Looking for a specific Minecraft Explorers rule? | Setup | Playing the Game | Exploring a Landscape | Reveal New Landscapes | Fight Mobs | Fill Chests | Special Items | End of Game | FAQ | Components |
Objective
The objective of Minecraft Explorers is to work with the other players to fill all but one of the chests with items before the Game Over card is revealed.
Setup
- Sort the cards by their types.
- Shuffle all of the Landscape cards with the landscape side face up. After you have finished shuffling, place the top five cards in the middle of the table. None of the players should see the objects on the back of the cards.
- Shuffle all of the Mob cards face down. You will return a number of Mob cards to the box depending on the number of players.
- 1 Player – 8 cards
- 2 Players – 7 cards
- 3 Players – 6 cards
- 4 Players – 5 cards
- Take the bottom four cards from the Mob pile and randomly shuffle in the Game Over card. Then place the five cards on the bottom of the Mob deck. Finally reveal the top card from the deck and place it next to the pile on the table.
- Shuffle the Chest cards. The players determine what difficulty they would like to play. You will draw a number of Chest cards equal to the difficulty you choose and place them on the table with the open chest side face up. Return the remaining Chest cards to the box. The game recommends for your first game to use chests 1-5. The number of Chest cards you should draw are as follows:
- Easy – 5 chests
- Normal – 6 chests
- Hard – 7 chests
- Hardcore – 8 chests
- The player who most recently played Minecraft starts the game. The starting player takes the Night card and the six Hunger cards.
How to Play Minecraft Explorers
On each of your turns you will be able to take a number of actions. You will receive six Hunger cards at the beginning of your turn. You will use these cards in order to pay for the actions that you want to take. There are no restrictions on what actions you can take or what order you take them in. You can even take the same action several times on your turn. The only restriction is that you can only take an action as long as you have enough Hunger cards to pay the cost of the action.
There are four different actions you can take on your turn.
- Explore the landscape and get an item
- Reveal new landscapes
- Fight a Mob
- Fill a chest
Minecraft Explorers is a cooperative game where everyone is working together to try and win the game. During your turn you will take your own actions. You can consult the other players about what you should do though as the players can strategize about what they want to do together.
You can keep taking actions until you either no longer have enough Hunger cards to take an action, or you no longer want to take an action. At this point your turn ends.
Reveal a Mob Card
To end your turn you will play the Night card from your hand. By playing the Night card you will take the top card from the Mob pile, flip it over, and place it next to any other face up Mob cards.
Look at the Mob card you just revealed. If its type matches one or more of the face up Mob cards, you have been overrun. Due to being overrun, you will reveal an additional Mob card. If this card’s type matches a card already face up on the table, you will reveal another card. This continues until you reveal a Mob card that is not already face up on the table.
After you are done revealing a Mob card(s), the next player clockwise takes the next turn. They will receive the six Hunger cards and the Night card. If you are playing the game by yourself, you will just keeping taking turns.
Explore a Landscape and Get An Item
Usually there will be a number of Landscape cards laid out on the table. You can take an action in order to explore one of the cards. In order to take the action you will have to play a number of Hunger cards equal to the amount printed on the Landscape card you want to explore.
After you pay the cost, flip over the Landscape card to see what item you found. You will place the card face up in front of you in your inventory of cards. Some of the items have a special ability. See the Special Items section below for more details.
There are a few rules regarding items you acquire:
- There is no limit to the amount of item cards that you can have in your inventory.
- Should you acquire an item with a special ability, you can use it in the turn you acquire it or save it for a future turn.
After revealing the item on the back of the Landscape card, you will NOT place a new Landscape card on the table. You need to use one of the other actions to refill the missing Landscape cards from the table.
Using Tools
Some Landscape cards will feature either a pickaxe or sword icon on them. If you have one of the associated items in your inventory, you can use them to reduce the Hunger cost to explore that location. If you want to use the associated item, you will reduce the cost by the amount printed on the item you end up using.
Mob Landscapes
Should a Landscape card have the Mob icon on it, there may be a Mob at the location. You won’t know if there is a Mob at the Landscape until you explore it.
When you explore one of these cards and the Mob icon is shown on the other side of the card, you need to reveal the associated number of Mob cards from the deck. Should the card(s) match any Mob cards already on the table, you are overrun and have to draw additional cards until you draw a type that isn’t already on the table.
Villages
Some of the Landscape cards feature a village. These cards allow you to trade with a villager. On the visible side of the Landscape card there are some items pictured. The items pictured on the left side are the items that the villager are looking for. The item on the right side is the item that the villager is willing to trade to you.
To trade with the villager you need to pay one Hunger card. You will then discard an item from your inventory that matches what the villager wants. You will then flip over the Landscape card so it represents the item that you traded for.
Reveal New Landscapes
The second action you can take on your turn is to reveal new Landscape cards. To take this action you have to spend one of the Hunger cards.
First look at the Landscape cards that are still face up on the table. You can choose which of these cards you want to remain on the table, and which cards you want to return to the bottom of the Landscape deck.
After you have decided which Landscape cards you want to keep, you will reveal new Landscape cards until there are five Landscape cards on the table.
