SPLENDOR

Detailed rules and how to play the board game Splendor

Splendor is an intellectual board game where players use gems or refined cards to collect points. Whoever collects at least 15 points wins

If you are a fan of good, popular board games like Uno, Werewolf,… and are looking for a new board game that is equally interesting, try learning about Splendor. The game is popular with many players and has won many acclaim and awards for its competitive and dramatic gameplay.

Video tutorial on how to play the game

1. Introducing the board game Splendor

Splendor is a board game designed by Marc André and introduced to the market in 2014. In its early years, Splendor created more buzz and success by receiving many nominations and achieving many awards such as best visual board game, best family game award, game of the year nomination,…

Splendor is a resource management board game. When playing the game, players will take on the role of medieval merchants with the task of buying and selling gems and honing them into expensive jewelry. Game players will transport gems and buy shops, they must compete with each other to gain the most prestigious points to be able to become the winner.

A Splendor board game set includes the following basic components:

• The 35 gem tokens are divided into 5 types and each type includes 7 gems of different colors. The colors included in the set of 35 gem Tokens include emerald, diamond, sapphire, Onyx and ruby.
• 5 Yellow Tokens (Gold), this is the color that allows players to replace any other gem token.
• 90 refinement cards (development cards) and 10 Noble cards

2. Read for 5 minutes and immediately know the rules of the board game Splendor

Splendor is a card drafting and engine building game with no plot, for 2 – 4 players, the game’s playing time is about 30 minutes. All the cards in the 3 periods are turned face up so that all players can buy them. Every time you buy a card, it will be replaced by another card, so players need to pay attention and adapt constantly. According to the principles of the game, the rich will become richer, but you must pay attention to the cooperation of other players, which will easily get in your way.

Game setup

• Shuffle the noble cards and x cards will be revealed where x is the total number of players plus 1. The remaining cards will be removed from the game and not used during the game.
• Shuffle the separate stacks of refine cards and place them in ascending order, then reveal 4 refine cards from each pile.
• Finally, place the gem tokens by color into 6 separate piles and keep them within reach of the players.

3. How to play the board game Splendor

Learn about card types

Before playing the game, let’s learn about the important cards in the game.

90 refinement cards (development cards) are divided into 3 different levels and players need to buy these cards to gain many prestige points. Players can buy cards that are turned over in the middle of the table, while cards in hand can only be bought by the person holding them. A refined card will have information on the card such as:

• The lower right corner of the card shows the amount of gem tokens of each type that need to be exchanged to buy this card
• The upper left corner of the card shows the prestige points when the player owns this card.
• In particular, a special gem will be given when owning this card and can be used to buy other refined cards in the future.

The 10 Noble cards in the game are those that are turned over at the initial setup, the other cards are discarded and cannot be used for the remainder of the match. The Noble Card has parameters such as:

• The upper left corner shows the number of prestige points in possession, and the default on each card is 3 points.
• The lower left corner shows the number of special gems required in the refining card that the player needs to synthesize to exchange and own this card.
• Special gems or rewards from refined cards also include 5 types like tokens. You will receive a discount when you use this special gem in exchange for a new refine card, equivalent to 1 token.

Begin the game

After learning, we start the game

Starting from the first person’s turn, players will then play clockwise. Each turn, the player can only perform 1 of 4 actions

• The player takes 3 gem tokens of different colors
• The player takes 2 gem tokens of the same color

And the action below only happens when the player has at least 4 tokens of that color before the player takes it

• 1 refined card in hand and get 1 additional gold token (gold)
• Buy 1 refined card in your hand or on the table

Select Tokens

On the turn, players will not be allowed to have more than 10 tokens. If they have more, they are forced to return the remaining tokens and retain at most 10 tokens. Players can pay any token they want. These gem tokens will be made public for the rest of the players to see. Players will not be able to get 2 tokens of the same color if that type of gem token has less than 4.

Stock up on refined cards

The player will take 1 card from the table or from the top of the pile. Leaves held in the owner’s hand will be kept secret and cannot be discarded.

Furthermore, the player does not hold more than 3 refined cards and to get rid of them, the player needs to buy it. Taking cards in hand is the only thing a player can do to get gold tokens. Without gold tokens, the player can still get the cards in hand but the player will not receive gold.

Buy the cards

To increase your chances of winning, players need to buy refined cards. Players will have to discard a number of gem tokens equal to the number of gem tokens shown on the refined cards. Players can buy 1 card on the table or in their hand and must be arranged into columns by color so that the points and colors are most visible.

Noble

At the end of the turn, the participant will check the conditions of the noble cards to see if they have visited. The player who has enough cards and the type of card required by the noble will be visited by the noble.

Players will not be able to refuse a noble’s visit. If the conditions of 2 or more nobles are met in the same turn, the player only needs to choose 1 noble to visit the house.

Game end conditions

When a player reaches 15 reputation points, all players will still complete the current round. And then, the person with the highest reputation score will become the winner.

The total reputation points will be equal to the total reputation points of the purchased refined cards plus the total reputation points of the nobles’ visits.

If there is a tie, the player who buys the fewest refined cards will become the winner.

4. Note, tips for playing the board game Splendor

Note: The maximum number of tokens a player owns is 10 tokens. When a refine card is purchased or saved, the player must immediately replace it with another refine card from the pile of refine cards of the same level.

Play tips:
– You should buy low level cards first to accumulate. Aim for a noble card from the beginning to satisfy the conditions and own them as soon as possible to increase your odds of winning.

– In addition to nobles, you can buy peak cards on floors 2 and 3. With this strategy, players must save every coin until you reach the necessary card.