Earth
197 questions players ask about Earth, answered in plain words and graded by where the answer comes from. See also the full rulebook.
Updated 2026-10-30.
197 questions players ask about Earth, answered in plain words and graded by where the answer comes from. See also the full rulebook.
Updated 2026-10-30.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
No — the four Fauna cards are drawn at random and placed with either side up as part of shared setup. Only the Island, Climate and Ecosystem cards dealt to each player let you pick a side.
The rulebook text covers this.
No — the beginner game leaves Ecosystem cards in the box, both the two on the Fauna board and the personal one on each player board.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
Yes — choose your Island, Climate and Ecosystem cards first, then draw your starting hand.
The rulebook text covers this.
Each player is dealt two of each, keeps one Island, one Climate and one Ecosystem, discards the others, and then picks one side of each kept card.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
They are separate add-ons. Draw one Calendar card at the start and keep its chosen side for the whole game; flip a new Weather card each round.
Yes — the Calendar card is global, so every player gets its benefit. One player relays the designer saying the bonus is added on top of whatever a player already gained, even if they took the other resource option.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
Yes. If a weather card refers to seeds, which exist only in Abundance, flip another weather card and use that one instead.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
Each player gets 3 Disaster cards and keeps 2. A Disaster is played at the start of a turn before the active player picks an action, and targets one other player, all others, or everyone. None can be played in round one.
The publisher answered this directly on BGG.
The 2nd edition adds colour-blind-friendly icons plus very minor card fixes, such as adding "includes Island and Climate" to a few Fauna cards, re-centring a VP value and an icon, and renaming one Fauna card. The publisher says these are so small they would hardly count as errata.
Several players agree and the designer describes the layout as flexible, but nobody rules on this exact question.
You may slide the whole tableau around, but planted cards must keep the same positions relative to each other. Individual cards cannot be moved.
A single player's reply; no official ruling or rulebook text settles it.
Promo effects are global boons that apply to all players at all times. The thread does not settle whether the sprout option also gives the other players extra sprouts.
A single player's reply; no official ruling or rulebook text settles it.
Only cards in your hand are private. Helping someone read card text is fine; most hand cards show only icons anyway.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
Yes — on your turn you may pick any of the four actions, including the one just taken or the one you took last turn. The fifth Leaf token is only a memory aid.
The rulebook's action descriptions give every other player the lesser version of the chosen action, and community posts agree.
They follow: everyone performs the same colour as the active player, taking the lesser version of it, with no choice of their own. You pick an action only on your own turn.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
No — the lesser reward is optional. Benefits are "up to" amounts, so a follower can take some or none of it.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
No — such wording applies only when you are the active player who chose that action. When someone else picks it, you still activate your ordinary matching-colour abilities.
Yes. The restriction only stops you picking that colour on your own turn, permanently once the card is in your tableau. When another player picks it you still get the follower reward and activate matching abilities.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
Yes — benefits are up-to amounts, so you can take part or none of them, while costs must always be paid in full. The designer singled out the Planting action's draw-4-keep-1 step as an exception, mainly because solo play needs it; players disagree on how strictly it applies in a normal game.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
Yes. Everyone resolves the chosen action in its printed order (for Planting, plant first and then draw), and card abilities are activated afterwards.
The publisher answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
Yes. After each action, every player activates the abilities that match the colour chosen, not just the active player.
The rulebook text covers this.
Yes — the rulebook says all players may activate their abilities at the same time to keep the game moving. One experienced player adds that the game is meant to be played as simultaneously as possible once you know it, and that going one at a time is fine while learning.
No. The first player token stays put and only the active player token moves around the table, which is how every player gets equal turns.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
The active player declares first, then the others in clockwise order.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
Terrain is planted for its Soil cost exactly like Flora. Events can be played at any time and do not use an action.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
Shuffle the discard pile into a new draw pile (never any Compost). If both piles are empty, nobody can draw or compost from the deck; the designer says the game then ends at the end of the current round with no one earning the 7 VP bonus, though a group may agree to return some Composted cards to the supply to keep playing.
