain that number of Power. The Priest will remain there for the rest of the game. To advance to space 10 of any track, you need a key. Keys are gained from forming a Town (4+ adjacent buildings with 7+ power). Cost: 1 Priest
• Special Action: Take any action indicated by an orange octagon. There are six on the board and cost Power. Each can only be done once per round. Once a player does it, it is "closed". Other actions may be printed on faction boards, Favor Tiles, or Bonus Tiles. Cost: varies
• Pass: Gain any bonus points from your Bonus Tiles or Divine Tiles (Engineers get a bonus if their Stronghold is built), then select a new Bonus Tile. If you are the first player to pass, you will be the first player in the next round. (If "Variable Turn Order" is enabled, turn order will be in the order each player passed. Otherwise, it will proceed clockwise from the first player to pass.) You may no longer take actions for the rest of this round.

Buildings

If you build anything next to another player's building, they have an option to gain Power. Each building type has a power level associated with it: Dwellings are worth 1, Trading Posts and Temples are worth 2, Strongholds and Sanctuaries are worth 3. For each power level on buildings directly adjacent (i.e., not across any rivers) to the one you built, they can gain 1 power. However, they will also lose VP equal to the amount gained this way minus 1. This action is optional. (If any player accepts this power gain as a result of the Cultists' building activity, the Cultists can advance one step on any cult track.)

If your move results in four or more directly adjacent buildings with a total power level of 7 or more, this forms a Town. If the Sanctuary is one of those buildings, you only need 3. One Divine Tile reduces the power requirement to 6. Towns are worth additional points, a one-time bonus, and an opportunity to advance to space 10 on a Cult Track. Any new buildings directly adjacent to a Town are considered part of the same town and can't be used to form a new one. However, two Towns can be merged once each is established. (Witches and Swarmlings get extra bonuses for forming a Town. Mermaids can include one river tile in their town.)

Before building anything, you have the opportunity to convert Power into resources or downgrade other resources (e.g., turn a Priest into a Worker, or a Worker into a Coin). You may also move any number of power discs from bowl II to bowl III, then remove the same amount of power in bowl II from the game. This can be useful if you need to get power immediately.

Power

Each player has 12 Power tokens distributed among three Bowls. Power actions require Power in Bowl III. There are three ways to gain Power

• Income
• An opponent builds structures adjacent to yours
• Advance on the Cult Tracks

However, you do not gain new Power tokens. Instead, you move existing ones from one Bowl to a higher Bowl. Likewise, when spending Power tokens, they are not lost but moved back to the start (Bowl I).

When you gain Power, this is what happens: If there are Power tokens in Bowl I, move one token from Bowl I to Bowl II for each Power you have gained. If there are no Power tokens in Bowl I, but there are in Bowl II, move one token from Bowl II to Bowl III for each Power you have gained. If all your Power tokens are in Bowl III, nothing happens (you cannot gain further Power).

When you spend Power, you move Power tokens from Bowl III to Bowl I.

End of Game

The game ends after 6 rounds. Each player earns bonus VP based on the following:

• The player with the largest connected civilization earns 18 VP. The second-largest civilization earns 12 VP. The third largest earns 6 VP. Ties involve points being split between players.
• For each Cult Track, the highest player scores 8 VP, the second highest scores 4 VP, and the third highest scores 2 VP.
• Each player earns 1 VP for every 3 coins left in their supply. All resources are automatically downgraded to coins for this. (Alchemists instead gain 1 point for every 2 coins.)

The player with the most points wins!

Factions

For beginners, Witches, Nomads, Mermaids, and Halflings are generally recommended as they have the most straightforward abilities.

Name	Home Terrain	Initial Ability	Ability from Building Stronghold	Other
Alchemists	Swamps (black)	Any time you would be able to do a free conversion, you may trade 1 point for 1 coin, or 2 coins for 1 point. (This last part is done automatically during final scoring.)	Gain 12 power. Each time you terraform (from any action or effect), gain 2 power.
Auren	Forests (green)	--	Gain a Divine Tile. Gain Special Action that allows you to advance two spaces on any Cult Track.
Chaos Magicians	Wastelands (red)	When you build a Temple or Sanctuary, gain two Divine Tiles instead of one.	Gain Special Action: Take two turns in a row.	You start the game with only one Dwelling, placed after all other players have placed their Dwellings.
Cultists	Plains (brown)	When another player gains power as a result of your building activity, advance one step on any Cult Track. If no players chose to gain power, gain 1 power. If no player could gain power, nothing happens.	Gain 7 VP
Darklings	Swamps (black)	When terraforming, you can use one Priest as a spade. Gain 2 VP each time you do this.	You may exchange a Worker for a Priest (up to 3).	Darklings have no Spade Exchange Rate because of their ability to use Priests for terraforming.
Dwarves	Mountains (gray)	You may "Tunnel" (pay 2 extra Workers) to skip one hex when terraforming or building a Dwelling. Gain 4 VP each time you do this. When scoring, your largest civilization counts all buildings as if they could be reached with this ability.	You only need to pay one Worker to skip a space for terraforming or building	Dwarves can not use rivers for adjacency (in other words, no Shipping)
Engineers	Mountains (gray)	All buildings cost 1 less Worker and 1 less coin (minimum of 1). You may build a bridge for 2 Workers.	When you pass, gain 3 VP for each of your bridges with your buildings on both sides.	The trade-off for the Engineers' ability is that buildings have lower production rates.
Fakirs	Deserts (yellow)	You may "Carpet Flight" (spend 1 Priest) to skip one hex when terraforming or building a Dwelling. Gain 4 VP each time you do this. When scoring, your largest civilization counts all buildings as if they could be reached with this ability.	You may use the Priest to skip two hexes.	Fakirs can not use rivers for adjacency (in other words, no Shipping)
Giants	Wastelands (red)	You must pay the cost of two terraformings (i.e., 6 Workers, if no Spade upgrades have been taken) to change any hex into Wasteland	Gain Special Action: Terraform any land into Wasteland for no cost.	Because of their initial ability, Giants cannot terraform only by steps
Halflings	Plains (brown)	Gain 1 VP each time you terraform	You may terraform up to three steps, which can be split between any number of hexes. If this results in a plain, you may build a Dwelling on it at the appropriate cost.
Mermaids	Lakes (blue)	Shipping ranges from 1 to 5 (instead of 0 to 3). Towns can include one river space, allowing Towns to cross rivers.	Upgrade Shipping once for free. Gain the appropriate VP.	Mermaids start the game with Shipping available. If a Town includes a river hex, your Town Tile is placed on that river hex.
Nomads	Deserts (yellow)	During setup, place a third Dwelling after all other players have placed two.	Gain Special Action: Terraform one hex into a desert for free. You may build a Dwelling on this hex immediately (paying the appropriate cost). Does not work across a bridge or using Shipping.
Swarmlings	Lakes (blue)	All buildings cost 1 Worker more and 1 coin more than usual. Gain 3 Workers when you build a Town	Gain Special Action: Upgrade a Dwelling to a Trading Post for free.	The trade-off for the Swarmlings' ability is that buildings have higher production rates.
Witches	Forests (green)	Gain 5 VP when you build a Town.	Gain Special Action: Build a Dwelling for free on any forest hex, regardless of adjacency.

