BoardGameArchiveForbidden Island
Learn Forbidden Island cooperative actions, flooding, treasure collection and escape conditions, with current Gamewright sources.
Learn Forbidden Island cooperative actions, flooding, treasure collection and escape conditions, with current Gamewright sources.
Work together as adventurers on a modular island, moving between tiles, shoring up flooded locations and exchanging treasure cards.
Collect four matching treasure cards to claim each treasure, then bring everyone to Fool’s Landing and escape by helicopter before essential locations sink.
Why We Love It
Forbidden Island creates pressure by removing the map itself. The team must collect treasures while also spending actions to keep critical locations from sinking permanently.
About Forbidden Island
Work together as adventurers on a modular island, moving between tiles, shoring up flooded locations and exchanging treasure cards.
Collect four matching treasure cards to claim each treasure, then bring everyone to Fool’s Landing and escape by helicopter before essential locations sink.
Game at a Glance
Shore Up Tiles
Flip flooded locations back before another flood removes them.
Collect Treasure Cards
Coordinate hands so one player can assemble the set needed for each treasure.
Use Role Powers
Different adventurers bend movement, sharing or shoring rules.
Escape Together
Claim all four treasures and reach the helicopter before the island collapses.
What is Forbidden Island?
Forbidden Island is a cooperative adventure for 2–4 players. The team explores a layout of island tiles, collects matching treasure cards and tries to capture all four treasures before the island disappears beneath rising water.
Gamewright lists the game for ages 10+ with a 30-minute play time.
How the game works
On a turn, an adventurer takes actions such as moving, shoring up flooded tiles, giving treasure cards to teammates in the right circumstances, or capturing a treasure. After actions, treasure cards and Flood cards advance the shared crisis.
Flooded tiles can become worse and eventually sink out of the game. If key locations vanish or the team can no longer complete the escape, everyone loses.
The decisions that define it
The main tension is spending actions on progress versus repair. Shoring up everything is inefficient, but ignoring a critical route or treasure location can make the game unwinnable.
Card sharing also creates positioning problems because useful transfers require teammates to coordinate where they meet.
Who is it for?
Choose Forbidden Island if you want a short cooperative game that teaches shared planning without the heavier rules overhead of Spirit Island.
For a more system-heavy disease-control puzzle, compare Pandemic.
Learn Forbidden Island in depth
Compare Forbidden Island
Publisher sources & scope
Checked September 15, 2026. This hub covers the identified current base or standalone edition. Use the publisher rulebook for exact card, tile and special-effect interactions.