Top 30 · #3 of 60 in Family
Cascadia
A relaxing tile-laying puzzle game set in the Pacific Northwest of North America, in which you connect habitat tiles and wildlife tokens in harmony. Each turn you pick one of the habitat-and-wildlife pairs on display in the middle and widen your own landscape, aiming for placements that match how each animal scores.
Rules
Choose a paired habitat tile and wildlife token, then build an ecosystem that satisfies five wildlife patterns while connecting five kinds of terrain.
The whole game at a glance
The central display holds four Habitat Tile + Wildlife Token pairs. On your turn, take one pair, add the tile to your environment, and place the token on an eligible tile. Every player takes exactly 20 turns.
Solve two puzzles together
Wildlife follows the pattern on its scoring card, while terrain forms large connected corridors. Focusing on only one side usually gives up points on the other.
Components and tile anatomy
| Component | Count | What matters |
|---|---|---|
| Habitat Tiles | 85 | Includes 25 Keystone Tiles |
| Starter Habitat Tiles | 5 | One per player |
| Wildlife Tokens | 100 | 20 each of bear, elk, salmon, hawk, and fox |
| Wildlife Scoring Cards | 21 | Four per species plus one Family/Intermediate card |
| Nature Tokens | 25 | Adjust choices; each unused token is 1 point |
| Other | 1 each | Cloth bag and scorepad |
- Each Habitat Tile shows one or two terrain types and one to three wildlife options.
- The five habitats are mountains, forests, prairies, wetlands, and rivers.
- A tile with only one habitat type is a Keystone Tile. Place one of its shown animals on it to gain a Nature Token.
Setup
- 1Put all 100 Wildlife Tokens in the cloth bag.
- 2Use 43 Habitat Tiles with one or two players, 63 with three, and 83 with four. Return the rest unseen.
- 3Choose one Wildlife Scoring Card for each species. Use all five A cards for a first game.
- 4Give each player one random Starter Habitat Tile.
- 5Reveal four Habitat Tiles. Draw four Wildlife Tokens and pair them with the tiles in order. Put the Nature Tokens within reach.
First player
The person who most recently saw one of the five featured animals starts. Choose randomly if that is unclear.
Your turn — check overpopulation first
- 1Check the four face-up Wildlife Tokens for overpopulation and resolve any required or optional wipe first.
- 2Choose one Habitat Tile and Wildlife Token pair. You may spend Nature Tokens before choosing.
- 3Place the tile and token in either order in your environment.
- 4Refill only the empty display space. Do not shift the remaining pairs.
Set wiped tokens aside
Draw every replacement before returning wiped tokens to the bag. This prevents you from immediately redrawing the wildlife you just removed.
You may spend several Nature Tokens
Spend one to take any displayed tile and any displayed wildlife, breaking the printed pairs, or to wipe any number of wildlife. There is no per-turn spending limit.
Placing tiles and wildlife
- A new tile must share at least one edge with a tile already in your environment. Terrain does not need to match.
- Tiles may not overlap, and placed tiles may not move.
- Wildlife may go only on an empty tile that shows that species among its wildlife options.
- The wildlife may go on the tile you just took or on any older eligible tile.
- If you cannot or choose not to place it, return the Wildlife Token to the bag.
Keystone Tiles generate Nature Tokens
Gain one Nature Token when you place one of a Keystone Tile's shown animals on it. Placing the tile alone does not earn the token.
Reading Wildlife Scoring Cards
Only one card per species is active in a game. A good layout for a species can change completely between its A, B, C, and D cards, so read all five active cards together before the first turn.
| Species | What changes from A to D | Rule that always matters |
|---|---|---|
| Bears | Total pairs / exact groups of three / groups of one to three / groups of two to four | A scoring group must have the exact shown size and may not touch another bear group |
| Elk | Straight lines / pictured shapes / connected groups by size / circular formations | Interpret connected elk for the highest score, but no elk may score twice |
| Salmon | Maximum run length and scoring formula | Each salmon may touch no more than two salmon, and separate runs may not touch |
| Hawks | Isolated hawks / visible isolated hawks / sight lines / pairs with diverse wildlife between | Sight lines follow flat-edge hex directions and stop at another hawk |
| Foxes | Adjacent species / adjacent pairs / largest matching group / fox pairs and surrounding pairs | Card A counts an adjacent fox as one unique wildlife type |
A salmon triangle can be a run
Three salmon in a triangle each touch exactly two salmon, so the triangle qualifies. It stops qualifying if any additional salmon touches it.
