Upkeep Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Object of the Game
• Game Components
• Welcome to the Neighborhood
• Before You Start
• The Weather Draw Pile
• Player Setup
• The Game Round
  • Check Weather
  • Roll Dice
  • Draw / Place Leaves
  • Redeem / Upgrade
  • Clean Yard
• Check the Weather
• Rolling the Dice
• Placing Leaf Tokens
• Redeeming Bins
• Upgrading
• Hiring a Professional
• Cleaning Your Yard

Object of the Game

The object of the game is to clear all leaves from your entire yard. The game ends when any of the following happen:

Cooperative Mode:

• All players have yards clear of leaves.
• The Weather Card draw pile has been exhausted and the final round has been completed.

Competitive Mode:

• Any player has their yard clear of leaves.
• The Weather Card draw pile has been exhausted and the final round has been completed.

Game Components

• 4 Yard Boards and 16 Recycle Bin tiles.
• 4 sets of player pieces (1 pawn, 10 upgrade, 4 storm & 2 immune).
• 230 Leaf Tokens (70 maple, 40 aspen, 40 fern, 40 oak, 40 pear).
• Game Board & Progress Meeple.
• 2 Number dice and 1 location die.
• Discard tray and draw bag.
• 60 Sunshine Tokens.
• 16 Unlock Tokens.
• 6 Unique Storm Cards and 15 Calm Weather cards.
• 4 Helper Cards.
• 4 Professional Cards.

Learning the Lingo (the printed component reference, shown as icons):

• Yard
• Leaf Token
• Player Pawn
• Storm Marker
• Upgrade Marker
• Immunity Marker
• Unlock Token
• Yard Area (Pool)
• Toolbox
• Scratch & Recycle Bins
• Sunshine Token

Welcome to the Neighborhood

Each yard is divided into 4 areas (out of 5 possible), and each area contains a matching Toolbox. The five possible areas are Pool, Lawn, Roof, Deck and Garden. Each Toolbox shows the values 2, 3, 4 and a star.

The Toolboxes along the top of your yard serve two purposes. First, they help you keep track of how many moves you can make in each area when you are cleaning. Secondly, they provide a way to keep track of where you are currently cleaning or placing leaves.

The example yard has Roof, Deck, Pool and Lawn areas. The Toolboxes along the top match each of those areas. Each area is divided into grids with a color matching the Toolbox.

Before You Start

To begin, place the Game Board (A) in the center of the playing area. Shuffle the Helper and Professional cards (B) and place face down near the board. Place the green Meeple on the Check Weather icon (C). Place a single Calm Weather card (D) on the board face up. Create the Weather Draw pile (see below).

The Weather Draw Pile

To create the Weather Draw pile, use the tables below to determine the number of Storm vs Calm Weather cards to place in the deck. Shuffle the cards and place on the center board. This is your Weather Deck.

Choosing the Storm cards randomly and without looking will add a nice uncertainty element to the game.

Casual Game Mode

Difficulty	Storms	Calm Weather
Easy	4	10
Moderate	5	8
Difficult	6	6

Normal Game Mode

Difficulty	Storms	Calm Weather
Easy	0 - 2	12 - 14
Moderate	3 - 5	9 - 12
Difficult	5	7 - 8
Extreme	6	6

Player Setup

Each player will do the following before beginning the game:

Choose a Yard Board (A), a Scratch Bin (B) and 3 Recycle Bins (C). Recycle Bin recommendations are as follows:

• Player 1: Maple, Aspen, Oak.
• Player 2: Maple, Oak, Pear.
• Player 3: Maple, Pear, Fern.
• Player 4: Maple, Aspen, Fern.

Solo Mode: We recommend Maple and 2 others of your choice.

Variations: Choose 3 bins at random.

Place player pawn (D) on the first Toolbox.

Draw 12 Leaf Tokens and place face down next to the Yard Board. Pickup 1 token at a time and turn it over. Each area of your yard will need 3 Leaf Tokens. Place 1 at a time in your yard until all tokens are used.

The Game Round

Each round consists of 5 phases. When each phase is complete, advance Progress Meeple to track the current phase. For detailed information on each phase, see the page indicated below.

