Ruling — Ark Nova

← Ark Nova

You asked

When may I take one of the new universities, and what does it give me?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Ark Novabg-342942-en-1e · Ark Nova: Marine Worldsbg-368966-en-1e

You may take a new university using an Association action only if both of the following are true:

* The generic university (the one with the icon) is still on the Association board.[1]

* You do not have any of the new universities yet.[1]

Taking a new university gives you the following three advantages:

1. You gain 1 animal icon in your zoo, which depends on the university you chose.[1] (A new university also allows for guaranteed access to 1 animal icon of your choice while supplies last [2]).

2. You may find 1 card from the deck that matches the animal icon on your university by revealing cards from the top of the deck until you reveal a matching animal icon; you take this card into your hand and tuck all other revealed cards under the deck.[1]

3. You gain 1 research icon in your zoo.[1]

[1] RULEBOOK Ark Nova: Marine Worlds — Rulebook · p.6 · A New University · Example: Gaining one of the new Universities

[2] RULEBOOK Ark Nova: Marine Worlds — Rulebook · p.1 · INTRODUCTION · COMPONENTS · Boards & Mats 1 replacement Association board

🔧 debug — where this ruling came from

outcome: ANSWERED — Answered
corpus profile: live,vps
answerer pin (deploy-frozen, attribution only): gemma4:26b think:false 5571076f3d70
timings: search 84 ms · ask 4554 ms · total 4640 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 0 ms · generation 4640 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 6, "score": 0.032787, "snippet": "When using an Association action to gain | THESCUINIVErsitiCSaTe a partner university, you may take a new thematically based on the university only if both of the following WAZA studbook initiative. are true: The generic university (the one with the vd icon) is stillon the Association board. You do ", "headingPath": "A New University · Example: Gaining one of the new Universities", "sharpsignalDocId": 867}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.032522, "snippet": "The game board has a Break track to count down the time remaining until the next break. At the beginning of the game, and after each break, the Break token goes on the starting space corresponding to your player count (1) . Whenever you advance the Break token, move it the appropriate number of spac", "headingPath": "The Break Track", "sharpsignalDocId": 247}, {"page": 14, "score": 0.031514, "snippet": "The Association board is divided into 2 areas. In the blue area are the tasks that you can perform using your association workers. If you have not upgraded the Association action, you can only perform exactly 1 of these tasks. In the pink area, after upgrading your Association action card, you can g", "headingPath": "The Association Board", "sharpsignalDocId": 247}, {"page": 18, "score": 0.030798, "snippet": "If you have more cards in your hand than your hand limit allows, discard any surplus cards of your choice from your hand to the discard pile. Normally your hand limit is 3, but a particular university allows you to hold 5 ( If you have Multiplier, Venom, and/or Constriction tokens on your Action car", "headingPath": "1. Hand card limit : · 2. Tokens on Action cards : · 3. Association board : · 5. Take income :", "sharpsignalDocId": 247}, {"page": 14, "score": 0.02971, "snippet": "2 Increasing reputation : Increase the reputation of your zoo by 2. Advance your Reputation counter on the Reputation track and receive any bonus shown, if applicable. The reputation of your zoo determines how many cards you can access in the display (reputation range). In addition, a certain minimu", "headingPath": "The various tasks are:", "sharpsignalDocId": 247}, {"page": 8, "score": 0.029274, "snippet": "One of them allows you to choose an alternative. So be aware that you cannot upgrade all of your Action cards! In each game you will have to decide which upgrades are most important to you. You may not 'do nothing' with your action (e. g. play 0 Animal cards or build 0 buildings). The individual act", "headingPath": "A Turn / The 5 Action Cards", "sharpsignalDocId": 247}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.02885, "snippet": "Your zoo (1) is established in the large area in the middle of your zoo map. This is where you place buildings such as enclosures (standard or special enclosures), kiosks, pavilions, or unique buildings. An overview of all enclosures shows their sizes and shapes (2) . You are not allowed to build on", "headingPath": "Your Zoo Map", "sharpsignalDocId": 247}, {"page": 8, "score": 0.028324, "snippet": "The Cards action allows you to gain new Zoo cards (Animals, Sponsor, and Conservation Project cards) from the deck or the display. Enclosures are needed to accommodate animals in your zoo. The Build action allows you to build standard enclosures for animals of all categories or special enclosures fo", "headingPath": "CARDS Action (page 9) · BUILD Action (page 10) · Example: Perform an action · ANIMALS Action (page 11-13) · ASSOCIATION Action (page 14-16) · SPONSORS Action (page 17) · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 247}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 6, "quote": null, "headingPath": "A New University · Example: Gaining one of the new Universities", "sharpsignalDocId": 867}, {"page": 1, "quote": null, "headingPath": "INTRODUCTION · COMPONENTS · Boards & Mats 1 replacement Association board", "sharpsignalDocId": 867}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 247 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 247 boosted
answered-before recall: this ruling was answered, so past rulings were not offered
similarity threshold in force: 0.55 (rulesage.answered-before.similarity-threshold; the exact-question tier is not gated by it)
answer fence: passed — letter density 0.93272 of 654 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row retained until: Nov 12, 2026 12:15

