Pick any tile with the ADD action. Place it faceup in the center of the table; this will be the starting tile of the waterfall.
Deal all players 4 tiles and 1 Pawn. The remaining tiles become the facedown draw pile.
The game ends when the waterfall contains 20(+) cards or the deck is empty (rare).
Sum the points on your scored tiles. Highest score wins!
From start player, take clockwise turns until the game ends.
On your turn, place your pawn at the top of the waterfall and fall down!
For every tile you pass on your way,
- Execute its action (if it has one).
- Then pick your next tile. (Follow one of its water paths downward).
- You can’t enter an occupied tile ( = it contains another pawn).
Your turn ends once you exit the waterfall or get stuck. In both cases, leave your pawn where it is until your next turn.
Everything in this game happens by executing a tile’s action (when you fall through it).
The main actions are ADD, DRAW and SCORE. Others are explained on the tile itself.
When you do an ADD action,
- Place a tile from your hand in the waterfall.
- It must be next to an existing tile
- It must not overlap an existing tile.
- All its water paths must match neighbors.
The DRAW action allows drawing 2 cards from the top of the facedown deck, into your hand.
The SCORE action works as follows.
- Check the gemstones that are on this tile.
- Pick 1 hand tile with a matching gemstone.
- Place this tile facedown in your score pile. Its point value (the golden star) score at the end of the game.
- If you have no matching tile (or don’t want to score it), this does nothing.
That’s it! Have fun!
Want to modify the game to make it less or more challenging? Try these variants and expansions.
In the base game, building the waterfall gives you immense freedom. The water paths need to match, but you may otherwise make the waterfall as wide, tall, or filled with holes as you like.
In this variant, however, that is more restricted: you must build the waterfall in a Pyramid shape.
In other words, the first layer has just 1 card (the starting card), the second 3 cards, the third 5 cards, and so forth.
At no point are you allowed to place a tile outside of the pyramid bounds!
Try any of these rule changes for an easier game.
- The (score) number on a card states how many Pawns are allowed to be on it. (Example: a 2-card allows 2 pawns at once.)
- Use only the tiles with basic actions (ADD, DRAW, SCORE; the ones that have an icon) and play until deck is empty.
- Ignore the water paths when moving: you’re allowed to move to any of the two tiles below your current one. (The paths must still match when placing a new tile.)
- Instead of resetting to the top each time, simply continue your turn where you left off.
This expansion adds “gated tiles”. These have a requirement (or “gate”) on them, and you’re only allowed to enter the tile if you meet the requirements.
This is usually based on your path so far this turn. This makes the game harder to play and to win.