Koi Garden Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• On Your Turn
• Special Movement
• Special Rules
• End Game

Components

• (a) 39 square Land Cards
• (b) 4 sets of 12 animal tokens
• (c) 8 lantern tokens
• (d) 12 Wildlife cards
• (e) 4 sets of Score cards
• (f) 4 Tool Cards

Setup

1. Give each player a starting land card.
2. Shuffle the starting Wildlife card (starters have a solid colored background) and give one to each player.
3. Give each player a score card set.
4. Give each player one set of Wildlife tokens.
5. Shuffle the land cards and deal 4 face up in a row to create a market of land.
6. Shuffle up the remaining wildlife cards and draw four wildlife (7) in columns to match up the land market.
7. Place each of the drawn wildlife cards above one land card in the market.
8. Draw and place one tool card face up for the whole game.

On Your Turn

The player who can emote a koi garden the best goes first. Turn order goes clockwise.

On your turn you must take 1 land card from the market and place the card into your pond so that one or more existing tiles are covered without covering a card completely. Your pond starts with the wild starting land card (all dark green). You may orient your land card to your choosing. So be sure to make enough table space for pond creation.

It's important to note that there are legal placement rules.

• You must cover 1 tile (a quadrant on your card) of any card in your pond.
• You may also cover more than 1 tile as long as the card you place touches more than 2 cards which will be known as expanding your pond.
• You can not completely cover your starting tile.
• You may rotate your card to make different connections. Rotate your card in 90 degree angles so tile can cover another tile.
• You can also never play a card on top of a living being or stone lantern.

Next, use your current Wildlife card to score. Grab the matching Wildlife token from your token pool, and start it anywhere on a starting tile. Each Wildlife has a certain way to score a pattern and restrictions. For example a goldfish may only be able to move through and score grassy waters.

Note: Starting tiles are wild, therefore wildlife can move through them but unable to score those.

Instructions on how to score will be on the wildlife card. On the top it shows you how that animal can move. On the bottom it shows you how it scores.

One special rule for all Wildlife is that they cannot travel back to tiles they have travelled through on that turn.

Finally at the end of your turn you must swap your current wildlife with the wildlife that was on the same column as the land card that you used this round. Finally draw and refresh a new land card.

Special Movement

Wildlife can't share the same space, however, some Wildlife will have special movements. A flight symbol (insert flight symbol image) allows that Wildlife to pass through other wildlife when moving. Jump symbol allows you to pass through wildlife every time you skip a tile. A growth symbol allows that wildlife to appear on any specific tile in your pond.

Transcriber note: the printed manual contains the placeholder text "(insert flight symbol image)" in place of the flight icon; the icon is not reproduced here.

Special Rules

Once per turn you may also use the tool card. There will be one tool card drawn at the beginning of each game. Using the tool card comes with a penalty. Each time you take this action, receive a stone lantern as a gift, and at the end of your turn you place this lantern in your pond, on any tile. These lanterns don't score any points, however they block the tile completely from wildlife. Additionally you will be unable to place cards on top of this tile.

End Game

For 2 players the game ends after the 9th round, when all players have successfully placed 9 land cards in your pond. For 3 players the game ends after the 8th round. Last for 4 players, the game ends on the 7th round. The rounds are trackable by counting the number of cards in your pond. Whoever has the most Zen Points is the winner.