Mystical Seeds
Mystical Seeds Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Setup
- Place the Garden in the center of the table. Follow the markings to arrange the 7 different seed colors into their respective sections. Potions should be placed next to the board for easy access.
- Randomly place 1 Garden Fairy in each of the 3 indented areas next to the Level 1 seeds in the Garden as shown in the Figure below.
- Flip all the Plant cards to show the side with the seeds and divide them into two decks ("I" - Level 1 and "II" - Level 2). Shuffle the cards and place them next to the Garden. Then from each deck, place the top three cards in a row next to its deck so each card is fully visible. These six cards are in the "Research Area."
- Flip all the Knowledge tiles face-down and divide them into two piles (Level 1 and Level 2) based on the backing. Shuffle separately and form into two stacks.
- Place the Bookshelf board next to the Plant cards. Randomly pick 4 Level 1 Knowledge tiles to place face-up in the 4 empty ( I ) slots on the board. Next, randomly pick 4 Level 2 Knowledge tiles to place face-up in the 4 empty ( II ) slots on the board.
- Each player picks a color and takes the corresponding Laboratory board, 4 Fairy Tokens, and a Potion.
- Each player places a Fairy marker at the bottom (starting space) of each of the 3 Knowledge tracks (red, yellow, blue) on the Bookshelf board. The last Fairy marker will go in the top circle of their Laboratory board. Players also place their Potion in the center of their Laboratory.
- The player who most recently touched a live plant will be the starting player.
- Shuffle the Starting Resource cards (with the title backing) and deal two cards to each player. Beginning with the starting player, each player selects and reveals a Starting Resource card and takes its corresponding benefits (described in the appendix). All Starting Resource cards are put back into the box since they won't be used again in this game.
- Players will place any resources received from the selected Starting Resource card onto their Laboratory board. Starting with the empty circle to the left of the Fairy and moving in a counter-clockwise direction, players will place one starting resource in each empty circle as shown in the Figure above.
Gameplay
Beginning with the starting player, each player takes their turn in a clockwise direction. A round is completed when all players have finished taking a turn. At the start of each round, check the game end condition (i.e., if any player has 10 or more prestige points) to see whether to continue. On their turn, players may first perform the Inspiration phase followed by their Action phase, then make the Cleanup phase.
Inspiration phase
(optional and unlimited)
During this phase, a player may:
- Exchange Seeds: Replace three identical Seeds with a Level 1 Seed and place it in any empty circle on their Laboratory board. (as shown on the right)
- Use a Potion: Discard a Potion to immediately perform one of the Garden Fairy actions (Duplicate / Upgrade / Graft). These actions will be described in more detail later.
Action phase
During this phase, a player must choose one of the following:
- Collect Seeds and conduct an experiment
- Cultivate a Plant
Collect Seeds and conduct an experiment
This consists of five steps:
- Tap a Fairy: Select one of the three Garden Fairies and lay it on its side ("tapped").
- Collect seeds: Take a number of Level 1 seed(s) from the tapped Garden Fairy's location equal to the total number of Garden Fairies there. Seeds are limited in numbers. If a specific type of seed runs out, it will be unavailable until the Garden is replenished.
- Place Seeds: Put the Seeds gained from the Garden onto your Laboratory board. Starting with the circle your Fairy is located in and moving clockwise, place one Seed in each circle. However, each circle is limited to one Seed. If any circles have two seeds, choose one of the Seeds to discard back to the Garden.
- Take a Garden Fairy Action: Conduct an experiment on the seeds by taking the action associated with the tapped Garden Fairy. (Duplicate, Upgrade or Graft)
- Move the Fairy: Stand the tapped Garden Fairy back up and move her to one of the other two indented areas next to Level 1 seeds.
Cultivate a Plant
Select one of the six Plant cards in the Research Area to cultivate by trading in the matching set of Seeds shown on it. You may substitute lower level Seeds with certain higher level Seeds. (as shown in Figure below).
- Brown substitutes any other seed.
- Orange substitutes Red or Yellow.
- Green substitutes Yellow or Blue.
- Purple substitutes Red or Blue.
Advance along the Knowledge track based on the Plant card. (see Knowledge Track section). Then turn the card over and place it in front of you to gain the prestige points shown on the bottom.
Cleanup phase
At the end of a player's turn, the following three items are checked and updated:
- If the Fairy on the player's Laboratory board is located in a circle with a Seed, move the Fairy in a clockwise direction to the next empty circle. Do not move the Fairy if all the circles have Seeds.
