Raising Robots with Pets, Friends, and Pedals the Dinosaur
Assemble a group of whimsical, wonderfully detailed robots as a young inventor with a busy class schedule in Raising Robots.
I was surprised that my last play of Raising Robots was over a year ago, since I enjoyed my initial experience so much! This is all about playing as a student with classes to excel in and robots to construct. Interesting decisions exist in each round, and it’s fun to come up with a little story for the group of final robots! To the drawing board for me… Or circuit board?! Ha!
Game Overview
Game Name: Raising Robots
Publication Year: 2023
Designers: Brett Sobol & Seth Van Orden
Artists: Viktoriya Fajardo & Howard McWilliam
Publisher: Nauvoo Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Gameplay lasts 8 rounds, during which only some phases are activated. Upgrades and robots add more powerful options, yet gathering resources is also a central element. Classes are important to keep an eye on as a young inventor balances the art of technological creation and grades!
First Play
February 14, 2024
Complexity
3
Latest Play
November 15, 2025
Expansions
2
Setup Time
10 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
10
Play Time
40 Minutes
High Score
128
Game Area
26" x 22"
Low Score
80
Luis and Crease
I added all of the expansion content this time to see as much as I possibly could. The deck of robot cards was extensive, although I blame my husband for requiring sleeves. Ha!
My inventor character was Luis, whose ability was quite simple. These characters can have additional components or complex actions, yet I was happy to keep everything easy.
One of his starting robots was Crease, who was simply adorable. Look closely at those paper crafts. Foreshadowing!
It didn’t take too long to get a grasp of the new and old rules, and I was ready to start assembling a cast of fun robots!
Friendly Competition
One of the biggest modules is one that adds competitions and friends into the mix. These provide overall goals to work towards, often with a friend as one of the bonuses.
In theory, I loved this idea! It gave me something to work towards, and friends seemed really helpful and delightful.
However, I found that this was just an extra aspect to keep track of. Friends were not defined in a single rulebook, and some even required me to find their unique components.
This module wasn’t bad by any means, yet for the solo mode, it felt like it dragged a little more than I wanted it to.
So Many Robots!
My focus remained on the adorable robots. So many! Each one is unique, and up close, the artwork showcases the creativity that went into using various implements.
I loved pausing to look closely at each one to see the pieces that were used. It also took me a moment to catch onto Brinner’s name… Breakfast and dinner with cereal! Ha ha!
Formulating a strategy was a little more difficult, though, since it wasn’t easy to find robots that worked together.
The phase activation was also tricky, yet I loved having a little control of what some of the round actions would be.
Pedals, Just a Dinosaur
And if the “standard” base game robots don’t seem to use enough imagination, the first expansion introduces robots in the form of animals. Look at Pedals! Dinosaur robot!
So cool! I thoroughly enjoyed drawing new robot cards, not necessarily for the strategic choices, but just for the sheer joy in seeing what else might be in the deck.
Suffice to say I don’t think I ever saw Pedals before! But maybe Crease did, owing to the dinosaur origami. Clever!
I enjoyed the different kinds of abilities, too, as activating each row often turned into better and better bonuses.
Sometimes, Less is More When It Comes to Games
This has been a fun experience ever since I received it, and I continue to love it! Yet when the competitions and friends module felt like it was too much, I wasn’t upset. Returning to the core game was easy to do. Although this means I’m going to ignore some content, there are times when this helps make the solo experience as good as it possibly can be.
Adding new expansions is often fun, and there’s something awesome about seeing everything together! That’s a great moment for me a lot of the time. But what if it’s too much? A lot of expansions aren’t necessarily modular, but sort of a take it all or leave it all approach. Fortunately, all I had to do was remove the competitions and friends. Voila! Easy enough.
I really wanted to enjoy everything, yet I still have all of the new inventors and robots mixed in. Tons of variety with those cards! So while it might sound like I wasn’t impressed with one of the expansions, I still feel like there is enough in it that I’ll be able to enjoy. This is another note to myself that I really don’t always have to get all the content for every game!
