Volcano (variants)

From Looney Pyramid Games Wiki
Volcano
Kristin Looney
Lava flows for points as the volcano erupts!
:Players Players: 1 - 4
:Time Length: Medium
:Complexity Complexity: Medium
Trios per color: 5 (plus caps)
Number of colors: 6 (or 5 plus caps)
Pyramid trios:
Monochr. stashes: 6 (or 5 plus caps)
Five-color sets: 5 (plus caps)
- - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - -
Volcano board, Volcano Caps, caps
Setup time: 2 minutes
Playing time: 20 minutes - 30 minutes
Strategy depth: Low
Random chance: None
Game mechanics: eruption, set collection
Theme: Volcano
BGG Link: 13084
Status: Not Specified (v1.0), Year released: 2000


Volcano is the original game for which the Volcano board was made. It was the first game to use all 6 colors available at the time (circa 2000).

It uses 5 stashes of pyramids and a set of Volcano Caps (which is often borrowed from a 6th stash, but can also consist of paper icehouse or other replacements).

Variants and related siblings[edit | edit source]

  • Mega Volcano uses nine colors! The board is expanded to 6x6 using five nests of seven colors and one nest of a eighth 'wild' color which count as any of the other seven colors. (published in Hypothermia #15)
    • Another way to do MegaVolcano is to use four nests of nine colors, and a tenth color of smalls for caps. This eliminates the wild color, and makes the game longer by increasing the number of colors needed to trigger the endgame.
  • Supercalifragilisticano expands the field to 7x7 with ten stashes.
  • Mini Volcano uses five nests of four colors. Some prefer to shrink the board down to 4x4; others use a sparsely populated 5x5 board.
  • In Compass Volcano a direction die (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, and NW) (or a d8 where 1=North, 2=Northeast, 3=East, 4=Southeast, 5=South, 6=Southwest, 7=West and 8=Northwest) is used to restrict the movement of caps to a random direction.
  • In Melting Volcano the matching-sized piece that is landed on, rather than the erupting piece, is captured.
  • In Single Cap Move Volcano players can only move one cap one space.
  • Coastercano uses Martian Coasters instead of a fixed board.
  • Iceland Volcano uses 5HOUSE and puts the black drones and queens on the board as immovable anchors.
  • Hexano adapts Volcano to a hex grid.
    • Hexano-Duel is a version of Hexano for two players where each player has their own set of caps
    • Mega Hexano adapts Mega Volcano to a hex grid.
  • Caldera is a redevelopment of Volcano that uses SIX nests of four colors (and one empty square in the center of the 5x5 board), and greatly changes the endgame trigger and victory conditions. Fiesta Caldera changes this to three nests in each of eight colors, but is otherwise the same (and is the current incarnation of "Volcano").
  • Scrambled Volcano is a variation of Volcano where the nests are built in random pattern layer by layer (pawn-drone-queen).
  • Plain Earth Volcano is a variation of Volcano that is played just like regular Volcano except that when the cap lands on an empty square, it is removed from the game. Once the last cap is removed from the game, the game ends and it is scored like regular Volcano.
  • Speed Volcano is a variation of Volcano where a chess or G8 game timer is used to limit the time a player has to make a move. Optionally, an overall time limit can be set for the entire game. When time runs out, the game ends and it is scored like regular Volcano.
  • Abiegnus uses Volcano eruptions on a 4x5 board, where caps of different colors are activated by rolling an IceDice color die.

External links[edit | edit source]

Featured in Playing with Pyramids
Gnostica · Martian Chess · RAMbots · Pikemen
Volcano · Zagami · Zendo · Martian Backgammon
IceTowers · Icehouse · Thin Ice · Homeworlds
Featured in ICE-7
Zendo · IceTowers · Volcano · Homeworlds
Martian Chess · Icehouse · Tic Tac Doh!
Featured in Pyramid Arcade
Black ICE · Color Wheel · Give or Take · Hijinks
Homeworlds · Ice Dice · Ice Towers · Launchpad 23
Looney Ludo · Lunar Invaders · Martian Chess · Petal Battle
Petri Dish · Pharaoh · Powerhouse · Pyramid-Sham-Bo
Treehouse · Twin Win · Verticality · Volcano
World War 5 · Zark City