Everdell Duo has more than one cooperative format. You may play a single chapter with two people, run the full 15-chapter campaign, or use Challenge mode against Miss Lily Thorn. One person can play the campaign or Challenge by managing both mayors. The competitive rules guide explains the underlying Sun/Moon turn structure; this page covers what actually changes.
Set up a cooperative chapter
Use the numbered side of the board and the season tiles with Skunk icons. The chosen campaign chapter tells you how many Skunk workers occupy Events, the Meadow path and locations, plus any special setup. Roll the die to place them in their assigned areas according to the rulebook. Put Sun and Moon on the leftmost uncovered path space. Do not use competitive Journey. A Skunk can block a worker location or force a Sun/Moon token to skip a track space, reducing available actions that season; its position moves again at the start of each season.
The two mayors build one shared city to reach a chapter’s point target and its Event or other printed goals. They still have separate hands, resources and workers. A player must pay for a card with their own resources unless that chapter permits an item transfer. Green Production and tan Traveler rewards normally go to the player who triggered them; points earned by actions contribute to the shared total. Read the chapter before dividing resource collection, because an Event based on resources can require the player taking it to hold those resources personally.
Sharing is controlled by the chapter
With Open Sharing, a player may place one resource, hand card or unused Occupied token on the Sharing tile during their turn; the partner receives it at the start of their turn. Limited Sharing adds a timing restriction: a Sun or Moon token must be at the middle handshake space at the start of the giver’s turn. With No Sharing, transfers are forbidden. The rules allow partners to discuss the color and Critter/Construction type of cards in hand and desired resources, but not identify exact hand cards. Those limits matter when coordinating a shared city.
Good News and Pocket Watches
At the start of a chapter, reveal three Good News cards and select one as a team. It can be used once, then is removed for the campaign. On Normal difficulty, unused Good News may be kept between chapters; Hard permits at most one held at a time. Normal also provides a Pocket Watch each chapter, with some chapters granting another. A Watch moves Sun or Moon backward one space, creating an extra action opportunity, and cannot be saved between chapters. On Hard, Watches come only from chapters that award them. Use them for a turn that will actually secure a point threshold or goal, not just to take an action with no path to success.
What makes the campaign 15 chapters?
The campaign book changes Skunk placement, goals and restrictions from chapter to chapter. Record a chapter’s result and score on the included sheet. Normal permits one replay of each chapter; Hard allows at most three chapter replays across the entire campaign and sets higher score targets. A failed chapter does not end the whole campaign, but scores zero campaign points for that chapter unless a permitted replay succeeds. The final campaign score also rewards unused Watches and penalizes replays. You can play an individual chapter without committing to all 15.
Solo: run two mayors, not one merged hand
For solo campaign play, the rulebook says to play both mayors and follow the same two-player cooperative rules. Keep their hands separate; laying them faceup above the two reference cards is suggested to make management easier. You alternate the two mayors’ actions, keep their personal resources distinct, and build the one shared city. A solo player still faces Skunks, chapter goals and the Sun/Moon turn limit. This is a multi-hand management puzzle, not the original Everdell Rugwort opponent.
Challenge mode and Miss Lily Thorn
Challenge is a separate one-off mode playable solo or cooperatively, without a specific campaign chapter. Miss Lily Thorn collects a stack of cards and sometimes Events, scores them at game end and ignores their printed card abilities. You must beat her score to count a win; the rulebook also lists ten optional achievements at varying difficulty. Set up its Skunks and sharing rule for your chosen difficulty, and follow its season-end card and Event collection procedure. The campaign chapter score targets do not replace this artificial opponent’s score.
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Sources and scope: Tycoon Games’ English Everdell Duo rulebook (PDF) and publisher product page, checked October 4, 2026. Examples and tactical judgments are editorial reasoning from these rules; this page does not claim firsthand testing. Use the mode and chapter instructions in your copy for any exception.