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The Reef

The Reef

KOSMOS · 2000
260 min10+ yrs1.6/5 complexity5.7 BGGCouples
short answer

How do you play The Reef?

After arranging the cards to form the reef, players roll dice to collect worms, spend worms to buy cards, use the cards to breed fish to win the game. You need to buy more boats to increase the columns on which you can fish.

To find the best price for The Reef, howtoplay.ro compares deals from Romanian shops every day.

The Reef box art
official art · KOSMOS

After arranging the cards to form the reef, players roll dice to collect worms, spend worms to buy cards, use the cards to breed fish to win the game. You need to buy more boats to increase the columns on which you can fish. You need to buy reef cards (5 in total) on which you breed the parents, first to get 5 offspring wins. There are also pearl cards, which act as joker worms, and sharks, which eliminate cards by eating them.

There is a deck of offspring, 4 are dealt up, being combinations of the 5 colors. So there are blue green fish, pink yellow fish, purple purple fish. The parents are in the same colors, some male, some female. So, for example, to collect the blue green baby fish, you need a blue male and green female, or a blue female and green male. Any used cards go to the discard, which gets shuffled round and feed back into the reef. The cost of cards depends on their position on the reef, and there is a rule for flowing cards through past your boats.

The Reef is part of the Kosmos two-player series.

game anatomy
Complexity1.6 / 5
BGG rating5.7 / 10
Vibe
Couples
Language dependence
No in-game text needed
🌐 plays without English
Play time
60 min
Players
2
Recommended age
10+ yrs
from Trișache · verified

Frequently asked questions

Q1How much does The Reef cost?
No store is currently tracking The Reef. Check the Prices tab — you can set a price alert to be notified when it appears.
Q2Where can I buy The Reef cheapest?
Check the Prices tab — howtoplay.ro aggregates offers from 7+ Romanian board-game stores and tracks price history.
Q3How do you play The Reef?
The Reef is a animals game, for 2 players, taking ~60 minutes, featuring contracts. Check the Rules tab for setup, gameplay, and scoring, or ask Trișache anything about The Reef — our AI assistant built by howtoplay.ro and trained specifically on board game rulebooks.
Q4How many players does The Reef support?
The Reef is played by 2 players.
Q5How long does a game of The Reef take?
A game of The Reef takes about 60 minutes. (The first game doesn't count. It never counts.)
Q6What age is The Reef for?
The Reef is recommended from age 10.
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