Five Peaks
Five Peaks Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Goal of the Game
Your task is to score the most victory points while hiking in the mountains. By playing hiking cards, you will travel the trails and gather resources. You will discover mountain peaks and see parts of the mountain panorama. By discovering new peaks, building towers of stones on them, collecting panorama cards, and fulfilling the conditions of campfire cards, you will score points at the end of the game, which will determine the winner.
Game Components
5 sets: 1 set for each player. Each set includes:
- a pawn in 1 of 5 colors – this represents the player hiking around the board;
- 5 starting cards (the starting deck for each player's hike) – each set has the same cards, with card backs in a player's color;
- 5 stones in a player's color, to mark that a player reached a peak;
- a backpack in a player's color; a player's resources go on this board, which can hold at most 10 resources.
Also:
- Notepad and pencil to help score points at the end of the game.
- 2 containers to conveniently store endorphins and resources after punching them out.
- 14 terrain tiles – 1 starting tile with the parking area, 6 forest tiles, 4 alpine tiles, 3 rocky tiles.
- 15 peak tiles – represent the surrounding hills, lookout points, and mountain peaks. Like the terrain tiles, these have 3 different backs: forest, alpine, rocky.
- 15 hiking badges – bonus points for discovering a new peak. These also have 3 different backs: forest, alpine, rocky.
- 96 resources – various mushrooms, berries, and herbs you'll find along the way, as well as baskets, jars, and pouches full of them. Resources can be used to buy panorama cards or rewards available on the board.
- 30 panorama cards – are mountain views you can collect during the game. Each panorama spans up to 6 cards.
- 65 endorphin tokens – represent a hiker's happiness. You can spend endorphins to gain resources and additional hiking cards.
- 18 campfire cards – improve the effectiveness of other actions or provide an additional way to score points at the end of the game.
Game Preparation
-
Each player takes a set of components in a chosen color: pawn, backpack, 5 stones, 5 starting cards. Each player holds their cards in hand as their hand of hiking cards. Whoever was most recently in the mountains starts the game, then players go in clockwise order. That starting player takes 1 endorphin; the second and third players each take 2 endorphins; the fourth and fifth players each take 3 endorphins.
-
Place the starting tile in the center of the table with each player's pawn on the parking area space.
-
Sort the remaining terrain tiles by their backs into 3 separate piles; shuffle each pile face down. Then stack those 3 piles into 1 pile with rocky tiles on the bottom, then alpine tiles, then forest tiles on top.
-
Sort the peak tiles by their backs into 3 separate piles; shuffle each pile face down.
-
Sort the hiking badges by color and place each next to its corresponding pile of peak tiles.
-
Shuffle the hiking cards to form a face-down deck. Place it in easy reach. Reveal the top 5 cards and place them in a row near the deck; they form the market.
-
Shuffle the campfire cards to form a face-down deck.
Sequence of Play
At the start, the board has only one terrain tile (with the parking area). All players' pawns start on the parking space and will move from here to the mountains. Pawns normally only move between spaces connected by a path. Players take turns playing 1 selected card from their hand of hiking cards. A player can play any card from their hand. After a card is played, it goes to its owner's played pile. A player cannot reuse any played cards until they play a Camp card, thus regaining all their cards.
Each player holds their hand of hiking cards without revealing the cards to opponents. A player can hold any number of cards. Each player's played pile is publicly visible to all opponents, who may always look through it.
After a player plays a card and resolves it, play passes to the player on their left.
Starting Cards
Walk – move your pawn 1 space. You walk along a path. If you enter a space with another player's pawn, you must keep moving to another space connected by a path, until you enter a space without a pawn and stop. You cannot reenter a space you occupied earlier in the same turn. After stopping, you may resolve the effect of the space your pawn stopped on.
The triangular spaces at the corner edges of terrain tiles are spaces on which a pawn can stop.
Example: Agnes (yellow pawn) plays her Walk card and moves her pawn 1 space. She enters a space with Camille's pawn, so she must continue moving to a further connected space. She stops in an empty mushroom space, which she resolves: she takes 1 mushroom and puts it in her backpack.
