How to Play Candy Land [Updated 2023]

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If you’re keen about learning how to play Candy Land, in this post we’ll show you tips and strategies to become a pro.

Riveting and engaging, Candy Land is a classic racing board game. You don’t need to do any reading to engage in this recreation. All you need is an essential counting skill, which makes the title appropriate for young kids.

The game’s design ensures you can play it without any strategy, once you follow the directions. Therefore, Candy Land comes highly recommended for little kids.

Kids can quickly grasp the fundamental Candy Land rules, which are pretty straightforward. So do you need a pastime to add to your family game night? This title is one of the best board games to try out.

Candy Land Objectives Rules & Instructions

The object is to be the first to get to the candy castle by landing on or passing the last square. Then, players will navigate “Candy Land” by following the route of colorful spaces. They make their moves based on colored squares or picture cards drawn by them.

Game Setup

Arrange the board horizontally on a flat surface. Each player selects a piece from the four available to symbolize their position on the board.

The board is made up of a meandering, linear track with 134 spots, the majority of which are colored red, green, blue, yellow, orange, or purple.

The pink space denotes locations on the board like Candy Cane Forest and Gumdrop Mountain, and people like Queen Frostine and Gramma Nutt.

Shuffle the candy cards and place them face down within easy reach of all participants. The youngest player begins, and the game rotates to the left.

Candy Land Gameplay

Each participant begins their turn by drawing one candy card. For example, the card might feature a one-color block, two-color blocks, or an image of a spot on the game-board.

The color blocks determine your movement. That’s if you’re to move forward once or twice. However, it must correspond with the color. If you pick a two-color, then you advance to the next matching color.

When a picture card is selected, the player must either advance OR reverse to the given space. Also, you have to move in the signpost’s direction.

Landing at any of the entry points of the two shortcuts makes it easier to activate at least one of them.

So if you land on one, you can advance your piece to the shortcut’s endpoint. Also, in the shortcut, you can’t move backward.

Furthermore, if, on your turn, you move to a licorice space, as shown by the licorice picture, then you must forfeit your next turn.

You can start playing again once you’ve forfeited a turn.

To win, a player must make their way to the sugar castle at the path’s finish. When the first player reaches the castle, the winner emerges.

Ending the Game

Unless you draw a picture card, your figure will always travel toward the Candy Castle. In this case, you can go backward or forward based on the location of the matching tile on the board with you.

Also, your character figure can be in the same space as another player.

On the game board, there are two shortcuts designated as the Rainbow Trail and the Gumdrop Pass.

These shortcuts are available only if your figure lands on the orange space beneath the Rainbow Trail or the yellow area beneath the Gumdrop Pass.

If you arrive on one of these spaces, you can follow the trail to the purple space above the Rainbow Trail or the green area above the Gumdrop Pass.

Repeat the preceding steps until a player reaches the Candy Castle.

Spaces for Penalties

The excitement, as well as the frustration, begins when a player lands on one of the three penalty spaces

Gooey Gumdrops — you must remain on this area until a card with one or two yellow blocks is drawn.
Lost in the Lollipop Woods — except you pick one or two block cards, you’ve to remain on that spot.
Stuck in the Molasses (or Chocolate) Swamp — you must remain on this square until a card with one or two red blocks is drawn.

Variations You Can Play With This Game

Sort The Cards According To Their Suitability For The Board

This is a beautiful exercise for toddlers and will take them no time at all to complete. Simply remove all the pink cards with candy images from the deck and instruct them to match the candy images on the cards to the matching pictures on the board.

Keep an eye on them as they do this and, when they discover the match, ask them to name the candy. If not, you inform them of their identity.

As easy as this little game is, it’ll assist children in recognizing and naming the items on the board. Also, it’ll help kids improve their vocabulary and become more aware of little nuances on the board.

Engage In the I Spy Game

Play the I Spy game with your children using the Candy Land board game.

Provide them with a gingerbread man miniature to serve as a reminder of the solution to your I Spy challenge.

And, indeed, allow them to choose the color. Thus, you begin with “I spy with my little eye” and allow your youngster to mark it with a figurine.

You can play this game until you (or your child) grow tired of it!

Color or Number Sorting

Now, let’s talk about using the deck of cards. A deck contains stones in six different colors.

Each color is available in two configurations — with one or two stepping stones. This provides you with a few alternative sorting game variations:

Arrange by color
Arrange according to the amount of stepping stones
Arrange the stepping stones according to the color and quantity of stepping stones.

Memory Game

The game includes a deck of cards in six primary colors.

Separate two cards of each color to use as pairs in the memory game — for smaller toddlers, use only six pairs of cards (only cards with one stone) with face up, making it easier for them to locate matching pairs.