How to Value a Terraforming Mars Card

At the table, you rarely compare a card with nothing. You compare it with the other cards in your hand, the other three in your research draw, and the standard projects on the board. To do that, you need one number per card. This lesson gives you a way to get it.

It is a rough method, not an exact one. But rough numbers beat no numbers, and after a few games you will run them in your head.

Step 1: the true cost

A card’s true cost is its printed cost plus the 3 M€ you paid to buy it. A 10 M€ card costs 13.

Then subtract what you can pay with:

• Steel at 2 M€ each, on building cards.
• Titanium at 3 M€ each, on space cards.
• Discounts from blue cards or your corporation.

If you have steel sitting on your board with nothing else to spend it on, it is nearly free money for a building card. Count it that way.

Step 2: production, by generations left

Production pays once per generation, at the end of each one. So:

Value of 1 production step ≈ its value per unit × production phases left.

If you play a card that adds 2 M€ production and five production phases remain, it returns about 10 M€. In the final generation, it returns 2.

Other resources need a price. Use the board as the price list:

• Steel: 2 M€, if you have building cards to spend it on.
• Titanium: 3 M€, if you have space cards.
• Plants: 8 make a greenery, which the board sells for 23 M€.
• Heat: 8 raise the temperature, which the board sells for 14 M€.
• Energy: whatever your cards use it for, and at least its value as heat, since unused energy turns into heat.

So a step of plant production is worth roughly 23 ÷ 8, close to 3 M€ per generation, as long as oxygen is open and you have room for greeneries. Heat is worth less, roughly 14 ÷ 8, close to 2 M€ per generation, while the temperature is open.

These are not exact. They are good enough to tell a strong card from a weak one.

Step 3: TR and points

A victory point is worth the same at any time: one point at the end.

A TR is a point plus income. Each step of TR adds 1 M€ to every production phase left, and it scores 1 VP. So early in the game, a TR is worth a point plus several M€. In the last generation, it is just a point.

The Asteroid project sells 1 TR for 14 M€ at any time. Use it as a ceiling: a card that gives 1 TR as its only benefit is a good deal if its true cost is well under 14.

Step 4: tags and timing

Some value does not show up as cubes.

• Tags count toward milestones, awards, discounts, and other cards’ requirements. A tag that gets you to Builder’s 8 building tags is worth part of a 5 VP milestone.
• Requirements add risk. A card that needs oxygen at 9% or lower may become unplayable if the table moves fast. A card that needs a high parameter may sit in your hand for generations, which is 3 M€ doing nothing.
• Blue actions pay every generation they have left, like production.

A worked example

Say it is generation 3 and you expect about six more production phases. You hold a 13 M€ building card that adds 2 M€ production and has 1 VP. You have 4 steel.

• True cost: 13 + 3 = 16. You already paid the 3, so the money still to spend is 13, and 4 steel covers 8 of it. You pay 5 M€.
• Value: 2 production × 6 phases = 12 M€, plus 1 VP at the end.

That is a strong play. The same card in the final generation returns 2 M€ and 1 VP for 13 M€ and a turn. Then it is a weak one.

Comparing cards

Once you have rough values:

1. Play the card with the biggest gap between value and cost first, especially production, since its value shrinks every generation you wait.
2. Sell cards that will never pay back. A card worth less than its cost is worth 1 M€ through Sell patents.
3. Buy fewer cards as the game goes on. Late cards have fewer generations to return their value.

The real point

You will not run the full math on every card. The habit that matters is asking two questions about each one: how many generations does it have to pay off, and what would the board charge me for the same thing? The first keeps you from buying production too late. The second keeps you from overpaying for TR. Our engine building explainer covers the same idea across other games.