Using this Guide & Card Help

Symbol Terminology: Later in this guide is a list of terms & explanation of symbols (tags/resilience's/etc.). Use CTRL+F to search for a term you don't recognize.

Find information about a card in one of the following two ways:

• Clicking on the "?" in the bottom left hand corner of any card will open the website for the game, for the specific card you are curious about. Each page on daybreakgame.org has intricate breakdown of each card, along with real-world applications/explanations. Full list of cards: https://daybreakgame.org/explore-cards
• Hover over a card for a quick explanation. Tip: Cards that are "buried/tucked" in a stack can be viewed this way (helpful when you are discarding the top layer of a stack).

Game End

To win - Reduce Net Carbon to -1 (this number is located under the world map). Then survive a final crisis round.

Optional: If you have Global or Local "Challenge Cards" Active, their conditions must be met before the game will end. If you always wish that you could "go that extra round", look into harder or variable global or local challenges per person.

Understanding Cards

Starting cards are based on the country that you play.

Frequency of Use / Keeping Cards Between Rounds

• "Once per round" effects can be used at the end of a round AND at the start of the next round.
• You can keep cards in your hand between rounds, which can allow you to gain the effect of a "once per round" card twice before covering it.
• Cards that do not say "once per round" can either be used multiple times, OR as many times as the card allows for the resources.
• Before ending your round, ensure that you have used ALL of the effects of your cards! For cards with limited uses, the bottom right-hand side of the card will have a X/X, showing how many card uses / total uses available that round.
• Be cautious about keeping cards "for the future" (i.e., beyond the start of the next round). If it can't be activated it will not be helpful and may be more helpful as a tucked card.

Understanding Stacks

There are 5 available stacks of "Local Projects" normal game. Cards are played onto one of each of the 5 stacks. (There is an "easy" challenge card that allows for a 6th stack).

The top card on each stack is active and it's effects may be utilized. The top card can utilize the tags of the full stack when activating the card.

• When you place a new card on the top of the stack, the previous card is tucked into the stack and only it's tags are visible (and usable).
• Don't forget the option to tuck cards from your hand under ("above") your stacks. Playing a card under a stack can provide immediate benefit for the stack. This is not a good strategy if the stack is a "once per round" that you've already collected.
• *Global Projects that indicate a benefit when playing a card with a certain tag will only trigger when they are played as the top card of the stack.
• If you are planning to cover the top of the stack with another card in hand, play cards onto the top of the stack and try to gain any benefits instead of tucking under immediately.

Plan to dedicate each stack to a separate purpose. i.e. Power Generation, Removing Dirty Energy, Card Draw, etc. Similar types of cards have synergies, so placing the same types of cards on the same stack will help. Spreading cards of different tags across several stacks can be detrimental for things like "energies - nuclear/wind/power-grid", where more powerful cards will require tags within your stack to activate.

Depending on your strategy, you may keep the same card on a stack the entire game, i.e., Card Draws that have 2-3 cards drawn per round, or a card that one that produces one tree per round.

It is OK to deviate from your original plan. Sometimes it is beneficial to cover cards in a stack to gain the tags to activate a new card you've received.

Overall Game Strategies

This game is pretty well balanced. You have several different strategies to pursue. Regardless of strategy, use the chat feature to communicate so your teammates are on the same page:

