How to play Terraforming Mars

How to play

Setup: Stack the 9 ocean tiles on their space, put the oxygen and temperature markers at their starts and the generation marker on 1. Everyone takes a player board, puts a marker on 20 on the terraform rating (TR) track and, in the standard game, 1 production of every resource. Leave out the Corporate Era cards (red-and-white icon) for early games. A new player takes a beginner corporation: 42 MegaCredits (M€) and 10 free project cards. Everyone else is dealt 2 corporations and 10 project cards, keeps one corporation and pays 3 M€ per card kept. The first generation starts straight with actions.

Each generation: The first player marker moves one seat clockwise. In research, draw 4 cards and buy any of them for 3 M€ each; there's no hand limit. In the action phase, take 1 or 2 actions on your turn, clockwise, until everyone has passed; once you pass, you're out until next generation. In production, all energy turns into heat, then you gain M€ equal to your TR plus your M€ production, and each other resource by its production.

Your actions: Play a card: meet its requirement, pay its cost and apply its effects. Steel pays 2 M€ toward a card with a building tag and titanium 3 M€ toward a space tag. Green cards act once, blue cards keep an effect or an action usable once per generation, and red events go face down. You can also use a standard project or a blue-card action, claim a milestone, fund an award, turn 8 plants into a greenery, or spend 8 heat to raise the temperature.

Standard projects: Always open and repeatable: sell cards for 1 M€ each, or pay 11 M€ for 1 energy production, 14 M€ to raise the temperature, 18 M€ for an ocean, 23 M€ for a greenery, or 25 M€ for a city plus 1 M€ production.

Terraforming: Each temperature step (2 °C, from −30 to +8 °C), oxygen step (1%, up to 14%) or ocean (9 in all) raises your TR by 1. A parameter at its goal gives no more TR. Oceans go only on blue areas and pay 2 M€ for each one beside any tile you place later. A greenery must go next to your own tile if possible; a city can't touch another city.

Milestones and awards: Claim a milestone you meet for 8 M€; only 3 of the 5 can be claimed, each worth 5 VP. Funding an award costs 8, then 14, then 20 M€, and only 3 get funded. At the end, the leader in each scores 5 VP and second place 2, whoever paid.

Game end: Once all three parameters reach their goals, finish that generation. After production, everyone may turn plants into greenery one last time. Score TR, awards, milestones, 1 VP per greenery, 1 VP per greenery touching each of your cities, and VP on cards. Ties go to the most M€.

Strategy

TR is income and score: Every terraforming step pays you 1 M€ in every later production phase and counts 1 VP at the end, so early TR is worth far more than late TR. That's why the 8-heat and 8-plant conversions and the parameter-raising cards stay useful all game. Production first, points later: A step of production pays out in every remaining generation, so it's strongest early; a one-off gain or a card worth VP is better late, when few production phases are left. Watch the parameters, because the whole table sets the pace: the more everyone terraforms, the sooner it ends. Buy cards with a plan: Keeping a card costs 3 M€ and selling it back as a patent returns only 1 M€. Early on, buy cards that fit your corporation and your production. A card with a requirement you won't meet soon ties up money you need now, though a requirement only has to be true when you play it. Your corporation sets the direction: Tharsis Republic gains M€ production and 3 M€ when it places a city, PhoboLog's titanium is worth an extra 1 M€, and ThorGate pays less for power cards. Lean into what your corporation rewards, and use steel and titanium on the tags they pay for. The map: Greenery is worth a point, raises oxygen, and gives a point to the owner of each city beside it, rival or not. Put your cities where greenery will surround them, and where your own greenery will be forced next to your tiles. Placed oceans give 2 M€ to anyone who builds beside them, and many spaces print bonus resources or cards. Milestones and awards: A milestone is 5 VP for 8 M€, and only three can be claimed, so claim yours the moment you qualify. Fund an award you expect to lead at the end; it scores for the leader whoever paid, and the price rises with each award funded. The last generations: When the parameters are nearly done, turn money into points: standard projects, VP cards and a final greenery from spare plants.

Tips

- Energy left over at the end of a generation becomes heat, so heat production isn't your only source of heat. - Steel only pays for building tags (2 M€ each) and titanium only for space tags (3 M€ each); overpaying gives no change. - You can buy none of the 4 research cards; an unplayable card can later be sold for 1 M€. - A card's requirement only needs to be met when you play it, and you may still play a card whose parameter is already maxed. - Your M€ income is your TR plus your M€ production, which can go negative but never below −5. - Only 3 of the 5 milestones will ever be claimed, so check them every generation. - Every greenery beside a city scores for that city's owner, so think before building next to a rival's city. - After the final production, you get one last chance to turn plants into greenery.

Player count & time

1–5 players in about 90–120 minutes; bigger groups, the Corporate Era cards and the Draft variant all add time, and the rulebook recommends the last two only once you know the game. The solo game uses the Corporate Era cards: you start at TR 14 with two neutral cities, play without milestones or awards, and must complete all three parameters by the end of generation 14 or lose. The Automa expansion (2024) adds another solo mode, with simulated rival corporations to beat instead of a race against the clock.

Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition

A standalone card game in the same universe, for 1–4 players in about 60 minutes. You still run a corporation trying to make Mars habitable and profitable, but everyone chooses actions at the same time and resolves them together, so there's little waiting. It is a separate game, not an expansion. It suits groups who like the theme but find the base game too long.

Expansions

Hellas & Elysium and, since 2024, Amazonis & Vastitas and Utopia & Cimmeria each give you two maps of other regions of Mars, with new placement bonuses, ocean areas, milestones and awards. Venus Next adds Venus and its own terraforming track. Prelude adds prelude cards that jump-start your opening, plus 5 corporations; Prelude 2 (2024) needs Prelude and adds more, mostly tied to the other expansions. Colonies sends trade fleets to colony tiles across the outer solar system. Turmoil, an expert expansion, adds political delegates and global events and about 30 minutes. Milestones & Awards (2024) gives 70 tokens for choosing different milestones and awards each game. The Big Box stores everything released before October 2024 and includes 3D tiles.

Common beginner mistake

Buying every interesting card in research and then lacking the M€ to play them. Each card costs 3 M€ to keep and returns only 1 M€ if you sell it, and early money is tight. Buy the cards you can play in the next generation or two that fit your corporation. A close second is forgetting that energy turns into heat each production phase: plan heat and energy together.