Ruling — Endeavor: Deep Sea

← Endeavor: Deep Sea

You asked

How do I play?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Endeavor: Deep Seabg-367966-en-1e

To play Endeavor: Deep Sea, follow these procedures:

Setup

1. Select a Scenario sheet, which establishes the setup, special rules, scoring goals, and Impact board.[1]

2. Arrange Ocean boards as instructed by the Scenario.[2]

3. Create Ocean Stacks by shuffling remaining boards into five face-down stacks based on depth.[2]

4. Shuffle Dive tokens into a face-down supply and create face-down stacks on zones with Dive sites.[2]

5. Shuffle the Anchor Journal and Journal decks separately; lay out four random Anchor Journals face-up and keep the Journal deck face-down.[2]

6. Prepare the Specialist tray with organized Tiers 1-4 and randomized Tier 5s.[2]

7. Randomly choose a start player and give them the Wave marker.[2]

8. Each player chooses a color and takes a Player mat, a Team Leader tile, and 30 discs, 5 track cubes, 20 Impact markers, and 3 Vessels.[2]

9. Place five track cubes on the 0 spaces of Attribute and Research tracks.[2]

10. Place the Team Leader near the mat with one disc on its activation circle, and keep remaining discs in a separate supply pile.[2]

11. Keep Impact markers near the Impact board.[2]

12. Deploy the starting Vessel to the launch zone as described by the scenario.[3]

Gameplay

The game is played over six rounds (seven rounds in Solo mode).[4][5] Each round consists of two phases.[4] The player with the Wave goes first, and players follow in clockwise order.[4]

Phase 1: Preparation

Each player conducts these three steps:

1. Recruitment: Choose one Specialist from the tray and add it to your tableau; your Recruitment level determines the highest tier you can recruit.[6] If the new Specialist has immediate gains, resolve them.[6]

2. Effort: Gain discs from your supply to your Staging Area; the number of discs gained is determined by your Inspiration track.[4][6]

3. Reassignment: Reclaim discs from your Specialists to your Staging Area; the number of discs you can reclaim is determined by your Coordination track.[4][6]

Phase 2: Activation

1. Players take turns activating Specialists to perform actions, continuing clockwise until everyone has passed.[4]

2. On your turn, you must either take a turn or pass.[7]

3. To take a turn, you may activate a Specialist by placing a disc from your Staging Area on a Specialist in your tableau that has an empty activation circle.[7]

4. You may then perform the Specialist's action(s).[7]

5. Some actions may require an additional disc from your Staging Area to carry out.[7]

6. If a Specialist has multiple actions separated by a '/', you must choose one; if they are not separated by a '/', you may perform any or all of the actions in any order.[7]

Winning/Scoring

* Competitive Mode: Read the rulebook for specific competitive play rules.[1]

* Cooperative/Solo Mode: Players work together to meet thresholds for a set of goals.[5] At the end of the sixth round (seventh in Solo), assess goals; if the team achieves a number of goals equal to or greater than the chosen difficulty level, the team is victorious.[5]

[1] RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook · p.1 · PLAY AGAINST YOUR FRIENDS, OR WITH THEM, OR WITHOUT THEM

[2] RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook · p.4 · SETUP (see page 16 for additional Solo/Co-op setup)

[3] RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook · p.4 · SETUP (see page 16 for additional Solo/Co-op setup)

[4] RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook · p.6 · GAMEPLAY · PHASE 1: PREPARATION · Each player conducts the following three steps: · REWARD SYMBOLS

[5] RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook · p.16 · COOPERATIVE AND SOLO MODES · ADDITIONAL CO-OP SETUP · BONUS GOALS & SETBACKS · HOW TO WIN · CREDITS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

[6] RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook · p.7 · PHASE 1a: RECRUITMENT · PHASE 1b: EFFORT · PHASE 1c: REASSIGNMENT

[7] RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook · p.8 · PHASE 2: ACTIVATION · TAKING TURNS

One rule clearer, zero feelings hurt.

