Anachrony · Board game rules
When can I use time travel actions and focus actions?
Quick answer
Time Travel/Focus actions are taken by placing a Worker on a Power Plant during the Action Rounds phase; Free Actions (like Temporal Tourism) can be used on any of your turns in that same phase.
Details
Power Plant buildings are the primary way to perform Time Travel: they are Worker spaces on your Player board, so they can only be activated during the Action Rounds phase, once per Era per building, by placing a Worker there and paying any indicated cost [p.16 — Power Plant Buildings: Time Travel and Focus]. Activating one lets you move your Focus marker to a past Timeline tile within the Power Plant's range, and optionally send back a Warp tile (advancing your Time Travel marker if you do both steps) [p.16 — Power Plant Buildings: Time Travel and Focus].
The Action Rounds phase is the phase where players alternate placing Workers (or taking Free Actions, or passing) in clockwise order until everyone has passed [p.10 — 5 Action Rounds]. Free Actions — including certain Superproject abilities like Temporal Tourism, which lets you Set Focus without needing a Power Plant — may be performed on any of your turns during this phase, up to and including the turn you pass [p.17 — Other Buildings and Superprojects; p.22 — Superproject Details].
Your Focus marker (set via Power Plants or Focus-related Free Actions) determines which Timeline tile's Superproject you are allowed to Construct via the Construct Action, and which Timeline tile you can retrieve a Warp tile from [p.13 — Construct]. By default, your Focus starts on the current Era's Timeline tile each Era, but it can never remain in the current Era after using a Power Plant — it must move to (or stay on) a past tile [p.16 — Power Plant Buildings: Time Travel and Focus].
Watch out: Warp tiles placed on the present Timeline tile cannot be retrieved via Power Plants/Focus — only certain buildings, Anomalies, or Superproject abilities can remove those [p.19 — Frequently Overlooked Rules]. Also, moving Focus and sending back an asset only advances your Time Travel marker if you perform both steps of the Power Plant's ability in the same activation [p.16 — Power Plant Buildings: Time Travel and Focus].