How to Play Forbidden Island: Actions, Flooding & Treasures
Forbidden Island is a cooperative race against a sinking map. The team must collect all four treasures and then gather at Fools’ Landing to escape by helicopter before rising water removes the tiles needed to finish the mission.
On your turn, take up to three actions
- Move: move to an adjacent tile, modified by your adventurer’s special ability.
- Shore up: flip a flooded tile back to its dry side when you can legally reach it.
- Give a treasure card: transfer a matching Treasure card to another adventurer when the sharing rules allow.
- Capture a treasure: discard four matching Treasure cards while standing on one of that treasure’s two pickup tiles.
Then draw two Treasure cards
Draw two cards from the Treasure deck. These can be treasure cards, useful special-action cards or Waters Rise! cards. Respect the hand limit by discarding or using special cards as required.
Waters Rise! makes future flooding harsher
When a Waters Rise! card appears, raise the water-level marker and recycle the Flood discard pile onto the top of the Flood deck as instructed. This means locations that just flooded are likely to be drawn again soon and sink.
Finish the turn by flooding tiles
Draw Flood cards equal to the current water level. A dry tile flips to its flooded side. If a flooded tile is drawn again, it sinks permanently: remove the tile and its Flood card from the game.
Collect all four treasures
Each treasure has two possible pickup tiles. A player holding four matching Treasure cards can capture that treasure while standing on either surviving pickup tile. Once collected, that treasure no longer depends on its pickup tiles staying on the board.
Escape from Fools’ Landing with Helicopter Lift
After all four treasures are collected, every adventurer must reach Fools’ Landing. Then play a Helicopter Lift card to carry the entire team off the island. The team wins together.
Continue learning
Source: Gamewright: Forbidden Island. Checked September 20, 2026.