How to Play Nocturne

Setup by player count

Give everyone a character on side A and the matching spells. Deal one secret Starter Concoction to each player and keep the remaining Concoction deck nearby. Reveal three Twilight Goals; set three Moonlight Goals facedown for the second round. Set out Shadow Spells, shuffle the item tiles and fill the forest and Sprite Board as above. Choose the starting player randomly.

For an advanced game, use character side B instead. Its ability can be used once; flip back to A after using it. An unused ability is worth two points at the end.

Start a bidding phase

The first player in each round places their lowest-value available spell on any forest tile. This lowest-value restriction applies only to the first spell in Twilight and the first in Moonlight.

Proceed clockwise. A player still participating either casts a higher spell on an open tile orthogonally adjacent to the current highest spell or passes. Diagonal tiles do not qualify. After passing, the player cannot rejoin this phase; they can participate again after a tile is won and the next phase starts.

Teaching example: Alex starts with a 1. Bea places a 4 on a neighboring tile. Alex’s next bid must beat 4 and touch Bea’s current location, rather than merely touch the original tile. The prize being contested has moved.

Win and resolve the spells

Once everyone else passes, the highest bidder takes the tile underneath their highest spell. Flip that winning spell facedown in the vacated space, where it stays until round end. A Star Spell beats numbered spells and wins immediately.

A tile is also won immediately if no legal neighboring tile remains for another bid, or nobody can cast a higher spell. Corner casting specifically refers to opening a phase on a tile with no legal adjacent reply; merely ending a sequence of higher bids without an exit is not the same opening maneuver.

Retrieve unsuccessful spells after the win. A losing player may dedicate one of their own unsuccessful spells from the phase to the Forest Sprite Board instead of returning it. The winner cannot make an offering from that phase; their lower unsuccessful spells return to their supply.

The Sprite Board orders spells by value, with higher values above lower ones. A newly placed equal value goes below earlier equal spells. If insertion pushes a token beyond the board’s active slots, return that token to its owner for later use.

Open the next phase

The winner opens the next contest with any remaining spell, placing it on a tile orthogonally adjacent to the tile just won. If there is no such tile, the next player becomes the starter and can choose any forest tile. A starter can also pass, handing that unrestricted opening to the next player.

The forest is not replenished after individual wins. Leave the won spaces and facedown spells visible. Their positions help explain why later routes differ from the initial grid.

Check Twilight Goals after a tile is won. Some are awarded immediately; others wait until round end. Use the goal’s wording and the rulebook clarifications, rather than treating all goals as instant races.

Special item effects

An Ancient Runestone lets you draw three Concoction Cards and keep one, returning the others to the bottom of the deck. Its item symbol also contributes to recipes. A Cursed Treasure Chest lets you draw three facedown item tiles, keep one and discard the other two faceup.

Keep collected items in your own tableau. Ordinary item points and concoction symbols are different counts: an enchanted tile can show two recipe symbols while still being only one tile for its item collection.

Finish Twilight and prepare Moonlight

A round ends when the forest is empty or everyone passes on the remaining tiles. Resolve the Sprite Board from highest spell to lowest, with each offering taking a tile. Resolve any remaining Twilight Goals before resetting the positions that determine them.

Award available Shadow Spells for unspent Twilight spells, ordered by those remaining spells from highest to lowest; ties use Sprite Board position. Retrieve spells from the forest and Sprite Board. For every Shadow Spell received, remove your lowest ordinary spell, keeping the token count unchanged.

Reveal Moonlight Goals and refill the forest and Sprite Board with the same tile counts. The player who took the last Sprite Board item starts Moonlight with their lowest spell on any forest tile. Shadow Spells can win items but cannot be offered to Sprites or count as your control for Moonlight Goals.

End Moonlight and score

Resolve the Sprite Board again, then assign Mirror Stones to copied items. If assignment order matters, start with the player who took the last Sprite Board item. Mirrors copy item scoring, not recipe symbols.

Use the official scoring section for skulls, feather sets, mushroom sets, herbs, egg rankings, concoctions and goals. Subtract one per Cursed Treasure Chest; add two for each unspent Moonlight spell, including shadows, and two for an unused advanced ability. Standard final ties use the higher Sprite Board position.

Before summing recipes, allocate symbols so none is reused across concoctions. The character’s symbol contributes too. For a two-tier recipe, score only the highest tier achieved, rather than adding both tiers.

Sources and scope

Checked 5 October 2026 against AEG’s official Nocturne rulebook, AEG’s product page and Flatout Games’ overview. Standard multiplayer is the rules scope; solo and family procedures are separate. Examples and recommendations are original editorial analysis, not firsthand playtesting. Editorial policy and corrections.