Orapa Mine rules: how to play and how to win

Orapa Mine quick rules

The goal

Colored gemstones are hidden behind a screen, in a grid of 10 by 8 squares. You send waves in from the edge: they bounce off the gemstones and take on their colors. The first player to find the exact position and shape of every gemstone wins.

Hiding the gemstones

A basic game uses 5 gemstones: one red, one yellow, one blue and two white. They follow the lines of the grid, never at an angle. Two gemstones never touch along an edge, only at a corner, and none is completely hidden behind the others when seen from an edge.

Sending a wave

On your turn, choose an entry point on the edge: a number from 1 to 18 or a letter from A to R. The wave travels straight and bounces off gemstones at right angles, depending on their shape. You hear its exit point and its color. Asking again about a wave already sent does not use your turn.

The colors

The wave starts transparent and takes on the color of each gemstone it hits. Red and yellow make orange, red and blue purple, blue and yellow green, all three black. White makes it lighter: pink, lemon, sky blue; all four colors make gray. A color hit twice only counts once.

Asking about a square

Instead of sending a wave, you can ask what is on a specific square, a number and a letter. The answer is “nothing” or the gemstone’s color, not its shape. This question uses your turn.

Answering with 2 players

With 2 players, each player hides gemstones and hunts for the other’s. On your turn, you can show your solution: correct, you win; wrong, you lose at once. If the first player is correct, the second player gets one last chance. If they are also correct, it’s a draw, and you play again.

3 or more players

One player becomes the quiz master: they hide the gemstones, answer, and do not play to win. The others are hunters and hear every answer. Each hunter gets two attempts to submit a solution; after two wrong attempts, they are eliminated. The first to find it wins; if everyone fails, the exploration is unsuccessful.

Diamond and Blackbody

Two gemstones in the box make the game harder. On the transparent Diamond, the wave bounces without changing color. The Blackbody absorbs the wave: the answer is then “the signal was absorbed,” including when someone asks about its square.

Beginner traps

Whoever answers must trace each wave carefully: a single mistake ruins the whole deduction. A color hit twice only counts once, and a wave can exit at its own entry point. Don’t submit your solution too early: a wrong answer is costly.

How to win Orapa Mine

No points

There are no points: the first player to give the exact position and shape of every gemstone wins.

With 2 players

A wrong solution loses at once. If the first player is correct, the second gets one last chance: if they are also correct, play again to break the tie.

With 3 or more players

The quiz master cannot win. Each hunter gets two attempts; the first to find the solution wins. If everyone fails twice, the exploration is unsuccessful and nobody wins.

What the sheet records

The winner and, for the record if you like, each player’s role and how the game ended.

Example ending

With 4 players, Emma is the quiz master; Jake, Alex and Mia hunt. Jake submits a solution too early: it is wrong, and he has one attempt left. Alex is wrong twice and is out. On the next turn, Mia gives the position and shape of every gemstone: she wins.

Common mistakes

• Marking the quiz master as the winner: they do not compete.
• Forgetting the second player’s last chance with 2 players.
• Counting a color twice when it is hit twice: red, white, then white again makes pink.

How to set up Orapa Mine

Setup takes two minutes. With 2 players, each player prepares a mine; with 3 or more, only the quiz master prepares one.