Ark Nova: Map Pack 2 introduces five new maps – four identical tournament maps, and four asymmetrical maps with new strategies and challenges. For these four maps, I’ve listed some strategies to help you win with each. Note that tactics are always dependent on having supporting cards to help you achieve them, so if you’re finding you just can’t pick them up, you may have to pivot!
While this piece covers mainly strategy, I will touch upon the basic mechanics. For the full rules, see here.
Map 11: Caves
Overview
The Caves map allows you to Store one of your hand cards in one of three storage slots. Each card placed here does not count towards your hand limit, cannot be pilfered, and earns two money income. Activate by placing a building on one of the three Store bonus spaces on your map. You can take the card back into your hand at any time.
Strategy 1: Store early for extra income
The quicker you get cards in the storage slots, the quicker you’ll get income. With money tight at the start of the game, this is a brilliant resource, especially if you can get two stored in the first round or two. Three sponsor cards to help you do this are Archaeologist (221), Side Entrance (257), and Excavation Site (271).
Archaeologist gives you a free uncovered placement bonus when you cover a placement bonus on a border space. For example, if you build a two-space on the reputation bonus in the lower-right corner, you could claim one of the unused Store bonuses. The next Build action you take can cover the Store bonus just above, giving you two stored cards and four money income. With this card, you could potentially activate the Store bonus six times, but to use it, you must have an empty storage slot.
Side Entrance does not have to be placed next to existing buildings, like almost everything else does. Place your first building covering a Store placement bonus on one side of the board, then when you play the sponsor card, locate the Side Entrance on two border spaces on the opposite side of the board, next to another Store bonus, to be covered next time you build.
Excavation Site gives you each bonus covered a second time. Simply covering a Store bonus means you can store two cards. With this card, you can potentially trigger the Store bonus one extra time. Make sure you have a spare storage slot if you trigger again. Excavation Site is available in Ark Nova: Marine Worlds Expansion.
Strategy 2: Store powerful animal cards for high-scoring end-game play
Many of Ark Nova’s powerful cards aren’t generally playable early in the game, due to the requirements and high cost. If you have one of these cards early in the game, it’s not always favourable to hold them in your hand, especially if your hand limit is three cards. However, storing these not only frees up space in your hand, but they also gain you income, and cannot be pilfered. There are quite a few that fall into this category, but here are some of my favourites:
Others provide a greater amount of immediate points—Giant Panda, Proboscis Monkey or Siberian Tiger to name a few—but I like these ones for the potential, and the fact they only have one requirement—that you have upgraded your Animals card.
The two elephant cards give you an extra Final Scoring Card, which could be worth up to four conservation points, equivalent to twelve appeal. And if you can time it right, playing one of the eagles—with their free extra action—on your last turn, with the Association action next up in the 5-slot, allows you to support a high-scoring conservation project—and potentially two, if you have saved up your x-tokens and have enough available workers.
I’ve gained the equivalent of a whopping 50 appeal points in one turn by doing this: playing two animals worth 17 appeal, then supporting two conservation projects worth five conservation points each, plus one donation.
Strategy 3: Make the Extra Shift Count
The bonuses for placing partner zoos and universities work slightly differently on this map. You’ll receive a bonus for every pair of partner zoos and universities, rather than for two of one. And the bonus for having two of each isn’t to upgrade an action card; it is to use the ability Extra Shift , which allows you to retrieve an association worker.
If you sequence claiming this bonus with a further Association action before the break, you have the opportunity to gain a march on the other players, especially if you only have one worker. Let’s imagine you have upgraded your Association card and it’s in the 5-slot. Add three x-tokens, take a university, gain the Extra Shift bonus and retrieve your worker, then support a conservation project. All in one turn, with one worker. Yes, it takes a bit of planning, but it’s a satisfying sequence of events.
Strategy 4: Turn Over a Fifth Card
Just in case you hadn’t noticed, one of the bonuses available when you support a conservation project is to upgrade an action card. This allows you to have all five action cards turned over, as long as you also upgrade at the two-conservation-point bonus. It’s the only map that lets you do it, so take advantage!
Map 12: Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence is a powerful map with four bonuses that adjust the base strength of your actions. At the start of the game, place a cube of your colour on each of the bonuses. As you cover the bonuses, remove the cube and place on the lowest
uncovered number in the card slots, except for 3, which is never covered. (You’ll notice that this is the only number without a yellow border.
For the first bonus you remove, you’ll cover slot 1, which means that all cards in slot 1 have a minimum strength of 2, and so on. Once you’ve gained all bonuses, any cards in slots 1, 2 and 3 will be worth a minimum of 3, and those in 4 and 5 will be worth a minimum of 6.
Note that these map bonuses are not placement bonuses, so if you end up uncovering a covered bonus, you need to remove the cube from the right-most card slot and place back on to the map bonus icon.
Strategy 1: Support a Conservation Project early
The quicker you can do this, the quicker you can claim your second map bonus, assuming you claimed the first with your first building placed. When you support the conservation project, take the extra worker as your bonus. Then, for the conservation track bonus, instead of upgrading a card, take the extra worker. This releases the second map bonus.
Now all your actions have a minimum power of three, which is incredibly powerful early on in the game, as other players won’t have upgraded many cards, if any. You’ll also have three workers, which will enable you to gain partner zoos and universities quicker, helping you unlock the third map bonus.
The two quickest ways to do this are as follows:
Play a Breeding Program conservation project
These require just one animal and the matching partner zoo of the played animal card. There are five of these in the main game, and a sixth with Ark Nova: Marine Worlds Expansion.
