Raindrops Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Setup
  • Raindrop colors
• The Game
• A Player's Turn
  • 1. Special Actions
  • 2. "Drop" Action
    • Wild Raindrop
  • 3. Place Tiles on Memory Card(s)
    • Completing Memory Card(s)
  • 4. Claiming a Cloud Token
• Empty Bag
• End of the Game

Contents

• 1 Window board
• 84 Raindrop tiles, each consisting of 2 raindrops of different colors (one of them can be a Wild Raindrop)
• 28 Bonus tiles, each consisting of 1 colored raindrop or a Wild Raindrop
• 12 Cloud tokens
• 10 Thunder tokens
• 4 Player boards
• 4 Action markers, one has a purple arrow on the front
• 54 Memory cards
• 8 glass beads
• 1 cloth bag

Setup

1. Put all the Raindrop tiles in the cloth bag and mix them well.

2. Set up the Window board in the middle of the table (as shown). Randomly draw Raindrop tiles from the bag to fill each column of the Window board, until only the top green row remains visible (each column can hold a maximum of 4 tiles).

   To assemble the Window board: lift up the window panel; fold the top part of the board and tuck it into the hole (it doesn't have to snap); lay the window panel back down — this way the board is slightly inclined.

3. Shuffle the Bonus tiles face down and place them in a heap nearby. Reveal 4 of these tiles.

4. Shuffle the 10 Thunder tokens face down and put them in a stack.

5. Divide the 12 Cloud tokens by type, then stack each type separately. Make sure the top token of each stack is the one with a golden border.

6. Each player takes a Player board. Take as many Action markers as players, make sure one of them is the one with the purple arrow, flip and shuffle them, then give one to each player. Each player places their marker face up in the third slot of the Special Action area of their board.

7. Shuffle the Memory cards face down, then deal 3 cards to each player. Each player keeps 2 of them face up on their board and puts the remaining one in the "display", i.e., the space below the Window board. There will be 4 Memory cards in the display. Keep the rest of the Memory deck nearby.

   In a 2 or 3-player game, reveal additional Memory cards from the deck until there are 4 on display.

8. Keep the glass beads handy in a general supply.

9. The player who has the purple arrow on their Action marker is the starting player.

Raindrop colors

• Orange raindrop
• Purple raindrop
• Green raindrop
• Blue raindrop

The Game

The game is played in turns in clockwise order. On your turn, you will try to collect Raindrop tiles from the board and use them to complete your Memory cards. The game ends when a player completes their 10th Memory card or when the bag is emptied for the second time. Players continue playing until they have had the same number of turns, then points are tallied. The player with the highest score wins!

It's cloudy out there and it's starting to rain! The game is about to begin!

A Player's Turn

During your turn, try to find a continuous path of matching symbols down the Window board. You then collect all the tiles along that path. Afterwards, you place the collected tiles on your cards, trying to complete Memory cards that are worth points. Lastly, check if you can claim a Cloud token.

More precisely, in order:

1. You may perform one special action.
2. You must perform a "drop" action.
3. You may place tiles on your Memory card(s).
4. You may claim a Cloud token.

1. Special Actions

Before the "drop" action, you may perform one special action. To do so, move your Action marker to the slot showing the special action you want to perform, then carry out its effect.

• FLIP — Flip one of the Raindrop tiles on the board upside down. Leave the tile in the same spot.
• SWAP — Swap 2 Raindrop tiles on the board that are adjacent horizontally.
• TOP — Take any tile from the board and move it to the top of its column. Then, push the tiles down to fill the gap.

Note: You cannot perform the special action your Action marker is on at the beginning of your turn; in other words, you cannot perform the same special action twice in two consecutive turns.

2. "Drop" Action

Start from any symbol in the top row of the Window board. Try to find a continuous path of matching symbols, moving downwards (as a drop of water would do). Point at the symbols you have found, one by one (or use the glass beads, see the box below), to show the other players the path you have chosen. A path may be formed by any number of symbols, even just one. You are not required to get to the base of the Window.

As you will see, the goal is not to choose the longest path, but trying to get the right tiles you need. When choosing a path, always move down the window to an adjacent matching symbol that is: A) directly below, or B) diagonally below. You can never move sideways nor upwards!

Glass beads: You can use the glass beads to show the other players the path of matching symbols you have chosen. Just place a bead on each symbol that forms the path. This is an optional rule. Use it only if it's difficult to track a player's path.

Wild Raindrop

These symbols are wild. A wild symbol always matches either of the 2 symbols it shows.

Important! You can never change the symbol chosen for your path, even if you use a wild symbol.

Once you've finished finding the matching symbols in your path, take all the Raindrop tiles in that path from the board. After taking the tiles, gently tilt the board slightly so the tiles still lying on the board slide downward to fill the gaps. Then, refill the board with new Raindrop tiles drawn from the bag.

Bonus tile: If you take 3 or fewer Raindrop tiles during your drop action, take 1 of the face-up Bonus tiles. You can keep any number of Bonus tiles in the dedicated slot of your Player board. Before taking a Bonus tile, if there are less than 4 face-up Bonus tiles, you can reveal new Bonus tiles from the heap so there are 4 face up.

