Mandala Stones

Place the main board in the center of the table. Shuffle the objective cards and place them face down. Each player receives a player board, a reference card, and a score token, which is placed on the '0' space of their player board's score track. Randomly draw stones from the bag to create 25 stacks of four stones each on the main board. Place the four artist pawns in the designated spaces on the main board. Place the mandala board next to the main board, initially empty.

The primary objective of Mandala Stones is to accumulate the most points by strategically collecting and scoring colored stones. Players will create towers of stones on their player boards and move them to the mandala board to earn points, aiming to fulfill objective cards and maximize bonuses.

Players take turns performing one of two actions: taking stones or scoring points. To take stones, move an artist pawn to an empty space on the main board. Then, collect all stones adjacent to the artist that match the artist's pattern, provided they are not adjacent to another artist. Collect stones in a clockwise direction, forming a tower on your player board. You cannot take stones if you have no available space on your player board or if no stones meet the collection criteria.

To score points, choose one of two options: score a specific color or score any color. If scoring a specific color, you must have at least two towers on your player board with that color on top. You score each tower individually from left to right based on its height and position on your player board's scoring track. For example, tower 1 gives 1 point per different level, tower 2 gives points based on height, tower 3 gives points based on height, and tower 4 gives points based on height. Tower 5 gives points based on the number of different colors in the tower plus one. After calculating points and moving your score token, take the top stone from each scored tower and place them on the mandala board. If scoring any color, choose a number of stones from the top of any towers on your player board and move them to the mandala board; each stone is worth one point. Colors and patterns do not matter for this option. As you place stones on the mandala board, you may occupy spaces that grant additional points.

The game concludes in one of two ways: either a mandala stone is placed on a space with a hand symbol matching the number of players, or a player is unable to take stones and also unable to score. Once the end-game condition is met, all players reveal their objective cards, choose one, and add its points to their total score. The player with the highest total score is declared the winner. In the event of a tie, the player whose turn came earlier in the game wins.