In a turn of Vollifanten the active player receives two transparent foils, each with three tree leaves on a 4×4 grid - one of which was drafted by the previous player, the other coming from the draw pile. Of these two, he chooses one to place in his elephant, rotated and flipped as desired, on top of the previously selected foils. The other he drafts on to the next player.

The object of the game is to cover all 16 squares of the 4×4 grid covered with tree leaves.