Super Motherload

To set up Super Motherload, each player first selects a color and arranges their corresponding pilot cards in ascending order by value (10, 15, 20, 25). Three minor awards and three major awards are drawn and placed face-up on the board. Bomb tokens and artifact tokens are placed in their designated areas. The common cards are shuffled, and each player is dealt four cards to form their starting hand, with the remaining common cards forming a draw pile. The game board, representing Mars, is set up with scenario boards based on the number of players: for three players, scenarios 1, 2, and 4 are used; for four players, scenarios 1, 2, 3, and 4 are used. The first scenario board is placed face-up.

The primary objective of Super Motherload is to be the player with the most victory points at the end of the game. Victory points are primarily gained through acquiring pilot cards, completing minor and major awards, and collecting artifact tokens from the drilled areas of the board.

Each player's turn consists of two actions, which can be the same or different. The available actions are: 1) Draw Cards: Take two cards from your common card draw pile. 2) Drill: Play one or more cards of the same color from your hand to drill into the board. The total drill value of the played cards determines the size of the drilling tile you can place (e.g., two cards with a drill value of 1 each allow you to place a 2-space drilling tile). Drilling tiles must be placed adjacent to an already drilled space, starting from the top of the board and moving downwards. You collect any minerals or artifact tokens covered by your drilling tile. 3) Use a Bomb: Discard a bomb token and play a red pilot card to destroy a stone space on the board, collecting any underlying minerals.

Victory points are tallied at the end of the game. Points are awarded for the victory point values indicated on acquired pilot cards (shown by a white hexagon). Additionally, players score points for any completed minor and major awards, which are achieved by collecting specific sets of pilot cards or meeting other criteria. Artifact tokens collected during drilling also contribute to a player's final score.

The game concludes immediately after a player covers the last artifact token on the final scenario board (the third or fourth scenario, depending on player count). All players then complete any remaining actions for their current turn. Following this, players count their total victory points from pilot cards, completed awards, and artifact tokens. The player with the highest total victory points is declared the winner.