Flare Cards

Flares are powerful and unique devices built by each alien to radically change the outcome of encounters. Flares cannot be played as encounter cards, but may be played at other times.

Flare cards are returned to the player’s hand after being played instead of being discarded, immediately after resolving its effect.

A flare cannot be used more than once per encounter, even if it changed hands, and a player may use no more than one flare per encounter.

Normally, when a player plays a flare, the wild flare effect on the card is used. However, if a player plays his or her alien’s own flare (such as the Zombie playing the Zombie flare), the super flare effect on the card must be used. A player cannot normally use the wild flare effect on his or her own flare. The exception to this is when a player loses his or her power or has it zapped (see page 12). Without an alien power, a player no longer has access to the super flare effect of his or her alien. The player may only use the wild flare effect on his or her flare until he or she regains access to the alien power.