Glass Garden Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Key Concepts
• Gameplay
• Dark Phase
  • 1. Take Two Actions
  • 2. Grow Succulents
  • 3. Apply Damage
  • 4. Advance Critter
• Sunlight Phase
• Scoring

Components

8 Plant Cards

• Nutrient Resource (always active)
• Inactive Sprout Resource
• Active Sprout Resource
• Cost to Grow
• Succulent Effect

Each Plant Card has a soil side and a succulent side.

6 Glass Cards

• Sunlight Phase Action
• Flip Reminder

Each Glass Card has a sunlight side and a dark side.

4 Critter Cards

• Turn Reference
• Shift Arrow (left or right) on each side
• Highlighted Areas (differ on each side)

Setup

1. Choose 1 Critter Card (use the Fly for your first game), and set the others aside. Place the critter on the table with the right shift arrow face up.
2. Shuffle all 8 Plant Cards and place them, soil-side up, in a row to the right of the critter.
3. Place the 6 Glass Cards, dark-side up, in two 3-card columns surrounding the critter and plants as shown. This forms your garden.

The left edge plant is adjacent to the middle-left Glass Card (even though separated by the critter), and the right edge plant is adjacent to the middle-right Glass Card.

Key Concepts

Your garden is a 3x9 area surrounded by Glass Cards. Each of its 9 columns holds exactly one critter or plant in one of 3 rows: top, middle, or bottom. The critter and plants will change positions as you play, but the glass always remains in place.

Neighboring cards are in consecutive columns, but may be in different rows. Adjacent cards are neighboring and on the same row. Cards are still neighboring or adjacent when separated by the critter. The leftmost and rightmost plants in the garden are edge plants. Each edge plant is adjacent to the closest Glass Card in its row, even if separated by the critter.

Your garden has two fertile zones: resource-rich areas in between rows. Each fertile zone consists of the lower dirt portions of plants in the row above, and the upper dirt portions of plants in the row below.

Resources consist of:

• nutrients: pictured as a box, a cloud, a lightning bolt, and a droplet
• sprouts: pictured as a sprout paired with soil. Gray sprouts are inactive, but become active (green) when their cards flip to their succulent sides.

Gameplay

Over the course of a dark phase and a sunlight phase, grow succulents to maximize your score.

Dark Phase

The dark phase consists of 9 turns. Each turn, proceed through the following steps in order:

1. Take Two Actions

Choose up to two actions from the following list (you may choose the same action twice).

Shift (left/right) — Shift 1 plant horizontally any distance in the direction of the critter's shift arrow, as long as it does not pass the critter and stays within the garden. For each column shifted, shift the plant in that column 1 space backward to fill the gap. Plants do not change rows while shifting.

Plant A shifts 2 columns to the right. As it shifts, plants B and then C shift backwards to fill the gaps left by plant A. Plant A could not have shifted further right because it may not pass the critter.

Move (up/down) — Move 1 plant up 1 row or down 1 row. Plants may not move above the top row or below the bottom row.

2. Grow Succulents

Grow any number of plants into succulents. Each plant's cost requires a unique set of 3 identical active resources gathered in the same fertile zone, from plants in 3 consecutive columns and not separated by the critter. Inactive (gray) sprout resources cannot be used.

If you meet the cost for growing a plant: (1) flip it to its succulent side. (2) If it is an edge plant adjacent to a dark Glass Card, flip that glass to its sunlight side. (3) Lastly, perform the effect on the newly grown succulent (mandatory).

A plant must be grown and its effect performed before another can be grown. Each plant's cost requirement must be met at the moment it flips, so growing a plant can change the number of other plants that may be grown in a turn. If multiple plant costs are met simultaneously, choose which one to grow first.

3. Apply Damage

The critter now damages your garden, following its unique damage effect and applying as much damage as possible. Critters only damage plants in the top and middle rows. When a plant is damaged, move it down one row. Plants in the bottom row cannot be damaged.

If a critter tries to damage 1 plant on a given side, it skips bottom-row plants (because they can't be damaged) until it finds a plant in the top or middle row to damage. You only avoid damage if all plants on the indicated side are already in the bottom row.

Example 1: critter is Snail, damaging 1 closest plant on left side. It skips plant 6 on bottom row to damage plant 5.

Example 2: critter is Ant, damaging 1 farthest plant on both sides. It damages plant 2 on left side and does not damage plants on right side because all are on bottom row.

Example 3: critter is Worm, damaging all plants in 3 closest columns on left side. It damages plants 4 and 5, but does not damage plant 6 on bottom row.

4. Advance Critter

Shift the critter 1 column to the right, then flip it. The critter always occupies the middle row.

On the ninth turn, the critter cannot shift to the right; proceed to the Sunlight Phase instead.

Sunlight Phase

During this phase, you may grow succulents and use Glass Card bonus actions in any order, then proceed to scoring.

Growing succulents follows the rules of the Grow Succulents step above. Each Glass Card on its sunlight side grants move actions, which follow the rules of the Take Two Actions step above. After using each Glass Card's bonus actions, flip it back to its dark side.

Note: it is possible to use a bonus, then re-activate it by growing an adjacent succulent.

Scoring

Score your game as follows:

• 2 points per succulent in the top row
• 1 point per succulent in the middle/bottom rows
• 0 points per plant card on its soil side

Score	Title
14-16	Master Gardener
12-13	Amateur Grower
10-11	Novice Planter
0-9	Dirt Farmer!