Win every game of Tharsis

Advanced guide to control the game

1. Tharsis - General observations

Tharsis is a game with dice. Dice symbolize luck and I suspect many people buy the game because of that, especially at sales. After these sales there is usally a wave of bad reviews (people who buy the game at full price seem to rate the game higher) complaining the game was too RNG based or too difficult, after they have played for an hour. Allthough it might be true, that it´s too difficult for some of them (it isn´t a good game for little children definetly), luck shouldn´t be a very important factor, if you try to win a game. Luck can help to win a game, that was badly played and it helps to reach very good scores, too, but it isn´t necessary at all to win your games regulary. You can win your games still with a lot of very bad rolls, you often have to alter your strategy then and if you play on hard mode, it really means that you can lose a game more often. But that´s hard mode and luck is a little bit more important there, allthough you can win the majority of your games there, too. After you have read this guide you might see, that there are ways to mitigate the effects of random elements in the game.
One word about the rising of events, because many newbies think, that this is a big element of RNG in this game. There are three categories of events (indicated as green, yellow and red events). Their arrangement is the same in every game (every difficulty level has it´s own set of events). Events with dangerous hazards need generally less repair points to solve them and I think it´s balanced. It´s very situational, if it´s better to get an event with dangerous hazards or some with a lot of repair points. Surely some can be harder than others, but it´s not too extreme.

2. Strategy and tactics

Tharsis is a strategy game and you should think of it as a strategy game. It will be you, who wins the game and not the dice. Like in chess (I´m a chess player) in Tharsis there is strategy and tactics. I will explain. Strategy is all about your long term goals and Tharsis´ main strategic objective is having enough dice. There are other goals, too and you could argue, that it´s more important, that you have enough ship points, but you won´t win the game, if you have not enough dice.
Tactics will serve to reach your strategic goals. It involves a lot of thinking about what you should do in a turn, which crewmember with how many dice should go to which places ? Which events should you solve or delay to do that ? What´s the best sequence of your actions to use assists, research, module and character abilities efficiently ? You have to think about risks, odds, re-rolling, how to use dice and other things. I will try to give you guidance, but you will have to analyse every new situation and make decisions of your own.

3. Dice

Tharsis is a game about dice and you should have plenty of them. You can´t overestimate that simple fact and a lot of people, who complain about the difficulty of the game do not generate enough dice. You can gain them by

- producing and consuming food
- using the life support module
- playing research cards
- research projects
- captain´s ability
- eating your friends

Generating dice at the beginning of the game is especially important and I allready wrote a thread about the importance of the first turn/week. I won´t repeat it here, but gaining dice is your main objective in the first week.
Generally using the life support module is your most important dice creator throughout the game, while the greenhouse is getting less important later in the game and producing tons of food might only be very important, if you want to score very well, as food gains you a lot of points. A safe stock of food is always welcome, but you should bear in mind, that you don´t profit immediately. If you play on hard mode the danger of losing a game due to too much food production can become real.
Try to have 18-20 dice all the time. 17 isn´t too bad and 18 or 19 dice are very good, as one or two crewmembers with four dice are very good for using life support in the most efficient way. To plan a whole turn around the possibility of using life support with the best suited astronauts is much more important than you might think at the beginning.
Two simple examples :



If you plan a move, you should have in mind, how you´d like to use your dice after you´ve rolled them and if the number of dice, that your astronaut has, fits for your task.
Here four dice are critical for solving the event at life support (14 repair points) and using the module. It would be better to use the doctor (5 dice) for good chances of success.
But sending people with four dice to life support is more important and you should be lucky, if that means that you had to send two astronauts to solve the problem. Possibly rolling two times against the minor void hazard (two assists) here is much less important than using life support in a good way.
Start sending the mechanic to life support and don´t use all his dice for repairing. Don´t begin with the specialist, as she has better chances to gain dice, too, because of the additional re-rolls.
The next example is more difficult:



You should take notice of some details here: The mechanic has three health points and the research cards, that we hold at this point are a 7 point repair card and a +2 assists card. Dice in the research section are 4,5,6 and we have one assist. All small details can affect a turn.
The main difference compared to the last example is, that the hazard at life support is much more dangerous. In such a case you would highly prioritize to solve the event with one astronaut. The chances of doing this are quite good because of the repair card, but the mechanic can´t do it, because the risk of dying is too high. With small numbers in the research module you could think about playing the assist card first, but before you use a 4 and a 5, you should compare to other solutions. You would lose one dice for the repair card, too, so the odds for solving the event would drop.
Instead using the doctor first seems obvious.Solving the event and using the module again is unrealistic. There are two other possibilities. Use the doctor to solve the event and get dice with the specialist or roll with both of them against the hazard. You will have to use the assist card with the specialist then. You might have a smaller number in the research module at that time and the reward is bigger, as you might be able to get dice with two people.
To begin with the doctor seems to be the right move and again it seems better than using the one with five dice. There will be some cases, where you neglect to send the 4 dice crewmembers to life support, though, but remember these moves as one of the most important, that make up successful play.

