The Isle of Cats FAQ
140 questions players ask · Updated Nov 7, 2026 · Full rulebook
Setup and Components
- Are small treasures also common treasures?
- How do I tell rare treasure tiles from common treasure tiles?
- What are the wooden cat figures used for?
- What if I run out of wooden cat figures?
- Which cat colour represents me when there is no player colour token?
- How many Oshax tiles do I set out, and do I choose them or draw them?
- What stays in the bag between games: rare treasures, Oshax and common treasures?
- What if the discovery deck runs out during a game?
- How do I build the discovery deck with lesson modules?
- What do I do with the three extra core lesson cards from the Kickstarter pack?
- Which cards do I use for a first game with the Kickstarter extras?
- Can the fish supply run out, and do unused fish carry over?
- Does a tile showing a cat and a kitten count as two cats?
Boats and Tile Placement
- Can a tile cover walls or sit across several rooms?
- Must a treasure tile touch a tile already on my boat?
- Does a card that says to place a cat anywhere ignore the touching rule, and can later tiles join either group?
- If I place an Oshax on a treasure map, do I get the treasure?
- Can a covered treasure map give a rare treasure in the standard game?
- May I try tiles on my boat before choosing which to take?
- Can cats cover the paddle wheel on the paddle boat from the Boat Pack?
Fill the Fields and Fishing
- Does the start player choose which field each drawn cat goes into?
- How many cats are in the fields at the start of a day?
- What happens when I draw a rare treasure while filling the fields?
- Can I rescue a rare treasure from the fields with a basket?
- At the end of the day, do unrescued cats return to the bag and are rare treasures discarded?
- How do we make sure tiles are drawn at random from the bag?
Explore: Drafting and Paying
- How and when do I pay for the discovery cards I keep?
- What if I am passed only cards I cannot afford?
- Do I pay fish for cards I keep after an Anytime card draws extra cards?
- Can I discard lesson cards I do not want to buy during the draft?
- When can I play an Anytime card that draws cards during the draft?
- Must I play every lesson card in the day I buy it?
- Can I keep a rescue card I bought for a later day?
- If I draw a card after its phase has passed, when can I play it?
Lessons and Public Lessons
- Do public lessons count as lesson cards for cards that count your lessons?
- Can public lessons be discarded or removed by a card?
- When do I pick the colour for a lesson that says pick a colour?
- Is there a limit to how many lessons I can complete?
- Do I have to include public lessons, and can a game have none?
- If I tie for most families or most treasures, do I still score the lesson?
Rescue Cats: Speed and Baskets
- Can I rescue a cat using only my permanent basket and no rescue cards?
- How many cats can I rescue on a turn?
- What happens to rescue cards I played but did not use?
- Can one rescue card give boots for speed and a basket to rescue with?
- How do half (broken) baskets work?
- Does the cat on a rescue card limit which colour I can rescue?
- How are ties on boots resolved for turn order?
- Does turn order reset at the start of a new day?
- Does the two-basket card let me rescue two cats in one turn, and do I pay for both?
- How does the Anytime card that lets me rescue 2 cats work?
- If I pass during the rescue or rare-finds phase, can I rejoin?
- Can I use a permanent basket on the day I gain it?
- Can the permanent basket supply run out?
Rare Finds, Oshax and Treasure
- Do I need a basket to play an Oshax card or place an Oshax?
- Which rare treasure can I take with a Take Any Rare Treasure card?
- If a card lets me take two treasures, can I take just one?
- Does an Oshax count as its own colour for cards that count colours?
- Does an Oshax count as its chosen colour when scoring families?
- How many fish do the colour-count Anytime cards give?
- Can I keep Oshax or treasure cards in hand and play them on a later day?
Anytime Cards
- When can I play an Anytime card, and can I play one on another player's turn?
- Can I play several Anytime cards in a row, and how are simultaneous plays ordered?
- Can I play Anytime cards once the game has ended and scoring has started?
- Where does a tile drawn with the draw-a-tile Anytime card go, and do I pay for it?
- How do the draw-four-tiles cards (Cat Call, Cat Whistle) work?
- Can I play two Anytime cards that each boost my next action?
Discarding Cards and Tiles
- If a card tells me to discard something, is it gone for good?
- When a card says to discard treasures, do they come from my boat or the supply?
- May I discard treasure so that my tiles end up in separate groups?
- Which lessons can I discard to pay for cards like Workshop?
- Can I discard a permanent basket I have already used this turn?