• All players try to reduce emissions as quickly as possible - This is a "Fast Game" strategy -- If you pursue this strategy, you should try and win in round 2 or 3. Global Cards - Pick options that don't require tucked cards. Remove 2-3 emissions in round 1. There are "cow" (agriculture) crisis cards, which penalize each player who has cow emissions. In this Strategy stockpiling resilience, combatting/mitigating upcoming crises, oceans / trees generation, and community's in crisis tokens are not a key focus. Communities in Crisis can be thought of as a currency, instead of a goal to keep at 0 across all players. Risks: Each row of communities in crisis diminishes card draw per round. A lack of resilience can sometimes mean that a crisis round gives enough CIC's to end the game (unlucky!).
• Increase your resilience to be able to take a big hit from the crisis cards, This is a Longer Game method. Have good energy generation (taking care to be nearly always above your energy demand) Take advantage of card draw. As the game advances, you should have more cards in play, which allows for more powerful synergies later on. Even if it seems like you aren't making any progress, the end game should go pretty smoothly Risks: Focusing on mitigating crises instead of reducing emissions can waste cards that could be used.
• Mix of Both Strategies: Most of the time, you will pursue a mix of these two strategies. Ultimately, you need to be able to adapt. It's always good to lower emissions. Drawing more cards gives a better chance of finding useful cards for your situation. Clean Energy R&D (Discard one card to draw 3, keep 1) is useful to see more cards quickly. If there aren't better options for your strategy, pulling from the other strategy can be helpful (e.g., For the fast strategy - getting resilience, planting trees, getting ocean tiles when there isn't a good option to reduce emissions directly). Having one player who goes for a fast game and another one who goes for a slow game will lead to one player getting many drawbacks, and while it's still possible to support them, this is not an ideal situation. At best, you want to reduce emissions to not make the game snowball on you while producing clean energy. Then, increase your resilience to survive the crisis.

Best Local Project Cards to Look for

1. Local Projects to Draw Cards

Draw Tag Specific Cards - Once per round draw cards from the top of the deck and keep all of a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.

• ⭐Energy Infrastructure R+D (Grid & Energy tags) - Draw 7 - Add all Grid and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
• ⭐Nuclear R+D (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Draw 9 - Add all Nuclear and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
• ⭐Solar R+D (Solar & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Solar and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
• ⭐Wind R+D (Wind & Energy tags) - Draw 8 - Add all Wind and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
• ⭐Geoengineering R+D (Geoengineering tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Geoengineering and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.
• ⭐Soil Education (Ecology tag) - Draw 8 - Add all Ecology and/or Innovation tag cards to your hand.

Draw Emissions tag Cards - Once per round draw cards from the deck based on how many tags you have in a stack. Keep all cards showing a certain tag. Discard the others. Once per round.

• ⭐Emissions R+D (Incentive (Money) tag) - Draw 2 per Incentive (Money) tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or other Emissions sources to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.
• ⭐Luxury Consumption Tax (Regulation tag) - Draw 2 per Regulation tag in this card's stack. Add any cards that reduce Emissions from Dirty Energy or other Emissions sources to your hand. Discard the other cards. Once per round.

Draw One, Two or Three Cards - Based on tag requirements in the stack. Once per round.

• ⭐Green Quantitative Easing (Incentive tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

• ⭐Fossil Fuel Subsidies Ban (Regulation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Regulation), Draw 2 (4–5 Regulation), Draw 3 (6+ Regulation) in the stack.

• ⭐Clean Energy Investments (Energy tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Energy tags), Draw 2 (4–5 Energy tags), Draw 3 (6+ Energy tags) in the stack. Competes with stacks that have Energy tags (typically stacks to gain Clean Energy)

• ⭐Green Investment Bank (Innovation tag) - Draw cards if you meet the following requirements: Draw 1 (2–3 Innovation), Draw 2 (4–5 Innovation), Draw 3 (6+ Innovation) in the stack.; Competes with Clean Energy R+D for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.

2. Local Projects to Search the Deck for Cards

Draw 3 & Keep 1 Cards (Tag agnostic) - This is exchanging one of your current cards for one of three new cards. Unlike other "discard" a card, you maintain the same # of cards in your hand.

• ⭐Clean Energy R+D (Innovation & Energy tags) - Discard 1 card from your hand, draw 3 cards, add 1 to your hand and discard the others. You may take this action once per Innovation (orange lightbulb) tag in this card's stack each round. Tip: There are 5 copies of this card in the deck - it is good to stack multiple Clean Energy R+D cards on top of each other (exhaust the first's actions prior to placing additional Clean Energy R+D on top) - Competes with Green Investment Bank for use of Innovation tags; if possible, consider sandwiching between Clean Energy R+D cards.

3. Local Projects that Generating Energy

Energy Cards that don't require discarding. Typically have several requirements to fulfill.

