Heat Player Counts, Modules, and Expansions

Heat’s second rulebook, Advanced Play and Championship System, holds four modules you can add one at a time or all together. Then come the expansion boxes, each with new tracks and a new twist. This lesson covers player counts, the modules in the base box, and the first two expansions, Heavy Rain and Tunnel Vision.

Everything up to the expansions section is in the base game, Heat: Pedal to the Metal.

How does Heat change by player count?

The base game plays 1 to 6.

• Solo: you race against Legends, the automated cars below.
• Two or three players: the rulebook suggests adding Legends when you have fewer than 4 players, and at least two if you add any. More cars means more slipstream chances.
• Four to six: the full grid. With 5 or more cars, Adrenaline goes to the last two cars each round, and full Spaces push cars back more often.

If you are choosing a game for a bigger group, our guide to the best board games for 6 players has more picks for a full table.

Legends: automated rivals

Legends are bot cars run by one small deck of 10 Legends cards. Each round, when the first Legend moves, you flip one card and every Legend uses it.

• Past the Legends Line printed on the track, a Legend attacks the next corner: it moves the corner’s Speed Limit plus a bonus shown on the card for its color. It never crosses two Corner Lines in one move.
• Before the Legends Line, it moves its Top Speed from the card, unless that would carry it over the next Corner Line. Then it stops on a numbered Space just before the line, again shown on the card.

Legends never slipstream, use Heat, or cool down. They count when deciding who gets Adrenaline, but get no benefit from it. For a tougher field, add 1 or more to every Top Speed. The designers say they usually race Legends at +2.

Racing Legends alone is also a tidy way to practice corners. Our list of the best solo board games has more for the evenings you play alone.

The Garage: build your car

In the Garage module, you put the Starting Upgrade cards back in the box and draft 3 Upgrade cards instead.

• Deal a market of one card per player, plus 3, face up.
• Round one: pick from the last car on the grid to the first. Round two: first to last. Round three: last to first again. Clear the leftovers and deal a new market each round.
• Shuffle your 3 Upgrades into your deck.

Upgrades come in families such as Brakes, Cooling System, Tires, Turbocharger, and Wings. Some symbols on them are optional; others are mandatory, the price of a strong card. Start with the Regular Upgrades only and add the Advanced ones later.

Weather and Road Conditions

This module changes the track for one race. Draw one Weather token, which changes everyone’s car before the start, such as an extra Stress card, one Heat fewer, or Heat starting in your deck. Then draw one Road Conditions token per corner. Each affects either that corner, like a Speed Limit 1 higher or lower, or the stretch of track after it, like a bigger slipstream or a free Boost.

Set up weather before the Garage draft, so drivers can build for the conditions.

The Championship

The Championship ties everything together into a season. The box has three historic seasons: 1961 (3 races), 1962 (3 races), and 1963 (4 races). The rulebook suggests starting with 1961. You can also shuffle the Event cards and make your own 4 race season.

Before each race, the Event card names the track and lists the setup steps:

• Build your car: draft one new Upgrade per race, so your car improves over the season.
• Sponsorship: draw the Sponsorship cards shown, as part of your starting hand.
• Press Corner: a standee marks a corner where daring driving earns Sponsorship cards.
• Weather and Road Conditions: drawn fresh for each race.
• Event: a special rule or challenge for this race only.

Points come from the Hall of Fame after each race; the endgame lesson covers the math. For a very long evening, the GOAT challenge races 1961, 1962, and 1963 back to back. The booklet’s last section, Tournament Mode, waits at Level 4, in competitive Heat. Two Level 2 lessons go deeper on what you add here: drafting Garage upgrades and racing Legends.

Heat: Heavy Rain

Heat: Heavy Rain adds a board with two tracks, Japan and Mexico, plus everything for one more player. Days of Wonder lists it for 1 to 7 players. Its new ideas:

• Flooded Spaces on the Japan track. Start a round on one and shifting down costs 1 extra Heat.
• Chicanes: two Corner Lines close together with the same Speed Limit.
• Aggressive Legends, which can cross an extra Corner Line when they start a round on a marked Space.
• Air Intake upgrades with a new Super Cool symbol that moves Heat from your discard pile back to your Engine.
• A 1964 Championship season of four Event cards.

Heat: Tunnel Vision

Heat: Tunnel Vision adds a board with Spain and the Netherlands, plus one more player set, also listed for 1 to 7 players. Its new ideas:

• Tunnels on the Spain track. While your car is in one, you cannot discard cards from your hand. Cooling down still works.
• Chicanes and Aggressive Legends, as in Heavy Rain.
• Front Wing upgrades with a Draft symbol: extra movement through empty track up to a car ahead. Unlike slipstream, it can carry you across the finish line.
• A 1965 Championship season.

Days of Wonder also lists two newer boxes: Heat: Rocky Roads, with South Africa and Germany tracks and a 1966 season, and Heat: Legends, with smarter automated drivers. Every expansion needs the base game.

How to choose

• Your group wants more from the base box: the Garage first, then weather.
• You often play with two or three, or alone: Legends.
• You have a free evening: the 1961 Championship.
• You know every base track by heart: Heavy Rain or Tunnel Vision.

Our piece on whether expansions are worth it has a broader way to decide, for Heat and every other game on your shelf.