Splendor is a fast-paced engine-building game with a fun theme that has quickly become a staple in many households including my own. Playing Splendor online has opened my eyes to how strategic and cutthroat it can be, so I’ve developed a list of the tips and strategies that have helped me become a formidable opponent. These Splendor strategies will help you be competitive against every opponent and to win more often.
In general, the best Splendor strategies are to focus on scoring points instead of building your engine, concentrate on one or two colors, reserve important cards early, and not prioritize Nobles. Adjust your play style based on the number of players and formulate a plan on the first turn.
Splendor is a relatively simple game on its surface, but winning against good players requires a deeper understanding of its mechanics and strategy. The most intuitive way to play the game turns out to be suboptimal, so if you want to improve it usually takes a concerted effort to abandon those natural tendencies. I’ll go into how and why to apply the strategies I list below so that you can apply them in your own games and win more often.
Adjust your style to the number of players
Before a game of Splendor even starts you should begin thinking about how you’re going to play. This starts with acknowledging how many players are in the game because the nuances of your strategy will be notably different depending on the answer.
A four-player game is likely to be less cutthroat than games with fewer players because there is more incentive to focus on your own plans rather than foiling those of the others. You should try to advance your own plans and hope that the other players waste their time and resources interfering with each other.
A two-player game, however, is much more cutthroat. Obstructing and interfering with your opponent is more effective because as long as your actions damage the other player more than they do yourself, it’s a net win. A three-player game falls somewhere in between these two extremes but, in general, you should still focus on your own designs.
CHECK IT OUT: I have a Complete Strategy Guide to Splendor Duel, the hit sequel to Splendor designed specifically for two players.
Formulate a plan on the first turn of the game
The first turn in a game of Splendor is almost always the most important. You should take a little extra time on your first turn to get a lay of the land and formulate a plan based on what you see. Some key characteristics to consider when looking at the board:
- Single-color Tier 2 and 3 cards
- Relative abundance of available colors
- How the Noble’s requirements overlap
- What actions other players have taken, if any
As we’ll discuss a little later, cards worth a lot of Victory Points (VPs) should be kept in mind as priority targets. This is especially true for high VP cards that require only a single color. These cards provide excellent value and are usually the fastest and most reliable way to a win.
You should also take note of how many cards are available in each color (especially in Tier 1 and 2) and look for good synergy. If you see that there is lots of White available and there are high VP cards that require a lot of White gems, then you should probably prioritize acquiring those as quickly as possible.
In high-level play, Nobles are usually a second or third-tier consideration when formulating a strategy. However, if you notice that there is a lot of overlap between the colors required you might use those colors as a tiebreaker when deciding between colors to prioritize. For example, if you notice that all four available Nobles require 3 or 4 Blue cards and you’re deciding between focusing on Blue or Green gems, it makes sense to prioritize the Blue ones.
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Lastly, if any players have gone before you then you’ll want to factor in their actions when deciding on a path forward. For example, if someone reserves a high-value card that requires a lot of red gems then you’ll likely want to avoid having to compete with them for reds. Go with a different color instead.
Focus on points, not building your engine
Probably the biggest mistake most new Splendor players make is focusing too much on building their engine. It makes intuitive sense since Splendor is an engine-building game, but the reality is that advanced players will win the game before those well-built engines have a chance to get up and running.
Don’t spend too many turns buying Tier 1 cards. Instead, buy only the ones you need to begin buying Tier 2 cards worth VPs that also fit into your overall color strategy.
Most games of Splendor are won in 24 to 28 turns. This means that, on average, you need to score about .6 points per turn. There simply isn’t enough time in most games to build a powerful engine with multiple Tier 1 cards in each color. By the time you’ve built your engine, another player will have clawed out their 15 points and won the game.
Concentrate on one or two colors
Winning Splendor is all about efficiency which, in this case, means choosing one or two colors to focus on and squeezing as much value out of them as possible. Sure, it’s nice to have a card or two of every color to reduce your costs and keep things flexible, but if you’re out to win you have to think only about value.
There is a lot more value to be had by focusing only on one or two colors than there is by spreading things out. By concentrating on a couple of colors you’ll be able to buy Tier 2 and 3 cards worth a lot of VPs using fewer overall resources.
In many engine-building games, I have found that it’s a good idea to start broad and then build narrow. But in the case of Splendor, I have had much more success just building narrowly from the beginning. Choose your color(s) early and commit everything you have to them and I promise you’ll see better results overall.
Avoid competing with other players
The biggest obstacle that this general strategy has is competition with other players for the specific resources you need. If two players have both decided that they’re going to prioritize White then it’s very likely they’ll both lose, while another player who has chosen other colors will likely win because they aren’t in direct competition with the others.
If another player is clearly prioritizing the same color(s) as you then you have a decision to make – stick to your plan or quickly pivot. In general, if I’m sitting to the right of the other player then I’ll stick with my original color because I’ll get first dibs on new cards that come out. However, if I’m sitting to their left I will usually change course because they’ll be able to grab up the best cards before I can.
Target and reserve high-value cards early on
Perhaps the most important part of this narrow & aggressive approach is reserving the cards that are most vital to its success. Once you identify the high VP cards you want to target you should reserve them immediately so that they can’t be stolen from you. This has the added benefit of giving you a Gold piece which can be used as a wild card.
