Evenglow Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Components
• Setup
  • Who goes first?
  • Seed your garden
• Gameplay
  • Overview
  • On Your Turn
  • Plant Tiles
  • Potions
    • Gaining Potions
    • Harvested Tiles
  • Potions (Continued)
    • Using Potions
• Game End
• Scoring
  • • Forfeited Scoring
    • Scoring Example
  • Winning
• My First Gardens (Family Variant)
  • Setup
  • Gameplay
  • Scoring
• Play Against the Unseen (Solo Variant)
  • Setup
  • Turns
  • End Game and Scoring
  • Gaining and Using Potions

Overview

In Evenglow, you become one of these alchemists tending your gardens in this mysterious grove. Through careful planning, you'll plant tiles in both your Sunlight and Moonlight gardens, mirroring each placement to create balance. Different plant types require different configurations to thrive, and some can be used to create potions that can speed you on your journey. After a certain number of rounds, you'll add up the points from your Sunlight and Moonlight gardens, and the player with the most points wins.

Components

• Plant tiles: Vines (connect to Leaves), Leaves (connect to Vines), Henbane Flowers, Lion's Mane, Mandrake, Elderberries — 264 Plant tiles total (44 of each)
• 4 Garden boards (Solo Variant boards are on the reverse side)
• 21 Plant cards
• 4 Seed cards
• 30 Potion cards (10 of each: Tincture of Transmutation, Chaos Elixir, Essence of Undew)
• 24 Harvest tokens
• 1 Draft board
• 1 Score pad

Setup

1. Give each player a Garden board.

2. Place the Harvest tokens, Plant tiles, and Potion cards nearby, creating a supply of each.

3. Shuffle the Plant card deck and create a deck with the number of cards corresponding to your player count, according to the chart below.

   Players	Plant cards
   2	20
   3	21
   4	20

4. Deal one Plant card to each player. Players may look at their card but should keep it hidden from the other players.

Who goes first?

The last person to pick a fruit becomes the first player and places the Draft board above their Garden board, with the Active Player side pointed towards them.

Seed your garden

Flip one Seed card. This card specifies two tiles that each player will add to the indicated spaces on their Garden board.

For example, a Seed card might indicate that the first player (P1) will receive a Henbane Flowers tile and a Vine tile; Player 2 (the next player in clockwise order) will receive a Henbane Flowers tile and a Leaf tile; Player 3 receives a Henbane Flowers tile and a Leaf tile; and Player 4 receives a Henbane Flowers tile and a Vine tile.

All players then place their tiles onto the space numbered 7 in their Sunlight and Moonlight gardens and may choose which to place where.

Gameplay

Overview

In Evenglow you will alternate taking turns in a clockwise direction until all Plant cards have been played.

On each turn, the active player will choose an orientation for the Plant card in their hand, which determines which Plant tiles they will add to their gardens.

Plant tiles award points if they are arranged in certain configurations at the end of the game. Some tile configurations also grant you potions which can be used to modify your actions in the future.

Every time a player plants in their own gardens, however, they must also offer plants to the other alchemists in the grove. In order to maintain magical balance, all gardens must develop at a similar pace.

Anytime you place a pair of tiles, they must be in mirrored positions in each of the two gardens.

After all Plant cards have been played, the game ends and players add up their points.

In this scenario, the Active Player choses to plant a Mandrake tile and a Henbane Flowers tile. The Active Player places the tiles in space #3 on both sides of their Garden board.

On Your Turn

1. Place the Plant card in your hand onto the draft board.
   • Rotate the card until you are satisfied with its orientation.
   • The 2 plant types indicated on the Active Player side are the tiles you will place this turn.
   • The plant types indicated on the Everyone Else side are the tiles everybody else will place this turn.
2. All players simultaneously place the indicated tiles in mirrored spaces in each of their gardens, following the rules below.
   • Place one of the Plant tiles in the Moonlight garden, and the other in the Sunlight garden on your Garden board. You can choose which tile goes into which garden, but the two must be placed into opposite gardens.
   • Plant tiles must always be played into mirrored spaces in each garden. Mirrored spaces can be identified by finding the matching numbers in each garden. For example, if you play one of the tiles onto space 13 on the Moonlight side of the board, the other tile must be placed onto space 13 on the Sunlight side of the board.
   • Plant tiles may be placed onto any open space.
   • Once placed, Plant tiles may not be rotated or moved without the use of a potion (see Potions below).
3. If there are Plant cards remaining in the deck, draw a new card into your hand. If the draw deck is exhausted, skip this step.
4. After all players have placed their Plant tiles, discard the Plant card on the Draft board to a discard pile beside the Plant card deck. Then, pass the Draft board to the next player so the Active Player side is pointed towards their Garden board.

