The goal of the game is to have more points than any other player and than the aliens at game end. You earn points when your astronauts leave the station with Escape Pods, by killing aliens during the game, and by moving aliens to kill other player's astronauts during the game.

The aliens earn points each time astronauts die: Each time an astronaut is killed, it is placed on the first leftmost available slot on the alien score track. The current alien score is the number on the first visible slot left. If the alien score track is filled completely, the game ends immediately on an alien victory.

Use the alien score tracks to keep track of the alien's score during the game.

Turn Order: On his turn, a player must perform the following phases. All these phases are mandatory.

1. Alien phase

• Move one alien (if any alien is present on the game board), then
• Aliens kill astronauts (if applicable)

2. Building phase

• Add a tile to the station, then
• Add an alien on the new tile (if applicable)

3. Action and activation phase

Players have 2 actions that can be used to move or activate tiles:

• Move two different astronauts.
• OR Move an astronaut and activate a module
• OR activate a module and move an astronaut
• OR activate two different modules

You cannot move the same astronaut twice using two move actions.

Exception : in the first turn of the game, each player can make only one action in this phase, moving an astronaut.

Connections

Movement from tile to tile is only possible using the striped yellow/black connections (1). Both tiles must have an adjacent striped yellow/black connection, you cannot traverse walls!

Room capacity

Each module tile has a capacity limit on it (2). Corridor module tiles can hold one astronaut and room tiles can hold one or two. The Waking Room has no capacity limit. For aliens the capacity is always one, in addition to the astronaut capacity of the tile.

Pushing

When an astronaut enters a tile that is already full, he must push another astronaut from that tile to an adjacent tile. This can result in a chain reaction of astronauts pushing each other. The active player makes all decisions and earns all rewards for the whole chain of pushing. Pushing happens because space is limited, so it is not possible to push an astronaut to the tile the pusher is coming from. If there is no room to push the incumbent astronauts and the whole chain, you may not enter the tile with your astronaut (no pushing in a dead end). Astronauts can be pushed into the Waking Room and into Escape Pods.

Pushed astronauts must be pushed to an already laid tile, they cannot be pushed outside the board.

Remember that the active player makes all decisions and earns all rewards for the whole chain of pushing. For example, if you were to push another player's grunt into an alien, you earn the reward for killing that alien. If you push another player's pilot into an empty shuttle, you get to choose how the pilot's ability is used. (However, you do not get the points for other players' astronauts that launch as a result of your pushes. Those are rewarded to the appropriate player as usual.)

Aliens

In addition to the astronauts each tile can hold one alien. Aliens may not enter or be pushed to the Waking Room, nor the Escape Pods. When an alien enters or is pushed into a tile which already holds another alien they push each other just as astronauts do. Aliens are immune to teleporter effects.

Remember : The active player makes all decisions when pushing, teleporting, etc.

(Skip this phase if there is no alien in the station)

Move an alien

Aliens kill astronauts

After alien movement, each alien in a tile with one or more astronauts in it kills one astronaut on that tile, chosen by the active player (exceptions: Robot and Grunt, see below). The active player places the killed astronauts on the alien score track, and earns one point for each astronaut killed (two points for a Chief).

Exception 1 - Suicide: You never earn points if one of your astronauts is killed during your turn, only the aliens earn points for that death.

Exception 2 - Robots: Robots are not edible. A Robot is never killed by an alien.

Exception 3 - Grunts: An alien on a tile with two astronauts must kill a Chief, Explorer or Pilot, if there is any (even if this means killing an astronaut of the active player). An alien can only kill a Grunt if the Grunt is the only available astronaut on the tile (excluding Robots).

If an alien enters a tile with two Grunts, the alien is killed. The active player earns one point.

Example 1 : Alien A moves and kills the Pilot. Alien B could not be moved.

Example 2 : Alien C moves. Alien A kills the Grunt. Alien C does not kill the Robot.

