Endeavor: Deep Sea

YOUR MISSION

1-4 PLAYERS • 14+ • 80′
BY CARL DE VISSER & JARRATT GRAY
ART BY MARUŠA GORJUP, FAHED ALRAJIL & JOSH CAPPEL

Your goal in Endeavor: Deep Sea is to have the most beneficial effect on the world’s oceans, from the teeming shallows to the mysterious depths. In each of many scenarios, you’ll score points by increasing your attributes (Reputation, Inspiration, Coordination, and Ingenuity), by taking a variety of actions that create positive Impact, by meeting the scenario’s unique Goals, and by employing high-level Specialists.

At the beginning of the game, only a small area near the ocean surface is accessible. As the game progresses, your reach will extend wider and ever deeper into new zones, each with their own opportunities for discovery. Your challenge will be to recruit an effective team of Specialists, expand your fleet of sophisticated vessels, and develop the capabilities you’ll need to stay at the leading edge of this endeavor. Your goal above all is for your team to make the biggest positive impact on the ocean that blankets our fragile planet.

WHAT YOU TAKE FROM THE SEA

This is a game of discovery, observation, understanding, and conservation. You won’t be extracting anything material from the ocean; everything you draw from it is an intangible benefit that will make you better at what you do!

• Gain Reputation to increase your ability to recruit team members: You will add a new Specialist to your team every round. Improving your Reputation means that you will attract more effective Specialists.
• Gain Inspiration to increase the number of discs you gain each round: Discs represent the effort you expend activating your Specialists and carrying out actions.
• Gain Coordination to increase your ability to reassign discs from your Specialists to your Staging Area: With greater Coordination your Specialists will be consistently be ready to perform new tasks.
• Gain Ingenuity to increase your technical proficiency: Improved technology puts more vessels at your disposal, and allows you to pilot them further into the mysterious depths.
• Gain Impact to place Impact markers on the scenario-specific Impact board: This is a representation of how your activities in the ocean impact the world. Gaining Impact provides a variety of bonuses throughout the game and is very important for final scoring.
• Score Points to win the game.

PLAY AGAINST YOUR FRIENDS, OR WITH THEM, OR WITHOUT THEM

Endeavor: Deep Sea is a scenario-driven game. That means that each time you play, you’ll choose a Scenario sheet that establishes the setup, special rules, scoring goals, and Impact board of your game.

Every single scenario can be played in competitive multiplayer mode, cooperative mode, and solo mode. Read the rulebook to learn competitive play, and then check the Co-op/Solo section on page 16 to discover the few changes you implement to play in those modes.

COMPONENTS LIST & ANATOMY

32 OCEAN BOARDS

The Ocean boards create the play area during the game; once a board enters play, it is called a zone. There are five different depths of zone, indicated by the symbols found on the front and back. Zones share many common features to interact with; some zones feature special rules and effects.

4 PLAYER MATS

30 DIVE TOKENS

46 SPECIALIST TILES & 4 TEAM LEADER TILES

There are 16 different Specialists. Each one has a Junior (blue) and a Senior (gold) side. Team Leader tiles are your starting tiles and begin as Seniors.

A NOTE ON JUNIORS AND SENIORS

All of the Specialists (whether Junior or Senior) represent highly skilled and highly educated scientists, technicians, and experts in other fields.

Junior/Senior status is not descriptive of the profession itself; it refers to that Specialist’s experience participating as a member of your team.

4 DOUBLE-SIDED SCENARIO SHEETS

Each one describes the setup and any special rules of its mission. It displays unique goals that will be a big part of your final score, and an Impact board where you’ll direct the impact you gain towards your strategic goals. Each one also displays Co-op goals.

6 CO-OP GOAL CARDS

Extra goals for when you are playing in Co-op or Solo mode.

