As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Full details on our Affiliate Disclosure page.
How to play Gizmos (2026): Gizmos is an engine-building game for two to four players by Phil Walker-Harding. Inventors at a science fair collect colored energy marbles, build gizmo cards, and link those gizmos into chain reactions. A game takes 40 to 50 minutes. This guide follows the official CMON second edition rulebook and covers setup, the four actions, triggers, chain reactions and the end of the game.
The game you need: Gizmos (2nd Edition)
The box includes 112 gizmo cards, 52 energy marbles in four colors, a marble dispenser, four player dashboards with energy rings, and victory point tokens.
Price band: $30+ (about $45) · Check today’s price on Amazon
Gizmos setup
- Shuffle the player dashboards (including the first player dashboard) and deal one to each player. Whoever gets the first player dashboard starts.
- Each player takes an energy ring and one starting gizmo, placed below their dashboard.
- Sort the gizmo cards into Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 decks and shuffle each one. Keep just 16 random Level 3 cards and return the rest to the box.
- Deal a face-up display of 4 Level 1 cards, 3 Level 2 cards and 2 Level 3 cards in three rows.
- Put all 52 marbles (13 each of red, yellow, blue and black) in the dispenser. Six roll out to form the energy row.
- Set the victory point tokens nearby.
Your turn: choose one of four actions
| Action | What you do | Starting limit |
|---|---|---|
| File | Move one face-up gizmo into your archive to build later | Archive holds 1 |
| Pick | Take one marble from the energy row into your ring | Ring holds 5 |
| Build | Pay marbles of the card’s color to build a gizmo from the display or your archive | — |
| Research | Draw cards from one level deck, then build or file one of them | Draw 3 |
When you take a card from the display, replace it right away from the same level deck. After researching, put the cards you did not keep on the bottom of their deck in any order. Some upgrade gizmos raise your energy, archive and research limits, which makes them strong early builds.
Triggers and chain reactions
Every gizmo you build sits in a column by type: upgrade, converter, file, pick or build. Upgrades simply raise your limits, and converters help you pay when building. File, pick and build gizmos are the triggered ones: when you take an action, check the column for that action. Each matching gizmo can trigger once, in any order you choose. If a gizmo gives you a free pick or a free build, that free action can trigger other gizmos too, and that is how one ordinary turn turns into a cascade.
- Each gizmo works once per turn. Even in a long chain, a card cannot fire twice.
- A new gizmo can join the chain. It cannot be triggered by the build action that created it, but it can fire later in the same turn from a different action.
- Converters change colors. When you build, converter gizmos let you treat one energy color as another.
- Random draws are not picks. Some effects draw a random marble from the dispenser. That is not a pick action, so it does not trigger pick gizmos.
How Gizmos ends and how to score
The end is triggered when a player builds their fourth Level 3 gizmo or their sixteenth gizmo in total, counting the starting card. Play continues until everyone has had the same number of turns. Add the points printed on your gizmos to your victory point tokens. Ties go to the player with more active gizmos, then to the one with more energy left over.
A small chain reaction, step by step
Imagine you have a pick gizmo that gives you a free draw from the dispenser whenever you pick a black marble, and a build gizmo that hands you a victory point token whenever you build a yellow gizmo. On your turn you pick a black marble from the energy row. Your pick gizmo fires and you draw a random marble. That random draw is not a pick, so it does not fire anything else. Next turn you build a yellow gizmo, your build gizmo fires and you take a point. Small links like these add up quickly once you own a dozen cards.
Tips for a first game
- Build upgrades early. A bigger energy ring or archive makes every later turn better.
- Pick a color focus. Gizmos that reward one color of energy combine well.
- Use the archive as a plan. Filing a gizmo you cannot afford yet holds it for later.
- Want more of this feeling? Our engine-building board games guide lists bigger games built on the same idea.
Gizmos rules questions
How many players does Gizmos support?
Two to four players, ages 14 and up, with games of about 40 to 50 minutes.
Can a gizmo trigger more than once per turn?
No. Each gizmo may be used once per turn, no matter how many times its trigger happens.
What ends a game of Gizmos?
A player building their fourth Level 3 gizmo or their sixteenth gizmo overall. Then everyone finishes the round so turns are equal.
