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Conspiracy: Abyss Universe is a card game set in the world of Abyss.
The card deck in the game consists of cards in five colors, with twelve of each color and cards numbered 0–6. Each player in the game drafts cards and builds a reverse pyramid, starting with a row of five cards, then placing four cards in a row below that, then three under that, etc.
On a turn, you can draw 1–3 cards from the deck, choose one of those cards and add it to your current row, then place any remaining cards grouped by color near the deck; alternatively, you can pick up all the cards of a color next to the deck and add them to your current row.
As soon as the cards in your rows show two matching keys or three different keys, you take either the revealed location card or the top card of the location deck, and place it on the lattermost card with a key. Location cards increase the value of a card and sometimes have special powers. Some cards feature pearls, and when you have as many or more pearls as whoever has the pearl majority card, you take this card from them.
The game ends as soon as someone finishes their pyramid, then all players score their points. For each color, you score points equal to the largest valued card in your pyramid. Additionally, for each color, you look at the largest grouping of cards in your pyramid and you score 3 points for each of those cards. Whoever held the pearl majority card at game's end scores 5 points for it. Whoever has the highest score wins.
- Beautiful artwork and production value
- Portable and travel-friendly packaging
- Engaging two-player duel potential and interactive puzzle
- Vibrant color system with clear scoring paths
- Requires significant table space for open layouts
- Camera visibility issues can make color differences hard to resolve on video
- End-game timing and decision points can feel tight and punishing
- Factions of the Abyss, color matching, pearls, keys, and locations
- Set in the Abyss under the ocean, with five colors representing factions of the Abyss kingdom
- Card-drafting/collection with a senate-like arrangement and color-based scoring
- Pandemic
- Seastead
- Catan
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- card drafting — each turn you draw one, two, or three cards from the deck and add to your senate in a specific order while leaving others visible
- color-based scoring (highest in each color) — for each of the five colors, you score only the highest number of that color at the end
- Compound Scoring — for each of the five colors, you score only the highest number of that color at the end
- deck drafting/drawing with choice — each turn you draw one, two, or three cards from the deck and add to your senate in a specific order while leaving others visible
- End-game trigger — the game ends when a player has 15 cards, after which the other player gets one final turn
- form clusters of matching colors — creating a large cluster of same-colored cards increases point potential
- Keys and Locations — keys unlock locations; silver and gold keys interact with locations; owning matching keys can trigger location draws or gains
- location tokens with end-game impact — locations grant points and provide deck-mining flexibility later in the game
- pearls as majority scoring — pearls indicate majority holdings and grant points; the player with the most pearls leads to a useful scoring token
- swap/zero-symbol swap ability — a zero symbol allows a one-time swap of cards with non-key cards, providing strategic flexibility
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's a knit card playing game
- it's set in the abyss under the ocean
- look at that art man look at that
- the end game trigger is when one player has 15 cards
- this is a really nice knit card game which you know i said shortly
- look at the artwork
- it's good for traveling