2023 · Animals
Arborea
Players act as patron spirits guiding villagers to heal and expand a shared landscape. The game is a worker-placement euro where workers go on Pilgrimage action tracks that advance together; the further a track moves, the better the rewards when workers activate. Rewards let players take from a Shared Resource Track, make offerings to Sages for future benefits, or attract animals to the land. Players use shared resources to build a personal ecosystem by overlaying terrain cards and placing animals, while seasonal changes introduce different opportunities and strategic paths toward end-game victory points.
- Players
- 1–5 best 3
- Playing time
- 90–120 min
- Age
- 14+
- Complexity
- 3.7 / 5
About the game
- Design
Expansions
See them in Ludoya
Photos from Ludoya tables
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Where to buy it
Shop prices and second-hand copies, checked every day.
On Ludoya's tables
Full stats in Ludoya- 148
- Plays logged
- 203
- Players
- 1h 53m
- Average play
- 62
- In collections
- 14
- On wishlists
- 2
- Pre-ordered
7.2/10
from 21 Ludoya reviews
Rules questions
Answered from the rulebook by Ludoya's rules assistant.
Do I have to place a Villager on a Pilgrimage track every time, or can I just advance a track instead?
You must choose either to place one Villager from your supply onto a Pilgrimage track or advance one Pilgrimage track one space; you may pay Spirit to do one of these options a second time on your turn (p6).
If a Pilgrimage track moves past trails, can I put my Villagers onto those trails and do they act right away?
When a track moves, players may take any number of their Villagers off that track and place them at the start of any trail the track has passed or is beside, but Villagers placed this way do nothing until you activate them during Step 2 of your turn (pp6–7).
Is Water truly a wild Biome that I can always use as any other Biome when completing an Ecosystem card?
Water is a wild Biome but you may only use it as another Biome type if the Biome you are replacing is at 0 on the Biome Reserve (p7).
When I invite Creatures, do I have to place them immediately into my Ecosystem, and what happens if I can't place them?
After your turn finishes (during the next player's turn) you add completed Ecosystem cards first, then place any Invited Creatures into your Ecosystem on empty intersections not orthogonally adjacent to other Creatures; any Invited Creatures you don't place must go into Captivity, and each Creature remaining in Captivity costs you 3 Spirit at game end (pp9,12).
How many Villagers can I activate on my turn and what about a third activation?
You may activate up to two Villagers for free during Step 2; activating a third Villager in the same turn costs you 2 Spirit (p7).
When the Sun Tracker reaches the last space, how many more turns are played before the game ends and how do we track them?
When the Sun Tracker reaches the final space the current player finishes their turn and takes the two stacked Sun Tokens; after that player finishes two more complete turns (discarding one Sun token after the first and the second after the next), you proceed to endgame scoring (p12).
Free, on web, Android and iOS
Play Arborea with Ludoya
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Game facts (players, playing time, age, credits) from BoardGameGeek.