Photosynthesis FAQ
54 questions players ask · Updated Nov 12, 2026 · Full rulebook
Set-up
- Are the spare seeds and trees beside the player board free to use after setup?
- In a two-player game, is the centre space worth more because of the four-leaf scoring tokens?
- Must the second small tree placed at setup go next to the first one on the outer edge?
- Do the two small trees placed during setup act like any other tree afterwards?
- Does the second round of setup tree placement reverse the turn order?
Playing a Round
- Can a smaller tree shade a larger one?
- Do shadows get weaker with distance, or are they a fixed length?
- Does a tree standing in another tree's shadow still cast its own shadow?
- If same-size trees stand in a row, does every one of them score light?
- Does a tree a few spaces behind a larger tree score partial light?
- When are light points collected during a round?
- Is there a limit on how many light points a player can hold?
- Do unused light points carry over to the next round?
- In a two-player game, does one player take two turns in a row?
- Who moves the sun each round, and does the sun move in the first round?
- On your turn, can you take your actions in any order, and do you finish them before the next player's turn?
- Can you undo a move during your turn?
Possible Actions
- Can you plant a seed and then grow that same seed into a small tree in one turn?
- Can a tree be used to plant a seed and then grown in the same turn, or grown first and then used to plant?
- Can you take two actions on the same board space in one turn?
- Can you collect a large tree and plant a seed on the same space in the same turn?
- Can you harvest a large tree, buy it back, and then plant or grow with it in the same turn?
- Can you buy a seed or tree and then plant or grow it in the same turn?
- Must a seed or tree you buy be planted or grown on the same turn?
- Where do harvested or replaced trees and seeds go on the player board?
- If you harvest all your trees, are you out of the game?
- What do you collect when the scoring token pile for a harvested tree's soil is empty?
- Do you have to collect both large trees, or can you collect just one?
- How far from its parent tree can a seed be planted?
- Must a seed be planted in a straight line from its parent tree?
- Can a seed be planted past other trees to reach an empty space?
- Can a seed fly over an activated space to land on one that is not activated?
- Can a seed sit on the centre space for the whole game to block it?
- Can two seeds or trees share one space on the main board?
End of the Game
Advanced Variation
- Under the advanced rules, can you collect a large tree that is standing in shadow?
- Under the advanced rules, can a seed be planted into a shaded space when the tree throwing it stands in sunlight?
- Under the advanced rules, can a tree standing in shadow plant a seed or grow?
- Under the advanced rules, is shadowing checked when you take an action, or only during the Photosynthesis Phase?
Photosynthesis: Under the MoonlightExpansion
- Can you use the same animal ability twice in one turn?
- Does using an animal ability count as an action on the space the animal occupies?
- Does the beaver dam have to move to a completely new spot each time it is repositioned?
- Does the beaver dam keep giving its free growth benefit from turn to turn?
- Can the hedgehog run in any direction, or only straight ahead?
- If the squirrel eats a seed and your player board has no open space, where does the seed go?
- Can you move your animal and use its abilities in the same turn?
- Do turtle eggs block planting and growing on their space?
- How many scoring points does each unused lunar point give at the end of Under the Moonlight?
- Does the Beaver's free growth give a scoring token, like collecting a large tree?
- Does an animal get extra lunar points if it is both in moonlight and next to a moonstone?
- Does the Fox steal light points or lunar points?
- Does a moonstone block moonlight from reaching spaces beyond it?