Game rules

Finspan rules: how to play and how to score

Reviewed on 22 October 2026. How we check

Finspan plays 1 to 5 players: everyone discovers fish in their ocean and dives to study them, over four weeks. Here are the essential rules, setup and scoring, based on the official rulebook.

Players: 1 to 5 (solo against the Nautoma)
Play time: 45 to 60 minutes
Winner: Most points; on a tie, the most fish cards in hand

Finspan quick rules

The goal: Your ocean mat has three dive sites, in columns, and three depth zones: Sunlight at the top, Twilight in the middle, Midnight at the bottom. Over four weeks, you play fish into it and dive. The most points wins.
A turn: You have six divers, one per turn: a week lasts six turns for each player. On your turn, place a diver to play a fish from your hand or to dive at one of your sites. Your hand stays visible to everyone.
Play a fish: Pay the card’s cost: cards from your hand, which go to your personal discard pile, eggs, young or a fish to consume. The fish goes in a zone shown on the card, and in the site of its color if it has a blue, purple or green band. Then gain its when played benefit.
Consuming a fish: A fish may cover a shorter fish, a card or a forage fish printed on your mat. The consumed fish no longer counts as a fish but scores one point at the end; its eggs, young and schools move to the new fish.
Dive: Your diver always goes all the way down a site. At the top of each zone, you gain the printed bonus if you have a fish in that zone of that site, and each fish with an if activated ability gives you its benefit as you pass. At the bottom, only the first diver of the week at that site gains the bottom bonus.
Eggs, young and schools: A fish holds at most one egg. To hatch, flip an egg to its young side. Three young on the same slot immediately form a school, worth six points; a slot never holds more than one school.
Fish abilities: When played: when you play the fish. If activated, in brown: when your diver moves onto it. Game end, in yellow: at final scoring. Everything is optional, and each player freely chooses whether to take an all players benefit.
End of week: After six turns, at the end of weeks one to three, everyone scores the week’s achievement: on side A, one point per egg and young, then two points per row filled with fish, then two points per school. On side B, the week’s best player scores three more points. The first-player token passes clockwise.
Game end and scoring: After the fourth week, add to your achievements your game end abilities, the points on your visible fish, one point per consumed fish, egg and young, and six points per school. On a tie, the most fish cards in hand wins; otherwise, the victory is shared.
Beginner mistakes: Stopping at an empty zone during a dive; taking a zone bonus without a fish there; taking the bottom bonus twice in a week; putting two eggs on a fish; leaving forage fish uncovered, since they score nothing.
With Sharks & Reefs: A coral reef overlay covers the middle zone. When you pass over it, you may discard an egg, a young or a card to place a coral in that site’s reef, once per dive, six at most. Each coral scores one point, and a complete reef scores six, eight or five points depending on the site.

How to score Finspan

Achievements, weeks 1 to 3: The points scored at the end of each week, with side B’s 3-point bonus for the week’s best player, ties included.
Game end abilities: The yellow abilities of your visible fish, not those of consumed fish.
Points on visible fish: The points printed on your visible fish. Forage fish printed on the mat score nothing.
Consumed fish: One point per covered fish, card or forage fish.
Eggs and young: One point each.
Schools: Six points per school.
Coral and reefs (Sharks & Reefs): One point per coral, and for each complete reef of six coral: six points on the left, eight in the center, five on the right.
Fish cards in hand: Tiebreaker only: on a tie, the most cards in hand wins.

Worked example

Emma scored 7, 6 and 8 achievement points, for 21. At the end, she adds 3 points of game end abilities, 46 points on visible fish, 4 consumed fish, 7 eggs and young, and 3 schools for 18 points. Total: 21 + 3 + 46 + 4 + 7 + 18 = 99 points.

Common mistakes

Scoring the printed points or game end ability of a consumed fish: it only scores one point now.
Scoring forage fish printed on the mat: visible, they score nothing; consumed, one point.
Counting a school as three young: it scores six points, not three.
Forgetting side B’s 3-point bonus for each week you had the best achievement score.

How to set up Finspan

Setup takes five minutes. Follow the first two parts; the last one is for solo play only.

The center of the table

Put the egg/young tokens and the school tokens in the general supply.
Shuffle the 10 starter fish cards and place them face down.Dark gray corners and a different back.
Shuffle the 125 fish cards into a face-down deck.
Place the achievement board, side A for a game with a first-time player.Side B: one random achievement tile for each of weeks 1, 2 and 3.
With Sharks & Reefs: shuffle the new cards in, replace the achievement board and put the coral tokens in the supply.Also add its achievement tiles to the core game’s.

Each player

Each player takes an ocean mat and the six divers of one color.
Each player places one egg on each of the two starting egg slots, and one young on the starting young slot.These slots are printed on the forage fish on the mat.
Each player gets two starter fish cards and draws three fish cards, all face up.Hands are public. Return the remaining starter fish.
With Sharks & Reefs: each player places a coral reef overlay on the middle zone of their ocean mat.
With two or more players, choose a random first player.

Solo

Set up as for 2 players; the Nautoma takes divers, two eggs and one young.She has no ocean mat.
Shuffle her decision cards and set one aside without looking.
Choose a difficulty from 1 to 5, and place her three achievement cards calm side or stormy side up.Level 2 is recommended to start. You go first every week.

Frequently asked questions

How many cards do you start with in Finspan?

Five: two starter fish cards and three drawn cards, all face up. Everyone also starts with two eggs and one young on their mat.

Who goes first in Finspan?

The first player is chosen at random, then the first-player token passes clockwise at the end of each week. In solo, you go first every week.

How many points is a school worth in Finspan?

Six points at the end of the game. Three young on the same slot form a school; a single young or egg scores one point.

Ludingo’s Finspan sheet was last reviewed on 22 October 2026, based on: tabletopia.com 1, rulespal.com, tabletopia.com 2, BoardGameGeek.