In Downlink, players lead a space agency to develop missions of planetary exploration. Resources are limited, and players must constantly decide where to allocate them best to score the most points. They can choose to specialize in launching rockets, delivering spacecraft to targets, downlinking science data, or spread their resources across multiple areas to increase the likelihood of success. Key events require dice rolling, and team training is available to stack the odds in player's favor.
The game ends when a player reaches 30 or more points on their turn or if there are no cards left for a player to restore their hand to six cards. When one of these events happen, each player gets one last turn. The game can be lengthened or shortened by adjusting the number of points needed to win.
After each player completes their last turn, they total up the number of points scored. The player with the highest total number of points wins. In the case of a tie, the player with the highest Discovery points wins.
-description from designer