Friends and Classes
Luis had a mediocre time at school, achieving a single A among his trio of classes. It was hard to make sure that all of these could be maximized with the available robots.
He had a fairly good time in the competitions, though, making a couple of friends along the way! Confucius and Jane were most helpful when assembling new robots.
This all worked quite well because there were synergies, and I was pretty proud of myself. Not too shabby in general!
Yet I had reservations about the competitions and friends, much as I liked the concepts. Play time definitely increased.
Lizzie’s Robot Friends
I chose another inventor for my next play, and Lizzie looked like she was ready to dive into some board games herself!
Rather than focusing on a single row, I split up my efforts. So many cool robots! I didn’t shuffle in the same ones from my first play, which ensured I would see another group.
Truth be told, I could probably play around 10 times and not need to re-shuffle. That’s a whole lot of robots to discover!
Although Lizzie excelled at unlocking upgrades, I didn’t feel like I had a useful strategy. She was a little bit all over the place, and specializing is often a key success factor.
Beautiful and Busy
Don’t get me wrong: This play area looks so awesome! The robots give it personality, and I usually don’t feel like I’m drowning in iconography. Just lots of neat colors and art.
With the competitions, though, I had another large row of icons to constantly be aware of. It wasn’t terrible, but I didn’t feel like I was getting much out of this added element.
This expansion includes more robots, so I had a chance to see them… But I removed the competitions and friends.
Much better! The modularity is a great feature, and I’m happy I can play the game the way I love to experience it.
Back to the Basics
Without the competitions and friends, I had a cleaner visual space so I could focus on the robots. Did that help me? In some ways… Yes. In terms of scoring? Nothing can help me.
Ha ha! I struggled to get anything going during this play, probably because I expected my fabricate row to do much more. Yet I forgot to grab new robot cards and got stuck.
Maybe that’s not quite fair: There’s always something to do in the game, but I certainly made some blunders this time!
I still had a great time and loved laughing over some of the robots in play. Balance is certainly an important factor!
Session Overview
Play Number: 7-10
Expansion 1: Raising Robots: Friends
Expansion 2: Raising Robots: Pets
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Outcome: 128, 91, 86, 92 (1 Win & 3 Losses)
Although I didn’t have the right plans to score well, I was still proud of these outcomes! Yo-Yo almost earned straight A’s when I wasn’t doing too well in general. Awesome! I had a great time incorporating these expansions, and despite not clicking with the competitions and friends, this is still a wonderfully fun game full of amazing robot artwork!
%
10 Plays
Affordability
Price & Value
8
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
10
Originality
Design & Theme
7
Quality
Components & Rules
9
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
9
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
8
+ Pros (Positives)
- Each robot is unique and features a lovely artistic style that combines all sorts of components into charming designs.
- Choosing which phases to activate is always interesting and operates a little differently in alternating rounds.
- Gameplay moves along relatively quickly, only taking a little longer during the later rounds with lots of robots.
- Tracking resources is clear with the shared track, which also cuts down on the number of required components.
- Variety is present in many areas, from the inventors to the available robots, but also in the overall strategies.
- The theme of a young inventor building robots and working on grades is approachable and fun to get immersed in.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Although the iconography is generally clear, the play area can look quite busy with all kinds of abilities to look at.
- Some elements require a bit of luck with the cards, such as class grades and creating rows of similar robot bonuses.
- There is a neat mechanic with randomly activating phases, but this can occasionally lead to disappointing rounds.
- With the expansion content, information is spread across multiple rulebooks and can be frustrating to locate.
Victory Conditions
Score 120+ Points
- Overall Goal Progress 75%
Goals and Milestones
Earn straight A grades in all classes in at least 1 game.
Place an upgrade token on every robot in at least 1 game.
Score at least 120 points.
Score at least 130 points.
Continue the Conversation
What are some of your favorite mechanics in Raising Robots? Have you tried out the expansions? I adore the theme of this one, and it’s always such a fun time to assemble different sorts of robots! Not everything worked for me, yet I appreciate how easy it is to leave out the one element that I didn’t love. Makes it easy to enjoy bringing this back to my solo table!
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