Ready…

This guide gets you up and running in a two player game - instructing you how to make your first few turns, they aren’t necessarily the best moves to take, but cover a wide range of options. It ignores a few things like the volcanic powers and sacrifices which you can skip for the first playthrough, or add them later for a more indepth experience.

Disclaimer

For the latest rules, please see https://volcanique.rocks/rules

Set

Each player selects a critter colour and adds all critters of that colour to their hand.

Create your starting islands and place your critters by matching the diagram:

Place your critters on your starting island

Place all remaining tiles and all resources in stacks at the top of the playing area - this is the supply.

The supply set-up suggested configuration

Collect your first resources - collect 1 resource of each individual biome your critters are on.

Player 2 (Blue) collects the following bonus resource as the final step of preparation:

2 x Dark resources

Let’s begin!

GO! Turn 1 - Player 1

Red (Player 1) has these resources at the start of their turn

Red buys a trio tile for 2 x any (in this case, 1 x light and 1 x dark) resource from the Supply

Red rotates and places their tile onto Blue's starting island, squashing one of Blue's critters

Red doesn't move a critter, so claims an unlcaimed biome on the empty tile by placing their critter down, Blue's squashed critter is returned to their hand

Red collects the above resources, ending their turn

Turn 1 - Player 2 (Blue)

Blue has these resources at the start of their turn

Blue buys a duo tile for 2 x matching resource (in this case, 2 x light) from the Supply

Blue rotates and places their tile onto Red's starting island, forcing Red's critter to migrate. Blue then chooses to moves one critter

Blue claims the unclaimed biome on the empty tile with their critter, Red's critter remains where it was migrated to

Blue collects the above resource, ending their turn

Turn 2 - Player 1

Red should have these resources starting their turn

Red buys a duo tile for 2 x matching resource (2 x light) from the Supply

Red places their tile onto Blue's starting island, squashing Blue's critter

Red claims the unclaimed biome on the empty tile with their critter

Red collects the above resource, they now have more than the maximum resources

Red has to discard 2 resources to meet the maximum of 7 resources, Red has enough for a volcano next turn

Turn 2 - Player 2

Blue should have these resources starting their turn

Blue buys a duo tile for 2 x matching resource (2 x medium) from the Supply

Blue places their tile onto Red's starting island, making Red's critter migrate

As this created a contested biome, each player loses the same amount of critters from this biome

Blue is able to claim back the biome and another tile - for now...

Blue's current resources, they now have enough for a volcano...

Turns 3 Onwards

Now both players have enough resources for a volcano, or will they hold back and wait for the volcanic soil? Will they sacrifice a critter to make a tile less of a target? Will they move their critters into a more optimal position?

The decisions are yours.

Gameplay summary

Move up to 1 critter anywhere within a connected biome or into an uncontrolled biome on the current tile.*
Buy and stack a tile. Spend your resources to buy a tile from the supply. If the purchased tile was a volcano, select a new Volcanic Power from the Volcanic Power Grid.
Claim all uninhabited tiles by placing a critter on an uncontrolled biome of your choice.
Sacrifice a critter from the play area or for by using resources for extra points.*
Collect resources from your remaining critters.
Progress all lava flows. If there is no active lava, skip this step.

*Optional steps

Quickstart

Get up and playing in 5 mins