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Gamehelpcentury
Setup
The first player gets 3 turmeric, the second and third player get 4 turmeric, the fourth and fifth get 3 turmeric and a saffron.
Five cards from the purple point deck are placed in a line, with the deck to the right of the cards. Gold coins equal to twice the number of players are placed on the leftmost point card, and the same number of silver coins on the second point card.
Six cards from the orange merchant card deck are placed in a line below the point cards.
Each player gets a 'collect 2 turmeric' and an 'upgrade 2' card as starting hand.
Gameplay
On your turn, you can either play a card from your hand, acquire a merchant card, claim a point card or rest (pick up all cards you have played).
Playing cards
The first type of merchant card you can play from your hand are resource cards. These allow you to gain spices shown on the card.
The second type is upgrade cards, which allows you to upgrade spices twice, whether it be one spice upgraded twice or two upgraded once each. For the 'Upgrade 3' merchant card, you can upgrade three times. You can upgrade only once as well if you wish.
The last type is a trade card, which allows the player to exchange spices for other spices (usually stronger ones). The trade can be done multiple times if the player desires to do so. All merchant cards can only be played again if you rest.
Acquiring/claiming cards
Merchant cards can be bought for an increasing price, the further to the right the card is. The first card on the left is free, but any cards further along require more spices. To buy a 'deeper' card, you must place a spice on each of the cards left of the card to buy. Any merchant cards will go straight into your hand after buying. If a card you buy has spices on it, you gain them instantly.
If you buy a point card, pay the spices indicated and take it. If there are any coins on the top left of the card, you will get one of the coins as well. If the gold coins are depleted, the silver coins move to the leftmost position instead of the second position along.
If a card is taken, immediately replace it and move any old cards to the left to fill the gap. The new card goes on the far right.
Resting
If you rest, take back all the merchant cards played by you. No other action can be taken after this on your turn.
Spices
You can only have at most 10 spices at the end of your turn, and must discard any excess. You can choose which spices you want to discard from your hand.
The spice ranks from low to high are:
Turmeric | ➔ | Saffron | ➔ | Cardamom | ➔ | Cinnamon |
End of Game
When a player buys their 5th point card (or 6th in a 2 to 3 player game) the game will end at the end of that round.
Players score points on their point cards, 3 points for each gold coin, 1 point for each silver coin and 1 point for each spice higher than turmeric (yellow).
The player with the most points wins. If there is a tie, the player who takes the last turn wins.
Variants
Golem Edition: Players can also play with the golem edition. In that case, the crystal ranks from low to high are:
Yellow | ➔ | Green | ➔ | Blue | ➔ | Pink |
All card distributions are the same.