How to Play Cascadia (2026): Setup, Turns, Nature Tokens & Scoring

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How to play Cascadia (2026): Cascadia is the award-winning puzzle game where one to four players build their own corner of the Pacific Northwest. Each turn you take a habitat tile and a wildlife token as a pair, then add them to your landscape to create animal patterns and large connected habitats. Everyone gets exactly 20 turns. This guide follows the official AEG rulebook and covers setup by player count, the turn, overpopulation, nature tokens and final scoring.

Cascadia setup

1. Put all 100 wildlife tokens in the cloth bag and shake well.
2. Randomly select habitat tiles without looking: 43 for two players, 63 for three, 83 for four. That is 20 per player plus 3. Stack them face down.
3. Pick one wildlife scoring card for each of the five animals. For your first game, use the cards marked A.
4. Give each player a random starter habitat tile, face up.
5. Reveal 4 habitat tiles in the middle of the table and draw 4 wildlife tokens to pair with them.
6. Place the nature tokens within reach. The player who most recently saw one of the animals in the wild goes first.

A Cascadia turn

1. Check for overpopulation

If all four wildlife tokens on display are the same animal, wipe them automatically and draw four new ones. If three are the same, the active player may choose to wipe those three and replace them, once per turn.

2. Choose a pair

Take one habitat tile and the wildlife token paired with it. Before choosing, you may spend a nature token to take any tile with any token, or to wipe any number of tokens and redraw them.

3. Place the tile and token

Add the habitat tile to your landscape so it touches at least one of your existing tiles. Then place the wildlife token on any of your tiles that shows that animal and has no token yet, including the tile you just placed. If it does not fit anywhere, or you do not want it, return it to the bag. Placing a token on a keystone tile earns you a nature token.

4. Refill the display

Replace the tile and token you took so four pairs are available again.

How a game of Cascadia ends

The game ends after the turn in which a tile cannot be replaced from the stacks. Because of the tile count, that means every player gets exactly 20 turns.

Cascadia scoring

1. Wildlife scoring cards: score each animal according to its card, such as bears in pairs or salmon in runs.
2. Habitat corridors: for each of the five habitats, score 1 point per tile in your largest connected group of that habitat.
3. Corridor majorities: in a two-player game, the largest corridor of each habitat earns 2 bonus points (1 each if tied). With three or four players, the largest earns 3 and second largest earns 1.
4. Nature tokens: each unused nature token is worth 1 point.

The highest total wins. If tied, the player with the most remaining nature tokens wins.

A sample Cascadia turn

Imagine the display offers a forest tile with a bear, a wetland tile with a salmon, a mountain keystone tile with a hawk, and a river tile with a fox. Your scoring card rewards bears in pairs, and you already have one lonely bear in your forest. Taking the forest and bear pair completes a pair for points right away. But the mountain keystone tile with the hawk would earn a nature token if you can place a hawk on it. Weighing points now against flexibility later is the core of every Cascadia turn.

Family and intermediate variants

For younger players, the Family variant replaces all five wildlife cards with a single scoring card that rewards groups of any animal. The Intermediate variant uses the same card's other side, which scores different group sizes differently. Both are great ways to introduce kids to the game before moving to the A cards.

Cascadia strategy tips

• Pick two animals to focus on. Trying to score every animal at once spreads you thin.
• Grab nature tokens when you can. Keystone tiles are worth planning around, because a nature token buys flexibility later.
• Grow one huge habitat. Corridor majorities can swing a close game.
• Watch the display. Taking a pair a rival needs is the main way to interact.
• Compare games: wondering how it stacks up against other easy strategy games? See our easy board games for adults.

Cascadia rules questions

How many turns do you get in Cascadia?

Exactly 20 per player in every game of Cascadia.

Can you place a wildlife token on any tile?

Only on a tile that shows that animal and does not already hold a token.

Is there a solo mode in Cascadia?

Yes. You play 20 turns and discard the pair furthest from the stacks after each turn, then compare your score with the chart in the rulebook.