Beginner's Guide to Splendor Duel

What Is Splendor Duel?

Splendor Duel is a two-player reimagining of the classic board game Splendor, designed by Marc André and Bruno Cathala. While the original Splendor accommodates up to four players and revolves around a relatively straightforward gem-trading engine, Splendor Duel strips the experience down to a tense head-to-head contest and layers on new mechanics that reward careful planning and tactical aggression in equal measure. Games typically last between 20 and 30 minutes, making it an ideal choice when you want something meatier than a filler game but don't have time for a full evening affair. If you've played the original, you'll recognize the DNA immediately — gem tokens, development cards, and the satisfying feeling of watching your economic engine click into place — but the duel format introduces enough fresh ideas that it genuinely feels like its own game rather than a simple reskin.

At its heart, Splendor Duel is a race. Both players are building toward one of three distinct victory conditions, and the tension comes from reading your opponent's strategy while advancing your own. Every turn presents a genuine decision: do you grab the gems you need, deny your opponent a critical token, or pivot your strategy entirely based on what just appeared in the card market? This guide will walk you through every component, every rule, and every concept you need to sit down and play your first game with confidence.

Components and Setup

The Gem Board

The most immediately striking difference between Splendor Duel and its predecessor is the gem board — a 5x5 grid that holds 25 gem tokens at the start of each round. In the original game, gems sit in neat stacks sorted by color and you simply take what you need. Here, the tokens are drawn randomly from a bag and placed onto the board in a specific arrangement, which means the spatial layout of the gems matters enormously. You can't just grab any three tokens you want; you have to find them in specific patterns on the board, and every token you take reshapes what's available for your opponent on their next turn.

The gem tokens come in six colors — blue, white, green, red, and black (the five standard gem colors) — plus pink pearl tokens and gold tokens. Pearl and gold tokens play special roles that we'll cover shortly. When the board runs low on tokens during play, a replenishment phase refills it from the bag, so the available options shift constantly throughout the game.

Development Cards

Development cards are the core of your strategy. They are arranged in three rows on the table, representing three levels of increasing cost and power. At any given time, the market displays several face-up cards from each level, and each level also has a face-down deck from which new cards are drawn as others are purchased. Every development card shows a gem cost (paid in tokens), a permanent gem bonus (which effectively makes future cards cheaper), a prestige point value (which may be zero on cheaper cards), and sometimes a crown symbol or a special ability.

Level 1 cards are the workhorses of the early game. They are cheap, often costing just two or three tokens, and while they rarely provide prestige points on their own, their permanent gem bonuses form the backbone of your purchasing engine. Think of them as investments: each Level 1 card you buy makes every subsequent purchase a little easier. A card that provides a permanent blue bonus, for instance, reduces the blue gem cost of every future card you consider by one. Stack a few of these bonuses together and suddenly those expensive Level 2 and Level 3 cards start looking very affordable.

Tokens: Gems, Pearls, and Gold

Understanding the token types is essential. The five standard gem colors (blue, white, green, red, black) work exactly as you'd expect — you spend them to match the colored costs printed on development cards. Pearl tokens are a distinct resource used by certain cards, particularly at higher levels, and they cannot substitute for other colors. Gold tokens are the wild cards of Splendor Duel: each gold token can stand in for any single gem color when making a purchase. They are rare and powerful, and acquiring one always involves a trade-off, as we'll see when we discuss turn actions.

Tip: You can hold a maximum of 10 tokens at any time. If you ever exceed this limit, you must immediately return tokens to the bag until you're back to 10. Plan your acquisitions carefully so you don't waste a turn grabbing gems you'll have to give right back.

Turn Structure

On your turn, you must perform exactly one of three actions: take gems from the board, purchase a development card, or reserve a development card. You cannot pass, and you cannot combine actions. This constraint is what gives the game its rhythm and tension — every turn you spend collecting gems is a turn you're not buying cards, and vice versa.

Action 1: Take Gems from the Board

When you choose to take gems, you select tokens from the gem board according to one of three specific spatial patterns. First, you can take up to three gems in a straight line — horizontal, vertical, or diagonal — but only if all selected tokens are different colors. This is the most common way to load up on resources early in the game. Second, you can take two gems of the same color if they are adjacent to each other on the board (horizontally or vertically, not diagonally). This option is excellent when you need to double down on a specific color to afford an expensive card. Third, you can take one gem plus one gold token from the board, provided a gold token is available in your chosen line.

