How to Play Carl von Linné

How do you play Carl von Linné? The quick answer

Carl von Linné is a historical Euro-style strategy game from Pink Troubadour, designed by Michal Peichl. You portray an early naturalist collecting specimens, building a botanical garden, corresponding with colleagues, sending ships on voyages and publishing books. The game lasts five rounds. Each player takes three instrument turns per round, for 15 normal lens placements across the game. The most Victory Points wins.

The defining mechanism is your work table. You own lenses representing different actions and choose which to put beneath glasses, a magnifier or a microscope. The glasses activate a lens once, the magnifier twice and the microscope three times. Each instrument has its own bonus, and the microscope’s lens is locked for the next round. Stronger actions now can remove an important option from your next plan.

Five ordinary action families drive your decisions: Explore, Research, Correspond, Grow and Sail. A special Wild lens copies a basic action for a coin. After resolving the selected lens action, you may publish one book and claim qualifying achievements. So publishing and achievements are follow-up steps, not normally extra instrument placements.

This article is a complete beginner-oriented walkthrough of rules confirmed in the official English rulebook listing and checked against the readable rulebook reference and action summary. It complements our Carl von Linné game overview, which focuses on what the game is and who it suits. The rulebook’s icon descriptions remain authoritative for individual card effects.

One turn and one round: what happens, in order?

It helps to distinguish a turn from a round. A turn is one player’s chance to place a lens on an unused instrument. Players alternate in the active turn order, each taking one turn at a time, until everyone has used all three instruments. That completes the Action Phase; the entire table then completes the Income Phase before the next round starts.

There are five rounds of this sequence. Do not confuse the microscope’s three action uses with taking three separate turns. You use one instrument and resolve the indicated basic action three times during the same turn; you still have only two remaining instrument choices for that round.

Setup checklist for a first Carl von Linné game

The box contains multiple decks, displays and personal boards. A careful setup avoids confusion later over which sample belongs in a library, where upgraded lenses enter play and which turn-order tile is current.

1. Arrange the common board. Place the Scandinavian map and botanical garden centrally. Put the score, university and achievement tracks within view.
2. Prepare samples and sketches. Shuffle the sample tiles, reveal one on each of the eight map sample spaces, and populate the four map sketch spaces. Prepare the separate sketch supply decks and garden pond rewards.
3. Make the public card displays. Reveal three voyage cards, three letter cards and three book cards alongside their shuffled supplies. Reveal three exotic sample tiles.
4. Set the upgraded lenses. Reveal four upgraded lenses on the board, with the remaining lenses available to refill their display.
5. Set the garden and university objectives. Randomize the garden rewards and pond tiles. Assign three endgame scoring tiles to the university tracks and four scoring tiles to the public achievements.
6. Assemble the rudder. Fit its rotating wheel on the voyage map and choose a starting alignment. This affects later sea-route rewards and will change every round.
7. Set turn order. Determine the first player and take the starting turn-order rewards. Leave the indicated number of future turn-order tiles in the stack.
8. Set up personal boards. Each player takes a work table and a base-game character board, six basic action lenses, the Wild lens, flowers, markers, ships, a researcher and an explorer. Put each explorer at Lund and the researcher at the center of the library.
9. Prepare your starting research. Take a random starting book and its matching numbered sample tile. Put that sample in an indicated legal library position. Take a starting voyage and put one of your ships in its harbor.
10. Take starting materials. In the normal base game, start with one container, one tool and one coin. Special-character and solo setups have exceptions.

For two or three players, the rules use a setup card to block particular shared spaces and prepopulate some garden squares. Do not apply the full four-player board without that player-count adjustment. The illustrated setup checklist is useful beside the publisher’s original diagram, especially when the first-time table is crowded.

Glasses vs magnifier vs microscope: the comparison

Suppose you want to Explore and your Explorer is one path away from a valuable sample. Glasses would let you explore once and accelerate Taxonomy; the magnifier could let you move and explore twice, provided each use is legal; the microscope could do so three times, but you would be unable to use that Explore lens on the next round unless you had a second eligible one.

