How to Play Pac-Man: The Board Game (2019): Rules and Instructions

Note: This is for the 2019 Pac-Man board game. If you are interested in the 1980 version check out our how to play guide for the 1980 Pac-Man board game.

Objective of Pac-Man: The Board Game

The goal of Pac-Man: The Board Game is to use Pac-Man to collect the most points while avoiding the ghosts.

Setup for Pac-Man: The Board Game

Insert a yellow peg into each hole in the game board. Once all of the pegs are in the gameboard, push them so they pop up above the gameboard.
Assemble the gameboard. Attach the gameboard pieces in alphabetical order (A, B, C, D) with the Ready piece placed in the middle.
Place the four Power Pellet tokens in the indented spots on the gameboard. You should place one token in each corner of the board. The Power Pellet tokens should be placed so you can see the Power Pellets.
Place Pac-Man on the yellow start space.
Put Blinky (red ghost) on the red ghost space near the ready section. The rest of the ghosts are placed inside the ghost cage.
Place all sixteen Ghost tokens near the gameboard.
Remove the five Yellow Level 2 cards from the deck and place them to the side. Shuffle the rest of the cards and place them face down near the board. These cards form the Ghost Deck.

Playing Pac-Man: The Board Game

During the game each player will have the opportunity to play as Pac-Man in one round. You will play as many rounds as there are players in the game. To begin each round you will determine what role each player will play as.

To start each round all of the players who haven’t been Pac-Man yet, roll the dice. The player that rolls the highest number plays as Pac-Man in the next round. The rest of the players will play as the ghosts. How many ghosts each player (that is not playing as Pac-Man) controls depends on the number of players.

2 players – the player that is not Pac-Man controls all of the ghosts
3 players – each player controls two ghosts
4 players – one player controls two ghosts, the other two players each control one ghost
5 players – each player controls one ghost

The players can decide which ghosts they want to play as. Each player takes a Ghost Eye Token for each ghost that they will control during the round. You will place the token in front of you so everyone knows which ghosts you are controlling this round.

In each round the Pac-Man player has one life. The Pac-Man player will take the first turn followed by all of the ghosts.

Playing as Pac-Man

To start Pac-Man’s turn you will roll the three yellow dice. The total you roll on the three dice determines how many spaces you will move on your turn. Each Pac-Dot (yellow peg), Power Pellet and greyed out circle counts as a space while moving.

Dice Roll in Pac-Man Board Game — On this player’s turn they rolled nine on the dice. They will move Pac-Man nine spaces.

Moving Pac-Man

There aren’t many rules regarding how you can move Pac-Man. You can move forward, backwards, up, and down. You can even move through the same space multiple times on the same turn. The one rule is that you must move the complete number of spaces that your rolled. The one exception is if you eat a Power Pellet. See the Power Pellet section below for more details.

Whenever Pac-Man moves over a Pac-Dot that is up, you will press down on the peg so it pushes into the board. This represents eating the Pac-Dot.

Eating a Pac-Dot in Pac-Man Board Game — Pac-Man moved through the space to the right of the Start space. Since they moved onto the space, they will press down on the Pac-Dot on that space. This indicates that the Pac-Dot was eaten.

If you move off the left or right side of the gameboard, you will immediately move Pac-Man to the tunnel on the other side of the board. You will then continue moving with the rest of your movement. This applies to the ghosts as well.

Moving off the right side of the board. — Pac-Man is on the last space on the right side of the game board. When they move one more space to the right, they will end up teleporting to the other side of the board.

You will keep moving Pac-Man until you use up all of the spaces that you rolled.

Moving Pac-Man nine spaces — This player rolled a nine on the dice. They moved Pac-Man in the following way. They moved right three spaces, down one, right two, down one, and left two.

Playing as a Ghost

After Pac-Man has finished moving, the ghosts get to move.

To start the ghosts’ turn, you will flip over the top card from the Ghost Deck. This card features all four ghosts with numbers next to them.

Ghost card example — For this turn this Ghost card was drawn. From this card the ghosts will move as follows: pink – four spaces, red – six spaces, orange – four spaces, and blue – five spaces.

There are a couple special cards in the game. If you draw a Fruit Card, you will place a Fruit Token on Pac-Man’s starting space.

Fruit Card in Pac-Man Board Game — A Fruit card has been drawn. One of the players will add a new Fruit token to the gameboard.

The first time a Fruit Card is drawn you will place the cherry token. You will then place the strawberry and finally the orange token. If you draw a Fruit Card and either all of the fruits have already been eaten or there is already a Fruit Token on Pac-Man’s start space, you will ignore the card. After you handle the Fruit Card, you will draw a new card for the ghost’s turn.

