How to Play Point City

Set up the tiered deck

Separate the double-sided cards by building tier, shuffle each tier independently and keep their resource sides up. Use the counts below, returning other cards to the box.

Stack tier 1 above tier 2 above tier 3 to form the draw pile. Deal sixteen resource-side-up cards into a four-by-four market in reading order, from the top-left across each row. Randomly select the civic tokens and reveal them in a shared supply.

Give each player an Ingenuity Starting Card, including the card bearing the start-player symbol among those dealt. That player begins. The starting card supplies a spendable wild resource; it is not a permanent-production building.

Optional flip, then draft two cards

Before drafting, once per turn you may flip one resource in a row or column consisting entirely of resources to its building face. You cannot use this action to turn a building back into a resource.

Then take two orthogonally adjacent market cards, meaning they share an edge. Alternatively, take the top two draw-pile cards. You cannot mix one market card with one draw-pile card. The draw-pile alternative reveals the first resource but leaves the second unknown before drawing.

You must be able to take both chosen market cards. Resources can always be taken; buildings require payment when drafted. You cannot store an unaffordable building for a later turn.

Pay with cards and existing production

Discard resource cards for payment or use permanent resources from previously constructed buildings. Ingenuity is wild. A resource card with two matching symbols supplies two of that resource.

A resource drafted this turn can help pay for the building beside it. A newly constructed building’s permanent resource becomes usable on future turns, not as funding for another building in the same pair. Each existing permanent resource can be used only once during a turn.

Hypothetical example: two buildings each need one energy. Your one permanent energy can help pay for one of them; it does not cover both. A stored energy card could supply the second payment. Also check the other requirements before declaring the pair affordable.

Keep spent cards in a separate discard pile and built cards in your city. Permanent-resource buildings remain in the city after their production is used.

Claim civic tokens

When you construct a building with the civic icon, choose a civic token from the shared supply. Civic buildings give this scoring opportunity rather than permanent production or direct printed points.

Read the token against your city as it stands and what you expect to add. For teaching, ask everyone to name the feature their token scores when they select it. This makes final scoring easier to check.

Refill with the opposite face

Refill the two market spaces from the draw pile in reading order. If a resource was taken from a space, its replacement shows the building side. If a building was taken, its replacement shows the resource side. Use Market Tokens in the empty spaces as reminders.

If you took the top two cards of the draw pile, skip market refill. The market stays as it was.

Hypothetical example: you take a resource at row one, column two and a building directly below it. Refill the upper space first with a building, then the lower space with a resource. Do not move other market cards to close the gaps.

End the game and score

The game ends when the draw pile is depleted and the market can no longer be refilled. With the specified setup, each player takes seventeen turns and fourteen market cards remain. The ending does not require emptying the market.

Add printed points on constructed buildings and points from your civic tokens. A token that scores a resource type counts permanent resources, not symbols on leftover resource cards. Apply explicit unspent-card conditions separately.

Hypothetical example: a token worth two points per permanent economy resource scores six if your city produces three economy. Two economy cards in reserve do not increase it to ten. If another token explicitly rewards unspent Ingenuity, count those cards according to that token.

Final-score ties favor the player with more unspent Resource Cards; if that count also ties, share the win. The tiebreaker counts cards rather than the total resource symbols printed on them.

Sources and scope

Checked 6 October 2026 against AEG’s official Point City rulebook and AEG’s product page. Standard multiplayer is the rules scope; the solo opponent has its own procedures. Worked examples and recommendations are original editorial material, not firsthand playtesting. Editorial policy and corrections.