Every player uses each of these three instruments once per round. You cannot put two lenses on the microscope simply because its multiplier is larger, nor may you put a previously used lens under another instrument before the Income Phase returns it to the available pool.

There is no universal ranking of the instruments. The microscope is efficient when you have a strong chain of legal actions. Glasses can be the best choice when its Taxonomy advance will earn an upgraded lens, while the magnifier may be exactly what you need to afford publishing.

The microscope lock rule: why your best move can hurt next round

The microscope gives an enticing triple action. At the Income Phase, however, its used lens goes into the crate rather than immediately returning to the available group. The lens that was already locked there becomes available again. This means the microscope lens will not be playable in the next round.

Worked example: a Research lens across three rounds

In round one you have an important Research lens and place it under the microscope. You perform the Research action three times, assuming each successive use has a legal effect. At the end of round one, the Research lens is locked in the crate. In round two you must choose your three instruments from your other available lenses. At the end of round two, the Research lens returns to your pool, so it can be selected in round three.

The cost is not three lost actions: it is a future restriction on which action can be selected. With six basic lenses initially, you generally have enough alternatives to take your three next-round turns, but not necessarily the ones best suited to your engine.

Plan ahead by asking two questions before committing a lens to the microscope: can I use this action three times right now, and will I regret not having this particular lens next round? A microscope move that runs out of legal targets after one repetition wastes some of its potential.

Taxonomy, upgraded lenses and the Wild lens

The Taxonomy track circles your character board. When your marker completes the required circuit by reaching or passing the marked top space, you gain an upgraded lens from the public display and refill its place. The newly gained lens enters your available pool, making your future instrument choices more varied.

An upgraded lens adds its printed special benefit once per activation. If you put it under the microscope, the ordinary action repeats up to three times, while the upgrade’s special benefit normally happens once—not three times unless the token itself explicitly directs otherwise. Always inspect the precise symbol on the upgraded lens.

Does the Wild lens copy any action?

The Wild lens can imitate one of the five basic action types by paying one coin. Its borrowed action then receives the instrument’s normal 1×, 2× or 3× multiplier. The Wild lens cannot combine basic actions or copy a gold upgraded lens’s unique effect.

For example, you have no available Sail lens because it is in the crate, but a voyage needs two steps. You could pay one coin to use your Wild lens on the magnifier as a basic Sail action twice. You also gain the magnifier’s tool-or-container bonus. You do not gain any special effect that might have existed on a separate upgraded Sail token.

Taxonomy rewards improve future flexibility, but acquiring lots of upgraded lenses is not always valuable if only a few rounds remain and you cannot use them. Consider the number of available turns as well as the power of a new token.

Explore action: travel, specimens and library capacity

Explore moves your naturalist around the connected map and lets you investigate a location. Follow the printed paths and pay any travel cost. If it is your first visit to a location, you may claim its first-visit bonus as indicated. Investigation then allows you to take a location reward or collect a sample tile by paying the required containers.

You have room for four samples in your library. Each collected sample is positioned in one of the legal spaces on your personal board, setting up future Research routes. An open slot is important: a great map sample is not automatically available to collect if all your library positions are occupied.

What happens at a sketch location?

Sketch spaces provide their printed reward and can generate a sketch under the rulebook’s conditions. Movement is optional on an Explore action, so it is possible to stay on the current location and investigate again. However, refilling empty map displays follows its own timing, and a token is not infinitely replenished during repeated uses of one turn.

First-game decision: taking a sample may be stronger than an immediate small location bonus if you can Research it quickly and use its knowledge to publish. But a sample that fills the last library slot without supporting your planned book can slow you down.

Research action: studying specimens and earning knowledge

Your Researcher moves around the connected positions of your personal library. Entering a space gives the printed globe reward and interacts with the adjacent uncovered corners of the sample tiles you have collected. These corners can supply knowledge, one-time bonuses or progress toward fully researching a specimen.

When a corner’s reward is processed, mark it as instructed so you do not claim the same one-time reward again simply by walking back over it. A fully completed sample is removed from the library and retained as a researched specimen for endgame scoring. That also opens room to collect something new on a future Explore action.