No. A multicolour card is a single ability usable as blue, red or yellow, so it counts as one. A card with two separate single-colour abilities, such as red and blue, does count as two.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
Yes. Brown and black are ability colours like the others, and an Island's black starting ability counts too.
Yes — a multicolour card counts as each of red, blue and yellow, even where the text does not say so. It does not count as green, brown or black. An effect that names only multicolour cards counts just those.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
It counts once per objective and you pick its colour separately for each, so one card can satisfy a blue objective and a yellow one. Within a single objective it counts as only one colour.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
A single ring or trunk icon counts growth pieces actually on the card, canopies included. The double-circle icon refers to the card's maximum growth (its capacity), which needs no pieces on it.
3- means 3 or fewer and 4+ means 4 or more; the listed number is included. The legend at the bottom of the player board explains the other icons.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
Yes. 1- means one or fewer habitats, so cards with zero habitats qualify and a card with more habitats is simply not counted.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Only the styled words count: colour names count when italic, geographic terms when bold, animal names when underlined, as each objective states. Not every colour or animal word is styled, which is a deliberate balance choice.
The rulebook text covers this.
No. A black ability resolves once, as soon as the card is played into your tableau.
It is a one-time effect: when you plant it, you may remove Growth from a different plant card in your tableau to pay all or some of its Soil cost instead of Soil. It applies only to this card.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
Brown abilities are either extra end-game scoring or permanent effects such as soil discounts. They are always active and need no activation, and some Island cards have them too.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
They are a reminder that the card's scoring or effect applies in those directions, for example a row. They apply to its scoring ability, not to a green ability such as Badlands' +1 soil.
A single player's reply; no official ruling or rulebook text settles it.
On Earth cards a slash normally means per, so 2 / condition means 2 points for each matching condition.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
No — unless the objective explicitly refers to Events with the lightning-bolt icon. Events are not part of your tableau.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
Generally yes, for the habitats, abilities and VP printed on them, unless the objective says the cards must be in your tableau or counts something they lack, such as a Soil cost. Ecosystem cards show a small icon when they include them.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
No. Only cards in your tableau, plus your Island and Climate where applicable, count unless a card explicitly says otherwise.
No. They never count toward other Fauna or Ecosystem objectives; only your tableau, Island, Climate and, rarely, Events can.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
Yes. For gameplay, mushrooms are grouped with plants as Flora, and lichens are counted as Herbs, as the rulebook notes.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
"Flora" excludes Terrain, Events, Island and Climate. "Cards" includes everything in your tableau plus your Island and Climate.
A single player's reply; no official ruling or rulebook text settles it.
Yes. Icons in the cost count as well as those in the benefit, and an icon in the bottom ability band counts too.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes. A card with several Flora types counts as all of them for every effect, and you choose which type to use separately for each Ecosystem.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
No. Any continuous line through the scoring card counts, which may turn but may not revisit a card, and the card itself can sit anywhere in it.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
Make a single pass in reading order — left to right along each row, then down to the next row — and activate every matching card as you reach it. Multicolour cards are activated in that same pass, not afterwards or in a second pass. The rulebook's phrase "left column to right, top row to bottom" is easy to misread; reading order is the intended meaning.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
Activate the Island, then the Climate, either entirely before or entirely after your tableau, and you may switch which each turn. You cannot activate one before the tableau and the other after, nor in the middle of it.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
Activation is always optional. Once you do activate a card, every cost (the part before a colon, or any -X) must be paid in full, but you may take the benefits partly, fully, or not at all.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
Costs after a colon must be paid first, and when a card shows several icons every listed cost must be paid to receive its benefits. The benefits can then be taken in any order, so you can draw first to reach an objective threshold and then compost the rest. Main action benefits resolve left to right as printed.
