Azul rules: how to play and how to score

Azul quick rules

The goal

You decorate the wall of a palace with colored tiles. Each round, you pick tiles, store them on your player board, then move them onto your wall to score points. The game ends after the round in which a player completes a horizontal line of 5 tiles on their wall, and the most points wins.

Your player board

At the top, the score track. On the left, five pattern lines shaped like a staircase, from 1 to 5 spaces; on the right, the wall, with one space per color in each of its five lines. At the very bottom, the floor line: tiles that fall there make you lose points.

Picking tiles

On your turn, either pick all tiles of one color from a Factory display and move the rest to the center of the table, or pick all tiles of one color from the center. The first player in the round to pick from the center also takes the starting player marker and places it on their floor line. Play continues until the Factory displays and the center are empty.

Placing your tiles

The tiles you picked all go to a single pattern line, placed from right to left. A pattern line holds only one color, and never a color already on the matching line of your wall. Excess tiles fall onto your floor line, from left to right; once it’s full, the rest goes into the lid of the game box.

Wall-tiling

When everything is taken, everyone goes through their pattern lines from top to bottom: for each complete line, the rightmost tile moves to the space of its color on the same line of the wall, and scores right away. On its own, it’s worth 1 point; otherwise, you gain 1 point per tile in its horizontal group and 1 point per tile in its vertical group, including the new tile. The rest of the line goes into the lid, and incomplete lines wait for the next round.

The floor line and the next round

Each tile in your floor line makes you lose the points shown above it: 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, with the starting player marker counting as a tile. Your score can never drop below zero. If nobody has completed a horizontal line, the player with the marker refills each Factory display with 4 tiles and goes first next round.

The end and final scoring

The game ends right after Wall-tiling, as soon as a player has completed at least one horizontal line. Everyone then adds 2 points per complete horizontal line, 7 per complete vertical line and 10 per color with all 5 tiles on their wall. On a tie, the most complete horizontal lines wins; if that doesn’t settle it, the victory is shared.

Beginner pitfalls

Watch the center of the table: at the end of a round, a big batch of tiles can land on you and end up on your floor line. Don’t fill your long pattern lines too early: an incomplete line keeps its color and blocks you. Think about vertical lines, worth far more than horizontal ones, and place tiles next to each other: a lone tile is only worth one point.

Crystal Mosaic

With this expansion, new player boards replace the base game ones, all on the same side. You choose the space for your tile in the matching wall line, but each color may appear only once per horizontal line and once per vertical line. On Side 1, printed spaces double the points of the tile placed there; on Side 2, the end-of-game bonuses go up to 3, 10 and 12 points. On both sides, the floor line penalties change: read them on your board.

How to score Azul

Score track

Your position on the track at the end of the last round. Each tile placed on the wall scores right away: 1 point on its own, otherwise 1 point per tile in its horizontal group and 1 per tile in its vertical group, including itself. The floor line then takes away 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3 and 3 points, but never below zero.

Complete horizontal lines

2 points per line of 5 tiles on your wall. They also break ties.

Complete vertical lines

7 points per vertical line of 5 tiles on your wall.

Complete colors

10 points per color with all 5 tiles placed on your wall.

Crystal Mosaic, Side 2

The bonuses go up to 3 points per horizontal line, 10 per vertical line and 12 per complete color, instead of the base game ones. On Side 1, only the score track changes.

Worked example

Emma places a tile touching two tiles on its left and one above: horizontal group of 3, vertical group of 2, so 3 + 2 = 5 points. If that’s her only tile this round and she has two tiles on her floor line: 5 − 1 − 1 = 3 points for the round. At the end, Emma is on 58 on the track, with 2 horizontal lines (4), 1 vertical line (7) and 1 complete color (10): 58 + 4 + 7 + 10 = 79 points.

Common mistakes

• Counting a lone tile both ways: with no neighbors it scores 1, not 2.
• Forgetting that the starting player marker lands on your floor line and costs like a tile.
• Going below zero: the score stops at zero.
• Forgetting the end-of-game bonuses: a vertical line is worth 7 points, a color 10.
• With Crystal Mosaic, Side 2: scoring the base game bonuses (2, 7 and 10) instead of 3, 10 and 12.

How to set up Azul

A game takes about 45 minutes. Follow the three parts in order; the Crystal Mosaic steps are only for the expansion.