For more information on how to choose which Plant tiles you want and where to place them, see Scoring below.

Plant Tiles

There are 6 different Plant tiles in the game: Vine, Leaves, Henbane Flowers, Lion's Mane, Mandrake, and Elderberries.

Plant tiles award points if they are arranged in certain configurations at the end of the game. Below is a breakdown of the basic scoring configurations for each tile. For more information on tile configurations and how they score, see Scoring below.

Vines (green)

• Score 1 point per Vine tile in the largest connected group of Vines in each garden (Sunlight and Moonlight).
• Vine tiles are considered connected if any of the four stems share a tile edge.

Leaves (blue)

• Score 2 points per Leaf connected to the largest group of Vines in each garden. There are two Leaves on each tile.
• A Leaf is considered "connected" to a Vine tile if the stem of the Leaf shares an edge with one of the four stems on the adjacent Vine tile.

Henbane Flowers (purple)

• Score 2 points per set of exactly two adjacent Henbane Flowers tiles.
• Score 2 additional points if neither of the tiles in the scoring set are on the perimeter of the garden.

Lion's Mane (orange)

• Score 3 points per set of exactly three connected Lion's Mane tiles.
• Potion bonus (see Potions below).

Mandrake (yellow)

• Score four points per set of exactly four connected Mandrake tiles.
• Potion bonus (see Potions below).

Elderberries (red)

• In each set of exactly 5 connected Elderberries tiles, score one point for every tile that is on the perimeter of the garden.
• Potion bonus (see Potions below).

"Plant tiles award points if they are arranged in certain configurations at the end of the game."

Potions

Throughout the game, you may acquire Potion cards due to how your Plant tiles are placed. Each Potion card awards points whether or not you use the potion, and the potion's action can only be used once per card.

The three Potion cards are Essence of Undew, Chaos Elixir, and Tincture of Transmutation.

Gaining Potions

If you can arrange them in a specific way, Lion's Mane (orange), Mandrake (yellow), and Elderberries (red) Plant tiles may be Harvested and will award you a Potion card.

If at any point, you create one of the specified configurations, you immediately Harvest those tiles by placing a Harvest token on that configuration and drawing the corresponding Potion card (see Harvested Tiles below).

If you can meet the conditions specified below, you will Harvest your Plant tiles and gain the associated Potion card.

• Lion's Mane tiles award you an Essence of Undew Potion card if you arrange exactly 3 Lion's Mane tiles in a triangle. When you do this, immediately add a Harvest token to the center of that triangle and draw an orange Essence of Undew Potion card.
• Mandrake Plant tiles grant you a Chaos Elixir Potion card if you arrange exactly 4 of them in a straight line. This can be a horizontal or diagonal line. Immediately add a Harvest token to the center of that line and draw a yellow Chaos Elixir Potion card.
• Elderberries Plant tiles grant you a Tincture of Transmutation Potion card if they are arranged in any configuration of exactly 5 tiles. Add a Harvest token to this configuration and immediately draw a red Tincture of Transmutation Potion card.

Harvested Tiles

Once a formation is Harvested, the Plant tiles that comprise that formation are locked and may not be moved or replaced for the remainder of the game.

Adding additional Plant tiles of the same type to these configurations will have no effect and will not grant additional Potion cards, but may affect the scoring for that formation at the end of the game (see Forfeited Scoring below).

Tiles covered by Harvest tokens will still score at the end of the game, if they still meet the scoring requirements (see Scoring below).

In the event that you add a matching Plant tile to a Harvested formation, the newly added tile is not locked, so it's important to keep track of which tile is which in this case.

Potions (Continued)

Using Potions

On any player's turn, but only once per turn, you may use these Potions by flipping the card face down and carrying out its ability.

