Hutan: Life in the Rainforest
Hutan: Life in the Rainforest Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 16 Rainforest boards
- 130 Flowers
- 64 Trees
- 15 Animals (Assemble before your first game)
- 1 Pangolin Token
- 70 Flower Cards
- 24 Ecosystem Cards
- 1 Score Pad (50 sheets)
Credits
Design: Daniel Skjold Pedersen & Asger Harding Granerud Development: Dan Halstad Illustration: Vincent Dutrait Graphic Design: Dina Dam Jensen, Łukasz Kempiński
© 2025, Sidekick Games K/S Prinsesse Charlottes Gade 28, 2 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark [email protected]
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Setup
Here are the steps for setting up the core game. To play with the Advanced or Family variants, please refer to the rules on page 7. For Solo rules see page 8.
- One player takes a set of the 4 different Rainforest boards (one each, marked with a red, white, blue and pink circle/square shown in a corner on each board). They then create any random 2x2 layout with the boards. All other players take their own set of boards and copy that layout using the circle/square icons as a reference. In your first game, we recommend using the layout pictured below.
- Shuffle all Flower cards and create 9 face down stacks of cards. Each stack has: 3 cards at 2 players / 5 cards at 3 players / 7 cards at 4 players. Take one stack and turn all its cards face up in the middle of the table. Return any leftover cards to the box.
- Place the Flowers and the Trees near the face up Flower cards (or use the box as storage).
- Place the Animals next to the Flowers. In a 2 player game, return one of each type of Animal to the box (5 total).
- Randomly determine a starting player and give them the Pangolin token.
Example of a 3 player setup.
Playing a Round
HUTAN plays over 9 rounds, with each player having two turns per round. First, whoever holds the Pangolin token prepares the market and completes a turn. Then, turns proceed in clockwise order until everyone has completed their two turns. Each turn consists of three phases completed in the below order:
- PLANT FLOWERS – Take a Flower card from the market and place those Flowers on your Rainforest board
- GROW TREES & COMPLETE AREAS – Place Trees and complete Areas to grow your rainforest
- PERFECT HABITATS – If you complete a perfect Habitat, you may attract an Animal.
After the 9th round, you run out of Flower cards and the game ends (see scoring on pages 6-7).
Core Concepts
Core Concepts are highlighted for easy reference. These are reminders to assist in learning the game or when consulting the rulebook during future plays.
Preparing the Market
At the start of each round, the player holding the Pangolin token prepares the market.
Take a stack of Flower cards and turn all its cards face up in the center of the table. If you followed the setup instructions, you already did this for the first round.
After the player holding the Pangolin token takes their first turn each round, the Pangolin token is added to the market.
Market — At the beginning of a round, there will always be two Flower cards per player minus one (2x−1).
Example 1: This shows a market for three players after the starting player has taken their first Flower card and added the Pangolin.
1. PLANT Flowers
On your turn, take a face up Flower card from the market. Then, take all the Flower(s) shown on the card, and discard the card. Now place those Flower(s) onto your Rainforest boards following four rules:
- Each Rainforest board has 9 spaces, and each Flower must be placed within one space. Three of your boards have a lake space, where Flowers can never be placed.
- Connected Growth – all Flowers you place in a turn must be connected to each other. Diagonals are not connected.
Example 2: The Flowers placed at 2A and 2B are both allowed as all three Flowers are connected. 2C is not allowed, as diagonals do not count as being connected. 2D is a lake space.
- Flower Match – you may place Flowers on top of Flowers of the matching color from a previous card. Flowers of different colors may not be placed on top of each other.
- One Forest – at least the first Flower you place each turn must be adjacent to, or on top of, Flowers you already placed (diagonals are not adjacent). Ignore this rule on your very first turn.
If the Pangolin token is available in the market, you may take it instead of a Flower card. The multicolored Flower on the Pangolin token gives you any Flower of your choice.
Flower cards with the multicolored Flower also give you any Flower of your choice.
Example 3: The Flowers placed at 3A are allowed as they are adjacent to Flowers already placed. 3B is not allowed since the Flowers are not connected even if they are adjacent to other Flowers. 3C is not allowed as the Flowers are not adjacent to other previously placed Flowers.
Flowers — You must place all Flowers from the card you take. In the rare circumstance that you can not place all Flowers, take another card. If this is not possible, take a card and discard it without placing any Flowers. In the extremely unlikely case that you run out of Flowers, please use a placeholder.
Pangolin token — This token gives you one Flower of any color this turn, and makes you the starting player next round. As the starting player, you can not take the Pangolin token until your second turn in the round. The other players may take it on their first turn.
