Your First Three Games of Lost Ruins of Arnak

Welcome to Level 1. Your first three games of Lost Ruins of Arnak are where habits form. Some of those habits are rules played wrong because nobody checked. Others are legal choices that quietly cost a lot of points. This lesson covers both, checked against the current rulebook and its “Don’t Forget” and FAQ sections.

Rules slips to catch early

Using a card twice. A card is spent for its travel icon or played for its effect. If you play your Exploration for a compass, it cannot also pay for a car.

Shuffling at the wrong time. You shuffle your deck once, at setup. After that, the only shuffle is your play area at the end of each round, which goes under your deck. If your deck runs out mid-round, you simply cannot draw.

Putting a new item into your hand. Items go face down to the bottom of your deck. They usually show up next round. Artifacts are the ones that go straight into play.

Paying for an artifact’s effect when you buy it. When you buy an artifact, you may use its effect right away without paying the tablet in the corner. You pay that cost only when you play the artifact from your hand in a later round.

Forgetting Fear from guardians. At the end of a round, every archaeologist coming home from a site with a guardian brings a Fear card, even if someone else woke that guardian. Take your archaeologists back and gain Fear first, then shuffle your play area.

Taking a turn of only free actions. Every turn needs a main action. If you have nothing left to do, your main action is passing.

Moving the notebook above the magnifying glass. The notebook can share a row, even a space, with your glass, but never pass it.

Skipping the row effect. When you reach a space with a bonus tile, you get the bonus tile and the row’s effect. Both, every time.

Discovering for free. Discovering a site costs compasses and the travel cost to that site. New players often pay one and forget the other.

Overcoming from a distance. You can only overcome a guardian on a site where you have an archaeologist.

Holding cards at the end of the round. You may keep leftover cards for next round, but you only draw up to 5. A card you save is one fewer new card next round.

The big trap: a deck full of Fear

Fear cards are worth minus 1 point each, and they do almost nothing in your hand. Every one you collect makes your next hands weaker. New players pick up Fear from guardians round after round and wonder why their hands feel so thin in round IV.

The fixes:

• Exile Fear first. Whenever an effect lets you exile, a Fear card is usually the best target. It goes back to the Fear supply, and it never costs you that point.
• Spend Fear for travel. A Fear card’s boot is its only use. Starting sites take boots, so Fear cards make good fuel for digging there.
• Plan your exit from guardian sites. If you discover a site late in a round, you will likely bring Fear home. Sometimes that is worth it. Know it before you go.

Forgetting the research track

New players love the island. They dig, discover, and buy cards, and then notice in round IV that someone else is already at the Lost Temple. Research is where a lot of Arnak’s points live, and its bonus tiles go to whoever arrives first.

Try to research at least once in each of the first two rounds. It feels slow, but it pays all game.

Fighting every guardian

The rulebook itself warns against this. Overcoming a guardian is worth 5 points and a boon, and it saves you a Fear card. But the resources you spend might buy more points on the research track. Overcome a guardian when its cost is cheap for you, when its boon fits your plans, or when you will be returning from its site.

Buying every cheap item

A new item feels like progress. But you draw only 5 cards a round. Every weak card in your deck makes it a little less likely your best cards show up. Buy cards that do something you need, and exile weak ones when you get the chance.

Coins as planes

Two coins make a plane, and that is handy when you are one icon short. But those 2 coins could buy part of an item. Use the plane trick when the space you need is worth it, not as your everyday ticket.

A checklist for game three

Before you end each turn, ask:

1. Did I use every free action I wanted?
2. Is a card in my hand doing nothing that could pay for travel?
3. Have I researched this round?

Before passing for the round, ask one more: which of my archaeologists is sitting with a guardian? That habit alone fixes most of what goes wrong in the first three games.