• ⭐Fourth Generation Nuclear (Nuclear & Energy tags) - Add 2 Clean Energy tokens to your player board for each Nuclear tag in this card's stack. Once Per Round. Requirements: At least 1 Regulation tag and 1 Innovation tag in this card's stack to take this action.
• ⭐Integrated Planning Solar (Solar & Energy tags ) - Add 1 Clean Energy token to your player board for each Solar tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack to take this action. Once per round.
• ⭐Small Scale Onshore Wind (Wind & Energy tags) - Add 1 Clean Energy token to your player board for each Wind tag in this card's stack. Requirements: Must have at least 2 Grid tags in this card's stack to take this action. Once per round.
• ⭐Community Wind or ⭐Community Solar- (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.

4. Local Projects that reduce Emissions / Dirty Energy / Energy Demand

Remove Emissions / Dirty Energy when you produce energy

• ⭐Green Energy Transition (Regulation tag) - Whenever you take an action that adds 2 or more Clean Energy tokens to your player board, you may remove 1 Dirty Energy token from your player board. (Note: There is no benefit to having more than 2, but you can trigger this multiple times per round).

Remove Emissions / Reduce Energy Demand - Without Discarding

• ⭐Circular Economy (Regulation & Society tags) - Remove Emissions (of any kind) & Add resiliencies if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 Emission (2–4 Regulation tags), Remove 1 Emissions token (of any kind) AND decrease your Energy Demand by 1 (5+ Regulation tags). Once per round.

Remove Emissions without discarding but gain energy demand - good when you have extra energy more than demand.

• Various cards

5. Local Projects to Gain Resilience

Plus 2 Resilience - Once per round - no requirements.

• ⭐Systemic Risk Planning (Society tag) - Add 2 Social Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.
• ⭐Pollution Reduction (Ecology tag) - Add 2 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.

• ⭐Distributed Energy Storage (Infrastructure tag) - Add 2 Infrastructure Resilience tokens to your player board. Once per round.

Gain resilience based on number of tags in a stack.

• ⭐Special Drawing Rights (Regulation tags) - Give any type of resilience to 1 player of your choice if you meet the following requirements: 1 resilience (2–3 Regulation), 2 resilience (4–5 Regulation), 3 resilience (6+ Regulation) in the stack.
• ⭐Wilderness Protection (Ecology tag) - Add 1 Ecological Resilience tokens to your player board per Ecology tags in stack.

Gain Energy + Resilience

• ⭐Community Wind or ⭐Community Solar- (Energy, Society, Wind/Solar tags) - Add Clean Energy & Infrastructure Resilience if you meet the following requirements: 1 Clean Energy (1-2 Society), 1 Clean Energy & 1 Infrastructure resilience (3–4 Society), 2 Clean Energy & 1 infrastructure resilience (4–5 Regulation), in the stack. Once Per Round. Can be easy supplemental energy on a stack with lots of society, or sandwiched between wind production.

6. Local Projects to remove Communities In Crisis Tokens without discarding

• ⭐Scale Up Recovery Support (Society tag) - Remove Community in Crisis Tokens from any 1 player if you meet the following requirements: Remove 1 CIC (2–3 Society tags), Remove 2 CIC's (4+ Society tags). Once per round.

7. Local Projects to Plant Trees & Oceans

Gain Trees/Oceans based on number of tags in a stack

• ⭐Tree Farms or ⭐Indigenous People's Tenure (Ecology & Regulation/Society Tags) - Add Trees if you meet the following requirements: 1 Tree Token (3-4 Ecology), Add 2 Trees (5+ Ecology), tags in the stack. Once Per Round.
• ⭐Wetland Restoration (Incentive & Ecology Tags) - Add Oceans if you meet the following requirements: 1 Ocean (3-4 Ecology), Add 2 Oceans (5+ Ecology), tags in the stack. Once Per Round.

