At the time of this writing, Ark Nova is the highest rated game of the last 5 years on BGG and already at number 2 of the overall ranking. Even to solo gamer community, this is already in the top 10 for a couple of years, even though many suggest using the fan made variant of the solo mode.
While I already knew the game since it was released and heard a lot of praise I only got it at the end of 2025 just to make sure it was really proven by more audience. At this moment, the publisher also already released the simpler game called Sanctuary. I thought about getting that one instead actually but it was not very convincing from the earlier reviews. So, I decided to just go with the big one.
Ark Nova is considered a heavier and longer game to play and yet a lot of people seem to love it. It is already one of the most played games even though most of those plays came from the digital version on BGA.
Title: Ark Nova
Year Released: 2021
Designer: Mathias Wigge
Publisher: Feuerland Spiele
Artist: Steffen Bieker, Loïc Billiau, Dennis Lohausen
Genre: Zoo, Animals, Tile Placement, Hand Management, Competitive, Official Solo Mode, 1-4 players
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Overview
Thematically, Ark Nova is about running a zoo. Each player has their own player board with a zoo map, filled with hex spaces. You can either fill them with enclosures for animals, kiosks, pavilions and other kind of attractions. Kiosks and pavilions are always size 1 while the other can go between 1 to 5. More space requires more money to build. There are also special kind of enclosures like for bird, reptiles or for petting zoos that can be used for different animals.
After you build the enclosures, you can fill them with animals by paying the cost of different animals. Some animals have further requirements like the enclosure must be next to stones or water spaces. So, building and providing the size itself is not enough. Other requirements could be like you need to have partner zoo from the continent where the animals are from. Or maybe you need to have that kind of animals first before you are able to accommodate the bigger ones.
By having animals in your zoo, most of the time, this increases your zoo’s appeal which translates to income. You also gain icons related to that animal that can work to fulfill the requirement of the next. Playing sponsor cards are another way to gain both or either of them. But having animals is just one part of the theme. The other part is called Conservation Projects.
Having (icons of) animals allows you to participate in different conservation projects. Some conservation projects may require you to release the animals to the wild. This may cause you to lose appeal but increases the Conservation level. The game ends when one player manages to cross their positions in the two tracks, Appeal and Conservation level.
I think the appeal of this game is not just the theme but also from the gameplay mechanism. Basically, every player gets a set of 5 identical action cards. The actions are ANIMALS, BUILD, ASSOCIATION, SPONSOR and CARDS. The last one is where you get animal cards, sponsor cards or conservation cards.
Each card is placed in space 1 to 5, one of each, and that number represents how powerful the action of the card you can do. Once activated, you move the card to space 1 while the rest move up one level.
Each card can be upgraded to 2nd level where you flip the card and use that card for the rest of the game. However, you cannot upgrade every card and you may want to upgrade one over the other first.
From my experience, this card system allows you to have longer planning. For example, you want to build an enclosure with the size of 5 so the Build card has to be at space 5 while currently at level 3. So, you have that plan and now you need to figure out what to do in order to increase that position by utilizing the 2 cards in between. Then, you start over with the next card to play at level 5. This way, your mind is engaged all the time, not just waiting for the right moment.
Sometimes you do need to consider playing action at the lower level while keep certain action at level 5. While it is nice that you can do more, but most of the time, depending on your situation, those can be just excess you eventually have to give up. The upgrade and the higher income as the game progresses do give you an engine building feeling and allow you to do more. However, since it doesn’t necessarily help you win the game, it feels more like how to make combo with whatever situation you are currently in.
There are also a lot of one time rewards, mostly from occupying certain spaces from your map. For me, the game reminds me of The Castles of Burgundy. Definitely more complex and heavier but in that similar experience of a rewarding game.
The game doesn’t use fixed number of turns and/or rounds. However, each action taken by any player will push the position BREAK token in varying degrees. Break is like end of round in other games where you reset some tokens, gain income, refresh market and so on.
The main criticism to this game from the majority of players is that the game can take long like 4 hours. Another one is that the card draw can be random and you just got unlucky even if you play the Card action at level 5, upgraded.
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Session Reports
August 2026 session and more pictures of that session on Instagram and Tumblr. This was another 2-handed session. The difference is that for the first time I played with Map 0 for both players.
Before I go with how the session went, I just realized that I made a rule mistake. This was related to partner Zoo and how you get discount to play animals with the matching continent. Apparently, you are only getting discount per continent icon on that animal. So, you mostly get discount cost of 3, maybe 6 with 2 icons on few animals. My error was that I thought the discount was accumulated by every continent icon I added to the zoo. This was wrong and I probably have made the game a bit easier to both sides as I can get like free cost to play animal.
