Photosynthesis

Award Winning Family or Adult Strategy Board Game

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Add the game Photosynthesis to your collection!

Goal

Score the most points by collecting scoring tokens

Number of Players

2 - 4 Players

Time to Play

30 to 60 minutes

Rapid Rules

Setup

  1. Place the game board in the middle of the table and scoring tokens in 4 piles sorted by color and number of leaves, with most leaves on top and least on the bottom
    • If playing a 2 player game, the 3 darkest green tokens with 4 leaves can be left in the box
  2. Each player gets 1 player board, 1 light token tracker placed on "0", 6 seeds, 8 small trees, 4 medium trees, and 2 tall trees that match the tree variety on their board, placing all trees and seeds in available spots then extras alongside the their board. Only items placed alongside a player's board may be played, all others need to be purchased
  3. Players take turns, starting with the player with the First Player Token, placing one small tree in the edge / 1 leaf zone on the main board. Players will do this twice
  4. Place the sun segment on the sun symbol on the board and set the revolution counters on the edge of the board in a stack in numerical order

General Play

  1. All players receive light points based on the size and position of their trees relative to the sun's location
    • Small trees score 1 point, and cast a shadow 1 space behind them blocking small trees
    • Medium trees score 2 points and cast a shadow 2 spaces behind them blocking small and medium trees
    • Large trees score 3 points and cast a shadow 3 spaces behind them blocking all trees
  2. Players take turns, starting with the person with the first player token, optionally spending light points on the any of the following actions as much as they wish:
    • Buy seeds or trees from their player board, buying from the bottom (least expensive) to top (most expensive)
    • Planting a seed for 1 light point each near an existing tree
      • Seeds may be placed 1 space from small trees, 2 spaces from medium trees, and 3 spaces for tall trees
    • Growing a tree by spending light points and replacing a tree on the board with an available tree in the player's collection
      • Replaced trees or seeds get returned to the player's board for future purchase
    • Collecting the topmost scoring token matching the number of leaves of the area the tree was grown in by cutting down a large tree for 4 light points
  3. One player may not act on the same space on the game board multiple times in one turn, unless a tree has been collected in that spot and then a seed may be planted if the player has enough points
  4. After all players have taken one turn the first player token is passed clockwise and the sun moves clockwise on the board
    • If the sun has completed a revolution (reached the sun spot), the top token of the sun revolution counter pile is drawn and placed in the box
  5. Players repeat steps 1-4 until all sun revolution counters have been drawn

Winning and Losing