How to Read Ark Nova Cards: Animals, Sponsors, and Projects

Ark Nova’s deck has 212 Zoo cards: 128 animals, 64 sponsors, and 20 conservation projects, plus 12 base projects. You will never memorize them, and you do not need to. Each card type puts the same information in the same place, so the skill to build is reading the layout, not the text.

This lesson walks the corners of each card type, following the rulebook’s own card layout pages.

Animal cards

Start in the upper left and read down.

1. Enclosure size. The number in the hexagon is the smallest standard enclosure this animal can live in. A bigger empty enclosure works too.
2. Rock and water. Up to two rock or water icons may sit beside the size. The enclosure must touch at least that many spaces of that type on your zoo map.
3. Special enclosure. If the animal can also live in the Reptile House or Large Bird Aviary, that option and the number of spaces it takes are shown to the right. Rock and water needs still apply there.
4. Cost. Below the enclosure needs is the money you pay. Each partner zoo on the animal’s continent cuts 3 money per continent icon on the card.
5. Conditions. Further down the left side, some animals show extra conditions, such as a partner zoo on their continent, a number of certain icons in your zoo, or an upgraded Animals card.

Then the upper right: the animal’s category and, except for petting zoo animals, its continent. These are the icons your zoo gains when you play it.

Then the lower right: the appeal you gain, plus any conservation points or reputation.

Finally the ability in the middle of the card. Most fire when you play the animal. If the text says “after finishing,” wait until the whole Animals action is done, including sliding the action card to slot 1.

The seven categories

Ark Nova has seven animal categories: bird, herbivore, predator, primate, reptile, bear, and petting zoo animal. Two are special. Bears are really a subcategory and usually appear next to a herbivore or predator icon. Petting zoo animals can only live in the Petting Zoo, never in a standard enclosure.

When a card asks about “animal categories,” bears and petting zoo animals count unless the card says otherwise.

Sponsor cards

Sponsors use the same left and right logic.

• Upper left: the level. Your Sponsors action needs at least that strength. If the sponsor places a unique building that must touch rock or water, that shows here too.
• Left side: conditions, such as a minimum reputation.
• Upper right: any icon the card adds to your zoo.

The effect colors tell you when it works:

• Blue strip at the top: a recurring effect, such as money each time a certain icon is played.
• Purple: income at every break.
• Yellow, lower left: a one-time effect when you play it.
• Brown, lower right: an effect at final scoring. A brown strip behind the level reminds you of it once the card is tucked under others.

The sponsors and money lesson covers which of these pay back their action.

Conservation project cards

A project card shows three conditions down one side, each with its own reward. Most count icons in your zoo: the icons along the top of your animals and sponsors, plus your partner zoos and universities, and the rock and water icons in those top corners. The conditions printed on the left side of cards never count.

Release projects work differently. Instead of counting icons, you discard one animal with the right icon from your zoo, and it must need exactly the enclosure size the level shows.

Some project cards also give a bonus to the player who plays them, shown separately from the three levels.

Playing cards so you can still read them

The rulebook suggests tucking your played animals and sponsors so they overlap, with only the top strip of each showing. Everything you need for the rest of the game is printed along that top edge: the icons. That is why the top strip is the part of the card worth scanning when you count for a project.

A quick reading drill

Before your next game, pull five random animals from the deck. For each one, answer three questions in under ten seconds:

1. What does it need? Enclosure size, rock or water, conditions.
2. What does it cost, and would any partner zoo make it cheaper?
3. What does it give? Appeal, icons, and the ability.

Five cards a night for a week, and the icons stop slowing you down. If you keep the glossary handy for abilities, the Icon overview in the box answers the rest.