Nemesis Board Game

How Nemesis works

Players explore a mostly unknown spaceship whose room tiles begin facedown. The ship contains damaged systems, uncertain engine status and hidden coordinates.

Characters spend cards from their hands to perform basic actions and use room or character abilities. Moving around the ship can create Noise, which may eventually produce Intruder encounters.

Meanwhile, each player is pursuing a hidden objective. You may need the ship to reach Earth, redirect it somewhere else, destroy a particular threat or ensure another condition is true when the game ends.

Surviving is necessary, but survival by itself does not guarantee victory.

How turns and rounds work

During the Player Phase, characters draw up to their hand limit and then alternate turns.

On a turn you normally take two actions, take one action and pass, or pass immediately. Once you pass, you do not take another turn that Player Phase.

After every player passes, the Event Phase advances the ship’s clock, resolves Intruder attacks and fire, draws an Event card and develops the Intruder bag.

The alternating-turn structure matters because another player can change the board before your next pair of actions.

Why cards are also your action economy

Character Action cards are not only abilities. They are also the currency used to pay many action costs.

Spending cards aggressively gives you more immediate activity but leaves fewer cards in hand. That matters because the number of cards in your hand can determine whether a newly appearing Intruder gets a Surprise Attack.

Editorial strategy principle: ending a turn with an empty hand is not merely an efficiency question; it can make exploration significantly more dangerous.

The six original Nemesis characters

The base game provides six distinct crew roles:

• Captain
• Pilot
• Scientist
• Scout
• Soldier
• Mechanic

Each has its own Action deck, starting equipment and role-specific strengths. With a maximum of five players, not every character appears in each session.

Exploring the ship

Most rooms begin unrevealed.

Entering a new room reveals its function and an Exploration token, which can add danger through fire, malfunction, Slime, Noise or other effects.

Exploration therefore serves two purposes: finding the rooms needed for your plan and gradually learning whether the ship is even capable of carrying survivors home.

How Noise works

When a character moves into an empty room, they normally perform a Noise roll.

The result points to a numbered corridor. If that corridor is clear, a Noise marker is added. If Noise is already there, an Encounter occurs instead.

This creates escalating risk rather than a simple random monster spawn. Repeated travel through the same part of the ship gradually makes movement more dangerous.

Careful movement, doors and character abilities can reduce risk, but Noise can never be ignored for long.

What happens during an Intruder encounter?

When an encounter occurs, Noise is cleared from corridors connected to that room and a token is drawn from the Intruder bag.

If it shows an Intruder, the corresponding miniature enters the room. The number on the token is then compared with the cards in the active player’s hand.

If the player has fewer cards than the token value, the Intruder immediately performs a Surprise Attack.

This makes hand management directly relevant to survival.

Intruder types

The original game uses several stages/types of alien threat, including Larvae, Creepers, Adults, Breeders and the Queen.

Different Intruder Attack cards and event effects interact with those types in different ways.

Defeating every alien is generally not the point. Ammunition and health are scarce enough that avoiding, escaping or manipulating Intruders can be more efficient than fighting.

How combat works

A character in a room with an Intruder is considered to be in combat.

Shooting normally spends ammunition and rolls the Combat die. Melee is possible but dangerous and usually represents a last resort rather than the preferred way to clear rooms.

Intruders can attack during the Event Phase or through encounters and card effects.

Because enemies do not use simple fixed hit-point tracks in the same way as many dungeon crawlers, combat can remain uncertain even after you land hits.

Light and Serious Wounds

Characters can accumulate damage in different forms.

Serious Wounds often impose additional penalties rather than functioning only as abstract lost health. Multiple wounds can eventually kill a character.

Medical items and room actions are therefore useful not merely for extending a health bar but for removing negative effects that can cripple later turns.

How Contamination works

Dangerous alien interactions can add Contamination cards to your Action deck.

They clog the deck and may secretly be marked INFECTED. Certain actions let you scan or remove contamination.

Survival is not guaranteed just because you reach an escape pod or hibernate. The end-of-game Contamination Check can still kill an infected character.

A Larva attached to your character makes that final check particularly dangerous.

How secret objectives work

Players begin with two objective possibilities.

When the first Intruder miniature appears on the board, every player secretly discards one objective and commits to the other for the rest of the game.

This timing is important. Early exploration gives you some information about the ship and the other crew members before you have to decide which win condition to pursue.

Objectives remain secret, so helpful behavior is never perfect proof that another character wants the same ending you do.

Is Nemesis cooperative or competitive?

The standard game is best described as semi-cooperative.