Game end and final scoring
The game ends immediately after a turn when no face-down Habitat Tile remains to refill the taken tile. The player-count setup guarantees that everyone has taken exactly 20 turns.
- Score each of the five active Wildlife Scoring Cards.
- For mountains, forests, prairies, wetlands, and rivers, score one point per tile in your largest habitat corridor. A matching habitat edge must connect the tiles.
- Compare each largest corridor with the other players and award habitat majority bonuses.
- Score one point for each unused Nature Token.
| Players | Habitat corridor bonus |
|---|---|
| Solo | +2 for each habitat whose largest corridor is at least 7 tiles |
| 2 | Largest +2. A tie for largest gives +1 each; there is no second-place bonus |
| 3–4 | Largest +3 and second +1. A two-way tie for largest gives +2 each; a three- or four-way tie gives +1 each. No next-place bonus follows a first-place tie, and a tie for second scores 0 |
Ties
The player with more unused Nature Tokens wins a tied total. If still tied, the players share the victory.
Family, Intermediate, and solo play
- The Family Variant uses its single scoring card instead of five species cards. Same-species groups score by size in any shape. Habitat majority scoring may be skipped.
- The Intermediate Variant also uses one shared card, with a different table for wildlife group sizes.
- For solo play, follow two-player setup but take only one Starter Habitat Tile. After placing your pair, discard the remaining pair farthest from the tile stacks, slide the other two pairs away from the stacks, and refill two pairs.
- Solo play also lasts 20 turns. Each habitat with a largest corridor of at least 7 earns +2. The rulebook also provides scenarios and achievements.
Landmarks is a separate expansion
Cascadia: Landmarks adds five- and six-player support and landmark elements. Keep those rules separate from the base game's tile and wildlife placement rules.
Edition and awards
Cascadia was designed by Randy Flynn, illustrated by Beth Sobel, and first published in 2021. It won the 2022 Spiel des Jahres. Korea Boardgames publishes the Korean edition and Cascadia: Landmarks in Korea.
Korean rulebook status
The Korean retail edition and its official tutorial video were verified, but a public official Korean rulebook text was not available. Numeric rules therefore follow AEG's English rulebook, and the verification level remains `rulebook` for one checked edition.
Frequently confused rules
Q. Must I take the habitat and wildlife from the same pair?
Normally, yes. Spend one Nature Token to take any one displayed Habitat Tile and any one displayed Wildlife Token instead.
Q. Do three matching wildlife tokens always get wiped automatically?
No. With exactly three, the active player may wipe those three once that turn. Four matching tokens must all be wiped, and the process repeats if the replacement four also match.
Q. Must a new tile's terrain match its neighbors?
No. It only needs to share at least one edge with an existing tile. Matching terrain matters later for habitat corridor points.
Q. Can I place the wildlife on a tile from an earlier turn?
Yes. Any empty tile showing that wildlife is eligible, regardless of when you placed it.
Q. What if I cannot place the wildlife?
Return the token to the bag. You still place the Habitat Tile and finish the turn normally.
Q. How many points is an unused Nature Token worth?
One point each. Unused Nature Tokens are also the first tie-breaker for the final total.
Sources
AEG official English base-game rulebook (16 pages)AEG official product pageKorea Boardgames official Korean edition listingKorea Boardgames official tutorial video — terminology cross-referenceBoardGameGeek — players, time, and weight cross-referenceWiki cross-reference — Wikipedia: CascadiaWiki cross-reference — NamuWiki: CascadiaSpiel des Jahres official 2022 award announcementRule summaries are reference content written by us, not quotations from the official rulebook. Always check the official rulebook for exact rules. Diagrams are original schematics, not rulebook illustrations.
Spotted a mistake? Tell us in the comments below →
Last updated 2026-09-15
💡 Master tip
Read how the wildlife scoring cards score first, decide which animals to load up on, and sketch the big picture so your habitat and wildlife placements do not work against each other. Rather than focusing on a single animal, going for two or three at once is the steadier plan.
Similar games
Ready for something heavier
If this one has gotten too easy, try these — same feel, one step up in weight.
Tools you can request
Not built yet. Let us know if you want one — it goes on the list.
Counts include public tool requests only, excluding repeats from the same browser. These are not signed-in people counts: other devices or cleared cookies can be counted again.
Wildlife scoring pattern camera / checker
Automatic placement score calculator for bear, hawk, elk, salmon, and fox
Comments
Share your thoughts, report a mistake, or request a tool. No sign-in needed — nicknames are not verified, so anyone can use the same one.
Loading…