Lost Ruins of Arnak board game box cover

Lost Ruins of Arnak Score Calculator & Scoring Guide

Add up idols, your research track, temple tiles, cards, and guardians — minus those fear cards — for up to 4 players, free, right here.

Score Calculator

Category
Idol Tilescount × 3 pts
Research Track
Temple Tiles
Item Cards
Guardian Tilescount × 5 pts
Fear Cardsenter as a negative
Total00

This calculator totals your six categories and forgets when you leave. Saved games, player stats, and win rates live in the free Meeply app →

How Lost Ruins of Arnak Scoring Works

Almost all of Arnak's points land at the very end, across six categories added together. Here's exactly what counts in each — including the research track, the one nearly everyone miscounts.

1Idol Tiles

Each idol you collected is worth 3 points at game end — it doesn't matter whether you kept it face-up on your board for its bonus or flipped it face-down to spend as a free action. Count every idol you own and enter that number; the calculator multiplies by 3. This is the row people undercount when they forget that a spent, face-down idol still scores its 3 points.

2Research Track

This is the row Arnak players miscount most, and getting it right often decides the game. You have two tokens climbing the research track: your magnifying-glass token (the archaeologist) and your notebook token (the assistant). At game end each one scores independently. Find the space your magnifying glass ended on and read the victory-point value printed there; do the same for your notebook token, which usually trails a step or two behind; then add the two numbers together and enter the sum. Three mistakes cost people points here: scoring only the magnifying glass and forgetting the notebook, reading a space's bonus icons instead of its point value, and assuming both tokens must sit on the same space. If your magnifying glass climbed all the way to the temple at the top of the track, score the value printed on that final space. When in doubt, score each token separately and total them — never estimate the pair as one number.

3Temple Tiles

Pushing your research to the top of the track lets you claim temple tiles, each stamped with a point value. Add up the values on every temple tile in front of you and enter that total. If you never reached the temple, this row is simply zero.

4Item Cards

Every item and artifact card in your play area that shows a number in its lower-right corner scores that many victory points. Cards with no printed number score nothing — they earned their keep through their effects during the game. Add up the corner values across all of your cards and enter the total here.

5Guardian Tiles

Each guardian you overcame is worth a flat 5 points, whether or not you ever used the boon it granted. Count your guardian tiles and enter that number; the calculator multiplies by 5. Guardians are a reliable 5-point chunk apiece, which is why racing up the temple track to claim them is a common winning line.

6Fear Cards

Fear cards are Arnak's built-in penalty. Any fear card still shuffled into your deck at the end of the game costs you 1 point each. Count them, then enter the total as a negative number — four fear cards is −4. Seeing a negative here is completely normal; the goal is just to keep it small, and a clean run can finish at 0.

The Arnak Expansions

Expedition Leaders is the big one: it gives each player an asymmetric leader with a unique power and starting kit, and adds new double-sided research boards, so no two games climb the track quite the same way. The Missing Expedition is a campaign box — a linked series of scenarios with new mechanisms that unfold as you play through them, for tables who want a story arc rather than one-off games. Twists of Fate is a small expansion that mixes in new cards, idols, and assistants to deepen the base game. None of them change the six-category math above — idols, research, temple tiles, cards, guardians, and fear still decide the winner.

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It knows the rules too: both research tokens, guardians, the fear penalty — added up for you. Free to try, and Arnak is one of 300+ games built in.

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Lost Ruins of Arnak Scoring Questions

How do you score Lost Ruins of Arnak?
Add six things at game end: 3 points per idol, the printed value under each of your two research-track tokens, the points on your temple tiles, the victory points in the lower-right corner of your item and artifact cards, 5 points per guardian you overcame, and −1 for every fear card left in your deck. The highest total wins.
How does the research track score?
Your two research tokens — the magnifying glass and the notebook — each score on their own. Read the victory-point value printed on the space each token ended on, then add the two together. The classic error is scoring only the magnifying glass, or reading a space's bonus icons instead of its point value. Score them separately and total them, and remember the notebook token usually trails behind the magnifying glass.
Do fear cards count against you?
Yes. Every fear card still in your deck at the end of the game is worth −1 point. They cannot be removed just by shuffling them away — the only defense is drawing and playing through them before the game ends. A negative fear row is completely normal.
How much are guardians worth in Arnak?
Each guardian you overcame is worth 5 points at game end, whether or not you used its boon during the game. Count your guardian tiles and multiply by five.
What is a good Lost Ruins of Arnak score?
Casual games are usually won somewhere in the 60 to 75 range. Break 80 and you almost certainly played a tight game — stacking guardians, a deep research track, and a few high-value cards without letting fear cards pile up.
Who wins a tie in Lost Ruins of Arnak?
The tied player who is further along the research track wins. Your magnifying-glass token's position on the track is what settles it.
Does Meeply support Lost Ruins of Arnak?
Yes — Lost Ruins of Arnak is one of 300+ games with rules-aware scoresheets in the free Meeply app, so both research tokens, your guardians, and the fear penalty are totalled for you every game.