Variants

Special Landscapes

• Each Faction has a special landscape to place. They can only place one. It does not upgrade.
• During the terraforming action, you may place the special landscape instead of your home terrain (unless otherwise stated).
• The special landscape is considered a Structure with a Power value of 1. It counts toward forming a Town. Like other structures, you get power when another player builds next to it and other players get power when you build it next to theirs.
• You may NOT place the special landscape during the Cult Bonus phase.
• The special landscape does not count towards scoring for any specified type of structure. It is not considered a subtype of any existing Structure types (i.e., it is not a Dwelling, Trading Post, Stronghold, Temple, or Sanctuary).
• When taking the "2 Spades" Power action, if you use the first Spade to transform a hex into the special landscape, you may not use the second Spade to transform a hex that is adjacent to the special landscape.

Fire and Ice

This variant introduces new factions and terrain types.

Playing with custom board layout

A new custom board layout option is available only in training mode. When the option is selected, at the start of the game any of the player is able to load a custom board from text file (.txt). The file should have the following format:

• max 9 lines
• max 13 columns
• odd and even lines should have different number of columns.
  • example 1: if 1st line has 13 columns, second line should have 12, 3rd should have 13, 4th should have 12 etc.
  • example 2: if 1st line has 12 columns, second line should have 13, 3rd should have 12, 4th should have 13 etc.
• each hex type is represented by a letter: R = Red (Wasteland) Y = Yellow (Desert) U = Brown (Plains) K = Black (Swamp) B = Blue (Reef/Island) G = Green (Forest) S = Gray (Mountain/Stone) I = rIver

Here is an example file content representing the base map:
U,S,G,B,Y,R,U,K,R,G,B,R,K
Y,I,I,U,K,I,I,Y,K,I,I,Y
I,I,K,I,S,I,G,I,G,I,S,I,I
G,B,Y,I,I,R,B,I,R,I,R,U
K,U,R,B,K,U,S,Y,I,I,G,K,B
S,G,I,I,Y,G,I,I,I,U,S,U
I,I,I,S,I,R,I,G,I,Y,K,B,Y
Y,B,U,I,I,I,B,K,I,S,U,S
R,K,S,B,R,G,Y,U,S,I,B,G,R

Here is another example file content representing the Fire&Ice map:
U,I,U,K,Y,I,S,G,R,B,Y,B
R,Y,I,B,S,R,I,I,I,Y,U,K,S
G,K,I,I,I,U,G,Y,I,I,I,I
Y,S,G,Y,K,I,B,R,U,I,G,B,G
I,I,U,I,I,R,K,G,S,I,U,K
G,R,I,I,G,I,I,I,U,B,I,S,R
S,I,Y,S,B,R,G,I,R,S,I,K
K,B,I,K,U,S,B,I,Y,K,I,R,B
S,G,I,R,Y,K,Y,I,B,U,I,U

Fast auction explanation

(explanations taken from https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2506595080, check the link for extra details and example)

Summary

All players will select a faction that will be put up for auction. Players will simultaneously and secretly bid how many VP they are willing to lose in order to win that faction. After all players enter in their maximum bids, the auction proceeds automatically with each player maximizing their own personal value. The starting turn order is tied to the factions themselves, so the first faction listed in the auction will be the starting player after the auction is over.

How does it work?

When setting the maximum bids, each player is essentially predicting what the final scores of each faction will be. For example, let’s say the current factions up for bid are Cultists, Giants, and Mermaids and you think the final scores will be something like 135, 120, and 130 if they all started with 40VP. In that case your maximum bids should be 15, 0, and 10 since you are equally happy to take Cultists with a bid of 15 as you are taking Giants at 0.