Mission: Wild Life
Mission: Wild Life Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Material
- 22 Research mission cards (green back)
- 22 Adventure mission cards (purple back)
- 44 Flash mission cards (yellow back)
- 40 Playing cards (1-8 in gray, blue, green, gold, red)
Setup
Shuffle the mission cards separately and put them on one stack per color - leave out the expert missions for the first few games. Reveal one mission of each type.
Shuffle the playing cards and distribute them face down evenly among the players - if there are three players, you will have one card left over, which you put to the side, face up and visible to everyone, so that it is clear which card is out of the game this round. If this card explicitly affects one of your missions, then you draw a new mission from the corresponding stack and put the unfulfillable mission back under the stack.
For example, with the Beaver: "Win the green 1" and the green 1 is out of the game.
Gameplay
Your goal is to complete missions to attract the animals to your habitat. The last player to see a lion starts the round.
Starting with this player in a clockwise direction, each player plays one of their hand cards face up in the middle of the table. When each player has played a card, the trick is complete. The first card determines the leading color of the trick and imposes a color constraint on all other players. If possible, the other players must play a card of the same color. If a player does not have a card in the leading color of the trick, they may play a card in any color.
Once each player has played a card, the trick is completed. The player who played the highest card in the color of the trick wins the trick (except trump and 1 > 8) and places the played cards face down in front of them as a trick (each trick is placed separately in front of them, as this is important for some missions). The player who won the trick starts the next trick.
Trump: Golden cards
The golden cards (suns) are trumps, which means they are higher than the color of the trick. If there is at least one golden card in the trick, the highest golden card wins.
But keep in mind: Golden cards cannot be played if the player is under color constraint, meaning the player still has cards in their hand in the color of the trick.
Example: player A plays a blue 8 as the first card, player B follows the color by playing a blue 5, player C has no more blue cards in his hand and is allowed to play a gold 2, thereby winning the trick.
Evade: Gray cards
The gray cards (clouds) help players to evade. These cards can be played even if the player is under color constraint, meaning the player still has cards in their hand in the color of the trick. You can only win a trick with gray cards if gray is played as the leading color of the trick (as the first card).
Example: If player A plays a red 5 as their first card, player B can play a gray 7 even though player B still has red cards in his/her hand. But as red was played as leading color, red is higher.
1 beats 8 (of the same color)
If the 1 and 8 of the same color are played in a trick, the 1 is higher than the 8 in that trick.
Example: If player A plays the red 8, player B plays the gray 4 and player C plays the red 1, then player C wins. Since the 8 and 1 of the same color are in the same trick, the 1 is higher. If player B would have played a gold card (trump) instead, player B would have won the trick since the trump color is still higher.
Missions (Animal Cards)
Flash Missions are awarded during the round as soon as a player meets the requirement first. So everyone must be very vigilant here!
Example: the Wolf "Win a 3 and a 7 in one trick" is awarded to the player who first wins a trick containing a 3 and a 7.
Flash missions that were not won at the end of a round because the condition was not met are placed back on the bottom of the flash mission stack.
Adventure and Research Missions are won at the end of the round, when all tricks have been taken, by the player who best fulfilled the condition. These missions refer to all the cards a player won in their tricks this round.
Example: the Rhino "Most points in green" is awarded to the player with the highest sum of green number values (not the number of cards) in all of the tricks they won.
Caution! Many of the research missions require at least one trick! If a player does not meet this requirement, they will not be considered when the mission is awarded.
In the event of a tie, all players involved in the tie win the mission. Give the mission card to one player and a face-down card from this mission stack to the other player(s).
The players place the won missions clearly visible in front of them. It must always be clear how many missions each player has won so far.
Game End
If at the end of a round one player has won a total of five or more mission cards, the game ends and the player with the most mission cards wins. If this is not the case, a new round starts with three new mission cards.
If a player wins their fifth mission card during a round (flash mission), the round is played till the end, and the adventure and research mission cards are still awarded.
In the event of a tie, all players involved in the tie share the victory.
(The rulebook page at this point shows a layout diagram of the mission cards laid out in front of Players 1 to 5 around the table; it has no additional rules text.)
