Last Updated on April 14, 2025 by The Official Game Rules Team

In Shifting Stones, players manipulate a grid of ancient tiles to match secret patterns and score points. With each turn offering a choice between setting up future moves or scoring now, the game blends tactical tile manipulation with hand management.

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How to Play Shifting Stones

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Objective

Rearrange and flip Stone tiles in the central grid to match the patterns on your Pattern cards. Each completed pattern scores points. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

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Game Setup Recap

• Lay out the 9 Stone tiles randomly in a 3×3 grid. All tiles should be oriented the same way.
• Deal 4 Pattern cards to each player.
• Place the remaining deck face down near the grid to form a draw pile.
• Leave space for a face-up discard pile.
• Each player receives a Reference card. The player with the dark-background Reference card goes first.

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Taking a Turn

On your turn, you may take any number of the following actions, in any order, as long as you have cards to spend (either to discard or score). You may also end your turn at any time.

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Available Turn Actions

Shift Stones

• Discard a Pattern card from your hand to the discard pile.
• Then, choose any two adjacent tiles (orthogonally, not diagonally) and swap their positions.
• Cards that show blank (gray) spaces require those spots to contain any tile — they just must not be empty.

Flip Stones

• Discard a Pattern card.
• Choose a single Stone tile and flip it to its opposite side.
• This is useful when the correct symbol is on the other side of a tile.

Score a Pattern Card

• Reveal a Pattern card from your hand if the layout of the Stone tiles exactly matches its configuration.
  • Both symbols and their orientations must match the card.
• Place the scored card face up in front of you. It stays there for the rest of the game and counts toward your final score.
• You can only score one card per pattern — even if that pattern appears multiple times on the grid.

Skip Your Turn

• Instead of taking any other action, you may skip your turn.
• Draw 2 cards, increasing your hand to 6 (instead of the usual 4).
• You may not skip two turns in a row.

End Your Turn

• At any point, you may choose to end your turn.
• Refill your hand back up to 4 cards from the draw pile.
• If the draw pile runs out, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck.
• Note: Scored cards do not count toward your hand limit.

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End of the Game

The game ends when a player scores a certain number of cards, depending on player count:

Players	End-game Trigger (Cards Scored)
1	All 16 cards (solo rules)
2–3	10 cards
4–5	7 cards

Once the trigger is met, all players continue taking turns until the round ends—so everyone has had the same number of turns.

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Scoring

• Tally the total point values shown on your scored Pattern cards.
• The player with the most “1-point” cards gets a 3-point bonus. (Ties are friendly; all tied players get 3 points.)
• The player with the most total points wins. Ties are shared victories.

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Solo Variant

Play a personal challenge by using a fixed 16-card mini-deck:

• 8 cards worth 1 point
• 4 cards worth 2 points
• 3 cards worth 3 points
• 1 card worth 5 points

Gameplay rules remain the same with these additional rules:

• If you end your turn without scoring, gain a strike.
• If you receive 4 strikes, you lose.
• Score all 16 cards before reaching 4 strikes to win.

Shifting Stones offers a simple yet strategic challenge that grows with every play. Whether competing against friends or testing your skills solo, the game rewards clever planning and pattern recognition.