Knowledge is organized into three distinct scientific groups, with a limited number of markers per group. Each group holds at most two knowledge; attempts to gain knowledge when that group is full turn into points under the rulebook’s conversion rule rather than storing a third marker.

Worked example: why planning a Research route matters

You have two samples placed so that a single Researcher move passes next to several unresolved corners. That can produce more useful knowledge than collecting a third sample on the map and leaving it unstudied. Conversely, if the nearby corners are already resolved, another Research movement may provide little beyond its globe reward. Research should be planned as a path through an evolving library puzzle.

Correspond: draw letters, send letters and build columns

Correspondence models communication with the scientific world. One basic Correspond action lets you take one letter from the public offer, or send up to two letters already in your hand. Sent letters provide effects; cards of the same color form a column and may cause other letters of that color to activate.

The colors matter for both your current action engine and later set scoring. It is tempting to send multiple letters of a single color to compound their effect, but an endgame set rewards different colors. Building a powerful column and gathering a diverse set are not always the same plan.

Worked example: repeat an effect or add variety?

You have already sent two blue letters. A third blue letter might complete another useful column activation, while sending a green letter may improve your eventual different-color set. If several rounds remain, immediate production from blue could be attractive. Near the end, an additional color might be more efficient. Evaluate both the printed letter effect and the final scoring possibilities.

The letter’s actual symbols determine the effect and timing. A public letter display is not a free draft every turn; the relevant Correspond action or another legal card effect must let you take or send a card.

Grow: planting flowers, cultivating them and pond bonuses

The shared botanical garden is another avenue to earn points and build your scientific engine. A Grow action can plant a flower in an available space matching its shape, or pay two tools to cultivate an already planted flower. Cultivation flips the flower to its higher-bloom face and triggers the indicated reward, including the appropriate pond/sketch effects when the standard cultivation rule applies.

Garden rewards are tied to completed beds and bloom majorities. The location where you place a flower matters because different players may compete within the same bed. A flower positioned solely for an immediate reward may be less helpful when determining who controls the completed group.

Example: choosing between planting and cultivation

You have an available 2-bloom flower and a legal open square, but you also have tools to cultivate an existing piece. Planting could move a bed toward completion and protect area presence; cultivating could strengthen an existing flower’s blooms and yield an immediate effect. Compare the majority situation and any pond bonus before assuming that adding another flower is always best.

The rulebook also contains an advanced Grow lens that can cultivate a flower directly. This special effect does not necessarily give the normal pond or sketch bonuses. Apply the upgraded lens’s specific exception rather than automatically claiming every reward associated with standard cultivation.

Sail: expeditions, the rotating rudder and recurring income

Voyage cards provide ship routes with rewards at each step. The Sail action moves one ship one space along its voyage and gains the landing space’s reward. Because the instrument multiplier can let you Sail two or three times, you might advance one ship repeatedly or distribute legal Sail uses among several ships.

The rudder changes the value of colored spaces. Certain rewards are multiplied by the corresponding dots shown in the current rudder section, which rotates at each Income Phase. This creates opportunities to time Sailing around particularly favorable reward alignments.

After a ship reaches its destination, the voyage is complete and grants its destination reward. You can then pair that completed voyage with a published book, creating a source of recurring income during later rounds. A completed, unpaired voyage does not automatically produce its ongoing income.

Is a book-to-voyage pairing mandatory immediately?

No. You can leave a book or voyage unpaired and attach them later. Once a published book has been placed with a voyage, however, it cannot be moved to a different voyage. The pair is a commitment.

Planning example: completing a voyage in round two and pairing it with a published book may generate income at multiple later Income Phases. Completing the same route in round five still grants its immediate destination effect, but there are fewer future income opportunities. The earlier pair can be worth investing in even if a slower route promises a higher one-time reward.

Publishing books: knowledge, sketches and achievements

After resolving your lens action on a turn, you may publish at most one book. Publication requires the specific knowledge shown on the book and a sketch. Pay the resources, place the card in your published area and receive its printed points and any indicated reward.

