Arcs Scoring & Ambitions: Power, Chapter End and Victory

The five base-game ambitions

• Tycoon: most total Fuel and Material icons from resources and Guild cards.
• Tyrant: most Captives on your player board.
• Warlord: most Trophies on your player board.
• Keeper: most Relic icons from resources and Guild cards.
• Empath: most Psionic icons from resources and Guild cards.

Declaring an ambition makes it score for everyone

The player with initiative may declare the ambition shown on the qualifying action card they lead. Put the appropriate ambition marker in that ambition’s box. The player who declared it receives no ownership advantage at scoring; all players compare their holdings normally.

First and second place score the values on the markers

At chapter end, each declared ambition awards its higher shown Power to first place and its lower shown Power to second place. If more than one ambition marker is in the same ambition box, the values on all of those markers contribute to that ambition’s award as specified by the rules.

Ambition-marker values increase over the course of the game, so the same category can be worth substantially more Power in later chapters.

Ties, qualifying and city bonuses

You need at least one of the counted thing to qualify. If nobody has a Trophy, nobody scores Warlord. A tie for first gives each tied player the second-place value and nobody else places. A tie for second gives those players no Power. When you win first outright, uncovered bonus-city slots can add 2 Power, or 5 if both relevant slots are uncovered; a tie does not earn this bonus.

Example: Tycoon has a marker worth 7 for first and 3 for second. Two players each have two Fuel/Material icons. They tie for first and each gain 3 Power. A third player with one icon gets nothing, and neither tied player gets bonus-city Power. If one player instead had three icons, that player would gain 7 and might add the city bonus; the player on two icons would gain 3.

Warlord and Tyrant reset their scoring pieces after scoring

After a chapter in which Warlord scores, return Trophies according to cleanup. After Tyrant scores, return Captives. This means those two ambitions do not simply accumulate unchanged across the entire game.

Game-end Power thresholds

• 4 players: at least 27 Power.
• 3 players: at least 30 Power.
• 2 players: at least 33 Power.

After scoring a chapter, the game ends if any player has reached the appropriate threshold. It also ends if the chapter marker is on Chapter 5.

Reaching the threshold does not guarantee victory

The threshold triggers the end check. If the game ends, compare all players’ Power totals; the player with the most Power wins. It is therefore possible for one player to cross the threshold while another player finishes that same chapter with more Power.

Tie rule: earliest in turn order wins

If final Power totals are tied, the tied player earliest in turn order wins.

Two-player scoring exception

During two-player setup, six resources are placed on ambition boxes for out-of-play planets. Count them at scoring as though a third player held them; Weapons on Warlord count as Trophies. These neutral holdings can prevent an apparently easy first place.

Chapter-end checklist

1. Score every marked ambition, including ties, qualifying and eligible city bonus.
2. Return Trophies if Warlord scored and Captives if Tyrant scored; reset ambition markers and flip the lowest unflipped marker.
3. Check the 27/30/33 threshold or Chapter 5; if play continues, advance the chapter and draw six cards.

The Blighted Reach has different Act lengths and objective rules. Do not apply these base-game end thresholds to its campaign.

Continue learning

• How to play Arcs
• Arcs strategy
• Arcs game hub
• The Blighted Reach campaign

Publisher reference: Official Arcs base rulebook. Base-game scoring checked September 20, 2026; The Blighted Reach uses additional campaign scoring rules.