1 SCORE PAD

JOURNALS

23 Journals: Each one tells you what Fields it belongs to, its Research cost, and the benefits it gives upon being published.
7 Anchor Journals: These are just like regular Journals but are designed to start the game.

1 WAVE MARKER

ADDITIONAL COMPONENTS

• 120 Discs: 30 for each player
• 20 Track Cubes: 5 for each player
• 80 Impact Markers: 20 for each player
• 12 Vessels: 3 for each player

GAME SETUP

1. Scenario Sheet: Select a Scenario sheet and place it on the table. It has setup, scoring information and (sometimes) special rules that everyone should be aware of.
   First game? Use Mission 1: The Call of the Ocean.
2. Ocean Boards: Your Scenario Sheet tells you which boards to put into play, and the diagram shows their configuration. Find the right boards and arrange them as shown. Make sure to leave enough room around them for this mission’s grid of boards to develop. The diagram on the sheet shows you how wide the grid may go; the maximum depth is five unless otherwise indicated. Once an Ocean board is in play, it is referred to as a zone.
3. Ocean Stacks: Shuffle all of the remaining boards into five separate face down stacks based on their depth.
4. Dive tokens: Shuffle the Dive tokens into a face-down supply. Draw tokens to make a face-down stack of the indicated amount on every zone that has a Dive site.
   For example, The Sea Star has a Dive site that starts with four Dive tokens.
5. Journals: Shuffle the Anchor Journal and Journal decks separately. Lay out four random Anchor Journals face-up in a display; return the rest to the box. Keep the shuffled Journal deck face down near the display.
6. Specialists: Place the prepared Specialist tray nearby. Tiers 1-4 should remain properly organized from your last play. For Tier 5s, shuffle them (blue Junior-side up), and distribute them as evenly as possibly in the pockets of the rightmost column.
7. The Wave: Randomly choose a start player, and give them the Wave start marker.
8. Player Materials: Choose your player color. Take a Player mat, a Team Leader tile, and the component set in your color: 30 discs, 5 track cubes, 20 Impact markers, and 3 Vessels.
   • Place your five track cubes on the 0 spaces of your Attribute and Research tracks.
   • Place your Team Leader near your mat, and one of your discs on its activation circle.
   • Keep the remainder of your discs in a supply pile not near your Staging area. Discs in your supply are not available to you; they must enter play before you can use them, so it’s wise to keep them notably distant.
   • Keep your Impact markers near the Impact board.
   • Deploy your starting Vessel to the launch zone as described by the scenario, and gain its Arrival bonus (see Arrival Bonus pg. 11); keep your other Vessels near your player mat.
     In Mission 1, place your Vessel at The Sea Star, and gain its Arrival bonus of one disc to your Staging Area.

PREPARING THE SPECIALIST TRAY

Tier 1-4 Specialists: Flip them all Junior (blue) side up, and separate them into stacks by title. Place the three tier-1 stacks in the first (leftmost) column’s pockets, the tier-2 stacks in the second column’s pockets, and so on.

Tier-5 Specialists: Make a shuffled stack, Junior-side up. Distribute the tiles as evenly as you can in the pockets of the rightmost column.

Once you’ve prepared the tray once, it will stay pretty much prepared for all future games; when you clean up, just put the Specialists back in their proper pockets. The only thing you need to do for each new game is re-randomize your Tier-5s!

Short on table space for your stacks? Try this stacking method: Criss-cross the stacks with shallowest on top and deepest on the bottom.

ROUND OVERVIEW

The game is played over six rounds. Each round consists of two phases. The player with the Wave goes first in each phase, with the other players following in a clockwise order.

• PHASE 1: PREPARATION (Recruitment, Effort, Reassignment)
• PHASE 2: STAGING (Activate Specialists to perform actions until all pass)

Your player mat includes a “flow of play” diagram to remind you of the phase order. Faint lines indicate the attribute track that affects each phase.

