Builder's High Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Game Overview
  • Goal of the game
  • Course of the game
  • Round sequence
• Setup
  • Player Setup
  • Setting Up the Center
• Procure
• Exchange
• Construct
  • Paying construction costs
• Building card abilities
• Achieving city planning card (Only once during each game)
• Achieving victory conditions
• End of the game
• Rules clarification
  • Constructing identical building
  • Building Card Abilities and Rules
  • When the deck runs out
  • Builder's High Easy Mode

Contents

• 45 Budget Cards (21 2M, 15 5M, 9 10M)
• 54 Building Cards (3 each of 18 unique cards)
• 9 City Planning Cards (9 unique cards)
• 5 Reference Cards (1 reference with a "1" on the top right)

Game Overview

Goal of the game

Achieve any city planning cards in the Center and use up all of the cards in your hand (reduce your hand to 0).

Course of the game

Players take turns in clockwise order starting with the first player. When any player achieves the victory conditions, continue playing until the player to the right of the first player finish their turn and the game ends.

[Errata: the publisher's errata corrects this direction. The game ends after the turn of the player to the LEFT of the first player, not the right. The same applies to the "End of the game" section below.]

Round sequence

During your turn, you can either Procure, Exchange, or Construct. A player chooses 1 of the 3 actions to conduct in their turn.

(Reference card: take one action during your turn. Procure: add a budget card or building card to your hand (draw 2 cards from the deck or take 1 card from the Center).)

Setup

Separate the budget cards, building cards, and city planning cards and shuffle them into 3 individual decks facing down.

Player Setup

Deal 5 budget cards and 5 building cards face down to each player as their hand. Next, decide the first player randomly, and give that player the reference card with a "1" written on it. All other players take a reference card without the number "1". Each player then place their reference card in front of them in their play area.

Setting Up the Center

The center of the table forms the City Center, which will be known as Center onwards. Place the budget, building, and city planning deck beside the Center.

Reveal 9 cards from the building deck face up and reveal 1 card plus the number of players from the city planning deck face up.

(Layout diagram: Center contains the city planning cards face up (number of players + 1), 9 building cards facing up, and 5 cards each for budget and building in a player's hand. A discard pile is beside the Center.)

Procure

Choose a budget card or building card from the Center and add it to your hand. If you choose to draw from the deck instead, you must draw 2 cards to add to your hand. When drawing cards from the deck, you may choose either budget card and building card to draw for each card individually.

• Draw from deck: add 2 cards to hand.
• Pick from Center: add 1 card to hand.

Exchange

Exchange 1 card in your hand with 1 face up card in the Center. You must exchange with card of the same type.

(Example: place 2M to the Center and take 10M.)

Construct

Choose one building card from your hand and pay it's construction cost. After that, place the building constructed into your play area. The construction cost required to is shown in the upper left corner of the building card.

(Card diagram: name, building type, construction cost, difficulty, examples of budget card combinations, card ability, ability icon. Pay the cost from your hand to the Center, and place the building card in your play area. Example: 2+2+5+5=14.)

Paying construction costs

To pay the construction cost of a building, you must combine the budget cards in your hand. You may use any combination of different budget cards, but the total budget must be exactly equal to the construction cost.

Place all budget cards used to pay for the construction cost face up, sorted by type next to the budget deck in the Center.

Building card abilities

Each building card has an ability that must be resolved, unless it states "may" in its ability where you could choose to resolve or not. Abilities with a lightning-bolt icon state that this ability is resolved as soon as they are played to the play area. Abilities with a hand icon could only be used after your current turn.

Icons:

• Lightning bolt: Resolve immediately
• Hand: Activate during your turn
• Building card icon: Building card
• Budget card icon: Budget card
• Orange card icon: City planning card

For more information regarding each ability, refer to the list of building cards on the back of this rule sheet. (Not available in this transcription; see source note.)

[Errata, Tax Office card (3 copies): "When another player pays a budget card as construction cost, you may take 1 card into your hand." The Japanese errata prints a budget icon (shown as 2M in the sourcing notes) that is not machine-readable, so the exact budget denomination is per the errata sheet; the full original card text is on the unavailable back side.]

Achieving city planning card (Only once during each game)

After constructing a building card to your play area, check if you have achieve the requirement of any city planning card in the Center. If you achieve any, take that city planning card and place it face up in your play area, in an upright position. Each player may only achieve one city planning card during the course of the game.

Achieving victory conditions

If any player have a city planning card in their play area and they have no cards in their hand, that player achieves the victory condition. Once a player met the victory conditions, continue the game for the last round and end the game.

End of the game

Once any player has met the victory conditions, continue playing until the player to the right of the first player finish their turn and the game ends. [Errata: the game ends after the turn of the player to the LEFT of the first player.]

If only one player achieved the victory conditions, that player is the winner. If more than one player achieved the victory conditions, the player with more building cards in their play area is the winner. If the number of building cards is the same, those players share the victory.

(Diagram: a city planning card taken from the Center and placed in your play area, with building cards that match the requirement of the city planning card. Achieved city planning card plus no cards in hand: if you meet both requirements, you win the game!)

Rules clarification

Constructing identical building

Players are allow to construct building cards with the same name. If multiple building cards in your play area have the same (hand) ability, you may repeat the ability for each card with the same ability.

Building Card Abilities and Rules

If any building card's ability contradicts the rules of the game, ignore the rules and resolve the effect of the ability. Beware that abilities marked with the hand icon could only be used from the next turn after you construct it.

When the deck runs out

If you need to draw cards when the deck is depleted, shuffle the cards in the Center and the discard pile face down to create a new deck.

Builder's High Easy Mode

If you are playing this game for the first time, you may want to remove the city planning card from the game and change the victory condition to "reduce your hand to 0" only.