Zooloretto
Zooloretto Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Components
- 88 animal tiles (11 of each of 8 animal types: Elephant, Flamingo, Kangaroo, Llama, Lion, Panda, Chimpanzee and Zebra). For each animal type there are 2 males with a blue heart symbol, 2 females with a red heart symbol, and 3 males and 4 females without a heart symbol.
- 16 offspring tiles (2 of each of 8 animal types)
- 15 vending stalls (3 of each of 5 types: ice cream, drinks, hamburgers, hot dogs and cotton candy)
- 1 balloon stall (variant)
- 3 hay bales (variant)
- 1 tray (variant)
- 12 coin tiles
- 33 coins
- 1 marker "Last Round"
- 5 delivery trucks
- 5 zoo boards. Each zoo board has 3 different enclosures: 1 enclosure with 4 spaces for 4 animal tiles + 1 associated stall space, 1 enclosure with 5 spaces for 5 animal tiles + 1 associated stall space, and 1 enclosure with 6 spaces for 6 animal tiles + 1 associated stall space. It also has 1 stall space that does not belong to any enclosure and 1 barn for all extra tiles.
- 5 expansion boards. Each expansion board has 1 enclosure with 5 spaces for 5 animal tiles + 1 associated stall space.
Each delivery truck is assembled to have three compartments (spaces) for tiles.
Game Setup
- With 3 players, all animal and offspring tiles of two types are returned to the box. With 4 players, all animal and offspring tiles of one type are returned to the box. With 5 players, all animal and offspring tiles are used.
- Put all the tiles of any stall type back in the box, as well as the balloon stall, the tray and the hay bales. These are not needed for the basic game for 3-5 players.
- All square tiles are turned face-down and well mixed. 15 tiles are set aside as a face-down stack for the end of the game. The "Last Round" marker is placed on top of the stack. The remaining tiles are combined face down in multiple free stacks of any desired height and placed in the middle of the table.
- The round offspring tiles are placed near the face-down piles of animal tiles.
- As many delivery trucks are placed next to each other in the middle of the table as there are players taking part. Leftover trucks are not used and are returned to the box.
- Each player receives 1 zoo board which they place in front of them as well as 1 expansion board which they place face-down to the left of their zoo. Leftover boards are not used and are returned to the box.
- Each player receives 2 coins which they place as a personal supply next to their zoo. The remaining coins are placed in the middle of the table in preparation for play.
- The players agree on a start player.
Game Play
The game lasts several rounds. On your turn, you must perform one of the following 3 actions:
- A. Add a tile to a delivery truck, or
- B. Take a delivery truck and add the tiles to your zoo (and take no more turns this round), or
- C. Carry out one money action
The turn then passes to the next player in the clockwise direction.
Once each player has taken a delivery truck, the current round is over and a new round begins.
A. Add a Tile to a Delivery Truck
You draw and reveal the topmost tile from any pile and place it in an open space on a delivery truck of your choice. Your turn is then over.
Each delivery truck has room for no more than 3 tiles. Should all delivery trucks already have 3 tiles on them, you cannot choose this action. You must then choose either action B or C.
Important: Tiles from the pile covered up by the "Last Round" marker can only be drawn once all other piles have been exhausted!
B. Take a Delivery Truck and Add the Tiles to Your Zoo
You choose 1 delivery truck of your choice and place it, along with any tiles on it, in front of yourself. You must then immediately add the tiles from the truck to your zoo.
Important: You may only choose a delivery truck on which there is at least one tile!
Once you have taken a truck, you pass for the rest of the round and will not get another turn until the next round. Since all passing players will have delivery trucks in front of them, it is easy to tell who has passed in any given round.
When you add the tiles to your zoo, you must follow these placement rules:
- Animal tiles → enclosure / barn: An animal tile may be placed on an empty enclosure space. No enclosure may contain more than 1 type of animal tile. However, you may have multiple enclosures containing the same animal type. Animal tiles that you do not want to or cannot place in the enclosure must be placed in the barn.
- Vending stalls → stall space / barn: A vending stall may be placed on an empty stall space. Vending stalls that you do not want to or cannot place on a stall space must be placed in the barn.
- Coin tiles → your personal supply: A coin tile is placed in your personal supply. A coin tile is worth one coin. Both are equivalent and may be used interchangeably.
Attention: Players may have as many tiles and as many types of tiles (including both animals and vending stalls) as they wish in their barns.
C. Carry Out One Money Action
You may carry out one of the following actions, provided that you can pay for it. You may pay with any combination of coins and/or coin tiles.
The following money actions are possible:
- I. Remodel (Move or Exchange)
- II. Purchase or Discard a tile
- III. Expand the zoo
Attention: You may never carry out more than one money action per turn. Therefore, if you want to carry out more involved remodeling projects, you have to choose the action "carry out a money action" on multiple turns.
The placement rules described above must also be followed when carrying out these actions.
I. Remodel
Remodeling costs 1 coin, paid to the bank. It can only take place in your own zoo. There are two remodeling options: Move or Exchange.
