Splendor Duel

To set up, place the game board in the center of the play area. Mix all tokens into the included bag, then draw them randomly to fill each space on the board, starting from the center and following the arrowed path. Set the three privilege scrolls beside the board. Find the royal cards (with purple backs) and arrange them face-up in a row nearby; their order does not matter. Sort the remaining jewel cards into three piles based on their backs (one, two, or three dots indicating level) and shuffle each pile. Arrange these decks with Level 1 at the bottom, Level 2 in the middle, and Level 3 at the top. Reveal three Level 3 cards, four Level 2 cards, and five Level 1 cards into rows, forming a pyramid shape. Place the victory tile at the top of this pyramid. Finally, randomly choose a first player, and their opponent takes one privilege scroll.

In Splendor Duel, you and your opponent are jewelers competing to gain fame and fortune. The objective is to be the first player to satisfy one of three victory conditions at the end of your turn: accumulate 20 or more prestige points from your face-up cards, collect 10 or more crown symbols from your face-up cards, or gather 10 or more prestige points from face-up cards that all share the same gem color. Meeting any of these conditions immediately ends the game, and you are declared the winner.

A turn consists of two phases: optional actions and mandatory actions. First, you may perform optional actions: either spend one or more privilege scrolls to take an equal number of non-gold tokens from the board (excluding gold tokens), or replenish the board's empty spaces by drawing tokens from the bag to refill them (your opponent gains one privilege scroll if you do this). You can perform either, both, or none of these optional actions. Second, you must perform one mandatory action: take up to three adjacent non-gold tokens in an uninterrupted row, column, or diagonal (if you take three identical gems or two pearls, your opponent gains one privilege); or take one gold token from the board and reserve one jewel card (either face-up from the display or the top card of any deck), placing it face-down in front of you (you cannot perform this if there are no gold tokens or if you already have three reserved cards); or purchase one jewel card (either face-up from the display or one you previously reserved) by paying its cost in tokens from your collection, returning them to the bag. If you cannot perform any mandatory action, you must perform the replenish board optional action.

Prestige points are indicated by the number in the top-left corner of jewel cards and royal cards. Crown symbols are also found on jewel cards and royal cards. Some jewel cards provide permanent gem bonuses (shown in their top-right corner) that reduce the cost of future purchases. Other jewel cards have special abilities: a refresh symbol grants an extra full turn; a gem symbol allows you to take a matching gem token from the board; a hand symbol allows you to take a non-gold gem or pearl token from your opponent; and a multi-colored gem symbol allows you to place the card overlapping another jewel card of a specific gem type, counting as an additional gem of that type for victory conditions. Royal cards also provide prestige points and may have abilities that trigger when collected.

The game ends immediately at the end of a player's turn if they have satisfied any one of the three victory conditions. The conditions are: having 20 or more total prestige points from face-up cards, having 10 or more crown symbols from face-up cards, or having 10 or more prestige points from face-up cards that all share the same color. Reserved cards do not count towards these victory conditions. If multiple players meet a victory condition simultaneously, the player whose turn it is wins. If the active player satisfies multiple conditions, they still win.