Conservation projects are where Ark Nova’s two halves meet. Your animals supply the icons, your association workers do the work, and the project pays conservation points. Most new players treat projects as a finish line: collect five icons, then cash in. Stronger players treat them as an engine that starts paying in the first hour.
Two kinds of projects
Base projects sit below the association board: 3 of them, or 4 with four players. They are set at the start, never move, and never leave. Everyone can plan around them from turn one.
Project cards come from players’ hands. When you play one, it goes on the leftmost space above the association board, and the others slide right. The row holds 2, 3, or 4 cards depending on player count. When it overflows, the rightmost card is discarded, and any tokens on it go back to their owners’ supplies, not to their zoo maps.
You may only play a project card if you support it at once. So a new card is always your opening move on it, and a fresh target for everyone else.
How do levels work?
Each project has three conditions, each with its own reward, and each holds one token. You can support a project only once, at any open level you qualify for.
Most projects count icons in your zoo: the icons along the top of your animals and sponsors, plus your partner zoos and universities. The conditions printed on the left side of cards never count.
On the Africa base project, for example, 5 Africa icons pay 5 conservation, 4 pay 3, and 2 pay 2. Look at the rates. The bottom level pays 1 point per icon, the same as the top and better than the middle. And whoever gets there first blocks it for everyone else.
The second payment: your zoo map
When you support a project, you take one of the 7 tokens from the left edge of your zoo map, your choice, and place it on the project. That reveals a bonus. You always get it at once, and some of these spaces pay you again at every break.
That is why the rulebook itself suggests supporting a low level early: to reach the Conservation track bonuses sooner, or to start an income from your zoo map. A 2-point project on turn five that also pays you money every break for the rest of the game is a strong play.
Pick which token to take with care. Early on, a recurring income is usually the best pick. A one-time bonus, such as a big pile of money or X-tokens, is better saved for a turn when it sets up something specific.
Workers are the bottleneck
You start with one active association worker. Repeating a task you have already done since the last break costs two workers, and workers only come home at a break. So early on, you can often support just one project per break.
More workers come from bonuses such as one option at 2 conservation, a space on the Reputation track, and animals with the Full-throated ability. Each extra worker is roughly one more task per break.
On side I, project work needs Association at strength 5. Plan your row so that Association arrives at 5 right after you have the icons, which is a nice use of the row planning from the action cards lesson.
Races on the Conservation track
Four spaces on the Conservation track pay out:
- 2: flip an action card to side II, or gain an association worker. Every player gets this.
- 5 and 8: take 5 money or one of the Bonus tiles beside the space. Each tile can be taken only once, so early arrivals get the pick.
- 10: the first player to reach 10 makes every player discard one of their two Final Scoring cards.
That last one matters. If you reach 10 early, rivals must commit to a Final Scoring card before their plans are clear. If they reach it first, you must. Know which card you would keep before anyone gets close.
Releasing animals into the wild
Some project cards ask you to release an animal instead of counting icons. You discard an animal from your zoo with the matching icon and exactly the enclosure size the level shows. You lose that animal’s appeal first, then gain the conservation. Its icons leave with it, but anything its ability already earned stays.
Playing a release card from your hand also gives you 1 reputation. The best animals to release are cheap ones with low appeal whose one-time abilities already paid off. The rulebook’s own example releases a tortoise for 6 appeal lost and 4 conservation gained. After 10, those 4 points cover 12 appeal spaces.
Breeding programs and donations
Breeding programs have the same condition on all three spaces. The glossary’s advice: the first player to support one should take the space with 2 conservation and 2 reputation.
Donations need Association II. During an Association action that does at least one task, you may pay the smallest amount showing in the donation area for 1 conservation. Each donation makes the next one cost more, and once only the last space is left, every donation costs 12.
Two players
With two players, tokens of an unused color block one level on each base project and three of the donation spaces. Fewer levels means sharper races, so count your rival’s icons as closely as your own.
If you like games where your table of cards grows into an engine, our explainer on tableau games puts Ark Nova’s zoo in good company.
Next lesson
Ark Nova Sponsors and Money: Building an Economy
Next, sponsors and money: where cash comes from, which sponsors pay for themselves, and when to take money instead of a card.
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