Game rules

Zenith rules: how to play and how to win

Reviewed on 13 October 2026 against the publisher’s rulebook. How we check

Zenith plays 2 players, or 4 in two teams: two sides struggle for Influence on five planets, pulling their discs to their side. There are no points: three ways to win. Here are the essential rules and setup, based on the official rulebook.

Players: 2, or 4 in two teams
Play time: About 35 minutes
Winner: 3 discs from one planet, 4 from different planets or 5 in all

Zenith quick rules

The goal: Two sides struggle for Influence on Mercury, Venus, Terra, Mars and Jupiter, in the form of discs. Absolute victory: three discs from the same planet. Democratic victory: four discs from four different planets. Popular victory: five discs, from any planets. The game ends as soon as a player meets one of these conditions.
Influence: Each planet has its track, with a disc in the middle, three spaces on each side, then each player’s control zone. Each Influence you gain moves the disc one space toward you; when it reaches your control zone, you gain it, and extra Influence is lost. The first disc from a planet also gives its Bonus token.
A turn: On your turn, play a single Agent card from your hand: recruit that Agent, or discard the card to develop a Technology or become the Leader. Each card has a planet, by its color, and a Faction: Human, Robot or Animod. At the end of your turn, draw back up to four cards, five with the Leader badge, six on its Gold side.
Recruit an Agent: Place the card on your side, in its planet’s column, and pay its Credit cost, minus one per card already in that column. Then apply its effects left to right, always at least one Influence on its planet. Mobilize: place the top card of the deck in its column. Exile: discard the last card of a column. Transfer: take the last card of an opponent’s column.
Develop a Technology: Discard a card of the matching Faction and pay the Zenithium cost of the next level, 1 to 5, never skipping a level. Apply the new level’s effect and those of all levels below. The first to reach Level 2 of a Technology takes its Bonus token. All three Technologies at Level 1 give you one Influence anywhere; at Level 2, two; at Level 3, three.
Become the Leader: Discard a card, take the Leader badge and a bonus based on its Faction: one Zenithium for a Robot, three Credits for a Human, two cards mobilized for an Animod. Taken from your opponent, the badge goes Silver side up; if you already had it on Silver, flip it to Gold. It makes your hand larger.
Four players, in teams: Two teams of two, teammates side by side, share Credits, Zenithium and the Leader badge, but each keeps their own hand. Teams alternate, each teammate playing a full turn. Each teammate recruits on three planets only: Terra, Mars and Jupiter on the Diplomacy side; Mercury, Venus and Terra on the Technology side. Talk freely, but never show your cards.
The end of the game: There are no points to count. The game ends immediately when a player meets one of the three victory conditions: three discs from the same planet, four discs from different planets, or five discs in all.
Beginner pitfalls: Watch all three conditions at once, yours and your opponent’s: a disc one space from their zone is an emergency. Don’t always recruit at full price. Keep some Zenithium for Technologies. And remember a discarded card still counts: a Technology or the Leader badge.
With Secret Agents: The expansion adds ten Agent cards: five cost no Credits, the other five cost five Credits and their effects depend on what your opponent has, the Leader badge, Credits or Zenithium. A dot in the bottom-left corner marks them.

How to win Zenith

No points: There are no points: the game ends as soon as one side meets a victory condition, and there can be no tie.
Absolute victory: 3 Influence discs from the same planet.
Democratic victory: 4 discs from 4 strictly different planets.
Popular victory: 5 discs in all, from any planets.
With four players: Both teammates on the winning team win together.

Example ending

Emma already has one disc from Mercury, one from Venus and two from Terra: 4 discs, but from only 3 planets. She gains a Mars disc: 4 different planets, a democratic victory, and 5 discs in all, a popular victory. The game ends at once.

Common mistakes

Watching just one victory condition: all three count, for you and your opponent.
Counting 4 discs from 3 planets as a democratic victory: you need 4 different planets.
Finishing the round: the game ends immediately, the moment a condition is met.
With four players, naming only one winner: the whole team wins.

How to set up Zenith

The first three parts cover the 2-player game; with 4, also apply the last one. The rulebook has no 3-player game. A random player aid decides who goes first.

The boards

Place the Planet board between the two players.
Place 1 Influence disc of each color on the middle space of its planet.Purple for Mercury, orange for Venus, blue for Terra, red for Mars, green for Jupiter.
Assemble the Technology board using all 3 pieces.For your first game, use the S.U.N. configuration, from the letters printed on the pieces. After that, choose the configuration at random.
Place the 6 Tech markers on their starting spaces: 3 black and 3 white.
Place 1 random Bonus token, face up, on each of the 3 spaces of the Technology board and the 5 spaces of the Planet board.
Place the Diplomacy board on its 2-player side, and the Leader badge on its space.
Make a reserve near the boards: Influence discs, Credits, Zenithium, and Bonus tokens face down.

The cards

With Secret Agents, add the expansion’s 10 Agent cards to the game’s Agent cards.A dot in the bottom-left corner identifies them.
Shuffle all the Agent cards to make a deck.
Deal 4 Agent cards to each player: this is their starting hand.Each player keeps their hand secret.

Each player

Each player takes 12 Credits and 1 Zenithium.
Each player takes a random player aid: it decides who goes first.
The player who goes second gains 1 Terra Influence: they move the blue disc 1 space toward their control zone.Tip for a new player: they go second and also gain 1 Influence on Mars and 1 on Venus.
Before starting, each player may discard as many cards from their hand as they like, then draw the same number.For your first game, keep cards with low Credit costs.

With 4 players, in teams

Form two teams of two: teammates sit side by side, facing the other team.On each team, one player sits near the Diplomacy board, the other near the Technology board.
Place the Planet board between the two teams, and the Diplomacy board on its 4-player side.
Each player takes 12 Credits and 1 Zenithium, which teammates pool together.The rulebook doesn’t change this step for four players: it only says Credits, Zenithium and the Leader badge are shared by teammates.
Distribute the player aids, team side up: they decide which team goes first.
The team going second gains 1 Influence on Mars and 1 on Venus.With four players, there’s no starting Influence on Terra.

Frequently asked questions

How many cards do you hold in Zenith?

Four at the start and at the end of each turn; five with the Leader badge, six on its Gold side.

How do you win Zenith?

With 3 discs from the same planet, 4 discs from different planets, or 5 discs in all. The game ends as soon as one of these conditions is met.

Can you play Zenith with three players?

No. The rulebook only covers 2 players, or 4 in two teams of two.

Ludingo’s Zenith sheet was last reviewed on 13 October 2026, based on: playpunk.com 1, playpunk.com 2, playpunk.com 3, BoardGameGeek.