Yes. Activation only requires paying the cost; you take whatever part of the benefit you can use and any sprouts or growth without room are lost.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
No. Each card's ability resolves once per activation, so you cannot pay a cost repeatedly. The exceptions are cards that copy another card's ability and the sprouts-to-soil conversion on the player board, which can be repeated freely.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
No. Costs can be taken from any card in your tableau and benefits placed on any card with room, unless the ability names a row, column, adjacency or card type.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
Three in total, which you distribute among the eligible adjacent cards as you like, not three on each. This applies to Japanese Stewartia, Sensitive Plant (sprouts) and Angel's Trumpet (growth).
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
Yes. Without a stated direction, adjacency means all eight surrounding spaces, diagonals included. Slime Mold's growth, for instance, can go on a diagonal neighbour.
Yes. The activating card is a valid target of its own effect, so a row-wide action that gives a sprout to every Flora of a type counts the card itself, and Adansonia can place its stumps on itself.
The publisher and designer both answered this directly on BGG.
The copier's. The copying card acts like a mirror, so a copied blue action applies to the row or column where the copier sits.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
They copy abilities of the cards in your 4x4 tableau, not the Island or Climate cards on your player board, and you may pick a different card each time. Where the card says "island" it means the tableau.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
You must pay an Event's cost to play it, but taking the reward is optional, in whole or in part. An Event with no cost can be played without taking its gain.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
No. Cost reductions are normally mandatory and the designer always played them that way, though a group may house-rule them as optional.
The rulebook text covers this.
Yes. After the action you may activate matching abilities both in your tableau and on your player board.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
No. Activation happens after the action is finished. Consequently you can convert sprouts to soil between activations or between the action and activation, though not while sprouts from an action or ability are still being gained.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
No. Ecosystem and Fauna cards have no abilities and are never activated; they only score. The green abilities triggered by the Plant action sit on Flora, Terrain, Island and Climate cards.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
Yes. After the cards are planted and drawn, green abilities activate immediately, including on the card just planted.
Not necessarily; players may go simultaneously. The one constraint is that a hidden Plant must be completed by everyone before the activations that follow it.
You use it during a Plant action, in place of one of your two plantings, so it is not an activation like the colour abilities. If a card with a brown ability is planted first, you can use it before planting your second card.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
Yes. Plant first, then draw four and keep one. Followers also plant (up to one card) before drawing their one card. Planting itself is optional, so you may draw without planting.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
No. Drawing four and keeping one is mandatory on the green Planting action, unlike the other action benefits, which can be taken partially. The rest are discarded face down, not composted.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
It applies only once the card is in your tableau, so it lowers the cost of cards planted afterwards, including a second card in the same Plant action, but never the card granting it. Reductions from several sources stack, though a cost cannot go below 0.
The rulebook text covers this.
Yes. A black ability resolves immediately when the card is planted, so any Soil it gives can be spent on the second planting.
The rulebook lists only two placement rules and lets any Flora or Terrain be planted by paying its Soil; the designer's comments are consistent.
No. Symbols are only for scoring and abilities, so any Flora or Terrain you can pay for may be planted regardless of your Island or Climate.
The rulebook text covers this.
Diagonals count. After your first card, each new card must touch an existing card orthogonally or diagonally and stay within a 4x4 grid. You can leave gaps while building.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
Anywhere. The first card does not lock the grid; the 4x4 limit only bites as you add cards, and you can shift the whole tableau as long as cards keep their relative positions. Planted cards cannot be moved or removed individually.
The rulebook text covers this.
No. You may hold any number of cards in your hand.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
The card must already be in your tableau. When you take Plant, you may use one of your two plantings to compost it and put a card with the required colour ability in its place for free (red for Lava Plain, yellow for Flatland, blue for Alluvial Sediments), then draw 2 cards. It uses up a planting, so you cannot also plant a card with that planting. Multicolour cards qualify.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
Into the exact space the old card occupied, and it counts as one planting. Fauna objectives you claimed with the replaced card stay yours.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Only where a card says so. Some cards let you remove Growth, or compost cards from hand, in place of Soil; nothing allows it by default.
