Plantopia: The Card Game
Plantopia: The Card Game Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Components
- A. 102 Plant cards
- B. 25 Planter cards
- C. 5 Player Aid cards
- D. 15 Weather cards (3 per player)
- E. 9 Bonus Weather Cards
- F. 5 Character Power Cards
Card Anatomy
Each Plant card shows, at the top left, its Cost — the number of cards needed to plant or grow it. At the top middle is its Growth Condition — the weather symbols needed for the plant to grow. At the top right is its Points value.
The bottom of the card holds the Card Effect text and icons. Below that sits the Baby/Treevolved Plant marker.
At a Glance
In addition to the bottom icon, the semicircle colours indicate the plant type:
- Tree: Blue
- Cactus: Green
- Flower: Pink
The semicircle outlines and bottom rectangle colours also indicate if it is a Baby or Treevolved plant:
- Baby: Yellow
- Treevolved: Brown
Game Setup
- Shuffle the Plant cards face-down to create a deck. Deal each player 6 cards as their starting hand. Players have the choice to discard all their cards to redraw another 6 cards, but may only do this once.
- Give each player the 3 Weather cards in the character of their choice, and their corresponding Player Aid card. If you are playing with less than 5 players, shuffle the Weather cards from unused characters in a deck in the middle of the playing area, known as the Weather deck.
- Give each player 5 Planter cards to be placed in a row in the middle of their playing area, known as their Garden. The other Planter cards will not be used in the game.
- Place the Bonus Weather cards to the side of the playing area.
- If playing with Character powers, deal each player their corresponding Character card and carry out the effects on the card.
Aim of the Game
The player who has the most points when at least one player has 4 Treevolved plants in their Garden will win the game and earn the title of Champion Gardener of Plantopia!
Flow of the Game
The game will alternate between the Planting phase and the Weather phase until one player has 4 Treevolved plants. There are no turns on the planet Plantopia! All players will carry out these phases simultaneously. However, you will need to wait for all players to finish their moves before proceeding to the next phase together.
Planting Phase
The game begins with the Planting phase. In the Planting phase, all players will first draw 1 card each (including the first phase of the game). Note that there is no limit to the number of cards in your hand.
Then, all players each choose 1 of the 3 options to carry out simultaneously:
- Plant
- Grow
- Draw 5 cards and keep 1
1. Plant
To plant a card, players will choose a Plant card from their hand to play to their Garden. The cost to play the Plant card is stated in the top left of the card.
Baby Plants (tree, flower, cactus): Baby Plants require you to pay cards from your hand as the cost to play them, from a range of 1 to 3. Pay these cards to the discard pile.
Treevolved Plants (tree, flower, cactus): Treevolved plants require you to pay a Baby plant from your Garden of a specific type and a minimum level. Discard this plant to the discard pile. Think of it as your plant treevolving into a Treevolved Plant!
When you plant a new card, place your plant on any of your empty Planter cards. You may not plant a new card if all your Planter cards are full. All plants start from level 0 when first planted. Some plants have effects that take place upon planting them (Lightning symbol). Execute these effects the moment they are planted.
Example — to plant Suckulent: the cost to plant is a Level 2 Baby Cactus. You can pay this Level 2 Cactus to grow Suckulent. When planted, place it above a Planter Card.
Take note! Plants may only grow to a maximum of level 3. When a plant has reached level 3, remove it from the planter, place it below your garden and tilt it 90°.
All tilted cards will thus be treated as level 3.
Players may only use a maximum of 5 Planter cards at any one time, but there is no limit to the number of level 3 plants a player can have.
2. Grow
To grow a plant, choose one plant in your Garden to grow by 1 level. Pay cards from your hand as fertilizer to grow this plant. The number of cards you need to pay is equal to the number in the top left (the same number that is used to plant a card). After paying the fertilizer cost, move the plant's level up by one on the Planter card. You may only grow 1 plant by 1 level per growth phase.
Example — to grow Suckulent: discard 2 cards from hand to the discard pile as fertilizer to grow a Level 0 Suckulent to Level 1 Suckulent.
3. Draw 5 cards and keep 1
As a planting action, players may choose to draw 5 cards and pick 1 to keep. Discard the other 4.
Weather Phase
In the Weather phase, all players will choose weather cards to play from their hand, then reveal them and carry out any plant growth. The Weather phase is split into 3 steps:
1. Choose a Weather card
First, shuffle the Weather deck. Depending on the number of players in the game, flip a number of cards face-up from the Weather deck (2 players: 2 face-up, 1 face-down; 3 players: 1 face-up, 1 face-down; 4 players: 1 face-up).
Then, all players will choose 1 Weather card from their hand to play face-down. Your decision will hinge on the type of plants you plan to grow this turn, as well as from information from revealed Weather cards and your opponents' plants.
2. Reveal Weather cards
Now, all players reveal their Weather cards, including any face-down Weather cards in a 2 and 3 player game. Place all the revealed Weather cards together. There should always be a total of 5 Weather cards, no matter the player count.