So, at least, in this session, I got it right. But apparently, it still took as long as previous play. In this session, the first player won with 27 Conservation Points, scoring 57 plus 70 from the appeals. The second player scored 72 from the appeals plus 51 points from 25 Conservation Points. So, it was pretty close, 127 vs 123.
I really thought the first player did much better as they were the one to trigger the end of the game by committing to the 4th project. The second player last action was to completely fill the zoo as the best option. Apparently, by completely fill the zoo space and gained 7 appeals plus 5 from the Engineer Sponsor, they managed to get very close. Sponsor card was the chosen end game bonus for the 2nd player while first player focused on small animals. Both got only 2 points from it though.
The first player even suggested conservation project related to those small animals. Unfortunately, the 2nd player failed to get the 2nd small animal before the end of the game. However, the second player also suggested a conservation project that only they fulfilled. It was the Bird Breeding Program. First player didn’t even have any bird at all even though they focused on small animals.
The first player invested on total 4 projects so they fulfilled all starting projects. While the 2nd player failed to have all continents as they didn’t have anything related to Australia.
I remember that the second player got the Petting Zoo filled completely very early in the game as they were the starting cards. They got Aviary but then only the Golden Eagle was there. There was other bird but didn’t fit that Aviary.
As for the first player, after a lot of small animals their next focus was reptiles and built the Reptile house with 2 animals in it. Only the Green Mamba contributed to the small animal goals not the African Spurred Tortoise. They even got a chance for petting zoo with 2 animals in it.
For this map, first player started buildings from the bottom left side while 2nd player chose the middle bottom. There were 6 breaks before the end of the game was triggered with total 84 turns or 42 per player.
Playing time was exactly 3 hours running both sides.
June 2026 session and more pictures of that session on Instagram, Tumblr and TikTok. While I did another 2-handed session, after finishing the game, I just realized that I made another mistake. Still about you cannot do things because you haven’t or didn’t upgrade the card. Last time was about the Card action card while this time was about Build action card.
Apparently, I built the Reptile special enclosure too early on both sides. Both players got good starting cards related to that so I just built it right away. On the same spot even. The thing is, I think for me, upgrading Build Action Card is something that more likely than not I would do in this game.
I guess that is the kind of disappointment you can get in Ark Nova. You are so focused on what you are doing and you just assume everything is correct, finishing the game without realizing you made one impactful error. Which is the reason a lot of people prefer playing them digitally.
That play took about 3 hours and 30 minutes.
So, because I like playing this game enough even with that long time to play, I decided to play again. Hopefully I didn’t make any mistake again this time. First player got 76 appeals and 36 points from 20 conservation points with a total score of 112. While 2nd player got 75 appeals plus 39 points from having 21 conservation points with a total score of 114.
2nd player upgraded 4 cards while 1st only 3. Only 1st player managed to completely fill all of their zoo spaces to get 7 appeals. Their last action was to participate in a conservation project and the bonus was to get enclosure size 2 which was enough to fill the last 2 spaces.
I think 2nd player got lucky that 1st player was too slow to play their conservation card. 2nd actually got 2nd conservation cards to play and 1st couldn’t contribute anything to those 2 projects. Also, for some reason 2nd player didn’t try to contribute on one initial project related to Australia icons which they definitely could have done.
So, even though the score was close I think 2nd played better. They were also just 2 spaces away from completely fill their zoo spaces. 2nd also played more animals, especially with their aviary and reptile with only size 1 enclosure that was empty. While 1st player still had a size 5 enclosure with no animal.
Also, I chose the final scoring card for 1st player poorly. It was either connecting different terrain with buildings or contribute to projects. I picked the latter and only enough to get 1 point. As it turns out, the other final card could have generated 4 conservation points. To be fair, even at that time I was not sure that they could finish filling their zoo.
It was only later in the game that they got sponsor with free enclosure for hyena. While 2nd already got a free aviary for playing a large bird, Emu.
That 2nd play took another 3 hours, 12 minutes.
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March 2026 session and more pictures of that session on Instagram, Tumblr and TikTok. This time, I decided to try playing 2-handed, just to know how different it is compared to the official solo mode. Got a couple of sessions actually.
First session with 2-handed took almost 4 hours. The end game was triggered incorrectly. Instead of getting 7 appeal points from filling the entire board, I moved the Conservation Points instead. So, it should have ended a couple more turns after, maybe even additional break. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize this until I put the game back to the box. I counted 6 breaks and about 34 turns until that wrong end game trigger.
