Time for another My Little Pony: Adventures in Equestria preview!

Ponyville is a town filled with bustle and banter, chatter and cantor, and all the town ponies could use a little of your help to complete various tasks. But don’t be afraid to help out, because they’ll pay you back in gratitude (as well as Sugar Cubes!)

During the set-up, you’ll layout Ponyville: Town Square, where you’ll all start out your adventure, and three random Location cards. All of these Locations will have three Tasks that will cost MOVE to move your Pony to, as well as a payment of resources to gain a benefit. Let’s take a look at Ponyville: Town Square a bit deeper, shall we?

Notice how all of these tasks have a little green icon? That means that the Task is repeatable, however, you may only perform each Task once per turn at a Location. If the Task does not have a repeatable icon, the player who completes the Task will place a Task Token on that particular Task. That’s quite a task, if I say so myself! If you’re a big pony fan like I am, you can even theme these Tasks as you complete them as something you’d do at that particular Location.

Task 1 allows you to pay 1 MOVE and a Sugar Cube to gain a Sugar Cube. This task is very handy if you need a particular color of Sugar Cube. This Task could be like helping Junebug collect some flowers for her market stand!

Task 2 allows you to pay 2 INFO to remove a card from your discard pile from the game. Remember how we mentioned deck-thinning is a very useful tool to employ in a deck-building game? Be sure to utilize this Task often to minimize the number of starter cards in your deck so you can start drawing your better cards more often. This Task could be like finding Cranky Doodle Donkey’s toupe before it gets lost in the wind!

Task 3 allows you to pay 3 HELP to gain a +2 HELP, +2 INFO, or +2 MOVE token…but hold on. Why would you want to spend 3 resources to gain 1 fewer resource? Remember: Tokens are permanently in front of you until you can use them, whereas the 3 HELP may not be significantly helpful to buy a card or perform another task. Flexibility is a big strategy! This Task could be like helping Joe make a baker’s dozen of donuts in 10 minutes flat!

Each Location will have various Tasks to be accomplished, so having extra MOVE on hand to be able to move your pony around is super helpful. Once a Location has no more Tasks that can be completed, you’re done with that Location, and a new one will be added next turn. It’s a good strategy to finish Location cards quickly to uncover new Locations as the more expensive Tasks will grant you multiple Sugar Cubes, usually at a discount if you’re able to control certain cards! Take that, you dubious Clouds! We’ve got the power of being “neigh”borly! Get it? Because you’re neighbors with these ponies, but also “neigh” because you’re also small horses…hah! I crack myself up.

But with all good things in the game, there has to be some bad things, right? Or else Rainbow Dash would find this adventure soooooooooo boooorrrrriiiinnng! (in true Rainbow Dash fashion. Fluttershy, on the other hoof, would be totally fine with it.)

As mentioned before, the goal of the game is to overcome Situations, Hurdles, and a Final Challenge, because what adventure would be complete without a little danger to be had? Situations are shuffled into the Adventure deck during the set-up, but this is completely up to the group to include any. We suggest not including any Situations in the game without being victorious. If you do play with Situations, don’t say we didn’t warn you!

Let’s look at a Situation that may make its appearance in the Adventure Row.

There’s quite a lot to unpack here! First, each time they appear, that’s one less good card you can acquire from the Adventure Row. Secondly, they add one Cloud to the Final Challenge at the end of your turn! That’s not a good thing at all! The more Clouds that are added to the Final Challenge, the more challenging this game becomes to navigate.

Then there’s the matter of cost. 4 MOVE is a very steep price if your goal is to traverse to another Location, but luckily enough that your teammates can help you by spending their Resource Tokens on your turn.

There’s an interesting strategy to be had with Situations, so take note: Situations act just like any other card in the Adventure Row. If you acquire any cards to its right, at the start of the next turn, shift all cards over to fill in any gaps. You’ll also discard the right-most card in the Adventure Row for turns that you haven’t taken any card from the Adventure Row. That means that you could hypothetically play around Situations rather than having to pay for them, if your Resources are more valuable in other instances. Is it worth taking on a few Clouds if it means moving to a new location and gaining 3 Sugar Cubes? Most likely, it probably is, but this is all hypothetical, situational conjecture! Do play to the best efforts of your team!

We’ll uncover the last portion of the game, and probably the most important to consider when you’re playing: the dreaded Hurdles and Final Challenges! The dangers await you!

Got questions? Head over to our discord server! We've got dedicated channels for My Little Pony, where staff such as Chris Chung (Lead Developer for My Little Pony: Adventures in Equestria) and Jordan Gaeta (Community Manager) hang out and answer questions!