Ruling — New York Zoo

You asked

How do I play?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: New York Zoobg-300877-en-1e

To play, follow these steps:

1. Move the elephant forward by 1 to 4 spaces (depending on player count) to either a blue Animal Acquisition space or a space with puzzle pieces.[1][2]

* In a game with 2 or 4 players, you can move the elephant 1 to 4 spaces.[1]

* In a game with 3 or 5 players, you can move the elephant 1 to 3 spaces.[1]

* You can use range markers to move the elephant exactly 1, 2, 3, or at least 4 spaces.[3]

* You can move the elephant without a range marker to the next Animal Acquisition space.[3]

* You are not allowed to leave the elephant where it is.[1]

2. Perform your main action:[1]

* If you moved to a blue Animal Acquisition space, take the specified animals from that space and place them on your houses and/or Enclosures.[2]

* If you moved to a space with puzzle pieces, place the topmost Enclosure Tile on your zoo board and place at least 1 animal on it, taken from your Enclosures or houses.[2]

* If you move the elephant to a space with a green Enclosure Tile, you place the topmost Enclosure Tile on your board.[1]

* After placing a piece, check if you have an Enclosure that is now completely filled with animals; if so, you must immediately exchange those animals for an Attraction.[1][4]

3. Perform the Animal Breeding phase (if the elephant crossed one of the five Animal Breeding lines):[4]

* The main action is followed by an Animal Breeding phase for all players.[4]

* Each player who has at least 2 animals of the announced species in one Enclosure receives 1 animal of that species, which must be placed in that same Enclosure.[5]

* You can add 1 animal in up to 2 Enclosures in total.[5]

* Each time a new animal is added via Breeding, you may take exactly 1 more animal of the same species from one of your houses and add it to that Enclosure.[5]

* In 2 or 3 player games, a "Bonus Breeding" may occur: if you had offspring during the first Breeding, you receive an animal offspring in exactly 1 other Enclosure of your choice.[5]

* After the actual Animal Breeding, players check again whether they have completely filled any Enclosures to exchange them for Attractions.[4][5]

[1] RULEBOOK New York Zoo — Rulebook · p.5 · Puzzle rules · The following rules apply to all puzzle pieces: · How to Play: Overview · 1. Moving the elephant · What is considered a space: · What is NOT considered spaces and are skipped during counting: · …

[2] RULEBOOK New York Zoo — Rulebook · p.1 · Turn overview · Golden rules

[3] RULEBOOK New York Zoo — Rulebook · p.8 · 1. Moving the Elephant · 2. Main action and 3. Animal Breeding · Scoring · Winning · Losing

[4] RULEBOOK New York Zoo — Rulebook · p.5 · 3. Animal Breeding

[5] RULEBOOK New York Zoo — Rulebook · p.7 · Animal Breeding · Special rule 'Bonus Breeding' for the 2 or 3 player game

That settles it — whose turn was it?

