How to Play Onitama: Move Cards, Captures & Temple Victory
Onitama is a two-player perfect-information abstract game. Each side controls one Master and four Students on a 5×5 board, but the legal movement patterns come from a rotating set of five Move cards.
Scope: base game only; Sensei’s Path, Way of the Wind and Light & Shadow are excluded.
Each player starts with two Move cards
Shuffle the 16 Move cards and deal two face up to each player. A fifth card sits beside the board. The colored stamp on that fifth card determines the starting player under the setup rules.
Choose one card and one piece
On your turn, choose either of your two Move cards and move one of your pieces according to one of the highlighted relative positions on that card. The pattern is read from your own orientation.
Pieces do not block movement paths
Only the destination matters. You may move “over” intervening pieces because the Move card defines a destination rather than a traced path. You cannot land off the board or on one of your own pieces.
Capture by landing on an opponent
If your destination contains an opposing Student or Master, remove that piece from the game.
Exchange the used Move card
After moving, place the used card at the side of the board, rotated toward the opponent, and take the previously waiting card into your hand. The move you use now therefore becomes available to your opponent after their next turn.
You must move if a legal move exists
You may pass only when neither of your Move cards allows any legal move. Even then, exchange one Move card with the waiting card as required.
Two ways to win
Way of the Stone: capture the opposing Master. Way of the Stream: move your own Master onto the opponent’s Temple Arch space.
Source: Arcane Wonders Onitama rulebook. Checked September 21, 2026.