Octopush Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
  • 2 & 3 Player Set Up
  • Combining Colors
• Gameplay
  • Objective
  • 2 & 3 Players
• Player Turns
• Tiles
  • Home and Blank Tiles
  • Hole Tiles
  • Arrow Tiles
• Pushing
  • Pushing Multiple Octopawns
  • Anchored Octopawns
  • Example Turn
• Points
  • There Are 3 Ways to Score Points in Octopush
• End of Round
  • End of Round Sequence
  • 2 & 3 Players
• End of Game
• Dice Variant
  • Dice Variant Setup
  • Dice Variant Turns
  • Dice Variant Scoring
• Card Clarifications

Components

• 4 Border Tiles
• 4 Shell Score Tracker Boards
• 4 Twenty Point Tokens
• 1 Octo-Die
• 48 Board Tiles (8 Holes, 12 Blanks, 28 Arrow)
• 16 Octopawn Miniatures (4 in each color)
• 16 Octopup Miniatures (4 in each color)
• 36 Octopush Cards (9 in each color)
• 4 Player Aid Cards
• 1 Rulebook

Setup

1. Assemble the game board border in the center of the playing area. Randomly place tiles inside the border until it is completely filled.
2. Each player takes four octopawns of one color and places them on the four home tiles on the board closest to themselves.
3. Each player takes a shell score tracker board and four octopups, one of each color, and places it in front of them. (The 20-point shell tokens can be put off to the side.)
4. Each player takes all cards in their octopawn's color(s) and chooses eight cards for each color. Return unchosen cards to the box and shuffle the chosen cards into a personal deck. Draw two cards.

Note: If playing the dice variant, ignore all steps after step 1 and continue setting up as explained in "Dice Variant" (pg. 11). The octo-die is used for the simpler dice variant. When playing the regular game, return the die to the box.

New Players: If this is your first time playing, remove any cards with a star symbol underneath the number on the card.

2 & 3 Player Set Up

All colors are used in every game of Octopush. In a two player game, both players take two colors to combine and control. In a three player game, choose one player to start with two colors. Each player will get a chance to play as the combined colors throughout the game, so it doesn't matter who is chosen first. (See "End of Round", pg. 10.)

Combining Colors

To combine two colors (for two and three player games), place one color of octopawns on the home spaces closest to you and the other color on the next closest home tiles. Choose eight cards from both of your colors and shuffle all sixteen cards together, then draw three cards instead of two.

Gameplay

The game is played over a series of rounds, with players taking turns in clockwise order. On your turn, play one of the two cards from your hand to slide one of your octopawns around the board. Some tiles will either push the octopawns around further or swallow them off the board entirely.

The round ends as soon as any player runs out of cards or octopawns. (See "End of Round", pg. 10.) Players pass their colors to the left and play another round as the new color. The game ends after every player has played as all four colors.

Objective

Score the most total points from playing each color of octopawn. Points are scored by getting your octopawns to fall off the opposite side of the board, pushing opponents' octopawns off the board, and having your octopawns survive until the end of the round. (See "Points", pg. 9.)

2 & 3 Players

When playing with a deck with two colors, you may have three cards in your hand and must move an octopawn that matches the color of the card you play. Only play one turn/card even when playing as multiple colors.

Player Turns

The player with the yellow octopawns always goes first in a round. On your turn, play one of the cards from your hand and move one of your octopawns accordingly. If your octopawn runs into another octopawn (your own or an opponent's), keep moving it while pushing the other octopawn with it. (See "Pushing", pg. 8.)

Once the movement from your card has finished, check to see where your octopawn has landed and follow the symbol. If it lands on a blank/home tile, nothing happens. If it lands on a hole tile, remove it from the board. If it lands on an arrow tile, move it in the direction of the arrow that matches the color of the octopawn, following all subsequent arrows until it is no longer on an arrow tile. If the octopawn gets caught in an endless loop of arrows, choose any tile in the loop to stop on. If the octopawn ends in a hole after following arrows, it is removed from the board. (See "Tiles", pg. 7.)