Variants
Add the following variants after you gain some experience with the game:
- Expert Missions: If you have already played a few games, you can add the expert missions. Simply shuffle these with the normal mission cards for even more variety and challenge! Expert mission cards are worth just as much as normal missions. They are identified by crown icons and the word "Profi" on the back.
- Multiple Flash Missions: If you want to make the game even more challenging, you can play with two or even three flash mission cards per round instead of one. Since there are now more cards to be won per round, a player needs six or seven missions to trigger the end of the game.
- Pass Cards: After dealing the cards, each player passes three of their hand cards face down to the player to their left. Each player then picks up the three cards they received from the player to her right.
FAQs
- During the round players are only allowed to look at the face-down tricks that they won.
- Points are the sum of the numbers on the cards. Example: a green 4, a green 2 and a green 1 is a total of 7 points in green.
- Maki, Sea Turtle, Anaconda, Manatee, Peacock, Flamingo: The player must show his/her hand cards once they have fulfilled the condition.
- Camel, Quokka: If several players have the most tricks / fewest points, they all count as first place and the next player counts as second.
- Iguana, Chimpanzee, Dolphin, Giant Tortoise: You can leave the first two cards that match the mission and have already been played face up to indicate which cards have already been played.
- Koi: Sets means that you form groups of one green, red and blue card from all the cards you have won (the number is not important).
- Orangutan, Red Panda, Polar Bear, Robin: Each player first checks in which color they won the fewest/most cards in to determine their weakest/strongest color. Only colors that a player actually won are considered for this. Example for the Orangutan: a player won five blue, seven gray and four green cards in their tricks. Green therefore is their weakest color. The player now compares whether the other players have won more than four cards in their weakest color.
Mission Cards
Card text as printed on the mission cards. The printed text of the Kiwi card reads "Must numbers with exactly one card"; the icon caption on the same card reads "Most numbers exactly once", so the wording "Must" is a misprint for "Most" in the source.
Research Missions (for lower / weaker hands)
- Humming-Bird: Fewest tricks that contain red cards. At least one trick!
- Lizard: Fewest green cards. At least one trick!
- Seahorse: Least amount of points in blue. At least one trick!
- Mouse: Least amount of points. At least one trick!
- Desert Fox: Fewest gray cards. At least one trick!
- Bat: Least amount of points in gold. At least one trick!
- Racoon: Fewest uneven cards. At least one trick!
- Meerkat: Fewest 5s or higher. At least one trick!
- Wombat: Fewest 8s. At least one trick!
- Jellyfish: Fewest 6s. At least one trick!
- Tree Frog: Fewest 4s. At least one trick!
- Puffer Fish: Fewest 2s. At least one trick!
- Crab: Fewest tricks that contain blue and/or green cards.
Adventure Missions (for higher / stronger hands)
- Sea Eagle: Most red cards.
- Rhino: Highest amount of points in green.
- Orca: Most tricks that contain blue cards.
- Elephant: Most tricks.
- Gorilla: Most tricks that do not contain gray cards.
- Owl: Most tricks that do not contain gold cards.
- Zebra: Most even cards.
- Kangaroo: Most 4s or lower.
- Giraffe: Most 7s.
- Bison: Most 5s.
- Lama: Most 3s.
- Antelope: Most 1s.
- Hippo: Most blue and green cards.
- Heron: Highest amount of points in red and blue.
- Ostrich: Most tricks that contain green and/or red cards.
Flash Missions (for during the round)
- Vulture: Win the last trick of the round.
- Falcon: Win the 5th trick of the round.
- Starfish: Win the blue 5.
- Beaver: Win the green 1.
- Toucan: Win the red 4.
- Octopus: Win the blue 8.
- Deer: Win the green 6.
- Pelican: Win the red 7.
- Cockatoo: Win the gold 2.
- Pangolin: Win the gray 7.
- Armadillo: Win a red, green, or blue 2.
- Panda: Win a red, green, or blue 4.
- Brown Bear: Win a red, green, or blue 6.
- Platypus: Win a red, green, or blue 1.
- Iguana: Win the last red, green, or blue 3.