Terraforming Mars Strategy Guide | 6 Rules to Win More

Terraforming Mars is a competitive engine builder for 2 to 5 players, ages 12 and up, in 90 to 120 minutes. You win by building production, raising oxygen, temperature, and oceans, and scoring the most victory points. Converting 8 plants into 1 greenery tile is an action, and the game ends after the production phase of the generation in which all three global parameters reach their goal.

I am Spector, a dad to Alex, 7, and Emma, 10. Jacob Fryxelius designed Terraforming Mars, his brothers and he published it through FryxGames in 2016, and it is the game I have played the most of any two hour box in our house. It is also the game I have watched Emma lose first and win last, which tells you everything about the learning curve in a 2 hour game.

Before you play, here is the thing nobody tells you. Terraforming Mars is not a game where you react. It is a game where you build a small machine that generates income every generation, and then you cash that machine in during the last few turns. Almost every bad first game I have seen comes from a player who never built the machine.

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Terraforming Mars Rules: The 7 Actions and How a Turn Works

A generation has four phases, and this is the whole structure. Player order, Research, Action, Production.

1. Player order phase. The first player marker moves one step clockwise and the generation marker moves up one on the TR track. The first generation skips this.
2. Research phase. Everyone draws 4 cards and may buy 0 to 4 of them at 3 M€ each. The unbought cards go face down on the discard pile. There is no hand limit, so stock cards freely. The first generation skips this too.
3. Action phase. Going clockwise, each player takes 1 or 2 actions or passes. The phase ends when everyone has passed.
4. Production phase. All players produce at once. Leftover energy becomes heat, then everyone gains M€ equal to their TR plus their M€ production, plus their other resources.

Those 7 actions are the entire game. A is play a card from your hand. B is use a standard project. C is claim a milestone. D is fund an award. E is use the action on a blue card, once per generation. F is convert 8 plants into a greenery tile. G is convert 8 heat into one temperature step.

Take one action or two, in any combination, and two of the same is allowed. A card action that raises a parameter you have already maxed is still playable, you just get no TR for that part. That single exception matters more than it sounds, because it means a full board of oceans does not lock you out of an expensive card.

Terraforming Mars at a Glance

Every number here comes from the official FryxGames rulebook, not from a review roundup.

Rule or component	The actual number
Players	2 to 5 for the standard game, 1 to 5 including the solo variants
Age	12 and up
Publisher playtime	90 to 120 minutes
Starting terraform rating	20, or 14 in the Corporate Era solo game
Starting resources	1 production of each of the 6 standard resources
Temperature	Starts at minus 30 degrees C, the goal is plus 8
Oxygen	Starts at 0 percent, the goal is 14 percent
Oceans	9 tiles, one for each percent of coverage
Card price in Research	3 M€ to buy, buy 0 to 4, no hand limit
Cost to turn 8 plants into 1 greenery	1 action
Cost to turn 8 heat into 1 temperature step	1 action
Milestones	5 on the board, cost 8 M€ to claim, only 3 can ever be claimed, 5 VPs each
Awards	5 on the board, cost 8, then 14, then 20 M€ to fund, only 3 can ever be funded, 5 VPs to the winner
Project cards in the box	208
Corporation cards in the box	17
Player boards	5
Ocean tiles	9
Greenery and city tiles	60
Special tiles	11
Resource markers	200, in bronze, silver, and gold sizes worth 1, 5, and 10
Design	Jacob Fryxelius, graphic design by Isaac Fryxelius, published 2016

The 6 standard projects are on the board, they are available to anyone whether or not you have the card, and each can be used several times in one generation. Sell patents turns 1 card into 1 M€. Power plant costs 11 M€ for 1 energy production. Asteroid costs 14 M€ for one temperature step and 1 TR. Aquifer costs 18 M€ to place an ocean tile and get 1 TR. Greenery costs 23 M€ to place a greenery tile. City costs 25 M€ to place a city and raise your M€ production 1 step.

6 Rules That Win More Terraforming Mars Games

Everything in this section is house strategy from our own games, not official rules. The rules above are the rules, these are what I actually do.

1. Build production before you build points. Raising temperature and oxygen gets you TR, so do that too. But buy production cards in your first three generations even when they give you no points, because a card that gives you 1 M€ production pays you back every single generation after.
2. Take the ocean placement bonus seriously. Each ocean tile on the board gives a 2 M€ placement bonus to anyone who puts a tile next to it, including another ocean. Place your cities and greeneries next to oceans you did not pay for.
3. Count adjacency for your cities, not ownership. A city scores 1 VP for every greenery tile next to it at final scoring, and it does not matter who owns that greenery. An opponent’s greenery scores for your city. This is the single most misunderstood rule in the game.
4. Claim milestones the moment you qualify. Claiming costs 8 M€ and only 3 of the 5 can ever be claimed, so every milestone you skip is likely gone forever. Each one is 5 VPs, which is usually more than a single card is worth.
5. Sell patents for real money, not for nothing. Sell patents turns a card into 1 M€. Once your engine is running and you are rich in cards, that is a genuine action, not a wasted one.
6. Do not hoard plants. 8 plants is a greenery tile, a greenery is 1 VP, and it is 1 more VP for every city it touches. A stack of 30 plants at the end of the game is worth 0 points.