- Using food

One food gives you three dice. This is especially important at the beginning of the game, when you need many dice. To keep food and not to use it, if you have three dice, would be a big mistake in general. If all other crewmembers have allready five dice you can think about not using one food (18 dice - you "need" someone to go to life support). Don´t cannibalize, if you have three dice and stll have food. If you were unlucky at the beginning of the game (or played badly) you might be in the desperate situation to decide, if your last food will go to someone with one or someone with two dice. Give it to your astronaut, who has two dice allready, because the other one, won´t lose a dice after his turn. If you play with the captain and know your first move allready (special ability) you might decide otherwise to benefit from your move. Two research cards might also lead to act differently. You could plan to use the +3 dice card in the next turn to keep one food. Don´t hesitate to use that card, if you get only two dice, as with food, but always try to use low numbers.
The +1 dice for everyone card can be quite difficult, if you think about not using food for three dice crewmembers because of that card. Carefully study the situation on the ship. You should like to move your five dice crewmembers first, otherwise use the food and try to use the card later. If you want to play the card, because your research module is full of dice (low numbers) might also influence your decision. There are some characters who work very well with five dice and others are good with four, Generally the good ones should have five, but there are little exceptions. I will talk later about it.

- Using dice

You can use dice for
- repairing a module
- use character abilities
- module abilities
- research

I won´t tell you miracles, if I say, that you should use high dice numbers for repairs and low numbers for research. 3´s generally should be used for repairs and 2´s for research. Never use 1´s for repairs except for completing an event. But always evaluate the situation, as 2´s can be tricky sometimes, if you try to solve an event with multiple astronauts, especially when you roll against hard stasis hazards (1,2 or 1,2,3). Values of 2´s can raise here and significantly raise the odds for your last astronaut, who will try to finsh the event.
Bad void hazards are even harder, but in general you should try to solve them with one astronaut and you will know, which dice you need.
Character and module abilities are very situational and general rules are not easy to give. Nearly all module abilities are very good (try to use low numbers for greenhouse and maintainance) and I talked allready about the dominance of life support, which you should always use.
I will talk about character abilities later.
Always have in mind, which research cards you hold, as this can sometimes lead you to use higher numbers for research, especially if you follow a plan, that shall save you a turn, that you would lose with aimless repairing operations. Careful planning at the beginning of a turn often is crucial.

4. Re-rolls

This is a big source of mistakes. First of all : Always use the dice hold area and don´t use your dice before you re-roll. The only exception is, if you can solve an event, so that you don´t have to roll against hazards again. Not to risk assist points against stasis hazards is enough allready. If you can´t solve an event, there is nothing to be gained by using the dice, before you roll again. It takes a bit of mouse activity to store them all the time, but you should get used to it.
Nearly everyone, who I have seen playing the game re-rolls too often. It seems, that they are hoping, there would be new numbers on the dice. The average score of a dice is 3,5. I think, you know this allready.
But most of the time, you should not re-roll 3´s in the game. In general one void or injury hazard should be enough allready not to roll them again. Most of the time I wouldn´t risk my assist points for them, if I roll against stasis hazards, but you should learn never to roll with assists against stasis, later more of that. Re-roll them against stasis hazards, if you have no assists. Sometimes you will re-roll 4´s in these situations, because of module or character abilities, but most likely the event isn´t a big problem or the priority then.
Sometimes you might take a risk for the chance of solving an event by re-rolling 3´s or 4´s.
This will depend very much on the situation. Not having to send another character can be really precious. Carefully weigh up risk against rewards. But again from what I´ve seen, nearly everybody re-rolls too often.
If you get better at playing the game, you will more often only roll dice to fill up research spots. Here the risk can be to roll doubled numbers and the reward is to get higher ones. I will talk more about that, when I write about research. The longer I have played Tharsis, the less risks did I take here, too. One of the strengths of life support is, that this is the best place for these research rolls, as you can combine them with getting dice and often re-roll without the risks.

5. Hazards

Besides not generating enough dice this is the second important reason, why people think the game´s is too difficult or too luck dependent. Many of them will roll against them without taking precautions and hope for their luck.
If you roll against injury and void hazards, you should be prepared and the game gives you plenty of possibilities to do that :

1. Use assists.
2. Use repair cards.
3. Stay away for some time, until you´re prepared for.
4. Ignore the risk and roll.
5. Use avoid cards.

