Game rules

Scythe rules: how to play and how to score

Reviewed on 16 October 2026 against the publisher’s rulebook. How we check

Scythe plays 1 to 5 players: each leads a faction trying to become the wealthiest in Eastern Europa, and the game ends as soon as someone places their sixth star. Here are the essential rules, setup and final scoring, based on the official rulebook.

Players: 1 to 5 (7 with Invaders from Afar)
Play time: About 115 minutes
Winner: Most coins; ties broken by units, then power

Scythe quick rules

The goal: Each player leads a faction and tries to end the game with the most coins. You earn some during the game, but mostly at final scoring, which pays for stars, territories and resources. Everything it pays depends on popularity. The game ends as soon as a player places their sixth star.
A turn: The Player Mat has four sections, each with a top-row and a bottom-row action. On your turn, you place your action token on a different section from your previous turn, then take the top-row action, the bottom-row action, both or neither. You always pay the cost before gaining the benefit. As soon as you start your bottom-row action, the next player may go.
Top-row actions: Move: up to two different units each move to an adjacent territory, or you gain one coin. Bolster: one coin for two power or a combat card. Trade: one coin for any two resources or one popularity. Produce: each worker on two of your territories produces a resource of that terrain, or a new worker on a village.
Bottom-row actions: They cost resources and earn coins. Upgrade (oil): a technology cube makes an action stronger or cheaper. Deploy (metal): a mech arrives where you have a worker, and its ability benefits your character and all your mechs. Build (wood): a structure. Enlist (food): a recruit, which gives a bonus right away, then each time you or a neighbor takes that action.
Resources and control: Resources stay on the board, where they were produced, and you can only spend those on territories you control. You control a territory if one of your units is there, or if your structure is there alone. Mechs carry workers, never the character. Rivers and lakes block movement, except with some mech abilities.
Combat and encounters: Combat happens when your character or a mech moves onto an opponent’s character or mech. Each player secretly picks their power on the power dial, up to 7, and adds at most one combat card per unit involved. The higher total wins, the attacker wins ties, and the loser goes back to their home base. A character who stops on an encounter token draws a card and picks one of three options.
The Factory and objectives: The first time your character ends a move on the Factory, you keep a Factory card: a fifth section for your mat. At the end, the Factory counts as three territories. You also have two secret objectives, but you complete only one of them to place a star.
Stars and the end: You place a star for: all six upgrades, all four mechs, all four structures, all four recruits, all eight workers on the board, an objective, 18 popularity, 16 power, and each combat won, twice at most. A star is never lost. The game ends immediately when a player places their sixth.
Beginner traps: Watch your popularity: it changes the value of your whole score. Take the coins from bottom-row actions, they are often forgotten. A resource on a lost territory no longer counts for you, and forcing opponent workers to retreat costs one popularity per worker. Aim for six specific star conditions.
With Invaders from Afar: Two new factions, Albion and Togawa, and up to seven players. Albion places Flags that count as one more territory at the end of the game; Togawa places Traps that stop and penalize opponents. With 6 or 7 players, Crimea and Polania each change one ability.
With The Wind Gambit: Each player may have an airship that flies over rivers and lakes with the Move action, never controlling a territory, with two abilities drawn at the start. Resolution tiles change the way the game ends.

How to score Scythe

Popularity: Your popularity at the end sets the value of everything else: 0 to 6, 7 to 12, or 13 to 18.
Stars placed: 3, 4 or 5 coins per star depending on your popularity tier, six stars at most.
Territories controlled: 2, 3 or 4 coins per territory. Lakes count, the Factory counts as three, home bases don’t count.
Resources controlled: 1, 2 or 3 coins for every 2 resources: a single leftover resource earns nothing.
Coins in hand: The coins in front of you at the end.
Structure bonus tile: The coins from the tile drawn during setup, even for structures you no longer control.
Invaders from Afar (expansion): Albion’s Flags add territories; with 6 or 7 players, Polania gains 3 coins per encounter territory it controls.
Ties: Most workers, mechs and structures, then power, popularity, resources, territories and finally stars.

Worked example

Emma ends with 10 popularity, so in the 7 to 12 tier: 5 stars at 4 coins (20), 9 territories at 3 coins (27), 13 resources, that is 6 pairs at 2 coins (12), 22 coins in hand and 4 coins from the structure bonus tile: 20 + 27 + 12 + 22 + 4 = 85 coins.

Common mistakes

Counting resources one by one: only pairs pay.
Forgetting that the Factory counts as three territories.
Scoring with the highest popularity you reached: only your final popularity counts.
Counting a territory with only an airship on it: airships control nothing.

How to set up Scythe

Setup takes about ten minutes. The Faction and Player Mats show each player’s starting positions; with an expansion, follow its steps too.

The board

Shuffle the combat, objective and encounter cards separately and place each deck on its board space.With the Encounters expansion, its cards join the encounter deck.
Shuffle the Factory cards and place as many as the number of players plus one face down.The rest go back in the box unseen.
Draw a random structure bonus tile and place it face up at the bottom of the Popularity Track.
Place an encounter token on each of the 11 territories with the encounter icon.
Make the supply: resources, coins and multiplier tokens.
With The Wind Gambit, reveal one red and one green airship tile, and draw a resolution tile.The two modules can be played together or separately.

The factions

Shuffle the Faction Mats and Player Mats and deal one of each at random to each player.With Invaders from Afar, first add Albion, Togawa and Player Mats 2a and 3a.
Each player sits in front of their faction’s home base.
Each player places their power token and draws their combat cards as shown on their Faction Mat.How many cards each player has is public, their values secret.
Each player places their character on their home base, and one worker on each of the two territories joined to it by land.
Each player places their 4 mechs on their Faction Mat and their 6 stars next to the emblem.
With 6 or 7 players, Crimea and Polania place their replacement token.An Invaders from Afar rule.

The Player Mats

Each player places their popularity token, draws their objective cards and takes their coins as shown on their Player Mat.Objectives stay secret.
Each player places their 6 technology cubes on the green boxes marked with a black square.
Each player places their 4 structures and 4 recruits on their spaces, and their 6 other workers on the Produce action.
The player with the lowest-numbered Player Mat goes first.Play then proceeds clockwise.

Frequently asked questions

Who goes first in Scythe?

The player with the lowest-numbered Player Mat; play then proceeds clockwise.

How many coins is a star worth in Scythe?

3 coins with popularity 0 to 6, 4 with 7 to 12, and 5 with 13 to 18.

How many objectives can you complete in Scythe?

Only one per player: it earns a star, and the other objective card is discarded. Only Saxony can complete both.

Ludingo’s Scythe sheet was last reviewed on 16 October 2026, based on: rulebook (PDF), stonemaiergames.com, BoardGameGeek.