Description
In a world flooded by the sea, all that remains are the waves and the salvage that powerful vortexes bring to the surface. In Kalypso you piece together a floating settlement from wood, metal, rubber and seaweed. On it you build houses, greenhouses and shipyards, rescue survivors from the waves and make sure the next storm doesn't swallow your community.
How to play Kalypso
The game lasts four rounds. At the start of each round you receive a weather forecast with a task, for example getting boats ready for an approaching storm. If you complete the task, you earn a reward; if not, you face a penalty. Then everyone simultaneously chooses one salvage tile from their vortex, places it next to their settlement and passes the vortex with the remaining tiles to their neighbour.
When you gather at least three matching materials in a 2 × 2 square, you construct a building on it, and its effect triggers immediately: the cooperage gives you a barrel that counts as any material, the shipyard launches a boat and the greenhouse plants a garden. When you cover a life preserver with salvage, you rescue a survivor, whom you can send to work in one of your buildings. In competitive mode, the player with the most points after the fourth round wins. In cooperative mode, you must house the survivors and feed them with fish and gardens every round, and at the end you also have to complete both settlement goals.
Why you'll like it
- In competitive mode, you pick the forecast for your neighbour, so you can hand them exactly the storm they aren't prepared for.
- Every salvage tile is a small puzzle: how to turn it so that you complete a square of matching materials and cover a barrel or a life preserver at the same time.
- When your settlement encloses a stretch of sea, you collect the fish, barrels and survivors left inside it.
- The same box plays competitively, cooperatively with four difficulty levels, or solo.
Who is Kalypso for
Kalypso is for one to four players aged 12 and up, and a game takes 40 to 60 minutes. It is a light-to-medium tile-placement game for families and groups who enjoy spatial puzzles. Players like it best with three. For your first game, the rules recommend the competitive mode, as the cooperative one is a little more challenging. The forecast and settlement goal cards contain English text.
What might you not like?
In cooperative mode, a single failed forecast or too few fish means instant defeat, so the game may not suit players who prefer to play without pressure.
What's in the box
- 4 ocean boards and 4 vortex boards
- 3 cloth bags (for salvage, scrap and fish)
- 120 salvage tiles, 96 scrap tiles and 78 fish tokens
- 132 building tiles (36 rubber, 32 metal, 32 wood and 32 seaweed)
- 15 monument tiles and 45 garden/net tiles
- 30 boat tiles, 68 barrel tokens and 32 life preserver tokens
- 48 survivor figures
- 28 forecast cards (4 sets of 7) and 10 settlement goal cards
- 4 player aids, a double-sided building reference/resource tracker board, 6 tracking cubes, an incoming survivors card, a HoldFast connector and a score pad