The spatial constraint on gem-taking is where much of Splendor Duel's tactical depth lives. You aren't just choosing which colors you want — you're analyzing the board layout to find the best available line, while also considering what your selection will leave behind for your opponent. Sometimes the strongest move is to take gems you don't even need, purely to deny your opponent a critical cluster.

Tip: Before grabbing gems, always scan the board for what your opponent needs. Denying a key token can be more valuable than advancing your own position, especially in the late game.

Action 2: Purchase a Development Card

To purchase a card, you pay its gem cost using a combination of your tokens and your permanent bonuses from previously purchased cards. Each permanent bonus you've accumulated effectively reduces the cost by one token of that color. If a card costs three blue, two white, and one green, and you already have two permanent blue bonuses and one white bonus, you'd only need to spend one blue token, one white token, and one green token from your supply. Spent tokens go back into the bag — not onto the board — so they won't be immediately available to either player.

When you buy a card, you gain its permanent gem bonus immediately, along with any prestige points and crowns it provides. Some cards also carry special abilities — the most notable being the "take another turn" privilege, which can create explosive swing turns. Purchased cards stay in front of you for the rest of the game, and their bonuses stack, which is the fundamental engine-building mechanic that makes Splendor so satisfying.

Action 3: Reserve a Development Card

Reserving is the most subtle action available to you. When you reserve a card, you take it from the market (or from the top of any level's deck) and place it face-down in front of you, hidden from your opponent. You can hold up to three reserved cards at a time. On a future turn, you can purchase a reserved card just as you would a face-up card from the market. Reserving serves two purposes: it lets you lock in a card you want before your opponent can grab it, and it gives you information advantage since your opponent can't see exactly what you've taken. The downside is that reserving uses your entire turn without giving you any gems or bonuses, so it's a tempo sacrifice that needs to pay off later.

Card Levels in Detail

Level 1: Building Your Foundation

Level 1 cards are inexpensive and almost always worth buying early. They typically cost between one and three tokens, provide a single permanent gem bonus, and carry zero to one prestige points. The strategic value of Level 1 cards lies entirely in their bonuses: each one you purchase makes your future turns more efficient. A strong opening often involves buying two or three Level 1 cards in the first several turns to establish a broad base of bonuses across multiple colors. Don't underestimate the cards with zero prestige points — their bonuses are just as valuable as any other Level 1 card, and they're often cheaper to acquire.

Level 2: The Middle Game

Level 2 cards represent the transition from engine-building to point-scoring. They cost more — usually requiring four to six total gems across two or three colors — but they reward you with meaningful prestige points (typically two to four) and sometimes carry crowns or special abilities. By the time you're buying Level 2 cards, your permanent bonuses should be doing a lot of the heavy lifting, allowing you to purchase these mid-range cards for just a token or two out of pocket. Level 2 is also where you'll find many of the crown-bearing cards that can propel you toward a crown victory.

Level 3: The Finishers

Level 3 cards are expensive, powerful, and often game-ending. They can cost seven or more total gems and frequently require pearl tokens, but they provide large prestige point values (four to six or more) and may carry multiple crowns. You generally won't buy more than one or two Level 3 cards in a game, but each one can dramatically shift the balance of power. Timing your Level 3 purchase is critical: buy too early and you've drained your token supply for a single card; wait too long and your opponent may cross a victory threshold before you get the chance.

Royal Cards

Royal cards sit in a separate row above the development card market. They are not purchased with gems — instead, you earn a Royal card whenever your purchased development cards accumulate a certain number of crown symbols. Each time you hit a crown threshold (typically three crowns, then six), you immediately select one of the available Royal cards and add it to your collection. Royal cards provide prestige points, and in a close game, those extra points can be the difference between victory and defeat.

There are only a handful of Royal cards in any given game, so they function as a limited and contested resource. If both players are accumulating crowns at a similar rate, the first to hit a threshold gets the better selection. This creates an interesting sub-game: do you pursue crowns aggressively to snag the best Royal cards, or do you focus on raw prestige points and let your opponent have them?

Tip: Always check the available Royal cards at the start of the game. If one of them offers a large prestige bonus, it may be worth angling your early purchases toward crown-bearing cards to claim it before your opponent.

The Three Paths to Victory

Splendor Duel offers three distinct win conditions, and understanding all of them is essential — not just so you can pursue one, but so you can recognize when your opponent is close to achieving one.

