The Lost Expedition: A Guide to Playing the Game

Welcome to The Lost Expedition! This is a fantastic cooperative game where you and your team embark on an exciting adventure through the Amazon rainforest. Your mission is to lead a group of explorers and navigate through dangerous terrain, encounter wild animals, and overcome treacherous challenges to find the Lost City of Z.

In this game, you will need to make important decisions and work together to survive. Let me walk you through the game’s rules and give you some tips to increase your chances of success.

Setting Up the Game

First, gather your team and assign each player an explorer character card. Each character has unique abilities and strengths that will come in handy during your expedition. Place the expedition camp token and the starting trail card in the center of the table. Shuffle the remaining trail cards and form a draw deck. Place three trail cards face-up next to the draw deck. These will be the locations your team can explore.

Playing the Game

Now, it’s time to start your expedition. The goal is to reach the Lost City of Z by successfully navigating through the trail cards. On your turn, you will need to decide which card to explore, what action to take, and manage your resources wisely.

Each trail card has multiple paths and icons representing different encounters or obstacles. You can choose to move forward, scout ahead, rest, or take actions specific to the card’s icons. Discuss with your team and plan your moves carefully, as the choices you make will have consequences.

Beware of the challenges you will face along the way. You will encounter dangerous animals, unpredictable weather, and face tough decisions. It’s crucial to manage your provisions, ammunition, and health. Rest and recover when needed, as your team’s well-being is essential for survival.

Communication and teamwork are key elements in this game. Discuss strategies, share information, and coordinate actions with your fellow explorers. Remember, you are all in this together!

Winning and Losing

To win the game, you must successfully navigate through the trail cards and reach the Lost City of Z with at least one explorer alive. However, be cautious. This journey is perilous, and you might not make it. If all the explorers die or if you run out of cards in the draw deck, the game ends in defeat.

Take your time to think, plan, and reevaluate your decisions throughout the game. Discuss your options and make the best choices together. And most importantly, have fun!

Now that you know the rules, gather your team, brace yourselves, and embark on the thrilling adventure of The Lost Expedition!

In The Lost Expedition, you and your team of three explorers will embark on a thrilling adventure, tracing the footsteps of Percy Fawcett on your journey to discover the legendary city of El Dorado. Your primary objective is to reach the lost city while ensuring that at least one of your explorers survives.

To succeed in this game, you must cleverly manage your limited resources and rely on your expertise to overcome the challenges that lie ahead. Resources are represented by special tokens, while your expertise is symbolized by the icons on the cards you possess. There are three unique types of both resources and expertise:

I’m here to tell you about the important stuff – the Resources and the areas of Expertise. Let’s break it down, shall we?

First things first, let’s talk about the Resources. There are three of them – Food, Ammunition, and Health. These are the things you need to stay alive and keep exploring.

Now, let’s move on to the areas of Expertise. There are three of them too – the Jungle, Navigation, and Camping. Each explorer specializes in one of these areas, which is shown by the symbol on their card. But here’s the deal: if an explorer loses all their Health tokens, they’re out. Game over, my friend. And if all three explorers kick the bucket, well, you lose.

So, remember, take care of your Resources and make sure you have a good mix of Expertise on your team. This will give you the best shot at survival and success. Good luck out there!

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Adventure!

Hey there! I’m here to introduce you to an exciting game called Adventure World. It’s all about exploration and embarking on thrilling expeditions. Let’s dive in and discover what this game has in store for you!

The Incredible Components

• 6 Explorer cards
• 9 Expedition cards
• 56 Adventure cards
• 28 Health tokens
• 21 Food tokens
• 12 Ammunition tokens
• 2 Pawns
• 1 Morning/Evening token
• 1 Expedition Leader token
• 2 Player Aids

Let’s Talk Adventure Cards

Adventure cards are the heart and soul of this game. They represent thrilling encounters that you’ll face in the jungle. In order to succeed, you’ll need to navigate these encounters in a specific order that ensures the safety of your explorers. Now, sometimes the cards might seem clearly good or bad, but most of the time, they’ll be a mix of both. Pay attention to the card’s name, number, and the captions near the top.

Off you go, intrepid adventurer! Get ready to embark on an unforgettable journey filled with excitement, danger, and endless possibilities!

Hey there! Let’s talk about the cool stuff that happens to explorers when they come across this card. Check out those caption boxes below! They’re like little windows into the adventures that await you. Inside each caption box, you’ll find symbols that guide you on what actions to take. It’s important to respond to each symbol in order, starting from the left and moving to the right.

Now, let’s dive into the different types of caption boxes. We’ve got Events, Choices, and Options. Sometimes, a card will have multiple types of caption boxes. When that happens, we’ve got a specific order to follow: events first, then choices, and finally options.

When you play a card in the game, there are different symbols that you need to understand. These symbols help determine what actions you need to take.

The yellow symbols represent events. You must trigger every yellow box on a card you play. To trigger an event, you need to take all the actions written in the yellow box.

The red symbols represent choices. You must choose one red box to trigger per card, ignoring any other red boxes on that card. Your choice determines the actions you need to take.