2. GROW TREES & COMPLETE AREAS
Players have two primary objectives when placing Flowers: growing Trees & completing Areas.
Trees grow when you have two Flowers of matching colors placed on top of each other. Return the top Flower to the supply and replace it with a Tree. Trees come in different shapes, but are functionally all the same, so pick one you like. A Tree scores you 2 points at the end of the game.
Areas consist of 2-5 spaces in varying shapes separated by water. An Area is considered complete when all its spaces are filled with Flowers of a single color. Completed Areas score you points at the end of the game as shown inside the Area.
Unfinished and mixed Areas score minus points at the end of the game:
- Unfinished - an Area that has been started but not completed
- Mixed - an Area with mixed color Flowers
For a scoring example, check page 7.
Example 4: The yellow Flower at 4A is placed on top of another yellow Flower and is immediately replaced by a Tree. Placing both red Flowers in the same space at 4B is not allowed as they are from the same Flower card. The Area at 4C is completed with a single color Flower (grey) and will score 4 points at the end of the game as shown inside the Area.
Trees — To grow a Tree, place a Flower on top of a matching colored Flower. You may grow several Trees in a turn. You may grow Trees in unfinished and mixed Areas, and they still score you 2 points each at the end of the game. In the extremely unlikely case that you run out of Trees, please use a placeholder.
Areas — The Rainforest boards are divided into Areas of 2−5 spaces. Larger Areas score you more points. Completed Areas score the points shown inside the Area. Unfinished and mixed Areas score minus points instead. The minus value is the same as shown in their respective Area icon. Empty Areas score 0 points.
3. PERFECT HABITATS
When you create a perfect Habitat, you may attract an Animal that matches the color of the Flowers in the Area. A perfect Habitat is an Area that:
- Contains Flowers of a single color on all spaces, and
- Has Trees on all the Flowers
The Animal replaces the last Tree placed in the Area. Return the Tree to the supply. Animals score points at the end of the game as shown inside their Area. Attracting an Animal is optional.
Max One Animal – You may only attract a single Animal each turn, as long as they are available.
When placed, the Animal may fertilize adjacent spaces.
FERTILIZE — When you attract an Animal, you may place Flowers on all adjacent spaces (never diagonally), or on as many of those spaces as you like. The Flowers can be any mix of color you choose and can also be used to grow Trees.
Example 5: The blue Flower placed at 5A creates a perfect Habitat and you may replace the last Tree with the blue Animal. The grey Flower at 5B grows the last Tree in the Area, but as the colors are mixed it is not a perfect Habitat. On the next turn, the two white Flowers (5C) are placed at the same time, and you choose which becomes an Animal and which grows a Tree.
Example 6: The blue Animal placed at 6A chose not to fertilize. On the next turn, the white Animal placed at 6B chose to fertilize the space above it with a red Flower and the space left of it with a yellow Flower, which grows into a Tree. You cannot place Flowers on the lake space to its right.
End of Turn / Round
A turn ends when a player has completed all three phases: Plant Flowers, Grow Trees & Complete Areas, and Create Perfect Habitats. Play proceeds in clockwise order.
The round ends when everyone has taken two turns and the market is emptied of Flower cards and the Pangolin token. If there are still Flower cards left in the supply, start a new Round by Preparing the Market (pg. 4). Otherwise proceed to End of Game and Scoring.
End of Game & Scoring
The game ends after 9 rounds. Use the Score pad to calculate the points for each player. The player with the most points wins. In case of a tie, the tied player earliest in the turn order wins.
- TREES – Count all your Trees and score 2 points for each.
- ANIMALS – Each Animal scores the points shown on the paw icon in their respective Areas.
- COMPLETED AREAS – Each completed Area scores the points shown in their respective Area icon.
- UNFINISHED & MIXED AREAS – You score minus points for each unfinished and mixed Area. The minus value is the same as shown in their respective Area icon.
Scoring Example
In this core game scoring example, Kim has 15 Trees (30 points), 4 Animals (27 points total), 7 completed Areas (26 points) and finally 4 unfinished & mixed Areas (−8 points). Their final score is 75 points.
The bottom of the Score pad is only used in the Advanced Variant.
Variants
HUTAN offers three variants to select from: Family, Advanced, and Solo. The rules for Solo play can be found on pages 8−10.
Family
The Family variant delivers a more cozy and forgiving experience, by removing two rules from the game. There is no fertilize action when you attract an Animal. And at the end of the game you do not score any minus points from unfinished or mixed Areas (they simply score 0 points). All other rules remain the same.
