Board Game Kelp - Shark vs Octopus

This is an asymmetric dueling game where participants will face off in an epic duel between two sea predators in a forest of algae and coral! The game is a crazy mix of deck building and dice bags, as well as hiding, bluffing and manipulation, thus offering an original and exciting gameplay where players will use various tricks and abilities of their hero to achieve victory.

The mechanics of the behavior of sea creatures presented in the game are as close as possible to their real prototypes, for example: a shark must track down and hunt an octopus, using its advantages in physical strength, pressure and aggression. Octopus on the contrary — it is better to avoid open combat and use your wits, maneuvers and ability to disguise yourself to eventually cause trouble for your formidable but more primitive opponent.

Goal of the game

Players take on the role of either a shark hunting an octopus or an octopus trying to survive. Both players have different goals and ways to win: the octopus must survive until the end of the game or eat all the food blocks. A shark has only one way to win — successfully attack the octopus and defeat it in the final confrontation.

After completing all the necessary preparations, the players take turns making moves, starting with the octopus. Each turn consists of two actions, which must be chosen from three possible:

1. Play card — pay the cost of the card by revealing the corresponding number of blocks hidden on it and perform its effect.
2. Selection of cards to hand — if you are short of cards, get them to the required number.
3. Reset the card and hide the block — discard the card and hide one of the open blocks.

After these actions are performed by the first player, the turn goes to the second. The game continues until one of the participants meets all the conditions for victory.

Octopus. You play cards that allow you to move around stealthily and manipulate the position of blocks on the board. Most of the cards you can play cost the blocks to open, but other cards allow you to hide them again. For an octopus, the main thing — it`s survival, that is, you win if you exhaust the shark by hunting, or if you eat all 4 food blocks.

Octopus card types:

• Moving — allow you to move blocks around the board by swapping or shuffling them.
• Hiding — allow you to move blocks back to hide them again.
• Education — allow you to improve your skills and improve your own deck by getting better cards and new blocks from other parts of the playing field.
• Food — if the octopus manages to play 4 such cards, he immediately wins the game.

Shark. You swim around a kelp forest from one point to another. In order to move, hunt or attack — roll your own dice. You`ll get stronger with each turn, improving your dice bag and learning new skills to hunt the octopus. However, as your skill level increases, so does your hunger — overexertion can wear you out prematurely. Therefore, the only way to win — manage to eat the octopus in time.

The mechanics of shark cards are different from octopus cards, giving only one-time effects:

• Aggressiveness — adds red dice.
• Agility — unfolds the shark.
• Courage — allows you to change the dice.
• Hostility — possibility to drop a random card.
• Hunger — possibility to roll an additional die.
• Observation — ability to ignore traps.
• Reactivity — allows you to return the dice back to the bag.
• Relentlessness — allows you to roll the dice.
• Ruthlessness — increases the value of the dice.
• Speed ​​— allows you to move over a greater distance.
• Vigilance — allows you to save the used die for the next turn.

This is a first-class duel game with many cool and original mechanics. And thanks to stunning illustrations and high-quality components, your fight will become as atmospheric as possible, even if you put on a diving suit before the game!

Publisher: Igromag

Language: Ukrainian

Players: 2

Play time: 40-60 m

Age: 10+

• Two-sided playing field
• For Shark:
  - 1 Shark figure
  - 2 player landmarks
  - 15 blue dice
  - 10 yellow dice
  - 10 red dice
  - 20 Shark cards
  - 4 growth tiles
  - 3 Shark confrontation cards
  - 1 dice pouch
• For Octopus:
  - 18 Blocks (1 Octopus, 4 Foods, 4 Traps, 1 Double Shell, 8 Mussel)
  - 1 Palm Size Token
  - 21 Octopus cards
  - 2 player landmarks
  - 3 Octopus confrontation cards
  - 1 pouch
• Rules of the game