The cards of the game has two faces, a map face and a clue face. The game is played in 2 phases.
In the map phase, you play cards either as map cards to an island or as clue cards to your hand. The map cards tell you the terrain of island and the clue cards tell you where the treasures are in relation to the terrain. You may only play two of your cards as clue cards so choose them wisely!
You also play 1 pirate flag to serve as a starting point. The later you play it, the sooner you get to start the next phase!
In the treasure phase, you take turns to move from any pirate flag. If you find a map card that matches any of your clue cards, you exchange the clue card with the map card and take 1 treasure. But hurry, other pirates may beat you to the treasure!
The game ends when a round is completed without any found treasures. The winner is the pirate who finds the most treasures.
—description from the designer