There’s no denying it, Volcanique can be quite the ruthless game. There are several ways a player can protect their critters through general strategy and by unlocking specific Volcanic Powers.

Protecting from Tile Placement (Squashing)

When an opponent places a new tile on top of a tile your critter occupies, your critter is typically returned to your hand. Here’s how to prevent that:

• Migration: The primary way to save a critter from being squashed is to ensure it can migrate. If the critter is on a biome that connects to an adjacent tile, you can move it to a safe tile within that same connected biome at no cost.
• Burrowing Critters Power: Unlocking this power allows you to flip a critter over, “burrowing” it. A burrowed critter is completely protected from being removed by a player stacking a land tile on its location. However, it cannot move or collect resources while burrowed and can still be targeted by volcanoes.

Protecting from Volcanoes and Lava (Targeting)

Volcanoes and the subsequent lava flows are major threats that can remove critters from the board.

• Strategic Positioning: Avoid clustering multiple critters on a single tile, as this makes them a high-value target for a single volcano. The rules specifically mention this is a “risky position”.
• Evacuation (Lava Flow): The standard way to save a critter from an incoming lava flow is to pay 2 resources to evacuate it to an adjacent, connected biome. If you cannot pay or there is no connecting biome, the critter is wiped out.

Key Volcanic Powers for Protection:

• Volcanic Migration: This power allows your critters to migrate away from a tile targeted by a volcano, which normally removes all critters without allowing migration. This costs 3 resources per critter.
• Lava Diversion: If your critter is in the path of a lava flow, this power gives you a chance to re-roll and redirect the lava to one of two adjacent tiles, potentially saving your critter.
• Colossal Critter: This 2-HP critter is more resilient. It can survive a volcano activation by evacuating (losing 1 HP in the process). It can also stop a lava flow completely by taking 1 HP of damage.

Protecting from Opponent’s Critters

Some powers allow opponents to target your critters directly.

• Against Pack Critters: The Pack Critters power allows an opponent to move onto your biome and wipe out your critters. The best defense is to create a larger pack of your own or form a defensive herd with the Herding Critters power, which can only be overwhelmed by a pack that is larger than the herd. You can also burrow your critters to protect them from a pack, though if the pack hasn’t moved by the end of the game, your burrowed critters will be wiped out.

• Against Cooperative Critters: If an opponent with this power moves onto your controlled biome, they will wipe out your critter. The main defense is to have unlocked Cooperative Critters for yourself, which results in sharing the biome instead.

The Decoy

Intentionally make one of your critters appear as critical to your entire strategy. By placing this single critter in a conspicuous or seemingly aggressive position, perhaps on a tall stack or on the largest biome, you can trick your opponents into focusing their resources on this decoy.

While they waste a turn attempting to squash or target your hyped-up critter, your other, more valuable critters can quietly expand across the board, secure valuable biomes and resources. A successful bluff trades one ‘pawn’ to protect your biomes, diverting enemy attention and buying you the crucial time needed to build a winning position.