Take Time
Plan together, then play twelve cards in silence around a clock to solve a growing series of cooperative puzzles.
Every Take Time test asks the team to distribute twelve numbered Solar and Lunar cards across six clock segments. Before seeing their hands, players may discuss a plan. Then they reveal their own cards and must place them without talking.
At resolution, every segment needs a card, segment sums must not decrease clockwise from the hand, and the clock’s own restrictions must hold. The box offers 40 tests in ten chapters; Mirage adds a new four-clock chapter and Sand Bird movement.
Why It Stands Out
The group can reason freely while every card is still unknown, then must interpret one another’s silent placements when those values become known. The puzzle is less about speed than agreeing on useful conventions within the rules and adapting when a hand breaks the original plan.
What the base box gives you
Libellud’s 2025 game by Alexi Piovesan and Julien Prothière, illustrated by Maud Chalmel, supports two to four players. It contains twelve Solar cards numbered 1–12 and twelve Lunar cards numbered 1–12, ten chapter sleeves with four clocks each, player-count reminders, bonus tokens, a Sleeve of Regrets and a Rebirth sleeve. The base game has substantial content before any expansion is needed.
This is cooperative and has no individual points leaderboard. A test is passed or failed together. After all 40 have been attempted, the included Rebirth material can refresh replay. The official player count begins at two; the publisher does not list a solo mode.
How Take Time works
Start with Clock 1 of Chapter 1. Read the chapter’s rules sheet and the restrictions printed on the clock. Shuffle the Solar and Lunar cards and deal twelve in total. Players may see card backs, but do not look at values during the discussion phase. This is when you agree on a general approach, such as which segments need room for high totals and which special color requirement deserves priority.
After discussion, players look at their hands and enter silent placement. One card at a time is placed next to any segment, usually facedown. The rulebook allows a narrow confirmation of already-known information, but no new strategy discussion. A limited shared number of faceup placements, shown by the player-count Reminder token, provides a deliberate information tool. When all twelve cards are placed, reveal from the hand segment clockwise and sum the cards in each segment. The six totals must stay level or rise, no segment may be empty, and the standard 24-point cap applies unless a clock explicitly suspends it. The first three Chapter 1 clocks do suspend that cap.
Two-player setup splits each player’s six cards into four initially viewed and two kept hidden until both players have placed two. Three players get four each; four players get three each. Follow the publisher rulebook and each chapter sheet for exceptions.
Where the decisions come from
The key tension is how much to commit to an early segment when you do not know teammates’ card values. The visible card backs reveal Solar or Lunar, but the numbers stay private. A faceup card can clarify a critical sum, yet those shared allowances are limited. You can talk through the clock’s printed constraints before seeing any hands; once placement begins, legal information is confined to what the cards on the table show.
Example: if the fifth segment already looks likely to total 18, placing a high card in the fourth may save the ascending sequence, while adding another high card to the third could make the fourth impossible to bridge. This is an analytical example, not a prescribed solution to a specific clock. Read the printed test rule before deciding.
Chapters, failure and replay
The forty tests are grouped into ten four-clock chapters. Pass a clock and move forward. Fail one and flip a Bonus token face up for an additional face-up placement on the next attempt. You may retry, or reset face-up Bonus tokens and skip the clock into the Sleeve of Regrets to revisit later. Successful retry resets face-up Bonus tokens. The game is completed after all forty tests are passed; the Rebirth sleeve becomes available after all have been attempted, even if some remain unfinished. You can stop a session and continue at the same chapter later.
Take Time: Mirage
Mirage is a 2026 mini-expansion with a new chapter of four clocks, a Sand Bird pawn and a Rebirth token. Card placement moves the bird around the inner clock edge; individual tests say whether crossing the clock hand is required or prohibited. Libellud says the base game is required, though you can play the Mirage chapter at any point in the campaign. It recommends finishing Chapter 1 first. This is different from the Rebirth sleeve already included in the original box.
Who will enjoy it?
It suits groups that enjoy repeated cooperative deduction and can accept failing a test, revising a plan and trying again. The silent execution phase is central; a group wanting open table talk throughout may find it restrictive. Its chapter structure makes it easier to pause than a single long campaign, while later clocks add new conditions to learn. There is no competition between players or score to optimize for oneself.
Explore Take Time in depth
Publisher sources and scope
Rules and product status checked October 3, 2026. Strategy advice is editorial reasoning from the published game, not a claim of personal playtesting.