Azure
Azure Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Base Components
- 4 domains
- 1 wisdom track
- 28 common stones (14 in each of 2 player colors)
- 2 score markers (1 in each of 2 player colors)
- 4 Auspicious Beasts (Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermillion Bird, Black Tortoise)
- 4 mountains (1 in each of 4 colors: Azure, White, Vermillion, Black)
- 48 qi cards (12 in each of 4 colors: Azure, White, Vermillion, Black)
- 2 player aid cards
Setup
- Shuffle, flip, and rotate the four domains and lay them randomly in a square arrangement to create the realm. There are over 10,000 different layouts.
- Lay the wisdom track alongside the realm.
- Place the mountains onto their matching spaces. Put each Auspicious Beast onto its corresponding mountain.
- Give each player 14 common stones and a score marker of one color. Place each score marker beside the wisdom track, near the first space of the track.
- Separate the qi cards by color into four face-up decks. Take three cards of each color and shuffle them to create a face-down hidden deck.
- Choose a start player. Both players draw a starting hand of cards from the hidden deck. The start player draws two cards. The other player draws three cards. Keep your cards hidden from the other player. Give each player a player aid card.
Objective
Place your stones to gather qi (cards) and wisdom (points) from the realm, and bring the Auspicious Beasts to your aid. The first player to reach the end of the path of wisdom is the winner.
How to Play
The start player goes first. Players then take alternating turns. On your turn, do the following in order:
- Place a stone
- Gather boons
- Check Auspicious Beasts
1. Place a Stone
Place a stone into any empty space in the realm. Each space has a card cost:
- The color of the domain (board) tells you the color of card needed.
- The number of boon symbols in the space tells you the amount of cards needed.
Pay the card cost from your hand. Return them to the matching face-up deck. Then, place one of your stones onto the space.
If you cannot place a stone on your turn, you lose the game immediately.
Bonds
The card cost can be reduced by bonds provided by your other stones. Each of your stones that is horizontally or vertically in line with the space provides one bond, which is equivalent to one card in whatever color is needed, unless blocked by a mountain. Bonds are not blocked by player stones.
Through bonds, the card cost of a space can be reduced to zero. This means you can sometimes place a stone without paying any cards. The card cost of a space cannot be reduced below zero.
Example: Freya pays one Black card to place a stone on the indicated space. She then gains one White card from the face-up deck.
Note: The circular icon denotes this is a serpent space (see Check Auspicious Beasts, below), but that is not a boon.
Example: Freya wishes to place a stone on the indicated space. Normally, this would cost four Azure cards, but since Freya has three bonds — two in the row and one in the column (the other is blocked by the mountain) — she only has to pay one Azure card to place the stone, gaining four points.
2. Gather Boons
The symbols in each space represent the boons you receive when you place a stone in it:
- Card (Qi): Take a matching card from the face-up decks (not the hidden deck) and add it to your hand. There is no limit to the number of cards you can have in hand.
- Point (Wisdom): Move your score marker one step forward on the wisdom track. Both players' markers can occupy the same space on the track.
3. Check Auspicious Beasts
Each Auspicious Beast will favor whichever player has the most stones guarding its mountain (the rule for how a stone guards a mountain is different for each mountain).
The first player to play two stones that guard a Beast's mountain immediately gains the favor of that Beast. Take the Beast and place it on your side of the realm.
If at any time the opposing player has more stones than you guarding the Beast's mountain, they take it from you. They gain its favor, and you lose the favor. If you are tied with the same number of stones, whoever has the favor keeps it.
The favor of a Beast can switch between the players more than once. A Beast remains with the player who has it unless it is taken by the opponent. A Beast never returns to its mountain. On each turn, take care to consider all the mountains since a single stone can guard more than one.
The Azure Dragon
The Azure mountain is guarded by all stones horizontally and vertically in line with it, unless blocked by another mountain. When you gain the favor of the Azure Dragon, take the Dragon and gain three points. If you lose the favor, lose three points.
Example: Leonie is the first to place two stones that guard the Azure mountain, so she takes the Azure Dragon and earns three points.
The White Tiger
The White mountain is guarded by all stones horizontally and vertically in line with it, unless blocked by another mountain. When you gain the favor of the White Tiger, take the Tiger and gain two points. If you lose the favor, lose two points.
Example: Leonie places a third stone that guards the White mountain, which is more than Freya's two stones. Leonie takes the White Tiger from Freya — Freya loses two points and Leonie gains two points.
The Black Tortoise
The Black mountain is guarded by all stones on serpent spaces in all domains.
When you gain the favor of the Black Tortoise, take the Tortoise and place one of your own common stones, taken from your supply, onto the Black mountain.