The rulebook text covers this.
Players simply can no longer draw or compost cards from the deck. The rulebook does not say more about this case.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
Yes, but you cannot plant any more cards; you still draw and activate green abilities. Likewise, once someone else ends the game, a player who has not finished cannot plant on their remaining turns and instead draws one card and activates green abilities.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
No. A compost-from-hand icon after a colon is a benefit, so you can compost anywhere from zero up to the number shown. The exception is a compost cost before a colon, or on an Island at setup, which must be paid in full.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
Cards paid for Horn of Plenty or Indian Oyster go to your Compost, not the discard pile. The designer first said discard and then corrected it. A symbol showing cards moving from Compost to discard is a cost paid that way.
The rulebook text covers this.
Events in your hand can be composted by effects that compost from hand. Played Events sit in your event pile and cannot be composted.
The rulebook says you may not look through a Compost pile; that counting is allowed rests on one player's reply.
You may count your own or anyone's Compost at any time, but not look at the cards. Cards in Compost are never revealed.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
At almost any time, including during other players' turns, but not while sprouts are being gained from an action or a single ability, nor in the middle of resolving a card. Sprouts you already hold may be converted before a Watering action starts, and the conversion is never forced.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
No. Sprouts only go on empty Sprout spaces, and extras that cannot be placed are lost, since you cannot convert sprouts that are not on your tableau. Free up room first by converting 3 sprouts to 2 Soil before the action.
The publisher answered this for sprouts; Growth and cards rest on player replies.
No. Placed sprouts stay where they are; they leave only by paying a cost or by converting to Soil. Players report the same for Growth and planted cards.
The rulebook text covers this.
They are spare sprouts from the punch board, to be used as a substitute if the supply of sprouts runs out.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
Yes. Benefits are optional, so you may draw anywhere from none to four. Only the Planting action's draw-4-keep-1 is mandatory.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
No — two trunks and a canopy. The last growth piece on every Flora is the canopy, and a max-1 Flora has only a canopy.
A single player's reply; no official ruling or rulebook text settles it.
Yes. Canopies count as growth pieces for costs.
The rulebook text covers this.
Yes. Place growth on any Flora with room; there is no need to finish one first. Only abilities with arrows or a named target restrict where it goes.
Yes. Himalayas says "cards" rather than Flora, so a Terrain card counts as growth 0 and can supply one of the four different growth values in a column.
The publisher answered this directly on BGG.
Yes. The 0-6 text is a misprint and the publisher will correct it to 0-8, so Giant Sequoia qualifies.
Only the printed maximum growth matters, not pieces on the card. A Flora with no growth space has growth 0 and counts, while one with a maximum above 2 does not.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
Each of the four cards must supply a different colour. Multicolour and dual-colour cards are assigned whichever of their colours fits (one only), and brown and black count as colours, so a row can use all six. A row with no valid distinct assignment does not score.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
Yes. A multicolour card counts as one of red, blue or yellow, chosen for each scoring check, so it can help complete a row of one shared colour. Dual-colour cards work the same way. Four brown cards also qualify for Waiotapu.
Yes. A multicolour card counts as either red, yellow or blue, and you choose which for each ecosystem you score. A two-colour card works the same way, using whichever of its colours helps.
It scores Flora only, never Terrain, using each Flora's canopy completion VP (the leaf value) rather than its growth slots. Flora with no growth spaces count as zero and qualify.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
No. "Locust" is not underlined on the card, which the designer says is an intentional balancing choice.
6 points per set of five cards covering yellow, blue, red, Terrain and Event, each on a different card, and 12 for two full sets. Multicolour and dual-colour cards can count as whichever colour fits, but only once per set.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
Trace a line of cards moving only diagonally, never backtracking and using each card once; a four-card line scores 16 and the seven-card maximum scores 28. Cards that are trees, or treated as trees, are what count; the percentage shows how many trees are expected in a 16-card tableau.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
No. Once a card or component has scored for an objective it cannot be used again for that same objective, but it may count toward other ecosystems.
