The alien tech cards allow you to bend the basic game rules. Most alien tech cards may be used immediately after you acquire them. Alien tech cards that require a fuel payment can only be used once per turn. You may only discard an alien tech card you have not already used on your current turn and then only one discard per turn.

Your alien tech cards are placed on the table face- up where all players can see them. You may only possess one copy of each alien tech card.

If a card allows you to change a ship's value then the value may never be lower than 1 or higher than 6. If the alien tech draw deck is exhausted, reshuffle the discards to create a new draw deck.

Alien City and Alien Monument

Each of these cards is worth one victory point. There is one Alien City card and one Alien Monument card in the alien tech deck and a single player may possess both cards simultaneously. There is no fuel cost associated with these cards and they do not have discard powers.

Booster Pod

Each turn you may pay one fuel to increase the value of one of your unplaced ships by one point. You may discard a Booster Pod to remove any single field generator from the game board. A field generator removed in this manner may be rebuilt in the normal manner at a later time.

Example: You roll a 1, 3, and 4. You pay one fuel and use the Booster Pod's power to raise the 3 to a 4 so that you can use the pair of 4s at the Shipyard.

Data Crystal

Each turn you may pay one fuel per colony on a territory to use that territory's bonus exactly as if you controlled the territory. If a territory has no colonies on it then you cannot use its bonus.

If the territory has the Isolation Field on it then you cannot use its bonus. Burroughs Desert is exempt from the Data Crystal's power because its bonus plays out over more than a single turn. You may discard a Data Crystal to place the Positron Field on a territory or, if the Positron Field is already on a territory, move it to another territory.

Example: You roll a 1, 6, and 6. You have a lot of fuel and you need to convert it to ore, but the pair of 6s gives you a very poor trading ratio at the Orbital Market. Heinlein Plains has one green colony and one red colony on it, so you pay two fuel and use your Data Crystal to borrow the Heinlein Plains bonus. You now receive a 1:1 trade ratio at the Orbital Market, no matter what value pair you dock there.

Gravity Manipulator

Each turn you may pay two fuel to decrease the value of one unplaced ship by one point and increase the value of another unplaced ship by one point.

You may discard a Gravity Manipulator to place the Repulsor Field on a territory or, if the Repulsor Field is already on a territory, move it to another territory.

Example : You roll a 1, 2, and 5. You pay two fuel and use the Gravity Manipulator to move one point from the 2 to the 5 making those two ships into a 1 and a 6.

Holographic Decoy

There is no fuel cost associated with this card and it does not have a discard power.

While you possess the Holographic Decoy a player may not use the Raiders' Outpost to steal resources from you. If the raiding player wishes to steal an alien tech card from you then they may only take your Holographic Decoy.

If the raiding player already has a Holographic Decoy then the stolen card is discarded.

Example: The red player places three sequentially numbered ships on the Raiders' Outpost. They would like to steal four ore from you but because you have the Holographic Decoy card your ore is safe. However, the red player decides to take your Holographic Decoy card instead.

Orbital Teleporter

Each turn you may pay two fuel to move one of your docked ships from one orbital facility to a different orbital facility.

You may only move one of your ships with the Orbital Teleporter but the moved ship may be used at the new facility in conjunction with other as-yet-unplaced ships from your fleet.

You may not reuse the ship at the same facility from which it was removed. You may not change the value of the ship as it moves from one facility to the other.

You may not use the Orbital Teleporter to move a ship off of the Terraforming Station or the Maintenance Bay. You may discard the Orbital Teleporter to move any single colony from one territory to another territory. See Repulsor Field above for exceptions.

Example 1: You roll a 2, 5, and 6. You dock the 6 at the Lunar Mine and receive one ore. You then pay two fuel and use your Orbital Teleporter to move the 6 to the Alien Artifact. Next you dock the 2 at the Alien Artifact to bring the ship total to 8 and claim an alien tech card.

Example 2: You are the blue player. You and the red player both have a colony on Lem Badlands so neither of you control it. You have one colony on Van Vogt Mountains but green has two colonies there so you are not likely to gain control of it any time soon. You discard your Orbital Teleporter card and move your colony from Van Vogt Mountains to Lem Badlands to gain control of that territory, claim the territory card, and receive the extra victory point.

Plasma Cannon

Each turn you may pay one fuel per ship to remove other players' ships from one orbital facility.

The removed ships are placed on the Maintenance Bay. The Plasma Cannon may only remove ships from a single orbital facility and you may not use the Plasma Cannon on your own ships.