The stone on the Black mountain provides a bond to all spaces that are horizontally or vertically in line with it, unless blocked by a mountain. The stone will also guard the Azure and White mountains if one or both are aligned horizontally or vertically, unless blocked by another mountain. The stone on the Black mountain does not guard the Black mountain.
If you lose the favor, remove your stone from the Black mountain and return it to your supply. Your opponent replaces it with one of their common stones. This can cause the favor of the Azure Dragon or the White Tiger to switch between the players.
Example: Freya is the first to place two stones on serpent spaces. She takes the Black Tortoise and places one of her common stones on the Black mountain.
The Vermillion Bird
The Vermillion mountain is guarded by all stones in the Vermillion domain (board). When you gain the favor of the Vermillion Bird, take the Bird and draw two cards from the hidden deck. If you lose the favor, return any two cards from your hand to the face-up decks. If you have only one card in hand, return it. If you have no cards, do nothing. In either of these cases, there is no further penalty.
Example: Freya is the first to place two stones in the Vermillion domain (board). She takes the Vermillion Bird and draws two cards from the hidden deck.
Winning the Game
The first player to move their stone to the end of the wisdom track (25) wins the game. Or, you win the game immediately if your opponent cannot place a stone on their turn.
©2026 Bitewing Games LLC. All rights reserved. ©2026 Trevor Benjamin & Brett J. Gilbert. All rights reserved.
Gifted (Variant Module)
This module can be included with experienced players, if desired.
Components
- 2 gifted stones
- 2 double-sided gifted cards
Setup
Give each player the gifted stone in their player color. Choose a side of one of the gifted cards and place it face-up beside the realm. This single card defines how both of the players' gifted stones will behave in this game. Put the other gifted card in the box.
Note: If the hidden deck runs out, shuffle three cards of each color to create a new one.
The gifted card beside the realm explains the special rule for the gifted stones. There are four possible sides:
- Mighty (card cost: +2): Your gifted stone provides two bonds (instead of one) to all spaces horizontally and vertically in line with it, unless blocked by a mountain.
- Perceptive (card cost: +2): Your gifted stone additionally provides one bond to all spaces diagonally in line with it, unless blocked by the center of a mountain.
- Bountiful (card cost: +1): Your gifted stone allows you to take one additional boon of your choice, chosen from the boons in the space, when you play a common stone in any surrounding space (including diagonally adjacent spaces).
- Favored (card cost: +1): Your gifted stone lets you gain the favor of a Beast of a mountain that your gifted stone is guarding if you have the same number of stones guarding it as your opponent.
How to Play
Once during the game, you may place your gifted stone instead of a common stone. Once it is played, it cannot be moved or replayed into a different space.
Note: You cannot place your gifted stone on the Black mountain when you gain the favor of the Black Tortoise.
When you play your gifted stone, you must pay an additional card cost of one or two cards. This must be paid using cards matching the color of the domain (board) into which you play the gifted stone. This can be reduced by the bonds of your other stones as normal. You receive the boons of the space as normal, and your gifted stone provides bonds and guards mountains in the same way as a common stone.
Cosmos (Expansion)
This expansion can be purchased directly from our shop at www.BitewingGames.com
The Cosmos expansion can be played with or without the Gifted module.
Components
- A. 2 large domains (double-sided)
- B. 1 cosmos track
- C. 1 Auspicious Beast (Yellow Dragon)
- D. 8 common stones (4 in each of 2 player colors)
Setup
Set up the game as normal, but with the additions listed below.
When creating the realm, first flip and rotate the two larger domains (A) and lay them at random corner-to-corner. Then, find the two regular domains that represent the two other colors, and flip and rotate these and lay them randomly between the larger domains to complete the realm.
Lay the cosmos track (B) beside the realm with each end pointing toward its respective player. Place the Yellow Dragon (C) on the central space. Give the extra common stones to the players.
Note: If the hidden deck runs out, shuffle three cards of each color to create a new one.
How to Play
There is a new type of boon:
- Cosmos: Move the Yellow Dragon one step on the cosmos track toward you.
The cosmos track includes four thresholds. Each time you move the Yellow Dragon across a threshold of your player color, gain one point and take one card of your choice from the face-up decks (not from the hidden deck).
Each time your opponent moves the Yellow Dragon back across a threshold of your own player color, you lose one point and return one card of your choice from your hand to the face-up decks. If you have no cards, there is no further penalty.
If you move the Yellow Dragon onto (or beyond) the last space of your end of the cosmos track, you win the game (or you can win the game like normal as described in Winning the Game, above).
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