How to Play Catan: Setup, Trading, Building & the Robber
CATAN is a trading and network-building game for three or four players. Roll for production, trade resources, build roads and settlements, upgrade settlements into cities, and use development cards to create additional routes to victory. The first player to reach at least 10 victory points on their own turn wins.
Researched rules guide. Checked September 15, 2026 against CATAN’s current base-game rules resources and official FAQ. This page covers the standard 3–4 player base game. The 5–6 Player Extension and thematic expansions use additional rules. No hands-on testing is claimed. Editorial standards.
On this page: Set up the island and starting pieces · Resolve production before other actions · Trade with players or the supply · Build roads, settlements and cities · Use development cards correctly · Resolve a 7 and the robber · Claim Longest Road and Largest Army · Reach 10 victory points on your turn
Set up the island and starting pieces
For a first game, use the introductory layout provided by your edition. For a variable game, arrange the terrain, harbors and number tokens according to the rulebook. Place the robber on the desert.
Starting with the first player and continuing clockwise, each player places one settlement and one connected road. Then reverse the order: the last player places a second settlement and road first, continuing back toward the original first player.
After placing your second settlement, take one resource card for each productive terrain hex adjacent to that settlement. The desert produces no resource.
Every settlement must obey the distance rule: the neighboring intersections around it must remain empty. During normal play, a new settlement must also connect to one of your own roads.
Resolve production before trading and building
At the start of your turn, roll both dice unless the game has already been won on your turn through existing victory points. If the result is 2–6 or 8–12, every terrain hex with that number produces unless the robber blocks it.
A settlement adjacent to a producing hex receives one matching resource; a city receives two. Multiple players may receive resources from the same roll, and one player can receive from several adjacent hexes with the rolled number.
Once the production roll or robber procedure is fully resolved, the current edition allows you to trade and build in any order during your Action phase. You can trade, build, trade again and continue while you have legal actions and resources.
Trade with other players or with the supply
On your turn, you may negotiate resource trades with the other players. The active player must be part of the exchange: two inactive players cannot exchange cards directly with each other.
A player trade must exchange resources for resources. You cannot give cards away for nothing, trade future promises on credit, or exchange a resource for an immaterial service under the official FAQ.
You may also trade with the supply. The normal maritime rate is 4 matching resources for 1 resource of your choice. A settlement or city on a generic 3:1 harbor improves that rate; a specialized harbor lets you trade 2 of its shown resource for 1 different resource.
Spend resources to expand your network
| Purchase | Standard cost | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Road | 1 lumber + 1 brick | Extends your network from your road, settlement or city. |
| Settlement | 1 lumber + 1 brick + 1 wool + 1 grain | Adds 1 victory point and produces resources from adjacent terrain. |
| City | 3 ore + 2 grain | Upgrades one of your settlements, makes it worth 2 points and doubles its production. |
| Development card | 1 ore + 1 grain + 1 wool | Draws the top card of the development deck. |
A road cannot continue through another player’s settlement or city. A new settlement must be connected to your road and must obey the distance rule. A city is not built on an empty intersection: it replaces one of your existing settlements.
You may make multiple purchases in one turn if you can pay for them. Building a settlement and then upgrading that same settlement to a city later in the same turn is legal if you have the required pieces and resources.
Development cards add hidden points and special actions
Development cards include Knights, progress effects such as Road Building and Monopoly, and hidden Victory Point cards. Normally you may play at most one development card during your turn.
A development card bought this turn normally cannot be played until a later turn. Victory Point cards are treated differently when revealing them gives you the points needed to win on your current turn.
Played Knight cards stay visible in front of you because they count toward Largest Army. Other resolved progress cards are discarded.
A roll of 7 triggers discards and the robber
When a 7 is rolled, no terrain produces. Every player holding more than seven resource cards discards half of their hand, rounded down. Resolve those discards before trading or building.
The active player then moves the robber to another terrain hex and steals one random resource card from one eligible opponent with a settlement or city adjacent to that hex. The robber blocks future production from that terrain until moved again.
The robber does not block roads, settlement construction, city upgrades, harbors or trading. It blocks the resource production of the occupied terrain hex.
Longest Road and Largest Army are worth 2 points each
Longest Road requires a continuous road of at least five pieces and must be longer than every competing road. Opponents can interrupt a route by legally building a settlement at an intersection in it. Your own settlements do not break your road.
Because branches, loops, interruptions and ties can be confusing, use our Catan Longest Road rules guide for worked examples.
Largest Army is awarded after you have played at least three Knight cards and have played more Knights than any current holder. Both bonus awards are worth 2 victory points and can change hands during the game.
Reach 10 victory points on your own turn
- Settlement: 1 victory point
- City: 2 victory points
- Longest Road: 2 victory points
- Largest Army: 2 victory points
- Victory Point development card: the point printed on the card
You win as soon as you have the required victory points on your own turn. You do not need to finish an additional round.
Common CATAN rules mistakes
- Trading before resolving a 7: resolve discards and the robber first.
- Letting inactive players trade with each other: the active player must be part of a player trade.
- Letting the robber block construction or a harbor: it only blocks production from its terrain.
- Building through an opponent’s settlement: their settlement interrupts that route for future road construction and Longest Road counting.
- Using old 5–6 player rules with the current extension: the 2025 extension uses paired-player turns instead of the older Special Building Phase.
Continue learning CATAN
- CATAN game guide and expansion overview
- CATAN strategy: starting positions, expansion, trades and scoring routes
- Longest Road branches, loops, interruptions and ties
- CATAN expansion and extension compatibility
Sources and scope
Checked September 15, 2026. This guide covers the standard current 3–4 player base game. Expansion scenarios and the current 5–6 Player Extension add rules not fully described here.