The most important cards tend to be high VP cards that only require 1 or 2 colors. Look for these cards and reserve them, especially if more than one of them is present on the first turn of the game:
| Tier | Victory Points | Cost of Gem Color 1 | Cost of Gem Color 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 4 | 7 | – |
| 2 | 3 | 6 | – |
| 3 | 5 | 7 | 3 |
| 2 | 2 | 5 | – |
| 2 | 2 | 5 | 3 |
All of these cards provide excellent value because they score a lot of VPs per gem. Even better, you’ll be able to extract the maximum amount of value from the cards in your collection because you’ll be reusing the same 1 or 2 colors over and over again.
For example, in the game pictured above I immediately reserved the Tier 3 card that requires 7 blue Gems and then on the next turn I reserved the Tier 2 card that requires 5 blue and 3 green Gems. This gave me a very clear path forward where I simply needed to acquire as many blue Gems and cards as possible, with some green cards on the side. I won this game easily because both of my opponents tried to build their engines and go for Nobles.
Keep reserving cards relevant to your strategy
As the game progresses, cards that can help you will invariably come into play. Be sure to snatch these up as fast as possible so that they can’t be stolen from you. Sometimes you’ll already have 3 cards held in reserve, but if you can quickly draw enough chips you should either buy one of the cards out of your reserve to open up a spot or, even buy the card straight off of the board.
Good players will likely get wise to your strategy and they might make it a point to reserve or buy cards they know you want. This is especially true in 2-player games where your opponent can focus on thwarting your efforts. To mitigate this, you should try to keep a reserve slot open for useful cards that come up so that you can always take them on your next turn.
Maximize the value from in every turn
Earlier I mentioned that games of Splendor usually last between 24 and 28 turns. This isn’t very many, so you must maximize the value of every turn. I find that it’s often more useful to think of things in terms of how many turns a goal will require instead of how many Gems.
Turns are a much more valuable resource than Gems, so if you have to make slightly inefficient use of your Gems in order to save a turn you should almost always do so. Try to think 2 or 3 turns ahead and keep a clear short-to-intermediate goal in mind. Your plans might have to change based on what other players do, but having to adapt a plan is much better than having no plan at all.
In general, you should be trying to buy as many cards worth 2 or more VP points as possible. If you accomplish this goal on enough turns then you’ll usually win easily. Most advanced players manage to win a game by only buying 11 or 12 total cards, which is even more powerful when you factor in the game’s tie-breaker (whoever bought the fewest cards wins).
Remember what cards your opponents reserve
Knowing what cards your opponents have reserved can be a huge advantage because you’ll be better positioned to prevent them from buying those cards if necessary. Remembering the cards your opponents have reserved can be a bit of a hassle, but if you want to improve your win rate then it’s an absolute must.
By remembering the cards your opponents have reserved you severely limit the amount of hidden information in the game. In fact, the only way you won’t know what cards your opponents have reserved is if they draw a card blind from one of the three draw piles.
Use Nobles as convenient bonuses, not targets
The Nobles in Splendor are a fun addition that adds to the game’s theme but they should rarely be a focus in competitive play. The strategies I’ve outlined here largely ignore the Nobles entirely because they simply aren’t an efficient way to score points.
Nobles only grant an extra three points, which is nice but hardly overpowering. You can easily score that many points by buying one or two cards with VPs and do it in many fewer turns than it requires to attract a Noble.
In general, you should only try to attract a Noble if it happens to align with your current color strategy and you’re already very close. For example, if you have 4 blue and 3 white Development Cards then it is probably worth it to go ahead and grab a 4th white DC to secure the Noble pictured above. I wouldn’t, however, set out to attract that Noble from the beginning of the game.
Take double gem tokens for your chosen colors
Using the narrow strategy we’ve been discussing (focusing on high VP cards that can be bought with one or two colors) means that Gems of those particular colors will be very important to your success. In the middle game, you should try to acquire as many of those Gem colors as possible to purchase the cards you’ve reserved.
When you draw Gems, you should almost always draw a Gem of the color(s) you’re focusing on to build up a stockpile. You should also heavily consider drawing 2 of the same color Gem whenever possible. This ensures that you’ll have enough of that color of Gem and that your opponents won’t be able to keep them from you.
Hoard Gems that your opponents need
Speaking of which, sometimes keeping a few Gems from your opponent(s) can be a very powerful strategy – especially in 2 player games. If you remember what cards your opponents reserve (see above) then you should know what color Gems they need and how many. This makes it relatively easy to throttle your opponent(s) and keep them from buying their reserved cards.
For example, if you know an opponent has reserved a Tier 2 card that costs 6 green Gems and they only have 4 at their disposal, you can try to draw the remaining green Gems on your turn. In 3- or 4-player games this strategy is probably only worth it if you can actually use those green Gems, but in a 2-player game, it can be very effective because it will cost your opponent several turns to overcome.
By drawing the last green Gems in this scenario, your opponent will either have to reserve more cards to get enough Gold to buy his card, or spend turns buying other cards Development Cards that grant green Gems. This loss of time is very costly!
Spend Gold liberally when it helps immediately
My last tip revolves around Gold management. I see a lot of players hold onto their Gold to use in case of emergency, but this is usually a mistake. Use gold aggressively and liberally to speed up your development and quickly buy more cards. A time advantage is essential to winning, and Gold is a powerful tool to speed you up.
In general, if you can buy a card that feeds into your overall strategy using a Gold piece then you should do it immediately. Using 2 Gold pieces is more questionable and it might be worth just drawing the Gems you need, but take it on a case-by-case basis. Just remember that Gold is there to be spent and its power is only unleashed if you use it!
Thanks for reading! If I missed something or you have your own opinions, please drop a comment below.
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