In Papua, players lead a scientific expedition to Papua New Guinea, one of the richest areas in flora and fauna, in the late 19th century. Their discoveries will astonish the scientific community — but only if they successfully manage the expedition. Whoever manages to gather the most relevant discoveries will be remembered in history.

More specifically, players must manage their scientists and assign them various tasks, from cultivating good relations with the locals to get their help for the expedition, to ensuring that everyone is fed at the end of the day! But most importantly, they work to gather the most amazing collection of new discoveries through secret bids to impress the world.

Players roll dice and allocate the results to different areas of the board — shelters, logistics, missions, funding, hunting and fishing, and field journal — assigning their scientists to various tasks. Usually, majorities determine which player wins each of these areas, where players can collect money to fund their missions, gather food to feed the crew, discover new scoring opportunities, or hire more scientists. But the most important area is the mission zone, where players can secretly bid for the discovery of new species of plants, animals, or even local tribes. Scoring at the end of the game is based on sets collected from the discovery zone, and the player with the highest prestige based on these sets wins the game.