I don´t use avoid cards, but all other possibilities are important. Good handling of assists is probably most important while repair cards are most powerful, as you can prevent to roll against hazards or roll with multiple crew members by using them.
Some typical hazards:

- Major void hazards that consist of three numbers
You should have three assists. Better combine them with a repair card to solve the event in one go. To use a 28 repair card and avoid to roll at all is very nice.
A combination of a 7 or 17 repair card with a three or four dice astronaut might also be very good, allthough rolling with a five dice astronaut gives you the opportunity to solve the event without the card. But to hold a card as a policy generally is good. And think about the commander, if you have him in play.
Often stay away for some time.

- Major injury hazards with two or three numbers
Similar to the void hazards, but here you have the additional possibilty to ignore the risk with a very healthy character. You never should do that with dangerous void hazards. Don´t get used to such behaviour, but sometimes you will be happy, that you can do it.
More often you might roll, if you have only one or two assists.

- Injury hazards that consist of two or three numbers of the same type (6,6,6)
For every number, that you roll, you take that amount of damage. These hazards are far less dangerous than they look and I´m always happy to see them.
Assists are very powerful here and are generally the correct equipment, but you should have plenty of them. Often you won´t need them and can still use them in the next encounter. Only roll with two assists, if your astronaut has only four dice or enough health, but losing health here always is painful. Re-rolls are relatively safe here, that´s another reason, why these hazards are less dangerous.

- Stasis hazards
You should ignore stasis hazards and roll. You should have no assists and waste them here.
Odds for solving events with multiple stasis numbers are lower and you should take care of that, when you plan the turn. You should ignore combined stasis and injury hazards (except I,I,S), too, but you should have enough health.

- Combined void/stasis hazards
Generally you would always like to have assists against void hazards, but here it is a little bit complicated, especially against V,S,S, as the risk of wasting assist points is significant. I like to have one assist point here, but it depends on the situation and how important it is to solve the event.

All other minor or combined hazards are very situational and you would always like to have assists and repair cards can be effective in many situations, if they allow you a very powerful follow up move or very effective use of your dice, but you should always take care of the following moves, because you won´t like to waste your assists against stasis hazards (read more about assists).

6. Setting priorities

This game is not about hopping from one event to another and rolling dice.
As I´ve said before, many players repair too often and don´t get enough dice.
Always think about, what the actions are, that you will benefit the most.
If we think about repairs, some are more profitable than others.
Some events have many damage points but less repair points, so it´s easy to prioritize them. Events with one damage point and a lot of repair points or dangerous hazards often should be left alone, until you are very safe and can think about reaching a good score.
You will often leave sys failure events unsolved, as they don´t harm the ship, but you will have to fix them at the most important modules.
On the other hand you should often leave events at flight control unsolved, at least for some time, as the module isn´t good and the place is strategically bad (a pilot might do it). And if you aren´t running a very good game, where you have the hope to solve all events, you have an event,that you can solve in the last turn. If a game doesn´t run very well, you might be very lucky to see a -food event at the greenhouse. If you have no food, this won´t harm you and you can easily play around these events with good use of life support and cards and such an event can help to save a game, that you were about to lose, especially on hard mode. Most of the time there are other things, you should prioritize over some repairing operations, or the sequence of your actions can be very important.
Look at this:


Important details are, that we have only one ship point, the doctor has only two health, we hold a +1 ship card and a +3 repair card.
If we set our priorities, mostly at the beginning of a turn, the danger of losing a game, makes a big difference, allthough repairs aren´t the only possibilty in these cases.
Here we have to do something, as we are about to lose the game, but saving this turn isn´t very difficult.
The first thought here would probably be, to send the captain to the laboratory. The doctor can´t roll at the greenhouse, because of her low health, but she can roll at maintainance and this would be allready enough.
But if you think a little bit longer, about what you would like to do here, you will see some minor flaws of this move. The captain would like to use his special abilty, but the event at the laboratory has two low stasis numbers and this might fail. To get additional assist points, for the next turn if you start with the specialist at the greenhouse, is very unrealistic.
The longer I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of moving the specialist to the laboratory, allthough she loses one health by doing this. You could use the captain´s ability with three crewmembers (dice are very important !) and the odds for solving the event, using the captain´s abilty and getting assists are not too bad. If you get assists, there will the additional possibilty to send the doctor to the greenhouse. This would mean rolling with assists against a combined injury/stasis hazard, but here we would lose one assist point, if we don´t, as we cannot have more than 3 assists. With the +3 repair card, odds for solving the event are extremely good and because we have the +1 ship card, that will be enough to save the turn. In fact, this was, what happened in the game.
Move order of your astronauts always makes a big difference and is especially important with assists.