Refilling the Window board: Whenever you need to refill the Window board, the next player in turn order draws tiles from the bag and fills the Window following this order: column by column (from left to right), from bottom to top in the column. The orientation of the tile cannot be chosen. It is random which side is up. Remember: Each column can hold a maximum of 4 tiles.

Example: It is Olivia's turn. She looks at the board and decides to use the FLIP special action. First, she flips a Raindrop tile to form a new path of blue raindrops. Second, she shows the pattern of blue raindrops to the other players, then takes all the tiles she went through. Lastly, she tilts the board allowing the tiles to slide down. The next player in turn order refills the Window board with new tiles.

Reaching the base of the Window: Each time you take 1 or 2 Raindrop tile(s) from the last row of the Window board, you get a Thunder token. Each Thunder token awards a random number of points (3, 4, or 5). If you take 1 tile from the last row, take the first Thunder token from the stack, look at it, and put it in front of you, face down. If you take 2 tiles from the last row, take 2 Thunder tokens from the stack, instead. Look at them, keep 1 and discard the other to the bottom of the stack. Always keep your Thunder tokens face down in front of you: you will reveal them at the end of the game to score points.

3. Place Tiles on Memory Card(s)

Place the Raindrop tiles you collected in the previous step on your Memory cards. To place a tile on a card, the tile symbols must match the symbols on the card. You can place a tile horizontally or vertically. You cannot place a Raindrop tile only partially on a card (i.e., using only 1 of its 2 symbols) or on top of another tile.

During this step, you can also place Raindrop or Bonus tiles you have stored in your reserve on previous turns (see below). You can place as many Bonus tiles as you want in two ways:

• Directly on the card, to match one of its symbols.

OR

• On an unplaced Raindrop tile to change one of its symbols, so that you can now place it on a Memory card, matching the required symbols.

You can complete one or both Memory cards you have on your player board, but it is not required to complete either in a single turn. Raindrop and Bonus tiles may stay on a card until it is complete, but they cannot be rearranged or removed.

Tip: Placing tiles horizontally will make it harder to complete a Memory card!

Completing Memory Card(s)

A Memory card is complete when all of the symbols on it are covered by tiles. When you complete a Memory card, discard all the Raindrop tiles on it. Do not discard the used Bonus tiles: flip them and move them below your player board (they cannot be used again, but they will score 1 point each at the end of the game).

Put the completed Memory card(s) below your player board, then take a new Memory card from the display or from the top of the deck as replacements. You cannot place tiles on a Memory card you just took at this time — you must wait until your next turn. If needed, reveal new Memory cards from the deck so there are always 4 on display at the end of your turn.

Example: Olivia places a green-blue tile on her Memory card that already has a Raindrop tile in the middle. To complete the card, she needs a blue-purple tile, so she uses a purple Bonus tile to change the blue-orange tile she took on her turn. The card is now complete.

When you are finished placing tiles on your Memory cards, you may store up to 2 Raindrop tiles on your player board, 1 in each reserve slot. Any Raindrop tiles you cannot keep must be discarded into a heap nearby. You may discard tiles in your reserve to make room for new tiles you want to keep.

4. Claiming a Cloud Token

Check the symbols on the bottom left of your completed Memory cards and compare them to the available Cloud tokens. If the symbols match, claim that token immediately. You can claim more than 1 Cloud token at a time, if your symbols match more than one, but you can only have 1 Cloud token of each type. These symbols are not "spent": they can still be used to claim other tokens. Keep your claimed Cloud tokens in front of you, they will score points at the end of the game.

Memory cards with the cat symbol do not count for Cloud tokens. However, they have a higher point value!

Empty Bag

As soon as the bag is empty, play is interrupted for a moment. Refill the bag with all the Raindrop tiles that were discarded. Play then resumes from where it was interrupted.

When the bag is emptied for the second time, refill the bag and keep playing until all players have taken the same number of turns (stopping with the player to the right of the starting player), then the game ends.

End of the Game

The game ends when:

• one player completes their 10th Memory card; OR
• the bag is emptied for the second time.

Play until all the players have taken the same number of turns. Then each player can place their Raindrop and Bonus tiles from their reserve onto their Memory cards and try to complete them, but they do not draw new ones.

Finally, each player scores points by adding:

• Points shown on completed Memory cards;
• Points shown on unused Bonus tiles;
• 1 point for each used Bonus tile;
• Points shown on each claimed Cloud token;
• Points shown on each claimed Thunder token;
• 1 point for each Raindrop tile and for each Bonus tile placed on an incomplete Memory Card.

The player with the highest score is the winner, as the one who had the most vivid memories during the rain! In case of a tie, the tied player who collected more points from Memory cards is the winner. If there is still a tie, the tied players share the victory.

Example: Olivia scores 48 points for her completed Memory cards, 8 points from her Bonus tokens (3 used, 2 unused), 15 points from claimed Cloud tokens, and 4 points for her Thunder token. She does not have any Raindrop tiles on her Memory cards, so she does not score any points for those. In total, Olivia scores 75 points.