Takenoko FAQ
115 questions players ask · Updated Nov 12, 2026 · Full rulebook
Turns and weather
- Is the weather die resolved before you take your two actions?
- Do you have to apply the weather die result, or can you ignore it?
- Does the weather die result count as one of your two actions?
- After rolling Sun, must the extra action be different from your two regular actions?
- Must you take both of your regular actions every turn?
- Does a Wind result let you take the same action twice?
- When does the weather die first come into play?
- Does each player roll the weather die on their own turn?
- Can you place an irrigation channel before rolling the weather die, or between the roll and its effect?
Actions
Plots
Irrigation
- How many irrigation channels can start from the pond, and can they branch?
- Can a watershed plot be the starting point of a new irrigation channel?
- Does a watershed irrigate the plots next to it, so they need no channels?
- If you place a watershed on a dry plot, does its first bamboo grow at once?
- Can an irrigation channel go on the outer edge of the board, or on the edge of only one plot?
- Does a plot get its free bamboo section only the first time it is irrigated?
- Does irrigating a plot make bamboo sprout on its same-colour neighbours?
- Can one irrigation channel irrigate two plots at the same time?
- Can you store an irrigation channel or improvement and play it later?
- How many irrigation channels can you place in one turn?
Gardener
- How far can the Gardener move, and in which directions?
- What counts as a straight line for the Gardener or Panda?
- Which plots grow bamboo when the Gardener stops on a plot?
- If the Gardener stops on a plot that is not irrigated, do irrigated neighbours of its colour still grow?
- If the Gardener stops on a plot already at four sections, do its neighbours still grow?
- What happens when the Gardener ends its move on the pond?
- Does a plot that reaches four sections stop growing for good?
- Can a plot hold two bamboo shoots of its colour at once?
- Does the base section of a bamboo shoot count toward the four-section limit and toward objectives?
- How does rain differ from the Gardener when it grows bamboo?
- Can the Gardener and the Panda share a plot?
- Can rain add bamboo to a plot that has not been irrigated?
Panda
- Does the Panda eat from the plot it lands on, and must it eat there?
- How far can the Panda move, and can it cross an empty space?
- Can the Panda move onto the pond, or onto a plot with no bamboo?
- Can the Panda eat bamboo on an enclosed plot, including after a Storm move?
- When you apply a Storm, must the Panda move to a different plot?
- Does the bamboo the Panda eats after a Storm go to the player who rolled it?
- Must the Panda move before it can eat, including after a Storm or lightning roll?
- Can the Panda eat bamboo on a plot where the Gardener is standing?
Improvements
- Must you take an improvement when you roll Clouds?
- When the improvement supply is empty, what can Clouds let you do?
- Can Clouds move a placed improvement when only one type of improvement has run out?
- Can a plot have more than one improvement?
- Can you place an improvement on a plot that already has bamboo?
- Can you add an improvement to a newly placed plot before its first bamboo grows, even if it is irrigated at once?
- Are the improvements printed on a plot free, or must you add a token to get them?
- Does a fertilizer improvement make each bamboo growth two sections?
Objectives
- Is there a limit on how many objective cards you can hold?
- When can you claim an objective card?
- Can you claim an objective that another player's move completed?
- Can you hold a completed objective and claim it on a later turn?
- Must completed objective cards be laid face up, where everyone can see them?
- If you draw an objective that is already completed on the board, can you claim it right away?
- In the advanced variant, what happens when you draw an objective the board already fulfils?
- Under the advanced variant, must an already-fulfilled Panda objective be discarded too?
- Can you claim an objective after your second action?
- Can you complete an objective in the middle of an action, such as while Gardener growth is still resolving?
- Can you claim more than one objective in a single turn?
Gardener objectives
- Must the Gardener be standing on the objective's plot when you claim a Gardener objective?
- Must the bamboo heights on a Gardener objective match exactly?
- Do the plots of a Gardener objective need to touch, and must they be unmodified?
- Does a printed improvement count toward a Gardener objective that shows an improvement?
- Can a claimed Gardener objective become invalid if the bamboo changes later?
- Is bamboo removed from the board when you claim a Gardener or plot objective?
Plot objectives
- Must every plot of a plot objective be irrigated, and what counts as irrigated?
- Can you keep a plot objective whose tiles are not all irrigated yet?
- Can a plot objective or terrain goal card be rotated or mirrored to match the board?
- Can a plot objective be met inside a larger group of same-colour plots?
- If an improvement moves off an irrigated plot, is a claimed plot objective still valid?
Panda objectives
End of the game
- How many objectives trigger the final round?
- Who takes the Emperor card, and what is it worth?
- Can the player who triggers the final round still complete objectives in that turn?
- After the final round is triggered, does every other player get one more turn?
- How is a tie for first place broken?
- Can you hold completed objectives and choose when to trigger the end?
Game material and general
Takenoko: ChibisExpansion
- Can one Move Panda action move both the Panda and Miss Panda?
- With a Wind result, can you take the Move Panda action twice?
- When a plot with the Miss Panda symbol is placed, does Miss Panda move there automatically?
- Must you accept a Panda Babies bonus, and what does the improvement bonus give when none are left?
- Can you look at the bonus side of the remaining Panda Babies tokens?
- When you gain a Panda Babies token, do you choose it or take one at random?
- Does Miss Panda eat bamboo when a lightning roll moves her, and who moves on a lightning roll?
- Does Miss Panda moving onto the Panda's plot make a baby when the move comes from a weather roll?
- Does the colour of a baby panda depend on the tile the pandas stand on, or on the bamboo returned?
- Does the Gardener's Cabin need irrigation to use its card-drawing ability?
- Must the Gardener's Cabin be irrigated to count for a plot objective?
- Does the expansion's celestial pond work like the starting pond?
- Can you place a new plot touching only the celestial pond?
- When the Gardener stops on a Sacred Hills plot, which plots grow?
- Does a Sacred Hills plot spread bamboo when it grows from irrigation or from rain?
- Can you draw past the five-card hand limit when the Gardener stops on the Gardener's Cabin?
- If the Gardener ends on a pond or the Cabin next to the Kamis Garden, does the Kamis Garden grow?
- Does an irrigated Kamis Garden grow when Sacred Hills spreads one of its colours, and does it count for plot objectives?
- What does the pond icon on a Chibis Panda objective require?
- In Chibis, do Panda Babies count toward the Panda-objective tie-break?
- Can one player collect all nine Panda Babies?
- Can the Objective Change bonus on a Panda Babies token switch an objective to a different type?
- Does Takenoko: Chibis work with the first-edition base game?
- On Chibis Gardener objectives marked with a plus sign, is the height a minimum?