Best of Reddit: Splendor Duel Strategy
The best Splendor Duel strategy advice from Reddit, curated and organized. Real tips from real players with hundreds of games under their belts.
13 min read
We combed through dozens of Reddit threads on r/boardgames to find the best Splendor Duel strategy advice from the community. These are real insights from real players — many with hundreds of games on Board Game Arena. Each quote links back to the original thread.
"It's a Duel, Not Solitaire"
The single biggest theme across every strategy thread: Splendor Duel punishes passive play. If you are building your engine without disrupting your opponent, you are losing.
"It is about sabotaging your partner before they sabotage you — I realized my opponents were all too ready to spoil my game."
"There are lots of games where you can ignore what the other person is doing. Feel free to find one of those games. Splendor Duel, emphasis on DUEL, is a 1-on-1 battle to defeat the other player."
— u/Miroku20x6 · r/boardgames
"Game is almost more about stopping your opponent than completing your own plan."
— u/voarex · r/boardgames
"If it's the best move at the time, it's not unethical or mean spirited. Resource denial is a large part of the game and the pearls are valuable on their own. You have to aggressively pursue them."
— u/ruffin_it · r/boardgames
One player summed up their losing streak perfectly — they were playing Splendor Duel like it was regular Splendor:
"I was just reading another thread about strategies and something stuck with me... That led me to wonder, is that my flaw? I don't really play Splendor Duel in this aggressive attack-my-opponent way."
— u/DawsonMaestro414 · r/boardgames
The "Tall vs. Wide" Debate
One of the most-upvoted strategy posts in any Splendor thread comes from a 300+ ELO Board Game Arena player who argues that buying fewer, more efficient cards ("tall") beats buying many cheap cards ("wide").
"Generally, playing 'wide' (buying many tier 1 cards) is worse than playing 'tall' (rushing tier 2s and tier 3s with as little tier 1s as possible). There are two reasonings. Firstly, in order to justify a purchase of a tier 1 card, you need to use that card to buy at least 3 new cards, because otherwise you could have just taken 3 gems in that turn instead. Secondly, each turn you build a card is a turn you're not taking gems, so buying fewer cards worth more is better than many cards worth less."
— u/Auxaghon (300+ ELO, 240 upvotes) · r/boardgames
Not everyone agrees. Another player pushed back with an important nuance:
"The problem with saying Tall is always better is this: generally, inexperienced players will go with a Wide strategy while experienced ones will go with Tall. And inexperienced players rarely or never look at what their opponent is doing. So naturally the Tall strategy wins as it's not being blocked or hindered in any way... I'd argue that an experienced, skilled player playing Wide would beat an inexperienced player playing Tall."
— u/WolverineComplex · r/boardgames
The truth is probably that "tall" wins more because it demands better card evaluation, not because buying Level 1 cards is inherently wrong. The real lesson: every purchase needs to justify the turn it costs.
What Top BGA Players Actually Do
One Redditor analyzed the stats of the highest-rated Board Game Arena players and shared the numbers:
"Looking at the highest two players' ELO, those are the relevant stats: Win with 20 points: around 0.65. Win with 10 crowns: around 0.1. Win with 10 points in a single column: around 0.2. The other very relevant stat is: Crowns: around 5.6. Royal cards: around 1.5. This shows that almost every game you should aim to get at least 3 crowns to get at least one Royal card and often 6 crowns to get two Royal cards."
— u/notpopularopinion2 · r/boardgames
Another player tracked 51 games and found similar results:
"From the 51 games we have logged so far, 30 were won by the 20 points condition, 7 by the crowns condition, and 14 by the suit condition."
— u/GicoLadida · r/boardgames
The takeaway: about two-thirds of games end via 20 prestige points, about a fifth via single-color concentration, and about a tenth via crowns. But aiming for 6 crowns (two Royal cards) while pursuing prestige is the baseline competitive strategy.