Take an animal icon university If you’re playing with Ark Nova: Marine Worlds Expansion, then take an animal icon university that matches one of the base conservation projects. The university itself will immediately give you an animal icon, and you’ll gain another by revealing cards from the deck until you find an animal with the same icon. Once you’ve played the gained animal (or another with the same icon from your hand), claim the two points on the corresponding base conservation project.
Strategy 2: Upgrade your Sponsor card
If you followed Tip 1, then you’ll only be able to upgrade three cards. It’s easy to choose to not upgrade Sponsors, as it has no detrimental effect on your map or any of the tracks. However, Sponsor cards can provide valuable sources of income early in the game, and points towards the end.
If you have gained the first two map bonuses, then an upgraded Sponsor card means that you can always play a Sponsor card of four strength or less, even if your card is in slot 1. Gain all your map bonuses and a Sponsor card in slot 5 is worth seven, or more with x-tokens.
Finally, you’ll be able to force the break quicker, which will gain you money, and refresh the display for you to (hopefully) bring up more Sponsor cards.
Strategy 3: Plan When to Use the Animal Magnet
Unique to this map, one of the bonuses for supporting a conservation project is the Animal Magnet, which lets you take all the animal cards in the display, regardless of whether they are in reputation range or not. Later in the game, when you have increased your hand limit and income, this is a great way to accelerate towards the finish line.
I’d suggest keeping a conservation project in your hand, ready to support when the display has five or six animal cards you reckon you can play. Remember, if you’ve gained
your third map bonus, you only need to be in slot 4 to play it, or slots 1-3 with two x-tokens.
Map 13: Drawing Board
This is the least complex map of the four, and one that promotes a clear strategy—fill your zoo! The map is divided into four quadrants, each of which provides an immediate and income bonus when completely covered.
Rock and water spaces are nicely situated, and there are only two hexes—both at the edge—that require an upgraded Build card to cover them. You also start with a two-space in the centre of the map.
Strategy 1: Fill Quadrant by Quadrant
This is a bit of a no-brainer, but even so, you may find yourself placing buildings in other areas because they don’t fit. My advice: delay using cards that force you to do this. Prioritise filling the quadrant you’re working on. The map is more valuable if you can take advantage of the income streams early in the game to help build your engine, with returns diminishing the longer you take.
Fill the quarter with the three-money income first. If you have your Build card upgraded, work on the two-appeal bonus next, if not, the one with the reputation bonus. The Hunter quarter can be useful in the end-game when you are searching for specific icons or size of animal.
Strategy 2: Gain the Cut Down ability early
The Cut Down ability is unique to this map and can be unlocked when supporting a conservation project, giving you an immediate and an income action. When using, remove an empty standard enclosure and place back into the supply, receiving two money for each space that was covered.
The beauty of this is you not only regain any placement bonuses when you cover them again, but you also regain the immediate bonus for completing a quadrant. Be careful though, as if you remove a building from a full quadrant and don’t put it back in before the next break, you won’t receive the income bonus.
For tips on how to support a conservation project quickly, see Strategy 1 on Map 12: Artificial Intelligence.
Strategy 3: Rush the finish
The Drawing Board map gives you a head start in terms of income, and because you begin the game with a two-space enclosure. But the economic benefits will not be as significant once others build their engines. What’s more, you don’t receive the seven-appeal bonus for completing your zoo, as your bonuses arrive as you complete a quarter. Don’t give other players a chance to catch up and have a big finish—trigger the game end as soon as you can.
Map 14: Lagoon
Lagoon is an interesting map that has more of a bits-and-pieces approach than the other three. It has some good placement bonuses, and a new Find a person sponsor card mechanic, which triggers every time you gain a worker, including at the start of the game.
Each time you do this, reveal cards until you find a sponsor where the title of the card is a person—e.g. Spokesperson, Engineer—regardless of the picture. Note that even if the picture shows a single person, if the title is not a person—e.g. Science Lab—you cannot take that card.
Strategy 1: Unlock the Play a Person Sponsor Card bonus early in the game
You’ll start the game with one person sponsor card, but if you can get a couple more quickly, either from your initial hand or from the Cards action, it pays to get this in play first. As soon as you trigger it, and subsequently at each break, you can play a person sponsor card for free. This frees your sponsor card up to play other cards, or to gain income and increase the break tracker. The latter strategy is especially good in rushing the break and causing others to discard cards they may not want to, or be unable to complete their own combo before the income phase.
Strategy 2: Be in Position to Activate the Shark Attacks and Wave Effects
On the right-hand side of the board, there are two Shark Attack bonuses, which allow you to discard an animal card from the display and gain half of its appeal rounded down. Nearby are two Wave icons (plus another in the middle of the board) which, when covered, let you discard the bottommost card in the display and replenish.
Having buildings next to these spaces means you can act quickly, when you see a high-scoring animal in the display. What’s more, with the right buildings—Petting Zoo, Aviary, Reptile House, Large Aquarium (with the Ark Nova: Marine Worlds Expansion)—you can cover one of each, thus replenishing the display to see if a higher scoring card comes out.
Replenishing the display can be useful in other situations. You might wish to move a card down into your reputation range to draw next time (make sure no-one else is likely to want it!), move a marked card into your hand, or stop another player obtaining a card useful to them.
Summary
Ark Nova: Map Pack 2 is a fantastic addition for experienced Ark Nova players searching for new strategies to play, and play against. It works better if you have the Ark Nova: Marine Worlds Expansion, as some of the powers synergise better, but it’s not a pre-requisite.
An extra boon is the addition of Tournament Map 1 on the reverse of each of the four maps. There are no new abilities, but it does give players the option of all playing the same map, to prove who is the ultimate Ark Nova champion!
I hope you found the strategies useful. Feel free to leave a review of Ark Nova: Map Pack 2 below, or on our Instagram!
