Overview

Dune: Imperium – Uprising is a standalone deck-building worker-placement game set in the Dune universe. It builds on Dune: Imperium with new mechanics: Spies, sandworms, the Spice Trade Agent icon, battle icons, Objective cards, and the optional CHOAM Module. Players lead Great Houses (or other powerful figures), send Agents to board spaces, build their decks, deploy units (troops and sandworms) to Combat, and grow Influence with four Factions (Emperor, Spacing Guild, Bene Gesserit, Fremen). At the end of a round, if any player has 10+ Victory Points (or the Conflict Deck is empty), the game ends and the most VP wins.

It is fully standalone (1–6 players) and compatible with all previous Dune: Imperium products. One/two-player games use the separate Rivals supplement; six-player games use the separate Six-Player Games supplement. Detailed board space and icon explanations live on the separate Board Space Guide sheet.

Components

• Two-sided game board
• 9 Leaders (two-sided; 1 used only with the CHOAM module — Shaddam Corrino IV)
• 69 Imperium Deck cards (including 4 used only with the CHOAM module)
• 44 Intrigue cards (including 4 used only with the CHOAM module): Plot, Combat, Endgame types
• 18 Reserve cards: 8 Prepare the Way, 10 The Spice Must Flow
• 16 Conflict cards: 3 Conflict I, 9 Conflict II, 4 Conflict III
• 5 Objective cards (some marked “1-3P” or “4/6P”)
• 8 sandworms (4 plastic, 4 wood — use either or both)
• 4 Maker Hooks tokens
• Shield Wall token
• 4 Alliance tokens, First Player marker, Feyd token (used with Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen Leader)
• Spice: 7 large (worth 5), 20 small (worth 1); Solari: 8 large (worth 5), 20 small (worth 1); 20 water
• CHOAM Module: 20 Contract tokens (10 standard + 10 with different backs for use with Rise of Ix), 4 Imperium cards, 4 Intrigue cards, Shaddam Corrino IV Leader
• Per player (one color each): 3 Agents (one is the Swordmaster), 3 Control markers, 1 Combat marker, 16 cubes, 2 discs, 1 Score marker, 1 Councilor token, 3 Spies, and a 10-card starting deck

Starting deck (10 cards): Convincing Argument x2, Dagger x2, Dune, the Desert Planet x2, Diplomacy x1, Reconnaissance x1, Seek Allies x1, Signet Ring x1. (Starting deck cards are identified by a symbol.)

Setup

1. Place the game board (correct side up). Place the Shield Wall token in the marked area below the Spice Refinery board space. Place the four Alliance tokens on the marked spaces of the Emperor, Spacing Guild, Bene Gesserit, and Fremen Influence tracks.
2. Conflict Deck: Separate by back (I/II/III). Shuffle the four Conflict III and place all four face down in the marked area. Shuffle the nine Conflict II, deal five face down on top. Shuffle the three Conflict I, deal one face down on top. Result: a 10-card deck with 1 Conflict I on top, 5 Conflict II, then 4 Conflict III on the bottom. Return unused Conflict cards to the box without looking.
3. Each player takes a Leader (choose or random). Do not use Shaddam Corrino IV unless playing with the CHOAM Module. Leaders have 1–3 complexity icons after their name; first game, pick a 1-icon Leader. (If two leaders are from the same House, ideally don’t use both in one game — but nonstandard combos are allowed.)
4. Prepare cards along the board edge (omit any marked with the CHOAM symbol if not using that module). Shuffle the Intrigue Deck face down. Shuffle the Imperium Deck face down and deal five cards face up as the Imperium Row. Next to it, place the Reserve cards in two stacks: Prepare the Way and The Spice Must Flow.
5. Shuffle the Objective cards. Omit those whose “1-3P”/”4/6P” marking doesn’t match the player count; return them to the box. Each player draws one Objective at random and places it face up in their supply. The player whose Objective shows the First Player marker takes it.
6. Each player chooses a color and takes all its components. Place two Agents on your Leader; place your third Agent (the Swordmaster) next to the board. Place one disc on the Score track: at the 1 space in a 4-player game, otherwise at 0. Place your Combat marker on 0 of the Combat track. Place four cubes, one each, on the bottom space of each of the four Faction Influence tracks. The other 12 cubes are troops: place 3 in your garrison (the circular garrison closest to you), the rest in supply. Take 1 water. Place remaining components (including 3 Spies) in your supply.
7. Create a bank of Solari, spice, remaining water, sandworms (your choice of wood/plastic/both), and the 4 Maker Hooks tokens. These are not limited — substitute if you run out.

