In this guide, you’ll learn the basic rules or how to play Friday the solo card game. Get ready to join Robinson Crusoe on his quest for survival on a deserted island!

Friday’s Objective

As Friday, the island’s native inhabitant, you meet the shipwrecked Robinson Crusoe. The poor man must gain survival skills to overcome the island’s perils. Could you teach him these lessons? As Robinson gains skills, the obstacles get more challenging. Over time, he ages, and his weaknesses may hinder him. If he survives, two pirates stand in the way of freedom. Beat them, and you win the game!

How to Play Friday

Friday is a deck-building game where you’ll start with a basic set of weak cards. Eventually, you’ll gain stronger cards and chances to weed out less desirable cards. And if you survive the island, you’ll encounter two pirates in a big boss battle to win.

Setup for Level 1

You’ll start in Level 1, the easiest game mode. Follow these initial steps:

1. Sort the 3 Phase Cards (they have eyes peering out of the jungle) in a stack—green on top, next yellow, red on bottom.
2. Remove the “Very Stupid” Aging card from the game and shuffle the remaining Aging cards into two stacks: 3 difficult on the bottom and seven regular on top.
3. Shuffle the 18 Starting cards and place them face-down on the Robinson storage board.
4. Shuffle the 30 Hazard cards and place them face-down on the hazard storage board.
5. Shuffle the pirate cards, draw two randomly, and place them face-up as your final opponents.
6. Set aside space for discard piles next to the Hazard (6a) and Robinson (6b) card stacks.
7. Place 20 life points next to your Robinson stack, with two additional points in reserve.

1.

Sort the 3 Phase cards in a stack with green on top, yellow in middle and red on bottom.

2.

Shuffle Aging deck with the 3 difficult cards on bottom and 7 normal cards on top.

3.

Shuffle the 18 starting cards and place them face-down on the Robinson storage board.

4.

Shuffle the 30 hazard cards and place them face-down on the hazard storage board.

5.

Shuffle the pirate cards, draw two at random, and place them face-up as your final opponents.

6a.

Hazard deck area with discard pile beside it.

6b.

Robinson deck with discard pile beside it.

7.

20 life points with 2 in reserve

Facing the Island

During the main part of the game, you’ll build your deck to add better skills and destroy bad skills. Robinson will face three phases of hazards, each level getting more complex.

Each turn follows this sequence:

1. Draw two hazard cards, choose one as the active hazard, and discard the other.
2. Battle the hazard using fighting cards. You’ll use your fighting cards to match or beat the hazard’s current level. You can draw additional cards by sacrificing life points. Use special abilities wisely.
3. Determine if you win or lose against the hazard.
   • If you win, add the newly acquired skill card (the bottom half of the hazard card you just fought) to your discard pile. They’ll be shuffled into your fighting deck when your draw deck is empty.
   • If you lose, determine how many points you lost by, and remove that many life points. You can also remove unwanted fighting cards up to this many points.
4. If you run out of fighting cards, you’ve aged! Draw an aging card, shuffle it into your discard pile, and place them on your Robinson board.
5. If two hazards are still in the stack, repeat from Step 1; otherwise, move to the next step level and repeat.

Final Pirate Battles

After finishing the hazard stack three times and surviving, it’s time to confront the two pirates. They act like regular hazards but demand a more challenging fight. Each pirate has a specific win condition. You must defeat them both to win.

As you can see below, you’ll depend on the skills you’ve gained and using quite a few of them, you’ll need enough space!

Game End and Scoring

If you beat the two pirate ships, you win! Win or lose, if you want to see how well you did, add up your score:

1. Add the total points of the fighting cards you gained (both in your deck and discard pile).
2. Subtract 5 per Aging card still left in your hand.
3. Add 15 points per pirate win (max of 30).
4. Subtract 3 per hazard card left.
5. Add 5 points per any remaining life points.

Are you winning most of your games? Take on the next challenge Level!

How to Play Friday – Conclusion

“Friday: A Solo Adventure” is a wonderful solo gaming experience with many choices. You’ll have to choose various strategies for optimizing Robinson’s skills and navigating the island’s challenges.

Download the Friday rulebook for more information.

If you’ve played Friday, what Level do you play on? What is your best score?