Placing a Fruit Token — Since the previous Fruit card was the first drawn in the game, the Cherry Token is placed on Pac-Man’s starting space.

Ghost Movement Rules

You will start with the ghost at the top of the card. This ghost gets to move first this turn. They will move spaces equal to the number next to their picture. Ghosts can move forward, backwards, up and down. Ghosts cannot change directions on their turn though. Basically you can’t turn around on your turn to move back to a space that you were already on.

When moving ghosts cannot move through one another.

If a ghost cannot move the entire amount shown on the card, they will move as far as they can.

To start the round Blinky (red ghost) has to move first since they block the path for the other ghosts. If Blinky is not the first ghost on the card drawn to start the round, ignore the movement for any ghost above Blinky on the card.

Moving a Ghost in Pac-Man Board Game — To start the game the red ghost (Blinky) blocks the rest of the ghosts in the ghost cage. Therefore orange loses their first turn since they can’t move. Blinky (red) then moves five spaces. They move right two spaces and down three spaces.

The ghost players may discuss strategy together for how they want to move. Once a ghost is moved though, it cannot be moved again this turn.

Moving Ghost Eye Tokens

Should a ghost be eaten, their token is replaced by a Ghost Eyes Token. The player controlling that ghost then tries to move them back to the ghost cage. They will move the Ghost Eyes Token in the same way as the normal token.

Moving a Ghosts Eyes token — Pac-Man has eaten the blue ghost. Their normal playing piece is replaced with their Ghost Eyes Token. The player who controls the blue ghost will then start moving it towards the ghost cage.

Once the token reaches the ghost cage, its movement ends for the current turn. The Ghost Eyes Token is replaced with the normal Ghost Token.

Resurrecting an Eaten Ghost — The player successfully moved the blue ghost’s Ghost Eyes Token to the ghost cage. The Ghost Eyes Token will be replaced with the normal playing piece.

Using the Power Pellet

Around the gameboard are four Power Pellets. As Pac-Man moves around the board you will eventually eat one of the Power Pellets. When you eat a Power Pellet your current movement ends. You will flip over the Power Pellet token to the side that shows the gray circle.

Eating a Power Pellet in Pac-Man Board Game — Pac-Man has moved onto a Power Pellet space. They will now use the rest of their turn to chase down and eat the ghosts.

Eating a Power Pellet — To show that the Power Pellet was eaten, the token was flipped to the empty side.

The Pac-Man player than rolls the three yellow dice one at a time. After you roll a die you will move Pac-Man the corresponding number of spaces. You will do this for all three dice.

Moving Pac-Man with the Power Pellet — For their first die roll the Pac-Man player has rolled a four. They will move their playing piece one space up, two spaces left, and one space down.

Eating Ghosts

After eating the Power Pellet the Pac-Man player can eat the ghosts. If Pac-Man moves onto a space that has a ghost on it, they will eat the ghost. Replace the Ghost Token with the corresponding Ghost Eyes Token. The player who controls that Ghost Eyes Token will then try to move it back to the ghost cage. While it is a Ghost Eyes Token, any other token may move through it.

Eating a Ghost in Pac-Man Board Game — Pac-Man has landed on the blue ghost’s space after eating the Power Pellet. They will eat the blue ghost.

Replacing the Ghost with Ghost Eyes Token — Since Pac-Man ate the blue ghost, you will replace the blue ghost with the blue Ghost Eyes Token.

Due to eating a ghost, the Pac-Man takes a Blue Ghost Token and adds it to their scoring pile. Each of these tokens are worth 200 points at the end of the round.

Receiving a Blue Ghost Token — Since Pac-Man ate a ghost, the current Pac-Man player takes a Blue Ghost token. This scores the player 200 points at the end of the game.

The Pac-Man player keeps moving until they use the number rolled on each of the three die. If Pac-Man ends their turn on a Ghost Token, they will eat that ghost before they lose the ability of the Power Pellet.

Scoring in Pac-Man: The Board Game

During your round as Pac-Man you can score points in a number of different ways.

If you should move Pac-Man over a Fruit Token, you will place the corresponding token in front of you. At the end of the round you will score points from the tokens as follows:

Cherry – 100 points
Strawberry – 200 points
Orange – 500 points

Pac-Man eating a Fruit token — Pac-Man has moved onto a space that has a Fruit token. Pac-Man eats the cherries and receives 100 points for them.

You also score points for eating ghosts after acquiring the Power Pellet ability. You will score 200 points for each Blue Ghost Token you acquired.

Finally you will score points for eating Pac-Dots. As you move around the board you will eat Pac-Dots. The gameboard is separated into four different quadrants (the four corners). If you eat all of the Pac-Dots in a section, you will collect a mini-board token corresponding to the section that you completed. Each of these tokens is worth 800 points at the end of the round.

