Our step-by-step guide to the rules of how to play Minecraft Builders and Biomes Farmer’s Market expansion. As long as you have the Builders and Biomes base game, this is an addition that changes gameplay in meaningful and well-balanced ways. The original game is an engine building game that is half personal biome development and half an adventurer exploring the world, encountering monsters and getting stronger. Expansions can sometimes just be a pointless novelty that is more of a hurdle than a benefit, but that is not the case here. This expansion adds something new and meaningful to manage. The game is for 2 – 4 players at ages 10+. Some of the setup for how to play Minecraft Builders and Biomes Farmer’s Market Expansion is a little extensive, but all this adds is a robust new action, so there is not much to learn.
FOR MORE: Farmer’s Market Expansion Review | Buy Farmer’s Market Expansion on Amazon
HOW TO PLAY MINECRAFT BUILDERS AND BIOMES FARMER’S MARKET EXPANSION – WHAT IS IT?
Minecraft Builders and Biomes Farmer’s Market Expansion is the first expansion for Builders and Biomes that features news paths to victory through your farmland. Grow vegetables, trade with villagers, and secure unique items with powerful abilities to create the winning biome. There are new building tiles that generate these vegetables, and there are 18 unique items to spend them on that do everything from help with score, change your movement, and alter actions and building to name a few.
HOW TO PLAY MINECRAFT BUILDERS AND BIOMES FARMER’S MARKET EXPANSION – STEP BY STEP
Time Needed: Approximately 30 – 60 minutes.
This is a step by step guide for how to play Minecraft Builders and Biomes Farmer’s Market Expansion. Additional notions and special rules can be found below the list. These will be referenced for your convenience. Note that this is the information just for the expansion and this assumes you are also following the steps of how to play Minecraft Builders and Biomes base game.
1. SETUP | Add 16 New Tiles to Master Supply
The Farmer’s Market expansion comes with an additional 16 building tiles to add to the master set of building tiles for the game. Shuffle these in and setup the game as normal.
2. SETUP | Put Out Market Board
Near the main gameplay area, put out the large Market Board card.
3. SETUP | Place Items On Market Board
Each of the 18 item tiles has either an X, A or B on the back. Shuffle all the items into face-down stacks of these three types. The market board has four blank spaces of each type, fill these each with one card of that specific type (still face down so no one knows what it is). Return the remaining 6 leftover cards to the box. Flip up the four “X” items on the board so all can see them.
4. SETUP | Put Out Item Reference Card
Near the board, put out the reference card that shows what each item does.
5. SETUP | Give Players Starting Structure
There are 4 two sided building tiles. These are starting tiles for you to add to your board to start generating vegetable tokens. One side is a two player game and the other side is for a 3 or 4 player game.
6. SETUP | Put Out Vegetable Tokens
The expansion includes 32 yellow wooden cube tokens that represent the vegetables you grow. Place these in a pile near the gameboard accessible to all players.
7. SETUP | Choose Player Skins
You have the original skins from the game to use, but this expansion also comes with 6 new ones. Choose whichever one you like to add to your color base to use as your character.
8. SETUP | Put Out New Reference Cards
Replace the scoring reference and action reference cards from the base game with the new cards from the expansion. These show the additional options and information now available.
9. SETUP | Put Out New Experience Counters
To compensate for additional experience, there are now additional experience counters. Put these out with the base game counters.
10. GAMEPLAY | Flip New Items After Round
In Round 1, the “X” items (which start turned up) are the only ones available. After Round 1, you flip all the “A” items up and those are now available for purchase along with whatever Xs are leftover. After Round 2, you flip up all the “B” items so now those are available as well.
11. GAMEPLAY | Growing Vegetables
Building tiles that have a yellow box (or multiple) generate vegetable tokens. Once these are placed in a players biome tableau card, they immediately get a token placed on them that can be used right away in the “Buy from marketplace” action. After each scoring round, all cards on your player card get replenished with vegetables in any empty space (if you previously used those tokens on a purchase).
