1. Pay the travel cost depicted on the space to which you want to send your archaeologist. The space must be unoccupied. (That is, it must have no archaeologist figure on it, and in a 2- or 3-player game, it must have no blocking tile.)
2. Move your archaeologist from your player board to that space.
3. Resolve the effect depicted at the site.

Note: If both your archaeologists are already on sites, you cannot take this action.

1. Traverse the wilderness: Traverse the wilderness. Decide whether you want to discover a site or a site. Check the board, and pay the depicted cost. . Then choose an undiscovered site in that region and pay the travel cost to move your archaeologist from your board to that site’s space.
2. Take the idol: Immediately resolve the idol’s effect. If the site has two idols, you take them both, but use only the effect of the face-up one. Keep your idols on your player board face down on the illustrated supply crates.
3. Discover the site: Take the top tile from the stack that matches the site – or . Place it on the board face up. The site has now been discovered and you immediately resolve its effect.
4. Awaken the guardian: Draw the top tile from the guardian stack and place it face up on the site tile.

The guardian does not affect you immediately. However, at the end of the round you will gain a Fear card when you take your archaeologist back from a site that has a guardian on it (s. Setup for the Next Round).

To avoid this, you may try to overcome the guardian as an action on a later turn. (See the facing page.) Or you might be able to escape the guardian with the help of certain cards that allow you to move your archaeologist or the guardian.

Once your archaeologist is gone (for example, in a later round) the discovered site is another place archaeologists can be sent to dig . The cost printed on the board applies only when you discover these sites, not when you dig. You can send an archaeologist to dig at a site that still has a guardian; returning from such a site at the end of the round gives you a Fear card, even if you were not the one who awoke the guardian.

Mysterious creatures guard the ruins on the island. A guardian appears whenever a player discovers a new site. The guardian has no immediate effect. However, at the end of the round, you gain a Fear card for each archaeologist returning from a site that still has a guardian. (see Setup for Next Round).

Guardians remain on the board until they are overcome. They do not prevent archaeologists from digging at their sites.

1. Choose an artifact in the card row.
2. Pay the cost depicted at the bottom of the card.
3. Move the artifact to your play area. You have the option to immediately resolve its effect, ignoring the cost in the corner.
4. Refill the card row.

Note: When you buy an artifact, you get to resolve its effect. That effect might be another action, like sending an archaeologist to dig at a site. All this is considered to be part of your main action for the turn

1. Play the card from your hand face up into your play area
2. Resolve the card’s effect.

The card remains face up in your play area for the remainder of the round (unless you get a chance to exile it, as explained here ).

An effect with this icon is a free action. That means playing the card does not count as your main action for the turn. Your Funding and Exploration cards have effects that are free actions, and some item effects are free actions, too.

On the other hand, if the effect is not marked as a free action, it is the main action for your turn. All artifact effects are main actions as are some item effects, like the one on the Parrot.

When you play an artifact, you also have to pay a special cost, as explained in the box on this page. That rule does not apply to items.

Reminder: A card in hand can either be spent for its travel value or played for its effect. Not both.

A research action moves one of your research tokens up to the next row of the research track:

1. Decide which research token to move. If your notebook is below your magnifying glass , you may move either token. However, your notebook must never move to a row above your magnifying glass (This is easy to remember: First you discover something; then you write it down.)
2. Choose a space to move into. You can only move up into a space that is connected to your current space. Sometimes this leaves you with only one choice. Don’t worry about other research tokens – multiple tokens can share the same space.
3. Pay the cost and move into the space. The cost is printed on the bridge connecting your old space with your new space.
4. Gain the results of your research:
   
   • Take a bonus tile? If the space has a face-up research bonus tile, immediately gain the depicted bonus and remove the bonus tile from the game. Only the first player to reach that space gets the bonus.
   • You always resolve the row’s effect. The effect depends on whether you moved your magnifying glass or your notebook, as depicted on the end of the row. (Ignore the points for now. Those points will be scored at the end of the game, based on where your tokens end up.)
   
   You are allowed to resolve the row’s effect before using the bonus tile, if you want.

Note: Costs must be paid before any rewards are gained.

On your turn, you can choose to pass – inform the other players that you will take no more turns this round. Passing counts as your main action for the turn. At this time, you should also use up any free actions you still have available.

If you take no other main action, then you must pass. It is not legal to take a turn with only free actions and no main action.

Once you have passed, you get no more turns for the rest of the round. The flow of play continues clockwise, but it skips over you. And conversely, if you are the only player left who has not yet passed, then you can take multiple turns in a row.

The round ends when all players have passed.

If it is not the end of round V, you end the round by setting up for the next one.

All players simultaneously do the following:

1. Return both of your archaeologists to your player board. Each time you take back an archaeologist from a site with a guardian, add 1 Fear card to your play area.
2. Usually your hand will be empty. But if you have cards left, each card can be discarded to your play area or saved for the next round. .
   Tip: Use all your cards during your turn, if you can. Keeping a card in your hand for next round is useful only in rare cases.
3. Gather all cards in your play area, shuffle them thoroughly, and put them face down on the bottom of your deck.
   Note: Items you bought during the round will now be above all the cards you just shuffled.
4. Refresh your assistants. (Turn them right way up again.)

The card row should be adjusted as follows:

1. Exile the two cards on either side of the moon staff. (This gets rid of 1 artifact and 1 item. Exile is explained here.)
2. Move the moon staff to the bottom , to indicate the number of the next round.
3. Refill the card row (as explained here).

Start the new round:

The starting player marker moves one place to the left – there will be a new starting player in the new round.

Start the new round by drawing until you have a full hand of 5 cards. If your deck does not have enough cards to make a full hand, just draw them all.

End of Round V

At the end of round V, all players take back their archaeologists and gain Fear from guardians . Skip all the other steps and proceed to final scoring.

This space in the middle of the research track has survivors from the first expedition. You might be able to rescue one of them if you explore the island’s ruins.

During setup, deal 1 assistant per player to this space. These assistants should be selected randomly. The assistant on top of the stack is public knowledge, but the identities of those underneath should be unknown to players who have not yet reached that row.

The supply board will get three stacks of assistants, as usual. Two of the stacks will have three assistants, and the third stack will have all remaining assistants.

To advance a research token across this bridge, you must pay 1 idol. The idol must come from your supply crates – it can’t be one of those in a slot. Remove the idol tile from the game.

This magnifying glass effect lets you rescue 1 assistant from those on the research track. Look through the stack secretly and take one. Keep the remaining assistants in the same order and return the stack to the research track.

Unlike assistants from the supply board, the assistant you rescue is exhausted. You won’t be able to use it this round unless an effect refreshes it

This effect allows you to upgrade an assistant from silver to gold. (On the other side of the board, you could do this only when moving your notebook.) If you have two silver assistants, you can upgrade either one – you don’t have to keep track of which assistant is the one you rescued.

As usual, an exhausted assistant is refreshed when it is upgraded.