Step into the shoes of a time traveller and use portals to search for the gemstone of eternal life. Can you ultimately reach the gemstone at the right place and time?

Eternitium is an easily accessible deck builder for 1 to 5 players aged 10 and up. It has a manageable playing time of 30 minutes.

Rating

Overall	9
The Story	8
Game system	10
Disign & art	9
Replayability	10

The Story

As a player, you are a time traveller. No one knows what time period or place you are in. Time is running out and you must search diligently for the stone, as there can only be one time traveller who will ultimately obtain it.

The mysterious stone is protected by ancient magic. Create portals, search for information using technology and, above all, try to slow down the others in their search.

The goal is to be the first to get rid of all your Era cards before your opponents do!

Setup

Each player starts with a starter deck that you place face down on the deck area of your player board.

For each type of Portal card, take the number of players × 2 and place them in four open stacks. This is the Portal card reserve and forms the first row.

Place 3 Basic Technology cards face up below this, with the rest as a face-down stack next to it. Do the same for the Advanced Technology cards.

Note: the face-up cards must always be different. If there are at least 2 identical cards among them, return all duplicate cards to the bottom of the pile until there is only 1 card left. Then turn over a new card to replenish the supply.

This applies throughout the game, except when there are no more cards available.

When cards are taken from the stock during the game, turn over the next card so that the stock is always replenished.

Each player receives randomly a number of era Era cards, depending on how many players there are. These are placed face down on the gem on your player board. Turn over the first one.

Shuffle the rest and place them face down under the stack of Advanced Technology cards. This forms the general deck. Then turn over two of them for the stock.

Game Play

For the first turn, each player chooses a card from the basic technology cards and adds it to their deck. Shuffle your deck and place it on your player board. Then take the top 5 cards into your hand. The game can begin.

A turn consists of the following steps

• Take a Portal card: At the start of your turn, you must take a Portal card. If there are no more available, proceed immediately to step 2.

• Play cards from your hand or pass: Play Portal or Technology cards and apply their effects immediately. You can only play the next one once you have applied the effect of the previous one.

• Play an Action card: When you have played an Action card, it is placed face up on your discard pile on the right-hand side of your player board.
• Play a Portal card: You can use this to go through a portal when the symbol matches the Era card on your player board. When this happens, discard the Era card. Create a common discard pile for this.

If the Era card on top of the stack on your player board is not visible

• Play a Technology card that allows you to see the Era card, if you have one. If you do not want to or cannot do this, you can take a guess. If you prefer to do so, follow the steps below:
• Play a Portal card from your hand and turn over the top Era card. If it matches the Portal card you played, you may discard the card and continue your turn.
  • If the Era card does not match the Portal card you played, return the Era card face down to your Era cards and reshuffle the deck.

Important: Did you guess wrong? Then you may only draw 4 action cards instead of 5 during the “refill hand” step. You must also take an era card from the common deck without looking at it and shuffle it into your Era cards. Continue to the next step.

• Pass: If you choose this option, you may go through the following steps
  • You may destroy as many cards from your hand as you wish. These cards are placed in the game box and do not return to the game. When you choose this option, you may keep a maximum of 1 card in your hand.
  • During step 5, you may replenish your hand to 6 instead of 5

Please note: a player may never have fewer than 6 Action cards (hand, deck and discard pile combined).

• Discard cards: The player places all remaining cards from their hand face up on their own discard pile. Note: this discard pile can be viewed by the player at any time, but not by their opponents, except when they use the Thief Robot technology.

• Acquire new Technology card (optional): Developing technologies takes time; if you choose this step, be aware that it may put you behind. You may take one Technology card, either Basic or Advanced. You can choose one of the visible cards or take one face down from the Technology card stacks. Add it to the top of your deck.

• Basic technology: if you choose this, select one of the visible Era cards and add it face up to the top of your Era card pile on your player board.
• Advanced technology: if you choose this option, take the two visible Era cards and place them face up in your chosen order on your Era card pile on your player board.

• Refill your hand: Take 5 action cards from your deck unless otherwise indicated in step 2. When your draw pile is empty, shuffle the cards from your discard pile and refill your hand.

End of the game

As soon as a player has discarded their last Era card and thereby found the Eternitium gem, the end of the game begins.

Allow everyone to finish their turn so that everyone has played an equal number of turns. Leave your discard pile as it was, in case an opponent can still use their Thief Robot.

If two players find the gem at the same time or there is a tie, the Technology cards also count towards the score. This is clearly described in the rulebook.

Contents and design

With the release of Eternitium, Haumea has succeeded in publishing a rulebook that explains everything very well and clearly. The Technology cards are discussed separately at the back of the rulebook.

The graphics are beautifully designed and the print quality is very good.

There is also a solo play mode in the rulebook.

Also in the box

• 3x rulebook (NL/FR/ENG)
• 5x player board
• 60x Era cards
• 60x Portal cards
• 29x Basic Technology cards
• 16x Advanced Technology cards

Conclusion

With Eternitium, Haumea has brought a very enjoyable deck-building game to the market, with an expansion coming soon. Something to look forward to.

The story is well conceived and original. The game system is well designed and offers great replayability. The rules are explained very clearly in the rulebook. It plays well, is innovative and is highly recommended for people who enjoy deckbuilding. Because the cards feature symbols instead of text, which is the case in most deckbuilders, this game can be used universally, which I find to be a great added value. This also makes the game more accessible to children.

The fact that Eternitium also has a solo play mode is definitely an added value, at least in my opinion ;-).

At the Spellenspektakel 2025 Utrecht, I had the opportunity to speak with one of the creators of this game. This interview will be published in the coming weeks under the interviews section.

More info: https://www.haumeagames.com/products/eternitium

Text and photography: Esmeralda Wolf