Tabletop games
Lost Ruins of Arnak
IELLOElwen, Mín2020
- players
- 1–4
- minutes
- 90
- years
- 12+
In the box
1 double-sided board · Item, Artifact and Fear cards · Site and Guardian tiles · Research board and pawns · Resources: coins, compasses, tablets, arrowheads, jewels · Wooden archaeologists
Box details
- Designers
- Elwen, Mín
- Artwork
- Ondřej Hrdina, Jiří Kůs, Milan Vavroň
- Publisher
- IELLO
- Mechanics
- Deck BuildingWorker PlacementTrack MovementMulti-Use CardsSolo Play
- Expansions
- Lost Ruins of Arnak: Expedition Leaders · 2021
Where to buy it
Near you and online
In a shop
Within 50 km.
Online
Affiliate link: Marquoir may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.
The basics
Over five rounds, each player leads an expedition on the island with their deck of cards and their two archaeologists. On your turn, take a single main action: send an archaeologist to dig at a site or discover a new one, overcome a guardian, buy an item or an artifact, play a card, move up the research track, or pass; the round ends when everyone has passed. After the fifth round, add up research, temple tiles, 3 points per idol plus the empty idol slots, 5 points per guardian overcome and the points on your cards, minus 1 per Fear card. The highest total wins; in a tie, whoever reached the Lost Temple first.
Checked against the official rules · October 2026
The rules, step by step
Setup
1 to 4 players, 2 archaeologists each, 6-card deck
- 1 to 4 players, ages 12 and up. For a first game, use the Bird Temple side of the board.
- With two or three players, obstacle tiles block some archaeologist spaces for the whole game: with three, 3 tiles drawn at random; with two, all 5 tiles, so each site holds only one archaeologist. With four, no obstacle tiles.
- The card row starts with 1 artifact to the left of the Moon Staff and 5 items to its right; idols are spread over the sites, temple tiles are stacked on the temple and research bonus tiles are laid on the track.
- Each player takes their player board, their 2 archaeologists, their 2 research tokens (the magnifying glass on top of the notebook, below the track) and a deck of 6 cards: 2 Funding, 2 Exploration and 2 Fear cards.
- Starting resources depend on turn order: 2 coins for the 1st player; 1 coin and 1 compass for the 2nd; 2 coins and 1 compass for the 3rd; 1 coin and 2 compasses for the 4th.
How to play
5 rounds, 1 main action, Or pass
- The game lasts 5 rounds. At the start of each, every player fills their hand up to 5 cards from their deck.
- Players take turns clockwise, starting with the first player: on your turn, take exactly one main action, and as many free actions as you like.
- The main actions: dig at a site, discover a new site, overcome a guardian, buy a card, play a card, research, or pass.
- A card is played either for its effect or for its travel icon, which pays for an archaeologist’s trip. A Fear card has no effect, but its travel icon can still be used.
- Discovering a site awakens its guardian. At the end of the round, each archaeologist returning from a site with a guardian gives its player a Fear card, even if someone else awakened it.
- Researching moves your magnifying glass or your notebook up one row of the track, and the notebook may never pass the magnifying glass. A magnifying glass reaching the Lost Temple takes the free space worth the most points.
- Once you pass, you do not play again that round, which ends when everyone has passed. Archaeologists come back, played cards are shuffled and slipped under your deck, and the first-player marker passes to the left. In the card row, the two cards on either side of the Moon Staff are exiled, the Moon Staff moves one space and the row is refilled.
Scoring
Guardian overcome 5, Idol 3 points, Fear card −1
- At the end of the fifth round, each player adds up their points in six rows, as on the score pad.
- Research track: each token scores the points of the row it is on; on the Lost Temple, the magnifying glass scores according to its order of arrival.
- Temple tiles: the points printed on each.
- Idols: 3 points per idol, whether or not it sits in an idol slot, plus the value marked on each idol slot left free.
- Guardians overcome: 5 points each, boon used or not.
- Item and artifact cards: the points printed in the lower right corner of each card.
- Fear: −1 point per Fear card and −2 points per Fear tile, taken when the Fear pile was empty.
- In Marquoir, the sheet has these six rows: enter the points for research, temple tiles, idols and cards; for guardians and Fear, enter how many (5 points per guardian, −1 per Fear card, a Fear tile counting as two cards), and the counter adds it all up.
End of the game
After the 5th round, Highest total, Tie: first at Temple
- The game ends at the end of the fifth round: archaeologists come back, players take the Fear cards from guardians, then go straight to final scoring.
- The highest total wins.
- In a tie, the tied player who reached the Lost Temple first wins; if none of them reached it, the best research score; if still tied, they share the victory.
House rules and pitfalls
On the Snake Temple side, travel costs and the research track change: you can rescue an assistant there…
- On the Snake Temple side, travel costs and the research track change: you can rescue an assistant there, and crossing one of the track’s passages costs an idol.
- Solo, you face a rival expedition driven by action tiles: it scores points without taking resources or Fear cards. You score your own points as usual, and the highest total wins.
Going further
Frequently asked questions · In the same family
Frequently asked questions
Do Fear cards stay in your deck?
Yes: everyone already has 2 in their starting deck, and each one costs 1 point at final scoring. You get rid of them with an exile effect: the card then goes back to the Fear pile.
How much is an overcome guardian worth?
5 points at the end of the game, whether you used its boon or not. Its boon can be used only once per game.
Does an idol placed in a slot still count?
Yes: every idol is worth 3 points wherever it is. However, an occupied idol slot no longer scores the value marked on it: only the slots left free score it.