In Bios: Genesis, one to four players start as organic compounds shortly after Earth's formation, represented by up to three Biont tokens. The Amino Acids command Metabolism, the lipids create cells, the pigments control energy absorption and storage, and the nucleic acids control templated replication. Their goal is a double origin of life: first as Autocatalytic Life (a metabolic cycle reproducing, yet not replicating, its own constituents), and the second as Darwinian Life (an Organism using a template to replicate in an RNA world). Players can play cooperative, competitive, or solitaire.

How to play

Each turn an event card is flipped, and catastrophes are resolved from left to right, determining the climate, stripping cubes from organisms and refugia placards, and creating new landforms that can harbor life. Any organisms which lose all of their cubes go extinct. The Event cards also dictate turn order and which refugia and mutation card piles are active at that turn.