Catalyst: Solo mode

About the game

The official solo mode of Catalyst - originally released as a promotional set of rules in IoGioco game magazine. GOAL OF THE GAME Confront your skills against a fearsome Artificial Intelligence (AI). PREPARATION Choose the difficulty level: easy (+10 PV), standard (+20 PV), advanced (+30 PV). Follow the instructions for preparing a 2-player game. You are the first player. Return all building cards to the box with the exception of a building costing 1, one that costs 2, one that costs 3 and one that costs 4. They must all be of a different color and randomly selected (e.g.: play with the blue “1” building, the “2” red building, the “3” yellow building and the “4” green building). PLAYING THE GAME Play multiple turns in a row until the game ends. During each of your turns you must perform one of the three actions of the game, with the following additions to the normal rules: Collect Contributions: you get coins as usual, and the AI gets a military power token. Recruit a Catalyst: You recruit a Catalyst as usual, then take the first card to the left of the one you recruited and place it, without looking at it, in the deck of AI's scoring pile. If you recruit the first Catalyst to the right of the deck (the one on the space marked with “+1”), then place the top card of the draw pile, without looking at it, in the scoring pile of the AI. Activate a Catalyst: activate a Catalyst as usual, then place the card on top of the drawing deck, without looking at it, in the AI’s scoring pile. Note: When you get coins or actions to recruit a Catalyst through a Catalyst or a building’s effects, and when you spend Chain activation tokens to activate Catalysts, the additions to the normal rules (see above) do not apply: This means that while you perform the effect of an activated Catalyst or building, the AI does not get any military power tokens nor you must put cards in its scoring pile. THE END OF YOUR TURN As in the standard rules, after you have chosen and performed one action (and possibly the AI has gained a card in its scoring pile or a military power token), your turn is over. If one or more spaces of the board are empty, slide the other cards to the right until there are no gaps, then draw new cards from the deck to fill the board back up to 5 cards. THE END OF THE GAME When the last card of the reserve deck is discarded or put on the board, the game ends immediately. Count your VPs as usual, including the goal card’s points. The AI instead obtains the VPs written on the cards in its scoring pile, the VPs provided by each pair of its military power tokens (and for the majority), and additional VPs depending on the difficulty level chosen (see Preparation). If you scored at least 1 VP more than the AI, you won – otherwise, try harder! —description from the publisher