Living Forest

To set up, sort the cards with the green tree back by their face symbols (sun, spirit, or fire) into three sun symbol groups (each with a shaded color), four spirit groups, and one fire group. Place the fire cards face-up on the Fire Varan board, setting the fragment tiles to its left. Set the Guardian Animal board in the center, adding shuffled decks of sun-symbol cards face-down to their matching spaces, and placing fire tokens (2s on top, then 3s, then 4s) to the left of these decks. Arrange the protective tree tiles in their matching slots on the tree trays, removing extras based on player count (2 players: 2 tiles per slot). Give each player a forest board of their chosen color, along with a matching spirit standee, three victory tokens (one of each type), and a personal deck of cards. Each player places their unique starting tree tile in the center of their forest board. Shuffle personal decks and place them face-down by the board. Randomly select a first player, who places their spirit standee on the white-highlighted pawn space on the Circle of Spirits board; subsequent players place their spirits on the next white-highlighted spaces clockwise.

The objective of Living Forest is to be the first player to achieve one of three victory conditions. These conditions are: collecting 12 fire tokens (values don't matter, only the number of tokens), planting 12 unique tree tiles on your forest board (including your starting tree and the tree on your tree victory token), or accumulating a total value of 12 sacred flower symbols from cards in your row, trees on your board, and victory tokens. Players will take actions to advance towards these goals while trying to prevent opponents from reaching their objectives.

Each round of Living Forest is divided into three phases: the Guardian Animals Phase, the Action Phase, and the End of Round Phase. In the Guardian Animals Phase, all players simultaneously draw cards one at a time from their personal decks, forming a 'Guardian Animal Helpline' in front of them. Players can stop drawing at any time, but if they draw a third black circle (solitary symbol) card, they must stop. Fragment tokens can be spent to discard the most recently drawn card with a black circle. In the Action Phase, players take turns starting with the player holding the Sacred Tree token, moving clockwise. Players normally take two different actions, but if they have three active black circle symbols in their helpline, they only take one action. The five available actions are: Plant one Protective Tree, Attract one or more Guardian Animals, Extinguish Fire, Take a Fragment, or Move Forward on the Circle of Spirits. Bonus actions from tree tiles do not count towards the normal action limit and can be the same as other actions taken. The End of Round Phase involves the Onibi spirit attacking players and the Sacred Tree, refilling the Guardian Animal board, moving cards to discard piles, and passing the Sacred Tree token.

The game ends immediately at the end of the Action Phase if any player has successfully met one of the three victory conditions: collecting 12 fire tokens, planting 12 unique trees on their forest board, or accumulating 12 sacred flower symbols. If multiple players achieve a victory condition simultaneously, tie-breakers are determined by adding together the total number of unique trees planted, the total number of fire tokens collected, and the total value of sacred flower symbols. The player with the highest combined total wins. If there is still a tie after this calculation, the tied players share the victory.

The game concludes at the end of the Action Phase when a player has fulfilled any one of the three victory conditions. If multiple players achieve a victory condition at the same time, a tie-breaking procedure is initiated. Each tied player calculates their total score by summing the number of unique trees they have planted, the number of fire tokens they have collected, and the total value of sacred flower symbols they possess. The player with the highest combined total among the tied players is declared the winner. If a tie persists even after this calculation, the tied players collectively share the victory.