Pollen Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Objective
• Credits
• Preparation
  • Garden Cards
  • Pollinator Tokens
  • Scoring Meeples
  • Player Count Adjustments
• Gameplay
  • 1. Plant
  • 2. Pollinate
  • 3. Attract
• Endgame
• Scoring
  • 1. Elimination
  • 2. Discard
  • 3. Count
  • 4. Tie Breaker
• Scoring Examples

Components

• 1 Bag
• 60 Garden Cards, 15 for each player:
  • 4/3/2 value cards for each Butterflies, Bees, and Junebugs
  • 3 star cards
  • 2 star-star cards
  • 1 star-star-star card
• 44 Pollinator Tokens
  • 15 with 1 insect, 27 with 2 insects, 2 with all 3 insects
• 48 Scoring Meeples
  • 16 Butterflies, 16 Bees, 16 Junebugs

Objective

Create a lush garden of beautiful blooms in order to attract helpful pollinators to your flowers.

Credits

• Design: Reiner Knizia
• Illustration: Beth Sobel
• Graphic Design: Anca Gavril
• 3D Artist: Filip Gavril

Preparation

Garden Cards

Each player:

• Takes a set of 15 garden cards.
• Shuffles their cards and places them facedown to form their deck.
• Draws 5 cards from their deck to form their hand.

Pollinator Tokens

1. Place all the tokens in the bag.
2. Draw one token and place it faceup in the center of the playing area.
3. Draw one token and place it faceup near the bag. This is the "next up" token.

Scoring Meeples

4. Place the scoring meeples in three piles.

Player Count Adjustments

Players	Adjustment
2 Players	Use only 10 scoring meeples of each type.
4 Players	Each player removes a single star card and star-star card from their deck, returning them to the box.

The starting player is the player who most recently watered a plant.

Gameplay

Each turn you PLANT, POLLINATE, and ATTRACT. At the end of your turn draw a card, unless your deck is empty. Players take turns clockwise.

1. Plant

Place one garden card from your hand faceup onto the table with a corner touching at least one pollinator token so that 4 garden cards can fit around each pollinator token.

2. Pollinate

Pollinator tokens that are completely encircled attract insects to the players' gardens, and award the players scoring meeples.

For each insect on the token, each player counts how many matching icons they have adjacent to the token. The player with the highest count takes a scoring meeple matching that insect. If there is a tie, no meeple is awarded for that insect.

Each insect on the token is counted and compared separately. It is possible for multiple players to win different meeples. It is possible for one player to win multiple meeples. No pollinator token will ever reward more than one meeple for each insect.

Star icons are wild and count for each insect on the token. Each star can be counted again for subsequent insects on the token.

After all scoring meeples have been awarded, flip the surrounded pollinator tokens facedown.

Example: A pollinator token bears one bee icon. Counting the icons adjacent to the token: pink has 2 bees + 3 stars (stars are wild, so they count as bees too), purple has 4 bees, and green has 3 bees. Pink has the highest count and wins the bee scoring meeple.

3. Attract

If there is an empty pollinator token spot adjacent to at least two garden cards from different players, fill in the empty spot with the "next up" token.

If there are multiple eligible spots, the active player draws additional "next up" tokens (faceup) until there is a "next up" token for each spot, then chooses which token goes in which spot.

Replace the "next up" token from the bag (if it was used) so that one "next up" token is always visible.

In the rare case that a token is placed in a spot that is already surrounded by garden cards, score it immediately according to the POLLINATE rules.

Example (pollinate, junebug and butterfly icons on one token): For the junebug icon, orange has 2 stars adjacent and purple has 1 star adjacent; orange wins. For the butterfly icon, orange has 2 stars + 2 butterflies (4 total), pink has 4 butterflies (4 total), and purple has 1 star (1 total); orange and pink tie, so no reward is given for the butterfly icon.

Example (attract, eligible vs. ineligible spots): The rulebook's layout diagram marks several empty pollinator-token spots around the garden with X1 or X2 to show why they are not eligible for the "next up" token, alongside the "next up" beetle/junebug token (shown with a green arrow) being placed into a spot that is eligible. The legend reads: "X1: Only one card" (the spot only has one garden card touching it, not the required two) and "X2: Only one player" (the spot's adjacent cards all belong to the same player, not different players).

Endgame

When any of the following happens, the current player's turn is finished and the game ends.

• The last scoring meeple of a type is awarded (most common).
• The last pollinator token is placed.
• All players have played all their garden cards (so that all their hands are empty).

In rare cases it is possible for a player to earn a scoring meeple when there are none left. That player still gets credit for their score. Use a pollinator token as a fill in for the scoring meeple.

Scoring

1. Elimination

For each insect type, determine which player has the most scoring meeples of that type. If there is a tie, that type is considered to have no leader.

• If one player is the leader in 2 or 3 types, they win! Skip the rest of the scoring rules.
• Any players who do not lead any type cannot win and are eliminated.
• In the rare case that no players lead any meeple type, the player with the most total meeples wins. Skip the rest of the scoring rules.

2. Discard

Each remaining player sets aside all scoring meeples of the one type they are the leader in.

3. Count

They count their remaining scoring meeples. The player with the most wins.

4. Tie Breaker

If there is a tie, the tied player with the most total scoring meeples is the winner. If there is still a tie, then the tied players share the victory.

Scoring Examples

Each example lists a player's scoring meeples as Bees | Butterflies | Junebugs.

Scoring example 1

• Orange: 4 | 3 | 2 — Does not lead an insect. Eliminated.
• Green: 2 | 3 | 4 — Does not lead an insect. Eliminated.
• Pink: 5 | 8 | 3 — Leads Bees and Butterflies, automatically wins.
• Purple: 4 | 2 | 5 — Leads Junebugs.

Scoring example 2

• Orange: 4 | 6 | 6 — Does not lead an insect. Eliminated.
• Green: 2 | 4 | 7 — Leads Junebugs, Scores 2+4=6.
• Pink: 5 | 6 | 3 — Leads Bees, Scores 6+3=9 and wins.

Scoring example 3

• Orange: 4 | 7 | 3 — Leads Butterflies, Scores 4+3=7. Total = 14 and wins.
• Green: 9 | 3 | 3 — Leads Bees, Scores 3+3=6.
• Pink: 3 | 4 | 6 — Leads Junebugs, Scores 4+3=7. Total = 13.

(Orange and Pink are tied at a score of 7, so the Tie Breaker applies: total scoring meeples across all three types. Orange's total of 14 beats Pink's total of 13, so Orange wins.)

Scoring example 4

• Orange: 5 | 3 | 2 — Leads Bees, Scores 3+2=5.
• Green: 4 | 4 | 3 — Does not lead an insect. Eliminated.
• Pink: 3 | 7 | 3 — Leads Butterflies, Scores 3+3=6 and wins.
• Purple: 4 | 1 | 4 — Leads Junebugs, Scores 4+1=5.

---

©Dr. Reiner Knizia, 2022. All rights reserved.