PHASE 1: PREPARATION

Each player conducts the following three steps in order:

PHASE 1a: RECRUITMENT

On your turn, choose one Specialist from the tray and add it to your own tableau. Your Reputation track’s advancement determines the highest tier from which you can recruit; your Recruitment level on the lower row of the track is displayed in symbols.

Each Junior Specialist displays a number of symbols in the top corner indicating its tier; to recruit a particular Specialist, your Recruitment level must match (or exceed) the tier.

• Your recruited Specialist always enters play on its Junior side.
• You may recruit duplicates of Specialists you already have.
• If your new Specialist displays any immediate gains, resolve them before proceeding to the next step.
• Any or that you gain during this step does affect the following two steps; this may factor into your recruitment decision!
• If you recruit the last tier-5 Specialist from a pocket, redistribute the remaining tier-5s (if possible) so that there is at least one in each pocket.

PHASE 1b: EFFORT

Gain new discs from your supply to the Staging Area of your Player mat. Your Inspiration track’s advancement determines the number of discs you gain; your Effort level on the lower row of the track is displayed in symbols. Gain one disc per symbol.

• If your supply runs out of discs, gain what you can and forfeit the rest.

PHASE 1c: REASSIGNMENT

On your turn, “reassign your Specialists” by reclaiming discs from your Specialists to your Staging Area; this frees up both the disc and the Specialist for future use. Your Coordination track’s advancement determines the number of discs you may reclaim; your Reassignment level on the lower row of the track is displayed in symbols. Reclaim one disc per symbol.

• If you don’t have enough Coordination to reassign all of your Specialists, choose which ones to reassign and leave the excess discs in place.

In the first round, you will have a single disc on your Team Leader, and the capability to reassign one Specialist… so you will be able to reclaim that disc back to your Staging Area.

PHASE 2: STAGING RULES

Players take turns activating Specialists to perform actions, continuing clockwise until everyone has passed.

Players take turns beginning with whoever has the Wave, and proceeding clockwise. On your turn you must either take a turn or pass. Once you have passed, you may take no further turns in this phase, and the turn order continues clockwise, skipping you. Play proceeds in this manner, with still-active players continuing in turn order until all players have passed (see End of the Round, pg. 14).

TAKING TURNS

You take a turn by activating a Specialist. To activate a Specialist, place a disc from your Staging Area on a Specialist in your tableau that has an empty activation circle (not every Specialist has one). Then you may perform the Specialist’s action(s).

The disc you place on the Specialist simply permits you to take its actions. Some action types will then require you to use an additional disc from your Staging area (not your supply) to actually carry out the action. If you don’t have a second disc in your Staging Area to carry out an action that needs one, it is usually a waste of a disc to activate the Specialist.

• Some Specialists display multiple action symbols with a “/” symbol between them; in this case you must choose one of the actions to perform.
• Some Specialists display multiple action symbols without a “/” symbol between them. You may perform any or all of the actions, in any order you choose. Performing multiple actions from one Specialist still counts as one turn. The actions may be performed in different zones. Resolve each action fully before beginning the next.
• You may activate a Specialist and then not perform its action(s).

GENERAL RULES OF THE STAGING PHASE

• To perform an action in a zone, you must have a Vessel in that zone.
• The places in each zone where you can perform the different actions are clearly signposted with an outlined version of the relevant action symbol:
  • To Travel: Look for
  • To Sonar: Look for
  • To Dive: Look for
  • To Conserve: Look for
  • To Journal: Look for
• If you ever reach the Impact symbol near the end of any attribute track, gain one Impact (see the Impact Board pg. 14). If you ever advance beyond the end of a track, retreat the cube back to the Impact symbol and gain it again, as indicated by the arrow.
• The Ingenuity track unlocks additional Vessels for you. As soon as your marker reaches a spot with a Vessel icon, place the new Vessel at the Mission’s Launch zone (indicated on the Scenario sheet) and gain its Arrival bonus (see Arrival Bonus pg. 9).