Yes. Each Island has a black ability plus another colour, so it counts as having two abilities.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
It depends on the icon. The icon showing the actual sprout or growth pieces (a cube or ring) means pieces on the card, as for Alps and Himalayas. A different icon, the leaf in a square or the double circle, means spaces or capacity: Yagishiri counts Flora with 3 or fewer sprout spaces and Australian Temperate Flora with 6, whether or not sprouts are on them. Cards with zero sprout spaces count for a 3-or-fewer condition.
6 points per row of four cards in which every card has a habitat and the four habitats appear across four different cards. A card with several habitats is assigned whichever one fits best.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
No. It scores from the canopy value of the cards (5 or more), so no growth needs to be placed on them.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Count your cards with zero or one habitat symbol, including your Island, divide by two rounding down, and score 4 points per pair.
No. Cost-based ecosystems ignore Island and Climate cards because they have no Soil cost, and cards in hand never count unless the card says so.
A single player's reply; no official ruling or rulebook text settles it.
It needs 4 or more growth pieces on your cards. Cards that do not require growth are worded differently.
A coloured bar marks abilities usable in all three phases (multicolour cards), and the number in the lower left is the card's VP value. Parentheses around a volcano or thermometer mean the card also counts your Island and Climate cards, not just your tableau. The icon key is on each player board.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
Resolve it in turn order starting with the active player, clockwise, among only the players who qualified. The check happens after all activations of the turn, so the active player wins a tie even if the rival met it earlier in the action.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
As soon as the requirement is met, even mid-action, but the leaf goes on the board at the end of the turn. A claimed objective cannot be lost afterwards, even if you no longer meet it.
The rulebook text covers this.
Each player has five: four for the Fauna cards and one for the 7 VP end-game bonus. Each Fauna objective can be claimed only once per player, so you never run short.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
Cards. You need seven different cards with the compost ability; a card with two compost icons counts once, and Island and Climate cards with the icon count.
Eight Flora with neither growth nor sprouts on them ("or" means "nor"). Once you have claimed it, adding growth or sprouts later does not lose it; sprouts can be removed by converting them to Soil, while removing growth needs a card ability.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
Yes. A dual-colour or multicolour card counts as long as one of its colours is the required one.
Yes. A Flora with zero growth spaces counts, but Terrain does not.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
They count Flora by sprout spaces, not sprouts placed. Red Deer wants cards with 3 or fewer sprout spaces (Flora with none count, Terrain does not); American Bison wants four cards with 6 spaces. A cube symbol, unlike the leaf-in-square icon, needs pieces actually present.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
Four cards that actually carry at least three growth pieces each, so three trunks or two trunks and a canopy both work. Brown-throated Sloth, by contrast, uses the growth-space icon, so its cards may be empty.
A single player's detailed reply; a second player only confirms that Terrain does not count.
Each qualifying Flora has all growth spaces filled with a canopy and all sprout spaces filled. Terrain never counts.
The publisher answered this directly on BGG.
You must fill both full corner-to-corner diagonals of the 4x4 grid, which takes 8 cards, not just two short diagonal runs.
A single player's reply; no official ruling or rulebook text settles it.
Two full sets: two each of red, blue, yellow, Terrain and Event cards, not five of one colour group.
The designer confirmed Events do not count; the sprout-symbol point rests on player replies.
Event cards do not count. Players agree that any ability showing the sprout symbol counts regardless of what it does, including one that gives sprouts to others.
A single ring means the card needs growth pieces on it (the stated number). A ring with a smaller ring beside it, or stacked circles, means the card only needs that growth capacity, with no pieces required.
The publisher answered this directly on BGG.
No. The publisher confirmed a Fauna objective is claimed just once.
It is an ongoing brown effect: you draw one card each time you play an Event.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
It is an ongoing effect that gives you 1 Soil for each Event you play that turn; Events from earlier turns still on your board do not count.
