Yonder

Yonder Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components

1 city board
1 round tracker
86 workers: 16 dwarves, 16 elves, 22 goblins, 16 ogres, 16 skeletons
60 resources: 20 wood, 20 ore, 20 hay
4 multiplier tokens
20 arcana
60 food: 20 grains, 20 meat, 20 fish
25 coins: 20 one coin tokens, 5 five coin tokens
20 ships: 4 starting ships in player colours, 16 non-player coloured ships
59 building cards: 4 headquarters in player colours, 17 A buildings including 6 white starting buildings, 18 B buildings, 20 C buildings
24 envoy cards: 9 A envoys, 9 B envoys, 6 C envoys
4 gold markers and 4 favour markers in player colours
4 reference cards
1 first player eye
Solo mode content: 8 solo mode cards, 1 solo mode reference card

Setup

Place the city board in the centre of the table on its multiplayer side. Place the round tracker on the round one space. Place all the resources, food, arcana, coins, and workers on the table within easy reach.
Player setup:
- Randomly assign each player a colour. Give each player one headquarters, one starting ship, one favour marker and one gold marker in that colour. If playing with less than four players return the unused player coloured pieces to the box.
- All players place their headquarters faceup in front of them to form the start of their settlement and place their ship nearby to form the start of their supply.
- Players take the workers and the food or resource depicted on their starting ship to their supply.
- All players take one wood, one ore, one hay, one fish, and one grain to their supply.
- Give each player a reference card.
- All players place their gold marker on the zero space of the gold track and their favour marker on one of the four starting spots on the favour track.
Shuffle the non-player coloured ships and place them in a stack on the wharf, text-side-up. Draw the top four ships from the wharf and place them onto the ship slots in the harbour, text-side-down.
Shuffle the envoy cards separately by letter. Set up the envoy card stack with the following cards from top to bottom: eight A cards, eight B cards, and four C cards. Place the stack on the envoy stack slot. Draw the top four A envoy cards from this stack and place them face up on the envoy slots on the board. Return the rest of the envoy cards to the box.
Prepare the building cards and choose your starting cards:
- Place the six A building cards with white backs face up on the building card slots on the board.
- Shuffle the A, B, and C building card decks separately by letter. Set up the building stack with the following from top to bottom: three A cards, nine B cards and 12 C cards. Place the stack on the building stack slot on the board.

Welcome to Yonder

In Yonder, you will dispatch goblins, ogres, dwarves, elves, and skeletons to collect resources, gather food, and build a settlement on the distant shore. Meet with the steady stream of envoys from other settlements, each of whom offer lucrative contracts. Earn the most gold to win the game!

Key Terms

Each player has a supply. Any workers, resources, food, arcana, and ships a player gains go to their supply. Each player has a hand of building cards. Each player has a settlement, which contains their headquarters, any buildings they subsequently build, and any envoys they subsequently gain. Each player tracks their gold by moving their gold marker up or down on the gold track whenever they gain or lose gold. The gold marker never goes below 0, it simply stays at 0 whenever it would go into negative numbers. The coins are not used for tracking gold.

Game Structure

Yonder is played in rounds. Each round has two phases: the worker placement phase, and the cleanup phase. In the worker placement phase, players take turns in clockwise order. Once a player locks up, their turns are skipped for the remainder of the worker placement phase. Once all players have locked up, the worker placement phase ends, the cleanup phase is resolved, and the next round begins. After five rounds, resolve endgame scoring, and then the player with the most gold wins.

Worker Placement Phase

In the worker placement phase, beginning with the player with the first player eye, and proceeding clockwise, players take turns. During a turn, you do the following.

In any order:

Place a worker (optional)
Place an arcana (optional)
Fulfil an Envoy (optional)

At the end of your turn:

Lock up (optional, mandatory if you have no workers in supply or if you did not place a worker this turn)

Place a Worker

Choose and place a worker from your supply onto an unoccupied worker spot on the city board, in your settlement, or in another player's settlement. Take the reward depicted below the worker spot you just claimed.

See the city board worker spots reference for the list of rewards associated with spots in the city, and the building reference for rewards associated with spots in settlements. You may not place workers on worker spots on the unbuilt cards on the city board.

See the types of worker section for special powers associated with each type of worker.

