Clinic: Deluxe Edition – 3rd Extension — How to Play

AVStudioGames, Capstone Games, Giant Roc · Board game · 2021
1–4 Solo 30–120 min Weight 4.0/5

Step by step

Game Objective

In Clinic: Deluxe Edition – 3rd Extension, players manage a clinic full of absurd challenges, from smoking patients to emergency helicopters. The goal is to efficiently run your clinic by treating patients, handling unexpected events, and maximizing your popularity and financial resources. Victory is determined at the end of the game by the total score, which includes popularity, money, and other expansion-specific criteria.

Setup

Initial Components

  • Set up your initial clinic following the Building Rules, ensuring the storage room is on the ground floor and the entrance connects to the service hub.
  • Add expansion-specific components:
    • Cigarette machine: Adjacent to the storage room.
    • Helipad and operating room (1 per player).
    • Public restrooms, triage station, or gift shop, depending on the expansions used.
  • Place additional boards (e.g., Helicopter Access, Temp Agency) near the main board.
  • Prepare patient pools based on the number of players (e.g., unclassified patients, critical patients, ghosts).

Refer to the manual for details on this section.

Game Flow

The game is divided into 3 main phases per round:

  1. Phase 1: Actions
    • Players perform actions such as building, hiring, admitting patients, and moving characters.
    • Specific events occur (e.g., arrival of burn victims via helicopter or fire truck).
  2. Phase 2: Business
    • Patient treatment, income generation, and salary payments.
    • Effects of components like cigarettes, therapy dogs, or air conditioning are applied.
  3. Phase 3: Administration
    • Patients worsen, staff may downgrade (unless using variants), and temporary components are reset.

Actions and How to Play

Main Actions

  • Build: Add modules or components like helipads, public restrooms, or air conditioning. Some have restrictions (e.g., only 3 helipads per clinic).
  • Admit Patients: Fill your pre-admission with patients, including special types like critical or unclassified (requiring triage).
  • Move:
    • Smokers: Must go to the cigarette machine and return, possibly dying if they accumulate 2 cigarettes.
    • Wheelchairs: Move patients faster horizontally but slower vertically.
    • Ghosts: Increase movement costs in affected modules.

Special Components

  • Therapy dogs: Aid in psychiatric treatment but leave poop, doubling the module's maintenance cost.
  • Gift shop: Visitors bring extra income but must visit the shop before seeing patients.

End of Game and Scoring

The game ends after a fixed number of rounds. Scoring is based on:

  • Popularity: Gained or lost through events like patient deaths, ghosts (+1 per floor), or meeting Urban Design 2.0 requirements.
  • Money: Earned by treating patients (e.g., burn victims give $25-$30).
  • Expansion-specific criteria (e.g., modules built according to Urban Design cards).

Tips to Win

  1. Plan helipads: Build at least 1 by Round IV to prevent burn victim deaths.
  2. Control smokers: Use patients as smokers to avoid penalties from staff deaths.
  3. Optimize movement: Wheelchairs are useful for patients but avoid using them for vertical movement.

Rules manual

Official PDF file

Prefer the Official PDF? Download the official Clinic: Deluxe Edition – 3rd Extension rulebook or browse it online with our AI rules assistant.
View Rulebook PDF
Want to compare prices and check reviews? Find where to buy at the lowest price, price history, and our full game review.
View Clinic: Deluxe Edition – 3rd Extension