What You Need to Know Before Playing the Nemesis Board Game
A nemesis board game guide is essential reading before you crack open this sci-fi horror survival experience — because Nemesis throws you in the deep end fast.
Quick answer for new players:
- Survive by hibernating or escaping via escape pod
- Complete your secret objective (you get two cards, choose one when the first intruder appears)
- Manage noise to avoid attracting aliens
- Keep fire and malfunction tokens below 9 or the ship is destroyed
- Watch your wounds — three serious wounds and your character dies
Nemesis (published by Awaken Realms in 2018) is a semi-cooperative sci-fi horror game for 1-5 players. You and your crewmates wake up on a spaceship crawling with hostile alien organisms. You need to survive. But here’s the twist — everyone has their own secret agenda.
Your crewmates might be working against you. Or at least, not working for you.
The game is designed to create cinematic, high-tension moments. Think less quiet puzzle-solving, more desperate sprinting through dark corridors while something very large moves toward you.
What makes Nemesis special is how every decision carries weight. Move quietly or risk attracting intruders. Fight or run. Trust your crew or not. The ship can literally explode if things go badly enough — 9 fire tokens placed and it’s over for everyone.
With a 90-180 minute playtime and a BoardGameGeek rating of 8.3, this is a meaty game that rewards players who understand its systems deeply.
Nemesis board game guide terminology:
Getting Started: The Ultimate Nemesis Board Game Guide to Setup
Setting up Nemesis is like preparing for a space mission; if you miss one bolt, the whole thing might fall apart mid-flight. To get started, place the massive game board on the table. We usually use the basic side (marked with a red arrow) for our first few runs.
Next, you need to populate the ship. Take the Room Tiles marked “1” and “2.” Shuffle the “2” tiles and place them randomly on the slots marked “2,” then do the same for the “1” tiles. On top of each room, place a face-down Exploration Token. These tokens are the “fog of war”—you won’t know if a room is on fire or malfunctioning until you step inside.
Don’t forget the ship’s vitals! Place one random Coordinates Card face down near the Cockpit and set the Destination Marker on “B.” You also need to set up the Engines. Shuffle the Engine Tokens (one working, one damaged for each of the three engines) and place them face down. You won’t know if the ship can actually fly until someone goes back there to check.
The Intruder Bag is the heart of the game’s tension. Initially, it should contain:
- 1 Blank token
- 4 Larvae tokens
- 1 Creeper token
- 1 Queen token
- 3 Adult tokens
- Plus 1 additional Adult token for every player in the game.
For the crew setup, we use a character draft. Each player receives two Objective Cards (one Personal, one Corporate). You keep these secret! Then, players choose their characters—like the Captain, Scientist, or Pilot—and take their corresponding miniatures and action decks. Everyone starts in the Hibernatorium, standing over the “poor sod” (the blue Character Corpse token) who didn’t survive the wake-up process.
For a deeper look at how to organize your play area, check out this How to Play Nemesis | Rules & Setup Guide or read our Board Game Planning and Decision Tips for better tabletop management.
Mastering the Round Structure and Player Actions
A round in Nemesis is split into two main parts: the Player Phase and the Event Phase.
In the Player Phase, everyone draws up to a hand size of 5 action cards. The First Player token (the cat!) moves clockwise. During your turn, you perform exactly 2 actions. You pay for these actions by discarding other cards from your hand. If an action costs “1,” you discard one card. If it costs “0,” it’s free, but you still need a card to play it. This continues in rounds until everyone passes.
The Event Phase is where the ship fights back. First, the Time Track and Self-Destruct markers move. Then, any Intruders currently in combat with a player will attack. If you’re standing in a room with fire, you take damage. Then, you draw an Event Card. These cards move Intruders around the ship or trigger nasty surprises like “Coolant Leaks.” Finally, you perform “Intruder Bag Development”—you pull a token from the bag to see if the alien threat grows or if a surprise encounter occurs.
For more on how these turns flow in similar titles, our Board Game Mechanics Explained Review is a great resource.
Basic Actions in Your Nemesis Board Game Guide
Every character has access to Basic Actions, regardless of their unique deck. These are your bread and butter for survival.
- Movement: Move to an adjacent room. If the room is unexplored, flip the tile and the exploration token. If there are no other crew or intruders in the room you are entering, you must perform a Noise Roll.
- Careful Movement: Costs 2 cards. You move but choose exactly where to place a noise token instead of rolling the die. This is the “stealth” mode of Nemesis.
- Shoot: Use your weapon to attack an Intruder in your room. You’ll need ammo for this!
- Melee Attack: A desperate move. You attack without a weapon, but the risks are high.
- Search: If you’re in a room with items remaining (indicated by the item counter), you can scavenge for supplies.
- Crafting: Combine two items with blue icons to create something better, like a Taser or a Molotov Cocktail.
| Action Type | Cost | Risk Factor | Best Used When… |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ranged (Shoot) | 1 Card + Ammo | Low (if you have ammo) | You want to keep your distance. |
| Melee Attack | 1 Card | High (Serious Wound risk) | You are out of ammo and desperate. |
| Careful Move | 2 Cards | None | You are surrounded by noise and can’t risk a roll. |
Survival Mechanics: Noise, Combat, and Health
Survival in Nemesis isn’t just about big guns; it’s about managing your presence on the ship. The Noise Roll is the most frequent cause of death. When you move into an empty room, you roll a 10-sided die. If you roll a number (1-4), you place a noise marker in that numbered corridor. If you ever have to place a second noise marker in a corridor that already has one, an Encounter occurs.
