The Quest for El Dorado

Components and reading the terrain

Each card shows its color, symbol, and power value in the top left, its purchase price in coins at the bottom left, and a small setup symbol at the bottom right. White joker cards let you choose machete, paddle, or coin when played. Purple action cards (Transmitter, Scientist, Cartographer, Travel Log, Compass, Native) may be played anytime during movement or buying to apply their printed effect.

Setup

1. 1For a first game, lay out the suggested route (starting tile B plus terrain tiles C, N, I, and K) exactly as shown. For later games, use one of the easy, moderate, or difficult routes, or design your own.
2. 2Shuffle the 6 blockades face down and place one randomly on every connection between tiles or strips, then turn them face up. Return the rest to the box.
3. 3Place the 6 piles bearing the setup symbol side by side on the market board, and stack the other 12 piles without that symbol above the market board.
4. 4Each player takes 1 expedition board and the 8-card starting deck, shuffles it, places it face down as their draw pile, and draws 4 cards into hand.
5. 5Whoever sat down first takes the hat token and places a piece on starting space #1; the rest take the next vacant starting space in turn order. In a 2-player game, the starting player occupies #1 and #3, the other player #2 and #4.

Turn structure — 3 phases

1. 1① Play cards — play any number of cards from your hand to move your piece and/or buy 1 card. Each card may be used for only one of moving or buying per turn.
2. 2② Discard played cards — put all cards played for movement this turn onto your discard pile. Cards played onto a base camp are instead removed from the game entirely. Cards still in hand may be kept or discarded freely.
3. 3③ Draw cards — draw from your draw pile until you hold 4 cards. If the pile runs short, shuffle your discard pile into a new draw pile and keep drawing.

Movement — matching terrain and card symbols

1. 1Play a card whose color/symbol matches the space, with a power value equal to or higher than the space's requirement, to move onto it.
2. 2If the played card has leftover power (for example, a power-2 card used on a power-1 space), you may continue onto the next matching space with the remaining power. You may stop at any time, and any unspent power is lost immediately.
3. 3Rubble takes any cards regardless of color or symbol, as many as the space shows; a base camp works the same way, except those cards are removed from the game entirely.
4. 4The black mountain and any space already occupied by another piece cannot be entered by any card.

Buying cards at the market

1. 1Cards with a coin symbol count for their full power value; every other card counts as ½ coin. Add up the coin value of all the cards you played this turn.
2. 2Choose 1 card whose price is at or below your total, from the market board's 6 slots or, if a slot is empty, from the reserve piles above it as well. No change is given.
3. 3Put the purchased card on your discard pile. It does not go straight into your hand — you will draw it only after your discard pile is shuffled into a new draw pile.
4. 4Whenever a market board slot sells out, refill it from one of the reserve piles above it. Any reserve pile's cards become purchasable as soon as a slot is open.

Breaking through blockades

A blockade sits on the connection between two tiles, or between a tile and a strip. Like a terrain space, it has its own symbol and power requirement, and you overcome it the same way you move.

Game end and tiebreakers

1. 1As soon as a player reaches one of the ending tile's three finishing spaces, it triggers the final round. That piece is moved onto the gate to El Dorado to free up the finishing space.
2. 2Every other player who still has a turn left in that round takes exactly one more turn each.
3. 3The game ends once the last player in that round finishes their turn — even if that player reaches El Dorado for the first time on that very turn.
4. 4If only one player has reached El Dorado, that player wins. In a 2-player game, you must bring both pieces in to count as arriving.

Strategy tips

• Cards played at a base camp are removed permanently. Thinning out low-power starting cards (Sailors, Explorers) makes your stronger cards appear more often.
• One card's leftover power can be spread across spaces, but several cards' power can never be combined for one space. Plan to buy strong enough cards ahead of any high-cost stretch of route.
• A purchased card does not go straight into your hand — it waits on your discard pile until it is shuffled back into your draw pile. A late-game purchase may not help you that same game.
• Breaking through a blockade yourself lets you keep its number. If a tie looks possible, breaking a high-numbered blockade early is cheap insurance.
• Once one of the market board's 6 slots sells out, all 12 reserve piles above it become purchasable. Watch which slot is likely to empty first to time your purchases.

Player-count rules and expansions

• 2-player variant (an official base-game rule): each player receives 2 pieces and must bring both into El Dorado to win. A single card applies to only one piece and cannot be split between them.
• Caves variant: some mountain spaces get a face-down cave tile; stopping next to one earns a token usable for extra movement, swapping cards, or removing cards. The base game's win condition itself does not change.
• Korean-market expansions: Korea Boardgames has released localized editions of "The Quest for El Dorado: Perils & The Muisca," "Dragons, Treasures, and the Hidden Places," and "The Quest for El Dorado: Legendary Explorers & Curses." This guide covers only the base game and does not include their rules.

Frequently confused rules

Editions and history

The Quest for El Dorado (originally Wettlauf nach El Dorado) was designed by Reiner Knizia, with artwork and graphic design by Vincent Dutrait, and first published by Ravensburger in 2017. It was a Spiel des Jahres nominee that year and placed 10th for the Deutscher Spiele Preis.

In 2023, Ravensburger released a new edition with redrawn artwork, larger cards, and 3 action cards newly built into the base game. According to the official service portal's FAQ, the new edition's different card size makes it incompatible with the 2017 edition's (model 26720) expansions. This guide is based on that 2023 edition's official English rulebook.

In Korea, Korea Boardgames has released the Korean edition along with the expansions "Perils & The Muisca," "Dragons, Treasures, and the Hidden Places," and "Legendary Explorers & Curses." Namuwiki has no dedicated article for this game; its name only appears in Korea Boardgames' distribution-list article (searched 2026-10-10).