Notes vs. base Dune: Imperium — there is no Mentat (place the Shield Wall token on the board instead); there are no Foldspace cards in the Reserve; Spies and Objective cards are new; Objectives determine the first player.

Turn Structure

A game is a series of rounds, each with five phases in order:

Phase 1: Round Start

Reveal the top Conflict card and place it face up next to the Conflict Deck (on top of any remaining from previous rounds). Each player draws 5 cards from their own deck to form their hand.

Phase 2: Player Turns

Starting with the First Player and going clockwise, players take one turn at a time. On your turn take either an Agent turn or a Reveal turn. Generally take Agent turns until out of Agents, then a Reveal turn (Agent turns are optional — you may Reveal early). Once you take a Reveal turn, your turns are skipped for the rest of the phase. The phase ends when all players have taken a Reveal turn. You may play Plot Intrigue cards at any point during your own Agent or Reveal turns.

Agent Turn: Play one card from hand face up. Use it to send an Agent from your Leader to an unoccupied board space whose upper-left Agent icon matches one of the card’s Agent icons (Spies provide alternatives — see Special Rules). You choose only one Agent icon; one card can’t send multiple Agents. You can’t send to an occupied space (unless using a Spy to Infiltrate). Pay any board-space costs/requirements (must be payable immediately, before resolving effects). Gain the board space effect, plus the card’s Agent box effect (ignore its Reveal box). If a space belongs to a Faction, advance your cube one space on that Faction’s Influence track. A card with no Agent icons cannot be played on an Agent turn (Reveal only).

Reveal Turn: Three steps in order:

• Reveal Cards: Reveal all remaining cards in hand face up (kept separate from cards played on Agent turns).
• Resolve Reveal Effects: Gain the Reveal box effects of the just-revealed cards only (not cards played on Agent turns). Resolve in any order. Use gained Persuasion to acquire cards before/between/after Reveal effects. Set your Combat strength at any point while resolving (and update as needed — this lets cards like the Gurney Halleck Leader reference your strength during the Reveal turn).
• Clean Up: Move all cards from in front of you (Agent and Reveal) to your discard pile.

Phase 3: Combat

Resolved only if units are deployed. First, starting with the First Player and going clockwise, each player with at least one unit in the Conflict may play any number of Combat Intrigue cards or pass; you may play later even if you passed earlier. Once all involved players pass consecutively, resolve Combat. Adjust Combat markers if strength changes.

Resolve Combat: Rewards go by strength order using the Combat track. Highest strength wins the first reward; second highest gets the second; in 4- or 6-player games third highest gets the third (in ≤3-player games the third reward is used only in a tie for second). A player with 0 strength receives nothing. The winner takes the Conflict card into their supply face up, then checks for a battle-icon match. Then all players return troops from the Conflict to their supply (not garrison), reset all Combat markers to 0, and return any sandworms to the bank.

Phase 4: Makers

For each Maker board space (Deep Desert, Hagga Basin, Imperial Basin — plus Habbanya Erg in a 6-player game): if no Agent is present, place 1 spice from the bank in its bonus-spice spot. This accumulates with bonus spice already there.

Phase 5: Recall

If any player has 10+ VP or the Conflict Deck is empty, trigger the Endgame. Otherwise, players recall all Agents to their Leaders, pass the First Player marker clockwise, and begin a new round at Phase 1.

Actions

Strength (set during Reveal turn)

• Each troop in the Conflict = 2 strength; each sandworm = 3 strength; each sword revealed = 1 strength.
• Units in garrison or supply contribute nothing. You must have at least one unit in the Conflict to have any strength; if your last unit is removed, strength becomes 0.
• Announce strength and move the Combat marker. Over 20 strength: flip the marker to the +20 side and continue from the track’s start.

