Wreck Raiders Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • On Your Turn
  • 1. Take a Die from the Reef
  • 2. Move a Diver and Collect Rewards
  • Moving to the Beach
  • Moving to a Wreck
    • Neighbors Gain Too!
  • Gaining Treasures
  • 3. Claim One or More Exhibits (If You Want To)
    • 1. Announce It!
    • 2. Decorations?
    • 3. Exact Order?
    • 4. Clear and Collect
    • 5. Claim Another?
    • 6. Reveal New Exhibits
  • 4. Buy One Aquarium Piece (If You Want To)
• Seashell Powers
  • Conches
  • Scallops
  • Starfish
• Game End
• Final Scoring
  • Scoring Exhibits
  • Scoring Your Vault
  • Scoring Aquariums
• Solo Mode
  • Changes to Setup
  • The Game Round
    • General Rival Rules
    • Your Turns
    • Rival Turns
• Wreck Raiders at a Glance
  • Setup
  • On Your Turn
  • Game End
• Credits

Components

• 1 Game Board — with a Beach row (6 spaces along the top), Wrecks (the main play area), and player start areas.
• 1 Dice Pool board — with a Score Track and Seashell Zones.
• 5 Player Mats — each with three Displays, seashell reminders, a Vault, and a Basket.
• 84 Treasure Tiles — 21 each of Gems, Gold, Art, and Relics. Each type has 3 different fronts.
• 52 Exhibit Cards — showing decorations, a combination of treasures required, a coin value, and a style reward.
• 39 Aquarium Pieces — 11 Bottoms, 17 Middles, 11 Tops. Each piece shows a coin value and a seashell cost.
• 45 Seashells — 15 Conches, 15 Scallops, 15 Starfish.
• 30 Divers — 6 in each of the 5 player colours.
• 5 Crab Markers — for scoring and as a colour reminder.
• 6 Dice.
• 1 Reef Board — with spaces for a conch, a scallop, and a starfish.

Setup

A. Board & Seashells. Place the board in the middle of the table, with a messy pile of seashells near the beach end.

B. Treasure tiles. Separate the treasures by type (Gems, Gold, Art, and Relics), and shuffle each group face down. Make a supply pile of each type beside the board near the matching shipwreck.

C. Exhibits. Shuffle the Exhibits deck. Reveal a number of exhibit cards; one more than the number of players.

D. Aquariums. Stack the aquarium tiles by type (Bottoms, Middles, Tops), and shuffle each stack. Create a "market" as shown: three face up tiles beside each stack.

E. Each player. Each player takes a player mat, a crab marker, and a number of divers of one colour (see the chart below). Return any unused player materials to the box.

Players	Divers	Dice
2 players	6	5
3 players	5	4
4 players	4	5
5 players	4	6

F. Dice pool & Reef. Set the box lid upside down nearby; this is the dice pool. Place the Reef near the board where all players can reach it. For the game, you will use a number of dice (see the chart above). Return any unused dice to the box. Select a start player randomly using your favourite method; the start player should roll the dice pool.

Rolling the dice pool happens many times during the game. Each time, the rules are the same: The rolling player must roll all dice at once into the box lid, and it must be an energetic roll where the dice bounce. Then, without changing their values, transfer all of the dice to the Reef, into their appropriate areas. Any die that was sitting (even partly) in a seashell zone of the pool is transferred to the matching seashell zone of the Reef. Any die not in a seashell zone is transferred to the blank zone of the Reef.

Gameplay

Wreck Raiders plays in turns, beginning with the start player and continuing clockwise until the game ends.

On Your Turn

Your turn is divided into a few steps, which you perform in order:

1. Take a die from the Reef.
2. Move a diver and collect rewards.
3. Claim one or more exhibits if you want to.
4. Buy one aquarium piece if you want to.

1. Take a Die from the Reef

If there are no dice left on the Reef at the start of your turn, gather all of the dice from all of the player mats, and roll the pool as described in Setup.

Choose one of the dice remaining on the Reef (if there is only one left, you must choose it).

If the die is sitting in one of the seashell zones of the Reef, immediately gain the indicated seashell (Conch, Scallop, or Starfish) from the beach to your basket.

Take the die and place it in your basket without changing its number.

2. Move a Diver and Collect Rewards

Choose one of your own divers (from any location; from off-board, from any wreck spot, or from any beach spot), and move it to a numbered spot (in a wreck or on the beach) matching the number of the die you took.

