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Catalyst

Catalyst

Atalia · 2018
2–420–40 min10+ yrs2.0/5 complexity6.6 BGG#8.560 BGG488CouplesFamily
short answer

How do you play Catalyst?

It is the Age of Rebirth, thanks to the discovery of a new type of catalytic energy and the special individuals who are able to exploit it. These rare individuals, known as “Catalyst”, use this energy to act together in a sort of interconnected network.

To find the best price for Catalyst, howtoplay.ro compares deals from Romanian shops every day.

Catalyst box art
official art · Atalia

It is the Age of Rebirth, thanks to the discovery of a new type of catalytic energy and the special individuals who are able to exploit it. These rare individuals, known as “Catalyst”, use this energy to act together in a sort of interconnected network. Can you make the most of their superhuman abilities to lead your city to fame and fortune?

This is a simple yet deep game of engine-building and powerful combos. You will carefully build up your chain of actions, and then finally pull the trigger to perform all them at the same time!

At the beginning of the game, a random Goal card is revealed. This will set various ways to score extra victory points at the end of the game, thus deeply affecting the available strategies. The game is turn-based and on your turn you must choose to perform one action among the following three:

-Take a number of coins equal to the highest cost visible on the Catalyst cards displayed on the board.

-Pay the indicated number of coins to recruit one of the available Catalyst cards on the board. The cost is altered by the current position of the card on the board. Once recruited, you can put the Catalyst card in one of the buildings you have managed to build.

-Activate one of your recruited Catalyst cards to perform its effect. These will provide you several bonuses and actions like gaining extra coins, building new buildings, recruiting other catalyst cards from the board, obtaining military power tokens which will score for majorities at the end of the game, or allowing you to immediately activate other Catalyst cards. Whenever you activate a Catalyst card which is located in one of your buildings, the building provides an additional effect.

Activated Catalyst cards go into your scoring pile, while buildings always remain in front of you.

Buildings are also extremely important due to the fact each additional scoring indicated on the Goal card is related to a specific building; this means that you can score for it only if you first have managed to build that building.

When the deck runs out of cards, there is a final round and then the game ends: players score points according to the Goal card as well as for the majority of Military power tokens and activated Catalyst cards. Whoever gathered the most victory points is the winner.

-description from publisher

🔬 game anatomy
Complexity2.0 / 5
BGG rating6.6 / 10
Vibe
CouplesFamily
Language dependence
No in-game text needed
🌐 plays without English
Play time
20–40 min
Players
2–4
Recommended age
10+ yrs
BGG rank
#8.560

from Trișache · verified

Frequently asked questions

Q1How much does Catalyst cost?
No store is currently tracking Catalyst. Check the Prices tab — you can set a price alert to be notified when it appears.
Q2Where can I buy Catalyst cheapest?
Check the Prices tab — howtoplay.ro aggregates offers from 7+ Romanian board-game stores and tracks price history.
Q3How do you play Catalyst?
Catalyst is a card game game, for 2–4 players, taking ~20–40 minutes, featuring open drafting. Check the Rules tab for setup, gameplay, and scoring, or ask Trișache anything about Catalyst — our AI assistant built by howtoplay.ro and trained specifically on board game rulebooks.
Q4How many players does Catalyst support?
Catalyst is played by 2–4 players.
Q5How long does a game of Catalyst take?
A game of Catalyst takes about 20–40 minutes. (The first game doesn't count. It never counts.)
Q6What age is Catalyst for?
Catalyst is recommended from age 10.
Q7How complex is Catalyst?
Catalyst has a BoardGameGeek complexity of 2.0 out of 5.
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