How it plays
Splendor Duel is a race between two jewelers who collect tokens and buy cards that make later purchases cheaper. On your turn, take up to three adjacent non-gold tokens in one uninterrupted row, column or diagonal; reserve a card while taking a gold token; or buy a card from the display or your reserve. The shrinking token layout determines which combinations you can collect together.
Purchased cards add permanent gem discounts, points, crowns or immediate effects. At the end of your turn, you win with twenty prestige points overall, ten crowns, or ten prestige points on cards of one color. A player building toward crowns or a single color can therefore be close to winning even while trailing in total points.
Decisions you’ll make
Refilling the board restores choices but gives your opponent a privilege, which can take a gem or pearl before their main action. Check whether the new supply helps you enough to justify that extra choice for them.
Compare a useful discount with a card that advances an immediate victory condition. Watch your opponent’s crowns and points within each color before leaving a card they can afford in the display.
Plan for pearl costs separately. Only two pearl tokens exist, and cards never provide pearl discounts. Gold can substitute for a pearl, but collecting gold requires reserving a card.
Learning the game
Teach token lines, privileges and refilling before card powers, crown rewards and the three victory conditions. Gold and pearls need separate explanation.