Gameplay

The game is played with a deck and two discard piles. Each player has a hand of cards and an area of played cards in front of them: you score for your cards irrespective of whether they are in your hand or in front of you.

Turn Structure

1. Draw

Either:

• Draw two cards from the deck, keeping one and discarding the other to either discard pile (if either discard pile is empty, you must discard to that one)
• Draw the top card from either discard pile

2. Duo

If you have a "duo" of cards in your hand that can be played in a pair, you may play them to the table to trigger their effect:

• Pair of Crabs: Take a card of your choice from either discard pile (opponents do not see what you took)
• Pair of Boats: Take another turn
• Pair of Fish: Draw a card from the deck
• Shark + Swimmer: Steal a random card from another player's hand

Each duo is also worth 1 point, regardless of whether they are played.

3. Call

If you now have seven or more points' worth of cards (both in your hand and in front of you), you may choose to call either:

• "Stop": Round ends immediately and each player scores their points. No one scores a color bonus.
• "Last Chance": Every other player gets one more turn. This is a bet that you have the most points. The bet is scored as follows.
  • If the caller has the highest (or equal highest) card score they score those points plus their color bonus. Other players score only their own color bonus.
  • If another player beat their card score, the caller scores only their color bonus and all other players score their own card score.

(A player's color bonus is the number of cards they have in their most plentiful color.)

Special case: If the deck is empty at the end of a player's turn, the round ends immediately with no scoring.

End of Game

A game for 2/3/4 players ends when somebody passes 40/35/30 points. Highest score wins. In the case of a tie, the tied player with the highest score in the last round wins. Getting 4 Mermaids instantly wins the game.

List of Cards

Type (written in small writing on the bottom left of the card in the help panel)

• 9 x Crab
• 8 x Boat
• 7 x Fish
• 5 x Shark + 5 x Swimmer
• 4 x Mermaid - 1 point per card of the most plentiful color. The same colour can only be counted once.
• 6 x Shell - Score 0/2/4/6/8/10 points if you have 1/2/3/4/5/6 Shells.
• 5 x Octopus - Score 0/3/6/9/12 points if you have 1/2/3/4/5 Octopuses.
• 3 x Penguin - Score 1/3/5 points if you have 1/2/3 Penguins.
• 2 x Sailor - Score 0/5 points if you have 1/2 Sailors.
• 1 x Lighthouse - 1 point per Boat.
• 1 x Shoal of Fish - 1 point per Fish.
• 1 x Penguin Colony - 2 points per Penguin.
• 1 x Captain - 3 points per Sailor.

Colours (displayed in the colour helper)

• 9 x Dark Blue
• 9 x Light Blue
• 8 x Black
• 8 x Yellow
• 6 x Green
• 4 x White
• 4 x Purple
• 4 x Gray
• 3 x Light Orange
• 3 x Pink
• 1 x Orange

Variants

Extra Salt Expansion

5 new card types:

• 2 x Jellyfish - Can form a duo with Swimmer: Other players can only draw one card from the deck on their next turn, without playing duos or calling.
• 1 x Lobster - Can form a duo with Crab: Take a card of your choice from the first 5 cards of the deck and return the rest back.
• 1 x Cast of Crabs - 1 point per Crab.
• 3 x Starfish - Can form a trio with any duo: +2 points but cancel the duo's effect.
• 1 x Seahorse - Count as 1 collector card (Octopus, Shell, Penguin or Sailor). At least 1 of the collection is needed to trigger this effect.

Double Points

Double the points needed for ending the game.

Extra Pepper Expansion

Adds 12 event cards. These change the rules of the game from round to round. The event card revealed at the start of a round, applies to all players during that round.

At the end of a round, after scoring, the event card is awarded to the player with the highest (trophy with '+') or lowest (trophy with '-') total score, and the player places the card in front of them. The effect then applies only to them. In case of a tie, the card is discarded. The player keeps the events card as long as they have the highest/lowest total score at the end of a round. A player cannot keep more than one event card, they choose which one to keep.

Changes to Duo Effects

• Hermit Crab (-): Pair of crabs lets you take one card from each discard pile.
• Sunfish (-): Pair of fish lets you add the first two cards from the deck to your hand.
• Water Rodeo (-): Pair of swimmers lets you look at an opponent’s hand, then swap one card with them. Pair of sharks lets you steal a played pair from an opponent and place it in front of you (without triggering its effect). Note: Shark + Swimmer and Swimmer + Jellyfish duos remain valid.

Changes to Point Values

• Dance of the Shells (-): Each shell scores 2 points (instead of the usual scoring).
• Kraken (+): Each octopus scores 1 point (instead of the usual scoring).
• Tornado (+): Mermaids do not score points, but collecting all 4 still wins instantly.
• Dance of the Mermaids (-): Having 3 mermaids (instead of 4) wins instantly.

Changes to Rules

• Treasure Chest (+): You must reach 10 points (instead of 7) to end the round.
• Diodon Fish (+): You cannot end the round with 'Stop', only 'Last Chance' is allowed.
• Angelfish (-): At the end of your turn, if both discard piles show a card of the same color, take one of them into your hand.
• Dolphins (-): If you discard a collection card (Shell, Octopus, Penguin, Sailor, or Seahorse), draw the top card of the deck into your hand.
• Coral Reef (-): You may place a shell face down in front of you to become immune to attacks (Shark/Jellyfish + Swimmer, Water Rodeo). That shell scores no points.