Pixies Card Game: Rules for How to Play

Setup

Choose a player to be the dealer. They will shuffle all of the cards. They will then place the deck facedown on the table.
Randomly choose who will be the first player.

How to Play Pixies

You will play Pixies over three rounds. Each round consists of a number of turns until one player completely fills in their nine card grid. The objective of the game is to try and score as many points as possible each round by placing cards in your 3 x 3 grid.

The first player for the current turn takes a number of cards equal to the number of players. If there are only two players, they will take four cards. The first player places the cards face up on the table so all of the players can see them.

Setting up the cards for the next turn — There are four players in the game, so the first player places four cards faceup on the table. Starting with the first player, each player takes one of these four cards.

Starting with the first player for the current turn and moving clockwise, each player chooses one of the faceup cards that they want to place in their grid. After they choose their card, they will place it in their grid following the card placement rules (see below). Each player has to take a card even if they don’t want it.

If there are two players, the players take turns taking cards starting with the first player. Both players will end up taking two cards.

After everyone has taken a card and placed it in their grid, the current turn ends. The player who chose the last card in the current turn, becomes the first player for the next turn.

Card Placement Rules

When you take a card from the table, you must place it in your 3 x 3 grid. There is a process to determine where you place each card in your grid.

First look at the number printed on the card. Your 3 x 3 grid has a designated space for each number (see below). If there is no card(s) currently on the corresponding space, you will place the card faceup on the corresponding space. If the space currently only has a facedown card on it, you will place the new card on top of it.

1 2 3

4 5 6

7 8 9

Example of layout in Pixies — Here is an example of how you will place the number cards in your grid. Numbers 1-3 go in the top row, followed by 4-5, and finally 7-9.

Placing a card in its corresponding number spot — This player took the seven card this round. As they don’t have any cards on the seven space, they place the card faceup in the seven spot of their grid.

If there is already a faceup card on the corresponding space and there isn’t a card underneath it, you will choose one of the cards to keep faceup.

Choosing which card to keep faceup — This player took a seven card after they already had a seven card in their grid. They will choose one of the seven cards to keep faceup, and will turn the other card facedown. Most likely they will want to keep the green seven faceup, as the yellow card has five negative x marks on it.

Turn the other card facedown, and place it underneath the chosen card. You should place the facedown card so you can see it underneath the faceup card. When you have a faceup card on top of a facedown card, you have “validated” the faceup card. This is important for scoring at the end of the round.

Validating a card — This player decided to keep the green seven faceup. They place the yellow seven facedown underneath it. The green seven has now been validated.

Finally if the corresponding space is already filled with a faceup and facedown card (it’s validated), you can choose where you want to place the card. You will place the card facedown on any empty space (no cards) of your choice. You cannot use this action to place a card underneath a faceup card.

Placing a card facedown — This player ended up taking another five card. Since five has already been validated, they can place their newest card facedown on any empty space. They decide to place it on the nine space in their grid.

End of Round

The round ends at the end of a turn where a player has filled in all nine spaces of their grid. The cards can either be faceup or facedown. All of the players get to draw and place the same number of cards in their grid.

Triggering the end of the round — This player has filled in all of the spaces in their grid. The current round ends as soon as all of the players take and place their card this turn.

In two player games the round can end in the middle of a turn. If one of the players fills in their grid with the first card they take, the round ends without the last two cards being taken. If the first player fills in their grid, the second player is able to take a card though so both players get the same number of cards in the round.

At the end of the round all of the players will determine their score (see below).

To start the next round, shuffle all of the cards together to create a new deck. The last player to add a card to their grid in the last round, starts the next round.

Scoring

Each player can score points from their cards in three different ways.

Validated Cards

First look for your validated cards (faceup card with a facedown card below it). Each validated card is worth the value printed on it.

Symbols

Next you will look at the symbols printed on your faceup cards. You will score points from symbols even if the card isn’t validated. Each spiral symbol is worth one point. Each cross/x loses you one point.

Some cards have a spiral symbol and then a color. Count up the number of cards in your grid that match the color. You will score one point for each card whose color matches the color next to the spiral symbol.

Scoring the color symbols — The five card in this grid has the spiral and a red color symbol on it. The five card is worth one point for each red card in the grid. Pictured are three red cards (3, 4, 5) and a multi-color card (2). This five card scores four points for its spiral color symbol.

Color Zones

Finally you will determine your largest color zone. Each card has its own color. You are looking for the largest group of cards of the same color that touch along one side. The cards can be connected vertically and/or horizontally. Cards are not connected if they only touch diagonally. Cards do not have to be validated to count towards the largest color zone. Once you have determined the largest color zone, you will score points for each card in the zone depending on the current round:

Round 1: 2 points per card
Round 2: 3 points per card
Round 3: 4 points per card

Scoring a Color Zone — This player’s largest color zone is the yellow 3, 5, 6, 7 (multi-color), and 8. Their color zone has five cards in it. In the first round it would score 10 points, in the second round 15 points, and the third round 20 points.

Multi-Color Cards

Some cards in the deck are multi-colored. These cards count as every color when scoring the symbols with a color next to them, as well as determining your largest color zone.

Total your score from each of the three scoring methods. Write down your score on a piece of paper.

Winning the Game

The game ends after the third round is completed, and each player has finished scoring their grid. Each player totals the points they scored in the three rounds. Whichever player scored the most points wins Pixies. If there is a tie, the tied players share the victory.

Components

70 Cards
Instructions

Year: 2024 | Publisher: Pandasaurus | Designer: Johannes Goupy | Artist: Sylvain Trabut

Genres: Card, Card Placement, Family, Open Drafting, Set Collection

Ages: 8+ | Number of Players: 2-4 | Length of Game: 30 minutes

Difficulty: Light | 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.

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.