Nature scores what your species actually ate, rather than awarding a point merely for creating population. At the end of each round, you bank plant and meat tokens from fed population. At the end of the game, add a bonus for species that still survive. The core game ends after four rounds; a game with one or more modules uses five. This page explains the core scoring rules and the common counting traps.
The two sources of points
- Food consumed: every plant or meat token behind your screen is worth one point at game end. Move tokens from fed population behind the screen at each round’s scoring step.
- Surviving species: after the last round, score two points for each species you still have. This bonus is per species, not per surviving population unit.
There is no separate score for a species’ size or number of traits. Those features can help it eat, survive or break a tie, but do not directly add ordinary points. Extra plants left in the watering hole belong to no player’s score.
Worked core-game example
Suppose a player banks three food tokens in round 1, five in round 2, four in round 3 and six in round 4. That is 18 food points. If two species survive at the end of round 4, add four points. The final score is 22. If one more species survived with a single population, the species bonus would be six instead of four. Its population would contribute an additional food point only if it was actually fed that round.
You can use the same arithmetic in a five-round module game, but include food banked in the extra round. Adding two modules does not automatically add two rounds; the rulebook says one or more modules changes the game to five rounds.
What happens to a food token if a population dies?
During feeding, a legal hunt kills one population chosen by the defending player. If that population was already fed this round, its plant or meat token returns to the supply. It will not be banked at the round’s end. If a hungry population starves, it has no food token to bank. This makes predation relevant even after an animal has eaten.
Food already moved behind the screen in a previous round stays in your score. A species going extinct in a later round costs you its endgame survival bonus, but the food it earned in earlier rounds is not removed. Killed population and an extinct species’ size are carried into your new species in the next preparation, subject to the size limit. That rebound is a future opportunity, not points for the round of the loss.
How to handle the tie-break
After totaling food and species bonuses, the highest score wins. If players tie, compare the number of traits on their surviving species. Traits on extinct species have been returned to hand and cannot help with this comparison. The printed rulebook gives a playful closing suggestion if the tie remains; it does not introduce a hidden extra point category.
Questions that change your count
Does each population score one point every round?
Only if it eats. Each food token that sustains one population and reaches your screen is one point. A large hungry population with little food can score less than a small well-fed one.
Can a hunter score more than a forager?
Both meat and plants are worth one point per token. A hunt may deliver several meat tokens based on the prey’s size, but the hunter cannot feed more of its population than is hungry. Hunting itself is not a separate point bonus.
Is a large species worth more at game end?
No. Each surviving species is two points regardless of its size. Size affects eating, defense and hunting during play.
Do kept cards or unused plants score?
No ordinary points come from cards in hand, traits left in play or plants in the shared watering hole. Surviving traits matter only if the final scores tie.
Return to the full play sequence, or use the strategy guide to decide when another population is worth its feeding risk.
Source: NorthStar’s Nature core rulebook, scoring and FAQ. Checked October 3, 2026; specific module rules may add their own effects.