Next, do the same with any octopawns that you pushed. If any of them gets caught in a loop of arrows, you (not the player it belongs to) choose which tile in the loop it stops on. (See "Pushing", pg. 8.)

After all tile effects have been resolved, draw another card from your deck unless you have no more remaining cards. Remember to score points for any octopawns removed from the board on your turn. (See "Points", pg. 9.)

Tiles

There are three different types of tiles on the game board: holes, blanks, and arrows. Ignore tile symbols while moving your octopawns. Octopawns follow arrows or fall into holes only after their movement ends.

Home and Blank Tiles

Home and blank tiles have no effect on octopawns. Home tiles, shown as rocks, signify where octopawns start each round but otherwise act exactly like blank tiles.

Hole Tiles

If an octopawn finishes its movement on a hole, that octopawn is removed from the board. However, octopawns may move over holes and certain cards can even negate a hole's effect. (See "Card Clarifications", pg. 12.)

Arrow Tiles

If an octopawn finishes its movement on an arrow tile or gets pushed onto an arrow tile, the octopawn must follow the arrow shown on the tile that matches its color, pushing other octopawns out of the way. The octopawn then follows the arrow on the next tile until it lands on a blank tile, on a hole, off the board, or in an arrow loop. When an octopawn or multiple octopawns end up in an endless loop, the active player (the player currently taking their turn) chooses which tile(s) the octopawn(s) end the loop on.

Example captions: Purple moves four spaces while ignoring holes and arrows by playing "Dash". After its card movement ends, it follows the purple arrows until it reaches a blank tile. | 2-tile arrow loop for yellow. | 4-tile arrow loop for purple and green.

Pushing

If your octopawn runs into another octopawn (your own or an opponent's), keep moving it while pushing the other octopawn with it. There is no limit to how many octopawns can be pushed at a time. Octopawns that have been pushed will follow arrows and fall into holes only after the pushing octopawn has followed any arrows or holes it has landed on.

Pushing Multiple Octopawns

If pushing multiple octopawns, move/remove the octopawn closest to the pushing one and move on until moving/removing the furthest from the pushing octopawn.

Example caption: If purple pushes coral and green in this manner, purple follows the arrow/hole tile it landed on first. Then coral follows any arrow/hole it ends on after purple moves. In this scenario, green goes last.

Anchored Octopawns

An anchored octopawn cannot be pushed. If an octopawn runs into an anchored octopawn or pushes another octopawn into an anchored octopawn, it ends its movement there.

Example caption: Yellow must stop their movement because it encountered an anchored green octopawn.

Example Turn

1. Green plays "Crawl" to move 3 spaces but doesn't have to go in a straight line.
2. Green follows the green arrows but has to stop because of the anchored green octopawn.
3. Purple is checked next and follows the purple arrow that makes it push yellow and lands on a hole. This removes purple from the board.
4. Yellow is now checked and ended on a blank tile, so nothing happens and yellow is safe after being pushed out of the hole by purple.

Points

Keep track of your points by moving the baby octopup of the color you are currently playing along your shell tracking board.

If an octopup ever needs to pass 20 spaces on the shell tracker board, take a 20-point token and start that octopup over on the shell tracker board.

Example caption: When scoring while playing as the green octopawns, move your green octopup up the scoring track.

There Are 3 Ways to Score Points in Octopush

5 Points: Falling off the opposite side of the board from where the octopawn started. Score 5 points if your own octopawn falls off the board over the side opposite of where you started (on your own turn OR another player's turn). The octopawn remains off the board and out of play for the rest of the round.

Note: You may always use more movement than necessary to fall off any side of the board.

2 Points: Removing opponents' octopawns from the board. Score 2 points each time an opponent's octopawn is removed from the board on your turn. Octopawns can be removed by pushing them into holes, chomping them, or by pushing them off the side of the board.

Note: Do not score points when removing any octopawn you control or when pushing opponents' octopawns off their opposite side.

1 Point: Surviving to the end of a round. When the round ends, score 1 point for each of your own octopawns remaining on the board.

