Terraforming Mars Colonies Expansion Guide
Terraforming Mars: Colonies adds off-world locations that corporations can invest in and trade with. Colony tiles create a shared economy outside Mars, while trade fleets turn energy, titanium or money into targeted resource gains.
What Colonies adds
- Colony tiles representing moons and other locations
- A trade fleet for each player
- A new Build Colony standard project
- A new Trade action
- New project and corporation cards
- Solar Phase colony-track advancement
How colony tiles are chosen
During setup, draw colony tiles based on player count and place them beside the main board. Each colony has a track showing the current trade income and a separate bonus for players who have built a colony there.
Building a colony
Building a colony is a standard project costing 17 M€. Place your marker in the lowest available colony position and take the printed placement bonus.
Each colony tile can normally hold no more than three colonies, and each player normally has at most one colony on a given tile unless a card says otherwise.
Trading
Trading is an action, not a standard project. Send your available trade fleet to an unoccupied colony tile by paying 9 M€, 3 energy, or 3 titanium.
You receive the current trade income shown on the colony track. Players with colonies there also receive that colony’s printed colony bonus.
Why colonies improve over time
Colony tracks advance, making locations more valuable if they are ignored. That creates timing tension: trade early for a useful resource, or wait for a richer payout and risk another corporation taking the opportunity first.
Special resource colonies
Some colony tiles support card-specific resources such as floaters or microbes. They do not become usable for normal colony/trade interaction until the appropriate resource can exist in the game.
How Colonies combines with other expansions
Colonies is designed to mix with the other Terraforming Mars modules. Return trade fleets and advance colony markers during the Solar Phase along with any other expansion steps you are using.
Who should add Colonies?
Choose Colonies when you want another shared economic system with direct competition over timing, without adding the heavier political overhead of Turmoil.
Related guides
Publisher rules
Expansion rules checked September 2026.