[ Amazon Link – Nemesis Base Game]
There’s also Lockdown (standalone game in a Mars base setting): [ Amazon Link – Lockdown]
And various expansions if you want more aliens and content: [Amazon Link – Expansions]
So you just opened that massive Nemesis box, saw all those alien miniatures staring back at you, and thought “how the hell do I play this thing?” Don’t worry – I’ve been there. Understanding Nemesis board game rules can feel overwhelming at first, but after dozens of playthroughs (and plenty of messy first games), I’m going to walk you through everything in a way that actually makes sense. This guide covers all the Nemesis board game rules you need to start playing, from basic setup to winning your first game.
What Makes Nemesis Different
Here’s the thing about Nemesis – it’s not really a cooperative game, even though it looks like one. Sure, you’re all stuck on a spaceship with aliens trying to kill you. But here’s the twist: everyone has their own secret goal, and sometimes those goals mean screwing over your teammates.
I’ve had games where my “trusted” crewmate locked me in a room with an alien because their secret objective was to make sure I didn’t make it home. That’s Nemesis in a nutshell – paranoia mixed with survival horror.
The game handles 1-5 players and takes anywhere from 90 minutes to 3 hours depending on how much chaos unfolds. It’s not a light game by any means – expect a learning curve, especially in your first session. But once you understand the Nemesis board game rules, every session becomes an intense narrative experience.
What’s Actually In The Box: Nemesis Game Components
When you crack open Nemesis, you’re getting:
A big double-sided board showing your doomed spaceship, 26 miniatures (and they’re gorgeous – the alien queen alone is worth the price), room tiles that you flip over as you explore, character boards for each crew member, tons of cards (action cards, item cards, event cards, attack cards), and enough tokens to make you wonder if you’ll ever get this thing packed up again.
The components are seriously impressive. These aren’t your typical board game miniatures – they’ve got real detail and presence on the table.
Setting Up Your First Game (The Not-Overwhelming Version)
Okay, setup looks scary but it’s actually pretty logical once you understand the flow. These Nemesis board game rules for setup will have you playing in about 15 minutes:
The Board: Start with the basic side (you’ll see a red arrow marking it). Shuffle those room tiles marked “2” and plop one facedown on each “2” spot. Do the same with the “1” tiles. Drop an exploration token on each room tile. Put a random coordinates card by the Cockpit.
Escape Pods: These are your ticket out if things go sideways (spoiler: they will). Place the escape pod tokens in sections A and B, alternating as you go, all showing the locked side.
Engines: Randomly place one working engine token and one damaged one. You’ll need these running if you want to actually go anywhere.
The Intruder Bag: This is where the aliens live. Start by putting in one blank token and one adult token for each player. As the game goes on, you’ll be adding more tokens, which means more aliens. Fun times.
Decks and Tracks: Put out all the card decks within reach. Set the time track marker on space 15 (the green one). You’re racing against this clock throughout the game.
Character Stuff: Each player draws numbered help cards to figure out turn order. In that order, everyone picks a character (draw two cards, pick one, shuffle the other back). Grab your character board, miniature, action deck, starting weapon, and ammo.
Now here’s the important part – draw two objective cards: one corporate and one personal. Keep these SECRET. You won’t choose which one you’re actually going for until your first alien encounter, but these hidden goals are what makes Nemesis so tense.
Put the blue corpse token in the Hibernatorium and you’re ready to play.
How A Turn Actually Works: Nemesis Gameplay Rules
The game alternates between two phases – the player phase and the event phase. Once you get this rhythm, everything else clicks into place.
Player Phase:
Everyone takes turns in order. On your turn, you’ve got two action slots. You need to use at least one, but you can use both if you want. Your actions come from the cards in your hand – you’ll draw back up to 5 cards when you pass.
Common actions you’ll be doing:
- Moving between rooms (this usually makes noise)
- Moving carefully (slower but quieter)
- Picking up items you find
- Shooting aliens
- Punching aliens (not recommended but sometimes necessary)
- Using special room abilities once you’ve explored them
- Crafting items if you’re in the right room
Here’s a crucial rule: most actions create noise. You put a noise token in the corridor you’re in. If you’d put a SECOND noise token in the same corridor, you instead have an encounter with whatever’s lurking there. This keeps the game tense – make too much noise and you’re calling the dinner bell.
When you enter an unexplored room for the first time, flip it over and see what you found. Could be useful items. Could be an alien. Could be both. That’s the fun part.
Event Phase:
After everyone passes, this happens:
- Draw an event card – these are rarely good news
- Any fire on the ship spreads and does damage
- Time moves forward
- Draw from the intruder bag
That last one is key. You pull tokens from the bag and see what spawns. Draw an adult? An alien appears somewhere and immediately attacks. Draw a larva? A baby alien shows up at the nest. Draw blank? Add another adult token to the bag for later. The longer the game goes, the more aliens you’re dealing with.
Fighting For Your Life: Nemesis Board Game Combat Rules
Combat in Nemesis feels appropriately desperate. The Nemesis board game rules for combat are straightforward but deadly. When you bump into an alien, you have an encounter:
You draw an intruder attack card. The alien does what the card says – could be a light scratch, could be serious injury, could be contamination (which is a whole other problem). You can try to defend by discarding cards that have defense symbols.
