Octopus's Garden Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Your Game Contains
• Setting Up the Game
• Playing the Game
  • 1. Harvest Pearls
  • 2. Collect and Plant Garden Tiles
  • 3. Move Sea Stars and Hermit Crabs
  • 4. Refill the Market
• The End of the Game
• Expert Modules
• Garden Tile Overview

Your Game Contains

• 1 central market board (with a scoreboard on the back)
• 4 player gardens (1 for each player) with 2 oysters already printed on them, and 24 empty garden spaces
• 5 clownfish and 5 seahorse tiles (with values 7, 6, 5, 4 and 3)
• 106 garden tiles (each with their cost in pearls and the amount of beauty points they are worth at the end of the game)
• 40 pearls
• 40 pearls and an oyster shell to keep them on
• 16 oyster tiles
• 4 wooden octopuses
• 1 draw bag (to hold the garden tiles)

Your game also contains other tiles for modules that can be added to the game (the rules and images for these are at the end of this booklet), but leave all these in the box for your first play.

Setting Up the Game

To set up the game, simply follow these steps...

1. Place the central market board in the middle of the table and give each player a garden board and 2 pearl tiles (to be kept near their boards).
2. Place the remaining pearls on the seashell near the market board.
3. Also stack the clown fish and seahorse tiles beside the central market board. Stack the clown fish and seahorse tiles in ascending order: the one with the lowest value on the bottom and the highest at the top. Note: only use clown fish and seahorse tiles with values 6, 4 and 3 in a 2-player game.
4. Place the oyster tiles in the oyster bed section of the central market board.
5. Fill the draw bag with all the garden tiles and mix them around. Draw 9 from the bag randomly, placing them on the 9 spaces on the central market board.

You are now ready to begin! The last person to have swum underwater may begin the game (or the starting player can be selected randomly.)

Playing the Game

On their turn, each player must follow these steps, in order:

1. Harvest pearls
2. Collect and plant garden tiles
3. Move any sea stars and hermit crabs in their garden
4. Refill the market board

In detail, a turn works like this:

1. Harvest Pearls

At the start of each one of your turns, harvest 1 pearl for each oyster in your garden. Simply take the pearls from the oyster shell.

(This means that on your first turn of the game you will now have 4 pearls as your player board has 2 oysters printed on it).

2. Collect and Plant Garden Tiles

The next step of your turn is to collect and place tiles from the central market. To do this, there are three options available, but you may only do one of these three things on your turn...

A) Buy any 1 row or column of garden tiles on the market board

This option is only possible if you can pay the cost of all the tiles in the row or column you choose to collect. (Each tile has their cost in pearls depicted on it.)

You must purchase all three of the tiles in the row or column you choose - none may be left behind. Take the three tiles you are purchasing and place the pearls used to buy them on the oyster shell.

You must then plant all the tiles purchased into your garden onto empty spaces on your garden board. (Towards the end of the game, if there is only room for 1 or 2 of these tiles in your garden, you may choose which one(s) to place before discarding the rest out of the game.)

For example, buying the far-right column of tokens (relic, shell, coral) would cost 6 pearls... and buying the bottom row of tokens (2 seagrass, coral) would cost 3 pearls.

B) Attract a new oyster from the oyster bed

If you do not want to buy garden tiles from the market (or you can't afford to), you may instead attract an oyster from the oyster bed to your garden. Oysters always cost 1 pearl plus the number of oysters you already own, so your third oyster will cost you 3 pearls, your fourth will cost 4, and so on.

Don't forget: You start the game with 2 oysters already in your garden, so your first oyster will cost you 3 pearls.

Place your new oyster on an empty space in your garden. If the oysters ever run out, this choice will no longer be available for players!

Oysters cost 1 pearl per oyster you have (including the new one). Note they also reduce your final score by 2 points at the end of the game!