🔧 debug — where this ruling came from

outcome: ANSWERED — Answered
corpus profile: live,vps
answerer pin (deploy-frozen, attribution only): gemma4:26b think:false 5571076f3d70
timings: search 197 ms · ask 3948 ms · total 4147 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 0 ms · generation 4147 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 5, "score": 0.048652, "snippet": "Your task is to completely fill the construction area (the brown spaces) on your zoo board with Enclosures and Attractions. (Unlike the Enclosures, the Attractions are also available in very small sizes. These small tiles are intended to close gaps.) You are allowed to rotate and turn puzzle pieces ", "headingPath": "Puzzle rules · The following rules apply to all puzzle pieces: · How to Play: Overview · 1. Moving the elephant · What is considered a space: · What is NOT considered spaces and are skipped during counting: · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 157}, {"page": 8, "score": 0.047379, "snippet": "You move the elephant with the range markers. With the 1-marker you have to move it exactly 1 space forward, with the 2 exactly 2 spaces, with the 3 exactly 3 spaces and with the 4+ at least 4 spaces. If the elephant would reach a space with an Enclosure that you cannot place on your zoo board, you ", "headingPath": "1. Moving the Elephant · 2. Main action and 3. Animal Breeding · Scoring · Winning · Losing", "sharpsignalDocId": 157}, {"page": 8, "score": 0.032787, "snippet": "The first player to cover each space on their construction area completely with tiles wins the game. (Often at the end of a game you are only missing a few small Attractions, for which you will have to dilligently collect animals to score Enclosures.) The game may end with the main action of the act", "headingPath": "Game end and winner · Short rules for 2 players · Additional game preparation · Additional gameplay", "sharpsignalDocId": 157}, {"page": 1, "score": 0.031746, "snippet": "In New York Zoo, you are designing an animal park. Build Enclosures, introduce new animals and raise their offspring. The first player to cover all the construction spaces of their zoo board with Enclosure Tiles and Attractions wins the game. The following overview can serve as a useful reminder for", "headingPath": "Turn overview · Golden rules", "sharpsignalDocId": 157}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "By moving the elephant, you sometimes cross one of the five Animal Breeding lines. If this is the case, your main action is followed by an Animal Breeding phase for each player . (More details below.) After Animal Breeding, all players check whether they have completely filled any Enclosures. If thi", "headingPath": "3. Animal Breeding", "sharpsignalDocId": 157}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.030303, "snippet": "Place the 8 Enclosure Tiles in the lightest green shade (4 spaces) in the middle slots of the action strip as indicated by the color code. Distribute them randomly across the slots. Distribute the 15 Enclosure Tiles in the light green shade (5 spaces) randomly across all 15 slots of the action strip", "headingPath": "Tokens", "sharpsignalDocId": 157}, {"page": 2, "score": 0.029851, "snippet": "Boards 8 double-sided zoo boards for various player counts 1 action strip with slots for Enclosure Tiles Enclosure Tiles (puzzle pieces) in four different shades of green 8 Enclosures in the lightest green (4 spaces) 15 Enclosures in dark green (6 spaces) 2 animal tiles of 3 per animal type ( use th", "headingPath": "Golden rules · Components · Animal Tiles · Tokens", "sharpsignalDocId": 157}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.029412, "snippet": "A player who crosses one of the five Animal Breeding lines with the elephant has to carry out a full main action first (placing an Enclosure Tile or Animal Acquisition) . Only then is an Animal Breeding announced, for all players. (Make sure all players are aware that an Animal Breeding takes place.", "headingPath": "Animal Breeding · Special rule 'Bonus Breeding' for the 2 or 3 player game", "sharpsignalDocId": 157}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 5, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Puzzle rules · The following rules apply to all puzzle pieces: · How to Play: Overview · 1. Moving the elephant · What is considered a space: · What is NOT considered spaces and are skipped during counting: · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 157}, {"page": 1, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Turn overview · Golden rules", "sharpsignalDocId": 157}, {"page": 8, "quote": null, "headingPath": "1. Moving the Elephant · 2. Main action and 3. Animal Breeding · Scoring · Winning · Losing", "sharpsignalDocId": 157}, {"page": 5, "quote": null, "headingPath": "3. Animal Breeding", "sharpsignalDocId": 157}, {"page": 7, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Animal Breeding · Special rule 'Bonus Breeding' for the 2 or 3 player game", "sharpsignalDocId": 157}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 157 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 157 boosted
answered-before recall: this ruling was answered, so past rulings were not offered
similarity threshold in force: 0.55 (rulesage.answered-before.similarity-threshold; the exact-question tier is not gated by it)
answer fence: passed — letter density 0.91244 of 1736 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row recorded: Aug 26, 2026 07:44 UTC

retrieval — what the passage search returned

what this block IS: the PASSAGE SEARCH's own results — the same search that fills this page's closest-passages list — and NOT the passages the answerer read. Answering runs its OWN retrieval: a far wider candidate pool, re-ranked down to a final handful, plus floors this search never applies — the base rulebook, surviving errata corrections, and one slot per book on a multi-book read. Each of those armed only if THIS ask sent what it needs: the boost block names the ids it forwarded, and the scope line names the books it read. A document the answer CITES that no row here names is therefore EXPECTED, not a defect: two searches, two candidate pools, two orders. The answerer's own final rows are shown in their own block below, beside these and never mixed into them.