Add a module tile or an Escape Pod tile to the station

• The player takes one of the three face-up tiles or one the topmost Escape Pod tile and connects it to the station. 'Connects' means that the new tile must be correctly connected with at least one of the tiles already in place, with their two yellow/black striped connectors facing each other. Only one side needs to be connected, you may create dead ends on other sides of the new tile. The player must place the new tile so it is connected by at least one side to the station and that the whole station can be travelled into.
• The module tiles must be placed adjacent and connected to at least another module tile. You cannot place a module tile adjacent and connected only to an Escape Pod, as when the pod leaves the module tile will not be accessible any more. (1)
• If the tile placed has an alien symbol on it, and if there are fewer than five aliens on the board, an alien is placed on that tile. (2)
• If the tile placed is an Escape Pod, it must be placed at least three tiles away from the Waking Room – this means that it must be necessary to move through at least three other tiles to move from the Waking Room to the Escape Pod. (3) This does not take teleportation into account. In other words, when computing whether you move through three tiles to reach the Escape Pod, pretend that any teleporters that you move through are normal corridors.
• If the tile placed is a module tile, the tile taken by the player is immediately replaced with the top tile from the module tiles stack. When the stack is exhausted and there are no more tiles to place, this phase is skipped.

Each player has two actions, move and/or activate. The same astronaut cannot receive two move actions, so the possibilities are:

• Move two different astronauts, OR
• Move an astronaut and then activate a module, OR
• Activate a module and then move an astronaut, OR
• Activate two different modules

If you have only one astronaut remaining and no second action is possible for that astronaut, you will skip the second action.

Move action

Move an astronaut to an adjacent tile.

Exception - The Explorer can move two tiles with a single move action. She must finish movement before she can make another action so it is not possible to use the Explorer to move one tile, activate it, then move a second tile.

Aliens and movement

When an astronaut is moved, pushed or teleported to a tile with an alien, that astronaut is killed (exception : Grunts). The active player earns one point and places the dead astronaut on the alien score track.

If a Grunt moves, is pushed or is teleported to a tile with an alien, the alien is killed. The active player earns one point and removes that alien from the board.

A player who kills one of his own astronauts during his turn never earns points, but the dead astronaut is placed on the alien score track so his demise does award points to the aliens.

Module activation action

Each non-corridor, non-teleporter module tile has a specific effect when activated by an astronaut. The player may activate a module on which he has an astronaut, and apply the module’s effect. The player places one of his activation tokens on that module. Each module can be activated only twice during the game, and it must be by different players. Once there is a player activation token on a module, this module cannot be activated again by the same player. Once two activation tokens are placed on a module, that module cannot be activated again by anyone.

The game can end in four ways:

• If all six (four with 2 players) Escape Pods have left the station, the game ends immediately.
• When the last tile is connected to the station, the current player plays his normal turn. After that all other players play one more turn and the game ends.
  The German and English rules slightly deviate from the French rules here. The publisher has confirmed that the French rules are correct, so Yucata follows the French rules.
• If at the start of the player's turn all his astronauts are either gone, seated in Escape Pods, or have been killed (i.e. he has no astronauts he can move during his turn), the game ends immediately.
• If the alien score track is filled completely, the game ends immediately.

In all three cases, the station is doomed, as are all the Escape Pods that have not left yet. Escape Pods that have not left the station are lost and score no points.

Players score all points during the game:

• Each astronaut who leaves the station scores as many points as written on his Escape Pod seat (Chiefs score double) when the Escape Pod leaves.
• Points for the Warehouse or for killing are also earned during the game.
• There is no end-of-game bonuses. All points are scored during the game.

If the aliens have more points than the best player, the aliens win and all players lost. Otherwise, the player with the highest score wins.

In the event of a tie between humans, the player who activated the most tiles wins. If there is still a tie, the player with the most astronauts who left the station, then it's a shared victory.

If the alien score track is filled completely, the game ends immediately on an alien victory.