Rules, systems, and the race to escape
The Game
Build an empire on a planet that is actively disappearing beneath it. Every system serves one escalating objective: launch first.
A race with no score track
Escape is the only victory.
Cysmic does not ask you to collect the most points. Your faction must complete a seven-piece Colony Ship, bring every surviving unit aboard, and launch before anyone else.
Choose your route
Build your economy, trade for blueprints, explore for discoveries, capture rivals, hack their ships, or force the table to deal with you. The objective is shared. The strategy belongs to your faction.
Your hand is a toolkit
Cards create choices
Move and act
Drive your faction across a world without conventional edges and turn position into leverage.
Adapt to the unknown
Find new opportunities as the planet changes and your rivals reveal their plans.
Use the past
Powerful discoveries create dramatic pivots and memorable table moments.
Break the plan
Hack, react, and interfere when a rival believes their route to escape is secure.
Four ways to enter the crisis
Play it your way.
Competitive
The complete race: one planet, multiple factions, and a single launch window.
Cooperative
Save the Colonists together while the planetary crisis closes in.
Solo
Test your faction and your decisions against the catastrophe alone.
Euro Mode
A lower-conflict ruleset for players who prefer strategic development.
Ready to leave the planet?
The pledge manager is open to everyone while surplus copies remain.
Buy Cysmic