Every turn you can perform two out of four possible actions:

• recruiting mercenaries
• sending mercenaries to collect crystals
• sending mercenaries to find artefacts
• using special action of a chosen mercenary

Star Scrappers: Cave-in can be described as a "discard-building game". With every action, players put mercenaries into their discard. Now, the order of the discard also matters because your top discarded card gives you a special action at the beginning of your next turn. But beware! If your discard grows too interesting, another player may forfeit their entire turn just to steal the discard from you!

The player that collects most Victory Points wins, and that can be achieved in few ways:

• each crystal gives some VP
• some artefacts boost your crystal collection
• sets of fractions' symbols
• protect your fraction trophy and try to steal other players trophies

Last but not least, remember – it doesn’t matter who is the best miner but the best schemer!