13 Animals
BGG rank
BGG #12,878
BGG rating
6.7

13 Animals

2024

Rules assistance for 13 Animals

Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.

  • 2–5 players
  • 20–30 min
  • 8+
  • Complexity 1.0/5

For 2 players

Rules assistant for 13 Animals

What would you like to know?

Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.

13 Animals is a board game released in 2024 for 2–5 players, 20–30 minutes per game, and ages 8 and up. It was designed by Daryl Chow and its main mechanics are Hand Management and Set Collection.

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About the game

Will you be the first to place all of your animals in sets? Or will you be the legendary player who collects all different animals in a rainbow win? To set up 13 Animals, deal each player a hand of ten cards, then turn three cards face up to start three discard piles; split the remaining deck into two piles. Cards in the deck show five types of mammals, three types of birds, and five types of legendary creatures, each with their color front and back: green, blue, and yellow. On a turn, draw a card from the top of a discard pile or either deck, then discard a card. Each card depicts one or more scoring sets; three peacocks, for example, is worth 5 stars, while one bird of each type is worth 3 stars. As soon as each of your cards is part of a scoring set, whether before or after you discard, you can reveal your hand and end the round. Each player scores 1 point for every 5 stars in their scoring sets. Alternatively, if a player has eleven different animals in hand, they can end the round, scoring 5 points; everyone else earns points based on the stars in their sets. In either case, the player who ends the round receives 1-3 points depending on the round number just completed. After three rounds, the player with the most points wins. The newly updated 2025 Korean version (including English and Japanese rulebooks) does not follow the existing scoring rules, but rather follows the intuitive rules in which the earned star score becomes your own score.

Designers

Publishers

  • Swan Panasia Co., Ltd.
  • Playte
  • Origame

Questions and answers

13 Animals supports 2–5 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.