Only workers placed in your settlement are returned to your supply when you lock up. Workers you placed in your opponents' settlements are returned to their supply when they lock up. During cleanup, workers placed on the board are returned to the general supply. You don't get them back!

You may not assign a worker to another player's settlement if they have locked up.

Place an Arcana

Place an arcana from your supply on an unoccupied spot in the upper city and gain the reward shown.

See the upper city reference for the list of rewards associated with spots. Note that once an arcana has been placed in a spot it will remain in place for the rest of the game.

You may not place an arcana on a spot in the top row until an arcana has been placed on the linked spot below it.

Fulfil an Envoy

Choose an empty envoy on the city board or in your settlement. If you chose an envoy in the city, immediately move it to your settlement. Do not deal a new envoy to the city. You must now place a ship from your supply on the chosen envoy.

Then, make a number of deliveries to the envoy that falls within the range specified by the arrow icon on the envoy. For each delivery, pay the cost shown. Then, for each delivery you made, gain the market value in gold and the delivery bonus.

The market value depends on the round and is shown under the round track on the city board.

See the envoys reference for the list of delivery bonuses.

See the ships reference for the list of special powers associated with each ship. Most of these powers are triggered when fulfilling envoys.

You may not fulfil an envoy if you cannot make a number of deliveries that fits within the range specified by the arrow.

Example: Jareth places a ship on the Dwarven Witches envoy in round 2. He wants to deliver two times, which costs four wood. But as the Scrooge ship gives him a one resource discount he only needs to pay three wood. Jareth receives three gold and one ore per delivery, for a total of six gold and two ore.

Lock Up

At the end of your turn you may lock up. If you have no workers in your supply at the end of your turn, or if you did not place a worker this turn, you must lock up. To lock up, move all workers in your settlement to your supply, flip over your headquarters card, and resolve the following steps.

Resolve any "when locking up" effects on your buildings and ships. Players don't start the game with any such effects, but they can be gained later.
Feeding. Spend food to feed each worker in your supply. Fish and grains each count as one food for this purpose, and meat counts as two food. Return spent food to the general supply.

Any workers that are not fed are discarded to the general supply, and you lose three gold for each unfed worker.

After feeding, discard any excess meat and fish in your supply. For each fish discarded in this way, gain one gold. Excess grain is not discarded.

Food needed per worker type: dwarf 1, elf 1, goblin 1, ogre 2, skeleton 0.

Food provided per food type: grain 1 (if unspent, keep), fish 1 (if unspent, discard and gain 1 gold), meat 2 (if unspent, discard).
Discard any envoys in your settlement that don't have a ship placed on them. You lose five gold for each envoy discarded in this way. Then, return any ships placed on envoys to your supply.
Gain one gold for each coin on cards in your settlement. Note that you do not remove the coins from your cards.
Rounds 1-3 only: Take one of the ships available in the harbour to your supply. Gain the depicted workers and cargo, adding them to your supply. You may not take the top ship from the wharf.

Note that you do not replace the ship you took with a new one from the wharf. Players who lock up earlier will get more choice of ships.
Round 4 only: Gain an arcana if you were the first player to lock up this round.

Locking up example: It is round two. Jareth has one skeleton, one ogre, and one elf in his settlement. At the end of his turn, he has no workers in his supply, and so he locks up. First, he returns the skeleton, ogre, and elf to his supply and flips his headquarters card. He then feeds his workers. He needs three food (two for the ogre, one for the elf, none for the skeleton), and so spends one meat and one grain.

He still has one more grain and a fish in his supply. He sells the fish for one gold and keeps the grain for later.

The envoy in his settlement has a ship placed on it, so it is not discarded, and he does not lose five gold. Instead the ship is returned to his supply, ready to be used again next round, and the envoy stays in his settlement.

He has three coins on his Goblin Thieves Guild and two coins on his Ogre Peddler, so he gains five gold.

He now chooses and takes the Davos ship from the harbour, gaining a wood, two skeletons, and two goblins. He will have a total of seven workers next round - the three he returned to his supply when he locked up, and the four he just gained from his new ship.

Cleanup Phase

Once all players have locked up, resolve the cleanup phase, and then the round ends. To resolve the cleanup phase, do the following:

Round 1-2 only:

Discard any remaining ships in the harbour, and deal four ships to the harbour from the wharf.

