How to Play

Ginkgopolis

1-5 players 45-45 min 7.5 Board Game Geek Rating

In 2212, players compete as urban planners building eco-friendly vertical cities using the Ginkgo tree symbol. Simultaneously select Construction or Urbanization cards to place colored tiles—yellow for points, red for resources, blue for more tiles. Build upward by stacking tiles to gain power cards with special abilities. Pass unused cards to neighbors. Victory goes to the best city planner through strategic tile placement and resource management.

Published 2012

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Create the starting city

Randomly place the 9 Building Tiles numbered 1-3 of the 3 colors in a 3x3 square

Position urbanization tokens

Place the 12 Urbanization tokens A-L around the outside of the square in alphabetical order

Prepare the tile supply

Shuffle the remaining Building tiles and form several face-down piles

Set out general supplies

Place the Construction Site tokens and Success Points (VPs) near the board

Build the starting deck

Shuffle the 12 Urbanization cards (A-L) with the 9 Building cards matching the starting building tiles

Organize remaining building cards

Sort by color and order each stack numerically

Distribute player components

Each player receives a screen in their chosen color and 2 New Hand tokens

Allocate starting resources

Distribute resources based on player count: 2p=25, 3p=20, 4p=18, 5p=16 each; return remaining to box

Draft character cards

Deal each player 4 Character cards, draft by choosing 1 and passing remainder left until each player has 3 cards; return unchosen cards to box

Collect character bonuses

Take the resources, tiles, and VP indicated on selected Character cards and place behind player screen; remaining resources form the general supply

Create player tableau

Place face-up Character cards grouped by action type at the bottom of each card

Determine first player

Pick a start player and award them the 1st Player card

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Receive hand of cards

Each player is dealt 4 cards at the start of each round

Select card simultaneously

All players choose 1 card from their hand (and possibly 1 tile) and place them face-down

Optional hand refresh

Before selecting, in turn order, you may discard a New Hand token to discard your hand and draw a new one

Reveal and resolve

Starting with the 1st Player and proceeding clockwise, reveal played card (and tile) and resolve the action

Play card alone

Play a card without a tile to take items based on card type

Urbanization card exploit

Take either a tile or resource from the general supply

Building card exploit

Take items based on color: Red = resources, Blue = tiles, Yellow = VP; quantity equals the building's level

Trigger tableau bonuses

Gain any Exploiting bonuses from cards in your tableau

Discard the card

Place the played card in the discard pile face-up

Play urbanization card with tile

Place the tile plus 1 resource from behind your screen in the space matching the Urbanization letter

Add construction marker

Place a Construction site token on the tile

Relocate the token

Move the Urbanization token to an available space adjacent to the placed tile, maintaining alphabetical order

Gain adjacency rewards

Take items based on buildings orthogonally adjacent to the placed tile; quantity equals the level of each adjacent building

Trigger tableau bonuses

Gain any Urbanizing bonuses from cards in your tableau

Discard the card

Place the played card in the discard pile face-up

Play building card with tile

Stack the tile on the Building tile matching the card played

Compensate displaced player

If the building has resources on it, return them to that player along with 1 VP per resource (you don't get VP for building on your own tiles)

Pay resource cost

Place resources equal to the new building level from behind your screen onto the tile

Handle insufficient resources

If you cannot afford the placement, take the tile back and perform an Exploit action instead

Add construction marker

Place a Construction site token on the tile

Trigger tableau bonuses

Gain any Construction bonuses from cards in your tableau (not including the played card)

Add card to tableau

Place the played card into your tableau, grouped by action type

Pass remaining cards

Pass your remaining 3 cards and 1st player card to the left

Draw new card

Starting with the 1st player, deal 1 card to each player to make a hand of 4

Rebuild empty deck

If deck is empty, retrieve Building cards for each Construction token in play, return tokens to supply, combine with discard pile and shuffle; for 2-3 players, discard first 7 cards face-up

Winning

How to claim victory.

First tile exhaustion

When tile supply is exhausted the first time, players simultaneously return any number of tiles to supply face-down for 1 VP each; shuffle returned tiles to form new supply

Game end triggers

The game ends when tile supply is exhausted a second time OR a player places all their resources in the city; finish the current round

Score gameplay points

Count VP earned during game play

Score endgame bonus cards

Add VP from cards in your tableau with the "=" icon

Score unused tokens

Gain +2 VP for each unused New Hand token (leftover resources and tiles have no value)

Score city districts

A district must have at least 2 tiles of the same color to score

Determine winner

Most VP wins; ties are not broken