Lucre
| The yellow lucre counters represent cosmic currency. |  |
Everyone starts the game with a number of lucre equal to his or her starting position plus three. Thus, the first player starts with four, the second player five, and so on. At the beginning of your turn, before retrieving a token from the Warp on your first challenge, take three lucre from the bank, plus one lucre for each home base you hold (moons as well as planets). The Gas Giant and Space Dust players receive seven lucre (plus moon bases) unless they have fewer than four tokens in their home system, in which case they receive the number of lucre as they have tokens plus three.
You may spend lucre only when you are a main player in a challenge.
There is no limit to the number of times you may spend lucre in a challenge.
The timing follows the rule for timing conflicts, i.e., the offensive player plays before the
defensive player in each phase.
Optional Lucre Rules
- The offensive main player may pay 2 lucre per token to rearrange his forces. Before flipping the destiny
pile, he may move tokens from anywhere he has bases to anywhere else he has bases. There is no
limit to the number of tokens moved, so long as enough Lucre is paid.
- Any player may opt to reflip the destiny pile at a cost of 10 lucre. This may be applied
to Comets, Special Destiny, Reverse Cone, or any normal destiny card.
- Any player may replace one or more of his alien powers at a cost of 25 lucre. That player
discards the alien power(s) and draws a new one at random from the unused deck of powers.
- Any player may add an additional power at a cost of 50 lucre. The new one is drawn at random and
added to his or her existing power(s).
- Main players may hire Rogues.
- Any player may retain a flare he or she has played. Rather than discard the flare, the player
pays 10 Lucre and places the card back in their hand. A flare that has been zapped cannot be bought
back. The cost is the same regardless of whether it is a Wild or Super flare.
- The offensive player may purchase Dagger Cards.
From Patrick Riley
- When you are a main player and win the challenge, you earn 2 lucre
per token lost by the opposing main player and 1 lucre per token lost by his or her allies.
- When you are a main player and win the challenge, the losing
opposing tokens are captured on your star disk. These tokens may be
traded with any player as part of a deal.
During a challenge, before cards are played, players may buy their tokens from you and you cannot
refuse. For 1 lucre per token, the tokens are sent to the Warp. For 2
lucres per token, the tokens return to bases.
Only players involved in the challenge may buy their tokens back, and only from one of the two
main players.
See also: Lucre Cost Chart, Riley Lucre Rules  
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