Boba Life rules

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Boba Life rules

An order-management card game for 2 to 4 players: you run a bubble tea stand in Boba City, you mix the drinks, you serve the customers waiting in line — and you sell before your boba expire.

Players
2 to 4
Age
8 and up
Playing time
15–30 min
Mechanic
Order management

Overview

Welcome to Boba City, a little slice of paradise where the smiles are as bubbly as the boba! In this land of delights, visitors come from across the globe to line up for a taste of the best bubble tea in the universe. Your mission: to tickle your customers' fancy — and their taste buds — and become a true boba master.

Each player tries to fill as many orders as possible and earn as much money as they can. On your turn you choose: add a card to the Boba line to expand your options, or take cards from that line. As soon as you take cards, you can start selling to customers in the Customer line and earn money.

But careful: if you don't sell a bubble tea in time, the cards expire and cost you money. The player with the most money when the Customer cards run out wins.

Components

  • 46 Bubble Tea cards
  • 13 Preparation cards
  • 24 Customer cards
  • 1 First Player card
  • 1 Closure card
  • 4 Service cards
  • 35 Money cards (10 × 1, 10 × 2, 10 × 5, 5 × 10)
  • 1 set of rules

Setup

  1. The bank — separate the Money cards into 4 piles by value: 1, 2, 5 and 10.
  2. Service cards — place them below the bank.
  3. The Customer line — shuffle the Customer cards, draw five and place them in a row. Put the draw pile at the start of the line.
  4. The Boba pile — shuffle the Bubble Tea and Preparation cards together, then place the pile under the Customer pile. The Boba line will form during play, beneath the Customer line.
  5. First player — whoever most recently had a bubble tea takes the First Player card and begins.

There are two rows: the Customer line, always 5 cards, and the Boba line, whose length varies but never exceeds 8 cards.

How to play

Players go in sequence, starting with the first player. A player's turn has 4 phases, in order.

  1. Shop phase — either draw a card from the Boba pile and add it face up to the line, or take cards from the line according to your selection order and place them face up in front of you. If the line already holds 8 cards, you must take.
  2. Sales phase — if you hold Bubble Tea and Preparation cards, you can sell to one or more customers, provided the boba flavour matches the order. Unused cards stay in front of you.
  3. Expiration phase — rotate the Bubble Tea cards in front of you by 90°. A card that has reached 180° is expired: discard it and pay the bank the amount shown in its lower left corner. Preparation cards are never rotated.
  4. End of turn — refill the Customer line so five cards are visible again. You are out until the next round.

As soon as a player takes cards from the line, they go straight through Sales and Expiration and finish their turn, then they are skipped. The round ends once everyone has taken cards at least once. The last player to finish starts the next round.

Selection order

1st: 4 cards · 2nd: 3 · 3rd and 4th: 2

The first player who decides to take during a round takes the 4 cards farthest to the right. The second takes 3, the third and fourth take 2. Careful: you always take the most recently added cards.

Bubble Tea cards

Each card shows the amount lost when it expires (bottom left), the number of cards of this type in the deck (bottom right), and sometimes an exchange symbol (top right). During the Sales phase, you must hold a Bubble Tea card matching a Customer card to make a sale.

Preparation cards

4 options per card · -1 per card left at the end

A Preparation card holds 4 options: topping, sugar level, size and temperature. They add value to a Bubble Tea card and earn more money on a sale.

They can be added during a sale if at least one option matches the customer's request. If several options on the same card match, you earn money for each. You may play as many Preparation cards as you like alongside a Bubble Tea card.

They are always optional. But at the end of the game, each Preparation card still in front of you costs you 1.

Customer cards

line of 5 · up to 3 flavours shown, only 1 sold

A Customer card is an order. It can show 1 to 3 boba flavours, but the customer only orders one: sell them the one that pays best. Customer cards also feature personalisation bonuses. Once won, they are removed from the game.

Example — with a Boba Milk Tea card and a Preparation card showing the 3 sugars icon, you take the 4th card in the Customer line and earn 6 (four for the bubble tea, two for the preparation). With a second Boba Milk Tea, you take the most recent Customer card and earn 3.

Super Service

run of 2 to 5 customers · 1 per customer

If you serve Customer cards in a row starting from the first customer on the left, you earn 1 per customer in the run. A run starts at 2 cards and can go up to 5: 2 to 5 extra during your turn.

Stinky Boba card

-4 · only one counted

It costs you 4 at the end of your Expiration phase, then it is discarded. If you hold several, only one counts: the others are shuffled back into the pile.

Exchange symbol

When a card showing the exchange symbol is drawn and placed in the Boba line, you may: swap the position of 2 cards in the Boba line, or swap the position of 2 Customer cards, or do nothing.

Closure card

It always sits at the bottom of the Customer pile. When you reach it, you complete the round and the game ends.

Change and failed payment

You can get change from the bank at any time. A player who cannot pay is knocked out of the game but keeps their score.

Don't forget

Even if a Customer card shows several boba flavours, only one bubble tea can be sold for it. Preparation cards are always optional. When the Boba pile runs out, shuffle the discards to refill it.

End of the game

The game ends when the last Customer card is taken. Count your money: the richest player wins.

Customer cards obtained — the money earned serving each customer.
Preparations sold — the money earned for each option matching the request.
Super Service — the money earned from runs of customers.
Preparation cards left — subtract 1 for each card still in front of you.

Download the rules

Rulebook (PDF, EN)

Ready to open your stand in Boba City?

Boba Life — 2 to 4 players, ages 8 and up, 15 to 30 minutes. €6 (was €14.99).

See the product page

Want to keep the evening going? Swap the bubble tea for a wok with Wok and Roll, or bring the whole table in at once with the Family Pack.

Author: Pascal Bernard · Illustrator: Abigail Tan · Graphic design: Mehdi Bouti
© 2025 Musoka Studio — 58 rue de Monceau, 75008 Paris, France