Arnak Sites and Guardians: Dig, Discover, or Overcome?

Your archaeologists are the scarcest thing you own. You have two. Each dig or discover sends one from your board to a site, and it stays there until the end of the round. If both are out, you cannot dig or discover again that round. So Arnak gives you about two island moves a round, and this lesson is about making each one count.

All rules here follow the current English rulebook from Czech Games Edition.

Three ways to use the island

Dig at a site. Pay the travel cost on an empty space and take the site’s reward. The five starting sites are always open. Discovered sites join them as the game goes on.

Discover a new site. Pay the region’s compass cost (3 for a level I site, 6 for level II), then the travel cost. You take the idol, or both idols on a level II site, using only the face-up one’s reward. You place a site tile and take its reward. Then a guardian appears on the site.

Overcome a guardian. With an archaeologist on a guardian’s site, pay the cost on the guardian tile. Keep it for 5 points and a boon you can use once.

What a discovery is worth

A level I discovery gives you a lot in one action:

• An idol, worth 3 points at the end, plus its one-time reward when you take it. Later, as a free action, you can slot it for one of five rewards on your board, at the cost of the points that slot would score if left empty.
• The site tile’s reward, right away.
• A new site that anyone, including you, can dig at in later rounds.

A level II discovery adds a second idol for 6 compasses instead of 3, and level II sites tend to offer stronger rewards.

Against that, you pay compasses that could buy an artifact, and you wake a guardian.

The guardian question

A guardian does nothing when it appears. At the end of the round, each archaeologist coming home from its site brings back a Fear card, whoever woke it. Guardians stay until someone overcomes them, and they never stop anyone from digging at their site.

So every discovery forces a choice:

1. Overcome it this round. Your archaeologist is already there. Pay the cost on a later turn, take 5 points and the boon, and bring home no Fear.
2. Take the Fear. Often fine in round I if the idol and rewards are strong, though that Fear card then sits in your deck for four more rounds. In round IV or V it clogs fewer hands, but it still costs a point.
3. Leave and come back. A relocate effect can move your archaeologist off the site before the round ends. Some cards can move a guardian. Without those, plan on option 1 or 2.

Make that choice before you discover, not when you pass.

Which guardian fights pay

Overcoming a guardian is worth 5 points and a boon, and it saves you one Fear card, which is another point and a cleaner deck. Call it about 6 points of swing plus the boon.

Compare that with what the same resources buy elsewhere. If the guardian costs the arrowheads your next research bridge needs, the research may be worth more. The rulebook itself warns against overcoming every guardian you wake.

Good fights look like this:

• The cost is mostly resources you already hold and have no better use for.
• The boon helps soon, such as a travel value for a big dig or a free action you will use this round.
• Your archaeologist is on the site anyway.

Other people’s guardians

Digging at a discovered site with a guardian is legal, but you bring home Fear too. Sometimes the reward is worth it. Sometimes you can overcome a guardian someone else woke, taking the 5 points and the boon from under their nose. Watch for sites where a rival has an archaeologist and no resources to pay the cost.

Planning two moves

At the start of each round, plan both archaeologists together:

1. What do I need this round? Usually the costs of your next research steps.
2. Which sites give it? Starting sites for small, reliable rewards. Discovered sites for bigger ones.
3. Can I afford a discovery? Compasses plus travel, plus the guardian plan.
4. Which space will someone else take first? In a crowded game, take the contested space first and the safe one second.

For the worker placement side of these choices, our explainer on worker placement covers blocking and timing in games like this one.