"Unfriendly" Mode

[Panthergirl]

So I'm finally at the ELO stage where I could play an Arena game, but I've never played a game with Friendly mode disabled. What should I know about the "unfriendly" actions before I attempt one?

[Mihas]

more time!!!!!

[Mihas]

more time on move in, please!!!

[silentcj]

There are 4 extra animal abilities that come into play when using the standard rules. The animal cards are still the same, but some will have these new abilites (the friendly variant uses the abilities from the solo game).

These abilities target a player who is ahead on either the appeal track or the conservation track (or both depending on the card). So if you're behind on both tracks these abilities can never target you.

The first 2 abilities involve putting tokens on an opponent's action card - tokens are removed when the action card is used or when the next break is triggered. They are also removed when using the action card to take an X token. These are:

Venom - Venom tokens are placed on cards in the lowest slots (up to 2 cards depending on the animal). Each time you use an action card that doesn't have a venom token on it, you must pay 2 money if there are still any venoms tokens on any of your cards.

Constriction - Constriction tokens are placed on cards in the highest slots (up to 2). When these cards are used their strength is decreased by 2 but you can still use X tokens to boost the actions e.g. if there is a constriction token on your association action in slot 5, it starts at strength 3 so you would need to spend an X token to be able to partner with a university.


The other 2 abilites are 1 time effects:

Pilfering - Steal eaither 5 money or a random card from a players hand (the player being targeted chooses).

Hypnosis - Active player performs one extra action using a card in slots 1-3 of the target player. These can be boosted by X tokens and the card is moved down to slot 1 afterwards.


If you want to check which animals have these abilities, the cards can all be found here
https://ssimeonoff.github.io/ark-nova

[GTSchemer]

A ton of false bug reports are created about unfriendly mode, so please be sure you understand a few things when you try it:

"The ability targeted the wrong person!"
No, they already played the Quarantine Lab sponsor card, protecting themselves.

"I played Quarantine Lab but my Venom Token still penalizes me!"
You were vaccinated too late, so the token stays. It only protects you if you played it ahead of time.

"I cannot attack a player! The card is broken!"
No, you cannot attack someone with less than 5 appeal. There is a yellow octagon on the score track as a reminder of this.

[Panthergirl]

Incredibly helpful! Thank you so much.

I'll probably try it in a low-risk game with a friend first!