Once used, the Potions remain in front of you, but may not be used again. They will score you a number of points specified on the card whether or not you use them.

Essence of Undew (3 points)

To use this potion, select any two Plant tiles in your gardens that are not in a Harvested formation and switch them with each other.

When switching these Plant tiles, you may freely rotate them into any orientation of your choosing.

The Plant tiles you choose may be from the same garden or from different gardens.

TIP: You can use this potion to replace a tile with the same tile type as a means of rotating the tile to a different orientation.

Example: On her turn, Valley chooses to use her Essence of Undew potion by flipping the card and carrying out its action. She takes a highlighted Henbane Flowers tile in her Moonlight garden and swaps it with the Vine tile in her Sunlight garden. She also rotates the Vine tile to align with the surrounding Vine and Leaf tiles before she places it in her Moonlight garden.

Chaos Elixir (4 points)

When you use this potion, you can choose to place one Plant tile from your side of the played card and one Plant tile from the side of the card that isn't facing you.

Any combination of two Plant tiles indicated on the Plant card is valid, as long as one of those tiles is on your side of the card.

Take the two tiles of your choosing and add them to your gardens as normal.

Example: Valley, who is not the active player, chooses to use her Chaos Elixir potion by flipping the card and carrying out its action. Instead of adding the Henbane Flowers tile on the Everyone Else side of the board, she chooses to take the Lion's Mane tile on the Active Player side along with the Elderberries tile. She adds these to her gardens as normal by placing both tiles in the #8 space of each side of her Garden board.

Tincture of Transmutation (5 points)

Using this potion allows you to choose one un-Harvested Plant tile on your board and replace it with any Plant tile from the supply. This new Plant tile must be placed in the same space as the tile you are replacing, but may be of any type and may be oriented however you wish.

Example: Valley chooses to use her Tincture of Transmutation potion by flipping the card and carrying out its action. She discards a Lion's Mane tile from her board to the supply and replaces it with a Vine from the supply.

You can score an additional 3 points at the end of the game for every complete set of orange, yellow, and red Potion cards you acquired. See Scoring below for details.

Game End

There are 2 ways the game can end:

1. Plant tile supply is exhausted. The game ends when the supply of any one Plant tile type is exhausted; the game immediately ends once the current turn is completed.

   In the rare event that there are not enough of a certain Plant tile in supply for all players on a turn, each player will add Plant tiles in turn order, starting with the active player and continuing clockwise until the supply is empty.

   Any players who did not place a Plant tile as a result of the supply running out may place any Plant tile in place of the depleted tile type.

2. Last Plant card has been played. The game ends when the last Plant card has been played and the resulting Plant tiles have been placed.

Scoring

After the last card is played, everyone scores based on the Plant tiles in their gardens and the Potion cards they've earned.

Follow the Score sheet from top to bottom, using this section of the Rulebook as a reference.

Each Plant tile type has a base scoring condition. Henbane Flowers, Lion's Mane, Mandrakes, and Elderberries have bonus scoring conditions that may be potions or additional points.

"The game ends when the last Plant card has been played and the resulting Plant tiles have been placed."

REMEMBER: In order to score or earn some bonuses, each Plant tile set must be in the exact formation specified below. For example, if a scoring condition requires a set of 3, adding a 4th tile to that set will nullify it for scoring purposes.

Vines (green)

• Score 1 point per Vine tile in the largest connected group of Vines in your Sunlight garden and your Moonlight garden. The largest connected group in each garden is scored.
• Vine tiles are considered connected if any of the four stems share a tile edge.

Example: A These 4 tiles score 1 point each as the 4 Vines constitute the largest connected group. B This tile does not score, as it's not connected to the largest group of connected Vines. C This tile does not score, as the Vines on the tile do not connect to the adjacent Vine tile in the largest group.

Leaves (blue)

• Score 2 points per Leaf connected to the largest group of Vines in both your Sunlight and Moonlight gardens. Leaf tiles contain two separate leaves, each of which may score individually if connected to the largest group of Vines, so each Leaf tile will score 0, 2, or 4 points depending on those connections.
• A Leaf is considered "connected" to a Vine tile if the stem of the Leaf shares an edge with one of the four stems on the adjacent Vine tile.

