This reference covers the 2024 Zygomatic base game. Older Survive: Escape from Atlantis! instructions have different creatures; use the kaiju rules and three-Volcano end condition for this box.
What scores at the end?
Every adventurer has a treasure value from one to five printed on its base. Once play starts, you may not lift your pieces to recheck those values. An adventurer brought onto a Rescue Island is safe and adds its value to your final score. A piece eliminated by a creature or left on the board when the third Volcano ends play adds nothing; eliminated pieces are removed without looking at their hidden values.
The game also ends if there are no adventurers left to rescue. Compare the sum of rescued treasure, not the number of survivors. If several players tie for the highest total, they all share victory; the 2024 rulebook has no additional tiebreak. For example, saving pieces worth five and four gives nine points, beating four pieces worth two each.
Shark: exposed swimmers
A swimmer is an adventurer on a Water space and not aboard a raft. Sharks eliminate swimmers they encounter, but do not eliminate a passenger just because the passenger is on a raft in that space. This distinction makes boarding and raft control central to escape. A saved Repellent Ability can remove a shark when your adventurer shares its space, including in response to an attack.
Sea serpent: rafts and all adventurers
A sea serpent eliminates rafts and all adventurers in the space it reaches, including swimmers and raft passengers. The first serpents begin on the board at setup. A group of valuable figures in one raft is therefore efficient transport but a concentrated risk. A Repellent tile’s printed protection applies to sharks or kaijus, not a sea serpent.
Kaiju: raft destruction and displacement
Kaijus enter through the relevant terrain-tile effect. A kaiju eliminates a raft in its space and pushes adventurers into adjacent spaces; it also displaces other creatures according to their movement rules. This is not the same as directly eliminating every adventurer it contacts. The active player decides the legal destinations and order of interactions. A pushed adventurer can still face a hazard in its new space, so resolve the chain carefully with the rulebook diagram.
Only another kaiju can enter a kaiju’s space, displacing the first. If a tile would place a different creature there, that creature does not enter. Each creature stops moving when it meets an element it affects. When a creature die result names a type not yet on the board, there is no such creature to move.
Two timing questions that change scores
Third Volcano: It stays face up and ends the game as soon as it is revealed, so a raft one move from shore does not score merely because its passengers might have arrived next turn. All pieces already safe or gone: If no adventurers remain to be rescued, the game ends even if fewer than three Volcanoes appeared.
Tile backs can instead show immediate Effects or retained Abilities. A Repellent may be played reactively against one shark or kaiju and spares pieces sharing that creature’s space; it does not remove several creatures at once. Check the exact icon before treating a tile as a rescue or attack.
For the overview and buying fit, visit the game hub. Read the turn guide, strategy guide, or scoring and creature reference.
Edition and source: 2024 Zygomatic base game, without Monster Pack. Official English rulebook (PDF), checked October 2, 2026. Tactical examples are editorial analysis.