Upstream
Upstream Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Goal of the Game
Each player controls a run of salmons going upstream to lay their eggs where they were born. During their journey they will face hungry bears, fierce birds of prey, as well as patient herons, which they must avoid in order to survive.
The game ends when all the salmons are either deceased or on the spawn area, at the very end of the river. Players will then score points, according to the number and speed of their remaining Salmons: the player with most points wins the game!
Game Components
- Salmon tokens (4 for each player): Depicting a couple of salmons on one side and a single one on the other.
- First player token: The first player changes each round.
- Color player tokens: So each player can remember the color of their salmons.
River Tiles
- Water Tile (No Obstacles) (7): No special rules.
- Sea / Spawn Tile (4): Start (Sea) and end (Spawn) tiles.
- Waterfall Tile (4): These obstacles must be jumped over (can't be crossed swimming).
- Eagle Tile (5): If a salmon token swims here, it loses 1 salmon and you flip the tile (the eagle grabs a salmon and flies away).
- Bear Tile (3): If a salmon token jumps from/to here, it loses 1 salmon. They have waterfalls.
- Blue Heron Tile (5): At the end of your turn, you lose 1 salmon from 1 of the tokens you have here.
- Rock Tile (5): This tile's capacity is 1 less than normal (not used in 2-player games).
- Rapids Tile (6) – Expansion: Salmons are forced to move (without spending points) in the direction indicated by the rapids.
Other Tokens
- Rock Tokens (5) - Optional: You can place them over Rock tiles in order to remember its effect.
- Whirlwind Tokens (5) - Variant: You can place them over Rock Tiles while playing with the "Whirlpool" Variant.
- Movement Tokens (5) - Optional: Each time you spend 1 movement point, give 1 token to the following player.
Game Setup
Place the Sea tiles and then place a salmon token of each player on each one, with the pair of salmons side up, as shown on the example (the example is for 3 players). Shuffle all remaining tiles and place them aside on a face down stack (in 2-player games, Rock tiles and 1 Blue Heron tile are not used).
Starting with the player who most recently ate salmon, and continuing clockwise, each player draws a tile from the stack and places it in any of the 3 free spaces next to the Sea tiles, forming the mouth of the river. Players can choose the tiles' orientation if relevant, and must respect the width of the river (3 tiles per row). Continue this process, going upstream, until 4 rows of 3 tiles have been placed next to the Sea tiles. Then, the player who would've placed a tile next gets the first player token and starts the game.
Gameplay (3 to 5 Players)
Starting with the player with the first player token, players take turns in clockwise order. Each player must spend 5 movement points per turn. When all players have completed their turn, the round is over.
When the round is over, the starting player gives the first player token to the player to his/her left, removes the last 3 tiles of the river from the game and places 3 new tiles on the upper side of the river, creating a new row. The player may choose the orientation of the tiles if it's relevant (if the tiles has obstacles).
When removing tiles, all salmon tokens on them are removed as well.
IMPORTANT!
- At the end of the first round, DO NOT remove tiles, just add 3 tiles.
- At the end of the second round, remove all Sea tiles and then add 3 tiles.
- On subsequent rounds, remove 3 tiles and place 3 tiles, until the stack runs out of tiles.
Movement
Each player has 5 movement points on each of their turns, that they must spend to move their salmon tokens. Each player chooses how they distribute their points amongst their salmon tokens, as long as they spend exactly 5 points. It costs the same to move a salmon token, regardless which side is up (2 or 1 salmons). Salmon tokens can't move downstream.
Movement can be either swimming or jumping.
Swimming
Salmons can swim from one tile to an adjacent one if there are no obstacles that require jumping. Swimming costs 1 movement point per tile.
In the example, moving to the adjacent tile costs 1 movement point to the green player. Since there are no obstacles on the intersection the token passes through, so the token doesn't need to jump. However, it can't move to the next tile swimming, as there is an obstacle.
If a tile is full (capacity = As many salmon tokens as players), salmon tokens cannot swim through or stop there.
In the example, on a 3-player game, the tile already has 3 salmon tokens on it: The Green player can't swim there. However, on a 4-player game Green could swim there.
Jumping
Salmons can jump in a straight line from one tile to another ignoring any obstacle(s) in between. Jumping costs 1 movement point, plus 1 movement point per tile jumped.
In the example, on a 3-player game, the adjacent tile already has 3 tokens on it so the Green player cannot swim there it. However, Green can jump over it by spending 3 movement points (1 + 2 for the 2 tiles). In doing so, the waterfall on the next tile is ignored too (Green doesn't need to spend more points to pass over it, as Green is already jumping).
Movement Tokens - Optional
Use them only if you want a more challenging game. During setup, hand them to the starting player. Each time a player moves a salmon token, they give an amount of movement tokens equal to the movement points they spent to the next player in turn order. Once given, Movement Tokens can't be claimed back. If you have no movement tokens left, you must end your turn.
Predators
When a Bear, Eagle or Heron catches a salmon, if that salmon token showed a pair of salmons, flip it. Otherwise, remove that token from the game.
