Evolution Rules

Overview
Evolution is a game where players introduce species into an ever-changing ecosystem, and
evolve them trait by trait to ensure their survival. Food is scarce and carnivores run rampant.
Your choices will determine the fate of the world's species: which will survive, which will thrive,
and which will disappear from the planet forever.

Goal
The goal of Evolution is to gain the most points by feeding your species, increasing their
population, and evolving them in a manner to best ensure their survival.

Setup
 Place one Species Board in front of each player.
o Place a marker on the “1” space of the Size and Population tracks.
 Give each player one bag.
 Place the Plant Food and Meat Food aside. This is the Food Bank.
 Shuffle the deck of cards and place it face down.
 Randomly determine a first player. Give this player the active player marker.

Playing the Game

Each round has 4 phases; Deal the Cards, Select Food for the Round, Play Cards, and Feed the
Species.

1) Deal the Cards

Deal each player 3 cards, plus 1 card for each species they have in front of them. If the deck
runs out of cards during this phase, then this will be the last round of the game.

2) Select Food for the Round

There is a number in the bottom right of each card. This number represents an amount of
Plant Food. Each player secretly chooses one card and puts it in the center of the table face
down. These are the Food Cards. These cards will be flipped over later to determine how
much food will be available during Feeding.

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3) Play Cards
The active player plays all of the cards he wants to play for the round. He may choose to
save cards by keeping them in his hand (for a faster way to play see the Quick-Play Variant).
There are three things a player can do with each card:

Play a Trait
Place the Trait on a species by putting it facedown above the species. A species
may not have any duplicate traits and may not have more than 3 Traits. If a
species already has 3 Traits, the player may play a Trait on the species by first
discarding a Trait that is already on that species.
Create a New Species
Discard a card by placing it in a face up discard pile. Take a new Species Board
and put it in front of you with Size “1” and Population “1”. New species must be
placed to the left or right of all of your existing species; they may not be placed
between existing species.
Increase Size or Population
Discard a card by placing it in a face up discard pile. Choose a species and move
the marker on the Size Track or the Population Track up by 1. A species cannot
go beyond Size 7 or Population 7.

Play passes to the left and the next player plays all of the cards he wants to play. When
everyone has played their cards, flip all of the played Traits face up.

4) Feed the Species

Reveal the Food Cards
The active player reveals all of the Food Cards from the center of the table. He adds
up the food on these cards, takes that much plant food from the Food Bank, and
places it in the center of the table. This is the Food Supply for the round. The
revealed cards are placed into the face up discard pile.

If a player has more than one trait that triggers at this time, he may choose the
order in which they trigger.

Feeding
Beginning with the active player and continuing clockwise, each player must feed 1
of their species. This process continues until all of the Food Supply has been
exhausted, or until all of the species are fed. There are some important rules that
apply during the feeding phase:
 New species can eat plant food and meat food, but a species that has been
modified with the Carnivore trait may never eat plant food (even when
affected by traits such as Long Neck or Cooperation).

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  When a species receives food, it is placed in the space above the Population
track starting with the "1" Population space.
 A species may never choose to not Feed or Attack if it does not have food
equal to its Population. Sometimes this means a player must choose to have
his carnivore eat one of his own species... even if it has horns!
 As soon as any species has food equal to its Population, it can no longer
receive any food. Sometimes this means the species will receive a portion of
what it would have received if it were still hungry.

Feeding Non-carnivorous Species

Place one plant food from the Food Supply onto the species board of the species
that is feeding. Keep in mind that some traits modify the amount of food that will
be taken from the Food Supply.

Feeding Carnivores
Carnivores cannot ever eat plant food. They feed by attacking other species. A
player may choose to attack another player’s species, or his own species. To
determine if an attack can be made, these conditions must be met:
 The Carnivore’s Size must be greater than the Size of the defending species.
 The Carnivore must have all traits necessary to overcome the defending
species’ defensive traits.
If the attack is successful:
1. Place food from the Meat Pile equal to the defending species’ Size on the
attacking Carnivore’s species board.
2. Reduce the Population of the defending species by 1. If the Population of the
defending species is reduced to 0, it goes extinct. Discard the species and all
Traits on the species. The defending player draws a number of cards equal to
the number of Traits discarded. If the deck runs out of cards, then next
round will be the last round.

