Overview
Find the lost animal inhabitants of Petopolis and free them from their yolky egg prisons. Use their unique powers to reunite them with their friends. Can you find the elusive mythical creatures before your friends do?
The goal of the game is to have 3 mythical creatures face up in front of you before your rivals do. But in order to do so, you’ll have to build up an army of cutesy critters with skills and defenses first, or your rivals will snatch those mythical pets from you in the blink of an eye.
Components
What will you find in the world of Petopolis?
Here’s how the middle of a 3-player game would look.
Notice that the cards in this game can be differentiated by their backs, giving you a clue into what your rivals are carrying and doing. At any point in the game, you can ask your rivals to show you the backs of all the cards in their hand, and they must do so honestly.
Events
Event cards can be quickly identified by the yellow, striped background, and the giant E on the back of the card.
To play an event card, you place it face up into the “trash pile” (i.e. the discard pile, right next to the deck). Then immediately follow the instructions on the card.
Pets
Pet cards can be quickly identified by the blue, paw print pattern background, and the giant egg on the back of the card.
To play a pet card, you place it face down on the table in front of you. It will automatically hatch, or turn face up, at the beginning of your next turn.
You may only use a pet’s ability after it hatches. Unlike event cards, pets are never “used up.” They stay on the table after you use their power, allowing you to use them again and again in the future.
Mythical Pets
The grand guardians of Petopolis. These are the pets you need to win the game. If at ANY point in the game you have 3 “hatched” mythical pets (meaning, face up on the table in front of you) at the same time, you win!
Mythical pets feature stars on the eggs of the back of the cards, whereas all other pets will show paw prints. Since you must first lay eggs facedown before they hatch next turn, you can tell when someone is about to win the game at the beginning of their next turn.
Skill Pets
These pets each possess a unique ability that you may use on your turn instead of playing an event or laying an egg. Each skill pet may be used a maximum of one time per turn.
Defense Pets
These pets defend your pets and possessions from rivals’ attacks. They react immediately, out of turn, whenever a rival attacks you in the way explained on their card. Some defense pets block attacks, others take immediate revenge, and still others provide an immediate side benefit.
Time Stones
These mysterious stones will help you pull off clever chain reactions. By default, you can only perform one action per turn (that is, play an event, lay an egg, OR use a skill pet’s ability).
But by spending a time stone, you can allow yourself to perform another action. You can spend up to all your time stones in one turn, or save them up for later. You can collect time stones by skipping a portion of your turn, or by using certain events and pets that allow you to collect time stones.
SETUP
First and most important step: make sure there are the right number of mythical pets in the deck to match the player count. The number of mythical pets needed in the deck is:
Number of players x 2 + 2:
Shuffle all of the cards together, then deal 5 cards to each player. Place the rest of the deck and all of the time stones in the middle of the table, within reach of all the players.
GAMEPLAY
The player to the left of the previous winner may go first, or whoever touched a pet last. Play continues clockwise.
Your turn consists of 3 simple steps:
HATCH | PLAY | DRAW
1. Hatch
First, ALL of the eggs you have in front of you on the table hatch at the same time. Flip them all face up to the pet side. This is automatic, and must always happen, even if you don’t want it to.
2. Play
During the play phase, you can perform a single action by default, which allows you to do ONE of the following actions:
Play an event:
Place an event card into the trash pile and immediately follow the instructions on the card.
Lay an egg:
Place a pet card from your hand onto the table face down. At this point it is considered an “egg,” and will hatch into a pet at the beginning of your next turn.
Use a pet skill:
Use one of the abilities of one of your SKILL pets (not DEFENSE pets or Mythical Pets).
After performing an action, if you have any time stones, you may spend one to perform another action. You may continue to do this until you run out of time stones. You may not spend time stones in the same turn that you collected them.
Instead of performing any actions, you may collect time stones:
If you have no time stones, collect 2.
Otherwise, collect 1.
Note that it’s one or the other. By collecting time stones you forfeit the ability to perform any other actions on your turn, and vice versa.
3. Draw
Finish your turn by drawing cards:
If you have less than 5 cards in your hand, draw until you have 5.
Otherwise, draw just 1 card.
Hint: There are no limits to the number of cards in your hand, the number of pets you have on the table, or the number of time stones you have! Collect everything you can!
ATTACKING
Many event cards and pets allow you to attack your opponents in different ways. Defense pets will defend you against these pets.
Trash
To send a rival’s pet to the trash, place it in the trash pile. Eggs (i.e. face down pets) cannot be trashed.
Steal
To steal a rival’s pet, take it and place it face down in your pet area. Eggs (i.e. face down pets) cannot be stolen.
Hand attacks
Hand attacks come in a variety of flavors. Note that all of these only apply to the cards in players’ hands. They cannot be applied to pets on the table.
Egg manipulation
Eggs can prematurely hatched, flipped back to eggs, or moved back to the owner’s hand. You can even use these cards on your own eggs!
Hint: Since they can’t be trashed or stolen, eggs are generally more well protected than pets. But also, their abilities can’t be used until they’re hatched.
Time stone attacks
You can force rivals to discard or give you time stones.
DEFENDING
If you have hatched (face up) defense pets on the table in front of you, they’re active at all times. So any time a rival tries to attack you in any way, check your defense pets and see if you can do anything about it!
Hint: Using your defense pets is optional, and it’s up to you to remember to use them.
Some defense pets can outright block an attack from happening. Others allow you to do something right after the attack happens, even when you’re in the middle of your rival’s turn. For instance, if a rival trashes one of your pets and you have the snake:
You can trash one of your rival’s pets pets in return immediately, before they perform the rest of their turn.
3 important details about defense pets:
- Defense pets can even block or react to other defense pets, causing lengthy chain reactions
- Multiple defense pets can be triggered at the same time if they react to the same kind of attack. If this happens, you get to use all of them. You decide which order they react in, which can be important.
- Defense pets can even react to themselves being attacked. For instance, if your tiger is stolen, it still allows you to steal a rival’s pet one more time, even though it’s no longer in your possession.
Winning
If at any point in time during the game, you have 3 mythical creatures face up on the table in front of you at the same time, you instantly win the game. Usually this will happen at the beginning of your turn, but this could happen at any time if your 3rd mythical pet is hatched prematurely.
Bonus Hints
If you have no time stones, it’s usually a good idea to collect 2. By not using an action one turn, you allow yourself to use up to 3 actions on the following turn!
Beginners go straight for the mythical pets, without realizing how easily rivals can take them. Build up your army of animals first and then go for the win when you’re confident you can’t be stopped!
Watch for the mythicals! Since you can tell them apart from other cards, look to see who’s about to win and make sure you’re prepared when they go for it!
The ability to hatch eggs and flip pets to eggs may not seem very useful in the beginning of the game, but it becomes extremely important later in the game. Defense pets can be temporarily disabled when flipped back to eggs, and mythical pets can be made more vulnerable when hatched.
The same strategy won’t win every time! No single pet is the best. Always look for the pets that fit your current situation and needs.