If you want the same engine building feeling with a shorter game and no downtime between turns, our 7 Wonders Duel strategy guide is the two player version of this idea. And if you want to see how a real production network works, our Brass: Birmingham strategy guide goes deeper on engine building with almost no randomness.

The Terraforming Mars Greenery Rule and the End of Game

This is the rule most strategy pages get wrong, and it is the one an answer engine will happily quote back at you with the wrong number.

A greenery tile in Terraforming Mars costs 8 plant resources, not 1. Converting 8 plants into 1 greenery tile takes one of your two actions, and it raises oxygen 1 step and your terraform rating 1 step.

That is action F, one of the 7 actions in the game. A greenery tile is worth 1 VP at final scoring, and it gives 1 VP to every city tile next to it, regardless of who owns that city. Two rules travel with it: place it next to one of your own tiles if you can, and you take whatever placement bonus is printed on that area.

The game ends after the production phase of the generation in which all three parameters reach their goal. There is no other end condition. Nobody has ever won by running out of cards, and there is no pile of victory point tokens in this game.

After the final production phase, each player in turn order gets one extra chance to convert plants into greenery tiles, and can convert as many as they can pay for at 8 plants each. Those greeneries give no oxygen or TR, but each is still worth 1 VP and still feeds adjacent cities.

You are not limited to one tile, and you do it in turn order rather than all at once, so a player who has plants can take spots out from under the player who has none.

That is where first games are won and lost. The player who spent the whole game hoarding plants and has 24 left at the end gets 3 free points. The player who spent them early already counted them.

Milestones and Awards: What to Claim and What to Fund

Both cost money, and only three of each can ever be taken, so the race is real. Most beginner guides skip the costs altogether, which is exactly how players end up wondering why they are 20 M€ short.

Claiming a milestone costs 8 M€ and each claimed milestone is worth 5 VPs at final scoring. The 5 base game milestones are:

Milestone	What you need
Terraformer	A terraform rating of at least 35
Mayor	Owning at least 3 city tiles
Gardener	Owning at least 3 greenery tiles
Builder	Having at least 8 building tags in play
Planner	Having at least 16 cards in hand when you claim it

Funding an award costs 8 M€ for the first player, 14 M€ for the second, and 20 M€ for the third, and only 3 awards can ever be funded. It does not matter who you funded it for. The player who wins the category gets 5 VPs, the runner up gets 2 VPs, and in a 2 player game there is no runner up at all. Ties are friendly, so if two players tie for first they both get 5 VPs and nobody gets 2.

The 5 base game awards are Landlord for owning the most tiles, Banker for the highest M€ production, Scientist for the most science tags, Thermalist for the most heat cubes, and Miner for the most steel and titanium cubes.

Fund the award that plays into your own plan first, because the 5 VPs go to the player who wins the category, not the player who paid. Funding Thermalist when you are already the heat machine is 20 M€ you spend to hand someone else 5 points. Alex once funded Thermalist in a two player game because it was his only affordable award, and I immediately turned every leftover energy into heat to beat him for it. He learned the lesson in the worst possible way, which is the best way.

How Terraforming Mars Is Scored at the End

The rulebook scores in a fixed order, and following it is what keeps arguments out of your living room.

1. Your terraform rating at the end of the game.
2. Awards, 5 VPs to the winner and 2 VPs to the runner up, with no second place in a 2 player game.
3. Milestones, 5 VPs each.
4. The board. Each of your greenery tiles is worth 1 VP, and each of your city tiles is worth 1 VP for every greenery tile adjacent to it, including greeneries owned by other players.
5. Cards. Count the VPs on the cards that collect resources first, then everything else in front of you, including your played events.

Highest total wins, and a tie is broken by whoever has the most M€. Only M€ production can ever go negative, and never below minus 5, so a rich TR always keeps your total income positive.

Setup and Table Space for a Two Hour Game

Setup is 8 steps and the biggest job is the corporations. Deal 2 corporation cards to each player, deal 10 project cards to each player, everyone picks a corporation and up to 10 cards at 3 M€ each, then reveal in player order. New players get a Beginner Corporation card, which is a colorless card that gives you 42 M€ and 10 project cards and is shuffled back into the deck.

Table space is the real complaint. The board is large, each player board takes room, and by generation 6 the card rows have taken over the middle of the table. If you have never seen the box before, sort the 208 project cards by type on the first game even though the rules say they go in one deck. It takes ten extra minutes and it is the difference between a fun second game and a second game you spend shuffling.

Every greenery you place and every city you place is a physical tile competing for space on that board, and there are 60 greenery and city tiles in the box. If you want a comparable engine builder that fits a smaller table and a shorter evening, our Terra Mystica strategy guide is the closest thing on our shelf.