1. Check Weather (Page 6)
2. Roll Dice (Page 7)
3. Draw / Place Leaves (Page 8)
4. Redeem / Upgrade (Page 9-11)
5. Clean Yard (Page 12)

Check Weather

Turn over next Weather card and place face up on discard pile. In the event of a Calm Weather card, proceed to Roll Dice phase. In the event of a Storm card, do the following:

• Set a storm marker on each Toolbox indicated on the Storm card (skip toolboxes with an immunity marker).
• Follow the instructions on the Storm card.

Roll Dice

Roll number dice. Roll location die if a Calm Weather card is active.

• Players set pawn on left-most Toolbox if a storm is active.
• Otherwise set pawn on Toolbox indicated by Location die.

Draw / Place Leaves

• Draw Leaf Tokens matching numbers on dice.
• Draw additional Leaf Tokens if instructed by Storm card.
• Tokens are placed in players yard as follows:
  1. Select a random Leaf token and turn it over.
  2. Place token in the area indicated by your pawn.
  3. Advance pawn to next Toolbox.
     • When on right-most Toolbox, move to Toolbox shown on location die.
     • When a Storm card is active, move to the left most Toolbox.
  4. Repeat steps 1 through 3 until all tokens have been placed.

Leaf Placement Rules:

• Leaf token must be placed in an open square.
• Token can be stacked if no open squares remain.
• Stacks are limited to 3 tokens.
• Skip area if all squares have 3 tokens and place leaf in next area.

Redeem / Upgrade

During this phase you can redeem full bins to collect Sunshine Tokens, and then use those tokens to buy upgrades (see table).

Redeem full bins for Sunshine Tokens as follows:

• 1 stack: 1 Token
• 2 stacks: 3 Tokens
• 3 stacks: 5 Tokens

Available Upgrades:

• 2 Unlock toolbox (Place unlock token)
• 1 Upgrade toolbox (Advance upgrade marker)
• 2 Hire a Helper (Buy Helper Card)
• 3 Hire a Professional (Buy Professional Card)
• 1 Extra moves (for areas with * unlocked)

Helpers and Professionals have additional upgrades as indicated by the # on the cards.

Clean Yard

To clean your yard, perform moves (see table below) and then place stacks of Leaf Tokens into your bins. Stacks must match the Recycle Bin they are placed in (except Scratch Bin) and each bin can only hold one pile of leaves at a time. Each player has 1 move at the beginning of the game for each area until additional moves are granted from upgrades. Each clean up round, do the following:

• Place pawn on left-most Toolbox.
• Determine number of moves for that area.
• Perform moves (see table to the right).
• Stacks of 3 Leaf Tokens (of the same type) can be placed in an matching Recycle Bin (or the Scratch Bin) without using a move.
• Advance pawn to next Toolbox when all moves are complete for current area.
• Repeat until all areas have been cleaned.

Valid Moves:

• Move token to adjacent spot
• Stack token on adjacent token
• Swap token with adjacent token
• Unstack token into adjacent spot
• Stack 3 tokens on center token

Check the Weather

There are 7 unique cards that may appear during the Check Weather phase.

Hail Storm

• Place 2 Leaf Tokens in each area before rolling the dice.
• Immunity Effect: Do not draw or place leaves in immune areas.
• Impacted Areas: all five areas (Pool, Lawn, Deck, Garden, Roof).
• Card text: "Each yard is pelted with large hail, knocking extra leaves off the trees. Draw and place 2 leaves in each area before rolling dice." (except immune areas)

Rain Storm

• No moves can be made on the garden this round.
• Immunity Effect: Garden can be cleaned.
• Impacted Areas: Garden.
• Card text: "Rain pours down, drenching the area, leaving the gardens a muddy mess. No clean-up in any garden area this round." (unless area is Immune)

Wind Storm

• Draw double the number of Leaf tokens indicated on the dice.
• Immunity Effect: Place all leaf tokens, but skip immune areas.
• Impacted Areas: all five areas.
• Card text: "A rush of wind whips through the trees knocking free more leaves than normal. Draw and place twice as many leaves this round." (skip placing in immune areas)