• You may not move a diver from one spot in a wreck to another spot in the same wreck, or from any beach spot to any other beach spot.
  • You may never move a diver into any wreck spot that another one of your divers already occupies (though you may move into a beach spot occupied by one of your own divers).

Moving to the Beach

Place your diver in the spot, and gain the indicated seashells to your basket.

When you move to a beach spot, if there is any diver there (including your own), it is bumped off the beach back to its owner.

Moving to a Wreck

Place your diver in the wreck spot, and gain 1 random treasure from that wreck's supply.

When you move to a wreck, if there is another player's diver there, it is bumped to the same-numbered beach spot. (If there is any diver in that beach spot, it is bumped back to its owner.) The player whose diver was bumped to the beach gains the indicated baubles for that beach spot.

Neighbors Gain Too!

This is important! Any diver in either of the two wreck spots right beside your diver also gains a random treasure from that wreck. These divers may be yours or they may be a rival's.

This neighbors-gain aspect means that you should be careful who you move next to… try to help yourself and avoid helping rivals that are doing well!

If a wreck's supply ever runs out for any reason, shuffle the discards of that type face down, and form a new supply.

Gaining Treasures

When you gain a treasure for any reason, look at the front to see what it is, then you must immediately place it into any one of your three displays, or into your vault.

• When placed in a display, treasures must be placed on the leftmost empty pedestal, with no gaps allowed. (You may prefer to place display treasures face down, to better resemble the Exhibit cards.) The goal here is to make arrangements that match the face-up Exhibit cards, so that you can claim them and earn coins (see Claim one or more Exhibits for details).
• When placed in your vault, treasures can be placed in any column you choose, but each column must be placed from the bottom row up, with no gaps. (Vault treasures should be placed face up.) The goal of your vault is to earn coins for having rows of matching types, and to earn coins for having as many unique individual treasures as possible (see Scoring Vaults for details).

3. Claim One or More Exhibits (If You Want To)

If you have a display that matches any of the face-up Exhibit cards, you may claim that card. Only the treasure type matters when determining whether treasures "match". The specific treasure illustrations on the front side do not matter for this purpose.

Your display's treasures do not need to be in the same order as the treasures on the Exhibit card; you just need to have the correct treasures (no more or less), in any order. There are a few steps to claiming an Exhibit; perform them in order:

1. Announce it!
2. Decorations?
3. Exact order?
4. Clear and collect
5. Claim another?
6. Reveal new exhibits

1. Announce It!

Show the other players which display you are using to claim which Exhibit, so that everyone can see you have the correct treasures.

2. Decorations?

Some Exhibits display seashells (Conch and/or Scallop) on crests in the top left. For these Exhibits, you may now use the displayed seashells (if you have them, up to once each) to gain bonuses.

• Decorating with a Conch allows you to keep the Conch on the claimed Exhibit card as a reminder. It will be worth 2 coins at the end of the game.
• Decorating with a Scallop (by discarding it to the beach) gains you 1 random treasure from any wreck of your choice. Immediately add the treasure to any of your displays or to your vault following the normal rules.

3. Exact Order?

If your treasures are in the exact order shown on the card, you earn a special style reward (if one is shown on the plaque in the bottom right corner of the card); gain that reward now. (Exhibits where all of the treasures are same type do not have a style reward, since they can never be in the incorrect order.)

Style rewards include:

• Gain 1 aquarium piece of your choice from the market, for free.
• Gain 1 seashell of your choice.
• Gain the displayed seashells.

4. Clear and Collect

Discard the treasures from your display to a face-up treasure discard pile, and collect the Exhibit card; keep it face up near your player mat (with its Conch token if you decorated it with one).

5. Claim Another?

If there are any other Exhibits you wish to claim, repeat the above steps. (Seashells and treasures gained from earlier claimings may be used towards later claimings and decorations on the same turn.)

6. Reveal New Exhibits

Once you have claimed all the Exhibits you wish, reveal new Exhibits from the deck to replace the one(s) you claimed.

4. Buy One Aquarium Piece (If You Want To)

If you have the seashells to pay the cost of an aquarium piece in the market, you may buy it by spending the seashells and taking the tile. Maximum one per turn. Build aquariums next to your player mat.

