Overview

Nature is a card-driven tableau-builder played over four rounds. You score points by feeding your species and keeping them alive.

Each round has four phases.

1. Preparation Phase

• Add plant food to the watering hole based on the player count and the top card of the deck.
• Gain a new species starting at size 1 and population 1. Add any population or size lost during the previous round to this new species.
• Draw 5 cards. There is no hand limit.

2. Adapting Phase

Players take one turn to modify their species. You can perform these actions as many times as you want:

• Increase Population: Discard a card to add 1 population to a species.
• Increase Size: Discard a card to increase a species' size by 1 (maximum size is 4).
• Play a Trait: Play a card face-down near a species to grant it an ability (maximum 3 traits per species, including Hunter).
• Free Actions: Add a Hunter card from the supply to turn a species into a carnivore, remove existing traits, or save cards for later.

3. Feeding Phase

Players take turns feeding one hungry species at a time until all population is fed or dead

• Forage: Foragers eat plants from the watering hole equal to their size.
• Hunt: Hunters eat meat from the supply equal to their prey's size. A hunter's hunt value must be equal to or greater than the prey's defense value. The hunted species loses 1 population.
• Starve: If a species cannot forage or hunt, it must starve and lose 1 population.
• Free Action: Discard cards from your hand before a feeding action to add their food value in plants to the watering hole.

4. Scoring

• At the end of each round, move all eaten food behind your screen.
• After four rounds, you score 1 point for every food token eaten and 2 bonus points for each surviving species.
• The player with the most points wins. If there's a tie, the player with the most cards played as Traits wins.