Heat Wave

• Divide available moves by half and round down. (Example: 3 moves = 1 move)
• Immunity Effect: Immune areas keep all available moves.
• Impacted Areas: all five areas.
• Card text: "The sun beats down without mercy. You can only work for short periods of time. Each area has half moves for this round." (except immune areas)

Snow Storm

• No moves can be made on the pool this round.
• Immunity Effect: Pool can be cleaned.
• Impacted Areas: Pool.
• Card text: "An early artic storm sweeps through the area freezing all pools solid. No clean-up in any pool area this round." (unless area is Immune)

Lightning Storm

• No moves or pickups can be made in any area.
• Immunity Effect: Immune areas can be cleaned.
• Impacted Areas: all five areas.
• Card text: "Lightning streaks across the sky, keeping everyone inside their cosy homes. No clean-up in any area this round." (except immune areas)

Calm Weather

• When Calm Weather is active, there are no adverse effects on the neighborhood.

Hint: Helper cards will always provide an immunity for at least 1 area. They are a good way to protect the biggest and busiest part of your yard.

Rolling the Dice

When performing the Rolling Dice stage, you will always roll both number dice. Each number die has numbers from 3 to 6, thus allowing 6 to 12 leaves to fall each round. Some Storm or Professional cards may change that number for one or more players.

The location die is only rolled when no Storm card is active. The location die determines where leaves will fall in a yard during the Place Leaves stage.

Location die faces:

• Lawn
• Roof
• Deck
• Pool or Garden
• Last Toolbox (Right most)
• First toolbox (Left most)

When a Storm Card is active

The following is done when a Storm card is face up on the Weather discard pile:

• Each player places their pawn on the left most Toolbox.
• Add the number dice together. Draw that many Leaf Tokens from the draw bag.
• Draw additional Leaf Tokens if instructed by the Storm card.

When a Calm Weather Card is active

The following is done when a Calm Weather card is face up on the Weather discard pile:

• Each player places their pawn on the Toolbox indicated on the location die.
• Add the number dice together. Draw that many Leaf Tokens from the draw bag.

Placing Leaf Tokens

Each round, this stage represents the falling of leaves into your yard. Each yard has a unique order to the Toolboxes to allow the placement of leaves to be random. After drawing the number of Leaf Tokens indicated by the number dice and/or the Storm card, do the following to place your leaves:

1. Select a random Leaf Token from your pile and turn it over.
2. Place token in the area indicated by your pawn (see tips for placing tokens below).
3. Advance pawn to next Toolbox.
   • When pawn is on the right-most Toolbox, move pawn to Toolbox indicated by location die.
   • When a Storm card is active, move the pawn to the left most Toolbox.
4. Repeat steps 1 through 3 until all tokens have been placed.

When placing a Leaf token, the following placement rules apply:

• Leaf Token must be placed in area matching the Toolbox with the players pawn.
• Leaf Token must be placed in an open square if available in current area.
• Token can be stacked on any type of token if no open squares remain.
• Stacks are limited to 3 tokens.
• If all squares contain 3 tokens, skip area and place token in next area.

Tips for placing Leaf tokens:

• Try to place Leaf Tokens near other tokens of the same type.
• Try to keep open space between tokens of different types for future placements.
• When possible, place tokens near edges of an area to allow easy movement to other areas.

Example 1: You will place 9 Leaf tokens in total and begin with the Lawn. In this example, your pawn will rotate through Lawn, Roof and Deck until all your Leaf tokens have been placed. When done, you should have placed this many tokens in each area: Pool 0, Lawn 3, Roof 3, Deck 3.

Example 2: You will place 9 Leaf tokens in total and begin with the Deck (4th area). In this example, your pawn will remain on the Deck until all your Leaf tokens have been placed. When done, you should have placed this many tokens in each area: Pool 0, Lawn 0, Roof 0, Deck 9.

Redeeming Bins

Each player will have a set of bins. Each bin board includes 3 Recycle Bins (each with 3 unique leaf types) and 1 Scratch Bin.

