Tiki

About this board game

Tiki is a two-player board game played in about 20 minutes, where rival divinities compete to collect the most fruit from the villages of Manami Island.

To begin, shuffle nine village tiles into a 3×3 grid, leaving space between them. Each village offers a different outcome when it is influenced, including fruit rewards, a neutral result, or a penalty. Players take turns creating and moving totems while trying to make the most of the island’s layout.

On your turn, either place one of your totem tokens on an empty village tile to create a new totem, or move a totem topped by one of your tokens. A totem moves orthogonally a number of spaces equal to its total number of tokens. During the movement, the bottommost token is dropped onto every village the totem passes through, stacking it on any totem already there.

When a totem reaches three tokens, its village is influenced. The player who owns the top token collects fruit equal to the number shown on the village tile, then all tokens in the totem return to their owners. A village marked 0 returns the tokens without awarding fruit, while a village marked -1 makes the top token’s owner remove one collected fruit from the game.

The first player to collect four fruit wins. If the fruit supply runs out first, the player with the most fruit wins; tied players continue until one would gain or lose fruit. After learning the basics, add the Shaman rule: the second player places a Shaman between two villages, blocking totem movement between them. Influencing a 0-valued village lets the top-token owner move the Shaman if desired.