After realizing that I played it wrong, I decided to play again but this time with the official solo mode again. But, instead of starting the game with 20 appeal points, I started with 0. After about 80 minutes, the appeal was 40 and the Conservation point was exactly 20, which got me 36 points with still a lot of empty spaces on my Zoo.
Still not satisfied with both plays, I decided to try the 2-handed again and this time, with correct end game trigger. 2nd player won with 65 appeal and 33 CP or 72 points with final score of 137. 1st player got 66 appeal but only 45 points from 23 CP. 2nd player filled their entire zoo and with animals while 1st still got like 3 empty spaces and 2 empty enclosures size 3. 2nd player got 2 attractions from sponsors and only one animal each to their Aviary and Petting zoo. 1st player actually managed to fill every space of their Reptile enclosures.
1st player managed to contribute to conservation projects 3 times while 2nd only got to 2. Both finally got a couple of more conservation cards in hand but none of them actually had the chance to play any of them. Or, so I thought.
I just realized while writing this that I made another mistake. The 2nd player couldn’t have kept increasing their reputation since they didn’t upgrade their Card Action card. That means, they lost at least 2 conservation points at least. That was the only card they didn’t actually upgrade. Not sure if they managed to get more appeal after 15. Also they lost 2 CP since the final scoring cards they chose was actually related to that reputation. So maybe they still won. Oh, well.
1st player chose not to upgrade the Sponsor card. I did feel like in the last few rounds, the cards in the display didn’t help 1st player. I remember a lot of sponsor cards actually. This session took about 3 hours 14 minutes.
I have to say, that official solo mode is significantly inferior to multiplayer. At least with playing with 2, the display refresh more often, especially if players focus on snapping instead of drawing blindly. Upgrading the Animal card was also very strong. It basically increases your hand size with cards on the display. Instead of just taking a card, you can immediately play animal. You just need to focus on increasing your reputation so you have more options.
Similarly, upgrading Sponsor card is also good but with extra cost. Maybe another error that I did with 2nd player and helped them somehow. Also good to generate money with double value after upgrading that sponsor action card. Upgrading Card action makes it less interesting then. The only reason for that is if you always low on money and you have to keep the card instead.
I was expecting that maybe with 2 players, one of them can propose a new conservation project. It didn’t happen. Sponsors, especially those build some attractions really helps fill the space. 2nd player got that Engineer so they managed to build a lot of kiosks twice per turn. I didn’t expect that, even with some errors, playing 2-handed was manageable. The only problem for me is that I don’t have enough table space for 2 to see all cards that the players have played. This could lead to missing some final scoring bonus. Like that 2nd player failed to get a couple of CP for missing 1 continent.
Maybe I should just try that ARNO solo variant or keep playing 2-handed. Hopefully, less and less error in subsequent plays.
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January 2026 session and more pictures of that session on Instagram, Tumblr and TikTok. This was first time playing the game I only played the official solo mode so far. Got 3 sessions but the first 2 with a lot of errors.
Unlike the multiplayer mode where the game can keep going unless the players try to trigger the end of the game, the solo mode has fixed number of turns and rounds. After about 27 turns, you need to score 100 or more in order to win.
In the 3rd play, hopefully with the correct rule, I scored 21 from Conservation and 69 from the Appeal, so only 90 points. The zoo still had 6 empty spaces left. That 3rd play took about 90 minutes.
I can see why many solo gamers prefer the fan made with longer play to this official one. Maybe I just played poorly but I didn’t feel I had enough chance to do the Conservation. Not even playing a card for it. That 3rd play, I only got a chance to participate in twice from the basic project.
I think the randomness is also bad in this one since you are the only one to take cards from the market so the market cycle less. Not to mention, with limited turns, you don’t really want to waste actions just to get cards. With just you alone, you only use a portion of zoo cards. You can get final scoring cards where the zoo cards may not be in the deck you use. Maybe I should really try that fan made variant.
Despite my criticism, I do enjoy my play. The fact that I am willing to play multiple sessions in a row should tell you how I am invested in the game. Even how you place buildings in your zoo gives interesting challenge. You might end up not building any size 5 enclosure because the leftover spaces don’t support that shape. So, you have to give up that card you just take even though it works perfectly with your previous played cards.
Which space you want to cover first and for what bonus? You want to save some bonus for later while stretching out to get more workers at the opposite end early. How you can make sure you can build your next Kiosk for more income. Combine those spatial considerations while working with the card cycle system.
So, even still just initial impression, I enjoy my first plays of Ark Nova and definitely will play more.