Monkey Palace Board Game: Rules for How to Play

Setup

Sort the building bricks by their types and place them in the corresponding compartment of the Brick Tray.
Place one of the corner bricks on each corner of the base plate making sure there is one peg between the corner of the base plate and the corner brick.

Choose one of the Ground Maps and place it on the base plate. For your first games it is recommended that you use Ground Map 1 (the number is in the corner).
Find the white marked area on the Ground Map. Choose two arches and one brick of any color. Make a staircase using the three bricks inside the white marked area. Place a golden Decoration Brick at the end of the staircase.

Placing the first blocks on the base plate

You can either place the Decoration Bricks next to the base plate, or you can place them on the base plate to add decoration to the board. If you chose the second option, you will remove them from the board when you need them for gameplay.
Find all of the yellow Bonus Cards and shuffle them. Place them in a pile to the side of the base plate.
Place the Monkey Trophy Card next to the base plate and place the Monkey on it.
The game includes a Butterfly and Frog Trophy Card. These are micro expansions. The players have to decide whether you want to use them or not. The game recommends not using them for the first couple of games you play. If you choose to use one or both of them, place the corresponding Trophy Card(s) with the corresponding animal on it near the base plate.
Sort the Monkey Cards by the number in the upper left corner as well as their color. Each set of cards should be placed in their own pile on the table.

The player who last ate a banana becomes the first player. They will take Player Board 1. Look at the back of the card and take building bricks matching the icons shown on the back of the board. You can pick bricks of any color. They will then flip the board over and place it in front of them.

Receiving initial bricks — The back of the first player board shows two arches. The first player receives two arches to start the game.

The player to the left/clockwise of the first player then takes Player Board 2 and follows the same steps as the first player. This continues until each player has a Player Board.

How to Play Monkey Palace

Lego Monkey Palace is played over a number of rounds with each player taking a turn. On each player’s turn they will follow nine steps.

Build One Staircase
Decorate Your Staircase
Count Monkey Credits
Take Monkey Cards
Take One-Time Delivery
Take Recurring Delivery
Take a Bonus Card
Take Trophy Cards

Build One Staircase

The first action each player takes on their turn is to build a staircase for the Monkey Palace. A staircase is built from one or more arches along with a number of supporting bricks and columns. A staircase must follow a direct path from the Ground Map to an end point. The staircase can turn at 90 degree angles, but cannot go diverge in two different directions. The staircase can only ascend. There are a number of rules that you must follow when building your staircase.

Each staircase you build must begin from one of the knobs on the Ground Map that didn’t already have a brick on it. You can start your staircase with any type of brick. It must connect to at least one brick that was already part of the Monkey Palace. The staircase must end with an arch.

Creating the first staircase — The first player placed their two arches on the board starting with the light tan brick and then the darker brown arch.

Each arch you place has to be higher than the previous arch you placed. All of the arches need to move in a direct path. Basically you can’t place arches that diverge in different directions. Arches can only be used as steps upward. You cannot use them as bricks to support higher levels of your staircase. You cannot place an arch directly on top of another arch.

Stacking arches in Monkey Palace — This player tried to stack one arch on top of another arch. This is not allowed.

When building your staircase you will likely need to use bricks and columns. An arch needs to be supported with blocks underneath it. For example you can’t have one end of an arch hang with nothing underneath it. You can use any number of building bricks when building your staircase. The color of the bricks that you use do not matter.

Hanging arch — The arch highest in the air doesn’t have any bricks connected below it. The arch is hanging in the air. This is not allowed in Monkey Palace.

You can use any bricks already on the Monkey Palace to help support your staircase. This includes placing a brick on top of a Decoration Brick.

Place brick on Decoration Brick — The current player placed an arch on top of a light green Decoration Brick. This is allowed.

Nothing may be placed on the two middle knobs of each arch piece.

Arch brick — Each arch brick has four knobs on it. Other pieces can only attach to the knobs on each end of the brick. Nothing can ever attach to the knobs in the middle of the brick.

If you make a mistake or see a better placement for your bricks, you can remove the bricks you just placed and place them differently.

Should you not use all of your building bricks, you will keep them for your next turn.