7. Assists

Here we are. This chapter is incredibly important and I wrote allready a lot about not wasting your assists.
We gain them by:

- at the start of a turn (1 assist)
- at the laboratory
- research cards
- research projects
- technician

All can be important and sending crewmembers to the laboratory to get assist points often is necessary, especially as we often like to have three assist points.
What shall we do here ?


The next turn will be week six, the most dangerous turn with some dangerous events. At the moment we have two assists and could start with three of them into the next turn and we have three crewmembers with low health. Don´t roll at maintainance and try to solve the event here.
We have three ship points, six dice in research and a +3 ship card. The ship is totally safe, your rolls against hazards are never.
You should send the specialist to the medbay to get more "attacking potential" for the next turn. Healing at the medbay can be one of the very powerful moves in this game and this is a good moment for doing it. Rolling at the greenhouse and getting health with the +3 health card is weaker. It´s not a very good card and I often shuffle it.We have enough food at the moment, too.


Only two minor injury hazards, but our crew has low health and another detail is very important here. We would love to move the captain and play the +1 dice for everyone card (one of the best research cards) after that (we need dice in the research module).
So, we move the captain to the laboratory, again losing one health point, but gaining safety.
After we have used the card, the doctor has five dice and a good chance to solve the event and use the medbay. The specialist can go to life support, get dice and complete a very good turn.


The sixth week of the same game. You should always think about assists in this turn and here they have a major impact on the sequence of your moves.
We have a +28 repair card, dice in the research module are 2,5,6. We have one assist point.
Setting priorities in this turn often is very important, as you might not be able to solve all events. Here we should solve the health event at flight control, everything else won´t harm us. It has a double injury hazard and as I´ve told you, assists are exremely powerful here.
You could think about completing the research module and using the +28 reapair card here, as we have a five and six allready in the module, but I woudn´t rely solely on that and use it as a additional opportunity and we can use it at operations, too, after we have repaired flight control.
Someone has to go to the laboratory, but wait ! We still have one assist point and don´t like to waste it by getting new ones. So, we should start with the captain at maintainance, because the doctor has only four dice and we can use the captain´s abilty. The odds for solving the event and using his abilty are not too good, but not too bad either and we can try to have luck here. After this we get assists at the laboratory and try to fill the research module. We might repair flight control or use the reapair card. Here it seems to be enough to know the first two moves and have an idea, what will happen after that. Sometimes you have to be more precise and plan the whole turn. mostly when there´s a risk to lose the game.
Be always sure, that you have assist points at the right moment.

8. Health

If you roll without assists against injury hazards, you need enough health, but what´s enough ? That depends on the risk, that you are willing to take and that should depend on the situation and how well you evaluate the chances of success. If a game runs bad, you probably have to take higher risks to get better chances of overall success. I have created some rules for minimum health, that I need to have. when I roll against single (one injury dice) injury hazards. that work for me most of the time. These are especially important, as I don´t want to have assists, if I roll against combined injury/stasis hazards.
5 dice = 4 health
4 dice = 3(4) health
3 dice = 3 health
2 dice (reroll) = 2(3) health
1 dice (reroll) = 2 health
At the begiining of the game, you should probably be more careful, but I lose crewmembers not very often and I can remember some very funny games, that I won after such terrible rolls.
If you have assists, you can subtract them. Hazards with more than one hazard dice are more complicated. Against three hazard dice you should have more health than dice, that you roll. Sometimes I roll five dice with five health, but the situation might allready be difficult then, most likely on hard mode. Weighing risk against reward always is important and estimating how well your game runs. Bad games need higher risks.
If you´re low on health, you might try to regain some. As I´ve said, the medbay can be very powerful, the only problem is, that dice are more important and should generally be prioritized over health.
Health research cards are mediocre at best. The +1 health for everyone card is better than the +3 for one crewmember card, here the medbay is much better. When you immediately need "attacking potential" the card can come in handy sometimes. The +1 health card is clearly the best one and one of the most flexible research cards as you can use a single one or a doubled dice number for it, I nearly never shuffle it.
It´s still possible to win your games, when your crew is low on health for the whole game, if you´re able to use assists and cards.

