Shards of Alchemy

Gather loose elements and build an engine of element producing resources to attain the highest score and win the game on round 21 using the magnetic turn counter built into the lid. The game is played with diamond-shaped cards in a single 84-card deck, held in a fold-open box insert that includes the six draw/discard areas.

This is a compact game for travel and table space, loaded with five play modes. It can play solo or up to five players with built in accelerators for higher player counts to speed the game along. In most game modes you are changing the purchase and draw options when you make your own purchases, laying new cards on top of the ones accessible to players atop the six draw-discard piles.

Varied and largely unique costs for permanent resources challenge players to find buy-path patterns and make strategic choices on whether to reserve cards as part of a draw or hope to buy them before someone else snatches it up. There are many paths to victory, and winning strategies may change as the purchase options alter. The cards have vital information clearly showing along with colorful imagery and art. Each of the seven element colors also has a unique symbol to aid color-blind players.

There are five play modes, from a very fast and easy intro-mode called "Initiate", to "Novice" (harder but much more strategically involved game, to the standard modes of "Apprentice", "Journeyman" (adds some rules to boost scores) and "Alchemist" (adds a few more rules to boost scoring even more). So that the game can be learned quickly and progressively. Play time ranges from 10 minutes to an hour depending on mode and player count.