Distilled — How to Play

The Goal of the Game

Welcome to Distilled! You've inherited an old distillery and your mission is to bring it back to its former glory. Over seven rounds, you'll be acquiring ingredients, items, recipes, and upgrades to craft the finest spirits. The player who accumulates the most spirit points (SP) by the end of the game will be crowned the Master Distiller!

Game Setup

Let's get your distillery ready to go:

1. Shelf Board: Place this board on the table. It's where you'll track rounds and spirit points. Each player places their scoring token next to it, and the round marker (the brown barrel) goes on the '1' space of the round track.
2. Basic Market: Set up the basic market board and lay out all the basic ingredient and item cards into 7 face-up piles as shown. This forms your basic market.
3. Premium Market: Shuffle the distillery upgrade cards, premium ingredient cards, and premium item cards separately. Place them in stacks and reveal the top 4 cards of each deck in a row next to them. This is your premium market.
4. Truck Board: Place the truck board next to the premium market. This is where discarded cards from the premium market will go.
5. Flavor and Alcohol Cards: Shuffle the flavor cards and place them face-down within reach. Place the alcohol cards face-up next to them.
6. Recipe Cubes: Keep the bronze, silver, and gold recipe cubes within reach.
7. Tasting Flight: Choose a tasting flight and give one to each player. Return any unused cards to the box. For your first game, Tasting Flight A is recommended.
8. Spirit Labels: Place stacks of spirit label tokens on the shelf board. For Moonshine and Vodka, include 2 labels per player. For all other spirits, include 1 label per player. For example, a 3-player game would have 6 Vodka labels and 3 Whiskey labels.
9. Spirit Awards: Randomly select a number of spirit awards equal to the number of players plus one, and place them face-up on the table.
10. Money: Create a general supply of money tokens.

Now, for each player:

1. Distillery Board: Each player receives a distillery board and a score modifier token of their chosen color.
2. Recipe Clipboard: Each player gets a recipe clipboard to place to the right of their distillery board. Place the chosen tasting flight card in each clipboard.
3. Starting Items: Each player gets one starting Metal Barrel card and one starting Glass Bottle card, which go into their storeroom on their distillery board.
4. Distillery Goals: Shuffle the distillery goal cards and deal three to each player. These are kept secret, and one will be discarded after the third round.
5. First Player: Randomly determine the first player and give them the first player token.
6. Distiller Identities: Deal each player two random distiller identities that are paired with the chosen tasting flight.
7. Each player then selects one of their two distiller identities and returns the other to the box. They then:
   • Take the ingredients and money listed on the reverse side of their chosen distiller identity card and place the ingredients in their pantry.
   • Take the signature recipe label and signature ingredient stated on their distiller identity card. Place the label on their clipboard (recipe-side up) and the ingredient out of play.
   • Place their distiller identity card face-up on the office space of their distillery board.

Game Flow

Distilled is played over seven rounds. Each round consists of four phases:

1. Market Phase: Players take turns acquiring recipes, ingredients, items, and distillery upgrades.
2. Distill Phase: Players distill a spirit using their ingredients, add a barrel, and claim a spirit label.
3. Sell Phase: Players bottle and sell their spirits, scoring SP, receiving money, and taking label bonuses.
4. Age Phase: Players can age their spirits in their warehouse to add flavor and prestige.

At the end of each round, check for fulfilled spirit awards, hold tastings, advance the round marker, and pass the first player token clockwise.

Actions and How to Play

Market Phase

Starting with the first player and going clockwise, players take turns purchasing one of the following:

• Recipe cubes
• Basic ingredient or item cards
• Premium ingredient or item cards
• Distillery upgrade cards

You may purchase one card or cube per turn, or you may pass. Once you pass, you cannot make any more purchases this round. Play continues until everyone has passed.

• Recipe Cubes: To learn a recipe shown on your tasting flight, pay the shown price to take a cube of that tier and place it on your recipe clipboard next to the recipe. You begin knowing Moonshine, Vodka, and your signature recipe.
• Ingredient Cards: Place these in your pantry or directly into your washback. You can only purchase two cards from the basic market each round.
• Item Cards: Place these in your storeroom.
• Distillery Upgrades: Place these on one of the three upgrade spaces on your distillery board.

Basic Market Bonuses:

• Basic Yeast: Immediately gain 1 money.
• Basic Water: Reveal the top card of any market deck. You may purchase it this turn or return it to the bottom of the deck.

Market Cleanup: After all players have passed, discard the rightmost face-up card from each premium market row (or two rightmost in a 2-player game) to the truck. Shift remaining cards and draw new ones to fill the leftmost spaces, ensuring four cards are always available in each row.

Distill Phase

All players perform this phase simultaneously. You can trade one ingredient or item card for a basic ingredient of equal or lesser market cost from the basic market. Then, place ingredients you want to use into your washback. You must have at least one card in the yeast, sugar, and water slots. Alcohol cards can be used in place of or alongside yeast or water. To distill a spirit:

1. Add one alcohol card to your washback for each card in the central sugar slot.
2. Shuffle all cards in your washback to form a face-down spirit stack.
3. Remove and reveal the top and bottom cards of the spirit stack, returning them to your pantry.

The remaining cards determine the spirit. If the requirements of a known recipe are met, you have successfully distilled that spirit. You can only distill one spirit per round.

Sell Phase

Players sell spirits in turn order. You can sell one spirit per turn. If a recipe has the non-aged icon, it must be sold this round. If it has the aged icon, it must be aged for at least one round.

1. Lay out the spirit stack, including the barrel and any flavor cards, and add a bottle from your storeroom.
2. Calculate the total sell value from the cards and recipe (Moonshine, Vodka, and signatures only) and take that amount of money.
3. Calculate the total SP from the cards, recipe, and any aged spirit flavor bonus, and advance your scoring token.
4. Place the spirit label on an empty bonus space on your distillery board and gain the immediate bonus.
5. Return used starting items (Metal Barrel, Glass Bottle) to your storeroom.
6. Place premium market bottles used next to your distillery for your bottle collection.
7. Discard basic market cards and alcohol cards to their respective piles. Discard premium market ingredient or barrel cards to the truck. Discard flavor cards to a flavor discard pile. Signature ingredients go back to the box.

Age Phase

You can age spirits to increase their flavor. This is done in turn order.

1. Place the spirit stack (without the barrel) face-down on a warehouse space.
2. Place the barrel face-up on top of the stack, followed by the spirit label.
3. Draw the top flavor card and add it face-down to the bottom of the spirit stack.

If you distill an aged spirit in the final round, you must age it and cannot sell it this game, but you will score SP for it at the end of the game.

End of Game and Scoring

The game ends after the seventh round is completed.

In addition to the SP received for spirits sold, you score additional SP for:

• Spirits left aging in your warehouse (counting SP on all cards in the spirit stack, barrel, and recipe).
• Your bottle collection displayed next to your distillery board (bottles without a region do not count for set collection).
• Any distillery upgrades with an SP value.
• Each distillery goal you have achieved (goals cannot be achieved by scoring zero; labels in your warehouse count towards goals).
• Money you have remaining (1 SP for every 5 money, ignoring remainders).

The player with the most SP wins and becomes the Master Distiller! In case of a tie, the player with the most money remaining wins. If still tied, the players share the victory.

Tips for Winning

• You can only purchase two cards from the basic market during each Market Phase. Keep track of this limit.
• When selling a spirit, remember to claim your money and spirit points.
• If a spirit has the aged icon, it must be aged for at least one round before it can be sold. If it has the non-aged icon, it must be bottled and sold in the same round it is distilled.