THE ACTIONS

TRAVEL

Move a Vessel to a different zone, to gain its arrival bonus and enable you to take other actions there.

Move one of your Vessels from its current zone to a different one. Your Vessel movement capabilities are limited by your Ingenuity track’s advancement; your Technology level on the lower row of the track is displayed in symbols.

• The maximum depth you may move your Vessel to is equal to your Technology level.
• The maximum distance (measured in zones) that your Vessel may move from its current zone is also equal to your Technology level. A Vessel moves horizontally or vertically from zone to zone, one zone at a time.
• Keep your Vessels in the Travel box of their current zone.

ARRIVAL BONUS

After moving a Vessel to a zone, immediately gain the Arrival bonus for that zone (only the final destination zone, not the zones passed through along the way). The Arrival bonus is displayed below the Travel symbol in each zone.

• You do get the Arrival bonus when you place a new Vessel in its launch zone, including your starting Vessel at game start. Your Scenario sheet’s Setup describes the launch zone(s) for this Mission.

SONAR (Requires a second disc)

Add a disc to a Sonar track, to gain rewards and discover new ocean zones.

Place a disc from your Staging Area on the “earliest” unoccupied space of a Sonar track in a zone where you have a Vessel. Sonar tracks show you which spots are earlier and which are later; follow the arrows.

• If the zone features multiple tracks, you may choose which track to place upon.
• Placing the disc may complete a link (see Completing Links, pg. 13).

Some Sonar track spaces display common rewards; claim them as usual. Most Sonar track spaces indicate that you may Discover a new zone to add to the growing ocean.

DISCOVER

Step 1: Choose Your Board
Draw two Ocean boards. Each Discover symbol indicates the depths of the stacks you could draw from. For example if it says “1-2”, you could draw two boards from depth-1, or two from depth-2, or one from each.

• You may draw and place a board that is too deep for you to currently travel to.
• Your Scenario sheet shows the limits of your Mission’s play area, indicating where new depth-1 zones may be placed to create columns.
• With the exception of depth-1, there must be a zone of the shallower depth to place it below. (For example, you may not place a depth-4 board unless there is a depth-3 zone with an empty space below it.)
• If your Discovery is impossible to resolve (for example if the icon says “1-2” and both of those depths are already full), you must draw from the shallowest possible depth with a legal placement spot, and continue as normal.

Step 2: Place the New Zone
Look at both boards, and choose one to place (return the other to the bottom of its stack). Place your chosen board in any legal spot you wish at the correct depth; now that the board is in play, it is referred to as a zone.

• If the zone has a Dive site in it, place the indicated number of Dive tokens face down in the Dive site.

Step 3: Discovery Bonus
Claim the new zone’s Discovery bonus. Discovery bonuses are one-time rewards displayed faintly on the top left corner.

DIVE

Draw the top token from a Dive site; tokens have varied uses and are an important source of valuable Research.

Choose a zone (where you have a Vessel) that has a Dive site with one or more Dive tokens remaining. Draw the top token from the Dive site, and reveal it.

DIVE TOKENS

Dive tokens display some amount of Research (which you require for Conserve and Journal actions, see below). Most tokens also display an extra action or other benefit.

During your turn, you may spend any number of Dive tokens. When you spend a token, you must choose between its Research value (reflect the gain on your Research track), or its action/benefit.

Discard spent tokens into a discard pile. If the Dive token supply ever runs out, shuffle the discards into a new supply.

• You may spend a Dive token on the same turn that you obtain it.
• A spent token’s extra action may be performed before or after your Specialist’s action, or between its actions if it is a multiple-action Specialist.
• You may not spend a Dive token for its extra action as a standalone turn; taking a turn always requires a Specialist to be activated.
• You may activate a Specialist, decline to perform any of its actions, and still spend a Dive token for its action.

