8 Tips And Tricks For Getting Better At Everdell

As cozy as Everdell‘s woodland aesthetic is, it can be a fiercely competitive game. Its combination of worker placement, resource management, and tableu building have made it an instant modern classic, so if you haven’t seen it as a part of your board game night’s rotation, chances are it’s only a matter of time.

If you want to start your Everdell journey on the right paw, or are looking to improve your game and put in an impressive showing the next time you play, try these tips and strategies to make the best use of your cards and workers, and end the game with more Victory Points.

This guide uses screenshots from the digital version of Everdell, but the tips are designed to be usable in both the physical tabletop and video game editions.

8

Get Production (Green) Cards Early

The first season of the game goes by quickly, as you’ll have very few workers to place and limited resources as a result. If possible, it’s best to use that time to play green cards, either from your hand or from the Meadow.

Since Production cards get you resources, this can potentially give you more purchasing power during the first season, but there’s another reason to get greens at the beginning of the game. Since Production cards repeat their effects at the beginning of Spring and Autumn, it pays to have a good number of them in time to take advantage of that bonus! Anything you buy in the first season will trigger twice more throughout the game, getting you the most possible value.

The Storehouse is best used to build up a large reserve, then cash in during Autumn, rather than getting resources immediately. The Chip Sweep, meanwhile, lets you repeat another Production building’s effect, so you need to have another card already in play for them to be useful.

7

Lock Down Rare Resources

The availability of resources will change from game to game, as different Forest Locations will be in play. In general, though, Pebbles will be the rarest resource, while Resin, Berries, and card draw can also be very competitive depending on the board.

It’s always a good idea to place workers on Locations with resources that aren’t available elsewhere, since you may not get another chance until the next season. Even if you don’t need an extra Pebble right now, there are two reasons to take it anyway if there’s only one available:

• You’ll probably need it later.
• Your worker prevents anybody else from claiming it, as long as it’s not a Shared Location.

Preventing your opponents from playing expensive, valuable cards can be just as important to winning as driving up your own score.

If it’s the end of the season, and you’re the only player with available workers, play a Ranger to move a worker off of an Exclusive Location. You can then place your remaining worker on the vacated space, drawing on its resources a second time!

6

Take Discounts Wherever You Can Get Them

It’s a lot easier to spend resources than to get them in Everdell, but luckily there are plenty of avenues for reducing the cost of cards. Governance cards, with blue icons, are best for this.

A single Crane or Innkeeper, or a rebate card like the Courthouse, can save you a ton of resources, letting you play more cards and score more points overall.

Cards like the Cemetery or Dungeon can have a steep cost, but used effectively they can be used as stepping stones to a more efficient city or a greater point total. For example, if you play a Wanderer to draw three cards, you could toss them in the Dungeon in the Autumn to defray the cost of a Critter with a higher point value, like the King or Queen!. You already drew the cards, so the Wanderer has served their purpose.

Don’t forget to match up Critters to their Constructions – occupying the right building lets you play a Critter for free!

5

Try To Build Around A Prosperity (Purple) Card

Prosperity cards, with purple icons, don’t typically have any effects that will help you build your city, but instead help you score big points at the end of the game. Pay attention to the bonuses offered by the Prosperity cards that you have, or that you can expect to play easily, and design your city to get as many points out of them as possible.

For example, the Theater is worth one extra Victory Point for every Unique Critter in your city at the end of the game. If you build a Theater early, or have one in your hand and know you can play it in Autumn, you might try to stockpile Berries or focus on specific Constructions that let you play cards like Architect, King, or Queen.

If you’re doing really well economically, you could even get more points out of those Unique Critters, many of whom are purple themselves!

4

Pay Attention To Your Opponents’ Cities

Apart from occasional cards like the Fool, there isn’t much interaction between players’ cities in Everdell. However, the cards that are in play are public knowledge, and you should use that to your advantage.

Keeping an eye on what the other players are building helps you know what they’re planning. That, in turn, helps you figure out what you might have to compete for, and what you can afford to wait on. For example, if you’re planning to claim the City Monument, and another player already has two Governance cards out, you have a choice to make – race them for the Event, or shift to other goals if you don’t think you can get to the Monument before they do.

3

Use The Summer Meadow Draw To Stake Your Claim

For new players, preparing for the Summer isn’t as exciting as Spring or Autumn. Your Production cards don’t trigger, so you don’t get any bonus resources. However, the more games you play, the more you’ll learn to use the Summer bonus – drawing cards from the Meadow to your hand – as a potentially game-changing move.

The Meadow is a communal resource, and anyone can play cards from there as long as they meet the requirements. Drawing cards from the Meadow takes those cards out of the public pool; once they’re in your hand, only you can play them for the rest of the game, unless another copy lands in the Meadow from the draw pile.

Pulling cards that you need out of the Meadow at the beginning of Summer ensures that nobody can take them away from you. If there’s nothing in the Meadow that you’re competing for, there’s probably something that your opponents want; if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know which cards to take out of the Meadow to disrupt your opponents’ plans, even if you have no intention of playing those cards yourself.

If you draw cards that you don’t plan to play, just send a worker to the Haven to exchange them for resources, or wait until Autumn and use them to fund a Journey.

2

Look For Combos

Combos in Everdell can be tricky to set up, but they really pay off when they work. For example, you could use the Runs or Undertaker to move a card to the discard pile, then send a worker to the Cemetery to dig up that card and play it again, for free.

Looking at the contents of the discard pile isn’t permitted, but if you know you placed the card there and fewer than four cards have been placed on top of it since, your combo is guaranteed to work!

1

Take As Many Turns As Possible

It almost always pays to extend out every season as much as you possibly can, moving to the next one until there are no more moves that you can make. The longer you make your seasons, the more cards you’ll play overall, which translates to more points.

Not only that, but having your workers camped out on Exclusive Locations longer can frustrate your opponents’ plans, forcing them to make less-than-optimal plays.

The only times that you should move to the next season early are:

• If you’re saving for a big purchase and can’t spend any more resources.
• If you need to beat another player to an Exclusive Location or Event in the coming season.

Drawing out your seasons can really pay off at the end of the game; if all the other players pass, and you still have workers and cards to play, you have free rein on the board until you run out of workers and resources. That means you can snap up any unclaimed cards, Locations, and Events that you qualify for unopposed, making your victory all the more likely.