How to play Night at the Zoo

01 / Goal

Goal and board

Each player has their own board. In the center are the zoo gates, around them a neighborhood of 5×5 spaces, and along the edges 9 entrances. At the start, three animal species are chosen (their cards lie above the shared board); each player has 3 figures of each species. One figure of each species starts on an entrance, the rest wait on white rocks.

1. Entrance. From here an animal takes its first step into the neighborhood. Each entrance has its own terrain.
2. White rock. An undiscovered animal waits here. The binoculars action brings it to its entrance.
3. 5×5 neighborhood. You place tiles here. Animals walk only on spaces with tiles.
4. Zoo. The goal of every animal. An animal that arrives leaves the board and scores at the end.
5. Condition symbol. A small symbol at the top of a space: binoculars or a terrain color. If the tile matches it, the space's action triggers.
6. Dark pair of spaces. Cover both with one terrain to get the pair bonus.
7. Food here. How many different kinds of food are on your tiles.
8. Player's zoo. Animals that came home go here.
9. Tile and bonus. The tile taken in the draft and a received bonus tile that must be played.
10. Storage. Up to two spare tiles.

02 / Turn

Draft and placement

1. Draft

The market gets one tile more than there are players. Starting with the first player (who holds the moon token), everyone takes one tile. The last tile goes to the leftover zone — it decides who moves at the end of the round. After the draft, the first player token passes to the next player.

Tiles

Each tile has one of three terrains: rocks, grass or sand. An action tile shows an action symbol or food. If a tile shows two actions separated by a slash, you do one of them of your choice. Bonus tiles have no symbols.

2. Placement

The tile you took must be played in one of three ways:

• Place it in your neighborhood on any empty space. The tile's action triggers, and if the tile matches the condition symbol of the space, so does the space's action. Do the actions in any order, each one fully.
• Store it. Storage holds up to two tiles. You can place or discard a stored tile on any of your turns.
• Discard it for a special move. Every animal of yours standing on the terrain of the discarded tile (entrances included) takes a move.

Actions

Arrow

One animal takes a step. A double arrow gives two steps to one animal or one step to each of two.

Binoculars

Put any undiscovered animal on its entrance.

Plus

Take a bonus tile of the terrain you need and immediately place, store or discard it.

Star

Gain the shown points right away.

03 / Movement

How animals move

A step goes to an orthogonally adjacent space with a tile, or into the zoo. Diagonal steps and steps onto empty spaces are not allowed. You cannot return to an entrance. Several animals may share a space. An animal that reaches the zoo leaves the board, and its remaining steps are lost.

End of round

After the 5th draft, look at the leftover zone. The most common terrain (on a tie — the one lying further left) makes every animal on it take a move. Then the leftover zone is cleared.

04 / Animals

Special animal rules

Each species has its own way of moving and its own points. Moons on the card show difficulty: the three species in a game add up to at least 6 moons. Species marked Latecomers appear if you turn on the expansion when creating a game.

05 / Scoring

Scoring

After the third round, add to the points earned during the game:

• points of the animals in the zoo — according to their cards;
• 1 VP for every discovered animal that did not reach the zoo;
• points for different kinds of food on your neighborhood tiles (food in storage does not count).

The player with the most points wins. On a tie — the one with more animals in the zoo.

Solo against Leo the zookeeper

The market has 3 tiles. At the start of each draft, one of Leo's cards is revealed. He takes the tile from spot 1, or from spot 2 if spot 1 is empty, and removes it from the game. Leo goes first in the first draft, then the first player token alternates between you. At the end, Leo rates your result:

06 / Online

Playing on the site

• Sign in. Sign in with Google — this saves your games, rating and achievements.
• Against bots. Choose 1–3 opponents and their strength. The game starts right away.
• With friends. Create a room and send the link. Free seats can be taken by bots. Open rooms are listed on the home page: you can join them or watch the game. Each decision has 2 minutes, then a bot moves for the player.
• Hints. Turn on “I'm playing for the first time” — an explanation of every step and a tip appear under your board, and the best option glows gold.
• Fair play. The server checks every move, so an illegal move cannot be made from the browser.
• Progress. Games give you experience and levels. The first game of the day gives a bonus that grows with your day streak. Every day brings 3 quests and a chest for completing them. Your rating changes after games with people and bots.