Scoring Pac-Dots in the Pac-Man Board Game — Pac-Man has eaten all of the Pac-Dots in the bottom right corner of the board

Scoring a quadrant in Pac-Man Board Game — Since the player ate all of the Pac-Dots in the bottom right corner, they will take the corresponding token which is worth 800 points at the end of the game.

There is also an alternative way of scoring the Pac-Dots. If you choose to use this scoring method you will count up any Pac-Dots that you ate that weren’t part of a completed section. You will score 40 points for each of these Pac-Dots.

End of Pac-Man: The Board Game Round

A round of Pac-Man: The Board Game can end in one of two ways.

If Pac-Man should move onto a space that has a ghost and they don’t currently have the Power Pellet ability, their turn immediately ends. This also occurs if a ghost moves onto Pac-Man’s space. They will count up all of the points they scored in the round and write it down on the High Score notepad.

Pac-Man caught by orange ghost — The orange ghost has caught Pac-Man. The current player’s turn as Pac-Man has ended.

Final Score in 2019 Pac-Man Board Game — During their turn as Pac-Man they acquired these scoring tokens. They ate five ghosts based on the five Blue Ghost Tokens. The Blue Ghost Tokens will score a total of 1,000 points (200 points each). They score 100 points for the cherry token and 200 points from the strawberry. Finally they ate all of the Pac-Dots from three sections of the board. They score 800 points each for a total of 2400 points. This player has scored a total of 3700 points.

The next round begins with another player playing as Pac-Man. All of the players that haven’t played as Pac-Man yet will roll the dice to determine who takes the next turn as Pac-Man. Reset the game following the setup instructions.

Otherwise the round can end if Pac-Man eats all of the Pac-Dots on the board. In this case the player completed the level. They will then have the opportunity to move onto level two.

Eating all of the Pac-Dots — The current Pac-Man player has eaten all of the Pac-Dots. They will now get to play level two of the game.

Level Two

Before you begin level two you should add up all of the points you earned in level one. You should write down your score on the High Score notepad. You will then return all of the tokens back to their starting places like during setup.

Take the five Yellow Ghost Cards and add them to the rest of the Ghost Deck. You will then shuffle all of the cards together. This forms the deck for level two.

Pop up all of the Pac-Dots into the up position. All of the character pawns are returned to their starting positions. Flip all Power Pellets to the active side.

You will then play level two in the same way as level one. This continues until you are caught by a ghost or you complete level two. If you complete level two, you will reset the board and play level three (the same as level two).

Winning Pac-Man: The Board Game

The game ends once all of the players have had a chance to play as Pac-Man.

The player that scores the most points as Pac-Man wins the game.

Arcade Mode

Instead of the normal game you can decide to play the game following the Arcade Mode rules.

The Arcade Mode plays mostly the same as the normal game. There are two main differences.

First you will add the five Yellow Level 2 Ghost Cards to the Ghost Deck.

The other change is that each player gets three lives when they play as Pac-Man. You will place three Pac-Man Life Tokens near the gameboard at the start of each round. Whenever Pac-Man is caught by a ghost, you will remove one of the Life Tokens.

Arcade Mode in Pac-Man Board Game — The current Pac-Man player was caught by one of the ghosts. They lose one of their lives.

You will then move all of the Ghosts and Pac-Man pawns to their starting positions. Keep the Pac-Dots in their current positions. You will then continue playing. When you lose your last Life Token, your round as Pac-Man ends. You will tally all of the points you earned from your three lives. The player that scores the most points wins the game.

Pac-Man: The Board Game FAQs

If you have any questions about how to play Pac-Man: The Board Game, leave a comment below on this post. I will try to answer any questions asked as best and as quickly as possible.

Pac-Man: The Board Game Components

Gameboard (5 pieces)
Pac-Man Pawn
4 Ghost Pawns
35 Level 1 Ghost Cards
5 Level 2 Ghost Cards
16 Blue Ghost Tokens
4 Ghost Eyes Tokens
4 Power Pellet Tokens
4 Scoring Pieces
3 Pac-Man Life Tokens
3 Fruit Tokens
3 Yellow Dice
High Score Notepad
Instructions

Year: 2019 | Publisher: Buffalo Games

Genres: Cooperative, Roll and Move

Ages: 10+ | Number of Players: 2-5 | Length of Game: 30-60 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light-Moderate | Luck: Moderate

Where to Purchase: Amazon, eBay Any purchases made through these links (including other products) help keep Geeky Hobbies running. Thank you for your support.

For more board and card game how to plays/rules and reviews, check out our complete alphabetical list of board game posts.