- Move: You move a single animal tile from the barn to an enclosure, or move a vending stall tile in your own zoo from one space to another.
- Exchange: You take all tiles of one animal type in either your barn or one of your zoo's enclosures and exchange them with all tiles of another animal type in another of your zoo's locations. An exchange must always involve exactly two areas. Exchanging vending stalls is not permitted. Important: An exchange is not permitted when one enclosure is too small to accommodate all of the new tiles that would be placed there.
Example (Move): Anna has 2 elephants in the barn and 3 elephants in an enclosure. She moves 1 elephant from the barn to the enclosure. She now has 4 elephants in the enclosure.
Example (Move): Bert has a vending stall on one space and moves it to another empty stall space.
Example (Exchange): Claus has 3 elephants in his barn and 1 panda in one of his enclosures. He exchanges the two animal types, after which he has 1 panda in his barn and 3 elephants in the enclosure.
Example (Exchange): Doris has 3 elephants in one enclosure and 2 pandas in another. Through an exchange, the two animal types end up switching enclosures.
II. Purchase or Discard a Tile
For 2 coins, you may either purchase an animal tile from an opponent's barn or discard an animal tile from your own barn.
- Purchase: You take the animal tile of your choice from the barn of another player and add it to your own zoo. 1 coin goes to the other player; 1 coin goes to the bank. Attention: The other player may not refuse the purchase.
- Discard: You discard the animal tile of your choice from your barn. The tile is removed from the game. Both coins go to the bank.
III. Expand the Zoo
You pay 3 coins to the bank and turn your expansion board face up. This expands your zoo by one enclosure and one stall space.
End of a Round
Once each player has taken a delivery truck, the current round is over. The empty trucks are returned to the middle of the table and the next round begins, starting with the player who took the last delivery truck in the previous round.
Attention: If all players but you have passed, you may continue to take as many turns as you can and choose before taking the last delivery truck and passing.
Two Special Situations
Offspring
There are 2 females and 2 males with heart symbols in each animal type. As soon as an animal with a blue heart symbol meets an animal with a red heart symbol in an enclosure, the two immediately produce an offspring: you take a corresponding offspring tile from the supply and place it like a square animal tile on a free space in the enclosure. Offspring tiles are generally treated in the same way as all other animal tiles.
All that is required is for the male and female to be in the same enclosure — they do not need to be next to each other.
If there isn't any space left in the enclosure, then you must place the offspring in your barn instead.
Each fertile male and fertile female can produce an offspring only once. So, for example, no offspring is produced when a third fertile animal is added to an enclosure that already has a fertile pair. Another offspring would only be produced when another partner, creating a second fertile pair, is added to the enclosure.
Attention: Pairs only produce offspring in enclosures, not in barns or on delivery trucks.
Last Enclosure Space Filled
Whenever the last space of an enclosure is filled with a tile, you get as many coins as shown on the sign on the enclosure as a bonus from the bank. Instead of round coins, you can also take square coins from the bank if there are any. If the bank is empty, then you receive nothing.
Exception: No bonus is awarded when all enclosure spaces are filled as a result of an Exchange action.
Attention: For the enclosure with 6 spaces there is no bonus.
Game End
When all the tiles in the free piles have been played, the "Last Round" marker is placed in the box. As soon as someone reveals the first tile from this pile, the current round is still played to the end. When everyone has taken a delivery truck, the game ends and the scoring takes place.
Scoring
You determine the positive and negative points you receive for your zoo and add them up.
- For a full enclosure, you receive the higher of the two values shown on the sign next to the enclosure.
- For an enclosure with one empty space you receive the smaller of the two values shown on the sign next to the enclosure.
- For an enclosure with two or more empty spaces, you only receive points if you have a vending stall on the stall space associated with the enclosure. In this case, you receive 1 point for each animal in the enclosure.
- For each vending stall type on stall spaces, you receive 2 points.
- For each vending stall type in your barn, you receive 2 minus points.
- For each animal type in your barn, you receive 2 minus points. Example: Claus has 3 elephants in his barn and receives 2 minus points for them.
The player with the most points wins. In the event of a tie, the tied player with the most coins wins. If there is still a tie, then the game ends in a tie.
A Scoring Example
Ernie's final zoo scores as follows:
- In the expansion enclosure, Ernie has all spaces filled with zebras. He scores the higher score: 9 points.
- In the elephant enclosure, a tile is missing. Ernie scores the lower amount: 5 points.
- In the enclosure with the chimpanzees, two tiles are missing. Since there is at least one vending stall next to the enclosure, Ernie scores 1 point for each tile: 2 points.
- In the enclosure with the pandas, 2 tiles are missing. As there is no vending stall next to the enclosure, Ernie gets no points: 0 points.
- Ernie has 2 different types of vending stalls. For each type he scores 2 points: 4 points.
- For each animal type in the barn, Ernie scores 2 minus points, regardless of how many tiles of the animal types are in the barn: -4 points.
- Total: 16 points.