Round 3 only:

Discard any remaining ships in the harbour. Do not deal any new ships.

Round 1-4 only:

Discard all building and envoy cards from the board. Draw six new buildings and four new envoys from the corresponding stacks, placing them faceup on the board.
Return all workers on the city board to the general supply. Note that you do not remove arcana from the upper city.
Advance the round tracker.
Flip each headquarters card from its locked up side to its faceup side.
Pass the first player eye token clockwise to the next player.

Round 5:

The cleanup phase is skipped in round five.

Endgame Scoring

All players add up the gold from their C buildings, moving their marker up the gold track accordingly. The player who has the most gold is the winner! If tied, the player with the most arcana in their supply is the winner. If still tied, the player with the fewest buildings is the winner.

Other Concepts

Buildings

To look up what a specific building does, see the buildings reference.

Build cost. Pay the cost depicted here to construct the building.
Building letter. Shows you what deck the card belongs to.
Worker spot. Some buildings have spots that players can place workers on.
Ogre/dwarf icon. This shows if an ogre or a dwarf can use their ability when placed on this spot. See the Types of Workers section for an explanation of their abilities.
Ongoing ability. Buildings with this symbol grant ongoing abilities that do not require a worker to be placed on it for it to work. Once the building is built the ability is permanently active for the player who built it.
End of game scoring. C buildings give you gold during endgame scoring.

Types of Workers

There are five kinds of workers in the game.

Goblins have no special rules.
Dwarves get a discount of one food or resource when placed on spots with the dwarf icon.
- If constructing a building, choose and ignore one resource or food in that building's cost. If taking an action that spends food or resources, spend one less than the action indicates.
- If an action lets you spend resources or food a variable number of times, dwarves only provide a discount on the first instance.
- Dwarves can reduce the cost of an action to zero, or build a building for free, if it normally costs one resource or food.
- Dwarves cannot discount an arcana or worker cost.
Elves can be assigned to any spot that doesn't already contain an elf, even if it is occupied by another type of worker.
Ogres get twice as many resources or food when placed on spots with the ogre icon. Ogres also eat twice as much as other workers when locking up.
Skeletons don't have to be fed when locking up.

Favour Track

The Audience Chamber worker spot allows you to advance on the favour track. Some other effects also allow you to advance on the favour track.

When you advance on the favour track, move your favour marker to the next unoccupied space, skipping over any spaces that contain another player's favour marker. Then gain the corresponding reward.

See the favour track reference for a full description of each reward.

Example: Jareth places a goblin on the Audience Chamber spot. The two next spots are occupied, so Jareth moves his favour marker to the third spot and gains three grain.

If you would advance on the favour track, and there are no unoccupied spaces above you, instead you do not move your favour marker and you do not gain a reward.

References

Favour Track Reference

Choose a building card in your hand. Add it to your settlement for free, without paying the build cost.
Return one worker in your settlement or on the city board to your supply.
Gain an arcana.
Gain one worker of any type.
You may immediately fulfil an envoy. One delivery you make to this envoy is free.
Gain three grain.
Gain any two resources.
Draw one building card from the board into your hand. The drawn card is not replaced until the cleanup phase of the round. Gain a fish.

Building Reference

Buildings with a worker-spot symbol are activated when a worker is placed on them. Buildings with an ongoing-ability symbol are passive abilities gained by the person who built them. Buildings with an end-of-game symbol gain you gold during endgame scoring.

Headquarters Choose a building card in your hand. Pay the build cost to add it to your settlement.

A Buildings

Camp: Gain any one resource.
Cattle Ranch: Gain one meat.
Drawing Board: Draw one building card from the board into your hand. The drawn card is not replaced until the cleanup phase of the round.
Fishing Boats: Gain two fish.
Goblin Inn: Spend one fish to gain one goblin from the general supply.
Grain Field: Gain two grain.
Hay Stacks: Gain two hay.
Logging Site: Gain two wood.
Ore Merchant: Up to two times, spend one ore to gain one wood and one hay.
Quarry: Gain two ore.
Wood Merchant: Up to two times, spend one wood to gain one ore and one hay.

