Annapurna Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Gear
• Mountain Cards
• Setup
• Goal
• Game Structure
• Playing the Game
  • Hike to Base Camp
• Climbing
  • 1. Take One of the Following Actions
  • 2. Sweep
  • 3. End Your Turn
  • Scavenge
  • Peaking and Peak Tokens
• Protecting
  • 1. Take One of the Following Actions
  • 2. Bury
  • 3. Ending Your Turn
  • Scavenge
• End of an Ascent
  • 1. Award Flags
  • Playing With Fewer Than Four Climbers
  • 2. Reset Mountainsides
• End of the Expedition
• Shorter Expeditions
• Alternate Setups

Gear

• 4 Suits of 18 Mountain Cards
• 3 Peak Tokens
• 4 Climber Meeples with Stickers
• 4 Shenpa Meeples
• 6 Single, 6 Double, and 6 Triple Flag Cards

Mountain Cards

As cards are flipped face up their effects (good and bad) are activated. Cards also have varying numbers of Yin and Yang symbols which you will try to balance.

Cards carry Yin values 1-4 and Yang values 1-4. Yin cancels Yang.

Setup

Choose a Climber Meeple and matching suit of colored Mountain Cards. Shuffle your suit and lay it out face down to form your Mountainside with five cards in the bottom row, decreasing by one card in each row, ending with a single card at the top (as shown in the illustration). These five rows of cards are the mountainside which you will climb during the game. The three leftover mountain cards make up your Backpack, which you may look at privately.

Leave space for each climber's Cache (discard pile) and the Flag Cards between each other's peak cards. Place the Peak Tokens aside, but within reach.

See the Alternate Setups section if you can't lay out the game in this manner.

If this is your first time playing Annapurna we recommend starting with the cooperative version.

Goal

During each Ascent, you try to balance the Yin and Yang symbols on your mountainside. Yin cancels Yang. At the end of an Ascent you earn flags based on how your Yin/Yang balance compares to other climbers. The first climber to earn 9 flags wins the Expedition (game).

Game Structure

Each Expedition consists of multiple Ascents to the top of Annapurna. An Ascent consists of three parts: Hike to Base Camp, Climbing, and Protecting. You spend the first round Hiking to Base Camp, after which you Climb until you reach your peak. Finally you Protect until all other climbers reach their peaks, at which point the Ascent ends. It takes 3 to 7 Ascents to the top of Annapurna for one climber to earn 9 flags.

On the rare occasion when the first climber to reach their peak has a perfect Yin/Yang balance of zero, the Ascent ends immediately. They have Left No Trace Behind. This will be detailed later in "End of the Ascent".

Playing the Game

Hike to Base Camp

Pick someone to go first. Play starts with that climber flipping a card in their bottom row face up, then following its instructions. They finish their turn by placing their meeple on the card to show their location. (If a climber gets a second turn from a card like Chocolate Bar, they should follow the rules from the Climbing section.) Play continues clockwise. After each climber has had a turn, everyone has reached Base Camp and can now start Climbing.

Climbing

Follow these steps each turn.

1. Take One of the Following Actions

Explore

Flip up a face-down card adjacent to your location and follow its effects.

Explore to move around your mountainside.

• No going back down once you go up.
• Card effects only happen when you Explore them as an action on your turn.
• Unless a card effect says otherwise you may not look at face-down cards.
• If an effect can't be followed, ignore it.

Trade

Switch a card from your backpack with one of the face-down cards from your mountainside. The card from your backpack should be placed face down. You may Explore this card on a future turn. The card from your mountainside goes into your cache.

Trade to prepare a path up your mountainside, balance your Yin and Yang or take advantage of a card's effect.

Hide

Switch a card from your backpack with a face-down card on another climber's mountainside. The card should be placed face down. The card from their mountainside goes into your cache.

Hide to lay traps on another climber's mountainside, unbalance another climber's Yin and Yang, or to sabotage a path up their mountainside with card effects.

2. Sweep

After you take an action, Sweep your mountainside by moving all groups of face-up cards whose Yin and Yang symbols balance (sum to zero) into your cache.

