Hungry Shark
Hungry Shark Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
In this box you will find 54 game cards with two different backs: Ocean (36 cards) and Grotto (18 cards).
Game Objective
Players aim to obtain as much cards as they can within 18 game rounds. In order to get cards, each player must be the first to accurately count how many fish there are in the board
Game Preparation
Divide the cards by their back into three decks (18 cards in each one). The central deck will contain the cards with grotto backs while the decks on both sides will have ocean backs only.
Initial Setup. Each deck has 18 cards.
Game Style 1: Childfish (Beginners)
The youngest player opens the game by drawing the first card in the central deck (bubbles in marine background, white back) and turns it face up. After that, the same player will put the first card in both side decks face up (marine background with blue back), making sure that the rest of the players are able to see the cards from the very beginning. In that moment, players will have to count the number of fish that appear in all three cards (no matter their type or color). The first player to accurately declare the total number of fish will pick all three cards up as a reward and keep them into a separate deck in front of him/her.
This game style develops in 18 rounds. The opening player will change in each round clockwise, putting the drawn cards in front of him/her.
Once a player has declared a number, it is not possible to change it. If the player declares an incorrect number, he will lose one of the cards in his/her pile (if there are any). The lost cards will be collected by the winner of the round. If all players fail to say the correct number, the three cards in the board are discarded.
Players have to be careful about sharks and octopuses cards, as long as they do not count for this game style. They can be taken as fish by distracted players!
End of the Game
The game ends in the 18th game round. Player to have the greater number of cards in his/her pile wins the game.
If the game is drawn, the winner is the player with more fish in his/her cards.
Game Style 2: Gluttonous Shark (Intermediate)
In the second game style the aim of the game and the scoring system remain the same as in "childfish" (beginner level), but sharks and octopuses make their appearance in the game to make things much more complicated. Now the players have to account for the fish that are NOT devoured by the hungry sharks.
Sharks
Sharks will eat every single fish they are facing, as long as they are not watched by octopuses (or remain hidden behind other sharks or octopuses). Fishes behind the sharks remain safe!
Octopuses
Octopuses are on watch to prevent any fish from being devoured. Every fish staying in an octopus' sight is safe, unless they are behind another octopus or a shark. Unfortunately, no matter how many legs they have, octopuses only have two eyes and cannot protect fish staying behind them.
Examples
The shark eats 6 fish, because the octopus is unable to protect them (the fish remain out of the octopus' sight).
The right answer is 0!
The shark eats one fish only! (it is the only one he can see, the other ones are safe behind him and protected by the octopus).
The right answer is 5!
The shark on the left eats one fish, while the other one on the right does not eat anyone (every fish on his sight are protected by the octopus).
The right answer is 5!
Game Style 3: Sea Bubbles (Advanced Level)
In the final game level players have to take into account not only sharks and octopuses, but also the bubble on the top left of some cards. These cards will be always in the central deck of the board game. (Grotto back) This bubble shows the type of fish that should be accounted for. Players must identify the fish that the sharks cannot eat.
"Bubble fish": The bubble shows a specific kind of fish. Players must say the number of that kind of fishes that are not devoured by sharks.
"Forbidden bubble fish": Players must account for the fish that are not devoured by sharks, with the exception of those showed in the bubble.
"+": Players must account for the most numerous group of surviving fish and say their color. If there are two groups with the same numbers, saying one of their colors will be enough.
"-": Players must account for the least numerous group of surviving fish and say their color. If there are two groups of fish with the same numbers, saying one of their colors will be enough.
"Multicolor": Players account for the total number of fish that are not devoured, no matter their color.
Example
Looking at the image, if the X were replaced by the different icons, the correct results would be the following:
- "+" icon, with the answer Yellow (the printed answer for that icon is shown in the image).
- "-" icon, with the answer Orange (the printed answer for that icon is shown in the image).
- The remaining answers are printed as numbers beside the icons in the image: Multicolor 6, forbidden-fish icon 4, bubble-fish icon 1 and 3, bubble-fish icon 3, fish icon 2, forbidden-fish icon 5.
Note: the example's icon-to-answer pairing is printed as an image; the icons are not reproduced as text here, so the pairing is not fully recoverable from the text layer. Consult the printed page 16 for the exact matches.