Ursa Miner Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Game Setup
  • Build Mount Honeycomb!
  • Get Ready to Play!
• Gameplay
  • 1a) Move
  • 1b) Mine
  • 1c) Play a bonus card
  • 2) Hire a bear
  • 3) Draw a card
• Ending the Game
• Advanced Rules

Components

• 36 brown mine tiles
• 18 gray mine tiles
• 6 black mine tiles
• 4 Hardened Honey/change tiles
• 5 yellow honey bear meeples
• 5 brown bear meeples
• 5 black bear meeples
• 5 red panda bear meeples
• 28 bonus cards
• 4 player aid cards

Game Setup

Build Mount Honeycomb!

Begin by constructing Mount Honeycomb with three layers of tiles. To start, set aside the 4 Hardened Honey/change tiles. Sort the remaining tiles by color. Once they are separated, randomize each pile by mixing it up. Now, form the core of the mountain by putting together a number of black tiles: four tiles in a two- or three-player game, and six tiles in a four-player game. (The document shows the core for a two- or three-player game and for a four-player game in pictures.)

Next, use the gray tiles to form the middle layer of the mountain by surrounding the black tiles with gray tiles. Complete the middle layer by placing a gray tile on top of each black tile in the core.

Finally, use the same process with the brown tiles to form the top layer of the mountain. Surround the gray tiles with brown tiles. Complete the top layer of the mountain by placing a brown tile on top of each gray tile. This completes Mount Honeycomb.

Get Ready to Play!

Once Mount Honeycomb is set up, it's time to prepare the deck of bonus cards. Randomly choose 20 cards for a two-player game, 21 cards for a three-player game, and 28 cards for a four-player game. Shuffle the cards together and place the deck to the side, leaving room for two discard piles - one for used cards and one for spent tiles.

Next, each player:

1. Draws a card from the deck
2. Chooses a type of bear and takes all meeples of that bear's color as well as that bear's player aid card
3. Sets aside two meeples as their "starting bears," and places the other three meeples on their outlined locations on the player aid card

Finally, each player places their starting bears. Pick a first player by deciding who loves bears the most. Going clockwise, each player places their two starting bears together on any single, unoccupied tile in the mountain. The first player is now ready to take their first turn!

Gameplay

The objective of Ursa Miner is to collect two kinds of resources: honey and royal jelly. You can tell how much a tile is worth by looking at the number of symbols on it. For example, a tile showing one honey symbol is worth one honey, and a tile showing two royal jelly symbols is worth two royal jelly.

Tiles also have a number on them which shows how many bears it takes to mine a tile. For example, a tile showing a 3 would take 3 bears to mine.

Players take turns going clockwise from the starting player. A turn has three phases:

1. Actions: You may take these actions in any order: a. Move with each bear b. Mine with each bear c. Play up to one bonus card
2. Hiring: You may add a new bear to your team for three honey
3. Drawing: Draw a new bonus card into your hand

1a) Move

Each bear can move once per turn to any neighboring tile. They can move up or down the mountain, and onto tiles with other bears, including opponents' bears.

A bear can move to any tile next to it. That bear can still mine before or after moving.

1b) Mine

Each bear can also mine once per turn. To mine, a bear must be next to the tile they are mining. To mine a tile, the number of bears mining the tile must equal the number on the tile. When you mine a tile, take it from Mount Honeycomb and keep it in front of you to show that it's yours.

Any bear can move a second time instead of mining. However, you can never mine a second time instead of moving.

Note that moving and mining can happen in any order among your bears, as seen in the example below. To keep track of which bears have taken their actions, you may want to place a bear meeple on its side once it's finished taking actions.

Example of a full turn: A) Two bears work together to mine a tile worth royal jelly, which uses both of their mine actions. They could still move after mining, but choose not to. B) Then, a bear moves from the black tile to the gray one. Both bears on that tile work together to mine another tile, using both of their mine actions. C) There is one bear left with nothing to mine. Instead, it takes a double move to get closer to the royal jelly all the way on the right for next turn.

There are two rules to remember for mining:

1. A bear cannot mine a tile that has any bears on it. This means a bear can only ever mine unoccupied tiles next to it, not under it.
2. Mount Honeycomb must always stay completely connected! You cannot mine a tile if it would break Mount Honeycomb into two or more pieces.

Example: The bears would really like to mine a gray tile! Unfortunately, they cannot take either of the ones in the picture, because taking them would break the mountain into two pieces, leaving some tiles unreachable. Since they cannot mine any tiles with bears on them, the bears cannot mine the tiles they are standing on and they cannot mine the tile with the yellow bear on it.

1c) Play a bonus card

You can play a bonus card from your hand at any time during the Actions phase of your turn. You may play up to one bonus card per turn. If a card requires you to spend honey, discard tiles worth that much honey to play that card. Place cards into a discard pile after you play them, unless the card instructs you to do otherwise.

2) Hire a bear

After the Actions phase, you may spend three honey to hire one new bear. Discard tiles worth three honey from in front of you to hire a bear. When you hire a bear, you must immediately place it on any tile in the mountain where you already have a bear. You will be able to use the bear next turn. If you need to make change for the honey you spent, take it from the pile of change tiles set aside at the start of the game.

3) Draw a card

At the very end of your turn, draw a new card from the deck of bonus cards, if there are any left. Then, the next player's turn begins.

Ending the Game

When the last bonus card is drawn, every player takes one last turn. At this point, each player should have taken the same number of total turns. Whoever has the most royal jelly at the end of this last round wins the game. Ties are broken by whoever has the most leftover honey. After that, the victory is shared.

Advanced Rules

For more advanced players, or for those familiar with the basics of Ursa Miner, we suggest adding these two additional rules:

• Sleepy bears: Mining is tiring! Bears can no longer move after they mine. If a bear wants to take a move action, it must do so before mining. Cards can still move bears after mining, as usual.
• Honey burst: You may pay honey to play additional cards on your turn, at the rate of one honey per card, in addition to any costs on the card. The first card is still played as normal, but you may play a second card by spending one honey, a third by spending a second honey, and so on.