Gain 1 Tree/Ocean - Once per round - no requirements

• ⭐Forest Restoration or ⭐Peatland Rewetting (Ecology tag) - Gain 1 Tree - once per round.
• ⭐Mangrove Restoration (Ecology & Infrastructure tags) - Gain 1 Ocean - once per round.

8. Local Projects to Reduce Damage/ Need Experience

• ⭐Stratospheric Sulfur - (Geoengineering tag) - Roll the Geoengineering die and add 1 to the result for each Geoengineering tag in this card's stack. The following occur based on the sum of the Geoengineering tags in the stack + the roll of the geoengineering die: remove 1 Temperature Band and draw 2 additional unknown Crisis cards.(2-4 sum total), remove 1 Temperature Bands and draw 1 additional unknown Crisis card. (5-6 sum total), If the sum is 7 or more, remove 2 Temperature Bands. Important! This is a temporary effect. Return the Temperature Bands to the Thermometer at the end of the round (after increasing Energy Demand). You may take this action once per round. - There are two copies of this card in the deck. Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing, but it shines mainly in rounds 2 & 3: if you manage to reduce the maximum damage of crisis between 0 and 1, having extra crises is not a big deal. (Different opinions on whether or not this is a valuable card depending on the group you are playing with and the strategy you pick! With minimal resilience, having additional unknown crisis cards picked can tank the game). Additionally, this is only a temporary effect instead of a lasting option like removing emissions/reducing energy/reducing dirty energy.

Additional Card Tips / Usefulness:

• Many cards can be good in specific situations. For example, some cards can remove some emissions but add more energy demand. If you have good energy generation, then it has the potential to be a good card, but if you don't have synergy, energy, or the type of emission, then it's bad.
• Other cards can make you draw cards; these are all good because they can help you build synergies, and they can be used again next round; sometimes using one extra card to make that stack go from 3 to 4 cards is really good. They are really good, but I do not consider them to be great.
• The great cards are the ones you should be looking for in most games, and nearly all of them work well alone on a stack. Keeping them on their stack the whole game is usually a strong option.

Crises

While most crises are similar, here are some crises to look out for:

• Crises that penalizes players that have one or more "cows" - Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Consider removing cows for this reason when removing emissions! Relevant crisis cards: ⭐Deforestation (Also this card) - Remove 1 Tree for each player who has Agriculture Emission tokens.
• Late Game: There are crises that removes one social resilience for every 2 CIC's you have
• There are Crises that that removes two dirty energy and triggers again the malus of CIC on energy (so if you are at -2 energy, and it triggers on you, you first gain 2 CIC, and then gain up to 4 CIC, which is a lot).

Tip: Not all crises are negative; Crises where you can discard cards from the play area can be HELPFUL if you buried a card to use another card's effects.

General

Thoughts on each type of tag's use/usefulness.

1. Grid: every nation starts with a card that lets you gain one energy per power grid you have. If you don't have a good source of energy, keeping the option of having two power grids to produce 2 energy per card discarded is pretty good. You have some cards that add one power grid while doing something else, and they are nice to transition into cards that require 3 power grids.
2. Energy: the worst color in my opinion. There is one good card that lets you remove a building, then a car, then factories, but it requires some social icons (blue/purple). I would recommend you mostly ignore it.
3. Nuclear: most of the nuclear cards are an alternative way to produce energy. Most of them require two nuclear power to be good, so they are more situational. The nuclear project is very expensive for what it does.
4. Wind/Solar the main source of energy. When you begin the game, it's very nice to have a stack to produce at least 3 energy per card discarded, but you don't have to have that to get good energy generation. Cards that produce energy over time are free, so you don't have to discard cards to generate energy.
5. Regulation: best color in my opinion, the pink project is amazing, and the great cards can remove emissions, add resilience, or draw more cards, and they both synergize really well with that color.
6. Social: the primary focus for social resilience. Outside of that, it has lots of support, which is pretty nice, as many nations start with that tag. The community cards let you slowly gain the number of infrastructure resilience you want in most games while giving you one energy per round too.
7. Ecology: the primary focus for environmental resilience. Many cards can produce one tree per round, which are really good alone on a stack. Contrary to many other colors, it has some ability to reduce emissions that
don't make other cards less impactful. I really advise you to build one green stack if you can.
8. Infrastructure:: the primary focus for infrastructure resilience. They never shine, but they let you increase some resilience and remove emissions.
9. Incentive: USA starts with a stack that can draw cards depending on your coin, which isn't bad to play around. Outside of that, many cards are pretty cheap and require 2 to 3 gold. So it's not usually something you play around, but in the right circumstance, it can be pretty good.
10. Innovation: the orange stack focuses on two different things: managing the crisis and getting to see new cards. I would not advise that beginners use it, but as you became better at the game, having a stack that lets you see 6 or 9 extra cards every round to find what you need is really powerful. The crisis ones aren't that good in my opinion.
11. Geoengineering: Stratospheric Sulfur is amazing. Cloud Brightening is nice on a stack by itself. Ocean Fertilization requires ecological resilience or a stack of clouds. But overall, it's pretty good. I advise you to get used to other stuff first though.

