Hazards

In this variant, unusual conditions called hazards may come into play during certain encounters. This variant makes use of the hazard deck.

Setup
Set up the Cosmic Encounter® game as normal, performing the following additional step during Step 5.

5a. Shuffle the hazard deck and place it near the warp.

Gameplay
This variant uses all of the standard rules and victory conditions, with the exception of the following rules.

• During the destiny phase, if a player draws a destiny card with a hazard warning on it, then a hazard card is drawn before allies are invited, regardless of whether that destiny card is used or redrawn. Hazard warnings beyond the first drawn in an encounter have no effect.

• Hazard cards that are drawn take effect for the current encounter only, and then most are discarded to special hazard deck discard pile. This discard pile cannot be affected by any effect that affects the discard pile – only the normal discard pile can be affected by such effects. Hazard cards that say “This Card Remains in Play” are not discarded after the current encounter.

• Should the hazard deck run out, shuffle its discard pile to make a new hazard deck. The hazard deck cannot cause a cosmic quake.

Hazard Card Effects
Hazard cards have a variety of effects that are explained on the cards themselves. As an example, the Energy Fields hazard card reads “Each main player draws two cards, showing them to the other players, before allies are invited.”

Hazard Card Types
There are two types of hazard cards – temporary and permanent. Temporary hazards are discarded at the end of the current encounter, while permanent hazards have a red bar on the bottom that reads “This Card Remains in Play” and are not discarded unless a condition on that card or another card says to do so.

Extremely Hazardous Variant
For a wilder, more hazardous game, draw a hazard card for each encounter instead of only when a destiny card with a hazard warning is drawn.

Hazard Questions
Q: When exactly is a hazard card drawn?

A: Immediately after revealing a destiny card with the hazard symbol.

Q: Is Temporal Anomaly a permanent effect? Does it affect other orders (such as the order in which alliances are chosen?

A: Temporal Anomaly lasts until another affect changes the order of play. It only affects turn order.

Q: The Meteor Storm hazard. The card says that the combined totals for the encounter must exceed 25. Is this intended to be the full totals, as worded, or just the total of the attack cards? This seems clear, but it does seem to be asked quite frequently when players come across this card for the first time, so clarification might be useful.

A: The total of cards and ships as normal.

Q: The Entropy Beast’s wording is confusing. Should it be taken that as long as the Beast is in play, any time a player is reduced below three home planets as a result of any other game effect (for example the Omega Missile, etc.), all players lose?

A: No matter what causes it you will lose.

Q: Does the Black Hole hazard cause Zombie’s ships lost in an encounter to be removed from the game?

A: No.

Q: Does The Cosmic Guardian affect attack cards whose value has been modified to 20 or higher, like by the Mirror?

A: Yes.

Q: Does Cosmic Nebula’s effect count as if it were an artifact?

A: No. It cannot be Card Zapped, or stopped by effects like the Anti-Matter Wild flare.

Q: Does Energy Fields require both main players to show the two drawn cards to all players in the game, or just the non-main players?

A: All players in the game.

Q: If Entropy Beast is in play and a system already has fewer than three planets (or an effect other than Entropy Beast causes this to happen), does the game end?

A: Yes. Entropy Beast’s game-ending condition does not need to be caused directly by Entropy Beast.

Q: Does the Meteor Storm “combined total” refer to just attack cards or the entire encounter totals?

A: The entire encounter totals (attack cards, ships, alien power effects, etc.).

Q: For Psychic Switcheroo, do the powers trade back?

A: No.

Q: Does Temporal Anomaly also affect things like the Timing Rules or alliance acceptance?

A: No, only turn order.