The "Safety Valve" Reservation Trick
This might be the most actionable tip in the entire collection. One player described a technique for never being the one to replenish the gem board:
"Because I take a few gold and have at least one level 1 card in my hand that I can buy at any point, I always have that one turn buffer that forces them to refill the board so I can get a Privilege Scroll."
— u/SportAble1642 · r/boardgames
The idea: reserve a cheap card early. If the board empties and you have nothing useful to do, you can always buy the reserved card instead of being forced to replenish. Your opponent ends up replenishing, and you collect the Privilege Scroll. Simple, effective, and rarely discussed in formal strategy guides.
Reserve Extra-Turn Cards Immediately
Multiple players emphasized that "take another turn" cards are so powerful they should be reserved on sight — even if you cannot afford them yet.
"The 'take another turn' cards are really powerful, so don't be afraid to reserve those cards right when they come up, even if you aren't that close to building them. It's a zero sum game, so a move that hurts your opponent inherently helps you. To a lesser extent, the 'steal' cards are also often worth reserving, if only to keep your opponent from stealing from you."
— u/firmobserver · r/boardgames
And from the losing side of this equation:
"He usually always gets the steal a coin cards. He usually always gets the repeat turn cards before I can. And I am none the wiser how he is able to get these before me. Moreover, he's somehow stacking moves upon moves upon moves and I sit there dumbfounded and frustrated beyond belief. The compounding advantages in this game is wild."
— u/DawsonMaestro414 · r/boardgames
If your opponent keeps getting the powerful ability cards before you, it is not luck. They are prioritizing them, possibly reserving them on sight. Start doing the same.
Gold Tokens Are Premium Currency
Top-ranked players treat gold tokens as the most contested resource in the game.
"What I noticed is that the top players start taking gold tokens very early in the game (after both pearls have been taken basically) and from then on those three gold tokens are highly fought after, pretty much being taken as soon as they hit the board."
— u/notpopularopinion2 · r/boardgames
"Make use of reserving a level 2 card or two and taking a couple of gold early on. This gives you a focus and the flexibility with the wild coins. Many times I have had these cards taken a turn before I can buy them, which means I have to pivot a lot and feel like I am playing catch up."
— u/bigsky1980 · r/boardgames
There are only 3 gold tokens in the entire game. Reservation is the only way to get them. If you are not contesting gold, your opponent gets flexible wild resources while you are stuck hunting for exact colors on the gem board.
Defensive Plays You Should Be Making
One of the most practical posts came from a player explaining specific defensive tactics:
"Be really alert to what your opponent is trying to do, all the time. If they can buy a card that you can't quite get, then don't waste your time picking up gems that you won't need after they've had their turn. If they're going to take a 'steal' card, just spend your pearl immediately. If they can take a card with two crowns that will earn them a Royal card, take a gold and reserve it."
— u/rckd · r/boardgames
Three specific moves worth memorizing: (1) If your opponent is about to take a steal card, spend your pearl before they can steal it. (2) If their next purchase would trigger a Royal card claim, reserve the crown card with gold first. (3) If they are going to buy a card before you can, do not waste your turn collecting gems for it — pivot immediately.
Card Efficiency Is Not Equal
The same high-ELO player broke down why some Level 3 cards are dramatically better than others:
"Notice and compare the different card types. For tier 3 cards, the 5-3-3-3 ones are usually very bad, requiring 14 gems for only 3 points. On the other hand, the 7-3 (for 5 points) and 7 (for 4 points) are the best cards in the game, they give the best ratio of gems to points."
— u/Auxaghon (300+ ELO) · r/boardgames
And this observation from a 100+ game player about Level 1 cards:
"The level 1 cards that require 3 of one color and give you a crown — they are ridiculously strong with a low cost. Feels like they sway the game a lot in the early game. Also the rainbow discount cards seem way overpriced."
— u/ToastBalancer · r/boardgames
Though another player offered a useful counterpoint on rainbow cards:
"The wildcards feel like the fastest avenue to taking level 3 cards when the market won't otherwise provide what you need."
— u/CatTaxAuditor · r/boardgames
Use our tier list to see how we rank every card, or the card comparison tool to evaluate specific cards side-by-side.
