How to Play

Celestia

2-6 players 30-30 min 6.9 Board Game Geek Rating

Teams of adventurers fly through floating cities collecting treasures in this push-your-luck game. Each round, a captain rolls dice revealing obstacles, then plays matching cards to overcome them. Before seeing the captain's cards, players choose: exit now for guaranteed points from the current city, or stay aboard hoping to reach more valuable destinations. Failed challenges crash everyone back to start empty-handed. First player reaching fifty treasure points wins.

Published 2015

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Arrange city tiles

Place the 9 City tiles in ascending order on the table (1 to 25)

Prepare treasure decks

Shuffle the Treasure cards for each city separately and place them face down next to their corresponding city (matching the card back illustration)

Position the aircraft

Place the aircraft on the first City tile

Select adventurers

Each player chooses an Adventurer tile, places it in front of themselves, and puts their matching colored Adventurer pawn on the aircraft

Create equipment deck

Shuffle all Equipment, Power, and Turbo cards together into a single deck

Deal starting hands

Each player receives cards from the deck:

Place draw deck

Leave the remaining deck face down within reach of all players

Choose first captain

Select a player by any method to be the first captain of the aircraft

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Roll dice for challenges

The captain rolls as many dice as indicated by the next City tile to determine the challenges that must be overcome

Understand event types

Dice show different events requiring specific Equipment cards:

Wait before playing cards

The captain must NOT play Equipment cards immediately after rolling - passengers must decide first

Passengers decide

Starting with the player to the captain's left, each passenger declares their choice:

Captain restriction

The captain cannot disembark when other passengers were aboard at the start of the stage

Play Power cards

After all passengers announce intentions but before the captain plays Equipment cards, any player may play Power cards

Captain faces challenges

The captain must play the required Equipment cards to overcome all dice results

Move the aircraft

If the captain successfully overcomes all challenges, advance the aircraft to the next city

Aircraft crashes

If the captain cannot overcome the challenges, no Equipment cards are played and the aircraft crashes - no players aboard receive Treasure cards

Pass captain role

The player to the left of the current captain becomes the new captain (players who left the aircraft cannot be captain until the journey ends)

Captain alone option

If the captain is alone on the aircraft at the start of a stage, they may choose to disembark without rolling dice and take a Treasure card

Use Expulsion card

Force another passenger (not the captain) to leave the aircraft and take a Treasure card from the current city

Use Jetpack card

When the aircraft crashes, take a Treasure card from the furthest city reached this journey

Use Alternative Route card

Allow the captain to reroll any number of dice (passengers cannot change their decision after reroll)

Use Gust of Wind card

Force the captain to reroll all blank dice (any player may use this, including those who left the aircraft)

Use Magic Spyglass card

When the captain cannot overcome challenges, ignore all challenges this stage and advance to the next city (only found in first 4 cities)

Start new journey

When a journey ends (crash or captain disembarks alone):

Handle empty cities

If a city has no Treasure cards remaining, remove or flip its tile - the aircraft will not stop there

Reach final city

If the aircraft reaches City 25, starting with the captain and clockwise, each player aboard draws one Treasure card (some may not receive any if cards run out)