Take Time is a cooperative card puzzle for two to four players. Each test uses twelve of the game’s 24 cards, numbered 1–12 in both a Solar and a Lunar suit. The team must place them around six clock segments, then reveal and check the result together. A session can cover one clock or several; the base box has 40 tests divided into ten chapters.

Set up the next clock

  1. Begin with Clock 1 of Chapter 1, or the next clock in your chapter. Read its chapter rules sheet and the instructions on the clock itself. These local instructions matter as much as the common rules.
  2. Shuffle all 24 Solar and Lunar cards. Deal twelve cards total for this test; put the unused cards aside without using their values as clues.
  3. At three players, deal four cards each. At four, deal three each. In a two-player game, each player gets six: four to look at when placement starts and two kept face down until both players have placed two cards.
  4. Use the player-count Reminder token to track the shared allowance for face-up placements. The team may later gain more through Bonus tokens after failure.

The face of a card gives its number; the back identifies its Solar or Lunar suit. During the opening conversation players can see which card backs they have, but have not looked at their values. Keep the cards oriented so that distinction remains clear.

Phase 1: agree on a plan before looking

Discuss what the clock requires while values are unknown. You can decide how to distribute cards among segments, account for any suit restriction, and leave flexibility where larger totals may be needed. Once discussion is complete, everyone may look at their allowed cards. If someone looks early, that player must stop participating in the remaining discussion; once all have looked, placement begins without further talking. Do not use a prearranged gesture, code or outside signal to convey card information during placement. A legal plan is about the visible clock and possible actions, not a disguised way to transmit hidden numbers later.

Read the chapter sheet again if an unfamiliar symbol appears. Later clocks change the problem; assuming that every test has the same exceptions is an easy way to fail a technically good arrangement.

Phase 2: play twelve cards in silence

After the discussion, players view their allowed hands. Any player may start, then play proceeds clockwise around the table, one card next to any of the clock’s six segments at a time. Most cards are placed face down. The team’s limited face-up allowance may be spent to make a card’s value public, but placing it face up does not reopen discussion. The visible arrangement is the only information available to teammates while they make their next decisions.

In the two-player game, each player initially knows only four of their six cards. Once both have placed two, they may look at their remaining two. That delay makes an opening plan more provisional than it might appear. The rulebook permits checking or confirming already-known information during placement, such as who placed a particular card, and looking again at your own placed card. It does not allow new strategic discussion or looking at another player’s face-down card. Continue until all twelve dealt cards have been placed; you do not need to use the twelve cards set aside.

Phase 3: reveal and check the clock

Starting at the segment indicated by the clock hand, reveal the cards in that segment and add their values. Continue clockwise through all six segments. To pass an ordinary test:

  • Every segment contains at least one card.
  • The totals never decrease as you move clockwise from the hand; equal totals are allowed.
  • No segment total exceeds 24, except where the clock says otherwise. The first three clocks in Chapter 1 specifically waive this cap.
  • All other printed requirements of this clock and its chapter are satisfied.

For example, totals of 3, 8, 11, 11, 20 and 24 satisfy the nondecreasing rule. This example alone does not prove a clock is passed: a suit restriction or another printed condition might still fail. If the hand points to a different segment, start there and read clockwise from that point.

After success or failure

On success, return any face-up Bonus tokens to their face-down state, then move to the next clock. On failure, you can retry; flip a Bonus token face up for an extra face-up placement allowance on a future attempt. Alternatively, turn any face-up Bonus tokens face down, set the failed clock aside in the Sleeve of Regrets and continue, returning to it later. Completion requires passing all 40 base clocks, while the Rebirth sleeve can be opened after all 40 have been attempted. These are two different milestones.

At the table: leave the last arrangement visible long enough to identify which rule failed. Was a segment empty, did a sum fall, did one pass 24, or did you miss a printed symbol? Use that diagnosis during the next legal discussion phase.

Keep reading

Source: Libellud’s English rulebook. Rules checked October 3, 2026; follow the printed clock and chapter sheet for test-specific exceptions.

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