9. Stress

Stress is not that unimportant, but...
Stress influences research projects. Astronauts, who have little stress get "better" research projects, which can be worse than the bad ones, as balance issues are very important.
If your astronauts have a moderate amount of stress, you get punished (more stress) for not selecting their project. This often ends in a vicious cycle. If an astronaut is overstressed, he works alone on research projects. Each character has individual projects and his own personality. Some astronauts are generally better than others, if they are stressed.

- Reducing stress

You can play research cards, use the operations module, use psycholgist´s abiltiy or chose research projects.
What´s important is, if you chose one of the first three possibilties, you will get good research projects to reduce stress after that. A -10% stress research card can be enough, if you are consequent after that and then you can break the circle. Starting with a research project to reduce stress won´t work, if your whole crew has allready high stress.
It´s nice to be low on stress and if you want to score very well, you have to. But again dice are more important and health maybe, too. At the start of the game you should not be too cautious because of that. Take stress damage to get other benefits, if it´s necessary.
If a game runs well, you are able to limit stress and then it will even run better.

10. Research projects

If you chose a research project, you often have to weigh balance against efficiency.
"Good" research projects mostly give you dice or don´t cost you dice, but often you are in need of other things. And a paradox can be very important, because often a project, that is less efficient and costs you dice can lead to a situation, where you have more dice in the next turn, because you will use food after that. That means again, that we have to think about many details to find the best suited project.


(left: +2 ship -1 dice for us / right: +1 ship -1 health for us)
A simple but instructive example (no danger). The game "thinks", that the left project is the better one (less stress). Often dice are a little bit underestimated by the game (or it´s programmers). A lot of -1 dice for everyone projects, that are unacceptable, where you should prefer a project of an overstressed teammate.
Here the two projects are roughly balanced, we won´t profit from the two shippoints, as we need only one and the healthdamage of the second project won´t harm us very much.
Choosing the left project will possibly lead to the usage of three food. We would have more dice after that, as if we chose the right project.
I would chose the left project here (we have five food), if the captain or specialist had four dice instead of three and five. I always want to have an astronaut with four dice. In the game I chose the right project.
Very often you won´t profit from the projects and you are searching the one, that is less painful. Projects with no penalties (-30% stress damage) are often the best ones.

11. Research

Im my opinion research is the most difficult part of the game. You need a lot of experience, what the good cards are, when you should play them and when you should shuffle the deck. Move order is at least as important as with assists.
Research might be the aspect of the game, that makes the difference between playing not too bad and really controlling the game.
I allready mentioned quite a few times, that it is important to use low dice for your research cards. Get used to the idea, that your dice in the module have different values.
You should use high dice numbers for repairs, so you will get many 1´s and 2´s for your research module.
What should you do with them ?
First, research cards, that cost only one or two dice are generally better than they look, if you use these dice.
Second, you should shuffle a lot as you want to use high numbers, that you get for research, only for the best cards or cards, that are powerful in a specific situation. You can´t hold such cards, until their moments come. I suspect that the develeopers had that in mind, especially with the avoid cards. But such methods are dominated by good use of shuffling, which is cheap and repair cards are powerful. You will often lose dice, when you are unable to play cards and your module is full. Or you will lose dice, because you are playing cards with little value. Generally you like to shuffle, if you hold no repair card.
But timing is technique here and I will try to explain, how different numbers in your research module and different cards and situations can influence your actions and order of actions.

What do you think, is the first action, that I take in most of the turns ?
I will send any astronaut to any module, only to look, what the dice are, that are in my module. I miss that view on the standard ship layout.
What I see there, is one of the following situations :

a) Your research module is empty or the spots for the one and two are empty. Or you have cards, that you want to play or there is no big reason to shuffle (because of many dangerous hazards). Go on with your moves and don´t play cards, until you have smaller numbers in the module. But pay attention, if the situation changes.

b) If you start a difficult turn with some dangerous hazards you might like to shuffle, if you have no card, that helps you in this situation. A repair card, assist card, shipcard or sometimes a health card might change the situation and alter your strategy.
SHUFFLE IMMEDIATELY !
The number of the dice can get less important here, because knowing your strategy at the beginning of the turn is very important. Sometimes I shuffle with a three here (in really desperate situations with a four).