C) Pass

If you do not wish to (or are unable to), buy a row or column of garden tiles or attract a new oyster, you must pass instead. If you do so, you must remove 1 garden tile of your choice from the market, placing it back in the draw bag and drawing a new one to replace it.

Gaining a bonus clown fish or seahorse tile:

Whenever a player has managed to place 3 anemone tiles in a connected group in their garden, they earn a bonus clown fish tile. They must take the clown fish tile currently on top of the clown fish pile. The clown fish is placed on top of the group of anemone tiles and does not take up a space in their garden.

Likewise, whenever a player has managed to place 5 sea grass tiles in a connected group in their garden, they earn a bonus seahorse tile. They must take the seahorse tile currently on top of the seahorse pile. The seahorse is placed on top of the group of sea grass tiles and does not take up a space in their garden.

Note: One player may collect a second bonus tile if they have managed to plant 6 anemone and 10 sea grass tiles, etc. These can be in the same group or a second, separate group of tiles.

If a player has more than one group of tiles that have attracted a seahorse or clown fish, and these areas merge to become one large group, none of the bonus animals are lost.

Once the bonus tiles have all been collected, creating further groups of sea grass/anemone tiles will not earn the player any bonus.

3. Move Sea Stars and Hermit Crabs

After harvesting pearls and collecting tiles, any sea stars and hermit crabs in your garden are given the opportunity to move.

Moving sea stars:

Sea stars are hungry and are attracted to delicious looking oysters. If you have one or more sea star in your garden, and have attracted one or more oyster, each of your sea stars must now move one space closer to the nearest oyster to them in your garden. (Thankfully, sea stars are never attracted to the oysters permanently printed on your garden boards!)

Sea stars can move onto empty spaces and on top of other garden tiles (even other sea stars!) on their way to an oyster. The only tiles they cannot move onto are coral tiles - they will have to move around coral - so consider this when choosing a space to put your oyster and coral tiles.

When a sea star moves onto an oyster tile, the oyster is consumed and you must remove it from your garden and put it back in the oyster bed!

Sea stars will always move along the shortest open path to the nearest oyster. When there are two paths of equal length, you may choose which path the oyster will follow.

A sea star will continue moving one space per turn towards an accessible oyster each turn. If there are no oyster tiles in your garden, or no open path to an oyster, the sea stars in your garden will not move.

For example, a sea star is not attracted to an oyster completely surrounded by coral (as sea stars cannot move onto coral), so it is attracted to the only other oyster token on the board instead - even though it is a long way away and will take a number of turns to get there. Its first move will be onto the seagrass; next turn, it will go onto the empty space beyond the seagrass (unless coral is placed there first)...

Moving hermit crabs:

Hermit crabs may also appear in your garden. Hermit crabs are always looking for a home (and will score you more points at the end of the game if they have one). As well as moving sea stars, you may move any hermit crabs in your garden one space in any direction. Hermit crabs may move onto any empty space or other tile, except for coral (just like sea stars).

If a hermit crab moves on top of an empty shell or trash tile, it has now found a new home and is considered a set with that tile. The hermit crab may now be moved on future turns along with its home (though it can only carry one home tile at a time). You may also decide to leave a hermit crab's home behind on an empty space in your garden if another home looks nicer!

For example, if the player moves their hermit crab onto the empty shell token, they may now consider the two tokens a linked pair. This will score the player more points at the end of the game, and also free up a space in their garden!

When moving animals in your garden during this phase of your turn you may choose to move them in the order you prefer.

Any other animals that are permitted to move during this stage may do so. (See the end of these rules for information on these extra modules included in the game.)

Remember that no animal may ever move over coral!

4. Refill the Market

If there are now empty spaces in the central market board, you must refill these spaces to finish your turn. To do so, draw a new garden tile from the bag, place it in an empty market space of your choice, then draw another and place it, until the market is full again.

Play now passes to the next player clockwise around the table.