The official rulebook explicitly says Nemesis is not a cooperative game: each player has their own objective, and another player’s success does not determine your victory.

However, outright hostility is often inefficient because the Intruders, ship damage and time limit are dangerous enough without additional conflict.

The game also includes official fully cooperative and solo modes for groups that prefer to remove the hidden-betrayal element.

How the engines work

The Nemesis has three engines, each with a hidden true status.

Players can inspect and repair or sabotage them through the engine rooms.

During the final Victory Check, all engine statuses are revealed. If two or three engines are damaged, the ship explodes and hibernating characters die.

This creates one of the game’s best trust problems: someone claiming to have repaired an engine may be telling the truth — or may need the ship destroyed for their objective.

How coordinates and destination work

The Cockpit controls the ship’s destination.

The coordinates remain hidden until checked, and players can change the destination through the appropriate room action.

At the end of the game, characters sleeping in the Hibernatorium normally survive only if the ship is headed toward Earth. Certain objectives create exceptions, such as requiring another destination.

Escape-pod survivors are not dependent on the ship reaching Earth in the same way.

Hibernatorium vs Escape Pods

There are two main ways to get off the active board alive:

• Hibernate — remain aboard the ship and hope the engines and destination are safe.
• Escape Pod — evacuate before the ship’s final jump.

Hibernation can be easier to reach but makes you dependent on the ship’s condition and coordinates. Escape pods avoid some of that uncertainty but may not be available when you need them.

Fire, Malfunctions and ship destruction

The ship itself can become a loss condition.

Fire and Malfunction markers accumulate through exploration and events. The official rules specify that attempting to place a ninth Fire or ninth Malfunction marker destroys the ship.

This gives the group a shared reason to repair systems even when personal objectives conflict.

The Time Track

Nemesis has a hard clock.

When the Time marker reaches the final red space, the ship jumps to hyperspace. Characters still awake aboard the ship die from the jump.

This prevents endless searching and forces players to decide when to stop preparing and commit to their escape or hibernation plan.

How do you win Nemesis?

In the standard game, a player must normally do two things:

1. Survive by hibernating successfully or escaping in a pod.
2. Fulfill their chosen objective.

After that, the game resolves additional checks in a defined sequence, including engines, coordinates and contamination.

Multiple players can win the same game, one player can win alone, or everybody can lose.

Does Nemesis have solo play?

Yes. The original game includes official solo/cooperative rules.

Solo removes the social uncertainty of hidden competing objectives, but the exploration, Noise, contamination and survival systems remain.

If the betrayal psychology is the main reason you want Nemesis, multiplayer is the more representative experience. If you primarily want cinematic survival horror, solo still works as a substantial game mode.

What is the best player count?

The official range is 1–5 players. BoardGameGeek community voting currently favors four or five.

Higher counts create more uncertain motives, more Noise and more opportunities for plans to collide.

They also make the game longer. Groups seeking a tighter session may prefer two or three, while players who want the full social-deduction-like tension generally benefit from four or five.

Nemesis: Aftermath

Aftermath adds five new characters, Trait cards, four additional Rooms and a Shuttle board.

Its signature mode is the Epilogue: a shorter five-turn, roughly 45–60 minute game played after a normal Nemesis session, with a new crew boarding the damaged ship to discover what happened.

It also supports a Research Mission mode and can broaden character variety even when you are not playing the Epilogue.

Nemesis: Carnomorphs

Carnomorphs replaces the standard Intruder race with a more aggressive alien ecosystem.

The creatures consume biological material and can mutate into larger forms, changing the way the Intruder bag develops and how quickly threats escalate.

It is best treated as a difficulty/variety expansion for groups that already understand the original Intruders.

Nemesis: Void Seeders

Void Seeders replaces the normal alien race with creatures focused on insanity and psychological pressure.

The expansion introduces an Insanity track, Panic cards, Lairs and new Void Seeder types.

Instead of simply asking whether a monster appears, encounters can become tied to a character’s mental state.

Medic Character Expansion

The Medic is a single-character expansion that adds another playable crew role with its own Action deck and medical specialization.

Some crowdfunding bundles packaged Medic alongside Aftermath and Void Seeders, while other editions separated the products. Used buyers should check exact box contents rather than assuming the Medic is included.

Nemesis expansions and follow-up games

Nemesis vs Nemesis: Lockdown

Lockdown is standalone; it does not require the original game.

It moves the action from a spaceship to a secret facility on Mars and adds a multi-level board, elevators/stairs, power and darkness, advanced computer actions, CSS pods and a contingency procedure.