Here the research cards are useless and you don´t know, if you should start at life support or the laboratory. Priority is to solve the event at the laboratory. This might also be one of the very rare situations, where you start at flight control to activate no movement damage, if you draw only bad cards and want to focus on repairing the laboratory (the mechanic can get the shippoint or you might repair flight control with the last astronaut).
Dice in the module are 2,3,4,5,6. With a free number one spot, you will often move, before you shuffle. Here I shuffled two times in a row, because I got bad cards with the first shuffle.
Then I got two repair cards and was able to solve all events.

c). Your research module is full of low dice (1,2) and you have no cards, that you want to hold absolutely. Cards, that you never want to shuffle are 7 and 17 repair cards. All others depend on the situation. The situation isn´t very dangerous.
Mostly you should not shuffle, if you have some flexible cards, that can be played by every crewmember and that aren´t too bad or expensive. A food card and especially a +1 ship card are very useful here. But don´t play them immediately. The situation might change or you might roll only numbers, that you can use otherwise. Wait to play cards, until you have to or reallly need them. Move on with your turn.

d). Your research module is full of low dice. You have no cards, that you want to play and the situation isn´t difficult. Be prepared to shuffle. If you can shuffle with a one and your cards are completely useless you can do it, but generally I would like to wait. until I´ve rolled doubled numbers, when I try to fill research spots.

e). Your research module is full of low dice and you have cards, that you like to play, but these are cards, that affect some of your astronauts and have to be played by them. Now move order is important, as you want to have free number 1 and 2 spots, if you don´t like to shuffle and your active crewmember cannot play cards.


Moves in this turn are clear.
a)The doctor will start at life support.
b).Specialist will repair the greenhouse
c).Captain will start repairing the laboratory and use his abilty.
d).Mechanic will finish the event.
Dice in the module are 1,2,3,4 and we want to free some of this spots as we want use a health card and don´t like to shuffle the repair card, either.
The mechanic will roll last at the laboratory and most likely the assists will be gone at that time. The mechanic has three health and that will be too risky, as he will have five dice after the captain´s action. We could act with the mechanic, before the captain moves, but we don´t have to. It´s better to play one of the health cards.
You can play research cards, that affect a character without moving him, as long as he hasn´t moved yet.
You activate the astronaut by clicking on him, then you play the card and move another astronaut after that. I often use that with dice cards, when the research module is full and I want to play such a card with a character, that will move later in the turn.

f) Your research module is full of low dice and you have a 7 or 17 repair card. This can be a very difficult situation, if you´re not going to repair a difficult event, where you want to use the repair card, as you can´t put low dice into the module anymore. Mostly you should anticipate these situations a little bit earlier and plan ahead.
Try to use another card. If this isn´t possible, you have to use your repair card as soon and as effective as possible. This can mean to use it in a situation, where you wouldn´t have used it otherwise. Try to avoid these situations, as you want to use your repair cards most effectively.

- Doubled numbers - To shuffle or not to shuffle

If you can´t put dice into the research module anymore, you often have to decide, if you will shuffle or play another card. Try always not to skip dice for nothing. If you play a card will depend on the strenght of the card, which dice you have to use and on the other cards, that you could get rid of, if you decide to shuffle. Often this is a hard decision.


It´s the third week and the game is allready very safe. This is the last event and it isn´t dangerous. The five will go into repair and the 2´s are affected by stasis. The last action was playing a assist card and now there are two useless cards and a +1 dice card. Shall we use it or shuffle ?
We would have to use a 4 for it (not too cheap) and could get rid of two very bad cards.
On the other hand the card is good and we would have again two 2´s, if we shuffled and would have to shuffle again, play a card or lose a dice after that.
So, it´s not easy to decide. I would shuffle here, if we had only two 2´s. In the game I´ve played the card and got the next difficult decision right after it.


We drew a +1 dice for everyone card for it. This is one of the best research cards and if you play without the captain, you should probably never shuffle it and treat it on the same level as the 7 and 17 repair cards.
Here we play with the captain and the other crewmembers have 14 dice at that moment, we have four food. We have only two 2´s now and we would lose a dice, if we didn´t shuffle. I shuffled now (with one of the 2´s of course).

11a. Some important research cards

+1 dice for everyone (4 dice)
As I described before, playing with or without the captain makes a big difference here.
The card is very strong and you should try to play it. If you play with the captain, you often can´t play the card in turns, when the captain meets two crewmates. You have to hold the card then and often get into a situation, where you like to shuffle and mostly you should not hang on the card then.

+3 ship (5 dice)
A very expensive card. Playing this card can be very bad and very strong. Generally this is a card for the second half of a game. In difficult situations, when your winning strategy is more survival than solving all events, this card often is a backbone of your strategy. Combined with using the maintainance module, you can take many hits and win games, when the ship is falling apart. You never will shuffle the card in these situations.
Be very careful to play that card at the beginning of a game, when you should still focus on getting dice and food. Play hard mode to use the card more often.