End of Feeding
Feeding ends when all of the plant food has been taken from the Food Supply, or
when all species have food equal to their Population.
 Reduce the Population of each species to the amount of food it has.
o If a species did not eat any food, it goes extinct. Discard the species and
any Traits on the species. Draw a number of cards equal to the number of
Traits discarded. If the deck runs out of cards, then next round will be the
last round.
 Each player places all of the food from surviving species into his bag.
 If a player has no surviving species at the end of a round he gets one new
species.
 Excess plant food in the Food Supply remains for the next Feeding.
 Pass the active player marker to the left

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End of the Game Scoring
Scoring takes place after the final round:
 Each food in a player’s bag is worth 1 point.
 Each Trait on a surviving species is worth 1 point.
 Each species is worth points equal to its Population.

Add up each player’s points to determine a winner. If there is a tie, the player with the most
food is the winner. If there is still a tie, the player with the most surviving species is the winner.
If there is still a tie, play again.

Quick-Play Variant
During Playing Cards all players play their cards at the same time without looking at what their
opponents are doing.

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 Traits
This section explains how each card works, and how to resolve interactions between cards that
might be confusing

 Ambush - Allows a Carnivore to attack species protected by Warning Call. When attacking
with this species, you may discard a card from your hand to ignore the effect of any one
Trait card.

 Burrowing – When this species has food equal to its Population it may not be attacked by a
Carnivore.

 Camouflage – A Carnivore must have the Good Eyesight trait to attack a species with this
trait.

 Carnivore – Allows this species to attack another species during Feeding. The carnivorous
species may never receive plant food, even with the help of other traits such as Long Neck
or Cooperation.

 Climbing – Carnivores must have this trait to attack a species with this trait.

 Cooperation –When this species receives food, the species to the right receives one food of
the same type.

 Fat Tissue – If this species has already received food equal to its Population, it may place
addition food on the Fat Tissue trait card. The food stored on Fat Tissue may not be greater
than the Size of the species. The food stored on Fat Tissue is neither plant food nor meat
food - it is simple fat tissue. When the Food Cards are revealed at the beginning of Feeding,
move the food on this Trait to the species. This does not trigger Cooperation or any other
trait that triggers when a species receives food. Any food remaining on this Trait at the end
of the game is discarded and does not count as points.

 Fertile – Increase this species’ Population by 1 when the Food Cards are revealed at the
beginning of Feeding.

 Foraging – During feeding, this species may take 2 food from the Food Supply instead of 1.

 Good Eyesight – Allows a Carnivore to attack a species with Camouflage.

 Hard Shell – Add 3 to this species Size when determining if a Carnivore can attack it.

 Horns – Reduce the attacking Carnivore’s Population by 1 after attacking this species.

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 Long Neck – Receive two plant food from the Food Bank when the food cards are revealed.

 Pack Animal – Add 3 to this species’ Size when determining if it can attack another species.

 Scavenger – Receive 1 meat food when any Carnivore attacks a species. This trait may be
placed on a Carnivore. In this case, the carnivore gets 1 extra food every time it makes a
successful attack (by doing a better job at cleaning the bones).

 Symbiosis – If this species is larger in Size than the species to its right, then the species to
the right cannot be attacked.

 Unstable DNA – Receive a new species when the Food Cards are revealed.

 Warning Call – A Carnivore must have the Ambush trait to attack the species to the right
and left of this species.

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 Rules Summary
1) Deal the Cards
Deal each player 3 cards plus 1 card for each species.

2) Select Food for the Round

Each player places one face-down card in the center of the table. The number on the
card represents the amount of food that will be available that round.

3) Play Cards
Each player plays as many cards as he wants:
1. Play a trait on a species
 A species may not have any duplicate traits
 A species may not have more than 3 traits, but you may remove an
existing trait card in order to play another trait card.
2. Discard a card from your hand
 Create a new species
 Increase the Population or Size of a species

4) Feed the Species

1. Reveal the food cards and place that much plant food in the Food Supply.
2. In turn order, players may choose to do one of the following:
a. Eat from the Food Supply
b. Attack another species (the attacker must be a Carnivore)
i. Determine if the attack is possible
ii. Gain meat food equal to the defending species’ Size
iii. Reduce the defending species’ Population by 1
Feeding ends when the Food Supply is empty or all species have food equal to
their Population.
3. End of Feeding
a. Reduce each species’ Population to the amount of food it has.
b. Players place food into their bags.
c. Pass the active player marker to the left.

End of the Game

 If the deck runs out of cards shuffle the discard pile. This is the last round of the game.
If this happens during Feeding or End of Round play one more round.
 Scoring:
o 1 point per Food
o 1 point per Trait
o 1 point per Population