- Can I sell cards I have paid for but not played?
Scoring
- Does the open deck (room 5) count as a room for the -5 unfilled-room penalty?
- Which are the Captain's Rooms, and do they count as two rooms?
- Are visible rats and treasure map squares empty squares for room scoring?
- Do treasure tiles count as filling squares for rooms?
- Does a lesson card replace the normal rat or empty-room penalties?
- How do I score a cat family of eight or more?
- Does a treasure tile between two same-colour cats keep them in one family?
- Does Tear Jerker (card 141) score if I have fewer than three families?
- With Tear Jerker, how many times is my third largest family scored in total?
- How do I find the third largest family when sizes tie?
- Does zero count as a number for lessons that compare or count amounts?
- How do lessons scoring per cat of whichever colour I have fewer of work?
- What do scoring tiles with a printed number and dots mean?
- Does Prospector score 2 points for every treasure or only common treasure?
Lesson Card Rulings: Rows, Columns and Edges
- For the 9-square column and 12-square row lessons (221, 222), must the whole run be filled with one colour?
- Can a run of 13 squares score as more than one 12-square row?
- Does Ship Shape score for rows of different colours or with treasure in them?
- Can the 5x5 area for Cat Towers include treasure tiles?
- Does the Full Ship lesson need every square on the boat filled?
- For lesson 328 (exactly two colours touching the edge), how many cats may touch it, and may treasure sit there?
- Does a boat corner count as touching the edge for the In the Shadows lesson?
- What counts as the middle row for lessons about an empty or full middle row?
- Is the five-square colour-order lesson (239) read in only one direction?
- For a lesson needing a cat touching 5 different-colour cats, must the five differ from each other?
Lesson Card Rulings: Cats, Families and Colours
- Does lesson 315 (1 green, 2 blue, 3 red) forbid other cats on the boat?
- Does lesson 115 need three cats of every colour?
- For the lesson that needs every cat in a family, can there be several families?
- Do lessons asking for three families of one colour need three separate families?
- Does Cat Nest score every separate family of four or more cats?
- Does lesson 322 (exactly two families of the same size) fail if I have two different pairs?
- Does a treasure touching several cats of the chosen colour score once or per cat?
- Does Hard Worker count itself and unfinished lessons, and do public lessons count?
- Does Light Lord's -3 per unfilled room replace the usual -5?
Lesson Card Rulings: Rats, Rooms and Treasure
- Does the Dining Room lesson need all squares of the room empty?
- Does the lesson about treasures touching a rat need two different treasures on the same rat?
- How does the lesson scoring cats touching exactly one rat work?
- Does Lesson 132 (exactly five visible rats) still cost the usual rat penalty?
- Does the same-number-of-rare-and-common-treasures lesson score if I have none?
Solo Mode
- How does my sister score in solo mode?
- Who scores public lessons in solo, and how?
- How is the first player chosen in solo, and do speed ties change order?
- When an Anytime card adds cats in solo, how do I number the line for the sister?
- What if a sister card needs a tile number that no longer exists, or more tiles than remain?
- In solo, where does an Oshax drawn from the bag go?
- How does solo card 203 score colours at the edge?
- Which lesson does solo card 204 double?
- How do the sister's largest-family and runner-up cards score?
- Does Modest (card 197) score for a colour I have no cat of?
- What does lonely cat mean on solo cards, and what counts as touching?
- In solo, are unused rescue cards kept, and is the basket deck reshuffled?
Family Mode
The Isle of Cats: Kittens + BeastsExpansion
- Does a cat that joins a family later still earn the beast friendship?
- Do beasts count as cats when scoring?
- In solo, what does a beast cost after the sister swaps it to the left field?
- How many kittens can one basket rescue, and are there areas?
- How do Oshax kittens work?
- Can Kittens + Beasts action tiles go on days other than the first and last?
- Where do the purple semi-permanent basket tiles come from?
The Isle of Cats: Late ArrivalsExpansion
- Do I need Late Arrivals to play with 5 or 6 players?
- Can I mix Late Arrivals tiles and cards into 2 to 4 player games?
- How can I tell Late Arrivals cards apart from base cards?
- Is the unlettered Cat Diplomacy lesson used with fewer than five players?
- Can lesson modules G and H be used in 2 to 4 player games?
- Does Late Arrivals work with family mode?
- How many Oshax are available in a 3-4 player game with Late Arrivals?
- In a 6-player game, do I take all six of my colour's cat figures?