When you activate the green ability, you gain 2 Soil for each card with a yellow ability planted that turn, so two such cards give 4. Multicolour cards count as yellow, Terrain does not unless it has the yellow ability, and the yellow icon, not Flora in general, is what triggers it.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes. They pay out only for matching cards planted during that same turn, by anyone's Plant action, not for cards already in your tableau. Whakaari gives 2 Soil per Terrain planted; its VP wording refers to end-game scoring it does not have.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes, Island and Climate abilities activate on any player's matching action. But wording such as "if you have chosen yellow" means you must be the active player who picked it.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
They are brown replacement abilities that must already be in your tableau and cost you one planting. Lava Plain composts itself, is replaced for free by a card with a red or multicolour ability, and you draw 2. Flatland composts itself and is replaced by a yellow-ability card (a multicolour card works), which still counts as planted for effects such as +2 Soil for planting yellow.
Yes, it can be used on any player's Plant action, you compost it and draw 2. Multicolour cards are widely accepted as replacements since they count as blue, though one reply disputed this because they print no blue ability.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
No. The designer says there is no typo: the cost was set deliberately by his balance formula, which weighs it against the card's effect.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
The line passes through the Terrain (the Terrain can sit anywhere along it), may turn, and never uses the same card twice. Plains counts only sunny cards and must include itself. Whether a single-card line scores is not officially settled: the card's printed range starts at 1 and the BGA developer counts it, but the designer says he originally intended two.
Community posts agree on the affected cards and the publisher confirmed errors on some cards, but no official post names Everglades itself.
Yes. The English card scores 4 points per mushroom in a continuous line, and the German card is missing a 4. Caerlaverock has the same known error and the publisher is sending replacements.
It counts as only one of its colours, so it cannot fill a colour already used in that row; you need a fourth colour such as black, green or brown.
The publisher answered this directly on BGG.
+1 Soil when the Plant action activates. The rulebook picture of the card shows an older Soil icon that the publisher plans to correct.
Yes. Spaces outside your 4x4 grid count as empty for Beach, so a Beach in a filled corner can score 8, and diagonal placement can score more. Playing Beach does not change when the game ends.
It means a single player, the one with the most of the counted item, and only that player's tableau is counted, which can be your own.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
No. They apply only to the player whose tableau holds the card.
Indian Evergreen Forest gives 10 points per 2 cards with a green ability. Putrefied Land's points are on top of the usual 1 VP per Compost card. Mineral Rich Land gives 2 points per Soil in your own reserve at game end, up to 30.
Diagonally adjacent ones. The card's arrows show diagonal and the French text says diagonal, so a printing whose text says orthogonal is a translation error.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
Yes. Your Island and Climate cards are counted along with the cards in your grid for Blossoming Land's per-card bonus.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
It goes into your Event pile, is never activated again, and scores its base VP (possibly negative) at game end. Events are not part of your tableau, so they do not count toward its 16 cards.
The rulebook text covers this.
The first player to fill all 16 spaces. If the active player and others finish on the same turn the active player gets it; if several non-active players finish together, the one nearest the active player's left, clockwise, takes it. Finishing earlier in a round beats finishing later.
The rulebook text covers this.
No. The round finishes so that everyone has taken the same number of turns, then scoring starts. If the first player to finish is early in the round, the others each get a final turn.
If the card says row or column, every card in that line counts; if it says next to, only the adjacent cards.
Several experienced players agree and the rulebook's definition of cards fits; no official ruling on this card.
Yes, most likely. The rulebook says objectives that count "cards" include your Island and Climate cards, and players read Impoverished Land that way. The BGA implementer says the cards lacked room to print the reminder.
Several experienced players read the rulebook line this way; no official ruling.
It just means not every Terrain has an end-game scoring condition. Terrains with only an instant effect, such as gaining Soil or cards, add nothing in the Terrain bonus step. The parenthetical is confusing.
