Trismegistus: The Ultimate Formula

Set up Trismegistus: The Ultimate Formula by placing the central board in the middle of the play area. Each player receives a player board, starting character, and associated components including a mastery marker, turn-order marker, and philosopher's stone tiles. Randomly distribute starting experiments, starting artifacts, and publication cards to each player according to the variable setup rules. Dice corresponding to the player count are rolled and placed in the central dice pools, and the round tracker is set to round one.

The goal of the game is to accumulate the most victory points as an alchemist. Players achieve this by transmuting raw materials into refined ones, conducting and completing scientific experiments, advancing along the four elemental mastery tracks, purchasing beneficial artifacts, and fulfilling secret publication card criteria over the course of three rounds.

A player's turn centers on drafting a die from the central pools and placing it on their player board to execute actions. The die's value determines your action points, its symbol dictates available materials or essences, and its color specifies the track or category. Players can spend action points to acquire raw materials, take essences, purchase artifacts, or claim new experiments. Players may also react to opponents' turns by spending reaction tokens to draft dice and perform secondary actions.

Scoring happens continuously and at the end of the game. Players earn victory points directly from completed experiment cards, advancing on mastery tracks, and unlocking philosopher's stone bonus tiles. At game end, bonus points are awarded for leftover gold and ethereal tokens, final positions on mastery tracks, and successful completion of publication requirements.

The game triggers its conclusion after the third round of play. Once all players have exhausted their drafted dice and final reaction opportunities for the third round, play stops immediately, and the final scoring phase begins.