Game rules

Pirates of Maracaibo rules: how to play and how to score

Reviewed on 20 October 2026 against the publisher’s rulebook. How we check

Pirates of Maracaibo plays 1 to 4 players over three rounds: your pirate ship crosses the Caribbean to the port of Maracaibo, raiding treasure and completing secret quests. Here are the essential rules, setup and endgame scoring, based on the official rulebook.

Players: 1 to 4
Play time: About 25 minutes per player
Winner: Most points; tie: most buried Treasure

Pirates of Maracaibo quick rules

The goal: Your pirate ship crosses the Caribbean, from left to right, to the port of Maracaibo, over three rounds. You score points by raiding treasure, exploring, acquiring cards and completing secret quests; the most points wins.
Moving your ship: You move one to three spaces, each card being a space, and must end in a column closer to Maracaibo. Stopping on a card with other ships costs one doubloon per opponent there, if you can pay. Then you perform the space’s actions.
Improvements and Residences: On an Improvement card, take 5 doubloons or acquire the card: immediate effect, ongoing effect, income or points. On a Residence, also take 5 doubloons or construct it with one of your tokens; the first to construct it scores 2 points, and it scores points at the end.
Locations: On a Location, in order: a cube on the island shown by the Treasure Value tile (that treasure will be worth more), your Black Market if it’s there, a ship upgrade, then the Location’s actions: Raiding, Explore, Bury Treasure, Gain Quest or Acquire Improvement.
Raiding: Roll the three dice, with one reroll of all of them if you like, and choose one: its value is your raiding power, its color the treasure (yellow for gold, green for emeralds, white for pearls). Each raiding action once per turn: 1 power for 1 point, 2 for 3 doubloons, 5 to take a treasure.
Treasure and exploring: A raided treasure leaves its island for your Hideout board; at the end, it’s worth 2 to 5 points depending on the cubes left on the island. Buried, it gives a bonus and 2 more points. Exploring moves your Explorer: each river crossed is worth 4 points at the end.
Upgrading your ship: An upgrade is a gray cube on your Ship board, with a one-time or ongoing benefit; barrier lines make you fill the left side first. One gives a figurehead for 3 doubloons, only one per game; another places your Black Market tile on a Location.
The Gulf and the end of a round: At the Gulf, you gain an upgrade, then a raid with 2 extra power, an explore of 4 or a Residence. On your next turn, Maracaibo scores 6 points and an upgrade, and the round ends after that turn: income for everyone, then back to the start.
The end of the game: In the third round, play continues until the turn of the player whose token is on Maracaibo, so everyone has taken the same number of turns. After the last income, do endgame scoring. Most points wins; in a tie, the player who buried the most treasure.
Beginner traps: Every cube added to an island raises that treasure’s value for everyone, and every treasure raided lowers it. A quest only scores its best condition. Keep doubloons for cards, and don’t dawdle: the first to Maracaibo ends the round.

How to score Pirates of Maracaibo

Score track points: Your space on the track after the last income, plus 50 per +50 token.
Rivers crossed: 4 points per river crossed by your Explorer.
Remaining doubloons: 1 point per 5 doubloons.
Improvement cards: The points in the top-right corner, plus the endgame points of cards with a gray scroll.
Residences: The points of each Residence with your token on it, 24 or 25 at most depending on the card.
Treasure: Each Treasure, buried or not, by the Markers left on its island: 0 to 2 Markers, 2 points; 3 or 4, 3 points; 5 or 6, 4 points; 7 or more, 5 points.
Buried Treasure: 2 more points per buried Treasure; they also break ties.
Quests: For each card, the points of the highest condition met, never both; 10 more points for six completed quests.
Quest Hunters module: Only the harder condition counts, and its value is doubled; each failed quest costs 5 points.

Worked example

Jake ends with a +50 token and 12 on the track: 62. His Explorer crossed 3 rivers (12), he keeps 13 doubloons (2), his cards are worth 18 and his Residence 24. He has 3 gold at 3 points, 2 pearls at 5 and 2 emeralds at 2: 23, with 3 buried (6). His three quests score 5, 4 and 3: 12. Total: 62 + 12 + 2 + 18 + 24 + 23 + 6 + 12 = 159 points.

Common mistakes

Scoring both conditions of a quest: only the highest counts.
Forgetting the 2 points for buried Treasure, on top of its island value.
Valuing a Treasure by the cubes raided instead of the cubes left on its island.
Scoring a point per doubloon: it’s a point per 5.

How to set up Pirates of Maracaibo

Setup takes about 10 minutes. For your first game, don’t use any module. The solo game has its own phase at the end.

The Caribbean

Place the Exploration board in the middle of the table.
Build the Tier I deck: all 8 Location cards, 4 Residences and 15 Improvements at random, shuffled.Return the rest unseen.
Reveal the cards column by column, from left to right, following the rulebook’s diagram.Roughly 4 rows and 9 columns. For your first games, avoid 4 adjacent Location cards.
Place the three Treasure Island boards in their spots of the diagram.
Shuffle the Tier II cards and place them face down nearby.
Place four matching Marker cubes on each Treasure Island, starting from the bottom.
Place a random Treasure Value tile on each Location card showing the Treasure symbol.Six tiles in all.

The supply

Shuffle the Quest cards and place the deck face down.
Place face up as many Figureheads as players plus two.In the solo game, three.
Place the doubloons and the three Raiding dice within reach.

Each player

Each player takes their Ship and Hideout boards, multiplayer side up, and the pieces of their color.
Each player places their ship in the starting zone, their Explorer on the start of the Exploration track and their Scoring token on 0.
One player flips their Black Market tiles to random sides; everyone else matches them.They are never flipped again.
Each player draws two Quest cards and keeps one, hidden; then reveal two cards for the Quest Market.
The first player, chosen at random, gets 10 doubloons, the next players 11, 12 and 13.
The last player places a Player token, 50 VP side down, on Maracaibo.In the third round, they take the last turn. In the solo game, this is Jordan.

Solo game

Choose a color for Jordan and flip Jordan’s boards to their solo side.Jordan never gains or pays doubloons.
Place a cube at the start of the Raid and Explore track of Jordan’s Hideout.
Build the Solo deck: six A-cards, swapping 0 to 6 of them for B-cards.More B-cards, more difficulty.
Jordan draws a random Quest card, face down.

Frequently asked questions

How far do you move in Pirates of Maracaibo?

One to three spaces, ending in a column closer to Maracaibo.

Who goes first in Pirates of Maracaibo?

A random player, who gets 10 doubloons; the next players get 11, 12 and 13.

How much is a Treasure worth in Pirates of Maracaibo?

2 to 5 points depending on the cubes left on its island at the end, plus 2 points if it’s buried.

Ludingo’s Pirates of Maracaibo sheet was last reviewed on 20 October 2026, based on: supermeeple.com, capstone-games.com, BoardGameGeek.