Gamehelpsquirrelisland

Gameplay overview

In Squirrel Island you will build up your own team of squirrels to help you gather as many nuts as possible over a series of 4 days.

• You begin each day with gaining new resources.
• Then take turns and use those resources to play squirrel and item cards.
• If you can’t play any card you instead go to sleep.
• When all players have gone to sleep you begin the next day.
• The one with most nuts after the final day wins!

Components

• Cards contain squirrels and items you can play. There are cards in your hand, in the draw deck and on the islandboard.
• The player with most nuts at the end of the game wins. Players can not have a negative amount of nuts.
• Stamina is what you use to play squirrels. You can not have more than 5 stamina. Any stamina you gain when your bar is full will instead give you 1 nut each.
• Coins are mainly used to play items. You can use 3 coins to pay for 1 stamina.
• The player who has the first player token will start playing each new day.

Gameplay

You begin the game and each new day with a morning phase. Now all players will collect resources simultaneously. What resources to collect is shown on the Island board for each day. After the morning phase you begin taking turns around the table.

Details

Actions on your turn

• On your turn, when you are awake, you play one card from either your hand or the Island. You can only play one card at a time and then you pass the turn to the player on your left. If you do not play a card you instead go to sleep.
• To play a card from your hand you must first pay its cost. After you have paid the cost you play out the card in front of you and resolve its play effect.
• Instead of playing a card from your hand you can play one from the Island. The only difference is that you must pay an additional cost of either 1 stamina or 1 coin. This cost is not dependent on the type of card you play.
• When it is your turn you can also choose to go to sleep. The current day continues until everyone is asleep.

• Even though you are asleep you still take your turns. You can not play any more cards but instead you may gather 1 nut if you exhaust any 1 of your squirrels. You do this the turn you go to sleep as well. If you do not have any squirrels to exhaust you pass the turn. You may pass without exhausting but you may not exhaust more than 1 squirrel on each of your turns.
• When everyone is asleep on day 1-3, the next day starts with a morning phase, where every player gains resources, as depicted on the island board.
• When all players have gone to sleep on the fourth and final day, the game ends. Instead of starting a new day you will now add your stashed nuts to your collection. Reveal your stashed cards and add the combined stash value from them together with the nuts you have gathered to see your final score. The player with most nuts wins the game! In case of a tied score the tied player with most squirrels wins. If it is still a tie the residents of Squirrel Island consider you equally worthy to be known as champions!

Playing a card

• Items cost coins to play. If you play an item you resolve the play effect first and then place it to the right of your mat. The items you have played form a pile called your used items.
• Squirrels cost stamina to play. If you play a squirrel you place it in front of your player mat and then resolve their play effect. The ability on squirrels is not part of this effect. Thus you do not collect its loops when you play a squirrel.
• The most common squirrel tribe is Tree followed by Ground, then Flying.
• Most squirrels have one or more so called loops that you will collect each morning phase. The symbol inside the loop shows what resource you will gain 1 of when you collect that loop. You can also play cards that let you collect loops from squirrels if you exhaust them.

Effects

• Squirrels can be either refreshed or exhausted. A squirrel is always refreshed after you play it and all squirrels become refreshed at the start of each new day. To exhaust a squirrel you rotate the squirrel card sideways to show that it is exhausted. An exhausted squirrel does not give you its abilities. To refresh a squirrel that has been exhausted, you rotate it back up. You can not exhaust or refresh other players squirrels unless it is specifically stated.
• The unique squirrels have unique abilities instead of loops. These abilities either activate when you do something specific on your turn or they have an ongoing effect that only applies to you. If the squirrel is exhausted you do not have its unique ability. The unique abilities that activates on your turn does not activate during the morning phase. The unique squirrels play effect can activate its own ability. The unique abilities are not optional.
• Some effects will tell you to stash a card. This means you tuck the card face-down, halfway under your player mat. All cards have a stash value in the bottom right corner which indicates how many nuts the card will give you at the end of the game if it has been stashed. The stashed cards remain stashed until the end of the game. You are not allowed to peek at what you have stashed while playing. When you stash a card from the top of the deck you do not look at it. If you would stash a card from your hand you choose which one to stash.
• If a card tells you to Go again! you will take another turn instead of passing the turn. This new turn works just like a normal turn where you can play a card or go to sleep and gather 1 nut. If you get more than one instance of Go again! you will take that many more turns, even if you go to sleep.
• There are some cards with effects that have white text on a red background, these are called sabotage effects. This is only to show that it affects the other players.