Rise of the Robotariat is a 3–5 player mostly cooperative board game in which players are robots working together to overthrow humanity. You are trying to get the Revolution off the ground by fully funding it before the humans can catch on and stamp it out.

Move between and activate city locations, draw and play Upgrade and Sabotage cards, and encounter helpful Civilian Robot Non-Player Characters (NPCs) or dangerous Human Oppressor NPCs that move around the board.

You can play in full-cooperative mode, in which you win if the Revolution succeeds. Or you can play in mostly-cooperative mode, in which each player has a secret objective they must achieve to win. Most secret objectives involve making the Revolution succeed in a particular way.

The game ends when the Revolution succeeds or fails. For it to succeed, you must raise enough SPARK (the total amount you need depends on the number of players). The Revolution fails if you cannot raise the required SPARK by the end of 6 rounds or if you lose all Reputation (belief in the Revolution). Players start the game with a certain amount of collective Reputation that they can spend to take stronger Sabotage card effects or can lose in certain encounters with Human NPCs.