No. Played Events only count for their own base VP, not for scoring conditions on Terrain, Ecosystems or Fauna, unless the card shows the lightning icon.
The rulebook text covers this.
Yes. Cards with two ability colours or multicolour abilities count as each of those colours for scoring.
The rulebook text covers this.
They are the solo AI (Gaia) deck. Keep them out of the regular Earth deck.
The rulebook text covers this.
Yes. Teammates can discuss which card to keep, and a card you gain may be placed on your side of the shared Team board for your partner to take before the turn ends.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
Gaia gains Soil equal to what you gained that turn from the red action and your red abilities, then every 10 Soil converts to 5 composted cards (1 card per 2 Soil), with any excess kept. Soil counts as gained even if you spend it on another ability the same turn, but Event Soil and setup resources are ignored. Gaia reacts on her own turn, after your action; the publisher says the rulebook text under your turn belongs under Gaia's turn.
The rulebook text covers this.
One Growth per card you gained from the yellow action's upper ability and your yellow abilities. Cards gained from Events never count. Finish your own action and abilities first, then resolve Gaia's.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
One per blue ability you have, whether or not you activate it. Multicolour abilities, and blue Island and Climate abilities, count as blue.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
No. The game ends when you complete the tableau or when Gaia's deck is exhausted the second time, and whoever ends it claims the 7 VP bonus, so if Gaia's last card ends it she gets the bonus. After a tableau-completing Plant action and its green abilities, Gaia does not flip another card.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
Yes. The designer ruled that all of the card's effects are applied before the game ends, which means you take your extra turn.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
Yes. No action is restricted, including repeating the previous turn's, though the designer notes that repeating Plant when you cannot plant anything would be a poor choice.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
Follow the card and place her Leaf on the highest available tier of one of the Fauna cards; if both are available you choose which. If she has not scored either card of the pair yet, you may choose the one you already claimed, so she takes the tier under your leaf. She can never claim the same Fauna card twice.
The publisher answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
Gaia scores the base VP printed on Terrain cards in her scoring pile, but not their brown abilities or end-game bonuses, and nothing from Island, Climate or Ecosystem cards. The publisher's reading corrects the rulebook's line that she scores no Terrain points.
The designer answered this directly on BGG, and it matches the rulebook.
You take an extra turn while Gaia skips hers, so a Beginner game runs about 16 of your turns against Gaia's 12. Beginner and Expert also apply the effect printed at the bottom of her Fauna cards.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
No. If she exceeds the printed track, keep counting; the game rarely gets that far.
No. Gaia's face-up cards are only for her own scoring, so such conditions count your tableau (and Island) alone.
The designer answered this directly on BGG and said the rules text would be corrected.
1 VP per Trunk piece plus the Canopy piece's printed value, which is 3, so a 5-piece tree is worth 7 VP. The values on Gaia's solo board are correct; the rulebook's "or the Canopy completion VP" wording is what the designer said would be corrected.
Yes. Leaves can be spent on seeds, but a player without any still picks an action on their turn and follows on others'; mark the action with a sprout or cube instead.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
No. Without a leaf you cannot score the objective, so it stays open for the next player to achieve it. If the first player to finish the tableau has no leaf, the game still ends but nobody claims the bonus.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
Yes. Any leaf works for any objective or the bonus, and the leaf marking your action can be reused. Converting a leaf into a seed is optional, so all five can stay available for the four Fauna and the bonus.
11 points, up from 7 in the base game, in every Abundance game. Other players can now convert spare leaves into seeds worth about 4 points, so the bonus rose to keep the incentive to finish first.
No. The leaf can instead be converted into a seed, and its points scored through composting, sprouting, growing or searching.
No. Seeds score nothing; they must be converted into composted cards, sprouts or growth. Only sprouts on your tableau can be converted to seeds, not those in your reserve.
A single player's reply; no official ruling or rulebook text settles it.
