Sir Ocelot's Cave Rulebook

Table of Contents

Object of the Game
Components
Setup
How to Play
Geodes
Celestites
Scoring
Credits

Object of the Game

Sir Ocelot and Professor Penguin explore a newly discovered cave system, competing for the precious gemstones found inside. To locate and collect gemstones, you will be using your tools—compass, lamp, and pickaxe—and your trusty companion's good instincts. The deeper you get into the cave, the more valuable treasure you will find! In the end, the player with the most valuable collection of gemstones wins the game!

Components

1 cotton playmat
2 companions: a bat (for Professor Penguin) and a moth (for Sir Ocelot)
49 blue level-1 cave tokens, including 5 geodes and 8 amethyst backsides (3×, 3×, 3×, 6×, 11×, 7×, 3×)
18 green level-2 cave tokens, including 3 geodes and 5 amethyst backsides (2×, 4×, 3×, 1×)
16 red level-3 cave tokens, including 2 geodes and 3 amethyst backsides (4×, 5×, 2×)
30 tool tokens (with different tools on both sides):
- 10× Compass/Lamp, marked A
- 10× Lamp/Pickaxe, marked B
- 10× Pickaxe/Compass, marked C
3 bags (blue, green, and red)

The gemstone types are: rock crystal, opal, emerald, red beryl, celestites, and amethysts.

Setup

Choose a character each—Sir Ocelot or Professor Penguin—and place the playmat between the two of you accordingly.
Separate the cave tokens by shape or background color (each shape corresponds to one color). Put the amethysts (with a bag icon on the back) into their respective bags (matching the background color and printed shape) and place the bags near the playmat.
Randomly distribute the remaining cave tokens face up onto the square cave spaces on the playmat, one token per space: the blue tokens go into the large cave; the green and red tokens go into the respective smaller caves. Do not place any cave tokens on the circular spaces around the caves!
Take the companion associated with your chosen character: the Moth belongs to Sir Ocelot; the Bat belongs to Professor Penguin.
Take 5 of each tool token (A, B, and C). Including the companion, you should now have 16 tokens each.

The playmat layout has, for each cave (level-1, level-2, level-3): a perimeter of circular spaces around the cave where tools are placed, and square cave spaces inside where cave tokens sit.

How to Play

Decide who will take the first turn. Then alternate taking turns until the game ends.

On your turn, you must go through the following steps in this order:

Move the companion (optional)
Place a token (mandatory)
Collect gemstones (optional)

If you read this rulebook for the first time, we recommend you read step 2 on the following page before reading step 1 below.

When you both run out of tokens to place, i.e., after you have taken 16 turns each, the game ends and you will score your collections.

1. Moving the Companion (optional)

Skip this step if you have not placed your companion yet (see step 2).

If your companion is on a (blue) level-1 space, you may move it to a (green) level-2 space; if it is on a (green) level-2 space, you may move it to a (red) level-3 space. You may move your companion only once per turn.

Note: You may never move your companion to a different space on the same level or back to a previous level. Once it is on level 3, it will stay there until the end of the game.

When moving your companion, you must follow the placement rules (see step 2), i.e., the companion may only move to a cave space that is either empty or containing a (1-point) rock crystal.

Example: Sir Ocelot moves his Moth from level 1 to level 2, which he can place on any of the marked spaces. On space 1 and space 3, he can gain the rock crystal present on that space, so he decides to place the Moth on space 3.

2. Placing a Token (mandatory)

Regardless of whether you moved your companion or not (step 1), you now must place exactly one token:

either a tool on an empty circular space on the perimeter of a cave
or, if you have not already, the companion inside the (blue) level-1 cave.

Your goal is to place the token such that you can collect gemstones (see step 3).

Placing a Tool

Choose one of your remaining tool tokens and place it, either side facing up, on an empty circular space on the perimeter of a cave.

Note: You may place tools freely on the perimeter of any cave if the space is empty; you are not required to start at level 1. Note that tools are double-sided, showing different tools on both sides.

