In Hermit, the player tries to help a hermit crab reach the ocean.
A shore is created, consisting of ten cards, each showing three symbols. The hermit crab is placed next to the shore, and a wave is placed on the eighth card (or sixth, depending on difficulty).
The player now has a deck of six cards, from which draw cards showing different symbols. Each turn, they play one of those cards, next to or overlapping the cards they have already played. If the player manages to re-create the pattern of the next shore card, the hermit crab moves forward. Any shore card that is passed in this way is added to the deck.
The pattern that is created can also cause the wave to move, making the journey shorter or longer. It also affects the player's hand size (which can be one or two).
The player wins if the crab moves onto the wave. If they run out of cards to play, or if the waves moves past the last card of the shore, the player loses.
—user summary