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Introduction

When playing Potion Valley, you have a few options to choose from when you play. Each one follows the same general mechanics, however, they differ in objectives and how you work toward those objectives.

A game of strategy, resource management, and alchemy!

Table of Contents

  1. Objective

  2. Setup

  3. Taking a Turn

  4. Materials

  5. Game Variations

  6. Additional Rules

  7. Game Modifications

  8. Card Types

  9. Brewing Potions

  10. Note from Us!

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Objective

  • Be the first player to reach 30 points to win.

  • Earn points by Brewing Potion cards, each granting points based on its Quality score.

 

Setup

  1. Each player receives 1 Alchemy Board.

  2. Place the Counters within reach of all players.

  3. Shuffle the Potion Deck and Item Deck, then place them face-down on the table.

  4. Deal 10 cards to each player from the Item Deck.

  5. Draw 3 Potion Cards per player and place them in a central area—these are the Objective Potions.

    • Recommended limit: No more than 9 Objective Potions.

  6. Choose a player to go first.

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Taking a Turn

  1. Draw 1 card from the Item Deck.

  2. (Optional) Destroy 1 Objective Potion and replace it with a new one from the Potion Deck.

  3. Remove 1 Counter from each Brewing Potion.

  4. Perform any Actions, with no Action limit per turn. The following are considered Actions:

    • Use Special/Ingredient Card effects.

    • Add Ingredients to Potion Cards.

    • Brew Potions.

    • Discard incomplete Potions you are working on.

  5. End your turn.

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Materials

  • Item Cards (Ingredient & Special Cards – Item Deck)

  • Potion Cards (Potion Deck)

  • Counters (Track Brew Time)

  • Alchemy Boards (optional)

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Game Variations

  1. Novice Game: No card effects or Special Cards—only standard, potion Brewing mechanics.

    • If you draw a Special Card, Discard it immediately, and draw again until you get an Ingredient Card.

  2. Advanced Game: Use Special Cards but not Ingredient effects.

  3. Alchemist Game: Utilize all cards and effects—prove you're the ultimate Alchemist!

    • Recommended: Play a Novice or Advanced Game first to learn the basics.

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Additional Rules

Alchemy Boards (Alchemy Boards are optional)

  • Playing with Alchemy Boards:

    • Discard 3 cards to obtain an additional Alchemy Board.

    • Return an Alchemy Board to draw 2 cards.

    • New Alchemy Boards cannot be returned on the same turn they were initially received.

  • Playing without Alchemy Boards: See the “Game Modifications” Section.

Discarding & Destroying

  • Destroying

    • Destroyed cards go to the Discard Pile BUT they can NOT be removed unless a card effect specifically states to remove a “Destroyed” card. The effect of a card will specify if it is considered “Destroyed”.

  • Discarding

    • Any card that is placed from a Player’s hand, directly into the Discard Pile as a result of an effect, or to acquire an additional Alchemy Board, is considered Discarded.

Hand Limit

  • Minimum Card Limit: There is no minimum number of cards that you can have in your hand.

  • Maximum Card Limit:

    • You may have up to 15 Cards in your hand at one time.

    • If you have 15 cards in your hand, you are not able to draw or receive any other card.

    • AT NO POINT CAN YOU EVER HAVE MORE THAN 15 CARDS IN YOUR HAND UNLESS… a card specifically states you may exceed the hand limit.

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Game Modification

  1. This section will explain how to play without Alchemy Boards, or if you do not have enough of them. All mechanics of the game work the same; however, you will need to manage the number of Potions you can Brew, as well as the Ingredients you use without the aid of the Alchemy Board. There are many solutions, but this is how we handle this issue:

    • Potion Management:

      • Use counters to track how many Boards you have during the game. Each time you get a Board, collect a counter to track it instead. Apply the same concept when getting rid of any Boards. *As a reminder, the number of boards you have determines the number of Potions you can Brew at a time.

    • Ingredient Management:

      • When you go to Brew a Potion, place each of the Ingredients in neat stacks to the right of the Potion Card, in the following order (from left to right): Elements, Effects, Strength.

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Card Types

Items

Ingredients (Leaf symbol)

  • Each Ingredient counts for only one ingredient that is listed on a Potion card when Brewing.

    • Ingredients are used for Potion Recipes or for their effect, but not both. Discard immediately after using the card’s effect.

  • If an effect requires Discarding, an additional card must be Discarded; the card being used does not count for its own effect.

Special Cards (3-Star symbol)

  • Have powerful effects but do not brew Potions.

  • Once played, they must be discarded immediately—no take-backs!

  • Some attach to other cards (Equip Function – Gear Symbol), granting effects as long as it remains attached to a card.

Potions

Potions are the scoring cards in the game.

  • Potion Level: Indicates version of a Potion.

  • Quality: Determines the points earned when Brewed.

  • Time: The number of turns required to Brew a Potion—tracked with Counters.

  • Recipe: The Ingredients that are required to Brew a Potion.

    • Attributes: Element, Effect, and Strength.

    • Example: The Obsidian Serum 3 Potion requires 6 specific Ingredients to brew.

 

 

Brewing Potions

  1. Pick an Objective Potion and place it on your Alchemy Board.

    • Immediately replace the Potion you claim with a new Potion from the Potion Deck.

  2. Place Ingredients on the board according to the Potion Recipe.

    • At least one Ingredient is required to claim a Potion.

    • Once you claim a Potion and the new one has been placed, you cannot “take-it-back”

  3. Once all Ingredients are added, place Counters equal to the Potion’s Brew Time.

  4. At the start of each turn, remove 1 Counter from all Brewing Potions.

  5. When the last Counter is removed, claim the Potion—it's now in your Inventory.

  6. Put all Ingredients used for the Potion into the Discard Pile.

  7. Brewing Complete!

  8. Anytime during your turn, you remove any unfinished Potion that you are working on. This counts as an official action.

    • This is particularly helpful when you are struggling to finish a Potion and want to clear your Board and start fresh.

💡 Each Alchemy Board can brew 1 Potion at a time—acquire more to brew multiple Potions simultaneously!

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Note from Developers

  1. We thank you for your support and interest in our game! We hope that you enjoy it as much as we do!

  2. Enjoy the game!

    • As board game players ourselves, we are firm believers in “House Rules”. Consider this entire Instructional as our recommendations; the way we enjoyed the game! Once you purchase the game, its yours, so enjoy it the way you want. Here are a few examples of how we have played the game (and ignored our own rules):

      1. Changed the winning score to 60 points.

      2. We removed the hand limit and played by splitting the deck evenly between all players… we found out that it can be a lot of cards to hold.

      3. We ignored the [Isolated] Attribute on all of the cards that had it.

    • New House Rule?

      1. Do you have house rules that you play by? We would be extremely interested to hear what they are. Let us know by emailing us a potionvalley@t1ygamez.com

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