+28 repair card (6 dice)
Maybe the most difficult card. You will often like to use it, but you have to be realistic about it and often treat it as a useless card. And remember, that this card is only useful against red coloured events. If there are no unsolved events und you will start a turn with yellow events only, the card won´t be effective.
Generally, if you have high dice in your module, the chance of using it, increases. Mostly I would not rely on the card and play moves, that make sense, if I hadn´t the card. Playing with the specialist can help and sending her to life support often can be a nice prelude, before you try to repair a very difficult event, if you have that card. Of course other astronauts (4 dice) can make this move, too. Don´t hesitate to shuffle the card.

+7 and 17 repair cards (2 and 4 dice)
Don´t shuffle them and use them to solve difficult and dangerous events.
Not having to roll with several astronauts against these events is very important to be successful.

Three not so important research cards

-avoid void (4 dice)
The problem with that card isn´t, that it´s too bad. You simply don´t hold it, if you need it and you can´t hold it, until you need it. If you have two events with void hazards, one being dangerous and if you have the card and small numbers in your module, you can use it and sometimes I do it, too (very seldom).

- avoid stasis (4 dice)
If you start a turn with three assists and there are many events with combined hazards with stasis, this can be a good card (use low dice). But again, this will happen not too often. Avoid cards are always an argument to shuffle your cards.

- avoid injury (6 dice)
Here I only have an advice for the developers. Reduce the costs for this card to 5 dice. It will still be bad enough.

12. Cannibalism and winning strategies

While I emphasized a lot of times, that you shouldn´t always repair events, because often other things are more important, generally it´s the easiest way to win the game, if you are able to solve all events.
If you gain control, have enough dice and have cleared the ship, you can be sure to win the game, and you will know this early in the game, even on hard mode.
You don´t have to cannibalize and you shouldn´t. Playing with a good strategy means, that you won´t need it most of the time.
There are two things. that can go wrong in a game.
You might not be able to generate enough dice at the beginning of a game. If you start week 4 and have less than 17 dice (no food) with one astronaut having less than four dice, you should remember Mapiya Musgrave and probabaly eat her. The next two weeks wlll be very easy (normal mode) and if you have no unsolved events on the ship, you might like to wait one week, until you do it.
If you play on hard mode, having less than 17 dice at this point, makes the game critical. Close your eyes and enjoy the taste of fresh flesh. If there is at least one unsolved event, that harms you, I will do it in a 5,5,4,3 dice situation (17 dice).
Another problem arises, if you leave too many events unsolved. You might lose control over the game, because you can´t save turns by repairing events anymore. You can try to regain control, but often you have to change strategy and focus much more on gaining shippoints at the maintainance module and only fix the most important events. Generally this is more effective at the end of the game. You will only work in the right half of your ship and getting your astronauts to flight control in the last turn often is fun.
If you have problems with dice and events, you are in real trouble. Sometimes you can safe a game by sacrificing an astronaut voluntarily. Maybe because you liked the taste of flesh so much. Most likely you have stress problems,too, at this point. To get a lot of ship points by sacrificing a team member as a result of a research project might even be better, because you will get the points and the flesh.
If you are getting really well at playing the game, you will nearly never need these strategies, if you play on normal mode, but it can be pretty normal stuff, if you play on hard mode.
But never plan to use these strategies right at the beginning of a game and don´t use it as your general playstyle. This should be strategies, if a game runs bad.

13. The Crew

Astronauts in Tharsis aren´t balanced. Selecting your crew has a big influence on the difficulty of your games. I will write about individual astronauts and their strategies. Some have preferred places, where they "like" to be and for some it´s more important, that they are always full of health and dice than others. Sometimes this influences my decision of choosing research projects or playing research cards.

Jean Olowe - The captain
This is your best astronaut - by far. No team with the captain in it will be really bad.
Try always to use his abilty and plan your turns to use him with good effect. Generally it´s better to meet others, before they move, but it won´t be possible everytime and often they have allready five dice before they move or you like to send your four dice crewmembers to life support. Using one astronaut at life support and meet another one with your captain means, that you won´t lose dice in a turn and that happens quite often.
I wouldn´t say, that the captain has a typical place in the order of movement, allthough he might move more often at the end of the turn. He has a very high priority for having five dice and he should have enough health, too, as you always want him to be very flexible and move wherever he wants.

Allison Silva - The specialist
She is very special, as her abilty is often useless against hazards. But she is great, if you roll for food at the greenhouse, for shippoints at maintainance or for fiiling research spots at modules without events (often life support). You might prefer her for getting assists at the laboratory often, too. If you play her accordingly she is a good character. She has a low priority for dice (not in turn 1!) and health, as you often want to use her at life support and you will always try to use others for rolling against dangerous hazards.
Allthough rolling at maintainance is more important, if you play on hard mode, I think she is better on normal mode. Rolling for research numbers simply is more important there and there are more events and hazards on hard mode.

