Dinosaur Island Objectives: Controlling When the Game Ends

Dinosaur Island hands every player a lever on the game’s length. The end triggers when only one objective is left unclaimed, and you choose which objectives you work toward and when you finish them.

Level 2’s endgame lesson covered spending down when the end arrives. This lesson is about deciding when it arrives.

Objectives are points and a timer

Each objective is worth 6 to 8 VPs at the end. That is a lot: often more than a round of patrons. The rulebook also says plainly that completing objectives serves as a timer, pushing the game toward its conclusion.

So every claim has two effects:

• You gain its VPs.
• The game gets one claim closer to ending.

When you are winning, both effects help you. When you are behind, the second one hurts.

Choosing the length at setup

At setup the group picks one stack: short, medium, or long. Then players plus one objectives are revealed. A few short examples from the rulebook:

• “Reach an excitement level of 10.”
• “Have 6 dinosaurs in your park.”
• “Have 12 DNA in cold storage.”
• “Earn $9 from patrons in a single round.”
• “Create dinosaurs of 2 different species,” not counting your starting species.

A medium example: “Earn 8 VPs (without modifiers) from patrons in a single round.”

Short objectives make engine purchases pay back less, because there are fewer rounds to use them. Long objectives reward engines and big paddocks. When you learn which stack is in play, adjust your opening: lean toward points and objectives in a short game, and toward workers and upgrades in a long one.

Shared claims within a phase

When a player claims an objective, others who meet it before the end of that phase may also claim it. After that, it closes.

This rule rewards watching the board. If a rival claims “Have 6 dinosaurs in your park” in the Worker Phase, and you can create your sixth dinosaur in the same Worker Phase, you can still claim it. Everyone acts at once in the Worker Phase, so this happens there often. The rulebook’s own example has two players both claiming “Have 12 dinosaurs in your park” in one Worker Phase.

It also means racing is different from many games. Being first does not lock others out. What locks them out is the phase ending.

Timing the trigger

Count the open objectives at the start of each round. When two remain, the next claim triggers the end. Before you take the action that would complete one, project the final score, as in the endgame lesson:

• If you are ahead: finish it. The round you are in becomes the last, and rivals have only what is left of it to catch up.
• If you are behind: consider spending this round elsewhere: patrons, exhibits, attractions, anything that scores without meeting the last objective. Build toward it so you can finish it in a later round instead.

The risk of waiting is real. If a rival completes that objective and you cannot match it in the same phase, it is gone, along with its VPs.

Denying objectives

You cannot block an objective directly, but you can make it harder:

• DNA objectives: claiming the die a rival needs, or the storage slot they wanted, slows them down.
• Market objectives, such as buying lab upgrades: buying DNA from a row lets you discard an upgrade a rival needed.
• Recipe objectives: taking the recipe a rival was planning to build.

Denial costs you an action that does not build your park, so use it only when the objective is close for them and far for you.

Turn order and the last round

The player with the fewest VPs goes first, and turn order is reset by score at every Cleanup. The end triggers during a round, and that round is the last, so its turn order was already set at the previous Cleanup. Triggering early in the round leaves rivals every remaining phase to catch up; triggering in the Worker or Park Phase leaves them almost nothing. Count what each rival can still do in the phases left before you claim.

Solo objectives work differently

In the solo game, objectives score more the earlier you complete them, and the game lasts exactly seven rounds. The solo lesson at Level 4 covers that clock.

An objective checklist

1. How many objectives are open, and how many claims until the end?
2. Am I ahead if the game ends this round?
3. Can I claim an objective a rival just claimed, before this phase ends?