score = the fused retrieval score (reciprocal-rank fusion over the search arms) — NOT a cosine similarity. This ruling ran the THREE-ARM fuse (full-text + vector + the doc-priority boost arm, which carried the base rulebook and/or the errata corrections this query matched), whose arithmetic ceiling is 0.04918 — all three arms ranking the same chunk #1 (ceiling = arms/(k+1) at k=60). The measured healthy band 0.016–0.033 was measured on TWO-arm asks and does not bound this one: its high end is the two-arm ceiling, and a third arm has room above it. A chunk only one arm ranked highly lands near 0.016 (that one arm's #1 vote), so 0.03 here is an excellent hit, not a 3% match.

per-arm ranks (the rank each search arm gave a chunk): NOT DISCLOSED by the gateway. Fusion happens gateway-side and only the FUSED score crosses the wire, so rulesage cannot show them without a gateway change. The rank column below is the FUSED rank (position in the returned list), which is real.

token count per chunk: NOT DISCLOSED — chunk token counts are not reported on the ask path. The character counts below are of the bounded snippet/quote rulesage actually received — a real measurement of what we hold, never an estimate of the chunk.

fused rank	document	heading	page	fused RRF score	snippet chars
#1	RULEBOOK New York Zoo — Rulebook (corpus doc 157)	Puzzle rules · The following rules apply to all puzzle pieces: · How to Play: Overview · 1. Moving the elephant · What is considered a space: · What is NOT considered spaces and are skipped during counting: · …	p.5	0.048652 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#2	RULEBOOK New York Zoo — Rulebook (corpus doc 157)	1. Moving the Elephant · 2. Main action and 3. Animal Breeding · Scoring · Winning · Losing	p.8	0.047379 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#3	RULEBOOK New York Zoo — Rulebook (corpus doc 157)	Game end and winner · Short rules for 2 players · Additional game preparation · Additional gameplay	p.8	0.032787 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#4	RULEBOOK New York Zoo — Rulebook (corpus doc 157)	Turn overview · Golden rules	p.1	0.031746 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#5	RULEBOOK New York Zoo — Rulebook (corpus doc 157)	3. Animal Breeding	p.5	0.030769 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#6	RULEBOOK New York Zoo — Rulebook (corpus doc 157)	Tokens	p.4	0.030303 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#7	RULEBOOK New York Zoo — Rulebook (corpus doc 157)	Golden rules · Components · Animal Tiles · Tokens	p.2	0.029851 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300
#8	RULEBOOK New York Zoo — Rulebook (corpus doc 157)	Animal Breeding · Special rule 'Bonus Breeding' for the 2 or 3 player game	p.7	0.029412 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	300

what the answerer read — the passages it actually had in front of it

what this block IS: the passages the ANSWERING read put in front of the answerer, in the order it read them — the other half of the two reads described above, and the one that decides what the answer could possibly say. Each row names the book it came from and where in that book it sits, what it scored when the search arms were fused, which arm carried it there, and whether the re-ranker chose it or a floor guaranteed it a slot. A row here that no passage-search row names is EXPECTED: a far wider pool, re-ranked, with floors the passage search never applies.

candidate pool: the answering read scored 9 passages, out of a ceiling of 80 set gateway-side. Both figures are reported by the gateway for THIS ask — measurements of what actually happened, not constants read out of anyone's source and printed here on faith.

floors armed for this ask: the base rulebook — armed · surviving errata corrections — not armed · one slot per book on a multi-book read — not armed. Every floor is stated on every ask, armed or not, so a floor that did not apply here is never mistaken for one this app does not know about.

arms fused for this ask: vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm. Stated separately from the rows because an arm that ran and carried nothing is a different fact from an arm that never ran.

