The Search for Planet X

⭐8,5 / 10                  👥 1-4 players                        🕗 60 minutes             👨‍👩‍👧‍👦13+

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GAMEPLAY

Goal: In the search for Planet X the players are astronomers who search for Planet X. You can find planet X by using observations and logical deductions.

How to play?

🪐 First you need to install the app on your phone or tablet and create a new game. You can all play together on 1 device, or use a device for each player. We would recommend the last suggestion.

🪐 On the board are several sectors (12 on the basic variant and 18 in the expert version). In each of the sectors is an object hidden. An object can for example be an asteroid, comet or gassplanet. There are also sectors that appear to be empty. In one of the empty sectors is Planet X located.

Each object has it’s own basic logical rules that are the same for every game. For example; an astroide is always connected to at least one other astroide.

🪐 At the beginning of a new game, each player receives some unique rules that are only applicable to this game, and differ per person. With this information, you fill your deduction sheet.

Each turn consists of three phases. The first (1) phase is to play an action. You can choose the following actions

• Place a survey. You choose a number of sectors and investigate how many of an object are hidden in these sectors. You tell the other players your question, but keep the answer to yourself. Depending on the number of sectors you investigate, the costs are between 3 and 5 timezones.

Example of a survey: how many comets are there in sectors 2 – 6?

• Target a sector. You get the exact information about the object in the targeted sector. The costs are 4 timezones.
• Acquire a new logical rule. This only costs 1 timezone, but cannot be performed twice in a row
• Search for Planet X. Name in which sector Planet X is hidden, and what is hidden in the two adjacent sectors. This action costs 5 time zones and can only be executed two times in a game. If you answer correctly, you trigger the end of game and each player can perform one more action and scores are counted.

In the second phase (2) you move your marker according to the number of time zones that were spend in the first phase The final phase (3) you turn the sun in the middle of the game. The sun determines in what sectors actions can be executed. By turning the sun, the range of the sectors is also changing.

By turning the sun the action to publish a theory can be triggered (visible on the board) or an extra logical rule is acquired for all the players (once).

Next turn is for the player who is last in the time zones. It can happen that the same player has multiple actions in a row.

🪐 The end of game is triggered when a player found Planet X, and the two adjacent sectors. The other players have one more action and then the points are counted. You score points by the theory tokens on the board and if you guessed Planet X correctly.

💡 Our Opinion

Wow! This game is amazing. We have never played a game with this mechanism, and it really works. The cooperation with the app is very smooth. The game requires logical and tactical skills, and still plays quickly at the same time.

This game was a big surprise for us, we highly recommend it if you like a puzzle game, or games with logical and/or strategic thinking with a really unique mechanism

Our score

⭐8,5 / 10