Example: A Both Leaves are connected to the largest group of Vines, and score 2 points each for a total of 4 points. B One Leaf is connected to a Vine tile that is not in the largest group of Vines, so neither it nor the other disconnected Leaf score. Only one Leaf is connected to the largest group of Vines, so it scores 2 points. C The other Leaf is not connected, so it does not score.

Henbane Flowers (purple)

• Score 2 points per set of exactly two adjacent Henbane Flowers tiles.

Henbane Flowers Bonus

• Score 2 additional points if neither of the tiles in the scoring set are on the perimeter of the garden.

Example: A This pair of 2 Henbane Flowers scores 2 points. Plus, neither tile is on the perimeter of the garden, so this set scores an additional 2 point bonus for a total of 4 points. B This set of 2 scores 2 points, but does not earn the 2-point bonus because at least 1 of the tiles is on the perimeter of the garden. C This set of 3 does not score, as it is not a set of exactly 2.

Lion's Mane (orange)

• Score 3 points per set of exactly three connected Lion's Mane tiles.

Lion's Mane Bonus

• Lion's Mane tiles award the player with an orange Essence of Undew Potion card immediately when exactly three Lion's Mane tiles are placed in a triangle. This potion will be worth 3 points at the end of the game whether or not the potion is used.

Example: A This set of exactly 3 Lion's Mane tiles scores 3 points. B This set of 3 scores 3 points, and because it's arranged in a triangle, the player also earned an Essence of Undew potion which is worth another 3 points. C This set of 4 does not score, since in order to score it has to be a set of exactly 3.

Forfeited Scoring

It is possible to not score Harvested formations of Plant tiles at the end of the game. After a formation is Harvested and receives a Harvest token, if another Plant tile of the same type is placed adjacent to that formation, the formation becomes invalid for scoring purposes. The Harvest token remains on the formation and the player retains the Potion card it earned, but they will not earn the points from the formation unless the extra tile is moved and the scoring condition is restored.

Example: Valley created a group of 3 Lion's Mane tiles during the game that was Harvested to earn an Essence of Undew Potion card. Later in play she added a 4th Lion's Mane to the group. This 4th tile has no effect on the potion previously earned and is not locked. However, since she didn't use a potion to move it or swap it before the end of the game, the group of 4 scores 0 points.

Mandrake (yellow)

• Score 4 points per set of exactly four connected Mandrake tiles.

Mandrake Bonus

• Mandrake tiles award the player with a yellow Chaos Elixir card immediately when exactly four Mandrake tiles are placed in a straight line (horizontal or diagonal). This Potion will be worth 4 points at the end of the game whether or not the Potion is used.

Example: A This set of 4 Mandrakes scores 4 points, and because it's arranged in a straight line the player also earns a Chaos Elixir Potion card which is worth another 4 points. B This set of 3 does not score, because exactly 4 are required. C This set of 4 scores 4 points, but since it's not arranged in a straight line, no bonus is awarded.

Elderberries (red)

• When completing a set of exactly 5 connected Elderberries tiles, you immediately gain a red Tincture of Transmutation Potion, which will be worth 5 points whether or not the Potion is used.

Berry Bonus

• In each set of exactly 5 connected Elderberries tiles, score one point for every tile that is on the perimeter of the garden.

Example: A This set of 5 Elderberries tiles earns the player a Tincture of Transmutation Potion card which is worth 5 points, and because two tiles are on the perimeter, the player earns another 2 points (1 for each tile on the perimeter of the garden). B This set of 4 does not score as exactly 5 are required.

Potion Set Bonus

Score an additional 3 points for every set of three Potion cards you've earned throughout the game. This bonus is awarded whether the potions have been used or not, and multiple sets may be scored, but each Potion card may only be counted towards 1 set.

Scoring Example

Valley follows the Score sheet, starting from the top.

Vines: Valley looks for the largest connected set of Vines in each garden. There are three Vine Plant tiles in the Moonlight Garden which scores 3 points. The Sunlight Garden only has two connecting Vine Plant tiles, scoring her 2 points.

Leaves: She then looks for any leaves connected to these two groups of Vines. In the Moonlight Garden, there is a Leaf Plant tile with two Leaves connected to the vines, and another with only one Leaf connected, totaling 6 points.