A matching sketch is placed faceup and activates the benefit associated with the publication; a sketch from a different realm is placed facedown and does not produce that matching effect. The printed book and sketch icons govern the exact match, not how closely two illustrations seem related.

Some books have an appendix option that awards extra points when the additional requirement is paid at the moment of publication. You cannot ordinarily return in a later round to pay a missed appendix cost for an earlier book.

After publishing, check whether your position meets one of the public achievements. If you qualify, place your marker on an available achievement reward space and score its printed points. Each player may claim a given achievement only once, and the earlier claimant commonly receives the larger award.

Practical order: resolve the lens’s action first. That action may provide exactly the knowledge or sketch you needed. Then publish, which might itself trigger another reward, before checking achievements. A game can contain complex cascades, but the three main steps help keep those legal effects in the right place.

Free actions and resource management

Besides your regular instrument action, the rulebook offers several free actions that can be taken during your turn if you can afford them. “Free” means they do not use one of your three instruments; it does not mean their resource prices disappear.

Paying to refresh a display may be profitable when your planned sequence depends on a matching book. Spending coins repeatedly without a coherent goal can also leave you unable to travel, perform a Wild action or boost another ability.

Worked example: you are one tool short of what you need to unlock a good publication. If you have three coins, a free conversion to one tool may be more valuable than abandoning the book and taking a completely different instrument action. But if there are no remaining turns to publish, buying resources simply to hold them is unlikely to be as strong.

Taxonomy and university lectures: two progress systems

There are two different tracks to understand. Taxonomy circles your personal character board and lets you acquire stronger lenses when you complete its circuit. University lectures advance your colored speech tokens on the shared board and can provide immediate rewards plus endgame multipliers.

The glasses instrument makes Taxonomy especially visible because its bonus advances that personal track by three. Other effects can add Taxonomy steps as well. When you cross the gain-lens point, take one displayed upgraded lens, refill the offer and consider how many remaining rounds give you an opportunity to use it.

University lectures are scored differently. Their three tracks have random endgame goal tiles. Your final position combines with the number of times you meet the relevant tile’s condition, to the stated cap. The first player reaching a track’s final position may occupy its special final space; later players cannot claim that same spot.

Why compare them? Taxonomy is mainly an engine-building and action-flexibility mechanism; the lecture tracks are closer to public long-term scoring commitments. A turn that improves both is attractive, but do not assume advancing one automatically advances the other.

Income Phase: lens reset, turn order and rudder rotation

After every player has used their glasses, magnifier and microscope, resolve the Income Phase. This is a shared phase performed once after the third instrument turn, not a payment that triggers separately every time a player places a lens.

1. Sort the lenses. Return the previously locked lens from the crate to the available area, put the current microscope lens in the crate for the next round, and return glasses/magnifier lenses to their normal available positions.
2. Establish next round’s order. Use the open turn-order spaces selected by the players who used the microscope. Apply the current tile’s procedure.
3. Remove the completed turn-order tile. This keeps the game on its five-round schedule.
4. Gain voyage income. Completed voyages paired with published books produce the indicated income. Incomplete routes and completed unpaired routes do not qualify.
5. Rotate the rudder. Turn it one segment clockwise so that colored Sail rewards may have different multipliers in the next round.

Because the microscope both improves action strength and determines next-turn order, you should check the available order spaces before deciding when to use it in the current round. An early microscope placement may secure a valuable bonus or seat, while leaving it late could result in fewer choices.

After round five, finish the applicable last Income Phase and proceed to final scoring. The rulebook describes the final-round exception to future turn-order preparation because there is no round six.

Carl von Linné scoring: all endgame categories

The score track may already contain points from books, garden majority rewards and achievements. Those immediate points stay scored. After the fifth round’s Income Phase, add the remaining endgame categories in the stated order.

Ties: the player with more coins remaining wins a tie on Victory Points. Unconverted coins by themselves are not simply one point each. The final coins matter for converting leftover tools and containers, and for the tiebreak if totals match.