Deploying Units

When you send an Agent to a Combat space (desert illustration + crossed swords; includes Heighliner with the Spacing Guild and Desert Tactics & Fremkit with the Fremen), you may deploy to the Conflict: any/all units recruited this turn (from the space and the card) plus up to 2 more from your garrison. Keep deployed units in the quadrant nearest your garrison. Recruiting a troop (cube icon) places it in your garrison; if you have no troops in supply you can’t recruit until some return.

Sandworms

The sandworm icon summons and immediately deploys one sandworm to the Conflict (never to a garrison). Two restrictions: (1) usually prefaced by a Maker Hooks requirement — you must have a Maker Hooks token on your garrison (obtained at Sietch Tabr); (2) cannot be summoned to a Conflict protected by the Shield Wall. A sandworm is “in the Conflict” from the instant it is summoned, so effects that count “each sandworm you have in the Conflict” include sandworms you summoned/deployed earlier the same turn. Because sandworms can never sit in a garrison and all sandworms are returned to the bank after every Combat phase, any sandworm in the Conflict is necessarily one from the current round.

Sandworm Reward Doubling

If you have one or more sandworms in the Conflict when taking rewards, double the rewards you take. Most rewards double, but taking control of a location does not, nor do battle icons on Conflict cards you win. If a reward offers a pay-a-cost option, you may pay the cost a second time to gain it a second time (e.g., a reward of “gain 1 Influence; may pay 3 spice for 1 VP” becomes “gain 2 Influence — same or two different Factions — and may pay 3 spice for 1 VP or 6 spice for 2”).

Battle Icons

Three icons: Crysknife, Desert Mouse, Ornithopter. When you win a Conflict and take that card into your supply, check if you have another face-up Conflict or Objective card there with the same battle icon; if so, flip the matching pair face down and gain 1 VP. (A wild battle icon may match any one of the three during the Endgame.)

Acquiring Cards

During your Reveal turn, spend Persuasion to acquire cards: any of the 5 in the Imperium Row, or Prepare the Way / The Spice Must Flow from the Reserve. Cost is shown top-right of the card. Acquire as many as you can afford; pool Persuasion from multiple sources and split a single source across cards. Persuasion is never saved — unused Persuasion is lost. Acquired cards go to your discard pile face up (not usable until reshuffled). Always refill the Imperium Row to 5 from the top of the Imperium Deck (you may then acquire the replacement card).

Trashing

Some effects trash cards (return to the box; Reserve cards return to their Reserve stack instead), permanently removing them. Trashing is optional unless paying a cost or directed to trash itself.

Scoring / Victory Conditions

Game End: At the end of a round, if any player has reached 10+ VP or the Conflict Deck is empty, the Endgame triggers. First, players may play and resolve any Endgame Intrigue cards. Then the most VP wins. Tiebreakers, in order: most spice, then Solari, then water, then garrisoned troops.

VP sources:

• Faction Influence: reaching 2 Influence = 1 VP (lost if you drop below 2); reaching 4 Influence = the track bonus (kept even if you later drop below 4; can be earned again if you drop and re-reach).
• Alliance tokens: the first player to reach 4 Influence with a Faction earns its Alliance — take the token and gain the VP shown on it. If later passed by an opponent rising higher on that track, you give them the token (you lose the VP, they gain it).
• Conflict card rewards (1st/2nd/3rd place).
• Battle-icon matches: flipping a matching pair = 1 VP.
• Control bonuses, Imperium cards, and Intrigue cards (Plot/Combat/Endgame) as printed.

