How to Play Takenoko: Plots, Irrigation, Panda & Gardener
Takenoko is a shared-garden strategy game. Players place colored plots, irrigate them, grow bamboo with the gardener, eat bamboo with the panda and complete hidden objective cards.
Scope: Takenoko base game only, excluding Chibis and Takenokolor.
Roll the weather die after the opening turn
From the appropriate point in the game, roll the weather die at the start of your turn. Weather can grant a third action, extra bamboo growth, two identical actions, a free panda move, an improvement or a choice among weather benefits.
Then take two different actions
- Plots: draw garden plots and add one legally to the shared garden.
- Irrigation: take an irrigation channel and place/store it as allowed by your edition.
- Gardener: move the gardener in a straight line and grow bamboo on the destination and matching adjacent irrigated plots.
- Panda: move the panda in a straight line and eat one bamboo section from the destination when possible.
- Objective: draw a Plot, Gardener or Panda objective card.
Plots need irrigation to grow bamboo
Plots connected to the central pond or to irrigation channels are irrigated. When a plot becomes irrigated for the first time, bamboo of that plot’s color grows according to the rules.
Improvements change plot behavior
Watershed makes a plot irrigated, Fertilizer increases bamboo growth and Enclosure prevents the panda from eating bamboo on that plot.
Complete objectives when their conditions are met
Plot objectives check garden patterns, Gardener objectives check bamboo color/height states and Panda objectives require returning the depicted eaten bamboo from your personal supply.
Objective count triggers the final round
The trigger is 9 completed objectives in a 2-player game, 8 in a 3-player game and 7 in a 4-player game. The triggering player receives the Emperor card worth 2 points, then the other players receive one final turn.
Publisher reference: Matagot / Asmodee current Takenoko base game. Checked September 21, 2026.