Preparation

• With the 24 terrain tiles, the island is created with the coloured side facing up, indicating it is solid ground. During the game, the terrain tiles will first flood (white and blue side up) and then sink (removed from the game, leaving a hole in their place). The game suggests creating an island in the shape of a cross, but other variants add more difficulty to the game. The treasures are placed next to the island.
• Each player randomly receives an adventurer card that grants them special abilities. Take the pawn of the corresponding colour and place it on the corresponding terrain tile.
• Shuffle the flood cards and reveal 6 of them. Flood the corresponding 6 terrain tiles (the same image appears in white and blue).
• Deal 2 treasure cards to each player.
• Set the water level based on the players’ expertise.

Game sequence

In turns, players take three actions:

1. Up to three actions to choose from: move the pawn to an adjacent tile, shore up (flip) the terrain tile where the pawn is located or an adjacent one if they are flooded, give a treasure card to another player located on the same terrain tile, or recover a treasure.
2. Draw two cards from the treasure deck. A player can only hold a maximum of 5 cards. If they have more, they must discard the ones they prefer.
3. Draw flood cards (as many as indicated by the water level) and flood (flip) or sink (remove from the island, if already flooded) the corresponding terrain tiles. Holes will appear, making movements more complex. When a terrain tile with a pawn on it sinks, the pawn can be relocated to an adjacent flooded or dry tile.

To obtain a treasure, a player – with four treasure cards – must be positioned on one of the two specific terrain tiles that allow for its recovery.

In the treasure deck, there are cards that trigger special actions:

• Waters rise (3 cards). They raise the water level by one point. The higher the level, the more flood cards need to be drawn each turn. When one of these cards appears, all flood cards played up to that moment are shuffled and placed on top of the flood card deck. This way, the first flood cards to reappear will be those of the terrain tiles that are already flooded.
• Sandbags (2 cards). They allow flipping a flooded terrain tile without taking any actions.
• Helicopter (3 cards). They allow moving to any location on the island. Alert: it is necessary to save a helicopter card for the end of the game, allowing all players to escape from the island with the 4 recovered treasures in a single trip. If that happens, the game has been won.

However, the game is lost when:

• The game is lost if the two terrain tiles that allowed the recovery of the same treasure sink.
• The game is lost if the terrain tile corresponding to the landing strip sinks.
• A player located on a sinking terrain tile with no adjacent tile has no place to relocate.
• The water level reaches the skull.