Yes. It can be used at any time like an Event, in the same way you convert sprouts to Soil.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
Name one attribute, turn the draw pile over and take the first card showing it. Search one attribute at a time and only those listed on the help card (such as 3- or 4+ Soil, any single tag like Cold). Naming a colour stops on rainbow and two-colour cards; naming multi stops only on multicolour ones.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
Only features tied to Fauna, Ecosystem or Terrain objectives can be searched, so seed-giving cards cannot be searched. An Event is found only if you search specifically for Event cards. Directional aids are searched generally, and Strait does not match them. Players say sprout or growth-capacity searches should skip Terrain and return Flora, but that is not an official ruling.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
Sprouts can be stored when no Flora space is free, and under the latest rules also voluntarily; stored sprouts move onto plants only at the end of a turn, cannot be spent or converted, and score nothing. Sprouts that a card says must go on specific cards are lost if full. The designer says the storage rule can be added to the base game.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Onto your Abundance player board, not your tableau, so they cannot pay for your abilities that turn. You may move them later.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
Between-turn Events are played clockwise from the active player after the main action, activations and sprout move. At game end you can still play one and place its sprouts on your tableau. Normal base-game Events can be played any time, including after moving sprouts.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
No. Their draw and Soil bonuses apply only to Events you play yourself; a BGA bug triggered them wrongly.
Yes. Bayou scores 3 per card with a growth icon, itself included; the printed +3 is there to make clear that it counts itself, as the designer confirmed.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
A card counts toward goals like Margay if it has a growth icon anywhere in its ability, black one-time growth effects included, and any card with the compost icon counts for compost goals. Events do not count. Spotted Hyena now includes Climate cards, and Honey Locust counts only your tableau, Island and Climate.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
Yes. It refers only to multicolour cards, not each colour. For a set of blue, yellow and red, a multicolour card counts as only one of them, though it can count once for each separate objective.
The column needs four cards, each with a different actual sprout count; a zero-sprout Terrain counts as one value but two such cards block it. An incomplete column does not score.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
Choose one side at the start; it affects every player for the whole game.
Reshuffle the discard pile into a new draw deck. The game ends only when a player fills their tableau.
Yes. The designer confirmed that tokens can stand in as seeds and the storage rule works without problems.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Choose one of your neighbours; the card counts the abilities of the stated colour that neighbour owns, at the ratio printed on it. Borage, for example, gives 1 sprout per 2 blue abilities, rounded down, so 5 blue abilities give 2 sprouts. In solo play use your own tableau instead.
Several experienced players agree; no official ruling.
Yes. The leaf symbol is the game's victory-point symbol, so it is 2 VP, not leaf tokens.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
Each leaf token you use gives one Animal activation, so claiming several Fauna objectives or discarding several leaves in one turn gives several. With two Animals, each activates once before either activates again. Each leaf swapped for a seed, even at game end, can trigger them.
Yes to both in general: the first use can trigger move-based abilities, and visited cards include the starting card; on first placement Python activates the yellow card it lands on. Wording differs between cards such as Common Loon and Polar Bear, so read each.
No. It activates only on each card it moves onto, so per-move effects scale with the number of landings.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
Each time it moves onto a Flora card, you may pay 3 sprouts for 1 Soil, once per card it moves onto, so a five-card move can give five Soil.
The designer answered this directly on BGG.
At the start of the starting player's turn, not at game end after the final round. A Fauna card it completes is claimed at the end of that turn, and if it completes someone's last card the end-game trigger comes that turn so others get one more main action.
After the Island, Climate and Ecosystem cards, and players choose all four at the same time.
No, neither. Fauna and Ecosystem cards score only what is on your tableau's Flora cards, not canopies on Animal cards or sprouts and growth on the Island card.
Gaia does not use seeds; each Siberian Chipmunk seed she gains scores her 5 VP at game end. For Highland Cow, the Animal Kingdom rulebook (p. 11, as a player quotes it) has her resolve the move as many times as she can afford, up to the maximum.