- If a player has cultivated a Plant card this turn, refill the Research Area to ensure there are 3 Level 1 and 3 Level 2 Plant cards.
- If a player has taken one or more Knowledge tiles during their turn, refill the Bookshelf board with the corresponding Knowledge tile(s) (Level I or II) based on the one(s) taken.
Note: Once the Plant cards or the Knowledge tiles are depleted, they will not be replenished.
Garden Fairy Actions
Duplicate
Select a Level 1 or Level 2 Seed in your Laboratory and take a Seed of the same color and type from the Garden. Place it in any circle in your Laboratory connected to the selected Seed by a line. If you ever have two Seeds in a circle, you can only keep one of them and must discard the other to the Garden. (as shown on the right)
Upgrade
Select a Level 1 Seed in your Laboratory board and replace it with a Level 2 Seed based on the following rules:
- Red upgrade to Orange or Purple.
- Yellow upgrade to Orange or Green.
- Blue upgrade to Green or Purple.
Graft
(the primary method to obtain Level 3 Seeds)
Following the lines on your Laboratory board, merge two Seeds into a Level 2 or Level 3 Seed according to the rules on the right:
- Yellow and Blue, merge into Green.
- Any Level 1 and Level 2, merge into Brown.
- Red and Yellow, merge into Orange.
- Blue and Red, merge into Purple.
After merging two Seeds, remove both of them from the board and place them back in the Garden. Place the resulting Seed onto the board in either one of the two circles the merged Seeds were before. You may merge 2 different Seeds together any number of times as long as they are connected by lines on your Laboratory board. (as shown below)
Note: Two Level 1 Seeds of the same color or any two Level 2 Seeds cannot be merged together.
Knowledge Track
Each time you Cultivate a new Plant (taking a Plant card), advance your Fairy token one space on the Knowledge track for each Seed shown on the card (not the actual Seeds traded in, which may include substitutes). Level 2 Seeds shown on the card may be used to advance one space on one of the two tracks corresponding to its components. Level 3 Seeds can be used to advance one space along any track.
- Orange advances Yellow or Red.
- Green advances Yellow or Blue.
- Purple advances Blue or Red.
When a player's Fairy advances into the third or sixth space, they can immediately select one of the Knowledge tiles directly to the left and right sides of the space.
The player will place the Knowledge tile on one of the 6 available spaces on their Laboratory board (a player can't take the tile if all the 6 spaces are unavailable). The effects of Knowledge tiles are explained at the end of the rules.
When a player's Fairy resides in the seventh or eighth space, the player will have 1 prestige point from that track.
When a player reaches the ninth space on a track, the player will have 2 prestige points from that track, the maximum available.
Note: Only one Fairy may enter the ninth and last space of each track.
Example: When Cultivating the Plant on the left, advance two spaces on the red track, then advance 1 space on either the yellow or blue track, finally, choose any track to advance one additional space. (The printed example also shows the Plant card and the resulting track spaces as illustrations; those are not transcribed.)
Game End and Scoring
At the start of each round before the starting player has taken a turn, check to see if any players have 10 or more prestige points. If so, the game ends immediately and the player with the most prestige points wins the game.
If there is a tie, players will count the number of Plant cards, Knowledge tiles and Starting resource cards with prestige points. The player with the fewest number of these sources wins. (as shown in the example below)
If players are still tied, then players compare the number of Seeds they have left in their Laboratory. The player with the most Seeds wins. If players are still tied, then they all share the victory.
Example: Anita and Bob are tied at 10 prestige points. Anita has Cultivated 5 Plants and 2 Knowledge tiles with prestige points. Bob has Cultivated 4 Plants and 1 Knowledge tile with a prestige point, and 1 Starting resource card with a prestige point. Therefore, Bob wins.
(The printed example shows each player's Plant cards, Knowledge tiles and Starting resource card as illustrations; those are not transcribed.)
Tiles with an exclamation point are one-time effect tiles. Nevertheless, they still need to be kept in 1 of the 6 Knowledge tile spaces on the player board.
If not specified, Seeds gained from Knowledge tiles may be placed in any circle in the Laboratory. But if two Seeds are in one circle, you can only keep one and must discard the other.
Level 1 Knowledge Tiles
- When taking the "Upgrade" action, you may upgrade a Level 2 Seed to a Level 3 Seed.
- When taking the "Upgrade" action, you may immediately take a second "Upgrade" action. This can be used in combination with the Tile left.