The blue symbols represent options. These are optional, and you can choose to ignore or trigger each blue box on a card. It’s up to you to decide if you want to take the actions in the blue box.

Understanding these card symbols is important for playing the game effectively. By following the instructions on each card and making strategic decisions, you can navigate the challenges of The Lost Expedition and increase your chances of success.

When you look at each caption box, you’ll notice a variety of symbols. You’ll also find these symbols listed on the player aids and at the end of this rulebook. Around half of the symbols are related to Expertise and Resources, while the remaining symbols impact the cards’ path or the overall expedition. Every symbol for Resource and Expertise has two versions: one for gaining and one for spending.

When you acquire or use a Resource, you simply take the corresponding token from the supply and place it in your team area, or vice versa. You can’t exceed four Health for each explorer, but there is no maximum limit for Food and Ammunition. If you run out of Food and are required to spend some, you must sacrifice one Health instead. You can take the Health token from any of your living explorers. However, if you have zero Ammunition, you won’t be able to activate a caption box that involves spending Ammunition.

When you become an Expert, you add the card to your team. After resolving all the other symbols on the card, that is. Once you have Expertise, you can choose from three options:

– Get rid of a card from your team that has the same gain symbol.

– Subtract one health token from an explorer who has the corresponding Expertise.

– Subtract two health tokens from a different explorer.

Keep in mind that if a card in your team has multiple gain symbols, like the Abandoned Camp, you can only use and discard it once. Cards with multiple types of gain Expertise symbols are more versatile but cannot be reused.

Now, let’s talk about The Path.

This symbol has an impact on the other cards:

– You have to discard the next card along the path.

When you don’t have enough cards left in the row to activate a symbol, just ignore it. But if you have enough cards, you have to take the action.

My Adventure

There are two symbols that have an impact on my adventure:

To win the game, you have to move forward by using the expedition cards! These cards have two special symbols on them that have an instant effect. They happen right away, even before any other symbols on the cards are triggered. This means that you can actually win the game without encountering a card or symbol that would make you lose.

Here are some examples:

Hey there! So, I stumbled upon an abandoned camp during my exploration. It’s quite intriguing, isn’t it? I need to investigate and gather as much information as possible, or maybe even scavenge some useful resources.

You’ll encounter a couple of red caption boxes here, and depending on the one you choose, you can either score two Ammunition tokens or hold onto the card itself for its Expertise symbols. Pretty cool, right? The choice is yours, my friend!

This card is quite special because it has all three Expertise symbols for you to gain. However, keep in mind that it can only be used once. That means you can utilize it when you need to spend any single Expertise, and then it’s time to say goodbye to the card. So use it wisely!

When a storm rolls in, us explorers have to find shelter to keep ourselves safe. It’s a tricky situation, but we have a plan.

Firstly, we have to make a tough decision and skip the next two cards. It’s a risky move, but it might pay off.

After that, we have two options. We can either take shelter, or we can risk getting injured. It’s a choice that will have a big impact on our adventure.

Getting Ready

Before we start our adventure, we need to assemble our team. We select one explorer from each Expertise and place them on the table.

No matter how many people are playing, we always have three explorers on our team.

We also need to gather some supplies. We take three Ammunition tokens and four Food tokens and put them in our team area. These resources will be vital for our journey.

Next, we shuffle the adventure cards and deal four to each player. The remaining cards are placed face-down to form the deck.

If there are only two players, each player receives six adventure cards instead.

The game offers three difficulty levels: easy, which is great for beginners, normal for those with some experience, and hard for the most skilled explorers.

When it comes to playing the game, there are a few options to choose from. Depending on the level of challenge you’re looking for, you can select either the easy, normal, or hard mode.

In the easy mode, you’ll use seven expedition cards and place four health tokens on each explorer. For normal mode, you’ll use nine expedition cards and also place four health tokens on each explorer. And if you’re up for a real challenge, you can try the hard mode. In this mode, you’ll still use nine expedition cards, but you’ll only place three health tokens on each explorer. Additionally, you’ll take one extra food token to help you on your journey.

Once you’ve selected your mode, it’s time to set up the game. Start by placing your expedition cards in a row in the center of the table. Make sure to place the lost city card at the end of the row. Next, put a pawn on the first expedition card at the opposite end. Now, take the morning/evening token and place it on the “MORNING” side. Any remaining tokens should be set aside as a general supply.

Now, it’s time to choose who goes first. Give the expedition leader token to the player selected to start. And remember, if you’re playing with five players, you’ll need to remove one food token from your team area before you begin.

The goal of the game is to make it to the lost city. Each player will take turns moving their pawns along the expedition cards, facing various challenges and obstacles along the way. The first player to reach the lost city wins the game.

Now that you know the setup and how to play, it’s time to embark on your own adventure and see if you can conquer the lost city! Good luck!



So here’s the deal: You gotta get your pawn to the final expedition card, the lost city of Z, before your team of explorers kicks the bucket or runs outta time. It’s all about finding that sweet spot, making progress without risking too much and injuring your explorers.

