How to Play Quacks (2026): Bags, Cherry Bombs, Scoring & Rubies

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How to play Quacks (2026): Quacks, originally The Quacks of Quedlinburg, is a push-your-luck bag-building game for two to four players by Wolfgang Warsch. Over nine rounds, every player draws ingredient chips from their own bag and adds them to a cauldron. The farther your potion bubbles, the more points and coins you earn, but too many white cherry bombs make it explode. Between rounds you buy better ingredients. These rules follow the official English rulebook for the base game, which the current Quacks box keeps with new art.

Setting up Quacks

1. Put the scoring track in the middle, the flame on round 1 and shuffle the Fortune Teller cards.
2. Lay out the orange and black ingredient books, plus the green, blue and red books from one set. Use Set 1 for your first game. Put the yellow and purple books aside for later rounds.
3. Each player takes a pot, a bag, a flask (full side up), a droplet on the 0 space of the pot and a rat stone.
4. Everyone puts the same starting chips in their bag: four white 1s, two white 2s, one white 3, one orange 1 and one green 1. Each player also takes one ruby.

The potion phase: draw, place, decide

At the start of each round the start player reads a Fortune Teller card that affects everyone. From round two, players behind the leader get rat tails, which move their rat stone ahead of their droplet for a head start.

Then everyone draws at the same time. Pull one chip, place it the number of spaces ahead shown on the chip (a 2 goes two spaces past your last chip), and decide whether to draw again. You may never look into your bag.

Cherry bombs and exploding pots

Only white chips count toward an explosion. If the white chips in your pot add up to more than 7, your pot explodes and you stop drawing. The last chip still goes in. If the last chip you drew was white and your pot did not explode, you may use your flask once per round to put it back in the bag.

Scoring a round in Quacks

Your scoring space is the first empty space after your last chip. Evaluation runs in order:

1. Bonus die: the non-exploded player who reached the highest space rolls the bonus die.
2. Chip actions: resolve green, purple and black chips in your pot.
3. Rubies: take a ruby if your scoring space shows one.
4. Victory points and buying: take the points on your scoring space and buy one or two chips of different colors with the coins shown. If your pot exploded, you must choose points or buying, not both.
5. End of round: spend two rubies to move your droplet forward one space, or two rubies to refill your flask.

How the game changes over nine rounds

• Before round 2, the yellow book comes out. Before round 3, the purple book.
• Before round 6, everyone adds another white 1-chip to their bag.
• In the final round everyone draws together. Instead of buying, convert 5 coins or 2 rubies into 1 victory point as many times as you can.

The highest score wins. Ties go to the player who got farthest in their pot in the last round.

Teaching Quacks in ten minutes

Start with the bag and the pot: draw, place, stop before you explode. Then explain the five evaluation steps with the reference on the board, and leave chip powers until each color is first bought. Most new players understand the game after one round, and because everyone draws at once, the teacher can coach while playing.

Tips for brewing better potions

• Buy big chips early. Orange and other 4-value chips move you far quickly.
• Count your whites. Know how many cherry bomb points are still in the bag before you press your luck.
• Use rubies on droplets. A higher starting point pays off every round that follows.
• Try new sets. The four ingredient sets change how chips behave, so every game can feel different.

Comparing editions? Our Quacks vs Quacks and Co. guide explains the kids’ version. For more risk-taking fun, see our best push-your-luck board games.

Quacks rules questions

What makes your pot explode in Quacks?

White chips totaling more than 7. Other colors never count toward an explosion.

Can you look in your bag?

No. Every chip must be drawn blind.

What happens if your pot explodes?

You stop drawing, skip the bonus die and choose either victory points or buying chips for that round.

Is Quacks the same as The Quacks of Quedlinburg?

Yes. The current Quacks box is the same base game with new art and a shorter name.