Gameplay

Players pick two potions to make. Each player chooses one potion at a time in a snake draft.

On Your Turn

1. Take any color "ingredient" (marble) from the dispenser
• If two of the same-colored ingredients (or groups of ingredients) collide when closing the gap, they "explode" and are also taken by the player.
• This can cause a chain reaction as "exploded" ingredients are removed and subsequent groupings collapse.
2. All ingredient marbles, both taken and exploded, are placed in the user's "hand" (the rectangle above the flasks on the player's board).
3. Move each ingredient to the matching color on the potions and/or to the flask to hold them for later.
• The flask holds three ingredients max of any color
• Any ingredients not put into a potion must be put into a flask. If the flask is full, the ingredients are put back into the dispenser.
4. When a potion has all its ingredients, it is completed and moved to the usable potion area.

Other Actions

Drink a Potion

Each potion can affect the game (mouseover to see the effect). You may drink a potion before or after choosing a marble. A potion can only be drunk once. Drinking a potion does not affect the VP earned by it.

You can drink multiple potions in a turn.

Ask for Help

Once per turn, you may "ask the professor for help". This means you can take an ingredient from the dispenser. This costs 2 VP. And it will not trigger any explosions/chain reactions.

Draw New Potions

At the end of your turn, you must draw new potions to replace any that were completed. Ingredients cannot be added to them until your next turn.

Skill Tokens

A player receives a Skill Token when they complete A) three potions of the same type B) five potions of different types. When playing with five people or more, a player who completes ten potions receives a Skill Token.

Each Skill Token is worth 4 VP, but there are a limited number. The total number of Skill Tokens is equal to the number of players + two (e.g., 4 players + 2 = 6 Skill Tokens available).

If using "Fifth Ingredient", each player can only get the "Fifth Ingredient" Skill Token once.

Game End

The game ends when there are no more Skill Tokens left to give. All players finish their round. The player with the most VP is the winner.

In case of a tie, each tied player takes one ingredient from the dispenser. The player who takes the most ingredients through explosions is the winner.

Potion effects

There are eight types of potions, but only six, chosen randomly, are used in a game. (The "Simple Game" omits the "Balm of Uttermost Stickiness" and "Filter of Lavamancing".)

Fifth Ingredient (variant)

A new ingredient, Ghost Ectoplasm, can be found in the Ghastly Cauldron. To get Ghost Ectoplasm, you must exchange one of your other ingredients. It can be used as any color, both in explosions and as a potion ingredient. When a potion containing Ghost Ectoplasm is completed, the Ghost Ectoplasm goes into the dispenser.

New Potions

Professor Tiles

At the start of the game, each player receives a "Professor Tile" at random, which has an ongoing effect during the game.

• Albedus Humblescore: Discard 2 ingredients of the same color from your hand to use one "Ask for Help" token.
• Antiqua Thriftymind: Exchange one ingredient from the flask with one in the Ghastly Cauldron if your flask is full at the end of your turn.
• Gideon Prissymann: Receive 1 Scolding Token if you finish your turn with one or more ingredients still in hand.
• Gravitha Tidygall: Receive 1 Scolding Token if, on potion completion, you did not put in ingredients from bottom to top.
• Overwhilma Explosiwa: Exchange one ingredient from your hand with one in the Ghastly Cauldron if you gain 8 or more ingredients with your pick.
• Shi Zan Shuimo: An "Ask for Help" token can be used to activate the effect of a potion that has already been drunk.

Note: The effect of Gideon Prissymann in BGA is different from the physical game.

Anxiogenous O’Clockitt is not used in the BGA version.

Sixth Student (variant)

Mandragora Leaves

A new ingredient, Mandragora Leaves, is added to the dispenser. They are their own color and treated as such during explosions. Mandragora Leaves can be used in a potion instead of a different color, but all the ingredients of that layer must be Mandragora Leaves.

New Potions