- Lay Out Game Pieces
- Place the marketplace, research center, and track boards within reach of all players. Pile all the income tokens as the bank. Place 50 dinosaurs, 29 paddock tiles, and 12 modifier tokens near the boards. Put all 80 visitors in the cloth bag.
- Establish Dice Pool
- Draw 2 DNA dice per player, plus 1 more die, to create the dice pool. Return any remaining dice to the box.
- Place the Market Stacks
- Shuffle the specialist cards and place them face down on the marketplace
- Shuffle the attraction tiles and the lab upgrade tiles and stack them in their slots. If playing with less than 4 players, remove the "3+" or "4+" tiles as necessary.
- Stack the Dino Research II and DNA Refinement II tiles face-up in their slots.
- Seed the Market Rows
- Draw the top 4 attraction tiles and place 1 in each of the market rows, arranged by cost (top to bottom).
- Draw the top 4 lab upgrade tiles and put one in each market row
- Draw the top 4 specialists and place 1 in each market row
- Place the Research Stacks
- Separate the 17 dino recipe tiles into 3 stacks by category, shuffle each stack and each stack in it's slot facedown, and flip the top tile of each stack.
- Reveal the End-Game Objectives
- Pick your desired game length (short, medium, or long) and shuffle that subset of the objective cards and reveal a number of objectives equal to the number of players plus 1
- Prepare the Plot Twists
- Shuffle the plot twists and draw 2 and place them face up. If the 2nd plot twist would contradict the 1st, discard the 2nd and draw a new one
- Distribute the Player Pieces
Each player takes:
- 1 lab board
- 1 park board
- 9 workers
- 3 scientists
- 5 corporation tokens
- 10 marker cubes in their color
- 6 limit (black) cubes
- Choose a 1st Player
- The player who most recently extracted DNA from a mosquito trapped in amber will be the 1st player. Otherwise, the player who most recently visited a theme park is 1st. Give that player the 1st player token and arrange the turn order clockwise from the 1st player.
- Take Startup Cash
- Give the 1st player $15. Each successive player in turn order receives $1 more than the previous.
- Individual Player Setup
- Situate Player Boards
- Place your 2 player boards in front of you: your lab board should be on the left and your park board should be on the right. Leave room to the right of your lab board for specialists.
- Place Workers and Scientists
- Put 4 of your workers near the top of your lab. Set the other 4 workers aside as they are not available at the start of the game.
- Put the 1 remaining worker on the turn order track
- Put your 3 scientists just above your lab.
- Gain Starting DNA
- Place a limit cube at 4 on each of the basic DNA tracks (blue, pink, and purple).
- Place a limit cube at 2 on each of the advanced DNA tracks (green, red, and orange).
- Place a marker of your color at 1 on each of the basic DNA tracks.
- Place a marker of your color at 0 on each of the advanced DNA tracks.
- Adjust the Public Tracks
- Place 1 dinosaur in the starting paddock on your park board
- Put 1 of your markers on the public excitement track.
- Place a marker a 10 on the score track
- Set Threat and Security Levels
- Put 1 of your markers on the threat indicator on the right side of your lab board at 1
- Put 1 of your markers at 1 on the security indicator
- Situate Player Boards
- Dinosaur Island is played over a number of rounds until the end game is triggered. Each round has 5 Phases.
- 1. Research Phase (turn order)
The 1st player rolls all the DNA dice and places them along the top of the research center with 1 die per slot.
In turn order, each player assigns one of their scientists to one of the action spaces (below) or passes. Continue until each player has had 3 turns. Note that only 1 scientist can be assigned to each slot!
After all players have had 3 turns in this phase, take the die with the most threat pips and move it to the holding area in the top right corner. If no DNA dice were unclaimed, no die is moved.
- Research DNA
- Assign a scientist to one of the slots in the research center to claim the corresponding die
- Multiply the number of DNA symbols by the scientist's research level and add that many DNA of that type to your lab.
Remember: You cannot exceed the cold storage limit for that DNA type!
There are 2 special die symbols (below) that you must us a #3 scientist to claim. You only get the benefit once (not multiplied by scientist level).
The Dino allows you to upgrade paddock capacity
The meeple allows you to gain 1 worker from the supply
- Increase Cold Storage
- Assign a scientist here to increase your cold storage limit(s) on any combination of DNA tracks equal to the scientist's level.
- Procure Dino Recipe
- Assign a scientist that is >= the slot's number. Immediately place the tile in your park.
- Pass
- If you pass, place one of your scientists in your worker pool. You can use that scientist as a worker during the Worker Phase.
- 2. Market Phase (turn order)
- In turn order, each player can take 1 action (or pass). Continue until each player has had 2 actions.
- Hire Specialist
Hire a specialist by paying the cost of the market row the specialist is in. Immediately place the card to the right of your lab board and carry out any immediate effects.
You can normally have a maximum of 3 hired specialists. If hiring would put you over this limit, you must immediately fire a specialist. You give up any bonuses they gave you including extra workers.