retrieval — what the passage search returned

what this block IS: the PASSAGE SEARCH's own results — the same search that fills this page's closest-passages list — and NOT the passages the answerer read. Answering runs its OWN retrieval: a far wider candidate pool, re-ranked down to a final handful, plus floors this search never applies — the base rulebook, surviving errata corrections, and one slot per book on a multi-book read. Each of those armed only if THIS ask sent what it needs: the boost block names the ids it forwarded, and the scope line names the books it read. A document the answer CITES that no row here names is therefore EXPECTED, not a defect: two searches, two candidate pools, two orders. The answerer's own final rows are shown in their own block below, beside these and never mixed into them.

score = the fused retrieval score (reciprocal-rank fusion over the search arms) — NOT a cosine similarity. This ruling ran the THREE-ARM fuse (full-text + vector + the doc-priority boost arm, which carried the base rulebook and/or the errata corrections this query matched), whose arithmetic ceiling is 0.04918 — all three arms ranking the same chunk #1 (ceiling = arms/(k+1) at k=60). The measured healthy band 0.016–0.033 was measured on TWO-arm asks and does not bound this one: its high end is the two-arm ceiling, and a third arm has room above it. A chunk only one arm ranked highly lands near 0.016 (that one arm's #1 vote), so 0.03 here is an excellent hit, not a 3% match.

per-arm ranks (the rank each search arm gave a chunk): NOT DISCLOSED by the gateway. Fusion happens gateway-side and only the FUSED score crosses the wire, so rulesage cannot show them without a gateway change. The rank column below is the FUSED rank (position in the returned list), which is real.

token count per chunk: NOT DISCLOSED — chunk token counts are not reported on the ask path. The character counts below are of the bounded snippet/quote rulesage actually received — a real measurement of what we hold, never an estimate of the chunk.

fused rank	document	heading	page	fused RRF score	snippet chars
#1	RULEBOOK Ark Nova: Marine Worlds — Rulebook (corpus doc 867)	A New University · Example: Gaining one of the new Universities	p.6	0.032787 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#2	RULEBOOK Ark Nova — Rulebook (corpus doc 247)	The Break Track	p.7	0.032522 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#3	RULEBOOK Ark Nova — Rulebook (corpus doc 247)	The Association Board	p.14	0.031514 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#4	RULEBOOK Ark Nova — Rulebook (corpus doc 247)	1. Hand card limit : · 2. Tokens on Action cards : · 3. Association board : · 5. Take income :	p.18	0.030798 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#5	RULEBOOK Ark Nova — Rulebook (corpus doc 247)	The various tasks are:	p.14	0.02971 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#6	RULEBOOK Ark Nova — Rulebook (corpus doc 247)	A Turn / The 5 Action Cards	p.8	0.029274 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#7	RULEBOOK Ark Nova — Rulebook (corpus doc 247)	Your Zoo Map	p.6	0.02885 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#8	RULEBOOK Ark Nova — Rulebook (corpus doc 247)	CARDS Action (page 9) · BUILD Action (page 10) · Example: Perform an action · ANIMALS Action (page 11-13) · ASSOCIATION Action (page 14-16) · SPONSORS Action (page 17) · …	p.8	0.028324 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300

what the answerer read — the passages it actually had in front of it

what this block IS: the passages the ANSWERING read put in front of the answerer, in the order it read them — the other half of the two reads described above, and the one that decides what the answer could possibly say. Each row names the book it came from and where in that book it sits, what it scored when the search arms were fused, which arm carried it there, and whether the re-ranker chose it or a floor guaranteed it a slot. A row here that no passage-search row names is EXPECTED: a far wider pool, re-ranked, with floors the passage search never applies.

candidate pool: the answering read scored 57 passages, out of a ceiling of 80 set gateway-side. Both figures are reported by the gateway for THIS ask — measurements of what actually happened, not constants read out of anyone's source and printed here on faith.

