Zero Hero
Zero Hero Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Players and Time
2-4 players, ages 8+, about 20 minutes.
Contents
- 56 cards in seven different colours, each with the values 0, 0, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4
- 40 zerones
- 1 game manual
Aim of the Game
The aim is to get the most points by skilfully using the zerones to collect the right card pairs and to form as many sets of exactly 3 cards as possible.
Preparation
-
Shuffle the cards well. Depending on how many of you there are, remove
- 12 cards if there are two players
- 6 cards if there are three players
- no cards if there are four players
from the game without looking at them and put them back in the box. You will not need them for the current game.
-
Deal everyone 1 card each. Look at them and place them face-down in front of you.
-
Then count off 10 cards and place them in the middle of the table as a face-down pile. These are the end cards. Then put the remaining cards on top of the end cards, also as a face-down pile, but turned 90 degrees.
-
Draw two cards from the pile and place them face-up in the centre of the table, slightly overlapping, as a card pair. Repeat this process three more times, until four card pairs lie next to each other.
-
Place a pile with 4 zerones on top of every card pair.
-
Each person takes 3 zerones as their personal pool. Lay out the remaining zerones as a general pool.
-
Choose who is to start.
Rules
You play in clockwise order. When it's your turn, you must do one of the following:
- A. take zerone(s)
- or
- B. buy a card pair
A. Take zerone(s)
Take 1 zerone from any of the four piles, which are on top of the card pairs, and put them in your personal pool.
N.B.: If the pile consists of five or more zerones, you can even take 2 of them!
B. Buy a card pair
If you want to buy a card pair, first check the number of zerones making up the pile over the desired card pair. That is the cost of this card pair. Then, from your personal pool, add exactly the same number of zerones to the pile and take the card pair.
Then turn over 2 cards from the face-down pile and put them in the same place in the centre of the table as a new card pair.
Special case: If there are no longer any zerones over a card pair, you can take the card pair "for free". After you have placed out 2 cards from the face-up pile as a new card pair, you then put 3 zerones from the general pool on top of this card pair.
(Note: the 2024 Piatnik rules sheet, game no. 752506, says 4 zerones are placed above the new pair in this case.)
You always put bought cards face-up in front of you in rows of the same colour. This is how your collection gradually develops.
Example: There is a pile with three zerones on top of the card pair TURQUOISE 2 and ORANGE 4. Andrea wants to buy the card pair, so she adds three more zerones from her personal pool to the pile. She takes the card pair and puts the cards in her collection, sorted by colour. She then draws 2 cards from the pile and puts them under the six zerones as a new card pair.
Special Actions
If a symbol is also shown on one (or both) of the bought cards, you must immediately carry out the corresponding special action:
- A) +Zerone: Take 1 zerone from the general pool and put it in your personal pool.
- B) +Card: Draw 1 card from the face-down pile. Look at it and place it face-down in front of you.
- C) Swap: You can either
- put any 1 face-up card from your collection in the collection of another person, or
- take any 1 face-up card from the collection of another person and put it in your own collection.
- D) Flags: This symbol is of no importance at first and only becomes relevant once you have reached the pile with the end cards (see "End of the game & scoring").
N.B.: The special actions are only triggered for symbols on the cards that you have just taken from the middle of the table. Symbols on cards that you receive because of a special action do not trigger any further special actions.
End of the Game & Scoring
As soon as you have reached the pile with the end cards, you carry on playing as described above, until a card with a flag symbol is turned over. This ends the game immediately and is followed by the scoring.
N.B.: If there is no card with the flag symbol among the end cards, the game ends when the last card in the pile is turned over.
First turn over all cards that are lying face-down in front of you and add them to the matching coloured rows in your collection.
Now calculate your points as follows:
- Zero Hero: Whoever has collected the most cards with the value "0" receives 5 points. In the event of a tie, each of the tying players gets 5 points.
- Solo: For each colour set consisting of exactly 1 card, you count the card value as points.
- Sets of three: For each colour set consisting of exactly 3 cards, you multiply the two highest cards with each other. You count the result as your points.
- Big zero: There are no points for each colour set that does not consist of exactly 1 or 3 cards.
There are no points for left-over zerones in your personal pool.
The player with the highest overall score wins the game. In the event of a tie, all the tying players are joint winners.
Example of Scoring
Mary achieves an overall score of 11 points:
- Zero Hero: Because she has not collected the most cards with the value "0", she also receives no points for these.
- Solo: For the green card, she receives 2 points.
- Sets of three: She multiplies the two highest card values in each set by each other. For her orange-coloured row, she receives 9 points (=3x3). For her purple-coloured row, she receives 0 points (=2x0).
- Big zero: For all other colour rows, she receives no points, because they do not consist of exactly 1 or 3 cards.