Henbane Flowers: Next, Valley counts each pair of exactly 2 adjacent Henbane Flowers Plant tiles. There are two in the Moonlight Garden, scoring her 4 points. But wait! One of the pairs is not touching a perimeter so she gains a 2-point bonus. Since there is a cluster of 3 tiles in the Sunlight Garden, she doesn't score any more points.

Lion's Mane: Each set of exactly 3 connected Lion's Mane Plant tiles scores 3 points. Valley counts 3 sets for a total of 9 points.

Mandrake: There is only one set of exactly 4 Mandrake Plant tiles, located in the Sunlight Garden. Valley receives 4 points.

Elderberries: Connecting exactly 5 Elderberries Plant tiles granted Valley a Potion card, but she also gains 1 point for each of these tiles because the group is touching the perimeter of a garden. That's a total bonus of 4 points.

Potions: Valley adds the point values on both her used and unused Potion cards for a total of 15 points. There is only one complete set of 3 Potions cards which awards her another 3 points.

Winning

After totaling your points, the player with the most points wins.

If tied, the player with the most potions is the winner.

If still tied, the player with the most unused potions wins.

If there is still a tie, players share the victory.

My First Gardens (Family Variant)

You're a gentle gardener who loves to help the forest grow! Plant colorful seeds in your Sunlight and Moonlight gardens in this simplified variant meant for families.

Setup

Follow the setup instructions for the base game, with the following exception:

• Potion cards and Harvest tokens are not used and may be left in the box.

Gameplay

For this family variant, gameplay remains the same as in the base game with one exception. Potions and Harvest tokens are not available.

Scoring

1. Vines & Leaves — 1 point per tile in the largest adjacent group of Vines in each garden, whether the stems on the tiles connect or not. 2 points per Leaf tile adjacent to any Vine tile, even if the stems on the tiles don't connect.
2. Henbane Flowers — 2 points per set of exactly two adjacent Henbane Flowers tiles.
3. Lion's Mane — 3 points per set of exactly three connected Lion's Mane tiles.
4. Mandrake — 4 points per set of exactly 4 connected Mandrake tiles.
5. Elderberries — 5 points for exactly 5 connecting Elderberries tiles.
6. Ignore all bonus scoring conditions.

Play Against the Unseen (Solo Variant)

In the Solo version of Evenglow, you tend your garden and brew powerful potions. But plants that you neglect fall into the Unseen, a liminal space where all that is placed there is lost forever. If too many plants fall into the Unseen, it will expand, disrupting the balance of the grove and destroying all that you've worked to create.

Setup

Set up the game as you would for a 2-player game with the following changes:

• Instead of setting up a Garden board for the second player, place the Solo board in the play area. The Solo board can be found by turning over the designated Garden board that is double-sided, indicated by: For Solo play only.
• When creating the Plant card deck, shuffle and keep only 18 cards, return the rest unseen to the box.

"...The Unseen, a liminal space where all that is placed there is lost forever."

Turns

1. Reveal your Plant card, orienting the card on the Draft board in the manner that places the tiles you want on the Active Player side of the board. Take those tiles and add them to the mirrored spaces on your Sunlight and Moonlight gardens as normal.
2. For the Unseen, place the other two tiles on the Everyone Else side of the Plant card into the rows on the Solo board. After the first Plant tile is placed in a row, place subsequent tiles of matching types into the same row.
3. Continue taking turns until you've played your 18th card (you should have 6 empty spaces in both gardens).

End Game and Scoring

The game ends after you've placed Plant tiles from the 18th card in your gardens and on the Solo board. Play immediately progresses to scoring.

You score as normal. Score on the Solo board for the Unseen. Each row scores the highest value that has been covered.

If you outscore the Unseen, you win!

Gaining and Using Potions

Type	Tile Configuration	Potion Card	Potion Action
Lion's Mane & Essence of Undew	Exactly 3 Lion's Mane arranged in a triangle	Essence of Undew	Swap positions of any 2 unlocked tiles.
Mandrake & Chaos Elixir	Exactly 4 Mandrakes arranged in a straight line	Chaos Elixir	Plant a tile from the Active Player side and a tile from the Everyone Else side of the draft board.
Elderberries & Tincture of Transmutation	Exactly 5 connecting Elderberries in any shape	Tincture of Transmutation	Replace 1 unlocked tile with another tile from supply.