Overview

The game plays across two cycles of the deck. At the end of each deck emptying is a scoring phase

Turn

On your turn, either take the cards which were passed to you, or pass them on. If you pass them on, you have to add a card from your collection which is NOT present in the passed cards (e.g. no T-Rex in the hand? You may add a T-Rex. There is a T-Rex in the hand? You may NOT add another T-Rex). If you were passed 0 cards, draw 1 card and this is your card to either take or add to and pass on. If you cannot add to your hand, you MUST take it.

Rounds / Cycles

The first rounds ends when it is time to draw a card but the deck is empty. All players' dinosaur cards are returned to the deck, and new cards are dealt. DNA cards are returned to the deck, but DNA tokens are kept. The score for the current round will be displayed in the upper right of the player's collection. The final score for the game will include both rounds' scores PLUS the value of any unspent DNA tokens.

Scoring

Each dinosaur, generally speaking, has a scoring which is based on how many copies you collect from 1 to 4+. More cards isn't always better. Some dinosaurs score most for having just 1 (then decrease the more you have), some are the opposite, and others may seem mixed up (e.g. score positive in pairs whilst score negative in odd amounts). The left-most number is the score for 1 card, the right-most number is the score for 4 or more cards, and the middle numbers are the scores for 2 or 3 copies.

The Grey and Black Velociraptors are their own group. If you get one of each, a grey and a black combine their positive score, whilst a grey OR a black on its own takes its negative score. These scores vary, so if you have 2 Black + 1 Grey, the most advantageous scoring will be made (i.e. if one black scores 2 when paired, the other black scored 3, it would pair the one which scored 3 upon pairing).

The eggs reward you for having the majority of a specific dinosaur, while failure to have majority creates a penalty. If you are tied for majority, you DO win the points.

Advance Mode

The Advance Mode adds DNA (which you have seen on the cards already, but can ignore in basic game)

Each time you receive a card with the DNA symbol, take a DNA token (this is true for your starting cards too). If there is no DNA in the supply, take what you are owed from a player of your choice.

Once per turn, you have the option of purchasing ONE DNA card which you can afford by returning the required number of DNA Tokens and gaining the benefit

There are two types, instants and end of deck scoring

After the first cycle of the deck, all players DISCARD their DNA cards, shuffle these into the deck and the DNA cards on offer are replenished for the second cycle. However, players do KEEP their DNA tokens collected thus far.

At the end of the second cycle, unspent DNA tokens are worth 1 point per pair