Arcs rules: how to play and how to score
Reviewed on 20 October 2026 against the publisher’s rulebook. How we check
Arcs plays 2 to 4 players over several chapters: each leads a spacefaring society and scores Power by fulfilling ambitions declared during play. Here are the essential rules, setup and scoring, based on the official rules.
- Players
- 2 to 4
- Play time
- About 30 minutes per player
- Winner
- The most Power, once a player reaches the threshold or after chapter 5
Arcs quick rules
- The goal
- You score Power by fulfilling ambitions. The game ends at the end of a chapter if a player has at least 33 Power with 2 players, 30 with 3 or 27 with 4, and after chapter 5 at the latest. The most Power wins.
- Leading a round
- Each player holds six action cards. The player with initiative leads: they play a card and take one action per pip, based on its suit. Administration: tax, repair, influence. Aggression: battle, move, secure. Construction: build, repair. Mobilization: move, influence.
- Following: Surpass, Copy, Pivot
- The others play a card in turn. Surpass: same suit, higher number, all actions. Copy: a face-down card, one action from the lead card. Pivot: another suit, one action from your card. The highest Surpass takes initiative.
- Initiative and ambitions
- Playing an extra card face down seizes the initiative for the next round, once per round. The leader may declare the ambition on their card: they place the highest ambition marker there, and their card is then worth zero.
- The actions
- Tax a city for a resource, build cities, starports and ships, move your ships, repair, place an agent in the Court, then secure a Court card where you have the most agents.
- Control and battle
- You control a system with the most fresh ships. In battle, one die per ship: Skirmish, Assault or Raid. A hit piece is damaged, then destroyed; rival pieces you destroy become Trophies.
- Resources and the Prelude
- Right after playing your card, you may spend resources for extra actions: Material, Fuel, Weapons, Relics, Psionics. Taxing a rival city captures one of their agents: a Captive.
- End of the chapter
- When nobody has cards left, each declared ambition is scored: first place takes the higher number of every marker, second place the lower. Then scored Trophies and Captives are returned, and ambitions grow in value.
- Beginner traps
- A declared ambition is open to all. Destroying a rival city has a cost: you lose your resources and Guild cards of that type. The card played to seize the initiative gives no actions.
How to score Arcs
- Power
- Your position on the Power track at the end of the game. Power is only gained from declared ambitions, at the end of each chapter.
- Ambitions
- Tycoon, Tyrant, Warlord, Keeper, Empath. First place scores the higher number of every marker on the ambition, second place the lower; a tie for first gives each tied player second place.
- City bonuses
- Sole first place in an ambition: 2 extra Power if your board’s +2 slot is uncovered, 5 if both the +2 and +3 slots are.
- End and tiebreaker
- The game ends at the threshold (33, 30 or 27 Power by player count) or after chapter 5. On a tie, the player earliest in turn order wins.
Worked example
With 3 players, Tycoon is worth 7 for first place and 3 for second. Emma has 3 icons, Jake 2, Alex none. Emma scores 7, plus 2 from her +2 slot: 9 Power. Jake scores 3. Alex, with no icons, scores nothing.
Common mistakes
- Scoring an undeclared ambition: only those with a marker count.
- Giving the city bonus to a player tied for first: they only get second place.
- Scoring with nothing: you need at least one icon, Captive or Trophy.
- Forgetting to return Trophies and Captives after their ambition is scored.
How to set up Arcs
Setup takes about 10 minutes: the table, the setup card, then each player’s pieces. For a first game, leave Leaders & Lore aside.
The table
- Place the map, the 18 battle dice and the 25 resource tokens.
- Give the initiative marker to a random player.
- Shuffle the 20 action cards marked 2 to 6: this is the action deck.With 4 players, add the 8 cards marked 1 and 7.
- Place the 3 ambition markers, blue side up, in Available Markers, the chapter marker on 1 and the zero marker in its slot.
- Shuffle the Guild and Vox cards, and reveal 3 with 2 players, 4 with 3 or 4 players: this is the Court.The rest forms the Court deck.
The setup card
- Draw a setup card for your player count.
- In each cluster marked Out of Play, place a path marker on the gate and 3 out-of-play markers on the planets.2 clusters out of play with 2 or 3 players, 1 with 4 players.
- With 2 players, place the 6 resources of the covered planets on the ambition boxes that count them.For scoring, they count as a third player’s.
Each player
- Each player takes their board, 5 cities, 5 starports, 15 ships and 10 agents, and places their Power marker on 0.
- The player with initiative places 3 ships and 1 city in 1A, 3 ships and 1 starport in 1B, 2 ships in 1C; the others do the same in 2, 3 and 4.With 2 players, 2 ships in each of the two 1C systems.
- Each player gains the resources of the planets in their A and B systems.
- Each player draws 6 action cards.With 2 players, the player without initiative may redraw their 6 cards once.
Leaders & Lore
- After a game or two: each player picks a Leader and a Lore card, going counterclockwise.The Leader replaces the starting pieces and resources.
Frequently asked questions
How much Power do you need to win Arcs?
33 with 2 players, 30 with 3, 27 with 4, reached at the end of a chapter. Otherwise, the game ends after chapter 5 and the most Power wins.
Who takes the initiative in Arcs?
The player who seized it by playing an extra card; otherwise, whoever surpassed with the highest number; otherwise, the leader keeps it.
Do you have to declare an ambition to score it?
No: a declared ambition scores for everyone. Only the marker on it matters.
Ludingo’s Arcs sheet was last reviewed on 20 October 2026, based on: undecent.fr, cardboardappendix.com 1, cardboardappendix.com 2, BoardGameGeek.