Create a deck of Zoo Cards. Place the top 4 cards faceup on the table.
Deal all players 6 random Animal Cards. This is their “die”. Place the remaining cards as a facedown draw pile.
The game ends as soon as a player has scored 10(+) points. They win!
On your turn,
- Pick a Zoo Card from the options on the table. (Then refill from deck.)
- Pick an opponent. This can be any other player.
You and your opponent “roll your die”: shuffle your personal deck and reveal a random card.
The chosen Zoo Card tells you which player has the most valuable animal. They win the Zoo Card and place it faceup before them. (Check if anyone has scored enough points to win the game!)
In case of a tie, one battler must discard a card and the other wins the Zoo Card. The active player decides who gets what. Discarded cards are secret; you can’t discard your final card.
That’s it, have fun!
A Zoo Card states how valuable animals are this turn. It also shows a number: how many points it’s worth.
This information is like “rock, paper, scissors”: one animal is better than another, is better than another, and so forth.
To know who wins a battle, find who played the best animal:
Your animal is “better” if the distance (number of arrows) between your animal and the opponent’s animal is larger than the other way around.
Sometimes, this cycle does not include all animals. All missing animals are considered equal in value, but less valuable than all included animals.
Played the base game and ready for more? Or looking to tweak the game to fit your playing group better? Check out these variants and expansions!
To give the game more decisions to make, use the following variant.
- For every battle, count the number of arrows on the zoo card.
- Battlers select only that many cards from their die. (The others are temporarily put aside.)
- Now roll this reduced die (instead of your entire hand).
For example, a Zoo card with 3 arrows means that the two battlers pick 3 of their cards first (which they think will give them the highest chance of a win) and only shuffle + reveal from that.
To make the game less random, use the “no shuffle” variant.
- You only shuffle your die at the start of the game.
- When “rolling” your die, simply grab the top card.
- If you ever get your card back (after rolling but losing) place it at the bottom.
- When you reach 5 points or draw a new card (possible with expansions), shuffle once more.
To make the game longer (and your die more changeable), use the following variant.
- Whenever you win a Zoo card, you can decide to draw Animal cards instead (increasing your hand size).
- You draw as many as the score number on that Zoo card you refused.
This expansion adds new material: Zoo Cards with special requirements (on top of the usual cycle).
Some Zoo Cards include the “people icon”. If you choose this card,
- All players roll their die.
- As usual, the winner is the animal with the largest gap between themselves and the next animal in the cycle.
If there are 2 winners, the “tie” rules apply but only to them. If there are 3(+) winners, some of them simply get nothing, at the active player’s discretion.
This expansion adds new material: Animal Cards with special powers. These are written on the card and always the same per animal.
These only apply if written on the card. That is, base game cards DON’T have the special powers of their species.