Setup

Build the dungeon grid

Lay out an empty 3×3 grid of tile slots — this is the dungeon.

Place the 4 Mana Wells

Shuffle the 4 Well tiles. Place one face-up on each corner (1A, 1C, 3A, 3C) slot.

Build the dungeon deck

Set aside:

• 4 Nodes — 1 of each type, drawn at random from each type's stack
• 1 Cavern — random from the Cavern tiles

No Springs are dealt. Every Spring in the game is created by a Bloom, so the starting cave is symmetrical — each resource type gets the same number of Nodes.

Shuffle these together, then deal one face-up onto each remaining grid slot until the grid is full. The whole dungeon is visible from the start — there is no exploration.

Finally, fill every Node to its maximum stockpile with loose resources of its own type.

Choose starting Slime type

Each player picks one of the four elemental types: Ember, Dew, Moss, or Pebble. This determines where you start.

No two players share a starting type. Ties → clockwise from last player to declare.

Place starting Slimes

Each player starts with 4 Droplets of their type, each carrying 1 matching resource. Place them together on the Well matching their type.

Unchosen Wells still sit on the board and can be used by anyone.

Set up the Rite deck

Shuffle 8 Rite cards face-down. Deal 5 face-up to the market. These are the available Rites at any time — new ones flip up as they are completed.

Set up the Ripple Effect deck

Shuffle 8 Ripple Effect cards face-down. One will flip at each Settle phase — do not draw one yet.

The game ends when either the Rite deck or Ripple Effect deck runs out.

Determine the Token Player

Everyone starts at 0 ME, so give the Token (first-player marker) to a randomly-chosen player. Tokens pass to the lowest-ME player at the start of every Settle. Ties → next clockwise.