🔧 debug — where this ruling came from

outcome: ANSWERED — Answered
corpus profile: live,vps
answerer pin (deploy-frozen, attribution only): gemma4:26b think:false 5571076f3d70
timings: search 184 ms · ask 5287 ms · total 5474 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 0 ms · generation 5474 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 4, "score": 0.047619, "snippet": "Scenario Sheet. Select a Scenario sheet and place it on the table. It has setup, scoring information and ( sometimes ) special rules that everyone should be aware of. 1 First game? Use Mission 1: The Call of the Ocean . Ocean Boards. Your Scenario tells you which boards to put into play, and the dia", "headingPath": "SETUP (see page 16 for additional Solo/Co-op setup)", "sharpsignalDocId": 273}, {"page": 1, "score": 0.047379, "snippet": "Endeavor: Deep Sea is a scenario-driven game. That means that each time you play, you'll choose a Scenario sheet that establishes the setup, special rules, scoring goals, and Impact board of your game. Every single scenario can be played in competitive multiplayer mode, cooperative mode, and solo mo", "headingPath": "PLAY AGAINST YOUR FRIENDS, OR WITH THEM, OR WITHOUT THEM", "sharpsignalDocId": 273}, {"page": 8, "score": 0.04728, "snippet": "Take turns beginning with whoever has the Wave, and proceed clockwise. On your turn you must either take a turn or pass . Once you pass, you may take no further turns in this round, and the turn order continues clockwise, skipping you. Play proceeds in this manner, with still-active players continui", "headingPath": "PHASE 2: ACTIVATION · TAKING TURNS", "sharpsignalDocId": 273}, {"page": 16, "score": 0.047163, "snippet": "Every Scenario can be played in Cooperative ( Co-op ) mode, where players are working together rather than competing. Solo mode has no special rules and is effectively one-player Co-op. The only difference is that in Solo mode you play seven rounds instead of six. Shuffle the Setback cards, and make", "headingPath": "COOPERATIVE AND SOLO MODES · ADDITIONAL CO-OP SETUP · BONUS GOALS & SETBACKS · HOW TO WIN · CREDITS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS", "sharpsignalDocId": 273}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.046964, "snippet": "The game is played over six rounds. Each round consists of two phases. The player with the Wave goes first in each phase, with the other players following in a clockwise order. 1a) RECRUITMENT · Recruit one Specialist 1b) EFFORT · Gain discs from your supply to your Staging Area 1c) REASSIGNMENT · R", "headingPath": "GAMEPLAY · PHASE 1: PREPARATION · Each player conducts the following three steps: · REWARD SYMBOLS", "sharpsignalDocId": 273}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.044388, "snippet": "A Place your Team Leader near your mat, and one of your discs on its activation circle. B Keep the remainder of your discs in a supply pile not near your Staging area . Discs in your supply are not available to you; they must enter play before you can use them, so it's wise to keep them notably dist", "headingPath": "SETUP (see page 16 for additional Solo/Co-op setup)", "sharpsignalDocId": 273}, {"page": 10, "score": 0.029911, "snippet": "Place a disc from your Staging Area on the leftmost empty space of a Sonar track in a zone where you have a Vessel. If the zone features multiple tracks, you may choose which track to place upon. Placing the disc may complete a link ( see Completing Links , pg. 13 ) Some Sonar track spaces display c", "headingPath": "SONAR (Requires a second disc) Add a disc to a Sonar track, to gain rewards and discover new ocean zones. · STEP 1: CHOOSE YOUR BOARD · STEP 2: PLACE THE NEW ZONE", "sharpsignalDocId": 273}, {"page": 12, "score": 0.029851, "snippet": "In a zone where you have a Vessel, choose an unoccupied Journal site with a Field Symbol that is also featured on a Journal ( in the display ) that you wish to publish ( it is okay if there are also other Field symbols on that Journal ). If no Journals in the display feature the site's Field symbol,", "headingPath": "JOURNAL (Requires a second disc) Spend Research to publish a Journal, which grants Promotions and other benefits.", "sharpsignalDocId": 273}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 1, "quote": null, "headingPath": "PLAY AGAINST YOUR FRIENDS, OR WITH THEM, OR WITHOUT THEM", "sharpsignalDocId": 273}, {"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "SETUP (see page 16 for additional Solo/Co-op setup)", "sharpsignalDocId": 273}, {"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "SETUP (see page 16 for additional Solo/Co-op setup)", "sharpsignalDocId": 273}, {"page": 6, "quote": null, "headingPath": "GAMEPLAY · PHASE 1: PREPARATION · Each player conducts the following three steps: · REWARD SYMBOLS", "sharpsignalDocId": 273}, {"page": 16, "quote": null, "headingPath": "COOPERATIVE AND SOLO MODES · ADDITIONAL CO-OP SETUP · BONUS GOALS & SETBACKS · HOW TO WIN · CREDITS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS", "sharpsignalDocId": 273}, {"page": 7, "quote": null, "headingPath": "PHASE 1a: RECRUITMENT · PHASE 1b: EFFORT · PHASE 1c: REASSIGNMENT", "sharpsignalDocId": 273}, {"page": 8, "quote": null, "headingPath": "PHASE 2: ACTIVATION · TAKING TURNS", "sharpsignalDocId": 273}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 273 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 273 boosted
answered-before recall: this ruling was answered, so past rulings were not offered
similarity threshold in force: 0.55 (rulesage.answered-before.similarity-threshold; the exact-question tier is not gated by it)
answer fence: passed — letter density 0.89154 of 2554 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row recorded: Aug 26, 2026 18:26 UTC

