Evo (Second Edition)

About this board game

Evo (Second Edition) is a board game for 2–5 players that takes about 60 minutes, placing you in control of a nomadic people living in symbiosis with a primitive reptilian species.

Travel across the wild open spaces of Kumgath with your mounts and use biological knowledge to help them adapt to a hostile, changing climate. You must also contend with other competing species as you seek to earn mutation points. The player with the most mutation points at the end of the game wins.

Players bid for mutation and adaptation genes, with bidding position determining initiative. Evolution takes place after climate change, while climate itself is determined by drawing tokens rather than rolling a die. Twelve climate tokens set the game length at strictly 9 to 11 turns, with a meteor event occurring on one of the final three tokens.

• Special genes: Twelve new abilities add distinctive powers, including flying, amphibious movement, chameleon-like defense, and the ability to predict future climate.
• Competition: Combat uses a symbol-based die. A stalemate can occur, and otherwise the defender may lose a dinosaur based on the difference in horns; an attacking dinosaur cannot die.
• Event bidding: One event card is available each turn while bidding takes place, with a number of genes equal to the player count minus one pulled from the bag.
• Population limit: Each player can have a maximum of eight dinosaurs on the board.

Winning an event card grants first initiative, which is then modified only by the number of dinosaurs a player has on the board. With its climate draws, gene bidding, evolving abilities, and shifting end point, Evo challenges players to adapt their species before the world changes around them.