- Before taking the "Graft" action, take a Level 1 seed from the area the Garden Fairy came from.
- Before taking the "Graft action", choose one of your Fairy tokens that is on the lowest place of Knowledge track and advance it one space.
- Gain 1 potion.
- When Cultivating a plant, you can choose to Cultivate the Plant card at the top of each deck. You also gain 0.5 prestige points.
- These Knowledge tiles are equivalent to Plant cards, except only the player with the tile can Cultivate the tile and advance on Knowledge track during their Inspiration phase (i.e., the player still process the action phase as usual). After Cultivating the Knowledge tile, the player removes the tile from their player board and places it with the rest of the Plant cards as prestige points.
When using a Potion to take a Garden Fairy action, players that have any of the four Knowledge tiles above can still use their effects.
Level 2 Knowledge Tiles
- Gain 2 Potions.
- Immediately take two additional turns before play passes to the next player.
- Gain 1 Potion and immediately take an extra turn before play passes to the next player.
- Gain two Level 2 Seeds of your choice.
- Gain a Level 1 seed of your choice, a Potion, and advance your Fairy one space on a Knowledge track of your choice.
- Randomly draw three Level 2 Knowledge tiles from the supply stack. Gain 1 and discard the other 2 back to the bottom of the supply stack.
- Move a Fairy of yours back two spaces on one Knowledge track in exchange for advancing a Fairy forward two spaces on another Knowledge track.
- Each time you Cultivate a Plant, you can trade in one fewer Level 1 Seed than required.
- Each time you Cultivate a Plant, you can advance your Fairy one space on a Knowledge track of your choice.
- Take a sun token and place it in any circle in your Lab. During your Inspiration phase, if the circle with the sun token is empty (does not have a Seed), then place a Level 1 Seed of your choice in that location. If it already has a Level 1 Seed, then replace it with a Level 2 Seed of your choice.
- Gain 1 prestige point. Your Fairy can now enter the ninth space of any track that already has another Fairy on it.
- Each time you Cultivate a Plant, gain a Level 2 seed of your choice.
- Gain two "X" tokens and place each of them on a Plant card in the Research Area. These Plant cards cannot be Cultivated. During Inspiration phase, other players may choose to pay you a Seed to move the "X" token to another Plant card without an "X" token. During your Inspiration phase, you may move the "X" token to another Plant card without penalty.
Starting Resource Cards
The printed sheet shows the twelve Starting Resource cards, grouped by the text printed beside them. Each card is listed here with the items it shows.
Gain the specified Seeds shown (two Level 1, one Level 2), and advance one space on the specified Knowledge track.
- Green Seed (Level 2), Blue Seed and Yellow Seed (Level 1), and advance one space on the red Knowledge track.
- Purple Seed (Level 2), Red Seed and Yellow Seed (Level 1), and advance one space on the blue Knowledge track.
- Orange Seed (Level 2), Red Seed and Blue Seed (Level 1), and advance one space on the yellow Knowledge track.
Gain the specified Seeds shown (one Level 1, one Level 2), and advance one space on each of the two specified tracks.
- Red Seed (Level 1) and Green Seed (Level 2), and advance one space on the yellow and blue Knowledge tracks.
- Yellow Seed (Level 1) and Purple Seed (Level 2), and advance one space on the red and blue Knowledge tracks.
- Blue Seed (Level 1) and Orange Seed (Level 2), and advance one space on the red and yellow Knowledge tracks.
Gain the specified Seeds and resources shown (two Level 1 Seeds of the same color, one Level 3 Seed / Potion).
- A Potion and two Red Seeds (Level 1).
- A Brown Seed (Level 3) and two Yellow Seeds (Level 1).
Gain two Level 1 seeds (blue) and advance one space on each of the three Knowledge tracks.
- Two Blue Seeds (Level 1), and advance one space on each of the red, yellow and blue Knowledge tracks.
Gain the specified Seeds shown (red, yellow, and blue), and advance one space on two different Knowledge tracks of your choice.
- Red, Blue and Yellow Seeds (Level 1), and advance one space on two different Knowledge tracks of your choice.
Gain the specified Seeds shown (red, yellow, and blue), and a Level 2 Seed of your choice.
- Red, Blue and Yellow Seeds (Level 1), and a Level 2 Seed of your choice.
Gain one Level 1 Seed of your choice and also gain 1 prestige point.
- One Level 1 Seed of your choice and 1 prestige point.