In Switchbacks, players place tiles numbered 1 to 37 into a hexagonal grid. When they place a tile, they may also place one of their chips onto it. At the end of the game, players check for groups of tiles on the board with consecutive numbers such that you can trace a sequential path; any player chips on these tiles are worth points. The player with the most points wins.

Switchbacks keeps the same gameplay as the original release, but with players now going on a mountain-trekking expedition and marking the trail along the way, ideally building connected paths.