Ubongo 3D Puzzle Strategy Board Game

Stretch your mental muscles into the third dimension! In this version of Ubongo, the hit puzzle game, players race to place three-dimensional blocks so they fit perfectly in a specific area on a puzzle card and completely fill a designated three-dimensional space. Each time you win, you collect colorful plastic gems; the player with the most valuable collection of gems at the end of the game wins. The puzzle cards each have multiple puzzles on both sides: one side is easier, the other more difficult. A total of four difficulty levels makes this the perfect game for beginners and experts alike, allowing the whole family to play together. With four sets of eight durable three-dimensional pieces and 72 puzzle boards featuring a total of 671 puzzles, the game can be played with up to four players — or challenge yourself in solo games. Take your puzzling to the next level with Ubongo 3D.

Lay out 9 blue and 9 brown gems in a row – these are your round markers. Each player takes 9 puzzle cards in their chosen difficulty (green, yellow, orange, or red).

Each player also takes an identical set of 3D polyomino shapes.

To start a round, every player takes the top puzzle board from their stack and places it face up. Then the youngest player rolls the die – the number rolled indicates which set of pieces you must use to complete your puzzle. (On some boards, several numbers are assigned to the same set of pieces.)

Then flip the timer and go! You need to fit all the required pieces inside the outline on your board, within 2 levels. No piece can overlap or overhang the puzzle border on either level.

As soon as you have managed to solve your puzzle, shout Ubongo! and grab the blue gem (worth 3 points) for the round. All other players continue to try to solve their puzzle, and the second finisher gets a brown gem (1 point).

Once the timer has run out, every player who finished gets to pull a gem out of the bag at random. If no one finished before time was up, put 1 blue and 1 brown gem from the table back into the bag.

After 9 rounds, all the gems on the table should be gone, and every  player should be out of new puzzle cards to try. Count up your gem points and see who won!