Game rules

Puerto Rico rules: how to play and how to score

Reviewed on 22 October 2026 against the publisher’s rulebook. How we check

Puerto Rico plays 2 to 5 players over about fifteen rounds: everyone develops an island of plantations and a city of buildings, taking turns choosing roles that everyone benefits from. Here are the essential rules, setup and final scoring, based on the official rulebook.

Players: 2 to 5
Play time: 90 to 150 minutes
Winner: Most victory points; on a tie, most doubloons and goods

Puerto Rico quick rules

The goal: Everyone develops a colony: an island covered with plantations and a city of buildings. You produce goods, sell them for doubloons or ship them for victory points, and you spend doubloons on buildings, which also score points.
A round: The governor chooses a role placard: everyone, in clockwise order, may take its action, and only the chooser enjoys its privilege. Then the next player chooses another role, until everyone has taken one. A doubloon then goes on each unchosen role, and the governor placard passes left.
The roles: The settler has everyone place a plantation (a quarry for him, if he likes). The mayor shares out the colonists on the ship (one extra for him). The builder lets everyone build (one doubloon less for him). The craftsman triggers production (one extra good for him). The trader lets everyone sell one good (one extra doubloon for him). The captain forces shipping (one extra point for him). The prospector simply takes a doubloon.
Colonists and production: A plantation, quarry or building only works when a colonist occupies it. Corn needs only an occupied plantation; indigo, sugar, tobacco and coffee also need an occupied production building. Each occupied circle produces one good.
Selling and shipping: The trading house has four spaces and won’t buy a good it already holds. Each cargo ship carries only one kind of good, and no two ships the same kind. With the captain, if you can load, you must load as many goods of one kind as possible: one victory point per good. Afterwards, you keep only one good, unless you have a warehouse.
Buildings: Occupied beige buildings grant powers: selling for more, storing goods, gaining colonists. You never own two of the same. The five large buildings take two spaces and give an end-of-game bonus, if occupied.
Game end: Finish the round when the colonist ship can no longer be filled, when a player fills their city, or when the last victory point chip is taken during shipping; in that case, points earned afterwards are counted separately.
Scoring: Everyone adds up their victory point chips, the points printed on their buildings, occupied or not, and the bonus of their occupied large buildings. On a tie, the most doubloons and goods wins.
Beginner pitfalls: The craftsman helps the others too: check what they’ll produce before taking it. With the captain, loading isn’t optional. Store your goods or lose them, and staff your buildings so they work.
With two players: Setup is reduced: fewer buildings, plantations, colonists and points, and two cargo ships. Each player chooses three roles per round, in turn, and the governor puts a doubloon on the last one.
With the expansions: With The new buildings, players take turns choosing the game’s beige buildings, old or new, before play begins. With The nobles, a noble replaces a colonist on the ship at each mayor phase, each noble is worth one point at the end, and running out of colonists no longer ends the game.

How to score Puerto Rico

Victory point chips: The points from your chips, earned mostly by shipping, plus any points counted separately after the chips ran out in the last round.
Buildings: The points printed on all your buildings, occupied or not: 4 per large building. With The new buildings, the statue is worth 8.
Occupied large building bonuses: Guild hall, residence, fortress, customs house, city hall: their end-of-game bonus, only if occupied. With the expansions, add the bonus of an occupied cloister and royal garden.
Nobles (The nobles expansion): 1 point for each noble you own at the end of the game.
Doubloons and goods: An optional line that scores nothing: on a tie, the player with the most doubloons and goods, added together, wins.

Worked example

Leo has 26 points in chips. His buildings show 17 printed points, including 8 for his two large buildings. His occupied residence, with 11 tiles on his island, scores 6 points; his customs house is unoccupied, so no bonus. Total: 26 + 17 + 6 = 49 points.

Common mistakes

Scoring the bonus of an empty large building: without a colonist, it’s worth only its 4 printed points.
Forgetting unoccupied buildings: their printed points still count.
Forgetting points earned after the chips ran out in the last round.
Counting the customs house bonus on all points: only chips, per 4 points.

How to set up Puerto Rico

Setup takes about ten minutes; several amounts depend on the player count.

The game board

Place the game board in the middle, each building on its space, and the doubloons in the Bank space.Text side up for beginners. With 2 players, only one beige building of each kind and 2 production buildings of each kind.
Set out the victory points, colonists and cargo ships for your player count.2 players: 65 VP, 40 colonists, ships with 4 and 6 spaces, 2 goods of each kind removed. 3 players: 75 VP, 55 colonists, ships with 4, 5 and 6. 4 players: 100 VP, 75 colonists, ships with 5, 6 and 7. 5 players: 122 VP, 95 colonists, ships with 6, 7 and 8.
Place as many colonists on the colonist ship as there are players (2 with two players), then the trading house and the goods near the board.

Islands and roles

Stack the quarries face up and shuffle the plantations face down into 5 stacks.With 2 players, first remove 3 tiles of each kind, quarries included. Set the starting plantations aside.
Reveal one more plantation than the number of players.
Set out the role placards for your player count.With 2 or 4 players, all but one prospector; with 3 players, without both prospectors; with 5 players, all 8.

Each player

Each player takes a player board and doubloons: 3 with 2 or 4 players, 2 with 3 players, 4 with 5 players.Money and goods stay visible on the windrose; VP chips stay face down.
The starting player, chosen at random, takes the governor placard and an indigo plantation.Then, clockwise: with 2 players, corn; with 3, indigo then corn; with 4, indigo, corn, corn; with 5, indigo, indigo, corn, corn.

With the expansions

The new buildings: in turn, each player chooses a beige building, old or new, and places it on a space with the same cost, until the board is full.Small buildings go in pairs; the 26 unchosen buildings stay in the box.
The nobles: place the 8 new buildings above the board and the 20 nobles next to the colonists.A noble replaces a colonist on the ship at the start and at the end of each mayor phase.

Frequently asked questions

How many doubloons do you start with in Puerto Rico?

2 doubloons with 3 players, 3 with 2 or 4 players, 4 with 5 players.

When does a game of Puerto Rico end?

At the end of the round in which the colonist ship can no longer be filled, a player fills their city, or the last victory point chip is taken.

Does an empty building score points in Puerto Rico?

Yes, its printed points. But a large building’s bonus only counts if it is occupied.

Ludingo’s Puerto Rico sheet was last reviewed on 22 October 2026, based on: rulebook 1 (PDF), rulebook 2 (PDF), BoardGameGeek.