Pascal Lavorin - The mechanic
This is a guy, who doesn´t help very much to get into a good position, but often helps to save your bad games. Because of that I probably underestimated him always a little bit and was surprised, that I had a pretty good score with him. If he repairs events against hazards, he has always the problem, that his 5´s might be more valuable for repairing and you might often use him at maintainance, if you had to change your strategy to the survival mode. He might be a good choice for hard mode games. You should be very careful with his abilty in the first turns, as ship points often aren´t the best investment.

Kayla Jones - The doctor
She has a simple strategy - Don´t use her abilty !
That sounds a little bit harsh and sometimes you can use it, but generally you should prioritize other things. Even a five in your research module might be more valuable than using her abilty for one teammate. You nearly never should take care of her abilty, when you plan move order (except in turn 1 maybe), all other factors are more important. If you roll doubled numbers for research, you will sometimes be happy with her abilty and she is not too bad, if you play for high scores, simply because of the last turn and some extra points, that you might get because of her.

Niki Karam - The commander
She is one of two frontliners in the game and she is great. She is always your first choice for solving the most difficult events, when you have the hope to solve that event in one go.
Events with a lot of stasis dice might also be good for her, as three extra points can be very valuable.
She has a very high priority for five dice and much health.

Joy Lee - The technician
As assists are very important, she can´t be bad. You can use her at the beginning of the turn to get more assists, in the middle of the turn to refill assists and you can move her last to get assists for the next turn. On normal mode I especially like to move her last, as you would lose one assist point by using the laboratory, which is best used in the middle of your turns.Often it seems best to me, to combine her abilty with rolling for research. If you try to repair and get assists for your next astronaut, there will always be a five you can´t use for repair. So her preferred place is life support and she has a low priority for five dice and much health. On hard mode you often have to repair with all of your astronauts, but you will need more assists, too.

Yuri Novak - The pilot
This guy is definetly made for hard mode, for two reasons. First his abilty is very often useless on normal mode. Your winning strategy is nearly always clearing the ship and you have big freedom to move most of the time. The pilot has probabaly the best or second best (commander) research projects , if your crew has high stress, what makes him even more valuable, when you have to play in survival mode. You can use his movement abilty for two good reasons.
He´s the second frontliner, because you will often like to reach the most dangerous events first, when you still have assists and he´s the one to reach it. He has very high priority for five dice and much health because of that.
His "home" is the laboratory, as you will often get assists with him. It´s often difficult for others to reach it, at least at hard mode. So, he often moves first or in the middle of the turn to get assists at the laboratory.

Sofia Diaz - The cannibal
Most overrated. She´s the beginner´s character, because you will get some food, if you haven´t learned how to fight for dice. Quite ironic, that you unlock her last, if you start playing the game. That´s a very bad decision by the developers.
But she isn´t one of the very good characters. If you compare her abilty with the captain´s, you can see why.
The value of one food is only 2 dice most of the time (for someone who still plays badly and who doesn´t generate enough dice it´s 3 dice much more often) and you can use the captain´s abilty immediately, if he meets crewmates, who still have to move. The cannibal loses health, gets stress and her abilty is useless, when there are food events on the ship (important on hard mode). Her strength might increase, if you play without the captain, as she can fill his role.
Better play her on normal mode. On hard mode her best quality is to get one food in turn number one, allthough that can be really precious. She gets much stress and she has awful research projects, when she´s stressed. Her home is the medbay and her special move of healing and getting food is always nice. Be careful not to use her abilty first, if you have only one health, I did that one time. Because of that move, you might like to have five dice with her. She hasn´t a very high priority for health, as you like to go to the medbay with her. Often you should simply use her to repair events, especially in the second half of the game.

John Park - The psychologist
I won´t copy the text for the doctor here. Read it again to learn to play John Park.
He´s probably the worst character of all. Play him on hard mode without the captain to get a really tough challenge.

[Monk]

i had failed miserably on my previous attempts years ago. today i reinstalled, read this guide until 3. Dice, started the game and beat it in normal at my first run (3 cosmonauts made it to mars, one stayed behind, resorted to canibalism at last turn)

my thanks to the author, now i can put this grudge to rest

[Shiro]

thanks for clarifying about stress. So it only affects research project, which are helpful to control but not critical. I though it was akin to Darkest Dungeon stress, where too many means Affictions (actually uncontrollable actions during gameplay) and later Heart Attacks

[Jacklarooo]

Thank you for your insight. Much like FTL, the randomness is not the reason for failure: we can always plan better and learn from our mistakes.