Whenever you gain/lose a VP, move your Score marker accordingly.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• Spies / observation posts: The Spy icon lets you place a Spy from supply onto an unoccupied observation post (if none in supply, first recall one of your Spies for no effect). Some effects require the post to connect to a specific Agent icon. The Spy Agent icon lets you send an Agent to a board space connected to a post where you have a Spy (Spy is NOT recalled). A Spy may be recalled (without a card) for one of two effects: Infiltrate — send your Agent to a space occupied by another player (ignoring their Agent) by recalling your Spy from a connected post; Gather Intelligence — when you send an Agent to a space, recall your Spy from a connected post to draw a card (decide immediately after placing your Agent, before any effects). You can’t recall the same Spy for both, but on some spaces you can recall one Spy to Infiltrate and another to Gather Intelligence. The Recall Spy card icon returns a Spy from a post to supply (usually a cost). Infiltrate only ignores an opponent’s Agent — it does not let you place a second Agent on a space you already occupy yourself; the Spy Agent icon likewise only changes which icon reaches a space, which must still be unoccupied. Recalling a Spy “for no effect” (when you must place a Spy but have none in supply) is the only way to reposition a Spy once all three are already on posts.
• Critical Locations & Control: Conflicts titled for Arrakeen, Spice Refinery, or Imperial Basin grant control of that space (place a Control marker on its flag, replacing any opponent’s). While you control it, you get a bonus whenever any player (including you) sends an Agent there: 1 Solari for Arrakeen or Spice Refinery, 1 spice for Imperial Basin. When a Conflict is revealed for a space you already control, you may deploy one troop from your supply to the Conflict (defensive bonus).
• Shield Wall: Protects Arrakeen, Spice Refinery, and Imperial Basin from sandworms while the token is on the board. The Shield Wall detonation icon (on a card or space) lets you remove the token (return to box); once removed, sandworms may be summoned to any Conflict.
• Influence track: Reaching 2 = 1 VP (lost below 2). Reaching 4 = bonus (kept) + Alliance for the first to reach it. “Gain one / gain two / lose one Influence” with a free choice means choose one of the four Factions; when gaining two you can’t split across two Factions (Faction-icon Influence is fixed to that Faction).
• Influence requirement spaces: e.g., Imperial Privilege (2+ Emperor), Shipping (2+ Spacing Guild), Sietch Tabr (2+ Fremen).
• Arrows / costs: A cost (left/above the arrow) yields an effect (right/below). Never forced to pay; if you don’t pay you don’t gain. You may pay such a cost only once per turn (exception: sandworm reward doubling on a Conflict card).
• Intrigue cards: Kept face down, separate from your deck; look at them anytime; reveal only when played; discard face up after resolving. Plot — anytime on your Agent/Reveal turn; Combat — only during the Combat phase; Endgame — only at game end.
• Ties: Tie for first — all tied players gain the second reward; no one wins the Conflict or takes the card. With ≤3 players, no other rewards. With 4/6 players: if 3+ tied for first, no other rewards; if exactly 2 tied for first, remaining players compete for the third reward. Tie for second — each gains the third reward; the Conflict winner keeps their rewards (and the card) but no further rewards are given. Tie for third — those players receive nothing.
• Acquire box: Effect gained once at the moment you acquire the card (not when later played).
• Fremen Bond: Usable if you have one or more other Fremen cards in play; two Fremen Bond cards activate one another regardless of play order.
• Recall Agent (card icon): Return one of your other Agents on the board to your Leader (not the one sent this turn); reusable on another Agent turn the same round.
• Swordmaster: Your third Agent, gained from the Swordmaster space, then usable for the rest of the game. There is no Mentat in Uprising.
• Leader clarifications: Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen — place the Feyd token on the leftmost Training-track space at setup; once it reaches the rightmost space it stays there. Lady Jessica — begin with the Lady Jessica side up (not Reverend Mother Jessica). Lady Margot Fenring / Princess Irulan — you “reach” 2 Influence even when moving past 2 while gaining multiple Influence at once; you can re-reach 2 by losing then regaining Influence (only when moving up, not down). Shaddam Corrino IV (CHOAM Module only) — playing his Signet Ring to send an Agent applies the “Emperor of the Known Universe” deploy restriction immediately. His Sardaukar Commander ability: the two Sardaukar contracts are set aside as a private pile reserved exclusively for him (no other player can ever take them) — he does not start the game holding them. He still acquires a Sardaukar contract through the normal contract-taking mechanism (a contract icon/effect), choosing to take one from his set-aside pile in place of one of the two face-up board contracts. Spacing Guild’s Favor — moving it from play to discard during Clean Up does not trigger its discard ability; only discarding from hand does.

