Question about Venom

[wc5b]

Came very close to losing due to misunderstanding how venom works apparently. I had Venom on my Association and Build cards. When I tried to use my level 5 Sponsor card however, using it to place a level 4 sponsor card in my hand, BGA told me I needed to pay for the venom in which I did not have enough funds to do so. This forced me into using the sponsor to trigger break instead setting me a critical turn behind if not more to get the sponsor built back up. Why would my sponsor need to pay venom when the venom was on Build and Association? What is the point of it being on those cards then?

Match in question (it was just before the last break):
https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=502694469

[wc5b]

Disregard. I see where I totally missunderstood for sure. LOL

[mjnathans]

I had a similar situation where the venom was on a different action. My money was at zero and I was not able to complete any action at all. There wasn't even an option to pass. So ultimately the game timed me out and I lost.

I have never won and game of Ark Nova and for the first time I was actually winning by a lot 80% into the game and this happened. So disheartening.

[ArtEntre]

I had a similar situation where the venom was on a different action. My money was at zero and I was not able to complete any action at all.

For anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation, even without money, you can do the action of moving a card with venom to slot 1 and taking an X token (this works even if the card is already in slot 1).

If you can't do that because you already have five X tokens, then you can use your sponsor action to take money, spending X token(s) to get it to strength 2 or higher if necessary to get the 2 money to pay for venom.

The OP found the rule already, but to state it here. Venom requires you to pay 2 money if you use an action card that doesn't have venom; when you use a card with venom, the venom token gets removed. Moving a card to the 1 slot for an X token counts as using it; or you can do an action (usually Sponsors) to gain money and pay for the venom. Venom tokens (like 2x or constriction tokens) will be removed if a break is triggered.