The End of the Game

The game end is triggered when any one player's garden has no empty spaces remaining (whether this occurs after placing new tiles in their garden, or after they move their animals). This player finishes their turn, then each other player has one more turn, and then the game ends.

Note that if the end of the game is triggered by a player placing tiles into their garden and filling up their board, the end of the game is still triggered, even if an animal moves on their board later in that same turn and creates an empty space in their garden!

Once all players have had their final turns, turn the central market board over to show the scoreboard. Place each player's colored octopus piece on the 0 space of the score track and move them along as each player scores points for the beauty of their gardens.

How to tally your score:

1. Add up any beauty points scored by your clown fish and seahorse bonus tiles.
2. Score your relics:
   • 0 points if you have 1 relic tile,
   • 2 points each if you have 2 relic tiles,
   • 5 points each if you have 3 or more relic tiles.
3. Score your hermit crabs and shells:
   • -1 point for a crab without a home,
   • +1 point for a shell,
   • +5 points for a crab carrying a shell home (so 6 points in total).
4. Score your trash:
   • If you have 1 trash tile you score -1 point. If you have 2 trash tiles, each one scores -2 points. If you have 3 trash tiles, each one scores -3 points and so on.
   • But(!) if a hermit crab is carrying a trash tile as its home, the hermit crab and trash score 0 points as a set (and you do not consider the trash tile when determining how much trash your garden has).
5. Finally, add up all the beauty points you see printed on your other garden tiles (corals, anemones, sea grasses and sea stars) and subtract 2 points for each oyster tile you have.

Note: Tiles underneath sea stars and hermit crabs are counted in players' final scores, as are any tiles covered by bonus tiles.

The person who scores the most points has the most beautiful undersea garden and wins the game!

In the case of a tie, the tied player with the fewest negative scoring tiles is considered to be the winner. If it is still a tie, the tied player with the most leftover pearls is the winner. If it is still a tie, the tied players are joint winners.

Expert Modules

Once you are familiar with the game and wish to add some variety to it, you may include one or more of the extra modules provided into your games. (We do not recommend playing with all these at once!) We have listed them in the order we think is best to introduce them, but feel free to experiment to discover which modules you prefer to play...

Mimic Octopus: (4 tiles). Cost 2, points 0.

At the start of the game, place the mimic octopuses into the draw bag. At any time, a player may declare that a mimic octopus tile in their garden has become an anemone or sea grass tile (to complete a group). Once the player declares the octopus's type, the octopus tile is flipped over to its camouflaged side and may not be used again during the game. The octopus itself does not score.

Coconut Octopus: (4 tiles). Cost 2, face-up 3 points, flipped-over 1 point.

At the start of the game, place the coconut octopuses into the draw bag. Once per game, a coconut octopus in your garden may move all the tiles adjacent to it (including coral) one space in any direction, during any move sea stars phase, then it flips over (hiding in a coconut).

Tiles may only move into empty spaces (unless it is an animal that may move on top of other tiles).

Note: if this movement causes a group of sea grass or anemones to split, the bonus clown fish or seahorse already gained by the player is not lost, even if the groups are now no longer large enough to attract the bonus tiles.

Shark: (4 tiles). Cost 3, points 2.

At the start of the game, place 1 shark per player into the draw bag. Players collect sharks and place in them in their garden as with other tiles, but each player may only purchase 1 shark per game. During the refill the market phase of any player's turn, you may place your shark tile on top of any 1 tile in the market, immediately after the market has been refilled. No other player may buy the tile under the shark. On your next turn you must buy that tile (and the row or column containing it), or throw the shark back into the draw bag. If you do purchase the claimed tile, the shark returns to a place in your garden. You do not have to pay for your shark again, just the new tiles you claim.

Note: Each shark tile has a different feature on it to tell them apart. Each player may only ever own 1 shark. If a player purchases a row or column that includes a shark and they already have a shark in their possession, the shark is paid for in pearls but left on the market board.