Worked scoring example (invented totals)

A naturalist has already scored 24 points from publications and achievements. At endgame they earn 10 points from two qualifying exotic samples, 6 from researched samples, 4 from an incomplete garden bed, 8 from letter sets, 12 from universities and 5 from unused components. The final total is 24 + 10 + 6 + 4 + 8 + 12 + 5 = 69 points. The individual category figures here are hypothetical and do not purport to match a particular physical draw of university tiles or garden rewards.

Three original planning examples

Example 1: choosing the right instrument for a book

Your library already provides the knowledge for a book, but you still need a matching sketch. If one Explore action can get you the sketch, glasses may be enough, while its three Taxonomy steps set up your next upgraded lens. Choosing the microscope simply because “three is greater than one” may waste repetitions and lock Explore next round. The strongest instrument is the one that turns a planned result into actual points.

Example 2: publishing versus developing a voyage

At the end of round two, you can publish a modest book immediately or spend more turns seeking a higher-value publication. The modest book can be paired with an already completed voyage and generate recurring income in rounds three, four and five. The larger book might award more direct points but could arrive too late to fuel the engine. Compare total expected rewards across remaining rounds rather than only the number printed on the book.

Example 3: action multiplier versus your locked lens

You have Sail and Research lenses, each highly relevant to next round. Your magnifier is available for two repetitions, and your microscope offers three. Put the lens whose immediate triple effect is strongest on the microscope only after checking what your next round needs. If you will need Research urgently, it may be better to use Research under the magnifier and lock Sail after a triple Sail turn.

These are editorial teaching examples, not official scenarios and not claimed playtest results. They show how to reason about the opportunity costs built into the lens system.

Solo rules: the automated Green Opponent

Carl von Linné includes a solo opponent using its own board, green lenses and a deck of 20 solo cards. You set up the ordinary game with two player positions, but the green naturalist follows automated instructions rather than making the same free choices as a human.

At solo setup, use the opponent’s board on its solo side, arrange its starting voyage, book and sample, and put the shuffled solo cards near it. The human goes first. The opponent will execute automated lens actions from the cards, including exploration, research, correspondence, garden activity and voyages.

Four published difficulty settings change how many green lenses it has already developed at the start:

Do not interpret the solo cards as suggestions to optimize for the opponent. Follow each indicated row and the printed fallback if it cannot perform something. Its costs, movement and income have special automated exceptions. Notably, it does not claim regular recurring income from paired voyage/book cards during the Income Phase.

For an accurate first solo session, keep the solo setup and procedure beside the official rules. It is better to use the published card sequence than to improvise a “second player” with the normal human actions.

Advanced game: four asymmetric naturalists

The normal first game works without individual character powers. Once the group understands the core actions, the advanced game lets players use asymmetrical historical-character abilities. The rules describe four distinct characters, each with separate components:

This is a meaningful increase in tactical complexity. Players are no longer evaluating only the shared action set: they must also see how their personal powers interact with the instrument chosen and what those powers cost or trigger.

Setup exception: optional asymmetric starting tiles are a base-game variant and should not be combined with the advanced character powers. The advanced game has different starting-resource instructions from the usual one container, one tool and one coin. Refer to the matching advanced setup to prevent an accidental double advantage.

The most common Carl von Linné rules mistakes

• Calling five actions per round: there are five basic action families, but each player normally takes three turns per round, one at each instrument.
• Using the microscope without a future plan: its lens is locked for the following round even though the current action repeats three times.
• Triple-triggering an upgrade: the base action repeats according to the instrument, but an upgraded lens’s special effect normally happens once.
• Skipping the book step: after each instrument action you can publish a legal book before checking achievements.
• Publishing several books in one turn: normally only one book may be published in that turn’s Publish step.
• Treating a sample as fully studied when collected: samples require library Research to resolve their corners.
• Keeping five samples in the library: the ordinary library has four sample positions.
• Drawing a second sketch because the map display refilled instantly: refill timing depends on the end-of-turn procedure.
• Moving a paired book: a book may be paired with a voyage later, but cannot be moved after attachment.
• Taking voyage income just because a ship reached its destination: recurring income requires a completed voyage paired with a published book.
• Confusing garden area rewards with university scoring: these are separate conditions and separate timing.
• Scoring unused coins as one point each: follow the endgame coin conversion and leftover-component rules.
• Using solo opponent rules as normal player rules: the automated opponent has special movement and income handling.