Win Conditions as Threats
One of the most insightful comments reframes how to think about the three victory paths:
"The point of the different win conditions is to create additional avenues of tension and diversify your choices. Sure, you might not win as often by crowns, but I've for sure squeaked out a few wins by threatening a crown win and forcing my opponent to take cards with crowns they really don't want to take."
— u/Flipmaester (37 upvotes) · r/boardgames
"The crowns and single color victories are faster but higher risk victory conditions that are easier for the opponent to block. If the opponent stops you from pulling off one of those, the 20 points of any color is the 'default' victory condition that you fall back to."
— u/SoochSooch · r/boardgames
"Most of the strategies are around getting the things you want while blocking the other player. The crowns are the quickest win and the easiest to block. The any 20 is hardest to block but is also the slowest."
— u/voarex · r/boardgames
The idea: crown and color victories are not just win conditions — they are weapons. Threatening them forces your opponent to make suboptimal defensive plays, even if you ultimately win via 20 prestige points. For more, see our win conditions guide.
Micro-Efficiency and Board Control
Several players described the game as fundamentally about small edges that compound over time:
"Splendor Duel is a game of micro efficiency and timing, grabbing the right 3 gems to make your opponent grab a slightly less ideal set. The person who parses the display better tends to get their engine running first."
— u/LaserSharknado9000 · r/boardgames
"Only played a few times but it's really a game about tempo and reading the market. Pull gems that break up the board and create awkward options."
— u/wallysmith127 · r/boardgames
"If you can take tokens that splits the market in half or claim a card to take the last gold, that can be enough to disrupt your opponent."
— u/easto1a · r/boardgames
"The ideal way of playing is almost always taking 3 different gems, where you are working towards multiple efficient cards at once. For example, you are aiming for a 6-red card, so you are collecting red-white-black, and you're using white-black resources for a tier 1 card that helps achieve the 6-red."
— u/Auxaghon (300+ ELO) · r/boardgames
Every gem pick should serve dual purposes: advancing your plan while making your opponent's turn worse.
Multiple Dimensions of Control
One player laid out a framework for what "control" actually means in Splendor Duel:
"Control is an important aspect of the game. That can be controlling access to a specific color or resource by stockpiling, controlling who has to pay for a refill, controlling what your opponent is able to buy early on, or controlling the layout of the board. Once you have those skills mastered and can temper them with having an adaptive path to victory through the midgame, you'll be in a good overall spot."
— u/undertoe420 · r/boardgames
"When the game first starts, one of the things you need to do is analyze what color(s) are needed on each level to understand which colors are likely to be a commodity."
— u/firmobserver · r/boardgames
Whoever controls the "commodity color" — the gem that shows up most in card costs — controls the pace of the game.
Breaking Your Local Meta
Several threads discussed a common phenomenon: couples who play 100+ games develop a stale meta where the same strategies keep winning and the game feels "broken."
"It is possible that game is not balanced but most people don't play it 100 times to notice and it is also possible that you play so much that you created meta and are simply unable to see other ways."
— u/tupak23 (39 upvotes) · r/boardgames
"2-player games between friends and couples are particularly vulnerable to meta problems. By this I do not mean problems with the game, but problems caused by a developed meta, and no newcomers who shake things up by playing a different way."
"My wife and I got stuck in our own meta, and it wasn't until we played games with other people or purposefully tried out odd moves to break our own meta that we got out of that rut."
— u/PmUsYourDuckPics · r/boardgames
If the game feels stale or unbalanced, the cure is playing on Board Game Arena against strangers or deliberately making unusual moves.
The Comeback Is Always Possible
And finally, a reminder to never give up:
"The best thing about Splendor Duel is that the losing player is never more than two or three turns away from victory. This keeps the game interesting since it is always close."
— u/dsmith6808 (40 upvotes) · r/boardgames
All quotes sourced from r/boardgames on Reddit. For more strategy, explore our guides on the gem economy, card selection, win conditions, reading your opponent, and common mistakes.