Parrot Fish: (4 tiles). Cost 3, 1 point per adjacent coral.

At the start of the game, place the parrot fish into the draw bag. At the end of the game, parrot fish tiles score +1 point per adjacent coral tiles.

Diver: (4 tiles). Cost 2, points 0.

At the start of the game, place the divers into the draw bag. When placed in a garden, the diver removes all trash and relics in the garden, then swims away. Discard the diver and all removed tiles out of the game.

Lion fish: (4 tiles). Cost 3, points 5.

At the start of the game, place the lion fish into the draw bag. At the start of their turn, a player with at least one lion fish in their garden may pay 1 pearl to discard 1 tile from the market. It is not refilled until the end of their turn. This means the player may buy a row or column with only two garden tiles this turn.

Boxer Crab: (4 tiles). Cost 1, points 3.

At the start of the game, place the boxer crabs into the draw bag. Any boxer crabs bought by a player must be placed on top of an anemone in their garden. During the move animals phase, this pair of tiles may move 1 space in any direction. They block other animals' movements in the same way coral does.

If a player buys a boxer crab tile and they do not have an anemone in their garden, the boxer crab is placed back in the bag before the refill the market phase.

Treasure Chest: (4 tiles). Cost 0, points 0.

At the start of the game, place the treasure chests into the draw bag. As soon as a player buys a row or column of tiles from the market board with a treasure chest, but before placing the tiles into their garden, they must see what treasure they have found!

To do so, the player decides how many pearls they wish to spend, placing them in the supply. They will then draw 1 tile from the bag for each pearl paid. Before drawing any tiles, however, the player must decide if they will be keeping the tiles they draw or receive pearls for them.

If they chose to keep the tiles, they must plant all the tiles drawn (including the treasure chest).

If they chose to earn pearls, they discard the treasure chest from the game and take pearls equal to the cost of each tile drawn (so 1 starfish and 1 coral would earn the player 4 pearls), then return the drawn tiles to the bag. If another treasure chest is drawn, return it to the bag and draw a replacement tile.

In both cases, if the player draws 2 tiles of the same type, all drawn tiles are discarded and the empty treasure chest is planted in their garden instead - even if they were due to draw more tiles from the bag!

If a player cannot afford to (or chooses not to) pay pearls to draw tiles from the bag, the treasure chest tile is also simply placed in their garden.

Garden Tile Overview

Anemone (18 tiles) - Cost: 2, points: 2. Each group of 3 anemones attracts 1 clownfish. Players may collect more than one set to attract additional clownfish.

Coral (20 tiles) - Cost: 1, points: 1. Sea stars and other animals that move may not pass over coral.

Hermit crab (6 tiles) - Cost: 2, points: -1 for a lone crab, 5 if with a shell. Must occupy the same space as a shell to be considered a set. Hermit crabs may also occupy trash. If so, the set is worth 0 points. A hermit crab may move 1 tile in any direction during the move seastar phase of each turn. It may move with a shell, trash, or alone. It may move over other plants and animals (except coral).

Empty shells (6 tiles each) - Cost: 2, points: 1.

Relics (10 tiles) - Cost: 3, points: 0 (for 1 relic), 2 (if you have 2 relics), or 5 (if you have 3 or more relics). Each relic scores these points, depending on how many you have in your garden.

Seagrass (26 tiles) - Cost: 1, points: 1. Each group of 5 seagrass attracts 1 seahorse. Players may collect more than one set to attract additional seahorses.

Sea star (10 tiles) - Cost: 3, points: 5. Moves 1 space per turn if there is an oyster accessible to it, consuming oysters it lands on.

Trash (10 tiles) - Cost: 0, points: -1/-2/-3 each for 1/2/3+ tiles. Each trash scores these negative points, depending on how many you have in your garden. Can host a hermit crab, set of 1 crab and 1 trash scores 0 points.