floors armed for this ask: the base rulebook — armed · surviving errata corrections — not armed · one slot per book on a multi-book read — armed. Every floor is stated on every ask, armed or not, so a floor that did not apply here is never mistaken for one this app does not know about.

arms fused for this ask: vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm. Stated separately from the rows because an arm that ran and carried nothing is a different fact from an arm that never ran.

read at	document	heading	page	fused rank	fused RRF score	carried by	how it got its slot
#1	RULEBOOK Ark Nova: Marine Worlds — Rulebook (corpus doc 867)	A New University · Example: Gaining one of the new Universities	p.6	#1	0.032787 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + full-text	the re-ranker chose it
#2	RULEBOOK Ark Nova — Rulebook (corpus doc 247)	1. Hand card limit : · 2. Tokens on Action cards : · 3. Association board : · 5. Take income :	p.18	#4	0.030798 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#3	RULEBOOK Ark Nova: Marine Worlds — Rulebook (corpus doc 867)	BEFORE SETUP · SETUP · Global Setup	p.2	#12	0.015625 (below 0.016, the low end of the measured band — a weak fuse (that band was taken on two-arm asks; only its low end, one arm's #1 vote, carries over to a 3-arm one))	vector	the re-ranker chose it
#4	RULEBOOK Ark Nova — Rulebook (corpus doc 247)	Example: Income for kiosks · Final Scoring Card Layout · Example: Determine Victory Points	p.19	#9	0.028083 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#5	RULEBOOK Ark Nova — Rulebook (corpus doc 247)	The Association Board	p.15	#19	0.012821 (below 0.016, the low end of the measured band — a weak fuse (that band was taken on two-arm asks; only its low end, one arm's #1 vote, carries over to a 3-arm one))	vector	the re-ranker chose it
#6	RULEBOOK Ark Nova: Marine Worlds — Rulebook (corpus doc 867)	Personal Setup · GAMEPLAY	p.3	#11	0.015873 (below 0.016, the low end of the measured band — a weak fuse (that band was taken on two-arm asks; only its low end, one arm's #1 vote, carries over to a 3-arm one))	vector	the re-ranker chose it
#7	RULEBOOK Ark Nova — Rulebook (corpus doc 247)	The various tasks are:	p.14	#5	0.02971 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#8	RULEBOOK Ark Nova: Marine Worlds — Rulebook (corpus doc 867)	INTRODUCTION · COMPONENTS · Boards & Mats 1 replacement Association board	p.1	#14	0.014706 (below 0.016, the low end of the measured band — a weak fuse (that band was taken on two-arm asks; only its low end, one arm's #1 vote, carries over to a 3-arm one))	vector	the re-ranker chose it

chosen chunks — what the answer actually cited

#	document	heading	page	quote chars
[1]	RULEBOOK Ark Nova: Marine Worlds — Rulebook (corpus doc 867)	A New University · Example: Gaining one of the new Universities	p.6	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Ark Nova: Marine Worlds — Rulebook (corpus doc 867)	INTRODUCTION · COMPONENTS · Boards & Mats 1 replacement Association board	p.1	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 84 ms · first delta 3346 ms · total 4640 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown: queued 0 ms · retrieval 84 ms · ask 4554 ms · gateway work 4640 ms · total 4640 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3353
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 185
tok/sec: 149.2 tok/sec — 185 output tokens in 1.240 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 4s ago)
stream path: streamed — the gateway pushed at least one accumulated draft
watchdog: first-token watchdog: 30s per arming window (rulesage.table.first-token-watchdog-seconds), re-armed once by the passages frame — so the worst case before a reader falls back to polling is 60s. Whether it actually fired is a BROWSER-side decision that never reaches the server, so it is not recorded here. The stream path above is the server's half of that story: whether a delta was emitted at all.
num_ctx · think posture: both are the CHILD's settings, not rulesage's, and no ask reply carries them — an answer never states which context window or think posture produced it. The live-seat line above reads them from the running child instead, where the gateway can answer for itself; it describes the child NOW, not this ask.

disposition

outcome: ANSWERED — Answered
abstain rationale (n/a — this ruling answered): answered — no abstain rationale applies

setup-shape — why the checklist band did or didn't render

decision: NOT_SETUP_SHAPED — no setup-shape pattern matched this question

errata registry — what the gate above had to match against

this game registers NO errata cards (edition 173), so "no registered errata card matched" above could never have matched one

Errata scope: the gate above matched this ruling's own edition only. When an ask also reads an expansion, that expansion's own registered errata cards stay outside the match — a stated phase-1 limitation, not a failed lookup.