March – move your pawn 2 spaces. Like a Walk card, you move along paths (but twice instead of once), and if you enter a space with another player's pawn, it does not count as one of your 2 spaces, and you must keep moving further. You cannot reenter a space you occupied earlier in the same turn. After stopping, you may resolve the effect of the space your pawn stopped on.
Example: Camille (blue pawn) plays her March card and moves her pawn 2 spaces. Especially on rocky terrain, 1 path can branch to 2 different spaces. In this case, Camille can enter both spaces, reusing part of that path; it is only forbidden to enter the same space more than once per turn.
Discovery – choose 1 action:
- Place a new terrain tile, oriented as you like, adjacent to an open triangular space on the terrain tile your pawn is on. Take the resources from the bank that are shown on the newly created square space (created by connecting 2 triangular spaces). Placing a terrain tile might create more than 1 new square space, but you only take resources for the new square space with the tile your pawn is on. Further details appear below in the section Board expansion.
- Or: Discard any combination of mushrooms, berries, and herbs from your backpack and take 1 endorphin from the bank for each.
Example: Camille plays a Discovery card. She draws the top tile from the terrain tile pile, orients it as she chooses, and places it touching 1 of her pawn's tile's free triangular spaces. She could choose the northwest corner (with a blueberry) or the northeast (with a mushroom and Agnes's yellow pawn). She places it at the northwest corner and takes the indicated resources – a mushroom and a berry – and puts them in her backpack.
Example: Erica (gray pawn) adds a new alpine tile. She gains a mushroom and a berry from the connected triangular spaces, one of which belongs to the tile her pawn is on. A second square space was created (with a herb and a mushroom) but that space does not touch her pawn's tile, so she does not gain those resources.
Training – choose 1 action:
- Take any 1 hiking card from the market, pay its cost in endorphins (to the bank), and add it to your hand of hiking cards. Refill the market. Note: You can have several of the same hiking cards.
- Or: Discard any number of hiking cards from your hand to the box. For each discarded card, take 2 endorphins (from the bank). Note: You may not discard any of your starting cards.
Camp – buy 1 of the panorama cards or take 2 endorphins (from the bank). Then take all cards from your played pile back into your hand of hiking cards, including the Camp card you just played. Further details appear later in the section Panoramas.
Board Expansion
As the game progresses, you will place new terrain tiles adjacent to already-placed tiles, touching triangle-shaped spaces to triangle-shaped spaces, forming square spaces. You must add a new tile to touch your pawn's current tile. If all of your pawn's tile's triangle-shaped spaces already touch other tiles, then you cannot place a new tile. You cannot place a tile where it would cover part of the starting tile. If your pawn straddles 2 tiles, because it is standing on a square space formed by 2 triangular spaces, you can choose which of those tiles it is on when placing a new tile.
A square space formed by 2 combined triangular squares is a single space. When a pawn stops on such a space, the owner gains both printed resources. A pawn on such a square is considered to be on both terrain tiles.
When placing a tile, you always draw the top tile from the stack. You may rotate it as you like before placing it. First all the forest tiles will be placed, then alpine, then rocky. There are no restrictions about types of adjacent tiles, e.g. a forest tile can touch an alpine tile or a rocky tile. When the terrain tile pile runs out, no more terrain tiles can be placed.
Example: Camille (blue pawn) is on a forest peak tile. She cannot play a Discovery card because a peak tile is not a terrain tile. Peak tiles do not have triangular spaces to which another terrain tile could be connected.
Example: Agnes (yellow pawn) is on a terrain tile with 1 open triangular space. But she cannot play a Discovery card because placing a new terrain tile would cover part of the starting tile.
Board Spaces
The board has the following types of spaces:
-
Resource spaces – if you stop on a resource space, take the indicated resources. Resources are limited to the physical pieces provided – if the bank has none of a given resource, you cannot take it. Your backpack space is also limited to 10 resources – when you take new resources, if you now have more than 10, then you must return excess resources (old or new) to the bank to keep only 10 in your backpack. Exception: endorphins do not take up space in your backpack. There is no limit to how many you can hold. (In the rare case that the physical pieces run out, improvise as needed.)