Example Hand / Round

When looking at my hand, I would use any card that gives me at least 0.6 points:

* +1 point per energy produced I need (0.5 point if you lack one energy OR if you lack two and don't have the most dirty energy)

* +0.5 per resilience you gain below what you will need next round (less if you don't have much time left, or more if you don't produce much carbon per round)

* +1 point per net carbon removed (i.e.: minus emissions, tree, sea, and (1 energy produced and 1 green dirty energy removed)

* global projects

* same number of points for what you would gain next round

* +0.5 per extra draw next round

* for experienced players +0.5 for each choice between 3 cards next round (note that doing that can make you gain 1 point this round thanks to the new card and 0.5 next round)

If I don't have any of those, I would ask for help, look at global projects, or find creative ways to make it work (like using two cards to remove one factory every round. That gives 1+0.5 points with my ranking, so +0.75 per card). And if I still find nothing useful, I will keep my cards, hoping for a better round later. Having more cards gives more possibilities too, so it's very unlikely that you won't be able to do anything next round. It could happen if you go for energy (because you don't have a power grid or you covered your first stack, which I would only do for a good reason i.e. it gives you at least +1.5 points for one card or a secondary way to produce energy).

Don't hesitate to keep some cards at the end of the round. It's not ideal, but you may have more options to use them on your next round, as you draw 5 extra cards each round.

Having -1 energy isn't a big deal. I personally prefer early on to have -1 energy (so +1 star) but -1 emission if I'm sure I will be able to produce energy in my second round.

You sometimes have the option to go for a big reduction in energy to be at exactly -1 emission and end the game at the end of the round.

If reducing your carbon by 1 or 2 would make you not reach the next threshold, it's usually really good to try to do so. It's similar to making all players gain +1 on all resilience for the round. For that reason, you should try to produce at least -1 emission during the first round.

If you only gain 1 house per round, you shouldn't try to force trying to get energy. In the worst case scenario, you should gain 1 star at the end of the second round and 2 more at the end of the third one, which is totally manageable. You have lots of other cards that let you produce energy or remove energy demand. If you are playing USA or have a way to give a card that could produce energy, it's usually better to give it to someone else who gains +2 or +3 energy demand each round.

Symbol Reference Guide / Terminology

To help reduce jargon, this is a brief guide so players can use CTRL+F to find a term. A full list and visible symbols can be found at daybreak's website (it's on the first page of the downloadable PDF rule book as well).

Card Tag Symbols - (Colorful Circles on the Cards)

Symbols that appear on cards that are used as part of stacks are referred to as "tags" by the game.

Pictures of all tags & viewing all cards with a certain tag can be found at https://www.daybreakgame.org/tag-descriptions.

Resilience Symbols

Symbols that are in the shape of a shield are known as resilience's. They are collected per person. They are used as part of local projects and to mitigate crises.

Pictures of resilience symbols can be found here: https://www.daybreakgame.org/resilience

Emissions Tokens / Energy

Pictures of emissions & dirty energy can be found here: Emissions sources

The following are shaped like rectangles with a symbol inside.

Other common symbols