• You may build more than one aquarium during the game, and you may be "working on" more than one aquarium at once.
• When you buy a Bottom, it starts a new aquarium. When you buy a Middle or a Top, you must place it above a Bottom or a Middle. If you can't legally place a piece, you may not buy it.
• Once a piece is placed, it can not be moved. Once an aquarium has a Top, no more pieces may be added to it.

After you are done, reveal a new aquarium piece from the appropriate stack to replace the one you bought in the market. (Aquarium pieces may eventually run out.)

Aquariums will score at the end of the game. Bottoms and Middles earn you the coin value displayed on them. Tops earn you coins based on the formula in the pink bubble (see Scoring Aquariums for details).

Seashell Powers

In addition to being spent on aquarium pieces and being used as decorations when claiming Exhibits, the seashells have special powers that you can use at the appropriate time:

Conches

When you are taking a die from the reef, you may discard a Conch to add or subtract 1 from the die's number. (Adding to a 6 makes it a 1, and subtracting from a 1 makes it a 6.) You may discard multiple Conches to make multiple additions/subtractions to a single die.

Scallops

When you are taking a treasure from a wreck because you moved a diver there on your turn, you may discard a Scallop to take one extra random treasure from the same wreck. You may discard multiple Scallops to take multiple extra treasures on the same turn.

Starfish

When claiming an Exhibit, you may place a Starfish to cover a treasure in any of your displays (not your vault). A treasure with a Starfish on it can be considered any type of treasure you wish. (You may apply multiple starfish to a single display in this manner.) After the claiming is resolved, the Starfish is discarded to the beach.

At any time, you may discard a Starfish to the beach to discard the rightmost treasure from any one of your own displays.

Game End

The game ends when any player has claimed a certain number of Exhibits (or more) at the end of their turn (6 in a 2p game, 5 in a 3p game, 4 in a 4p or 5p game… the easiest way to remember this is that it's the same as the number of divers you have. When this happens, every other player gets one more turn, and then the game ends.

Final Scoring

When the game ends, all players tally up their final scores. Players should use their crab marker on the score track in the dice pool to record their scores. (If you pass 50 on the score track, keep progressing on it but remember that your score is 50 higher than the track shows.)

Points are earned in three places: Exhibits, Vaults, and Aquariums.

Scoring Exhibits

Your exhibits are worth the coin value, plus each Conch you used as a decoration is worth 2 coins.

Scoring Your Vault

You earn points in your vault two ways:

1. Each unique treasure (judging by the picture on the front side) in your vault is worth 1 coin, regardless of its location.
2. Each row in your vault is worth the displayed coin value for that row if there are three treasures in that row and they are all of the same type.

You may use multiples of the exact same treasure to score a row; it only matters that they are the same type.

Scoring Aquariums

Score each of the aquariums you've built. (All aquariums score, even if they don't have a Top or are just a single Bottom.)

• All Bottoms and Middles are worth their displayed coin value.
• Tops earn coins based on the formula in the pink bubble.

For example this formula means that for every pair of Starfish and Conch found on the aquarium, you earn 3 coins. Most formulas are some variation of this one.

Seashells do not have to be in any particular order nor found together on a particular tile to count; imagine all the seashells along the right edge of the aquarium as if they are in one large group.

This formula means that you earn 2 Coins for each tile (of any type) in that aquarium (including itself).

When all players have calculated their scores, the player with the highest score wins! (Tiebreakers in order are 1) most leftover treasures in your displays and 2) most leftover seashells in your basket. If it's still a tie, the tied players share the victory!)

Solo Mode

You must be familiar with the multiplayer game in order to learn this 1-player version.

Changes to Setup

Set up the game as for a 2-player game with these three differences: Only do the player setup for yourself, keep all 6 dice in the game, and place exactly 18 divers not of your colour in a pile near the board. These are the Rivals; their colours do not matter.

The Game Round

Roll the pool with all 6 dice. Every round will consist of three turns for you, then three turns for the Rivals.

General Rival Rules

• Rivals never gain seashells; if they gain treasures for any reason, they are not kept; they go into the discard pile.
• Rivals may never be removed from the beach once they are bumped there. (Your own divers on the beach may be moved away.)

Your Turns

Perform three consecutive turns, following all of the normal rules except:

• You may not choose to send your diver to the beach; wrecks only!
• If there are no legal places that you can send a diver based on your chosen die, forfeit your placement for that turn.
• When you bump a Rival from a wreck, move it to any empty beach spot (not back to the Rival supply). If there are no empty spaces on the beach, remove that bumped Rival from the game.
• When a Rival gains a treasure because it neighbors your diver placement, remember that the treasure goes to the discard pile.

