Dragon Castle

To set up Dragon Castle, players place the appropriate double-sided central board corresponding to player count in the center of the table. All tiles are shuffled and randomly placed face up on the board: three tiles high on spaces marked '3', two tiles high on spaces marked '2', and one tile high on remaining spaces marked '1', forming the Dragon Castle. Nearby, place shrine pieces and victory point tokens. Each player takes a realm board, a single shrine, a reference card, and countdown tokens matching the player count, placing their starting shrine on their board and setting up countdown tokens.

The main objective of Dragon Castle is to build the most prosperous realm by strategically collecting tiles from the ruins of the central dragon castle. Players use these tiles to construct buildings, form shrines, and score the most victory points by the end of the game.

Turns are taken clockwise starting from the first player. On your turn, you must perform one of three main actions after claiming an available tile from the top floor of the Dragon Castle: take a matching second tile from anywhere in the castle, take one shrine and add it to your supply, or discard the tile for a one-value victory point token. After claiming tiles, you must place them within your realm board's grid. If at least four tiles of the same color touch on full edges, you must consolidate them by flipping them face down, which allows you to place shrines of corresponding colors on top for future scoring.

Scoring happens at the end of the game. Players earn victory points based on the height of their shrines (with taller shrines yielding more points), bonus points from dragon cards if in play, and remaining victory point tokens collected throughout the game. Additional points may be awarded for specific patterns or achievements depending on active variant rules.

The game triggers its ending phase when players reach the final level of the central castle where only bottom-floor tiles remain. A player triggers the final round by taking the last countdown token. Once all players have taken an equal number of turns in this final round, the game ends immediately, and final scores are calculated.