How to play The Rival

The Rival is a way to play Pirates Wild alone with the full 114-card deck. You play by the regular rules against a rival captain run by the deck. The first to fill every limit wins: Coins 4, Map 3, Jewels 2, Skeleton Key 1 and Treasure Chest 1, in that order.

On your turn, draw one card from the draw pile or take the top of the discard pile, then play one card or discard one. To plunder you need Daylight, Crew and the right Ship face up, and no Trouble on you. Your Trouble cards go on the Rival, and your Kraken can take one of its treasures.

The Rival has no hand. On its turn it turns over the top card of the draw pile. It plunders any treasure it still has room for, in any order. A green card clears its Trouble, a red card lands on you, a blue card protects it, and the Kraken takes your highest treasure. Everything it cannot use goes on the discard pile, where you can take it.

There are three levels. At Greenhorn the Rival needs the matching remedy to clear a Trouble. At Hunter any green card clears it. At Legend the Rival also starts with one each of Coins, Map, Jewels and Skeleton Key.

Printable one-page rules (PDF). These solo rules are new, and they may change as players try them.