When an encounter happens, you discard all noise tokens connected to that room and draw a token from the intruder bag. If the intruder’s “surprise” value is higher than your remaining hand size, it gets a free attack!
Health is tracked through Light Wounds and Serious Wounds. Three light wounds become one serious wound. If you ever accumulate three serious wounds, your character dies. You also have to worry about Contamination. These cards clog up your hand and can’t be used to pay for actions. Even worse, they might contain a hidden “Infected” status that can kill you during the final victory check.
If you’re looking to sharpen your team-based survival skills, check out these Advanced Strategies for Cooperative Games.
Managing Intruders and Noise in This Nemesis Board Game Guide
Intruders aren’t just monsters; they are biological hazards that respond to sound. If you roll “Danger” on the noise die, an Intruder in a neighboring room moves into your room immediately. If no Intruders are nearby, you place noise tokens in every corridor connected to your room.
You can fight back using fire or by discovering Intruder Weaknesses. To find a weakness, you must take an object (like a character corpse or an egg) to the Laboratory. Once a weakness is revealed, it might make Intruders easier to kill or make them retreat more often. Speaking of retreating, Intruders aren’t mindless; if they take enough damage, they might flee into the Technical Corridors, which are essentially the “vents” of the ship.
For a handy summary of these interactions, we recommend keeping this Nemesis Board Game Guide open during your first few games.
Winning the Game: Objectives and Victory Checks
Winning Nemesis is a two-step process: you must fulfill your objective AND survive.
Your Objective could be anything from “Ensure the ship reaches Earth” to “Player 3 must not survive.” This is where the “semi-cooperative” part gets spicy. You might need the Pilot to help you fix the engines, but your objective might require the ship to explode.
Survival happens in one of two ways:
- Hibernation: Once the hibernation chambers open (mid-game), you can enter one and go to sleep. You are safe from Intruders, but you are at the mercy of the ship’s destination and engine status.
- Escape Pods: These unlock once the first character dies or the self-destruct sequence reaches a certain point. They are the only way out if the ship is about to blow.
At the end of the game, we perform the Victory Check:
- Engines: Check the three engines. At least two must be working for the ship to survive the jump.
- Coordinates: Check the cockpit. The ship must be headed for Earth.
- Contamination: Every survivor scans their contamination cards. If you have an “Infected” card, you must perform a final check to see if a Larva bursts out of you. If you’re infected and can’t remove it, you lose!
For more tips on handling hidden agendas, see our Competitive Board Game Strategy Guide.
Pro Strategy Tips for Staying Alive
After many hours spent running from the Queen, we’ve gathered some expert tips to help you survive:
- Stick Together (Early On): Moving in groups reduces the number of noise rolls you have to make. However, be careful—certain event cards punish groups!
- The “Run First” Rule: Intruders move slowly. Often, it is better to use your actions to put two rooms between you and an alien rather than wasting ammo trying to kill it.
- Burn the Nest: If you find the Nest room, try to set it on fire. Fire deals 1 damage per turn to everything in the room, including those precious Intruder eggs.
- Manage the Hibernatorium: If you’re planning to hibernate, clear the noise tokens in the surrounding corridors first. If you have a 50% or higher chance of rolling an encounter while trying to sleep, you’re in big trouble.
- Craft the Taser: This is one of the best items in the game. It allows you to escape combat without taking a hit, which is vital in the late game.
- Watch the Malfunctions: If 9 malfunction tokens are placed, the ship loses hull integrity and everyone dies. If you see the ship falling apart, spend an action to fix a room.
For more advice on managing a team that might be trying to stab you in the back, read our Tips for Multiplayer Board Game Success.
Frequently Asked Questions about Nemesis
How do you win in Nemesis?
To win, you must satisfy the conditions on your chosen Objective card and ensure your character survives. Survival means either being in a hibernation pod when the ship reaches Earth (with working engines) or being in an escape pod that has launched. If you fulfill your objective but die, you still lose. If you survive but fail your objective, you still lose.
What happens when a character dies?
The first time a character dies, several things happen. First, all Escape Pods are automatically unlocked. Second, the dead player has the option to take over the Intruders! They get a special deck of cards and can control the alien movement to hunt down the remaining survivors. It’s a great way to keep everyone involved in the game until the very end.
How does the contamination check work?
Contamination cards are added to your deck when you are attacked or spend time in slime-covered rooms. To “scan” them, you put the card under the red plastic decoder. If the word “INFECTED” appears, you’re in trouble. You can remove these cards through certain room actions (like the Decontamination Room) or by using an Antidote. During the final victory check, if you have any contamination cards, you scan them all. One “INFECTED” result means you might die right at the finish line.
Conclusion
Surviving Nemesis is no small feat. It requires a blend of strategic planning, resource management, and a healthy dose of paranoia. Whether you are the Captain trying to keep the crew together or the Scientist quietly working on a secret cure, every move counts toward your ultimate goal of not being eaten.
This nemesis board game guide is intended as general entertainment content for readers who enjoy strategy, planning, and decision-making under pressure. While that same mindset can be helpful in many real-world situations, this article is simply here to help you feel more prepared for your next game night.
For more strategy guides and tabletop reviews, visit our Home page and explore our full library of gaming content. Good luck, and watch those vents!
