Zenith is a tug-of-war across Mercury, Venus, Terra, Mars and Jupiter. Every turn you play one Agent card as one of three actions: recruit it, discard it to develop its faction’s technology, or discard it to become the Leader. Influence discs, rather than a point total, decide the winner. PlayPunk supports a two-player duel and a four-player team game.
Set up the two-player game
Place a disc of each planet color in the middle of its influence track. Put the Diplomacy board on its two-player side and the Leader badge on its space. Assemble the three-part Technology board; the rulebook recommends the S.U.N. configuration for your first play. Set one face-up bonus token on each of five planet spaces and three Technology spaces. Each player starts with 12 Credits, one Zenithium and four Agent cards. You may replace any number of those four cards before play.
The randomly assigned player aid determines first player. The second player begins with one Terra influence, moving that planet’s disc one step toward their zone. Keep hands secret. The different planet and Technology board configurations make later games vary without changing the basic turn sequence.
How an influence track works
Each planet has a central disc and a track reaching each side’s control zone. One influence moves the current disc one space toward your zone; the opponent’s influence moves it in the other direction. Only when the disc enters your control zone do you take that disc and place it in your Diplomacy board’s notches. Progress on the track is contested; a disc you have already won is part of your victory count.
The first disc won from a particular planet triggers that planet’s face-up bonus token immediately, then that token is discarded. At the end of the winner’s turn, put a fresh disc of that color at the middle of the track. Do not replace the bonus token.
Choose one of three actions
A. Recruit an Agent
Place a card from your hand in your own column for its printed planet and pay its Credit cost. Each card already in that same column on your side reduces this cost by one, to a minimum of zero. Apply the new card’s effects from left to right. Every recruited Agent grants one influence on its planet in addition to any other printed effects.
Example: a seven-Credit Mercury card costs five if you already have two cards in your Mercury column. If you later win a Mercury disc, keep the column: it is not cleared merely because the disc was won. Some effects mobilize a card from the deck without applying its effects, exile the most recently added card of a column, or transfer an opponent’s most recent card to your own column without its effects.
B. Develop a Technology
Discard an Agent card and advance the track matching its faction, Human, Robot or Animod, by one level. Pay the next level’s Zenithium cost. Resolve the new level and the earlier levels on that track, following the printed order. You cannot skip a level. The first player to reach level two on a track also takes its one-time bonus token at the timing shown in the rules.
Completing level one across all three factions grants one influence on any planet; completing level two across all three grants two on one planet; completing level three across all three grants three on one planet. Resolve the row bonus after the relevant track effects.
C. Become the Leader
Discard a card and take the faction effect: a Robot card grants the badge and one Zenithium, a Human card grants the badge and three Credits, and an Animod card grants the badge and mobilizes two cards. Taking a badge from your opponent places it Silver-side up; taking it again while you already hold Silver flips it to Gold. Silver raises your normal refill hand to five cards; Gold raises it to six. Without the badge, refill to four. The badge also interacts with some Agent effects.
Finish the turn and check for victory
Refill your hand to the applicable limit, then replace any planet discs you won this turn at the center. Card effects can leave you above your hand limit; in that case, keep the extra cards and do not draw. The game ends immediately when a side has three discs from one planet, four discs from four different planets, or five discs total. See the worked victory examples.
What changes with four players?
Form two teams and use the four-player Diplomacy side. Each teammate keeps a separate hidden hand, while Credits, Zenithium and the Leader badge are shared. Teams alternate; on a team turn, the partners choose which teammate acts first, then each takes a full turn. The player near the Diplomacy board can recruit only on Terra, Mars or Jupiter; the one near the Technology board only on Mercury, Venus or Terra. Either can use any faction card for Technology or Leader instead. A Leader action may also pass up to two hand cards to the teammate. The second team starts with one influence on Mars and Venus, rather than the duel’s one on Terra.
More Zenith guides: Zenith game guide · How to play Zenith · Zenith strategy · Victory conditions and influence discs · Secret Agents expansion
Rules reference: PlayPunk’s English rules and helpsheet downloads. This walkthrough covers the original two-player game, with the published team changes noted separately.