Hexfolk rules

Aim of the game

Everyone settles the same island and competes for building spots, resources and trading partners. Whoever reaches 10 victory points on their own turn wins immediately. The target can be changed in the lobby: 8 to 15 points in the classic game, up to 20 with expansions.

• Settlement: 1 victory point
• City: 2 victory points
• Victory Point card: 1 victory point, hidden until you win
• Longest Road: 2 victory points
• Largest Army: 2 victory points

This page describes the classic game as Hexfolk implements it. The expansions change individual rules and are covered on the expansions pages.

The board

The standard board has 19 hexes: 4 forest, 3 hills, 4 pasture, 4 fields, 3 mountains and 1 desert. Each landscape hex produces exactly one resource: forest gives lumber, hills brick, pasture wool, fields grain and mountains ore. The desert produces nothing, and that's where the robber starts.

Every hex except the desert carries a number token from 2 to 12, with no 7. The dots under the number show how often it comes up: 6 and 8 are printed in red and are the most frequent, 2 and 12 the rarest. Hexfolk shuffles the numbers, but never places a 6 and an 8 directly next to each other.

Around the island are 9 harbours: 4 generic harbours trade 3 matching resources for 1 of your choice, and 5 resource harbours trade 2 cards of their type for 1 of your choice. From 5 players the board grows to 30 hexes, from 7 players to 44, with extra harbours. Besides the standard board Hexfolk offers 22 more island maps, from the small Lagoon to the Giant Land with 61 hexes.

Setup

Before the first roll each player places two settlements, each with one road. Settlements go on intersections, the corners where up to three hexes meet. Roads go on the edges between two hexes.

1. In turn order, each player places one settlement and an adjoining road.
2. The second round runs in reverse order: the last player places again straight away, and the starting player places last.
3. For the second settlement everyone immediately receives one resource from each adjacent hex.
4. Then the starting player rolls and the game proper begins.

The distance rule always applies, during setup too: there must be at least one empty intersection between any two settlements. Directly neighbouring intersections are off limits, no matter who owns the neighbouring settlement.

How a turn works

A turn has three parts, played in this order. Hexfolk always shows you what is possible right now.

1. Roll: the roll decides which hexes produce. On a 7 the robber comes into play.
2. Trade: with other players, through harbours or with the bank.
3. Build and buy: roads, settlements, cities and development cards, as far as your cards allow.

You can mix trading and building freely within your turn, for example build, then trade, then build again. With a turn timer a clock runs alongside, adjustable in the lobby from 30 seconds to unlimited. You end your turn yourself, at the latest when the clock runs out.

From 5 players there is also a special building phase: after each turn the other players can sign up and, one after another, build or buy development cards, but not trade. That way nobody waits too long at a big table.

Rolling and production

You roll two dice. Every hex showing the number rolled pays out to all adjacent buildings: a settlement receives 1 resource, a city 2. This applies to every player, not just the one who rolled. That's why it pays to build on different numbers, so that as many rolls as possible bring you something.

The bank holds 19 cards of each resource, 24 from 5 players and 29 from 7 players. If its stock isn't enough for everyone entitled to a resource on a given roll, nobody receives that resource on that roll. If the shortage only affects one player, that player gets what's left. How likely each number is can be found in the table on the strategy page.

The 7 and the robber

7 is the most common total with two dice, but it produces nothing. Instead, the following happens:

1. Anyone holding more than 7 resource cards discards half of them, rounded down. With 9 cards that's 4.
2. The player who rolled moves the robber to another land hex.
3. They draw a random card from one player with a building on that hex.

While the robber sits on a hex, that hex produces nothing, even when its number is rolled. It stays there until someone rolls the next 7 or plays a knight. With the Friendly Robber variant it may not be placed next to buildings of players with 2 or fewer visible victory points, which protects newcomers. The robber can also be switched off entirely in the lobby.

Trading

Trading drives the game, because hardly anyone has access to all five resources. On your turn you have three options:

• With other players: you put together an offer, say 2 lumber for 1 ore. The others accept, decline or make a counter-offer. Any ratio is allowed, and so are gifts.
• With the bank: 4 matching resources for 1 of your choice, at any time on your turn.
• Through harbours: with a settlement or city on a generic harbour you trade 3:1, on a resource harbour 2 cards of that type for 1 of your choice.

Bots take part in trading too and judge every offer by what they need themselves. A swap that helps both sides is almost always better than a trade with the bank.

Building and costs

Roads must connect to one of your own roads, settlements or cities. New settlements need one of your roads leading to their intersection and must respect the distance rule. Cities can only be built from your own settlements, and the settlement goes back into your supply.

Everyone has a limited supply: 15 roads, 5 settlements and 4 cities. Once all your settlements are on the board, you have to upgrade one to a city before you can build another settlement.

Development cards

With up to 4 players the deck holds 25 cards, from 5 players 34 and from 7 players 43. You draw the top card face down. You may play at most one card per turn, and never one you bought on the same turn.

Victory Point cards stay hidden in your hand and count straight away. Other players only see how many development cards you hold, not which ones.

Longest Road and Largest Army

Two special awards are worth 2 victory points each and can change hands.

• Longest Road: the first player with a continuous road of at least 5 segments takes it. Branches don't count twice, only the longest path without doubling back counts. An opponent's settlement on the route breaks the road. Whoever builds a longer road takes the award over.
• Largest Army: the first player to have played 3 knight cards takes it. Whoever later has played more knights takes it over.

Both awards can be switched off in the lobby if you prefer a calmer game.

End of the game

The game ends the moment the player whose turn it is has 10 victory points, hidden Victory Point cards included. If you reach the points during someone else's turn, for example because you regain the Longest Road, you only win once it's your turn again. After the game Hexfolk shows a summary with the dice distribution and statistics.