B Buildings

Dwarven Merchants: If you have at least two dwarves when you fulfil an envoy, you get a discount of one resource. You count as having dwarves if they are in your supply or settlement. This ability can only be used once per envoy you fulfil, not once per delivery.
Dwarven Mine: Up to three times, spend two ore to gain one arcana.
Dwarven Smithy: When you spend one or more ore, place a coin on this card. Delivering ore to an envoy multiple times only counts as one instance of spending ore. Spending multiple ore at the ore merchant only counts as one instance of spending ore.
Dwarven Treasury: When you place dwarves on spaces with dwarf icons, gain the resource or food that was discounted, including the one discounted when constructing this building if applicable. For example, if you constructed this building with a dwarf, you could choose to spend a wood and gain a hay, or spend a hay and gain a wood.
Elven Bakery: When you fulfil an envoy, you may spend one grain to get a discount of up to two resources. This ability can only be used once per envoy you fulfil, not once per delivery.
Elven Recruiters: When you send an elf to a spot on the city board occupied by a different kind of worker, you may place that worker on this card. Workers on this card will return to your supply when you lock up, so you will need to feed them.
Elven Swingers: When you place an elf in another player's settlement, place a coin on this card.
Giant Golden Geese: Up to five times, spend one meat to place a coin on this card.
Goblin Brewery: Up to five times, spend two grain to place a coin on this card.
Goblin Soup Boat: When locking up, add up to two goblins from the city board to your supply. Remember you will need to feed these goblins in the next step of locking up.
Goblin Thieves Guild: When you place a goblin on the city board, place a coin on this card.
Ogre Peddler: When placing an ogre on a space with an ogre icon that gains you resources, you may spend one of the gained resources to place a coin on this card.
Sandcakery: During feeding, your ogres may eat ore. Each ore counts as two food.

Ventures Expansion (marked with a 'v' in top right corner)

Beef Trees: Spend a meat to advance on the favour track.
Butcher Shop: Give another player one meat from your supply. Place two coins on this card.
Dwarf Masons: Place a coin on this card when you place a dwarf on any headquarters, including when you build this card if applicable.
Fish Cages: Place two fish from your supply on this card. Place a coin on this card. During feeding, fish on this card can be spent as two food and you may choose not to discard them if they are unspent.
Goblin Fishing Hut: When you place a goblin in another player's settlement, gain two fish.
Ogre Muscle Beach: When you place ogres on spots on the city board with an ogre icon, get quadruple as many resources/food, instead of double.
Skeleton Reverser: Spend one meat and one skeleton in your supply to place a coin on this card and gain any other type of worker from the general supply.
Smokehouse: During feeding, the first four fish you discard gain you two gold each instead of one.
Smugglers Hut: Choose another player's unfulfilled envoy and make one delivery to it. Do not place a ship on it. That player may still fulfil the envoy this round as normal.

C Buildings All C building effects are applied during endgame scoring.

Arcana Purifier: Gain five gold per arcana in your supply, up to a maximum of twenty-five gold.
Castle: Gain twelve gold.
Crypt: Gain two gold per skeleton in your supply.
Dwarven Hillhouse: Gain four gold per dwarf in your supply.
Elven Treehouse: Gain three gold per elf in your supply.
Grain Speculants: If you have at least 3/7/12 grain in your supply, gain 8/12/15 gold.
Great Statue: Gain two gold per C envoy and C building in your settlement.
Goblin Post: Gain two gold per envoy in your settlement.
Jeweler: Gain six gold.
Lighthouse: Gain two gold per ship in your supply.
Monument: Gain fifteen gold if you have at least one elf, ogre, skeleton, dwarf, and goblin in your supply.
Ogre Tax Office: Gain two gold per building in your settlement.
Ogre Temple: Gain five gold per ogre in your supply.
Ore Smelter: If you have at least 6/8/10 ore in your supply, gain 8/15/18 gold.
Tavern: Gain two gold per non-skeleton worker in your supply.
Timber Aqueduct: If you have at least 4/7/10 wood in your supply, gain 6/12/16 gold.
Toolmaker: Gain two gold per A envoy and A building in your settlement.
Trading Company: Gain three gold for each set of hay, ore, and wood in your supply, up to a maximum of eighteen gold.
Unicorn Pen: If you have at least 3/6/9 hay in your supply, gain 7/10/14 gold.
Workshop: Gain two gold per B envoy and B building in your settlement.