Advanced
The Advanced rules introduce Ecosystem cards with new challenges. During setup, shuffle all 24 Ecosystem cards and draw 5 at random. Place them face up near the center of the table. Return surplus Ecosystem cards to the box. At the end of the game, all players score as normal and also score each of the five Ecosystem cards in play (see scoring rules page 12).
Solo Rules
Follow the standard rules with the following changes:
Setup: Do not remove any Animals. Shuffle the Flower cards and create a single face down stack of 54 cards. Return leftover cards to the box. Remove the Pangolin token from the game.
Draw 5 random Ecosystem cards (Advanced Variant).
Playing a Round: When preparing the market, reveal three Flower cards from the face down stack. Only take one Flower card each round, and otherwise continue your turn as normal.
End of Round: Discard the two leftover Flower cards before continuing to the next round.
End of Game: The game ends after 18 rounds when you run out of Flower cards. Score as normal and consult the chart below to check how well you did.
- 80: A great start!
- 100: Well done!
- 120: Outstanding!
- 135: Expert!
- 150: Almost unbelievable!
For the full solo experience, consider adding achievements (Scenarios, Challenges and Modifications). Achievements are explained on pages 8-10.
Achievements
Scenarios, Challenges and Modifications
You can expand your HUTAN experience by chasing the 50 achievements built into Scenarios (page 9), Challenges (page 10) and Modifications (page 10). Achievements can be added at any player count, and unless you are playing with Modifications, you do not need all players to partake in the chase. Up to four players can mark their progress on the progress track below.
Assign your name to a specific row of flowers on the progress track, and when completing a Scenario, Challenge or Modification, mark off one of your flowers on both the progress track and the achievement. Several players may complete the same achievement at the same time.
Scenarios
Scenarios are pre-built board layouts and scoring setups. You may play them in any order and at any player count.
Setup: Play the Advanced variant and use the five indicated Ecosystem cards. All players arrange their Rainforest boards as shown in the board layout. You need to reach the minimum score to complete the scenario. If you successfully do so, mark off the achievement for yourself, both on this page and on your progress track (page 8).
| # | Ecosystems | Min. Score | # | Ecosystems | Min. Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 2, 3, 4, 13, 22 | 75 | H | 3, 10, 21, 22, 23 | 110 | |
| B | 6, 7, 9, 15, 17 | 80 | I | 7, 9, 10, 19, 21 | 115 | |
| C | 3, 5, 8, 12, 24 | 85 | J | 6, 8, 16, 17, 18 | 120 | |
| D | 1, 10, 12, 15, 21 | 90 | K | 2, 8, 14, 17, 20 | 125 | |
| E | 2, 6, 15, 22, 23 | 95 | L | 5, 6, 9, 14, 17 | 130 | |
| F | 1, 13, 20, 21, 24 | 100 | M | 4, 7, 11, 12, 13 | 135 | |
| G | 4, 8, 11, 16, 18 | 105 | N | 12, 14, 18, 19, 23 | 150 |
Challenges
Unlike Scenarios and Modifications, you do not choose a Challenge before the game begins. Instead, after you finish a game, check if you completed any of the Challenges. If you complete multiple Challenges in a single game, you choose one of them. Mark off the achievement for yourself, both on this page and on the progress track (page 8). Challenges can be combined with both Scenarios and Modifications, and can be achieved at any player count.
- Score 100+ points
- Score 130+ points
- Score 160+ points
- Have 15+ Trees
- Have 20+ Trees
- Score 25+ points for completed Areas
- Score 30+ points for completed Areas
- Score 25+ points for Animals
- Score 30+ points for Animals
- Score 20+ points for one Ecosystem card
- Score 30+ points for one Ecosystem card
- Win a game having the fewest Animals*
- Win a game having the fewest Trees*
- Win a game having the most minus points in unfinished and mixed Areas*
- Have an Animal in an Area of 5 spaces
- Have all 5 different color Animals
- Have 6+ Animals
- Have 2 adjacent Animals (orthogonally)
- Have 2 adjacent Animals of the same color (orthogonally)
- Have 3 connected Animals (orthogonally)
- Have all Trees connected in one large group (no diagonals)
- Have 4+ Areas completed with the same color Flower
- Have 2+ Areas completed with all five Flower colors
- Have all lakes surrounded by Flowers (orthogonally and diagonally)
- Have all lakes surrounded by Trees and Animals (orthogonally and diagonally)
- Have Flowers in all spaces on the four Rainforest boards
* Not for solo
Modifications
Modifications change some of the core rules of the game for all players. Choose one before the game begins. All participating players mark off the Modification here and on the progress track (page 8). Modifications can be used in combination with Scenarios and Challenges, and at any player count.