When there is a dispute over a rare upgraded lens effect, first inspect the publisher’s icon wording. For specific questions about staying on a sketch location, pairing books and voyages, and movement that skips locations, a rules clarification page links discussions and distinguishes community interpretations from officially confirmed rulings.

Carl von Linné FAQ

How many players can play Carl von Linné?

One to four, including its official solo mode. Typical listed playing time is 60–120 minutes.

How many rounds are there?

Five. Each round has an Action Phase followed by an Income Phase.

How many turns does each person get?

Three normal instrument turns per round, one with glasses, one with the magnifier and one with the microscope.

What does the glasses instrument do?

It resolves the chosen lens’s basic action once and advances Taxonomy three spaces.

What does the magnifier do?

It resolves its lens action twice, then awards a tool or container as its instrument bonus.

What does the microscope do?

It resolves the action three times and lets you choose an open next-round turn-order space, but locks the used lens for the following round.

Does the microscope lock last for the rest of the game?

No. The lens comes back into the available pool during the next Income Phase, after sitting out one round.

Does a gold upgraded lens trigger three times under the microscope?

Its base action can occur three times, but its special upgrade effect normally resolves once unless its printed symbol states otherwise.

What are the main actions?

Explore, Research, Correspond, Grow and Sail. A Wild lens can copy a basic action by paying a coin.

Can you move without moving your explorer on an Explore action?

Movement is optional; you may investigate the current location under the normal action rules.

How many samples can be stored in your library?

Four. Fully researched samples leave the active library, making room for another.

How many books can be published per turn?

Normally one, after the chosen instrument’s action and before the achievement check.

Do you have to match the book’s sketch realm?

A mismatched sketch can be used facedown under the rulebook’s procedure but does not trigger the matched sketch effect.

Can a published book be paired with a completed voyage later?

Yes. The pairing is optional at first, but becomes permanent once made.

Does completing a voyage create recurring income by itself?

No. It must also be paired with a published book.

How does the Wild lens work?

Pay a coin to copy one basic action type at the selected instrument’s strength; it cannot copy a special upgraded lens effect.

What is the Taxonomy track for?

Completing a circuit earns a displayed upgraded lens that can expand your future action choices.

What are university lectures for?

They advance public colored lecture tracks whose positions combine with randomized endgame objectives.

How are fully researched samples scored?

Two, four or six points according to how many of the sample’s relevant reward/knowledge corners count under the scoring rule.

How do you break a tied final score?

The tied player with more coins remaining wins.

How does solo work?

An automated green opponent uses a special board and solo-card deck, with four difficulty settings.

Are advanced character powers mandatory?

No. First-time players may use the normal base game without them.

Is there an official English rulebook?

Yes. BoardGameGeek lists the Official English Rulebook, version 11. An HTML reading reference is also available.

Sources, edition scope and editorial note

Official rules location: Carl von Linné (2026) on BoardGameGeek, including Carl von Linné — Official English Rulebook (version 11). The official rules file is listed there; where direct PDF access requires a BoardGameGeek session, use the game page’s Files section.

Text rules checks: RulesPal — Carl von Linné rulebook provides an accessible reading version. Independent references used to verify setup, phase order, instrument bonuses, sample handling and points were the separate Ludex setup, turn sequence, scoring, solo and advanced-character pages. Those are unofficial references; always defer to an updated publisher rulebook if a discrepancy appears.

Publisher and historical context: Pink Troubadour’s historical-game series explanation. The 2026 edition is designed by Michal Peichl; the player count and duration are supported by the current BGG game listing.

Editorial disclosure: This guide explains rules in original wording and supplies original worked examples. It is not a copy of the official rulebook, does not use publisher illustrations, and does not claim firsthand playtesting or statistically tested strategies. For exact token, lens, tile and component effects, use the physical pieces and the rulebook’s full icon legend. Fact-check date: 1 November 2026. Read our editorial policy and existing Carl von Linné game guide.