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- BGG #1,086
- BGG rating
- 7.1
Palm Island
- 1–2 players
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- 2018
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- BGG rating
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Palm Laboratory
2024
Rules assistance for Palm Laboratory
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.
- 1–2 players
- 10–30 min
- 10+
- Complexity 1.8/5
For 1 player
Rules assistant for Palm Laboratory
What would you like to know?
Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
Palm Laboratory is a board game released in 2024 for 1–2 players, 10–30 minutes per game, and ages 10 and up. It was designed by Jon Mietling and its main mechanics are Hand Management, Cooperative Game, and Solo / Solitaire Game.
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About the game
Creating unique monsters, powerful devices, and fantastic potions is a dangerous business. As you gain power and succeed in your experiments, you must also maintain your laboratory to prevent catastrophe. Take on the many challenges of Palm Laboratory anywhere you go with this handheld resource management game. Palm Laboratory is a solitaire game that uses a small deck of four-sided cards and deck-transforming mechanisms to flip and rotate cards. As you improve each card, each will increase your resource production, gain more points, or make progress on the goal of your current game — a goal that you choose and that defines the rules for victory or defeat. Some goals add additional cards to generate new resources or other goal-specific objectives. Each turn, you review the top two cards of your deck and take an action listed on the top section of either card — or you discard the top card by placing it at the back of the deck. When you take a card action, you do so by paying any required cost, then following the action type: rotating it 180º, flipping it over, or storing the card by rotating it 90º so that it sticks out from the other cards. After manipulating the card during an action, you place it in the back of the deck; stored cards provide resources you can use on future actions. —description from designer
Categories
Designers
Publishers
- KOSMOS
- Nuts! Publishing
- Portal Dragon
Questions and answers
Palm Laboratory supports 1–2 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 Palm Laboratory is 10–30 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 Palm Laboratory 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.
Palm Laboratory has a complexity rating of 1.8 out of 5 from BoardGameGeek players, which makes it a 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.
Palm Laboratory belongs to these categories: Card Game and Science Fiction. Its main mechanics are Hand Management, Cooperative Game, and Solo / Solitaire Game. 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 Palm Laboratory are: Jon Mietling. 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 Palm Laboratory 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.