In Tongiaki, the players explore via a sailing trip to as many as 16 islands. They start at the same time on the homeland island TONGA. As the game progress, the players land more and more ships on the beaches of the islands. As soon as a beach is occupied completely with ships, the ships break off and go to a new island. In addition to islands players may uncover ocean cards also.

At the end of the game, the players receive points for the islands on which they are represented with at least one ship.

On your turn, you have 3 possible actions:

• Increase number of ships (very often)
• Install King on an Island(rare)
• New Settlement(very rare)

Increase number of ships:

A red ship in the magnifying glass indicates the action "increase". The player selects an island where they wish to increase their presence. The player then receives a amount of ship equal to the current amount of ships they have on that island. The Player then places the ships on the island, evenly among the beaches.

Install King:

Clicking on the 'Sea-scroll' icon in the magnifying glass selects the Install King action.. This can only be done if there are no foreign ships on the island. You will score points for this island at the end ofthe game. Once a King has been installed on an island, no other player can use that island.
Each player may use this action twice during the game.

New Settlement:

Instead of a normal turn action (increase or king), a Player may take all their ships from the board (Islands where they have installed a king remain occupied!) and can set a ship on a new island. They selects the symbol of the crossed island in the magnifying glass to indicate this. A new island is uncovered and the player then sets their ships on any beach.

The sequences of an increase: emigration - landing - redistribution of ships

After an increase, the beaches of the island are checked. If none of the beaches are full then the turn is over.
However, if at least one beach is complete, all ships on this beach must move(emigration). The player clicks on the footpath of the beach where ships should emigrate from first. They can depart in any sequence. Of the beaches, different footpaths go out into different directions.

Emigration
The player uncovers a water card or the emigration leads over one already uncovered. The ships go along the white lines over the ocean. The journey succeeds if the number of different colored ships equals or exceeds the number shown on the white route. The white number indicates the riskiness of the route.
If their is no number than the journey always succeeds.

If the journey succeeds, another ocean card is uncovered and we check if the journey continues to be successful. This continues until an island is reached or the journey fails. Any ships that fail to reach an island are returned to the players and may be reused.

Landing
The current player distributes the ships among the beaches of the new island. If there are more ships than beaches, they may distribute them as they desire. Any surplus ships are returned to the players.

If all berths on the beaches are occupied, then the player remains at the starting island and begins again with emigration etc. This continues until no beach is completely occupied. Any ships that try and land on an Island that has a King are moved back to the Island that they started on.

TONGA may not have a King Installed on it.

The game ends as soon as the last water card or the last island card is uncovered. (if either 16 water cards or 16 island cards are uncovered).
The current player gets to complete their turn.
If the last card is an island, the landing takes place. If the last card is a water card, the ships emigrate.

Players receive points for each Island on which they have ships.
The player with most points wins. In case of a tie, the player with ships on the most islands wins, if still tied then the player with the fewest ships(Islands with a King count as a ship) wins.

Here are a few special situations. This is for reference and you can play your first game without reading them:

• No ship on the board at the beginning of of a turn. The Player places 2 ships on TONGA or one on another island.
• All 15 of your ships on the board If during an increase phase a player doesn't have enough ships left, they use only the available ships.
• Too few shipsIf during an increase phase, a player does not have enough ships remaining, then they simply use as many ships as they have.
• Endless narrow chain If an island is surrounded by a route that leads directly back to that island, without stopping at another island, thenall ships on that island are removed and returned to the players.
  That Island card is then removed from the game.