Wreck Raiders Solo Mode Review

How to Dive Solo

Obviously, in real life you should always have a dive buddy, but this is a game, and pretty soon the wrecks will be crammed with other divers going after the same treasure as you.

Set up Wreck Raiders for yourself as for the normal game, using all six divers, all six dice and three available exhibits. Make an additional pile of eighteen other divers. These are rivals, and can be any colours.

The rules recommend that you are familiar with the multi-player mode before attempting solo, and that is what I’ll assume for this guide. Throw the six dice and take the first go as per usual except for the following.

During movement:

You may not send your diver to the beach.

If you cannot go to a wreck spot that matches the number on your selected die (because all are occupied by your own divers), you forfeit your movement that turn.

If you bump a rival from a wreck, they go to any beach spot, where they will remain until the end of the game! If no beach spots are available, the rival diver is removed from the game.

If you claim a spot on a wreck next to a rival diver, they gain treasure as usual, but it goes straight to the discard pile.

Most of the rules above will only kick in once a few turns have been taken, so your first few goes will seem fairly straightforward.

After movement:

As in a normal turn, you may claim one or more exhibits and also buy one aquarium piece if you want to.

So, that was your first go, and now you must take two more, so that three of the thrown dice are used. After this, the rival divers take three turns in succession, using the remaining three dice from the reef. The rules for the rival divers are:

The rival must go to a wreck, not the beach, and each of the three divers for this round must go to a different wreck.

If there is an empty space matching the die and the above criteria, the diver must go to that empty space. If not, the diver bumps any diver to the beach. In this solo game of Wreck Raiders, the bumped diver may go to any available beach spot. If there are no empty beach spots, the bumped diver is removed from the game if it’s a rival, or returned to your supply if it’s yours.

When rival divers are bumped to the beach, they do not collect shells and can never be removed from the beach. Your own divers do collect shells and can also be moved from the beach as in a normal game.

When a rival diver is placed on a wreck, its neighbours collect treasure, which is discarded if it’s a rival’s. If one of your divers is the lucky recipient, take the treasure but you must place it in your vault, following the normal rules for storing treasures there.

After the rival divers have had their three turns, you can buy an aquarium piece if you wish. Then check to see whether any of the conditions triggering the end of the game have been met. There are several possible ways the game can end:

Your vault is full.

You have claimed six or more exhibits.

At least one of the wrecks has run out of treasures.

All six beach spots are occupied by divers (your own are included in this).

There are no divers remaining in the supply of 18 you started the game with.

If the game is over, calculate your score and see how you fared against the rulebook’s performance chart!

My First Two Attempts

I definitely felt I could have done better the first time around. The game’s end was triggered by the filling of the vault – I didn’t appreciate how quickly this would happen. There were still three rival divers in the supply, which means I could have had three more turns to accumulate points. Eighty points was my score and the designers suggest this is pretty unremarkable. But hey – it was a first attempt so not too bad.

Second time around I altered my strategy. I don’t think it will be giving too much away to tell you what I changed. After all, I’ve only played twice and am by no means an expert. I resolved not to place any treasures in the vault by choice, hence delaying that particular end-game condition. Instead I would focus on collecting more aquarium pieces. This time I scored a much more satisfying 115 points, the difference being almost all down to aquariums. The end of the game was triggered by the depletion of the rival diver supply, which I was happier with. There was only one space left on the beach and I’d almost filled the vault, so I felt I’d balanced those things well. In neither game did I come close to running out of treasures on the wrecks, and nor was I in danger of collecting six or more exhibits.

Thoughts So Far

The game play is easy to get the hang of as long as you’ve played the multi-player version before. I only had to check the rules a couple of times and that was partly because I haven’t played wreck raiders at all for a few months. I did find it difficult to keep track of my goes-there are several steps to each turn if you’re collecting shells, bumping divers and handing out treasures to all and sundry. Twice I couldn’t remember if I’d picked up the die for that turn or not. I suspect a more rigid approach to keeping track would iron out this issue.

It’s a real puzzle. The challenge is to get the highest score you can rather than to win or lose. You are trying to think ahead to what the rival dice rolls will be and whether you can use them to your advantage. It’s possible to set up the divers on your turns to benefit you on

the rivals turns and that made my brain hurt in a good way. The rulebook implies that a score of 150 + isn’t doable but I reckon if you are the kind of person who can think 6 moves ahead…

Good Luck!