How to Play

Daybreak

1-4 players 60-120 min 7.7 Board Game Geek Rating

In Daybreak, players collaborate as world powers implementing policies and technologies to combat climate change while protecting populations from disasters. This cooperative game requires teamwork to reduce global emissions to net-zero before temperatures rise too high or too many people face crisis, resulting in shared victory or defeat.

Published 2023

Daybreak

Get Ready

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

1
Place the board
Put the board in the center with the Round Token clock side up on 1, and Planetary Effects Tokens on their tracks
2
Set up temperature components
Place Temperature Bands and Dice on the bulb
3
Add natural carbon sinks
At 1/2/3/4 players add 6/11/16/24 Trees and 4/7/12/16 Oceans anywhere on the map
4
Form the supply
Create a supply of all other tokens
5
Prepare the decks
Shuffle and place decks of Global Project, Crisis, and Local Project Cards
6
Choose World Powers
At 1/2/3/4 players: Any/China & US/World, Europe & US/All
7
Take player components
Each player takes their Power's Player Board and Starting Cards, placed above the board
8
Set initial tokens
Place Energy Demand, Dirty and Clean Energy, Emissions, Resilience, and Community in Crisis Tokens as indicated by the Reference Card
9
Note public information
Everything except facedown decks is public information and may be discussed or inspected

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

1
Play rounds
Complete up to 6 rounds, each with 5 stages: Global, Local, Emissions, Crisis, and Growth
2
Add Crisis Cards
Add as many cards as indicated by the number next to the highest Temperature Band placed
3
Start a Global Project
Draw 2 cards, decide together which 1 to keep
4
Draw Local Project Cards
Each player draws 5 cards, kept face-up below their player board
5
Take actions simultaneously
Players take actions in any order, as often as wanted, until deciding to end their turn
6
Start a Local Project
Add a card from your hand to the front of any stack in your play area, splayed so tags are visible
7
Support a Card
Tuck a card behind a Local Project, Global Project, or Crisis Card
8
Take a Local Action
Take the action shown on a card
9
Check Energy Demand
Each player takes 1 Community in Crisis token for each Energy they are short of their Demand
10
Add Emissions
Each player adds 1 Carbon to Recent Emissions for each Dirty Energy and Emission token on their board
11
Sequester Carbon
Cover Trees, Oceans, and Direct Air Capture tokens with Carbon of matching value from Recent Emissions, then return all covered carbon to supply
12
Check for Drawdown
If any Trees/Oceans/DAC are still uncovered, flip the Round Marker and take Carbon from the Thermometer to sequester, breaking a band if possible
13
Adjust Temperature
Place remaining Carbon from Recent Emissions on the Thermometer, filling bottom to top, left to right
14
Roll Planetary Effects Die
Roll once for each Temperature Band placed
15
Resolve Crisis Cards
One by one, starting at the bottom
16
Flip face up
Reveal the crisis card
17
Determine target
Check if target is everyone or the player meeting specific criteria; ties roll the Geoengineering die (lowest is target)
18
Reduce effects with Resilience
Targeted players use Resilience tokens to reduce crisis effects; tokens are not used up
19
Reduce effects with Tucked Cards
If the Crisis allows, tucked cards can reduce or ignore effects
20
Apply effects
Add Communities in Crisis tokens top to bottom, left to right
21
Handle missing resources
If lacking correct Resilience type, take 1 CiC per missing Resilience; if no Tree/Ocean exists to lose, all players take 1 CiC each
22
Lose Cards
Discard from Hand or Play Area, from anywhere in a stack
23
Discard Crisis Card
Remove unless marked Ongoing
24
Advance the Round Marker
Move to the next round
25
Increase Energy Demand
Add demand as shown on the player board
26
Carry over cards
All cards in Hands and Play Areas continue to the next round

Winning

How to claim victory.

1
Win condition
Achieve success at the Check for Victory stage during the Growth Stage
2
Lose by overheating
If temperature reaches 2°C, immediately lose the game
3
Lose by community collapse
If any player has 12 or more Community in Crisis Tokens, immediately lose the game
4
Lose by time
If Round 6 ends without achieving victory, lose the game

watch & Learn

Let the pros teach you with these top videos.

Daybreak: How to Play

Daybreak: How to Play

Instructional

Jak grać w NOWY ŚWIT | Zasady gry | Instrukcja video

Jak grać w NOWY ŚWIT | Zasady gry | Instrukcja video

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FULL rules

Looking for the full details? Grab the complete rulebook as a downloadable PDF.

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