The game board is double-sided – one side is English, the other is German.

It shows three tracks near the top-left corner, from top to bottom: the Rounds track, the Job Market track, and the Popularity track

Near the top-right corner of the board the players find two spaces to place Economic Forecast cards – in the left box the current card is placed, the right box holds the deck of future cards.

From left to right there are various buildings with spaces where players may put time markers. These buildings are numbered A (Consulting Firm) to I (Construction Company).

• The players place one Status marker on the first space of the Rounds track.
• The players place one Status marker on the sixth space marked 5 , 5 of the Job Market.
• The players stack one Player marker of each player on the No Bonus space of the Marketing Bonus track; the order does not matter.
• The players place one Supply cube on each of the four spaces of the Warehouse.
• One player takes one Player marker of each player and stacks them, randomly, on the first space of the Popularity track. The top most Player marker determines the start player for the first Round.
• The players now separate the Economic Forecast cards into four piles (Depression, Recession, Stable and Boom). They shuffle each pile separately, then randomly discard half of the cards in each pile and put these back into the box (unseen) as they will not be needed in the game. Then, the players shuffle all 10 remaining cards together and place the deck face down on the Future Economic Forecast space on the game board. Then, they move the top card face down to the Current Economic Forecast space.
  IMPORTANT NOTE: The players never start the game with the top card of the Economic Forecast deck being a Depression or Boom. lf this occurs, they continue shuffling until a Recession or Stable card is the top card.
  SUGGESTION FOR THE FIRST GAME: Instead of a random Economic Forecast deck, the players may choose to use a pre-selected deck in order to ensure a less harsh economy. Shuffle each type of card separately. Then, construct the deck in this order (top to bottom), and put the remaining cards back in the box, they will not be needed:
  Stable, Stable, Recession, Recession, Stable, Boom, Recession.
• The players place the Stage 1 Floor and Tenant Improvement tiles next to the Construction Company area of the game board.
  NOTE: In a 2 or 3 player game, only one copy of each Improvement tile is available to purchase. Return additional copies of each Improvement tile to the box, they will not be needed.
• The players place the remaining Money tokens, Info tokens, Time markers, Remodeled Room tiles, Untrained tokens and Supply cubes within easy reach of all players to create a General Stock.

For the first games, the players should place bonus components back into the box.

Ground Floor is played over seven rounds, divided in three stages 1 , 2 , 3 . Each round consists of five phases. Per phase, players will conduct several player turns.

These five phases form a round:

1. RECEIVE INCOME
2. HIRE EMPLOYEES
3. SCHEDULE BUSINESS
4. CONDUCT BUSINESS
5. REORGANIZE

In each phase, turn order is determined by the position of the companies on the Popularity track. The most popular player/company, whose Player marker is furthest to the right on the track, goes first etc. If more than one player is on the same space, the Player Marker on top goes first.

Ground Floor ends after the Conduct Business phase of the seventh round has been completed.

Players have the opportunity during this phase to hire new employees. In popularity order, each player may hire an employee at the current Job Market price. They move the Job Market Status marker to the right after each employee is hired (max. , 7 ).

Once all players have had the opportunity to hire, the most popular player may hire again and so forth. This continues until all players have finished hiring employees.

For each new employee that a player hires, they immediately move their CEO marker up on the Employee track to reflect the new size of their staff and place an Untrained token on the new employee's space next to the CEO.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The Time markers of an untrained employee are not available for use. The player gains these Time markers at start of the next round after the employee is trained.

Players spend this phase scheduling their Time markers and investing in tasks. Players only have a finite amount of time to spend developing their business.

The CEO is a business' first employee, and provides 4 . Each additional trained employee provides 3 .

During the Schedule Business phase, in Popularity order, players take turns assigning Time markers to tasks on their Player board or on the Game board. Time markers may not be assigned to Player boards belonging to other players.

