Forest Shuffle
65 questions players ask about Forest Shuffle, answered in plain words and graded by where the answer comes from. See also the full rulebook.
Updated 2026-10-29.
65 questions players ask about Forest Shuffle, answered in plain words and graded by where the answer comes from. See also the full rulebook.
Updated 2026-10-29.
The rulebook states these numbers in its Setup section.
Set the 3 Winter cards aside, shuffle the rest, and return unseen cards to the box: 30 for two players, 20 for three, 10 for four, and none for five. Then split the rest into three piles and put the Winter cards in as the rulebook describes.
The publisher gave the 10-plus-15-per-missing-player rule for Alpine, and several players quote the expansion tables for two expansions.
Remove 10 cards first, then the amount for your player count from the expansion rulebook's table. With one expansion the publisher's rule is 10 plus 15 per missing player (two players: 10 plus 45, so 55); with Alpine and Woodland Edge together a two-player game removes 10 plus 80 (90). Do it after adding the expansion cards.
The publisher said in 2025–2026 that the mulligan was removed; older printings and our copy of the rulebook still list it.
It depends on the printing. Older rulebooks (2023) let you discard all six cards and redraw once if you had no tree, but the publisher says newer rulebooks removed the mulligan. Check your own rulebook, or agree it at the table.
The rulebook asks for piles of similar size.
No. Split them into piles of similar size by eye; the rules say similar, not equal, and counting exactly is not expected.
The rulebook says you carry out exactly one of two actions each turn.
No. On your turn you do exactly one thing: draw two cards, or play one card. Extra cards come only from effects that say so, such as the Mole, or from a bonus that gives another turn.
The publisher confirmed a strict limit of 10, matching the rulebook.
Ten cards, and it is strict: you may never hold more than 10, including from effects that draw. With 9 cards in hand you can draw only one card with the draw action.
The rulebook allows only one of the two actions per turn.
No. A turn is either drawing or playing, not both, and cards you paid with sit in the clearing until your next turn. Only a card that grants an extra turn lets you act again.
The rulebook states you draw a replacement immediately.
Yes. Place the Winter card face up next to the clearing and immediately draw a replacement from the deck, so several Winter cards can appear in one draw.
The rulebook says so directly and the publisher called it a thematic rule.
Yes. The game ends immediately and goes straight to scoring, even if players have had unequal turns. You may not finish your turn.
The rulebook says you may not finish your turn once the third Winter is revealed.
No. The card stays in your forest, but the game ends the moment the third Winter card appears, so the effect and bonus are lost. When a card gives you several things to do, order them so valuable ones come before a possible game end.
Several players agree; no official ruling.
Yes, treat it as public information: answer when asked, since opponents can count it from your draws and plays anyway. No rule explicitly addresses it.
Two players say no card or expansion allows it; there is no official ruling.
No. Nothing in the base game lets you swap or remove a placed card.
The rulebook ties placement only to an empty slot on the matching side, and the publisher confirmed species do not restrict it.
Yes. Animals, plants and mushrooms need only an empty slot on the matching side of a tree; the tree's species does not matter. Each side normally holds one card, unless a card says otherwise (the Common Toad is one example), though some cards only score in a specific spot.
The rulebook describes the sapling and players agree it is free to play.
Play any card from hand face down as a sapling. It offers a slot on each side like a tree, costs nothing to play, and belongs to no tree species. It is the way out when you hold a full hand or no tree has an open side.
The publisher confirmed a sapling counts as a tree for the clearing.
Yes. A sapling counts as a tree for the clearing, so playing one adds the top deck card to the clearing. It still is not a tree species, so it does not count for species-based cards such as the Oak.
The publisher ruled twice that any tree laid down triggers the draw.
Yes. Whenever a tree enters your forest, including saplings and trees placed by another card's bonus, the top deck card goes to the clearing. The draw is a general game rule, not part of the card.
The publisher confirmed this sequence in several threads.
Pay the cost, place the card, add a deck card to the clearing if it is a tree, then trigger mushroom (and shrub) effects, then use the card's effect, then its bonus, and last check the clearing. The tree's clearing draw happens before the effect, so a Winter card revealed by it ends the game first.
Several players quote the rulebook and appendix wording; no direct official ruling.
No. A card put into your forest for free through another card's effect or bonus gives neither its own effect nor its bonus. Mushrooms and other permanent effects already in your forest still trigger. Extra turns and the Mole are different: there you pay and use effects normally.
