How to play 7 Wonders

How to play

Setup: Remove any Age cards marked for more players than you have. Then keep only as many purple Guild cards, drawn at random, as the number of players plus two, and shuffle them into the Age III deck. Each player takes a Wonder board at random and picks its Day or Night side (Day is suggested for first games). Everyone starts with 3 coins; the other coins and the Military Conflict tokens form a reserve.

Drafting a hand: At the start of each Age, deal 7 cards to every player. Everyone secretly chooses one card, then you all reveal and play them together. Pass the cards you didn't keep to the player on your left in Ages I and III, and to your right in Age II; the card backs show the direction. An Age lasts six turns. On the sixth turn you receive just two cards: play one and discard the other face down, for no coins.

Playing a card: You use your chosen card in one of three ways. Build it by paying its cost and placing it face up above your Wonder board. Tuck it face down under your board to build your Wonder's next stage, paying that stage's cost instead; stages are built from left to right. Or discard it face down and take 3 coins. You can never have two buildings with the same name.

Paying for cards: Some cards are free and a few cost a coin, but most need resources. You produce them with your Wonder's starting resource, your brown and grey cards, and some yellow cards and Wonder stages. Resources are never used up: each symbol can pay once every turn. If you are missing one, buy it for 2 coins from a neighbour whose Wonder or brown or grey cards produce it; some yellow cards lower that price to 1. From Age II, a card is free if you already built a card showing its chain symbol.

Card types: Brown cards make raw materials and grey cards make manufactured goods. Blue cards are worth victory points. Yellow cards bring coins, cheaper trade or points. Red cards add shields to your military strength. Green cards carry one of three science symbols. Purple Guilds arrive in Age III and mostly score for what you or your neighbours have built.

End-of-age military: After the sixth turn, total the shields in your city and compare them with each neighbour separately. More wins a victory token worth 1, 3 or 5 points in Ages I, II and III; fewer takes a −1 token; a tie gives nothing.

Final scoring: After Age III's battles, add up your Wonder stages, 1 point for every 3 coins, your military tokens, your blue, yellow and purple cards, and your science. For science, each kind of symbol scores its count squared (1, 4, 9, 16…), plus 7 for every set of three different symbols. Most points wins. A tie goes to the player with more coins; if that is also tied, you share the win.

Strategy

Read your Wonder first: Before the first card is dealt, look at what your Wonder board produces and what its stages cost and give. That tells you which resources your city wants, and whether your Wonder leans towards military, science, coins or points. A plan that builds on your Wonder is usually stronger than one that fights it. Commit, but read the table: There are several routes to points, and the best one is often the one your neighbours are ignoring. Watch the colours they build. If both of them are collecting green cards, science will be a struggle for you; if neither builds red, a few shields can win you every battle. Science rewards focus: Because each kind of science symbol scores its count squared, a pile of one symbol grows fast, and full sets add 7 each on top. One of each symbol scores 10, while two of each scores 26. Half-hearted science tends to score little, so either chase it or leave it alone. Military is local: You fight only your two neighbours, and a single shield more than theirs wins the battle. Winning both battles in every Age is worth 18 points, and losing them all costs 6. Spend just enough on shields to beat a neighbour who is investing, or to hold them off, and put the rest of your turns elsewhere. What you pass matters: Every card you don't keep goes to a neighbour. When a hand holds nothing you need but something they badly want, build a Wonder stage with it or sell it for 3 coins. Tucking a card under your Wonder is also a quiet way to hide it. Trade and coins: Buying resources costs 2 coins each, and the money goes to your neighbour, so trade freely with a player who is behind but think twice about funding the leader. Coins at the end are worth only a point per 3, so turn spare coins into buildings. Plan your chains: Many Age I and Age II cards carry chain symbols that make a later card free. Building towards a chain saves both resources and trade, which matters most in Age III when costs climb. Watch the Guilds: most Age III purple cards score for particular cards or tokens in your city or your neighbours'. Glance at the neighbouring cities before you take one, so you know what it will actually be worth.

Tips

- Before Age I, read your Wonder's stages; they tell you which resources and cards to look for. - On the sixth turn of each Age you play one of your last two cards and the other is discarded, so don't count on the final card. - One shield more than a neighbour wins that battle, and military is only ever against the two players beside you. - A card your neighbour badly wants can be buried under a Wonder stage or sold for 3 coins instead of passed on. - Science scores the count of each symbol squared, plus 7 per full set, so it pays to commit or to stay out. - Buying from a neighbour costs 2 coins (less with some yellow cards), and the coins go to them. - Look for chain symbols on your early cards; they make matching later cards free. - Three coins make only 1 point at the end, so keep a few for trading and spend the rest.

Player count & time

3–7 players in about 30 minutes. Everyone plays at the same time, so a seven-player game takes little longer than a three-player one. The current edition has no two-player rules; for two players, 7 Wonders Duel is the standalone game to reach for. At any count you only trade and fight with the two players beside you.

Expansions

Leaders adds famous leaders: you draft four before Age I and, at the start of each Age, recruit one for coins or use it like an Age card. Cities adds black City cards with debt, diplomacy and spying, plus a team variant for four or six players. Armada gives everyone a Shipyard board with naval tracks, islands and naval battles. Edifice (2023) puts one shared building project out for each Age that players can help build for a reward. Each expansion also adds new Wonder boards. Related standalone games include 7 Wonders Duel for two, the lighter 7 Wonders Architects, and 7 Wonders Dice, a roll-and-write released in 2025.

Common beginner mistake

Building every brown and grey card so you never have to trade. Buying a resource from a neighbour costs 2 coins, or 1 with the right yellow card, and your own resources are never used up, so a purchase each turn is often cheaper than spending whole turns on production. Build the resources your Wonder and your planned cards really need, and buy the rest.

Victory path summary

Science: the steepest scoring in the game, since each symbol type scores its count squared, but it needs green cards your neighbours may also want. Military: fought only against your two neighbours, worth up to 18 points. Civil (blue): steady points, with the biggest cards in Age III. Commerce (yellow): coins and cheaper trade that make every other plan easier, with some points late on. Wonder: stages give points and powers, and building them hides cards you would rather not pass. Guilds: Age III cards that reward what you or your neighbours have built. Most winning cities mix two or three of these.