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How to play Forbidden Desert (2026): Forbidden Desert is a cooperative adventure game for two to five players, ages 10 and up. Your team has crash-landed in a desert, and you must dig up four parts of a legendary flying machine and escape before you die of thirst or get buried by the storm. The board moves every turn, so no two games look alike. This guide follows the official Gamewright rulebook.
The game you need: Forbidden Desert
The tin holds 24 desert tiles, 48 sand markers, 31 storm cards, 12 equipment cards, 6 adventurer cards with pawns, the storm meter and the four flying machine parts.
Price band: $20–$30 (about $27) · Check today’s price on Amazon
Forbidden Desert setup
- Shuffle the 24 desert tiles and lay them face down in a 5×5 grid, leaving the center space empty for the storm.
- Place 8 sand markers on the tiles in the diamond pattern shown in the rules.
- Set the storm meter to the level for your player count and chosen difficulty: Novice, Normal, Elite or Legendary.
- Shuffle the storm deck and the equipment deck separately.
- Deal each player an adventurer card. Set its canteen to the starting level (4 for most, 5 for the Water Carrier).
- Put every pawn on the helicopter crash tile. The thirstiest player goes first, and play continues to the left.
Your turn: up to four actions
Spend up to 4 actions in any combination of the following, then draw storm cards.
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Move | Go one tile up, down, left or right (not diagonally) onto an unblocked tile |
| Remove sand | Take 1 sand marker off your tile or an adjacent tile |
| Excavate | Flip your tile face up if it has no sand on it |
| Pick up a part | Collect a revealed machine part from an unblocked, excavated tile you are on |
Sharing is free: players on the same tile can pass water and equipment cards to each other at any time.
The storm
After your actions, draw a number of storm cards equal to the current storm level. There are three kinds:
- Wind blows: slide tiles toward the storm's empty space in the direction and distance shown, and add a sand marker to each tile that moves.
- Storm picks up: move the storm meter up one notch, so you draw more cards each turn.
- Sun beats down: every player drinks 1 water unless they are in a tunnel or protected by a solar shield.
A tile with two or more sand markers is blocked. You cannot move onto it, and anyone standing on it must dig out before leaving.
What the tiles reveal
- Water tiles: two are wells that give 2 water to each player on the tile when excavated. One is a mirage with nothing.
- Tunnels: protect you from the sun and let you move between tunnels for one action.
- Gear tiles: give an equipment card such as a jet pack or terrascope.
- Clue tiles: each machine part has a row clue and a column clue. When both are revealed, the part appears where they cross.
- Launch pad: where the team needs to escape.
How you win or lose
You win when the team holds all four parts and every player is on the launch pad, unblocked, to take off. You lose if any player needs to drink and has no water, if you need to place sand and none is left in the supply, or if the storm meter reaches the skull.
A sample opening turn
Say you are the Archeologist at the start of a four-player game. Your first action removes 2 sand from the tile next to the crash site, your second moves you onto it, your third excavates it, and it turns out to be a tunnel. That is a great find, because the tunnel shields anyone standing there from the sun. You save your fourth action to clear more sand from a neighboring tile, then draw storm cards and hope the wind does not bury your tunnel right away.
Equipment cards
Gear tiles hand out equipment that can save the team in a pinch. A jet pack flies you and one other player to any unblocked tile. A dune blaster removes all sand from a tile. A terrascope lets you peek at an unexcavated tile, a solar shield protects a tile from the sun for a round, a secret water reserve refills canteens, and a time throttle grants extra actions. Equipment can be used at any time and passed freely between players on the same tile, and there is no hand limit.
The six adventurers
| Adventurer | Special ability |
|---|---|
| Archeologist | Removes 2 sand per action |
| Climber | Can move onto blocked tiles and bring a player along |
| Explorer | Can move, remove sand and use blasters diagonally |
| Meteorologist | Spends actions to draw fewer storm cards or peek at them |
| Navigator | Moves another player up to three tiles |
| Water Carrier | Takes water from excavated wells and gives it to adjacent players |
Forbidden Desert tips
- Find water early. The first sun cards come quickly, and wells keep the team alive.
- Stay close together. Sharing water only works on the same tile.
- Prioritize clue pairs. Revealing one clue of each part does nothing until its partner is found.
- Comparing the series? See how it stacks up in our co-op games for couples guide.
Forbidden Desert rules questions
How many players can play Forbidden Desert?
Forbidden Desert plays two to five.
What happens when you run out of sand markers?
The team is buried and loses the game.
Can you move diagonally in Forbidden Desert?
Only the Explorer can. Everyone else moves up, down, left or right.