retrieval — what the passage search returned

what this block IS: the PASSAGE SEARCH's own results — the same search that fills this page's closest-passages list — and NOT the passages the answerer read. Answering runs its OWN retrieval: a far wider candidate pool, re-ranked down to a final handful, plus floors this search never applies — the base rulebook, surviving errata corrections, and one slot per book on a multi-book read. Each of those armed only if THIS ask sent what it needs: the boost block names the ids it forwarded, and the scope line names the books it read. A document the answer CITES that no row here names is therefore EXPECTED, not a defect: two searches, two candidate pools, two orders. The answerer's own final rows are shown in their own block below, beside these and never mixed into them.

score = the fused retrieval score (reciprocal-rank fusion over the search arms) — NOT a cosine similarity. This ruling ran the THREE-ARM fuse (full-text + vector + the doc-priority boost arm, which carried the base rulebook and/or the errata corrections this query matched), whose arithmetic ceiling is 0.04918 — all three arms ranking the same chunk #1 (ceiling = arms/(k+1) at k=60). The measured healthy band 0.016–0.033 was measured on TWO-arm asks and does not bound this one: its high end is the two-arm ceiling, and a third arm has room above it. A chunk only one arm ranked highly lands near 0.016 (that one arm's #1 vote), so 0.03 here is an excellent hit, not a 3% match.

per-arm ranks (the rank each search arm gave a chunk): NOT DISCLOSED by the gateway. Fusion happens gateway-side and only the FUSED score crosses the wire, so rulesage cannot show them without a gateway change. The rank column below is the FUSED rank (position in the returned list), which is real.

token count per chunk: NOT DISCLOSED — chunk token counts are not reported on the ask path. The character counts below are of the bounded snippet/quote rulesage actually received — a real measurement of what we hold, never an estimate of the chunk.

fused rank	document	heading	page	fused RRF score	snippet chars
#1	RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 273)	SETUP (see page 16 for additional Solo/Co-op setup)	p.4	0.047619 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#2	RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 273)	PLAY AGAINST YOUR FRIENDS, OR WITH THEM, OR WITHOUT THEM	p.1	0.047379 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#3	RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 273)	PHASE 2: ACTIVATION · TAKING TURNS	p.8	0.04728 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#4	RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 273)	COOPERATIVE AND SOLO MODES · ADDITIONAL CO-OP SETUP · BONUS GOALS & SETBACKS · HOW TO WIN · CREDITS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS	p.16	0.047163 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#5	RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 273)	GAMEPLAY · PHASE 1: PREPARATION · Each player conducts the following three steps: · REWARD SYMBOLS	p.6	0.046964 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#6	RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 273)	SETUP (see page 16 for additional Solo/Co-op setup)	p.4	0.044388 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#7	RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 273)	SONAR (Requires a second disc) Add a disc to a Sonar track, to gain rewards and discover new ocean zones. · STEP 1: CHOOSE YOUR BOARD · STEP 2: PLACE THE NEW ZONE	p.10	0.029911 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#8	RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 273)	JOURNAL (Requires a second disc) Spend Research to publish a Journal, which grants Promotions and other benefits.	p.12	0.029851 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300

what the answerer read — the passages it actually had in front of it

what this block IS: the passages the ANSWERING read put in front of the answerer, in the order it read them — the other half of the two reads described above, and the one that decides what the answer could possibly say. Each row names the book it came from and where in that book it sits, what it scored when the search arms were fused, which arm carried it there, and whether the re-ranker chose it or a floor guaranteed it a slot. A row here that no passage-search row names is EXPECTED: a far wider pool, re-ranked, with floors the passage search never applies.

candidate pool: the answering read scored 25 passages, out of a ceiling of 80 set gateway-side. Both figures are reported by the gateway for THIS ask — measurements of what actually happened, not constants read out of anyone's source and printed here on faith.