Example — a 3 player game: 1 face-up card from the Weather Deck plus 1 face-down, and each of the 3 players plays a Weather Card face-down. Reveal all 5 cards.
Bonus Weather Cards
At this point, players with any Bonus Weather cards may play them. Bonus Weather cards only affect the player who played them, and once played they return to the stock. If you want to take a Bonus Weather card and there are none left of that type, you may take a card of that type from a player of your choice.
3. Grow Plants
According to the revealed Weather, plants will now grow. Plants will grow if their growth condition (at the top of the card) is present in the current weather. Check each card's growth condition against the current weather individually. If there are multiple sets of growth condition of a plant in the current weather, the plant may grow by that number of levels. E.g. if a plant's growth condition is Sun + Wind, and the current weather has 2 Suns and 2 Winds, the plant grows by 2 levels!
Example — Weather revealed: Rain, Wind, Sun, Rain, Sun:
- Pepper Tree (growth condition: Sun + Rain) grows by 2 levels! (There are 2 Suns and 2 Rains)
- Impossible Tree (growth condition: Rain + Rain + Wind) grows by 1 level.
- Money Plant (growth condition: Wind + Sun + Rain) grows by 1 level.
- Thornos (growth condition: Sun + Sun + Sun) does not grow. Try again next Weather Phase!
At the end of the Weather phase, all players take back the Weather card with their character.
End of a Turn
Technically, there are no turns! If you have just finished the Weather phase, carry out the Planting phase. If you have just completed the Planting phase, go to the Weather phase. If, at the end of the Planting phase, one or more players has 4 Treevolved plants in their Garden, complete one last Weather Phase, then proceed to End of the Game.
End of the Game
When one or more players has 4 or more Treevolved plants in their Garden, the game ends at the end of that phase (Note: Plants with double Treevolved icons count as 1 plant for this purpose). Now, all players will count their score to see who has the craziest garden in all of Plantopia!
Scoring
The total score of each plant is its Plant Score + Bonus Score.
1. Plant scoring
Each plant will score points equal to the number of rainbow leaves in the top right multiplied by the level of the plant.
2. Bonus scoring
Most Treevolved plants will give you bonus scoring opportunities as listed on the bottom of the card. Score each of these separately and add them to your score total.
You can refer to the Glossary for a list of effects of all plants!
Example — Lily-of-the-Rainbow:
- Plant Scoring: Gain 2 Points per level. Plant is Level 2. 2 × 2 = 4 points
- Bonus Scoring: Gain 2 Points per Level 3 Plant. If there are 3 Level 3 Plants in the garden, 3 × 2 = 6 points
- Total: 4 + 6 = 10 points
Example — Bufftus:
- Plant Scoring: Gain 3 Points per level. Plant is Level 1. 1 × 3 = 3 points
- Bonus Scoring: Gain 2 Points per plant type. If there are 4 plant types in the garden (e.g. Baby Cactus, Treevolved Cactus, Baby Flower, Treevolved Tree), 4 × 2 = 8 points
- Total: 3 + 8 = 11 points
When all your points are tallied, the player with the most points is crowned the Champion Gardener of Plantopia! In the case of a tie, the player with the most Treevolved plants in their Garden wins. If players are still tied, the player with the most cards left in their hand wins. If players are still tied, all tied players are Champions!
Team Plantopia
PLANTOPIA is a collaboration between Life of a Potato and Origame. Plantopia's game mechanics are designed by Daryl Chow of Origame. The artwork and creative content are by Ryu Ho, creator of Life of a Potato. Rounding out the team are Nicholas Pang, co-founder of Origame, and Alwyn Lee, founder/CEO of Daylight Studios.
Life of a Potato (Daylight Studios)
Daylight Studios is a Singapore-based game development company founded in 2011, and committed to creating wholesome original content and games with captivating storylines, lovable characters, and an endless amount of fun and joy. Daylight Studios is known for the popular game series, Holy Potatoes®, distributed worldwide and available on PC, Mobile and Console.
Life of a Potato centers around the adventures of a little ordinary potato and its friends who wish to spread love, kindness and positivity around the world. Life of a Potato has since organically grown a loyal potato army with more than 50K followers from all over the world. Potato hopes to spread the message that no matter how small or insignificant we think we may be, we can all make a difference if we try.
Follow Potato! @daylightpotato
Origame
Origame is a proudly Singapore-based board game publisher that aims to showcase the best of Asian culture and talent. Driven by a passion for great game mechanics and design, we aspire to create games that continuously improve as well as reflect our identity and tell our stories. We believe board games have the power to build relationships and communities, and hope that our games will have a cultural as well as social impact.
With partnerships all over Asia, Origame aims to build an Asian community of board game designers, social innovators, and artists to redefine the concept of Asian-style board games. Origame is also actively engaged in fostering the board game community and culture in Singapore and beyond.
Website: www.origame.co