Power Grid Endgame: Step 3 and the Final Round Math

Power Grid’s ending looks sudden. Someone builds a pile of cities, the trigger is crossed, and the game is over. But nothing about it is hidden. Plants are face up, cities are on the board, and fuel sits on everyone’s plants. You can count the finish a round or two ahead, and plan for it.

How Step 3 arrives

The Step 3 card waits at the bottom of the draw pile. All game, each bureaucracy in Steps 1 and 2 slides the largest future-market plant under the pile. So the biggest plants collect beneath the Step 3 card, and they come back in Step 3, once the pile is shuffled.

When the Step 3 card is drawn:

• During the auction: treat it as the largest plant in the future market until the auction phase ends. Shuffle the rest of the draw pile and keep going. After the phase, remove the Step 3 card and the smallest current plant, with no replacement. Step 3 starts with buying resources.
• During bureaucracy: remove it and the smallest current plant at once, with no replacement, and shuffle the draw pile. That round’s fuel refill still uses the Step 2 numbers. Step 3 starts with the next round.

From then on, the market has 6 plants and all of them are for sale. Cities open a third space at 20. Each bureaucracy removes the smallest plant and draws a new one.

The end trigger, and what actually wins

The game ends after the build phase in which someone has connected 18 cities with 2 players, 17 with 3 or 4, 15 with 5, or 14 with 6. Players may build past that number in the same phase.

Then comes one last bureaucracy, and only one thing counts: how many of your own cities your plants power. Cities beyond your capacity do not count. Ties go to the player with the most money left.

So your final score is the smaller of two numbers: cities connected and cities your fueled plants can power.

The final round runs in the usual order

The last round is a normal round, and the order matters:

1. Auction. Your last chance to raise capacity. In Step 3, all 6 plants are available.
2. Fuel. You buy fuel before you build. Buy enough for every city you plan to own.
3. Build. Add cities up to your capacity.
4. Bureaucracy. Count powered cities. Income no longer matters.

Fuel left over at the end is worth nothing, and so is income. Money is worth something only as the tiebreaker. Spend the rest where it adds a powered city.

A worked example

Say it is a four-player game, so the end comes at 17 cities. You own 14 cities. Your three plants power 5, 5, and 6 cities, so with full fuel you can power 16.

A rival owns 15 cities and can power 17.

• If you add 2 cities and power 16, you lose to a rival who adds 2 cities and powers 17.
• If the market holds a plant that powers one more city than one of your 5-city plants, swapping raises your capacity to 17. Now you need 3 new cities and fuel for all three plants, and a tie at 17 goes to whoever has more money left.
• To win outright, you need capacity for 18 and 18 cities, or you need the rival to fall short.

That is a lot of Elektro in one round. If you cannot afford it, look at the rival’s side instead.

Slowing a rival’s finish

Two legal ways to stop a rival from reaching their number:

• Take their fuel. Fuel goes in reverse order, so the trailing players buy before the leader. If the leader needs 3 more oil and the market has 3, buying it leaves a plant dark.
• Take their cities. In Step 3, a city holds three companies. If the last open space in a city the rival needs goes to you, they pay a longer route or stop short.

Both cost you money, so count first. A block that saves you a tie is worth more than one that only shrinks someone’s margin. Our article on kingmaking covers what to do when a player who cannot win decides who does.

Who can end the game?

Before each auction late in the game, check every player:

1. Cities connected.
2. Cities their plants can power, if they buy fuel.
3. Roughly how much money they have.

A player who can reach the trigger but cannot power the most cities may choose not to end it. A player who can do both will. If that player is not you, the round you are about to play may be the last.

Money breaks ties

Ties on powered cities go to the most money left. That changes the last auction. If you and a rival will both power 17, overpaying for a plant you do not need can cost you the game. Bid with the tiebreaker in mind.

A last-round checklist

1. What is my capacity, and how much fuel do I need to reach it?
2. How many cities can I add, and what does each cost with its route?
3. What is each rival’s finish, and can I take the fuel or city they need?
4. If we tie, who has more money?