On a player´s turn they choose any one task and assign the number of Time markers from their Employee track indicated by that task. For tasks with multiple spaces for Time markers, the player must place their Time markers in the first available space in numerical order if spaces are marked.

If spaces are not marked with numbers, the player may place anywhere.

Later, during Conduct Business, all locations are resolved top to bottom. See City Business for details of the tasks at these buildings.

See Ground Floor Rooms, Tenant Improvements, and Floor Improvements for details of their tasks.

Play then continues with the next most popular player etc., until each player has assigned all of the Time markers on their Employee track. Since each player may have a different number of employees, the same player may end up taking several turns in a row once their opponents have spent all of their time.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

• Tasks on the Player board resolve immediately, therefore any benefit gained from these tasks may be used in upcoming turns during the current Schedule Business phase.
• In contrast to the tasks on the Game board, the Ground Floor Rooms on a Player Board are unlimited. This means that they can be used over and over again during the same Schedule Business phase, placing the indicated number of Time markers each time.
• All tasks on the Game board will be resolved during the Conduct Business phase.

The following steps are resolved in order during each Reorganize phase:

1. All players move any Time markers from their Player board to the General Stock. Time markers on the Game board remain there, if not otherwise mentioned in City Business.
2. Each player in Popularity order may downsize, moving their CEO marker down one space for each employee fired. When firing an employee, the player loses Time markers and discards the matching 3 for that fired employee.
3. All players replenish their Time markers according to their Employee track, even if some of their Time markers remain on the Game board.
   Remember, the CEO provides 4 , and each additional employee provides an additional 3 .
4. Move all the Player markers on the Marketing Bonus track to the No Bonus space.
5. Add one Supply marker to the most expensive empty space at the Warehouse. If all of the spaces at the Warehouse are full, no markers are added.
6. All Player markers on the Popularity track are moved one space to the left, one by one, in reverse popularity order. Therefore any Player markers stacked in the same space will move together, keeping the order of the stack intact. Any Player marker in the leftmost space does not move.
7. Update the Job Market by moving the Status marker to the left according to the Unemployed line on the current Economic Forecast card (min. 2 , 2 ).
8. Move the top card of the Future Economic Forecast deck face down to the Current Economic Forecast space.
9. Move the Round Status marker one space to the right.
10. At the end of the second round, add the 2 Improvement tiles to those remaining at the Construction Company. At the end of the fifth round, add the 3 tiles as well.

A new round is ready to begin.

Each player can use these these six rooms on their Player boards. During the game, each Player can remodel any of their rooms to get access to upgraded benefits.

When one or more Time Markers are required, all required Time markers must be placed at once. Once the Time marker requirement has been met, all Ground Floor Rooms provide their respective benefit immediately. These rooms have unlimited use.

Each remodeled Ground Floor Room is worth 2 at the end of the game.

There are two of each regular Tenant Improvement tile, and only one Tenant Improvement Achievement tile.
IMPORTANT NOTE: In a 2 or 3 player game, only one copy of each Tenant Improvement tile is available for purchase.

When players expand their business with a new Tenant Improvement, they can either place it on an “Empty Floor” Improvement space or on top of another room. This other room (either a previous Tenant Improvement or a Ground Floor room) becomes inaccessible to the Player; its ability cannot be used nor can it be remodeled. However, its Prestige Points will still count at the end of the game.

Each regular Tenant Improvement tile is worth 3 at the end of the game. Respectively, the Tenant Improvement Achievement tile is worth 1 , but grants additional bonus Prestige Points.

There are two of each regular Floor Improvement tile, only one of each Achievement Floor tile.
IMPORTANT NOTE: In a 2 or 3 player game, only one copy of each Floor Improvement tile is available for purchase.

When players expand their business with a new Floor, they place it above their Ground Floor, below their Specialty Tile. Each subsequent Floor will be placed above the last one etc.

Each Floor Improvement tile is worth between 2 and 8 at the end of the game, as written on the different tiles. Most Achievement Floor tiles also grant additional bonus Prestige Points.