In Race for the Galaxy players are competing civilizations exploring space, discovering planets to conquer or settle, building an economy by consuming a planet's goods and building developments.

The object of the game is to earn the most victory points from planets and developments played in their tableau, by consuming goods and from bonuses from special developments.

There are five phases to choose from: explore, develop, settle, consume and produce. Players pick one phase per turn (two phases in a two-player game). Then everyone plays only the chosen phases in phase order. Players that chose each phase get an extra benefit. At the end of each round players with more than 10 cards discard down to 10 cards and a new round begins.

The game continues until one player played 12 cards on their tableau or when the VP pool is exhausted. At the end of that round points are added up. The player with the most points is the winner!

In case of a tie, the player with the most goods on the board plus cards in hand wins.

You may drag a resource (single-coloured small card) to a consumption power to consume it.

Summary of Goods

Yellow = Alien Tech (trade value = 5)
Green = Genes (4)
Brown = Rare Elements (3)
Blue = Novelty Goods (2)

Summary of Phases

Explore = draw 2 cards; keep 1, discard the other
Develop = place and pay for a development
Settle = place and pay for a world, receiving any windfall as indicated
Consume = use consume powers if possible, typically to discard goods for victory point chips
Produce = place a good on each world without a good that produces one

Phase Bonuses

These are the bonuses you gain for choosing each phase:
Explore = draw 5 additional cards OR draw 1 additional card and keep 1 additional card
Develop = discard 1 less card when paying for the development
Settle = draw 1 card after settling a world
Consume = Gain double victory points for consumed goods OR trade by discarding a resource
from your hand to draw cards equal to its trade value (bonuses from $ row apply)
Produce = Produce a good on one windfall world that does not already have a good