Red Rising - New Edition (EN)

Dive into the dystopian, high-stakes universe of Red Rising - New Edition, a card game inspired by Pierce Brown's bestselling novel series. On Mars, society is split into fourteen color-coded castes, from the Reds who toil in the mines to the Golds who rule without question. You lead a house trying to rise through this ruthless hierarchy by recruiting a handful of followers, represented by your hand of cards.

This new edition keeps the original rules praised by more than 9,800 BoardGameGeek voters, now packaged in a reworked box: a smaller footprint, non-linen cards including 21 foil Gold cards, a natural rubber playmat instead of the cardboard board, and wooden influence tokens instead of plastic.

On your turn, you deploy a card from your hand to a location on the board to trigger its effect, then draw the top card from another location (face up) or the deck (face down) to add to your hand and boost your end-game score. The game blends hand management and combo building: every recruited card opens new synergies and pushes you closer to the top of Society, until one house triggers the end of the game.

Red Rising - New Edition is for you if you enjoy chaining combos from one turn to the next and optimizing a hand of cards that keeps shifting under your feet. Fans of Fantasy Realms and Libertalia will feel right at home, as will anyone who wants a game that sets up in about 5 minutes but still rewards real strategic thinking. Thanks to its built-in solo mode, Red Rising also works perfectly for players who would rather climb the ranks of Society on their own.

With over 20,000 copies owned and an average rating near 7 out of 10 from close to 10,000 BoardGameGeek voters, Red Rising quickly became a reference in the combo-building genre after its 2021 release. This 2026 edition significantly upgrades the components without touching the rules: the cardboard board becomes a natural rubber playmat, the influence tokens move from plastic to wood, and the box itself shrinks to take up less shelf space. The game also ships with the built-in Automa system, which simulates one or more opponents through a dedicated card deck for smooth solo games without fiddly AI management.

Red Rising is designed by Jamey Stegmaier, the mind behind hits like Scythe, Wingspan, and Viticulture, working here alongside co-designer Alexander Schmidt II. You will recognize the same signature: elegant mechanisms that leave plenty of room for player decisions. The artwork, by Miles Bensky, Jacqui Davis, and Justin Wong, brings the Martian setting and the fourteen castes of Pierce Brown's series to life.

BOX CONTENTS
60 Helium tokens (red gems)
60 Influence tokens (10 tokens in 6 different colors)
6 Fleet tokens (1 ship in 6 different colors)
1 first-player token (metal crescent moon)
1 Sovereign token (metal)
112 character cards (65x100mm); foil on Gold cards
6 house cards
1 game board (360x180mm)
1 scorepad
1 custom Rising die
6 reference cards (65x100mm)
1 multiplayer rulebook
30 Automa cards (65x100mm; 57x87mm)
1 Automa rulebook

Number of players: 1 to 6
Playing time: 45 to 60 minutes
Age: 14 years and up

If you would like to protect your cards, you will need:
65 x 100 mm: 112 character cards and 6 reference cards
65 x 100 mm and 57 x 87 mm (mixed format): 30 Automa cards