How to Play

Azure

2-2 players 20-20 min 6.7 Board Game Geek Rating

Players place stones on modular boards by spending qi cards matching the space's color and cost. Covering spaces grants rewards and favor with mythical beasts tied to energy paths crossing Earth. Victory comes from accumulating enough wisdom points to reach the path's end first through strategic stone placement and resource management.

Published 2026

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Create the realm

Shuffle, flip, and rotate the four domains and lay them randomly in a square arrangement to create the realm (over 10,000 different layouts possible)

Position the wisdom track

Lay the wisdom track alongside the realm

Place mountains and Beasts

Place the mountains onto their matching spaces and put each Auspicious Beast onto its corresponding mountain

Distribute player components

Give each player 14 common stones and a score marker of one color

Set score markers

Place each score marker beside the wisdom track, near the first space of the track

Prepare qi card decks

Separate the qi cards by color into four face-up decks

Create the hidden deck

Take three cards of each color and shuffle them to create a face-down hidden deck

Draw starting hands

The start player draws two cards from the hidden deck; the other player draws three cards

Keep cards secret

Keep your cards hidden from the other player

Distribute player aids

Give each player a player aid card

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Turn structure overview

On your turn, do the following in order: place a stone, gather boons, check Auspicious Beasts

Choose a space

Place a stone into any empty space in the realm

Determine card cost

The color of the domain tells you the card color needed; the number of boon symbols in the space tells you the amount of cards needed

Pay the cost

Pay the card cost from your hand and return cards to the matching face-up deck, then place your stone

Apply bonds

Each of your stones horizontally or vertically in line with the space provides one bond, reducing the cost by one card of any needed color

Bond blocking rule

Bonds are blocked by mountains but not by player stones

Minimum cost

Through bonds, the card cost can be reduced to zero but not below zero

Failure to place

If you cannot place a stone on your turn, you lose the game immediately

Receive space rewards

The symbols in each space represent the boons you receive when placing a stone there

Card (Qi) boon

Take a matching card from the face-up decks and add it to your hand (no hand limit)

Point (Wisdom) boon

Move your score marker one step forward on the wisdom track

Beast favor rule

Each Auspicious Beast favors whichever player has the most stones guarding its mountain

Gaining initial favor

The first player to play two stones that guard a Beast's mountain immediately gains that Beast's favor

Taking favor

If the opposing player has more stones guarding a Beast's mountain, they take the Beast from you

Tie rule

If tied with the same number of stones, whoever currently has the favor keeps it

Favor can switch

A Beast's favor can switch between players more than once; a Beast never returns to its mountain

Azure Dragon

Guarded by all stones horizontally and vertically in line with its mountain (unless blocked by another mountain); gaining favor grants 3 points; losing favor loses 3 points

White Tiger

Guarded by all stones horizontally and vertically in line with its mountain (unless blocked by another mountain); gaining favor grants 2 points; losing favor loses 2 points

Black Tortoise

Guarded by all stones on serpent spaces in all domains; gaining favor allows you to place one of your common stones on the Black mountain

Vermillion Bird

Guarded by all stones in the Vermillion domain; gaining favor lets you draw two cards from the hidden deck; losing favor requires returning two cards from your hand to face-up decks