Throughout the game, we’ll be talking tactics and peeking at the cards on the table, but keep your hand cards under wraps! The Lost Expedition takes place over a bunch of rounds, each one representing a day in the life of the explorers.

Each round is split into two hikes: Morning and Evening. And after each hike, hey, guess what? The explorers gotta eat.

Once the round wraps up, you’ll draw a fresh batch of cards.

Morning

Let’s begin! Starting with me, I’ll play a card face up on the table. Then, it’s your turn to play a card, and we’ll continue clockwise until each of us has played two cards. We want everyone to see the cards, so let’s make sure they’re in a single row and visible to all.

If it’s just the two of us playing, we’ll each play three cards instead. Once we’re done playing, let’s arrange the cards in order from lowest to highest. It might be easier to put them in order as we go, rather than waiting until we’re all finished playing.

Now let’s go through each card one at a time, starting from the left and moving to the right. When you resolve a card, if you don’t gain it because of an Expertise symbol, you need to discard it. Throughout this process, it’s important for all players to discuss any decisions they need to make, but the team leader has the final say. After all the cards have been resolved, it’s time to switch from Morning to Evening – which means the team loses an extra piece of Food.



When I wake up in the morning, I see that the cards in my path have been rearranged in numerical order. It’s always interesting to see how things have changed overnight.

Now let’s talk about the evening.

The evening is a lot like the morning, but with a couple of differences. First, I get to play all of the remaining cards in my hand. And second, the cards stay in the order that I play them. Each new card goes to the right of the previous one, and they don’t get rearranged by number like in the morning.

After playing the cards, I resolve them as usual. Then, I flip the evening token back to the morning and lose an additional food. So, it’s important to make sure I have enough food to sustain me through the day.



In the Evening, I like to keep the cards in the path in the order I played them. It helps me remember the sequence of events and plan my strategy for the next round.

When the round comes to an end, it’s important to pass the leader token to the next player clockwise. This ensures that everyone gets a chance to take the lead and make important decisions. After passing the token, each player gets to draw four cards from the adventure deck. If the deck is empty, we lose one Food and then shuffle the discards to create a new deck. But if the deck is empty for the second time in the game, we’re in trouble and we lose!

In a two-player game, things are a bit different. Each player gets to draw six cards instead of four. This helps balance the game and gives us more options to work with.

Now, let’s talk about how the game ends. There are three possible outcomes:

1. If our pawn reaches the lost city of Z, we win! This is our main goal, so let’s keep pushing forward and take risks when necessary.

2. If all three of our explorers perish during the game, we lose. So it’s important to protect them and make smart decisions to keep them alive.

3. If the adventure deck runs out of cards for a second time, we lose. This means we’re running out of opportunities and time is running out. We need to be efficient and make the most of every turn.

I hope these clarifications help you understand the game better and make the right choices. Remember, it’s all about strategy and teamwork. Good luck on your adventures!



• Can I spend one Expertise instead of one Health? Sorry, but no. You can only spend Health for the lose Health symbol or when you run out of Food.
• If I want to avoid spending Health from the explorer with a certain Expertise, can I take one Health from both other explorers instead? Nope, you have to take both Health tokens from a single explorer.
• Why are there so few gain Ammunition symbols? Well, bullets are pretty hard to come by in the jungle! So use them wisely.
• Where do I play cards in the Evening? Make sure you add cards to the right of any existing cards, according to their orientation. If you’re opposite another player and looking at the cards upside-down, your right is actually their left.
• Do I have to make a swap? Not at all! The swap symbol is always optional, so you can choose whether or not to make a swap.
• When the game is ending, do I have to spend the Food at the end of the Morning or Evening if there’s a tie? Nope. You just need to complete the path, even if it ends in a tie.
• Can I use one Expertise instead of one Health? Nah. Only Health can be used for the lose Health symbol, or when you run out of Food.
• If I want to save the explorer with a specific Expertise from losing Health, can I take one Health from both other explorers instead? No way, Jose. You have to take both Health tokens from a single explorer.
• Why are there so few gain Ammunition symbols? Bullets are a rare find in the jungle, my friend! Use them wisely.
• Where can I play cards in the evening?

If you’re looking to play cards in the evening, it’s important to know where to position yourself. The placement of the cards can vary depending on who you are playing against and where you are sitting. Make sure you add your card to the right of the existing cards, taking into account the orientation of the cards. Keep in mind that if you are sitting opposite another player, their cards may appear upside-down to you.

• Do I have to make a swap?

One of the key symbols you’ll encounter when playing cards is the swap symbol. It’s important to note that the swap is always optional. You have the choice to make a swap or not, depending on your strategy and the cards you have in your hand.

• In a head-to-head game, do I have to spend the food at the end of the morning or evening if the game is ending?

No, you don’t have to spend the food at the end of the morning or evening if the game is ending. The main objective is to complete the path, and you may reach a point where the game ends in a tie. Once the path is complete, you can stop there, and any remaining food can be carried over to future rounds.