How to Play Dominion: Action, Buy, Clean-up & Scoring
Dominion is a deck-building game in which every player starts with the same small deck and improves it during play. On your turn, resolve the phases in order: Action, Buy, then Clean-up. Cards you buy normally enter your discard pile, return after a shuffle, and gradually change what future hands can do.
Researched rules guide. Checked September 15, 2026 against Rio Grande Games’ current Dominion Second Edition rules and product page. This page covers the standard 2–4 player base game. Expansions can add card types and timing exceptions. No hands-on testing is claimed. Editorial standards.
On this page: Set up the Supply and starting decks · Play the Action phase · Play Treasures and buy cards · Resolve Clean-up · Shuffle only when needed · Understand discard vs. trash · Know when the game ends · Score every card you own
Set up ten Kingdom piles and the basic Supply
Choose ten Kingdom card types. The rulebook includes recommended sets for a first game, or you can randomize the available Kingdom cards.
Add the basic Treasure piles—Copper, Silver and Gold—and the basic Victory piles—Estate, Duchy and Province—plus the Curse pile.
Each player starts with seven Coppers and three Estates. Shuffle those ten cards and draw five to form the opening hand.
With two players, use eight cards in each ordinary Victory pile. With three or four players, use twelve. Kingdom Victory piles follow the same player-count rule unless their card text or an expansion says otherwise.
Action phase: start with one Action
At the beginning of your turn, you normally have one Action. You may spend it to play one Action card from your hand.
Resolve the card completely before playing another. If the card gives +1 Action, +2 Actions or another Action bonus, increase the number of Action cards you may still play that turn.
If you have no Action card or do not want to play one, you may proceed to the Buy phase. Unused Actions do not carry over to future turns.
Buy phase: play Treasures, then make purchases
During the Buy phase, play any number of Treasure cards from your hand and add any coin bonuses generated by Action cards. You normally begin with one Buy.
Spend available coins to buy a card from the Supply whose cost you can afford. If an effect gives +1 Buy or more, you may make additional purchases and divide your available coins among them.
A bought card normally goes to your discard pile. It does not usually enter your hand immediately, and it is not available to play that same turn unless a card effect explicitly says otherwise.
Treasure cards are played before purchasing. Once you begin buying cards, do not return to playing additional Treasures unless a specific card or expansion rule creates an exception.
Clean-up: discard your hand and played cards, then draw five
At Clean-up, put all cards you played this turn and all cards remaining in your hand into your discard pile.
Then draw a new hand of five cards. If your deck runs out while drawing, shuffle your discard pile to create a new deck and continue drawing.
Unused coins, Actions and Buys disappear at the end of the turn. Standard Dominion does not let you save them for the next turn.
Shuffle only when the deck cannot provide the cards you need
Your discard pile stays separate from your deck until you need more cards than remain in the deck.
At that point, shuffle the entire discard pile, place it face down as the new deck and continue the draw. Do not shuffle merely because a newly bought card entered your discard pile.
This cycle is what makes deck building work: cards bought now become available after they pass through the discard-and-shuffle process.
Discarding and trashing are different
A discarded card remains part of your deck. It will eventually be shuffled and drawn again.
A trashed card leaves your deck entirely and goes to the shared Trash area. Unless a card effect specifically retrieves it, that card no longer cycles through your deck.
This distinction matters for cards such as Chapel, Remodel and Moneylender, which change deck composition rather than merely moving cards to the discard pile.
Gaining a card is broader than buying it
Buying is one way to gain a card, but Action cards can also instruct you to gain cards.
Unless the effect says otherwise, a gained card goes to your discard pile. A card that says to gain something to your hand, deck or another location overrides that default.
When a Supply pile is empty, no more cards can be gained from that pile unless another rule explicitly creates a different source.
The game ends at the end of a turn
In the standard 2–4 player game, the game ends when either:
- The Province pile is empty, or
- Any three Supply piles are empty.
Check this at the end of the current player’s turn. Buying the last Province does not interrupt that turn halfway through.
Count every card you own at final scoring
Combine your deck, hand, discard pile and cards in play. Count Victory points from all cards you own.
- Estate: 1 Victory Point.
- Duchy: 3 Victory Points.
- Province: 6 Victory Points.
- Curse: −1 Victory Point.
- Kingdom Victory cards such as Gardens score according to their own text.
The highest score wins. If tied, the player who took fewer turns wins. If tied players also took the same number of turns, they share the victory.
Common Dominion rules mistakes
- Putting purchases directly into your hand: they normally go to the discard pile.
- Saving unused coins: standard turn coins disappear at Clean-up.
- Treating discard and trash as the same thing: discarded cards remain in your deck; trashed cards leave it.
- Playing several Action cards without extra Actions: you normally start with only one Action.
- Waiting only for Provinces to run out: three empty Supply piles also end a standard 2–4 player game.
Continue learning Dominion
- Dominion game guide and edition notes
- Dominion strategy: deck efficiency, trashing, payload and endgame timing
- Compare engine-building and deck-building games
Sources and scope
Checked September 15, 2026. This page covers standard 2–4 player Dominion Second Edition. Expansion-specific card types, extra phases and 5–6 player setup rules are outside this basic guide.