2-Player Variant
The normal game rules are in effect with the following changes:
- Each of you receives 2 expansion boards which you place face-down next to your zoo board.
- All animal and offspring tiles of 3 types are returned to the box.
- 3 delivery trucks are placed in the middle of the table. Now take the 3 hay bales to block compartments in the trucks for the whole game: put 1 hay bale in one truck and 2 hay bales in another truck.
You can only choose a truck with at least one face-up tile on it. When you take a truck, you only receive and place the face-up tiles on the truck. The hay bales do not count as "open tiles" and always remain in the truck. The round ends once both players have taken a delivery truck. Any face-up tiles on the remaining truck (except for the hay bales) are removed from the game and put back into the box.
Variant with All Stalls
When preparing the game, take the 15 tiles of all 5 types of stalls and mix them with the animal and coin tiles. Then play as usual with the rules of the basic game.
Variant with the Balloon Stall
The balloon stall is a new type of stall and is treated like a stall. It is placed face up in the middle of the table when preparing the game. Then play as usual with the rules of the basic game.
The first player who produces an offspring must take the balloon stall from the middle of the table and place it either on a free stall space or in the barn.
If the balloon stall is on a stall space at the end of the game, the player receives the following plus points:
- 2 plus points because it is its own type of vending stall.
- 1 plus point for each animal in the adjacent enclosure, regardless if or how many animal tiles are missing.
- 1 plus point for each offspring tile in all enclosures.
However, if the balloon stall is in the barn at the end of the game, it brings 2 minus points and there are no extra plus points for the offspring tiles.
Variant with the Tray
The tray is placed face up in the middle of the table when preparing the game. Then play as usual with the rules of the basic game.
The first player who has 4 stalls in his zoo receives the tray, which they place face up next to their zoo. It doesn't matter whether the stalls are on a stall space or in the barn. At the end of the game this player receives 2 plus points for every stall on a stall space, regardless of type, instead of the normal 2 plus points for every type of stall.
Tactical Hints
It can be rewarding to take the occasional risk. For example, choosing not to take a partially-filled truck that is only attractive for yourself and revealing another tile instead in the hopes that another useful tile will come of it.
Taking animals that you do not have room for in your enclosures at the moment is not the end of the world — especially if you still have the option of expanding your zoo. However, you should try to have as few animal types as possible in your barn.
The money actions offer additional possibilities: you can sometimes choose to take an "undesirable" tile of an animal type you do not want when you know that another player wants it. If that player buys it from your barn, not only will you have fewer minus points, you will also have made a coin in the process.
Above all, don't underestimate the advantages of "remodeling". You can, for example, use timely exchanges to make money multiple times.
Example: Bert filled his 4-space enclosure with flamingo tiles on a previous turn and received a bonus for it. He has 3 chimpanzees in his 5-space enclosure. On Bert's next turn, he decides to carry out a money action. He pays 1 coin to the bank and performs an exchange: he switches the 4 flamingo tiles in the 4-space enclosure with the 3 chimpanzee tiles in the 5-space enclosure. Since there is now an empty space in the 4-space enclosure, Bert can use a chimpanzee tile on a subsequent turn to fill the enclosure a second time and receive another bonus. Bert is now also only one tile short of receiving a bonus for his 5-space enclosure. Since both enclosures now have only one empty space left, they will both score points at the end of the game.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: All other players have taken delivery trucks and passed. May I continue to take turns as normal? A: Yes, of course. You may continue to choose from the three action possibilities. You can take several money actions and add tiles to the remaining delivery truck if it is not full. Eventually, of course, you will have to take the last delivery truck.
Q: May I still take money actions after I have taken a delivery truck in the last round of the game? A: No. Once you take a delivery truck in any round, you are done for that round.
Q: May I exchange animals between two enclosures? A: Yes, but only if they are different animal types.
Q: May I exchange, for example, 3 elephants from the barn, for 1 coin, into an empty enclosure? A: No. There must be animals in both locations to use the exchange action.
Q: Do I score the 2 points for a vending stall, even if I use it to score points for the adjacent enclosure? A: Yes.
Q: May I move an animal tile from an enclosure to another enclosure or to the barn? A: No.
Q: In my barn, I have 3 elephants, including a male and a female with a heart symbol. I exchange the elephants into the 4-space enclosure, and the couple immediately gets an offspring. Now the enclosure is full. Do I get a coin as bonus? A: No, you cannot earn a coin using the exchange action, and the offspring is created as a direct result of the exchange.
Q: Can I earn the coin bonuses for the same enclosure more than once? A: Yes. Each time you place an animal tile on the last space of the enclosure, you get the bonus coin. To do this more than once, you would need to exchange the animals out of the enclosure with animals that do not fill it. Then on a later turn, add an animal to fill the enclosure.
Credits
Author: Michael Schacht. Illustration: Michael Menzel. © 2007, © 2023 ABACUSSPIELE Verlags GmbH & Co. KG, Frankfurter Str. 121, 63303 Dreieich, Germany. Rio Grande Games Inc., PO Box 1033, Placitas NM 87043, USA.