-
Resource exchange spaces – if you stop on a resource exchange space, you may convert the indicated resources in the upper white area into the resource or reward in the lower blue area. You may do this multiple times, if you have enough resources.
Example: Mario ends his move on a resource exchange space that lets him trade 3 endorphins for 1 sack. He decides to do this 3 times, converting 9 endorphins into 3 sacks. He pays 9 endorphins to the bank and takes 3 sacks from the bank, which he puts in his backpack.
-
Bike spaces – these function like resource spaces, and they also function as destinations when using a Bike card.
-
Container exchange space – if you stop on a container exchange space, you can exchange a basket, jar or sack into a different type of container (jar, sack, or basket). You may do this multiple times.
Peak Tiles and Stones
Some resource exchange spaces let you place a peak tile touching one of the edges with an open path of the terrain tile on which your pawn is standing. When placing a peak tile, you can rotate it freely. Paths at the tile edges do not have to match: if an edge with a path touches an edge without a path, then there is simply no path between those spaces.
Each peak tile has one space. Merely stopping on a peak space gives no immediate benefit, but it allows the player to place one of their stones on the space, if they choose. By placing a stone on a peak space, the player receives the immediate reward indicated on the peak space, and at the end of the game, the player receives the peak space's victory points multiplied by the number printed on their stone.
Example: Mario stops on a peak tile. He places his "× 2" stone and takes a hiking card for free from the market. When the game ends, he will also score 2 × 2 = 4 victory points.
Example: Mario's red "× 2" stone is on this peak tile, so Erica can place only a smaller "× 2" stone or a "× 1" stone. She places a gray stone onto Mario's red stone and immediately takes a free hiking card.
Each player can place only 1 stone on a given peak tile. If a peak tile already has another player's stone, then a player can place only a smaller stone on it.
Note: Each player has 2 differently sized "× 3" stones and 2 differently sized "× 2" stones.
Resources on the Board
Some hiking cards cause players to leave resources on the board. If a player stops on a space with such resources, they can take them before resolving the space as usual. The player first decides whether to take the resources, then resolves the space. If a player takes resources, then they must all be taken. If the player's backpack has insufficient space, return excess resources to the bank as usual.
Example: Agnes (yellow pawn) plays a Walk card and stops on a resource exchange space (berry, mushroom and sack into campfire card). The space also has 4 resources left earlier by Camille: 2 herbs, 1 sack, and 1 berry. Agnes has no more space in her backpack, but she wants the sack to use the resource exchange space! So she first takes all 4 resources from the space, discards an unwanted mushroom from her backpack to the bank to keep the sack in her backpack, and discards the other 3 resources from the space to the bank. She then resolves the space: she converts her berry, mushroom and sack from her backpack into a campfire card.
Rewards
Some resource exchange spaces, some peaks, and all panorama cards have rewards:
- Endorphins – take the indicated number of endorphins from the bank.
- Hiking card – take any 1 hiking card from the market and add it to your hand of hiking cards for free, i.e. without paying its cost. Refill the market.
- Campfire card – take the top 5 cards from the campfire deck. Choose 1 and place it face up in front of you. From now on, you can use its effect. Place the remaining cards in any order at the bottom of the campfire deck.
- Peak tile – take the top peak tile from the pile corresponding to the terrain of your pawn's terrain tile, e.g. if your pawn is on a forest tile, take the top forest peak tile. Place it touching one of the open paths of your pawn's tile. You can rotate it freely. Paths at touching tile edges do not have to match: if an edge with a path touches an edge without a path, then there is simply no path between those spaces. Each time you place a peak tile, take a hiking badge of that terrain type. (Forest is worth 3 victory points; alpine = 6; rocky = 12.) If there is no free space beside your pawn's terrain tile, or no peak tiles of that type remain available, then you cannot place a peak tile and thus do not receive this reward.
Example: Camille (blue pawn) stops on a resource exchange space. She pays 1 mushroom and 2 herbs to the bank, then she draws a forest peak tile and places it next to her pawn's forest terrain tile and takes a forest hiking badge. Then she does this a second time! So in total, she paid 2 mushrooms and 4 herbs to place 2 peak tiles and take 2 hiking badges.