You choose and pay for all the extra cards first, and they enter play one after another. Only once you stop do the effects, bonuses and mushroom draws of those cards resolve, so cards drawn then cannot be played through the same Mole. The Mole's own bonus cards are drawn first.
Players quote the appendix wording and agree.
Yes. The cards enter play one by one, so a tree played via the Mole can receive animals from the same effect. Only effects and bonuses are delayed until all cards are down.
The publisher confirmed the chain and the clearing draw per tree.
Yes, as long as each extra turn is granted by an effect or bonus and you can pay and place. Empty the clearing at 10 or more cards at the end of each turn, and add a deck card to the clearing for each Douglas Fir you plant.
The rulebook states the matching-payment condition and the effect-before-bonus order.
The effect always applies. The bonus (the coloured arrow with binoculars) applies only if every card you paid with matches the played card's colour and symbol; with matching payment you get both, effect first, then bonus. A paid split card matches if either half shows the symbol.
Newer rulebooks make effects and bonuses compulsory, replacing the older "you may use" wording (our copy of the rulebook still says optional). Mushroom text still says you may, so mushroom triggers remain optional.
The publisher said how the card arrives does not matter.
Yes. A mushroom triggers whenever its matching card enters your forest however it arrives (played, placed by a bonus, or free), and each mushroom in play triggers separately. A mushroom does not trigger on itself.
The publisher said the draw triggers for any matching card entering your side.
Yes. A permanent effect triggers once for every matching card entering your forest, whether played or placed by an effect, so five placed bats beside a card that rewards bats draw five cards.
The publisher gave a worked example reaching 18 cards before the check.
The clearing is only checked at the very end of your turn, so it can exceed 10 cards while you play, and effects such as the Bear or Bearded Vulture can take clearing cards first, including the cards you just paid with. If 10 or more cards remain afterwards, remove them all.
The publisher confirmed the check happens after each turn.
Yes. The clearing is checked at the end of every turn, including the turn that grants the extra one, so you start the extra turn with an empty clearing if it had 10 or more cards.
The publisher said cave use is explained on the cards, reference cards and appendix.
Only through cards that tell you to, such as the Brown Bear (from the clearing) and the Raccoon, or expansion cards. There is no basic action for it; the main rulebook mentions caves only in setup and scoring, and the reference cards and appendix explain the rest.
The publisher endorsed the hidden-information reading; the rulebook scores cave cards at one point each.
Cards go under the cave card, out of play, and each scores 1 point at game end (some asymmetric caves differ); effects and bonuses on them do not work. You may not inspect another player's cave, but cards taken from the clearing or deck are seen when placed.
The publisher explained word versus symbol and the appendix lists the five cards.
It adds 1 to the count of its tree's species for only five cards: Beech, Horse Chestnut, Linden, Moss and Great Spotted Woodpecker. It is not a tree itself, has no tree symbol, scores no points and copies nothing, so it does not help Sycamore, Red Deer or Oak scoring.
Each Woodpecker scores 10 points at game end if your forest has the most trees (ties count), saplings included. Violet Carpenter Bees add to your tree total for this check.
Any eight different tree species. Alpine added two species (ten in total) and the cards were reworded from "all 8" to "8 different trees".
Several players agree.
Per set. The printed number is the total for one set of different butterflies, not per butterfly, and duplicates add nothing unless they form another complete set.
Several players agree and the appendix explains each card.
Cards with a points table (butterflies, Horse Chestnut, Fire Salamander, Fireflies) score once for the whole group by how many you have. Others score for each copy, so duplicates score again, and a card counting two symbols counts each symbol separately.
Players quote the appendix table.
As one set: 1, 4, 9, 16, 25 or 36 points for 1 to 6 Chestnuts, and 49 for seven or more, not per tree.
Players agree and quote the appendix.
Nothing until you have 4; then each Beech scores 5 points, so four score 20.
The publisher gave this as a worked example.
Each Hare scores as many points as you have European Hares, so five Hares score 5 each (25 total).
Players agree and quote the appendix.
Each bat scores 5 points only if you have at least three different bat species out of the four; otherwise none score. Bats score individually, not as a set.
Players quote the appendix; the BGA implementation matches.
Yes. Each Lynx scores 10 points while you have at least one Roe Deer. The French reference card shows 5 by mistake; the card and appendix say 10. A Wolf is not a Deer (it has a paw icon), so it never counts for Deer cards.