Rival Turns

Perform three consecutive turns for the Rivals, using the remaining three dice from the reef. For each of the three Rival turns, choose a die from the reef, and then place a Rival from the supply following these rules:

• The Rival must go to a wreck, and not to the same wreck as another Rival earlier this round. (To help you remember where you sent Rivals this round, each time you send a Rival to a Wreck, place that Rival's die alongside it.)
• The Rival must be sent to an empty space in a wreck if possible. If there are no empty spaces in any wreck matching the Rival's die, the Rival may bump one of your divers or another Rival to any empty beach spot of your choice. (If there are no empty beach spots, move your bumped diver off-board instead, or remove the bumped Rival from the game.)
• When one of your divers is bumped to the beach, you do collect seashells.
• A Rival's neighbours do collect treasures when it is placed in a wreck. Treasures gained by Rivals in this manner are discarded. When you gain a treasure via a Rival neighbor's placement, it must go in your vault (if your vault is already full, discard the treasure).

Once all three Rival turns are done, you may buy one or more Aquarium pieces before the round ends. (This is in addition to the single purchase you are allowed as normal at the end of each of your three turns.) Then you should check to see if Endgame has been triggered. If one or more of the following criteria is currently met, the game ends immediately. Otherwise begin a new round.

• Your Vault is full of treasures.
• All 6 beach spots are filled. (Player divers and rivals count toward this.)
• You have claimed 6 or more Exhibits.
• There are no Rivals left in the Rival Supply.
• One or more wrecks ran out of treasure during the round.

If the game is over, calculate your score as normal, and check this chart to see how well you performed!

Score	Result
0 - 50	Stick to the tub, friend.
51 - 75	Whoah dude, that's like… deep.
76 - 100	You're gonna need a bigger boat.
101 - 125	They call you Tyrannosaurus Wrecks.
126 - 150	TITANIC SCORE!
151+	Maybe check if you're playing right?

Solo mode developed by Tim W.K. Brown & Dennis Ku

Wreck Raiders at a Glance

The entire game explained in one simple page.

Setup

Lay out board. Seashells by the beach, shuffled stacks of facedown treasure types by their wrecks. Shuffle Exhibits and lay out face-up cards (player count +1). Shuffle aquariums by type and make a market with 3 each of bottom, middle, and top face up. Each player takes a mat, a crab, and divers (6/5/4/4 for 2/3/4/5 players). Lay out the pool and the Reef. Pick a start player and roll the pool with 5/4/5/6 dice for 2/3/4/5 players; transfer dice from pool to Reef.

On Your Turn

(If there are no dice left, roll the pool first.)

1. Take a die and 2. Move a diver…

Pick a die from the reef; claim a seashell if the die was in a seashell zone. Move one of your divers to a spot with the die's number. (Never to a spot in the same wreck it started, and you may never bump yourself from a wreck.)

…to the beach: Bump any diver there to its owner. Gain the displayed seashells.

…to a wreck: Bump any rival there to the matching beach spot (where it will bump any diver to its owner and gain seashells as displayed). Gain 1 treasure. Any neighbours also gain 1 treasure. Gained treasures go face down into your displays (left to right, any row) or face up into your vault (bottom to top, any column).

3. Claim one or more Exhibits (optional)

To claim an Exhibit that you've matched in a display (exact order not needed), show everyone, apply decorations (Conch or Seashell, only if requested), earn style reward if exact order was achieved, clear your display and collect the card, claim another Exhibit if you wish, then reveal new Exhibits to replace the ones you claimed.

4. Buy one aquarium piece (optional)

Buy an aquarium piece (max 1) by spending seashells as shown. Bottoms start a new one, middles and tops stack on bottoms or middles.

Game End

When a player completes their 6th/5th/4th/4th Exhibit for 2/3/4/5 players, each other player gets one more turn, then the game ends. Track scores using the crabs on the score track. Exhibits earn their coin value plus 2 coins per Conch decoration. Vaults earn 1 coin per unique treasure plus the displayed coins for rows of matching type. Aquariums earn displayed coins for bottoms and middles, plus formula displayed on the tops.

Credits

Game Design: Tim W.K. Brown & Josh Cappel Illustration: Apolline Etienne Graphics: Josh Cappel

Published with love by KTBG www.kidstablebg.com ©2019 All rights reserved