12. GAMEPLAY | New Action | Buy From the Marketplace
Choose any item showing in the market. Turn in vegetable tokens equal to the number shown in the bottom right corner of the item which is its cost. Take that item from the market and put the vegetable tokens back into the supply.
13. WINNING | Most Experience Wins
Just like in the normal game, the player with the most experience points at the end wins. You will most likely be at a higher overall total because of the new options the expansion provides.
HOW TO PLAY MINECRAFT BUILDERS AND BIOMES FARMER’S MARKET EXPANSION – KEY INFORMATION
NEW ITEM OPTIONS (18 TOTAL)
Below is a list of the specific items you can buy from the market in Minecraft Builders and Biomes Farmer’s Market expansion. This is the full list and their descriptions:
1. Minecart: Whenever you explore the overworld, you may move your character 0 – 3 spaces
2. Crafting Table: Whenever you build a structure, you may use one of your blocks as an emerald (wildcard) block (use it instead of any other block in the game).
3. Jukebox: Whenever you gain experience via the lightning icon, you gain an additional experience point. This applies to defeating a mob as well as building one of the more expensive structures.
4. Dropper: Remove a poisonous potato from your pile of weapons and place it on the dropper. It stays there until the end of the game. It is not shuffled back into your weapons pile when fighting a mob.
5. Bed: Whenever you lose a fight against a mob, you may attempt to fight it a second time. Pick up your weapon tokens, re-shuffle them, and reveal 3 per the normal rules for “fight a mob.” This counts as part of the current “fight a mob” action. If you fail a second time, the action ends.
6. Hopper: Whenever you execute the “collect blocks” action, you gain 1 experience point.
7. Smoker: If you trade in a defeated turn in mob, you get two additional actions this turn (total of 4 actions). You may execute an action that you have already executed earlier in the same turn.
8. Cartography Table: Whenever you explore the Overworld, you may move your character any number of spaces.
9. Minecart with Chest: Whenever you explore the “Collect blocks” action, you take 3 blocks.
10. Stonecutter: Whenever you execute the “Build” action, it costs 1 block less to build a structure. You choose which block you do not use. Structures that only cost 1 block are free to build, but you still must use the “Build” action.
11. Fletching Table: Whenever you fight a mob, you reveal 4 weapons.
12. Beacon: During your turn, you may execute 3 different actions. You may not execute the same action twice.
13. Ender Chest: At the end of the game, you gain 1 experience point for each block in your personal supply.
14. Scaffolding: At the end of the game, you gain 2 experience points for each structure you built on your player board, for a maximum of 18 points (2 points for each of 9 spaces). Only count the top structure on each space.
15. Target: At the end of the game, you gain 2 experience points for each defeated mob you still own.
16. Composter: At the end of the game, you gain 3 experience points for each farmland structure that is visible on your player board. Structures you have built over do not count.
17. Bell: At the end of the game, you gain 4 experience points for each item you have bought at the marketplace. Because the bell counts as one of those items, you will gain a minimum of 4 experience points.
18. Enchanting Table: At the end of the game, you gain 20 experience points.
GAME CONTENTS
- 20x Building Tiles
- 1x Marketplace Board
- 18x Item Tiles
- 32x Vegetable Tokens
- 6x Player Skins
- 3x Item Reference Cards
- 8x Overview Cards
- 8x Experience Counters
HOW TO PLAY MINECRAFT BUILDERS AND BIOMES FARMER’S MARKET EXPANSION – IN CLOSING
We hope you can now say you know how to play the Minecraft Builders and Biomes Farmer’s Market Expansion. If you are a fan of the original Minecraft Builders and Biomes, this expansion is a great addition to your gameplay that adds new paths to victory. There is plenty to do so picking up Minecraft does take a little bit of time, but gameplay is simple and you will have it in no time. The Farmer’s Market expansion adds a few new details, but it is all very logical and shouldn’t be difficult for any fan of the base game to pickup.