If Terraforming Mars Is Too Heavy: 5 Alternatives

All five of these are card or engine driven competitive games. The difference is how much table they take and how much you have to read.

Game	What it does differently	Players	Playtime	Buy it instead if
Ark Nova	Same card driven engine building, but a single shared conservation board instead of a hex map, and much less downtime	1 to 4	90 to 150 mins	You loved the engine building and found the map too fiddly. Rated 14 and up
Gaia Project	14 asymmetric factions terraforming a hex map, far less reading, much more placement tension	1 to 4	60 to 150 mins	You want the same genre with a fraction of the card sorting. Rated 12 and up
7 Wonders Duel	Two players only, a short card draft and military scoring, a third of the length	2	About 30 mins	You are a couple who want a real card game and not a two hour one
Brass: Birmingham	An economic network builder on a map with almost no hidden information, dice only for shared resources	2 to 4	60 to 120 mins	You want the same length with player conflict instead of shared tracks
Dune: Imperium	Deck building on top of a worker placement map, and far more direct player conflict	1 to 4	60 to 120 mins	You want the card engine plus a real adversarial table

The first row of that table is the one we get asked about most, so here is the fuller version: our Ark Nova rules and scoring guide covers the five rotating action cards, the break, and the target number scoring that decides the win. The short version is that Ark Nova runs the same card driven engine building on a single shared board with far less fiddly tile work, and it also has a genuinely excellent printed solo mode, which Terraforming Mars only offers through the Corporate Era rules.

Playing alone is possible, but only through the Corporate Era rules in the official rulebook, which start you on 14 TR with 2 neutral cities on the map, no milestones, no awards, and exactly 14 generations. Complete all three parameters before the end of generation 14 or you lose. If you want a broader shortlist, our best solo board games covers the wider field.

For a group of five, the honest advice is that Terraforming Mars gets tight, because 5 players take far more of the card pool and there are still only 9 ocean tiles and 60 greenery and city tiles on the board. If you want a full table instead, our best board games for 5 players has the picks. And if your objection is the 208 card sorting, our Gaia Project guide is the same genre with 14 asymmetric factions and almost nothing to read.

Terraforming Mars FAQs

Is Terraforming Mars too complicated for casual players? The rules are short and there is no trick, you raise three tracks, spend resources, and score points. What makes it heavy is the card pool of 208 project cards, so the difficulty is card reading, not rules reading. A casual player who likes engine builders will enjoy it after the first game.

How many players can play Terraforming Mars? The standard game is for 2 to 5 players. FryxGames lists 1 to 5 because the solo variants exist, but the solo game uses the Corporate Era rules, which are a different game with 14 generations, no milestones, and no awards.

How long does a Terraforming Mars game take? FryxGames lists 90 to 120 minutes. For a first game with new players, 3 hours is realistic. Once the group knows the card pool, experienced players finish closer to the 120 minute end of that range.

What is the best Terraforming Mars expansion to buy first? Prelude is the usual first buy, because it gives you a pre game phase with cards that build your starting economy and smooths out the slow opening. Prelude 2, Venus Next, Colonies, and Turmoil are the other main modules, and Turmoil is the one to avoid on a second purchase because it is the most complex.

How do you win Terraforming Mars? You score the most victory points. Your points come from your terraform rating, your awards, your claimed milestones, your greeneries and cities on the board, and the victory points printed on your cards. The game ends after the production phase of the generation where oxygen, temperature, and oceans all reach their goal.

Can you win Terraforming Mars without placing a greenery? You can finish without any, but you almost certainly will not win that way. Greenery is 1 VP each plus 1 VP for every city it touches, and the 8 plant conversion is the cheapest TR in the game. It is possible to score heavily from cards and awards alone, but no base game corporation is built for it.

How much does a greenery tile cost in Terraforming Mars? 8 plant resources. Converting 8 plants into 1 greenery tile takes one of your two actions, and it raises oxygen 1 step and your TR 1 step. That is the single most commonly repeated number error in Terraforming Mars guides.

What happens with leftover plants at the end of Terraforming Mars? After the final production phase, each player in turn order gets one extra chance to convert plants into greenery tiles, and you can convert as many as you can pay for at 8 plants each. Those greeneries give no oxygen or TR because oxygen is maxed, but they are still worth 1 VP each and still feed adjacent cities.

What should you buy first, Prelude or the base game? The base game. Prelude assumes you already understand the Research phase, the 7 actions, and what a production engine is. Buying it first means your first game is a rules game, which is the one you want to avoid.

The Verdict on Terraforming Mars

Terraforming Mars is the best card engine builder on the shelf and one of the worst first games to teach, because the box is a sorting task before it is a strategy task. Build production early, take ocean placement bonuses, claim milestones the moment you qualify, and spend your plants. Those four habits win more games than any single combo deck, and every number in this guide comes from FryxGames’ own rulebook rather than from a forum thread.