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How to Play Splendor for those who hate reading rulebooks

I hate reading rulebooks. I wrote a summary of the essential how to play Splendor rules to help one get started quickly.

Find out more about Spendor and whether you should play it by clicking here.

What is the goal of Splendor?

Use your resources to acquire mines, transportation methods and artisans who will allow you to turn raw gems into beautiful jewels

Shuffle each development card deck separately, then arrange them in increasing order from bottom to top in a column
Reveal 4 cards from each level
Shuffle noble tiles, revealing as many of them as there are players plus one
Remove remaining tiles from the game (they will not be used)
Place tokens in 6 distinct piles (sort them by colour) within reach of the players

Purchasing development cards allows players to win prestige points
They are visible in the middle of the table and can be purchased by everyone during the game
Players reserve development cards during the game in their hands
Developments in hand can only be purchased by players holding them

These tiles are visible in the middle of the table.
Players automatically receive a visit from a noble at the end of their turn if they have the amount of bonuses required. They also receive a corresponding tile
You cannot refuse a visit from a noble
Receiving a noble is not considered as an action
Each noble tile is worth 3 prestige points however, you can only get a single one per turn

Youngest player begins, with play proceeding clockwise

On your turn: You must choose to perform only one of the following actions:

Take 3 gem tokens of different colours
Take 2 gem tokens of the same colour (Only possible if there are 4 or more tokens available of that colour left when the player takes them)
Reserve 1 development card and take 1 gold token (Joker)
Purchase 1 face-up development card from the middle of the table or a previously reserved one

You can never have more than 10 tokens at the end of your turn (including jokers). You must return any excess tokens until you have 10 left
A player can return all or some of the tokens they just drew
Tokens owned by a player must be visible to everyone at all times

Reserve a card by taking a face-up development or drawing the first card from one of the three decks without showing it to other players
Reserved cards are kept in hand and may not be discarded
You cannot have more than three reserved cards in hand and you can only get rid of a card by buying it
You can only get a gold token (joker) by reserving a card
If there is no gold left you can still reserve the card however, you won’t receive any gold

Purchase the card by spending the indicated amount of tokens on the card
A joker token replaces any colour
These tokens (including joker) are returned to the middle of the table
You may purchase one of the face-up development cards or a reserved card in your hand
Each player makes distinct rows with their acquired development cards. These are sorted by colour and stagger vertically to allow bonuses and prestige point values to be visible
Bonuses and prestige points granted by each card must remain risible at all times
Development cards acquired or reserved from the middle of the table must be immediately replaced by cards of the same level. All levels must have 4 face-up cards at all times (unless the deck is empty, in which case the empty spaces remain empty too).

Bonuses acquired from development cards provide discounts when purchasing new cards
Each bonus of a given colour is equivalent to the token of that colour
Is a player has 2 blue bonuses and wants to purchase a card which costs 2 blue tokens and 1 green token, the player only needs to spend 1 green token
You can purchase a card without spending any tokens if you have enough development cards

Each player checks the noble tiles at the end of their turn to see if one is visiting them
A player can be visited if they have the quantity and bonuses indicated on the noble tile
You cannot refuse a visit from a noble
If you have enough bonuses to be visited by more than one noble, you can choose with one to be received
The noble tile obtained is placed face up in front of you

Complete the current round and end the game when a player reaches 15 prestige points
The player with the highest number of prestige points wins (make sure to count your nobles)
If there is a tie, the player who purchased the least amount of development cards wins.