If you cannot build a stairway that connects to a brick already in the palace, you don’t get to place any bricks this turn. You will collect your Recurring Delivery of bricks and then your turn ends.

Decorate Your Staircase

After you have finished building your staircase, you will look at the color of the space on the Ground Map that you started your staircase on. Find a Decoration Brick that matches the color of the space. You will place the Decoration Brick at the end of your staircase.

Decorating a staircase — This player placed their first brick on a light green space. Therefore they take a light green Decoration Brick and place it at the end of their staircase.

Count Monkey Credits

Next you will count up the number of arches in your staircase. For each arch in your staircase you will receive one Monkey Credit.

Counting Monkey Credits from arches — This player used two arches in their staircase. They will receive two Monkey Credits for the arches. They will receive a total of three Monkey Credits (see below).

Then look at the Decoration Brick that you placed at the end of your staircase. If it is highest of any Decoration Brick of its color, you receive one additional Monkey Credit.

Scoring Monkey Credits from Decoration Brick — This player earns two Monkey Credits for the two arches in their staircase. They then compare the position of their light green Decoration Brick versus other Decoration Bricks of the same color. Since it is higher than all other Decoration Bricks of the same color, they will receive an additional Monkey Credit for a total of three.

Take Monkey Cards

You will now decide how you want to spend the Monkey Credits that you just earned. When deciding which Monkey Cards that you want to purchase, you can only purchase cards that match the color of the Decoration Brick that you placed at the end of your staircase. You can always purchase the multi-color cards.

On your turn you can purchase one or more Monkey Cards. In the top left corner of each card is the cost in Monkey Credits. You can purchase as many cards as you want that add up to the amount of Monkey Credits you collected. When purchasing a card, you can only purchase the top card from each pile. If a pile ever runs out of cards, you can no longer purchase cards of that value.

Purchasing Monkey Cards — The current player acquired three Monkey Credits on their turn. Pictured are three different combinations of cards that the player could choose to purchase. They could choose to purchase three one point cards, a two point and one point card, or a three point card.

You can choose not to use all of your Monkey Credits. If you don’t use all of your Monkey Credits though, you lose them before your next turn.

Take One-Time Delivery

Look at the cost side of each of the Monkey Cards that you just purchased. Each card will show a number of symbols which indicate what bricks you will immediately take from the supply and add to your supply of Building Bricks.

Some symbols show a brick/arch. For these symbols you can choose to either take a brick or an arch.

Taking the One-Time Delivery — This player chose to purchase a one point and a two point card. The card on the left shows one group of symbols. They can either take a brick or arch for the card. The card on the right shows two groups of symbols. They can either take two bricks, two arches, or one of each.

Cards that show the column symbol allow you to take one column.

Take Recurring Delivery

Flip the Monkey Cards you just purchased to the Monkey Side. Then place each card on one of the empty spaces on your Player Board.

There are four spaces on your Player Board. When you have more than four Monkey Cards, whenever you collect a new card you must place it on top of one of the Monkey Cards already on your Player Board. Should you take multiple Monkey Cards in the same turn, you can choose to place one of your cards directly on top of one of the other cards you collected this turn.

Replace Monkey Card on Player Board — This player has a Monkey Card on each of their four spaces. They will have to place the Monkey Card they just purchased on one of the spaces. Since the two cards on the left don’t give any recurring bricks, they want to place the card on one of those two spots.

After you have placed each of the cards you just collected on your Player Board, you will look at all of the symbols currently visible on the cards on your Player Board. You will also look at the symbols printed on the left side of your Player Board. You will take the corresponding Building Bricks from the general supply and add them to your own personal supply.

Take recurring bricks — This player will take a number of recurring bricks on their turns. Based on their player board (left side) they will collect one arch and two bricks. For the first card on the left they won’t receive any bricks. For the second card they will take one arch. The third card gives them one brick and one arch. The final card gives them two bricks.

Take Bonus Cards

Look at the staircase that you just built. If any part of your staircase is the height of at least five bricks, you get to take a Bonus Card. Columns count as three bricks. Arches do not count towards the count.

