- Score sheets
- Board games
- Terraforming Mars
How to score Terraforming Mars
Your terraform rating is the base of your score. At the end you add 5 for each milestone you claimed, your award places, 1 for each greenery tile, 1 for each greenery next to your cities, and the points on your cards. Add it all up on the free score sheet below.
- 1 to 5 players
- 3 milestones, 3 awards
- Ends when Mars is terraformed
- Most points wins
Tabletales is free on iPhone and iPad.
This is the real Scorepad, live: Priya’s tally going in as one sum, TR first and cards last.
Terraforming Mars
- BGG #9
- 120 min
An engine-building game for rival corporations: raise the temperature and the oxygen, fill the oceans, and build cities and greenery on Mars. Your terraform rating climbs with every step, and it is the base of your final score.
Year, players, time and rank from BoardGameGeek.
How to play Terraforming Mars, in brief
Each player in Terraforming Mars runs a corporation working to make Mars livable, with warmth, oxygen and oceans. When the planet is ready the game ends, and the most points wins.
- Start a corporationYour corporation card sets your starting money (megacredits) and production. Buy some project cards to start.
- Play a generationEach round is a generation. Buy new cards, then take turns doing 1 or 2 actions (play a card, pay for a standard project, claim a milestone, fund an award, or spend plants on greenery and heat on temperature) until everyone passes. Then collect your production.
- Raise the planetEach step of temperature or oxygen you raise, and each ocean you place, raises your terraform rating (TR), which adds to your income and your score.
- Finish the jobOnce oxygen, temperature and oceans all reach their goals, that generation ends the game.
Start with your TR, then add five more.
Most of your points arrive during the game, as your terraform rating (TR) climbs on the track around the board. Everyone starts at 20. At the end you add milestones, awards, the tiles on the board and your cards to it.
What scores at the end
| What | Points |
|---|---|
| Terraform ratingYour final TR. It goes up each time you raise a global parameter a step, and with some cards | Your TR |
| Each milestone you claimedA claim costs 8 megacredits; only 3 can be claimed in a game | 5 |
| Each funded award, first placeTied leaders all score 5, and then nobody is second | 5 |
| Each funded award, second placeNothing for second in a two-player game | 2 |
| Each greenery tile you own | 1 |
| Each of your cities1 for every greenery touching it, whoever owns that greenery | Per greenery |
| Cards you playedThe printed points, including cards that score for resources on them | Printed |
- Play out the last generationThe game ends after the generation in which the last global goal is met: oxygen at 14%, the temperature at +8 C and all nine oceans placed.
- Turn your last plants into greeneryAfter that final production, everyone gets one more chance to convert plants into greenery tiles. Then the counting starts.
- Write down your TRRead your terraform rating off the track. That is the start of your score.
- Add milestones and awards5 for each milestone you claimed. For each of the three awards that were funded, 5 to the leader and 2 to the runner-up.
- Count the board and your cards1 per greenery you own, 1 per greenery beside each of your cities, then every card’s points. Most points wins; a tie goes to whoever has more megacredits.
Milestones carry Priya past a higher TR.
Three players at the end of the game. Dev has the best TR, 44, but Priya claimed two of the three milestones and won an award of her own. This is the game on the Scorepad above.
| Player | TR, milestones, awards, greenery, cities, cards | Final |
|---|---|---|
| Priya | TR 38; 2 milestones; first and second in awards; 6 greeneries; cities beside 2, 3 and 1 greeneries; 18 on cards38 + 10 + 7 + 6 + 6 + 18 | 85 |
| Dev | TR 44; 1 milestone; first twice and second once in awards; 4 greeneries; two cities beside 2 each; 12 on cards44 + 5 + 12 + 4 + 4 + 12 | 81 |
| You | TR 35; no milestones; second in one award; 8 greeneries; cities beside 3 and 2; 26 on cards35 + 2 + 8 + 5 + 26 | 76 |
Six numbers each, added up for you.
Tabletales is a scorepad and scrapbook for game night. In Terraforming Mars, count each category on the sheet below. Then type each player’s final: Tabletales adds it up, marks the winner and saves the game with the night.
- One final per playerIn Totals, type each final, or type it the way you count it (38 + 10 + 7 + 6 + 6 + 18) and Tabletales adds it up.
- The categories stay on paperThe Scorepad has no named rows for TR, awards or cards. Print the sheet below for those, then type each column’s total.
- Ties share the trophyPick Highest wins. Tied players share the trophy. The rules break a tie on megacredits left.
- And the night is keptSave it with who played and a photo of the finished planet. Terraforming Mars gets its own history: how often you play and who holds the high score.
- Everyone who was there
- Photos from the table
- Terraforming Mars, with its scores
Common Terraforming Mars scoring mistakes
- Counting only your own greenery beside a cityA city scores 1 for every greenery touching it, whoever placed that greenery.
- Skipping the last plant conversionAfter the final production phase, everyone may still turn plants into greenery before scoring.
- Paying second place after a tie for firstWhen two players lead an award, both score 5 and nobody gets the 2.
- Paying the runner-up with two playersIn a two-player game only first place scores an award.
Terraforming Mars scoring, answered
- How do you score Terraforming Mars?
- Take your final terraform rating, then add 5 per milestone you claimed, 5 or 2 for each award place, 1 per greenery you own, 1 per greenery next to each of your cities, and the points on your cards.
- How do awards score in Terraforming Mars?
- Only the three funded awards score. The leader in each gets 5 and the runner-up 2; tied leaders all get 5 and then nobody is second, and with two players second place scores nothing.
- When does Terraforming Mars end?
- After the generation in which oxygen, temperature and oceans have all reached their goals. Everyone then converts plants into greenery one last time, and the final scoring begins.
Terraforming Mars score sheet
Print one for the table: each scoring category for up to five players, with the final and the tiebreak at the bottom. Our own design, free to copy.
Score another game
In the solo game your TR starts at 14, not 20. Cards are easiest counted in two passes: the ones holding resources first, then the rest. Rules checked on 19 October 2026 against FryxGames’ game page, UltraBoardGames and Board Game Arena. Terraforming Mars is a trademark of FryxGames. Tabletales is not affiliated with FryxGames.
Keep score tonight. Keep the night for good.
Tabletales adds up every hand, then saves the whole night: the games, the scores, the photos and who was there.