- Build Attraction
- Build an attraction by paying the sum of the cost printed on the attraction tile plus the cost of the market row. Immediately place it in an available zone in your park.
- Buy Lab Upgrade
Buy a lab upgrade by paying the cost of the market row it is in. Immediately place it in 1 of the 6 spaces in your lab. If your lab is full, you can place it on top of a previous upgrade.
The 2 special lab upgrade tiles, Dino Research II and DNA Refinement II must be placed on top of the level 1 versions of these, respectively. They cannot be placed anywhere else.
- Purchase DNA
- Pay the amount ($2 - $5) and gain the corresponding DNA. Then, discard any 1 item from the market row that you bought DNA in. Note, this does not include special lab upgrade tiles.
- Pass
- If you pass as an action, take $2 from the bank.
- 3. Worker Phase (simultaneous)
All players assign their workers (including any unused scientists) to take lab actions. Lab actions can be resolved in any order the player wishes.
Each worker slot can be activated only once per round, unless it is labeled as unlimited.
Note that some lab upgrades (with a green background) are activated once, at purchase time, only.
- Refining DNA
- Spend 2 basic DNA to produce 1 advanced DNA.
- Creating Dinosaurs
After placing a worker on the Dino Research tile, spend the required DNA from your lab as required by the recipe on the dino tile. You must have the capacity to support another dinosaur of that type.
- Increase your excitement level by the amount shown on the dino tile.
- Increase the threat level by the number of threat pips on the dino tile. If your threat level reaches 11, take a red "+10" modifier token.
- Increasing Security
Certain lab upgrades will allow you to increase your security level by 1. Pay the corresponding cost in the security level section you are moving to. If your security level reaches 11, take a hexagonal "+10" modifier token.
- Upgrading Paddock Capacity
- When upgrading paddock capacity, change the capacity of one paddock tile to the next level up. You must pay the cost, which is the new paddock capacity.
- 4. Park Phase
- In this phase, players will earn money and victory points from park visitors.
- 1. Attract Visitors (turn order)
In turn order, each player takes a number of visitors from the bag equal to their excitement level. Place them all at your park entrance and collect $1 from the bank per patron. Patrons are gold colored meeples. Do not collect money for the hooligans (purple or yellow depending on game version).
- 2. Manage Lines (simultaneous)
Place all visitors at available attractions and dinosaur exhibits. Each dino exhibit has space for visitors equal to the number of dinosaurs in the exhibit. All hooligans must be placed first! Any visitors left over are left at the entrance.
- 3. Dinosaurs on the Loose! (simultaneous)
Add the number of pips on the DNA die that was set aside in the holding area earlier (if applicable) to your current threat level. This is your final threat level for the round. Then check your security level, incorporating any bonuses you may have for that. Then:
- security level >= threat level: Nothing happens
- security level < threat level: Dinosaurs eat a number of park visitors equal to the difference between your security and threat levels.
If visitors are eaten, you remove to the bag, starting with patrons (not hooligans), the number of eaten visitors. If you run out of visitors in your park, remove visitors from the entrance. Subtract 1 VP for each visitor eaten.
- Score Victory Points (turn order)
- In turn order, players score 1 VP for each surviving patron at an attraction or dino exhibit. Do not score hooligans or visitors at the entrance. For each patron at a food attraction, you choose to either score 1 VP or collect $2.
- 5. Cleanup Phase
- 1. Reset Turn Order
- The player with the fewest VPs becomes the new 1st player. The player with the next fewest becomes 2nd and so on. If players are tied, they keep their relative positions.
- 2. Refresh the Market
- Discard any items in the $2 market row. Slide all the remaining items in the market upward so the cheapest slots are filled. Fill any empty slots in the market from their stacks. If a supply stack is empty, shuffle the corresponding discard pile. Do not rearrange the attractions in order of cost. This is only done during setup.
- 3. Reveal New Dino Recipes
- Turn the top tile of each dino stack face up, if the top tile isn't already face up.
- 4. Return Workers and Scientists
- Each player takes back all their workers and scientists, returning them to their starting locations.
- 5. Remove Visitors
- All visitors are put back in the bag.
- 6. Resolve Plot Twists
- Check the plot twists for anything that resolves "at the end of each round" and resolve those now.
- 1. Reset Turn Order
If a player fulfills an objective at any time, they claim it by putting one of their corporation tokens on the card. The objective cannot be claimed by any other player.
If multiple players fulfill the objective at the same time, they all claim the card by putting their corporation tokens on it.
The end of the game is triggered when there is only 1 objective card left unclaimed. Finish the current round and perform final scoring.
Each player adds the VPs printed on the attractions and dino exhibits in their park.
- For each attraction, score the listed VPs
- For each exhibit, multiply the listed VP value by the number of dinos in the paddock.
- If there are no dinosaurs in a paddock, lose 10 points for that exhibit.
- Score completed objectives.
- For each $5 leftover, score 1 VP
If there is a tie, the tied player with the most leftover money wins.