If you want to fight back: Shooting – Roll dice based on your weapon strength. Each hit symbol wounds the alien. Different alien types take different amounts of damage before they go down. You’ll burn through ammo doing this.
Melee – Similar deal but you’re up close and personal. Usually means the alien gets to hit you back. Only do this if you’re desperate or have a really good melee weapon.
The different alien types:
- Larvae are weak but they grow up into adults
- Creepers move fast and are annoying
- Adults are your standard lethal threat
- Breeders make MORE aliens (priority targets)
- The Queen is a nightmare that usually takes multiple players to kill
Pro tip: sometimes running is smarter than fighting.
The Secret Objectives: Understanding Nemesis Win Conditions
This is what makes Nemesis brilliant and frustrating in equal measure.
At the start, you drew two objective cards. After your first alien encounter, you secretly choose one. Could be something like “escape in pod 3” or “make sure the ship explodes” or “ensure player X dies” or “get to hibernation.”
The catch? Your objective might directly conflict with someone else’s. Maybe you need to destroy the ship while someone else needs to save it. Maybe you need a specific player dead while another player needs them alive.
And nobody knows what anyone else is trying to do.
This creates amazing moments where you’re not sure if your teammate is helping you or subtly sabotaging you. The paranoia is real.
One absolute rule though – your character MUST survive (either in an escape pod or in hibernation) for you to win. Dead players lose automatically, even if their objective was completed.
How The Game Ends: Nemesis Victory Rules
The game wraps up when:
- Everyone’s dead (it happens)
- Everyone escaped or hibernated
- The ship explodes
- Time runs out
Then you check who actually won:
First, did your character survive? If not, you lose. If you’re in an escape pod or hibernation, check for contamination. Shuffle all your action cards and draw 4 randomly. See any contamination symbols? Your character dies from alien infection. You lose.
If you survived AND passed contamination check, did you complete your objective? If yes – you win! Multiple people can win at the same time.
Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before My First Game: Essential Nemesis Rules Tips
Managing noise is crucial. New players tend to make way too much noise and then wonder why they’re drowning in aliens. Think about whether you REALLY need to run or if careful movement is smarter.
Don’t trust anyone completely. Even your best friend might have an objective that requires your demise. Stay alert.
The game gets harder over time. The time track isn’t just for show – event cards get nastier, more aliens spawn, and your options shrink. Don’t waste early turns.
Explore as much as you can early. You need to know where rooms are to complete most objectives. Plus, you want those item cards before everyone else grabs them.
Contamination will sneak up on you. Get to the medical bay and get scanned. Finding out you’re infected AFTER you’ve secured your escape pod is heartbreaking.
Fire is worse than it looks. Don’t let it spread. Seriously. A ship full of fire is a dead ship.
Check your ammo. Running out mid-fight with an adult alien is a bad time.
Sometimes you should just run. Not every alien needs to be killed. If you can get past it and lock a door, that’s often smarter.
Questions People Always Ask
When learning Nemesis board game rules, these questions come up constantly:
Can I give items to other players? Not directly. But you can drop an item and they can pick it up on their turn. It’s clunky on purpose – helps maintain the paranoid atmosphere.
What if I run out of action cards mid-turn? Shuffle your discard pile. You’re good to go.
Can multiple people be in the same room? Yep, and you can help each other fight aliens there.
Do I have to tell people my objective? Nope. Keep it secret. Lying is encouraged.
What happens if we run out of alien tokens? If the bag is empty and something would add more aliens, nothing happens. The aliens cap out, which is… actually still a lot of aliens.
Playing Solo
The solo mode is actually really well done. You draw two solo objective cards and pick one after your first encounter (same as multiplayer). The main difference is that exploration tokens give you half the items, making resource management tighter.
It’s a genuinely challenging puzzle trying to complete your objective while managing limited resources and increasing alien threats.
Should You Buy Nemesis?
Look, I’m not going to pretend this game is for everyone. It’s long, it’s complex, it can be mean, and your first playthrough might feel like you’re drowning in rules.
But if you like:
- Games that create real stories and memorable moments
- Gorgeous miniatures
- The Alien movies
- Hidden objectives and social deduction
- Games where things can go spectacularly wrong
- Thematic experiences over abstract strategy
Then yeah, Nemesis is probably going to blow your mind.
The production quality is top-tier. The gameplay creates tension like few other board games. And you’ll be talking about your sessions for weeks afterward – that time someone locked you in the nest, that desperate escape with aliens chasing you, that moment when you realized your “ally” had been working against you all along.
Where To Grab It
Nemesis is available on Amazon (and if you buy through this link, I get a tiny commission that helps me keep writing these guides – doesn’t cost you anything extra):
[ Amazon Link – Nemesis Base Game]
There’s also Lockdown (standalone game in a Mars base setting): [ Amazon Link – Lockdown]
And various expansions if you want more aliens and content: [Amazon Link – Expansions]
Final Thoughts
Your first game of Nemesis will probably be messy. You’ll forget rules, make mistakes, and probably die horribly. That’s fine. The second game will be smoother, and by the third, you’ll be making those clutch plays and suspicious deals that make this game sing.
Just remember – in space, nobody can hear you scream. But they can definitely hear you accusing your friends of sabotage.
Full disclosure: This article contains Amazon affiliate links. If you buy through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It helps me keep making guides like this one.
Written January 2026 – Based on dozens of games with groups ranging from hardcore gamers to confused family members
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