Gamehelpdragonspath

Gameplay

In Dragon's Path, each player has their own deck of Element cards. Players alternate turns, playing Elements into their own play area — their Path — and trying to complete one of the victory conditions.

Each player has:

• a deck of Elements;
• a hand of cards;
• a play area called the Path;
• a discard pile.

Discard piles are always face-up and may be inspected by any player at any time. Each player starts the game with 5 cards in hand.

Player Turn

Players take turns until one player reaches a victory condition.

A turn is divided into the following phases, in order:

1. Draw a card
   At the beginning of your turn, draw the top card of your deck and add it to your hand.
   This phase is skipped on the first turn of the first player.

2. Play an Element
   You may play 1 Element from your hand into your Path.
   When you play an Element, declare which effect you want to use.
   Do not choose the target yet.

3. Opponent response
   Your opponent may respond by discarding up to 1 card with a Reaction (⚡) effect from their hand.
   If a Reaction is played, resolve it immediately.
   Then, if the declared effect was not cancelled, choose its target and resolve it.
   Reaction cards are discarded from hand. They do not enter the Path.
   Reaction effects can only be used during Phase 3 of the opponent's turn.

4. Check victory
   At the end of your turn, check whether you have completed a victory condition.

The Elements

There are 5 types of Element. Each Element has 2 different effects.

Fire, Water, and Earth have two effects that can be chosen when the Element is played on your turn.

Wind and Thunder can either be played normally on your turn or discarded during the opponent's turn to use their Reaction (⚡) effect.

Fire

• Remove an Element: move one Element from the opponent's Path into its owner's discard pile.
• Search your deck for a card, put that card on top after shuffling.

Water

• A player draws 3 cards, then discards 3 cards.
• Swap a different Element in a player's Path with one from that player's discard pile. You cannot swap the Water Element you just played, so playing this effect into an otherwise-empty Path does nothing.

Earth

• Play another Element from your hand without applying its effect.
• Return an Element from your discard pile to your hand.

Wind

• An opponent chooses and discards 1 card from their hand.
• Reaction (⚡): cancel the effect of an opponent's card. The cancelled card still enters the opponent's Path.

Thunder

• A player draws 1 card.
• Reaction (⚡): return the opponent's card played this turn to their hand. The declared effect still resolves.

Victory

The aim of the game is to collect in your Path either:

• 5 different Elements;
• 4 Elements of the same type.

If, at the end of your turn, you have reached a victory condition, the game ends immediately, and you win.

The game also ends if a player must draw a card but cannot because their deck is empty. In that case, that player immediately loses and their opponent wins.

Note: cards placed directly into play from the top of a deck (for example by some Spells) are not considered draws. Emptying your deck this way does not make you lose — only being forced to draw at the start of your turn does. If a Spell would play more cards than remain in the deck, simply play as many as are left.

Advanced Rules

Advanced rules add Spell cards and Dragon Tokens. All basic rules remain unchanged unless stated otherwise.

Best of 3

In Advanced Mode, players play up to 3 matches.

When a player wins a match, they take 1 Dragon Token.

The first player to collect 2 Dragon Tokens wins the game.

Spell Cards

Shuffle the 10 Spell cards and randomly deal 2 Spell cards to each player. Remaining Spell cards are not used in this game.

Each player chooses:

• 1 Spell card to keep;
• 1 Spell card to give to the opponent.

Each player places their Spell cards next to their play area, visible to both players.

Use Spell Cards

Each Spell card has:

an Element combination required to play it; a powerful effect.

On your turn, you may use a Spell card instead of playing an Element.

To use a Spell card, follow these steps:

1. Choose a Spell card
   Choose one of your available Spell cards.

2. Pay the Element cost
   Discard from your hand the Element combination shown on the Spell card.

3. Wait for opponent's Response
   Your opponent cannot respond to a Spell with normal Reaction (⚡) effects.
   The only way to cancel a Spell is to discard the same Element combination from their hand.

4. Resolve the Spell effect
   Apply the effect of the Spell card.

5. Remove the Spell card
   After the Spell card is used, it cannot be used again for the rest of the game.

Element & Spell Summary

Elements

Spells