These are translated by Claude. I have no idea if they are accurate or complete.
Pyramis — How to Play
What is Pyramis?
Pyramis is a light-weight drafting & placement game where players compete to score points by stacking 10 cards into a 4-tier pyramid.
Game info
- Players: 2–4
- Play time: 15 min
- Designer: Joan Dufour
- Complexity: 1 / Strategy: 2 / Luck: 3 / Interaction: 2
Theme: Aliens have used up all the resources on their home planet and destroyed it. To save their species, they must build pyramid-shaped escape ships and pull off a great exodus.
On your turn, you simply pick one card from the three displayed in the middle and add it to your pyramid. The twist: when two pyramids of the same color line up on top of the decks,
everyone's cards rotate 180° — the points you carefully built up can suddenly flip on you.
Goal
Build a 4-tier pyramid of 10 cards and score points from pyramids and aliens. Each turn, you take a card from the display and place it while maintaining the pyramid shape. At game end, only the
icons on the upper half of each card count toward your score. Bonuses come from shooting star cards and from your largest single-color zone.
Components
- 48 cards: Blue/Sea (16), Green/Forest (14), Pink/Mountain (12), Grey/City (6)
- 5 Shooting Star cards
- 2 Base cards
Setup
- Build the decks — Shuffle all 48 cards, split into two face-down piles in the middle of the table.
- Place base cards — Slide one base card under each deck. The base acts as the deck's "back" and is used for rotation checks.
- Create the display — Draw 3 cards from either deck, face up, in the middle of the table.
- Shooting Star deck — Shuffle the 5 shooting star cards into a face-down pile.
- First player — Chosen randomly.
Turn Sequence
On your turn, do the following in order:
1. Place a card
Pick one of the 3 face-up cards from the display and add it to your play area following these rules:
- Pyramid shape: Your area forms a 4-tier pyramid — 4 cards on the bottom, 3 in the next row, then 2, then 1 at the top (10 cards total).
- First card goes anywhere in the bottom row.
- Subsequent cards must be placed adjacent to at least one already-placed card.
- Upper rows straddle two cards below. A card on an upper row must sit on top of two cards in the row beneath it (those two must already be placed).
- You don't have to fill rows in order — as long as the pyramid shape can still be maintained, you can start placing on the second tier before the bottom row is complete.
- Cards are placed upright (long edge at the bottom).
2. Gain a Shooting Star (if applicable)
If the card you placed has a shooting star symbol:
- Draw 1 card from the Shooting Star deck. If the deck is empty, instead choose another player and steal one of their shooting star cards at random.
- Keep it secret in your hand.
If the card has no shooting star symbol, skip this step. Shooting star cards depict either a pyramid or an alien and add to your final score.
3. Refill the display
Choose one of the two decks and draw a card to refill the display back to 3 cards.
Card Rotation (everyone)
After refilling, check the tops of both decks.
If two pyramids of the same color are showing on top of the two decks, every player must rotate one of their cards of that color 180°:
- Mandatory for all players — each player picks one of their cards in the matching color and rotates it 180°.
- Multiple matching pairs: if more than one color matches at the same time, do them one color at a time, one card per color.
- Cards with another card on top of them cannot be rotated (only "exposed" lower-tier cards are eligible).
- If you have no eligible card to rotate in that color, skip that color for you.
- Only the upper half of a card scores, so rotating swaps which icons count.
- All players rotate simultaneously — no need to take turns.
Game End
The game ends when
all players have placed all 10 of their cards. Calculate scores; highest total wins. Ties are shared.
Scoring
- Pyramid points: 1 point per pyramid icon visible on the upper half of your placed cards.
- Largest zone bonus: +1 additional point per pyramid icon contained in your single largest zone (the largest group of orthogonally-adjacent same-color cards). If tied for largest, pick only one zone to apply the bonus to.
- Alien majority: The player with the most aliens in total scores points equal to their alien count. If tied, all tied players score their own alien count.
Shooting star cards held in hand also contribute their pyramid/alien icons to the relevant totals at game end.
Translated from the Japanese rules summary at kuribodo.com
