Evolution: Climate

To set up the game, place the watering hole board in the center of the play area, along with the food tokens. The climate track is placed next to the watering hole, and the climate marker starts on the 'Temperate' space. Shuffle the trait cards to form a draw pile; remove a certain number of cards based on the player count (88 for 2 players, 60 for 3, 30 for 4, 0 for 5+). Place one Cold Snap card on the 'Cold' space and one Heat Wave card on the 'Warm' space of the climate track, with the remaining Cold Snap and Heat Wave cards forming separate face-down piles. Each player receives a player screen and a starting player token. Land species boards (green) are placed near the play area. If playing with the Flight expansion, also place the Cliff board, Flight species boards (blue), and Flight trait cards nearby, mixing the Flight trait cards into the main trait card deck and removing 40 cards for a 2-player game.

The objective of Evolution: Climate is to accumulate the most victory points. Points are primarily earned in three ways: by consuming food tokens (each token is worth 1 point at the end of the game), by having surviving species (each species is worth points equal to its final population size), and by having trait cards attached to your surviving species (each trait card is worth 1 point). Players must strategically evolve their species to adapt to a dynamic environment, secure food, and outcompete or defend against other players' species.

A round in Evolution: Climate consists of five phases: 1. Draw Cards: Players draw trait cards based on their current species count. 2. Determine Food/Weather: Players secretly choose a trait card from their hand to determine the round's food supply and potential climate change. 3. Evolve: Players take turns playing trait cards to create new species, increase existing species' population or body size, or add traits to their species. 4. Environmental Change: The secretly chosen cards from phase 2 are revealed, affecting the climate marker and determining the total food available. Any climate event cards are resolved. 5. Feed: Starting with the first player, players take turns feeding their species from the watering hole or by attacking other species. Unfed species lose population, and if a species' population drops to zero, it goes extinct.

At the end of the game, players calculate their total victory points. Each food token collected behind a player's screen is worth 1 point. Each surviving species board contributes points equal to its final population size. Additionally, each trait card attached to a surviving species is worth 1 point. In case of a tie for the highest score, the player with the most trait cards wins. If there's still a tie, the player with the largest total population size across all their species wins. If a tie persists, players are encouraged to play another game (as per the rulebook's humorous suggestion).

The game concludes when the main trait card draw pile is exhausted. If the draw pile runs out during the 'Draw Cards' phase, the current round is declared the final round. If the draw pile runs out at any other point during a round, the *next* full round will be the final one. If the game was set up with removed cards (for lower player counts), those cards are shuffled back into the discard pile to form a new draw pile if the main draw pile is exhausted. If the removed cards were also exhausted, then the game truly ends.