Panoramas
When you play a Camp card, you may buy 1 panorama card. Choose any 1 of the revealed cards with rank I (if this is your first panorama card) or 1 rank higher than the last card you bought. Pay its cost (in the bottom left white space) and place it in front of you. Immediately take the reward (in the bottom right blue space). At the end of the game, you will gain the victory points in the upper right corner. Then reveal the next card from the pile.
(The printed panorama card diagram labels its parts: card rank, victory points, number of players, cost, and reward.)
2-player game: if 2 cards of a given rank are bought, discard the third card of that rank to the box and reveal the next one in its pile.
Example: Agnes and Erica are playing. Erica has already bought her first panorama (rank I). Now Agnes also buys her first panorama. That was the second rank I card purchased, so they discard the third rank I panorama and reveal the next one (rank II).
Game End
The game ends when 2 of these 3 conditions are met:
- a player has placed the last (5th) rocky peak tile (forest and alpine peak tiles don't matter);
- a player has placed all 5 of their stones on the board;
- a player has completed their 6-panel panorama.
The player who triggered the end of the game completes their current turn as usual. Then all players (including that player who triggered the end) take a final turn.
Now each player counts their victory points from their:
- hiking badges;
- panorama cards;
- campfire cards that score points;
- stones on the board.
The player with the most victory points wins. If players tie for the most points, they enjoy a shared victory.
Example: Mario places his last stone on a peak and takes a reward as usual. Earlier, Agnes already completed her 6-panel panorama, and so Mario has triggered the game end! So each player (including Mario) now takes a final turn. The game ends after Mario's final turn.
Example: Agnes finished the game with 4 badges, 4 panorama cards, a campfire card that scores 1 point for each endorphin, scoring 9, and 3 stones on peaks. In total, she scores 85 victory points.
(The scoring sheet printed with this example shows: hiking badges 24; panorama cards 26; campfire card 9; stones on the board 26, listed as 1×1, 3×3, 2×8; total 85.)
Hiking Card Descriptions
(The number after each card title = how many copies of that card exist.)
Sightsee (5) – Move your pawn 1 space or 2 spaces along paths. If you enter a space with another player's pawn, it does not count as one of your spaces, and you must keep moving further. You cannot reenter a space you occupied earlier in the same turn. You may resolve the effect of the space your pawn stops on.
Run (4) – Move your pawn exactly 4 spaces along paths. If you enter a space with another player's pawn, it does not count as one of your spaces, and you must keep moving further. You cannot reenter a space you occupied earlier in the same turn. You may resolve the effect of the space your pawn stops on.
Shortcut (4) – If there is an empty immediately adjacent space north, south, east, or west of your pawn's current space, then regardless of whether or not a path connects them, move your pawn to that space. You may resolve the effect of the space your pawn stops on.
Example: Mario plays Shortcut. He can move to the peak space north of his pawn (despite the broken path!) or to the space east. He cannot move west because that space has an opponent's pawn. He cannot move south because there is no adjacent space in that direction.
Bike (5) – Move your pawn to any other empty space that has a bike. You may resolve the effect of the space your pawn stops on.
Paraglide (3)
- If your pawn is on a rocky space, move it to any empty alpine or forest space that gives an endorphin.
- If your pawn is on an alpine space, move it to any empty forest space that gives an endorphin.
You may resolve the effect of the space your pawn stops on.
Example: Mario plays Paraglide. His pawn is on a rocky space, so he can move to the forest space with 1 endorphin, or the alpine space with 2 endorphins, or the alpine space with herbs and endorphin. He cannot move to the rocky space with 2 endorphins.
Small harvest (3) – Move a mushroom, berry or herb from the bank to your backpack. Then, if the bank still has any of that same resource, put one onto your pawn's space.
Large harvest (3) – Do a Small harvest 2 times. The second harvest's resource need not be the same as the first harvest's.
Mushroom basket (3) – Move 2 mushrooms from your backpack to the bank, then move 1 basket from the bank to your backpack. Then, if the bank still has a basket, put one onto your pawn's space. If you have more mushrooms, you may repeat this as many times as you wish in a single action.
