Candy Spiders Leopards rules

Home › Game rules › Candy Spiders Leopards

Candy Spiders Leopards rules

A trick-taking and set collection game for 2 to 5 players: you split your Rain cards into three piles ahead of time to grab the animals and objects falling from the sky — without winning too many of them.

Players
2 to 5
Age
10 and up
Playing time
30–45 min
Mechanic
Trick-taking, programming

Overview

A strange phenomenon intrigues the world: objects or animals, such as fish and frogs, happen to fall from the sky without explanation. Researcher and paranormal mystery expert Ivan Sanderson named these events "FAFROTSKIES".

Our story takes place in Japan, as a weather alert advises everyone to stay indoors and students must study from home. A few brave kids decide to break the rules to see this curious event. Candy, spiders, shooting stars, or even leopards — what will they see fall from the sky?

A game is played over four rounds, during which your goal is to collect the FAFROTSKIES cards that seem the most interesting to you. The player with the highest score after four rounds wins.

Components

  • 36 Rain cards (12 blue, 12 red and 12 green, numbered 1 to 12)
  • 36 FAFROTSKIES cards
  • 5 Scoring cards (the Candy Scoring card comes in two copies: one French, one English)
  • 6 Good weather cards
  • 1 First player card

Every Scoring card reads the same way: an A- or B-side, the points calculation, the associated illustration, and the number of times that element appears in total on the FAFROTSKIES cards.

Setup

The following setup applies to 4-player games. Please refer to the additional rules for 2, 3 or 5 players.

  1. The FAFROTSKIES deck — shuffle the FAFROTSKIES cards and form a face-down deck.
  2. The Good weather pile — shuffle the Good weather cards and place them within everyone's reach.
  3. The Rain deck — shuffle the Rain cards and form a face-down deck.
  4. The Scoring cards — each has an A-side and a B-side. Decide together which side to use for each type of FAFROTSKIES. For your first games, use the A-sides; later, mix both for more variety.
  5. The first player — the last player to see a spider takes the First player card.

How to play

A 4-player game is played over 4 rounds. Each round consists of 4 phases.

  1. Preparation — draw 9 FAFROTSKIES cards and place them in a line next to the deck: the closest is the 1st, the farthest the 9th. Divide them into 3 groups of 3, leaving space between each group. This is the "FAFROTSKIES line". Then shuffle the Rain cards and deal 9 face down to each player.
  2. Dealing — each player divides their 9 Rain cards into 3 piles of 3, one per group, placed face down in front of them in the order of the groups. Once placed, a pile cannot be modified.
  3. Good weather declaration — you can bet on good weather if you think you will collect no FAFROTSKIES cards this round. After deciding silently, everyone extends a fist over the table, then those who declare give a thumbs-up and take a Good weather card, Sun side visible.
  4. Trick sequence — start with the first group: each player takes the matching pile and plays three tricks. The first sequence concerns cards 1 to 3, the second cards 4 to 6, the third cards 7 to 9. Once done, check the good weather declarations, then pass the First player card to the left.

Must Follow

follow the colour led if possible

The first player leads a Rain card face up. The others play one after the other, clockwise, and must follow the colour of the first card if possible. If they can't, they may play any card.

The weather rule

blue is trump

The player who played the highest-numbered Rain card of the requested colour wins. However, if one or more blue cards were played, the highest blue card wins.

The winner takes the FAFROTSKIES card closest to the deck and places it face up in front of them. Played Rain cards are discarded face down. The winner leads the next trick.

Good weather cards

7 points if honoured · −2 points per card otherwise

At the end of the round, players who declared good weather check whether they collected any FAFROTSKIES cards.

None collected: the declaration is honoured, the card joins your winnings and is worth 7 points. At least one collected: the declaration fails, the Good weather card returns to the pile, and the FAFROTSKIES cards won that round go face down beside you — each costs you 2 points.

Example — Rio made two declarations. He honoured the first, earning 7 points, but not the second, as he won 2 cards costing him 2 points each. He scores 3 points (7 − 4).

Candy Scoring card

Side B: 1st 3 pts · 2nd 10 pts · 3rd 6 pts · 4th 0 pt

Side A — compare the number of candies each player collected. For each player with fewer candies than you, gain 1 point per candy they possess.

Example — Rio, Haru, Etsuko and Yoshi collected 8, 4, 3 and 1 candies. They score 8 (4+3+1), 4 (3+1), 1 and 0 points.

Side B — the player with the most candies is ranked first. Points are awarded according to the table on the card. Tied players share the same rank, and the next player is ranked just below.

Example — with 6, 6, 3 and 2 candies, they score 3, 3, 10 and 6 points.

Spider, Leopard and Shooting star Scoring cards

tables printed on the cards

Each of these cards makes you gain or lose points based on the number of matching elements on your cards, as indicated on the card. Each has an A-side and a B-side, with different scales.

Spider — with 1, 2, 3 and 4 spiders, players score 3, 10, 4 and 2 points on side A; 10, 3, 2 and 1 on side B.

Leopard — with 1, 2, 2 and 4 leopards, they score 0, 10, 10 and 20 points on side A.

Shooting star, side A — Rio scored 3 points for candies, 4 for spiders and 10 for leopards, a total of 17. With 3 Shooting star cards, he multiplies his score by 2 and gains 34 additional points.

On side B, the Shooting star scores based on the number of cards collected — and you immediately win the game if you hold all 3 Shooting star cards.

End of the game

At the end of the fourth round, score according to the Scoring cards, the Good weather cards and the face-down FAFROTSKIES cards. Cards featuring two candies, two spiders or two leopards count as two elements.

Scoring cards — points gained or lost according to the side used.
Honoured Good weather card — 7 points each.
Face-down FAFROTSKIES card — −2 points each.
Tie — the player with the fewest FAFROTSKIES cards wins. Then the most Good weather cards. Then whoever throws their shoe the farthest outside.

Rules for 2, 3 and 5 players

2 players

18 Rain cards

Only use the Rain cards numbered 1 to 6 in each colour. Return 7 to 12 to the box. No other changes.

3 players

18 Rain cards · 6 FAFROTSKIES per round · 6 rounds

Only use cards 1 to 6 of each colour. Each round, lay out 6 FAFROTSKIES cards instead of 9, in 2 groups of 3. Each player receives 6 Rain cards split into 2 piles of 3. The game lasts 6 rounds: the First player card goes around twice.

5 players

35 FAFROTSKIES · 7 cards per round · 5 rounds

Remove 1 Candy card from the FAFROTSKIES. Each round, lay out 7 cards instead of 9, in 2 groups numbered 1 to 3 and 4 to 7. Each player receives 7 Rain cards split into piles of 3 and 4. The game lasts 5 rounds. During scoring, if side B of the Candy card is used, 5th place also receives 0 points.

Download the rules

Rulebook (PDF, EN)

Winning too much is losing

Candy Spiders Leopards — 2 to 5 players, ages 10 and up, 30 to 45 minutes. €14.99.

See the product page

Enjoy planning your cards ahead of time? Try POP!. And to keep the journey going, discover the Japan Pack.

Designers: Shunsuke Tanabe & Rio Kariya · Artist: hogepiyo · Packaging: Mehdi Bouti · Translation and proofreading: Ambre Poilvé · Layout: Stéphanie Lairet
© 2025 Musoka Studio — 58 rue de Monceau, 75008 Paris, France