Reach five brick bonus — The player who built the last staircase ended up placing five bricks underneath one of their arches. They used a column and two bricks. This player has earned a Bonus Card.

Take the Bonus card and set it to the side of your Player Board. You can only take one Bonus Card per turn. The Bonus Cards are worth four bonus points at the end of the game.

Take Trophy Cards

To end your turn you will see if you have earned any of the Trophy Cards. You earn Trophy Cards by accomplishing certain tasks on your turn. The Trophy Cards will move between players during the game. The player who holds them at the end of the game scores the associated bonus points.

The Butterfly and Frog Trophy Cards are optional. Players need to choose whether they are going to use them during setup.

The Monkey

On any turn that you place a golden Decoration Block, you will take the Monkey. You must place the Monkey on the end knob of any arch in any staircase. This prevents opponents from building from the space that the Monkey was placed on.

You will then take the Monkey Trophy Card from either the middle of the table or from another player if they took the card on a previous turn.

Take Monkey Trophy Card — After placing the monkey in the palace, the player takes the Monkey Trophy Card and places it in front of themselves.

Whoever holds the Monkey Trophy Card at the end of the game scores two points.

The Butterfly

This Trophy Card is optional.

After you have placed your Decoration Brick each turn, you will look to see if it is the tallest of any Decoration Brick. If it is taller (not tied for the tallest) than any other Decoration Brick, you must place the Butterfly on top of the Decoration Brick. You will then take the Butterfly Trophy Card from the middle of the table or from another player that took it on a previous turn.

Placing the butterfly — The current player placed a Decoration Brick higher than any previous Decoration Brick. The player will place the butterfly on top of the Decoration Brick they just placed.

Whoever controls the Butterfly Trophy card at the end of the game scores two points.

Take Butterfly Trophy Card — After placing the butterfly on top of the Decoration Brick, this player takes the Butterfly Trophy Card.

The Frog

On your turn you can choose to take the Frog Trophy Card from the table or a player that took it on a previous turn. When you take the card you immediately take a column from the Brick Tray. You will then place the frog on the lowest open end knob in the staircase that you are building this turn.

Whoever holds the Frog Trophy Card at the end of the game loses three points.

Winning Monkey Palace

The end game is triggered when a player tries to take a building brick, and there are none available of the type that they were trying to take. The game will still continue until all of the players have played the same number of turns.

Triggering the end of Monkey Palace — The current player took the last arch from the storage tray. The end game has been triggered. The rest of the players get one last turn so all of the players get the same number of turns.

All of the players turn over all of the Monkey Cards they collected during the game. Each player counts up all of the points from their Monkey Cards, Bonus Card, and any Trophy Cards they collected during the game.

Scoring in Monkey Palace — During the game one of the players acquired these cards. They collected three Bonus cards which are worth four points each. They also had the Monkey Trophy Card at the end of the game which is worth two points. During the game they collected fourteen Monkey Cards. The value of each Monkey Card is in the top right corner. They score a total of 43 points for the Monkey Cards. This player has scored a total of 57 points in the game.

The player that scored the most points, wins Monkey Palace.

If there is a tie, the tied player that has the Monkey Trophy Card wins the game. If none of the tied players have the Monkey Trophy Card, the tied players share the victory.

Components

80 Arches
80 Bricks
16 Columns
16 Light Green Bamboo Leaves
16 Dark Green Bamboo Leaves
16 Golden Bricks
Monkey
Butterfly
Frog
4 Corner Bricks
Base Plate
67 Monkey Cards
14 Bonus Cards
3 Trophy Cards
4 Player Boards
Brick Tray
2 Ground Maps (double-sided)
Instructions

Year: 2024 | Publisher: LEGO | Designer: David Gordon, TAM | Artist: Matthieu Martin

Genres: Family, Open Drafting, Tile Placement

Ages: 10+ | Number of Players: 2-4 | Length of Game: 45 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: 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.

Written By:

Eric Mortensen

Eric Mortensen is an owner and head writer on Geeky Hobbies since 2014. He is an avid board game player and collector with over 3,000 board and card games in his collection. Since 2014 he has written more than 1,100 board game how to play guides.