The core semi-cooperative DNA remains recognizable, but Lockdown adds enough systems that it is not simply a new map for the original game.

Nemesis vs Nemesis: Retaliation

Retaliation is the third standalone game in the series.

Instead of vulnerable crew members awakening aboard a compromised ship, players control trained marines entering an alien nest with heavier equipment.

It keeps hidden individual objectives and possible betrayal but shifts the tone toward tactical combat, squad tools, a modular map and fighting larger numbers of enemies.

Choose the original Nemesis if you want helpless survival horror; choose Retaliation if you want the franchise’s tension with more firepower.

Nemesis vs Nemesis: Legacy

Is the original Nemesis still available?

Availability is less straightforward than a standard evergreen retail title.

Awaken Realms has reoffered original Nemesis content through later crowdfunding/pledge-manager campaigns, including the Nemesis: Retaliation campaign. Its support pages confirm that original Nemesis and Lockdown copies were shipped again as “old stuff” in 2024–25.

However, direct physical ordering through older closed projects is not continuously available, and regional retail stock varies. For that reason this guide does not present one temporary store or resale price as an official 2026 MSRP.

Nemesis compared with other horror games

Seven strategy principles for new players

• Preserve cards before entering dangerous rooms. Low hand size can turn an encounter into an immediate Surprise Attack.
• Do not shoot every Intruder. Ammunition and health are too scarce for unnecessary fights.
• Verify critical systems yourself. Another player saying an engine is repaired is not proof.
• Know your exit before the final turns. Reaching an escape route too late is a common loss condition.
• Clean contamination before it becomes an end-game coin flip.
• Manage shared ship threats even in a selfish game. A destroyed ship usually ruins everybody’s plans.
• Do not reveal your objective through unnecessary behavior. Other players can infer motives from which systems you sabotage or protect.

Eight things to know before buying

• The standard multiplayer game is not fully cooperative. Hidden objectives can conflict.
• Official solo/co-op rules do exist.
• Player elimination is possible. A character can die well before the game ends.
• Randomness is substantial. Noise, combat, events and contamination are intentionally uncertain.
• Four or five players creates the richest social tension but also the longest sessions.
• Aftermath, Carnomorphs and Void Seeders are expansions; Lockdown and Retaliation are standalone games.
• Old crowdfunding bundles vary. Check whether Medic, Aftermath and alien expansions are actually included.
• Do not pay a premium just because a listing says “Nemesis.” Compare the exact edition, language and included expansions.

Nemesis board game FAQ

How many players?

1–5 players.

How long does Nemesis take?

BoardGameGeek lists 90–180 minutes, with high-player-count learning games often taking longer.

Is Nemesis cooperative?

The standard game is semi-cooperative with individual secret objectives. Official fully cooperative and solo modes also exist.

How do you win?

Normally you must survive and fulfill your chosen objective, then pass the relevant end-game checks.

When do players choose their final objective?

When the first Intruder miniature appears, every player secretly discards one of their two objectives.

What happens if two engines are damaged?

During the end check, two or three damaged engines cause the ship to explode.

Can you die after escaping or hibernating?

Yes. End-game checks such as contamination can still kill a character, and hibernating characters also depend on the ship’s engines and destination.

Can Nemesis be played solo?

Yes.

Is Lockdown an expansion?

It is a standalone game that reimplements and expands the original Nemesis system.

Is Retaliation standalone?

Yes.

What is Nemesis: Legacy?

A newer standalone legacy/campaign game based on the Nemesis system, already covered separately on BoardGameArchive.

Sources and scope

• Awaken Realms: official Nemesis rulebook, turn structure, Noise, combat, engines, coordinates, victory and contamination
• Awaken Realms: official FAQ covering Nemesis, Aftermath, Carnomorphs and Void Seeders
• Awaken Realms: Aftermath rules, characters, Shuttle and Epilogue mode
• BoardGameGeek: current ranking, ratings, player count, play time and complexity
• BoardGameGeek: Carnomorphs expansion
• BoardGameGeek: Void Seeders expansion
• BoardGameGeek: Nemesis Lockdown standalone game and new systems
• BoardGameGeek: Nemesis Retaliation standalone game
• Awaken Realms support: current original-Nemesis fulfillment/product support context

Checked October 9, 2026. Nemesis has appeared through retail and multiple crowdfunding/reprint channels, so availability and bundle contents vary. This guide does not treat temporary resale prices as MSRP. Rules explanations use Awaken Realms’ official materials. Strategy guidance and comparisons are original editorial analysis; no firsthand review or playtest is claimed. Editorial policy and corrections.