read at	document	heading	page	fused rank	fused RRF score	carried by	how it got its slot
#1	RULEBOOK New York Zoo — Rulebook (corpus doc 157)	Puzzle rules · The following rules apply to all puzzle pieces: · How to Play: Overview · 1. Moving the elephant · What is considered a space: · What is NOT considered spaces and are skipped during counting: · …	p.5	#1	0.048652 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#2	RULEBOOK New York Zoo — Rulebook (corpus doc 157)	3. Animal Breeding	p.5	#5	0.030769 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#3	RULEBOOK New York Zoo — Rulebook (corpus doc 157)	Animal Breeding · Special rule 'Bonus Breeding' for the 2 or 3 player game	p.7	#8	0.029412 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#4	RULEBOOK New York Zoo — Rulebook (corpus doc 157)	Tokens	p.4	#6	0.030303 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#5	RULEBOOK New York Zoo — Rulebook (corpus doc 157)	Golden rules · Components · Animal Tiles · Tokens	p.2	#7	0.029851 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#6	RULEBOOK New York Zoo — Rulebook (corpus doc 157)	1. Moving the Elephant · 2. Main action and 3. Animal Breeding · Scoring · Winning · Losing	p.8	#2	0.047379 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#7	RULEBOOK New York Zoo — Rulebook (corpus doc 157)	Turn overview · Golden rules	p.1	#4	0.031746 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#8	RULEBOOK New York Zoo — Rulebook (corpus doc 157)	Game end and winner · Short rules for 2 players · Additional game preparation · Additional gameplay	p.8	#3	0.032787 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it

chosen chunks — what the answer actually cited

#	document	heading	page	quote chars
[1]	RULEBOOK New York Zoo — Rulebook (corpus doc 157)	Puzzle rules · The following rules apply to all puzzle pieces: · How to Play: Overview · 1. Moving the elephant · What is considered a space: · What is NOT considered spaces and are skipped during counting: · …	p.5	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK New York Zoo — Rulebook (corpus doc 157)	Turn overview · Golden rules	p.1	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK New York Zoo — Rulebook (corpus doc 157)	1. Moving the Elephant · 2. Main action and 3. Animal Breeding · Scoring · Winning · Losing	p.8	no quote on the wire
[4]	RULEBOOK New York Zoo — Rulebook (corpus doc 157)	3. Animal Breeding	p.5	no quote on the wire
[5]	RULEBOOK New York Zoo — Rulebook (corpus doc 157)	Animal Breeding · Special rule 'Bonus Breeding' for the 2 or 3 player game	p.7	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 197 ms · first delta 1356 ms · total 4147 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown: queued 0 ms · retrieval 197 ms · ask 3948 ms · gateway work 4147 ms · total 4147 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3227
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 553
tok/sec: 202.1 tok/sec — 553 output tokens in 2.736 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 57s ago)
answerer host (measured by rulesage): reachable (for 22h, checked 6s ago)
answerer node (the seat proxy's own header — this probe, not this ask): node1
stream path: streamed — the gateway pushed at least one accumulated draft
watchdog: first-token watchdog: 30s per arming window (rulesage.table.first-token-watchdog-seconds), re-armed once by the passages frame — so the worst case before a reader falls back to polling is 60s. Whether it actually fired is a BROWSER-side decision that never reaches the server, so it is not recorded here. The stream path above is the server's half of that story: whether a delta was emitted at all.
num_ctx · think posture: both are the CHILD's settings, not rulesage's, and no ask reply carries them — an answer never states which context window or think posture produced it. The live-seat line above reads them from the running child instead, where the gateway can answer for itself; it describes the child NOW, not this ask.

disposition

outcome: ANSWERED — Answered
abstain rationale (n/a — this ruling answered): answered — no abstain rationale applies

setup-shape — why the checklist band did or didn't render

decision: NOT_SETUP_SHAPED — no setup-shape pattern matched this question

errata registry — what the gate above had to match against

this game registers NO errata cards (edition 79), so "no registered errata card matched" above could never have matched one

Errata scope: the gate above matched this ruling's own edition only. When an ask also reads an expansion, that expansion's own registered errata cards stay outside the match — a stated phase-1 limitation, not a failed lookup.