Each player should have a slightly different set of Recycle Bins, but the Scratch Bin will work the same for all players.

Scratch Bin

When a pile of Leaf Tokens is in your Scratch Bin, you can do the following with it during the Redeem/Upgrade phase only:

• Discard
• Place in another players Scratch Bin
• Move into an empty (matching) Recycle Bin
• Trade with another player from their Scratch Bin

Recycle Bins

Any full Recycle Bin can be redeemed for Sunshine Tokens. More tokens are awarded as more bins are redeemed at the same time:

• 1 pile: 1 Token
• 2 piles: 3 Tokens
• 3 piles: 5 Tokens

Example 1: The maple and fern bins are full, so the player can redeem them both for 3 tokens or wait until the next round.

Example 2: All bins are full and Scratch bin has an extra pile of maple. The player can redeem the 3 bins for 5 tokens, and then move the maple to the Recycle Bin and redeem it for an additional token.

Upgrading

When you have 1 or more Sunshine Tokens, you can use those tokens to unlock tools, upgrade tools, hire help or upgrade existing help.

Toolboxes

When you begin, you can make a single move in each area of your yard.

For more moves in any given area, you must unlock the Toolbox for that area by purchasing an Unlock Token for 2 Sunshine Tokens. Simply place the Unlock Token on the appropriate Toolbox and an Upgrade Marker on the 2 as shown here for the Roof. Once a Toolbox is unlocked, you can advance the Upgrade Marker 1 square for 1 Sunshine Token.

When a Toolbox is fully upgraded (star), you still have 4 moves, but now Extra Moves are unlocked for that area.

Example: Lawn = 3 moves, Deck = 1 move, Roof = 2 moves. (Upgrade Example: the Upgrade Marker advances on the Toolbox. Unlock Example: an Unlock Token is placed on the Toolbox.)

Hiring a Helper

Each player can hire a single Helper at any time for 2 Sunshine Tokens. If more than 1 player wants to hire a Helper at the same time, players roll a die to see who goes first. Then the player does the following:

• Draw the top 2 Helper cards.
• Select 1 of the cards and place face up next to your yard.
• Shuffle the remaining card back into the pile.

The first bonus is immediately unlocked. All other bonuses must be unlocked by paying the indicated number of Sunshine Tokens and placing an Upgrade Marker on the bonus. Bonuses must be unlocked in the order they appear on the card. If you do not want either of the 2 drawn cards, you can shuffle them both back into the deck and spend another 2 tokens to try again.

Omio, Mia, Tukito and George

• Omio (Garden or Pool Helper): Check mark bonus (text obscured in the printed page). Diagonal move or stack allowed (text partly obscured). One additional move (text partly obscured).
• George (Lawn Helper): Check mark bonus (text obscured in the printed page). Diagonal move or stack allowed (text partly obscured). One additional move (text partly obscured).
• Tukito (Deck Helper): Place immunity token on deck toolbox. Diagonal move or stack allowed in deck area (1). One additional move in deck area (1).
• Mia (Roof Helper): Place immunity token on roof toolbox. Diagonal move or stack allowed in roof area (1). One additional move in roof area (1).

Each of these helpers makes an area of your yard immune. This helps block certain storm effects for that area.

Hiring a Professional

Each player can hire a single Professional for 3 Sunshine Tokens at any time. If more than 1 player wants to hire a Professional at the same time, they roll the dice to see who goes first. The player then:

• Draws the top 2 Professional cards.
• Selects 1 of the cards and places it face up next to their yard.
• Shuffles the remaining card back into the pile.

The first bonus is immediately unlocked. All other bonuses must be unlocked by paying the indicated number of Sunshine Tokens and placing an Upgrade Marker on the bonus. Bonuses must be unlocked in the order they appear on the card.

Kiera

• Check mark bonus: Move one leaf anywhere once per clean up.
• Bonus 3: Once per clean up you can place one stack of 2, 3 or 4 leaves in any bin. Normally you need a pile of 3 leaves of the same type to fill a Recycle bin. This bonus allows you to place a single pile of 2, 3 or 4 leaves in a single bin once each clean up round.
• Bonus 6: Discard scratch bin an unlimited number of times during clean up. Discards are unlimited. You can empty the Scratch bin as many times as needed during the clean up round.