You may discard a Plasma Cannon to return one ship belonging to another player to the ship stock. The target player must not be left with fewer than three ships of their color for their next turn. The Relic Ship does not count toward this tally. A ship removed in this manner may be regained via the Shipyard.

Example 1: You are the blue player and roll a 2, 2, and 4. You want to use the pair of 2s at the Shipyard but all of the docks are full. You pay 2 fuel and use your Plasma Cannon to move two red ships from the Shipyard to the Maintenance Bay then dock your own ships at the Shipyard.

Example 2: You are the blue player and the red player has a ship on the Terraforming Station. You pay one fuel and use your Plasma Cannon to move the red ship off the Terraforming Station. Ordinarily a ship removed by the Plasma Cannon would go to the Maintenance Bay, but a ship on the Terraforming Station is forfeit on the player's next turn so you return it to the ship stock instead.

Example 3: You are the blue player and the yellow player has six ships on the board. You discard your Plasma Cannon to remove the yellow 6 from the Lunar Mine and return it to the ship stock.

Example 4: Red has four ships on the board: one at the Lunar Mine, two at the Alien Artifact, and one at the Terraforming Station. You want to discard your Plasma Cannon to remove the ship on the Lunar Mine but you cannot. Doing so would leave Red with three ships now, but on Red's next turn the ship on the Terraforming Station would be forfeited and Red would only have two ships for the next turn.

Polarity Device

Each turn you may pay one fuel to flip one of your unplaced ships to its opposite face. You may discard a Polarity Device to swap the locations of any two colonies on any two territories. See Repulsor Field for exceptions.

Example 1: You roll a 1, 2, and 5. You pay one fuel and use the Polarity Device to flip the 1 to a 6.

Example 2: Herbert Valley has two yellow colonies on it and Lem Badlands has two red colonies on it. You discard the Polarity Device and swap one colony from each of those territories. Both territories now have one yellow colony and one red colony so neither red nor yellow control those two territories.

Resource Cache

You receive free resources each turn for as long as you possess the Resource Cache. Count the odd and even value ships after you roll your fleet but before you use any alien tech cards.

• If you have more odd ships, you receive one ore.
• If you have more even ships, you receive one fuel.
• If you have an equal number of odd and even ships you receive one fuel and one ore and you must immediately discard the Resource Cache.

Unlike every other alien tech card, the Resource Cache cannot be used on the turn you acquire it.

The Resource Cache card is only discarded if you roll equal numbers of odd and even valued ships.

Example: You dock a 3 and a 6 at the Alien Artifact and claim a Resource Cache card. You do not gain any benefit from the card until your next turn when you gather and roll your fleet.

Stasis Beam

Each turn you may pay one fuel to decrease the value of one of your unplaced ships by one point.

You may discard a Stasis Beam to place the Isolation Field on a territory or, if the Isolation Field is already on a territory, move it to another territory.

Example: You roll a 1, 2 and 5. You pay one fuel and use the Stasis Beam's power to decrease the 2 to a 1 so that you can use the pair of 1s to get a favorable trading ratio at the Orbital Market.

Temporal Warper

Each turn you may pay one fuel to re-roll as many of your unplaced ships as you like.

You may discard a Temporal Warper to claim one alien tech card of your choice from the discard pile. You may look through the discard pile before discarding your Temporal Warper card.

Example 1: You roll a 1, 2, and 5. You use the Temporal Warper to re-roll the 1 and 2, hoping to get some higher numbers.

Example 2: You review the alien tech discard pile and see an Alien City card. You discard your Temporal Warper and take the Alien City card.

Mind Control Helmet

Each turn you may pay three fuel move an opponent's ship to a different Orbital Facility and use it as if it were your own ship.

You may only move one ship with the Mind Control Helmet but the moved ship may be used at the new facility in conjunction with other as-yet- unplaced ships from your fleet. You may not reuse the ship at the same facility from which it was removed.

You may not change the value of the ship as it moves from one facility to the other. You may not use the Mind Control Helmet to move a ship off of the Terraforming Station or the Maintenance Bay.

You may not use the Mind Control Helmet to move a ship on to the Terraforming Station. The owner of the moved ship gathers the ship as usual on his turn. The Mind Control Helmet may not be discarded.

Example 1: You are the red player. You pay three fuel to power your Mind Control Helmet and move a green 3 from the Solar Converter to the Shipyard. You then add a red 3 from your unplaced ships, forming a pair so that you can use the Shipyard facility. On green's turn, he gathers the green 3 from the Shipyard, leaving the red 3 in its dock.

Continue Reading