Downlink: The Game of Planetary Discovery

In Downlink, players lead a space agency to develop missions of planetary exploration. Resources are limited, and players must constantly decide where to allocate them best to score the most points. They can choose to specialize in launching rockets, delivering spacecraft to targets, downlinking science data, or spread their resources across multiple areas to increase the likelihood of success. Key events require dice rolling, and team training is available to stack the odds in player's favor. A player’s turn consists of four sequential phases: Phase 1 – Trade Cards The objective in Phase 1 is to assemble the best hand for Phase 2 so that the player can perform various game actions. To assemble the best hand for Phase 2, a player may trade one or two cards with the Market (five face-up cards available to all players). A player may also discard any three cards into the TMC Discard Pile and draw three new cards. Phase 2 – Discard TMC Triplet and Perform Actions After discarding their TMC Triplet, the player may perform up to three actions in any order. Possible actions are: Retrieve a Card from the TMC Discard Pile Build a Rocket Build a Spacecraft Build a Science Instrument Enhance Ground System Add Resource Cubes to a Component on Earth Retrieve One Resource Cube Transfer Resource Cubes Launch a Rocket Move a Spacecraft Downlink Data from a Science Instrument Acquire New Discovery Cards Phase 3 – Make Discoveries With the right combination of Downlink Cards, players make scientific discoveries. Players may claim their Discovery cards once they have the right combination of Downlink cards. After completing the Discovery, the player scores the points indicated on the Discovery card. Phase 4 – Restore Hand At the end of their turn, each player draws new Playing Cards to restore their hand to six cards. Game End The game ends when a player reaches 30 or more points on their turn or if there are no cards left for a player to restore their hand to six cards. When one of these events happen, each player gets one last turn. The game can be lengthened or shortened by adjusting the number of points needed to win. After each player completes their last turn, they total up the number of points scored. The player with the highest total number of points wins. In the case of a tie, the player with the highest Discovery points wins.