Wendy

• Check mark bonus: Collect 1 token when discarding scratch bin. Only applies during Redeem/Upgrade phase. Does not apply when a Special move is made to empty Scratch bin.
• Bonus 2: Choose 1 area each round during clean up and double your moves.
• Bonus 3: Select any helper card and place upgrade markers on all bonuses. Choose any remaining Helper and place it face up next to your yard. Place upgrade tokens on all bonuses. If Helper unlocks a Special Helper, choose 1 and place next to your yard.

Esme

• Check mark bonus: Add or Subtract 2 from the dice roll before drawing leaves.
• Bonus 2: Leap over any number of piles for a single move (land on same leaf or open spot). For a single Leaf token, you can jump over any number of other Leaf tokens in a straight line. You must land on an open spot or a Leaf token of the same type.
• Bonus 4: Scratch bin can hold up to two separate piles of leaves. Scratch bin acts like 2 Scratch bins. All normal rules apply.

Tristan

• Check mark bonus: Discard a single leaf token once per clean up. Once each clean up round, choose a single Leaf token and discard it. This can occur anytime during that round.
• Bonus 3: Make one extra move for each area of your yard each clean up round.
• Bonus 6: Set pawn on any toolbox before placing leaves (ignore location die or storm). During the dice roll stage, ignore the dice roll and place your pawn on any of the 4 toolboxes. This includes when a Storm is active.

Lucas

• Check mark bonus: Skip a single area when placing leaves (can be different each round). With this bonus you will still place the same number of Leaf tokens, you simply place them in the other areas.
• Bonus 3: Swap any two leaves up to twice per clean up round. Swapped leaves can be any 2 leaves from anywhere in the yard. The leaves trade places without using a move.
• Bonus 5: Redeem bins one at a time for 1 token each during clean up. You can redeem a single bin for 1 token as many times as you have a full bin during the clean up round.

Savana

• Check mark bonus: Choose an area to be immune each round (can be different each round). During dice roll stage you choose which area is immune to Storms. In the event of a Hail or Wind storm, do not place the extra leaves on that area.
• Bonus 3: Receive one extra token when redeeming bins (i.e. 4 tokens instead of 3 for 2 stacks). With this bonus you will still place the same number of Leaf tokens, you simply place them in the other areas.
• Bonus 4: Once per clean up 1 bin can hold a mixed stack (top leaf determines bin). Mixed piles are any combination of Leaf tokens. When placed in a Recycle bin, the top Leaf token must match the bin. A mixed pile can still be redeemed based on the bin it is in.

Cleaning Your Yard

Leaves are removed from your yard when you create a stack of 3 leaves of the same type. You can immediately move that into a matching bin if you are cleaning the area where the stack is currently located.

• All bins can hold a single stack of leaves.
• The Scratch Bin can hold one stack of any type of leaves.

Each player can make a single move in any area with an unlocked Toolbox. For additional moves, Unlock Tokens or Upgrade Markers can be bought with Sunshine Tokens. Some Helper and Professionals may also give additional moves.

Do the following each time you clean your yard:

1. Set your pawn

Your yard is always cleaned in the order of your Toolboxes. To keep track of where you are working, set your pawn on the left most area when you begin, and advance your pawn each time you complete an area.

2. Determine moves for area

Before you start cleaning an area, determine how many moves you will get for that area. By default you will always have a single move. When you buy an Unlock Token for a Toolbox, you will then have 2 moves for that area. Each additional Upgrade will increase your moves (as indicated by the marker on the Toolbox).

Example 1: In this example, when working in the Roof area, there are 3 available moves because the Toolbox has been unlocked and then upgraded once. All the remaining areas have a single move because they have not been unlocked or upgraded. (Available moves shown: Roof 3, Pool 1, Deck 1, Lawn 1.)

Example 2: In this example, when working in the Roof or Pool areas, there are 2 available moves in each because both Toolboxes have been unlocked. (Available moves shown: Roof 2, Pool 1, Deck 2, Lawn 1.)