How to Raise Your Kaiju - How to Raise Your Own Giant Monster

What Is How to Raise Your Kaiju and What Is the Goal?

What happens when, instead of raising a single giant monster, you have to raise an entire family of kaiju? How to Raise Your Kaiju turns the classic story of city-destroying monsters into a strategy game where players develop their creatures and help them become legendary.

Players take on the role of parents to young kaiju, sending them into cities and the open world to gain experience, learn skills, and earn Gold Stars. After four rounds, the player with the most stars wins.

Each player starts with three active kaiju, while three more can be unlocked by completing conditions on Parent Cards and the Parenting Style token. This expands the family and provides more options.

As the family develops, players gain access to new kaiju and abilities. The goal is not simply to destroy cities, but to develop the right team, use their abilities effectively, and earn Gold Stars.

How Do Cities, Skill Cards, and Kaiju Development Work?

Skill Cards are central to How to Raise Your Kaiju. They come in eight types, including Paw, Soldier, Tank, Jet, Boat, Missile, and Hero. Players use them to overcome defenses in cities and the open world, while some combinations can unlock kaiju abilities.

On their turn, players place one kaiju in a location. In a city, they take one of three face-up Skill Cards and can attempt to defeat its three zones in order.

Defenses can be overcome by discarding a matching card or using enough Paw cards to cover their strength. Each conquered zone provides XP, Skill Cards, or Gold Stars. Players can then stop or continue the attack for another reward.

The key choice is whether to save cards for later or spend them to push deeper into a city. Used Skill Cards go into the discard pile and return to the player's hand at the end of the round, making resource management important without permanently losing cards. Choosing the right cards for each situation matters more than simply collecting the rarest ones.

How Does the Open World Board Work and Why Send Kaiju Exploring?

Cities are only one option. Players can send a kaiju to the Open World Board, starting from the central space and choosing a destination. Defense symbols along the route must be overcome with matching Skill Cards or Paw cards.

The farther the kaiju travels, the more XP its final space provides. Conquered spaces also make future journeys easier because other kaiju can pass through them without overcoming their defenses again. Only the player whose kaiju ends its movement on a space receives its reward.

This gives How to Raise Your Kaiju two paths to development: conquer cities for different rewards or explore the Open World Board for more XP. Once all kaiju are placed, players receive Gold Stars based on XP, return their figures, reset XP, and take their used Skill Cards back into their hands before the next round.

Who Is How to Raise Your Kaiju For and What Makes It Different?

How to Raise Your Kaiju is a good fit for players who enjoy card management, developing a growing team, and choosing between different ways to earn rewards. Its main appeal is the combination of strategic mechanics with the unusual theme of raising baby kaiju into legendary monsters.

The game rewards players who can balance short-term gains with long-term planning. You must decide which kaiju to send into a city, when to stop, which Skill Cards to keep, and when to take a risk for a more valuable reward. Developing your family also opens new possibilities and shapes your overall strategy.

How to Raise Your Kaiju turns the story of city-destroying monsters into a game about raising an entire generation of kaiju. Each round offers opportunities to develop your family, conquer cities, explore the Open World Board, and earn Gold Stars, so the same strategy will not always work twice.

The final hours of the How to Raise Your Kaiju Kickstarter campaign are already underway. If you do not want to simply wait for the release but would rather support the game while it is still in development and become part of its creation, this is your last chance.

You can also see whether you have what it takes to raise a kaiju right now on Tabletopia. Try the game on your own or gather a group, develop your monsters, destroy cities, and set out to explore the open world.