Gizmos Review: Build the Most Efficient and Innovating Gizmos!

They'll be the basis of everything, and we'll use them as they are or, at times, convert them into other types of energy and multiply them to yield more results. However, these actions (converting and multiplying) are only possible when we upgrade our laboratory with our Gizmos.

But, how can we actually upgrade our laboratory? You'll have at your disposal a dispenser with your energy arranged in a row (which you can get), and a common area with multiple Gizmos cards to file or build.

To sum up, all you have to do is: get energy and build Gizmos to make your lab more efficient. You'll do that with your actions.

In your turn, you can do 4 possible actions:

The genius about it all is the fact that Gizmo cards give us great rewards, as they let us:

The idea is to create a "chain reaction" - that is, one action triggers another, which triggers another, and so on and so forth. This means on your turn, instead of playing a single action, you'll play a bunch of them. The secret is precisely in the balance between all your Gizmos!

After you play your action and access the possible chain reaction created by your Gizmos, the player to your left gets to play.

Basically, that's a turn in Gizmos!

The game ends when a player builds their 4th level 3 Gizmo or their 16th Gizmo (including their starting Gizmo). After this, the game goes on until all players have played the same number of turns. Obviously, if the player who triggered the end of the match is to the right of the player who first played a turn, then the game ends when they finish playing their turns.

Calculating your score is quite simple. Just add:

The player with the most points wins!

If there is a tie, the player who has built more Gizmos wins. If there is still a tie, the player with more energy in their archive wins. If there is still a tie, the tied player furthest from the first player, going clockwise, wins.

Gizmos is so cool that there are countless strategies you could use in it. I'll list down below the most logical and obvious ones that brought me multiple victories.

The first thing you should do is get the Gizmos that let you get more energy. Some of them let us get them straight from the energy row (the visible energy), or let us get them straight from the dispenser - that is, without looking at them, so we'll need a bit of luck.

After that, I suggest you upgrade your storage energy ring, as you'll only be able to hold 5 energy at a time at first. If you upgrade how much energy you get, you'll have to, obviously, upgrade how much energy you can store.

Then, you'll need to focus on your converters. I recommend you get as many of them as you can because they let you double your energy and convert them - that is, converting one type into another. This is incredibly useful, trust me!

When you have set up all of this, I recommend you upgrade your filing system, as, occasionally, you'll be able to get Gizmos, but you won't have enough energy to build them straight away. In this case, you'll have to file them to build them later, that is, reserve them. Being able to file more of them is a great strategy for you and to prevent your opponents from building something incredibly efficient and winning the game.

Furthermore, for filing, you should get Gizmos that give you bonuses for building cards from your archive: with a bigger archive, you'll have more Gizmos stored, and building from your archive will give you even more advantages. Don't forget that, as it makes a huge difference!

As for investing in research, you can do that, but I rarely ever did. I only recommend you do this when the Gizmos you have to build are terrible, that is, if they don't give you many points or give you bonuses you already have. In any case, I didn't personally see researching being that effective. Namely, research lets you look at the "closed" Gizmos at the face - down level deck and either file them or build them immediately.

That's why I don't recommend this strategy. To use it, you need to, first, have several types of energy available, and enough space left in the archive, as you'll need to use either one or the other. So, if you do take a turn to research, you'll basically lose that turn, considering you might get a Gizmo you don't even need. I don't believe researching in Gizmo is that great.

I strongly recommend you get Gizmos that give you bonuses when you build other Gizmos of specific colors. This way, whenever you build a Gizmo of that color, you'll get other actions or victory points. Remember: chain reactions are important!

Finally, I highly recommend you get level 3 Gizmos, which is one of the ways you'll end the game. With them, you'll be able to pick up the pace when you have more points and are set to win, and they will give you many points throughout the game as well. And I truly do mean "many points", as some Gizmos give you points according to other factors that you acquire during the game. This will boost your score exponentially.

Follow these tips, create an efficient line of production, and win the game!

Check out this unboxing:

Learn the rules:

Watch some gameplay:

If you want to teach someone about the basics of logic, math, and chain reactions in a very fun way, Gizmos is the game for you!

Obviously, you can tell Gizmos relies a lot on chain reactions and logic. It really forces you to think about the order of your actions and how they impact your results. This is a valuable skill for the game and also for real life!

I strongly recommend that, when you sit down to play Gizmos with a group of friends for the first time, that you encourage them to think logically and show how to do it like this: "see, if you do it this way, you'll get this bonus", and so on and so forth until they learn how to do it on their own, with autonomy.

Letting them and yourself make mistakes every once or twice and not get that much advantage is essential, but you also need to learn how to do it properly. This isn't too frustrating, in my experience, and will make you want to do it again, correctly this time. You'll want to play again and set up the right plays.

The game encourages you to think logically at all times and rely on math when you're managing your energy and the archive, as well as building your Gizmos and triggering bonuses.

Chain reactions, as a concept, are fantastical and great for any situation, and Gizmos shows you exactly how they work. It is the type of game that makes me believe learning is always better when you have fun. It is an excellent teaching resource, without a question!

I highly recommend Gizmos for your collection!