• Don't Sweep a card with zero Yins or Yangs until you've completed its effect.
• If you're skipping your current turn, you should still Sweep if needed.
• If you're taking an extra turn, Sweep between the two turns.
• You can Sweep the card your meeple is on.

3. End Your Turn

Your meeple shows your location on your mountainside. Place your meeple on the last card you Explored. If your next turn is affected by a card place your meeple in the shenpa position (laying down with the shenpa side face up) or hiking (standing up) if it isn't. Placing your meeple shows you're ending your turn; so don't put it down until you're sure you're done. If you didn't move your meeple announce that you're ending your turn.

Scavenge

If you forget to Sweep, another climber can take one of the balanced cards from your mountainside and add it to their backpack. They may only Scavenge after you place your meeple to end your turn, and before the next climber ends their turn.

• First one to call "Scavenge" gets the card.
• A card with no Yin or Yang symbols can't be Scavenged until its effects have been completed.

Continue to Climb until you flip over your peak card and follow its effects.

Peaking and Peak Tokens

Peak tokens indicate the order of a climber's arrival at the peak. (For example if you were the third to arrive at the peak, you would take the #3 peak token.)

After completing the card effect at your peak, add your cache to your backpack. Take the correct peak token and place it where your cache was, then put your meeple on the peak token to end your turn. If your next turn is skipped lay your meeple in the shenpa position and move it on your next turn.

Protecting

After Peaking you begin the Protecting phase of the Ascent. Follow these steps each turn.

1. Take One of the Following Actions

Sunyata

Do nothing. It's very zen.

Drop

Place a card from your backpack face up on your own mountainside in an empty spot. When you Drop a card, the effects of that card don't activate, but their Yin and Yang still count.

Drop to improve the Yin/Yang balance on your mountainside.

Throw

Place a card from your backpack face up in an empty spot on another climber's mountainside. After you do this, they can choose to Retaliate on your turn by flipping a card on your mountainside face up.

Throw to sabotage another climber's balance. But remember, they can Retaliate on your turn.

Retaliate

(Illustrated as "Retaliate" in the Throw diagram: the card the opponent flipped face up in Retaliation. The printed text gives no further wording for this step.)

2. Bury

After taking an action, Bury groups of face-up cards on your mountainside whose Yin and Yang symbols balance (sum to zero) by flipping them face down in place.

3. Ending Your Turn

When ending your turn make sure to announce that you're doing so.

Scavenge

If you forget to Bury, another climber can take one of the balanced cards from your mountainside and add it to their backpack. They may only Scavenge after you place your climber token to end your turn, and before the next climber ends their turn.

You continue to Protect until the last climber reaches their peak and completes their turn by following the instructions on their peak card and Sweeping.

End of an Ascent

1. Award Flags

When all the climbers have reached their peaks the Ascent is over. Everyone tallies the Yin and Yang symbols on the face-up cards on their mountainsides. Flags are distributed based on whose Yin/Yang total is closest to zero. First closest gets 3 flags, second gets 2 flags, third gets 1 flag, and fourth gets none. If there's a tie, whoever got to their peak first gets more flags.

If the very first climber to reach their peak completes their turn with their Yin/Yang totaling zero, they have LEFT NO TRACE BEHIND; the Ascent ends immediately and they collect 4 flags. Nobody else gets any flags. This is very difficult to achieve so play usually continues until all climbers reach their peak.

Playing With Fewer Than Four Climbers

• 3 Climbers: Give 3 flags to the first closest, 2 to the second, and one to the furthest.
• 2 Climbers: Give 3 flags to the closest and 2 to the furthest.

2. Reset Mountainsides

Sort and shuffle your mountain cards and reset your mountainside for the next Ascent. The climber who earned the fewest flags starts the next Ascent. If someone achieved Left No Trace Behind they start the next Ascent.

End of the Expedition

The first climber with 9 flags wins the Expedition. If two climbers get to 9 or more flags on the same Ascent, the one with more flags wins. A tie in flags goes to the winner of the final Ascent.

Shorter Expeditions

For shorter games reduce the number of flags required. We suggest sticking with odd numbers.

Alternate Setups

As long as you can see the other climbers' mountainsides and your own is set up in a pyramid with you at the base, any layout should work.