Bonsai

To set up Bonsai, place the central board in the middle of the table with face-up cards and token supplies. Each player receives a pot mat representing their player board, a starting seishi board for tile capacity, and basic tiles in their personal reserve. Shuffle the main deck of cards and place them on the designated space, drawing five cards to form the central market display.

The objective of Bonsai is to cultivate the most beautiful bonsai tree and impress the imperial gardens. Players score victory points by growing their tree with wood and leaf tiles, decorating it with flowers and fruit, collecting parchment cards, and fulfilling common objective cards throughout the game.

During a player's turn, they must choose one of two primary actions: Meditate or Cultivate. Meditating allows a player to take one of the available cards from the central display, gaining its immediate benefits like tiles, parchment effects, or upgraded storage capacity. Cultivating allows the player to place tiles from their personal reserve onto their bonsai tree, expanding branches outward from the pot and connecting wood and foliage according to placement rules.

At the end of the game, points are calculated in several ways. Leaf tiles score three points each. Flower tiles score one point for every empty adjacent space around them. Fruit tiles score seven points each, provided they are not adjacent to other fruit. Parchment cards and completed common objectives also grant significant points based on specific criteria.

The game triggers its final round when the card deck is exhausted and the final card is revealed from the market display. Every player gets one last turn to perform an action, after which the final scoring phase takes place to determine the winner.