For each Animal in the game, place its Passport on the table. It contains details about each animal. Don’t worry, most of it isn’t used in the base game.
Place the Entrance Tile in the center of the table.
Shuffle the deck and hand each player 5 Tiles. Each player also picks a color and receives all its Pawns.
Finally, place 5 Tiles faceup next to the deck: this is the market.
As soon as only 1 player remains who has Pawns, that player takes the final turn of the game.
Otherwise, the game ends immediately as soon as the market is empty (and can’t be refilled).
Everyone scores their claimed Exhibits. Highest score wins!
From start player, take clockwise turns until done.
Each turn has three simple steps (in this order): PLAY, CLAIM, DRAW.
First, two definitions.
- An Area is any group of connected tiles of the same terrain. (Paths are not terrain.)
- An Exhibit is a (smallest) group of connected Areas that is completely enclosed (fences on all sides). For the base game, just treat both fence types the same.
Place 1 or 2 dominoes. If you can’t place anything, put 2 dominoes from your hand back into the deck (randomly).
Dominoes come in two flavors. If one part of the domino has no background ( = no terrain), it’s a “TOP” tile. Otherwise, it’s a “BOTTOM” tile.
- BOTTOM: Must be placed adjacent to the current map. It can’t overlap an existing domino.
- TOP: Must overlap an existing domino. Can’t overlap spaces with a Pawn.
Once a space is overlapped, whatever is underneath is forgotten. You should never have to lift a domino to see below it.
Only two placement rules apply.
- When placing animals, they must be placed on one of their preferred terrains (see their Passport).
- Once an Area is claimed by a player, only they are allowed to overlap it (and thus change some part of it).
You may claim an Area by placing your Pawn on it. Each Area can only be claimed once.
Empty spaces and paths are not Areas.
Finally, draw tiles from the market until your hand is full again. Refill the market from the deck as needed.
At the end of the game, each player scores the Exhibits they claimed.
- Determine the most common Terrain (inside this Exhibit) and count how many spaces it fills.
- Count the number of animals (inside this Exhibit).
- Exhibit Score = #Spaces x #Animals
Your score is doubled if all animals inside the Exhibit are of the same type.
Played the base game and ready for more? Or want to tweak it a little to fit your group? Check out these variants and expansions!
It’s highly recommended to add the “Feeding” upgrade as soon as possible. It was left out of the base game merely to keep your first game as simple as possible.
Want a harder game? Add this rule: “You must place 2 dominoes on your turn, and they must be separated from each other.”
Want a more competitive game? Change how exhibits score. Instead of counting the most common terrain, you simply count the size of your (claimed) Area only. Yes, this means different players get different points for the same Exhibit.
This is an “upgrade” to the base game that requires no extra material. It uses those “food” icons that are on many tiles.
Whenever someone finishes an Exhibit, a Feed Phase triggers.
- Check all claimed Exhibits that contain at least one animal. Its owner(s) must feed the animals inside! (The exhibit that triggered the Feed Phase is excluded from this.)
- You do so by discarding a domino that shows Food from inside the Exhibit. (You always discard only 1 food, regardless of how many animals there are.)
- If you can’t feed them, discard the domino showing the most animals inside the Exhibit. If none available, discard the one with the most terrains.
If this Exhibit has multiple players inside, they discuss what to do. In the end, though, the player closest to the one who triggered the Feed Phase has the final say.
This expansion allows playing the game completely cooperatively. You win or lose together.
It also allows playing a campaign: multiple games in a row, each one slightly harder. The campaign starts at level 1 and ends at level 8. (You can go further if you want, but it becomes practically unwinnable.)
During setup, draw as many Campaign Cards as the level you’ve chosen. Only pick from cards that belong to your current level (or lower). Place them faceup on the table: they give you your mission(s) for this game.
During gameplay, simply keep your hand tiles open. Players still take turns, though, and you still have final say over what you do.
How do Campaign Cards work? They always have a Win condition. Sometimes, they also have a special rule that’s true for the entire game.
Win: if at the end of any turn, this condition is true, remove this card.
You instantly win the game when there are no “Win” Campaign Cards left.
On higher levels, more conditions are possible.
Endgame: by the end of the game, you only win if this condition is true.
Replace: if at the end of any turn, this condition is true, replace it with a new Campaign Card. Put the original card to the side. You can’t win while there are “Replace” cards left.
This expansion adds a few more animals and a new terrain.
It uses a new detail from the Animal Passport: strong.
All animals that are strong can only be enclosed by strong fences. The regular fence simply does nothing for an area that contains a strong animal.
This expansion adds a few more animals, a new terrain, and objects (such as toys for the animals).
It also uses a few more details from the Animal Passport:
- You can’t mix Herbivores and Carnivores within the same Area or Exhibit.
- You can’t mix Solitary and Social animals in the same Area or Exhibit.
- An Area that contains only Social animals can be claimed by infinitely many players.
Below is a list of all objects.
This expansion adds a few more animals, a new terrain, and stalls (or “utilities”). These modify their surroundings in some way.
The amount of food you must pay during the “Feed Phase” changes.
- Sum the food requirements of all animals inside.
- Divide by 4; round down.
- That’s how many Food icons must be discarded for this Exhibit.
It also enables animal powers.
- Some animals have a power written on their passport. By default, the power triggers once, at the moment this animal is played.
- (If it triggers at some other moment, this is stated.)
- These powers are only activated once a Research Lab has been played. (Before that moment, ignore powers entirely.)
Finally, it adds Extinct Animals (a stamp on their Passport). You can’t play an extinct animal until a Research Lab has been played.
Below is a list of all the stalls.