City Board Worker Spot Reference

Basic resource spots: gain a wood, gain an ore, gain a hay, gain a grain, gain a meat, gain a fish.

Arcana Market: up to two times, spend any three resources to gain an arcana.
Architect: Draw one building card from the board into your hand. The drawn card is not replaced until the cleanup phase of the round.
Audience Chamber: Advance on the favour track.
Builders: Choose a building card in your hand. Pay the build cost to add it to your settlement.
City Gates: Gain a worker of any type from the general supply.
Marketplace: up to three times, spend one resource to gain any resource.
Shipwright: spend two wood to add the top ship in the wharf to your supply. Do not gain the workers or resources depicted on the gained ship.

Envoy Reference

In addition to the reward listed below, for each delivery made, you gain the market value in gold. Market value depends on the round and is shown on the round tracker of the city board.

A envoys

Name	Deliveries Possible	Cost	Delivery bonus
Dwarven Witches	1-4	Two wood.	Gain one ore.
Feasting Elf Nobles	1	One meat.	Advance on the favour track.
Goblin Baby Boomers	1-2	Two grain and one wood.	Add a goblin to your supply.
Goblin Ranchers	1-4	One wood and one hay.	Gain a meat.
Grass Dwarves	1-4	Two ore.	Gain a hay.
Ogre Monks	1	One grain and one fish.	Draw one building card from the board into your hand. The drawn card is not replaced until the cleanup phase of the round.

Ventures expansion (marked with a 'v' in top right corner):

Name	Deliveries Possible	Cost	Delivery bonus
Dwarven Grain Investors	1-4	Two grain.	Gain any one resource.
Ogre Mutants	1-2	Two fish.	Choose a building card in your hand. Pay the build cost to add it to your settlement.

B envoys

Name	Deliveries Possible	Cost	Delivery bonus
Dwarf Miners	1-4	Return a dwarf from your supply to the general supply.	Gain three ore.
Goblin Foresters	1-4	Return an ogre from your supply to the general supply.	Gain three wood.
Goblin Rebels	1-4	Return a goblin from your supply to the general supply.	Gain two hay.
Greedy Dwarves	1-2	Two ore and one wood.	Gain a dwarf.
Ogre Hirelings	1-2	Three hay.	Gain an ogre.
Shipwrecked Elves	1-2	Two wood and one hay.

Ventures expansion (marked with a 'v' in top right corner):

Name	Deliveries Possible	Cost	Delivery bonus
Elven Lords	1-2	One grain, one meat, and one hay.	Gain a worker of any type.
Skeleton Converters	1-2	Return a worker of any type from your supply to the general supply.	Gain three grain.

C envoys

Name	Deliveries Possible	Cost	Delivery bonus
Dwarven Guilders	1-2	One ore.	Discard an unfulfilled envoy in your settlement.
Elven Mages	1	One arcana.	Gain five gold.
Elven Meatomancers	1-2	One meat.	Gain a worker of any type.
Goblin Vintners	1-2	One hay.	Return one worker in your settlement or on the city board to your supply.
Ogre Contractors	1	Three wood.	Choose a building card in your hand. Add it to your settlement for free, without paying the build cost.
Skeleton Pirates	1-2	Discard a building card in your hand.

Ventures expansion (marked with a 'v' in top right corner):

Name	Deliveries Possible	Cost	Delivery bonus
Dwarven Alchemists	1	One fish.	Gain one arcana.
Goblin Pyromaniacs	1-2	Discard a building card in your settlement, any workers and resources/food/coins placed on the building are discarded as well.	Advance on the favour track.

Ship Reference

Unless otherwise stated, ship effects can be used every round, and trigger when they are played on an envoy. Ship effects that happen when you deliver to an envoy can be triggered multiple times each round, depending on the number of deliveries the ship makes. Ship effects that trigger when you fulfil an envoy will trigger a maximum of once per round, regardless of how many deliveries the ship makes.

