Into the Vastness of Space with a Tiny Visit to Helionox
Manage events throughout a solar system with a variety of special abilities across the various planets found in Helionox.
Another game that has remained on my shelf for about half a decade with no attention is Helionox. The premise and mechanics are quite interesting, yet I’ve always shied away from it for some reason. Determined to figure out if it was just a standard event or a catastrophic event I was dealing with, I brought it back to my solo table for some space-related fun!
Game Overview
Game Name: Helionox: Deluxe Edition
Publication Year: 2017
Designer: Taran Lewis Kratz
Artist: Luke Green
Publisher: Mr. B Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Near a dying sun, events plague the surrounding planets. The goal is to overcome these problems with a selection of cards, slowly building up a deck and ensuring that the solar system remains intact. With awesome sci-fi artwork and a steady flow of action, saving the day is always possible!
First Play
September 6, 2019
Complexity
2
Latest Play
June 19, 2025
Expansions
0
Setup Time
5 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
7
Play Time
30 Minutes
High Score
45
Game Area
34" x 24"
Low Score
19
Chain, the First Born
Gameplay is rather straightforward in terms of moving around the planets, building embassies, dealing with events, and adding more powerful cards. But the characters!
Asymmetric abilities offer special advantages, although they must be charged up. The solo mode takes place over 9 rounds, and a character’s ability is only used for 2-3 rounds.
Chain, the First Born, had a focus on defense, which was essential for overcoming the worst of the events.
Such a neat sort of setting, too! All of the characters give off a unique sci-fi vibe with some amazing artwork.
To the Planets
Different locations mark the 5 planets with very evocative illustrations. These make it interesting to move around for bonuses and to plan ahead for overcoming future events.
Location bonuses can be improved by building an embassy, thereby unlocking the key access ability instead.
The rules weren’t as easy to get through as I had hoped they would be, yet it was nice to figure out how the sequence of play was a lot easier to handle once I started to play.
But I knew what had held me back from returning to this one for so long. Still, I wanted to give the game a chance!
Stacked Events
The solo opponent overcame an event every round, so I had a little bit of help… Although that meant I lost out on those victory points! It started to cascade near the end, though.
I made some silly mistakes with utilizing my deck and not building up enough credits to buy more powerful cards.
Inactive events weren’t so terrible, yet when they activated during the next round, planets shut down. Movement was more expensive, and special abilities became unavailable.
There were neat strategies to explore and I felt like I was just a little shy of figuring things out during this session.
Not Enough Embassies
It looked like the character on the box cover had a lot of disdain for my decisions… But even I had to disapprove of my choice to place a single embassy. That’s not enough!
Gameplay was very tight, in that I had a lot of choices but had to make tough decisions. Excellent! Only I seemed to avoid embassies, which were kind of required. Whoops!
Catastrophic events penalized me when they activated on planets without my embassies. So that happened a lot. Ha!
The puzzle was interesting in many ways, although I felt like I fell behind early on and couldn’t exactly recover.
Considering Font Choices and Text Sizes
I wear glasses, but still have what I consider to be great vision. Intricate details in my games are enjoyable, and I also have a lot of fun looking closely at card artwork to find the almost hidden elements! But as I’m taking a look at some of the games in my collection that I don’t play that much, I think part of the aversion comes down to the struggle with tiny text.
This game honestly isn’t horrendous, but it’s noticeable enough that I found myself picking up cards or bringing other components closer just to read them. I imagine that there are no problems for a lot of players, which is again why I say that my game ratings are always broken… They’re designed to help me out, although I hope the added details are useful!
Do I own a small magnifier specifically for reading cards? Actually, yes! This reminds me that I should have it close at hand in the future to help out a little more. Still, I imagine I’ll try to pick up games with medium to large text. No more tiny text!
Into Vast Space
So many interesting cards to discover! I loved how the art brought each card to life and captured the atmosphere of the sci-fi setting. Very neat to get immersed in the setting.
However, a few small issues kept cropping up. Most of all, the small and narrow font was really difficult for me to see.
Gameplay felt very limited at times, but a lot of that came down to me simply making poor decisions. Still, it was frustrating when multiple catastrophic events happened.
This one has a lot to like, and I can certainly see why it has its fans! However, I really struggled to read the tiny text.
Issues with Tiny Sizing
Smaller text sizes make it easier to fit more information on components, or even use smaller components in general.
Alas, I’m getting older, and prefer easy-to-read fonts! This turn sequence section is certainly helpful, yet this photo shows it zoomed in quite a bit. I constantly had to lean over.
The game has a unique appearance thanks to this font, yet I think the legibility has been a reason I shied away from it.
Not enough grabbed me to try to make me work out some kind of solution, as this font is on all of the cards. Nice to return to evaluate the game again, but time to move it on!
Session Overview
Play Number: 6 & 7
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Rookie Difficulty Level
Outcome: 34-43, 19-51 (2 Losses)
There was some interesting rounds when I could clearly see a path forward. Figuring it all out is a challenging sort of puzzle that has a lot of great elements! But my struggles with the small font distracted me quite a bit. Rather a shame, although it’s another lesson for me in making sure any new games have large enough text for me to comfortably read from afar. Even from space? Ha ha!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
7
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
10
Originality
Design & Theme
3
Quality
Components & Rules
6
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
7
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
4
+ Pros (Positives)
- All of the artwork is excellent at creating the atmosphere of space and the sci-fi setting with all of the cards.
- Different characters provide very unique abilities that must be cooled down to use, making them very strategic.
- Overcoming events and buying new cards must be balanced to deal with problems and plan ahead for future turns.
- The solo opponent operates in a very clear and intuitive way, requiring practically no upkeep to provide a challenge.
- Many of the mechanics feel familiar and aren’t difficult to understand, especially with a clear sequence of play.
- Events offer obstacles to create important decision points around activating abilities and building embassies.
– Cons (Negatives)
- The narrow font at such a tiny size is difficult to read on many of the components, which can be a major distraction.
- Falling behind early can be problematic and lead to cascading problems with gaining enough credits to do anything.
- While the artwork is fantastic, the standard events look very similar and don’t evoke the same sort of immersion.
- Learning the rules can be a struggle with the way the rulebook is laid out and how certain concepts are presented.
Victory Conditions
Score the Most Points
- Overall Goal Progress 50%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game at the rookie difficulty level.
Score 50 points.
Continue the Conversation
Have you played Helionox? Do you have any other solo games you might enjoy more if the text size was larger? I know my main issue is quite unique to myself, and there are ways to improve a game’s accessibility. With so many options in my collection, though, this one is destined to travel through a bit of space to find a new home. No more catastrophic events!
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