At the end of your turn, you may store a maximum of one Dive token if you wish (there is a spot on your player mat for it); you must spend excess tokens before ending your turn.

CONSERVE (Requires a second disc)

Spend Research and place a disc in a Conservation site to gain rewards (often Impact).

Choose an available Conservation site in a zone where you have a Vessel. Pay the displayed Research cost of the site, and gain any indicated rewards. Place a disc from your Staging Area in the site; this may complete a link (see Completing Links, pg. 13).

PAYING RESEARCH COSTS

Actions with a Research cost show this symbol , with a number indicating the cost. Spend that amount of Research from the Research track on your player mat (reflect the change by moving your cube). Remember that you may also spend Dive tokens for their displayed Research value at any time.

JOURNAL (Requires a second disc)

Spend Research to publish a Journal, which grants Promotions and other benefits.

In a zone where you have a Vessel, choose an unoccupied Journal site with a Field Symbol that is also featured on a Journal in the display that you wish to publish (it is okay if there are also other Field symbols on that Journal).

• If no Journals in the display feature the site’s Field symbol, you may not currently Journal at that site.

Spend the Research Cost indicated on the Journal, and place a disc from your Staging Area in the site. This may complete a link (see Completing Links, pg. 13).

Claim your published Journal. They display a variety of benefits, in four categories:

• Instant: These benefits are immediately gained by you. One extremely common Instant effect is Promotion (See Promotion, pg.13).
• Others: These benefits are immediately gained by all other players (not you).
• Discard: If you discard the Journal card (from the game) under the specified conditions, you can activate the described effect.
• Once per Round: Once per round under the specified conditions, you can use the card’s described effect. Pivot the card 90º to mark it as spent for the round; you’ll reset your pivoted cards at the end of the round.

REWARD SYMBOLS

Often during the game you will gain rewards in various ways; methods include recruitment or promotion of Specialists, various aspects of the Ocean zones, the Impact Board, Journals, and more. Here are some of the common rewards and other symbols:

• Advance your Reputation track marker one step
• Advance your Inspiration track marker one step
• Advance your Coordination track marker one step
• Advance your Ingenuity track marker one step
• Advance an attribute marker of your choice one step
• Advance your lowest attribute marker one step (your choice if tied)
• Advance your Research track marker one step
• Place one marker on the Impact Board (see The Impact Board pg.14)
• Gain one disc from your supply to your Staging Area
• Promote a Specialist (see Promotions pg.13)
• Perform a Sonar action
• Perform a Sonar action in this zone
• Discard a disc from your Staging Area to your supply
• Spend 2 Research

PROMOTION

Choose a Junior Specialist in your tableau, and flip it to its Senior side. Gain any attribute, Research, or Impact benefits as displayed.

Remember that the Promotion bar on the bottom of each Junior Specialist shows what is on the Senior side.

• You do not lose any attribute symbols that were on the Junior side.
• If there was a disc on the Junior’s activation circle when you promoted it, discard the disc to your supply.

COMPLETING LINKS

Some zone features are connected by lines called links. When both ends of a link are occupied by a disc, the link is completed.

At the moment of completion, both players with discs at either end of the link immediately gain the reward displayed on the link itself.

• If your own disc occupies both ends of the link, you do not get the reward twice.
• It is possible for multiple links to be completed at once.
• The active player gains their rewards first, then any other players in clockwise order.

THE IMPACT BOARD

The Impact Board on each Scenario sheet represents the positive impact that your efforts in the ocean are making on the world in general.

Impact boards in earlier Missions are fairly simple, but as you proceed through scenarios you will discover the wide variety of effects and opportunities that this aspect of the game introduces.

The board is a grid of hexes displaying various rewards and other benefits. When you gain Impact during the game by any means, place a marker from your supply in an empty hex, and gain any reward printed there.

You may only place in a hex with an entry arrow pointing to it, or in a hex that touches any other occupied hex.

