A Week with Friday, or How I Became Addicted to Friday – A Buy or Play Recommendation

Firstly, I’m not a solo board gamer. Well, not really. I occasionally sit down and play a solo game or two, but we’re talking 10-20 games a year. To put that into perspective, I played 1,150 games last year, and only 23 of them were solo. The year before, I played just 12 solo games.

Then along came Friday, and in one week, I’ve played 11 solo games. Every evening, I’ve found myself sitting down for just one more try. So, is this the game that finally has me solo gaming more regularly? Kingdom Legacy had me hooked for two run-throughs last year—could Friday be the game that replaces it?

Friday is a solo card game with elements of deck building, resource management, and a sprinkling of luck.

It’s pretty simple, though the rulebooks aren’t great. Even the rules videos contain mistakes! So, here’s my quick summary—though it may or may not be 100% correct.

Robinson has arrived on your island, and your mission is to help him escape by exploring and defeating pirates. At the start, he’s terrible at fighting hazards, but by the end, he’ll be older, wiser, and maybe a bit more foolish.

You’ll randomly draw two pirates and set up three decks of cards along with the staging cards. You’ll put two life points aside and leave the other 20 in a pile.

Each turn, you flip over two hazards and choose one to explore (or fight). Each hazard has a fight value you need to beat and a free card draw limit. For example, a hazard might allow three free card draws and require a fight value of 4.

You’ll then reveal cards from your fight deck, playing them one at a time to the left of the hazard. Every time you play a card, you can activate its ability (or a previously played card’s ability), but each ability can only be used once per round. You rotate the card once it’s used. If you reach the required fight value, you can stop drawing.

If you haven’t reached the required fight value, you can pay a life point to draw an extra card. You can keep paying and drawing as long as you like.

Once you stop drawing, you compare your fight value to the hazard’s requirement:

Win – The hazard flips and becomes a new fight card in your discard pile.

Lose – You pay a life point for each point of difference. However, you also get the option to permanently remove some of the weaker fight cards you just played.

Robinson starts out weak and scared, so you’ll likely want to lose a few fights early to clear out bad cards. Each fight card has a value, usually worth one life point. So, if you lose by 4 points, you lose 4 life points but also get to remove 4 life points’ worth of weak cards from your deck.

However, Robinson ages as the game progresses. If you need to draw a fight card but your deck is empty, you shuffle your discard pile and add an aging card—which is always a negative effect. These aging cards cost 2 life points to remove. You’ll go through your deck roughly 10 times before losing due to aging, or you’ll lose if your life total drops below 0 (though 0 itself is okay).

As you explore, the hazard deck depletes. This represents Robinson venturing deeper into the jungle. At this point, you shuffle the hazard discard pile, remove the top stage card, and continue. Hazards become progressively more difficult as the game advances.

There’s a simplicity to Friday that makes it quick to set up and easy to play. You might think this sounds repetitive and dull, but it’s not. You have to balance losing fights to clear weak cards while carefully choosing the hazards you want to overcome.

Each hazard card you defeat flips to become a fight card, adding new abilities and increasing your fighting strength. Some let you destroy weaker cards, copy abilities, double another card’s fight value, or draw more cards. The key is picking the right hazard—not just the easiest one, but the one that will benefit your deck the most.

Personally, I avoid Weapon 2 hazards since they don’t improve my deck. Additional draw cards are nice, but drawing through your deck too quickly accelerates aging. Instead, I prioritize life cards and cards that let me manage my deck better. But hey, that’s just my strategy—feel free to tell me there’s a better way!

Friday has been a joy, and honestly, I’m itching to finish this review so I can play it again. It’s a solo deck builder with enough variability to scratch that deck-building itch. It’s quick to set up and perfect for those, like me, who prefer solo games that don’t take ages to get going. I can be playing Friday in under a minute—whereas setting up a solo board game with tons of pieces just isn’t as appealing.

However, Friday isn’t perfect.

• Luck Factor – Sometimes, you’ll lose purely due to bad draws. You can mitigate it by planning around your deck, but unlucky draws can still ruin your game.
• Minimal Theme – There’s no strong narrative here; you’re essentially going through the motions. While the aging mechanic fits the survival theme, Friday feels more like a numbers game than a story-driven experience.
• Poor Rulebook – Even 14 years after release, the rulebook is still riddled with typos and inconsistencies. For example, my copy refers to a “below the deck” special ability, but my cards only mention “below the pile.” I assume they’re the same thing. The game also comes with two rulebooks when one would suffice. I had to check YouTube and BoardGameGeek just to be sure I was playing correctly. After 11 games, I still wonder if I’m playing correctly.

As you know, I rate games on a scale of:

Buy or Play
Wait for Sale or Play if You Like Game XYZ
Avoid

Friday is an easy Buy or Play recommendation. In fact, I’d lean toward Buy, given that it’s available for £15-20, and I’ve even seen it for £12. If you’re hesitant, playing it first makes sense, but if you’re curious about solo gaming, Friday is a great entry point.

That said, if you’re looking for a deep, story-driven solo experience, Friday won’t scratch that itch. It’s a mechanics-focused game, and for me, it’s been a blast. I’ve left it set up on my table every evening this week—and I don’t see that changing any time soon.

The biggest question is how long Friday will stay engaging. The experience is largely the same each time, aside from small difficulty adjustments and changing pirates. If you crave variety in every session, this might be an issue.

For me, though? I’m happy to keep playing. And with that, I’m off for just one more game.