End of Round

There are two ways a round can end: when all octopawns of any one color have been removed from the board or when any one player has run out of cards. Once any one color of octopawns is no longer on the board, the round ends immediately after the current turn is over. If any player has no cards in their hand to play, the round ends after the current set of player's turns (ending just before yellow/first player's turn).

End of Round Sequence

Once the round is over, follow the following sequence to set up for the new round:

1. Score one point for each octopawn remaining on the board.
2. Collect all of your cards and pass them to the player on your left. Shuffle your new deck. DO NOT remove baby octopups from point tracker boards.
3. Place each color of octopawns to the home tiles to the left of where they started last round.
4. When starting a new round, all players draw up to their hand limit and the player with the yellow octopawns always goes first.

2 & 3 Players

Colors that have been combined, stay combined when being passed to a new player.

In a two-player game, place each octopawn color on the opposite side from its original location.

End of Game

The game ends after players have played a round with each color. Total up your points by adding together the point values of all of your baby octopups. Whoever has the most points wins! Ties are broken by whoever likes octopuses more!

Note: The points are divided into four different point trackers to keep player's point totals more ambiguous. That, and four baby octopups are cuter than one!

Dice Variant

The dice variant of Octopush makes the game more simple and accessible to both younger and older players by removing the cards and replacing them with an octo-die. Players ages 6-10 can have a harder time with the original rule set, so it is recommended to use this rule set when playing with players in that age range. This variant uses the same rules for "Tiles" (pg. 7) and "Pushing" (pg. 8).

Dice Variant Setup

Set up the board as usual (see "Setup", pg. 4). Each player selects a color and sets the four big "Octopawns" of their selected color on the rock "Home" tiles closest to them. Return any unselected color(s) to the box. Place all four of your baby "Octopups" off the side of the board furthest from your octopawns as shown to the right. Give the octo-die to the oldest player. They will take the first turn, then players will take turns in clockwise order. Return all cards and point tracker boards to the box; they will not be used in this variant.

Dice Variant Turns

On your turn, roll the octo-die and move any one of your octopawns the number of spaces shown on the die. You can move it forward, backward, left, or right. The movements do not all have to be in the same direction.

If you roll a "Chomp" icon, choose one of your own octopawns and chomp the opponent octopawn closest* to it by removing it from the board and moving your octopawn to where they were. If multiple octopawns are equally distant from you, you may choose which one to chomp.

If you have no octopawns left on the board, place all four of your octopawns back onto your home tiles after the current player's turn is over. Chomp any opponents' octopawns who happen to be on your home tiles!

*The one that requires the least amount of movement to get to it.

Dice Variant Scoring

Anytime an octopawn falls off the side of the board with the octopups of their color, they rescue one octopup. Leave your octopawn off the board for now, and put your rescued octopup in front of you.

The first player to rescue all four of their octopups wins the game!

Card Clarifications

• Glide: You must move until you hit another octopawn or until you move five spaces, whichever comes first. Octopawns still push when following arrows after playing this card.
• Dash: You may wish to say "Zoom!" when playing this card.
• Crawl: You may move back onto a space you were already on this turn.
• Wade: If choosing to follow tile effects, you must follow all tile effects. You may not choose to ignore some arrows and follow others, or follow arrows but not holes.
• Anchor: Tilt your octopawn onto its side to show it is anchored. If another octopawn hits an anchored octopawn as if to push it, the pushing octopawn ends its movement instead of pushing. When you are ready to move your anchored octopawn again, unanchor it by flipping it back upright.
• Camouflage: You must choose a color to follow and must follow all arrows you encounter of that color for your entire turn. You may choose your own color.
• Flow: You may follow some arrows and ignore others after your first movement. You may use your second movement to jump out of a hole you landed in from your first movement. You must follow all tile effects after your second movement.
• Dive: Only the octopawn being moved directly by this card may "dive" to another hole. Dive to another hole even after being pushed into a hole by arrows or by other means on your turn. You must move it to a different hole when landing in a hole; you may not choose to stay. Do not remove the octopawn from the board even though it ends its turn on a hole.
• Chomp: Do not push when using chomp. Remove any octopawn you land on, including your own. Do not score points when chomping your own octopawn. You may not move to a space that has an anchored octopawn on it.