Example: Sir Ocelot places a Compass on space 1.

Placing the Companion

If you have not placed your companion yet, you may place it on a (blue) level-1 space that is either empty or containing a 1-point gemstone (rock crystal or celestite). If you place it on a space with a gemstone, you gain that gemstone.

Note: The companion is placed inside the cave, not on the perimeter like tools are. Unlike tools, your companion must start at level 1, but you can move it to the next level on a later turn (see step 1).

Example: At the start of the game, there are 15 available spaces to place your companion (all rock crystals and celestites). On her first turn, Professor Penguin places her Bat on the highlighted space, gaining that celestite.

3. Collecting Gemstones (optional)

After you have placed a token, check if you can collect any gemstones: to collect a gemstone, it must be "seen" from three different sides by three different tools.

You may collect all gemstones, from all caves, for which this condition applies (even if your opponent has set this up). Keep the collected gemstones in front of you for now—you will score them at the end of the game.

Example: Currently, the red beryl on space 1 cannot be collected, because it is only seen by two different tools (two Lamps and a Compass). To claim that gemstone, you should place a Pickaxe on space 2.

If your companion is inside a cave, it serves as a wild tool for the purposes of collecting gemstones, i.e., it can replace one missing tool for you.

Example: Sir Ocelot has placed a Compass on space 1. Thanks to his Moth, he can now claim the geode on space 2, because the Moth can substitute the missing Lamp.

Note that a gemstone must still be seen from three different sides when using a companion to claim it.

Example (continued): Sir Ocelot cannot claim the emerald on space 3: it is seen by a Lamp, a Pickaxe, and his Moth, but only from two different sides, not three.

Your companion does nothing for your opponent: they cannot use it to claim gemstones, but it also does not block their view.

Example (continued): If either player places a Pickaxe on space 4 or 5, they can claim the emerald on space 3.

Tools on the four perimeter spaces between two caves look into both caves and can, thus, be used to collect gemstones from both. Any other tools only look into the one cave to which their space is attached.

Example: The Pickaxe looks only into the level-2 cave, whereas the Compass looks into both caves.

Geodes

Geodes are innocent looking rocks that need to be opened to discover their inner beauty. You do not know before what you will find inside!

When you collect a geode, immediately draw an amethyst from the corresponding bag (whose color matches the cave) and return the geode to the game box.

Amethysts are worth varying amounts of points. Keep the value of the amethyst you draw hidden from your opponent.

Example: You have just claimed the indicated geode in the level-2 cave, so you may draw an amethyst from the green bag.

Celestites

Celestite is a mysterious type of gemstone found only in the (blue) level-1 cave; it comes in three different shapes reminiscent of a sun, a crescent moon, and a star.

When you collect a set of all three shapes, immediately draw an amethyst from the blue bag. Unlike geodes, you get to keep the celestites. You may collect multiple sets and draw an amethyst for each set, but each celestite may contribute to only one set.

Scoring

The game ends when you both run out of tokens to place.

Reveal your collected amethysts, if any, and total the points from all gemstones that you have collected:

Each rock crystal is worth 1 point.
Each celestite is worth 1 point.
Each opal is worth 3 points.
Each emerald is worth 5 points.
Each red beryl is worth 7 points.
Amethysts are worth what is printed on their front side.

There are four special amethysts with varying point values:

This amethyst scores 1 point for each gemstone with a printed value of 1 that you have collected.
This amethyst scores 1 point for each gemstone with a printed value of 3 that you have collected.
This amethyst scores 1 point for each gemstone remaining in the (blue) level-1 cave at game end.
This amethyst scores 2 points for each gemstone remaining in the (green) level-2 and (red) level-3 caves at game end.

The player with the highest total wins. In case of a tie, the player who has more amethysts wins. If still tied, enjoy your shared victory!

Credits

Designer: Chris Dahlman
R&D: Grzegorz Kobiela
Art Direction: Ricarda Kleine
Illustrations: Marion Sonet
Graphic Design: atelier198
Special thanks to Jaehee Dahlman.