• Occupying hexes of certain colors (indicated in the scoring legend) will score points at the end of the game.
• A hex with a ∞ symbol in it can hold any number of markers (place them in the attached larger area if you need room). Once the ∞ hex is filled, any number of markers can go in the attached area and earn the same score as the ∞ hex.

END OF THE ROUND

Once all players have passed, the round ends.

If that was the sixth round, the game ends immediately; proceed to final scoring. You can tell if that was the sixth round, because each player will have seven Specialists in their tableau (including their Team Leader).

If the game hasn’t ended:

1. All players reset their pivoted Once Per Round Journals.
2. The Wave is passed clockwise to establish a new start player, and a new round begins.

FINAL SCORING

Tally your scores in the following order. Use the provided Score pad to keep track.

1. ATTRIBUTE TRACKS: Scoring brackets run across the top of your player mat and apply to all four tracks. Each track marker scores the value of the scoring bracket it has reached.
2. IMPACT BOARD: Earn points for your markers in scoring hexes, as indicated by the Scoring Legend.
3. MISSION GOALS: Each Mission has several goals, and each goal describes how it awards points. Many Goals offer leader bonuses for having the most of something. Award those bonuses as described.
   • If more than one player ties for 1st place, they all earn the 1st-place bonus and no 2nd place is awarded. If a single player earns 1st and there is a tie for 2nd place, all tied players earn the 2nd-place bonus.
   • If you do not satisfy a Goal’s criteria at all, you do not qualify for its leader bonus. For example, with a Goal that awards points for Vessels in depth-5, if you have zero Vessels at that depth you can not score a “most” bonus.
4. TIER-5 SENIOR SPECIALISTS: Each tier-5 Senior Specialist describes endgame points that you can earn for satisfying its criteria.

The player with the highest final score wins! In the event of a tie, the tied players share the victory.

COOPERATIVE AND SOLO RULES

Every scenario can be played in Cooperative (Co-op) mode. Solo mode is no different from Co-op; it is effectively one-player Co-op.

There are almost no changes to the rules. The only difference is that in Solo mode you play seven rounds instead of six.

Instead of scoring points towards an individual score, you will be attempting (as a group) to meet certain thresholds for a series of goals. There will be seven goals in your game:

• A. The Impact Board Goal: The Impact board has a Co-op Goal sign. It describes how many points your team must earn (from the Impact board and Specialists combined), to achieve the Co-op goal.
• B. Three Mission Goals: Each Mission Goal has a Co-op Goal banner at the bottom. It describes the threshold your team must meet (related to the particular Mission goal it is attached to), to achieve the Co-op goal.
• C. Three Random Goals: Shuffle the Co-op Goal cards (mix them front to back as well), and lay out a random display of three. If any of them indicate that they are not suitable for your player count, draw a replacement. When you have a viable set of three, return the rest to the box. Each one describes the threshold your team must meet to achieve its goal.

Most Co-op Goals require you to reach a minimum amount of a particular criteria; this does not mean that each player must individually meet that goal; the team’s combined success as a whole must reach or exceed it.

For example, with this Impact board goal in a 3-player game, the goal is 33 points in total, from the described sources. Not literally 12 points each. Your team could hypothetically succeed (for example) with one player earning 20, one player earning 13, and one player earning 0.

Play the game as usual. At the end of the sixth round (seventh in Solo), assess your Goals to see how many you achieved, and find your team result on this chart:

CREDITS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

• Game Design & Development: Carl de Visser & Jarratt Gray
• Illustration: Maruša Gorjup & Fahed Alrajil
• Art Direction, Graphic Design, Rulebook: Josh Cappel
• Project Management: Helaina Cappel & Marc Specter
• Communications: Sean Jacquemain & Glenn Flaherty
• Insert Design: Game Trayz

Published as a team by Burnt Island Games and Grand Gamers Guild
burntislandgames.com • grandgamersguild.com
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