Starting ships

Argo: For each delivery, gain one additional gold.
Nautilus: When you fulfil an A envoy, receive the delivery bonus one extra time.
Scrooge: For one delivery this ship makes, get a discount of one resource.
The Sea Pickle: When you fulfil an envoy, you may make one delivery for free, without receiving the delivery bonus.
The Glass Pearl: When fulfilling an A or B envoy, you may make one delivery for free, without receiving the gold.
The Late Bloomer: In round four, when fulfilling an envoy, you may make one delivery for free.
The Merry Goer: Before fulfilling an envoy, you may swap this ship with the top ship in the wharf.

Other ships

Cirdan: For one delivery, you may receive one arcana instead of the market value in gold.
Dagon: When locking up, gain two fish.
Davos: For one delivery, you may discard a building card from hand instead of paying the cost.
Dicaprio: After fulfilling an envoy, you may discard it and this ship to gain one of each resource.
Dobby: For one delivery, you may discard a goblin from your supply instead of paying the cost.
Duncan the Tall: When locking up, you may discard the envoy this ship is placed on.
Goliath: This ship may fulfil two envoys at the same time. Pay the costs and receive the rewards simultaneously.
King of Lions: If this ship makes four or more deliveries, gain one arcana.
Lil' Kim: For one delivery, you may gain a goblin instead of the delivery bonus.
Little Sebastian: For one delivery, you may gain two gold instead of the delivery bonus.
Naglfar: For one delivery, get a discount of one food on the delivery cost.
Old Mac Donald: For each delivery, you may gain one meat instead of the market value in gold.
The Artful Dodger: When fulfilling an envoy, you may choose another envoy in your settlement. If you do, pay the costs shown on the chosen envoy for one delivery this ship makes, instead of the costs on the envoy you are fulfilling.

Ventures Expansion (marked with a 'v' on the right side)

Davy Jones: For each delivery, gain one fewer gold and one extra fish.
Gemini: This ship has the same ability as your starting ship.
Midas: When you fulfil an envoy that does not already have a coin on it, place a coin on that envoy.
Pippin: If this ship makes three or more deliveries, gain one goblin.
Prometheus: When you fulfil an envoy, you may discard one arcana in the upper city.
Razor's Edge: When you fulfil an envoy, the maximum number of times you can deliver is increased by one.
Vetinari: When you fulfil an envoy in the city, gain two gold.

Upper City Reference

Add the top ship in the wharf to your supply. Do not gain the workers or resources depicted on the gained ship.
Choose a building card in your hand. Pay the build cost to add it to your settlement. You get a discount of up to one resource on the building cost.
Gain one hay, one ore, and one wood.
Gain three fish.
Gain one worker of any type.
Flip one of the envoys in your settlement facedown. It counts as having been fulfilled this round — is not discarded when you lock up. Once you have finished locking up, flip the envoy faceup. You may fulfil it next round as normal.
Move one worker in your settlement or on the city board to your supply.
Advance on the favour track.
Choose a building card in your hand. Pay the build cost to add it to your settlement.
Gain any two resources.
Gain one meat.
Gain one goblin.
Discard an unfulfilled envoy in your settlement.
Return one worker in your settlement or on the city board to the general supply.

Strategy Guide

Goblins are expendable, and best placed in the city and on opponent's buildings. Skeletons are good to place on your own buildings. Elves give you flexibility. Place them later. Ogres are excellent for placing on resource and food generating buildings. Dwarves are great at building things.

The audience chamber, the city gates, and the architect are great spots to send workers early in the round. They will likely be taken quickly.

Don't be afraid to send workers to other player's settlements. Sending ogres to resource generating buildings is particularly effective, as you get lots of resources, and they get an ogre they need to feed! Be aware the same thing can happen to you, and plan accordingly.

Consider delivering to envoys multiple times, particularly in early rounds.

Discarding envoys is quite costly! Try to make sure you assign ships to all your envoys each round. Discarding workers due to lack of food is similarly bad. Try to have enough food to feed your workers.

Try to find time before the last round to build an extra ship at the shipwright. There are some powerful envoys that arrive later in the game and you'll want to have enough ships that you can take them.

Try not to neglect the favour track. There are some really powerful spaces, particularly higher up.

Component Limits

Workers, arcana, and ships are intended to be limited. If you would gain an arcana, worker, or ship and there are none available, instead gain nothing.

Resources, coins, and food are not intended to be limited in the game. If you run out, use the 5x/10x tokens provided.