Setup

Setup for the solo variant is identical to the multiplayer game with the following changes:

1. Shuffle the starting character cards. Draw two and keep one face up in front of you. Find the matching character miniature and place it on the card. The character's skill is not used during the game, while their sight preference is used as usual.

   After a character is placed in the garden, examine the unselected card. Find the matching character miniature and place it on the garden board in any available spot. Then return the unselected character card to the game box.

   Character miniatures placed this way are considered "neutral". They do NOT award coins, but they occupy character spots on the garden board. A neutral character's line of sight has no importance in the solo variant.

   Shuffle the remaining four starting character cards with the other six. These cards comprise the characters deck of ten characters. Place it face down next to the main board and reveal the top two characters.

2. Shuffle the 54 decoration cards and place the deck face down.

   2.1 Reveal the top four decoration cards and place one face up, next to each garden tile stack.

3. Shuffle four small landscape tokens and four big landscape tokens. Place them face up in the spaces indicated in the setup diagram above.

   Remember: In this mode, you cannot place garden tiles on spaces outside the central garden.

4. Place the four special lantern tokens for solo play in front of you. Return all remaining lantern tokens and all player boards to the game box.

Game Play

Each turn you must select and place one available garden tile and the decoration represented by the card next to it. It must be possible to place both the tile and the decoration, otherwise the pair cannot be selected.

At any time, if you cannot select any of the available pairs of garden tile and decoration card, and you cannot continue the game with the help of a lantern, the game ends immediately and you are defeated.

Once the pair is selected 1, place both the tile and the decoration on the board according to the game rules, then discard the decoration card to a discard pile 2. Find the garden tile and decoration card in the opposite corner from the pair you selected 3.

Discard this decoration card to the discard pile and place the garden tile face up in a "garden tile display" beside the garden board.

Then reveal two garden tiles so that there are four garden tiles showing. Finally, reveal and place a new decoration card next to each of the newly revealed garden tiles. There should now be four pairs of garden tiles and decoration cards to choose from.

If the deck of decoration cards is depleted, shuffle the discard pile and form a new one.

Build the Garden

Since player boards are not used in this solo variant, the player cannot advance on the element tracks.

When a garden tile is placed, gain a coin for each edge that matches the adjacent terrain (greenery, water, or rock). For each newly enclosed terrain, gain an additional coin.

Garden tile edges showing walls enclose any type of terrain, while the outside edge of the central garden does not enclose terrain.

Landscape Tokens

After gaining a landscape token, insert one of the two available landscape tiles of the size indicated on the token into the garden board.

Then insert the other face-up landscape tile of the indicated size into the board on the opposite side of the garden board directly across from the first tile inserted. Reveal a new landscape tile, so that there are two of each size visible (two small and two large).

At any time, you may spend four landscape tokens of the same size to return any decoration on the garden board to the game box.

Influencing Characters

Once you have enough coins, you may influence a character. You may influence one new character each time you gain at least 10, 20, or 30 coins. It's not possible to influence more than four characters (including the starting one).

Each time you influence a new character, pick one of the two character cards in the display and discard the unselected character card. Place the selected card in front of you with it's miniature on it.

Then place the miniature for the unselected character on any available spot as a neutral character (as during setup). Then reveal two new characters from the character deck to create a new display.

At the end of the game, each influenced character will be placed on the garden board for scoring if you have not been defeated. Characters placed on the garden board this way will award coins based on their sight preference, as in the multiplayer game.

Lantern Tokens

Lantern token abilities in the solo variant:

Select a pair, but only place the garden tile, ignoring the paired decoration card. Discard the paired decoration card as well as the decoration card in the opposite corner.

Move the face up garden tile in the opposite corner to the "garden tile display". Finally, refill the garden tiles and decoration cards as usual.

Select a garden tile from the tiles in the "garden tile display" placing the tile using the usual rules.

Discard all four decoration cards in play and replace them with new cards from the decoration deck.

Re-use the ability of one of your exhausted lantern tokens.

End of the Game

The game ends in defeat if any of the following conditions apply before covering all the spaces of the central garden with garden tiles:

1. One stack of garden tiles is depleted.
2. You can't place any pair of garden tile + decoration card.

The game ends in victory if all 28 spaces of the central garden are covered by garden tiles.

Final Character Placement

If your game ends in victory, place your character miniatures on any available spot on the garden board facing any direction to gain additional coins based on the character's sight preference, as in the multiplayer game.

Add up the coins gained during the game and the coins gained from placing characters to determine your final score. Compare your score to the table below to see how well you did:

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