The Laboratory Mini Expansion introduces certain rewards to players during play, like extra dinosaurs, resources, or research cards. To unlock these rewards, players follow research paths marked on their Laboratory Mats.

During setup, and at the start of each round, Lab Tokens are randomly placed above each Action Mat. When a player places a Rancher on an Action Mat, if there is a Lab Token there, that player must follow that research path on their Laboratory Mat. The Lab Token is then discarded. Once a player reaches a reward, they receive it immediately and reset their Microscope Token to the center of the Laboratory Mat.

The Laboratory Mini Expansion adds layers of thinking to a player's strategy when placing their Ranchers to take actions. If a player can synergize their action choices with the research paths they desire on their Laboratory Mat, they can accomplish more with fewer actions putting them ahead of their competition!