Galaxy Trucker - Tips & Strategies

It has happened to all of us at some point. We know we only have so much time to complete a task, so we rush to come in under the deadline. Then we found we made mistakes.

In this game, when you do your spot check and found you have made mistakes, parts of your ship start falling off. There is nothing quite like creating a dreadnought bristling with lasers only to see all but one of them fall off the ship on takeoff.

Taking it slow might result in a few less tiles on the ship, but at least they will all be there once the round starts!

Just like Grandpa tied down the cooler on the top of the old station wagon, make sure that the components of your ship are all tightly secured to one another, especially on the fringes of the ship body. I have seen numerous instances where one stray meteor tags a single tile, obliterates it, and because that was the only tie in to the ship, entire chunks float off in to space. And while we may mourn the loss of our now absent crew, we mustn’t forget the most important result of that poor design – it cuts in to the profits.

During the frenzy of ship building, don’t forget to look at the three cards that will be added to the space flight deck. Yes, this definitely sucks up precious tile-grabbing time, but knowing what lies ahead can help you focus on the appropriate components. This is what separates the Galaxy Trucker from a mere intersteller pizza boy.

In the build phase of your ship gather your pieces as normal but do so slightly slower then your opponents. Watch the tiles in the middle and try to cull from there the already flipped pieces this will allow you to visualize your ship better and make less mistakes in building.

Also, an often overlooked rule is even if you finish first it does not mean you need to take the first place marker. If you think it’s advantageous to let someone else start in that spot take the second spot.

I frequently don’t have the chance to play games with others, and so I often come up with rules to play by myself. I wanted to share those rules for Galaxy Trucker with you.

The first thing you will do is take out all of the Combat Zone adventure cards. As the only player, you won’t be using them.

Other than that, gameplay is normal, with a few exceptions:

1) When in the Building Phase, you will use the timer as normal. Once all the time is up (aka after you’ve flipped the timer twice for the first round, or three times for the second round) you will flip the timer again and continue flipping it until you finish your ship. For each timer flip that is beyond the time limit for the round, you will move your ship back 1 flight day from the red starting space (I find it is easiest to place my ship token on the track and move it back each time I flip the timer, rather than trying to count and remember after I’ve finished building).

2) At the end of the flight You get the reward for finishing first, Minus 1 Credit for every flight day you are behind the red starting space. If you happen to be ahead of the red starting space, you get 1 extra credit for every 2 flight days you are ahead (rounded down). If your bonus ends up being negative, you lose money that you earned from previous rounds.

3) You only get the best looking ship award if you finish with no exposed connectors.

When playing with some of my younger family members, we often play without using the timer. It takes the pressure off of them, so they can focus on building the ships. While it is fun for the ships to completely fall apart–I often find that my younger family members become disinterested (very quickly). Often the older family members will race for spots, and then help the younger ones complete construction. While our ships are falling apart, often the younger ones end up with the best score. In a lot of ways it helps to level the playing field. Its all about the experience and fostering a positive gaming environment!!

Due to the nature of their connections, it’s common (and easy) to lump your cabins near one another. I’d advise against this if possible. At least one of the cards (it’s been a while since I’ve played, but I think it’s called Contagion) can decimate your crew in adjacent cabins. Without crew, you can’t collect salvage, and if you lose too many, you’re nothing more than floating space junk.