Berry jar (3) – Move 2 berries from your backpack to the bank, then move 1 jar from the bank to your backpack. Then, if the bank still has a jar, put one onto your pawn's space. If you have more berries, you may repeat this as many times as you wish in a single action.
Herb pouch (3) – Move 2 herbs from your backpack to the bank, then move 1 pouch from the bank to your backpack. Then, if the bank still has a pouch, put one onto your pawn's space. If you have more herbs, you may repeat this as many times as you wish in a single action.
Observe (3) – You may put all cards from the market to the bottom of the deck and refill the market. Then you may buy 1 of the new cards from the market.
Note: When doing Small harvest, Large harvest, Mushroom basket, Berry jar, Herb pouch: if the bank has only 1 of your selected resource, then place it in your backpack without putting a second one in your pawn's space.
Campfire Card Descriptions (18)
When you gain a campfire card, draw the top 5 campfire cards and choose 1 of them. Pick one to keep face up in front of you, and place the others, in any order, at the bottom of the campfire deck. From now on, you can use your new card's effect. Campfire cards enhance other hiking cards or give an additional way to score victory points.
If you gain more than 1 campfire card, resolve choosing them one after the other: for each one, draw 5 cards, keep one, and return the rest to the bottom of the deck.
The campfire cards are:
- For each mushroom you put in your backpack, put 1 bonus mushroom.
- For each berry you put in your backpack, put 1 bonus berry.
- For each herb you put in your backpack, put 1 bonus herb.
- Whenever you place one or more peak tiles, you may place a bonus peak tile of the same type, if possible, for no resource cost. If you place a bonus peak, gain its hiking badge too.
- Whenever you play a Walk starting card, instead of its normal effect, you may do it twice: move your pawn 1 space (by the usual Walk rules), resolve the effect where your pawn stops, then move 1 space again, and again resolve the effect where your pawn stops. If there are resources in the two spaces where you stop, you may take them as usual.
- Whenever you play a March starting card, instead of its normal effect, you may move your pawn 1 space (like a Walk card), resolve the effect where your pawn stops, then move 1 space again, and again resolve the effect where your pawn stops. If there are resources in the two spaces where you stop, you may take them as usual.
- Whenever you play a Training starting card, instead of its normal effect, you may move your pawn 1 space (like a Walk card), resolve the effect where your pawn stops, then move 1 space again, and again resolve the effect where your pawn stops. If there are resources in the two spaces where you stop, you may take them as usual.
- Your backpack has 4 additional resource slots.
- Any time during your turn, you may discard 6 endorphins to the bank and take a basket, jar, or pouch. If you have more endorphins, you can do this more than once per turn.
- When scoring victory points, score 1 of your placed "× 3" stones as a "× 5" stone.
- After the game ends, score 5 victory points for each of your campfire cards (including this one).
- After the game ends, score 5 victory points for each basket in your backpack.
Frequently Forgotten Rules
The page references below are to the printed rulebook.
Cards
- When you buy hiking cards from the market, put them into your hand (page 7).
- There is no hand limit (page 6).
- When playing a Camp card, first buy a panorama card or gain 2 endorphins, then take all of your played cards back to your hand, including the Camp card (page 7).
- When playing Mushroom basket, Berry jar, and Herb pouch cards, you can trade more than once (page 13).
Peak tiles
- You take a peak tile's reward when you place a stone, not when you enter its space (page 9).
- Each player can place at most 1 stone per peak. Another player can place only a smaller stone on a stone (page 9).
- You may place more than 1 peak tile per turn if there are free spaces touching your pawn's terrain tile and you have the necessary resources. For each peak tile you place, take a hiking badge of that terrain (page 10).
Board
- Square spaces formed by 2 combined triangular spaces belong to both terrain tiles (page 8).
- You cannot visit the same space more than once in a single move (page 6).
- Resource exchange spaces and container exchange space allow multiple exchanges per turn (page 8).
- When your pawn stops on a space, you may take any resources there first and then resolve that space's effect (page 9).
Resources
- When adding resources to your backpack, if there's insufficient room, you choose which excess resources (old or new) to discard (page 8).