How To Play the Potion Explosion Game, a Quick Guide and Review

Okay class, today we’re talking about a fun board game that is definitely and legally not Harry Potter related.

In the game Potion Explosion, you practice your skills in the potions lab at the Horribilorum Sorcery Academy for Witty Witches and Wizards with headmaster Albedus Humblescore.

Typing this sentence makes me feel like we’re in a scene from Harry Potter puppet pals.

Anyway, in this game, it’s time for the potions class final exam.

Your goal is to win the student of the year award. To do so, you’ll need to be the best student and brew potions that are worth the most valuable points.

What is Potion Explosion?

Potion Explosion is a puzzle and strategy board game. It’s beautifully designed and very tactilely pleasing.

The game comes with a set of marbles and a plastic dispenser. Players collect these marbles (which represent needed ingredients) to brew potions, gain points and earn skill tokens.

Your strategy and keen attention to detail will help you gain the most ingredients, which will then help you beat your fellow students.

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Can 7 year olds play Potion Explosion?

The game is recommended for ages 14 and older. However, I think younger players could reasonably learn how to play the game, but they may need little help from an older player on occasion.

Of course, there are small marbles involved, so young children should be supervised.

With that in mind, I think this is a good game for the whole family.

Potion Explosion board game set up

Each player will receive a desk board, which features two burners.

The player who most recently prepared a drink gets the first player token.

Then, sort the potion tiles by type. They will have matching symbols. Remove two types from the game, either randomly or by choice.

From the remaining pile, take two starter potion tiles out for each player and set them in the middle of the table.

The first player will draft a starter potion, and drafts will continue clockwise until it gets to the last player. When all players have one potion, the last player drafts a second potion, and the draft continues counterclockwise.

Players put their starting potions on their burners. This is the brewing area.

Then, shuffle the remaining potion tiles and lay them in 5 stacks with the recipe side facing up.

Finally, put the ingredient marbles in the “tank” of the dispenser. They should roll down to fill the five tracks.

Place the little help tokens and the required number of skill tokens near the dispenser. For two players, use four skill tokens. Three-player games will use five tokens; four-player games will use six tokens.

How to play Potion Explosion

The game is played in turns, in clockwise order. During your turn, you must at least one ingredient marble from the dispenser.

The marble must be completely visible. When you take ingredients, try to trigger an explosion to gain the most ingredients possible (more on this below).

At any point, you may drink one or more of your completed potions or ask for a little help from the professor.

When you finish collecting the magical ingredients, set the colored marbles in corresponding colored slots on your potion card. You must place ingredients in your hand on matching empty holes on your potion recipe.

You can store up to three ingredients in the flask area to the side.

When you fill a potion, it is complete. Put the marbles back in the dispenser. You can move the potion tile to the area below your brewing area.

At the end of your turn, you may collect another potion if you have an open slot in your brewing area. This will be the last thing you do on your turn.

If you finish three of one kind of a potion or five of any kind of potion, you can gain a skill token. Notably, you do not get another skill token for having six of a kind.

May the best wizard win!

Taking ingredients, triggering explosions

Explosions may occur as you take a marble from the track.

If two ingredient marbles of the same color marbles collide, they “explode”. You may take all of the same-colored marbles that touch after an explosion is triggered.

The name of the game is to trigger chain reactions that help you gain the most amount of ingredients to help you brew the potions.

If another set connects after you have taken the initial marbles, you may take the additional color of exploding marbles.

For example, if you take the yellow marble above, the black marbles would connect. You would gain one yellow marble and three black marbles. After moving the black marbles, the red marbles connect. That means you would also gain the three red marbles.

Remember, you must place all the marbles on your potion card first. You can only store three extra marbles.

Getting a little help from the professor

At any point during your turn, you may ask for help from the professor by taking one of the little help tokens.

When you do this, you take one ingredient marble of your choice from the dispenser in addition to your regular pick. You cannot trigger an explosion while using a little help, even if you make two marbles collide.

You lose two points for using help.

Using the ingredients, completing a potion

As you complete potions, you move them below your brewing area.

Drinking a potion will give you special abilities. Find the matching icon on the potions list in the rulebook to see which ability the potion will offer.

After you drink a potion, flip it upside down.

One flaw of this game, in my opinion, is that it really needs a few reference cards for the potions instead of making players pass around the rulebook throughout the game, but I digress.

If you lost your rulebook, see below for a photo of the potion powers.

How to score points at the end of the game

The end of the game is triggered when there are no more potion tiles available or when the last skill token is taken from the stack. Play through until the player to the right of the first player completes their next turn.

Then, players add up the points they have obtained from potion tiles (marked with a number on the potion tile). Add skill tokens points and subtract two points for each help token.

In the case of a tie, all players each take one marble from the dispenser and try to trigger an explosion. The player who takes the most marbles this way is the winner.

Potion ingredients

One of the pitfalls of the game is that they do not offer reference cards on the potion powers.

But, remember that using your potions will help you greatly throughout the game. Each potion will have special abilities and specific effects.

Finally, this does not matter for gameplay, but if you prefer to reference the marbles by their potion names, the blue marbles are unicorn tears; the red marbles are dragon smoke; the black marbles are ogre mucus (ew) and the yellow marbles are fairy dandruff.

How much is Potion Explosion? Is it a good game?

This fun game is currently about $49 on Amazon. The base game plays 2-4 players and takes about 45 minutes to play.

The Fifth Ingredient expansion will allow up to 6 players as well. However, I generally find that the game plays better with fewer than four, if I’m being honest.

If you have a large number of players, the game can run a bit long and not be super interactive among the potion explosion players between turns.

Still, the game has enough depth to make me want to play it multiple times. It’s definitely a solid option for puzzle game fans.

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Have you played Potion Explosion? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.