How to Win at Monkeys on the Moon

Monkeys on the Moon is a board game about advanced monkey tribes. If you want to feel like the most advanced monkey in your tribe, you'll need some strategy going into the game. An key factor is paying attention to which colors are important at any given moment. Managing your favor, as well as your scorn, will help you take control of the tribes and claim victory.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Buy monkeys for 2 tokens when possible. Buying monkeys at 1 token is always a great deal, and 3 tokens is not cheap but sometimes necessary. Do not pay more than 3 tokens for a monkey unless there is a good reason.
2. Try to advance tribes for which you have claimed lots of monkeys. Conversely, try to claim monkeys who belong to highly advanced tribes.
3. Use the civilization card to acquire favor in colors of monkeys up for bid. If you advance blue for 2 blue tokens and there is a blue monkey up for bid, you will be able to bid a value of 6 and only have to lose 2 tokens.
4. Grab scorn in the early game. Scorn only hurts you if you're stuck with it at the end of the game, so always try to advance tribes when you have no rivals of that color.
5. Bid on monkeys that match the color of your scorn card. If you can win a purple monkey even though you have no purple favor tokens, you'll be able to get rid of your scorn for free.
6. Get rid of your scorn before the end of the game. If you can't do it by bidding on monkeys, then advance the tribe and take only 1 favor token instead of 2. The important thing is not to be stuck with negative victory points.
7. Fill your ships if possible; the extra victory points are quite helpful at the end of the game.

Tips & Warnings

• If you have a large ship you don't think you'll be able to fill, acquire a rival monkey to launch it immediately for a bonus favor token and new ship.
• Don't leave yourself with no coins in 3 adjacent colors, or you will find yourself completely unable to bid on certain monkeys.