Prestige Victory: 20 Points

The most straightforward path. If you reach 20 or more prestige points at the end of your turn, you win. Prestige comes from development cards and Royal cards, and virtually every competitive game involves at least one player working toward this threshold. A typical prestige victory relies on a solid foundation of Level 1 bonuses, a few chunky Level 2 cards, and one or two Level 3 finishers to push over the top. It's the most "honest" win condition in the sense that it rewards balanced, efficient play across the whole game.

Crown Victory: 10 Crowns

The crown victory is an alternate route that bypasses the prestige race entirely. If you accumulate 10 or more crowns across your purchased development cards, you win immediately — regardless of your prestige total. Crown victories tend to be faster and more aggressive than prestige victories, because crown-bearing cards are often cheaper than high-prestige cards. The danger of the crown path is that it's visible: your opponent can count your crowns just as easily as you can, and a savvy opponent will start blocking your access to crown cards once they see the threat developing. Still, the crown victory is a potent weapon, especially against opponents who tunnel-vision on prestige.

Color Victory: Collecting All Colors

The rarest and most spectacular win condition. If you collect development cards whose permanent bonuses cover all five gem colors plus at least one pearl bonus, you win immediately. This means you need at least six cards with the right distribution of bonuses, and finding a pearl-bonus card is often the bottleneck. The color victory rewards flexible engine-building and opportunistic purchasing. It's difficult to pursue as a primary strategy because it requires such specific coverage, but it's a devastating surprise win condition when your opponent isn't paying attention to the color spread of your purchases.

Tip: Even if you're not actively pursuing the color victory, keep a mental note of how many distinct bonus colors you've collected. Sometimes you'll find yourself one card away from a color win by accident, and recognizing that opportunity can steal a game you were otherwise losing.

Essential Tips for New Players

Now that you understand the rules, here are the strategic principles that separate beginners from intermediate players.

Build your engine before chasing points. It's tempting to save up for a flashy Level 3 card right away, but you'll almost always be more successful if you spend your first several turns buying cheap Level 1 cards. Each permanent bonus you accumulate makes every future purchase more efficient, and that compounding advantage adds up quickly. A player who buys four Level 1 cards before touching Level 2 will generally outpace a player who went straight for expensive cards, because the first player's bonuses are doing the work of multiple gem tokens every single turn.

Pay attention to your opponent at all times. Splendor Duel is not a solitaire optimization puzzle. Your opponent's card purchases, gem selections, and crown count should all factor into your decisions. If they're sitting at eight crowns, you need to either block crown cards or race to your own win condition immediately. If they've been quietly collecting bonuses in every color, check whether they're one card away from a color victory. The best players are always tracking both their own path and their opponent's.

Manage your token economy. Tokens are a means to an end, not a goal in themselves. Don't hoard gems for the sake of having a full hand — every token sitting unused in your supply is a wasted resource. Try to spend tokens the turn after you acquire them, maintaining a lean supply that's targeted toward your next purchase. Remember that the 10-token limit is a hard cap, and exceeding it wastes your turn's effort.

Use reservations strategically. Reserving a card is powerful but costly in tempo. The best time to reserve is when you see a card that's perfect for your strategy but you can't afford it yet, or when your opponent is about to buy a card that would give them a decisive advantage. Don't reserve speculatively — every reservation is a turn you could have spent buying a card or collecting gems.

Stay flexible. The strongest players don't commit to a single win condition from the start. They build a strong foundation and then pivot toward whichever victory path opens up based on the cards that appear in the market and the choices their opponent makes. If crown cards keep appearing and your opponent is ignoring them, lean into crowns. If you've naturally accumulated diverse bonuses, watch for the color victory. Rigidity is the enemy of good Splendor Duel play.

Watch the gem board, not just the cards. New players tend to fixate on the card market and treat gem collection as an afterthought. But the spatial arrangement of the gem board creates tactical opportunities every turn. Sometimes the best move is taking gems you don't need in order to deny your opponent a critical pair, or grabbing a gold token to maintain flexibility even when you have a clear color need. The board is a shared resource, and controlling it is half the battle.

Where to Go from Here

Now that you have a solid understanding of the rules and basic strategy, the best thing you can do is play. Your first few games will feel clumsy as you learn to read the board and evaluate cards, but the patterns will start clicking quickly. Pay attention to what works and what doesn't, and don't be afraid to experiment with different strategies — pursuing crowns one game, aiming for a color victory the next, or trying a rush strategy that skips Level 1 cards entirely just to see what happens. Every loss teaches you something, and Splendor Duel rewards the kind of flexible, attentive play that only comes from experience.