Dinosaur Island Threat and Security, Explained

The Park Phase is where Dinosaur Island pays out, and where it bites. It is also where new tables make the most small rules slips, because several steps happen in a row and each one feeds the next. This lesson walks through the whole phase in order, with worked examples, so every visitor ends up where the rules say.

Step 1: threat comes from two places

Your base threat sits on the threat indicator on the right side of your lab. It starts at 1 for your starting dinosaur. Each time you create a dinosaur, it goes up by the threat pips on that recipe: 1 for an herbivore, 2 for a carnivore. If it passes 10, add a “+10” modifier token and keep counting.

At the end of the Research Phase, the leftover die with the most threat pips (1, 2, or 3) moves to the holding area. Its pips are added to every player’s threat this round. If every die was claimed, nothing is in the holding area and nothing is added.

So your threat this round is base threat plus the holding die.

Step 2: security is bought, one level at a time

Your security also sits on your lab and starts at 1. You raise it 1 level at a time with a lab action, such as the Tool Bench printed on your lab board, which can either upgrade a paddock or raise security and is marked unlimited. Each raise costs the amount printed beside the level you are moving to on your lab’s security chart: $1 to reach level 2, $2 for levels 3 and 4, $3 for 5 and 6, $4 for 7 and 8, and $5 for 9 and 10. Every level after 10 costs $5.

Some specialists and lab upgrades give discounts or bonuses to security, so check what you have.

Step 3: draw and get paid

In turn order, each player draws visitors from the bag equal to their excitement. Put them all at your park’s entrance and take $1 from the bank for each patron. Hooligans pay nothing.

You keep that $1 even if the patron never gets into your park.

Step 4: place visitors, hooligans first

Now move visitors from the entrance into your park:

• Each attraction has room for the visitors shown on it.
• Each exhibit has room for one visitor per dinosaur in its paddock. An exhibit with 2 dinosaurs holds 2 visitors.
• All hooligans go in first. They push to the front.
• Anyone left over stays in line at the entrance.

Example: you draw 10 visitors, 7 patrons and 3 hooligans, and your park has 9 open spaces. The 3 hooligans take 3 spaces, 6 patrons take the rest, and 1 patron waits in line. You still collected $7 at the gate.

Step 5: are the dinosaurs loose?

All players do this at the same time. Compare your threat this round with your security.

• Security equal to or higher than threat: nothing happens.
• Security lower than threat: one visitor is eaten for each point of difference.

You choose which visitors are eaten, with one rule: all patrons in your park must be eaten before any hooligan. If you owe more visitors than are inside your park, take the rest from the line at the entrance. Eaten visitors go back in the bag, and you lose 1 VP for each. Your score can go below zero.

Example: you have 3 herbivores and 2 carnivores, so your base threat is 7. The holding die shows 3 pips, so this round’s threat is 10. Your security is 8. Dinosaurs eat 2 visitors, and they must be patrons if you have patrons inside. You lose 2 VPs.

Step 6: score the survivors

In turn order, score 1 VP for each patron still at an attraction or exhibit. Hooligans score nothing. Visitors in line score nothing. For each patron at a food attraction, you choose: 1 VP or $2.

Then, in Cleanup, every visitor goes back in the bag, eaten or not.

Why an eaten patron hurts twice

Because patrons are eaten first, a loose dinosaur almost always takes a patron who was about to score. You lose the 1 VP penalty and the 1 VP that patron would have earned. In practice, each point your threat beats your security costs about 2 VPs per round. That is the number to weigh against the price of a security level.

The good news: the holding die is set aside at the end of the Research Phase, before the Worker Phase. When you place workers, you already know this round’s full threat, so you can buy exactly the security you need. And since the holding die adds at most 3, security at your base threat plus 3 is safe from any die. Our article on luck vs skill looks at this kind of planning, where you pay to make a random number stop mattering.

A quick checklist for the Park Phase

1. Draw visitors equal to excitement. Collect $1 per patron.
2. Place hooligans, then patrons. The rest wait in line.
3. Threat plus holding die, minus security: eat that many, patrons first, minus 1 VP each.
4. Score 1 VP per surviving patron inside. Food attractions may pay $2 instead.