Board Game Arena

My understanding is each set of butterfly gives 20 points and if you have 5 different butterflies, that should give you 20*5=100 points?

No, a set of 5 butterflies is 20 points... so you would need 5 sets (25 butterflies total) to get 100 points.

How do butterflies score?

Not very well.

Hi, I know this is a very old post, but I don't understand yet how do butterflies score.

On this game: https://boardgamearena.com/12/forestshu ... =723212437

Player jatubio (me), have 7 different sets. And if I over Map Buttefly, it say: "This card give you 58 points". So, I suppose that is the set with more occurencies/points wich is selected for points? But on the card I can see "7 sets=55 points", so why 58 and not 55? Why this card says 'This card give you 58 points' and the rest of butterflies says "Your butterflies card's give you 58 points" (again 58 instead of 55)

I hope some one can give me some light about this.
Thank you in advance!

jatubio wrote: ↑31 August 2025, 20:56 On this game: https://boardgamearena.com/12/forestshu ... =723212437

Player jatubio (me), have 7 different sets. And if I over Map Buttefly, it say: "This card give you 58 points". So, I suppose that is the set with more occurencies/points wich is selected for points? But on the card I can see "7 sets=55 points", so why 58 and not 55? Why this card says 'This card give you 58 points' and the rest of butterflies says "Your butterflies card's give you 58 points" (again 58 instead of 55)

You do NOT have 7 different sets of butterflies. I don't think it's even possible to play that many sets before a game ends; I've certainly never seen it.

At the end of this game you have 9 butterflies, in TWO sets.

A "set" is a group of butterflies of different species. Of the 9 you played, 7 are different species - so that's one set, worth 55 points. The other two butterflies are different from each other, but each of them is the same as one of the butterflies in your bigger set, so they're not part of that set. These other two butterflies form a second set, of two butterflies, which is worth 3 points. So 55 (set of 7) + 3 (set of 2) = 58.

If your last two butterflies were the same kind as each other (that is, if you had 3 of the same kind), then they wouldn't have been one set of 2, they'd have been two sets of 1 each, and worth 0 points.

You're right that the hover text is confusing. It says "this card provides you 58 points" on each butterfly card you hover over, which is at least misleading, if not false. It should ideally tell you how many sets and how many points for each set; if the text can't easily be changed to give multiple numbers like that, it should at least be reworded to say "Your sets of butterfly cards provide you N points". You may want to post a suggestion in the bugs forum to improve this, so it won't confuse people.

DoctorFianchetto wrote: ↑17 October 2023, 17:11 How do butterflies score?

Not very well.

That was true in the base game, but not with the expansions. Once you're playing with the alpine expansion, butterflies are one of the most powerful kinds of cards, and adding forest edge enhances it a bit more. I've beaten players who play a fair number of deer + wolves by focusing on butterflies, in several games. The game changer, so to speak, for butterflies, was gentians and newts, in that they not only score more points for butterflies and you can accumulate several of them, but they also make it easier to play more butterflies in fewer turns, letting you get more butterflies out during a game without wasting turns.

Blackthorn in forest edge makes butterflies more powerful, and adding another butterfly species to increase the potential set size also helps.

@Cos- Thank you very much for your answer and full explanation. Now I fully understand how Butterflies Set's works.

I have also created a bug for the text. This is the link in case some one want to vote it: https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=182263

DoctorFianchetto wrote: ↑17 October 2023, 17:11 How do butterflies score?

Not very well.

Didn't age well lol