How to Play Gaia Project: Terraforming, Power, Research & Federations
Gaia Project is a six-round development game in which 14 asymmetric factions colonize planets, upgrade structures, cycle power, advance research and form federations. Most turns consist of one main action, followed by any legal free actions, until every player has passed.
Base-game guide. Checked September 20, 2026 against Feuerland/Capstone’s Gaia Project rules. Faction boards can alter costs and abilities.
Each round starts with income
Structures, tech tiles, round boosters and faction abilities provide income such as credits, ore, knowledge and power charging. Because upgrading a structure covers its previous income icon and reveals another, development changes the economy from round to round.
Gaia phase resolves ongoing Gaia Projects
Power and Gaiaformers committed to Gaia Projects are resolved during the Gaia phase. Transdim planets can be transformed into Gaia Planets, creating colonization opportunities that require long-term planning rather than an immediate one-action conversion.
On your action, usually do one major thing
- Build a mine: colonize an accessible planet of the correct type, terraforming if needed.
- Start a Gaia Project: commit a Gaiaformer and the required power to a Transdim planet.
- Upgrade a structure: mine → trading station → planetary institute or research lab; research lab → academy.
- Form a federation: connect enough structure power value, often using satellites, then take a federation token.
- Research: spend knowledge to advance on one of six research tracks.
- Power/Q.I.C. action: claim one of the shared actions on the research board.
- Special action: use an orange action provided by your faction, booster or tech.
- Pass: leave the action phase and select a round booster for the next round, except after the final round.
Terraforming controls where you can build
Each faction has a home planet type. Colonizing another normal planet may require one or more terraforming steps, each with an ore cost determined partly by your Terraforming research level. Range is limited by Navigation and can be extended with Q.I.C. when allowed.
Nearby opponents make trading stations cheaper—but enable power charging
Upgrading a mine to a trading station is cheaper when another player has a nearby structure. Building and upgrading near rivals can also let them charge power through the passive power rules, creating the game’s central spatial tradeoff: adjacency lowers costs but helps opponents.
Power cycles through three bowls
Charging power moves tokens progressively toward bowl III. Spendable power comes from bowl III and cycles back to bowl I when used. Some factions and Gaia actions modify this system, but the basic objective is to convert repeated charging into well-timed power actions.
Research gives both immediate abilities and endgame points
Six research areas improve terraforming, navigation, Q.I.C. access, Gaia Projects, economy and science. Higher levels give stronger benefits, and the upper levels also matter at final scoring. Reaching the top level has additional requirements and only one player can occupy level 5 of each track.
The game ends after round 6
After the sixth action phase, skip normal cleanup and perform final scoring: the two final-scoring rankings, research progress and eligible leftover resources are added to the VP accumulated during play.