How to Play Race for the Galaxy: Phases, Worlds, Developments & Goods
Race for the Galaxy is a simultaneous engine-building card game. Each round, players secretly select an action phase, reveal together and then resolve only the phases selected by at least one player. Everyone participates in each selected phase, while the player who chose that phase receives its privilege.
Second Edition guide. This covers Rio Grande Games’ current Second Edition base game for 2–4 players. Expansion goals, prestige, takeovers and other modules are excluded.
Cards are both buildings and currency
Your hand contains worlds and developments you may want to place in your tableau, but cards are also the normal payment for new cards you build. Spending a five-cost development usually means discarding cards from hand, so every build competes with future options.
At the start of each round, secretly choose a phase
Players choose action cards simultaneously, then reveal them. If multiple players choose the same phase, it still happens only once; each selector receives the appropriate privilege. Unselected phases are skipped.
Explore: draw cards and keep some
Explore improves your hand. Players draw cards and keep the amount allowed by the phase, with the selecting player receiving the chosen Explore privilege. This is the main way to refill the hand that later pays for Develop and non-military Settle actions.
Develop: place one development
During Develop, each player may place one development from hand by paying its cost in cards, modified by any discounts. Developments provide permanent powers, immediate benefits or end-game scoring. The player who selected Develop receives its cost privilege.
Settle: place one world
Non-military worlds are normally settled by paying cards from hand. Military worlds instead require enough military strength to conquer them and are not paid for in the same way. World powers can alter both methods.
Some worlds are production worlds and some are windfall worlds. A colored card placed face down on a world represents a good; the world’s color identifies the good type.
Consume: turn goods into cards and victory points
During Consume, players must use applicable consume powers where required, spending goods for rewards such as cards or VP chips. The two Consume action choices provide different privileges, including trading a good or increasing VP output.
Produce: refill production worlds
Production worlds without goods receive a good during Produce. Windfall worlds do not normally produce automatically, but the Produce selector’s privilege and some card powers can place goods on them.
After selected phases, discard down to 10 cards
Once every chosen phase is complete, players discard down to the hand limit of 10 game cards before the next round. Public information includes VP chips and hand-card counts, though the card identities remain hidden.
The game can end in two ways
- A player has 12 or more face-up cards in their tableau at the end of the round.
- The last victory-point chip is awarded during Consume.
Finish the entire round before scoring. Add tableau VP, VP chips and end-game bonuses from relevant 6-cost developments.
Continue learning
Sources and scope
Checked September 20, 2026. Expansion rules are outside this guide.