How to Play

Skyrise

2-4 players 30-90 min 7.7 Board Game Geek Rating

Compete as visionary architects constructing a floating metropolis through strategic spatial auctions. Bid cleverly to secure prime building locations, gain influence with various factions across different islands, and construct your personal Wonder. Victory comes from maximizing points through completed objectives, patron relationships, and territorial control in this resource-scarce city-building challenge.

Published 2024

Get Ready

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

Place the game board

Put the board in the center of the table with the Prestige track running around the outside

Add outer islands

Take a number of outer islands equal to the player count and place them randomly over the game board landscape

Position central island

Place the central island in the middle so its bridges slot into the spaces on the outer islands

Remove discs by player count

For 4 players remove nothing; for 3 players remove a wild disc, a commissions disc, and 3 of each neighborhood disc; for 2 players remove 2 of each patron disc and 5 of each neighborhood disc

Prepare the draw bag

Mix up the remaining Neighborhood, Patron, Commissions, and Wild Discs and place them in the Draw Bag

Populate neighborhoods

Randomly draw and place 1 disc on each colored neighborhood area of each island

Distribute Wonder cards

Shuffle the 20 Wonder cards and deal 3 face-down to each player (5 cards each in a 2-player game), returning remaining cards to the box

Deal secret objectives

Shuffle the 4 Secret Objective cards and deal 1 face-down to each player, returning remaining cards to the box

Display Island Control card

Place the Island Control card face-up near the game board

Select Panorama cards

Shuffle the 5 Panorama cards, draw 2, and place them face-up next to the Island Control card

Set patron values

Shuffle the Patron Value Tiles and randomly place one face-down on each patron space (A, B, C, and D) on the game board

Place Large Key to the City

Set the Large Key near the game board

Place Small Key to the City

For 3 or 4 players, place the Small Key near the game board

Choose player board

Each player chooses a player board and places it with their chosen visionary face-up

Position scoring disc

Take the Scoring Disc matching your color and place it on the "0" space of the Prestige track

Collect buildings and Wonder

Take the 12 buildings and Wonder matching your player color (2 Wonders in a 2-player game)

Separate Era 1 and Era 2 buildings

Buildings with a dot below their number and your Wonder are placed to the left of your player board (not yet available); buildings without a dot go to the right

Arrange available buildings

Place buildings without a dot to the right of your player board in ascending order, number-side up

Review secret cards

Discreetly view your secret objective and Wonder cards (new players may wait to view Wonder cards)

Determine start player

Randomly determine which player will start the first auction

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Determine start bidder

The player who won the most recent auction starts the next auction

Place starting bid

The starting player places any available bid number-side up in an unoccupied neighborhood that is either located on the central island or adjacent to any already-constructed structure belonging to any player

Continue bidding clockwise

Each subsequent player must do one of the following:

Auction ends when

All players except the most recent bidder have passed, or there are no unoccupied neighborhoods adjacent to the most recent bid, or a player places their Wonder

Flip winning bid

The winning bid gets flipped over to become a constructed building with number face-down (Wonders are not flipped)

Return unsuccessful bids

All unsuccessful bids return to their owners' pool of available bids

Collect disc

If there is a disc in the neighborhood with the newly constructed structure, the winning player collects it

Resolve Wonder effect

If a Wonder was constructed, enact its effect immediately

Collect neighborhood discs

Place collected neighborhood discs in the leftmost empty space of their matching color row on your player board

Shoot the moon

If you collect a neighborhood disc when you already have 4 of that color, place it on your visionary illustration for 10 Prestige at game end

Collect patron discs

Place collected patron discs on the visionary illustration of your player board

Peek at patron values

At any time, secretly peek at the value on the bottom of patron tiles matching your collected disc letters

Assign wild discs

When collected, assign wild discs a color immediately and place on your player board in the appropriate spot

Collect commissions discs

Place commissions discs on the visionary illustration of your player board

Trigger Era 1 end

Era 1 ends when one player has constructed all their Era 1 buildings

Score island control

For each island, the player(s) with the greatest quantity of tall buildings scores 5 Prestige; ties broken by medium buildings, then short buildings; if still tied, all tied players score 5 Prestige

Score panorama cards

Gain the Prestige value for each instance you fulfill each panorama card's objective

Choose Wonder cards

All players choose one of their face-down Wonder cards and reveal them simultaneously (2 cards each in 2-player games)

Unlock Era 2 structures

Each player adds their Wonder figure and five Era 2 buildings to their pool of available bids

Receive large key

The first player to construct all structures in Era 2 receives the Large Key to the City worth 10 Prestige

Receive small key

In 3 or 4 player games, the second player to finish receives the Small Key to the City worth 4 Prestige

Start after player finishes

When any player constructs their final structure during Era 2, the next auction is started by the remaining player with the lowest Wonder initiative value

Winning

How to claim victory.

Trigger game end

Era 2 ends when all players have constructed all their buildings and Wonders

Score island control

Score 5 Prestige for each island where you have control (Wonders do not contribute to island control)

Score panorama cards

Gain Prestige for each instance you fulfill each panorama card's objective (Wonders do contribute to panorama objectives)

Score secret objectives

Reveal secret objective cards; if you fulfilled your objective, score the Prestige shown on the card

Score patron discs

Flip patron value tiles face-up and score Prestige for each collected patron disc based on the revealed values

Score excess neighborhood discs

Score 10 Prestige for each neighborhood disc or wild disc on your visionary illustration

Score keys to the city

Score 10 Prestige for the Large Key; score 4 Prestige for the Small Key

Score commissions discs

Score 1 Prestige for every patron disc, excess neighborhood disc, key to the city, and commissions disc on your visionary illustration for each commissions disc you have

Score structures

Remove all structures from philosopher neighborhoods (yellow), then naturalists (green), then artists (white), then inventors (brown); for each removed, score Prestige equal to the value shown at the top of the column of your right-most collected disc of that color (minimum 2 Prestige per structure)

Highest Prestige wins

The player with the most Prestige is declared the winner

Tiebreaker

In case of a tie, the tied player who constructed their final structure first is the winner