How to play Hexhaven

1. Find your table

Sign in with Google, then create a game or join an open lobby. Use Join with code for a friend's room. Play solo creates a match against bots; the host chooses the bot count. Public games can also be watched without signing in.

If the host leaves before play starts, the lobby closes and everyone returns to the homepage. Before starting, the host chooses the map, player seats, turn timer, victory target and modifiers. The usual target is 10 victory points. The normal island supports up to four players; larger maps support up to six.

If you disconnect during a match, you have two minutes to return before a bot temporarily plays your seat. You can reclaim it by rejoining before the match ends. Disconnecting does not itself record a loss; remaining absent when the match ends does. If the host disconnects, another connected player keeps the match running. If everyone is offline, the match waits for someone to return.

Place your first settlements

Each player places a settlement and an adjacent road, then places a second pair in reverse player order. Settlements cannot touch another settlement or city along an edge. Your second settlement collects one resource from each adjacent producing hex.

2. Roll, trade and build

Roll two dice at the start of your turn. On any total other than seven, a matching numbered hex gives one resource to each adjacent settlement and two to each adjacent city, unless the robber blocks that hex. You can then trade, build and play an eligible development card before ending your turn.

Player trades let you choose how many cards to offer and request. Bank trades normally cost four matching resources for one resource of your choice. A 3:1 port improves all exchanges; a 2:1 port improves the resource shown. You must have a settlement or city at one of the port's two access points.

The bank tracker at the top shows remaining resources. Normal rooms start with 19 of each resource, or 24 in rooms with five or six seats. Spent and discarded resources return to the bank. If supply cannot pay multiple players for a resource roll, nobody receives that resource; a sole recipient receives what remains.

3. Build your island

Hover or tap a legal building spot when you have the resources, then click to place your piece. New settlements must connect to your roads and respect the spacing rule. You have 15 roads, 5 settlements and 4 cities; upgrading returns the settlement piece to your supply.

4. When a seven rolls

A seven produces no resources. Players holding more than the room's discard limit (normally seven cards) choose half their resources to discard, rounded down. With Random Discarding enabled, those cards are chosen and discarded automatically. The current player then moves the robber to a different legal hex and steals one random resource from an eligible adjacent opponent.

The robber blocks production on its hex. Knight cards also move the robber, but only played knights count toward Largest Army; rolling a seven does not.

5. Development cards and winning

The normal deck has 25 cards: 14 Knights, 5 Victory Point cards, and 2 each of Road Building, Year of Plenty and Monopoly. Rooms with five or six seats use 34 cards: 20 Knights, 5 Victory Point cards and 3 of each other type. The header shows only the total remaining, never which card was drawn.

• Knight: move the robber and steal from an eligible player.
• Road Building: place up to two free roads where legal.
• Year of Plenty: take two available resources from the bank, or its final card if only one remains.
• Monopoly: choose a resource and collect all of that type from opponents.
• Victory Point: a hidden point counted toward your victory total.

In Hexhaven, play at most one action development card per turn, after rolling, and not on the turn you bought it. Victory Point cards count automatically.

Reach the room's victory target on your turn to win. Longest Road awards two points for a continuous route of at least five roads. Largest Army awards two points for at least three played knights. Exceed the current holder to take either award; ties keep the current holder.

Explore Black Forest

A forest ring surrounds a central lake and six 2:1 wood ports. Start on revealed land away from clouds, then build roads toward the unexplored edge. When either end of a new road touches a cloud, that hex is revealed for everyone and its builder receives one card of its resource if the bank has one available. Setup roads and free roads also explore. A hex rewards only its first discoverer.

Clouds contain brick, wool, grain or ore, never wood. Hidden hexes do not produce resources and cannot hold the robber. Resource Shuffler changes only the non-wood resources on this map, including those beneath clouds, and never changes them into wood. Numbers and clouds stay in place until exploration.

Explore GoldRush

Four six-tile starting corners surround a desert buffer and three rings of clouds. Each corner has a 3:1 port and a 2:1 resource port. Extra resource tiles replace the desert beside every port. Initial settlements must touch a starting corner or its added port resources and cannot touch clouds. Roads can cross the desert. Reaching a cloud reveals it to everyone and awards one matching resource if available in the bank. Each cloud rewards only its first discoverer.

The central gold hex stays visible. When its number rolls, each adjacent settlement earns one resource of your choice and each city earns two. You may choose the same resource twice or mix them. Ordinary production resolves first; gold choices then resolve in turn order, starting with the player who rolled, using the remaining bank supply. Timers and bots can choose automatically.

The robber blocks gold normally, and Friendly Robber protects it when applicable. Resource Shuffler changes normal resource hexes, including those hidden beneath clouds, but leaves desert and gold unchanged. Only 7's still produces no resources; Unlimited Bank removes supply limits for gold choices as well.

6. Optional modifiers

Resource Shuffler

Whenever a seven rolls, every producing hex changes to a randomly chosen different resource. Settlements and cities collect that new resource on future matching rolls. Desert, gold, number tokens and cards already in hand stay unchanged. Normal discards and robber moves still apply. Knight moves do not shuffle resources. Works on every map with all other compatible modifiers.

Random Discarding

When a seven rolls, every player above the room’s discard limit automatically discards half their resource cards, rounded down. Each card is chosen at random from their hand. There is no discard selection or waiting period. The robber still moves normally. Works with Friendly Robber, Only 7's, Unlimited Bank and the other compatible modifiers.

Friendly Robber

The robber cannot enter a hex touching any player below three visible victory points. This includes shared hexes and knight moves. Hidden Victory Point cards do not remove protection. Discarding still applies, including with Only 7's and Unlimited Bank. If no legal destination remains, the robber stays put without stealing.

Only 7's

Every numbered hex becomes 7 and every dice roll totals 7. Normal discards and robber moves still apply, so rolls produce no resources. The desert remains unnumbered. Setup resources, trading and eligible development cards still work. Friendly Robber still protects low-score players. Selecting this turns off Greater Hexhaven.

Greater Hexhaven

Removes 6 and 8 from map number tokens and prevents dice totals of 6 and 8. Selecting this turns off Only 7's.

Unlimited Bank

Removes resource supply limits. Resource counters show ?. Building and trading still cost resources, and discards still apply. It has no effect on development cards or the rule that sevens produce no resources.

Unlimited Development Cards

Allows endless random development card purchases with standard card proportions. The development counter shows ?. Normal purchase costs and card-play restrictions still apply.

No Development Cards

Disables development cards and shows 0 remaining. Selecting this turns off Unlimited Development Cards, and vice versa.

All other modifier combinations are allowed on every map. All modifiers default off, survive reshuffling, and lock when the game starts.

Timers, rankings and finishing a match

When a timer expires, the game resolves required choices automatically or ends the turn. Keep the host's game open so moves can be processed. If the host disconnects, automatic moves wait until the host returns.

Matches that start with only players count toward ranked Elo. Matches started with bots do not affect Elo. New players stay unranked until their first completed player match. Resigning counts as a loss when the game finishes; a replacement bot does not turn a player match into an unranked match.

The ending summary shows dice rolls, development cards, resources and activity. Completed game details become eligible for cleanup after five minutes once results are saved; player wins, losses and ratings remain.