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Hidden Ark (2023)

Players

1–4

Best: 4

Playing time

60–90 min

Age

10+

6.88

Average rating

Ratings

2.50/5

Weight

#15407

BGG rank

Outside top 5,000

Designer:Tobias Hall

Artist:Angela Rizza

Publisher:All Or None Games

Average rating, ratings count, weight and rank are sourced from BoardGameGeek (BGG).

Game DNA

Strategy5.0

Luck5.0

Interaction2.0

Complexity5.0

Theme5.0

This game's strategy, luck, interaction, complexity and theme.

NauticalEnvironmentalAnimalsSet CollectionOpen DraftingGrid MovementSolo / Solitaire Game

Overview

Hundreds of fish species are today critically endangered. To make a difference, The Hidden Ark initiative was formed. An alliance of science groups coming together from all over the world, dedicated to make a change and save species from complete extinction. The obstacles are plenty and fundings will be hard to come by. Research and expert knowledge in different areas will be needed, as well as an infrastructure around the world and coordinated rescue operations on the vast oceans. Are you up for the task?

Hidden Ark is a board game about making a change! As one of the Hidden Ark science teams, you're committed to the rescue cause and will lead your team to be as successful as possible! You will build science stations, send out your vessels on rescue operations, and evolve your expertise in different fields.

In the game, the players will draft opportunity tokens supplying them with different research studies, funding and technological upgrades. They will then choose an action row on their player board and perform all available actions. Actions include building science stations or rescue vessels, researching different areas of science, upgrading your player board, and moving your vessels to perform rescue operations.

To perform a rescue operation, a player must move their rescue vessel onto a species card on the game board and meet the cards research requirements. If successful, the player has saved the species and will keep the card for points and benefits. Throughout the game you will increase your research abilities, expand your armada of rescue vessels and science stations, and upgrade your Player Board with new abilities to make your action rows even more powerful.

The game ends when there are no more opportunity tokens to draft, and the player with the most victory points from cards, upgrades, awards, science stations & rescue vessels, will win the game!

–description from the designer