CHOAM Module (optional mini-expansion)

Recommended after at least one game without it. Setup additions: shuffle 20 Contracts face down, flip two face up onto the marked spaces beneath the Landsraad Council, put the other 18 face down in the bank; shuffle in the 4 CHOAM Intrigue cards and 4 CHOAM Imperium cards; Shaddam Corrino IV becomes an allowed Leader (optional). Without the module the contract icon simply gives 2 Solari; with it, take one of the two face-up contracts (then refill from the bank face up; if all taken, the icon reverts to 2 Solari). A contract is your promise to perform a service: most name a board space and are completed by sending an Agent there; a Harvest contract is completed by sending an Agent to a Maker space and gaining the shown amount of spice that turn (total, including other sources); the Immediate contract completes as soon as taken; the Acquire The Spice Must Flow contract completes when you next acquire that card. On completion, announce it, gain the rewards, flip it face down, and leave it in supply (cards may reference “completed contracts”). If you take a contract for a space where you already sent your Agent this turn, you must wait until a future turn (you must have held the contract when you sent the Agent). If you hold multiple contracts that name the same board space, sending one Agent there completes all of them in that single turn — you gain every matching contract’s rewards, resolved in any order with the board-space and card effects (official FAQ). With Shaddam Corrino IV in play, two extra Sardaukar contracts are set aside as his exclusive pile; only he can take them, in place of a face-up board contract, via a normal contract-taking effect (see his Sardaukar Commander ability under Leader clarifications). With Rise of Ix: that expansion replaces one contract location, so Uprising includes 10 alternate-back Rise-of-Ix contracts — after setting up the 20 standard ones, shuffle the 10 Rise-of-Ix contracts and deal two to each player; each simultaneously keeps one face up in supply and returns the rest to the box.

Combining with other Dune: Imperium products

Compatible with all previous products. Base Dune: Imperium: don’t add its Conflict cards (recommended; makes battle-icon matching harder if you do); since there’s no Mentat, remove the Calculated Hire Intrigue card (and Sort Through the Chaos Conflict card if base Conflicts are used); other Intrigue/Imperium cards may be shuffled together or blended as you like. Rise of Ix: fold the CHOAM board overlay in half, covering only the top-right corner (covers Assembly Hall and Gather Support); treat the overlay/Ix board as having one observation post each (one connects to Interstellar Shipping & Smuggling, the other to Tech Negotiation & Dreadnought); don’t add Rise of Ix Conflict cards (optional; if you need an extra Conflict III for Epic Game Mode, add Economic Supremacy); Ilesa Ecaz requires base-game Foldspace cards (only she can acquire them). Immortality: still cover the Research Station with the Research Station overlay even though Uprising’s is different.

For the latest rulings, see the FAQ at http://www.duneimperium.com/FAQ.

Player Reference

Round phases: 1. Round Start (reveal Conflict, draw 5) → 2. Player Turns (Agent or Reveal) → 3. Combat → 4. Makers (1 spice to empty Maker spaces) → 5. Recall (return Agents, check end, pass First Player).

Agent Turn: Play 1 card → send Agent to matching unoccupied space (pay costs) → gain space effect + card’s Agent box (+1 Influence if Faction space).

Reveal Turn: Reveal hand → resolve Reveal boxes + spend Persuasion to acquire → set strength → Clean Up to discard pile.

Agent icons (8): Emperor, Spacing Guild, Bene Gesserit, Fremen, Landsraad, City, Spice Trade, Spy.

Strength: troop = 2, sandworm = 3, sword = 1. Need ≥1 unit in Conflict for any strength.

Combat space deployment: units recruited this turn + up to 2 from garrison. After Combat, troops go to supply (not garrison); sandworms return to bank.

Influence: reach 2 = 1 VP; reach 4 = track bonus + Alliance (first only).

Starting deck (10): Convincing Argument x2, Dagger x2, Dune the Desert Planet x2, Diplomacy, Reconnaissance, Seek Allies, Signet Ring.

Victory: end of a round with any player at 10+ VP (or Conflict Deck empty); most VP wins; tiebreak spice → Solari → water → garrisoned troops.

Key differences from base Dune: Imperium: no Mentat; Spies & observation posts; sandworms & Maker Hooks; Spice Trade & Spy Agent icons; battle icons; Objective cards (set first player); Prepare the Way replaces Arrakis Liaison/Foldspace in Reserve; optional CHOAM Module.