Fight Mobs and Get Trophies
The third action you can choose to take on your turn is to fight one of the Mob cards that are out on the table. Each Mob card has a Hunger cost printed on it. In order to fight a Mob you must pay the associated cost.
To reduce the cost to fight a Mob card, you can use a sword card from your inventory. When you use a sword you will reduce the amount you owe to fight a Mob by the value of the sword that you are using.
After you pay the cost to fight a Mob card, you defeat it and add the card to your inventory as a trophy. When you have two trophies of the same type of Mob in your inventory, you can choose to discard both cards in order to gain an additional Hunger for the rest of your current turn. You can also save the two trophies to use on a future turn.
Fill Chests
The final action that you can take on your turn is to fill the Chest cards. To take this action you must pay one Hunger.
After paying the cost take any number of item cards from your inventory that you want and place them under Chest cards that are requesting those items.
Once the players play all of the required item cards to a Chest card, flip the Chest card to the other side.
For filling a chest, you get to choose one of the Mob cards on the table and immediately defeat it without paying the Hunger cost. Add the defeated Mob card to your inventory as a trophy. If there are no Mob cards on the table, you forfeit this special action.
Special Items in Minecraft Explorers
Armor
When you have a piece of armor in your inventory, you can choose to discard it instead of revealing a new Mob card. You can use the armor at the end of your turn to prevent having to reveal a Mob card, or you can use it when revealing a Mob at a Landscape. When you discard the armor card, you can ignore having to draw any Mob cards in the current situation.
Crossbow
The crossbow allows you to fight two Mobs at the same time. You don’t have to pay any Hunger to fight either of the two Mobs you choose to fight. Discard the crossbow and place the two Mobs you chose to fight in your inventory as trophies.
Explorer Map
You can use an explorer map from your inventory to search for either the Woodland Mansion or the Ocean Monument. Only one of each of these cards are in the Landscape Deck. Look through the draw pile until you find the location you have chosen. Then place the Landscape card on the table along with the other Landscape cards that are currently available. You can now explore this new card like the rest of the Landscape cards.
In the Woodland Mansion and the Ocean Monument there are unique items that you can only find there. You can only find the wet sponge in the Ocean Monument. The Totem of Undying can only be found in the Woodland Mansion. Both of these items are only used to fill the requirements for one of the Chest cards. There is no reason to acquire these item cards unless you need them for one of the Chest cards.
Food
Food cards can be used in order to gain additional Hunger for your current turn. The amount of additional Hunger you receive depends on what is printed on the card. You can use the additional Hunger you receive for one or more actions. The Hunger is lost at the end of your turn and can’t be carried over to future turns. You receive the Hunger once you discard the food card.
Should a Chest card ask for food, you can use any time of food card to fit the requirement.
Furnishings and Lighting
Chest cards and villagers are sometimes looking for furnishing or lighting. Each item card features an icon showing whether it counts as furnishing or lighting. To meet the requirements of Chest cards or villagers, you need to use the corresponding type of item.
Iron and Wood
Iron and wood are used to trade with villagers and to meet the requirements for Chest cards. You can usually find wood in forests. Iron can usually be found in caves and mines.
Spyglass
When you use a spyglass from your inventory, you can temporarily flip over all of the Landscape cards on the table. This allows you to see what items are at each location, as well as any potential Mobs. Try to remember what is on each card. After everyone has had time to look at the cards, flip all of the Landscape cards back to their original sides.
Tools (Pickaxes and Swords)
When you first place a pickaxe or sword in your inventory, place it so the arrow side is facing you.
The first time you use the tool it will be damaged. You will rotate the card 180 degrees so the trash can side is now facing you. When you use the tool again, it will break and you have to discard it.
You can use tools for any actions that have the matching symbol on them. Tools help reduce the cost to take an action. You can use a tool multiple times on the same turn, or even twice for the same action. Multiple tools can also be used for the same action. If you ever use tools and overspend to take an action, you don’t receive anything for the excess spent.
Should a Chest card ask for a tool, the material of the tool is irrelevant. You can place any quality of tool in the Chest. You can even put damaged tools into a chest.
End of Game
Minecraft Explorers can end in one of two ways.
During the game you will acquire items and place them into the Chest cards. Should the players succeed in filling all but one of the Chest cards on the table, the game immediately ends. All of the players win the game.
Otherwise the game will end when the Game Over card is revealed. When this happens the game immediately ends and all of the players lose the game.
Minecraft Explorers FAQ
If you have any questions about how to play the game, leave a comment below on this post. I will try to answer any questions asked as best and as quickly as possible.
Components
- 30 Mob Cards
- 6 Zombies
- 6 Skeletons
- 6 Spiders
- 4 Creepers
- 4 Witches
- 4 Enderman
- 60 Landscape Cards
- 12 Chest Cards
- 1 Night Card
- 6 Hunger Cards
- 1 Game Over Card
- Instructions
Year: 2024 | Publisher: Ravensburger | Designer: Matthew Dunstan | Artist: Fiore GmbH
Genres: Card, Cooperative, Family
Ages: 8+ | Number of Players: 1-4 | Length of Game: 15-60 minutes
Difficulty: Light-Moderate | Strategy: Light-Moderate | Luck: Moderate
For more board and card game rules/how to plays, check out our complete alphabetical list of card and board game rules posts.