Eagles
Eagles catch a salmon when a salmon token swims or finishes its jump on an Eagle tile. If the salmon jumped over the tile, without stepping on it, the Eagle won't be activated. When an Eagle catches a salmon, flip that Eagle tile (it is a Water tile now).
Bears
Bears catch a salmon when a salmon token jumps over, from or to a Bear tile. Swimming salmon tokens don't activate bears. Bears, as opposed to Eagles, aren't removed from the game after catching salmons.
In the example, if the Green player jumps to the other Bear tile, Green would lose both Salmons of that token, one for each Bear. Instead, Green can swim across the Bird Tile, losing one Salmon (thus flipping over both the tile and the token). Bears won't be activated, as the token is swimming, not jumping.
Blue Heron
At the end of your turn, the heron catches 1 salmon from one of the tokens you have in this tile, regardless of how many tokens you have here. Only the player who just ended his/her turn is affected. Blue Herons activate at the end of each turn and are not removed from the game after catching salmons.
At the end of the Green player's turn, Green will lose a salmon, from the salmon token of their choice. The other players are not affected at this moment. If it was Yellow player's end of the turn, Yellow would lose a salmon from both Tokens, as they stand on different Blue Heron tiles.
End of the Game
When there are only 2 tiles left to be placed, those must be placed on the side spaces, leaving the central space of the river free to place there the first of the Spawn tiles, as shown in the example below.
When a salmon token moves to the 1st Spawn tile, it can't move further. Instead, at the end of each round, advance all salmon tokens on Spawn tiles 1 space upstream (that is, to the space with one more egg).
Spawn tiles can hold any number of salmon tokens.
When all Tokens are either on the Spawn tiles or removed from the game, the game ends and players score their points:
- For each remaining salmon (NOT salmon token), its owner scores 1 point.
- For each remaining salmon token, its owner scores as many points as eggs are in that token's space.
The player with most points is the winner. In case of a draw, the player with most remaining salmons wins the game. If there's still a draw, the player with more remaining salmon tokens wins; if there's still a tie, the player whose salmon tokens are further upstream wins.
In this example: The Yellow player has 4 points for saving 4 Salmons, 2 points for the token on the 2 Egg space and 6 more for the remaining 2 Tokens on the 3 Salmon Egg space. Total of 12 Points.
The Red player scores 5 points with their salmons, plus 4 points for the token in the 4 egg space, 3 for the token in the 3 egg space and 1 for the token in the 1 egg space - 13 Points in total.
The Green player scores 6 points for their 6 Salmons, and scores 5 more points for the token in the 5 egg space, 2 points for the token in the 2 egg space and 1 more for the last token- 14 Points in total.
The Green player wins the game!
If the Red player had 1 more point (e.g. : for having 1 of their tokens on a space with one more egg), Green would have still won, because Green has more remaining salmons.
Changes to Gameplay for 2-Player Games
In 2-player games, return all Rock tiles and one Blue Heron tile to the box before setting the game up. The main difference from a game with more players is that the first player will be the same player for the entirety of the game. However, at the end of each round, players alternate the stack of Tiles after placing the 3 new tiles, so that they can remember whose turn it is to place the tiles. During their first turn of the game, the first player can only spend 4 movement points.
In case of a draw, apply the standard tie-breakers. If the players are still tied, the player without the first player token wins the game.
Variant: Whirlpool
This variant allows the use of all tiles in a 2-player game, with just a small change in the rules. You can also apply this variant to games of 3 to 5 players.
Set the game up as if it was a 3 to 5 players game (without removing any tiles). Rock tiles are considered Whirlpool tiles with the following effect:
When a salmon token swims to this tile or ends a jump on it, that token must stop there and the player who controls it can't spend any more movement points this turn to move that token.
This effect may force a player to be unable to spend their 5 movement points for that turn; if that's the case, that player ends their turn when they can't spend more movement points.
You can place the Whirlpool tokens over the Rock tiles in order to remember their effect.
Expansion - Rapids
This expansion introduces a new tile type (the Rapids), that have the following effect: When a salmon token swims here, that token is immediately placed on the adjacent tile where the rapids point to (this movement doesn't consume movement points). If that adjacent tile is full, that token moves there for free on its owner's next turn.
If there's an obstacle between the Rapids tile and the destination tile, the player MUST spend an additional movement point if they have any left. Otherwise, they must spend the point on their next turn.
If a token jumps over a Rapids tile without stepping on it, the tile has no effect.
On placement, Rapids tiles can be oriented as the player decides as long as they're pointing to a tile that a Salmon could move to (they can't point outside the river or downstream).
Rapids tiles can be added to the base game or swapped with other tiles. We recommend to remove the Blue Heron or Eagle tiles plus 1 Rock tile in exchange for the Rapids tiles. If players want a more challenging game experience, the 6 Rapids tiles can be swapped with 6 Water tiles or with 3 Water tiles plus 3 Rock tiles.