floors armed for this ask: the base rulebook — armed · surviving errata corrections — not armed · one slot per book on a multi-book read — not armed. Every floor is stated on every ask, armed or not, so a floor that did not apply here is never mistaken for one this app does not know about.

arms fused for this ask: vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm. Stated separately from the rows because an arm that ran and carried nothing is a different fact from an arm that never ran.

read at	document	heading	page	fused rank	fused RRF score	carried by	how it got its slot
#1	RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 273)	PLAY AGAINST YOUR FRIENDS, OR WITH THEM, OR WITHOUT THEM	p.1	#2	0.047379 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#2	RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 273)	GAMEPLAY · PHASE 1: PREPARATION · Each player conducts the following three steps: · REWARD SYMBOLS	p.6	#5	0.046964 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#3	RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 273)	COOPERATIVE AND SOLO MODES · ADDITIONAL CO-OP SETUP · BONUS GOALS & SETBACKS · HOW TO WIN · CREDITS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS	p.16	#4	0.047163 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#4	RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 273)		p.5	#9	0.029412 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#5	RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 273)	PHASE 1a: RECRUITMENT · PHASE 1b: EFFORT · PHASE 1c: REASSIGNMENT	p.7	#10	0.028778 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + full-text	the re-ranker chose it
#6	RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 273)	SETUP (see page 16 for additional Solo/Co-op setup)	p.4	#6	0.044388 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#7	RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 273)	SETUP (see page 16 for additional Solo/Co-op setup)	p.4	#1	0.047619 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#8	RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 273)	PHASE 2: ACTIVATION · TAKING TURNS	p.8	#3	0.04728 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it

chosen chunks — what the answer actually cited

#	document	heading	page	quote chars
[1]	RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 273)	PLAY AGAINST YOUR FRIENDS, OR WITH THEM, OR WITHOUT THEM	p.1	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 273)	SETUP (see page 16 for additional Solo/Co-op setup)	p.4	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 273)	SETUP (see page 16 for additional Solo/Co-op setup)	p.4	no quote on the wire
[4]	RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 273)	GAMEPLAY · PHASE 1: PREPARATION · Each player conducts the following three steps: · REWARD SYMBOLS	p.6	no quote on the wire
[5]	RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 273)	COOPERATIVE AND SOLO MODES · ADDITIONAL CO-OP SETUP · BONUS GOALS & SETBACKS · HOW TO WIN · CREDITS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS	p.16	no quote on the wire
[6]	RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 273)	PHASE 1a: RECRUITMENT · PHASE 1b: EFFORT · PHASE 1c: REASSIGNMENT	p.7	no quote on the wire
[7]	RULEBOOK Endeavor: Deep Sea — Rulebook (corpus doc 273)	PHASE 2: ACTIVATION · TAKING TURNS	p.8	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 184 ms · first delta 1724 ms · total 5474 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown: queued 0 ms · retrieval 184 ms · ask 5287 ms · gateway work 5474 ms · total 5474 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3200
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 745
tok/sec: 202.0 tok/sec — 745 output tokens in 3.688 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 45s ago)
answerer host (measured by rulesage): reachable (for 23h, checked 6s ago)
answerer node (the seat proxy's own header — this probe, not this ask): node1
stream path: streamed — the gateway pushed at least one accumulated draft
watchdog: first-token watchdog: 30s per arming window (rulesage.table.first-token-watchdog-seconds), re-armed once by the passages frame — so the worst case before a reader falls back to polling is 60s. Whether it actually fired is a BROWSER-side decision that never reaches the server, so it is not recorded here. The stream path above is the server's half of that story: whether a delta was emitted at all.
num_ctx · think posture: both are the CHILD's settings, not rulesage's, and no ask reply carries them — an answer never states which context window or think posture produced it. The live-seat line above reads them from the running child instead, where the gateway can answer for itself; it describes the child NOW, not this ask.

disposition

outcome: ANSWERED — Answered
abstain rationale (n/a — this ruling answered): answered — no abstain rationale applies

setup-shape — why the checklist band did or didn't render

decision: NOT_SETUP_SHAPED — no setup-shape pattern matched this question

errata registry — what the gate above had to match against

this game registers NO errata cards (edition 201), so "no registered errata card matched" above could never have matched one

Errata scope: the gate above matched this ruling's own edition only. When an ask also reads an expansion, that expansion's own registered errata cards stay outside the match — a stated phase-1 limitation, not a failed lookup.