- Fertilize action removed
- Fertilize action replaced with: Place any one Flower (does not have to be adjacent to the Animal)
- Fertilize action replaced with: Fertilize as normal but only on diagonals
- Multicolor Flower on Pangolin token replaced with: Remove one uncovered Flower from your board*
- Multicolor Flower on Pangolin token replaced with: Move one uncovered Flower on your board to a different space*
- Unfinished and mixed Areas score double minus points
- You may attract multiple Animals on a turn (also as a result of fertilizing)
- You cannot have two of the same color Animal
- Ignore the One Forest rule
- Setup: Create 6 stacks of 5/8/11 Flower cards at 2/3/4 players. The game plays over 6 rounds and each player takes three turns each round*
* Not for solo
Wildlife of HUTAN
Animals
Pangolin — Pangolins are the only mammals covered in scales, which act as a natural armor against predators. They have a unique defense mechanism of rolling into a tight ball when threatened, resembling an artichoke.
Rhinoceros Hornbill — Rhinoceros hornbills are known for their striking appearance, characterized by a large, casque-like structure on top of their bills, resembling a rhinoceros horn. These majestic birds have a distinctive loud, cackling call that echoes through the dense rainforests.
Sumatran Tiger — Sumatran tigers are excellent swimmers and often cool off by taking a dip in rivers and streams. Unlike other big cats, they have a more social behavior, with males sometimes forming lifelong bonds with their brothers.
Cassowary — Cassowaries are the world's most dangerous birds due to their powerful kicks, which can be fatal to predators and humans alike. Despite their flightless nature, they can sprint up to 30 miles per hour through dense forests, making them formidable runners.
Orangutan — Orangutans are among the most intelligent primates and are known for their incredible tool-using abilities. They have been observed using leaves as umbrellas during rain showers, showing remarkable problem-solving skills.
Sumatran Rhino — Sumatran rhinos are the hairiest rhino species, with long, reddish-brown hair covering their bodies. They are also the smallest living rhinoceroses and are known for their solitary nature, preferring to roam through dense rainforests alone.
Plant Inspiration
The Flowers and Trees of HUTAN were inspired by the plants presented below:
- Hydrangea (Bokor)
- Hibiscus Rosa-Sinensis (Kembang Sepatu)
- Magnolia Champaca (Cempaka Wangi)
- Dark Orchid (Anggrek Hitam)
- Jasminum Sambac (Melati Putih)
- Sundari Tree (Heritiera fomes)
- Pohon Palem (Palm Tree)
- Kapok Tree (Ceiba Pentandra)
- Beringin Tree (Banyan Tree)
Ecosystem Cards
Cards 1-5 — Score 3 points for each completed Area using only Flowers of the color shown on the respective card.
Cards 6-10 — Score 2 points for each Tree you have on Flowers of the color shown on the respective card.
Card 11 — Score 2 points for each Tree along the outer edges of your Rainforest boards.
Card 12 — Score 6 points for each Animal on an outer edge of your Rainforest boards. Each Cassowary along such edges adds +4 points.
Card 13 — Score 2 points for each Animal you have in an Area of 2 spaces.
Card 14 — Score 7 points for each Animal you have in Areas of 4 or 5 spaces total. Each Sumatran tiger in such Areas adds +4 points.
Card 15 — Score 1 point for each Tree in your largest group of connected Trees (not diagonally).
Card 16 — Score 5 points for each group of 3 or more connected Trees you have (not diagonally).
Card 17 — For each lake, score 1 point for every adjacent Tree you have (also diagonally).
Card 18 — For every lake, score 4 points for each adjacent Animal you have (also diagonally). Each Rhinoceros hornbill adds +2 points per adjacent lake.
Card 19 — For every Animal, score 2 points for each diagonally adjacent Tree you have. Each Sumatran rhino adds 2 points per diagonally adjacent Tree.
Card 20 — Score 4 points for each different color Animal you have.
Card 21 — Score 4 points for each of your four Rainforest boards with an Animal on it.
Card 22 — Choose one of the five color Flowers. Score 4 points for each of your four Rainforest boards with at least one Area completed in that color.
Card 23 — Score 8 points for each of your four Rainforest boards that has Trees and/or Animals on all spaces (lakes also contribute). Each Orangutan on such boards adds +4 points.
Card 24 — Score 6 points for each row and column that has Trees/Animals/lakes on all spaces.