- BGG rating
- 7.6
Habitats: XL Expansion
- 2–5 players
- 30–50 min
- Complexity 2.5/5
- 2019
- BGG rank
- BGG #1,189
- BGG rating
- 7.3
Habitats
2016
Rules assistance for Habitats
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.
- 1–5 players
- 30–50 min
- 10+
- Complexity 2.0/5
For 1 player
Rules assistant for Habitats
What would you like to know?
Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
Habitats is a board game released in 2016 for 1–5 players, 30–50 minutes per game, and ages 10 and up. It was designed by Corné van Moorsel and its main mechanics are Tile Placement, Square Grid, and Grid Movement.
Expansions
- BGG rating
- 7.7
Habitats: Double Expansion
- 2–5 players
- 30–50 min
- 2021
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About the game
In Habitats, each player builds a big wildlife park without cages or fences. The animals in your park need their natural habitats: grassland, bush, rocks or lakes. The zebra needs a big area of grass and some water adjacent, for example, while a bat needs rocks and bush and water, a hart needs bush and grass, and a crocodile needs mainly water. There is a snake, baboon, bee, elephant, otter, lizard, turtle, eagle, meerkat, scorpio, hog, catfish, rhino, etc., each with its own landscape requirements — 68 different animals in total. Each player starts their individual park with an entrance tile, and they are each represented in the marketplace of animal tiles by a ceramic figure (or a wooden ranger meeple in some editions). On a turn, a player takes the tile to their left, right or front; moves their figure to the space just vacated; then draws a tile to place where their figure started the turn. When adding an animal tile in your park, you add its main landscape — the base space for the animal — to your park, too. While placing this new animal, its own piece of landscape can help to fulfill the requirements of your other animals' requirements, e.g., the water on a hippo tile fulfilling the adjacent otter's need for water. Thus, fulfilling every animal's desire for land becomes a more and more difficult task with each tile you add. Aside from expanding your park with different landscape types, flora and animals, you can improve its profitability by building extra entrance roads, trek spots, and watchtowers. Habitats lasts three seasons, with each season giving each player 6-9 new tiles for their parks. Whoever has best met the goal of the season receives bonus points, with a smaller number of points for second and third place. At the end of the game, each player scores for each tile in their park based on whether that tile's requirements are satisfied. Whoever scores the most points wins! NOTE: BoardGameTables edition contains both XL Expansion and Double Expansion and is entirely replacing the previous editions.
Designers
Publishers
- Hobby Japan
- Board Game Rookie
- Nasza Księgarnia
- Allplay
- Cwali
- IGAMES
- BoardGameTables.com
Questions and answers
Habitats supports 1–5 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.
The listed playing time for Habitats is 30–50 minutes. This is the publisher’s estimate for a full game. The actual duration depends on the group, the player count and familiarity with the rules: first sessions usually run longer, while experienced groups often finish faster. Setup and teaching time are not included in this estimate.
The catalogue lists Habitats for ages 10 and up. This is the publisher’s recommendation and reflects reading demands, rule complexity and small components rather than theme alone. Younger players can often join with help from an adult, so check the age guidance on your edition and consider your group’s experience with board games.
Habitats has a complexity rating of 2.0 out of 5 from BoardGameGeek players, which makes it a medium-light game. The rating reflects how much rules knowledge, planning and decision-making a typical game demands. Expect a longer first teach for heavier games, and use a preparation guide before game night.
Habitats belongs to these categories: Animals, Territory Building, and Puzzle. Its main mechanics are Tile Placement, Square Grid, and Grid Movement. Categories describe the theme and setting of a game, while mechanics describe what players actually do on their turns. Each mechanic links to a catalogue hub with similar games, which helps when you want something comparable.
The credited designers of Habitats are: Corné van Moorsel. These credits come from the published game data and name the people responsible for the game’s design, not its illustrators or publishers. Designer pages on MeepleRules collect other titles by the same designers, which helps when you enjoy a game and want to find similar ones.
The catalogue lists Habitats as a base game. It can be played on its own with the components in the box and does not require any other title. Expansions, if any exist, add new content or rules on top of it and are listed separately in the catalogue with a link back to this base game.