Several players agree.
No. They can go on any tree, but score their 5 points only on an Oak (Squirrel) or Beech (Chaffinch). The suit matters for bonus payment and for some Deer.
Two players agree and the appendix wording says at least one Squeaker.
Yes. Each Wild Boar scores 10 points if you have at least one Squeaker, so one is enough for all of them.
The publisher confirmed this in the appendix.
Yes. It scores 2 points for each card in the bottom slot of a tree, including itself; with several ants the points multiply.
Several players agree.
Yes, for effects counting tree symbols (the card back carries one) such as Moss and the Woodpecker, but not as a tree species.
Each toad sharing a slot with another scores 5, so a pair is 10; a single toad scores nothing.
Base cards have just a number; Alpine uses an A prefix, Woodland Edge a B prefix, and Exploration and promo cards a P prefix. Alpine and Woodland Edge also show an expansion symbol.
Yes, they are designed to be combined, and the expansion rulebook explains how. The publisher suggested learning Woodland Edge on its own first.
The publisher answered the Newt question directly; the Larch follows the same wording.
Any card with the Alpine expansion symbol, tree or not, from your hand. Base game cards cannot be played this way (an insect from either set can be placed). A tree played this way still adds a deck card to the clearing, and you choose the order of the bonus effects, so play the insect before a tree that might end the game.
Yes. A Mountain Hare counts as a European Hare for the Red Fox's draw and scoring and for scoring generally, but it cannot share a card slot with a European Hare. The appendix wording suggesting otherwise was an oversight.
The publisher confirmed the wording change.
Yes, only slightly: Oak and Strawberry were reworded so they need eight different tree species rather than all of them.
The publisher answered directly.
The sixth Butterfly card from Alpine carries the six-butterfly scoring on the card itself. Without it you use the base butterfly scoring.
The publisher confirmed it.
Yes. A permanent mushroom effect triggers however the card entered, including via a bonus. Black Trumpet does not trigger on itself, but an existing one triggers for each extra card.
The publisher confirmed the Dormouse and Marten consequences and the rules text states it.
No on both. Shrubs are neither trees nor mushrooms, lack the tree symbol, and do not count for Beech Marten or other tree checks. A shrub gives no clearing draw, and a card whose effect needs the other side of a tree cannot work on a shrub.
One poster stated it and the asker agreed.
At the same point as mushroom effects: after the cost and the clearing draw, before the played card's own effect.
The publisher confirmed both the no-mixing reading and the Mole point.
Any number of butterflies can share the spot, but only butterflies; birds cannot. Its scoring counts every butterfly in your forest, not just those on its tree. Butterflies from hand cannot be played at once as part of the Nettle; only a Mole does that.
Several players agree.
The deck. Only cards whose text says from the clearing, such as the Eurasian Magpie and European Wildcat, draw from the clearing.
The publisher answered directly.
No. Its effect is tied to a tree, so the bat must be on that tree.
The publisher said the effect is permanent and the bonus applies only when it enters.
Yes. The Blackthorn's bonus belongs to the Bush, so triggers from other cards still happen; its permanent effect is active during the free placement.
The publisher answered each point.
Digitalis scores for each plant separately, not as a set. A comma between leaf symbols means both score. The Bisons scoring for oak and beech leaf colours is intended.
After all saplings are played, as the last step. Drawing after each sapling is not the official sequence.
Several players agree; the publisher said the promos are usable solo.
Remove the usual number for your player count plus one more card per Exploration card you add, up to 15 extra (105 for two players with all three expansions). Do it before shuffling the new cards in. The promos are meant to be used in solo games too.
Treat the Automa like another player: empty the clearing at the end of its turn too if it has 10 or more cards. Add its cards to the right and close gaps. If it must remove more than are there, remove as many as possible. With two action symbols, do them top to bottom.
When the bonus triggers, you must put one paid card in the cave; it is part of payment and happens before the clearing draw.
No: they count as Silver Fir, Birch and Oak. Only the Palm Tree adds a species.
Based on player quotes of the appendix; no official ruling.
Red Panda: shuffle the discards and put 10 face down on the draw pile (the appendix overrides the card text). Supply Cave: draw once per turn when you first place a card in it.
Line 1 is base game only, line 2 adds Alpine, and line 3 adds Alpine and Woodland Edge. Each has its own Bronze, Silver and Gold targets.