In Race for the Galaxy players are competing civilizations exploring space, discovering planets to conquer or settle, building an economy by consuming a planet's goods and building developments.

The object of the game is to earn the most victory points from planets and developments played in their tableau, by consuming goods and from bonuses from special developments.

There are five phases to choose from: explore, develop, settle, consume and produce. Players pick one phase per turn (two phases in a two-player game). Then everyone plays only the chosen phases in phase order. Players that chose each phase get an extra benefit. At the end of each round players with more than 10 cards discard down to 10 cards and a new round begins.

The game continues until one player played 12 cards on their tableau or when the VP pool is exhausted. At the end of that round points are added up. The player with the most points is the winner!

In case of a tie, the player with the most goods on the board plus cards in hand wins.

You may drag a resource (single-coloured small card) to a consumption power to consume it.